It's Dangerous Business

"I. Hate. You. So much," Chloe hissed, while Raylan dragged her out of the water on some pleatau which included a ladder back to a footpath near the highway. "Oh I remember you said something else last night in the shower." The marshal started to laugh when Chloe simply pushed him into the water and smirked while climbing up the ladder. "That's unfair!" - "YOU'RE unfair!"

"Please let us go! Or we can settle this outside!" The taxi driver pointed towards the door behind the mercenaries. "haha! Great entertainment!" the leader said. Jade came foreward. "You must! There's an explosion going on behind that door! If it hits here we're all dead. You really want that don't you?" The leader sneered for a moment, then tried to grin. "We'll see about that. "Okay guys. This drug, virus thing will be spread here in a minute or so... we need to distract them. Elena whispered towards the group. "Uh uh!! Don't try anything clever with that message dear." the leader spoke again and ordered his men to take aim. "Now what!? They're not listening to reason!" Richard yelled in frustration. "Maybe they will listen to this kind of reasoning." and Rubi already pointed her guns towards the leader.

"Alright, let's continue playing this game then," the man smiled and also raised his gun. "I guess I already know who will win," he added and started to laugh. "Well, even if you shoot us all, you won't make it out in time. You have to run to the other end of the hall, and that virus - whoever spread it in there - will break out. You have no chance to survive this. If we keep talking like this, you won't even have the chance to kill us," Elena stated and aimed her gun at the leader. "Shoot them," he said and put his hand down. "Don't!", Jade stopped,"If you shoot, we shoot." The talking was only a part of Elena's plan who was already busy arranging who to shoot with Elena via eye contact. "Oh come on. I'm sick of this," the man finally said and started to shoot at Jade, who knew he would do so and got down on her knees. The bullet hit the door behind her instead and steam and smoke suddenly gushed out. Chaos broke out, as the mercenary boss ran away and some of his men started shooting at the group. "Bastard!", Jade screamed, Rubi fired both of her pistols, Elena shot some of the men and Richard started to run away as well. "Come on, get the fuck out of here!", Rubi then ordered as she shot more of the enemies and was headed to the exit of the storage building. "Go go go!", one of the henchmen screamed as another one kicked the door open and the group was about to leave the building as well, when a loud explosion was hearable behind them. "Oh crap," Elena cursed, as most of the people have already left the building. "Don't breathe it in! It might infect you," Jade coughed while the smoke was making it hard to see anything. "There, the door," Richard said and was headed into the direction, while Rubi was still busy shooting some of the remaining enemies. "The ceiling's coming down!", a voice out of nowhere yelled and crashes everywhere in the building where hearable, as well as sirenes of the fire service and ambulance cars outside.

“Well everything seems alright now ma’am. We see no further reason to let you stay here.” A nurse walked away and an relieved Chloe sighed. “And I thought I needed to be here like forever... not only 3 hours to have some ice on it...”
Raylan smiled and Chloe kissed him on his mouth. Suddenly 2 policemen came in. “Oh no..” and Raylan sighed. “Are you okay Miss Frazer?” one asked politely. “Yes thank you...” “Good thing you survived the crash!” The other said and gave Raylan a slap on his shoulder. “I’m sorry do I?” “It’s me! Bob! From the time you were still in Miami working with us!” “Oh yes!” And the marshall smiled.
“Why were you on the bridge? Why were you knocked down by that truck?” Bob then asked. “Well. It seems we have a giant ass problem on our sleeves...” Raylan replied. “Ah, I see... And stealing cabs also is one of them I’m affraid.”
Raylan and Chloe opened their mouths in disbelief. “You’re not going to...” “No, ‘course not. Tim re-arranged everything.” “Ah, good.” “Well, we just need some evidence to get that truck driver in jail. Good thing we caught them.” Bob said.
“Wait you got him!? Where?” Chloe jumped off her bed. “Hey there now!”
“I’m fine don’t worry.” “He’s down at our office. You guys can question him if you want… Weird guy though…” The other cop answered. “Well can we drive with you? Cause we have no car.” The marshal winked and they followed Bob downstairs to his car.

Shooting the last few following them, they made it through the now burning building. Finally outside they stopped for a few moments to catch their breath, trying to breath very flat though, in order not to breath in too much of the virus, hopefully none at all.
"We gotta keep moving" the killer insisted.
Elena was about to say something, obviously concerned about what would happen to the people, but Rubi stopped her my raising a hand, then grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her along. Richard and Jade following them.
The fire trucks were already there, doing there best to prevent further damage in the city.
The ambulances were busy finding injured people, wearing masks themselves, more against the smoke than anything, since no one knew of the virus yet.
"Don't we have to warn them?!" Jade asked frustrated.
"We can't do anything now, let's just get out here ourselves and see what we can do next." the killer answered cool as always.

