XII

November 9, 2016

0840 Hours

The smell of the fresh air calmed Charlie's busy mind. The sound of a crashing river and the chirps of bugs does wonders for stress. Unfortunately for Charlie, he had a hard time trying to put his brain at ease. He remembered the conversation with his sister vividly. He could hear her words echo in his head.

"I'm gonna do whatever you wanna do big brother. We're in this together."

Charlie shook his head, trying to get his thoughts in coherent sentences. The struggle was the decision of betraying his client, Jir, in order to relieve his own moral compass, or to stick to his oath. To always follow the client, even if it may be wrong. He's never encountered this type of dilemma before, so he was lost in what to do.

Hannah was no help, as she kept telling him that she was on board with whatever. Jir walked in shortly after the discussion, and Charlie couldn't stand being in the same room. He told them he was going to the bathroom.

Charlie never considered himself a Christian. How could he, with  his job taking other people's lives from them. In his perspective, violence to that extent can't be simply forgiven. But that doesn't mean there were moments when Charlie was doing his job, and he never thought what was going to happen to him if he died. Most likely go downstairs, if there ever was a God. Like with anyone else though, he felt like he didn't really need something watching over him all the time. He had quite the pride about him, and he never saw it as a flaw. If anything, it helped him do his job better, knowing he was the best bounty hunter around. It caused him to do his best, and then some to keep his reputation going.

That's the reason why Charlie had such a hard time dealing with this problem. Keep his reputation and earning the nice flow of money, or say "screw it all" for some two lousy detectives? The dilemma made Charlie mentally mad. The answer should be obvious, yet he wasn't getting to it fast enough.

"AH!" He yelled, punching the nearest tree to him out of frustration. There was a crack from behind Charlie, and he instinctively took out his gun and pointed it towards the source of the noise. Standing there was Dan. Eyes wide from fear at the gun pointed in his direction. Charlie stood there, not really sure what he was seeing at first. He slowly lowered the gun, and grasped at what was in front of him.

"How did you escape?" Charlie asked. Dan saw Charlie lowering the gun, and relaxed his shoulders a little bit.

"My rope. It was loose, and I left my room without any hassle. There weren't any guards on my way out, and I figured an alarm would sound, but none ever did," Dan explained. Charlie squinted his eyes, and looked over Dan's shoulder to the compound. It was a blocky, gray building made out of concrete. There were only two doors: one in the back, and one in the front.

"Which door did you go through?"

"The one in the back. I tried the front, but I saw some people, so I ran the other way. Luckily I found it relatively fast, and I saw you out here."

"Why did you approach?" Charlie asked. Dan chuckled nervously. He was a little embarrassed by his answer.

"Well. I was... hoping to surprise you and... well..."

"Take me down?" Charlie said. Dan smiled and shrugged innocently.

"What can I say? Gotta try to survive." By this point, Charlie's gun was back in his holster. If he wanted to take Dan down, he could do it by hand easily.

"Why'd you leave your brother behind?"

"Wh- no. No, I didn't... really leave him behind... kind of. Look, I was going to get some help from some friends of ours, and come back to get him out. I don't think I can do that now, but that was the original plan." Charlie huffed. Thinking.

"Why are you telling me all of this? Your plan and such."

"Well. That's because you might be able to kill me right now, and well... might as well be truthful. You know? I wouldn't want to die right here in these woods because I lied. That wouldn't be very... Godlike of me."

"Oh, so you're one of those people, huh?" Charlie asked.

"Well, yeah. I uh... did a lot of thinking in that room, and I figured... why not? I need help on my problems as a person, and in that room, I came to the conclusion that going for a higher being would be a good option for me. Considering I had the potential to die at any moment, I didn't want myself going to Hell because of some pride thing I had with myself." Charlie stared at Dan in curiosity.

"So you just said, 'screw it'?" Charlie asked. Dan looked around as if he was suddenly aware of something.

"Are we really going to have existential conversations about God when, one: you're hired to kill me. Two: My brother is still in that building, and I have to go get him. And three: I should be escaping by now?" Charlie thought about what he said, and he came to a conclusion.

"You're wrong about one thing. I was never hired to kill you. I was hired to capture you, and I already did that. My job's done. Whatever I do from here on out, is of my own will."

