Chapter Eighteen

Jason arrived at the address he found in Ron's phone. It was a large area that surrounded and was surrounded by trees. The canopy of trees, he was sure, covered the few buildings, making it difficult to view them aerially. He approached the wire fence and looked up to see a security camera staring right at him.

“Hands up,” came a harsh voice from somewhere behind him.

Jason was not surprised. He had expected the surrounding area to be well manned by Canty's mercenaries. Though he didn't look back, he knew a weapon was trained on him and perhaps several more from various hidden locations.

As they patted him down with his arms raised and legs apart, he took the opportunity to look around him. He could see that the area was well-fortified though with one or two strategic flaws, but still, it would be impossible to approach the area without being noticed from hundreds of metres away. Of course, he had made sure to have no weapon on him, but the man searching him was leaving no stone unturned. Just then, his phone vibrated for the third time in the last few minutes. His searcher, feeling the vibration, quickly retrieved the phone from his pocket and threw it over to a colleague of his that Jason could not see. He knew it must be Tony calling, but right now, he had no need for his help, so it didn't bother him when he heard the phone being smashed. It may even serve to help him later.

“Clear!”, the man searching him shouted, after satisfying himself with his rigorous inspection.

The gate whirred open and Jason was urged through with the muzzle of a rifle. He was still staring around him when a dark hood was thrown over his head. Then they pushed him forward. Two men held him by both arms and led him on what seemed to him like a very long journey. At some point, they went through flights of stairs and he could hear doors he guessed were made of iron whir open. But still, the men leading him were totally mute. At last, they pushed him into a room and left him there. Hearing no sound, he decided to take off the hood and further investigate his environment, but he quickly covered his eyes with his hands as he was almost blinded by the bright glare of the fluorescent overhead.

“Hello Jason,” a faraway-sounding voice called.

Jason couldn't recognize the voice, but he tried to adjust his eyes to the light, so he could see the caller. Right in front of him, few feet away, sat two men. A second's glance told Jason that he was staring at two of the FBI's most wanted men, Randy Barlough and Samuel Canty. The latter was the one speaking while Randy just watched with an expression-less face.

“Take a seat,” he ordered, slicing an apple with an unperturbed air.

But Jason stood still and did not say a word. He glanced at Canty, then at his friend, Randy and back again at Canty.

“So you're the Canty?”, he asked, not really expecting an answer.

“Perhaps,” Canty shrugged. “I fail to meet your expectations?”

“I'd like to speak to Randy. Alone.”

“You don't get to make demands here, Jason. You should be more focused on your chances of survival.”

“I need time with Randy.. just a few minutes,” Jason insisted.

“It's okay,” Randy suddenly cut in as Canty started showing signs of angry impatience. “Let me talk to him. Couple minutes won't hurt. Lemme just hear what he has to say.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?”, Canty whispered.

“Yeah.”

The ex-spy nodded his lack of objection and Randy promptly led Jason away into the next room. He shut the door behind him and they were left alone.

“Are there cameras or listening devices in this room?”, Jason asked, looking around the sparsely furnished room.

“What if there are?”, Randy asked angrily, arms crossed and legs apart.

“I'd like to talk to you alone without anyone listening in.”

“You have five minutes to say whatever you have to say before my patience runs out.”

Jason stared at him for a while before taking a seat on the small bed. He breathed deeply and then leaned forward.

“You see,” he began with a chuckle, “my daughter told me something earlier this morning. She reminded me... that those I served with are my brothers and that I'm supposed to stick up for them for the rest of my life. And also.. if I didn't care about the FBI, I had to spare a thought for my friends back there because those are my brothers too. So I ask you, Randy..(standing up to meet him) why do you choose to kill your brothers... in cold blood?”

“I don't answer to you,” Randy spat, through gritted teeth. “And those bastards ain't my brothers! They may be yours, but not mine.”

“We served together, Randy. That makes us brothers. We worked in the FBI too, man. My friends are your friends, my colleagues are your colleagues, my brothers are your brothers... Do you remember Samee Nart?”

“What about him?”, Randy clipped, quite ill at ease, but trying not to show it. “That night when he gave you that sword and asked you to behead me, so he would spare you, but you told the bastard to his face to go to hell and our men stormed in just at the nick of time to rescue us... do you remember all that, Randy? That was the Randy we knew back then, you know. The fearless one.. the one who always stood up for his teammates when times were tough.. what happened to you, man? What went wrong?”

“You've got no right to judge me! You...”

“I'm not judging you, man! I just wanna know.. what fucked your mind up?!”

“My mind ain't fucked up!”

“It is, man! It is! When you kill innocent men who are serving their country like you and I once did, then it is!”

“And who fuckin' says they're innocent, huh? You walk down here and talk silly stuff, thinking you know everything... well, lemme tell you this.. you know nothing! You hear me, Raids? You know nothing! You don't know what they did to me, wha...”

“What did they do to you?”, Jason cut in calmly. “Tell me, Randy.. what did they do? Talk to a friend, Randy.”

Randy slumped into a chair, his head in his hands. It seemed as if he was crying, but as Jason walked toward him to comfort him, he suddenly sprang up and looked wildly about him. He looked scary and sounded breathless.

“I've got nothing to tell you,” he panted.

“You do, Randy. We need to talk about what made you turn against your friends? Was it Canty? He's been manipulating your mind, hasn't he? Telling you...”

“Shut up!”, Randy shouted.

Before Jason could voice a reply, a clicking sound came through the door, probably from the other side. Both men heard the sound at the same time and they glanced at the door before turning their focus back on each other. Jason was now sure that Canty had been listening in on their conversation. Perhaps he was broadcasting his presence in order to reassure Randy and cancel out Jason's influence. But before Jason could say Jack, Randy pulled out his weapon and whacked him on the head, knocking him out cold. Then tying him securely to his chair, he walked out of the room.