Read Story: SEASON 2 EPISODE 70

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Wednesday, September 11th, early afternoon

I stepped onto the porch with my hands up.

Well… more like I was escorted onto the porch by one of Tanaka’s goons. He had one hand firmly gripping my shoulder while the other one was busy shoving a gun into the middle of my back.

With my hands on top of my head, I slowly crossed the threshold and made my way to the porch stairs. Knowing where to look, I spied one of Psalter’s men crouched near one of the two destroyed helicopters.

Ryo called out in Japanese while still standing inside, and his man replied.

“Tell them to come out in the open and stand down,” Ryo commanded.

“Hey!” I called out to Psalter and his men. “It’s fine! I’ve made a deal with Tanaka. He’s letting the hostages go and leaving in exchange for taking the helicopter out of here!

I had asked him to let me tell Psalter the plan over a walkie, but Ryo shot that down. He seemed to think doing it like this meant my men would be caught flat-footed, unable to properly prepare for what we were doing. In a way, that made sense.

It was also a way to get a lot of people killed if someone decided to make the wrong move.

“He wants everyone to come out where he can see them!” I called out, licking my lips nervously. “He wants you to lay down your weapons!”

Silence.

Then Psalter called out, “We can come out with our hands up, but we’re keeping our weapons!”

“That’s not good enough!” Ryo hissed at me from inside the cabin.

“He says that’s not good enough,” I repeated.

“I can’t order my men to lay down their weapons and walk away from them willingly. However, I can promise they won’t try to fire on you as long as you don’t provoke them! The minute it looks like you might get violent, though, they will kill you!”

“Does he know I’ll fucking kill you?” Ryo asked me.

“Yeah,” I said. “He does, but he’s responsible for his men. It’ll probably be the best deal you’ll get from him.”

Ryo took a long time to respond. Finally, he said, “Fine!”

“Okay!” I called out. “Come out!”

Henry was the first one to step out of the woods. His hands hung loosely by his sides, his black pea coat draped over his shoulders so you couldn’t see what was underneath.

A beat later, another man appeared from the treeline, his hands raised and his rifle hanging from the strap across his shoulder.

Another appeared similarly. Then another.

By the time they stopped coming out, all but three were standing in the cabin clearing with their hands up and their weapons hanging by their side or holstered.

The remaining men were suspiciously missing or were simply out of line of sight… possibly on the other side of the cabin.

“Is that all of them?” Ryo asked.

“I think so,” I said, not wanting to give anything Psalter might be trying to do away.

And where the fuck was Chloe? I tried to get Tanaka to tell me if he had her without overtly asking. I didn’t think he had her, but he wouldn’t give me any clues. I had a feeling that if he had taken her, she would have been the one on her knees in the living room instead of Shea.

“You think so?” Ryo repeated.

“Man, they just showed up a few hours ago. I didn’t have time to do interviews!” I retorted. I was annoyed. For days, I thought Tanaka was some grandmaster strategist, but his demeanor suggested he was out of his depth. This guy wasn’t playing six-D chess; Ryo Tanaka was barely playing checkers.

“Okay,” Ryo finally said, sounding dissatisfied. “Move.”

I was escorted down the stairs and across the clearing. As I passed him, Psalter and I exchanged looks, but I couldn't read anything from his body language that hinted at a plan.

I hated that.

Once we reached the trail, Psalter called out, “Ryo Tanaka! Just so you know, if you harm that man in any way, you won’t have another good night’s rest for as long as you live, which will be for a very short time. I’ll kill you, myself.”

“Stay back, don’t interfere, and you’ll get your charge back unharmed,” Ryo said.

The next five minutes of my life were spent at gunpoint as Goon One kept his rifle firmly planted in the small of my back, his hand still gripping my shoulder tightly as I led them in the helicopter’s direction.

Being held hostage was the least torturous thing about the trip. The further we got from the cabin, the more chatty Ryo got. His confidence seemed to rise depending on the distance between him and Psalter’s team. I guess being surrounded four-to-one by men who want to kill you would put a damper on anyone’s confidence.

