Crux

by James Byron Huggins

  Isaiah raised the man’s hand and barely touched it with the edge of the Honjo; the blood flow was immediate. “You didn’t even feel that, right? That means you’ll still be trying to talk after your body goes one way and your head goes another. I know because I’ve seen it. It’s actually fascinating. Makes you want to talk back to a severed head.”

  “You really don’t know what kind of hardware they’ve got in that place, do you? Son, they’ve got thirty-millimeter miniguns covering every hallway and they’re set with infrared detectors. They’ve got almost five hundred hired hands armed with everything from M4s to Benellis.” He shook his head. “Isaiah, and I do admire your guts, hoss, but you and your girl won’t get ten feet inside that place before you’re vaporized. And make no mistake. There won’t be any arrests. They’ll throw you in that collider and vaporize you.”

  “Pardon me,” Isaiah leaned close. “I have business inside the store.”

  “Whoa! There’s no need for—”

  Isaiah sharply brought the steel hilt of the katana down on the man’s neck and he collapsed. Isaiah had knocked enough people unconscious to know whether it was real and this was real. This guy would only be out for five minutes but that was all Isaiah needed if he could keep Amanda under control.

  He sheathed the sword and walked into the store knowing this would be the delicate part. He needed a distraction and Amanda would have to take it on the fly; there’d be no time for questions and answers. He walked up to her and said quietly, “Ask the old woman if she can show you what she’s got in the back.”

  To her credit, Amanda simply turned without question to enthusiastically approach the old woman. After a brief conversation, the woman told Isaiah that she would be in the back of the store if he needed anything.

  Isaiah turned into the second man who ripped out an exact duplicate of the Glock. But Isaiah was ready for it and swiped the Honjo out and down—two moves in two-tenths of a second—and the steel slide and polymer frame of the Glock sharply separated, one part clattering to the floor. For a moment the man raised half the ruined weapon to his face, then looked at Isaiah. “You gotta be kidding me!”

  Isaiah placed the point of the katana at his neck and removed a backup Glock from his belt; he lifted it before the man’s face. “I’ll keep this one. Now you’re going to take me and the woman back to the facility. And you’ll do exactly what I say or I’ll take you apart as quickly as I took apart your toy. Do you understand?”

  The man’s eyes darted to the white car.

  “Where’s Tony?” he asked.

  “He’s in the same situation you’re in. Both of you are going to get me and her back into that compound. Then I’ll decide what to do with you. Or you can both die right here. It’ll take the police forever to identify two headless bodies with no IDs.”

  “Headless?”

  “I always take the heads with me.” Isaiah raised the gleaming tip of the Honjo to the man’s chin. “And the IDs. And, in your case, I’ll also unhook your GPS and use your car to initiate Plan B. So what do you want to do? Die or drive?”

  “Hell,” the man frowned, shaking his head, “you got a wild-ass plan that is not gonna work, honcho. That compound may not look like Fort Knox, but you better not step off the path without the right ID or it’s your ass. And no place is safe for you or her once they start looking for you.”

  “I’ll take those odds,” Isaiah said quietly. Then he pushed the man toward the door. “Get in the back seat. I’ll keep your gun. Your partner’s, too. All you guys have to do is get us inside. If you do that, I’ll let you live.”

  “You ain’t gonna let us live! You can’t! That’d blow your whole operation and I can tell right now that you ain’t military so you ain’t got no backup! You’re some kind of lone wolf with a bone to pick and you’ve got a civilian girl tagging along!” He took a deep breath. “Man, you’re in way over your head. You’re playing with the big boys now. And they don’t care who they kill to keep that place off the map.” He gestured to everything around them. “Congressmen! Judges! Four-star generals! We’ve killed so many of your people we should rename this place Arlington National!”

  “Move.” Isaiah pushed him toward the door as he called out, “Amanda! We’re leaving! Now!”

  As Isaiah shoved the second man into the back seat, the first hitter was rising. Isaiah gave the Glock to Amanda and pointed to the back seat. “It’s a Glock. There’s no safety. Just point and pull the trigger.”

