A Love Like War
Drew
Drew checked the settings on the autopilot system and ignored the roaring sound of the rotor blade. The helicopter is wandering above the city lights of Atlantic City, refusing to make a landing just yet. It is his job to make sure that they don’t land until it is safe to do so.
His fingers roamed to the center console of the helicopter as he adjusted the panels. Eyes dilating, Drew turned to glance at his partner, AK. The blonde is pulling at wires inside a bomb that is timed to explode in about five minutes. For once, Drew feared for his life, as he never had before. They have about five minutes to detonate the bomb and land on top of the Sands casino before Flintson gets away with the blueprint. It all seems impossible at this point.
“Come on, AK, we're about two-hundred feet from the building," Drew yelled, exasperated.
AK pulled out tweezers from a nearby duffel bag and squinted his eyes at the tangled mess of wires that fell out of the black box. Drew shook his head profusely and turned to focus on the whereabouts of the helicopter.
"Hold on, mate, I got this," AK replied, his Welsh accent drowned out by the running blades above the helicopter.
Drew knows better than anyone that AK is more than capable of detonating a bomb. They’ve had missions where his skills and understanding of the workings behind bombs saved their ass from blowing up into pieces. However, Drew is worried this time around. For one, the helicopter is close enough to the ground that if the bomb blew up, civilian casualties would not be spared. Second, Flintson is smarter than they all thought. He sent this helicopter as a decoy with a running time bomb, knowing the agents will fall for his trap.
He is getting away with the actual copy of the blueprint as the agents worked their way back to the casino; and Drew is wondering if AK could detonate the bomb in time under all of this pressure. He can already feel the pressure and sense of responsibility clouding his judgment.
“We do not have enough time, one hundred and fifty feet!”
Drew decided to stay leveled on this altitude even though it would buy Flintson more time to escape; if they get blown up into bits and pieces, the least they can do is prevent that from happening to civilians. But the helicopter is already close enough to the ground that vacationing gamblers are pointing up at them as they exited the casino with their winnings.
So much for a covert mission, Drew thought bitterly to himself.
“Just give me three more minutes!” AK shouted.
Drew’s eyes widened.
“AK!” He exclaimed.
“I’m kidding!” AK laughed lightly, dropping the tweezers as he got up from his position on the floor.
Drew’s eyebrows furrowed in question. It is alike AK to keep the mood light during tense moments like these. Honestly, it is how the pair kept sane under these circumstances. Since Drew tends to get a bit uptight at times, it is AK’s responsibility to make sure that jokes or mere humor are being thrown around.
“Did you detonate it?” The uptight agent asked.
“Yes, start landing, Drew!”
Drew sighed in relief as he started lowering the helicopter, mouthing off mental measurements to make sure they land directly on top of the casino building. As he was doing that, he pictured AK giving him looks for muttering his measurements aloud.
“Dude, Flintson and his men are waiting for us at the roof!” AK exclaimed as Drew placed his hand on the throttle.
Drew’s eyes widened while he looked out on the right side of the windows. To his absolute surprise, a group of men in nice-fitted suits stood on the rooftop with their guns pointed at them. The agents expected Flintson and his men to run, not attack. Drew made note of a man holding the brown colored briefcase before releasing the pedals with his foot.
“Do you have enough ammo?” He turned to AK as the helicopter pulled to a stop.
“Ya, what about you, mate?”
Drew made a sound of affirmative as he pulled his glock out from his belt. The men outside already started shooting at the side of the helicopter, but none of the bullets went through. From the corner of his eyes, Drew saw AK pull out his gun as well.
“Go for the dude with the briefcase, okay? The blueprints are in there. I’ll distract the rest.”
AK glanced at his partner hesitantly as Drew pointed for him to exit through the left doors. He eyed the well-dressed gunmen from the right side window and then looked at him.
“Drew…”
“I’ll be fine, get the blueprints," Drew reassured.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before AK finally nodded in agreement.
“Be safe, bro!” Drew called out to him as he quietly exited out from the left door.
Holding his breath, Drew kicked open the right side door with his glock firmly in hand. As soon as the doors opened, he was met with flying bullets.
“Here we go.”
“So what do you think about that one over there?” Drew gestured toward an auburn haired woman who walked by the bar.
AK rolled his eyes at his partner, shaking his head in disappointment. He pushed another shot glass toward Drew and stared him down expectantly until he downed it.
