“Come on Frink,” Agent Andy reasoned over the safety phone, “We have the bail money, and I’ll get Johnson to drop the charges.”
From behind plexiglass, Frink frowned. “I don’t wanna go back if we have to deal with that jerk. He tried to kill Bionic!”
“Lots of people have tried to kill Bionic. Us included.”Andy put his greasy hand to his forehead. “Look, if you go to trial, Doty will make sure your ass is locked up so tight you won’t see another test tube until they take semen samples to try and figure out which prisoners gangraped you on your first day behind bars.”
Frink dropped the phone and gagged.
Andy leaned in a little once Frink picked the phone back up. “Now, you promise to come out of here, and you and moi will both try our damndest to get that bastard kicked out and Bionic back in biz. Cool?”
Moments of deliberation past. Then Frink nodded.
Andy smiled. “Okay, let’s get the warden.”
The two stood up on different sides oft he visiting room, and walked out.
From the ceiling, a microtransmitter relayed the conversation between Agents Frink and Andy back to an unknown listener.
***
Bionic didn’t understand. How could have been so fast?
It hardly mattered now. He was alone, broke, and hunted. All he had left was anger.
Bionic was hiding out in a motel room in a desolate, neon-lit motel south of the Spur. A drug deal was going down in the next room over. An old maid had come and left earlier.
He decided he needed to lay low, figure a way to get back to the team so he could kill Doty. He knew he would kill Doty. He would have to. It was the only chance Bionic had.
He jumped off the bed and paced the room. He needed to get somewhere. But how? He didn’t know who was watching, or when. Bionic was reluctant to go back to his green hell. He could feel something there. A presence. Watching him.
Bionic missed his Harley.
After trying the remote and discovering the archaic tube didn’t work, Bionic opted to go out somewhere. Anywhere. Just to walk.
He left the room he couldn’t afford and trotted down creaky stairs to the first level. He glanced at the murky pool and opted to stay on land for now. It was dark. Past midnight.
Bionic began walking a stretch of road. A gas station was a half a mile away, brightly lit. Sleeping construction trucks on the side of the road dreamt of soon-to-be-built subdivisions. They were all the company Bionic wanted at the moment.
Suddenly, headlights slowed behind Bionic. The bulky outlaw didn’t turn. A soft radio spoke commands from the vehicle.
Then the car pulled alongside Bionic, its windows unrolled. There was a policeman in the passenger seat, and he was shining a flashlight at the outlaw.
“Excuse me, sir,” the officer began. It was an unmarked police car, and the driving cop wasn’t uniformed. “You mind telling us why you’re out so late?”
Bionic glanced at the uniform. “Didn’t know the Chicago city limits came all the way down here,” he grumbled.
The police officer frowned. “Crime don’t have a jurisdiction. Know that?” After a moment, the cop said “Hey, stop walking.”
Bionic tensed up. He just wanted to be left alone.
“I said, stop walking.”
Bionic stopped grudgingly.
The car stopped and parked. The gas station was a city block away. The plainclothes policeman got out.
“Alright, you tell me why you’re out here.”
Bionic answered, “Minding my own dammed business.”
The cop did not like that “A smartass, eh? Okay, get up against the car.”
Rage. Fury. Hate.
Bionic did not move.
“I said,” the cop began as he reached and grabbed Bionic’s shoulder, “Get – ”
Bionic smashed in the man’s nose.
The cop screamed out in pain. His partner jumped out of the car to assist him.
Bionic was pissed. He didn’t need this. They had no right, and if he was caught now . . .
The cop with the broken nose flailed wildly at Bionic. The hulk reacted by landing a right hook straight in the Hispanic man’s side, flinging him into the car. Glass cracked.
“Freeze!” Ordered the cop’s partner, drawing her revolver on Bionic.
Rage. Fury. Hate.
Bionic siderolled, hugging the car for cover. As the woman ran around the hood, the former agent tackled her and wrangled her to the ground. In a moment, he snapped her neck.
Grabbing the dead cop’s gun, Bionic walked to the gas station.
Rage. Fury. Hate.
No witnesses.
***
Agent Doty paced around the hallway. “Agent Johnson, your team is disobeying you. You need stronger control.”
“I’ll begin by not listening to you,” Johnson cooly replied. “Aren’t we supposed to meet with a Majestic Twelve official?”
