~Chapter 25~
Josh, Scarlet, and Sniper entered the room just as the Informer breathed his last.
Max ran forward to where Emma was still trying to shoot the bloodied and mangled corpse of James Hughes. He grabbed the gun with one hand and caught her as she slumped forwards with his other. He had to fight to hold her back as she lunged forward in an attempt to beat the dead body with her bare fists.
“Emma! Emma, calm down!”
“He shot him!!! The bastard shot him!!!”
Max pulled her back and they fell against the railing of the command platform. He kissed her head and whispered softly to her, trying to calm her down.
Scarlet looked over and noticed Nathan standing over the body of the Hacker.
Blood streamed down from a hole in the center of the man’s head.
Nathan looked up at her from his smoking gun.
“He reached for the pistol, it was reflex.”
She nodded at him, “I know… Nathan?”
The ragged Merc nodded, “I know.”
The two of them went over to stand a short distance from where Lexy sat, cradling Wraith’s head in her arms.
Josh knelt beside her, his arms around her.
Max managed to get Emma to her feet and lead her over to stand next to Scarlet. They stood there looking down at Wraith, and Emma burst into a fresh wave of tears.
Josh got up and looked around the group.
“Listen everyone, I know… I know this is going to be hard but… we have to go. We stick to the plan, set the charges and destroy this hell hole.”
Everyone nodded in agreement, but no one took their eyes from the body of their friend.
~Epilogue~
~The 4th of July, 2019- Regency Building, NY
Samuel Grayson looked over the long table, his cold gray eyes taking in the many businessmen, women and criminals seated around it.
He looked towards the door as Jay Marcos entered and nodded to him before taking his seat near De Carlos.
Samuel looked around at the men and women again.
“Today, is a turning point in the history of this organization. Today is the day we make what may be the most drastic change this Board has ever even considered.”
Uncertain glances were exchanged; a kind of restlessness filled the room.
Samuel continued, “As of the end of the day today, James Hughes will no longer be of any concern to this Board. For all we know, he may no longer be of any concern to anyone.”
The implication of his words caused even more consternation among the Board members.
“As of today, I am taking the lead and declaring myself the new Chairman of the Board and the new head of the Taske Empire.
And, from this day forward, I plan to legitimize any and all actions of this Board.”
Marcos raised his hand and posed a question.
“Excuse me, Sir, but how is this going to turn out to be profitable for this organization?”
Samuel had given Marcos and De Carlos a sort of script the day before.
“As we all know, criminal endeavors cost a lot more and have a higher risk-factor than usual ones. This way we will be able to gain more profit from not needing to pay for heightened security, and the risk of government intervention will be severely diminished. In fact, after some time we will be able to acquire some government contracts which will also increase profit and prestige.”
A bald man with a snake tattooed on his scalp raised a hand.
“Viper, isn’t it? You have a question?”
Viper shook his head, “No, no question, just wanted to tell you that you are full of crap.”
Samuel smiled slightly, and that cold smile sent shivers down the assassin’s spine.
“Thank you for that bit of brilliant inspiration. Now, if you all will look at the folders before you, I have given you a list of a few contracts I have already lined up and the estimated numbers that accompany them.”
The shuffling of papers filled the background as the Board members looked through the folders. Surprised murmurs soon followed as they read the estimates.
Samuel waited until they had all finished.
“Now you have seen my proposal and seen the benefits such a move will bring us, shall we vote on it?”
The vote was taken and the decision was almost unanimous.
Everyone looked up startled as Viper rose to his feet and slammed his chair into the table.
His growling voice echoed through the room, “I resign.”
Samuel watched him go, no emotion showing from his icy gray eyes.
“If there is no one else who feels they need to leave, then do so. If not, we can move on to our next point of business.”
~The 4th of July, 2019- James Hughes’ Villa, California
The charges had all been set, each one strategically placed in a manner that would have made Wraith proud. Josh and Scarlet had taken all their spare ammo and placed them in the kitchen’s ovens, then put the oven on a slow bake. Lexy, Emma and Sniper had gone around and opened all the natural gas valves and any other flammable substance they could find they dumped or released. It took them nearly four hours to complete their destructive preparations.
Finally, Nathan brought Wraith’s body out and laid him gently on one of the couches in the living room area. He knelt by the still form and folded the Informer’s arms across his chest.
He looked up at the others, who where all watching him quietly.
“He would have wanted it to end this way. He’s already had his funeral.”
Josh nodded and each went to stand next to the couch that was to be the master-planner’s final resting place. Josh and Nathan said nothing; there was nothing for them to say. Scarlet looked down at the body of her longtime friend, tears rolling down her face. Then she leaned forward and kissed the cold forehead.
Lexy was next, and she knelt by the body and wept bitterly.
“Why did you do it? That bullet was meant for me!”
Josh came forward and put his hands on her shoulders. She turned and buried her face in his chest, sobbing uncontrollably. Josh turned to the others, his eyes cold and somber.
Nathan nodded towards the door that lead outside.
“Take her outside and calm her down. We’ll finish up in here and be out shortly.”
Josh nodded and gently guided his grief-stricken wife out of the central complex and across the bridge.
Sniper came to stand beside the couch, his eyes dry but hollow.
“It was good working with you; it won’t be the same with you gone.”
Emma came to stand next to him, and the mercenary put an arm protectively around her shoulders.
“Wraith, I didn’t know you long, but I could tell you were a great man. You were loyal and trustworthy, and in this world that is a rare thing to find in a person. I just hope you know how much we all will miss you.”
With that the two of them turned and left the building.
The six of them met on the bluff looking out towards the domed structures that made up James’ Villa. The setting sun glinted on the stones and would have made a beautiful sight, had the circumstances been different.
Max walked to the edge of the cliff and, taking the rifle off his back, let it fall into the blackness below. Then he took out his Rugers and, ejecting the clips into the darkness, let the pistols follow the rifle and the clips.
He turned away from the edge of the cliff and went to stand next to Emma. He put his arm around her shoulder and looked over at Josh, who still held Lexy close. She had calmed down, but her eyes were red and swollen.
“I’m done.”
Josh nodded once, “You were a good soldier, and will always be a good friend.”
Nathan held the two detonators, one in each hand.
He looked over at Josh, “You want to say anything?”
Josh looked out at the large central dome, the sun reflecting in his sharp gray eyes.
“It’s ironic, that today is the Fourth of July. Wraith’s real name was James Regal; he was a patriot, a warrior, a friend and a brother. He fought for freedom all his life, starting with the Marines Corps, then the CIA, and then to working alongside with me to avenge the deaths of Mariah and Mara. He helped protect me, my family, and our country. And he did what any of us can only hope to do; he died in the line of duty.”
Josh nodded to Nathan, who raised his hands clutching the detonators.
“It aint no twenty-one gun salute, old buddy, but it’ll have to do.
The blast was spectacular. The whole area was awash in the brilliance of the explosion. So bright was it that the watchers had to avert their eyes. But, after the initial blast was over, they turned to watch the rest of the place burn.
Nathan stared at the flames licking the sky. Until then, he had not shed a tear. But, now, a tiny teardrop ran down his cheek.
As he watched the flames, a verse from a poem he had once heard came to mind, and he recited it aloud before, finally, turning away.
“Can this be death-
To be released from fear and sorrow,
From sickness, weariness and pain?
To be removed from sin’s enslavement,
From Satan’s influence and domain?”
-To Be Concluded in Taske Force 3: Checkmate-
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
~Chapter 24~
Nathan cautiously entered the freezer, MP5 at the ready and eyes darting all over.
“You would have to be damn insane to hide in here.”
The frozen carcass of a cow just to his left shifted slightly and, completely out of reflex, Nathan riddled it with bullets. The frozen pieces of the cow fell to the floor in chunks, revealing nothing behind it.
Nathan relaxed slightly, and that was when the guard stepped out from the back of the freezer and fired three shots with his P229.
“AWW! SHIT!”
One of the bullets left a groove in the top of Nathan’s shoulder, cutting through the black material of Nathan’s shirt.
Nathan fumbled with the clasp on the holster at his side and, finally, drew his Colt and placed a .45 bullet in the man’s shoulder.
The Guard spun around and landed face-first on the cold metal freezer floor.
Nathan approached and placed the barrel of the Colt against the back of the man’s neck.
“Screw you.”
The gun roared and the man jolted, then went still.
Nathan swept the rest of the freezer and, finding nothing, walked out of the newly-made frozen tomb.
Wraith met him at the door and looked questioningly at Nathan.
Nathan shrugged, “Nothing to worry about, just had to take care of a stray.”
Lexy looked over Nathan’s shoulder and saw the man lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
“Um… how did that go?”
Nathan slipped the clip out of the handle of his gun and, reaching into his pocket, pulled out three .45 caliber bullets.
“Kinda messy, but could have ended worse.”
He manually loaded one bullet into the pistol and replaced the two bullets in the clip. He slid the clip home and holstered it again.
Emma approached and stared at Nathan’s shoulder.
“Nathan, you’ve been shot!”
Nathan reached up and touched his shoulder. He grimaced at the blood that covered his fingers.
“Damn… ‘spose yer right.”
Ignoring the injury, Nathan switched his MP5 to the other hand and looked to Wraith.
“We ready to go?”
Wraith nodded and the team moved out of the kitchen. The Informer halted them just before they reached the bridge leading to James’ headquarters.
“Okay, listen: there is a security booth at the end of the bridge, just before you get to the door. We need to clear the booth before we can move on to the command center.”
Nathan nodded, “Good deal. Let’s go.”
“Emma, stay at the rear.”
Emma nodded and moved behind Lexy.
The team moved forward, Nathan taking point.
“Damn… this is when Max would have been useful. Where is a good marksman when we need him?”
Wraith reached behind him and took a large gun from a holster on the back of his belt. It had an extended barrel and a silver scope attached to the top.
“Desert Eagle, .44 Mag rounds, set up for target shooting. Think you can remember any of your Marine sniper training?”
Nathan grinned and slung his MP5 over his shoulder. He accepted the pistol and the two extra 9-round clips from the Informer.
Nathan checked the action and clip. Satisfied with the weapon, he slid the extra clips into his back pocket and glanced up at Wraith.
“How many in the booth, yah think?”
“Ten at the most.”
Nathan nodded, “’Ah only got 9 shots, so you guys better be right on my ass in case there is ten of ’em.”
Lexy hoisted her machine gun to her shoulder and nodded to Nathan.
“Don’t worry, we got your back.”
Nathan gripped the pistol in a two-handed stance and took off down the bridge at a run.
The first guard appeared at the door of the booth and the Desert Eagle boomed once. The man fell and another took his place. Nathan squeezed the trigger once again and the second guard sprawled over the body of the first.
Nathan stood over the corpses and, taking up the wide stance of an expert marksman, fired repeatedly into the booth.
Seven shots, six bodies.
“Damn, LEXY!!!”
Nathan threw himself back on the ground as a hail of bullets from the remaining two guards opened fire with their M4’s.
Lexy and Wraith ran up and each dropped a guard.
Emma looked down at Nathan, “You okay?”
Nathan got to his feet and, his shoulder paining him, grimaced.
“Like hell I am.”
He handed Wraith back the Desert Eagle and the clips.
“Nice gun, Josh know you have that? I recognize the Shark insignia on the grip, that’s one of Josh’s guns.”
Wraith smiled slightly, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Nathan rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Come on, people, one more door to kick through.”
They turned to face the large double-door.
Emma gulped, apprehension at meeting James Hughes again filling her heart with dread.
Scarlet looked over at her, “You okay?”
Emma nodded, then shook her head.
“I… I don’t know. I don’t want to see him again.”
Scarlet nodded, “I understand… you can wait out here, if you want.”
Emma glared at the door, “No. Let’s do this.”
Nathan and Wraith strode forward and, taking half a step back, kicked the door open.
The room was a large, circular bank of computers with a raised platform in the center of the room that looked like the bridge of a spaceship from Star Trek.
James Hughes stood in the center of the platform with his arms clasped behind his back like Captain Kirk. He spun around as the door crashed open and stared at them in shock.
To one side, sitting in front of a computer, was Cipher. He stared at them through his yellowed glasses, eyes wide, fingers frozen over his keyboard.
Nathan’s MP5 spat twice and two guards to their right fell in crumpled heaps to the floor.
Wraith took care of the guards that appeared to their left, and then began to walk around the room, looking over the banks of buttons, flashing lights and blinking screens.
Nathan stepped over the body of the two guards he had shot and approached Cipher. He stopped a few feet away and leveled his .45 at the Hacker’s head, eyeing the .9mm sitting next to the Hacker’s workstation.
“Go for it, I dare ya.”
The Hacker didn’t move.
Nathan winked at him, “Smart choice.”
Emma stopped a few feet behind Lexy who was staring up at James.
James stared back, his face paling slightly as he saw Emma.
“Emma, you will regret this.”
Lexy spoke up, her voice soft but forceful.
“No, James, this is something you will regret. We know about your ‘Plan’, and we cannot allow you to carry it out.”
James stared at her with a look of disgust.
“You cannot… Do you know who I am!? I am James Hughes, Director of the Board, leader of the most powerful criminal empire to grace the United States since Al Capone! You have no say over what I do or do not do! Who the hell do you think you are!?”
Lexy had always been a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable admitting she was married to the heir to the Taske Empire. But as she stared into the wild eyes of James Hughes, confidence quelled the hollow uncertainty building in her chest. Her realized there was nothing to wrong, nothing to be ashamed about the power her name gave her. The only thing to be ashamed of was what she could do with the power, should she chose too.
“I am Lexy Taske, heiress to the Empire you claim to control through my marriage to Josh Taske, son of Sean Taske and the one the Underworld fears as the Sharktooth.”
James face paled slightly as Lexy took a step towards him, her weapon at her side, her eyes locked with his.
Panic began to seep into James’ voice, “There is only four of you! You can’t stop me! You won’t stop me!”
Lexy shook her head, “I might not be able to stop you, but I am not alone here. Give yourself up, James, if you don’t then when Josh gets here…”
“Josh Taske!? Josh Taske is here!?”
Lexy nodded, and that was when everything straight to hell.
Everything seemed to slow down, everyone seemed to move so slowly. But Lexy seemed to move the slowest. She watched in horror as James reached behind him and drew a shiny silver pistol from behind his back. She watched in fascination as he pointed it straight at her, and pulled the trigger.
The muzzle flared and the sound of the gunshot filled the room. Lexy could almost see the bullet coming towards her.
She thought she heard another shot ring out, but then Wraith was in front of her and, as if a part of some morbid still-movie, Lexy saw the Informer’s body jolt and saw blood spatter into the air as the bullet pierced the man’s chest.
Emma saw Wraith take the bullet and she ran forward screaming. She raised the P90 in her hand and, her vision blurry with tears, poured her entire clip into James Hughes’ body.
Running forward, Lexy caught Wraith as his body slumped to the ground. She stared into his fading green eyes, frantically trying to think of what she could do.
“Wraith, you shouldn’t have…”
Wraith smiled up at her, “Eh… Don’t worry… You have Josh, kids, something to live for… *cough* …Besides, my life ended years ago.”
Tears streamed down Lexy’s cheeks, “Wraith, no… you can’t go, we still need you!”
Wraith’s eyes closed, “No… you have all you need.”
Those were the final words of Wraith, the man who didn’t exist.
“You would have to be damn insane to hide in here.”
The frozen carcass of a cow just to his left shifted slightly and, completely out of reflex, Nathan riddled it with bullets. The frozen pieces of the cow fell to the floor in chunks, revealing nothing behind it.
Nathan relaxed slightly, and that was when the guard stepped out from the back of the freezer and fired three shots with his P229.
“AWW! SHIT!”
One of the bullets left a groove in the top of Nathan’s shoulder, cutting through the black material of Nathan’s shirt.
Nathan fumbled with the clasp on the holster at his side and, finally, drew his Colt and placed a .45 bullet in the man’s shoulder.
The Guard spun around and landed face-first on the cold metal freezer floor.
Nathan approached and placed the barrel of the Colt against the back of the man’s neck.
“Screw you.”
The gun roared and the man jolted, then went still.
Nathan swept the rest of the freezer and, finding nothing, walked out of the newly-made frozen tomb.
Wraith met him at the door and looked questioningly at Nathan.
Nathan shrugged, “Nothing to worry about, just had to take care of a stray.”
Lexy looked over Nathan’s shoulder and saw the man lying on the floor in a pool of his own blood.
“Um… how did that go?”
Nathan slipped the clip out of the handle of his gun and, reaching into his pocket, pulled out three .45 caliber bullets.
“Kinda messy, but could have ended worse.”
He manually loaded one bullet into the pistol and replaced the two bullets in the clip. He slid the clip home and holstered it again.
Emma approached and stared at Nathan’s shoulder.
“Nathan, you’ve been shot!”
Nathan reached up and touched his shoulder. He grimaced at the blood that covered his fingers.
“Damn… ‘spose yer right.”
Ignoring the injury, Nathan switched his MP5 to the other hand and looked to Wraith.
“We ready to go?”
Wraith nodded and the team moved out of the kitchen. The Informer halted them just before they reached the bridge leading to James’ headquarters.
“Okay, listen: there is a security booth at the end of the bridge, just before you get to the door. We need to clear the booth before we can move on to the command center.”
Nathan nodded, “Good deal. Let’s go.”
“Emma, stay at the rear.”
Emma nodded and moved behind Lexy.
The team moved forward, Nathan taking point.
“Damn… this is when Max would have been useful. Where is a good marksman when we need him?”
Wraith reached behind him and took a large gun from a holster on the back of his belt. It had an extended barrel and a silver scope attached to the top.
“Desert Eagle, .44 Mag rounds, set up for target shooting. Think you can remember any of your Marine sniper training?”
Nathan grinned and slung his MP5 over his shoulder. He accepted the pistol and the two extra 9-round clips from the Informer.
Nathan checked the action and clip. Satisfied with the weapon, he slid the extra clips into his back pocket and glanced up at Wraith.
“How many in the booth, yah think?”
“Ten at the most.”
Nathan nodded, “’Ah only got 9 shots, so you guys better be right on my ass in case there is ten of ’em.”
Lexy hoisted her machine gun to her shoulder and nodded to Nathan.
“Don’t worry, we got your back.”
Nathan gripped the pistol in a two-handed stance and took off down the bridge at a run.
The first guard appeared at the door of the booth and the Desert Eagle boomed once. The man fell and another took his place. Nathan squeezed the trigger once again and the second guard sprawled over the body of the first.
Nathan stood over the corpses and, taking up the wide stance of an expert marksman, fired repeatedly into the booth.
Seven shots, six bodies.
“Damn, LEXY!!!”
Nathan threw himself back on the ground as a hail of bullets from the remaining two guards opened fire with their M4’s.
Lexy and Wraith ran up and each dropped a guard.
Emma looked down at Nathan, “You okay?”
Nathan got to his feet and, his shoulder paining him, grimaced.
“Like hell I am.”
He handed Wraith back the Desert Eagle and the clips.
“Nice gun, Josh know you have that? I recognize the Shark insignia on the grip, that’s one of Josh’s guns.”
Wraith smiled slightly, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Nathan rolled his eyes, “Whatever. Come on, people, one more door to kick through.”
They turned to face the large double-door.
Emma gulped, apprehension at meeting James Hughes again filling her heart with dread.
Scarlet looked over at her, “You okay?”
Emma nodded, then shook her head.
“I… I don’t know. I don’t want to see him again.”
