the electronic beat, ever increasing to a
mind blowing rate.
Everyone else on the platform
seemed oblivious to what had happened. No one left for the other room or even sat up. No one appeared to notice, no one except
for Annalisa. Outside the entrance
to the lounge, Annalisa had lost expression.
“C’mon!” screamed Cameron.
Annalisa did not hear
Cameron. He seized her arm,
alerting her back from wherever she had checked out to. She turned her still vacant face toward
him, and a glint of recognition filled her eyes. Cameron tilted his head toward Pepe and
the stairwell, and in a normal voice said, “Let’s go.” He was sure that beneath the volume of
the pulsing unearthly music, she could not hear him.
Annalisa nodded and then began
to move toward the exit.
* * *
* *
Chapter 66
Stratosphere, Ibiza
As more of a matter of training
than formal protocol, Cameron remained by the door while Pepe led Annalisa down
the metal stairs to the catwalk. He
mentally divided the VIP level into quadrants and then scanned them one by one
in search of anyone that was not subdued by a drug heavy trance or that
appeared to be taking too much interest in him. Both he and Pepe had seen cameras hidden
among the overhead lights. Regardless whether the occupants of the VIP level had paid attention to
their tussle with security, in a facility this size, someone was watching. Reinforcements were on the way. Confident the level was clear, Cameron
twisted, clutched the rails of the stairwell, and slid down. They had almost crossed the catwalk when
a Black Tee appeared from the exit, took two strides, and then nimbly sprung
forward into a front facing stance. Pepe fluidly dropped into a shallow standing squat, an agile position
giving him the flexibility to launch both attacks and defences against the
formidable Tee.
The open catwalk was a maelstrom
of electronic pulses, bass beats, and a sublime and ethereal, swooning female
chorus.
Panicked by the appearance of
the Black Tee at the exit, Annalisa spun back toward Cameron. Her eyes flashed in horror, alerting
him. He ducked and twisted short of
an attack from a second Black Tee that had managed to elude him on the VIP
platform and shadow them down.
Electric dance music was not
something Cameron ever listened to, yet fighting was like dancing, and he was
exhilarated.
The bass beat was pounding at a
crushing speed. Bright flashes of
brilliant color punctuated lightning fast punches. Cameron kept Annalisa in his
peripheral. She appeared
disoriented, stunned by the rapid strikes and blows, her head switching from
one side to the other. Pepe moved
uncomfortably close, she almost caught an elbow. She shuffled toward Cameron, to a near
miss, as a foot flew past her face. She sidestepped up and down the catwalk, dodging feet, elbows, and open
hands. There was never a need for her
concern. Neither Pepe nor Cameron
broke a sweat, or an expression. The young Black Tees were fluid mechanized warriors. Every move made, whether by Cameron,
Pepe, or the two agile security men, was cool and flowing, and occurring at a
rate that, especially with the deep trance beat, was incredibly rapid, and
remarkably predictable. The
maneuvers were textbook, the only moves to make. As was the maneuver that made Annalisa
gasp, when in unison, Cameron and Pepe positioned themselves on the far sides
of the catwalk fight and their opponents close to her. Between punches, Cameron caught Annalisa’s
eyes go wide and bright, he shot her a devious smile. If she guessed the move was
choreographed, she would have been right. Cameron and Pepe had practiced the move for staged bar brawls and the
next part was Cameron’s favorite. The two gave each other a nod when they were ready, and then each thrust
a body blow to their opponent, penetrating to the true solar plexus, the dense
cluster of nerve cells located
Learning to Kill: Stories