Poisoned Rationality

The East Wing detonated with a tremendous bang. It rocked the earth itself and the air burned in their lungs. Nemanja pressed the panic button, but there was really no need. The blast had been heard for miles around. It occurred to him that no-one was actually going to come, but he heard running feet in the corridor and opened the door. A moment later, a gun was pointed at his head and Nemanja, to his shame, wet himself.



On the other side of the inferno, the dust storm was dying and Toma rose from behind the burning settee to discover that the door had been blown off. Outside it looked like Hell itself. From the midst of the smoke stepped a figure, dark like the Devil, and the last thing that Toma saw was the creature raise a gun in his direction; the last thing he heard was the sound of chocolate being snapped off between its teeth.



Mello slowly turned and found the camera. He signalled a thumbs up and strode through the debris and smaller fires towards the corridor on the far side. He waited and the lights turned to green. The door was smouldering, but Mello pushed with a gloved hand and it opened before him. Now he ran into the complex, with the windows smashed on one side and the tiles turning orange and red with reflections. Ahead, another light turned green and Mello grinned. He pushed on through and he was into the front end of the building.



Gunfire raged, but a security door locked shut and Mello was able to run in safety behind it, bullets hitting uselessly against the reinforced glass. A final light turned green and, if all the plans had been correct, he was there. Ljubica rose from her seat and stared at the black-clad demon striding towards her. In perfect Croatian, Mello growled, "Where are the children?"



"You are mistaken. There are no children here." She was reaching behind her for her own gun. The siren, which had been wailing with brain-shaking intensity since the bomb had exploded, suddenly stopped. The silence was deafening.



"Ma\'am, before you shoot me, may I know the name of my murderess?" Mello smiled with a manic glare.



She straightened, the gun held out in front of her, clasped in both hands. "I am Ljubica Pokrajac..." She began, but never finished. She lay dead with her eyes gazing accusingly at her murderer.



"Yes, I heard about you." Mello reached over the corpse and took the keys from her belt. "I was just checking that you weren\'t Andjela, as she\'s been sneaking food to them." He opened the door onto a final corridor, lined with doors. At the very end of them, five children cowered. Mello called out. "Is Luka Martinoviæ here?"



A gangly, dark-haired boy stiffened, but stood. "I am Luka Martinoviæ." He raised his hands.



"Well, Luka Martinoviæ," Mello smirked, "I am M. I told you that I\'d come and get you and here I am. You have been a really clever boy. How would you like to get away from all of this?" The child\'s jaw dropped. "Rest of you, the police have been alerted. They are on their way." Mello bent down to lock eyes with Luka. "Even hearing about Watari was something special. Contacting him was nothing short of genius. Contacting him from this place, now that was really, really good. We\'re already impressed. Want to come?" He held out his hand and the twelve year old took it.



As emergency sirens wailed in the streets outside, the man and boy ran back towards the devastated buildings beyond, skirting a warehouse and dashing across a yard. Luka watched the fabled M lean around a corner and watch the chaos on the other side. "Are you really M?"



"Yes, but you can call me Mello." He grinned, his face transfigured by a scar running from hairline to his neck. "Ah, step back." A car roared into the narrow alleyway in which they stood, stopping with just enough room to open the doors. "And this is Matt. He\'s your friend too." Luka scrambled into the backseat and eyed the redheaded driver curiously. They sped off through an opened gate and into the wasteground behind. Mello continued in English, but Luka understood that too. "Nice work on the doors, Matty. Everything go alright?"



"Yeah, but I had to zero someone."



"Shit, Matt, you ok?" Mello frowned. "There shouldn\'t have been anyone up there!"



"Well there was." Matt lit a cigarette, controlling the wheel with one hand. The car was jolting over rocks and potholes. "It was me or him. I thought he was subdued but... he was a bad shot."



"Right." Mello shrugged. "You made the right decision. You or him, I\'d go for saving yourself everytime." They opened out onto a trackway, where, incongruously, a small aeroplane was waiting. The car pulled up right at the bottom of the stairway into it. Mello turned, switching back to Croatian. "Luka Martinoviæ, it has been a pleasure to meet you and to work with you. This plane will take you to Watari. Give him our love." The last was spoken a touch too sarcastically. "You\'re going to be just fine."



"Mell," Matt spoke, as Luka tried to control his breathing, "what\'s the Croatian for \'if Watari starts going on about rankings, tell him to fuck off\'?"



Mello just bobbed his tongue out and reached across to shake the boy\'s hand. The door was being opened and Luka fearfully took the proffered hand of the pilot. "Thank you." He bit down tears. "You saved us."



"It\'s ok. Luka, you did most of that, we just set fire to things and hacked a computer. You feel proud, because you saved yourself." Mello smiled, kindly. "Now, go on and knock \'em dead. You are going to love The Wammy House."



"Aren\'t you coming with me?" Luka gulped. "Please, M."



Mello patted his arm and signalled to the pilot that it was alright. "No. Me and Matt decided to see a bit of Croatia while we\'re here." He winked. "We needed a holiday."



They watched the plane take off with the boy aboard it, then off into the Slavic countryside. In the distance, the black smoke was seen for miles, until they crossed an horizon and suddenly it was gone.