Scarlet nodded, “I understand… you can wait out here, if you want.”
Emma glared at the door, “No. Let’s do this.”
Nathan and Wraith strode forward and, taking half a step back, kicked the door open.
The room was a large, circular bank of computers with a raised platform in the center of the room that looked like the bridge of a spaceship from Star Trek.
James Hughes stood in the center of the platform with his arms clasped behind his back like Captain Kirk. He spun around as the door crashed open and stared at them in shock.
To one side, sitting in front of a computer, was Cipher. He stared at them through his yellowed glasses, eyes wide, fingers frozen over his keyboard.
Nathan’s MP5 spat twice and two guards to their right fell in crumpled heaps to the floor.
Wraith took care of the guards that appeared to their left, and then began to walk around the room, looking over the banks of buttons, flashing lights and blinking screens.
Nathan stepped over the body of the two guards he had shot and approached Cipher. He stopped a few feet away and leveled his .45 at the Hacker’s head, eyeing the .9mm sitting next to the Hacker’s workstation.
“Go for it, I dare ya.”
The Hacker didn’t move.
Nathan winked at him, “Smart choice.”
Emma stopped a few feet behind Lexy who was staring up at James.
James stared back, his face paling slightly as he saw Emma.
“Emma, you will regret this.”
Lexy spoke up, her voice soft but forceful.
“No, James, this is something you will regret. We know about your ‘Plan’, and we cannot allow you to carry it out.”
James stared at her with a look of disgust.
“You cannot… Do you know who I am!? I am James Hughes, Director of the Board, leader of the most powerful criminal empire to grace the United States since Al Capone! You have no say over what I do or do not do! Who the hell do you think you are!?”
Lexy had always been a bit embarrassed and uncomfortable admitting she was married to the heir to the Taske Empire. But as she stared into the wild eyes of James Hughes, confidence quelled the hollow uncertainty building in her chest. Her realized there was nothing to wrong, nothing to be ashamed about the power her name gave her. The only thing to be ashamed of was what she could do with the power, should she chose too.
“I am Lexy Taske, heiress to the Empire you claim to control through my marriage to Josh Taske, son of Sean Taske and the one the Underworld fears as the Sharktooth.”
James face paled slightly as Lexy took a step towards him, her weapon at her side, her eyes locked with his.
Panic began to seep into James’ voice, “There is only four of you! You can’t stop me! You won’t stop me!”
Lexy shook her head, “I might not be able to stop you, but I am not alone here. Give yourself up, James, if you don’t then when Josh gets here…”
“Josh Taske!? Josh Taske is here!?”
Lexy nodded, and that was when everything straight to hell.
Everything seemed to slow down, everyone seemed to move so slowly. But Lexy seemed to move the slowest. She watched in horror as James reached behind him and drew a shiny silver pistol from behind his back. She watched in fascination as he pointed it straight at her, and pulled the trigger.
The muzzle flared and the sound of the gunshot filled the room. Lexy could almost see the bullet coming towards her.
She thought she heard another shot ring out, but then Wraith was in front of her and, as if a part of some morbid still-movie, Lexy saw the Informer’s body jolt and saw blood spatter into the air as the bullet pierced the man’s chest.
Emma saw Wraith take the bullet and she ran forward screaming. She raised the P90 in her hand and, her vision blurry with tears, poured her entire clip into James Hughes’ body.
Running forward, Lexy caught Wraith as his body slumped to the ground. She stared into his fading green eyes, frantically trying to think of what she could do.
“Wraith, you shouldn’t have…”
Wraith smiled up at her, “Eh… Don’t worry… You have Josh, kids, something to live for… *cough* …Besides, my life ended years ago.”
Tears streamed down Lexy’s cheeks, “Wraith, no… you can’t go, we still need you!”
Wraith’s eyes closed, “No… you have all you need.”
Those were the final words of Wraith, the man who didn’t exist.
~Chapter 23~
Meanwhile, Josh’s team had moved up, through the raised dining room area and into the library. As they entered the library, Sniper raised his pistols and fired two shots.
The shots zinged past both of Josh’s ears and caused the two guards approaching from either direction to fall back with small gushing holes in their chests.
Josh looked back at the marksman who shrugged noncommittally.
“Sorry.”
Josh nodded uncertainly, “Um… yeah… how about you go first.”
Max spun the guns around in a classic western move and grinned widely.
“Whatever you say.”
Josh rolled his eyes, “I say keep moving.”
Nodding once, the sharpshooter turned and entered the library, Rugers at the ready.
Josh and Scarlet entered behind him, MP5’s at the ready.
Blue-uniformed movement to their left caused both Max and Josh to react and fire in unison. One of James’ men dropped, one bullet in his head, one in his heart.
Josh and Max exchanged glances.
“Did you make the head-shot or did eye?”
Shrugging, the two of them moved on, each dropping one of the two guards appearing from behind a bookshelf.
They encountered six more guards hiding in the library, and one that entered from the door leading to the guest quarters.
The bridge from the central complex to the guest quarters was empty, and as they broke into each of the six guest rooms, they only found three of James’ men in the last one.
As Scarlet and Josh dispatched the guards, Sniper moved on and, holstering his Rugers, he took the AWM from across his shoulders. He approached the end of the bridge and, getting down on all fours and popping down the bipod, sighted down the length of the bridge.
Seeing a blue uniform through his scope, the marksman smiled slightly and squeezed the trigger. He watched the blue disappear from his sights and another blue shape took its place.
Max had put down four of the guards by the time Scarlet and Josh reached him.
Josh peered down the bridge as the marksman’s rifle roared again.
“How many?”
Sniper squinted through the scope, “There were eleven; I’ve gotten five so far.”
Scarlet reached behind her and pulled one of the grenades off her belt. Pulling the pin, she stepped out onto the bridge and hurled the grenade with a pitch that most professional baseball players would die for.
She pulled back as the grenade exploded, drawing out more of the guards and giving Max a new target rich environment.
The sharp crack of the rifle sounded five more times, each one no one doubted resulted in another death. With the fifth report Max’s cartridge was depleted. The sharpshooter got to his feet, policed his bullets and ejected his cartridge.
As the marksman reloaded his rifle Josh and Scarlet moved down the bridge and finished off the last of the guards in the security dome located in the center of the bridge. They then moved on down the second half of the bridge to James’ personal quarters.
Sniper came up behind them, rifle across his back once more and pistols cocked and loaded.
“Well, anyone ever wanted to know how the rich and famous live?”
Scarlet moved ahead of them, taking point position.
“Seen it before, nothing special. They hide their dirty laundry under their bed just like everyone else.”
Josh moved up behind her, “Scarlet and Max, take the balcony and check the office and bedroom. I’ll go through James’ art gallery and meet you outside the bedroom.
Scarlet nodded and, bringing her weapon up to her shoulder, started around the balcony that circled the structure.
Max followed her, Rugers at the ready with barely a glance back at Josh.
Josh turned and, pressing the stock of his own weapon to his shoulder, entered the private art museum of James Hughes.
The gallery was fairly impressive. Mainly abstract pieces, with a few statues and Native American samples. One wall, just next to the door leading to the bedroom, was covered in antique swords, guns, and even a few tribal spears and a Renaissance suit of armor.
But, while Josh would usually have loved to look over the art collection, it was the fifteen or so guards that seemed to come out of the woodwork that caught his attention.
Josh looked around at all the guns trained on him.
“Whoops.”
Scarlet crept around the balcony, MP5 moving back and forth in an attempt to cover every angle.
Behind her Max had one of his Rugers pointed behind them, the other aimed over Scarlet’s shoulder covering the area ahead of them.
They had almost reached the door leading from the balcony into James’ personal quarters.
Scarlet glanced back at the marksman, “Strange, you would think there would be more guards.”
Sniper turned his head to look behind them, checking the windows and balcony for signs of the enemy.
“Just means they are somewhere else.”
Scarlet snorted in derision, “Way to be comforting, Max.”
“Just trying to help. Duck.”
Scarlet went flat on the floor as Sniper stepped into the doorway and brought both his pistols up to bare. The Rugers flashed and spat out five bullets.
Five blue uniforms, spattered in blood, crumpled lifeless to the floor.
“I think I found some of those guards you were talking about.”
Scarlet got up, keeping her gun up and pointed in front of her.
“Way to be observant.”
“You want the office or the bedroom?”
Scarlet grinned slightly, “Office. Seen enough bedrooms in my day.”
“I bet you have.”
Scarlet approached the Office door and, finding it slightly ajar, poked it open with her gun barrel.
“Hello? Any stupid blue jerks at home? It’s the exterminator…”
She looked around the room, noting the bathroom door, bedroom door, and desk as the only hiding places. Keeping her eye on the doors, she approached the desk cautiously.
She reached the desk and turned quickly around the corner of the desk and ran her sights over the area.
It was then she noticed the bathroom door, which was ajar just as the office door had been, move ever so slightly. She moved carefully and silently towards the door, MP5 pointed unwavering at the crack in the door. She wasn’t sure if the door’s movement had been someone on the other side or just a breeze.
She kicked the door open and did a quick sweep of the master bathroom. Finding nothing, she backed out and opened the bedroom door.
Josh stood in the middle of James’ art gallery, surrounded by sixteen of James’ blue-clad guards. A mix of P229’s and Spectre M4’s were trained on the man.
“Sir, put you gun on the floor and put your hands in the air. If you do not comply, we will be forced to use deadly force.”
The man the Underworld called the Sharktooth ran his eyes over the encircling security guards.
“You know… Back in the Roman Empire in the Arena, when a Gladiator was being sent into a battle they were fairly certain they would lose, they would look up at the Emperor and, raising their weapons shout ‘We who are about to die salute you’.”
The Guards looked uncertain, “What is your point?”
Josh’s cold gray eyes locked with the man’s brown ones.
“I was just thinking, you might want to salute me; because you are about to die.”
The Guard’s eyes went wide as Josh, almost faster than seemed possible, dropped his MP5 and drew his Desert Eagles and put two .357 bullets in the man’s chest.
The rest of the men opened fire as Josh dropped to the ground, fired three shots while on his back, and rolled to his feet in front of the nearest pair of guards. He dropped one of his Eagles and drew one of the Japanese Sais he carried along with his Magnum pistols.
As he came to his feet he shot the guard immediately in front of him in the heart at point-blank range. As that man fell he brought the Sai up and buried it in the neck of the guard just to his left.
Withdrawing the trident-style knife from the man, he spun on his heel and hurled the knife across the room and into body of another guard. He brought the Eagle in his hand up and with three rapid shots took out the three guards immediately to his right. Reaching down and retrieving the Eagle he dropped, he raised both pistols and gunned down the four guards straight in front of him.
Dropping the gun in his right hand, he instinctually shot the guard standing behind him just beside the glass case with the suit of armor. Rising to his feet, he ran forward to retrieve the Sai from the man’s chest, all the while strafing the remaining four guards with the Desert Eagle.
Drawing the knife from the corpse and dropping his other gun, Josh unsheathed his second Sai and charged the last guards. A quick slashing motion left the first guard he came to with a cut throat. With the bullets of the guard’s M4’s carving the air all around him, he reached the second guard and rapidly stabbed the man in the stomach six times.
He stood up and, in one quick motion, threw the Sais at the remaining two guards. The knives buried themselves in the men’s throats and they dropped to the ground writhing in the throes of death.
Josh picked up his Desert Eagles and, ejecting the clips, loaded new ones. He holstered the guns and reached down to pull out the knives out of the guard’s still-twitching bodies. He wiped the blood off on their uniforms and rose to his feet. The knives returned to their sheaths, he retrieved the MP5K from off the ground and surveyed the carnage around him.
“Should have saluted.”
The shots zinged past both of Josh’s ears and caused the two guards approaching from either direction to fall back with small gushing holes in their chests.
Josh looked back at the marksman who shrugged noncommittally.
“Sorry.”
Josh nodded uncertainly, “Um… yeah… how about you go first.”
Max spun the guns around in a classic western move and grinned widely.
“Whatever you say.”
Josh rolled his eyes, “I say keep moving.”
Nodding once, the sharpshooter turned and entered the library, Rugers at the ready.
Josh and Scarlet entered behind him, MP5’s at the ready.
Blue-uniformed movement to their left caused both Max and Josh to react and fire in unison. One of James’ men dropped, one bullet in his head, one in his heart.
Josh and Max exchanged glances.
“Did you make the head-shot or did eye?”
Shrugging, the two of them moved on, each dropping one of the two guards appearing from behind a bookshelf.
They encountered six more guards hiding in the library, and one that entered from the door leading to the guest quarters.
The bridge from the central complex to the guest quarters was empty, and as they broke into each of the six guest rooms, they only found three of James’ men in the last one.
As Scarlet and Josh dispatched the guards, Sniper moved on and, holstering his Rugers, he took the AWM from across his shoulders. He approached the end of the bridge and, getting down on all fours and popping down the bipod, sighted down the length of the bridge.
Seeing a blue uniform through his scope, the marksman smiled slightly and squeezed the trigger. He watched the blue disappear from his sights and another blue shape took its place.
Max had put down four of the guards by the time Scarlet and Josh reached him.
Josh peered down the bridge as the marksman’s rifle roared again.
“How many?”
Sniper squinted through the scope, “There were eleven; I’ve gotten five so far.”
Scarlet reached behind her and pulled one of the grenades off her belt. Pulling the pin, she stepped out onto the bridge and hurled the grenade with a pitch that most professional baseball players would die for.
She pulled back as the grenade exploded, drawing out more of the guards and giving Max a new target rich environment.
The sharp crack of the rifle sounded five more times, each one no one doubted resulted in another death. With the fifth report Max’s cartridge was depleted. The sharpshooter got to his feet, policed his bullets and ejected his cartridge.
As the marksman reloaded his rifle Josh and Scarlet moved down the bridge and finished off the last of the guards in the security dome located in the center of the bridge. They then moved on down the second half of the bridge to James’ personal quarters.
Sniper came up behind them, rifle across his back once more and pistols cocked and loaded.
“Well, anyone ever wanted to know how the rich and famous live?”
Scarlet moved ahead of them, taking point position.
“Seen it before, nothing special. They hide their dirty laundry under their bed just like everyone else.”
Josh moved up behind her, “Scarlet and Max, take the balcony and check the office and bedroom. I’ll go through James’ art gallery and meet you outside the bedroom.
Scarlet nodded and, bringing her weapon up to her shoulder, started around the balcony that circled the structure.
Max followed her, Rugers at the ready with barely a glance back at Josh.
Josh turned and, pressing the stock of his own weapon to his shoulder, entered the private art museum of James Hughes.
The gallery was fairly impressive. Mainly abstract pieces, with a few statues and Native American samples. One wall, just next to the door leading to the bedroom, was covered in antique swords, guns, and even a few tribal spears and a Renaissance suit of armor.
But, while Josh would usually have loved to look over the art collection, it was the fifteen or so guards that seemed to come out of the woodwork that caught his attention.
Josh looked around at all the guns trained on him.
“Whoops.”
Scarlet crept around the balcony, MP5 moving back and forth in an attempt to cover every angle.
Behind her Max had one of his Rugers pointed behind them, the other aimed over Scarlet’s shoulder covering the area ahead of them.
They had almost reached the door leading from the balcony into James’ personal quarters.
Scarlet glanced back at the marksman, “Strange, you would think there would be more guards.”
Sniper turned his head to look behind them, checking the windows and balcony for signs of the enemy.
“Just means they are somewhere else.”
Scarlet snorted in derision, “Way to be comforting, Max.”
“Just trying to help. Duck.”
Scarlet went flat on the floor as Sniper stepped into the doorway and brought both his pistols up to bare. The Rugers flashed and spat out five bullets.
Five blue uniforms, spattered in blood, crumpled lifeless to the floor.
“I think I found some of those guards you were talking about.”
Scarlet got up, keeping her gun up and pointed in front of her.
“Way to be observant.”
“You want the office or the bedroom?”
Scarlet grinned slightly, “Office. Seen enough bedrooms in my day.”
“I bet you have.”
Scarlet approached the Office door and, finding it slightly ajar, poked it open with her gun barrel.
“Hello? Any stupid blue jerks at home? It’s the exterminator…”
She looked around the room, noting the bathroom door, bedroom door, and desk as the only hiding places. Keeping her eye on the doors, she approached the desk cautiously.
She reached the desk and turned quickly around the corner of the desk and ran her sights over the area.
It was then she noticed the bathroom door, which was ajar just as the office door had been, move ever so slightly. She moved carefully and silently towards the door, MP5 pointed unwavering at the crack in the door. She wasn’t sure if the door’s movement had been someone on the other side or just a breeze.
She kicked the door open and did a quick sweep of the master bathroom. Finding nothing, she backed out and opened the bedroom door.
Josh stood in the middle of James’ art gallery, surrounded by sixteen of James’ blue-clad guards. A mix of P229’s and Spectre M4’s were trained on the man.
“Sir, put you gun on the floor and put your hands in the air. If you do not comply, we will be forced to use deadly force.”
The man the Underworld called the Sharktooth ran his eyes over the encircling security guards.
“You know… Back in the Roman Empire in the Arena, when a Gladiator was being sent into a battle they were fairly certain they would lose, they would look up at the Emperor and, raising their weapons shout ‘We who are about to die salute you’.”
The Guards looked uncertain, “What is your point?”
Josh’s cold gray eyes locked with the man’s brown ones.
“I was just thinking, you might want to salute me; because you are about to die.”
The Guard’s eyes went wide as Josh, almost faster than seemed possible, dropped his MP5 and drew his Desert Eagles and put two .357 bullets in the man’s chest.
The rest of the men opened fire as Josh dropped to the ground, fired three shots while on his back, and rolled to his feet in front of the nearest pair of guards. He dropped one of his Eagles and drew one of the Japanese Sais he carried along with his Magnum pistols.
As he came to his feet he shot the guard immediately in front of him in the heart at point-blank range. As that man fell he brought the Sai up and buried it in the neck of the guard just to his left.
Withdrawing the trident-style knife from the man, he spun on his heel and hurled the knife across the room and into body of another guard. He brought the Eagle in his hand up and with three rapid shots took out the three guards immediately to his right. Reaching down and retrieving the Eagle he dropped, he raised both pistols and gunned down the four guards straight in front of him.
Dropping the gun in his right hand, he instinctually shot the guard standing behind him just beside the glass case with the suit of armor. Rising to his feet, he ran forward to retrieve the Sai from the man’s chest, all the while strafing the remaining four guards with the Desert Eagle.
Drawing the knife from the corpse and dropping his other gun, Josh unsheathed his second Sai and charged the last guards. A quick slashing motion left the first guard he came to with a cut throat. With the bullets of the guard’s M4’s carving the air all around him, he reached the second guard and rapidly stabbed the man in the stomach six times.
He stood up and, in one quick motion, threw the Sais at the remaining two guards. The knives buried themselves in the men’s throats and they dropped to the ground writhing in the throes of death.
Josh picked up his Desert Eagles and, ejecting the clips, loaded new ones. He holstered the guns and reached down to pull out the knives out of the guard’s still-twitching bodies. He wiped the blood off on their uniforms and rose to his feet. The knives returned to their sheaths, he retrieved the MP5K from off the ground and surveyed the carnage around him.
“Should have saluted.”
~Chapter 22~
The road wound up once and went on a couple miles before turning back on itself, going on for another few miles, and then turning onto the last four or five mile length of road leading up to the Villa’s parking garage.
