Paul Kane - Arrowhead

I see you, little man, he thought to himself, smiling at how appropriate that phrase was this time. I know who you are. He remembered the battle, the fighters involved. One of them had been smaller than the rest. The more he thought about it, the more he remembered seeing…

A backpack, Javier had spotted a backpack.

Sure, there must have been thousands that looked like the one the kid was gripping. But somehow Javier was sure it was him. There was only one way to prove it, however.

Though he was weak from lack of proper food, Javier had pushed himself forwards, propelling himself through the arms and legs of the prisoners. Some complained, but not for long – he headbutted one and poked another in the eye. Javier had to get over to where the kid was, see his reaction when he caught his gaze. Only then would he be a hundred per cent convinced. Determination drove him onwards.

Sure enough, the boy looked across in his direction. Nothing unusual in that, Javier was causing quite a fuss. But when he stared right at him, Javier saw the fear in his eyes. The boy knew him all right. Even in this half-light, the look of recognition was unmistakable.

"I see you, little man," he said out loud. The kid with the backpack attempted to scramble away. "Hey, you, come back here. You're my ticket out!" There were more shouts of alarm and protest, the other prisoners unable to fathom exactly what was going on.

Finally, Javier came within snatching distance. He reached out with his bound hands and his fingers snagged the strap of the boy's backpack. Summoning all the strength he had left, Javier tugged the boy towards him.

"No!" he shouted, but it was too late. The kid had no footing to lose and so fell easily into the Mexican's clutches.

"I have you now, don't I?" Javier whispered in his ear. "Your friends have caused me much pain."

"I… I don't know what you're talking about."

"I think you do. They don't know who you are, do they? De Falaise? Tanek? Otherwise you wouldn't have been dumped in here with the rest of the dregs." This gained him one or two severe looks from the prisoners, but they did nothing to antagonise him.

"I still don't know-"

"Quiet! We will soon see what you know. Guard! Guard!" Javier began shouting, his voice echoing through the caves. It was crazy to think that his whole survival depended on one of the runts he'd once commanded, one of the men they'd picked up on their rampage through Britain. Javier just hoped that the fuckwit had enough sense to listen to what he had to say. "Guard!"

He saw one of De Falaise's men appear at the entranceway. He flashed a torch into the caves. "What's all this shouting about?"

"It is I, Javier."

"Who?"

"I used to be a Major in your army." I used to command respect, and fear, and wish to again – so listen to me, hear my words… "I need you to fetch De F… the Sheriff. Fetch him quickly."

"Are you off your fucking head? Do you know what time it is? He'll have my balls for breakfast."

"He will have them anyway if you don't give him my message. I have identified one of Hood's men." The guard passed his torch over the boy Javier was holding and cocked his head. The Mexican rephrased what he'd just said. "One of his gang."

"Fuck off. Him?"

"He was with them when they attacked us. I saw him," Javier explained. "Now go and fetch De Falaise."

The guard looked again at Javier's captive, then seemed to think about the consequences if he was wrong. "I'll… I'll fetch Tanek," he told Javier.

So he did. Javier didn't know what he'd said to the big man – and wouldn't like to have been the one to rouse the brute – but within ten minutes the swarthy giant was down in the caves with them.

"It's true, I tell you," Javier promised. "Why would I lie?"

"To get out," Tanek stated without missing a beat.

"Tell him." Javier shook the boy. "Tell him who you are."

The kid remained silent.

"I recognised him. Please, you have to believe me. What harm would it do to make sure?"

Tanek nodded. "Pass him over."

Javier began to ease the boy across, but he struggled. Not only that, some of the people in the cave were aiding him, getting in both Javier and Tanek's way.

They're helping him because he's with The Hooded Man, realised Javier. My God, are they that stupid to risk their lives for him?

Apparently so, because Tanek took out a pistol and began to shoot those closest to him. He put bullets into two people before the crowd began to relent. "Better," said the big man.

He reached over and grabbed the boy by the collar of his tracksuit top, holding him off the ground. Then he put him down and pushed him towards the stairs.

"No… No, wait!" shouted Javier after them. "Where are you going? Tanek… Tanek don't leave me down here with these people!"

But Tanek was gone.

The prisoners mourned for their dead. Then they looked to Javier for revenge. He lashed out at them, warding them off. But the sheer force of the throng was too much. They pulled him down into their sea, hand upon hand, bodies climbing on top of him until he could barely breathe.

Then, just as he thought it was all over, there came a voice: "Let him go. De Falaise has ordered it." It was the young guard again, Javier saw through a crack in the bodies. He was pointing his rifle at the prisoners and they understood what would happen next if they didn't comply.

Javier was spat out of the mass, thrown onto the cold floor in front of the guard. As he was helped to his feet, Javier spat into the crowd, who bayed for his blood.

The guard led Javier up through a corridor in the cave system. It was then that the question was asked of him a first time: how did it feel to be in favour again?

Javier had answered honestly, after touching his wounded ear. "It is better than being dead."

The guard led Javier up and out, through into another part of the caves. It was a place all too familiar. Tanek's torture chamber.

He saw the boy first. Too small to hang in the chains they'd fixed up, the ones Javier knew intimately, they'd tied him to a wooden chair instead, hands strapped to the arms. He looked up as Javier and the guard entered, eyes already wide with panic.

Then Javier saw the duo of De Falaise and Tanek. Like Victor Frankenstein and his hideous monster, they loitered in their underground lair. The difference was that where the famous doctor sought to bring about life, albeit misguidedly, these two brought only suffering and death.

"Major Javier," De Falaise said in greeting. "How nice to see you again." He gave a chilling smile, lips pulling back over those yellow teeth, black eyes twinkling. "Now, is it me or have you lost weight?"

Javier bit his tongue. This kind of goading was De Falaise's speciality. To put a foot wrong now would see him back in the caves with those bloodthirsty villagers.

"Well, do not simply stand there – come inside and make yourself at home. Ah, I forgot, you are already familiar with the surroundings, are you not?"

Javier held his silence.

"What's that?" De Falaise cupped a hand to his ear. "Would you like me to speak louder? Is that it?"

Javier shook his head. "I hear you just fine."

"I am sorry. I do not think I caught that properly." He turned to Tanek. "Did you catch that?"

Tanek admitted that he hadn't.

"I hear you," Javier repeated, but now added, "Sir."

"Sir will suffice, I suppose. But also acceptable would have been 'My Lord', or even 'My Lord High Sheriff'."

Javier grimaced, remembering it was he who'd told De Falaise about that name on his return from Hope. Absently, he wondered what had happened to the woman he'd brought back from there, and whether the Frenchman had dispatched her yet after having his pleasure.

"And how is your relationship with your God, these days? Do you still fear his retribution more than mine?" De Falaise laughed. "Look at you, mon ami. How you have changed. But then, you know what they say: easy come, easy go." De Falaise approached Javier. "I do have one thing to thank you for, however, and that is giving me this important bargaining chip. If it does turn out that the boy belongs to 'Hood', then you will have done well."