"He did it, he really did it," Abigail said, closing her eyes briefly and taking a deep breath of relief.
"Not and never doubted it," Yuri said emphatically and calmly. "Saw our boy jump through open car window, is slippery as eel. If you can do that, you can do anything." The two watched from a distance as Dennis Dexter gave his speech. They had made their way back to the upper deck after learning from other guests that the head of Elysium's largest drug distributor and his wife were also there. Unfortunately, from their current position, there was no view of the ring cage and they had not been able to see exactly what had been going on down there. When Dexter finally finished his monologue, he shoved the microphone at one of the henchmen, gave his wife a hard slap on the butt - which seemed to displease her quite a bit - and then left the place with two security guards in the direction of the ship's interior. Yuri nodded to Abigail and the two made their way to Carla, who was still standing at the railing with a pensive expression on her face. Abigail looked around carefully, but couldn't see Viktor anywhere. Perhaps he had already gone to the dining room?
"May we have a word with you?" Yuri asked Carla in a quiet voice. She turned to the TRAP agents and glanced around to see if there were any personnel nearby who might be eavesdropping. Fortunately, there were none at the moment.
"Can I help you?" she replied, maintaining a very calm demeanor to keep up appearances.
"We have information that our target will be having a secret meeting in his private cabin during the finals. Does that mean anything to you and where is that cabin?" whispered Abigail. Carla looked genuinely surprised and played with her earring as she tried to make sense of this new information.
"I don't actually know anything about a meeting. His private cabin is here on this deck, just forward of the bow. It's the largest cabin on the ship, with picture windows and luxury amenities of the finest," she explained. "Of course, whatever he's up to, it would be the perfect opportunity to–"
"Exactly," Abigail interrupted, smiling.
"The door to the cabin won't be unguarded, I can't help you with that problem. However, I can give you this to make it easier," Carla murmured and began to rummage in her purse, pulling something out. "Nice to meet you," she said aloud, smiling and extending her hand to Abigail. As she returned the handshake, she felt Carla press a key into her palm, which she took.
"Our pleasure," Abigail said with a friendly face. She then strolled toward the pool with Yuri while Carla made her way to the indoor area.
"Here, take it," Abigail said to Yuri, now handing him the key. He took a quick look at it and nodded.
"How we proceed?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. The effects of the alcohol still hadn't worn off. Abigail walked to the railing, leaned forward slightly and pointed down. Yuri followed her gesture.
"The Sea Lord has a lifeboat hanging on each side. I'd say you take care of Dexter and then we'll try to hijack one of them and make a dash for it. That's probably our best bet. As soon as they realize he's dead, the security on the boat will stop at nothing to hunt us down. We'll row to shore and be off the hook," she nodded. "I'll wait for Harry and Yanny in our cabin while you deal with Dexter, then head over there and we'll escape together."
"Sounds like... plan," Yuri grumbled.
"Yeah... plan," the programmer confirmed slowly, curling her lips.
Harry groaned in pain as he lay down on the bed with Yanny's help. She had had to support him all the way from the ring to the cabin as he had barely been able to walk on his own. After the fight, when the initial tension had eased and his adrenaline level had dropped, he felt the broken ribs many times more acutely. He could only breathe shallowly, and when Yanny finally helped him out of his top, you could clearly see that there was an almost open rib fracture where Troy had hit him.
"You can't possibly go on fighting like this!" gasped Yanny, staring in horror at the huge bruise.
"I have to, we have no choice," Harry groaned. "From a medical point of view, is there any way we can patch me up to some degree before the finals begin?"
"With the ribs, we don't really have a chance. I can inject a numbing agent into the edge of your ribs that will dull the worst of the pain for a few hours. Now, don't talk and just breathe," she instructed as she opened the bag of medical supplies, pulled out a syringe and vial, and slowly drew the contents into the syringe. He did as she instructed. "We're lucky, as far as I can tell. Your lungs seem fine," she explained after listening for half a minute, then administered the painkiller. "It will take a while for it to take effect. Harry, you can't possibly..." He shook his head and waved it off.