As she entered the last stretch, Lexy sped up and built up speed until, nearing 110mph, she smashed through the red-and-white striped barrier and screeched into the parking garage. She pulled the wheel hard to the left and, slamming the breaks, brought the Blazer to a screeching halt less than twenty feet from the entrance to the Security Booth.
Scarlet and Lexy had put metal plating up on the outside of the windows, allowing them to roll the windows down part way and aim their machine guns through the open slit.
Scarlet put the barrel of her MP5K through the slit and, backed up by the rapid series of shots from Lexy in the front, opened up on the guards in the booth.
Josh opened the door on the opposite side of the vehicle and got out with Sniper and Wraith. He moved to the rear of the vehicle and shot from around the back while Wraith added his own fire from over the hood.
Max moved back farther into the garage and found cover behind the first parked car he came too. Flipping down the bipod and resting it on the hood of the small Honda Accord, he sighted his first target and added the loud crack of the AWM to the cacophony.
Nathan, meanwhile, was feeding the first bandolier into the M240. Pulling back the bolt and chambering the first bullet, Nathan turned its 7.62mm rounds on the security booth.
The large window shattered and the computer monitors and equipment on the table inside exploded in a shower of plastic and sparks.
Of the six guards in the booth, two had fallen the moment Scarlet and Lexy had opened fire. Another went down after taking a bullet from Wraith’s MP5K.
A guard poked his head up over the shattered window ledge and he immediately disappeared in a shower of blood and cranial fragments.
From behind the car he was stationed behind, Max Caldwell smiled coldly.
Josh looked over at Wraith and made a motion with his hand.
Wraith nodded and, pulling a small egg-shaped object off the back of his belt, ran forward in a crouch to the door of the security booth. Pulling the pin, the black-haired Informer bounced the grenade into the booth.
The flash of the grenade forced the last two guards out of hiding where they were quickly picked off by Max and Josh.
Wraith brought his machine gun up and trained it on the bridge entrance leading to the main Villa. A few random bursts from the MP5 kept the guards gathering at the end of the bridge from advancing.
Max snapped the bipod back up against the stock his rifle and, reaching down to the ground, policed his shells. The mercenary was a careful soldier, never leaving any sign of his presence besides carnage and dead bodies.
Inside the Blazer, Emma slapped the magazine onto the top of her P90 and, taking a deep breath and with her gun at the ready, got out of the car. She approached Wraith and stopped just behind him, waiting for the others to catch up.
Nathan and Scarlet got out of the back of the Blazer and moved forward to flank Wraith, weapons at the ready.
Behind them, Josh and Lexy approached and Josh moved up to stand by Wraith.
“You ready?”
Wraith nodded, “Team 2, form up! Nathan take rear. Emma, stay with Lexy.”
Josh nodded to Sniper and Scarlet.
Sniper ejected the cartridge from his rifle and, loading a single bullet into the chamber, slid home a fresh cartridge. He then took up his position between Josh and Scarlet, who was guarding their flank.
Josh and Wraith each drew grenades from their utility belts and, trading glances, rolled them down the bridge to where James’ security was hiding. They took off on a run just on the heels of their grenades, guns up and at the ready.
Josh tracked a movement at the end of the bridge and dropped a guard with a short burst of 9mm rounds.
“COVER!!!”
At Wraith’s shout they all dropped and turned their faces away as the grenades exploded with a tremendous roar and brilliant flash.
The hidden guards panicked and fell over themselves in their sudden blindness. The flash-bang grenades took away their vision and deafened them to the approach of the Taske team.
They had almost reached the end of the bridge when Josh and Wraith dropped to one knee and opened fire on the soldiers. Emma and Lexy came up just behind them and took their places in the center of the bridge. Nathan and Scarlet took stances on either side of the women and the four of them added their fire to Josh and Wraith’s.
Sniper remained behind them, his AWM slung over his shoulder and two .45 Ruger P345 pistols in either hand. The slime, sleek pistols had a precise dovetailed, three-dot sight system that gave the mercenary the increased accuracy someone with Max’s specialty needed.
“Go!”
The gunfire stopped and Josh and Wraith rose and forged ahead. A guard appeared out of nowhere and raised his H&K to level it at Josh’s head.
Josh literally felt the bullet go by his head as Max raised one of the Ruger’s and, with an almost inhuman calmness and accuracy, put a bullet in the guard’s head.
Josh looked back and nodded gratefully to the marksman. He and Wraith then exchanged glances and, on a silent three-count, each put a burst of gunfire into the lock of the Villa’s front door.
There was no official entry way, it opened straight into the living area where about twenty or so guards were waiting.
“SREAD OUT!”
The team broke up and began to spread out into the room, firing as they went.
Emma held the trigger of her P90 down and strafed the guards as a loud, piercing scream filler her ears. It took her a moment to realize the scream was her own.
The one-time secretary was holding her own remarkably well, but it was Josh Taske that really shone. The old-school warrior had depleted the clip in his MP5 and, instead of reloading, he had opted to draw the twin Desert Eagles he carried in the sling-holsters on his hips.
The two .357 Magnum pistols roared in unison as the Taske heir picked his targets and dropped every one. Only Max and Wraith came even close to the man’s innate accuracy.
Nathan was a different kind of monster all together. The haggard soldier held the MP5 in one hand, his .45 Colt in the other. When his Colt ran out he holstered it and switched solely to his MP5.
The floor was covered in spent shells by the time the last guard fell. The Team spent a moment to load fresh clips and Josh reloaded and holstered his Eagles.
Wraith and Josh checked in with each other before going their separate ways.
“You guys good?”
Wraith nodded, “There are more guards around the corner. We will clean them out and move along as planned.”
Josh nodded and the two clasped arms.
“Good luck, Sharktooth.”
Josh nodded, “You two.”
They broke up and Josh beckoned to his fire team.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Scarlet and Sniper took up their positions as before behind Josh and the three of them headed to straight ahead and left into the dining room area.
Wraith and his team moved ahead and broke right. As Wraith predicted, more of James’ security was lying in wait around the corner behind the couches and by the enormous fireplace.
Nathan moved around the pool table and knelt to fire over the back of one of the three leather couches. He was able to drop one of the seven or so guards with his first burst of fire.
Wraith stood behind the pool table, using his hyper-active brain to detect guns being trained on him in order to avoid the gunfire.
Emma and Lexy took positions on either side of Nathan, using the couch for cover. They found they had a certain rhythm, one covering the other and keeping the fire off the other.
Wraith dropped the last one and the room was silent for a moment.
“Reload, prepare for next wave.”
Nathan looked up from loading his weapon.
“Damn, Wraith, you sound like a frickin’ video game narrator. ‘Ah don’t think we need the play-by-play.”
Emma looked a bit sheepish as she looked up from her reloading.
“Um… remember, new girl here? I think he is doing it mainly for my benefit.”
Nathan snorted, “Yeah, unless this whole fire team commander thing has gone to his head.”
Lexy suddenly raised her rifle and screamed at the top of her lungs, “WRAITH! DOWN!”
Wraith’s reflexes were what saved him. He dropped just as a bullet carved a tunnel through the air where his head used to be.
The gunman had been hiding behind them and to their left, behind a large circular Vegas-style poker table. The gun he held Wraith automatically identified as .40 caliber Sig Sauer P229, 12-round magazine with short recoil/double action and high-contrast sights. A favorite of the FBI and DEA, the P229 was a well-made little weapon.
The bullet intended for Wraith went over his head and barely missed Lexy. The woman raised her weapon and, barely bothering to use the gun’s sights, put a three-round burst in the man’s chest.
Emma watched in shock as the man dropped like a stone. She glanced over at Nathan, “Um… one thing no one told me about these operations…”
Nathan glanced at her momentarily before going back to scanning the room.
“What’s that, Hon?”
“What do you do one of these missions when you need to use the toilet?”
Nathan stared at her for a moment before a slow smile spread across his face.
“Damn, girl, you are getting the hang of things!”
Emma smiled sweetly at him and pulled back the bolt of her machine gun, chambering the first round of a new clip.
Wraith motioned for them to move up past where the poker table sat. Past the table, down a short hallway was the entrance to the kitchen.
Nathan crept down the hallway and took up position against the wall next to the door.
Wraith moved passed him to the opposite side of the door and, pulling his second-to-last grenade, tossed it into the large, commercial-grade kitchen.
The resulting explosion was followed by the screams of more guards.
Nathan and Wraith turned the corner and opened fire on the deaf and blind security guards, dropping three of them with their first few shots.
Lexy kept her gun at the ready and watched their backs, keeping an eye on the bridge leading from the central complex to what Wraith had told them was James’ personal quarters.
Emma came to stand between Nathan and Wraith, adding her P90’s fire to theirs.
With the initial opposition eliminated, Emma and Lexy moved in and began sweeping the kitchen for more guards.
Wraith followed close behind, quickly dispatching a guard that poked his head out from around the corner of the fridge. He then motioned for Nathan to check the large walk-in freezer.
Nathan looked in through the already opened freezer door, seeing hanging rows of cold cuts and shelves of frozen goods.
“Damn… I hate freezers…”
As she entered the last stretch, Lexy sped up and built up speed until, nearing 110mph, she smashed through the red-and-white striped barrier and screeched into the parking garage. She pulled the wheel hard to the left and, slamming the breaks, brought the Blazer to a screeching halt less than twenty feet from the entrance to the Security Booth.
Scarlet and Lexy had put metal plating up on the outside of the windows, allowing them to roll the windows down part way and aim their machine guns through the open slit.
Scarlet put the barrel of her MP5K through the slit and, backed up by the rapid series of shots from Lexy in the front, opened up on the guards in the booth.
Josh opened the door on the opposite side of the vehicle and got out with Sniper and Wraith. He moved to the rear of the vehicle and shot from around the back while Wraith added his own fire from over the hood.
Max moved back farther into the garage and found cover behind the first parked car he came too. Flipping down the bipod and resting it on the hood of the small Honda Accord, he sighted his first target and added the loud crack of the AWM to the cacophony.
Nathan, meanwhile, was feeding the first bandolier into the M240. Pulling back the bolt and chambering the first bullet, Nathan turned its 7.62mm rounds on the security booth.
The large window shattered and the computer monitors and equipment on the table inside exploded in a shower of plastic and sparks.
Of the six guards in the booth, two had fallen the moment Scarlet and Lexy had opened fire. Another went down after taking a bullet from Wraith’s MP5K.
A guard poked his head up over the shattered window ledge and he immediately disappeared in a shower of blood and cranial fragments.
From behind the car he was stationed behind, Max Caldwell smiled coldly.
Josh looked over at Wraith and made a motion with his hand.
Wraith nodded and, pulling a small egg-shaped object off the back of his belt, ran forward in a crouch to the door of the security booth. Pulling the pin, the black-haired Informer bounced the grenade into the booth.
The flash of the grenade forced the last two guards out of hiding where they were quickly picked off by Max and Josh.
Wraith brought his machine gun up and trained it on the bridge entrance leading to the main Villa. A few random bursts from the MP5 kept the guards gathering at the end of the bridge from advancing.
Max snapped the bipod back up against the stock his rifle and, reaching down to the ground, policed his shells. The mercenary was a careful soldier, never leaving any sign of his presence besides carnage and dead bodies.
Inside the Blazer, Emma slapped the magazine onto the top of her P90 and, taking a deep breath and with her gun at the ready, got out of the car. She approached Wraith and stopped just behind him, waiting for the others to catch up.
Nathan and Scarlet got out of the back of the Blazer and moved forward to flank Wraith, weapons at the ready.
Behind them, Josh and Lexy approached and Josh moved up to stand by Wraith.
“You ready?”
Wraith nodded, “Team 2, form up! Nathan take rear. Emma, stay with Lexy.”
Josh nodded to Sniper and Scarlet.
Sniper ejected the cartridge from his rifle and, loading a single bullet into the chamber, slid home a fresh cartridge. He then took up his position between Josh and Scarlet, who was guarding their flank.
Josh and Wraith each drew grenades from their utility belts and, trading glances, rolled them down the bridge to where James’ security was hiding. They took off on a run just on the heels of their grenades, guns up and at the ready.
Josh tracked a movement at the end of the bridge and dropped a guard with a short burst of 9mm rounds.
“COVER!!!”
At Wraith’s shout they all dropped and turned their faces away as the grenades exploded with a tremendous roar and brilliant flash.
The hidden guards panicked and fell over themselves in their sudden blindness. The flash-bang grenades took away their vision and deafened them to the approach of the Taske team.
They had almost reached the end of the bridge when Josh and Wraith dropped to one knee and opened fire on the soldiers. Emma and Lexy came up just behind them and took their places in the center of the bridge. Nathan and Scarlet took stances on either side of the women and the four of them added their fire to Josh and Wraith’s.
Sniper remained behind them, his AWM slung over his shoulder and two .45 Ruger P345 pistols in either hand. The slime, sleek pistols had a precise dovetailed, three-dot sight system that gave the mercenary the increased accuracy someone with Max’s specialty needed.
“Go!”
The gunfire stopped and Josh and Wraith rose and forged ahead. A guard appeared out of nowhere and raised his H&K to level it at Josh’s head.
Josh literally felt the bullet go by his head as Max raised one of the Ruger’s and, with an almost inhuman calmness and accuracy, put a bullet in the guard’s head.
Josh looked back and nodded gratefully to the marksman. He and Wraith then exchanged glances and, on a silent three-count, each put a burst of gunfire into the lock of the Villa’s front door.
There was no official entry way, it opened straight into the living area where about twenty or so guards were waiting.
“SREAD OUT!”
The team broke up and began to spread out into the room, firing as they went.
Emma held the trigger of her P90 down and strafed the guards as a loud, piercing scream filler her ears. It took her a moment to realize the scream was her own.
The one-time secretary was holding her own remarkably well, but it was Josh Taske that really shone. The old-school warrior had depleted the clip in his MP5 and, instead of reloading, he had opted to draw the twin Desert Eagles he carried in the sling-holsters on his hips.
The two .357 Magnum pistols roared in unison as the Taske heir picked his targets and dropped every one. Only Max and Wraith came even close to the man’s innate accuracy.
Nathan was a different kind of monster all together. The haggard soldier held the MP5 in one hand, his .45 Colt in the other. When his Colt ran out he holstered it and switched solely to his MP5.
The floor was covered in spent shells by the time the last guard fell. The Team spent a moment to load fresh clips and Josh reloaded and holstered his Eagles.
Wraith and Josh checked in with each other before going their separate ways.
“You guys good?”
Wraith nodded, “There are more guards around the corner. We will clean them out and move along as planned.”
Josh nodded and the two clasped arms.
“Good luck, Sharktooth.”
Josh nodded, “You two.”
They broke up and Josh beckoned to his fire team.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Scarlet and Sniper took up their positions as before behind Josh and the three of them headed to straight ahead and left into the dining room area.
Wraith and his team moved ahead and broke right. As Wraith predicted, more of James’ security was lying in wait around the corner behind the couches and by the enormous fireplace.
Nathan moved around the pool table and knelt to fire over the back of one of the three leather couches. He was able to drop one of the seven or so guards with his first burst of fire.
Wraith stood behind the pool table, using his hyper-active brain to detect guns being trained on him in order to avoid the gunfire.
Emma and Lexy took positions on either side of Nathan, using the couch for cover. They found they had a certain rhythm, one covering the other and keeping the fire off the other.
Wraith dropped the last one and the room was silent for a moment.
“Reload, prepare for next wave.”
Nathan looked up from loading his weapon.
“Damn, Wraith, you sound like a frickin’ video game narrator. ‘Ah don’t think we need the play-by-play.”
Emma looked a bit sheepish as she looked up from her reloading.
“Um… remember, new girl here? I think he is doing it mainly for my benefit.”
Nathan snorted, “Yeah, unless this whole fire team commander thing has gone to his head.”
Lexy suddenly raised her rifle and screamed at the top of her lungs, “WRAITH! DOWN!”
Wraith’s reflexes were what saved him. He dropped just as a bullet carved a tunnel through the air where his head used to be.
The gunman had been hiding behind them and to their left, behind a large circular Vegas-style poker table. The gun he held Wraith automatically identified as .40 caliber Sig Sauer P229, 12-round magazine with short recoil/double action and high-contrast sights. A favorite of the FBI and DEA, the P229 was a well-made little weapon.
The bullet intended for Wraith went over his head and barely missed Lexy. The woman raised her weapon and, barely bothering to use the gun’s sights, put a three-round burst in the man’s chest.
Emma watched in shock as the man dropped like a stone. She glanced over at Nathan, “Um… one thing no one told me about these operations…”
Nathan glanced at her momentarily before going back to scanning the room.
“What’s that, Hon?”
“What do you do one of these missions when you need to use the toilet?”
Nathan stared at her for a moment before a slow smile spread across his face.
“Damn, girl, you are getting the hang of things!”
Emma smiled sweetly at him and pulled back the bolt of her machine gun, chambering the first round of a new clip.
Wraith motioned for them to move up past where the poker table sat. Past the table, down a short hallway was the entrance to the kitchen.
Nathan crept down the hallway and took up position against the wall next to the door.
Wraith moved passed him to the opposite side of the door and, pulling his second-to-last grenade, tossed it into the large, commercial-grade kitchen.
The resulting explosion was followed by the screams of more guards.
Nathan and Wraith turned the corner and opened fire on the deaf and blind security guards, dropping three of them with their first few shots.
Lexy kept her gun at the ready and watched their backs, keeping an eye on the bridge leading from the central complex to what Wraith had told them was James’ personal quarters.
Emma came to stand between Nathan and Wraith, adding her P90’s fire to theirs.
With the initial opposition eliminated, Emma and Lexy moved in and began sweeping the kitchen for more guards.
Wraith followed close behind, quickly dispatching a guard that poked his head out from around the corner of the fridge. He then motioned for Nathan to check the large walk-in freezer.
Nathan looked in through the already opened freezer door, seeing hanging rows of cold cuts and shelves of frozen goods.
“Damn… I hate freezers…”
~Chapter 21~
~July 1st, 2019- An Anonymous Bar in Chicago
A red-haired Scotsman entered the small bar and viewed the scene before him. His small blue eyes shown from underneath thick eyebrows, surveying the room with a keen intelligence.
“Douglas, over here!”
Douglas “Wild” McFarl, a mercenary who was once affiliated with the Russian Mafia, walked over to the large round table where five others were seated.
The man who called to him was the smuggler pilot Steve Marr, known in the Underworld as “Wings”. The 5’ 9” tall airplane captain was around 45years old and had sky-blue eyes and graying hair.
Next to Steve, just to his right, was the platinum-blonde beauty known as Angel. At 6-feet and with a small face and ice-blue eyes, the lithe assassin was like tigress and just as exotic.
Her brother sitting next to her, Demon, was a dark and brooding thundercloud compared to Angel. His blue-gray eyes peered eerily from under his long black hair, his muscles rippling under his thin black t-shirt.
Beside the dark assassin sat the mercenary, Bear. An old friend of Nathan’s, Cal king was a 7-foot, 250lb giant of a man. The form of a body-builder and with no temper to speak of, the man’s weird violet eyes took in everything, missed almost nothing.
While Bear was a towering example of calm and control, the girl to his right was the exact opposite. Zenith was a mix-matched ball of hyperactive energy. Her hair was light blonde with bright, fire-engine red highlights. Her left eye was dark blue, but the right was a light gray color. Her just over 5-foot frame was sprawled in her chair like a cat, her eyes flicking around the room as if looking for something interesting to focus her mind on.
