Committed Chapter 22

Achilles’ cellphone didn’t have reception below the streets of New Carthage so he back tracked to the sewer opening and climbed out.

            When he exited back onto the street some arms grabbed his and yanked him up the last two rungs.  He gazed into the face of a uniformed officer, glaring at him sharply.

            The officer was half-way through a speech about how much trouble Achilles had gotten himself into by impeding an arrest attempt when Officer’s Seth and Antenor called the officer off.

            “What happened?” Seth demanded.  The two of them were still high off of the adrenaline of the pursuit.  By comparison, Achilles was calm and relaxed.  Ariadne and Paris had momentarily slipped through his fingers but they were injured.  They would surface eventually.

            For a moment, he felt a pang of sympathy.  The odds were strongly stacked against them.  Even if he were not involved, who did Ariadne and Paris have to fall back on?  They didn’t have anyone left to rely on but each other.

            “They got away,” Achilles offered by way of explanation.

            “They got away?” Seth asked as though he couldn’t believe it was as simple as that.  Behind him, Antenor pulled out a cellphone and turned away.  Another officer came up and Antenor directed him towards the crippled Audi.

            “Listen up…Achilles.  I have some information to impart to you that might just save your life,” Seth said.  He took a step forward.  Achilles wondered if he was doing this so that the other officers wouldn’t hear him or to avoid Antenor overhearing.  “Mr. Menelaus may be a kid but he is not someone you want to get on the wrong side of.”

            “I have no intention of doing that,” Achilles assured him.  “What are you trying to tell me, Officer?”

            “It’s very simple, Achilles,” Seth explained.  “When Mr. Menelaus is upset it doesn’t always end well.  Mrs. Menelaus, for example.”

            Achilles cocked an eyebrow slightly but didn’t say anything.

            As he had expected, Officer Seth continued.  “She was supposed to keep the girl from leaving her house this morning but her daughter managed to overpower her and get away.  Mr. Menelaus was not happy.  As a result, she won’t be around to fail him again.”

            “He killed her?” Achilles asked.  He kept all emotion out of his voice as he did.

            Seth nodded.  He lifted a hand in the shape of a gun and motioned as though it had been fired.  “Took her out like it was nothing,” Seth explained.

            “How are the police dealing with that?” Achilles asked.

            “Mr. Menelaus has deep pockets, but that one was fairly easy.  Han and I…” he hesitated slightly, as if ashamed to bring himself into the story, “Han and I made it out to look like a suicide.  It wasn’t that hard.  We know what the investigating officers will be looking for and when they find it that’ll be the end of that.”

            “Of course,” Achilles nodded.  “But I don’t want to end up like that.”

            “That’s what I figured,” Seth nodded, as though he felt he had managed to communicate some very important information.  “Just keep that in mind.”

            “Hey, what are you two whispering about?”

            Antenor’s voice didn’t quite make Seth jump, but almost.  Seth turned to his partner and said, “Nothing.  Just seeing if the big bounty hunter here could give me a little bit more than ‘they got away’.”

            “Well, the boss wants to have a few words with him,” Antenor explained, passing the cellphone to Achilles.  He gave Seth a suspicious look but didn’t ask anything else.  Achilles accepted the phone and turned away from the two officers.

            “Yes, Mr. Menelaus?” Achilles said into the phone.

            “How much money will it take?”

            “Excuse me sir?”

            “I hired you to do a simple job.  She’s a seventeen year old girl who has been raised by a rich father and hasn’t had to work for anything a day in her life.  She is innocent.  So you tell me and make me understand how she managed to not only escape from an entire police battalion chasing her down but also from you.  I don’t pay for you to fail, Mr. Achilles.  I pay for you to hunt.”

            “Yes, Mr. Menelaus.”

            “How much is it going to take?  What do you need to get this job done.  Five hundred thousand?  One million?”

            Achilles blinked.  One million dollars to get a seventeen-year-old girl back?  If red flags hadn’t already been flapping in Achilles’ face they certainly were now.

            “Mr. Menelaus, that is a very generous offer but I can’t accept that kind of money.  The standard pay will be sufficient.”

            “One million dollars is already being transferred to your account, Mr. Achilles.  Bring her to me.”

            “Sir, I don’t want the money,” Achilles said.

            There was silence on the other end of the phone.  Achilles could almost feel the force of the rage coming from the boy who was a man through the phone.

            “Mr. Achilles, let me make this perfectly clear.  I pay you.  I own you.  Otherwise, you are more than worthless to me.  And I don’t keep things that are worthless to me.  Do we have an understanding.”

            Achilles felt he had come to an understanding.  But he wasn’t sure that it was the same one that Janus Menelaus had come to.

            What he wanted to say was something entirely different.  Nobody, and he meant nobody, owned Achilles.  No matter how much money they gave him.  He could not be bought.

            But Officer Seth had given him something to think about.  If Janus Menelaus really had murdered Mrs. Menelaus then there was every chance that he would eliminate Achilles if he felt they were no longer on the same page.  That was the hidden threat behind the boy’s words.

            Achilles was not afraid of Janus Menelaus.  But he did like being alive.  He would bide his time and find the proper moment.

            “Of course, sir.  I understand you perfectly.”

            “Good,” Janus snapped.  “Find her, Mr. Achilles.  I’m tired of this nonsense.  If she is not brought in within the next six hours I will burn this city down to get her.  I want my bride.”

            Janus hung up on him and Achilles handed the cellphone back to Antenor without comment.