  “Got it,” she said, concealing the gun in her coat. Then she locked a gaze on the guard in the back seat. “What’s your name?” she asked mildly.

  “Fred.”

  “Well, Fred, I will kill you. I just want you to know that in case you think I’m going to panic and scream like a little girl or do something stupid. The thing is, I won’t. So if you make one move that I don’t like, I’ll shoot you until the gun is empty. I’ll shoot you in the chest. I’ll shoot you in the head. I’ll shoot your dick off. I’ll—”

  “Yeah, yeah, lady, you’ll shoot me dead. I got it.”

  “I just wanted you to understand me. I have no conscience. My doctor says I’m a psychopath.”

  “You should listen to him.”

  Isaiah came around the corner, the Honjo Masamune beneath his coat, his right hand in his coat pocket. “Get in,” he said.

  Amanda climbed into the back seat as Isaiah settled into the passenger seat after securing Tony behind the wheel. For a moment they just sat, and then Isaiah said slowly and carefully, “Okay. This is how it’s going to work. I don’t like either of you, so killing you won’t bother me. But you’ve got something going for you despite how this looks.”

  As a man inured to danger, Tony stated, “I’d love to know what that is.”

  “The guards know you. When we get to the gate, you just tell them you have baggage. Or use whatever term you use for guests that are in your custody. Prisoners, if you will. I’m sure they’ll understand. Then tell them that you have the situation under control, but you have to take us to meet the big dog. Then just drive through the gate like normal and go where I tell you to go. Is that clear?”

  “Yep,” nodded Tony.

  “No problem,” came from the back seat.

  “There’s just one more thing you should know,” Isaiah stressed. “If I even sense that you are covertly signaling the guards or not going by this protocol, I will kill both of you before you can move one inch. Yes, Amanda and I will die, too. But we don’t care. Do we, Amanda?”

  “I don’t care.”

  Without cause or provocation Amanda shot Fred in the leg.

  Fred’s howl of agony and his volcanic reaction rocked the vehicle for a long moment and solidified the air more than a hurricane. “Oh! Jesus!” he cried. “The bitch shot me in the leg!” He kept howling, “What the hell did you do that for? I didn’t move!”

  “Don’t mess with me,” Amanda stated, dead calm. “I’m psycho.”

  “Hell, yeah, you’re psycho!” Fred screamed. “Oh, god! I can’t believe you shot me! That was a damn hollow point! Jesus! Tony! Do something! Take this crazy bitch where she wants to go! I need a hospital!”

  Tony looked at Isaiah and said without evident alarm. “Okay, sport, you win. I still don’t believe you’d kill me like a dog, but I can’t say the same for Anne Oakley back there. So what happens after I get you inside?”

  After we conclude our business, you go your way, we go our way.” Isaiah stared as Tony turned his head, gazing with incredulity at Fred groaning and twisting. Then Isaiah added, “After we conclude our business, so it’s not that hard to believe.” He shrugged, “We won’t need you, anymore. And I don’t hurt anybody I don’t have to.”

  “Uh huh. What about Ms. Manners?”

  “If you don’t confuse her, she won’t hurt you. But that’s the only promise I can make. Just get us both
where we want to go and you can get your act in the wind. That’s the only deal on the table. Take it or leave it.” Isaiah extended the moment. “Or get shot right here. Like Fred. It’s up to you. All I have to do is look at her.”

  It was with amazing coordination that five white cars skidded to a stop directly behind the vehicle, and suddenly the expressions on the would-be cooperator’s faces turned from stress to relief. Tony, the driver, simply turned a gaze to Isaiah as if to convey, ‘You were saying?’

  From the backseat Isaiah heard Fred laugh angrily and with unconcealed contempt as Amanda turned in her seat. Then she looked at Isaiah as he said, “It’s backup. They have three security cars from the compound and two national police.”

