Something Breaks

            Ian had a busy day ahead of him and only expected to be home much later than usual, so the few extra seconds he was able to spend with Danny pressed against him was heaven on Earth.

            After failing to dress each other for the third time, every time they ended up taking clothes off faster than they could put them on, Danny suggested that they rather get dressed in separate rooms. Ian agreed, reluctantly.

            They made breakfast together and Aaliyah joined them a few seconds after they started eating. JR also joined them, for a change, but Ian had found it strange that he had come from the garage. Only when he went to his car did he realize why.

            Ian stopped by the HQ first, checked in with the Colonel and the Sergeant, then decided to make his way to the Project 8 offices. He had to speak to Devon. If the Oracle was right, then there would be a lot of heartache before this whole catastrophe was over.

            Ian could hardly believe how well the office had been cleaned up. Everything was back to normal. Well, almost everything. Devon was sitting by his computer, frantically typing some mass of code. Ian decided he’d get some work done while he was there. He had hoped that Hugo would get back to him with an answer before he had to confront Devon on the old man’s words alone.

            Hours past as they coded in silence and Ian barely noticed. It was only when he glanced at the clock in the bottom right corner of his screen that it struck him how long he had been there. And still no answer from Hugo, but there was no helping it, Ian had to confront him.

  “Why?” he asked

  “Why what?” asked Dev.

  “Why fake her death?”

  “What, who?”

  “You know damn well who,”

  “Melisa is dead, Ian, you saw her yourself,”

  “Corpses can lie,”

  “You would know, wouldn’t you?” said Dev defensively. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that,” he added as he realized what he had implied.

  “No, it’s fine. I made my choice and I’ve learnt to live with it. Whose idea was it?”

            For a while Devon just stared at his screen as if he was intent on burning a whole right through it. Then:

  “Hers,” he said deflated.

  “Who was the corps?”

  “Her twin sister,”

  “Why?”

  “She knows where he is, my brother-”

  “Is missing, presumed dead, yes I know,”

  “No, you don’t. But she does, she knows Donovan, she dated him. He’s working for them, Ian,”

            Those words cut deeper than any blade, Ian knew and Donovan wasn’t even his brother. To be honest, he barely knew the man, but he knew how it felt to be betrayed by family.

  “You didn’t even get along,” said Ian.

  “My brother may be a cunt, but that doesn’t mean I wanted to have to kill him,”

  “You did threaten to do that on more than one occasion,”

  “Threatening and doing are two different things, but when Melisa told me that he worked with her, that they had dated…I had to know what she knew,”

  “And?”

  “And? Three years ago he was called for a special mission, some seriously black op, and she never saw him again,”

  “So he’s still missing and presumed dead?”

  “Yes, only now he’s an Others agent that’s missing. What if someone like Thor gets hold of him?”

  “Robert didn’t kill him,”

  “No, but he isn’t the only one out there, is he?”

  “We are the last three, apart from the Oracle,”

  “That you know of,”

  “Did she say anything useful?”

  “Not yet,”

  “But you think she will?”

  “I don’t know,”

  “Damnit, Dev. Where are you keeping her?”

  “At my place,”

  “At your place? With no one guarding her?”

  “She’s not going to run,”

  “Dev, what the hell? A week ago you nearly broke her jaw, now you act like she’s your mistress,”

  “Just, trust me, okay?”

            Ian stared at his friend. He had known Devon for quite some time. Back in the day, when they were still in high school and for a few years after that, Ian always joked that Devon had no love for other people. He cared about his mother, sister and his friends but the rest could die in a bloody car crash for all he cared. That changed when they were recruited. They all changed the day they were recruited.

  “What about JR? He’s gonna find out soon enough,”

  “Not if you and Ed keep your mouths shut. Please,”

  “Fine,” said Ian after a second or two of silence. “You’d better keep her alive, Dev. You’ve gone through a lot of trouble to do it so far, don’t let it end up as another North Africa,”

  “I won’t,” Dev said, Never gain, he said to himself.

