Marie (Teumessian Trilogy Book 1) (15 page)

The next ten hours on the train were the happiest he had seen her since their first encounter. She was herself, or at least what he felt was the real her, not the determined killer but the loving woman she was destined to be.

Tyler had finally felt comfortable to ask the real questions, the deep ones, “Ok, I have been wanting to ask you this, why Michael?”

“What do you mean, why Michael?” Marie looked at him confused as she brushed her hair.

“I mean, you were surrounded by men, heck it sounds like you had no women around at all growing up. You pretty much had your pick of men, why did you pick Michael?” Tyler asked getting worried he had crossed a line but Marie just laughed.

“You think I just lined them up and went, yup you, you will do.” Marie replied, placing her brush down and pulling her dark hair into a bun.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I think you know what I mean, you’re just avoiding the question.” Tyler leaned forward in his chair.

Marie looked away towards the window avoiding eye contact. “I know what you mean. How much do you know about him?” Marie asked still looking at the window.

“I only know a little, that he was your team’s leader.” Tyler replied. Tyler could see tears coming to Marie’s eyes.

“He was a good man, he protected me. He would do anything for me.” Marie took a long pause, “He loved me.” She said, turning to face Tyler. She couldn’t hold the tears back anymore they were running down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry I’m soo sorry for bringing it up.” Tyler said moving towards the bed she was sitting on and hugged her. She hugged back only she was tightening her grip and she clung to him crying into his chest. Tyler was trying to hold back his own, her pain was so raw so real it tore him apart. He was beginning to really care for her. Tyler held her the rest of the night, he never let go. She drifted to sleep in his arms.

Chapter 24

They were awakened by the train stopping at its destination. They had arrived in Chicago. Marie felt the rock of the train as it came to a stop and sat up, letting go of Tyler.

“We need to get moving. You checked the tracker right? He is still here, right?”

“Yes, he is, I checked it last night and I am going to check right now.” Tyler said standing up and grabbing his bag from off the chair and pulling the phone out of its front pocket. He pushed a few keys, “Yup he’s still here, and downtown is what the coordinates look like.”

“Ok, let’s just follow them and see where it leads.” Marie replied, putting her backpack on her back and moving her way across the room and out the cabin, Tyler followed behind, his satchel over his shoulder. They exited the train together, and looked around. “West or East of our location?” Marie asked

“Um, East.” Tyler replied, looking at the phone and trying to get his bearings.

“Ok, then, heading east.” Marie said, moving out of the terminal with Tyler in tow. Marie continued to head east. Tyler rushed to keep up to her quick pace.

“Hang on, let’s figure out an address or something it would be easier.”

“Why, what difference does it make? We have the coordinates. We just follow those.” Marie continued in her stride.

“Because I want to know where he is and why he is where he is.” Tyler replied, catching Marie by the arm.

Marie turned quickly, “I don’t care why he is here. He is here that’s all that matters.”

“Look, if we know what he is up to then we would know what we are up against.” Tyler replied, holding firm in his position.

Marie smiled, “You are finally growing a pair, you know that. Fine, find out the address.” Marie sat down on the curb.

Tyler starting clicking into the phone searching the coordinates with address search, Tyler stared in disbelief when the results came back, “Shit, he’s at 233 South Wacker Drive.” Panic was overtaking Tyler.

“Yay, we have an address. Is that supposed to mean something because I got nothing on that,” Marie said sarcastically.

“That’s Willis Tower!” Tyler exclaimed sitting down next to her.

“Willis Tower yay, no clue.” Marie replied with a laugh, “Should any of this matter?” Marie said looking up at the sky.

“Willis Tower is one of the tallest buildings in the US. It is the home of the United Airlines headquarters.” Tyler said urgently getting up.

“Ok, so still not telling me why he is there or am I missing something?” Marie said, standing up.

“I don’t know what he is doing there but my guess is that, well, considering that he is part of a known terrorist organization, they are planning to make one hell of a statement.” Tyler replied rushing through his words.

“So, what, you think he is going to bring the building down or something? Pyro techniques are not his thing. He’s a hand to hand killer.” Marie replied reaching for the phone. “Can we please get moving? We are wasting time.”

“He could have people with him.” Tyler said staring back.

“Ok then I will kill them too, geeze let’s go.” Marie replied starting to walk again.

Tyler rushed behind, “So what’s the plan? Should we notify anyone that there is a potential terrorist attack planned for the Willis Tower?” Tyler was nervous. This was a big deal. They were dealing with a potential terrorist attack and she was so calm about it.

