The blood dribbled down Dimitri's neck onto Lucky's fingers as they dug the torn glass into his skin.
"You're a fool if you think you can get out of this alive." Dimitri's voice revealed his fear despite it's inbred hauteur. "You step out of this cell and my men will cut you down in a second."
"Maybe," Lucky's voice was raw. "But then again I've been dead in too many ways to count for too many years so maybe the real thing doesn't scare me anymore." He pressed the glass deeper. "Maybe I just don't give a damn."
"About your life I would agree." Dimitri paused. "What about hers?"
Lucky didn't move. "Maybe I think she would be better off dead than your prisoner." Lucky paused as still holding Dimitri tight he moved the two of them towards the cell door. "Now be a good boy and tell your men to stand down." Silence. "Now or you and I are going to spend eternity in hell together."
Hesitantly Dimitri nodded at his men and Lucky relaxed a degree. "You okay Em?"
Emily got to her feet shakily, her mind still whirling from the events of the last few seconds. "I'm fine." Or at least somewhat okay she amended silently. "What are we going to do?"
"Get out of here, what else?" Lucky replied and Emily half smiled at the brief glimpse of that Spencer cockiness she had missed so much over the years. "I need you to take their guns."
Emily, torn between gulping and nodding, managed to do a little of both as she walked on unsteady legs and began taking the automatic rifles and other weaponry away from the Dimitri's guards, who stood in stoic silence. Carefully remembering how both Jason and Jagger handled their weapons, she removed the cartridges of ammunition from all but two of the guns. Those two guns, she slid over her shoulder, feeling strangely comforted by the heavy metal at her side.
After Emily finished, Lucky maneuvered himself near the door to the cell, motioning for Emily to move in front of them.
"You haven't got a prayer of getting past the security." Dimitri mocked. "I'm going to enjoy watching my uncle's men tear you apart." He grinned. "Then again I will miss our time together." His voice dropped softly. "You've been such an ....enjoyable guest."
"Shut the f**k up." Lucky growled. Lucky shoved Dimitri away, making sure the glass cut sharply into his neck as he did so. Dimitri's eyes widened in shock as he felt the glass pierce his jugular vein and the blood gurgle as it bubbled out of his body. His men stood frozen as Dimitri fell with a sickening thud. Quickly, Lucky shut the door on the cell and locked it, stopping to breath only when the heavy metal door separated those inside the cell from him.
The bastard was dead. Or dying. Lucky smiled with a fierce sense of satisfaction and pleasure at the thought even as a part of him regretted the fact that it had been too quick and relatively painless.
He'd wanted the bastard to suffer some small part of what he had endured these last five years.
But at least he was dead. He'd killed Faison over and over in those endless fantasies he'd indulged in to escape, at least mentally, the abuse his body was enduring.
The real thing was better. It was far more satisfying to kill your enemy with your own hands.
"Lucky?" Emily's voice sounded small and uncertain. Lucky shook his head, forcing himself to come back to the moment as he remembered where they were, deep in the pit of hell with that proverbial snowball's chance of getting out. He turned to Emily with a confidence he didn't feel and took one of the automatic weapons away from her.
"Come on," His voice was curt as his attention focused on what needed to be done. "Let's go."
Emily Quartermaine had seen a lot in her short lifetime. Kidnappings. Blackmail. Infidelity. Accidents that turned golden boys into Mafia kingpins. Family relations that brought new meaning to the term dysfunctional
Still a tight knot of fear gripped her because she had just seen something she never thought she would see.
Lucky had just killed a man. That wasn't what worried her. He had deserved to die.
What had caught her attention had been the look of pure glee on Lucky's face as he had done it.
What had they done with the sweet innocent sixteen year old boy who had been her best friend?
Even as she thought it, even as she turned to follow Lucky down the corridor, Emily wondered if she truly wanted to know the answer.
The plane, the plane! (Sorry I couldn't
resist)
Sarah held onto the edge of the couch as the private jet dipped sharply and then righted itself. Cursing softly, she quickly headed for the cockpit, Jason right behind her.
"What happened?" Sarah asked Jagger even as her heart caught in her throat, unless those red lights were supposed to blink like that they were in trouble.
"We've lost both engines." Jagger threw his response in their direction but kept his gaze on the instruments in front of him. Damm it. This shouldn't be happening. He didn't have time for this, not now. Emily was down there and in danger.
