Day spun to night before I saw Atticus again. Actually, to be more accurate, I tracked HIM down. He was at the bar and had racked up quite the tab on some imported hard liquor with gold specks that floated around inside a blue bottle. He was in the middle of explaining to the bartender his theory on why trains were useless when you compared consumption to momentum and the overall constraint of predetermined destinations.
“Brother, there you are!” I bellowed for the whole dining car to hear with Daevin glued around my waist. I walked up and gave him a big sisterly headlock—- extra hard.
“And you ordered my favorite booze for me! Thanks, you’re the best!”
Muffled by my ever-tightening arm Atticus replied back, “Anything for you Sis.”
“Daevin’s been telling me all day about his interesting life as a miner.”
“Funny, he doesn’t look that young.” Atticus replied.
“No stupid, the job not the age. He mines for precious stones like the kind floating around in your overpriced drink.”
“Truth is,” Daevin said, “the whole group of us struck it rich one day while clearing out a mountain. Once it was all said and done, we each got our own cut of the profit and I was put in charge to split up the loot evenly but the night before I was suppose to give everyone their share, the loot went missing and I was accused of the crime.”
Atticus and I looked at each other. Something about his story seemed a little off.
“Well,” I began, “even if you did steel it, congrats!”
The look on Daevin’s face was priceless—- like I caught him red handed.
“I mean it’s a dog eat dog world out there and if you hadn’t stolen it first someone else would’ve.” I added to help muffle the seriousness of the conversation.
Daevin scratched the back of his head with an apologetic smile.
“Yeah but it wasn’t me.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say.” I waved off. “You’re missing the point entirely.”
“And that is?” Atticus asked.
I was a bit taken off guard. I wasn’t aware I was surrounded by two morons.
“The point, my drunken friends, is that whether he stole the loot or not, the fact remains someone had to, so who cares if it’s him or me or you for that matter?”
Daevin let out a smile and followed it up with a short laugh—- his REAL laugh and for a moment he looked almost believable.
“If that were so,” he said, “you’d be the last person I’d expect to try to rip someone off. I’m a pretty good judge of character and I can’t imagine you any more evil than a puppy.”
I had to give it to Daevin, he was far more dimwitted then I was giving him credit for.
“I’ll drink to that!” I said as I raised Atticus’ cup.
“Hey, does anyone have the time?” Atticus asked.
Daevin looked at his watch and smiled.
“Yeah, it’s just after midnight. It’s getting kinda late, I probably best be headed off bed.”
I finished Atticus’s drink as I waited for Daevin to ask the question he’d wanted to ask for the past couple days.
“Care to join me?”
“Oh, me?” I asked.
I looked at Atticus who grinned at me and gave a slight wink.
“Sure, let’s go.” I said while still looking at Atticus. The game had started.
“Good luck girl,” Atticus muttered to himself with a smile as Daevin and I left.
I didn’t need luck. I was OBLIVION GIRL! What Daevin and I were after were two completely different things.
In his room, Daevin had a built in bathroom, which I excused myself to before the ‘fun’ began. As I walked in, I watched through the bathroom mirror as he stashed his money in the safe and left it open. I double checked the K.O. canister against my thigh and made sure it was ready to go.
I swung open the door and stood in a sexy pose. Daevin was already in bed. I walked up to him and crawled in with him. He turned out the lights and I pulled the covers over our heads. That’s when I pulled the pin on the canister and sleeping beauty passed out. Smoke flooded out from under the blankets, which I pushed away wearing my gas mask. I made Atticus tuck it away under his mattress before going to the bar otherwise I would have been in trouble.
The room filled with smoke but I opened window and waited about thirty seconds for it to clear. I walked back over to Daevin and poked him a few times to make sure he was out cold.
