“You need more rest, a day at least. I can do this, trust me.”
Knowing another day put Portia even further away and possibly out of reach forever, he insisted, “Tommy, I’m going, end of debate. Let’s get ready, we leave in an hour.”
A wide smile stretched across Tommy’s face. “Still the same Kyle I remember from the force.” He patted Kyle on the shoulder and continued, “I missed you, brother.”
Kyle picked up the map and located Prime. He put his finger down and said, “The main gates are here. If you’ll remember right in front was a creek that flows east west then curves right about here and heads south.”
“I saw it,” Tommy said.
“We’ll follow that until we get to a culvert, right about here,” Kyle said tracing the winding blue line.
“Ok,” Tommy said nodding.
“It’s large so don’t stress.”
“Wait, are we crawling through a fucking pipe?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
“What’s wrong?” Kyle asked.
“I’m scared of two things. Spiders and tight spaces. Please tell me I won’t get stuck.”
“You won’t get stuck, I promise you,” Kyle reassured.
“Serious?”
“Yes, now can I go on?”
“Go.”
“That will take us all the way to Main Street. Once there we’ll pop out and the executive mansion is about five blocks. Like I said, getting in is easy, navigating around inside will be difficult and getting into the mansion will be a fight more than likely…” Kyle said then stopped when he noticed Tommy wasn’t paying attention. “What’s wrong with you? I need you focused. This is important.”
“I haven’t told you the truth,” Tommy confessed with a sigh.
“The truth about what?”
“Why I’m here,” Tommy said and paused before continuing. "I was contracted to kill Number One. I got the gig a couple days after seeing you in Salina. I decided to take it and to be honest, I was going to use our friendship to gain access into Prime and to Number One. I was a day out when I got the word he was dead. I was going to turn around but on that same call I was told you were hanging on that tree.”
Kyle blankly stared at Tommy unable to speak.
“As soon as I heard about you, I pushed hard to get here in hopes I’d be able to save you,” Tommy said. He looked at Kyle and was hoping to gauge how he felt but Kyle was stone faced. “Sorry I misled you.”
Kyle didn’t need to think long, “Its fine. I guess I should be apologizing to you for lost wages.”
“Not exactly.”
“There’s more, clearly,” Kyle said.
“When The Underground found out I was still in route they changed the target and tasked me with killing the son. Hence why I was pushing you to stay and rest so I could go in and take care of business. I’d bring him back, you’d get what you needed and I could kill him, make it a win, win.”
Hearing that The Underground was involved, Kyle growled, “The Underground are nothing but a group of pussies. They run around pretending to be a resistance. All they do is interfere and cause problems for everyone,” Kyle complained.
“I need to do this job, Kyle,” Tommy confessed.
“That’s fine, but you can’t kill him until I know where they took Portia.”
“Deal, like I said, I’ll go in, grab him and bring him back,” Tommy said.
“Anything else you’d like to tell me?” Kyle snarled.
“There’s one more thing.”
Kyle rolled his eyes.
“A team from The Underground will accompany us,” Tommy said.
“No, they’ll just get in the way.”
“Here’s the situation, they…”
A door opening sounded from the front of the house.
Tommy grabbed his Kimber 1911 and stood against the wall near the bedroom door.
Kyle picked up the rifle leaning against the bed and shouldered it.
Three distinct voices were talking and laughing from the front room.
Tommy recognized one of the voices and called out, “Cal, is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s us,” Cal replied.
Tommy opened the door to the bedroom and a flood of light poured in from lanterns the three were holding. “You’re early.”
Cal, a tall slender man with light brown hair, walked in first, followed by another man named Eric and a woman named Dana. Eric was of average build, and Dana was short by any standard, standing no taller than five foot but incredibly attractive with long black hair.
Dana came in and spotted Kyle right away. “He’s alive, look guys, it’s Driver Eight.”
Kyle held the rifle, muzzle down and nodded at the three.
Cal walked over to Kyle and put out his hand, “Nice to meet the now infamous Driver Eight.”
Eric and Dana walked over and stood staring like groupies at a rock concert.
Kyle took Cal’s hand and bluntly said, “I don’t think it’s a good idea you come with us.”
“Huh?” Cal shrugged and looked at Tommy. “What’s this?”
“I’ve known him a long time, he’s particular,” Tommy replied.
“No deal, we go with you, plus we have critical information you need,” Cal informed.
“Tell us what you know and then maybe we can consider it,” Kyle replied his face stoic.
“Tommy, he’s not even part of this operation, we signed Leviathan, and last I checked Driver Eight wasn’t with your syndicate.”
“He’s been made an honorary member,” Tommy answered firmly.
“We’re going, and that’s final,” Cal insisted. The other two stood behind him wide eyed and confused by what was occurring.
“We’ve got this, we don’t need amateurs holding us up,” Kyle snarled.
“I’ll have you know I’ve been with The Underground for five years,” Cal barked.
“And you’ve accomplished nothing but alienating many residents with your tactics,” Kyle snapped back.
“If we don’t go this operation is off,” Cal fired back.
“Fine,” Kyle said.
“And we know where he is, you don’t!” Cal barked.
Tommy stepped forward, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, everyone chill out. Come here,” he said taking Kyle by the arm and walking him away. He leaned in and whispered, “I need this to go forward.”
“Why?” Kyle asked, a bit shocked to hear that.
“The payment is a truck load of food. Some of my Leviathan brothers need it for a trip they’re going on,” Tommy said.
“Leviathan people?” Kyle asked.
“Yeah, it’s a long story but some of my brothers are tapping out, heading somewhere, far away from here. They’re counting on me to bring the food back.”
“Fine, they can come, but they keep out of my way.”
“Brother, we’ll find your wife…together,” Tommy said putting his hand on Kyle’s shoulder.
“Thanks,” Kyle said.
Tommy walked around Kyle and over to Cal. “We’re a go.”
Cal nodded and faced Kyle. “I don’t care what you think about me or my people. We’re good people with noble intentions. Once we have removed Number Two, we can begin the process of creating a new society built on freedom and expression.”
“Once I’ve gotten what I want out of Barry, I’m gone, I don’t give two shits what new society you’ll form. History is replete with examples of one tyrant overthrowing another,” Kyle said.
“We’re not tyrants.”
“Spare me the sermon,” Kyle said.
“You’re rude!” Dana snapped, the glow and excitement on her face when she met Kyle was replaced with contempt.
Tommy laid out a map, pointed to the culvert and said, “We think this could be a good access point.”
The three Underground members looked at each other and began to laugh.
“What’s so funny?” Tommy asked.
“First, there’s a better way to sneak into Prime if you need to without getting covered in shit and secondly, Number Two’s not even there, he’s up at the Lair.”