Doty frowned and answered, “Yes. He’s right outside.”
Johnson raised an eyebrow as Doty walked to the front door. “I’d call the team together, Agent Johnson.” The towering, bearded Agent opened the entryway door to a suited man flanked by fairly conspicuous bodyguards. The thugs waited at the door.
The official and Doty exchanged a brief glance. Frink and Andy, who had arrived a few hours ago from the prison, entered the main hall.
“Hello,” the bureaucrat began, “My name is unimportant. I have very specific instructions. Please listen closely.”
“Where is he?” Frink asked.
The official turned to the nerdy agent. “Excuse me?”
“Where is Agent Bionic?”
“That’s just what we came to discuss. He knows where you are. Immediate changes need to be made.”
Only Johnson noticed the sadistic smile on Agent Doty’s face.
***
“New office?” Gardner inquired. He took out a hankie blew his nose.
The official raised his brows and looked at Gardner. “Well yes, of course. Former Agent Pemental knows your place of work. If he returns when you don’t suspect it, he may cause much damage.” Doty and Johnson nodded to this, easily cooperative.
“And which one of you does your female occupant stay with?” The supervisor asked, wiping off his combed mustache.
Johnson and Gardner looked at each other. “Well, right now, she kind of just stays in our basement,” explained Andrew.
The supervisor was apparently taken aback. Then he thought about the situation. After a moment, he informed, “Well, she is a minor, and none of you are legal foster parents. But your unique . . . situation . . . forces us to go around the law. She knows too much, but we may yet wish to recruit her. So she will have to stay with one of you.” After Doty and Gardner pointed to Johnson, the supervisor continued. “Alright, we’ll give Agent Johnson the two-bedroom apartment in the new building.”
Andy was alarmed. “New apartment? What do you mean?”
The supervisor calmly took a seat in his black executive chair and explained. “Former Agent Pemental has intimate knowledge of your current place of residence. He may seek revenge. You therefore must relocate. The Organization will of course fund all of this.”
“I don’t like this,” Frink stated. “I don’t like this one bit.”
The official turned his gaze to Mark. “That is hardly relevant. You may go to your new office now. Do not return here. Go instead to 431 East Falwell. That is your new complex.” The official stood and walked out he front door. Team 13 never saw him again.
***
Bionic picked up a copy of the Chicago Sun Times. Not even a mention of last night’s rural massacre.
Bionic regretted nothing. He felt nothing. Nothing now except anger. The same way he had felt with his mother so many years ago.
The former agent had taken a car from the gas station and drove it to the Windy City. Instead of parking the vehicle, he simply rammed it into a department store. Then he disappeared through a mirror.
Bionic was leaving a trial, but he knew they couldn’t find him in his own hell. It didn’t matter who he hurt any more. If they wanted a terrorist, they’d get a terrorist.
All he had to do now was get to Doty and kill him. The rest oft he team would help him then.
He had to believe that
Bionic dropped the newspaper. He turned his back on downtown, their stronghold. He was going to make his own path now. They didn’t matter. None of it mattered. Not any more.
***
Plaza West. Terrifyingly dark in the gray rainy skies. This was the place of Team 13's new offices.
Plaza West was geometrical, with a simple pinstripe gridwork of bronze-clad girders and plexiglass windows, but in the gloom its height suggested something that grew disturbingly up from ground. The matte bronze seemed to twist into a frightening creature that promised to contain nothing good in its belly once it had consumed you. Frink was reluctant to enter it.
That was until he found out there were five floors of laboratories.
“Holy Glavin, I’m in heaven!”
“Hold it in Frink. We still gotta reroute our entire system,” Andy sighed as he heaved a very heavy computer into the entryway of the multiuse offices. “And I think some medical research firm has most of those facilities.”
Frink suddenly frowned. “I don’t care. Where do you think he is?”
“Mister Pementel’s whereabouts no longer matter. We do not have to concern ourselves with him any more,” Johnson stonily replied. An odd look crossed his face. “I’ve forgotten something.” In a moment, he gasped the name, “Ashley” and took off out the door, leaving Andy and the Professor alone in the office.
“Wherever he is,” Andy said candidly, “I hope he hasn’t killed anybody.”
“Anybody that didn’t deserve it, anyway,” Frink tersely added as Agent Doty opened to door to the room.
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