I held my gun up getting ready and moved out, closer, closer then I stopped as shock number two presented itself.
Yes, the pit was full of water.
And crocodiles!
Fucking crocodiles.
It looked like a seen from some kind of horror movie.
Jia cried and made a muffled scream as the platform she was on lowered by a few inches.
My God… it was remote controlled.
And who was controlling the remote?
Balthazar stepped out from my left and held up the remote.
He smiled at me like we were old friends who hadn’t seen each other in years.
“Xander, wow. So good to see you,” he bubbled.
“Wish I could say the same about you,” I yelled. “Actually, I don’t wish that. Not one fucking bit. You mother fucking dog. You fucking prick of an asshole. Let her go. Let her go right the fuck now.”
He laughed and pretended to shiver. “Ohhhhh awwwwww I’m so scared. Big Bad Xander’s come to get me. Wowwwwwwww.”
The prick of an asshole knew how to get me worked up the fucking wrong way.
“Don’t fuck with me.”
“No, I know not to do that. The thing about you though my good man is this… you wear your heart on your sleeve for all to see your damn weakness.” He waved the remote over to Jia, pressed it and the platform lowered an inch more. The crocs swam closer to her and she let out another muffled scream.
“Nooooo!” I shouted. “Fuck you. No!!!”
“Put the gun down,” he said in a cool voice that carried an edge of sharpness.
I set the gun down. I had no choice. If he pressed that damn remote one more time one of the crocs would get to her. They’d be able to climb up on the platform.
I couldn’t let that happen.
“So, here’s the four one, one. You give me the blueprints.”
“I give you the prints and you let her go,” I demanded.
He shook his head. “I don’t think so.” He glanced down at his watch. “By my records of time you people shouldn’t even be here so that deal is out the window. It’s null and void, no negotiation where she is released to you. However…” He held up his hands and the smile on his horrible face widened. “I will allow you to decide how she dies and the rate too. I was trying to work out which was best. Method, or rate of acceleration. So I decided on both.”
“You evil prick, just let her go. I’m here with the fucking prints.” At this point I didn’t care about the blueprints. I’d already calculated in my head that I needed to save Jia and to do that I’d have to give him what he wanted.
“Yes, you are here with the prints. The prints that I still need to check but that’s not really the point. I don’t work like that. I don’t like you Xander Cage. I don’t think that’s a secret. I was furious to hear you were still alive but saw you as an advantage to play nice with Ethan. Play nice with Ethan and get the prints nice and smooth. Then you fucked up and we ended up wasting so much damn time when we could have played dirty in the first place by taking the girl. You need to pay for that. so this is it. So, tell me how should I kill her? A bullet to the hell like your previous lady love, or should I just release the control and give her a good dip in the croc pool?” He laughed.
I bit down hard on my back teeth and stared at him.
He was sick. Sick and deranged. That is what came to my mind as I listened to him.
“You sick fuck. Give her to me or you don’t get shit!” I roared.
One more press of the remote and Jia’s platform lowered.
“Xander Cage, you are not in a position to be making demands.” He smiled and the asshole shot down the ropes holding the suspension bridge nearest us. As the bridge crashed into the water the crocs went crazy.
