“Is there a reason you are not wanting to talk to the great, all-powerful and amazing Leland the Loveable?”
“Loveable, my ass.”
“Mkay. GASP. Are you calling me to help you chase down and torture that guy you had in the trunk? I am a bit bummed that he turned out to be a serial killer, though. He was such a nice guy. My dogs love him.”
“Funny story, I’m actually stuck on an island with a stab wound in my shoulder, and it’d be really fucking nice if you sent Jackson here to help.”
“Louder GASP. Are you… are you telling me that you’ve been fooled into thinking you were doing some super-awesome mission and were duped, and now you’re just wallowing there bleeding and you needmyyyyyyyhelp?”
I hang up. I’d rather bleed to death than deal with this man. I’d rather deal with a raging elephant than that man. I’d rather?—
I see he’s calling back and realize that maybe I need to choke down my pride and just ask for a bit of help. Or would I rather bleed to death?
Why is this such a hard choice?
With a growl, I answer the phone.
“Now, Tavish, what does hanging up on me solve?”
“Not a damn thing, but your voice, your personality, your entirebeingirritates me.”
“Aw, how sad. Now do you want my help or not?”
“I…”Don’t say you’d rather bleed out. Don’t say you’d rather bleed out. You can do this, Tavish. You can use him. That’s all this is. “I…”
“You?”
“I…”
“You?”
“I… I need your help,” I mutter through gritted teeth. That hurt worse than getting stabbed!
“Oh yes, you do,” Leland says, sounding thrilled. “Okay, where are you and how many people are there?”
“We took a jet here. My map is struggling to load. Is there a different way to get coordinates?”
“I’ll get Cassel on it. How many people?”
“I’ve seen about six so far, but I haven’t been here long enough to get a good look,” I say, surprised I can actually carry on a legit conversation with him.
“How bad are you hurt?”
“Stabbed just below the collarbone near my shoulder.”
“Left or right?”
“Left.”
“Get that shit compressed. If it’s an island, find some advantage since right now everything is working against you. Get your ass out of the situation and hide if you have to. There’s no sense in going in guns blazing if you don’t know the kind of situation you’re in. I’m getting Cassel,” he says a moment before the line goes dead.
I pull the phone back and look down to see that there’s no network. Fuckers must have done something to jam the signal. Goddammit.
I stuff my phone back in my pocket, hoping that there’s some trick Cassel can do to still get connected to my phone… or if I get far enough away, will reception come back? I had enough to contact them, so we must not be too outside the satellite’s service.
But Leland’s right, I’m not in a situation where it’d be beneficial for me to just start shooting. If I could take down someone silently, that’s one thing, but to start shooting would draw attention to me.
So the jammer disrupting my phone is likely in this building. Would I be better off finding that or would I be better off trying to get away from it? Does it cover the entire island? Or just the building?
