Whatever It Takes: Book1 Time of Choices

Book1 Whatever 06



 


Whatever It Takes – Book I: Time of ChoicesPart 6 – Confrontations
 
Zechs had finished his tasks early and headed, as he usually did, to
the garage to see if he could help Antòn, the mechanic. He didn’t mind the extra
work if it meant that he could play around with the cars. And Antòn didn’t seem to
mind having him around. The man was quite a character and it was rather amusing how he
could switch his thick Italian accent on and off at will. In fact he wasn’t even
Italian, as he confessed to Zechs, but according to him ladies just went nuts for men with
sexy accents.
Antòn who was polishing one of Treize’s sedans, looked up when
Zechs entered the building.
"Zechs, just the person I was hoping to see," the man greeted him with a wide
smile. "Help me finish this car, will you."
"What’s in it for me?" The boy threw his long hair over his shoulder. He
had started wearing it in a pony tail during the day so it wouldn’t get in the way.
"Let’s see" The mechanic pretended to think about it for a while, then,
with a humorous twinkle in hie eyes he announced: "I won’t make you sweep the
garage afterward."
"Fair enough!" Zechs laughed as he picked up a cloth. "What’s the
hurry anyway?"
"I still have to make a run to town pick up some parts that have come in and I
can’t be late for my dinner date, can I?"
"Another new lady in your life?" the boy asked.
"No, I’m still seeing Carrie."
The youth feigned surprise, as he buffed down the driver’s side doors. "You have
been together with her for more than 2 weeks now. Is she that hot or is it just that you
have not found anything better yet?"
"Aren’t you a little too young to talk like that?" Antòn swatted at the
blond with the cloth he was using to buff the car.
Zechs smirked. "Tell you what," he offered. "Why
don’t you let me finish up here and you go do whatever it is you have to do in
town."
Hesitating for a moment, Antòn looked at him then at his watch. "Are you sure?"
The blond nodded.
"Thanks, Zechs." The man slapped him on the shoulder.
The boy watched as the mechanic drove off then picked up where he had left off. By the
time he had completed his work on the sedan he was sure Antòn wasn’t coming back
unexpectedly.
Zechs just couldn’t believe his luck. He had been waiting for
an opportunity like this since nearly two month. If he ever wanted to escape this place,
which he had planned on doing from the day he arrived, he needed to get rid of his
electronic bracelet first. But for that he needed tools. A simple screwdriver or a pair of
pliers wasn’t going to do the trick. He needed something a little more sophisticated.
The only place to find instruments like that would be here in the garage. Which was
probably the reason he wasn’t supposed to be in here alone.
It didn’t take Zechs long to find was he thought he would need. He had helped often
enough to clean up the garage over the past weeks to know where everything was located.
Antòn had this place well organized and Zechs had no doubt that he would discover the
disappearance of his tools soon. But Zechs considered it another stroke of luck that
Antòn was going out tonight. So he was probably "closing shop" right after he
got back from town. Which meant he had only this one night to put his escape plan to work.

Still he couldn’t help but feel bad for betraying his friends
trust in him and he hoped that the mechanic wasn’t going to get in too much trouble
because of him.
***
When Antòn returned he noticed with satisfaction that the black
sedan looked spotless, and he made a mental note to thank Zechs later on. But that was
before he decided to finip a p a couple minor repairs and give himself a head start in the
morning. The boy was correct, Antòn was a very organized person who could find his way
around the garage with his eyes closed if he had to. It didn’t take him more than a
few moments to realize that something was amiss.
"Zechs, you damn fool." he growled, as he walked out of
the garage. His first reaction was find the blond and if he had to slap some sense into
him. But just then Treize’s Mercedes pulled up in front of the villa. After a short
moment of hesitation Antòn decided that he had to inform the general. As much as he liked
the blond, he also liked his job and he was probably already in a heap of trouble as it
was.
"Your Excellency?!"
Treize, stopped and turned as he heard the voice of his mechanic behind him.
"What is it, Antòn?"
"I’m sorry to bother you, but… this is about
Zechs."
The general gave a tired sigh his eyes closing momentarily.
How many times have I heard these 4 words over the last 2 month?
And I’m really getting tired of it.
"What did he do?"
"I’m not positive but I think he took some tools from the garage."
One of Treize’s eyebrows jumped up in surprise. "How could that happen? I
thought I made it clear that he wasn’t allowed to be in the garage without
supervision."
The man cringed and gave the general an uneasy look.
"I suppose it was my fault. I had to pick up some parts in town and he volunteered to
finish cleaning the car we were working on while I was gone. When I got back he had
already left. I didn’t notice until about 10 minutes ago that a few instruments were
gone."
"He volunteered? That alone should have set off a dozen alarm bells in your
head," Treize criticized.
"I suppose you are right, Your Excellency." Antòn agreed subdued. "But
maybe I’m wrong about this and he didn’t take them."
"Why, do you believe we are dealing with some kind of tool goblin here?" The
general gave the man a stern look before he turned and walked off. "We will talk
about your disobeying of my orders later on."
"Yes, Sir."
Oh, there was no doubt is Treize’s mind that Zechs had taken those tools. The
question was what was he trying to do. Dear Lord, I hope he wasn’t foolish enough
to try to tamper with his surveillance bracelet.
His stride quickened as he walked to his office to check the control unit that monitored
Zechs’ movement. The ginger-blond man gave a sigh of relieve when he found that it
appeared to be working properly.
What am I going to do with you, Zechs?

