They stepped outside, hit by a light breeze that masked the deceptive heat of the early sun. Just ahead of them was the stolen sedan that had brought them there. And it was surrounded by six men, dressed in the same black outfits as the three Jericho had taken out in the room.
“Oh my God!” screamed Julie, as the men saw them and took aim, fanning out to form a semi-circle — three on either side of the car.
Jericho clenched his jaw muscles with a mixture of anger and frustration, flicking his aim to each of the men in turn. His breathing was steady and deliberate; his brain was working hard to figure a way out of what appeared to be, on the surface, an impossible situation.
Suddenly, a bright light appeared in front of him, followed by a wave of intense pain that hit the center of his head, behind his eyes. He grimaced and staggered back, disoriented. He dropped his gun and, clutching the left side of his face, sank to his knees. He felt a hand on his shoulder, which startled him.
“Jericho, are you alright?” asked Julie. “What’s happening?”
“Fuck! I don’t know…” he replied through gritted teeth. “My left eye…”
He had his left hand clamped over it, and he looked up at Julie with his right. She looked… different, somehow. Calmer, more disciplined. And also frustrated, he thought. He frowned at her change in demeanor, momentarily distracted from the pain in his head.
“Shit…” she muttered.
Before he could say anything, one of the men by the car shouted over. “Both of you, on your knees; hands where I can see them. We’ve been ordered to bring you in.”
Julie looked down at Jericho, tilting her head slightly. Jericho recognized the look immediately — an unspoken plea for forgiveness.
Jericho shook his head; he didn’t understand.
“Just stay here,” she said to him. “Your eye’s reacting to the influx of sunlight. Keep it covered.”
Without another word, she stood; tossing the gun she was holding into the air and catching it again in her hand by the butt. She flicked the safety off, chambered a round, took aim and started firing. She ducked low, moving forward and scooping Jericho’s handgun up as she went. She continued her shocking onslaught, taking out three of the six men with the first few rounds.
The remaining three dove for cover, but she seemed to anticipate their movements. She aimed both guns to the right and fired, catching one of the men as he moved away to the side; both barrels hit him in the face. He stopped dead in his tracks, dropping to the floor and skidding to a lifeless stop.
The final two men had emptied their clips, but inexplicably hit nothing. Julie ran at them, throwing both guns away to the sides as she approached them. At full speed, she charged at the man farthest to her left, using her right foot to step on his thigh. She ran up his body, pushing off first with her foot, and then with her knee on his shoulder, to elevate her into the air. She moved her arm so the point of her elbow was positioned above his head, and then slammed it down on the center of his skull. He crumpled to the floor, and she landed on top of him, straddling his chest.
In a flash, she turned her body to the right, just in time to catch a right kick that was aimed at her head. She caught it in her arms, displaying a natural strength you wouldn’t expect from looking at her. With very little movement on her part, she held the man’s ankle high in her left hand, and thrust her right forearm through his knee from the side, snapping his leg. He fell to the floor, screaming with obvious and understandable agony. She looked back down at the man between her legs, and threw a quick right hand at his face, ensuring he was out for the count.
She stood and dusted herself down, looking quickly around to make sure all of the men were taken care of before turning back to look at Jericho.
He was stunned, temporarily forgetting the pain in his skull as he watched Julie — a slight, timid, innocent nurse — single-handedly take out six armed men with more ease than practically anyone he knew.
She walked toward him, and he sprang to his feet, stepping back into a loose fighting stance, trying to keep his left eye closed.
“Who the fuck are you?” he asked.
“Relax, Jericho, I’m on your side,” she said. She placed a finger on her ear. “It’s me. Someone’s found us… probably the CIA. I had to break cover — Jericho’s bandages are off, and his eye is struggling with the sunlight.”
Jericho took a step toward her, forgetting any concerns he had, or any pain he felt, succumbing to the fresh feeling of anger. “Who are you talking to?” he demanded, pointing at her.
She walked over, putting her hand in her pocket and taking out an earpiece. She handed it to him.
Jericho frowned. “What’s going on?” he asked, both angry and confused.
“Put this in,” she said. “You want answers? They’re on the other end of the comms.”
Reluctantly, Jericho took it and placed it in his right ear. Lightning bolts of pain were shooting through the left side of his head. He grimaced as he activated the earpiece. “Who… is this?” he asked, grunting through a fresh wave of agony.
There was a brief crackle of static, and then a familiar, British voice. “Jericho, it’s me — Josh. Are you alright? What’s happening?”
“Josh? What’s happening is, I feel like a thousand burning knives are stabbing my skull! What the fuck did you people do to me?”
“Bollocks… okay, try to relax. We thought there might be a reaction to the light at first, but it’s only temporary. Keep it covered, and we’ll check you over when you come in.”
“Fuck you — I’m not coming back!”
Josh sighed. “Jericho, listen to me. Those men Julie just disposed of for you, and the ones in your hotel room, were part of a CIA unit sent to kill you. Not bring you in… kill you. Do you understand? Do you get what’s going on here? Thanks to your phone call yesterday, they now know you’re alive, which means you have a very large bullseye on your back. You’ll be dead within twenty-four hours on your own. We can help you.”
Jericho paused, feeling a second’s reprieve from the pain inside his head. “Why would you help me?” he asked, conceding that Josh made a valid point.
“Because we’re on the same side,” he implored.
Jericho looked over at Julie, who was stood resting against the hood of their sedan, her arms folded casually across her chest.
“Jericho, you need to come with us,” she said to him. “You shouldn’t have made that call to your old boss yesterday, but I had to let you see for yourself that you can’t trust them anymore.”
He glared at her. “Come with you? After you lied to me? I mean, it was all a lie, right? The helpless nurse, the frightened girl who can’t hold a gun… even you ‘rescuing’ me… it was all for show, wasn’t it?”
Julie stared at the ground for a moment before answering. “I’m sorry, but we had to. It was the only way…”
“You had to? You didn’t have to do anything!”
“Don’t be angry at her,” interrupted Josh on comms. “It was my idea. The only way you’d believe us is if you figured out for yourself what was going on here, like Julie said.”
“I’m not going anywhere with her,” he replied. He stared at Julie. “You lied to me… give me one reason why I shouldn’t fucking kill you right now.”
She shrugged and smiled at him. “Because you couldn’t if you tried.”
She stood up straight, turning her body slightly away from him, visibly tensing her muscles.
“Alright, easy tiger,” said Josh. “Julie, stand down. Jericho, you have no real choice. We need to take a look at you to ensure there’s no permanent damage to your eye. If there is, it will be excruciating, and potentially fatal. Plus, you have no allies in a war where the opposing side is far bigger.”