 

            On his way home, Ian noticed a black minivan three cars behind him. At first he thought nothing of it, but then he noticed three others around him, almost all of them three cars ahead or behind him.

  “Fuck me,” he swore under his breath.

            It was going to be a mission to get away from them while they had him boxed in, especially on the high way. He knew the best way was to go off road, and although the Subaru could handle it, he didn’t really like the idea.

            Ian saw an off ramp a kilometre ahead. He had no idea where it led but it was a better idea than driving off the beaten track, so he aimed in that direction, pulling in front of a few cars behind him, much to their irritation. He had timed it well enough so that the two minivans in front of him couldn’t follow, but the two behind managed.

            Instead of slowing down as he got off the highway, Ian speed up and started racing through the streets, the minivans managing to keep sight of him. His phone rang, but he couldn’t answer, he had to keep his eyes on the road. He dodged other cars, pedestrians, bikers, and the occasional bird.

            The Others were getting irritated with the whole chasing thing and started firing at him. For the most part they missed him but a few shots did hit. Ian kept thinking that this was going to be very difficult to explain to the panel beater, let alone the cops.

            He raced towards a red robot and noticed two black vans on the far end, blocking the road. Doing a quick power slide as he entered the intersection, Ian turned the car and headed left away from the city. Soon enough a minivan caught up to him and tried ramming him off the road. The sideswiped him twice, the second time nearly had him collide with an oncoming school bus.

            His phone rang again, he reached over and swiped quickly to answer it.

  “Can’t talk right now,” he said, rolling his eyes as Ed ended the call.

            He pulled up his hand break and turned another sharp left with a good power slide. He dodged oncoming traffic as the unmarked Others van tried to ram him off the road once more. This time he slammed on the breaks and the van veered past him and into a building. He knew it was a short respite and soon enough he found himself driving into another van blocking an onramp. He had no choice; he floored the accelerator and bailed out at the very last second.

            The Subaru smashed into the van, flinging it into the air along with one of the agents. Ian limped over to his now totalled car as it would provide the best cover, grabbed an M12 from the boot and started picking off targets. Only, there were very few targets. After he had taken cover, they opened fire and pinned him. But the gunfire died down until Ian was able to peer out and see one agent by the wrecked van.

            Ian crept up on the agent and killed him before noticing another agent that had flanked him. Ian braced himself for an undoubtedly painful spear tackle than never came. When he opened his eyes, the agent lay dead at his feet, a single black crystallite arrow in his head.

            Ian shot a glance in the direction he thought the arrow had come from and noticed a person with long brown hair disappearing from view. He also noticed something fall and disappear in the alley below.

 

  “Why is it you cannot go two days without getting into some sort of trouble?” asked the Colonel as she arrived with some reinforcements.

            The police had arrived first, but without someone with a higher rank, the police Captain didn’t want to release him.

  “Last week went by without incident, if you don’t count the explosion, the fire or the crashed helicopter,” he said matter-of-factly.

            She just shook her head and yanked arrow from a nearby corps.

  “It’s cold,” she said.

  “And it has two notches,” Ian said.

  “How’s that relevant?”

  “I’ll let you know tomorrow,” he said and winched as the EMT applied too much pressure to the bruise on his back.

  “Sergeant, take the Special Agent home after the EMT’s done with him,”

  “Yes, ma’am,”

 

            By the time Ian got dropped off at home, he was fuming. The whole week had gone to hell ever since Melisa’s faked death. He stormed to Ed’s room, entered and pinned Ed to the wall

  “Calm down!” Ed exclaimed and Ian felt an arrow to his neck.

            Ian let go of Ed and walked over to the door, where he stood for a moment running his hands through his hair.

  “Meet me upstairs, now!”

            Ian only waited a few minutes for Ed. He felt a thin line of blood trickle down to his collar bone but ignored it.

  “I guess I should be thanking you,”

  “You’re welcome,” Ed said, confused, “for what?”