Jir opened the doors to the lab. After inspecting the brothers, who still looked beaten up, and taking a good nap, he decided to go back to the lab to check how much Hardy had done before he died. Walking in, a mild smell reached his nose. He looked down, at saw Hardy on the floor. Stepping over him, Jir found the phones on the table, and looked at the computer screen. He smiled at what he saw. Total access to everything. Text messages, phone calls, browser history, etc.

Jir decided the first best thing to look at were the text messages. He saw, on James' phone, the brothers' conversations together, and nothing stuck out to him. They didn't text much.

"Well if you guys don't text often, then you must call a lot," Jir said. He went to the voicemails, and saw one left by James on Dan's phone. "Interesting."

Clicking on the voicemail, the sound of James' voice came through:

"Come on Dan, you were just available! Get off your lazy bum, and pack up your stuff. We need to talk about this case. I met this crazy old lady who said we would die if we keep going on with the case… well I mean she said I would die… but I’m assuming she meant both of us! And… And I lied! Okay? I did find the bug, and turns out there’s this person named Sanine. Now, this guy fra- You know what, it doesn’t matter, because we’re dropping this case! It’s a lot to talk about, and I need yo-"

The voicemail ended in a beep, indicating that it was over. Jir couldn't believe what he heard.

"How do they know about Sanine?" He said, almost yelling. He felt anger rise in his chest. Looking at the phones, he saw that Dan never picked up the voicemail. It was still unread.

"James knows too much," He whispered to himself. "That's okay. I'll make sure he can never relay information to anyone ever again." Jir started to laugh, but stopped when he saw someone in the hallways. It was Hannah Angel.

"Hey Mr. Boss. How's it hanging?" She asked. Jir looked at her puzzlingly.

"Good. What do you want, girl?" He asked.

She looked at him with a mischievous smile, turned around, and said, "Noooooothing." She swayed her way out of the room, and Jir was left there confused.

Hannah walked into a room that was closed for renovations. She locked the door behind her, and turned on the lights. The room was instantly lit up in bright, white LED lights. Dan and Charlie stood up from behind the counter.

"So?" Charlie asked.

"The boss man is in the lab. He was talking about how James knows too much about something, and then he did that evil laughter thing. It was quite pathetic if you ask me," She explained. Dan was piqued.

"Knows too much? How would he know too much? He knows just as much as I do about this case."

"Look, I don't know man. I only got there when he started blabbering on about making sure James doesn't relay any more information or something like that." Dan got tense. Charlie looked at him, hoping he wouldn't do anything stupid at this point.

"Dan, we're going to get your brother out. Don't worry about that. We can make a plan, and we're going to. Alright?" Charlie reassured him. Dan nodded, and looked at Hannah with a curious eye.

"Did you loosen my ropes on purpose, or do you not know how to tie a rope?" He asked her. She giggled.

"It's no fun if your captives are one hundred percent trapped," She said with a playful smile. Dan blushed significantly, and turned back to Charlie, who was giving him an eyebrow.

"So. What's the plan?" Dan asked. Charlie smiled, and beckoned them closer.

"This place has a surgery room. Jir takes all of his... people there. People like James."

"And what does he do with them there?" Dan asked.

"Stuff you don't want to know about," Charlie responded. "Anyway, he takes them in there, and lets them sit in there for a couple of minutes before he operates on them himself. During this time, he usually makes sure that he tells everyone in the compound not to bother him. That is when we get him. After he tells everyone, but before the operation."

Dan nodded, but thought of something to say, "Why can't we just get him now?"

"If we get him now, the guards posted around the building will be suspicious of the silence from their boss."

"But I barely saw any guards when I escaped," Dan explained.

"Well, you were lucky. There aren't that many guards posted around here, so you had a good chance of escaping."

"Aren't that many guards? This man is filthy rich, how does he not have that many guards?" Charlie shrugged.

"He has a huge ego. Thinks this place is the most sanctified place on Earth. The cells you were in, aren't even automated with locks on them. That's why you escaped so easily. Jir thinks that everything will just go his way for him."

"I'm familiar with that side of him, that makes sense," Dan said, confident in this plan now. Charlie looked at Hannah, who gave him a nod of reassurance.

"Okay, great. So we all know what the plan is?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Dan, you stay in here until I come get you. Hannah, you're with me. We have to act normal for the boss until the procedure happens. I can't imagine it would be pretty soon now." Charlie looked at his watch, and saw it was 10:14 A.M.

"Alright, Hannah, what time did you find Jir in the lab?"

