Bertrand Bonamassa had been found. He was not someone who could defeat members of the Zeta Squad, but he was deceptively strong. Along with his tipsy friends, he had put up a decent fight. But the combined might of Ella and Marcus was still far too much for them to handle. They subdued the miscreants in no time.
"Hey Bert!" Vincent said as the man was brought into the suite by his two captors. "Long time no see!"
"Ah! You!" he exclaimed as he struggled to shake the Mystic and Sokidu off. "Fuck it, Vince! The hell's the meanin' of this?!"
Bert stood six and a half feet tall and was built like a professional weightlifter, but he had a temper as short as the shorts he was wearing. And the way he had been abducted by the Zeta Squad duo from right in between his frivolous activities had made him as angry as he could ever be. Vincent, however, had a way around it all – insults.
"Calm down, short stuff!" he said, looking away. "If only you didn't have that tongue of yours…"
"If only it was ONE-ON-ONE!"
Vincent got up and moved closer to Ella and Marcus. He charged his Ki and gave the tall man a swift punch in the gut. Upon the bounty hunter's signal, the duo let him go. He fell down on his knees clutching his midriff.
"I got this," Vincent whispered and asked the duo to move away, and they did.
On his knees with his face on the ground, Bert said, "Ya little prick!"
"Talk to me, Bert, not your little friend!" Vincent exclaimed in his ear.
He quickly swung at the bounty hunter who evaded the attack comfortably saying, "That the best you can do?"
He was way too fast. Try as he may, the brute could not land even a single punch. Already beaten up and tired, he quickly began panting and sweating profusely.
"You're sweating a fountain, bub," the White Bolt continued taunting. "Save some for the midgets downstairs!"
Neil tried to interrupt but was stopped by Hugo.
"You look as tired as the 97-year-old you've been ploughing since last summer!" Vincent was laughing, easily evading Bert's tired attempts of hitting him.
"Yo, fatso!" he called. "This is even less interesting now than the piece of shit stuck in Fallon's asshole since last Wednesday!"
Fallon kept cheering them on from the side, egging Bert on to keep him going. Sofas were tipped over by the charging man. He even knocked down the trolley loaded with trays and glasses.
Eventually, after he had had his fun, Vincent lured Bert to a corner. As the latter charged for one last time, the bounty hunter trapped him inside a curtain blinding him. The bulky man smashed into a wall putting a dent in it and then fell down with his face in the ground once again.
Vincent moved closer and grabbed Bert by the back of his head. Pulling him out of the curtain, he looked at the Zeta Squad and said, "This is Bertrand Bonamassa, and he too is a tongue-man."
"Well, that explains things," said Gina and the rest of the squad nodded in agreement.
Bert tried to balance himself but could not. Vincent dragged him away from the window and then threw him back-first into a wall.
As the tongue-man fell down, the White Bolt walked closer. "I need to find Derek," he slowly said. Grabbing Bert by his burgundy hair, he picked his head up. "Willing to help me with that?"
Panting, Bert whispered, "Fuck yourself…"
Hugo laughed and looked down as Vincent looked at him and smiled. "Maybe I'll let these guys take over then," the bounty hunter said, looking back at Bert. "They would love to beat you up and wring the information from your sorry ass."
He did not reply. So, Vincent leaned closer and continued in a whisper, "One of my friends here is a Magicist Medic. She can help you with the knee you've been having trouble with."
Bert opened one eye and Vincent let go of his hair. Smiling, he said, "Would I ever come to you without a gift, huh?"
He then got up and signalled for Hugo to take over who had Marcus and Neil pick up the big man. They sat him down leaning against the wall. Hugo walked over to Vincent and asked, whispering, "What knee? Do you really…?"
Vincent interrupted him. "Forget it," he whispered in reply. "We're not giving him anything. We just have to know where Derek is. These tongue-men tend to know about each other's whereabouts."
"Why do ya need him anyway?" Bert asked.
"That's a long ass story, Bert," Vincent replied. "I don't have that much time. Just tell me where he is."
"Well, ya know darn well no one really knows that."
"I am well aware and have met the man twice."
"So, I've heard…"
"Indeed. Now tell me, where is he."
"All I know is that he's somewhere in the West Indies."