They kept running for quite a while until they felt save enough to breath normally again.
They stopped and took many deep breaths, their hearts pounding wildly and their bodies exhausted.
"Will it spread through the air?"
"Not really, but it can collect in the clouds and come down in rain." Jade answered Elene's question.
There was sickening silence for a while.
"When ... when's it gonna rain again?" Richard asked the question, no one dared to ask before.
Again there was silence, but Elena answered, after she had looked at her little, portable notebook.
"In three days ..."
"So we have three days to save a whole country, huh?" Jade mumbled, hardly audible.
Nobody said anything, for everyone knew the answer.

"No. Not like that. This is not a hollywood movie and you are not the bloody heroes who save the world," a voice behind the group, that was gathered in a little side street not far away from the burning building. Everyone immediately turned around and once again they stood face to face with the mercenaries' leader. "No games anymore, time to die," he smiled, clearly exhausted, with filthy clothes and dirt on his face, when suddenly a gunshot echoed through the alley and the man fell down on the ground. "Wha-who are you?", Elena stuttered with her gun pointed at a woman who obviously just killed the man in front of her and the rest of the group. "Well... a friend. Okay, as much as I wanted to avoid this moment I knew it would come one day." The person walked towards the journalist and put her gun away, while blowing a strand of her hair out of her face. "My name is Bridget. Bridget McEvans. Not sure if I should've said that but I think I can trust you." - "Ooooookay. Whatever. We've met enough weird persons these days. We don't need anyone else. This is getting way to-" Before Rubi could end her speech, Richard simply put his hand in front of her mouth and smiled at the young woman. "It's ok. You know me... kind of. I'm that mysterious person leaving these notes behind at the island. There's a long story behind all that but we should clearly get out of here now. Police, ambulance, mercenaries. We should avoid them," Bridget smirked and went past the others. "Uhm... what exactly... are you doing now?", Elena asked, scratching the back of her head. "Kickin' ass. I know where Esmond went. You shouldn't mind me at the moment. Just... pretend you never met me. Or something. And don't try to follow me or I'll have to get rid of you. Just joking, haha!" After the woman had bowed around another corner, the friends looked at each others with wrinkled eyebrows. "So... saving Germany?", Jade rolled her eyes. "Saving Germany," Richard smiled. "No, no... wait. It's not that easy. That guy is obviously spreading the virus in the whole world. Businesses and companies that are involved will spread it. The Government will. Everyone will. We have bigger fishes than this one. We should go after Mason," said the reporter and leaned against the wall. "No need to." The taxidriver next to her smiled, as he pulled out his mobile phone and showed it to Elena. "Found that Mason guy. Just in case you're still tracking him. Interrogating him now. Raylan"

"Well that solves much!" Jade sighed and leaned against a wall. "Well no time to rest though..." and Rubi pushed her off the wall. "We've gotta track that Briget thing..." and Rubi already went around the same corner. "... Well no other choice I guess" and Richard put his mobile back in his pocket. after sending their problems away. "I don't think we should trust her..." Elena looked worried. "What choice do we have? She knows where Esmond is and she can help us! and she helped us on the island!" Jade said with a serious tone. "You're right there... well it's tree against one so I'll of course go with you." and Elena smirked. When they went around the corner a parking lot was all they saw. There also was a black car. To the trio's surprise, Bridget was behind the steer and Rubi already had launched herself in one of the backseats. "Well... Seems we don't have any choice now." and Richard also went towards the car. The duo also followed. The black car drove away. Only the group didn't knew where they went. Only Bridget did...

"Just talk, you whiny jackass," Chloe hissed, as she sat next to Raylan, facing the man they had traced and been traced by. "I-I-I... I don't know. Master Esmond told me-" Raylan beat the desk with his fist and looked at Mason. "Master Esmond, Master Esmond. What are you? A slave? My god, how can men be so blind to follow a borderline ga-ga into death? He's not sane! He tells you to spread a mind-controlling virus in a city and... you do that? How dumb are you? Like really?!" The vis-à-vis was not able to say a thing, he just stuttered the whole time, when his skin suddenly turned all white and his veins were swollen. "Are you alright?", Chloe asked, bowing over the desk. A purple, almost red liquid dripped out of the corner of his mouth, when he stuttered further. "You will all die... the virus is already spread to distract you... I'm not the one spreading it... Esmond is... Please... stop him... I don't want to do this... His sorcery will turn anybody into his slaves! I wasn't sane! I couldn't think! I couldn't act! They blew up the hide-out... for distraction... the virus can't do any harm unless he doesn't have his finger in the pie... Hurry, please... this world is not yet to die. He can't decide it, he's sick," Mason was talking like never before, until more of the liquid trickled all over the desk and he fell off the chair.
"Dead," Raylan said after he had checked the man's pulse. "Was it the virus?", the Australian woman asked in disgust. "Guess so... some bodies might not be able to deal with that drug and die... sooner or later."

