The Killer with a Heart

5.39

Murphy was holding the radio close to his mouth. "Testing. Testing. for the 100th time. This is John Murphy."

No one answered. Violet was sitting down with the kids, one on each side of her.

"Testing. Testing. This is John Murphy looking for Colonel Diyoza. Do you read me? Well, It's safe to say you're better at blowing things up than fixing them," he tried again.

"This is Colonel Diyoza. What do you want?" A woman said. "We have McCreary. You ever want to see him alive again; you give us Raven Reyes," Murphy said, looking at an unconscious McCreary.

"You should have learned the last time you held my people hostage that I don't negotiate with terrorists." "That's funny coming from you. Last chance, our hostage for yours."

It was silent for a few seconds. "May God have mercy on his soul," she said simply, not caring about the man they had tied.

"Guess he's not as important as he seems," Violet said, brushing Eloise's hair from her face.

They were waiting until McCreary would wake up; they had him tied up.

Eloise watched the man curiously, her mother told her that he hurt her father, and that made her hate the man she was looking at. "Sweetheart, don't get too close to him," John said, placing his hand on her shoulder. "Sorry" "come on, let's go sit down over here," John said, making her walk away from McCreary. Eloise looked back at him over her shoulder. Her blue eyes were focused on the unconscious man.

"Looks like I should have killed you when I had the chance," McCreary finally said, getting up. Eloise furrowed her eyebrows hating the man even more. "Yeah? Well, it's known that I'm hard to kill. Getting blown up must suck, huh?" John said, looking at him.

He looked weak and in pain. Good thing John didn't care.

"No. Chronic lung disease is worse," he said, coughing. "I'll take your word for it." "The bomb was clever, though." "Yeah. It was. Rocket fuel," John said proudly.

"You should see what Hythylodium does when it's weaponized. I could use someone like you on my crew," McCreary said, looking at John. "Your family would be a good addition to the crew," he said with a sly smile, looking at the kids first and then at Violet, who was holding a knife and looking at him like she was ready to kill him; he only laughed.

"Now, see, that's funny to me because your crew doesn't seem to miss you much at all. We offered to trade you for Raven, yet here you still are." "Diyoza said no," the man said, sounding surprised.

"Well, actually, I believe her exact words were, 'May God have mercy on his soul.'" "I can help you...get Raven back," he said, taking a few steps closer to John.

Violet had her arms crossed over her chest. "I'm listening." Eloise looked at her father. "You are," Violet said, shocked. "I'll let you two talk about it," McCreary said.

They walked a bit farther from him. "Why do you want to make a deal with the man who tortured you and hunted you like an animal?" Violet said, looking at John. "We walk right in the front door as his prisoners. They'll collar us to make it look real, but I figure you could take it off since you know-how," he said the last part quietly.

"What about the kids?" "We take them with us." "So, they can put collars on them too," she yelled quietly at him, not wanting the kids to hear. "I'll tell McCreary to not put the collar on them. Come on. We zip in; we get Raven, we zip out. We get the others after, okay?" He explained as it would be that easy. Violet wasn't 100 percent in favor of the plan, but sometimes John had his ways of getting what he wanted. She did miss hurting people. "Let's make some chaos then."

John untied McCreary "dad, don't do that," Eloise said. "Don't worry, I have a plan," he told her. "Not a good one," mumbled Violet.

McCreary tied John's arms behind his back.

As he walked to Violet the kids were behind her "you won't tie the kids or put collars on them," she said, pressing the knife on his neck. He raised an eyebrow at her. He stared at her, but she never looked away, she wasn't afraid of him, and he knew her little threat was real. "I'll see what I can do," he said with a fake smile looking at the kids.

The five of them walked down the woods to the village where Diyoza was. John and Violet had their hands tied in front of them. Eloise and Elliott were walking in front of their parents. Once McCreary's people saw him, they cheered for him.

They took the family of four to the church, where they put the electric collar on Violet and John.

One of McCreary's men was getting another collar to put on Elliott, "not the kids," Violet told him, standing protectively in front of Elliott. "You don't make the rules here," the man told her. She was getting ready to headbutt him, but McCreary stepped up. "Roger, not them," McCreary said to Roger. He looked at Violet for a second and turned around, putting the collar away.

✰✰✰✰

Eloise and Elliott were looking for what to eat. There was a lot of food they had never seen on the table. While they were filling up their plates, Violet and John with Echo and Raven were sitting together.

"I still can't believe you helped cure them," Echo said, looking at Raven. "That guy looked cured to you?" "Maybe it didn't work," Murphy said, looking at a guy who was coughing. Violet hit him on the shoulder "of course it works." Something was off with Raven, but Violet wasn't sure what it was.

"A war's coming, and yet she's passing up every opportunity we get to weaken the enemy," Echo said. "What is your problem?" Raven says a bit too loud. "Quiet." "We're still on the same team, right? Right?" Murphy asked, looking at everyone, and they nodded.

Violet looked at the kids who were sitting at the table next to them eating. It was the first time in days that they had a good proper meal.

"Good, then we agreed. We kill the pilot. Then we pop off these collars, then run like hell." "No," Raven said, shaking her head. "Now what?" "If we can slip the collars, we don't have to kill him. Besides, he's more valuable alive. As a spy, you should know that." Raven was talking about how; Shaw the pilot, was more valuable alive, but Violet realized what was different in Raven she likes him she doesn't want him to die.

"What I know is that a dead man can't fly a ship or fire missiles at the people we love," Echo said, not understanding why Raven wanted to save Shaw. "I agree with Raven," Violet said, smiling at Raven and winking at her. Raven shook her head, "We need a distraction to escape, right? According to Shaw, this place is a civil war waiting to happen. McCreary's people hate following Diyoza, they only did it up in space to survive, but up until then, McCreary was the alpha dog."

"Shaw told you all this?" Murphy said, looking at Raven. "You want to weaken an enemy what's weaker than an enemy at war with itself?"

"It's not that easy." Murphy got up and started walking to a man, Violet, watched him.

"War has a way of healing internal divisions." "If they were soldiers, I'd agree, but look at them."

Echo and Raven noticed that Murphy was gone and looked at him, wondering what he was going to do.

They watched as John talked to a prisoner with a tattoo representing that he is one of McCreary's men while everyone else in the church are with Diyoza.

John walked back to them as the man with the tattoo punched another prisoner. "I agree with Raven. Should be fun," John said, sitting back down next to Violet, placing his hand on her thigh.

She smiled at the fight that he caused and kissed his cheek.