Radioactive (The Rayna Tan Action Thriller Series Book 4)

by Wes Lowe

  Davy went to his work station, and for half an hour he took apart and modified a new detonator. When he finished, he walked to Sonny and handed it to him. “Carter has one already, but I want you to keep this one on you. This is the grand finale coming up and if, God forbid, the one Carter has malfunctions, you’ll need to trigger the bomb manually.”

  Sonny beamed. He was honored to be given the responsibility. “Thanks, Davy.”

  “No, thank you. Now I gotta go back to my room to go over the final CNP details.”

  There were no final details that Davy needed to go through. He had spent almost every waking moment working out the plan, logistical specifics, and technical particulars ever since Carter returned from his initial meeting with Becky. Preparation was complete.

  Rigging the new detonator was the last item on the agenda that Davy needed to finish before Sonny left. He could have finished it before he left for California, but he didn’t want to risk Sonny snooping around and discovering its real purpose. What Davy didn’t want Sonny to see was the miniature explosive that he had implanted. When Sonny had finished his usefulness, it was for Carter to detonate. Just the way he had done with Willie and Diego in the Explorer.

  Davy arrived back in the old teacher’s lunchroom and plopped his shivering body onto his leather armchair.

  It’s happening to me too. Gastro-intestinal problems. Greater immune system disruption. Worse bouts ever of nausea and diarrhea. Skin blisters and reddening. Skin shredding… Death.

  Davy knew it was irrational to think this, but ever since he started losing his hair and the bouts of nausea began twenty years ago, a small inner voice told him this was radiation sickness that he got from his parents.

  No matter how hard he tried, no matter what fancy letters he received after his name, that voice refused to be stilled. His mind flashed to his father. Did he look like me at the end? He couldn’t remember.

  Then Davy’s mind turned to his mother. She loved him, the only person who genuinely did, but she got sick too. She didn’t look as bad as he did, but only because he had ended her misery.

  He had to make the bastards pay.

  It was too much. He had to get his mind off what happened in the past.

  There was only one thing Davy knew that could do that. He connected his telephone to his huge UHD television. He had downloaded a few videos at the airport and picked one out to watch.

  It was of Rayna getting off the chopper. He felt her luscious legs clenching his body like a vise. He saw her soft sensuous hands caressing his most private parts. Looking at her bosom, he wondered if there was a dragon tattooed on one or both of her breasts. Or maybe over her nipples?

  But right now there was something more that Davy needed than extinguishing the flames of passion ignited in his loins.

  He stepped to his electric massage chair, sat down, and laid his head against the cushion pillow. Adjusting the power incline to a semi-prone position, he turned on the lumbar heat, then set the controller to maximum vibration. Then he allowed the rollers to stretch, manipulate, and knead out the knots and pains in his back and legs. As the chair worked its shiatsu magic, he felt the tension that held his body captive unwinding and he fell into a deep sleep.

  39

  Jasmina

  Thank God for the Geek Freaks.

  Prior to joining Fidelitas, Rayna had the not entirely undeserved reputation of being a “naughty good girl.” The daughter of a pastor and a former Special Forces operative with JTF2, she had long been an object of considerable desire since naively posing in a yellow bikini with an AK-47 pointing directly at the camera. It was a photo that managed to make it onto the cellphones of half the Canadian Armed Forces.

  Plus her most recent boyfriend before joining Fidelitas had been a singer, Tanner James, who played the student revolutionary ‘Marius’ in Les Misérables in New York. He was also a drug dealer who got taken out by a Columbian mini-cartel when he was unable to keep up payments after most of his profits went up his nose or into his arms. It took meeting Barry to solve that problem.

  Thank God for the Geek Freaks.

  When she joined the secretive vigilante organization, the Geek Freaks were able to remove almost every remnant about her from the internet, social media sites, and tawdry gossip columns. This was good because they had to rapidly put together a persona for her newly created alter-ego, “Jasmina.”

  Not knowing where Carter might look, they would judiciously plant the internet with salacious pictures of Jasmina, and Jasmina with Barry. The Fidelitas head wasn’t worried about any bad publicity he might get from present or potential clients—most of them were horndogs who would applaud his audacious behavior.

  However, there had to be adjustments. If she was going to meet Carter in person, there was no way she could hide all the cuts and bruises she had suffered during the disaster with the Ford Explorer. Laara, the makeup artist, and Hugo, the tattoo artist, were called on to reprise their work on Rayna from the Conquistador event.

  Julio gave Rayna a call while Helena was wielding her magic with a curling iron, transforming Rayna’s straight hair with curls, adding definition and perfection. “Jasmina’s starting to attract attention.”

  “I haven’t even finished with Laara and Hugo yet,” said Rayna.

