That’s something else… I’ll need to destroy the security footage.
Christ.
Okay, one King Kong-sized clusterfuck at a time.
I look over at the prince. My cheeks are aching slightly from the genuine laughter. He’s frowning at me, probably confused.
“Have I… missed something?” he asks.
I shake my head, still smiling. “No, sorry. I’ve just realized what an astronomically bad day I’m having. You know those moments where things are so outstandingly fucked up, all you can do is laugh?”
He nods and smiles. “I do, my friend, yes. But, forgive my ignorance… I don’t understand why you’re just realizing this now.”
I sigh.
Shit, shit, shit!
I need to start thinking of a plan C, don’t I?
I stare at him, momentarily studying my reflection in the lenses of his glasses. “Okay, honestly? Prior to my little moment of clarity just then, I didn’t really consider myself to be in a bad position.”
He chuckles. “Well, your confidence is certainly honorable, if a little unjustified. Why, may I ask?”
I shrug. “There’s no reason you would want to hurt me. I’ve explained I came here in peace. I’m doing you a favor — despite the faith you have in your security detail, you need to understand that the people who hired me… the people now coming after both of us… are very dangerous, and far bigger than you or I. Why would you want to hurt me or kill me?” I gesture to the men surrounding me. “Would these guys even obey an order from you to take me out if I wasn’t a threat? They’re GlobaTech employees… they’re the golden boys at the moment, aren’t they, with everything that’s been happening…? It wouldn’t look very good on the company if their staff murder people because their customers tell them to.”
Prince Sayed smiles humorlessly. His seemingly warm and friendly persona is leaving him. Maybe he doesn’t like being proved wrong? It’s like a physical change, as if he’s removing an item of clothing. He’s just… different.
He points to each one of them individually. “They will do whatever I tell them to. That’s what I pay for, their protection and their obedience. The wealth I have affords me a freedom not available to most. If I deem you a threat, they will execute you.”
I breathe out a slow, calming breath. In much the same way I just saw him change, I suspect he’s now seeing the same thing in me. The act has stopped. The lie is no longer valid. The change in him was all I needed to satisfy my own moral code. For all the good he might do, the fact he’s capable of such arrogance and anger tells me there’s probably more to him than meets the eye. More than what the public figure shows the world. In that moment, I was left with very little doubt that The Order’s contract is fully justified, whatever the reason.
Besides… he just threatened me. Nobody threatens me.
This used to be the type of situation where my Inner Satan would take over. Where I would ‘hulk out’, as Josh would so eloquently put it. But that doesn’t happen anymore. Which is actually even worse news for these assholes. No… my demon’s no longer some out of control beast that escapes from time to time. Now, in much the same way I would pull a gun and load a magazine, he is a trained weapon — something I use in addition to my normal skillset.
I can feel him next to me, patting me on my shoulder, offering his support as he limbers up, ready to go to war with me, not instead of me.
I take another deep breath and plan in my mind how this is going to go down.
There are four guys behind me, two on my left, one on my right, and bin Mawal in front of me. Eight targets… seven of them armed, five of them already aiming their guns at me… maybe two within reach on a moment’s notice.
Well, Prince Sayed can wait — he’s not a threat and he’s not going anywhere. His two personal bodyguards aren’t a priority either. They’re armed, but they’re not holding their guns. It’ll take them two or three seconds to prepare themselves and take aim, by which time I’ll have shot them. So, my focus needs to be on the guy to my immediate left — who, luckily, is within reach — and the four douchebags behind me.
I raise an eyebrow and smile at the prince.
Showtime.
I step quickly to my left, grab the guy’s extended arm by the wrist and turn into him, putting my back against his chest. Grabbing his hand with mine, I squeeze, forcing him to fire four shots. Directing his arm by holding the wrist, I put a bullet in each of the four guys behind me. The lethally accurate gunshots are deafening in the silence of the large suite, and the sickening squelch of bullets penetrating skulls follows a moment later.
Before the lifeless bodies thud to the floor, I push back, using my weight to turn us both counterclockwise. As we do, I squeeze off a round at the guy standing farthest from me, next to the prince. It punches him in the chest, sending him flying backward, but I’m not stopping to celebrate. I continue the turn, shoving the guy away from me and easing his weapon from his hand as he goes flying into the remaining bodyguard, who himself is slowly starting to register what’s happening, and reaching for his own weapon.
As one guy collides with the other, I spin in a quick circle, stopping to face Prince Sayed. Using the gun I’ve just acquired, I aim under my left arm and fire three rounds. The first hits the guy I had a hold of squarely in his back, between the shoulder blades. He falls away to the side, sprawling to the floor as the other two bullets hit the remaining bodyguard in his chest. He flails backward, landing heavily and sending his own weapon skidding away to my left.
Silence falls once again. I’m breathing heavily, partly from the exertion, partly from the adrenaline rush. I grip the gun tightly in my hand and stare at the prince, as he stands slack-jawed before me. He looks around quickly, the panic evident, despite not being able to see his eyes.
He lunges to his left, presumably heading for the main door. Which is a really stupid move, because he’s nowhere near it, and unless this guy’s actually Clark Kent, he’s not going to run faster than—
BANG!
— a speeding bullet.
I just shot him in the leg. Right above the knee. He buckled mid-stride and collapsed in a heap on the floor. He’s screaming with understandable agony, clutching at the wound as it gushes blood across the otherwise spotless, tiled floor.
Hmmm, thinking about it…
I walk over to him quickly, crouch beside him, and deliver a stiff jab to the side of his face, just below the cheekbone, on the bend of his mandible. His eyes flash wide for an instant, and then he stops screaming.
There we go. He could have woken the dead with all that noise. But, more likely, he will have alerted the rest of his, what I have to assume is significant, security detail. Which, in turn, means I need to get the hell out of Dodge.
I stand and walk a quick circuit of the room to make sure every door is locked. It won’t keep people out for long, I know, but it’ll buy me an extra minute or two, which is better than nothing.
I make my way back over to the prince, reach down, and drag him by his collar into the middle of the room, pulling him unceremoniously down the small flight of steps and over to one of the exquisite leather sofas. I sit him down and position him so that his recently-ventilated leg is resting up on a small tinted glass table in front of him.