Looking out the window, as they drove down the street, she saw three people. Two young women and a young guy.
She wrinkled her forehead over their behavior, since Bridged (spelled it wrong, yes? D:) had her window down a little, she could hear them:
"Mai buppae! HIHIHIHI!"
"Buppae?" asked the other young woman, taller than the one who just talked. She had blond hair, the other one had reddish hair and the guy wore glasses.
"It's a cat Cynthia" he then said.
"More than a cat!" said the short one with the red hair again, poking the guy AND the woman on weird places. They just giggled.
Confused over that weird lil show, she looked away, straight ahead to watch where Bridged was going.

"If you're on our side, why not contact us earlier?" Rubi asked. Watching the woman closely.
"I've had my reasons." their newcomer just said and gave her a smile.
Taken by surprise Rubi just shook her head and placed a hand on the holster of her pistol.
"If this is a trap ... you better like pain, for afterwards you'll sure have lots of it" she mumbled.

Richard turned his head towards Rubi. "Now don't be like that now!" he said with a tone of anger in his voice. "This woman is here to help us and you're judging here by not contacting us earlier?" Richard then shook his head and watched out of the window again and received a hard push from Rubi. "Oi!" he then yelled. "There's plenty more where that came from..." Rubi then crossed her arms and watched with her usual angry face outside of the window.

"what the hell was that!?" Bob came in with his cup of coffee and watched a brancard ride away. "That was Mr. Mason." Raylan came walking across the hallway followed by Chloe. "What happened to him!?" He watched towards the brancard again and when it went around the corner he glared angrily towards the marshal. "You didn't..." "No, I didn't shot him..." and the other cop sighed in relief. "Well, we now know what happens to them if they can't carry this virus." Chloe said worried. "What if we have it..." she continued. "Then we'll have to find a cure fast... I don't want to end up like that lifeless body..." Raylan said. "Neither do I..." Bob then said. "Can we lend your car by any chance?" the marshall asked his fellow cop. "Well... as long as you don't drive it in rivers and keep it clean, you can." and Bob gave him the keys. "I'm goig to call Elena where they are..." and Chloe was about to walk away. "Hey, Chloe Wait." the australian woman turned around. "What?" "Call Richard instead... I don't think Elena will be happy with another phone call these days." and the marshal grinned. "hehe, you got a point there." and Chloe walked away with a grin.

"Judging her .. pfff ... that's what cops do to me the whole time" the killer mumbled to herself.
"So how did you find us?" Jade wanted to know, excited to have found a new companion.
"Easy. I just followed the noise and explosions." she grinned and the friends turned silent again, looking at each other shrugging.
Soon she stopped the car in front of a very fancy looking building.
"That is?" Rubi asked, obviously grumpy. She hadn't had a beer in too long.
"A building." the newcomer answered grinning.
"My, my .. you two love birds stop that for a second or two, yes?" Elena stepped between them.
Rubi sighed noiseless and walked in.
She found herself - soon followed by her pals - in a big, noble restaurant. Mushy piano music was playing, the waiters were dressed in black suites and all seemed very formal, along with .. everything else.
"And what will we find here?" she asked Bridged.
"Assmond ... I mean, Esmond."

She looked around with big eyes, stunned by the looks of this massive building. All the decoration.
The tables were big and covered by a white sheet with golden patterns. The chairs had pillows on them, for people to sit as comfortable as possible.
The walls were in a wine red, also with some golden pattern on them. A few lamps donated dim light and gave the big room a romantic atmosphere. A few plants were sitting in corners, pretty plants, with thick, healthy leaves and flowers. Along with them, she found a few aquariums with all kinds of colorful fish in them.
All in all ... it was something Jade had never seen before. On the island she grew up on, there was nothing like that. People were happy with more basic things.
"Don't!" Elena hissed, grabbing Jade's wrist to stop her from taking pictures.
"Why?!" she exclaimed, disappointed not to get a chance to capture this amazing place.
"You don't ... just take pictures of restaurants." the journalist explained. Jade still didn't seem to understand, so she sighed and let her go.

