“Where’s Cutter? Did he…” I started to ask the couple that had been intruded upon.

“He’s out there. He’s gone after him” the client divulged. “Even when the guy told him not to. Held a gun to his face and everything. I suspect that only made Cutter madder”

I nodded. I wasn’t entirely surprised that Crescendo’s security guard hadn’t given up on the culprit, but I was still unnerved by the thought of what would happen next. The “wild card” was dangerous anyway, now he was armed with a gun? And not a standard tranq gun at that. A very real, death-dealing, pistol. What the hell was Cutter doing with the weapon anyway? They weren’t standard issue in his job. No matter how dangerous a situation may be, a security guard’s job was to incapacitate the suspect, not kill them. What the hell was he thinking?

“They’re out there” the male companion behind me muttered.

I turned to Kal, who continued to stare out the wide-open window, the breeze blowing his shirt against his chest as he stood there ominously. I got to my feet and began to walk towards him. His gaze was fixed beyond the confines of Crescendo’s grounds, where the gravel that surrounded the building diminished as it welcomed the rocky and tree sheltered area of the park. “Somewhere” I responded.

I was taken aback when he unexpectedly turned, stared me directly in the face and replied “No, not somewhere, I just saw something moving in the trees.”

I didn’t know how to reply, except to ask “Where?” as I sidled up beside him, tilting my head to glance out the window. There was a moment of silence as Kal scanned the setting in front of him before he quickly reacted, pointing his finger at some vague direction in the park and uttering in reply: “There.” Without saying anything else, he grabbed the top of the window frame, hoisted himself up and swung his body outside the open window, rolling as he hit the ground. Instantly getting to his feet he immediately began to run across the grounds into the park, leaving me standing there alone, watching aimlessly.

It took me a few seconds before I could acknowledge what had just happened.

“Great” I mumbled with a tone full of sarcasm as my face dropped.

Turning back to face the couple behind me I asked “Are you gonna be ok here?”

“Yeah,” he answered. “Why? Are you going to…?”

“I guess so” I moaned whilst my frowned expression screamed “I really don’t want to do this!”

With that, I scrambled out of the window and fell to the ground outside with as much grace as a llama being knocked down by a hovercraft.

As much as I hated the idea, seeing the vague form of Kal move quickly through the trees confirmed the fact: the chase was on.

*****

The park. It sounded sweet and innocent on paper but the truth was that it was something quite different. This was not a place where children played – not that children had any business being anywhere near Crescendo anyway. Sure it looked scenic, and was often the place to go for quiet walks - and possibly a quickie - but its terrain was another story. It seemed that every time a couple went for a brief stroll, at least one would come back with a sprained ankle. The ground was hilly with plenty of craggy rockery. And there I was running after Kal, who was running after Cutter, who was running after the wild card. If someone didn’t get shot in a showdown, then for sure someone was going to break their neck in the pursuit. Oh, what fun. Pursuing a friend, who was pursuing a security guard who was pursuing a criminal, was not written in the small print when I signed up for this career, so why the hell did I do it? Guilt? Some misplaced responsibility? I didn’t really know then and I still don’t know now. Likely it was down to mere stupidity. “The chance to be a hero”, some might say. But at no point did I feel particularly heroic. The only thing I felt was my heart pounding in my chest, my stomach rumbling (which may or may not have been due to skipping breakfast) and the cold wind cutting through me like ice. Seriously, the shirt I was wearing was so thin; I began to think that my nipples would slice through the material at any given moment.

Within seconds of entering the park - as the branch of a tree hit me in the face and I scraped my arm on some thorns - I already knew it was a bad idea, not that I hadn’t realised that before. The fact that I had lost Kal also didn’t bode well. I was sure I had seen him heading straight ahead where the ground was higher but it seemed as if the crackling sound of leaves and branches being stepped on was coming from my right. “Ai ya!” I strained through my clenched teeth as I looked in both directions. I had two choices. One would send me in the wrong direction, where I could neither stop Kal, nor apprehend the wild card. And the other? Well, that could send me to my death if I wasn’t too careful. Neither sounded particularly appealing as you can imagine, but I wasn’t going to run away from responsibility! Okay, I admit it, the thought about running away from responsibility, or even slowly walking away, did cross my mind, but I knew that I would forever regret it if I did. Finally I made my decision and ran straight ahead. I was sure it was the direction Kal had ran in, and I was more concerned in going after him that anything else. Besides, the sounds I thought I heard could merely have been an echo; or perhaps made by an animal; or even a couple having sex. And whilst the latter may have been fun to check out, I had pressing matters at hand.

