“I’m going as fast as I can, man,” BA shouted over the gunfire, concentrating on the road and glancing in his mirrors. “Blame Face, not me! He rented it, fool,” BA growled.
Murdock frowned, and then his expression brightened. “Hey, BA, take a right here. I got a plan.” Murdock pointed to a road coming up. “And then the next left.”
“That’s not the way to the hotel!”
“No, no, I’ve got a better idea. It’ll get me there much quicker!” Murdock released another blast of automatic fire and shot out the tyre of the car. It swung wildly in the road, smoke billowing from the tyres, spinning out of control, veering off the road. “Yes!”
BA soon realised where Murdock wanted to go, although by the expression on his face, Murdock knew he wasn’t happy about it. At least he wasn’t arguing, just put his foot to the throttle. Within minutes, BA drove the van into the private airfield where they had watched Amy fly off with Flores only days before.
On the flood-lit airfield stood Flores’ large black and red helicopter, big enough to carry the team.
“Quickly, BA.” Murdock pointed to the small office where a man was coming out of the door, about to lock up. BA screeched the van to a halt just outside the door. The man looked at them in shock. Murdock and BA jumped out of the van and hurried around towards the guy.
“Working late,” Murdock said, as he jogged up to the guy.
“Yeah, yeah, I had some paperwork to fill out. Can I help you two?” the man asked, looking at them suspiciously. A portly fellow and shorter than he had first appeared, now that they stood beside him.
“Yeah, I’m Mr Flores’ new pilot. He’s asked me to pick him up tonight.” Murdock held out his hand.
“Really? He didn’t inform me,” replied the man, raising an eyebrow and refusing to shake Murdock’s hand.
“Yeah, change of plan. Last minute.” Murdock rolled his eyes and took his hand away, putting both hands behind his back.
“Well, I’ll still need to see your credentials.”
“Yeah, I thought you might.” Murdock nodded at BA. “Show him my credentials, BA.”
BA scowled and raised his fist. “Yeah, read this, sucker!”
“Okay, okay.” The man opened the door and Murdock and BA bustled in behind him.
The man stood frozen on the spot in the tiny office, staring at BA. Murdock impatiently clicked his fingers. “Keys, keys!”
The man jumped and reached behind him for a set of keys and then hastily passed them to Murdock. The man looked worried; constantly watching BA. BA softened his expression, which still didn’t help the man relax.
“I promise to take good care of it. It’ll be back here without a scratch on it.” Murdock held his fingers crossed behind his back.
“Don’t call the cops, either, sucker!” BA growled. “This is urgent. Someone’s in trouble and we got to help her.” The man nervously nodded as BA gave him another scowl. “I mean it!”
“Of course, of course,” the man replied holding his hands up, but BA was already ripping out the phone line.
Murdock and BA secured the guy, Murdock apologising the whole time, as he tied the man to a chair. Then they hurried out of the office. Murdock tossed the keys in the air and caught them.
“Murdock, I ain’t going in that heap of junk.” BA screwed up his face and provided his meanest scowl as he pointed to the chopper.
“BA, that,” Murdock pointed towards the chopper, his voice raised, “that is a Bell Long Ranger, not some heap of junk!”
“I don’t care what it is, sucker, I ain’t flyin’.”
“Fine, have it your way!” Murdock said firmly, impatiently moving closer and closer towards it. BA relaxed and smiled. “I haven’t got time to argue. Just call Hannibal and let him know I’m coming in by air. It’ll take me half the time in a chopper.” Murdock started to run towards the helicopter.
“The rental van ain’t got a phone. I’ll call him from my van, should take me ten minutes!” BA shouted.
“Okay, okay. Switch to radio frequency 118.0 and I’ll talk to you that way.” Murdock turned towards BA, walking backwards towards the helicopter. “If you can get hold of Hannibal, tell him I’ll meet him at the front door as planned.” He grinned.
BA shook his head. “Man, you’re almost as bad as Hannibal.”
BA jogged back round towards the rental van. As he jumped into the driver’s seat, he could hear the sound of the helicopter blades starting to whirr.