"About 10:05."

"Alright, he's probably making his way to James' cell right now. Hannah, we have to go. Dan, like I said, stay here until I come get you, got it?"

"Got it," Dan reported. Charlie nodded, and gestured for Hannah to get out with him. They left, leaving Dan by himself in the desolate room. He sat down, and realized how much pain he was still in. He clutched his chest where he was kicked, and started breathing slowly.

"I'm going to get you out James. I promise."

Charlie and Hannah made a quick pitstop to the surveillance room to make sure James was still in his room. He was. Dangling there, suspended by his own clutch on the rusty bar above him.

"Where's Jir?" Charlie asked. Hannah shrugged, looking at the other screens in search for him. She looked at the top right corner, and her face went white. Dan was on the screen, waiting in the room where they told him to wait in.

"Charlie." Hannah said. Charlie looked back at her, then up to the screen to where she was pointing towards.

"S**t," Charlie said under his breath. "Maybe Jir never came in here."

"Oh, I'm not that stupid." A voice behind them said. Charlie spun around, pointing a gun towards the source of noise. Jir stood there, smirking at the two. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Why not? I have a clean shot straight to your head."

"I do too."

Charlie squinted his eyes slowly, trying to comprehend what Jir just said.

"Brother." Hannah said with a weak voice. He glanced to her, and saw a red dot on her chest. Charlie looked around in confusion, trying to figure out where the gun could be.

"Don't bother. Just know if you shoot me, your precious sister will die." Charlie stared at Jir with cold eyes. Half of him was tempted to shoot him now, but the other half was shouting at him that it was a bad idea. His sister would die.

"Put the gun down if you know what's good for you," Jir explained. Charlie kept staring at Jir, trying to decide what to do. Hanna didn't say anything, as she didn't know what to say. She wanted to plead for her life, but at the same time she wanted Jir gone. She's heard what he does to women from the guards, and she wanted him dead ever since.

Charlie slowly put the gun down, and Jir smiled.

"Atta boy, that's good of you. Now put it on the floor, and kick it to me." Charlie slowly put the gun on the floor, and kicked it to Jir.

"Good. Good..." Jir said, trailing off. He held up his hand, and snapped his fingers. A loud bang resonated through the chamber, making Charlie's ears ring loudly. Hannah's body was thrown backwards towards the screens, live one moment, not the next. Jir had earplugs in him, so the noise didn't affect him. He looked towards the ceiling by the back, gave a thumbs up, and walked towards Charlie.

He picked him up by the collar, and stared at his eyes.

"You think your stupid, little plan would've worked?" Charlie didn't say anything. Jir chuckled, and twisted Charlie's head so it was facing Hannah's body to the side of them.

"Look at that, Charlie. Look at your dead sister on the floor. Do you know who did that?" Charlie hesitantly looked away from the lifeless corpse on the ground, straight to Jir's eyes.

"Sure the Hell wasn't mine. I didn't pull the trigger," he said.

"Well, I didn't either! I just got someone else to do that."

"Why?" Charlie asked, more emotions getting to him every second.  Jir rolled his eyes in response.

"Because I have to show an example! If anyone is going to betray me, I will show them what will happen if they do." Charlie looked at his sister on the floor, and tears formed in his eyes. His best friend laid there. Cold and dead on the hard floor. She didn't need to die this way. She wasn't supposed to.

"You gonna cry?" Jir teased. Charlie looked back up to Jir in anger. He suddenly remembered their size comparison, and started to flex to try to get up.

"Oh, no no no no," Jir said as Charlie felt a needle go into his arm. Whatever strength he felt, was now gone. He was just tired by that point. "I was wondering when you realized you could take me down easily. Took you longer than it should've, and that's quite disappointing really. Thought you were the best." Charlie mumbled a few words incoherently, and Jir laughed.

"Oh this is great," Jir said. He looked up at the screen, and saw Dan wasn't in the room anymore. Jir's smile disappeared.

He got up, took out his walkie talkie, and yelled into it, "One of the brother's is ON THE LOOSE! Find him before I do, or you're ALL FIRED!" Ten "yes sir"'s rang out from the talkie, and Jir put it up. He looked down at Charlie, who was now passed out, and cocked his head to the side.

"Hm. What do I do with you...?" Jir asked himself. He looked at his gun in his pocket, deciding if he wanted to kill him.

"Nah, he'll be more useful to me alive."