  “Can’t wait for that. There have been a couple hundred hits on what we’ve thrown up so far, and about ten percent of those are clicking through. What a bunch of losers. Some are self-proclaimed “God’s gift to women,” offering to show Jasmina what a ‘real man’ is like; others want to buy access to your porn sites. We’re investigating all of them, but nothing solid just yet.” Julio chuckled. “By the time we’re done, you and Barry can get jobs in porn if your day jobs go south.”

  “Don’t blame them. If I wasn’t so happily married, I’d ask too. Do you know how unbelievably hot Rayna looks?” stated Laara proudly as she surveyed her handiwork.

  A disturbing thought struck Rayna. “I hope Barry isn’t getting into trouble with Diana.”

  “Hardly. Barry isn’t afraid of anything in the world except the wrath of his darling wife.”

  40

  Details

  RING! RING!

  Davy awoke with a start. He had no idea how long he had been sleeping. He got up out of his armchair and dragged himself to his computer. Eyes glazing at the screen, he saw it was Carter wanting to have a videoconference.

  Davy used his mouse to click ACCEPT CALL. While Carter was isolated, there was the buzz of people coming and going in the background. “Hey Carter. You in New York yet?”

  Carter nodded. “Yeah. Boy do I hate flying economy, but never mind. I need you to check something out. Becky told me there is an alarm system in place in the reactor room that is on twenty-four seven. She’s watched it being done and thinks she knows the process, but has never done it herself. Can you track down the instructions?”

  “What an idiot. At least she told us now instead of when it’s time to go in.” Davy’s fingers pounded the keyboard doing a search of the alarm system’s controls. Five minutes later, he bellowed, “Got it.” Then his voice dropped to a normal level. “It’s got to be Becky that does this because there is biometric identification involved. She has to go to the control room on the second floor of the administration building.”

  “That much she knows, and she’s got a key to the control room and knows which computer to go to,” said Carter.

  “Then the rest is a piece of cake; she simply puts her hand on the scanner beside the computer. After the scanner recognizes her handprint, it will ask for the pass code, which is her employee number. Then she clicks on the icon that says, “Reactor Alarm Controls,” and clicks the ‘Off’ button. It’s that simple.”

  There was another item of business to deal with.

  Davy asked, “Did you see her? Why didn’t you tell me about her?”

  Carter replied, “Who is “her?”

  It was a rhetorical question. Sharing the same sexual prefe
rences as Davy, Carter knew exactly who his partner was talking about. Although he had caught only the briefest of glimpses before he turned his head away to avoid anyone noticing his interest, his libido was immediately captured at the sight of the Chinese woman in the red dress.

  “Miss China in red. I’m going to find her.”

  There was a brief pensive silence before Carter queried, “Do you think you can find her?”

  “Duh, why do you think I’m asking? But you, better than most, know it’s not going to be cheap.”

  Over the years, Carter and Davy ‘shared’ the occasional women. While Davy was no longer able to personally perform, the girls were happy to give him his own private show while Carter well... Carter more than made up for any lack of orgasmic fulfillment that Davy failed to provide.

  “The best things in life never are. Go for it.”

  41

  Setting the Bait

  Given the go-ahead by Carter, Davy began searching for more information on the delicious Asian temptress.

  From watching various media clips, he knew that the guy’s name was ‘Barry.’ When he cross-referenced it to Carter’s announcement guest list, there were two persons with that first name: Barry Rogers and Barry Watanabe. The guy in the video was as Anglo as they come, so that ruled out the Japanese Watanabe. Barry Rogers’s guest was listed as his wife, Diana.

  Searching for ‘Diana Rogers’ married to a ‘Barry Rogers’ revealed to Davy a middle-aged grandmother, so clearly the woman who came off the chopper was a mistress or some kind of hired paramour.

  Which meant she could be bought…

  Davy redoubled his efforts. He couldn’t track her down using facial recognition, and it didn’t take long to find out mainstream media couldn’t identify her either

  Now perusing the dark, murkier regions in cyberspace, Davy came across UNHINGED, an internet television station, known for digging up the dirt.

  Ho hum. There was yet another telephone-selfie journalist showing Rayna chasing after the SUV and then being rescued by Barry as the vehicle exploded.

  “Now wasn’t that something?” said Winston, a young male British reporter, as he popped onscreen.

  Davy was about to switch stations when the reporter added, “But there is more, much more. Unhinged has managed to get some footage that is not available anywhere else, which shows what happened to our intrepid hero when he got back home to his darling wife.”

  The screen cut to a shot of Barry inside a living room, where he recognized Barry’s wife Diana bashing him with a pillow.

  “You! You! How could you do that to me! That girl was young enough to be our daughter.”

  Barry protected himself by placing his hands over his head, but that did not stop the pillow assault. “She’s twenty-seven-years-old. Hardly a child.”