***
Zechs, coming from the garden, walked into his room and came to a
sudden halt. Brows furrowed at the disarray he found and the man who appeared to be the
source of the chaos.
"What the hell? What did you do to my room?"
"Your room?" Treize asked, without as much as a trace of humor in his voice.
"If I remember right this room came with the house when I purchased it."
"Right," the boy retorted angrily. "I suppose that gives you the right to
barge in here and throw my stuff around."
"Antòn is missing some tools. Where are they?" the ginger blond man asked,
ignoring the boy’s sarcasm.
So, that’s what you are looking for? Zechs let his gaze
roam, almost rolling his eyes. You checked under the mattress? Oh, please, how dumb do
you think I am?
"If you were planning on attempting to remove your bracelet,
I’d strongly advice against it. There are less painful ways to commit suicide,"
Treize stated bluntly.
There was a quick flicker of concern in the boy’s eyes.
"I take it you didn’t know that the designers of the
device take a lot of pride in the fact that nobody has ever survived an attempt to remove
one of these bracelets?"
Concern turned to shock. Zechs swallowed convulsively, mouth suddenly gone dry.
"You will return the tools immediately, then straighten up the
room," Treize ordered. "fromfrom now on you will stay out of the garage. Did I
make myself clear?"
"Perfectly clear."
"What were you thinking? Let’s assume for only a moment
you would have succeeded and gotten rid of that bracelet, what then? You have no money,
you have no ID, and you have no idea what life on the street is like."
"I would have found a way," Zechs growled, irritated about
the fact that Treize probably was right. I’m sure there has to be something
that’s more dignifying than playing the lackey for you or digging around in your rose
garden?
He didn’t even realize that he had spoken those last words out loud until he saw the
expression on Treize’s face change.
"You are quite an ungrateful little brat, do you know that?" It sounded more
disappointed than angry.
Very well aware that he had gone too far already, but too angry and
stubborn to atone, Zechs retorted. "What exactly am I supposed to be grateful
about?"
quotquot;To begin with, you should be grateful for being here and not
locked up in a labor camp on some resource satellite. Do you have any idea what it took to
keep you out of prison? You can’t even begin to imagine how many strings I had to
pull and favors to call in."
"Well, forgive me for all the trouble I caused you, but I don’t remember ever
asking you to bring me here in the first place. I never asked for your help and quite
frankly I never wanted it," Zechs snapped as he started to walk away past the
general toward the bathroom. But Treize didn’t let that happen. He took hold of the
boy’s arm, an angry sparkle in his eyes the only trace that he was enraged. He
wasn’t going to tolerate Zechs’ lack of manners and respect any longer. Treize
refereferred the use of sugar when dealing with people, but he knew occasionally it took the
whip to bring an overly spirited creature to heel and it seemed that in Zechs’ case a
lash with the whip was long overdue.
Before the boy even could react he was shoved and pinned against the
wall.
"Then tell me, what exactly do you want?" the ginger-blond man asked
coldly, squeezing the boy’s wrists hard enough to leave marks. Blue ewidewide in
shock, Zechs stared at the general. Treize suddenly flipped him over so that he faced the
wall, pressing the boy’s head against it with one hand, while the other hand slipped
into the waistband of his pants. Zechs gasped, froze, too shocked to even fight back, as
the general pushed one knee between his legs, forcing them apart. He could feel
Treize’s body pressed against his, feel him breathing against his neck and he
couldn’t fight back a shudder.
"Is this what you want?" Treize asked brutally. "Did
you think what those guards did to you was bad? Think again. You can’t even begin to
imagine what would happen to somebody with your body and your face in jail. If you were
lucky some high-ranking guard would find interest in you and wouldn’t allow anybody
else to touch you. Otherwise you would probably be passed around like a bottle of cheap
wine. Now how dignifying does that sound?"
As suddenly as he had seized him Treize let go of the blond and stepped back.
"I’m starting to agree with you that bringing you here was a bad idea. So
don’t tempt me or you will find yourself in lock up quicker than you
think," he warned before walking out of the room.
A sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach, Zechs managed to keep himself upright on