"How?" Even as Jason asked the question sparks flew from one of the consoles near him and he quickly grabbed the fire extinguisher and doused it.
"Beats me," Jagger's voice revealed his frustration as he continued to try to manipulate the controls to get the plane to respond. "Mechanical failure? Probably. Sabotage? Maybe. An example of the incredibly bad luck we've had since this damned mission began? Definitely." Jagger shoved his fist into a row of lights that blinked and then sputtered. "This is useless. Nothing is responding. It's all I can do to keep us in the air and I can't guarantee how much longer I can do that. We can't turn. We haven't got a prayer of being able to land in one piece. You got any sins to confess Morgan I suggest you confess them quick." A pause. "And try to use the condensed version because my best guess is we have about ten minutes before this plane tests the laws of physics and loses."
"All right," Sarah's commanding voice cut off whatever Jason had to say as she assessed the situation, trying to remain calm. "We have no choice. We have to abandon the plane."
A long look passed between Sarah and Jagger as henodded, their long partnership made verbal communication almost redundant at times. Silently Jagger made one final adjustment to the controls before heading out of the cockpit.
"What do you mean? Abandon the plane." Jason stared at Sarah. "Unless you've forgotten there's about ten thousand feet between us and solid ground."
"Have you ever heard of a parachute?" Sarah grinned as she headed out of the cockpit. "Look on the bright side. We're close to Kosokov's compound. Unless were spotted by a lookout, their radar and sonar won't be able to pick us up." She calmly packed some guns, grenades, and a few other things the mob boss couldn't identify into a bag that she belted around her waist. She stopped when she noticed that Jason wasn't moving.
"You're not afraid, are you?"
"If he is, he's welcome to stay behind," Jagger mocked as he came forward with only two parachutes, "since it's obvious that someone will have to."
"Damn," Sarah clenched her fist in frustration. "Why do things always have to be so damned complicated. All I wanted to do was to slip into town, blackmail a mob boss, kill a war criminal, and slip out. Piece of cake." She sighed. "All right. Jason take a parachute. Jagger and I will have to go double." She shook her head. "Just a warning Cates, you drop me and I swear I will haunt you for at least the next decade."
"No!" Jason blurted out the word before he could stop himself.
"What?"
Jason forced himself to calm down. "I mean, don't you think that you and I should use one of the chutes and Cates the other."
"And the reason for that would be....." Jagger questioned.
He couldn't very well tell them the truth, that he didn't trust Sarah's safety to anyone else. Jason thought fast. "Isn't the plan for Sarah and I to cause a distraction while you rescue Emily? If that's what we are going to do, then I think Sarah and I should stay together." Jason ended firmly.
It was a lame excuse. Jason knew it. Jagger knew it. And Sarah knew it. Yet she found herself nodding in agreement. "Makes sense to me. Besides you and I have done this plenty of times, Jason hasn't so this way I can help him." She refused to think about any other reasons there could possibly be even as she handed a chute to Jagger and took one for herself and Jason.
Jagger shook his head as he slipped into the parachute, whatever response he made lost as he opened the door to the plain and the wind roared in. Tucking one gun into his shoulder holster, he waved casually before stepping out into the air.
Sarah waited until his chute opened before turning to Jason who had slipped the pack on.
"Ready?" He nodded as holding her tightly in his embrace they sank into the thin air together.
The Compound
Lucky breathed a sigh of relief as they turned into an empty corridor, he'd much rather play hide n go seek with the security cameras than have to deal with whatever would come running the minute gunfire was heard. He nodded all clear to Emily as she stepped into the corridor next to him.
"Now I know how a mice feels," Emily quipped softly."I just wish we had the smell of the cheese to guide us out of here."
"We have something better," Lucky smiled wolfishly, every second out of that cell made him feel stronger and more alive than he had since....well almost forever. "Didn't I ever tell you that Spencer men have an incredible sense of direction? I'd like to take the credit but I've heard its genetic, the earliest Spencers helped Columbus discover the new world you know." He paused for effect. "Of course they had to get out of the way fast to make way for the stampede of Quartermaines waiting to buy and sell every inch."
"Right." Emily began. "It's more likely it was some Spencer who tried to sell Ponce De Leon on the idea that a fountain of youth existed in the Florida swamp or some Spencer who..."