A chair away to Zenith’s right was Jessica Knapp, known to the Underworld and to Steve Marr’s smugglers as Sparks. She had black and blonde hair, but whether the black was natural or from the engine grease that usually coated her bare arms and torn jeans was uncertain. Her bright green eyes shone with a bored humor from under the welding goggles she had pushed up onto her forehead.
Douglas nodded to each member of the group, “Greeting tah ye all.”
He took the empty seat between Zenith and Sparks.
He eyed Zenith suspiciously, “No’one’s given her a dose ‘ah caffeine, ‘ave they?”
Sparks smiled, her red lips parting to reveal a perfect smile.
“No one here wants to get their heads talked off by her.”
Douglas nodded and looked to Steve, “Weel, what did ye call me fer?”
Steve’s eyes were serious, “The Taske Family. Something needs to be done.”
Angel spoke up, her tiny voice making its way across the table.
“Me and Demon have been in Russia the last month, what’s been going on?”
Bear leaned forward, his deep voice carrying farther than Angel’s.
“When Regent went down a few years back, a lot of other people went with him. Some were high-ranking Board members and their lackeys, but a lot were just the hired help, like us.
Since Hughes took over, the Board has put into motion a number of plans that have resulted in the captured or death of a great many Underworlders.”
Sparks nodded and spoke up, “James Hughes has cut the security they usually send along with Board shipments, and they have been sending us bigger, higher-risk shipments. With the shipments more dangerous to haul, and less security, we have lost seven planes and crews to Customs in the last three months alone.”
Zenith was sitting sideways in her chair, eyeing the cute bartender.
She looked back at the group, “So… what do we do?”
Steve shrugged, “I don’t know. If any one of us, or even a small number of us, tried to stand up against the Board then we will be crushed and obliterated. Does anyone have any ideas that doesn’t get everyone involved killed?”
Angel shook her head, “No… You are right, if we try anything we will end up on tomorrow’s ‘missing persons’ list. Demon?”
She looked towards her brother, who just grunted and folded his arms over his chest.
Douglas scratched his scalp and looked towards the bar, “Can I have a pint of yer best ale? Bring it fast, ye got yerself a thirsty Scott on yer hands, ye ken?”
He turned back to the others, “’Ah don’t know what we can do. It’s a puzzler if’n ye ever saw one.”
“Josh Taske.”
Demon’s voice was rough and gravelly, equally soft and dangerous at the same time.
Zenith stared at the assassin in mild surprise, “He speaks?”
Steve ignored the woman and looked curiously at Demon.
“Explain, please?”
Demon shrugged, “Josh Taske. Knows more about the Taske family than anyone. Only one with the power and reputation to unite people against the Board.”
Angel glanced at her brother, “That’s the most he’s said in a few months.”
A barmaid approached and set a large mug in front of Douglas.
“Your ale, Sir.”
Douglas nodded his thanks, “’Ah thank ye, Lass.”
Bear rested his head on his hands and gazed at Demon from over his massive fists.
“I think he’s got a point. Josh Taske might be our only option.”
Steve shook his head, “The Sharktooth wouldn’t help us. After what happened with his first wife and daughter, he doesn’t want anything to do with his family’s business.”
“Aye, an’ after that personal war he and his team waged a few years back, he isn’t gonna be willing tae start another one.”
Bear spoke up, “We can always talk to Nathan Wolv. He has always been a close friend to the Sharktooth and might be able to convince him to help us.”
Demon nodded once, “Worth a try.”
Angel smiled at her brother, “I’m game if everyone else is.”
Douglas glance at Steve Marr, “Weel, Ah’m all fer it.”
Sparks also looked at the smuggler pilot, “Well, Captain?”
Steve looked at Zenith, “Well?”
Zenith looked bored, “Gonna be a lot of fighting? Running around, shooting and stuff?”
Steve nodded, “Maybe even some explosions.”
The woman grinned and sat forward, “Hell yeah I’m in!!!”
Steve drank the rest of his beer and stood up.
“Then it’s settled. We will go and appeal to Josh Taske and ask him for help.”
~The 4th of July, 2019- James’ Villa Just Off Ortega Highway, CA
Josh’s Trailblazer was parked just off the Ortega Highway, flanked by Sniper’s Hummer. Just ahead of them was an unmarked exit. Few knew the rundown, overgrown turnoff lead to James Hughes’ state of the art Villa.
The Team had been held up about a day and a half due to one of the nastiest hangovers Nathan had had in decades. Fifty miles after they left the first hotel they had to pull over again and put Nathan to bed. The mercenary was one sick Wolf. He didn’t wake up until midday on the 3rd, when they set off once more and pushed until they reached the turnoff to James’ Villa that morning.
Josh and Wraith were going over a few last minute details while Sniper and Nathan go ready to install the M-240B on top of the Blazer.
Lexy and Scarlet were inside the Blazer, making some remarkable changes to the inside. They folded down the back and seat so it was flush with the floor and folded down pieces of the walls to make bench-seats.
Lexy reached up and slid the sides of the skylight back slightly, widening the opening so someone could stand up in it to use the machine gun.
When Anubis had remodeled the Blazer, he had installed some custom-made brackets both on the top of the roof and to go on the bottom of a machine gun so it could easily attach and detach as needed.
When the girls were done, Nathan and Max lifted the large, 7.62mm machine gun and locked it into place on the roof. Max installed the large metal shield that attached to the front of the gun.
“Hey, Josh, the gun is installed.”
Josh looked up, “Okay, good. Everyone, arm up.”
Max’s Hummer was designated the armory. He opened the back doors and revealed two gun racks with six MP5K’s between them. The marksman rolled back a panel on the floor to show the four .45 and four .22 pistols and extra ammo for all of them.
While the rest of the team selected their weapons and loaded up, Max took out the long carry-case he had been carrying around since Emma met him.
Un-zipping the duffel, he withdrew a long rifle with a boxy shoulder-stock. It was a beautiful gunmetal-gray color with matte-black scope and shoulder padding. Attached to the underside of the rifle, just forward of the middle of the gun, was a matte-black bi-pod.
Emma walked over, her Mp90 slung awkwardly over her shoulder.
“Wow… what is it?”
Sniper ran a cloth along the barrel, “It is an Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle. Bolt action, .300 Winchester Magnum rounds loaded into a 10-round cartridge. Modified 29inch barrel and a unique boring to give me around a 400-meter range.”
Emma knelt down next to him and watched him attach the scope and manually load one of the long .300 bullets into the chamber before sliding the ammo cartridge into the underside of the rifle.
“Max, it’s beautiful.”
The mercenary looked up at her, his eyes sad.
“It’s a killing machine, designed to take lives from a safe distance. There is nothing beautiful about it.”
Emma nodded and, getting up, left the man alone.
Ten minutes later the team was ready. Max closed and locked his Hummer and engaged a beacon that would alert him if the car doors were breached.
Josh opened the door for Lexy, “You going to be okay?”
Lexy kissed him on the lips and smiled up into his face.
“Crash the barrier, turn the side towards the gunfire, and shoot the bad guys. Easy, right?”
Josh smiled back at her, “Of course.”
Lexy climbed into the driver’s seat while Emma took her place on the passenger side.
Josh climbed in the back and took the MP5K Nathan handed him. The team was seated on the fold-down bench seats; MP5’s resting stock-down between their knees like a group of highly trained soldiers waiting for the mission to get underway.
Emma looked back at them from her front seat.
“Hey, I was thinking… shouldn’t we have some kind of way to communicate with each other? Headsets or earwigs or something?”
Josh and Wraith shook their heads silently.
Nathan spoke up, “Nope, sorry. We prefer ops like this without comms, the enemy can’t listen in an’ it forces us to keep each other in line-of-sight. No freelancin’ if we all wanna get out alive.”
Josh reached up and tapped Lexy on the shoulder, “Let’s go, Hon.”
A red-haired Scotsman entered the small bar and viewed the scene before him. His small blue eyes shown from underneath thick eyebrows, surveying the room with a keen intelligence.
“Douglas, over here!”
Douglas “Wild” McFarl, a mercenary who was once affiliated with the Russian Mafia, walked over to the large round table where five others were seated.
The man who called to him was the smuggler pilot Steve Marr, known in the Underworld as “Wings”. The 5’ 9” tall airplane captain was around 45years old and had sky-blue eyes and graying hair.
Next to Steve, just to his right, was the platinum-blonde beauty known as Angel. At 6-feet and with a small face and ice-blue eyes, the lithe assassin was like tigress and just as exotic.
Her brother sitting next to her, Demon, was a dark and brooding thundercloud compared to Angel. His blue-gray eyes peered eerily from under his long black hair, his muscles rippling under his thin black t-shirt.
Beside the dark assassin sat the mercenary, Bear. An old friend of Nathan’s, Cal king was a 7-foot, 250lb giant of a man. The form of a body-builder and with no temper to speak of, the man’s weird violet eyes took in everything, missed almost nothing.
While Bear was a towering example of calm and control, the girl to his right was the exact opposite. Zenith was a mix-matched ball of hyperactive energy. Her hair was light blonde with bright, fire-engine red highlights. Her left eye was dark blue, but the right was a light gray color. Her just over 5-foot frame was sprawled in her chair like a cat, her eyes flicking around the room as if looking for something interesting to focus her mind on.
A chair away to Zenith’s right was Jessica Knapp, known to the Underworld and to Steve Marr’s smugglers as Sparks. She had black and blonde hair, but whether the black was natural or from the engine grease that usually coated her bare arms and torn jeans was uncertain. Her bright green eyes shone with a bored humor from under the welding goggles she had pushed up onto her forehead.
Douglas nodded to each member of the group, “Greeting tah ye all.”
He took the empty seat between Zenith and Sparks.
He eyed Zenith suspiciously, “No’one’s given her a dose ‘ah caffeine, ‘ave they?”
Sparks smiled, her red lips parting to reveal a perfect smile.
“No one here wants to get their heads talked off by her.”
Douglas nodded and looked to Steve, “Weel, what did ye call me fer?”
Steve’s eyes were serious, “The Taske Family. Something needs to be done.”
Angel spoke up, her tiny voice making its way across the table.
“Me and Demon have been in Russia the last month, what’s been going on?”
Bear leaned forward, his deep voice carrying farther than Angel’s.
“When Regent went down a few years back, a lot of other people went with him. Some were high-ranking Board members and their lackeys, but a lot were just the hired help, like us.
Since Hughes took over, the Board has put into motion a number of plans that have resulted in the captured or death of a great many Underworlders.”
Sparks nodded and spoke up, “James Hughes has cut the security they usually send along with Board shipments, and they have been sending us bigger, higher-risk shipments. With the shipments more dangerous to haul, and less security, we have lost seven planes and crews to Customs in the last three months alone.”
Zenith was sitting sideways in her chair, eyeing the cute bartender.
She looked back at the group, “So… what do we do?”
Steve shrugged, “I don’t know. If any one of us, or even a small number of us, tried to stand up against the Board then we will be crushed and obliterated. Does anyone have any ideas that doesn’t get everyone involved killed?”
Angel shook her head, “No… You are right, if we try anything we will end up on tomorrow’s ‘missing persons’ list. Demon?”
She looked towards her brother, who just grunted and folded his arms over his chest.
Douglas scratched his scalp and looked towards the bar, “Can I have a pint of yer best ale? Bring it fast, ye got yerself a thirsty Scott on yer hands, ye ken?”
He turned back to the others, “’Ah don’t know what we can do. It’s a puzzler if’n ye ever saw one.”
“Josh Taske.”
Demon’s voice was rough and gravelly, equally soft and dangerous at the same time.
Zenith stared at the assassin in mild surprise, “He speaks?”
Steve ignored the woman and looked curiously at Demon.
“Explain, please?”
Demon shrugged, “Josh Taske. Knows more about the Taske family than anyone. Only one with the power and reputation to unite people against the Board.”
Angel glanced at her brother, “That’s the most he’s said in a few months.”
A barmaid approached and set a large mug in front of Douglas.
“Your ale, Sir.”
Douglas nodded his thanks, “’Ah thank ye, Lass.”
Bear rested his head on his hands and gazed at Demon from over his massive fists.
“I think he’s got a point. Josh Taske might be our only option.”
Steve shook his head, “The Sharktooth wouldn’t help us. After what happened with his first wife and daughter, he doesn’t want anything to do with his family’s business.”
“Aye, an’ after that personal war he and his team waged a few years back, he isn’t gonna be willing tae start another one.”
Bear spoke up, “We can always talk to Nathan Wolv. He has always been a close friend to the Sharktooth and might be able to convince him to help us.”
Demon nodded once, “Worth a try.”
Angel smiled at her brother, “I’m game if everyone else is.”
Douglas glance at Steve Marr, “Weel, Ah’m all fer it.”
Sparks also looked at the smuggler pilot, “Well, Captain?”
Steve looked at Zenith, “Well?”
Zenith looked bored, “Gonna be a lot of fighting? Running around, shooting and stuff?”
Steve nodded, “Maybe even some explosions.”
The woman grinned and sat forward, “Hell yeah I’m in!!!”
Steve drank the rest of his beer and stood up.
“Then it’s settled. We will go and appeal to Josh Taske and ask him for help.”
~The 4th of July, 2019- James’ Villa Just Off Ortega Highway, CA
Josh’s Trailblazer was parked just off the Ortega Highway, flanked by Sniper’s Hummer. Just ahead of them was an unmarked exit. Few knew the rundown, overgrown turnoff lead to James Hughes’ state of the art Villa.
The Team had been held up about a day and a half due to one of the nastiest hangovers Nathan had had in decades. Fifty miles after they left the first hotel they had to pull over again and put Nathan to bed. The mercenary was one sick Wolf. He didn’t wake up until midday on the 3rd, when they set off once more and pushed until they reached the turnoff to James’ Villa that morning.
Josh and Wraith were going over a few last minute details while Sniper and Nathan go ready to install the M-240B on top of the Blazer.
Lexy and Scarlet were inside the Blazer, making some remarkable changes to the inside. They folded down the back and seat so it was flush with the floor and folded down pieces of the walls to make bench-seats.
Lexy reached up and slid the sides of the skylight back slightly, widening the opening so someone could stand up in it to use the machine gun.
When Anubis had remodeled the Blazer, he had installed some custom-made brackets both on the top of the roof and to go on the bottom of a machine gun so it could easily attach and detach as needed.
When the girls were done, Nathan and Max lifted the large, 7.62mm machine gun and locked it into place on the roof. Max installed the large metal shield that attached to the front of the gun.
“Hey, Josh, the gun is installed.”
Josh looked up, “Okay, good. Everyone, arm up.”
Max’s Hummer was designated the armory. He opened the back doors and revealed two gun racks with six MP5K’s between them. The marksman rolled back a panel on the floor to show the four .45 and four .22 pistols and extra ammo for all of them.
While the rest of the team selected their weapons and loaded up, Max took out the long carry-case he had been carrying around since Emma met him.
Un-zipping the duffel, he withdrew a long rifle with a boxy shoulder-stock. It was a beautiful gunmetal-gray color with matte-black scope and shoulder padding. Attached to the underside of the rifle, just forward of the middle of the gun, was a matte-black bi-pod.
Emma walked over, her Mp90 slung awkwardly over her shoulder.
“Wow… what is it?”
Sniper ran a cloth along the barrel, “It is an Accuracy International Arctic Warfare Magnum sniper rifle. Bolt action, .300 Winchester Magnum rounds loaded into a 10-round cartridge. Modified 29inch barrel and a unique boring to give me around a 400-meter range.”
Emma knelt down next to him and watched him attach the scope and manually load one of the long .300 bullets into the chamber before sliding the ammo cartridge into the underside of the rifle.
“Max, it’s beautiful.”
The mercenary looked up at her, his eyes sad.
“It’s a killing machine, designed to take lives from a safe distance. There is nothing beautiful about it.”
Emma nodded and, getting up, left the man alone.
Ten minutes later the team was ready. Max closed and locked his Hummer and engaged a beacon that would alert him if the car doors were breached.
Josh opened the door for Lexy, “You going to be okay?”
Lexy kissed him on the lips and smiled up into his face.
“Crash the barrier, turn the side towards the gunfire, and shoot the bad guys. Easy, right?”
Josh smiled back at her, “Of course.”
Lexy climbed into the driver’s seat while Emma took her place on the passenger side.
Josh climbed in the back and took the MP5K Nathan handed him. The team was seated on the fold-down bench seats; MP5’s resting stock-down between their knees like a group of highly trained soldiers waiting for the mission to get underway.
Emma looked back at them from her front seat.
“Hey, I was thinking… shouldn’t we have some kind of way to communicate with each other? Headsets or earwigs or something?”
Josh and Wraith shook their heads silently.
Nathan spoke up, “Nope, sorry. We prefer ops like this without comms, the enemy can’t listen in an’ it forces us to keep each other in line-of-sight. No freelancin’ if we all wanna get out alive.”
Josh reached up and tapped Lexy on the shoulder, “Let’s go, Hon.”
~Chapter 20~
Wraith chose a small motel in view of the freeway for them to stop for the night. They rented three rooms, one for Scarlet and Emma, one for Wraith, Max and Nathan, and the third for Josh and Lexy.
Emma plopped her bags on the small, one-person bed and sat down on the edge. She looked around the run-down room and sighed.
“Is it always like this?”
Scarlet pushed her duffel under her bed and lay a .22 on her pillow.
“Sometimes its worse.”
A knock sounded on the door and Scarlet snatched the .45 out of the holster attached to her belt. She went to stand next to the door, gun at the ready. She motioned Emma to get down before she reached for the door knob.
“Who is it?”
Her voice was sweet and bright, nothing to give away the tension in her body.
The rough voice from the other side of the door caused her to relax.
“It’s me, Nathan. Open up.”
Scarlet opened the door and let the Merc inside.
“Hi.”
Nathan brought on of the Mossberg shotguns out from where he had hidden it under his leather jacket.
“This one is for you ladies. I recommend keeping it by the door.”
He leaned it against the wall just next to the door handle. Next to it, he dropped a box of shotgun shells.
“Got you a box of chocolates to go with.”
Scarlet made a face, “Oh, thanks. You are so thoughtful.”
Nathan grinned and made a motion as if tipping his hat.
“Ma’am.”
And with that he backed out of the room and shut the door.
Scarlet picked up the gun and checked it over. Satisfied, she sat it back against the wall.
Emma watched her with interest, “You know… he likes you. A lot.”
Scarlet put the safety on the .45 and holstered it again. She walked over to stand beside her bed again and, chambering a round in the .22, set the safety on the pistol and slid it under her pillow.
“Oh, yeah, sure. The Lone Wolf has a crush now?”
Emma put her hands behind her head and shrugged slightly.
“Whatever you say. But he does like you. Do you like him?”
The red-haired assassin sat on the bed and leaned against the wall. She stared at her feet, her mind racing, looking for a denial.
“Like him? Nathan? Um… No, yes… maybe, I don’t know…”
Emma laughed out loud, “You do like him!!! Why don’t you tell him?”
Scarlet sat forward and rested her head in her hands.
“You… can’t tell Nathan things like that. He’s a lone wolf, a stranger to love and compassion. I think he is afraid of them. If you try to show him anything, he shies away and shuts you out.”
Emma became a bit more serious, “Yeah… I guess I understand that… Nathan does seem to be a bit of a hard-case.”
