The Hive Solution

Chapter 11

Colvin just manages to close the door and jump away before Silas stitches three bullet holes in the door. Colvin opens the door slightly, points his gun round the corner and fires off a few rounds blindly before pushing it closed again hoping his shooting has slowed down the intruder.

"He's after me" says Mason matter of factly while sitting on the edge of the bed.

"No shit, where'd you get that idea" replies Colvin sarcastically. "Listen, there's a door opposite which I think leads to a fire exit, I'll cover you while you make a break for it"

"What about you?"

"I'll be along in a minute, just get ready okay?"
Colvin nods at Mason in a silent signal to prepare himself then opens the door and starts shooting, Mason darts out into the corridor and crashes through the door opposite. Silas fires again from a room further down the corridor, forcing Colvin to recoil back inside. This is Mason's chance to escape from the feds, to make a break for it while Colvin holds off this guy. But something stirs inside him, a feeling of guilt about leaving Colvin alone to his fate, but what can he do to help? He looks round the brightly lite stairwell trying to find something, anything that he could use as a weapon to help Colvin. His eyes fix on a single fire extinguisher and a plan forms in his mind. The gunfire continues in the corridor while he leaps across to the fire extinguisher which hangs next to the door. He takes it, pulls out the safety pin from the handle and for a second has a desperate idea of just throwing it down the corridor and getting Colvin to shoot it, the blast should be enough to kill or even injure their attacker but at the last minute he opts for plan A.
He looks across the corridor to see Colvin loading another clip into his hand gun and getting ready to shoot. A hail of gunfire continues to rain down from the other end of the corridor, the attacker becoming more and more desperate but also getting ever closer as he darts from room to room. Mason aims the extinguisher round the corner, points it down the corridor and pulls the trigger. A massive cloud of white powder and gas fills the corridor creating a smoke screen for Colvin to escape. He takes his chance and leaps over to Mason just as Silas starts shooting blindly into the white blanket that obscures his view.

"Good thinking kid, now get moving" says Colvin as he gives Mason a gentle shove down the stairs to the next level. They only reach the second floor when they hear Silas enter the stair well above, coughing and choking from the extinguisher powder. Colvin and Mason burst out into the parking lot just as Silas starts shooting down the centre of the stair well hoping for a lucky shot.
Colvin cautiously creeps forward into the parking lot with his gun ready, half expecting some accomplice to jump out and gun them down but to his relief no one steps out from the shadows and Colvin leads Mason over to his black Chrysler parked in the corner.

"What about your partner, you can't just leave him?"

"Believe me Joe, he's gone. Killed by that psycho up there" he says as he jumps in the driving seat and starts the engine. Mason gets in and closes the door as Colvin rams the shifter into reverse and floors the throttle, spinning the Chrysler's tyres across the parking lot before driving away in clouds of tyre smoke.
Silas bursts through the door, rubbing the powder from his eyes and coughing. As he looks up he sees the Chrysler take off up the street and he fires at the diminishing target until his clip's empty but hits nothing. The car is too far away and his vision is so bad that he can't really see clearly. In a rage he throws the gun into some nearby bushes and roars at the night sky in anger.

*

As Colvin drives back to L.A Mason's mind goes into overdrive, everything that just happened all replayed in minute detail, from the first bullets that riveted his room door to bounding down the steps to the fire exit. Not once did he get a clear view of the assassin but he knew he was there to kill or kidnap him. Whatever Mason was carrying must be extremely valuable to a lot of people but he can't think what the hell it could be. It was just a small pouch of grey coloured fluid right, what the hell is it?
There's clearly something special about it as his body feels almost perfect, his joints feel free and supple, the muscles strong and toned. And this new trait, to be able to remember things in such detail. But for now there's more immediate things that need to be addressed, can he trust the government or the people that Colvin work for. After all, he saw them shoot his contact back at the factory for no reason, you'd of thought they'd of wanted to question him. And, once they've taken what they want from Joe's body what will happen then, will they kill him too?
Mason decides to act and a plan immediately comes to mind as a gas station comes into view.

"Pull in here, I need to piss" he says,

"Suck it up and wait til we get back to LA" says Colvin

"Nope I need to piss, desperately" Mason says shuffling in his seat in an uncomfortable manner, trying to put across his level of discomfort.

"Holy shit, Okay, okay!" Says Colvin holding his hand up in a show of defeat.
He swings the car off the road and pulls up in front of the small convenience store next to the gas pumps. The whole area is brightly lite from the overhead canopy and Mason bails out of the car and Colvin watches as he makes his way through the shop, between the food shelves to the toilets in the back. Colvin, waits.......and waits until after about 5 minutes he gives up, switches off the engine and goes inside to try and find Mason.
Colvin walks through the lavatory door to be completely surprised at the onslaught that came his way. From the moment he met Mason he thought he was a young kid who'd got involved in something that was completely above him. But that perception all changed when he felt a sharp blow to the side of his head as he entered the toilets. Colvin saw stars and tried to retaliate but he was too late as Mason punched him hard in the temple, knocking him out cold. Mason catches Colvin's limp body before it slumps to the floor then places him gently on a toilet in one of the cubicles.
"Lets find out about you my friend" Mason says to himself as he goes Colvin's pockets. The gun is almost empty of ammunition and he's only got empty clips in his pockets so the gun is of no use to him so he places it back where he found it. Then he checks Colvins's wallet and drivers licence which confirm his name, Alek Colvin. But when he checks his FBI badge all becomes clear and he knows his hunch was right. The letters H.S.S.D written in a blue band across the top of his ID, Hive State Security Division. Clearly this proves the importance of whatever it was Mason stole and that it's directly linked to the computer which organises and manages security for the whole country. But the Hive is a military system, how can a pouch of gel be linked to something so powerful? Joe pockets the ID, takes a spare $80 from Colvin's wallet together with his the car keys. Before he walks out he checks under Colvin's eye lids for any sign of concussion or trauma, after all he doesn't really want to really hurt the guy.

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Silas rinsed his eyes out at a nearby hotel and started to think about his next move. The scent had gone cold and he had no leads as to where the kid and the agent would of gone. If they went back to the FBI base back in LA then the game is already over, he'll never get the kid back while he's in there, he needs another angle. Silas wanders back out to the deserted parking lot outside the hotel and dials the number for Zhang (who's 9 hours behind the U.S back in China), his assistant answers.

"I'm afraid Mr Zhang is in an important meeting, would you like to leave a message?"

"Yeah, tell him he's got a big problem in the U.S" says Silas flatly before hanging up.

Silas barely had time to sit down on his bike before his mobile rings.

"What's happening?" asks Zhang, dispensing with the pleasantries.

"The Englishman's courier has fucked up and got himself caught by the Feds, I can still get him back but I need information"

"Okay, what do you need?"

"The address of his handler"

Silas hangs up the phone without saying another word and waits in the darkness for a reply, he knows that Zhang won't delay in sourcing the information that he needs, he's probably pissed that the job hasn't gone as planned.

His phone vibrates in his hand and he checks the screen seeing an incoming message. It's the full name and address of the handler back in LA. He puts the phone back in his pocket kick starts the Harley and takes off toward Los Angeles.