The terrain ahead of me rose and dipped constantly. The ground was full of holes and my foot twisted a few times as I ran over them. For a second, I thought I had seen a figure ahead moving between the trees but I wasn’t too sure. I just knew I needed to keep moving, faster than I had been.

Then it happened.

As I ran, my foot must have stepped on the side of a rock or something because my ankle suddenly twisted. Then, with the weight of my body now pressing down on the small joint, I heard a snap.

“AGH!! Gorram Liou coe shway duh biao-tze huh hoe-tze fuh ur-tze!!!” I screamed as I collapsed to the ground in agony.

My face turned red as I vented my pain and frustration. It was all for nothing. I couldn’t carry on now. My part in the chase was over and I hadn’t accomplished a damn thing, with the exception of probably breaking my ankle.

“Juh jen sh guh kwai luh duh jean jan” I muttered to myself as I pulled my trouser leg up to see the injury. I imagined that I would see something truly disgusting – like the bone sticking out of my skin – but it wasn’t what I had thought. In fact, it looked fairly normal, maybe a little deformed, but nothing too shocking. Then I touched it.

“AGH! Huh choo-shang tza-jiao duh tzang-huo!”

I had never cursed so much in my life. And people thought I was such a nice, pleasant guy too. It was a good job nobody was there to witness such language. Or at least I thought

“Needy!” a familiar voice called from ahead.

I shot a look up and sure enough there was Kal standing before me.

“Thank you” I uttered to the heavens above before I entreated Kal “Don’t just stand there, give me a hand!”

“No…” he replied calmly, nodding his head towards me.

“No? Why the…”

“Don’t move” a man ordered.

I suddenly realised that Kal wasn’t nodding to me, but was trying to get me to notice the man that was standing behind me.

Don’t tell me…

“Stay where you are. Don’t move a muscle.” He ordered Kal.

Slowly I turned my head around to see who it was. The first thing I saw was a gun, a pistol, undoubtedly the very same one that belonged to Cutter – only said pistol was being pointed at my head. The man stood but a few feet away with the weapon. He was short in stature; probably about five foot four, with dusty blonde hair and light stubble on his chin. He looked to be in his early twenties, not much older. His age was beside the point though; the man had already fired the weapon and looked like he wouldn’t mind doing so again. And that was something I certainly didn’t want happen, especially considering I was the potential target. He was dead serious and could make me seriously dead.

“Face forward” He ordered me. Being in no position to argue, I complied as I turned back around. Kal also had followed orders and was remaining where he was, with his arms held out far from his sides, palms facing forwards.

Then I heard a swift movement as if the man behind me shifted his body suddenly.

“Don’t even think about it!” he shouted. “Move! Over there. NOW!”

Cutter appeared in my line of sight, metres away, moving from my right hand side to straight ahead, towards Kal.

“Stop there” the man commanded.

Cutter was now standing half way between Kal and where my right line of sight ended.

“Get down on your knees”

“Go to hell” Cutter growled.

“Now!” the man shouted.

Cutter didn’t move, but then I heard a click. The click of the safety being taken off of the pistol.

“Aw hell, if I’d known the safety was on, I could have taken him down” I told myself, though I know I probably wouldn’t have had the courage, nor energy, to do so if I had known beforehand.

Cutter, in respect only for my own life, raised his hands up in the air and began to kneel, following the orders given him.

“So, you can take some orders can you Cutter?” The man said menacingly.

Cutter looked up at him. He didn’t seem to recognise the man, but the man sure knew who he was.

There we were. Kal still stood with his hands raised; Cutter with his knees in the dirt and me with a gun pointed at my head.

Yep, life was good.