Then I turned to the safe and snatched everything inside. To my surprise I found a nice full bag of rare stones along with the cash. I guess my thoughts about Daevin were completely off. He was a sneaky little prick. With my back to the bed, I stuffed the loot in my bra and walked over towards the door. I waited for one of the nightly security guards to pass by the hall before I slid open the door. I didn’t need any boy scouts setting off alarms. I had timed it out before and found it took a good eighteen minutes for the security guard to walk from one end of the train to the other. Once he had walked to the next car, I closed the door and made my way down the hall-- gas mask dangling around my neck. That’s when I heard it—- the click of his pistol. I didn’t have to turn around to know Daevin was standing behind me. Only it wasn’t the Daevin I had spent the last few days with, this was the real Daevin.
“I’m sorry but I can’t just let you leave without a goodbye kiss.” He said. Even his voice sounded different.
“Funny,” I replied as I turned around. “You’re supposed to be taking a nap. Do I need to put you in time out?”
“Word of advice. If you’re going to put someone to sleep, make sure they weren’t holding their breath.”
I couldn’t figure out if I hated this man or loved him. Either way the story ended with me richer tomorrow.
“You can also drop the knife behind your back.” He added.
“So you weren’t just feeling me up for your own perverted pleasures?”
“Sorry. Even men like myself need precautions.”
“I agree one-hundred percent. That’s why Atticus has you in his sights down the hall as we speak. Turn around if you don’t believe me. I’ll make him wave.”
Two-Face took the bait. He turned around and waited to see Atticus wave but no one was there. When he turned back, I too was gone.
I had used the opportunity to leap out the side window and on top of the train. The cold wind whipped through me instantly. This was not an ideal place to be in a bra and panties. Daevin followed like some bad cliché from an old western movie. I led him down the train to the caboose.
“I don’t want to shoot you!” he yelled.
“Good. I don’t want to get shot!” I yelled back.
“Just give me the stones. You can keep the money. I could care less about it.”
“I wish I could.” I said as I tossed him the bag his stones were in. He opened the bag and saw the stones were switched out for rocks.
I didn’t lie before when I said Atticus was down the hall with his rifle pointed at Daevins head. When I told Daevin that Atticus was down there, Atticus just about had a heart attack hoping that Daevin wouldn’t just shoot randomly down the hall. Lucky for us, his happy trigger finger didn’t get the best of him. When Daevin jumped out the window after me, Atticus snuck into Daevin’s room and took the goods from the safe. The plan worked great—- except for this part where I’m freezing my ass off on top of a train with a gun pointed at me.
Whether the sleeping gas worked or not it didn’t matter. Attached to the wheels of the caboose were three grenades tied to a fishing line that ran up and across the top of the roof. All Daevin had to do was trip the string to blow the wheels and disconnect our caboose from the rest of the train. Only one problem—- Daevin wasn’t walking. He just stood there, gun pointed at me, blathering.
“Where’s the bag, Essa!” he yelled.
“What?”
“GIVE ME THE BAG!”
“I’m sorry, I c
an’t hear you. You’ll have to come closer.”
And there he came, one foot over the other. Inching closer and closer I felt my heart pounding. As he reached the string, his foot stepped over it followed by his other. He stopped directly after it—- plan B was a bust.
That’s when I felt it. A hot sting in my right arm and the trailing smoke of his gun—- the idiot shot me! I glanced down as the warm blood dripped down my arm and flew off the side of the train—- that was going to cost him.
“You’re a pretty awful shot.” I said.
“Keep it. There’s more where that came from.”
As if I could give it back.
“Well in that case, I have a little something to give you.”
I walked closer to him as he tightened his finger around the trigger—- my eyes locked on his. I got close enough to wrap my arm around him. The train rolled over a wooden bridge and I knew now was time. With my good arm I pulled his head close to my mouth and whispered in his ear, “Better hold on fucker.”
And I kicked the string, which pulled the pins and ripped half of the wheels off of the caboose. The caboose dropped and scrapped along the tracks letting out a noise that’d make your ears bleed.