“A hard case? That’s one hell of an understatement!”
Nathan’s and Wraith’s room was only 2 doors away from Emma’s and Scarlet’s.
Nathan sat outside on the porch just outside the room. His ragged leather jacket was around his shoulders and a tequila was clasped in his left hand. He scratched the scar running down the left side of his face with his free hand and stared into the starry sky.
“Are you an assassin?”
Startled, Nathan looked up at the old lady who had come out of the room between his and the girls’. She was a wrinkled old woman with graying hair that was rapidly going white. Her blue eyes were sharp and knowing.
Nathan smiled kindly at her, “Sorry, Ma’am. I aint no assassin.”
Granny laughed and, slapping him on the shoulder, took the seat next to his.
“Oh, that’s a load of crap if I ever heard one. I know you got a pistol under that coat of yours. And a knife in your boot.”
Nathan stared at her in surprise, “Hell, Grandma, how’d you know all that?”
The old lady took the bottle from Nathan’s hand and took a long swig.
“My ex-husband was an assassin. I know about all yer tricks.”
Nathan gazed at the woman in awe, “Damn, girl. What happened to him? I hope he went down fighting.”
Granny laughed harshly, “Go down fighting? Like hell he did. He ran off with some hooker in Reno and I aint seen him since.”
Nathan smiled slightly, “Damn old fool, leavin’ a lovely lady like yerself.”
Leaning in as if to tell a great secret, Granny winked secretively at Nathan.
“Think I’m sexy now? You should have seen me back in my prime!”
Nathan winked back and stole his bottle back.
“Ma’am, I don’t doubt you in the slightest.”
Wraith came out of their room door and approached the two. His eyes flicked over them, taking in every detail.
“Nathan, who’s your friend?”
Nathan grinned up at the green-eyed man, “This is my new drinking buddy. You would like her, she knows crap.”
Granny also bestowed a grin upon the tall man.
“Hello there, you are an Informer, right?”
Wraith’s sharp eyes narrowed, “What makes you say that?”
The old woman shrugged, “The eyes, the look, the voice, all says Informer.”
Nathan took a long drink from his bottle before passing it back to Granny.
“She was married to an Assassin, ran off with a hooker. Like I said, she knows crap.”
Granny motioned to the door Wraith had purposefully left open.
“So, what you got sitting in there? My husband kept a Stoeger M2000 just inside the door, always in reach.”
Nathan grinned, “Smart. I prefer a Mossberg 500.”
Granny nodded thoughtfully, “I guess that works too. To each his own, eh?”
Nathan got up, “Damn right. Listen Ma’am, I got an early morning to look forward too. You can keep the bottle, ‘kay?”
She grinned and raised the bottle in a toast to the Merc.
“I thank ‘ye, Sir. Have a nice night, and good luck on whatever mission you are on.”
Nathan bowed and turned to follow Wraith into the hotel room.
“Yep; let’s hope suicide isn’t as bad as people say.”
The next morning Josh and his crew were up later than they expected. Wraith and Josh woke up sometime after six, but Nathan was sleeping off a hangover.
Scarlet woke up an hour later and snuck outside without waking Emma up and went to sit with Josh and Wraith on the porch.
Max had gotten up around the same time as Wraith and had gone out for muffins and juice. He got back just as Scarlet emerged from her room.
“Poppy-seed?”
The marksman was short and terse, obviously not much of a morning person.
Scarlet smiled sleepily, “Sure, thanks.”
Josh grinned up at Sniper, “No coffee?”
Max glared at the other man, “Shut up.”
The sharpshooter looked back to Scarlet, “She up yet?”
The red-haired assassin shook her head, “Nope. Not yet.”
Josh got to his feet, “It’s about time they all got up.”
He entered the room he shared with Lexy, emerging a moment later followed by his wife in a tight black t-shirt and blue mini-shorts.
She blinked owl-eyed at the others and smiled sweetly.
“Good morning, everyone. Oh, are those muffins?”
Josh strode up to Emma and Scarlet’s door and pounded on the wood.
“Emma, get up!”
He waited a moment before pounding on the door again.
“Emma!!!”
The sound of someone stumbling across the floor came through the door and a second later Emma opened the door groggily.
“Hello, I’m up.”
Josh next went to Nathans door and did the same routine. When there was no sound from inside and no answer after he had pounded on the door four times, Josh opened the door and entered the darkened room.
A moment later Nathan came hurtling through the door and collided against the porch railing.
The Taske heir walked through the door a moment later and tossed the inebriated mercenary his black cowboy hat and dark sunglasses.
“Eat something, have some juice. You can sleep it off on the road.”
Emma stared in shock at Josh, Max and Wraith just exchanged amused glances and went on with their breakfast.
And so the Taske Force hit the road once more.
Emma plopped her bags on the small, one-person bed and sat down on the edge. She looked around the run-down room and sighed.
“Is it always like this?”
Scarlet pushed her duffel under her bed and lay a .22 on her pillow.
“Sometimes its worse.”
A knock sounded on the door and Scarlet snatched the .45 out of the holster attached to her belt. She went to stand next to the door, gun at the ready. She motioned Emma to get down before she reached for the door knob.
“Who is it?”
Her voice was sweet and bright, nothing to give away the tension in her body.
The rough voice from the other side of the door caused her to relax.
“It’s me, Nathan. Open up.”
Scarlet opened the door and let the Merc inside.
“Hi.”
Nathan brought on of the Mossberg shotguns out from where he had hidden it under his leather jacket.
“This one is for you ladies. I recommend keeping it by the door.”
He leaned it against the wall just next to the door handle. Next to it, he dropped a box of shotgun shells.
“Got you a box of chocolates to go with.”
Scarlet made a face, “Oh, thanks. You are so thoughtful.”
Nathan grinned and made a motion as if tipping his hat.
“Ma’am.”
And with that he backed out of the room and shut the door.
Scarlet picked up the gun and checked it over. Satisfied, she sat it back against the wall.
Emma watched her with interest, “You know… he likes you. A lot.”
Scarlet put the safety on the .45 and holstered it again. She walked over to stand beside her bed again and, chambering a round in the .22, set the safety on the pistol and slid it under her pillow.
“Oh, yeah, sure. The Lone Wolf has a crush now?”
Emma put her hands behind her head and shrugged slightly.
“Whatever you say. But he does like you. Do you like him?”
The red-haired assassin sat on the bed and leaned against the wall. She stared at her feet, her mind racing, looking for a denial.
“Like him? Nathan? Um… No, yes… maybe, I don’t know…”
Emma laughed out loud, “You do like him!!! Why don’t you tell him?”
Scarlet sat forward and rested her head in her hands.
“You… can’t tell Nathan things like that. He’s a lone wolf, a stranger to love and compassion. I think he is afraid of them. If you try to show him anything, he shies away and shuts you out.”
Emma became a bit more serious, “Yeah… I guess I understand that… Nathan does seem to be a bit of a hard-case.”
“A hard case? That’s one hell of an understatement!”
Nathan’s and Wraith’s room was only 2 doors away from Emma’s and Scarlet’s.
Nathan sat outside on the porch just outside the room. His ragged leather jacket was around his shoulders and a tequila was clasped in his left hand. He scratched the scar running down the left side of his face with his free hand and stared into the starry sky.
“Are you an assassin?”
Startled, Nathan looked up at the old lady who had come out of the room between his and the girls’. She was a wrinkled old woman with graying hair that was rapidly going white. Her blue eyes were sharp and knowing.
Nathan smiled kindly at her, “Sorry, Ma’am. I aint no assassin.”
Granny laughed and, slapping him on the shoulder, took the seat next to his.
“Oh, that’s a load of crap if I ever heard one. I know you got a pistol under that coat of yours. And a knife in your boot.”
Nathan stared at her in surprise, “Hell, Grandma, how’d you know all that?”
The old lady took the bottle from Nathan’s hand and took a long swig.
“My ex-husband was an assassin. I know about all yer tricks.”
Nathan gazed at the woman in awe, “Damn, girl. What happened to him? I hope he went down fighting.”
Granny laughed harshly, “Go down fighting? Like hell he did. He ran off with some hooker in Reno and I aint seen him since.”
Nathan smiled slightly, “Damn old fool, leavin’ a lovely lady like yerself.”
Leaning in as if to tell a great secret, Granny winked secretively at Nathan.
“Think I’m sexy now? You should have seen me back in my prime!”
Nathan winked back and stole his bottle back.
“Ma’am, I don’t doubt you in the slightest.”
Wraith came out of their room door and approached the two. His eyes flicked over them, taking in every detail.
“Nathan, who’s your friend?”
Nathan grinned up at the green-eyed man, “This is my new drinking buddy. You would like her, she knows crap.”
Granny also bestowed a grin upon the tall man.
“Hello there, you are an Informer, right?”
Wraith’s sharp eyes narrowed, “What makes you say that?”
The old woman shrugged, “The eyes, the look, the voice, all says Informer.”
Nathan took a long drink from his bottle before passing it back to Granny.
“She was married to an Assassin, ran off with a hooker. Like I said, she knows crap.”
Granny motioned to the door Wraith had purposefully left open.
“So, what you got sitting in there? My husband kept a Stoeger M2000 just inside the door, always in reach.”
Nathan grinned, “Smart. I prefer a Mossberg 500.”
Granny nodded thoughtfully, “I guess that works too. To each his own, eh?”
Nathan got up, “Damn right. Listen Ma’am, I got an early morning to look forward too. You can keep the bottle, ‘kay?”
She grinned and raised the bottle in a toast to the Merc.
“I thank ‘ye, Sir. Have a nice night, and good luck on whatever mission you are on.”
Nathan bowed and turned to follow Wraith into the hotel room.
“Yep; let’s hope suicide isn’t as bad as people say.”
The next morning Josh and his crew were up later than they expected. Wraith and Josh woke up sometime after six, but Nathan was sleeping off a hangover.
Scarlet woke up an hour later and snuck outside without waking Emma up and went to sit with Josh and Wraith on the porch.
Max had gotten up around the same time as Wraith and had gone out for muffins and juice. He got back just as Scarlet emerged from her room.
“Poppy-seed?”
The marksman was short and terse, obviously not much of a morning person.
Scarlet smiled sleepily, “Sure, thanks.”
Josh grinned up at Sniper, “No coffee?”
Max glared at the other man, “Shut up.”
The sharpshooter looked back to Scarlet, “She up yet?”
The red-haired assassin shook her head, “Nope. Not yet.”
Josh got to his feet, “It’s about time they all got up.”
He entered the room he shared with Lexy, emerging a moment later followed by his wife in a tight black t-shirt and blue mini-shorts.
She blinked owl-eyed at the others and smiled sweetly.
“Good morning, everyone. Oh, are those muffins?”
Josh strode up to Emma and Scarlet’s door and pounded on the wood.
“Emma, get up!”
He waited a moment before pounding on the door again.
“Emma!!!”
The sound of someone stumbling across the floor came through the door and a second later Emma opened the door groggily.
“Hello, I’m up.”
Josh next went to Nathans door and did the same routine. When there was no sound from inside and no answer after he had pounded on the door four times, Josh opened the door and entered the darkened room.
A moment later Nathan came hurtling through the door and collided against the porch railing.
The Taske heir walked through the door a moment later and tossed the inebriated mercenary his black cowboy hat and dark sunglasses.
“Eat something, have some juice. You can sleep it off on the road.”
Emma stared in shock at Josh, Max and Wraith just exchanged amused glances and went on with their breakfast.
And so the Taske Force hit the road once more.
~Chapter 19~
~June 31st, 2019- Samuel Grayson’s Apartment, NY
“Yes, this is Samuel Grayson.”
The black-haired, gray-eyed man stared at the wall, his brain not registering what his eyes saw.
His plan was coming together. His contacts in Oregon had informed him of the goings on at the Taske house, as much as they could see, anyways. If the mentalist’s calculations were correct, and they usually were, Josh Taske would take care of James Hughes in a matter of days. Samuel had done all he was able to do, now all he could do was sit back and wait for the aftermath.
Aftermath, this was where Samuel’s planning and strategizing would come finally pay off. And it was for this aftermath that Samuel Grayson was setting the final pieces in place for.
“Yes, I would like to call a Board meeting. Highest priority, on the 6th of July. I have an important announcement to make…”
~June 31st, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
Nathan threw his duffel in the back of Sniper’s Hummer and opened the rear door to lay a Mossberg on the floor of the far backseat. Walking back to Josh’s front door, he retrieved the 24-pack of Budweiser and set in on one of the seats.
Scarlet set her own duffel on the middle row of seats, along with her small crossbow and quiver of bolts. She then aided Emma in loading Emma and Sniper’s duffels into the back of the behemoth.
Wraith and Sniper uploaded the coordinates for the Villa into the Hummer’s GPS via a USB link to Trailblazer’s GPS unit. Sniper was basically useless in the process, but he insisted on watching Wraith upload the data.
Josh and Lexy loaded their bags into the back of the Trailblazer, along with most of the armament they had selected to bring along.
Josh tossed Sniper an iPod, “Here, it’s going to be a long drive. I’ll have Wraith call you to tell you where to pull over to spend the night.”
Sniper looked over the mp3 device, “How much does it hold?”
Wraith set a metal briefcase on the back seat of the Trailblazer, “It holds 30 gigabytes of data.”
“What kind of music?”
Josh shrugged, “A little bit of everything, really.”
Sniper shrugged, “Works for me. See you on the road.”
They lasted four hours before Nathan finally started getting bored and irritable. He had already disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the two Colt .45’s he carried on him, and the Mossberg shotgun. He put a new edge on his combat knife, and spent a good half an hour trying to convince Sniper to let him clean his rifle.
Now, the mercenary was talking on his cell phone.
“Yeah, yeah, bright lights. There was this loud buzzing sound and the lights grew brighter… Yeah, I was in the desert at the time. What desert? The Sahara. Where in the Sahara!? What the hell, you think I know exactly where in the Sahara I was!? It’s all sand to me! But yes, I’m sure it was aliens… No, I don’t know what kind of aliens, what aliens do you know of?”
Scarlet looked back at him, “Nathan, will you please shut up?”
Nathan waved her off, “I’m telling you, it was a damned alien! What? Drinking? Well… maybe a little bit… But that doesn’t mean anything, I saw an alien spaceship!”
Scarlet turned to look at Sniper and Emma in the front seats.
“Max, I’m sorry, I know it must cost a fortune to reupholster this thing, but I am about to shoot him in the head and get blood all over your seats.”
Max looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror through his dark sunglasses.
“If you shut him up I will pay for it myself.”
Emma smiled at them, “You two really need to learn how to get along with certain people.”
The redheaded assassin snorted, “You think you can deal with him?”
Nodding, Emma looked towards Sniper, “You mind turning on some music?”
The marksman threw her a questioning look and shrugged. He handed her the iPod Josh had given him and pointed to the auxiliary input jack on the dash.
Emma reached down to the backpack Josh had given her and filled with other donated possessions.
“Nathan…”
She held up a full bottle of tequila and shook it gently.
“Interested?”
Nathan snapped his phone shut in midsentence and accepted the bottle.
The onetime secretary then manipulated the iPod’s controls until she had found what she was looking for.
An electric guitar and bass drum filled the Hummer’s top of the line sound system.
“I bought my first real six-string, bought it at the five-and-dime…”
Nathan took a long drink from the bottle and lay back, closing his eyes.
Scarlet looked up at Emma, “Wow. Never would have thought of that.”
Emma shrugged one shoulder, “Nathan strikes me as both someone who likes to be active and someone who is a bit nostalgic.”
Sniper’s steely composer cracked to reveal a small smile, “Good thinking.”
The woman laid back and closed her eyes, “Thank you, Dear.”
Josh had turned his radio to a local jazz station, and the resonating sound of a tenor sax filled the interior of the trailblazer. His gray eyes flicked back and forth from the road to the other cars from behind his dark Ray Bans.
Lexy had her chair pushed all the way back and her feet on the dashboard. She had opted to change into a pair of mini-shorts and a black tank-top for the drive. The beautiful young woman was busy painting her toenails a bright red while humming along to the sound of B.B. King’s guitar, “Lucile”.
Wraith say in the back seat, laptop open on his lap and a small box with two antennae sticking out of the top attached to the computer by a USB cable.
Josh glanced at Wraith in the rearview, “What you working on?”
Lexy looked back to, “Yeah, and what is that thing you got there?”
Wraith didn’t even look up, “It is a GhostWire Box, I designed it to give me internet almost anywhere. And I am currently logged into Shadow Tech’s design server and am adding some last minute modifications to the Banshee Desktop Computer we plan to release later this year.”
Lexy stared at him in amazement, “You can do all that from the back seat of our car?”
Wraith smiled slightly, “Yes, I can.”
“So… if you can do all that, why couldn’t you access the computer in the Regency Building remotely?”
“Closed server, I could only access a small portion of it, nothing we could have used.”
The Informer glanced at Josh, “By the way. When I was in their system I pulled their files on all known Underworld agents. I uploaded the files to the Den computer into the personnel databank.”
Josh nodded, “Good idea, thanks. That will come in handy.”
Lexy looked at the two of them in shock, “So… you have files on every Underworlder? The Board has files on every Underworlder?”
Wraith glanced mischievously at her, “Well, they have nothing at all on me.”
Josh laughed, “Of course they wouldn’t.”
Wraith tapped a few more key combinations and looked up at Lexy.
“Well, that does it. I’m done. Now… I wonder what Nathan is up to…”
A few miles ahead of the fortified Blazer in the mighty Hummer, Nathan’s cell phone rang. Flipping his old razor phone open, he viewed the waiting text message in interest.
From: Dark_Shade
To: Lone_Wolf
Would You Like To Play A Game?
Nathan’s mouth quirked in a mischievous smile.
From: Lone_Wolf
To: Dark_Shade
Hell Yes!
A moment later, the response arrived:
From: Dark_Shade
To: Lone_Wolf
Your Laptop, Now.
The mercenary reached into the duffel on the seat beside him and drew his silver Shadow Tech WhiteSmoke laptop. He opened it and booted the portable computer to life.
The image of a busty blonde clad in a red bikini leaning provocatively over the seat of a 91 FXDB Sturgis Harley Davidson greeted Nathan upon logging in. It seemed characteristic of his flirty, flamboyant personality. But those who knew him well enough knew that it was the bike that caught his interest, and not the bombshell astride it.
A black chat box with the image of a cartoon ghost popped up on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Dark_Shade: Hello, Nathan.
Lone_Wolf: Hey, Wraith!
Dark_Shade: How R things with U?
Lone_Wolf: Been better. Bored 2 death, Scar gonna kill me. Em playing Journey.
Dark_Shade: Sound like a blast. How about Chess?
Lone_Wolf: Thought U would never ask.
Another window popped up on his screen, this time depicting a rustic-style chess board with stone pieces. The black pieces sat on the board closest to Nathan.
A pawn moved two spaces forward, and the game was on.
Emma looked back at Nathan, noting the intent concentration on his scarred face.
“What’s up with Nathan?”
Scarlet was deep into a book on the history of Japanese warfare, she didn’t even glance up at the one-time secretary.
“Chess with Wraith. They do this whenever we have a long trip to make. Just watch, Wraith will win the first, third, and sixth and seventh games. Nathan will win the second, fourth and fifth games, get frustrated after the seventh, and quit in a bad temper.”
Emma laughed, “I guess they do this a lot then.”
“Every chance they get.”