Emily's tirade was halted as Lucky pulled her back sharply against him, opening a door they had just passed and entering.
"What?" Emily began but stopped when she heard the heavy fall of footsteps heading down the corridor they had just been walking through. "How did you?"
He shrugged. "You spend a lot of time in the dark you learn to compensate." He stopped suddenly and smiled at her. "God it's good to see you again Em."
Emily's smile was blinding. "I've missed you Lucky," she whispered as she flung herself at him. He held her close, still able to smell her scent despite the dirt and stench that hung on both of them from that wretched cell. He frowned as his fingers found the scarred tissue at her wrists. Holding onto her wrists, he took a step backwards so he could look into her face. "Em?"
The question was clear and Emily hesitated, how to explain the hell of the last few years. She shook her head. "It doesn't matter."
"Of course it matters," Lucky frowned. "Everything that happens to you matters to me. You tried to kill yourself?" Even saying the words made Lucky wince, as bad as it had sometimes gotten he'd never considered suicide.
There were too many people left on his list to kill for that to be an option.
Emily's smile faltered. "I....it's hard to explain. AJ died and Nik cheated on me and I started using again and I almost killed Michael and Jason hated meand I hated myself and...." She looked down. "It seemed like the only choice I had."
"But you're okay?"
Emily nodded. "Nik found me in time and I spent some time in Ferncliff but I'm...okay. Except for the fact that we're trapped in this place with all of these guys ready to kill us I mean."
"Remind me to thank Nik the next time I see him," Lucky smiled. "I couldn't have handled it if anything had happened to you."
Oh God. Nik. Emily paled. The shock of finding Lucky alive had almost made her forget about Nik, had almost been enough to dislodge the image of him lying there in a puddle of blood on her walkway. "Lucky about Nik..."
Lucky waited for her to say something but after a minute, Emily shook her head. "It can wait."
"All right, because what I'm dying to know is how you ended up here." Lucky looked around. "This is as far from Port Charles as you can get and still stay in the same universe."
Emily shrugged her shoulders. "I don't suppose you'd believe me if I told you that Sarah Webber came to town a few weeks ago only she's not the Sarah we knew anymore she's some kind of professional assassin who works for this top secret organization that wants to kill this guy because he's a war criminal and mass murderer or that Sarah kidnapped Michael to force Jason to help her and that Sarah and her partner Jagger Cates held me hostage after Jagger nearly killed me but by the time they were ready to release me I decided to help so we took the guy Sarah wanted to kill to the Grill for dinner so that Sarah could seduce him and then kill him but they ended up kidnapping me instead and ...."
Emily stopped rambling when Lucky burst out laughing. "You know if you didn't want to tell me all you had to do was tell me to mind my own business. You didn't need to make up some ridicilous story about Sarah of all people, although I have to admit its a very entertaining story but Em I thought that I taught you that a good lie has to at least be somewhat believable." Lucky darted his head out into the corridor, saw that it was clear, and then turned to Emily. "Sarah an assassin? Sarah Webber would probably faint if she broke a fingernail." He grinned. "Come on, I'll get the truth out of you later."
Trying to picture Lucky's face when he saw Sarah for himself, Emily smothered a grin and followed.
Outside of the compound
Jagger quickly rolled the parachute back up and stuffed it under some heavy vegetation where it wouldn’t be seen. Not that Jagger planned on retrieving it or anything, but he didn’t exactly want to advertise his presence.
He moved stealthily along the heavily forested ridge, his senses alert to the natural and unnatural sounds of the forest around him. His hand reached for the gun he’d pocketed before jumping. It wasn’t an automatic rifle or even a high powered sniper rifle, but it would have to do. He’d studied the maps of the compound and the surrounding area enough to know where he was, down the hill from the eastern wall of the compound. He’d looked around quickly for Morgan and Sarah, but they were nowhere to be seen.
He leaned back against the side of one of the trees as he considered the situation.. The place had enough security to rival Fort Knox and, although some of it he could crack, he knew there would be layers of security and booby traps that he’d need a miracle to wade through.
He had two real options. Stay out here and wait help. Or go in now.
His hand tightened around the gun. He’d been wrong. Emily was in there which meant there were no options to consider, no choices to make.
He would get Emily out. Or he would die trying.