  “Really?” he said and threw the black crystallite arrow at Ed, who caught it, “That is your signature, isn’t it?”

            Ed inspected the arrow and noticed the two notches. This was the second time someone had handed him an arrow that he did not recognise but knew from the notches that it had to be.

  “Where did you get this?” Ed asked.

  “Don’t play dumb with me, you know damn well where. You were picking off the Others agents after all,”

  “What? When?”

  “Two hours ago, at the very least,”

  “Dude, I’ve been asleep…oh dear,”

  “Oh dear?”

  “Well, I didn’t think it was anything, but, I’ve been losing time,”

  “Losing time, as in blacking out?”

  “Yeah, maybe, like last night when I went for my jog. It took me two hours, and it shouldn’t have. But I didn’t take my bow with me when I left and…my bow,”

  “What of it?”

  “My bow was right where I left it before I dozed off, yet JR insists that he found it under my car and placed it back in my room,”

            The two of them stared at each other, then rushed downstairs to JR’s room. Ian nearly ripped the door from its hinges as he opened it.

  “You could knock,” said JR who was busy playing a game of DotA on his PC.

  “Where did you place my bow this morning?”

  “What?”

  “My bow, where did you put it?”

  “In that chest of yours, the one with the black arrows in it,”

            Again Ian and Ed looked at each other. The stormed to Ed’s room, where Ed reached under his bed and pulled out the heavy, iron banded chest. He lessened the clasp and took a deep breath before opening it.

            Inside was nothing but a single broken black crystalline arrow.

  “What the,” started Ian

  “Fuck,” finished Ed. “I swear I had no idea this was here,”

  “I believe you,” Ian said, both of them just staring at the broken arrow. “That thing’s been empty for years,”

  “Hey guys,” said Danny and they both jumped. “Where’s Aaliyah?”

  “She’s working late tonight so she’s staying at her place,” Ed said, turning back to the chest.

  “Strange, she told me she was just going to be late,”

  “What, when?” asked Ian.

  “Last night, after Ed came home,”

  “No,” said Ed as Ian turned to him. “No, it’s not her. It can’t be,”

  “Ed,”

  “No, Ian, it’s not her,” he said and raced down the staircase. He grabbed his keys from the table, got in his car and made his way over to Aaliyah’s house.

 

            After Ed had left, Ian told Danny of the day’s happenings, minus the part where Dev had confessed to faking Melisa’s death. They are dinner with JR, mostly in silence, and then retired to his room.

  “You think they’ll break up?” asked Danny as she lay on his chest while he played with her hair. “If it is her, I mean,”

  “No, I doubt it. Ed knows the reasons for secrets, and their cost. All too well,”

  “Sounds like you’ve got some experience yourself,”

  “Yeah,” he said and smiled. No matter how dark the topic of their conversation, Danny always made Ian smile. And that’s why he loved her.

            Ed had had someone like that once before. But she was taken from him and up until a few weeks ago, Ian hadn’t seen him smile like he does around Danny. Not until he met Aaliyah, anyway.

  “You think she’s the Black Arrow?” asked Danny.

  “I don’t know. In a way it makes sense, but Ed says he’s been losing time, so maybe it is him and he just doesn’t know it,”

  “I don’t really think it’s Aaliyah, it doesn’t make sense to me,”

  “Really? If you could spend your days working with me, wouldn’t you?”

  “I hadn’t really thought of it that way. Would you?”

  “For forever and a day,” said Ian with a smile and kissed her, which soon enough led to other things and a while later Danny was asleep on top of Ian, who stroked her hair and back as he tried to fall asleep himself.

 

            Ed was parked outside Aaliyah’s house. She wasn’t there yet, so he waited. Even after she arrived, he waited. He couldn’t recall how long he waited, his heart fighting with his head. It was a very one-sided battle, as it always was, but since living with Ian and JR, his head managed to win most of these internal conflicts.

            Ed mustered up his courage, got out of his car and walked to the front door.