Boon of My Existence Ch. 02 of 03

They began scrambling around the corner of the trailer, and Kira faked a foot slip to make sure the men heard them. Stryker ran towards the other end of the trailer and ducked behind the far end of the useless septic tank, which sat in front of the car, and Kira followed. The two men sprinted around the corner then slowed to a walking pace as they scanned the area. They held their guns out as they cautiously checked all sides of the car.

"When they both get passed the other end of the tank," Stryker said almost too quietly into Kira's ear, "Go around it and catch the last guy from behind right after the first one finds me."

She waited until the last guy passed the other end of the long septic tank, then she began to move, still crouched, with a practiced stealth. She was glad she had switched shoes with the doctor, because the hard soles of her boots would have made it very difficult to remain unnoticed. She rounded the other end of the tank and stood up as she crept closer to the second man's back.

"I see you. Stand up," the first guy commanded, pointing his gun right at Stryker. Kira immediately punched the second guy in the base of the spine. He let out a cry as he fell to his knees, which prompted the first man to turn to see what was happening. As soon as he did, Stryker stood up behind him, grabbed his wrist with one hand, and sent his other elbow into the side of the man's face.

Kira struck her man across the back of the head to knock him out, so that both men were now unconscious. Stryker grabbed his man by the collar of his suit jacket and began to drag him towards the desert to the side of the trailer. "Bring him this way," he said to Kira.

Kira drug her man the same way, following Stryker. He stopped about fifty feet out, dropped his guy, then Kira saw an electric lantern flicker on. She pulled her man up and laid him along side Stryker's, then took a look at the set up.

Their were eight metal spikes driven into the dirt, four above and four below the men's bodies. To each spike was attached a shackle by way of a short chain. Stryker immediately began cuffing his man's hands and feet. Kira raised an eyebrow and began cuffing her man. She could not help but smile.

"We should have went out on a date a long time ago. You definitely know how to show a girl a good time."

"I thought you might enjoy this," he said, apparently no longer in strict work mode. He looked at the eastern sky, which was now just beginning to change color. "It should be bright enough in a few minutes."

They sat down, on a couple of cinder blocks, on either side of the two unconscious thugs. They were silent for a moment, and then Stryker spoke. "Do you remember when you found me in Virginia?"

She looked over at him, thought a moment and smiled a mischievous smile. "Yeah." She spoke slowly as she recalled the fond memory, "It was late, and we both had had a long day, so we decided to go back to my hotel room where we finished wearing each other out. I wound up having to buy that bed, you know. Then we got up, ate breakfast, drove out to that pasture, and then fought." She tilted her head slightly, and then her smile became sweeter. "Why?"

"Do you remember," he looked down, pick up a small rock, and played with it in his hands, "what you said to me before you fell asleep that night?"

"I don't recall either of us saying anything at all. I closed the door, and our mouths did just about everything but speak until we woke up the next morning." He did not respond, and she grew curious. "Did I say something?"

Suddenly, one of the men began to moan and move his head. Stryker was not comfortable continuing the discussion, right now, so he diverted from it. He looked up at the sky and said, "I guess it's bright enough." He dropped the rock, looked down at the man, and stood up, "Let's wake them up."

Stryker and Kira slapped their respective thug's faces to wake them. Stryker's opened his eyes, but Kira's remained unconscious. She continued to slap at him and started saying, "Wake up."

"Hey, what's going on," Stryker's thug said, trying to move. "Let me outa these."

"Oops, I forgot the tape." Stryker reached behind his cinder block and retrieved a roll of duct tape.

"You betta let me outa these right now-" Stryker stepping on the man's mouth muffled the rest of his threat. He pulled out a length of the silver tape, then moved his foot as he bent over and quickly strapped it across the man's mouth. Stryker lifted the man's head and wrapped the tape all the way around his head twice. He dropped the man's head, tore and end to the tape, and then stood looking at Kira.

"I think you may have hit him too hard." He spoke to Kira, but he spoke loud enough, and in such a way that she knew he was putting on a show for the silenced man. "You didn't kill him, did you?"

She checked his pulse to make sure he was, in fact, still alive. Murder was not the objective, here. She was not entirely sure what the objective was, apart from getting this Tula guy off the Mathis' case, but she knew Stryker would not resort to murder. "No, he's still breathing."

