I'm Not Special, I'm Just Unlucky

Chapter 19 - Playing Defensive

"Nothing, our hostage said nothing. Not even where Virkum's hiding. I tried everything I could. Even fiddled with his balls--"

"Whoa man! Too much!" Duke shouted in disgust covering his ears.

Victoria stared at her coffee, deep in thought, "Nothing?"

"You heard me." Shen nodded, "The son of a bitch was stubborn. We're at a dead end again."

A few seconds of silence passed by before Victoria looked up again. "We have to play defensive. Vikrum has more men and weapons than we do. Now that we have one of their briefcases, assuming this is the real one, they'll be after us. We can't stay here forever, we have to keep moving." Victoria said tightly, placing her mug on the counter, "I spoke to the Captain earlier this morning. Three HIT teams will be sent to us by dawn of tomorrow. That means we're on our own for the next twenty-four hours."

"By dawn? Why so late?" Samantha asked. That was a good question, usually HIT teams were available within twelve hours.

"Apparently, the HIT teams are in high demand all over the country for teams. Not to mention two are down from two days ago. They're going to take time to reorganize the HIT team members and deploy them." Victoria explained clearly frustrated as well. HIT teams were usually sent to tackle the most demanding threats; if containing a nuke on loose wasn't the top priority for the Enterprise, all of the other issues better be worse than what we had. "We can't stay here forever. With your friend recognizing you," Victoria pointed at me, "Anyone in contact with you will be targeted by the Sicarii. We need to split up and change locations for the day."

Shen shook his head, another argument was about to begin. "I disagree. If we split up, there may be a chance that Vikrum will hunt us down one by one. Even if he doesn't recognize each of us individually, he will certainly know Henry since Tommy knows him. With the manpower he has, Vikrum would easily take down Henry. Not to mention we have a civilian onboard, the risk is too large."

"And the risk will be larger if we stay here. We'll risk being wiped out all at once. They'll surround us in this house and we'll have to fight until death. This is not our territory Shen, this is Vikrum's. We must play defensive to the maximum. Playing a cat-and-mouse game with the Sicarii is better than digging our own graves by staying here." Victoria said; her point was more reasonable and Shen knew it. The Legend hesitated as if deciding to argue back but Victoria had him stump; at last, Shen nodded in surrender. "This isn't our best option but it's the only one we've got right now until Blake cracks that lock."

Blake tapped his keyboard, "It's gonna take five hours minimum."

"Five hours? Jesus..." Duke mumbled.

"Yes Duke, five hours. This program has to run through millions of password options. It takes time and patience. Two things you clearly don't have."

"It's nine o'clock now. We split into pairs. Eva, with Blake. Once Blake cracks open the case, we'll need you to make sense of whatever is in there. Duke, with Samantha. No funny business you two." The sniper and the jokester swapped mischievous grins at each other. "Shen, with me. And that leaves the civilian with you Kingston." Victoria said eyeing me as if deciding whether it'd be safe. She must've decided it was since her expression came to a rest. "Only you know her well enough. But I must warn you Kingston, if you become too emotionally attached to her, I will pull you out of this mission. And the girl's life will be decided by Kane."

I cleared my throat and nodded uncomfortably.

"Return back here by four o'clock morning. The HIT teams should be here an hour after that. Pack what you need , we'll be moving our in fifteen minutes. Keep each other posted through our phones and if anything happens, retreat. Understand?" The team nodded. "Move out!"