“No, that will not be happening. I will deal with Ethan and after that it’s whatever.” Marie replied still walking.

“Hold up you’re not concerned about the wellbeing of all those people.” Tyler said.

“Since when have I?” Marie asked with a smirk.

“Well, I do care.” Tyler said, grabbing her by the arm again and turning her towards him. “So why don’t you give a shit for once and actually help some people.” Tyler said, holding her arm firmly.

“Look, this is not what I do. I didn’t set out to save the fucking world. If any of these shits get in my way, they will pay the price. You can do what you want.” Marie pulled her arm from Tyler and continuing on.  They walked in silence the rest of the way. Marie saw the building as they approached it a few blocks away. “I take it that’s it?” she said pointing to Willis Tower.

“Yes that’s it, do you see what I meant when I said I was worried?” Tyler replied.

“No, it’s a big building, so what? It doesn’t change anything, just stay focused. Where in the building is he? Or can you not narrow it down that much?” Marie said stopping and looking at Tyler.

“No I can when we get closer, I can get elevation.” Tyler replied looking at the phone. “He is still in there somewhere.”

“And the building is still standing, so I don’t think he will bring it down on himself.” Marie replied with a smirk turning away from Tyler and starting to walk towards the building.

“This is not funny!”

Marie just ignored him and started to pull back her dark hair again to knot it up in a bun. They finally reached the tower. Marie stopped again. “Ok, elevation?” she said to Tyler.

Tyler already had the phone out and was checking, “Based on this…..I would say……top floor!”

“Would you chill the fuck out! Seriously, I’m no engineer but I am pretty sure bringing down a building from the top is not the way to go. He must be up to something else. Let’s go” Marie whispered to Tyler as she noticed the large groups of people going in and out of the main entrance near them.

Marie and Tyler entered the building. Tyler had never been in the tower and he was impressed. The polished granite flooring and stainless steel trim of the lobby impressed him instantly. Marie didn’t notice. She made straight for the elevators. Tyler realized she had walked off as he stared at his surroundings. He had to rush to her side as she was pushing the up button.

“Did you know that there are one hundred and four cars and they travel at speeds of up to one thousand two hundred feet per second?” Tyler said, with some excitement, he had heard of the tower but never been.

“I didn’t even knew it existed. How would I know something like that?” Marie replied sarcastically.

The elevator dinged and the doors open. Marie and Tyler entered the elevator and Marie quickly pushed the close door button and the doors closed before anyone else could enter. “I hate crowds.” Marie said to Tyler as the doors closed. The elevator quickly took off after Marie pushed the 110 button. As the elevator glided upward, Marie suddenly turned her head and looked up.

“What are you looking at?” Tyler questioned nervously. Marie stepped up to the control panel and pushed the stop button, the elevator came to a quick stop. “What are you doing?”

Marie looked at the panels on the ceiling of the elevator, then turned to Tyler, “Give me a boost,” she said, grabbing his hands and placing them in front of his stomach palms up.

“Ok” Tyler said. He was freaking out, he was just going to do what she said at this point. She placed her right foot in his hands and pushed down propelling herself up to reach the ceiling. Marie removed the top panel and started to climb out the top of the elevator. Tyler could just watch. He heard her handling something, then felt her pull something off the top of elevator, “Please tell me you haven’t gone nuts and are trying to kill us.” Tyler shouted out the opening in the ceiling. Marie then hopped back into the elevator and tossed Tyler a crudely constructed device. “What is this?” Tyler questioned nervously.

“It’s a bomb,”

“A what!” Tyler exclaimed gently placing the device on the ground and stepping back. Tyler was shaking, the sweat was rolling down his face and getting all over his glasses. He pulled them off to wipe them on his shirt.

“Relax, I took the detonator off it. It’s harmless now. It looks like you were right, they do mean to bring it down, but they won’t do it while they are still in it.” Marie said calmly pulling out the stop button to restart the elevator. It quickly resumed its traveling up the shaft.

“There are one hundred and four elevators, if they have bombs on all of them.” Tyler said barely able to breathe, “The whole building would come down.”

“Maybe; I duno, I’m not an engineer remember.” Marie replied staring at the buttons as the numbers lit up.

Tyler was barely breathing. All he could think of were the hundreds of people in jeopardy. “We have to do something, we have to do something.” He pleaded with Marie.