“You want to settle down with one woman?”
Now it is Drew’s turn to roll his eyes at AK. AK is a charming guy with a Welsh accent and electric blue eyes, making it easy for him to attract good-looking women. It seems to Drew that AK will never settle down with anybody. There are too many women out there flocking at him for him to pick just one.
“I need to ask you something, AK. Just answer me honestly and don’t you dare laugh, alright?” Drew pointed his index finger at the blonde.
AK scoffed.
“Aw-righ’ I promise.”
Drew picked up another shot glass and stared at it in thought.
“Do you believe in true love?”
Knowing him, AK would laugh at Drew for being such a hopeless romantic. It has always been this way. Drew has known AK since he moved from Cardiff during their middle school years, and if there is someone who knows Drew better than Drew, it is definitely AK. They have been best friends since middle school, and are now partners and CIA agents working in the same headquarters in LA.
AK always carried the reputation of courting girls with some golden one-liners, while Drew was always seen wearing his heart out on his sleeves—but only for the right one. Now, the right one hasn’t shown up in his life yet.
“I thought true love might be real until you filed for divorce with Cora,” AK replied, a bit more genuinely than he’d expected.
Drew wrinkled his nose in distaste of the subject. Despite the divorce, he doesn’t and will never hate Coralline. The problem with their marriage was that they married young and moved along with their relationship too quickly. They have a six-year-old daughter together, which is the reason why the former couple remained such good friends.
“Okay, that does not count! I married her because she was pregnant with my child, not for love!”
It is true. Cora and Drew dated for most of high school, and during senior year, unprotected sex and miscalculations regarding pills changed both of their lives forever. At the time, Drew thought maybe she would turn into his true love since they had a child on the way, but a few years into the marriage, he realized how wrong he had been. They didn’t work out the way he had wanted them to.
“You still did marry her, did you not?”
“I did, but…”
“No Drew, no excuses!”
He stared at AK, trying to think of a better way to convince him that true love does exist. In truth, he is trying to convince AK so he can convince himself that there is, indeed, another chance for him.
It is hard for a CIA agent to find love. Not only that, Drew spends a lot of his downtime doing historical research since it is his undercover occupation. Apparently, women prefer men like AK over geeky historians like Drew.
If he weren’t a CIA agent, he would have been an actual historian, working researches for various museums. Drew majored in history at university and got an actual degree before joining the CIA. So he assumes that it is inevitable for someone like himself to have a hard time finding a woman who finds him appealing. Being an agent does not change the fact that Drew does not attract the opposite gender.
The silence between the pair was disrupted by the ringtones of their cell phones. They eyed each other knowingly, aware of the fact that simultaneous phone calls meant only one thing. Another mission.
They both picked up at the same time.
“Radetzsky.”
“Gentry.”
“Agents, we need you down here at the headquarters in ten, can you guys do that?” the head of their department, Wilson, replied.
Drew glanced at the clock behind the bartender and nodded at AK.
“Yes sir, we can,” AK said.
“Very good, Agent Gentry. And I am assuming you are with Agent Radetzsky, am I right?”
“Yes sir,” he repeated.
They both shared a look as they ended the phone conversation.
“Let’s go.”
“So a group of five French men killed two American tourists at the Musée D'Orsay before snatching the original model of the Guillotine.”
Drew’s eyes glistened in excitement while AK tilted his head at Wilson in confusion.
“The 1870 Guillotine model?”
“The Musée Dee what?”
Drew glared at the blonde for knowing nothing about the historical artifact before turning his gaze back to Wilson. The department head pursed his lips, waiting for them to give him their attention before continuing.
“The Musée D'Orsay is in…”
“Paris,” Drew interrupted, earning a glare from Wilson.
Wilson gestured toward the diagram on the high-tech screen, showing both the 1792 and 1870 models of the Guillotine. The history fanatic raised an eyebrow in confusion, wondering why they even bothered pulling up the image of the 1792 model. The one at the museum, or at least it was, is the 1870 model.
“Drew, I can feel your erection from here,” AK muttered as they stared upon at the diagrams.
“You do not understand, the Guillotine has over two hundred years of history and I can give you an explicit description of when it was first used during the French Revolution. And no, it did not end after the revolution, mind you, people were still executed in the 20th century, how unbelievable is that?” Drew exclaimed.