"Well, that's okay. We need only one of them to be awake." Stryker stepped one foot over the man, and then squatted down over him, staring him in the eye. Kira saw a little smile creep across Stryker's face, and then he said, "Now. What can we do to convince Mr. Tula to forget about Mr. and Mrs. Mathis?"

Inside the trailer, James and Helen were sitting quietly. Helen happened to look up to see James staring at her body. "James," she said as a good-natured scolding.

He looked up at her and suddenly realized exactly what he had been doing. He smiled, a little embarrassed. "How many years have I been trying to get you to wear something like this for me?"

She did not have a response. She had always been adverse to the idea of wearing such skimpy clothes. She was not opposed to them as clothing, but she felt they were not the kind of thing she should be wearing, as a doctor and a woman closing in on forty. James had often subtly tried to get her to buy stuff like that, and he would even say that he didn't have to wear it in public if she didn't want to, but she felt weird about, what was essentially, playing dress up, to her.

"I can't wear clothes like this, James." She wished she had a better argument, but she was at a loss to fathom one.

"Helen," he said, holding out his hands towards her, "you ARE wearing it." He put his hands on his legs and leaned back. "And you look amazing," he said in a softer tone.

She was at a loss for intelligent words. His sincere flattery and her embarrassment scrambled her circuits a little, so she spouted out the first complete thought that managed to form itself. "Well, it's a good thing she's muscular, I guess."

He gave a tiny laugh as he moved his chair closer to her. He put his palm to the side of her face and guided it towards him. He looked into her eyes briefly, and then closed them as he leaned in to kiss her.

Just as their lips touched, they both jumped at the sound of a muffled scream from outside.

"Oh shit," Helen said quickly as they backed away from each other, both their hearts pounding from the shock. Helen put a hand across her chest in a reflexive attempt to calm her heart. James rested his elbow on the table and his head on his palm.

After about twenty minutes and a few more screams, Helen and James heard two car doors shut and the car turning fast and speeding off, kicking tiny rocks against the front of the trailer. Almost a minute later, they heard a knock on the door, then Mr. Goodman's voice.

"It's us." Mr. Goodman opened the door and looked in at them. "They're gone now. You can come on out."

Helen and James stood up and moved to exit, noting that Mr. Goodman seemed a little happier than they would have anticipated, considering all the screams. When they were both on the ground, they both looked at Kira, without the wig, and the medium sized blood stains on the front of Helen's blouse and slacks.

Kira looked down, only just realizing what they were staring at with worried faces. "Oh." She handled the material around the stains. "I'm sorry. He bled easier than I thought he would. I'll pay for these. Or buy you new ones." She looked up at the doctor. "Whichever you want."

The couple looked at Stryker, even more worried. "Don't worry," Stryker said. "It's not as bad as you think. Nobody died. No permanent damage. Just sending a hopefully very convincing message back to Tula. The short version: I told him the sabotage was not your fault, and for him to leave you alone. I'm going to keep my ear to his door, to make sure he's not going to plan anything else. I sincerely doubt he will, but if he does, I'll know about it before he gets a chance to carry it out, and I'll stop it. You can count yourselves as safe, now."

Helen thought it best not to ask too much. "So we can go home, now?"

Stryker lost his smile as he looked at James and said nothing for a brief moment. He then looked back at the doctor. "Not quite yet." He glanced at James again, "James," he said as a prompt, as he turned towards Kira, put his hand on her arm and guided her back towards the open desert.

Kira suddenly felt decidedly uncomfortable. She heard the doctor quietly ask what was going on, and then she heard James quietly tell her he would explain. Kira walked as Stryker guided her, looking back only a moment to see the couple returning to the confines of the decrepit trailer.

She wanted to ask Stryker what was going on, but her instinct told her not to, at least not yet, if for no other reason than the fact that she would not get an answer. They walked for almost a full minute, and the way he had been looking around the place, she guessed that this was not specifically a pre-planned destination.

She looked around and noticed that they were standing in the middle of a relatively barren area. There were no boulders, trees, or cacti. He stepped a few paces away from her, turned to face her, looked directly at her eyes for a moment, then put his fist to his open palm and bowed. She then knew what was going on.

He had never bowed before. And this was the first time that she didn't begin with a smile.