            But those last words rang in his ears like they were trapped in an echo chamber.  It resonated with something deep inside of him.  He thought of that look in Ariadne’s eyes as she stumbled away from him below ground.  The look into her face had been brief but more revealing than he had first realized.

            Just like nobody owned Achilles, he had the strong impression that nobody in their right mind would think to own Ariadne Helen.  But Janus Menelaus would try anyway.  And whether he succeeded or not, Achilles suspected there would be little to nothing left of Ariadne Helen when he was done.

Ariadne finally found herself in a state of consciousness sufficient enough to roll over and call out Paris name.  He groaned against the wall next to her and shifted his weight.  His right arm hung limply at his side.  It didn’t look good.

            “Why does it smell so awful?” he groaned.

            “I think it has something to do with us being in a sewer,” Ariadne replied.

            “Oh, you said I wasn’t going to like this.”

            “I did.”

            “You should have been more specific.”

            “You said you loved the plan.”

            “You should have known better.”

            Ariadne reached out and gingerly touched Paris’ right arm.  He flinched and let out a low moan that made Ariadne snap her hand back.

            “What’s wrong?  Is it broken?”

            “I feel like I have a second elbow.”

            Ariadne shivered at the image and stroke her hand across Paris’ forehead, moving the hair out of his eyes.  “We need to get you to a hospital.”

            “That doesn’t sound like a safe place for you right now,” Paris replied.

            “No, it’s not, which is why I’m going to get you there and then leave.  I almost got you killed today.  You’ve done more than enough helping me along.  If the police find you but I make it clear that I’m on the run on my own they won’t be able to charge you with my kidnapping.”

            “How are you going to make it clear you’re on the run yourself?  I don’t see this really making anything better for me.  Plus, you can’t imagine I’m going to let you go on the run from Janus yourself.”

            “That’s exactly what has to happen, Paris.  I won’t be responsible for you getting hurt.”

            “And I won’t be responsible for you getting hurt, so we’re on the same page,” Paris said, using his left hand to try and lift himself up.  He gritted his teeth and tried to stifle a groan but Ariadne forced him to stop.

            “Don’t,” she said.  She was starting to get angry now.  “Just stop it all right?  You need to go to a hospital and get as far away from me as possible.  This is my curse not yours.”

            “Not a chance in hell,” Paris replied.

            “God!  Paris, you are broken.  You’re no good to anyone like this!”

            “I still have my charm and my never-ending supply of wit, so don’t count me out yet.”

            “Paris, you don’t get to argue with me.  I’ve made my decision.”

            “And I’ve made mine.”

            “Paris, I don’t think I’ve ever met someone so completely unreasonable!  What is wrong with you? Do you just like the thrill of nearly getting killed?  Is that the reason you’re still hanging around me?  Why are you still with me after all of this!?”

            “Because I love you.”

            Ariadne felt her entire body go electric.  It was like she was standing in the middle of the country, out where her grandparents had their cottage, and a lightning storm was on the horizon.  Her arms swarmed with waves of goose-bumps and the hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.

            She was rendered speechless.  She felt her mouth open and close a couple times, but no sound came out.  In the semi-darkness Ariadne couldn’t quite see where Paris’ eyes were.

            “Say something,” Paris said, his voice barely above a whisper.

            Ariadne’s eyes shot to the ground.  But she found no refuge there, instead finding herself looking directly into the glint of one of the emergency lights off of Paris’ ring.

            Finally, Ariadne found her words again.

            “You tell me that you love me while we’re hiding from the police in a sewer?”

            “On a scale of one to ten, how romantic is that?”

            “Probably a six.  Maybe a seven if we don’t factor in the smell that you so graciously pointed out earlier.”

            “You are too good to me,” Paris replied.

            The two of them tried to laugh, but they both knew that there was something missing.  A massive gap had opened between them.  Paris had been quick to participate in verbal jousting with her, but she could hear the hollowness in his voice.

            Because she hadn’t said I love you back.

            “Fine, if you’re going to be stupid about this, what do you propose we do next Crips-McGee?” Ariadne asked, trying to cover the awkwardness that was in the air.  Her heart ached.

            “Well, first, we’re going to set my arm so that I don’t have to worry about it.”

            “Can you do that to yourself?”

            “No, you’ll have to do it,” Paris replied.  He adjusted himself slightly.  Ariadne reached out and put her hands on his shoulders, helping him.  He hesitated slightly when her hands touched his and her heart ached in her chest again.  She felt as if something was trying to force its way up her throat.  But at the same time, she knew it was too late.  The time had come and gone and she’d failed to answer the call.

            “There’s no way I’m going to be able to do that safely,” Ariadne protested.  “Paris, I’m sorry, but we are going to have to take you to a hospital unless you know somebody we can trust who can set bones.”

            “Sadly, I haven’t had time to make the necessary acquaintances for that kind of work before this all got started.”

            “Probably wasting your time learning how to hot-wire cars along with picking lots and pickpocketing.”

            “Criminal contacts was totally the class I skipped last week.”
            “No, Paris, I mean what about everything else?  What about Janus and the police and the Curse with these stupid rings…”

            Ariadne trailed off.  She was afraid to keep speaking.  Afraid that the idea would slip through her fingers and disappear.  Flicker out like a candle left by an open window.

            “What?  What is it?” Paris asked.

            “I think I have an idea.  But you’re not going to like it.”

            “As long as it doesn’t involve totally a really, really expensive car, then I couldn’t possibly hate it.”

            “No, Paris,” Ariadne said, her eyes alight as she looked into his, a grin spreading across her face.  “You’re really, really, not going to like it.”