Funny thing about heavy train cars is that they don’t handle well when their weight ratio shifts. After the caboose lost it’s wheels, it tipped to one side and slowly began to roll over as we crossed the bridge. Daevin and I lost our balance and hung off the top of the car. All I could think was ‘this is all your fault Atticus’ as my one good arm kept me from swan diving down into the water. I looked over to Daevin who’d let go of his gun so he could hang on with both hands.
As the caboose lost speed, the tipping increased. With my bad arm there was no way to pull myself up. Within seconds Daevin towered over me waiting for me to fall.
“Give me the bag and I’ll help you up.”
I smiled-- the fool.
“How about you just come with me?”
I let go of the side and grabbed onto his ankle as the caboose tipped over the side of the bridge. Both of us plummeted to our watery grave with the caboose, spinning like a wheel one over the other.
Daevin tried to grab ahold of me but luckily I pushed away before hitting the water. As he reached out for me the caboose landed on top of him. That was something that could really ruin someone’s day-- at least he didn’t have to try to swim with one hand.
By the time I’d pulled myself up against the shore the caboose was in the bottom of the river with Daevin. Later that night, in the cold air, I waited for Atticus to come pick me up—- like usual he was late and I was freezing.
Chapter Twelve: Rock, Paper, Scissors
After the explosion, the train slammed on its breaks, but since it’s a train and not a go-ped, it took a good mile for it to finally screech to a halt. By then everyone had their heads popping through the windows jabbering about yours truly.
Atticus got impatient and leapt off the train while it was still screeching to a halt, with sparks flying everywhere so much you’d think it was on fire. Fearing the worse, like he’s good at, Atticus ran as fast as his legs could take him back to the bridge expecting to find my lifeless body strung about the ground being devoured by rabid dogs—- it’d take a lot more than a train to kill me.
When he reached me he ripped off his trench coat and wrapped it around me. After insisting I could walk myself, he carried my struggling body back to the train while I filled him in on how the event went down. When we got back to the train, Atticus told the conductors one of the cars must’ve malfunctioned and detached. As for how the caboose became burnt and submerged two hundred feet under water he replied, “Terrorists?”
With a bit of sweet-talking and some out of the pocket hush money, the train got back on its way before sunrise.
After our ‘adventure’ we found ourselves under a watchful eye not only by the security guards but also the passengers. Apparently if you want to be the talk of the town, sinking a train was a good start. Atticus and I stayed locked up in our bedroom counting the loot as whispers passed by our door. Silly me-- for some reason I thought people had better things to do than gossip.
We examined the stones and found out they were a type known as Jadeite; the rarest gems on earth and we had a bag full of them. I started to understand why Daevin’s friends weren’t too happy when these went missing. I decided to keep them on my person for safekeeping. Wouldn’t want to repeat Daevin’s mistake.
***
Before we knew it, we were in Enyo-- with enough money to buy Enyo a few hundred times over. We gave the conductors a generous tip with the wade of cash Daevin had been throwing around and went looking for Alita. My wounded arm was put in a temporary sling until we could visit a real hospital. I didn’t mind-- I only needed one hand to choke the little witch.
Enyo was a lush town overgrowing with moss and overpopulated with good for nothing tourist. The frequent rainfall and rich soil gave this place a hot swampy stench and humid air. To top it off there were no ice cream vendor for hundred miles—- welcome to my hell.
The locals were anything but friendly to bounty hunters mostly because we usually never had any cash. They could smell us a mile away as if we stunk of expired gypsy perfume. We’d have to actually try if we wanted to find the little brat-— great, just freaking great. And that’s when I spotted him walking around like some sort of cockroach that just wouldn’t die; Daevin.
I ducked behind some tourist who probably thought I was either trying to molest them or steal their money—- why couldn’t I do both? Splish splash went his shoes as he walked by. I’m all for reunions but when you try killing a guy by smashing a train on his head, those kinds of grudges usually hold pretty strong—- specially since it was less than two days ago.