  Tony, still smiling, said, “You got balls for sure, dude, but you are one dumb son of a bitch.” He shook his head as he casually took the Glock from Isaiah’s hand. “They’ve had both of you on satellite since she landed at the airport. They been listening to her and watching her in the states for two weeks. They have her house wired, have her air. She hasn’t made one move or had one conversation they haven’t got on disc. And you thought you were just gonna walk in there and demand answers? God Almighty, man. You’re lucky you’re not already dead. They’ve killed more important people for a whole lot less than you sticking your nose where it don’t belong.”

  Isaiah thrust his hand into his coat. “If you make the wrong move, I’ll still cut your head off before they can stop me.”

  “I’m a professional,” Tony stated. “I made a deal. I’ll keep it.”

  An immaculately uniformed patrolman—the Swiss police really knew the impact of a sharp outfit—knocked with authority on Tony’s window.

  “Shut up, Fred,” muttered Tony. “I’ll handle this.”

  Fred bit down on his hand, stifling a moan.

  Tony rolled down the window. “Yes, sir?”

  “Are you gentlemen all right?” the police officer asked in English with an impressively diluted Swiss accent. “We heard there was trouble.”

  “Nah, man,” Tony waved, “it’s just business as usual with these tourists. They got lost so we’re escorting them back to the compound. But thanks for the assistance.”

  “No problem.”

  Isaiah looked over the seat at Amanda. “Do not shoot him again unless I tell you to,” he said sternly. “Do you understand me, Amanda?”

  Amanda replied coldly, “I understand.”

  “So,” Tony boomed heartily, “what’s your big plan, hoss? Ask Blanchard how he lost seven physicists? Ask him questions he can’t begin to answer? Hell, if you’re that stupid, you might as well ask those old farts on the committee.”

  “What committee?” asked Isaiah.

  “How would I know?” Tony shrugged. “But the committee is a lot bigger than Blanchard. He’s just a paper pusher.”

  “Blanchard’s not the boss?” asked Amanda.

  “Oh, hell, no. Blanchard is like a second lieutenant or something. Barely has a commission. He’s mid-level. The big man is the director-general. His name is Antonio Francois. And, if you ask me, he’s French.”

  Amanda muttered, “That’s a stretch.”

  “I didn’t think the French had much to do with this place,” said Isaiah. “It’s not like they helped fund it.”

  “Who knows why the damn French are involved in this Satanic mess?” Tony was surprisingly talkative for someone that was supposed to be a high-dollar assassin. “Fact is, man, I don’t think anybody knows who truly makes decisions for that place. It’s all secret hush-hush stuff. Worse than the CIA. And it’s been like that ever since I started working here. Even when they offered me a job, I said, ‘What for?’ They told me, ‘We can’t tell you.’ I said, ‘Does it involve killing?’ They said, ‘We can’t tell you.’ So I asked ’em, ‘Well, where’s it at?’ They said, ‘We can’t tell you that, either.’ So I finally said, ‘Is there anything you can tell me?’ They said, ‘The money’s good.’ And that was it. So, quite obviously, paranoia is the name of the game with these guys. Even I don’t know who cuts my check.”

  “Just tell me one thing,” said Isaiah.

  “Have I ever denied you anything?”

  “Why are you taking us back to the compound when you said you’d rather die?”

  “Ah, I knew you weren’t gonna murder me, hoss. I read up on you. I got your file. I can even say I respect you. Of course, I can’t say the same for Lizzie Borden back there.”

  “My file?” Isaiah asked. “Who’d you get my file from?”

  “Hell, I have no idea who it was from. It was sanitized. And you know what that means, don’t you?”

  “Yeah,” Isaiah noted. “It’s government. My own.”

  “Son, you were betrayed before you packed a bag.”

  “All right. What does it say?”

  Tony managed a minor shrug, “It said you don’t kill people unless you have to. And you don’t use a gun. You represent people for free. Do all that hero stuff. And it said you’ve racked up quite a body count with some kind of edged weapon.”

  “They know about the sword?”

