Clash Of Worlds (26 page)

Cody, not realising what James was getting at began to reply. “Come to think of it now, yeah…” Then it suddenly dawned upon the young Texan what he had done. “Oh shit!”

“Idiot!” said Sophie, putting her hands on her hips as she spoke.

Cody’s head dropped a little.

Now he looks as he did two years ago.
“Look don’t worry about it, we’ll take these guys out here, and get the stone back, it won’t be a problem!” said James, trying to raise his friend’s spirit.

“You’re right,” said Cody raising his head again. He became serious once more. “Right we’ve got two more guys in here besides us. There’s agent Smith over by the window.” James and Sophie turned around, noticing a man standing by the window, observing every word they were saying. “And we’ve got your other guy, what’s his name?”

“Boris,” said James and Sophie simultaneously.

“Well, my guy sent him out into the hallway a while back. He’s keeping an eye on everyone that’s coming in and out of here.”

“That’ll work out well, that old fox doesn’t miss a thing,” muttered Sophie under her breath.

“What?” Cody asked.

“Nothing, carry on,” said James.

Cody now observed Lucius and the hence men he had arrived with. “There’s our main guy, a very slippery character,” referring to Lucius once more. As he said this, Lucius began to take his leave of the large room.

“Right, I’ll take him, be ready!” said James, who left Cody and Sophie quickly and followed on after his foe.

“Finally alone huh?” said Cody sarcastically.

“Come on Cody, stay focused!”

The young Texan realised this was not the time for games and focused on the mission. “Ok, see that man over there?” He was referring to the man that Lucius had arrived with. “His name is Jim Duggan, a close associate of the main guy. We need to take both of them in.”

“Alight, I’ll stick to him like glue,” replied the Young Irish girl. “I thought there were three targets, though?”

Cody gave a simple shrug. “My sources aren’t always one hundred percent accurate.”

Sophie smiled; she had always loved winding him up. Cody had begun to set off himself. The female agent stopped him before he left. “Hey Cody!” she shouted.

“Yeah?” he answered, walking back to her.

She smiled once more. “Nice moustache!” said the female agent, who began to laugh.

“Oh, it’s a fake look.” Cody tried to remove the fake moustache a little but winced in pain. It seemed to have placed on his upper lip a little tighter than he would have liked. Sophie chuckled once more when she realised Cody couldn’t remove it.

James followed Lucius down the long corridors of the hotel. Entrances scattered either side of the passageway, which were populated with guests. James had to weave in and out of people in order to keep up with the strange, white-haired figure. Lucius stopped at a lift and entered it. James upped his pace, rushing up to it. He just about managed to reach the lift in time before the doors closed completely. The doors reopened up for him and James walked into the lift, looking to confront the man. To his astonishment, the lift was completely empty. It was as if the white haired man had vanished into thin air. James realised he had lost his man.
He really is a slippery character…

Cody walked outside the main party room of the hotel and gestured to Boris, who had been stationed outside the room, to follow him. “Come on man, we’re going to be the eyes and ears of this operation. No one gets in or out of this building without us knowing about it.”

The two men advanced down the hallway and exited the hotel via the main entrance.

Back in the main room, Sophie was shadowing Duggan’s movements. He had been stood at a table alone for around half and hour yet had drunk five pints of beer in that time. The man seemed on edge. The Irish girl waited patiently for Duggan to leave the room so she could reprimand the man without causing a scene in front of all the other guests.
Come on, hurry up and get out of here,
she thought. The girl was itching to get to work.

Sophie spotted a full glass of wine on the table next to her and picked it up, downing its contents in one attempt. She placed the empty glass back onto the table and looked to where Duggan was standing, however to her surprise the man was no longer there. The agent became alert and scanned the entire room with her eyes quickly, urgently trying to sight her target.
He was watching me too,
She realised.
He was watching me, watching him, waiting for the moment that I took my gaze off him.
She spotted Duggan exiting through the back door of the room and followed in pursuit. The door led to a narrow circular staircase. Duggan was already several floors up before Sophie even reached the stairs. Clearly the man was in a hurry.