“Radetzsky?” Wilson cleared his throat.
“Yes sir?”
“Shut up, will you?”
“Yes sir!”
He stopped talking, glaring at AK when he silently laughed at his partner.
“So this model on the right…”
Drew opened his mouth only to be stopped by Wilson’s glare.
“… the 1870 model was taken during a security breach at the museum and it was replaced with the model on the left, which is an older model.”
“The one used during the French Revolution,” AK finished, shooting Drew a satisfied look as he said this.
“Yes, that is right. How they got possession of the oldest model, I have no idea, but that is what we need to find out. That, and recover the artifact back to Paris, and catch them on account of manslaughter.”
Drew nodded slowly, letting a grin take over his face.
“What now, Radetzsky?” Wilson asked, noticing the change in his expression.
“Well, the thing is, the 1792 model was later destroyed in favor of a new updated version. You see, the mouton and blade from the old one wasn’t sharp enough to penetrate through skin and bones. They had to bring that sucker down at least five or six times before they finally decapitate someone.”
Wilson rolled his eyes but kept his patience.
“Then explain why the replacement is a 1792 model.”
“Easy, they’ve built it. You know, if you have the right materials, you can easily build an actual Guillotine.”
“Cool! Let’s build a Guillotine, mate!” AK glanced at his partner in excitement.
Drew nodded in agreement.
“That’ll be Guillotine number four for me.”
AK stared at him in disbelief.
“You’ve built three Guillotines?”
Drew nodded casually, turning his attention back to the impatient Wilson.
“Sir, what do you want us to do now?” he asked sheepishly.
The department head cleared his throat once more and started explaining.
“We have reason to believe that the group of five traveled to New York City, but it is advised that we do not take action yet. We need to run a background check on all five men, trace their patterns, and collect as much information about them as we can before we find the right time to strike.”
AK and Drew shared nods.
“Go find the team, they have all the information about the men ready for you to divulge into.”
They both turned from Wilson, preparing to head to their tech team before they were stopped by Wilson.
“And Radetzsky?”
“Sir?”
“Please do not put the tech team to sleep with your textbook knowledge.”
Drew opened his mouth in protest, only to be shoved out of the room by AK.
“Shh, you’ve said enough for the two of us,” he chuckled as they finally made it out of Wilson’s office.
His fingers roamed to the center console of the helicopter as he adjusted the panels. Eyes dilating, Drew turned to glance at his partner, AK. The blonde is pulling at wires inside a bomb that is timed to explode in about five minutes. For once, Drew feared for his life, as he never had before. They have about five minutes to detonate the bomb and land on top of the Sands casino before Flintson gets away with the blueprint. It all seems impossible at this point.
“Come on, AK, we're about two-hundred feet from the building," Drew yelled, exasperated.
AK pulled out tweezers from a nearby duffel bag and squinted his eyes at the tangled mess of wires that fell out of the black box. Drew shook his head profusely and turned to focus on the whereabouts of the helicopter.
"Hold on, mate, I got this," AK replied, his Welsh accent drowned out by the running blades above the helicopter.
Drew knows better than anyone that AK is more than capable of detonating a bomb. They’ve had missions where his skills and understanding of the workings behind bombs saved their ass from blowing up into pieces. However, Drew is worried this time around. For one, the helicopter is close enough to the ground that if the bomb blew up, civilian casualties would not be spared. Second, Flintson is smarter than they all thought. He sent this helicopter as a decoy with a running time bomb, knowing the agents will fall for his trap.
He is getting away with the actual copy of the blueprint as the agents worked their way back to the casino; and Drew is wondering if AK could detonate the bomb in time under all of this pressure. He can already feel the pressure and sense of responsibility clouding his judgment.
“We do not have enough time, one hundred and fifty feet!”
Drew decided to stay leveled on this altitude even though it would buy Flintson more time to escape; if they get blown up into bits and pieces, the least they can do is prevent that from happening to civilians. But the helicopter is already close enough to the ground that vacationing gamblers are pointing up at them as they exited the casino with their winnings.
So much for a covert mission, Drew thought bitterly to himself.
“Just give me three more minutes!” AK shouted.
Drew’s eyes widened.
“AK!” He exclaimed.
“I’m kidding!” AK laughed lightly, dropping the tweezers as he got up from his position on the floor.