He droned on about how his father wasn’t adapting well to the modern era, complaining about Hiro’s lack of experience or willingness to embrace new technologies. According to Ryo, Hiro was a dinosaur trying to hold onto the dregs of a way of life that no longer existed. Hiro was so blinded by the old ways that he couldn’t see his son’s true potential. I kept my responses short and non-committal to keep from setting him off.

Every step closer to the helicopter, the less I respected the man. I wanted to throw up a little in my mouth from being exposed to all his whining bullshit.

Eventually, we had to cut through some woods to reach the clearing. When we finally reached it, the helicopter sat on top of a small hill like some mythical creature we were hunting.

“There it is,” I said. “Can I go now?”

“Once we are on and ready to lift off,” Ryo said. “I’m not interested in getting a bullet to the head because I let you go early.”

It turned out that the other guard—Goon Two—was a qualified pilot, or at least he appeared to be. As we reached the chopper, he opened the cockpit door and climbed inside, checking the panel and instruments as he and Ryo conversed in Japanese. Goon One and I simply waited patiently for the two of them to confirm that the helicopter was airworthy.

Finally, Ryo returned to Goon One and said something to him in Japanese.

Goon One then escorted me to the open cargo door.

“Hands behind,” Goon One said, shoving me at the entrance, then backing up and leveling his gun at me. His accent was thick, and I would have bet money he knew less than ten words in English.

“Wait, what?” I asked futilely.

“You’re coming with us,” Ryo said as he pulled a zip tie from his back pocket.

“The fuck I am!” I said. I wasn’t exactly surprised by the double-cross. Ryo hadn’t come across as the most upstanding guy, but I’d seriously hoped that Psalter’s men would have spooked him enough to make him grateful to simply leave.

Tanaka pulled his gun and shoved the barrel into my ribs. God, I was getting tired of that.

“You think I will just walk away without taking you with me? Father will be thrilled when I bring you to him alive!”

I started to say something, but before I could, Goon One pointed at the ground below me and fired two shots at my feet. Dirt geysered into the air in front of me, spraying me in the face. The message was clear. Ryo was eager to bring me home, and that was going to happen. Whether or not I had some extra holes when he presented me to Daddy was another matter.

I reluctantly turned and put my hands behind my back, hoping that Psalter had some kind of plan to show up at whatever airport Ryo would be using to leave Norway.

The plastic bands tightened around my wrists, and I could practically feel his smile.

Once I was secure, he had Goon One haul me into the helicopter, dropping the gun so he could use both hands to stand me on my feet inside the main cabin. Ryo climbed into the vehicle behind us and threw the door shut.

“This is the kind of thing I wish my father could see,” Ryo said as he secured the door. “People like you make deals. People like me get things do—”

Goon One’s head suddenly disappeared in a cloud of gore as a shot rang out from inside the helicopter, deafening enough that I couldn’t hear the rest of the monologue.

Ryo screamed.

I bellowed a curse and dove to the ground.

The cockpit door burst open, and Goon Two raised his rifle as he stormed the cargo hold.

I pressed myself into the floor, trying to make myself as small a target as possible, but as I peered up at him, it was clear that he wasn’t even paying attention to me. He was much more concerned with the blonde woman diving over me like an Olympic swimmer going for the gold. She hit the ground in a roll as two shots went off from Goon Two’s rifle, zipping through the air where she’d just been.

Chloe emerged from her roll into a crouch and sprang to her feet within Goon Two’s personal bubble. It was too close for him to use his rifle effectively, so he dropped it and raised his fists just in time to block two headshots from my bodyguard. He followed her attack with his own as the two fully engaged in hand-to-hand combat. They were a blur of activity, with Chloe ducking and delivering a hook to the ribs while Goon Two drove his elbow into her back. There was a knee to the crotch, and then Goon Two went for her neck as he wheezed through the pain.