Handler XX: Stock Maestro
Chapter 12: Crossfire

Chapter 12: Crossfire

"Well, we’ve got our answer— syringe for syringe" Trent stood up to take the bottle.

Marie looked at him and coughed, shaking her head as she looked at the bottle.

He exhaled and dropped it

"So, what’s going to happen?" Marie asked Anton

"Well... Gentely didn’t give them information about Ornand so he should be safe" Anton replied

"Guess the wife’s taking care of you well" he laughed at Trent as he took his seat

"This is no time for jokes" Trent huffed,

"What if Kraven already knows about Ornand?"

"Then he’d be dead by now" Terna dropped her glass

"Yeah... Unless he’s been playing double agent for them"

"Ornand is an agent of the State— one who’s been loyal for years" Anton reassured

"Loyalty wavers" Trent muttered

"I’m just saying"

"I’ll have to go back to base and I’ll run the plan to you when we make one" Anton stood up to leave

"Mr. Ackerman..." Terna stood up too

"I’ve not properly introduced myself"

"I’m Terna Stile"

"Trent Ackerman" he shook her hand

"Can we talk about the investment part later though? I’ll be sure to give you my time" his eyes trailed Anton and Marie as they left the room

"Yes— That will be great. You’ve had a stressful day" Terna smiled.

__________

"Next mission initializing..."

"Meet Yolaf Tyn. Time limit, 48 hours."

"Bonus rewards will be granted"

What? A person? Not a location this time and this specific?

"Ave?" Trent whispered as he left Terna’s office

"Hello, Trent"

"What’s this mission? A person?"

"I do not understand your query"

What? It’s always been a location and suddenly a person?

"I thought I only had to go to locations"

"The target is not in a specific place"

What the hell?

"So, they’re on the move and I have to find them?"

"Affirmative"

"You said I only have to sign in to locations when we started this" Trent grinded his teeth

"Rewards will be granted regardless of result"

"Even if I fail to complete it?"

"Affirmative. Half of the Bonus rewards will be granted"

Ugh... Trent scratched his head as he walked up to Marie

"Are you alright?" Marie asked, worried.

"Yeah, I’m good"

"What did Anton say?"

Marie looked around carefully and grabbed his arm.

"What are you doing?"

She shushed him and just kept walking

"Anton thinks we’ve got a spy"

"A spy?" Trent whispered

Why didn’t he say it in Terna’s office?

"Does he think it’s Terna?"

"No—Of course not" Marie glared at Trent.

"She has a lot of people working for her— he doesn’t want her to panic"

Trent looked around.

"What does he want us to do?"

"Yolaf Tyn"

Trent flinched. Marie looked at his face immediately

"Do you know him?"

"No." Trent met her gaze.

"You’ve been acting weird since Terna’s office. What did you two discuss?"

"I told her to hold off the investment talks"

Marie stared at him for a while,

"What does he want us to do with this Yolaf guy?" He asked, trying to break the awkwardness

"Yolaf is a dealer of a lot of things— arms, drugs, gold and a lot of exotics"

"He wants us to meet him? Where?" Trent’s eyes widened

Why does Ave also want him to meet such a person? Even offering rewards.

"He’s in the next town, Ipswen— at a hotel. Anton says to meet him tomorrow"

Trent looked at his phone. 8:23 pm. That’s about 12 to 15 more hours.

"We have to prepare for tomorrow, then. I’ll tell them to send us some food" he broke free from her grasp

"I already arranged that. I’m sure it’s in the room"

They ate silently, the thought of tomorrow heavy on their minds.

_______________

"Good morning" Trent greeted as she turned towards him.

"Morning..." She mumbled as she sat on the bed

"What are you doing with a gun?"

"And why are you up this early?"

She asked, watching as he arranged the gun he had dismantled.

"I took this off one of the guards" he waved the piece he held

"And I got bored..."

"Bored enough that you’re in a suit this early?"

"I messaged Gina to send us some clothes last night— they arrived this morning" he pointed at the table

She stood up to check them out

"How thoughtful— these are nice" she admired them

She looked at him as he continued with the gun.

"You seem happy— what’s the occasion?"

"Can’t a man be happy that he’s married to a beautiful woman like you?" He teased

"In a fake marriage..." She replied

He looked at her, "Doesn’t mean it’s not interesting"

She stared at him for a while. Interesting, huh?