  “Well, I didn’t know you had the katana until you drew it on me. I was actually re-thinking my lack of cooperation when you hit me on top of the head.” His eyes widened. “Now, that got my undivided attention because I know for a fact that you’ve planted quite a few with that thing. Forty-seven to be exact. And mostly Spetsnaz. That is, if the CIA has improved its intelligence since Afghanistan. And, frankly, I didn’t want to be another notch in your handle.”

  Isaiah leaned back, staring to the side before he asked, “Okay, you don’t know who’s ultimately in charge, so who gives you your orders?”

  “Director-General Francois.”

  “Not Blanchard?”

  “No, man,” Tony grimaced. “Blanchard can’t blow his nose without permission. Security details are handled by Francois. Like I said, he’s on the committee. In fact, he’s the only man here who can send us off the reservation. Blanchard may be an important man on the grass, but the committee members handle the rest of the world.”

  “That’s all you know?”

  “Yeah,” Tony said, eyes wide. “Hey, man, I’m just a grocery clerk. You know the drill. They give me a name. I talk to somebody. Sometimes I have to do a little persuading. Rarely do I resort to violence because, fortunately, most people are smart enough to leave town when they’re told point blank that a multibillion-dollar conglomerate as big as most nations has put a hefty price tag on their head. And then I tell them they can’t call nobody for help because these cats have people everywhere including every tier of the United States intelligence services from the CIA to Customs.” He hesitated. “And you two suicide cases made the list before you even left the States, if you want to know.”

  Isaiah was nonplussed. “Fair enough.”

  It was a dull, uneventful ride to the Large Hadron Supercollider Compound and it passed without conversation, then they were at the first gate.

  “Is this place always so heavily guarded?” Isaiah asked.

  “Not like this,” Tony grunted. “But something real bad happened a little while back and security has been souped-up to the point where a fly can’t get in. And it’s gonna stay that way as long as the freaks who run this place are scared shitless like they are now.”

  Amanda spoke up, “Tony? Is that your real name?”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Bizarrely enough, Tony, and I wouldn’t normally say something like this but it’s a bit late to avoid drama. The truth is that you actually seem like a nice guy. It’s hard for me to believe you were going to kill us.”

  “No,” Tony shook his head with an aura of genuine honesty, “I didn’t plan to kill you. I was just going to persuade you to leave town. Give you my speech. See you to a plane. I didn’t see any need for violence.”<
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  “Why not?”

  “For one thing, Francois didn’t specifically tell me to kill you. He just told me to get rid of you. There’s a difference. And, besides, I only kill people when I have to. It ain’t personal.”

  “Killing someone is pretty personal, Tony.”

  “You don’t understand,” he said. “After Iraq I was essentially unemployable. There’s not a lot that an ex-sniper is qualified to do. So, shamefully enough, this is how I whore myself out these days. And, to be honest, I did have the green light to make the call if it was necessary, but I’ve got reservations about killing other operators. I mean, it’s just business, right? We’re all just doing our job. So I see no reason to kill somebody just because they’re working for Tom, Dick, or Harry. Hell, next week I might be working for those guys and I might be on the receiving end of this. But there’s no cause to make this more violent than we have to. That, and I don’t see any harm in you guys having a sit-down with Blanchard. You’re not gonna get anything out of him, anyway, because he doesn’t know anything. But Francois might know something. He’s fairly high on the totem pole.”

  Isaiah asked, “How high?”

  Tony shrugged, “I know he’s on the committee and that’s as high as it goes. You don’t want any attention from him.”

  “You don’t have any idea who’s ultimately in charge of this place?” asked Amanda.

  “Nah,” Tony answered. “But I know that he, or she, ain’t on this compound. Like all rich people, they don’t do nuthin’ themselves.” He blinked in what seemed like amazement before, “Yeah, the committee members are scattered all over the world, man. And they meet like those guys in the old Rollerball movie, ya know? You remember that movie? They had this big committee that controlled everything in the world and they’d just meet on camera and decide who lives and who dies? They would just press a button that would said ‘yea,’ or ‘nay,’ and never say another word? Well, that’s the way these guys work.” He shook his head. “And they say I’m cold-blooded.”