He started to move forward when a truck drove by on the dirt road headed to the compound. He just had enough time to dive into a ditch when the truck came to a screeching halt and one of the mercenaries jumped out.
“The General is not going to like this.” The soldier driving the truck got out and walked around to the first one. “Our orders were to return with the supplies with no additional stops.”
“This isn’t a stop,” The other soldier’s voice revealed an American accent. “It’s a pause. You pause the truck for a few minutes and I take a leak. We arrive at the compound with no one the wiser.”
Jagger made his way to the other side of the truck from where the two soldiers were.
“You could have waited,” The first soldier continued to complain even as bushes rustled nearby. “We are close enough to the compound.”
“You know as well as I do that damned kid will have something for us to do from the minute we pass through the gate.” The sound of a zipper being pulled up could be heard. “There, all done satisfied. Let’s go.”
Just then both men heard a thud coming from near the truck and whirled, their weapons drawn as they advanced. The American waited with his weapon aimed at the back of the truck and fully cocked as the other soldier opened the truck. Both men relaxed when they found nothing.
“Probably a squirrel or something,” the American shrugged. “Let’s get back before someone panics.”
As the truck enters the compound, nobody notices Jagger as he holds on tight underneath.
The rampart near the exterior wall
Lucky hesitated, this whole escape thing had been going too smoothly, too easily and it was making his instincts go crazy. They’d encountered minimal resistance so far and as the alarms hadn’t gone off, he was assuming the men they had locked in the cell had not yet been discovered.
He should be happy that they were this close to freedom.
Instead he was scared. Very very scared.
“Lucky?” Emily’s voice was at his side. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know but something.” Lucky looked around, there was an entrance to the compound ahead of them, but between their relatively safely hidden position and that gate was about 600 yards of open courtyard. Not to mention the fact that even if they got out, it wouldn’t taken that long for them to be found and brought back if they tried to escape on foot. “Do you get the feeling that all of this has been a little too easy.”
Emily started to protest that nothing about any of this had been at all easy, but then stopped and surprised herself by nodding. “Maybe there preoccupied by the General’s arrival.
“Or maybe they’re just toying with us,” Lucky hesitated before the line of his jaw straightened with quiet determination. “It doesn’t matter. Either way the only exit I see is the one in front of us. so I say we go for it.” He turned to Emily. “You in?”
Emily took a deep breath. “With both feet.”
“Good.” Lucky grinned as a somewhat battered truck entered the compound stopping in the middle of the courtyard. “That is our ticket out of here. If we can reach that truck, we can make a break for it.”
Emily shook her head. “It looks risky.”
Lucky looked her straight in the eye. “You know what will happen if we stay. I’d just as soon try my luck out there.”
Emily thought back to the cell and what had happened before she nodded.
Lucky smiled. “Okay, wait here for a minute and I’ll go hotwire us a ride.”
Lucky waited for the mercenaries to rotate until they seemed to be looking at something other the the courtyard and stepped forward.
10. 20. 50. He’d made it about 100 yards when he heard Emily call his name and stopped. “Emily,” he began intending to mildly chastise her when he stopped cold in his tracks.
There ahead of him stood Emily waiting for him to return.
Only she wasn’t alone. Standing next to her was one of the sergeants he recognized from his imprisonment; his face carefully impassive as he held a gun to Emily’s head.
“I suggest you stop where you are,” the soldier enunciated each word carefully.
Lucky stared horrified, the fear in Emily’s eyes burning him to the core. “All right.” He stepped forward holding his weapon in the air. “Don’t hurt her. I surrender, okay? Just don’t hurt her.”
“I’m sorry,” Emily mouthed the words as the gun pressed into the side of her head. “I’m so sorry.”
The mercenary holding her only smiled and Lucky could feel the coiled fear building back up in him.
It wasn’t real. None of it was real. He was still sleeping in that room over Jason’s bike shop. He’d wake up in the morning and he and Elizabeth would head to New York.
He took a few steps forward placing the gun he held down altogether. “Come on. I’m giving you what you want, what your boss wants. Me. Let her go.”
Lucky heard the safety disengage and the gun slowly cock over the pounding of his heart.
He heard his voice begging for Emily’s life even when another part of him told him it was too late.
The gun shot echoed through the air and the blood and brain matter splattered all over.
Coming Up: The showdown between Kosokov and Sarah as things start to explode at the compound.