"How’s the house thing going? I checked and my account’s have been unfrozen so I thought I’d chip in"

"There’s no need"

"It’s less than two million dollars— I’ve got this"

"Sure, sure... Golden boy" she chuckled as she headed into the bathroom.

She took a thorough bath and walked back in.

Trent stared at her as she walked in. Damn. She looked beautiful.

"What?" She asked as she dried her hair.

"No-nothing" he replied, startled.

She dressed up and they walked out of the room around 7:43 am.

_____________

Marie dialled Anton as they drove

"Hello" he answered tiredly

"Were you asleep?" Marie chuckled

"Yeah... I’ve gotta sleep too, I’m not a robot" he yawned, stretching

"We’re leaving now— headed to Ipswen."

"Good. Call me back when you get there..."

"Wait..." Trent interrupted.

"What do we do with Yolaf Tyn?"

Anton fell silent for a while,

"Protect him"

"From what?" Marie asked.

"Yolaf is from Kraven— He’s contacted us that he needs our protection after having an issue"

"So, he’s been hunted by Kraven?"

"Won’t the National Intelligence be able to handle it?"

"Hmph" Anton snorted, "Those guys gave the work to us"

"Just bring him into this city safely and we’ll take it from there"

"Is this a dangerous job?"

"It shouldn’t be"

Trent sighed as the phone hung up

"Shouldn’t be?" Marie murmured

Trent raised the volume of the song playing.

____________

The drive to Ipswen took about and hour and half.

"It’s a nice place" Trent said as they came out of the call.

He looked at the hotel— not too luxurious, but not too cheap-looking either

"It looks like a nice place, but it’s ranked 3rd in crime throughout the country" Marie answered.

"Third? Who are the top rankers?"

"Cities in the state of Von"

"I’m sure we’ll visit them soon" she chuckled.

"Shall we?"

Trent watched her as she walked towards the hotel.

Will Yolaf really be here? Ave had said the target was moving. He rubbed the gun he’d hidden under his suit as he walked in.

"Hi..." Marie greeted the receptionist

"Hi. Welcome to Yusra Hotel."

Marie introduced themselves as Friends of Yolaf.

"What?" The receptionist asked surprised.

"Mr. Yolaf went out about an hour ago, and some of his friends are already waiting"

Marie turned to Trent.

Four Men walked out into the reception.

"There they are— His friends that came in"

The Men looked at each other as they heard this.

"Hide" Trent whispered to the receptionist.

"Pardon?"

"I said fucking hide" he yelled, drawing his gun as one of the men reached for his.

Marie pulled out a knife from her skirt and threw it at one of them as Trent fired at them

Trent hit two of them— not heavy but enough to stall for some time and Marie struck one of the others on his legs

The receptionist rushed into the room behind her and locked the door while Trent and Marie ran off towards their car.

Securities were already alert and they yelled after Trent since he held a gun.

Trent fired towards them, throwing Marie the key to scare them away.

The Men were already up and they came out spraying bullets, hitting some of the securities and the car.

Trent reloaded, shot the tires of the other cars and hopped into the car.

They drove off, with the Men chasing after the Car with shots.

"Fuck" Trent hit the gun on the car frustrated

He threw his head back against the seat.

"That was too close," Marie muttered, hands trembling slightly as she held the wheel with one and dialed with the other.

"Shouldn’t be my ass"

___________

Anton picked up the call as soon as it connected

"Hey, Chief. We didn’t see our friend at the hotel... Guess what we found?" She asked angrily, dragging the words

"...What?"

"Four fucking men shooting at us— that’s what we found" Trent yelled

"I thought you said it shouldn’t be dangerous. We were so lucky we had weapons" Marie asked

"We made sure to direct him there, shaking off the people hunting him" Anton replied

"You made sure?"

"Why didn’t you just direct him to base or something?" Trent asked angrily.

"Are you being pursued?" Anton asked, ignoring the question

Marie looked through the mirrors,

"No— Trent shot their tires as we left so we shook them off"

"If you directed him to this place... How did you do it, and who knows about this?" Trent asked

"I did" a voice cut through the phone—Newton

"The Intelligence agency asked for our help with Finding and securing Yolaf— we did... But..."

"But what?" Marie asked

Newton sighed, "Yolaf isn’t just a dealer. The highlight of his business is information. They hid that part from us"

"So we decided to secure Yorlov for ourselves" Anton interrupted

"So we’re being pursued by the NIA?" Trent asked

"You sent us blind into an NIA operation?"