"I've taken my share of beatings in the past and I'm used to injuries. I'll just cover the side as best I can, don't worry," he said, smiling at her. They looked into each other's eyes for a few seconds until Yanny relaxed a bit. He was undoubtedly a good fighter and it wouldn't help him if she let her worries about him get the better of her.
"I... have something for you if you want it," she spoke softly, then stood up from the edge of the bed and began to gently pull up the long skirt of her dress. He swallowed, not knowing how to react. What was she going to do now?
"Yanny...?" he croaked in a dry voice.
"Yes? What is it?" she answered in a whisper.
As if mesmerized, he looked at her, forgetting his pain for a moment as the hem of her skirt slid high above her knees and higher, finally revealing a wide, black lace garter on her right thigh. She watched him and his reaction closely, getting the strong impression that he liked looking at her very much, and smiled.
"Abigail gave me the tip about the garter, a perfect hiding place," she explained, pulling out a thin vial only a few centimeters long, then lowering her skirt again and holding it out to him. Clearing his throat, Harry took the object and examined it. The vial contained a shimmering reddish liquid.
"What is this?" he asked.
"It's a distillate of various active ingredients. It's got all kinds of stuff in it, vitamin supplements, high-dose caffeine, amphetamines of all kinds, and various drugs you can buy around the block," she explained, making an innocent face and running her hand through her purple hair in embarrassment. He looked at her incredulously.
"So that's why you wanted that chemistry set a while back? Drugs?! What exactly do you do while the rest of us sleep at night?" grunted Harry.
"I think I've managed it so that you won't get addicted to this compound. But other side effects are unpredictable, and of course I can't test it on myself. I just thought we might need a dose of the stuff on this job, in case something goes wrong. It would certainly revitalize you..." she continued without answering his question, batting her eyes cutely. He could tell she was doing it to change the subject.
"Is there anything in this stuff that isn't harmful to your health in the long run?" he sighed.
"Yes, the red color comes from pomegranate juice," she explained proudly, giggling. Harry sighed deeply again and turned the vial in his hand, which was sealed with a tiny cork. Meanwhile, the roar of the second semi-final could be heard from outside through the closed door.
"How do you take this stuff?" he asked skeptically.
"Just swallow it," she said curtly, looking at him expectantly. A completely untested stimulant, then, the exact effects of which no one could predict. The finale was coming, and it would undoubtedly be even harder than the fight against Troy.
"Will it make me grow a second head?" he muttered, shaking the vial a little.
"I don't think so," she replied after a moment's thought, tapping the tip of her nose with her index finger. Why did she even have to think about this question? On the other hand... what other choice did he have?
After Roy Hellfist had, as expected, virtually pulverized his opponent - a wiry wrestler from West Elysium - in the ring in the second round, the crowd made its way to the great dining hall. The spectacle had whetted their appetites. Abigail and Yuri took advantage of the general bustle to finally make their way to Dexter's cabin. As if by chance, they strolled down the corridor together, eventually coming into view of two security guards in black suits.
"That must be the right cabin up ahead," Abigail muttered to the slightly swaying hulk beside her, "you gonna be able to handle those two later?" Yuri grunted in confirmation.
"Are you lost?" one of the two guards called to the agents. "The dining room is one floor down, if that's what you're looking for."
"Aaah... no, my wife and I just wanted to tour ship. Is very impressive," Yuri replied with a wry grin and burped. "Come on honey, let's go eat in the hall," he grumbled and Abigail linked arms with him to keep up appearances.
"Yes sugar, let's go," she pressed between her teeth. Then they turned on their heels and were about to head back down the aisle when a lady in uniform approached them with a food cart full of fancy looking delicacies. She was obviously on her way to Dexter's cabin. Yuri looked at the lady and they instantly recognized each other. Lisa Muller raised both eyebrows and just shook her head with a scowl when she saw him with Abigail.