Face ran along the corridor to the door of Flores’ penthouse. He took out the master key from his pocket. It gave him access to every room in the hotel. He smiled briefly at that thought. Unlocking the door, he took his gun out of his shoulder holster, pushed the door open and carefully entered.
Face could hear Amy nervously giggling, “Carlos, I feel dizzy, please, maybe, stop…”
Face swiftly but stealthily hurried along the short corridor and through to the living room, heading towards Amy’s voice.
“Don’t move, Flores!” Face shouted, as he stood at a safe distance in the doorway.
“What the - how’d you get in here?” Flores asked, angrily.
“Hands up. Now!” Face tried not to let the sight of Amy and Flores in an intimate embrace rattle him. “So I can see them.”
Flores slowly took his hands away from Amy, lifting them in the air. His shirt was un-tucked, with a few of the buttons undone at the top.
Face could see the anger instantly in Flores’ eyes. They glared at him.
“Sorry to spoil your fun, Flores, but Amy’s coming with me.”
“I’m sorry, Carlos.” Amy sounded sincere. Face knew it had never meant to get like this. Not for her.
Amy tried to look Carlos in the eye, but he turned away from her. His focus was on Face. Cold and fierce, she could see the hatred in him now, a dangerous hatred burning in his eyes.
Flores reluctantly moved away from her, his hands still in the air, so that Amy could get off of the table. As she did so, she hesitated, removing the silver bracelet she’d been wearing, and placing it on the table. She then hurried towards Face, straightening out her dress, pulling it down, as she did so.
“Quickly, Amy, trouble is on its way,” Face warned, and took her hand as she approached him. “You okay?” Amy nodded. He could see she was flushed and hot from her intimacy with Flores. Face started to walk back towards the front door with Amy, keeping his eye and gun on Flores.
Flores angrily rushed towards them. Face instinctively hit Flores, hard, a glancing blow across Flores’ chin with the butt of his gun. Flores stood momentarily dazed, nursing a cut lip.
“You’ll never get away with this,” Flores yelled angrily at the couple, spitting blood and hesitantly moving after them. But Face kept the gun firmly aimed at him, retreating back with Amy.
“But I just have.” Face grinned.
“You’re both dead!”
“Hey, I’m looking great for a dead man, don’t you think?” Face gave a sarcastic smile as he gripped Amy’s hand firmly and turned out of the door. He instantly started to run along the corridor, pulling Amy along with him.
“You took your time, Face,” Amy said. Face sensed the annoyance in her tone.
“Sorry, but you looked like you were enjoying yourself.”
Amy blushed with embarrassment, refusing to look at him. “That’s not the point!”
As soon as the door shut Flores let out a fierce, raging shout. He turned around and swept the champagne bottle and glasses off the side table. Broken glass and champagne spread over the floor. Anything and everything that he could tear apart, he did, letting the uncontrollable anger surge through him.
“How dare they?” he raged to no one. “They have to pay. Whoever they are. They have to pay.” Flores paced around his suite. He swiftly went to the telephone and dialled.
He spoke calmly to the receptionist, fetching a handkerchief from his pocket for his cut lip, but when his call went through, his harsh and cold tone returned.
“Find me the girl. I want her alive, you hear?”
Two men emerged from an elevator ahead of Face and Amy.
“Damn it!” Face pulled Amy down another corridor away from the men. He was almost dragging her. Her red stiletto heels were not helping matters. Her red evening gown was also hindering things; she tried to hitch it up with her free hand, but everything felt slow and sluggish. She desperately tried to fight the dizziness, and focus.
A part of her felt very relieved Face had showed up when he did. He’d strengthened that tiny voice in her head. She’d been finding it very difficult to slow Carlos and his intentions down, and even harder to resist her own sexual desire.
“Amy, ditch the heels!” Face stopped, nervously watching the corridor for Flores’ men. “Quickly!” Amy nodded, relieved at the thought. Her shoes were killing her. She grabbed the back straps, slipped them off her heels and held them by the straps in one hand. As soon as they were off her feet, Face started to run, grasping hold of Amy’s free hand.