I left Atticus by himself and caught up to Daevin at the outside marketplace. I followed close by as we zigzagged through the crowd together. He stopped periodically to get a closer look at some items but never bought anything—- probably cause I had all his money.
At his next stop I snuck up behind him with this great idea planned out on how I was gonna take him down but then he caught me off guard by saying, “How’s it going Essa? Enjoying my money?” I was like a deer in headlights, frozen. I felt like everyone’s eyes turn to me, even though no one was looking.
All I could mutter out was “How did you… but I was…”
My embarrassed face and blushing cheeks were enough to make him laugh, which was the last thing I expected to come out of his mouth. He walked up close to me, close enough so only I could hear.
“You don’t think I’d kill you with all these people watching, do you?”
“Funny,” I replied, “I wasn’t going to have any problem.”
His face looked unamused.
“I know.” he said.
He grabbed my injured arm and pressed his finger in the wound while saying, “Come now, let’s go someplace we can mess around, eh sexy?”
And with those words we were off.
Daevin dragged me through town until we reached a secluded spot of his choosing—- the train yard.
“Really?” I said. “THIS is the place you want to have our fight? Aren’t you worried I’ll throw another train on your head?”
Daevin just smiled and took out his gun.
“Not exactly.” he said.
That, apparently, was the magical cue for his angry group of mining friends to walk out of the train, all carrying weapons.
“I told you,” he yelled to his buddies, “didn’t I tell you I’d find the person who stolen the gemstones from us?”
“Yeah, you did good Dae.” His boss replied.
Bastard had set me up. If his little buddies searched me, they’d find a big ol’ bag of gemstones tucked away in my bra and wouldn’t you know it, I’d be the one who looked like the jackass-- typical.
“I have to tell you Cowboy,” I said to Daevin, “I hope you’re wear
ing your Sunday best clothes, cause I’m gonna bury you in them.”
As I slipped on the gas mask with my one good arm, his boys surrounded me.
“All we want are our gemstones back,” Daevin said.
“Well I got hungry and ate them, so you’re either gonna have to wait awhile or come gut me like a fish.” I said as I gripped a canister in my hand.
Click, drop, fizzle; off went the smoke screen—- damn it men are stupid.
By the time the smoke cleared, all of Daevin’s goon friends were on the floor bleeding into the dirt. The only thing left was the smoking gun in Daevin’s hand filled with empty shells. He started to back away as I crept forward attempting to catch my breath.
“What are you? Some sorta devil? Why won’t you just DIE!?!” he yelled as he threw his gun at me. Without flinching the gun flew inches past my head and landed in a cloud of dirt.
I lifted up my mask and looked the coward eye to eye.
“They call me Oblivion Girl and like you Cowboy, I got nine lives. The only difference is, I haven’t used eight of mine.”
And that’s when I kicked him in the balls. I left my foot in his crotch as he fell to the floor—- I wanted to make sure I nailed them both. I leaned down close to his face.
“That’s for trying to set me up.”
I spit in his face then kicked dirt on it as he laid there moaning.
“Oh,” I yelled back at him without turning around, “I’m keeping the gemstones. So if I ever see you again, I’ll kill you. Just wanted to clear that up.”
As I walked through the center of town, combing the streets for Atticus, I wondered if I should’ve left that piece of slime alive or if I should’ve started to carve into him; that’s when I heard that screeching voice of Alita.
I scanned around and eventually saw Atticus next to her. Long story short, Alita had spent some of our ransom money on a fancy hotel room while she gambled the rest away in the hotels casino. Atticus tried prying her out from the hotel but hotel security stopped him immediately claiming they wouldn’t let her go until she’d settled all her debts. Atticus, not taking no for a answer, continued to drag her out the front door leaving security no choice but to handcuffed her to the entrance—- yeah, like that’d stop us.