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"Well, we seem to be running into each other a lot these days...and this time your wife is with you," Lisa remarked coldly. "Well, have a nice evening, Mr. Casanova..."
"But I..." Yuri started to explain, but Abigail cut him off with a punch to the ribs.
"Shut up and move along nicely..." she hissed. Yuri looked at Lisa for a moment. What a wonderful walk she had, and how beautifully her ponytail bobbed back and forth as she pushed the food cart. He sighed with a puff. "Did you know the lady?" Abigail asked quietly as they rounded the next corner.
"Only by sight. Lisa her name is. Isn't she beautiful?" he replied, suddenly seeming a little distracted with a dreamy look on his face.
"Tell me, Yuri, you drink like a fish and now you've fallen in love in the middle of a mission?" asked Abigail, looking at him with wide eyes. The giant shrugged.
"I don't know, maybe..." he grumbled, scratching the back of his head.
"Totally unprofessional, don't you think? We're a serious agency. Could never happen to me," Abigail grumbled. Then she felt Viktor's business card scratch the inside of her bra and blushed. "Well, at least I think so..."
The walk to the ring seemed much longer to Harry this time. He could hardly wait for the fight to begin and felt fantastic. More awake than ever in his life, he felt no pain at all, wanted to pull out trees. Cheers erupted as the crowd watched him step into the spotlight. The hood of his cloak hung low over his face again and he looked down at the ground. It was as if the light itself was glittering in thousands of reflections of dust particles, and he had the impression that the cheers of the crowd and the roar of the fanfares were creating the brilliant colors of an exploding rainbow. Colors that, like a volcanic eruption, were hurled by brute elemental force high into the night sky of 86, creating a magnificent image together with the slowly passing skyline of Elysium. It was like a strange fever dream: he was bathing in a fantastic clarity of contours and lights, while waves of surreality kept washing over him.
"We have to keep going," he heard Yanny's soft voice and then felt her hand gently pushing him from behind. Only now did he realize that he had stopped on the way to the ring and stared at the lights of the skyscrapers in the direction of the coast, because they had seemed so fascinating to him. He nodded and together they reached their side of the ring. The intense taste of pomegranate juice still lingered on his tongue. Whatever she had given him to drink, it had been a unique experience. How long would this trip last? He was only peripherally aware of Roy Hellfist stepping into the ring. The bodybuilder was almost a head taller than Harry, wearing skintight orange wrestling trunks and white boots. His naked, impressively toned upper body immediately showed that a large amount of anabolic steroids must have been involved in its formation. On his head he wore a cap of the *Elysium Smogsniffers*. Either he was a true fan of the city's most successful of all sucker-punch soccer teams in town, or he was getting extra advertising revenue by wearing their merchandise. Then the announcer, Travis Campbell, entered the ring. His head was completely wrapped in gauze except for his eyes and a slit for his mouth. Harry watched the sniffer closely as he refused to announce the match from the center of the ring, which would have required him to step closer to Harry. Instead, he croaked his spiel into the microphone while hiding behind Roy's broad back. It basically looked like a newly resurrected mummy introducing the opponents to the audience. When this procedure was finally over and Travis left the ring as quickly as possible, the match was ready to begin. Carla Brandon stood one level above the ring, watching the fight from above, but her husband Dexter was nowhere to be seen. The bell sounded. Hellfist was a different character than Troy, acting more wait and see in the early moments of the fight. The two circled each other, testing their opponent's reaction with hints of punches. Then the bodybuilder went for the first real punch. For Harry, it was suddenly as if he was watching his opponent's movements in slow motion. In his infinitely heightened focus, he was already analyzing his opponent's next move based on his first shoulder movement. He countered the haymaker with an elbow block and responded with a quick hail of chain punches to his opponent's chest. Harry's unusually quick reaction rattled the musclehead. The blows had little effect on the