"Excuse me, Miss, but you are not allowed to carry any weapons in here," a calm voice suddenly said and everyone turned around. "This is a restaurant, not a shooting gallery," he smirked. "Not to worry, we have... a meeting," Bridget interrupted before anyone would respond. "Oh... Esmond?" The waiter suddenly whispered and pointed towards a small door behind the bar. "He's waiting for you already... although he said he would only meet one person. But... just hurry up." The newcomer nodded and leaded the group right into the direction of the place they would meet their adversary. "Alright, here's the plan." Bridget stopped for a second. "Yes?", asked Rubi and looked at her. "No... no plan. Take him down." With these last words the friends entered the room.

"Go! Faster!" Chloe yelled on the top of her lungs towards the marshal. "Yes! I'm trying! But traffic!" and he pointed towards another traffic jam. Chloe sighed unpatiently and got out of the car. "Hey what are you-" but the voice of Raylan got cut off while she slammed the door. "Okay, we walk." the marshall sighed and also got out. "Leaving cars in the middle of roads..." Chloe giggled and Raylan grinned. "It's not mine." so they both ran towards the street where the infamous restaurant would be.
When they arrived however, there was no sign of their fellow companions. A waiter walked towards them with the same sentence he said ten minutes ago. "I'm a marshal. I'm allowed." and Raylan showed his badge. The waiter suddenly had big eyes and walked away in full haste. "Wow... you surely scared the hell out of him.." and Chloe grinned again. The marshall just frowned and walked on. "Come on sweetheart, we've gotta find the others."

"Have you seen like four guys entering here like ten minutes ago? Three ladies, one guy?" The waiter shook his head while he slowly waked back to the bar. "Nope." - "Alright, I hope you don't mind us investigating here," Raylan said and walked on, grabbing Chloe's arm. "Okay, this guy is seriously not a good guy. We go to that door over there, alright? Don't look at him, just go straight to the room. Follow me." Chloe was a bit nervous and didn't quite get what the cop was up to but she went right after him, not saying a thing. "Close the door." The Australian did as ordered and found herself in another conference room together with the marshal in front of her. "They were here... I know it. Let's just hope Esmond didn't harm them... Wait. Come here!" Raylan bowed over the round table in the middle of the room and saw a bunch of files and Esmond's staff lying there. "He wouldn't leave it behind like that... god this thing is creepy," Chloe mumbled and picked the object up. "I'ma try to destroy it... it's obviously what makes these guys obey him. Try to find anything in these notes. We should hurry, he might come back soon."

"OUCH! My foot!" Richard suddenly jumped up and down. "What happened?" Elena asked worried. "Shh!" an angry Bridget replied. "Sorry!" Richard then whispered. they walked on. Bridget knew a nice shortcut, at least she said she did... They were on the move for like, an hour now? At least it felt like it. Suddenly they heard mumbling coming from a room ahead of them. They saw a shadow figure with a staff like thing in his or her hand. "Guns ready guys." Bridget whispered. When they went around the corner, the duo which stood there turned around with shock. Chloe even yelled. "Whoa!"
"Oh! It's you guys!" and Elena walked upon Chloe and hugged her as she was relived to see them both without harm.
"I almost shot you guys!" rubi then yelled. "Why hold that thing!" she then asked in anger. "We're gonna destroy it! What else can we do?"
"You won't even get a chance..." a familliar voice said. The group turned around once more. And they again stood eye in eye with Esmond

Jade swung around and in her movement, took a picture of Esmond by accident.
It turned out to be a good mistake though, as Esmond covered his eyes from the bright flash, moaning in light pain.
"Got cha!" Jade grinned, grabbing her staff and swinging it over Esmond's head. He dropped to the ground, with the woman on green right on top of him, holding him down.
"And now what?" Bridged asked, blinking confused.
"That should do" Rayland said, putting handcuffs on the the villain.
"Wasn't that a bit too easy?" Elena asked, unsure of the whole situation.
"Oh well ... I am sure something will go wrong." Richard mumbled ominous.