Sophie rushed onto the roof after her foe. The rooftop was several storeys above the rest of the surrounding buildings. They were on top of the tallest building in the entire city. It was here that she looked to confront Duggan. She slipped out her gun and walked around the rooftop, but the man was nowhere to be found. Suddenly Duggan rushed her from behind. Sophie’s gun fell to the ground as she and the man grappled on the floor. The Irish agent quickly gained the upper hand by giving Duggan a very unflattering kick in the groin. She retrieved her gun and picked Duggan off the ground holding him from behind with her gun to his head. “I’m bringing you in, understand?”

A dark mist began to descend upon the rooftop. The mist began to swirl quickly around the pair, who both looked as equally confused as the other as to what was happening. The mist began to form eight man-like shadows around them. The shadows moulded together and quickly became solid. Now eight men stood before her, covering the agent’s movements in all directions. She could not believe her eyes, but Sophie remained cool.
Let’s hope they’re concerned with the safety of their boss,
Sophie thought, believing that to be Duggan himself.

Sophie yanked Duggan closer to her, increasing the grip on his arm and aimed the gun right at his temple. “Stay back!” she warned the strange men who began to circle in all around her. The girls voice echoed a mixture of menace and fear. Much to her surprise, the men ignored her threats and kept coming. She pressed the gun deep into Duggan’s temple. The man’s face winced in pain. “You think I’m bluffing? I’ll kill him right here!”

“They know you’re not bluffing,” said a softly spoken voice from within the shadows near the entrance to the roof. “They just don’t care.” Lucius emerged out of the shadows. “I was hoping the vermin would have followed me, and here his fate would have been yours. Yet it seems he hadn’t the sense do even do that. Truly disappointing.”

“Lucius, help me!” Duggan shouted to him.

“You’ve served your purpose, you may die now,” said Lucius. “Kill them both,” he continued in an almost uncaring fashion. The surrounding shadows advanced at speed on Sophie and Duggan. Sophie pushed Duggan into one of the advancing men to allow her to retreat a little. The men snapped Duggan’s neck in two in an instant and threw his body brutally to the floor.

Sophie looked on; slightly disturbed by the way Lucius had ruthlessly discarded his henchman. She retreated back but had run out of roof to walk on. She now stood near the edge of the building and the eight men advanced at pace. Sophie stood poised for battle knowing she was outnumbered.
If I go down, I’ll go down swinging!

The men prepared to strike. Suddenly James pounded one of the men to the ground from behind. “Hi.”

“Hey” replied Sophie, relieved to see him.

The pair had no further time for pleasantries however as the men engaged them in battle. The men charged them from all sides, and they were strong, much stronger than James had first thought. The man James had pounded to the ground was already back to his feet and eager for more. Back to back, James and Sophie took on their anonymous attackers, lashing out with fists and boots. The men’s fighting style was similar to that of the ninja group they had fought in Costa Rico some two years earlier. Sophie was barely holding her own, on the back foot for most of her engagement. The men were slightly more advanced in their fighting style than she was. James, on the other, hand unleashed a flurry of lighting-fast strikes and dodges. He was more than a match for the men and he wasted not a single blow in taking them down.

Sophie was struggling so she decided to revert to her speciality, her skill with knives, the very thing that brought her to the dance in the first place. See picked out two knifes from her belt, which were underneath her dress and began to use them like fists. She jabbed and poked knife shots into the men, but to her surprise, the men were unfazed. She threw one of the knives in her hand with deadly accuracy towards one of the quickly advancing men. The knife landed directly in the middle of the man’s forehead and he crashed to the ground, disintegrating into dust as he did so.

From the entrance, Lucius nodded in slight approval at the Irish girl’s skill with knives but most of his attention was directed towards James. He watched James’ fighting technique closely. He paid specific attention to the speed and strength of his foe’s blows. James was clearly overpowering the men but Lucius seemed unimpressed. He lifted his arm high above his head and raised his hand.

The remaining men vanished in a plume of dust and within seconds, only Lucius, James and Sophie remained on the roof. James and Sophie looked around in confusion at the men’s apparent vanishing into thin air.

“What the hell is going on?” shouted James.

Lucius stepped forward and began to laugh uncontrollably. He clearly found great amusement from James’ misunderstanding. “You are a shell, a hollow image, such an unworthy opponent. Like all vermin, you will be swept away.”

James had a hard time understanding Lucius’ riddle like speech, however, he understood that when saying the word ‘vermin’, he was referring to James himself.