Drew’s eyebrows furrowed in question. It is alike AK to keep the mood light during tense moments like these. Honestly, it is how the pair kept sane under these circumstances. Since Drew tends to get a bit uptight at times, it is AK’s responsibility to make sure that jokes or mere humor are being thrown around.
“Did you detonate it?” The uptight agent asked.
“Yes, start landing, Drew!”
Drew sighed in relief as he started lowering the helicopter, mouthing off mental measurements to make sure they land directly on top of the casino building. As he was doing that, he pictured AK giving him looks for muttering his measurements aloud.
“Dude, Flintson and his men are waiting for us at the roof!” AK exclaimed as Drew placed his hand on the throttle.
Drew’s eyes widened while he looked out on the right side of the windows. To his absolute surprise, a group of men in nice-fitted suits stood on the rooftop with their guns pointed at them. The agents expected Flintson and his men to run, not attack. Drew made note of a man holding the brown colored briefcase before releasing the pedals with his foot.
“Do you have enough ammo?” He turned to AK as the helicopter pulled to a stop.
“Ya, what about you, mate?”
Drew made a sound of affirmative as he pulled his glock out from his belt. The men outside already started shooting at the side of the helicopter, but none of the bullets went through. From the corner of his eyes, Drew saw AK pull out his gun as well.
“Go for the dude with the briefcase, okay? The blueprints are in there. I’ll distract the rest.”
AK glanced at his partner hesitantly as Drew pointed for him to exit through the left doors. He eyed the well-dressed gunmen from the right side window and then looked at him.
“Drew…”
“I’ll be fine, get the blueprints," Drew reassured.
They stared at each other for a few seconds before AK finally nodded in agreement.
“Be safe, bro!” Drew called out to him as he quietly exited out from the left door.
Holding his breath, Drew kicked open the right side door with his glock firmly in hand. As soon as the doors opened, he was met with flying bullets.
“Here we go.”
“So what do you think about that one over there?” Drew gestured toward an auburn haired woman who walked by the bar.
AK rolled his eyes at his partner, shaking his head in disappointment. He pushed another shot glass toward Drew and stared him down expectantly until he downed it.
“You want to settle down with one woman?”
Now it is Drew’s turn to roll his eyes at AK. AK is a charming guy with a Welsh accent and electric blue eyes, making it easy for him to attract good-looking women. It seems to Drew that AK will never settle down with anybody. There are too many women out there flocking at him for him to pick just one.
“I need to ask you something, AK. Just answer me honestly and don’t you dare laugh, alright?” Drew pointed his index finger at the blonde.
AK scoffed.
“Aw-righ’ I promise.”
Drew picked up another shot glass and stared at it in thought.
“Do you believe in true love?”
Knowing him, AK would laugh at Drew for being such a hopeless romantic. It has always been this way. Drew has known AK since he moved from Cardiff during their middle school years, and if there is someone who knows Drew better than Drew, it is definitely AK. They have been best friends since middle school, and are now partners and CIA agents working in the same headquarters in LA.
AK always carried the reputation of courting girls with some golden one-liners, while Drew was always seen wearing his heart out on his sleeves—but only for the right one. Now, the right one hasn’t shown up in his life yet.
“I thought true love might be real until you filed for divorce with Cora,” AK replied, a bit more genuinely than he’d expected.
Drew wrinkled his nose in distaste of the subject. Despite the divorce, he doesn’t and will never hate Coralline. The problem with their marriage was that they married young and moved along with their relationship too quickly. They have a six-year-old daughter together, which is the reason why the former couple remained such good friends.
“Okay, that does not count! I married her because she was pregnant with my child, not for love!”
It is true. Cora and Drew dated for most of high school, and during senior year, unprotected sex and miscalculations regarding pills changed both of their lives forever. At the time, Drew thought maybe she would turn into his true love since they had a child on the way, but a few years into the marriage, he realized how wrong he had been. They didn’t work out the way he had wanted them to.
“You still did marry her, did you not?”
“I did, but…”
“No Drew, no excuses!”
He stared at AK, trying to think of a better way to convince him that true love does exist. In truth, he is trying to convince AK so he can convince himself that there is, indeed, another chance for him.
It is hard for a CIA agent to find love. Not only that, Drew spends a lot of his downtime doing historical research since it is his undercover occupation. Apparently, women prefer men like AK over geeky historians like Drew.