trembling legs until doo door closed, he then slummed onto his bed. He closed his eyes and
for the longest time just sat, clearly shaken up. If Treize had intended to scare some
sense into him it had worked. And the worst was that Zechs was very well aware that the
man was correct. He knew that he had been acting like the ungrateful brat the general took
him for. He knew it wasn’t Treize he hated. But his rage against the Alliance and his
built up frustration made him lash out at the only person he could lash out at.
Zechs sighed as he finally rose to his feet. He gazed at the mess in
the room for a moment before he went to retrieve the tools he had hidden in the garden,
not daring to anger Treize any further at the moment.
***
For the next few days Zechs managed to avoid the general, even if it
meant to skip breakfast and eat supper early before Treize got home.
Then in the late evening of the 4th day after their confrontation, the blond
youth walked into the study to exchange the book he had borrowed for another one, unaware
that the general wasn’t in his office working as he usually did after supper. He
found Treize sitting, with a glass of red wine in his hand, over a chessboard. Realizing
that it was impossible to turn around and leave, Zechs gave the man a polite nod, which
was curtly returned.
"I was only looking for something to read," he explained.
Treize just nodded, but when the boy went to one of the large shelves to return the book
in his hand to his original place, the general suddenly asked.
"Did you like it?"
"I beg your pardon?"
"The book, did you like it?"
"Oh, yes," Zechs replied. "I suppose historical fiction has always
interested me."
"Is that so? In that case…" Treize got up, walked over to the shelf himself
and retrieved a large leather bound book. "You might enjoy this one too. It’s
one of my personal favorites."
"Manfredi?! I think I read one of his books before. Thanks, I guess I’ll give it
a try," the blond answered. He was about to turn and leave when the general said:
"This place is much more comfortable than your bedroom. You do
not have to sit up there by yourself you know."
Zechs hesitated for a moment, torn between just wanting to get out of the room and a
strange longing for somebody’s company. "Are you sure I won’t be disturbing
you?"
"How much of a disturbance can reading a book be?" Treize asked in amusement, as
he went back to where he had been sitting. "Feel free to stay if you like."
The boy made himself comfortable on a rug by the fireplace and started reading, unaware
that the general was watching him more than his game-board. The change in Zechs’
attitude had not gone unnoticed.
It appears that my tactic is working. Maybe its time for some
sugar again?
"Do you play chess?" Treize asked after a while. Looking up from his book Zechs
shrugged.
"I used to. I have not played it in quite a while."
"I have not had anybody to play with in a long time either. Would you do me the
honor?"
"Sure, why not?" Zechs put his book aside and went over to the chessboard, where
Treize already set up the figures.
They played quietly for most of the game. The youth, finding the general’s tactics a
little puzzling, stared at the board with furrowed brows.
"Something wrong?" Treize asked. Zechs shook his head as he placed his bishop.
"No, I’m just trying to figure out what you are doing. You can’t win this
game with a defensive only strategy. – Check."
Treize laughed softly as he answered with a castling move (1). "I’m not planning
to. I just like to keep my back covered before starting my own attack."
Zechs’ frown deepened. Just like that his opponent had brought his rook, which had
been stuck behind a wall of pawns, into play and forced the boy to make a defensive move.
The general moved his queen and looked up at the boy. "Checkmate. Nice game."
Zechs growled in frustration as he scowled at the chessboard, replaying every move of the
game in his head, determined to find out where he went wrong.
"I demand a rematch," he declared.
The general smiled softly. "As you wish. But not tonight. It is getting rather
late."
Zechs nodded, as he got up from his chair. Picking up the book he had left by the
fireplace he bid good night to the older man and left. As the youth walked out of the
room, Treize smiled to himself in satisfaction, knowing that he had scored another small
victory on the long road to winning his battle.

TBC
Author's notes:
(1) - A castling move is a defensive move in which both king and rook can be moved at the
same time.

What's to come: Part 7 - Finding Common Ground
Zechs is torn between what he considers his duty toward his family and his growing
feelings for Treize.
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