“Yes, this is Samuel Grayson.”
The black-haired, gray-eyed man stared at the wall, his brain not registering what his eyes saw.
His plan was coming together. His contacts in Oregon had informed him of the goings on at the Taske house, as much as they could see, anyways. If the mentalist’s calculations were correct, and they usually were, Josh Taske would take care of James Hughes in a matter of days. Samuel had done all he was able to do, now all he could do was sit back and wait for the aftermath.
Aftermath, this was where Samuel’s planning and strategizing would come finally pay off. And it was for this aftermath that Samuel Grayson was setting the final pieces in place for.
“Yes, I would like to call a Board meeting. Highest priority, on the 6th of July. I have an important announcement to make…”
~June 31st, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
Nathan threw his duffel in the back of Sniper’s Hummer and opened the rear door to lay a Mossberg on the floor of the far backseat. Walking back to Josh’s front door, he retrieved the 24-pack of Budweiser and set in on one of the seats.
Scarlet set her own duffel on the middle row of seats, along with her small crossbow and quiver of bolts. She then aided Emma in loading Emma and Sniper’s duffels into the back of the behemoth.
Wraith and Sniper uploaded the coordinates for the Villa into the Hummer’s GPS via a USB link to Trailblazer’s GPS unit. Sniper was basically useless in the process, but he insisted on watching Wraith upload the data.
Josh and Lexy loaded their bags into the back of the Trailblazer, along with most of the armament they had selected to bring along.
Josh tossed Sniper an iPod, “Here, it’s going to be a long drive. I’ll have Wraith call you to tell you where to pull over to spend the night.”
Sniper looked over the mp3 device, “How much does it hold?”
Wraith set a metal briefcase on the back seat of the Trailblazer, “It holds 30 gigabytes of data.”
“What kind of music?”
Josh shrugged, “A little bit of everything, really.”
Sniper shrugged, “Works for me. See you on the road.”
They lasted four hours before Nathan finally started getting bored and irritable. He had already disassembled, cleaned, and reassembled the two Colt .45’s he carried on him, and the Mossberg shotgun. He put a new edge on his combat knife, and spent a good half an hour trying to convince Sniper to let him clean his rifle.
Now, the mercenary was talking on his cell phone.
“Yeah, yeah, bright lights. There was this loud buzzing sound and the lights grew brighter… Yeah, I was in the desert at the time. What desert? The Sahara. Where in the Sahara!? What the hell, you think I know exactly where in the Sahara I was!? It’s all sand to me! But yes, I’m sure it was aliens… No, I don’t know what kind of aliens, what aliens do you know of?”
Scarlet looked back at him, “Nathan, will you please shut up?”
Nathan waved her off, “I’m telling you, it was a damned alien! What? Drinking? Well… maybe a little bit… But that doesn’t mean anything, I saw an alien spaceship!”
Scarlet turned to look at Sniper and Emma in the front seats.
“Max, I’m sorry, I know it must cost a fortune to reupholster this thing, but I am about to shoot him in the head and get blood all over your seats.”
Max looked at her reflection in the rearview mirror through his dark sunglasses.
“If you shut him up I will pay for it myself.”
Emma smiled at them, “You two really need to learn how to get along with certain people.”
The redheaded assassin snorted, “You think you can deal with him?”
Nodding, Emma looked towards Sniper, “You mind turning on some music?”
The marksman threw her a questioning look and shrugged. He handed her the iPod Josh had given him and pointed to the auxiliary input jack on the dash.
Emma reached down to the backpack Josh had given her and filled with other donated possessions.
“Nathan…”
She held up a full bottle of tequila and shook it gently.
“Interested?”
Nathan snapped his phone shut in midsentence and accepted the bottle.
The onetime secretary then manipulated the iPod’s controls until she had found what she was looking for.
An electric guitar and bass drum filled the Hummer’s top of the line sound system.
“I bought my first real six-string, bought it at the five-and-dime…”
Nathan took a long drink from the bottle and lay back, closing his eyes.
Scarlet looked up at Emma, “Wow. Never would have thought of that.”
Emma shrugged one shoulder, “Nathan strikes me as both someone who likes to be active and someone who is a bit nostalgic.”
Sniper’s steely composer cracked to reveal a small smile, “Good thinking.”
The woman laid back and closed her eyes, “Thank you, Dear.”
Josh had turned his radio to a local jazz station, and the resonating sound of a tenor sax filled the interior of the trailblazer. His gray eyes flicked back and forth from the road to the other cars from behind his dark Ray Bans.
Lexy had her chair pushed all the way back and her feet on the dashboard. She had opted to change into a pair of mini-shorts and a black tank-top for the drive. The beautiful young woman was busy painting her toenails a bright red while humming along to the sound of B.B. King’s guitar, “Lucile”.
Wraith say in the back seat, laptop open on his lap and a small box with two antennae sticking out of the top attached to the computer by a USB cable.
Josh glanced at Wraith in the rearview, “What you working on?”
Lexy looked back to, “Yeah, and what is that thing you got there?”
Wraith didn’t even look up, “It is a GhostWire Box, I designed it to give me internet almost anywhere. And I am currently logged into Shadow Tech’s design server and am adding some last minute modifications to the Banshee Desktop Computer we plan to release later this year.”
Lexy stared at him in amazement, “You can do all that from the back seat of our car?”
Wraith smiled slightly, “Yes, I can.”
“So… if you can do all that, why couldn’t you access the computer in the Regency Building remotely?”
“Closed server, I could only access a small portion of it, nothing we could have used.”
The Informer glanced at Josh, “By the way. When I was in their system I pulled their files on all known Underworld agents. I uploaded the files to the Den computer into the personnel databank.”
Josh nodded, “Good idea, thanks. That will come in handy.”
Lexy looked at the two of them in shock, “So… you have files on every Underworlder? The Board has files on every Underworlder?”
Wraith glanced mischievously at her, “Well, they have nothing at all on me.”
Josh laughed, “Of course they wouldn’t.”
Wraith tapped a few more key combinations and looked up at Lexy.
“Well, that does it. I’m done. Now… I wonder what Nathan is up to…”
A few miles ahead of the fortified Blazer in the mighty Hummer, Nathan’s cell phone rang. Flipping his old razor phone open, he viewed the waiting text message in interest.
From: Dark_Shade
To: Lone_Wolf
Would You Like To Play A Game?
Nathan’s mouth quirked in a mischievous smile.
From: Lone_Wolf
To: Dark_Shade
Hell Yes!
A moment later, the response arrived:
From: Dark_Shade
To: Lone_Wolf
Your Laptop, Now.
The mercenary reached into the duffel on the seat beside him and drew his silver Shadow Tech WhiteSmoke laptop. He opened it and booted the portable computer to life.
The image of a busty blonde clad in a red bikini leaning provocatively over the seat of a 91 FXDB Sturgis Harley Davidson greeted Nathan upon logging in. It seemed characteristic of his flirty, flamboyant personality. But those who knew him well enough knew that it was the bike that caught his interest, and not the bombshell astride it.
A black chat box with the image of a cartoon ghost popped up on the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.
Dark_Shade: Hello, Nathan.
Lone_Wolf: Hey, Wraith!
Dark_Shade: How R things with U?
Lone_Wolf: Been better. Bored 2 death, Scar gonna kill me. Em playing Journey.
Dark_Shade: Sound like a blast. How about Chess?
Lone_Wolf: Thought U would never ask.
Another window popped up on his screen, this time depicting a rustic-style chess board with stone pieces. The black pieces sat on the board closest to Nathan.
A pawn moved two spaces forward, and the game was on.
Emma looked back at Nathan, noting the intent concentration on his scarred face.
“What’s up with Nathan?”
Scarlet was deep into a book on the history of Japanese warfare, she didn’t even glance up at the one-time secretary.
“Chess with Wraith. They do this whenever we have a long trip to make. Just watch, Wraith will win the first, third, and sixth and seventh games. Nathan will win the second, fourth and fifth games, get frustrated after the seventh, and quit in a bad temper.”
Emma laughed, “I guess they do this a lot then.”
“Every chance they get.”
~Chapter 18~
~June 29th, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
Josh and Nathan had just unloaded something covered in a tarp off of a hot-looking jacked-up black pickup parked in the driveway when Wraith arrived. It was getting close to evening and the Informer looked tired and worn out from his race back to Oregon.
Wraith parked Josh’s Ninja 3 next to the pickup and dismounted the bike. He nodded in greeting to the large black man who was talking to Josh and Nathan by the tailgate.
Wraith eyed the tarp as he approached the three other men.
“Anubis, it’s been a while.”
Wraith and the man who most knew simply as “Anubis” shook hands.
The Underworld mechanic and arms-dealer was at least seven-foot, with massive arms and uncharacteristic gray-blue eyes. He was a genius with all things mechanical, and had done work for Josh and his associates on multiple occasions.
“Wraith, Josh was just filling me in on what’s been going on.”
Wraith nodded, “Doesn’t look good, does it?”
Anubis gestured to the tarp-covered object, “I don’t know, this puppy might even things out a bit, but damned if I know.”
Wraith threw a questioning look in Josh’s direction, “What is it?”
Anubis grinned, “Mind if I tell him?”
Josh shook his head, the look in his eye equal parts mischievous and dangerous.
Anubis turned back to Wraith, “What you got there is an M-240B vehicle-mounted machine gun. 7.62mm rounds, belt-fed and gas-operated. Standard ammo is 100-round bandolier, but I’ve got a friend in Arkansas who came up with these 250-round bandoliers, which is what I’ve given you.”
The mechanic gestured to the large metal crate that still sat in the back of his truck.
“I brought you 50 bandoliers, so you got about 12,500 shots with that thing.”
Wraith raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Josh.
Josh shrugged, “When I had Anubis fortify the Blazer I had him reposition the skylight and put mounting brackets on the roof in case I ever needed to use something like this.”
Wraith nodded his head thoughtfully, “And what do we need it for?”
Josh reached into his pocket and pulled out a check.
“I’ll tell you later. Anubis, I think $3,000 was the agreed price?”
Anubis shrugged, “I got the modified bandoliers for a discount price, so it should be about $2,300.”
Josh handed the mechanic the check, “Well, then you can pay us back later. Nathan is going to need some work done on his bike again, so you can help out with that when the time comes.”
Anubis shoved the check into his back pocket and shook hands with the three men.
“Sounds like a deal, I’ll see you fella’s when you get back from wherever you are going.”
They said goodbye and the big black man got into his truck and left. As he was pulling out of the driveway Nathan looked over at Josh.
“You know, you didn’t have to do that. I’m sure you got some of your own projects you could have given him to work on.”
Josh nodded and started to go back inside the house.
“Yeah, I probably do.”
Nathan shrugged and hit the button to close the garage door before following Josh and Wraith inside.
Nathan entered the living room and picked up a half-finished beer from the coffee table. He plopped down on the couch across from the TV and picked up the remote.
Scarlet and Emma sat in the dining room, Scarlet cleaning a pistol and Emma engaged with the New York Times crossword puzzle from the day before.
Wraith grabbed a Coke from the fridge and went to stand next to Josh at the bar. He looked over Josh’s shoulder at the notepad the other man was scribbling on.
“Plans?”
Josh nodded absently, “Yeah, just a few things to remember for our briefing tomorrow.”
Wraith nodded, “We leave tomorrow?”
“Yeah, we will leave sometime after 2. We should arrive in Fresno around one in the morning.”
Nathan looked up from channel-surfing, “What we gonna do after that?”
Josh put his pen down and started for the stairs.
“I need to talk to a few people in the State Police Department, and we need to do some scouting before we take the place.”
Sniper walked in and Josh glanced at him before looking back around at the other members of his little makeshift task-force.
“I suggest you all get some rest, tomorrow will be a long day.”
Josh entered his bedroom and closed the door and locked it before turning to look at the figure on the bed.
“Took you long enough.”
Lexy lay on the bed, dressed in a white silk slip that was so sheer it was almost see-through. Her light-brown hair lay about her head and spread out across the pillow. Her chest rose and fell steadily and her brilliant aqua-blue eyes where hooded and seductive. Her voice was soft and husky.
Josh came to stand at the side of the bed and reached down to run his fingers through her hair. He bent over and kissed her gently on the lips.
“I had to take care of a few things.”
He straightened and, walking over to his side of the bed, pulled his shirt over his head. He sat down on the side of the bed and began pulling off his shoes and socks.
Lexy moved up behind him and, propping herself up on one elbow, ran her fingers gently down his back.
“Was that Anubis’ truck parked in the driveway?”
“Yeah, he dropped something off for our upcoming mission.”
Lexy knelt on the bed and, putting her arms around her husband, lay her chin on his shoulder.
“Josh… can we win?”
The one-time assassin and mercenary put his hand gently on his wife’s arm, running the tips of his fingers along the muscle of her forearm.
His voice was soft, “I don’t know, Love, I don’t know.”
He turned around on the bed and pushed Lexy onto her back. He bent over her again and kissed her.
“Let’s not worry about it though. This time is for us, so let’s make the most of it.”
Lexy ran her fingers across the scar of a bullet-wound on Josh’s right shoulder.
“Yes, lets.”
~June 30th, 2019- James’ Villa Just Off Ortega Highway, CA
James Hughes stood in the center of a large room surrounded by computers. To his left Cipher sat in a rolling leather office chair, typing furiously on a laptop.
“Are we almost ready?”
Cipher spun around in his chair and, pushing his yellow-tinted glasses up on his nose, nodded emphatically.
“I can have it ready this afternoon if you want.”
James thought a moment, “No… Let’s wait a few days, shall we?”
Cipher looked questioning at James, “Boss?”
James threw back his head and laughed out loud.
“In just a few days it will be the Fourth of July!!! Won’t it be such an ironic statement if the United States loses its ability to be independent on what is historically its Independence Day?”
Cipher nodded, “I guess…”
James clapped the hacker on the shoulder before heading for the door of the Command Center.
“No guessing about it, my dear Cipher. We shall save the fireworks for the proper time.”
~June 30th, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
Nathan and Scarlet already had their duffel bags by the front door when Sniper got up around 6:15. He dropped his own duffel and the long carry-case that housed his rifle next to Nathan’s canvas standard-issue Marine duffel.
Breakfast consisted of cold cereal, coffee, and in Nathan’s case, a Bud Lite.
After breakfast Josh and Lexy took a few moments to get their own things packed and added them to the pile by the door.
Nathan also added another large, heavy duffel.
Sniper nodded to Nathan’s duffel, “What’s in there?”
Nathan unzipped the duffel, revealing three of the Mossberg shotguns, a mini Uzi, a few of Nathan’s favorite Colt .45’s, and ammo for all of them.
The mercenary grinned wickedly, “Just some backup.”
Sniper smiled to himself, he had worked with Nathan Wolv many times, and he remembered the merc’s fondness for shotguns and .45’s. Although, on second thought, Nathan liked just about everything that created fire and smoke and caused destruction.
Emma came down the stairs just then and approached the two of them.
“Josh says to come up to the Den.”
Nathan and Sniper exchanged glances.
Nathan followed Emma back up the stairs, “Time for a final briefing.”
Sniper trudged up the stairs after Nathan, “Yeah… it’s almost over.”
Nathan glanced behind him, “It aint over ‘till its over, bub.”
Josh was dressed in black skin-tight under-armor and jeans, and black combat boots. A P.22 pistol next to a Marine-issue combat knife was clipped to the back of his belt. He would trade his current attire for black-and-gray cameo pants and his trademark gun belt with its twin Japanese Sais and twin .357 Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistols.
Lexy sat dressed in a white T-shirt, blue-jeans, and combat boots just to Josh’s right. Her arms where crossed casually across her chest and her eyes lingered on her husband whenever her glance passed his way.
Wraith sat to Lexy’s right, dressed all in black with a Smith and Weston .45 in a hip-holster. His piercing eyes where fixed on a paper-sized tablet computer, taking in massive amount of information in seconds.
Scarlet was seated to Josh’s left. She was clad in black jeans, with a red tank-top closely hugging her torso. A large .38 caliber revolver was holstered at her side and in front of her on the table rested a miniature crossbow. A quiver-full of bolts was strapped to her thigh.
Emma walked in, dressed in a green Tee and jeans, unarmed and feeling rather out of place among the mercenaries and assassins in the room.
Nathan was dressed in his typical dirty white T-shirt and dirty blue-jeans. The majority of his weapons were concealed on his person in the form of knives of all sizes and shapes. But a Colt .45 with ivory inlaid handles and stainless-steel barrel was at home in a worn leather holster clipped to his western-style belt.
Sniper was dressed similarly to Wraith, with the exception of his forest-cameo pants. Sniper, like Emma, was unarmed. But the sharpshooter seemed far more at home than the one-time secretary did.
Nathan took his place next to Scarlet and promptly put his booted feet on the table and popped the top of a Miller.
Sniper took the seat next to Nathan, and Emma sat close to his side, between the marksman and Wraith.
Nathan took a sip from his beer and scratched at the few-day old beard along his jawline.
“Sooo… What’s the plan?”
Josh nodded to Wraith, who pushed a button on his tablet, summoning a stunning 3D image of James’ Villa to the holograph projector.
The Villa was huge; three large, circular, red-domed structures stationed around an even larger central one. The domes where connected by covered bridges with half-walled sides.
All four of the structures where built on tall stone pillars in the middle of a gigantic crevasse. There was a single bridge connecting the Villa to the side of the crevasse where there was a small parking structure.
Wraith gestured to the holo-image, “This is James’ Villa. It is his home and base of operations. It is built inside of a crack in the earth that, while never officially measured, is guessed to be at least a thousand yards deep. The Villa consists of a parking structure that also houses a security station, one primary structure and three secondary structures.
The primary structure has a library, a kitchen, an entertainment area, and a raised platform with a large dining room table.
The western structure is guest quarters. There are six rooms where James allows some of his most valued and treasured customers and employees stay.
Up on the north-east corner of the guest quarters is a bridge that heads out, away from the complex where it meets a circular security station, then goes on to connect to the northernmost structure.
The northern structure is James’ personal quarters. Although it is uncertain the exact layout, we know he has a private art gallery, an office, and a master-suite.
The easternmost structure is where our main concern lies. This is James’ command center. This is where he will most likely be most of his days, and where all the computers and equipment he needs to carry out his Plan will be. At the entrance to the command center is another security checkpoint, and branching off from it is a helicopter landing-pad.
Along the bluff overlooking the crevasse is a parking structure where we know there will be at least one armored vehicle and possibly a few other trucks with mounted weaponry. There is also a security check-point just as you drive in and a gate over the entrance to the garage.”
As Wraith spoke, Nathan stared at the holo-images and held his beer to his forehead.
Scarlet and Josh listened intently, while Lexy kept looking back between Josh and Wraith.
Sniper took notes on a small yellow legal pad, and Emma stared with Nathan at the holo-images, the sheer impossibility of what was being explained obvious on her face.
Wraith glanced around, “Any questions?”
Lexy raised a hand, “How are we going to get passed the front gate and the security checkpoint and everything?”
Josh answered for Wraith, “We will use the Trail Blazer for that. The Blazer’s armor should protect it from any small-arms fire and most of the bigger guns they will have.”
Lexy nodded, her face uncertain still.
Nathan cocked his head to one side, staring still at the layout displayed on the holo-projector.
“We know how many guards this guy is gonna have?”
Wraith shook his head, “anywhere between twenty-five and forty altogether. But he changes the number of guards on duty and where they are positioned in the Villa almost daily. Any other questions?”