Lucius turned to Sophie. “You, on the other hand, have heart. Truly impressive for such a primitive creature.”

The white haired man quickly unleashed a backhand blow to Sophie, which sent the Irish girl hurling twenty feet across the roof. She would have fallen off the side of the hotel roof had she not crashed against the small bank on the roof’s edge. James was taken back slightly by the strength of Lucius’ blow.

“Such pathetic creatures aren’t they?” mocked the white haired man.

James rushed towards him and threw a fierce right-handed punch, which found its mark. Much to James’ surprise, the blow only moved Lucius head back slightly. Such a strike from James would normally have sent a regular man crashing to the ground. Almost simultaneously after the right hand, James threw a left, which Lucius blocked, catching his fist as it drew towards him. Lucius quickly directed a thunderous blow into James’ ribs, which sent the agent crashing back at least ten feet.

James fell back but broke his fall with a backward roll, however, make no mistake about it, the punch had shaken him. He crouched on the floor holding his rib cage, struggling to catch his breath. The punch had actually hurt him like no man had ever hurt him before. He reached into the nether regions of his suit and pulled out his gun. Lucius, showing impressive speed, raced forward and kicked the gun out of the agent’s hand. The kick was so powerful it sent the gun flying over the edge of the rooftop and down the long drop to the ground below.

Lucius casually walked back to the exact spot he had been in prior to rushing toward and kicking the gun out of James’ hand. A look of disappointment was edged on his face. “Such a pity, that a man with such a great reputation should be afraid of the beauty of unarmed combat. Still, you have never found yourself in a fair fight until now have you my vermin friend?”

James rushed up to his feet and without hesitation launched himself towards his enemy. His fists were clenched and he unleashed all of the unique quickness and strength he possessed, determined to deliver a knockout blow.

To the surprise of the agent, the white-haired man proved to be even faster than he was. He effortlessly blocked and dodged James’ attacks. A few of the agent’s blows did indeed land, but Lucius barely blinked as the fists struck him. Dodging a final punch, the white-haired man moved his right arm towards his left shoulder and launched forward his right arm, delivering a backhanded punch, which landed right on James’ chin. The blow seemed nothing more than a move to simply brush his opponent away; still James flew over ten feet in the air, crashing down onto the ground stomach first.

Laying flat on the floor, James coughed hard twice. Blood flew from his month as a result of the second cough, clearly showing that Lucius’ blow had done serious damage.

“A treaty of peace has cost you your strength,” Lucius declared. The man began to pace back and forth a few steps from the spot he was standing. “Your technique is flawed, weakened by them. Those of little significance.”

James struggled to get to his feet. Dazed and in pain, he just about managed it.

Lucius rushed forward, plunging his hand around James’ neck. “You are not one of them. If you were, I could crush your neck in an instant.” James tried to break free, but to no avail. He was no match for the white haired man’s great strength. “As it is, a vermin’s neck is annoyingly resilient,” said Lucius, who began to increase the pressure of his grip. “But not unbreakable…”

Sophie, who had been close to unconscious the entire time, began to come around. As her sight returned to her, she looked on, seeing James in some trouble. She reached inside her top and picked out a small bag, which she had stored within her bra. She untied the piece of white string that held the bag together and spread the bag open, revealing four pieces of small metal, which she quickly assembled into a knife. Sophie planned to use her excellent knife wielding skills to save the day and it wasn’t a moment too soon. Lucius increased his grip further around James’ neck as the female agent slowly rose to her feet.

The Irish girl, barely able to stand, took aim with the knife. During her training, she had hit a target whilst blindfolded with deadly accuracy; therefore her fragile state would be of no obstacle for her to hit the intended target. Sophie unleashed the knife from her hand. The blade spun around at great speed, cutting through the air with ease as it closed on Lucius’ skull. The white haired man reached out with his free arm and caught the knife within his hand without even so much as glancing in the blades direction. The knife did not pierce his skin; indeed, he even managed to tighten his grip on the shaft. Without taking his eyes off James, even for a second, Lucius threw the knife back from whence it came. The blade plunged into Sophie’s shoulder, narrowly missing her heart. This had been Lucius’ intended target. Sophie cried out in pain and was down and out of the fight once more.