Chapter 4: Duel

I easily took advantage of the pirates’ occupation with the heavy machine guns they were fighting with to continue my run. By now, far more people had gotten the hint that something was seriously wrong, the sounds of gunfire echoing in the empty air all around the lake. Maybe thinking this was some kind of new show, people were leaving their hotel rooms in awe, too far from the fighting and destruction to see anything but a pretty light show. As I ran by, I shouted at them to get back inside, trying my best to inform them of the attack in the short time span in took me to pass them by. I could see the main building in site, a five-story tower done in a distinct Asian style of grass and bamboo, not too far from where I was.

I was just passing one of the smaller Pacific-styled buildings, used to house the deluxe suites, when there was a flash on the shore bright enough to light half the sky clear as day. Not half a second later, a resounding BOOM with a bass thud in my chest hit me. A heavy cannon shell had been blasted into the machine gun positions on the shore, obliterating them. Their adversaries defeated, the boat turned and began speeding at me at full throttle.

I began to run faster, hoping I could get away from all the people before the boat began blasting at me again. As I hit a small wooden bridge passing over an artificial stream just twenty yards or so from my target, I heard the boat’s engine turn off, and it began swinging around to face the stern turret towards me. I stopped, loading and readying my pistol for the most unfair matchup of the century. Before the boat even finished turning, it bumped into the shore. Two shots rang out, and the small lamps on the sides of the pathway went out in a flash, plunging the area into near darkness. I waited in silence for my eyes to adjust to the sudden lack of light, and became aware of a scuttling noise, like a small person running very fast across a beach.

Something small darted across my field of vision, between two large bushes. I fired, the muzzle flash lighting up the area just enough to see a foot in a light yellow material shoot behind the foliage. That bitch, I thought.

The bush rustled, and I fired again, sending leaves and wood into the air. Nothing. “Where the fuck are you….” I muttered to myself.

“Right here.”

Something heavy landed on the back of my head, sending my sprawling to the ground. I rolled, grabbing at thing on my head and hurling it away. Jorge bounded across the ground, backflipping and landing in a ready position with two tiny flintlock pistols aimed at me.

“What’s happening, sunshine?” he said, almost amused. I brought up my gun and fired, but he was too damn fast. He leapt to the side, disappearing again into the bushes. His height left me at a disadvantage; he could hide all he wanted, while I would be left in the open and at his mercy.

He had somehow made his way into the canopy of trees above the bridge, and when I heard the thud, I turned to find him standing on the bridge railing. I turned to the side and kicked at him with my heel, the blow connecting with his chest and knocking him off into the water. The stream was shallow, however, and he rolled back, crouched, and leapt forward again. The bridge was, unfortunately, not at all childproof, and his small size let him slip through the horizontal railings and land at my feet.

He whacked me in the ankle with the butt of his pistol. Unfortunately, that happened to be my bad leg (x-rays showed a twisted tibia, but I of course had no recollection of how I had gotten it), and it was enough to put me off balance and drop me. Jorge jumped onto my chest, leaning in close.

“Hook always liked you better than me,” he growled, his breath tainted by alcohol and tobacco. “Always liked how you did the jobs better! Well, now it’s my time to shine. And I‘ll do it by killing this goddamn turncoat!”

He brought one of the mini-pistols up and pointed it at my head. I grabbed his arm and jerked it away before he fired, the gun discharging in a cloud of smoke and deafening explosion into the wood next to my head. The cloud of splinters stung the side of my face, opening a bleeding cut on my cheek.

I grabbed his other arm before he could aim his second pistol. “There’s something you forgot,” I grunted. Jorge, despite his small size, was very strong, and I had to struggle to keep him from getting his gun in position. “There’s a reason Hook liked me better. I AM better!”

I twisted his wrist, hearing the bone snap, before he could scream in pain, I put the flat of my left hand on his ribcage and shoved, rolling him off of me. I sprung to my feet, picking up my USP from off the ground, aiming, and firing in one fluid motion. Jorge jerked, blood spraying from the body, and he lay still. For good measure, I picked up the flintlock pistol and fired it into the body as well, then discarded the one-shot weapon.

“Good fucking riddance, you piece of shit midget,” I muttered.

My vision filled with white, and I fell back against the bridge railing, covering my eyes.

“Well boy, you’ve sure made a mess of things!” a very familiar voice called from the boat. I put my hand down, my vision adjusted just enough to see the silhouette of a man with a tricorn stand in front of one of the high-power lights mounted on the side of the boat. “I should have known someone like you, a no-name young man with no past and such amazing talents would turn out to have some sense of morals!”

The light snapped off, and Hook walked closer to the oversized turret gun. “But I think….maybe this is too good to be true. Maybe I should think about the bigger picture, about why you would drop into my lap so easily. Who are you working for? What group? Is it that damned rat?!”

I couldn’t think, really. Who did hire me? Who gave me my orders? Was it him? I could only answer with the truth. “I don’t know.”

Hook paused, clearly confused. His face straightened, though. “A pity,” he said, shrugging. He climbed into the small seat behind the massive gun, the barrel rotating from the 40mm rifled gun to the 25mm Bushmaster autogun. “I was hoping to at least learn something of you, at least a clue to the ones behind this treachery. Ah, well. The villains are, of course, the greatest of all characters in history. We would win at some point, you know!”

Hook sighted down the iron sights, lining up his shot, and fired.