“He knows who you are, Amy,” Face said as they ran.
“What?”
“He knows. That’s why we had to get you out of there.”
“So why was he just…” She shook her head. I can’t concentrate on this now.
“We think he was just too infatuated to let you go.”
Face opened up the door to the stairwell and started to run down it, pulling Amy along.
Amy could feel her breath tightening; Face didn’t look like he had even broken into a sweat. There were voices below as well as above. They’d only gone down a couple of floors as far as Amy could make out and Face was pulling her through another door, out of the stairwell and into another corridor.
They turned a corner and Face placed Amy against the wall. Some hotel residents were coming along the corridor. Face stood in front of her, holding her as though they were intimately embracing. She opened her mouth to speak, but he put his fingers to his lips and she remained quiet. They could hear the two men chasing them coming along the corridor.
His face was close to hers. Dizzy, staring up into Face’s blue eyes, her heart beating fast, Amy just reacted. She pulled him closer by the collar of his tuxedo, firmly placing her lips on his. She still had that sexual excitement running through her body. It was like a drug running through her veins and she was finding it very hard to come down. She lustfully inserted her tongue into his mouth. Kissing him passionately, she tangled her fingers in his hair.
Face’s eyes widened and he groaned with pleasure. He placed a hand to her cheek and pressed his body firmly against hers, responding to her kiss. Amy revelled in the feeling of his unexpected body strength against her. She could only assume the two men had passed them as Face withdrew from the kiss with a smile on his face. Amy reluctantly let go of him.
“I panicked, okay? I didn’t know what else to do!” Amy blushed, looking straight into his eyes. Her whole body was still sexually aroused from Carlos and Face had just seemed like the right release.
“Did I say anything?”
“No, but you gave me that look.”
“Hey, just proves you can think on your feet, kid. I’m impressed,” Face said, as Amy automatically straightened his tie and then wiped the lipstick from his lips.
“Thanks.” He winked.
Amy stumbled on her feet and Face caught her. She put her hand to her head.
“Are you okay?” Face looked at her, concerned.
“Just a bit dizzy.”
Face raised an eyebrow at her. If he was going to lecture her about how much she’d drank, he could do it later.
“Come on, Amy. Let’s get you out of here,” Face said as he tugged her firmly. They started to run back in the direction they’d come. Unfortunately, their pursuers hadn’t gone that far, and noticed this sudden movement from the couple.
“Hey! That’s them!”
Flores’ men started running after them, but this time Face and Amy had a good head start. They came to a pair of elevators and Face pressed the button. As the door opened, he beamed at Amy as if he couldn’t believe his luck. He jumped in, quickly pressing the ground floor button and then stepped quickly back out again, sending the elevator to the ground floor. Amy felt him pull her and they ran around the corner. The two men arrived seeing the elevator going down.
“The stairs!”
The two men opened the doors to the stairwell next to the elevators and started for the ground floor.
Face and Amy ran around to the next set of elevators and Face pressed the button once again. They waited patiently, hearts beating fast and trying to catch their breath. Face still had Amy’s hand firmly in his grip. One of the two elevator’s doors opened, Face reached for his gun, but to their relief it was empty. They both relaxed momentarily as the doors closed and Face pressed the button to the ground floor.
“The ground floor? But you’ve just sent those creeps there,” Amy asked nervously, as she adjusted her dress in the elevator mirrors.
“Yeah, I know, but we didn’t have a lot of options, considering we were almost on the top floor,” Face smiled and checked his own appearance in the mirrors. “We need to try and make it out the front door, or go to plan B.”
“Plan B?” Amy asked. She looked in the mirror and noticed her hair was now falling out of its grip. Undoing the butterfly clip, she shook out her long brown hair. Dizziness waved over her but she tried to hide it from Face. She thought hard; trying to count how many drinks she’d had, but she couldn’t remember.
“Yeah, Hannibal always has a plan B,” Face replied.
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