When there was no answer, Wraith nodded to Josh and Josh rose, picking up a wooden pointer leaning against the computer desk behind him. Using the pointer to illustrate his instructions, the ex-Marine laid out his plan to take the Villa.
“Okay, here is how things are going to go down. We will use the Blazer to smash the gate. Our intel says it’s just one of those reinforced wooden gates like they use on toll-bridges and such. Strong enough to smash in the front of an average car, but not enough to even scratch the Blazer.
Yesterday Anubis dropped off an M240B vehicle-mounted machinegun. Before we storm the gate we are going to mount it in front of the skylight.
When we storm the gate, Lexy you are driving. You are going to angle the Blazer so one side is facing the bridge leading to the Villa itself. We will use that as cover, it should give us a little maneuvering room.
Emma, Scarlet, you are going to use MP5K’s and aide Nathan with cover fire from the Blazer’s windows. Don’t worry, I have plating that we are going to put up so you can shoot and have minimal risk of getting hit.”
Josh looked at the three women, “Any questions so far?”
Emma raised her hand timidly, “Um… I never learned how to use the MP5K or whatever you called it.”
Josh raised an eyebrow and glanced at Nathan.
Nathan shrugged and took a drink before answering.
“She couldn’t handle the MP5K, I ran her through the P90 instead. Easier to reload and fire and the sight is a bit more beginner-friendly.”
Josh nodded, “Good choice. Emma, make sure you and Nathan get you the P90 and plenty of ammo for it. The rest of us I want using MP5K’s as our primary assault weapon. For a sidearm you have a choice of either a .45 or a .22.”
Scarlet sighed in mock disappointment and laid her .38 on the Den’s table.
Emma looked confused, “Don’t you all have like your favorite guns or whatever?”
Wraith glanced over at her, “We do. But on big ops like this it’s better if everyone uses a uniform weapon so we can share ammo if we have to.”
Nathan nodded, “Yeah, and if someone dies then we can just take their spare clips and don’t have to haul around a second big-ass gun to use them.”
Scarlet grimaced and Sniper snorted.
Josh glared at Nathan and continued with the mission briefing.
“Moving on. So while Nathan, Emma, Lexy, and Scarlet provide the initial cover, me, Wraith, and Max will get out on the other side.
Max will go back and find cover behind one of the parked cars in the garage and do what he does best.”
A smile quirked the corner of Sniper’s mouth.
“Me and Wraith will go around either side of the Blazer and take care of whatever Sniper, Nathan, and the women haven’t taken care of.
From there, we will split into two teams. Team 1 will be headed up by me and will consist of Scarlet and Sniper.
Team 2 will be led by Wraith. The rest of Team 2 is Lexy, Emma, and Nathan.
Plan is simple, we enter the Villa as a group and clear the living room area. Afterwards Team 1 will move up to the dining room and then down through the library. We will take the bridge and clear the guest quarters, then move along the bridge and take the master suite. Then we will move back through the central area and move to the command center.
Team 2, you will move from finishing up in the living room area, through the dining room, and through the kitchen. Be thorough, don’t leave anyone alive. After you finish in the central area, I want you to try and take the command center’s bridge. There is a security checkpoint at the end of the bridge, see if you can take it. If you can get into the command center, great, but if the odds are against you then I want you to wait for me and my team.
After we take the command center and clear the Villa, Anubis has supplied us with a number of explosive charges that are combination of C-4, dynamite, nitroglycerin, and some construction-grade demolitions explosives. We are going to set the charges all around the Villa at critical points in the structure’s foundation. Wraith will give you all a map with these locations marked on them. We are going to detonate the charges and raze James’ Villa to the ground.”
Josh looked around at his little team again, meeting each person’s eyes with his own steady gaze.
“Any questions?”
No one answered and Nathan shook his scraggly black head.
Josh sighed, turning his gaze back to the holo-image of the Villa.
“I don’t know if we can win this. I don’t know if we can all get through this alive, or even if we can get most of us out alive. We are 7 against more than 30, possibly 50 trained soldiers. I would offer anyone here who wants the chance to step out and possibly preserve their lives, but I know that all of you are as committed to this mission as I am. We aren’t just fighting for our own self-preservation here, we are fighting to protect the wellbeing and lifestyles of the American people. This is bigger than us, bigger than you, bigger than me. And this is worth dying for.”
Nathan’s eyes were hard, determined. He raised his beer to Josh and nodded his head.
Sniper grinned, “We’re coming, and Hell’s coming with us.”
Nathan grinned, “Damn right I’m coming with ya!”
The team rose and Josh put his arm around Lexy’s shoulder.
“Get your things ready, we leave in 3 hours.”
Josh and Nathan had just unloaded something covered in a tarp off of a hot-looking jacked-up black pickup parked in the driveway when Wraith arrived. It was getting close to evening and the Informer looked tired and worn out from his race back to Oregon.
Wraith parked Josh’s Ninja 3 next to the pickup and dismounted the bike. He nodded in greeting to the large black man who was talking to Josh and Nathan by the tailgate.
Wraith eyed the tarp as he approached the three other men.
“Anubis, it’s been a while.”
Wraith and the man who most knew simply as “Anubis” shook hands.
The Underworld mechanic and arms-dealer was at least seven-foot, with massive arms and uncharacteristic gray-blue eyes. He was a genius with all things mechanical, and had done work for Josh and his associates on multiple occasions.
“Wraith, Josh was just filling me in on what’s been going on.”
Wraith nodded, “Doesn’t look good, does it?”
Anubis gestured to the tarp-covered object, “I don’t know, this puppy might even things out a bit, but damned if I know.”
Wraith threw a questioning look in Josh’s direction, “What is it?”
Anubis grinned, “Mind if I tell him?”
Josh shook his head, the look in his eye equal parts mischievous and dangerous.
Anubis turned back to Wraith, “What you got there is an M-240B vehicle-mounted machine gun. 7.62mm rounds, belt-fed and gas-operated. Standard ammo is 100-round bandolier, but I’ve got a friend in Arkansas who came up with these 250-round bandoliers, which is what I’ve given you.”
The mechanic gestured to the large metal crate that still sat in the back of his truck.
“I brought you 50 bandoliers, so you got about 12,500 shots with that thing.”
Wraith raised an eyebrow and turned to look at Josh.
Josh shrugged, “When I had Anubis fortify the Blazer I had him reposition the skylight and put mounting brackets on the roof in case I ever needed to use something like this.”
Wraith nodded his head thoughtfully, “And what do we need it for?”
Josh reached into his pocket and pulled out a check.
“I’ll tell you later. Anubis, I think $3,000 was the agreed price?”
Anubis shrugged, “I got the modified bandoliers for a discount price, so it should be about $2,300.”
Josh handed the mechanic the check, “Well, then you can pay us back later. Nathan is going to need some work done on his bike again, so you can help out with that when the time comes.”
Anubis shoved the check into his back pocket and shook hands with the three men.
“Sounds like a deal, I’ll see you fella’s when you get back from wherever you are going.”
They said goodbye and the big black man got into his truck and left. As he was pulling out of the driveway Nathan looked over at Josh.
“You know, you didn’t have to do that. I’m sure you got some of your own projects you could have given him to work on.”
Josh nodded and started to go back inside the house.
“Yeah, I probably do.”
Nathan shrugged and hit the button to close the garage door before following Josh and Wraith inside.
Nathan entered the living room and picked up a half-finished beer from the coffee table. He plopped down on the couch across from the TV and picked up the remote.
Scarlet and Emma sat in the dining room, Scarlet cleaning a pistol and Emma engaged with the New York Times crossword puzzle from the day before.
Wraith grabbed a Coke from the fridge and went to stand next to Josh at the bar. He looked over Josh’s shoulder at the notepad the other man was scribbling on.
“Plans?”
Josh nodded absently, “Yeah, just a few things to remember for our briefing tomorrow.”
Wraith nodded, “We leave tomorrow?”
“Yeah, we will leave sometime after 2. We should arrive in Fresno around one in the morning.”
Nathan looked up from channel-surfing, “What we gonna do after that?”
Josh put his pen down and started for the stairs.
“I need to talk to a few people in the State Police Department, and we need to do some scouting before we take the place.”
Sniper walked in and Josh glanced at him before looking back around at the other members of his little makeshift task-force.
“I suggest you all get some rest, tomorrow will be a long day.”
Josh entered his bedroom and closed the door and locked it before turning to look at the figure on the bed.
“Took you long enough.”
Lexy lay on the bed, dressed in a white silk slip that was so sheer it was almost see-through. Her light-brown hair lay about her head and spread out across the pillow. Her chest rose and fell steadily and her brilliant aqua-blue eyes where hooded and seductive. Her voice was soft and husky.
Josh came to stand at the side of the bed and reached down to run his fingers through her hair. He bent over and kissed her gently on the lips.
“I had to take care of a few things.”
He straightened and, walking over to his side of the bed, pulled his shirt over his head. He sat down on the side of the bed and began pulling off his shoes and socks.
Lexy moved up behind him and, propping herself up on one elbow, ran her fingers gently down his back.
“Was that Anubis’ truck parked in the driveway?”
“Yeah, he dropped something off for our upcoming mission.”
Lexy knelt on the bed and, putting her arms around her husband, lay her chin on his shoulder.
“Josh… can we win?”
The one-time assassin and mercenary put his hand gently on his wife’s arm, running the tips of his fingers along the muscle of her forearm.
His voice was soft, “I don’t know, Love, I don’t know.”
He turned around on the bed and pushed Lexy onto her back. He bent over her again and kissed her.
“Let’s not worry about it though. This time is for us, so let’s make the most of it.”
Lexy ran her fingers across the scar of a bullet-wound on Josh’s right shoulder.
“Yes, lets.”
~June 30th, 2019- James’ Villa Just Off Ortega Highway, CA
James Hughes stood in the center of a large room surrounded by computers. To his left Cipher sat in a rolling leather office chair, typing furiously on a laptop.
“Are we almost ready?”
Cipher spun around in his chair and, pushing his yellow-tinted glasses up on his nose, nodded emphatically.
“I can have it ready this afternoon if you want.”
James thought a moment, “No… Let’s wait a few days, shall we?”
Cipher looked questioning at James, “Boss?”
James threw back his head and laughed out loud.
“In just a few days it will be the Fourth of July!!! Won’t it be such an ironic statement if the United States loses its ability to be independent on what is historically its Independence Day?”
Cipher nodded, “I guess…”
James clapped the hacker on the shoulder before heading for the door of the Command Center.
“No guessing about it, my dear Cipher. We shall save the fireworks for the proper time.”
~June 30th, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
Nathan and Scarlet already had their duffel bags by the front door when Sniper got up around 6:15. He dropped his own duffel and the long carry-case that housed his rifle next to Nathan’s canvas standard-issue Marine duffel.
Breakfast consisted of cold cereal, coffee, and in Nathan’s case, a Bud Lite.
After breakfast Josh and Lexy took a few moments to get their own things packed and added them to the pile by the door.
Nathan also added another large, heavy duffel.
Sniper nodded to Nathan’s duffel, “What’s in there?”
Nathan unzipped the duffel, revealing three of the Mossberg shotguns, a mini Uzi, a few of Nathan’s favorite Colt .45’s, and ammo for all of them.
The mercenary grinned wickedly, “Just some backup.”
Sniper smiled to himself, he had worked with Nathan Wolv many times, and he remembered the merc’s fondness for shotguns and .45’s. Although, on second thought, Nathan liked just about everything that created fire and smoke and caused destruction.
Emma came down the stairs just then and approached the two of them.
“Josh says to come up to the Den.”
Nathan and Sniper exchanged glances.
Nathan followed Emma back up the stairs, “Time for a final briefing.”
Sniper trudged up the stairs after Nathan, “Yeah… it’s almost over.”
Nathan glanced behind him, “It aint over ‘till its over, bub.”
Josh was dressed in black skin-tight under-armor and jeans, and black combat boots. A P.22 pistol next to a Marine-issue combat knife was clipped to the back of his belt. He would trade his current attire for black-and-gray cameo pants and his trademark gun belt with its twin Japanese Sais and twin .357 Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistols.
Lexy sat dressed in a white T-shirt, blue-jeans, and combat boots just to Josh’s right. Her arms where crossed casually across her chest and her eyes lingered on her husband whenever her glance passed his way.
Wraith sat to Lexy’s right, dressed all in black with a Smith and Weston .45 in a hip-holster. His piercing eyes where fixed on a paper-sized tablet computer, taking in massive amount of information in seconds.
Scarlet was seated to Josh’s left. She was clad in black jeans, with a red tank-top closely hugging her torso. A large .38 caliber revolver was holstered at her side and in front of her on the table rested a miniature crossbow. A quiver-full of bolts was strapped to her thigh.
Emma walked in, dressed in a green Tee and jeans, unarmed and feeling rather out of place among the mercenaries and assassins in the room.
Nathan was dressed in his typical dirty white T-shirt and dirty blue-jeans. The majority of his weapons were concealed on his person in the form of knives of all sizes and shapes. But a Colt .45 with ivory inlaid handles and stainless-steel barrel was at home in a worn leather holster clipped to his western-style belt.
Sniper was dressed similarly to Wraith, with the exception of his forest-cameo pants. Sniper, like Emma, was unarmed. But the sharpshooter seemed far more at home than the one-time secretary did.
Nathan took his place next to Scarlet and promptly put his booted feet on the table and popped the top of a Miller.
Sniper took the seat next to Nathan, and Emma sat close to his side, between the marksman and Wraith.
Nathan took a sip from his beer and scratched at the few-day old beard along his jawline.
“Sooo… What’s the plan?”
Josh nodded to Wraith, who pushed a button on his tablet, summoning a stunning 3D image of James’ Villa to the holograph projector.
The Villa was huge; three large, circular, red-domed structures stationed around an even larger central one. The domes where connected by covered bridges with half-walled sides.
All four of the structures where built on tall stone pillars in the middle of a gigantic crevasse. There was a single bridge connecting the Villa to the side of the crevasse where there was a small parking structure.
Wraith gestured to the holo-image, “This is James’ Villa. It is his home and base of operations. It is built inside of a crack in the earth that, while never officially measured, is guessed to be at least a thousand yards deep. The Villa consists of a parking structure that also houses a security station, one primary structure and three secondary structures.
The primary structure has a library, a kitchen, an entertainment area, and a raised platform with a large dining room table.
The western structure is guest quarters. There are six rooms where James allows some of his most valued and treasured customers and employees stay.
Up on the north-east corner of the guest quarters is a bridge that heads out, away from the complex where it meets a circular security station, then goes on to connect to the northernmost structure.
The northern structure is James’ personal quarters. Although it is uncertain the exact layout, we know he has a private art gallery, an office, and a master-suite.
The easternmost structure is where our main concern lies. This is James’ command center. This is where he will most likely be most of his days, and where all the computers and equipment he needs to carry out his Plan will be. At the entrance to the command center is another security checkpoint, and branching off from it is a helicopter landing-pad.
Along the bluff overlooking the crevasse is a parking structure where we know there will be at least one armored vehicle and possibly a few other trucks with mounted weaponry. There is also a security check-point just as you drive in and a gate over the entrance to the garage.”
As Wraith spoke, Nathan stared at the holo-images and held his beer to his forehead.
Scarlet and Josh listened intently, while Lexy kept looking back between Josh and Wraith.
Sniper took notes on a small yellow legal pad, and Emma stared with Nathan at the holo-images, the sheer impossibility of what was being explained obvious on her face.
Wraith glanced around, “Any questions?”
Lexy raised a hand, “How are we going to get passed the front gate and the security checkpoint and everything?”
Josh answered for Wraith, “We will use the Trail Blazer for that. The Blazer’s armor should protect it from any small-arms fire and most of the bigger guns they will have.”
Lexy nodded, her face uncertain still.
Nathan cocked his head to one side, staring still at the layout displayed on the holo-projector.
“We know how many guards this guy is gonna have?”
Wraith shook his head, “anywhere between twenty-five and forty altogether. But he changes the number of guards on duty and where they are positioned in the Villa almost daily. Any other questions?”
When there was no answer, Wraith nodded to Josh and Josh rose, picking up a wooden pointer leaning against the computer desk behind him. Using the pointer to illustrate his instructions, the ex-Marine laid out his plan to take the Villa.
“Okay, here is how things are going to go down. We will use the Blazer to smash the gate. Our intel says it’s just one of those reinforced wooden gates like they use on toll-bridges and such. Strong enough to smash in the front of an average car, but not enough to even scratch the Blazer.
Yesterday Anubis dropped off an M240B vehicle-mounted machinegun. Before we storm the gate we are going to mount it in front of the skylight.
When we storm the gate, Lexy you are driving. You are going to angle the Blazer so one side is facing the bridge leading to the Villa itself. We will use that as cover, it should give us a little maneuvering room.
Emma, Scarlet, you are going to use MP5K’s and aide Nathan with cover fire from the Blazer’s windows. Don’t worry, I have plating that we are going to put up so you can shoot and have minimal risk of getting hit.”
Josh looked at the three women, “Any questions so far?”
Emma raised her hand timidly, “Um… I never learned how to use the MP5K or whatever you called it.”
Josh raised an eyebrow and glanced at Nathan.
Nathan shrugged and took a drink before answering.
“She couldn’t handle the MP5K, I ran her through the P90 instead. Easier to reload and fire and the sight is a bit more beginner-friendly.”
Josh nodded, “Good choice. Emma, make sure you and Nathan get you the P90 and plenty of ammo for it. The rest of us I want using MP5K’s as our primary assault weapon. For a sidearm you have a choice of either a .45 or a .22.”
Scarlet sighed in mock disappointment and laid her .38 on the Den’s table.
Emma looked confused, “Don’t you all have like your favorite guns or whatever?”
Wraith glanced over at her, “We do. But on big ops like this it’s better if everyone uses a uniform weapon so we can share ammo if we have to.”
Nathan nodded, “Yeah, and if someone dies then we can just take their spare clips and don’t have to haul around a second big-ass gun to use them.”
Scarlet grimaced and Sniper snorted.
Josh glared at Nathan and continued with the mission briefing.
“Moving on. So while Nathan, Emma, Lexy, and Scarlet provide the initial cover, me, Wraith, and Max will get out on the other side.
Max will go back and find cover behind one of the parked cars in the garage and do what he does best.”
A smile quirked the corner of Sniper’s mouth.
“Me and Wraith will go around either side of the Blazer and take care of whatever Sniper, Nathan, and the women haven’t taken care of.
From there, we will split into two teams. Team 1 will be headed up by me and will consist of Scarlet and Sniper.
Team 2 will be led by Wraith. The rest of Team 2 is Lexy, Emma, and Nathan.
Plan is simple, we enter the Villa as a group and clear the living room area. Afterwards Team 1 will move up to the dining room and then down through the library. We will take the bridge and clear the guest quarters, then move along the bridge and take the master suite. Then we will move back through the central area and move to the command center.
Team 2, you will move from finishing up in the living room area, through the dining room, and through the kitchen. Be thorough, don’t leave anyone alive. After you finish in the central area, I want you to try and take the command center’s bridge. There is a security checkpoint at the end of the bridge, see if you can take it. If you can get into the command center, great, but if the odds are against you then I want you to wait for me and my team.