If he weren’t a CIA agent, he would have been an actual historian, working researches for various museums. Drew majored in history at university and got an actual degree before joining the CIA. So he assumes that it is inevitable for someone like himself to have a hard time finding a woman who finds him appealing. Being an agent does not change the fact that Drew does not attract the opposite gender.
The silence between the pair was disrupted by the ringtones of their cell phones. They eyed each other knowingly, aware of the fact that simultaneous phone calls meant only one thing. Another mission.
They both picked up at the same time.
“Radetzsky.”
“Gentry.”
“Agents, we need you down here at the headquarters in ten, can you guys do that?” the head of their department, Wilson, replied.
Drew glanced at the clock behind the bartender and nodded at AK.
“Yes sir, we can,” AK said.
“Very good, Agent Gentry. And I am assuming you are with Agent Radetzsky, am I right?”
“Yes sir,” he repeated.
They both shared a look as they ended the phone conversation.
“Let’s go.”
“So a group of five French men killed two American tourists at the Musée D'Orsay before snatching the original model of the Guillotine.”
Drew’s eyes glistened in excitement while AK tilted his head at Wilson in confusion.
“The 1870 Guillotine model?”
“The Musée Dee what?”
Drew glared at the blonde for knowing nothing about the historical artifact before turning his gaze back to Wilson. The department head pursed his lips, waiting for them to give him their attention before continuing.
“The Musée D'Orsay is in…”
“Paris,” Drew interrupted, earning a glare from Wilson.
Wilson gestured toward the diagram on the high-tech screen, showing both the 1792 and 1870 models of the Guillotine. The history fanatic raised an eyebrow in confusion, wondering why they even bothered pulling up the image of the 1792 model. The one at the museum, or at least it was, is the 1870 model.
“Drew, I can feel your erection from here,” AK muttered as they stared upon at the diagrams.
“You do not understand, the Guillotine has over two hundred years of history and I can give you an explicit description of when it was first used during the French Revolution. And no, it did not end after the revolution, mind you, people were still executed in the 20th century, how unbelievable is that?” Drew exclaimed.
“Radetzsky?” Wilson cleared his throat.
“Yes sir?”
“Shut up, will you?”
“Yes sir!”
He stopped talking, glaring at AK when he silently laughed at his partner.
“So this model on the right…”
Drew opened his mouth only to be stopped by Wilson’s glare.
“… the 1870 model was taken during a security breach at the museum and it was replaced with the model on the left, which is an older model.”
“The one used during the French Revolution,” AK finished, shooting Drew a satisfied look as he said this.
“Yes, that is right. How they got possession of the oldest model, I have no idea, but that is what we need to find out. That, and recover the artifact back to Paris, and catch them on account of manslaughter.”
Drew nodded slowly, letting a grin take over his face.
“What now, Radetzsky?” Wilson asked, noticing the change in his expression.
“Well, the thing is, the 1792 model was later destroyed in favor of a new updated version. You see, the mouton and blade from the old one wasn’t sharp enough to penetrate through skin and bones. They had to bring that sucker down at least five or six times before they finally decapitate someone.”
Wilson rolled his eyes but kept his patience.
“Then explain why the replacement is a 1792 model.”
“Easy, they’ve built it. You know, if you have the right materials, you can easily build an actual Guillotine.”
“Cool! Let’s build a Guillotine, mate!” AK glanced at his partner in excitement.
Drew nodded in agreement.
“That’ll be Guillotine number four for me.”
AK stared at him in disbelief.
“You’ve built three Guillotines?”
Drew nodded casually, turning his attention back to the impatient Wilson.
“Sir, what do you want us to do now?” he asked sheepishly.
The department head cleared his throat once more and started explaining.
“We have reason to believe that the group of five traveled to New York City, but it is advised that we do not take action yet. We need to run a background check on all five men, trace their patterns, and collect as much information about them as we can before we find the right time to strike.”
AK and Drew shared nods.
“Go find the team, they have all the information about the men ready for you to divulge into.”
They both turned from Wilson, preparing to head to their tech team before they were stopped by Wilson.
“And Radetzsky?”
“Sir?”
“Please do not put the tech team to sleep with your textbook knowledge.”
Drew opened his mouth in protest, only to be shoved out of the room by AK.
“Shh, you’ve said enough for the two of us,” he chuckled as they finally made it out of Wilson’s office.