Chapter Ten

Shot

 

Everything was moving according to schedule. Systems had been scrambled so their feeds couldn’t be hacked. Monitors were watched for the last twenty-four hours for anything out of the ordinary and especially for a man in black. But so far… nothing. Call and Backhander both agreed to proceed.

“I have visual,” Hawk informed over their earpieces. The train was still five hundred yards out.

The train finally pulled into the station and Shot was able to see Fox through the window sitting beside Mrs. Valenzo, no doubt charming her skirt off. The layover was long enough not to sit on the train and wait it out. As soon as Fox stood, Shot’s heart rate picked up. He looked beautiful. Dark slacks and a pale gray cashmere sweater. His black blazer hung over his arm and he looked like he could be an important figure here in Washington.

As the announcements blared over the speaker, Shot caught the end of Fox’s alert.

“Something’s wrong. I have a tail.” Fox was standing in front of Mrs. Valenzo, her dark hair swishing back and forth as she looked from one end of the long car to the other. Fox showed her his badge. She stood like she wanted to flee but he pushed her back down. The train's doors still hadn’t opened. Someone else was controlling them.

“Get to the end of the train, Fox,” Call instructed. “Toad and Shade get to the platform.”

Fox was up and moving with Mrs. Valenzo in tow.

Shot watched him move, only lost sight of him for a few seconds before he appeared behind another tinted window. People were standing, wondering what the problem was. They blocked all angles of visibility.

Too many long seconds went by before he heard a loud pop and a grunt.

“Hawk,” Call hissed.

“I don’t have a clear shot. Too many civilians standing,” Hawk replied.

“Fox abort,” Shot snapped. He couldn’t cover him and neither could Hawk. They wouldn’t risk firing into a train full of innocent people. Someone was working the train's control system. Keeping their package hostage inside the train. For all they knew they could have the surveillance feed overlapping and what they were currently seeing on the monitors wasn’t actually what was happening in real time.

“Fox, report.”

Nothing. Silence.

The doors to the train finally opened and people scurried off in a panic. Someone had shot a weapon, there’d been a scuffle, but no one could see what happened and Fox was not responding.

Shot’s head was throbbing, and his finger itched to shoot. Was Fox hit? Fuck! Shot wanted to come down from his post and go in himself, but he knew better. He continued to watch through his scope and saw Toad and Shade coming up on either side of the platform. Shade got on the train a few cars down and Toad walked amongst the passengers. Police came barreling through the crowd as well, Toad kept his pace brisk but not running to avoid drawing their attention.

“I have the package,” Shade confirmed.

Shade came off the train two cars back and proceeded to the entrance of the station with Mrs. Valenzo. Shot wanted to yell at him to go and find Fox, but the mission was to secure the woman.

“Toad, find him,” Call commanded.

A ringing sounded in their ears. It was the ringing of a phone in the command center. Call’s voice informed them: “It’s Fox, patch him through.”

A second later Fox’s pained whisper was in their ear. “I saw him… It’s two tangos… two men… I tucked Mrs. Valenzo in the café car… didn’t know where he was until he was on me… bastard punched me from behind… fucker’s fist is like a brick… then another guy… awwww fuck… took my gun… and my earpiece… then… ugh… stuck a blade in my chest, broke the handle off.”

Shot was off his perch and running down the stairwell, he couldn’t think of anything else but getting to Fox. He could hear Call asking for his location.

“Quiet car.” Fox’s voice was barely there. Shot was in the station running full speed toward the train. D.C. police were everywhere but so where a shitload of other people running about. 

Shot ducked onto the train at the fifth car and made his way through a few of the employees. They called out for him to get off the train but he ignored them.

“Quiet car.” Shot’s voice was low and terrified. “Which one, Viper?”

“Four more cars,” Viper answered quickly. “You got a car full of police in front of you Shot, get off and get back on at the next one.”

Shot followed Viper’s instructions and jumped back on at the dining car. He moved down two more and came to the quiet car. He didn’t see anything and his heart felt as if it was going to stop beating. He walked the length and then back up again. There was one door marked. ‘Internet access’. He flung the door open and saw Fox slumped over the desk, his cell phone dangling in his hand.

“No, no, no. Fox!” Shot pulled him up and saw his pale, motionless face. The metal tip of the knife blade sticking out of his sweater, just right off his breastbone. Handleless. Unable to be removed. Shot pushed two fingers to his carotid artery and felt the weak pulse. “He’s alive, Call.”

“Get him off the train. Paramedics are coming up, now,” Viper instructed.

Shot looked at Fox’s beautiful face and cursed his ignorant thinking. He loved him. Why the fuck was he pushing him away? “Hang on Jason. Don’t you fuckin’ die on me. You hear me?”

Fox’s head rolled onto his shoulder. He groaned again. “Earpiece… took earpiece.”

Shot put his arm over his neck and hefted him out of the car, stumbling slightly under the heavy weight. “Hang on, Fox. Almost there.” Shot willed them through the car and onto the platform. Just like Viper said, the paramedics were rolling up with the gurney. He watched them wheel him through the crowd and his heart wanted nothing more than to follow. But they had work to do.

“Did you find his earpiece?” Call asked Shot.

“No.”