After we take the command center and clear the Villa, Anubis has supplied us with a number of explosive charges that are combination of C-4, dynamite, nitroglycerin, and some construction-grade demolitions explosives. We are going to set the charges all around the Villa at critical points in the structure’s foundation. Wraith will give you all a map with these locations marked on them. We are going to detonate the charges and raze James’ Villa to the ground.”
Josh looked around at his little team again, meeting each person’s eyes with his own steady gaze.
“Any questions?”
No one answered and Nathan shook his scraggly black head.
Josh sighed, turning his gaze back to the holo-image of the Villa.
“I don’t know if we can win this. I don’t know if we can all get through this alive, or even if we can get most of us out alive. We are 7 against more than 30, possibly 50 trained soldiers. I would offer anyone here who wants the chance to step out and possibly preserve their lives, but I know that all of you are as committed to this mission as I am. We aren’t just fighting for our own self-preservation here, we are fighting to protect the wellbeing and lifestyles of the American people. This is bigger than us, bigger than you, bigger than me. And this is worth dying for.”
Nathan’s eyes were hard, determined. He raised his beer to Josh and nodded his head.
Sniper grinned, “We’re coming, and Hell’s coming with us.”
Nathan grinned, “Damn right I’m coming with ya!”
The team rose and Josh put his arm around Lexy’s shoulder.
“Get your things ready, we leave in 3 hours.”
~Chapter 17~
~June 28th, 2019- Josh Taske’s House in Eugene, Oregon
“Hey, Wraith just called in.”
Josh stood in the space between the living room and the kitchen, where the others sat eating breakfast. Scarlet sat at the far end of the kitchenette table, Lexy to her left and Emma to her right. Next to Emma sat Sniper; but Nathan was nowhere to be seen.
Josh noted the mercenary’s absence and looked questioningly at Scarlet, “Where’s Nathan?”
Scarlet gestured at the back door, “He ate a piece of bread and went outside. He was mumbling something about his motorcycle and the fact it has started to rain.”
Josh glanced at the window; it had indeed started to rain.
“Oh, yeah, his bike is in pieces all over the back walk. Anyways, Wraith will be here sometime tonight. He got the information we need, and said he has some troubling news for us when he gets here.”
Lexy looked up at her husband, “He didn’t say what it was?”
Josh shook his head and went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
“Nope, said he didn’t want to give any information over the phone.”
Lexy nodded, she had been involved with Josh and Wraith long enough to understand their concerns.
Emma got to her feet, “I think I’ll go see if Nathan wants help covering his bike. He’s been out there a while.”
Scarlet took a sip from a coffee cup that had “I <3 Coffee” printed on the side.
“Be careful, he’s in one of those moods where he’s about as likely to bite your head off as look at you.”
Nathan sat on the concrete step behind the garage, rain dripping from his hair and goatee. He had two blue tarps from the garage on the step next to him, but for some reason hadn’t used them yet. He just sat and stared at the scattered pieces of his cycle.
Emma came out and stood a few feet away from the merc, watching him with worry and a slight amount of fear.
“Nathan?”
Nathan nodded his head once, acknowledging her presence. She came over and, picking up the tarps, sat down next to Nathan and held the folded tarps on her lap.
“You okay?”
Nathan shrugged, “Damn thing doesn’t want to work for me. I had it fixed a few years ago, but it broke again about a year back.”
Emma ran her eyes over the guts of the machine, “Maybe it’s time to get a new one?”
Nathan shook his head, “No… can’t do that.”
Emma looked surprised at the ex-soldier, “Why not?”
Nathan looked uncomfortable, “Well… it was a kinda present. It belonged to the father of a girl I knew. He was killed protecting his family from a bunch of local thugs and left it abandoned in a mechanic’s shop.”
Emma nodded and looked back at the bike, “What happened to the girl?”
Nathan swallowed hard, “She, ah… she died, at the hands of the same men who killed her father.”
Emma’s head whipped around to stare at Nathan. She knew men like the one sitting next to her lead hard and tough lives, and that was what made them who they were. But still, the stories she heard from just one person with a similar life to Nathan was enough to send her into fits of deep depression.
“I’m sorry…”
Nathan shrugged, “Everyone is, but they don’t really understand it. It’s easy to be sorry, isn’t it? It’s much harder to actually understand why you are supposed to feel sorry.”
Emma didn’t have an answer for that. Instead, she stood up and dropped a tarp on Nathan’s lap. She began to shake out the other one and use it to cover the bike parts.
“Well, I’m sure you aren’t doing justice to her father’s memory by letting his bike rust in the rain.”
Nathan, smiling slightly, nodded and got to his feet.
Half-an-hour later, everyone was inside and occupied. Josh was upstairs in the Den talking to someone over the Telecom. The conversation was on arrangements for the Villa siege, but Josh hadn’t said anything to the rest of them yet.
Nathan, Sniper and Scarlet all sat around the TV and played “Star Wars: Republic Commandos 3” on the PS5. Nathan and Scarlet were the Commandos, while Sniper was the Mandolorian Bounty Hunter. So far the mercenary marksman was in the lead and not giving up ground.
Emma and Lexy were in the kitchen, cleaning up after breakfast and just straightening the place up in general. The two women hadn’t talked much, Emma was almost afraid of Lexy. She was under the impression that any woman who had captured the heart of Josh Taske must be special. Little did she guess that Lexy was just a normal, everyday person who had been thrown into this life much like she had been.
Emma had elected to wash the pots and pans used for Nathan and Scarlet’s infamous “salsa y chile tortilla” chili omelets earlier that morning. The tortillas had partially burned, and it was quite a chore to scrub them out. But Emma was dogged and determined to pay her protectors back in any way she could.
Lexy had just finished drying off the knives and other utensils Nathan had mangled making breakfast.
“So, Emma, you are from Texas?”
Emma looked up from the blackened mess ingrained into the bottom of the pan she held.
“Yes, I do.”
Lexy smiled, “What city?”
“Decatur, its kinda one of those cities no one except people who live there or near there have heard of.”
Lexy laughed and nodded, “I hear you. My dad, Matt Gold, just was elected mayor of El Paso just recently.”
Emma cocked her head to one side, “Your father, he was President during that big thing a few years back, right?”
“Yeah, that’s also when I met Josh.”
Emma’s eyes widened in mild surprise, “Wow, really? What exactly happened? I know a little bit, I was in the Whitehouse when that car exploded outside the front gate. And I know that someone tried to kill your father, but I don’t know much else.”
Lexy dried her hands off with the dish towel and leaned against the counter.
“Well, my father made some power-plays into the Underworld. He had hired Josh when he was first elected to run his personal security team, and he got kinda paranoid and made him my personal bodyguard.”
Emma smiled, “From what I hear about Josh, that’s a pretty big move. Your dad obviously cares a lot about you.”
Lexy smiled, her eyes bright with memories of her father.
“Yes, he does. Anyways, Josh became my bodyguard a day or two my birthday, just in time to stop an assassin trying to kill me at my party. We found out later that the assassin wasn’t actually after me, but after Josh. See, Josh’s family is like America’s version of the Mafia, and they are about as mean. He did some things that made them mad a few years back and they wanted him dead.”
Emma nodded, “I heard about that from James. Didn’t they kill his wife and daughter?”
Lexy nodded sadly, “Yes, they thought that by teaching him a lesson would bring him back into the fold. Instead it just made him mad.”
“So I hear, I heard what he did after that. The Board and most of the Underworld still are terrified of him.”
Lexy grinned, “That’s my Josh!”
Emma smiled, once again glad she had picked the team she did.
“So what happened?”
“Well, Josh’s uncle, Regent, hired an assassin from Europe and then sent his own personal assassin to kill the two of us. Nathan and Scarlet showed up just before they launched this huge attack on my father’s house in Washington DC. My father was taken to a safe place and Josh and me escaped here where we met up with Wraith. Josh, Nathan, Wraith and Scarlet had to take out a few more assassins, and when Regent sent Josh’s own sister to kill him, Josh had enough and went turned Regent into the US Government. He proposed the same day his uncle was arrested.”
Emma stared at Lexy, her eyes wider than they had been.
“Wow…”
Lexy tilted her head to one side, her eyes shining.
“I know. He took more than a few bullets for me, he protected me and stayed by me when most men would have ran.”
“There are not many men like that, are there?”
Emma’s eyes were sad; her thoughts had turned to James.
Lexy noticed the change in her mood and put a hand on her arm.
“You okay?”
Emma nodded, a tear ran down her cheek and she wiped it away with the back of her hand.
“Yes… I was just thinking of James… He was so nice, so charming when I first met him. He promised me everything, wealth, love, happiness… but he turned out to be so different. He only wanted me for the information I could give him. He would never have really loved me, never taken a bullet for me…”
Finally, the woman broke down and began to sob uncontrollably.
“All I wanted was to be happy, to be loved… I wanted a knight in shining armor…”
Lexy put her arm around the woman’s heaving shoulders.
“It’s all right, it will be okay.
Emma leaned her head on Lexy’s shoulder, “All I wanted was prince charming, and instead I got a conniving snake who just wanted to use me and then kill me!!!”
They stood there for a moment, Emma crying into Lexy’s sleeve and Lexy trying to come up with the proper words to comfort her.
Finally, “Emma, it’s alright. You are safe here, you are with people who care and you have me, my husband, Scarlet, Nathan, Wraith, and Sniper who are all willing to lay our lives on the line for you.”
Emma nodded, “I know. And I don’t know how I will ever be able to repay you.
Lexy smiled, remembering when she had thought the same thing about Josh.
“You won’t ever have to.”
~June 28th, 2019- Samuel Grayson’s Apartment, NY
Samuel stared at the wall of his apartment, his cloudy gray eyes flickering back and forth while his brain processed information.
He didn’t think Wraith had recognized him, it had been over two decades ago since they had last seen each other after all. Samuel’s appearance had changed since then, but you never knew what someone with a mind like Wraith’s would notice.
But Samuel had recognized Wraith. Even with his black hair and dressed in the garb of an unassuming computer technician, Samuel had recognized him.
And seeing Wraith in the Regency Building told Samuel two important things, the first being that Josh Taske and his team were every bit as good as the Underworld feared them to be. The second being that the game Samuel had been following carefully was about to come to a conclusion.
Samuel picked up his cell phone off the table where it lay next to his sidearm and hit a number on his speed-dial.
“Marcos, this is Grayson, pass on the word that Wraith has made his pickup and this is almost over.”
Samuel hung up and tapped his phone against his chin in quiet contemplation. Josh was moving as predicted, it was now time to prepare to make a few moves of his own.
“Hey, Wraith just called in.”
Josh stood in the space between the living room and the kitchen, where the others sat eating breakfast. Scarlet sat at the far end of the kitchenette table, Lexy to her left and Emma to her right. Next to Emma sat Sniper; but Nathan was nowhere to be seen.
Josh noted the mercenary’s absence and looked questioningly at Scarlet, “Where’s Nathan?”
Scarlet gestured at the back door, “He ate a piece of bread and went outside. He was mumbling something about his motorcycle and the fact it has started to rain.”
Josh glanced at the window; it had indeed started to rain.
“Oh, yeah, his bike is in pieces all over the back walk. Anyways, Wraith will be here sometime tonight. He got the information we need, and said he has some troubling news for us when he gets here.”
Lexy looked up at her husband, “He didn’t say what it was?”
Josh shook his head and went to the kitchen for a cup of coffee.
“Nope, said he didn’t want to give any information over the phone.”
Lexy nodded, she had been involved with Josh and Wraith long enough to understand their concerns.
Emma got to her feet, “I think I’ll go see if Nathan wants help covering his bike. He’s been out there a while.”
Scarlet took a sip from a coffee cup that had “I <3 Coffee” printed on the side.
“Be careful, he’s in one of those moods where he’s about as likely to bite your head off as look at you.”
Nathan sat on the concrete step behind the garage, rain dripping from his hair and goatee. He had two blue tarps from the garage on the step next to him, but for some reason hadn’t used them yet. He just sat and stared at the scattered pieces of his cycle.
Emma came out and stood a few feet away from the merc, watching him with worry and a slight amount of fear.
“Nathan?”
Nathan nodded his head once, acknowledging her presence. She came over and, picking up the tarps, sat down next to Nathan and held the folded tarps on her lap.
“You okay?”
Nathan shrugged, “Damn thing doesn’t want to work for me. I had it fixed a few years ago, but it broke again about a year back.”
Emma ran her eyes over the guts of the machine, “Maybe it’s time to get a new one?”
Nathan shook his head, “No… can’t do that.”
Emma looked surprised at the ex-soldier, “Why not?”
Nathan looked uncomfortable, “Well… it was a kinda present. It belonged to the father of a girl I knew. He was killed protecting his family from a bunch of local thugs and left it abandoned in a mechanic’s shop.”
Emma nodded and looked back at the bike, “What happened to the girl?”
Nathan swallowed hard, “She, ah… she died, at the hands of the same men who killed her father.”
Emma’s head whipped around to stare at Nathan. She knew men like the one sitting next to her lead hard and tough lives, and that was what made them who they were. But still, the stories she heard from just one person with a similar life to Nathan was enough to send her into fits of deep depression.
“I’m sorry…”
Nathan shrugged, “Everyone is, but they don’t really understand it. It’s easy to be sorry, isn’t it? It’s much harder to actually understand why you are supposed to feel sorry.”
Emma didn’t have an answer for that. Instead, she stood up and dropped a tarp on Nathan’s lap. She began to shake out the other one and use it to cover the bike parts.
“Well, I’m sure you aren’t doing justice to her father’s memory by letting his bike rust in the rain.”
Nathan, smiling slightly, nodded and got to his feet.
Half-an-hour later, everyone was inside and occupied. Josh was upstairs in the Den talking to someone over the Telecom. The conversation was on arrangements for the Villa siege, but Josh hadn’t said anything to the rest of them yet.
Nathan, Sniper and Scarlet all sat around the TV and played “Star Wars: Republic Commandos 3” on the PS5. Nathan and Scarlet were the Commandos, while Sniper was the Mandolorian Bounty Hunter. So far the mercenary marksman was in the lead and not giving up ground.
Emma and Lexy were in the kitchen, cleaning up after breakfast and just straightening the place up in general. The two women hadn’t talked much, Emma was almost afraid of Lexy. She was under the impression that any woman who had captured the heart of Josh Taske must be special. Little did she guess that Lexy was just a normal, everyday person who had been thrown into this life much like she had been.
Emma had elected to wash the pots and pans used for Nathan and Scarlet’s infamous “salsa y chile tortilla” chili omelets earlier that morning. The tortillas had partially burned, and it was quite a chore to scrub them out. But Emma was dogged and determined to pay her protectors back in any way she could.
Lexy had just finished drying off the knives and other utensils Nathan had mangled making breakfast.
“So, Emma, you are from Texas?”
Emma looked up from the blackened mess ingrained into the bottom of the pan she held.
“Yes, I do.”
Lexy smiled, “What city?”
“Decatur, its kinda one of those cities no one except people who live there or near there have heard of.”
Lexy laughed and nodded, “I hear you. My dad, Matt Gold, just was elected mayor of El Paso just recently.”
Emma cocked her head to one side, “Your father, he was President during that big thing a few years back, right?”
“Yeah, that’s also when I met Josh.”
Emma’s eyes widened in mild surprise, “Wow, really? What exactly happened? I know a little bit, I was in the Whitehouse when that car exploded outside the front gate. And I know that someone tried to kill your father, but I don’t know much else.”
Lexy dried her hands off with the dish towel and leaned against the counter.
“Well, my father made some power-plays into the Underworld. He had hired Josh when he was first elected to run his personal security team, and he got kinda paranoid and made him my personal bodyguard.”
Emma smiled, “From what I hear about Josh, that’s a pretty big move. Your dad obviously cares a lot about you.”
Lexy smiled, her eyes bright with memories of her father.
“Yes, he does. Anyways, Josh became my bodyguard a day or two my birthday, just in time to stop an assassin trying to kill me at my party. We found out later that the assassin wasn’t actually after me, but after Josh. See, Josh’s family is like America’s version of the Mafia, and they are about as mean. He did some things that made them mad a few years back and they wanted him dead.”
Emma nodded, “I heard about that from James. Didn’t they kill his wife and daughter?”
Lexy nodded sadly, “Yes, they thought that by teaching him a lesson would bring him back into the fold. Instead it just made him mad.”
“So I hear, I heard what he did after that. The Board and most of the Underworld still are terrified of him.”
Lexy grinned, “That’s my Josh!”
Emma smiled, once again glad she had picked the team she did.
“So what happened?”
“Well, Josh’s uncle, Regent, hired an assassin from Europe and then sent his own personal assassin to kill the two of us. Nathan and Scarlet showed up just before they launched this huge attack on my father’s house in Washington DC. My father was taken to a safe place and Josh and me escaped here where we met up with Wraith. Josh, Nathan, Wraith and Scarlet had to take out a few more assassins, and when Regent sent Josh’s own sister to kill him, Josh had enough and went turned Regent into the US Government. He proposed the same day his uncle was arrested.”
Emma stared at Lexy, her eyes wider than they had been.
“Wow…”
Lexy tilted her head to one side, her eyes shining.
“I know. He took more than a few bullets for me, he protected me and stayed by me when most men would have ran.”
“There are not many men like that, are there?”
Emma’s eyes were sad; her thoughts had turned to James.
Lexy noticed the change in her mood and put a hand on her arm.
“You okay?”
Emma nodded, a tear ran down her cheek and she wiped it away with the back of her hand.
“Yes… I was just thinking of James… He was so nice, so charming when I first met him. He promised me everything, wealth, love, happiness… but he turned out to be so different. He only wanted me for the information I could give him. He would never have really loved me, never taken a bullet for me…”
Finally, the woman broke down and began to sob uncontrollably.
“All I wanted was to be happy, to be loved… I wanted a knight in shining armor…”
Lexy put her arm around the woman’s heaving shoulders.
“It’s all right, it will be okay.
Emma leaned her head on Lexy’s shoulder, “All I wanted was prince charming, and instead I got a conniving snake who just wanted to use me and then kill me!!!”
They stood there for a moment, Emma crying into Lexy’s sleeve and Lexy trying to come up with the proper words to comfort her.
Finally, “Emma, it’s alright. You are safe here, you are with people who care and you have me, my husband, Scarlet, Nathan, Wraith, and Sniper who are all willing to lay our lives on the line for you.”
Emma nodded, “I know. And I don’t know how I will ever be able to repay you.
Lexy smiled, remembering when she had thought the same thing about Josh.
“You won’t ever have to.”
~June 28th, 2019- Samuel Grayson’s Apartment, NY
Samuel stared at the wall of his apartment, his cloudy gray eyes flickering back and forth while his brain processed information.
He didn’t think Wraith had recognized him, it had been over two decades ago since they had last seen each other after all. Samuel’s appearance had changed since then, but you never knew what someone with a mind like Wraith’s would notice.
But Samuel had recognized Wraith. Even with his black hair and dressed in the garb of an unassuming computer technician, Samuel had recognized him.
And seeing Wraith in the Regency Building told Samuel two important things, the first being that Josh Taske and his team were every bit as good as the Underworld feared them to be. The second being that the game Samuel had been following carefully was about to come to a conclusion.
Samuel picked up his cell phone off the table where it lay next to his sidearm and hit a number on his speed-dial.
“Marcos, this is Grayson, pass on the word that Wraith has made his pickup and this is almost over.”
Samuel hung up and tapped his phone against his chin in quiet contemplation. Josh was moving as predicted, it was now time to prepare to make a few moves of his own.
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