Available Darkness Season 1

bring you home. You will be perfectly safe. If we wanted you dead, we would’ve struck during daylight.” Brock glanced up at the sky. “The sun is going to rise any minute, we need to get on with it.”
    “How do I know you’ll let her go?” John asked.
    “If we wanted the girl dead, she would never have left our custody when we took her earlier,” Brock sighed, losing patience with the exchange. “Let’s do this.”
    John glanced back at Larry, who almost imperceptibly nodded his head yes against the weight of reservation.
    John tried to signal to Larry not to worry. He would find a way out of this, he was certain, despite the overwhelming sense of dread pumping through his veins. Right now, this was their only card. Despite his powers, even if he could duplicate the energy blast he had managed to hurl at Larry earlier, he doubted he could do it any more quickly than Larry firing a round at Brock. Either way, Abigail would end up taking a bullet.
    John began to walk towards the van. He glanced at Abigail, who was sucking back a small sea of tears and snot. He winked, as if to say everything would be okay. The lie made her smile, for a moment anyway. The glint in her eyes made him smile.
    He prayed this would not be the last time he’d see her. Without memories of his own life, she was the only thing he had. Without her, he was adrift — reality’s compass broken and more alone than God.

    * * * *

CHAPTER 4 — Abigail and Larry

    Abigail watched as John approached the van. She knew she should be brave and do something, but what? The soldier already warned her that if she tried to do anything stupid, a team of 12 more men, unseen snipers, he called them, would, on his command, kill everyone in sight. She didn’t know if he was lying or not, but she couldn’t take any chances.
    “He can die, you know,” the soldier told her as they walked towards the motel a few minutes earlier, “if they shoot him in the head enough times, he won’t come back to life.”
    So she remained silent. What little fight she had stayed dormant.
    As John walked towards the van, she wondered if she’d made the right decision. Wondered if there was anything she could do to make a difference. In a few moments, they would have him. God only knew what they wanted, but she couldn’t see it ending well for John.
    The gun tightened against her head, as if the man could tell what she was thinking and meant to dissuade her.

    * * * *

    Larry

    Larry watched as John approached the van. The fact that John trusted these men, was further indication of how much of his memory remained blank. Larry could think of at least five different things the old John would have done to neutralize the situation. But Larry wasn’t about what could have been ; he was about being prepared and making things happen.
    He still had one ace up his sleeve, and he was eager to lay it down.
    Before getting out of the van, Larry reached into his pants pocket and retrieved a customized watch he’d kept as a last resort, and strapped it to his left wrist. While it looked and functioned like any other digital watch, it was also a trigger to detonate a nearby series of explosives.
    The gunman briefly lifted his left hand from Abigail’s shoulder to retrieve something from his pants. A remote which opened the van’s side door. He ordered John to climb inside.
    Larry saw something stirring in Abigail, like she had her own ace she was itching to play.
    Shit .
    He had one shot at this and couldn’t afford to have another variable in motion. He narrowed his glare at her, and when she looked into his eyes, he shook his head no.
    John climbed into the van and looked back at Larry, a vow of I’ll figure something out written on his face. The odds of that happening were much dimmer once they had him, though. John had no idea about the power of the forces he was dealing with. The van door slid shut and the lock clicked into place.
    “Okay,” the gunman said to Larry, “we’re walking back to the van. Once I’m inside, I’ll let her go. The inside of the van is lined with lights, the kind that will burn him. If you try anything, I will end John’s life in an instant.”
    Shit.
    Larry figured the soldier had something up his sleeve, but had not counted on the van doubling as a killing device. However, Larry also knew they needed John alive and wouldn’t kill him, unless the guy was as reckless as he was desperate.
    Larry’s window to act was about to slam