"Uh... aren't we forgetting about... someone?", asked the journalist and scratched the back of her head. "Oh crap... how are we supposed to get him out of here anyway?", Jade questioned further and started to smirk when she saw the unconscious man with handscuffs lying on the table and the group turning around in paranoia, looking like they're trying to hide a corpse. "I'ma... go and... check if that suspicious guy's still out there. You call the cops in the meanwhile...", suggested Elena and turned around, headed towards the door. "The good cops," Chloe added and nodded like a dork. "Alright... let's see." The journalist bowed out of the steeldoor and looked around. No waiter. No guest. The restaurant was as empty as a dark allyway at night. "Something's so not right in here," Richard added, almost a bit scared. A loud crack startled the whole group as everyone turned around quickly, staring at Chloe. "Uh... Sorry? Didn't know it was that loud," she laughed, holding two pieces of Esmond's staff in her hands. "He won't be able to use that anymore," the Australian added and threw the wooden object into the flickering flames of the cockle stove next to them.

They all watched the staff burn to ashes. Raylan already followed Elena and offered to make the call instead, since he might know how to convince them all. "Yeh your right..." and Elena got her phone back in her pockets.
"Best that I call our team." and Raylan got out his phone.
"Chief Deputy Art Mullen speaking." "Ah, chief, It's Givens." Raylan talked his way around all of the problems they got so far. Only thing he said is that they were in a restaurant and needed a team to back them up. "But why?" Mullen asked but the marshal abruptly hung up. "Okay has been arranged..." and so the group started to wait i the eerie silenced place. "I really don't like the looks of this." Jade said concerned. "Don't worry they'll be here in a sec." and Raylan winked.

"Hello? Is anyone there?" The group remained silent as Elena risked to take another look. She bowed out of the door, trying to figure out who was talking. "Who is it?", said Raylan who was hoping his compagnions were here already. "It's them... at least I... think so," nodded the journalist and backed away from the exit so that the marshal could check the people out. "Tim!" The group felt relief as he mentioned the well-known name and fully opened the door. "We're in here," Raylan smiled and like four cops went towards him and the friends. "My god... why is an old man with a purple dress lying on that table?", a pretty confused cop asked. "Uh... no time for explanations now. Is nobody out there? Where on earth did everyone go?"

"We have no idea!" Raylan told the team. "There was a waiter before!" Jade told them. "How did he look like?" a cop asked her. "Well, he had black curly hair, and this neat suit on, you know, real waiters clothes." she explained, whne Rubi cut her off and described him furhter. "Yes, black curly hair, brushy eyebrows, angry looking eyes, you know brute type." and everyone stared at Rubi. "WHAT!?" Bridget got in front of the group. "Didn't saw her before." and Tim nodded towards the newcomer. "She's Bridget, she let us here." Raylan respond. "That waiter you're so fond of talking about is a man named Leon Gomez. He's worked in this restaurant for over a year." The group all looked around with frowned faces. "And how do you know that?" Tim asked her. "Cause I'm onto everyone who seves this prick." and she pointed towards the unconcious man in the purple dress. "Well ma'am don't worry about it anymore, cause we're onto it." a policemen said, he pad on the shoulder of a fellow cop and they both left. "Well seems your full of surprizes Bridget..." Richard then said.

"So?" the photographer asked, as they stood in front of a few police cars. Three cops were just about to put Esmond in one of them, getting ready to bring him behind the bars he was supposed to be for so long. He didn't struggle, at least he was a man who knew when he was defeated but still. That big grin on his face sent chills through Jade's body.
"We'll bring him to prison." Rayland started "We will see what we can squeeze out of him. You guys have done more than anyone could have asked for."
"So that's a goodbye?" asked Elena curious, several different emotions swirling inside of her. Jade felt the same way as she looked at the woman.
"More or less" Rayland answered, a little smile on his face.
"You of course are more than welcome to do what you please." he added.
Elena, Richard and Rubi looked at each other and shrugged.
"A break wouldn't be too bad." the killer said.
"Good." Rayland nodded "I will contact you immediately when we have news then."
With these formal last words, he disappeared in one of the cars and took off, taking Bridged with him. The friends waving after him.
"And what about me?" Jade asked carefully.
"You could always come with us." Elena suggested smiling. Richard nodded.
Jade looked at Rubi, who just stared back at her.
"I think it's best if I head back to the island, see how things are going, but you know how to reach me if you need me." she finally said.
"No, we don't." Chloe jumped in, chuckling. As she felt everyone's eyes on her she went "What? We don't!"
"That's right ... " Jade wrinkled her forehead, then suddenly she seemed to have an idea and tried finding something in the little bag she carried with her. Not long and she pulled a little thing out, it looked like a phone, but it didn't have as many buttons.
"Just use this, it's connected to the Iris central. That way I know when you need me."
The friends smiled at her and nodded. The goodbye was hard, but necesarry for they all had their duties.
"Take care!" she said one last time, before she disappeared in the distance.