massive body, but they caught him off guard. Hellfist immediately swung with his other arm and this time Harry dodged downward. As the opponent's fist flew just above him, he jumped up from his crouch almost a meter and then landed a full-force kick above the opponent's right kneecap. Roy screamed loudly as his leg buckled and he fell to his knees. Confident of victory, Harry began to cover him again with quick punches, this time to the head. He had reached the point where he no longer needed to think and unleashed techniques that had been practiced countless times and were deeply ingrained in his muscle memory. Hellfist raised his guard and let the blows rain down on his forearms. Then, using the strength of his uninjured leg, he lifted himself up and landed an uppercut to Harry's chin, sending him back over two meters and landing on the ground. Harry definitely felt the impact, felt the blow to his jaw, and yet: nothing hurt. Hellfist immediately limped in his direction, forcing him into a ground fight in which he would have had no chance due to his vastly inferior physical strength. Again, it was as if Harry experienced the moments in slow motion. Lying on the ground, he picked up the momentum with both legs and jumped straight into a standing position like an acrobat, spinning in a flash and delivering a full twist kick right at Hellfist's head. Harry did this so quickly that his opponent didn't even have time to raise his guard. Despite the tremendous blow, Hellfist remained on his feet and staggered around the ring with glassy eyes, trying to comprehend what had just happened. Harry's heart was now beating in his throat and he felt a slight nausea. It had to be the drug cocktail that seemed to be taking too much out of his system. He had to stop the fight before the round was over, and under no circumstances could he give his opponent a chance to recover during the break in the ring. What would happen if the effect of Yanny's serum suddenly wore off? Hellfist staggered toward the barred wall and Harry took off running. The mountain of muscle realized what he was about to do and tried to knock him down with an outstretched arm. Harry ducked under the arm like a limbo dancer at full speed, using the momentum of his run. He ran up the bars of the cage just behind Roy, as if the laws of gravity lost their effect for seconds, pushed off the wall almost to the top of the cage, spun in the air and charged at Hellfist. While still in the air, Harry wrapped his thighs around Hellfist's neck, now sitting on his broad shoulders, and immediately began to deliver terrible elbow strikes to Hellfist's head. The crowd went wild and the atmosphere was at its peak. People had expected an exciting finale, but no one had expected this. Dexter's bodyguard grabbed Harry's legs and tried desperately to loosen the grip around his neck. But the hard blows that came down on his head from above drained the strength from his arms after only a few seconds. He staggered and soon fell straight into the center of the ring, along with Harry, who was still sitting on his shoulders, choking and beating him at the same time. As he hit the ground again, Harry was thrown off his opponent and rolled away from him. Anticipating the next attack, he immediately scrambled back up into a fighting stance, but Hellfist had remained motionless. Was it really over? It was over. Holding his side with the broken ribs, Harry took a deep breath, wondering how much longer he could do this without passing out from the pain. He could see clearly now that his jaw wasn't doing so well either. The gong sounded and the fanfare began again. The cage doors opened and the announcer and two guards entered the ring. Harry, however, only had eyes for Yanny, who immediately ran to him and began examining him to see if any first aid was needed. Shortly after, a lady in a festive dress entered the ring carrying a golden trophy. Harry and Yanny looked at each other for a moment and smiled. Too late, they noticed that Roy Hellfist suddenly began to move again as the two security guards already grabbed the presumed dead man to carry him out of the cage. Rising from his prone position, he pulled the gun from the holster of the guard kneeling in front of him, glanced around and spotted Harry. Then he pulled the trigger. Yanny realized what was happening at the last moment and jumped in front of Harry to protect him. The shot aimed at Harry went off and hit her right in the stomach. Then the bodybuilder collapsed dead and the gun fell from his hand. Screams of horror could be heard throughout the yacht.