Marie took a deep breath as they stepped off the elevator onto the one hundred and tenth floor. Tyler was shaking, still holding the phone in his hand. Marie reached over and looked at the data, “He’s down the hallway, looks like maybe sixth door down.” Marie looked up at Tyler’s terrified eyes. She took a deep breath again and walked over to the nearby fire alarm and pulled the handle. Instantly the alarms started to go off in the building. “Follow me,” she said, moving down the hallway past the people rushing from the offices towards the stairs. Marie placed herself next to the closed sixth door pushing Tyler onto the opposite side of the doorway. “Don’t move till I move, get your gun out,” Marie whispered to Tyler. He fumbled getting his gun out of the back of his pants. Marie pulled off her backpack and pulled out her knife holster and strapped it to her back, then pulled out her two knives and readied them in her hands, throwing her backpack further down the hallway out of the way. Tyler set his satchel down behind him. They could hear people moving around in the room but couldn’t make out what was being said. Marie could hear footsteps approaching the door. She cleared her head, she was ready. The door slowly opened and a man dressed in black started to step out. Marie grabbed him and pulled him out into the hallway quickly slicing his throat and shoving him to the ground next to her. She listened to hear if they heard her, but hearing nothing, she peeked into the now open doorway and saw an empty reception area. Tyler was in shock from the man with the slit throat, it hadn’t gotten easier to see her kill someone.

Marie moved slowly into the open door, Tyler following behind, the gun shaking in his hand. The door that lead from the reception area to the back was cracked, the man must have forgot to pull it closed. Marie positioned herself so that she could hear what was going on past the door. She heard three men talking and she recognized one voice immediately. It was ingrained in her mind. She had heard it so seldom that she cherished the sound of it when they were younger, but it was different now. He was different and she could tell. They had a man tied up. Marie couldn’t tell what they wanted from the man, but it sounded like he had intel they wanted. “Stay back, I will take care of this.” Marie whispered to Tyler, holstering her knives in the holster on her back. Tyler nodded his head, his hands were still shaking. As she turned to go in, she heard the tell-tale sound of a snap. She saw Ethan had snapped the man’s neck, she paused and saw the three of them start to move towards the door. As the two other men reached the door first, Marie sprang into action, slamming the man to her right into the wall, knocking him unconscious. Marie grabbed and flipped the man to her left over, slipped out her knife from her holster and stabbed him in the chest. She looked up and made direct eye contact with Ethan. He had stepped back from the situation as she had attacked the first two men. Ethan was patient and Marie knew that he was readying himself.

“Never thought I would see you again.” Ethan said calmly.

“Well, I’m not here to hug and be friends. Are you enjoying your new job?” Marie questioned, pulling her second knife from her back. Ethan didn’t respond. Marie and Ethan circled each other sizing one another up. Marie noticed Ethan’s missing fingers, “New brass knuckles I see, are we going to test them out?”

Ethan clenched his fists, his missing fingers had caused him to get a new set of brass knuckles. They were customized to adapt to having fewer fingers. Tyler was frozen in the doorway. He wanted to help but he didn’t know how to help without interfering with what she was doing. Marie twirled the knives in her hands, then attacked. She swung her knives, but Ethan was quicker and was able to knock her right knife from her hand. Marie flipped her remaining knife from her left to her right hand and cut Ethan on the face. He stumbled back grabbing his face; he wiped the blood from the wound, then charged at Marie knocking her back into the window. She hit hard against the window and was knocked to the floor, face down. Marie still clutched onto her knife as Ethan started walking towards her. Tyler saw this and had to act, he fired his gun but missed; however, it got Ethan’s attention and he turned to charge at Tyler. Marie lifted her head to see Ethan moving towards Tyler. She pulled herself to her knees and threw her knife. It found its mark directly in the center of Ethan’s back. Ethan stood frozen, then fell to his knees, then flat on his face. Marie slowly got up and started to walk over to Ethan’s body.

“You missed this time,” Marie said with a smile as he retrieved her first knife from the floor and placed it in her holster. She walked up to Ethan’s body and placed her foot onto the handle of the knife and pushed it the rest of the way in. “Just gotta make sure,” she said with a smile.

Suddenly the man Marie had knocked unconscious when she entered the room started to come to. Tyler saw it first and went straight for the man. Tyler felt rage for this man, he was going to kill countless innocent lives. He grabbed the man by the neck and pinned him against the wall. The man was startled and gripped at Tyler’s hands.