I snuck a quick peek at Agrippina, noting her Praetorian had left again, and that she was impatiently tapping her foot for his return.
I looked back at Helena. She was blinking rapidly and she seemed to look at me with much greater focus now. When I thought she was coherent enough to communicate I mouthed, are you okay? She jerked her head in an abbreviated affirmation and I breathed a silent sigh of relief. I was about to ask about the baby, even though I knew she couldn’t possibly know anything, when Santino interrupted me.
“Tell me you have a plan, Hunter,” he whispered.
“Me?” I replied quietly. “It’s your turn.”
He shook his head, mumbling something about lazy leaders and inept commanders.
“Where’s your knife?” He asked.
“I’m working on it.”
He opened his mouth again but Agrippina interrupted, strutting back towards us.
“Now, Jacob, are you prepared to help me?”
“I’ve told you. I don’t know how the thing works,” I insisted.
She hummed a disbelieving noise, and pulled the orb from behind her back.
“Tell, me,” she said. “Do you see anything within?”
Just to pleasure her and buy us some more time, I looked, not expecting to find anything. But to my surprise, I did see something within. Something I’d never seen before, but couldn’t quite make it out so I played dumb.
“There’s nothing there, Agrippina. There never is.”
“That is too bad.” She snapped her fingers. “Perhaps some incentive will be required.”
A Praetorian answered her call, bringing with him what appeared to be Wang’s 9mm Beretta. She held it in her hand, inspecting it briefly, before pressing it against my forehead.
“Now?”
I smirked. “You don’t even know how to use that.”
“I don’t?” She asked, shifting her aim towards Helena. “And now?”
I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t say anything. She was bluffing, but even if she wasn’t, I had to hold out as long as possible. I was gambling with the two most important lives I had, but I had to stall. The power of the orbs could not be allowed to fall into her hands.
She noticed my stubbornness and lowered her aim.
“Hmm… that won’t do,” she said. “Besides, I want you to watch her suffer. Perhaps one of your friends.”
She walked out before Bordeaux, Wang, Vincent, and Santino, pointing the gun at each, humming as she switched from target to target in a Roman version of eeny, meeny, miny, moe. She passed back and forth, over and over between them before finally settling on Bordeaux.
She smiled. “You.”
She pulled the trigger. The suppressor equipped pistol’s bang was barely loud enough to reverberate off the walls or hurt my still dazed brain, but the memory of Bordeaux’s skull shattering open would resonate in my mind for the rest of my life. I watched as the large Frenchman took the round defiantly, but fatally. The bullet entered through his left eye socket, and exploded out the back of his head, covering the wall behind him in blood and grey brain matter. My friend’s body didn’t move much at first, his large mass holding him firmly against the force of the small, fast moving object. But soon, gravity took its toll and he slumped to the floor — lifeless.
I stared at his body in shock, unable to comprehend that such a violent death could come to a friend as close as he was.
Was.
Was…
Everyone else struggled against their restraints again, and I found myself mindlessly joining them, momentarily forgetting about my knife. I wanted nothing more than to rip Agrippina’s heart from her chest and shove it down her throat. Only Helena, still in a daze, managed to avoid the image of Bordeaux’s death.
“You fucking bitch!” Santino screamed, his insult standing out amongst all the rest, spittle flying from his mouth. I’d never seen him so angry.
She angrily turned to face him, pointing the gun at his head.
“Perhaps you shall be next?”
Santino defiantly turned towards me, switching to English.
“Don’t tell her anything, Hunter! Wait for the b…”
But Agrippina pistol whipped him before he could finish.
Wait for the b…?
Wait for the what?
What had he been talking about?
The bitch? The batman? The bomb? The bomb!
Perhaps Bordeaux will have the last laugh after all.
But, what time was it? I couldn’t see my watch or anyone else’s. How long had we been out? I had to stall.
“You can continue to watch friends die all night, Jacob,” Agrippina said, as I watched her slowly squeeze the trigger. “But remember, your Amazon’s death won’t be anywhere near as quick or easy.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but my response was suddenly drowned out by an insistent beep beep beep noise, emanating from somewhere in the room. I glanced around. My ropes were almost cut but I had yet to determine what was making that noise. It seemed to be coming from Bordeaux. Agrippina looked at my friend’s body as well, hoping to discover the source of the annoyance. I realized what it was a half second later.
Agrippina turned to look at me, anger in her eyes. I met her stare, and offered her a cold smile. A smile completely devoid of happiness, joy, or relief. The only emotion it conveyed was vengeance.
Through clenched teeth, I whispered, “boom.”
And then room was engulfed in flame.
The explosion originated from some place above us and seemingly on the other end of the building, but that didn’t save us from the deafening explosion or the concussive blast that sent those on their feet flying across the room and those of us kneeling against the wall behind us. I watched as Agrippina bounced off one of her Praetorians and careened across my line of sight, landing somewhere near Helena.
Luckily, the bomb hadn’t been close enough to inflict traumatic nerve damage on any of us, so we’d survive. Had we been too close, we could have died from any number of factors. The fire from the explosion, the blast wave shattering our bodies, or the pressure build up liquefying our bones could have left us as little more than a puddle of goo on the floor.
Even so, my ears were ringing and I knew I wouldn’t be hearing anything for minutes if I was lucky. But I was conscious and I finally had the opportunity to use my knife and finish cutting through my ropes. Santino was also up, patiently waiting for me to palm the knife off to him, which I did immediately.
I didn’t wait. I got to my feet and searched for Penelope.
Helena was slow to rise, sluggish at first, but she’d also been furthest from the explosion. I watched as the limber woman managed to squeeze her feet through her bound hands so that they were now in front of her. She stumbled away from me and I had to assume she was searching for Agrippina.
I couldn’t worry about her now. Praetorians were getting to their feet all around me. I needed my weapon. It was time to end this. Vespasian could live with it if we killed Agrippina. We weren’t leaving without her, but what state she came with us in was up to her.
I thought about Bordeaux. He wouldn’t have a choice on how he was coming home. Gaius and Marcus were also loose ends. I had no idea where they were. They were probably already dead.
My mind focused when I found Penelope, still in the hands of the bastard Praetorian that had been fondling her earlier. He was only a few feet away, but it felt like I was wadding through jell-o after the explosion. I pushed through it.
He saw me coming and attempted to draw his gladius, but I was on him before he could draw it from its scabbard. With a quick punch to his wrist, his grip loosened and the sword dropped back in its sheath. The move came at the same instant as I stomped on his foot, following that up by kneeing him in the balls. He doubled over in pain, still gripping my rifle, so I snatched his head with my hands and smashed my knee into his nose this time. My kneecap hurt like hell, but he was probably dead. I pushed him over and he released Penelope into the air as he fell.