Vincent patted Hugo on the shoulder and walked closer to Bert. The captain signalled his teammates to prepare for teleportation.
"I would love a bit more specificity," Vincent said, squatting next to the big man.
"I'm tellin' ya everythin' I know," he replied gulping as he tried to catch his breath. "I'm telling ya everythin' I know."
"How can you be sure he is in the West Indies? Did you meet him there?"
"Look, I met a guy who met him in Barbados at a cricket match or somethin'. But he didn't actually know where he was stayin'."
"A resort maybe?"
"Maybe…"
"A hotel…"
"Could be…"
"How's the knee?"
"Bad."
"Good."
Vincent charged his Ki once more and gave him a swift hit on the head knocking him out. The Zeta Squad was already in place for the teleportation spell. So, he walked over to join them.
"That's it?" Fallon asked staring at the group, wide-eyed.
"Yes," Vincent replied with a nod. But before they could leave, he said, "Just do me one more favour. Tell Samantha I won't be coming home after all."
Fallon nodded as Hugo looked at the prisoner escort with raised eyebrows, but Vincent never looked at him and just kept standing there quietly. Soon after, the team disappeared and reappeared at the Great Stirrup Cay, an island that is a part of the Berry Islands in the Bahamas, albeit in mid-air. Everyone proceeded to land safely.
"Keep your guard up," Hugo said as they gathered. "This is a rogue heavy territory."
Neil asked, "So, what now?"
"Now, it's time to see whether our new escort can find this mystery man."
Vincent smiled as Hugo moved closer to him. "Morph thy spirit unto thy escort," he said, and the duo manipulated their Ki to a matching charge.
"No erratic movements, alright?" Hugo said and placed a hand on Vincent's chest. "And also… this won't hold in a battle situation."
His smile went away as the bounty hunter nodded. "Got it."
The Zaatsu then moved a few steps back. Everyone saw a faint Ki shadow left in his place right in front of Vincent. The bounty hunter stepped ahead and the shadow got absorbed into his Ki networks and vanished.
"Now put another layer on top of it," Hugo said.
Vincent asked, "What for?"
"To hide mine…"
"Oh… right."
The Spirit Morphing technique, developed by ancient Roman spies, was seldom used by anyone because it was risky and required an almost inhuman level of precision. First, a faint Ki shadow was produced using a minimal amount of Ki flowing with zero losses. This shadow was attached to a host's Ki networks. And lastly, the host would place another layer of Ki atop of this shadow to hide it. But all three layers had to be in near laminar flow.
"Holy shit!" Marcus whispered. "Hey, Master Baylis, impressive as it is, do you think that's gonna hold?"
He chuckled. "Yes, Marc," he said. "If anyone can pull it off, it's Vincent."
Vincent observed himself. "Don't sell yourself short, clown. Your Ki control is pretty impressive."
The outer layer of Vincent's Ki had to be flowing with perfect consistency. Even a little break and a man of Derek's potential would certainly sense Hugo's shadow.
Gina looked at Hugo and said, "But his Ki is limited right now."
"Hmm, but this technique doesn't require a lot of Ki," Hugo explained. "All it needs is precision of flow… which he has plenty of, and then good control." Looking at the bounty hunter, he added, "Just don't get into a fight."
Saying that he tore up a small piece of Seeker's scroll paper and handed it to Vincent. He then also broke off a tiny sliver of the graphite tip of his pencil and gave him that as well.
"Hide this under a nail," he said. "Anything goes off plan, the piece of paper will be in your pocket. Just put your hand in your pocket and draw something on the paper. Even a line will be enough… even a dot will be enough for us to know."
With all the preparations done, the squad hitched a boat ride to the Red Bay village, a sparsely populated and remote little settlement at the northwest edge of Andros Island.
It was a quarter past one in the morning, local time, and the weather was pleasant, though the sky was clouded over. The place was quiet. The sound of waves hitting the shore accompanied them as they walked, led by Vincent.
The gang was suppressing their Ki as best as possible, throwing marker spells all around to detect any Ki-charged movement nearby. This was a tough chase, but, as Hugo had discussed with his seniors before, time was of the essence and information was to be had.
A cottage stood alone at the edge of the village, quiet beneath the cloudy sky. Vincent stopped in front of it. Then, without turning around, he raised a hand. The squad froze behind him.