  The woman stopped the attack and began wailing. “What’s happened to you, Barry? You used to love making love to me and now it’s gone. THE THRILL HAS GONE,” she shrieked.

  “Nonsense. I’ve just been a little tired lately. Had to do a lot of overtime.”

  “Overtime my butt!” She picked up a manila envelope from the table, pulled out an eight-by-ten photo, and held it up for the man to see.

  There she was—the Asian Aphrodite, goddess of love, sex and charismatic beauty. She was clad in two pieces of scanty black floral-lace lingerie. Davy could see twin dragons peeking through the two black hearts of netlike ornamental fabric that almost covered her bosom. And without a dress to hide her luscious, sensuous legs, the rest of the dragon tattoo was in full display, its tongue flicking out, ready for action.

  The woman threw the picture to the floor. “And there’s a lot more overtime!” She pulled more photos out of the envelope, shoving each into Barry’s face.

  The camera zoomed into the picture as she put the first photo in front of Barry’s face. It featured Rayna wearing the same lingerie set that seemed ready to fall off with the slightest touch. Not that Davy was interested, but for a man his age, Barry, wearing a thong, was in better shape than professional athletes half his age.

  “Overtime doing this!” It was a picture of Rayna in ecstasy as Barry’s hands cupped her breasts.

  “Or overtime doing this.” The wife put the second photo in front of Barry’s face. Rayna had driven her tongue down Barry’s mouth.”

  “Or double triple overtime doing this.” This third picture had Rayna with her legs wrapped around Barry’s torso.

  Rayna was leaning back, her mouth was gasping for air and her fingers were digging deep into Barry’s neck.

  The woman lashed out. “How much did you pay for that slutty Chinese tramp?”

  “What makes you think I paid?” replied the man defensively.

  “No girl like that is going to do it for free, especially with an animal like you.”

  That insulted Barry’s manhood and he would not put with it. He retaliated, “Jasmina loved every moment of it. I could tell. And I didn’t pay her.”

  “Yes you did,” screamed the woman. “She called me! She told me to tell you that next time she wants double!”

  “Jasmina called you?” asked Barry incredulously.

  “Yes. And then she came to our house and dropped the damn photos off. She’s a hellcat whore!”

  The video cut back to Winston waving a cautionary finger at the camera. “Bad boy, Barry. But the real question is, ‘was she worth it?’ From all that I’ve been able to gather, the answer is, ‘Yes. Yes. Yes.’ Now, it’s time to do a little bit more research. I don’t think I can afford Jasmina on a reporter’s salary, but I can dream, can’t I? But the sad thing is that dreams are never as good as the real thing, and those tantalizing little bits of Jasmina are proof positive that she is the real, real deal.” Winston groaned. “I can just feel her nails digging into me now!”

  Davy clicked off the channel, trembling with excitement. Jasmina. She was perfect. No teenybopper, no spinster. Uninhibited. Sophisticated but slutty. A hellcat!

  She was perfect for a last hurrah.

  He composed a text and sent the pics of Barry and Jasmina he downloaded while Unhinged was streaming.

  Carter was sitting at the back of the bus on the way to Stamford. Paying cash for the two-hour ride was the surest way to avoid a paper trail, but the seat definitely was not as comfortable as his Mercedes E Class.

  When he got the text from Davy, he gave his partner in crime a call.

  Even though he tried to be nonchalant so as not to attract attention from the other passengers, the undercurrent of excitement still exuded from his voice. “How did you get this? Who is she? Can we get her?”

  “Her name is Jasmina and I’m sure she’s for sale,” said Davy, his senses tingling too. “That guy she was with was not her boyfriend or husband. Just some schmoe who was willing to shell out some big bucks for her.”

  “Find her. Book her. I’ll be back at the school in three days.”

  “What’ll we pay?”

  “One hundred and fifty grand, plus or minus. Get her to the schoolhouse and do whatever it takes to keep her there until I get back.”

  Carter disconnected.

  Davy’s breathing accelerated. He couldn’t believe the staggering price that Carter was willing to spend. That was almost three times his previous high figure… or at least three times the top amount he knew about.

  Do whatever it takes to keep her there until I get back. Davy began envisioning what atrocities that he might be able to invent and immediately began scouring for Jasmina’s contact info.

  42

  Caught!

  Julio came back online with Rayna. This time, Barry joined the video chat conversation. “A guy just sent a $10,000 bank draft. No picture but the attached comment, if it’s real, says it all. Take a look.”

  I saw you at the party and I know you were looking at me too. If you’re interested in more, let’s get together. There’s a private jet waiting for ‘Jasmina.’ Just call Executive Privilege Travel at 260.555.1
435 and they’ll do everything.

  Barry said, “We want you to call and keep whoever answers on the line for as long as possible without raising suspicion. The caller is tech savvy because we were unable to track the location of where the call came from. Feel him out and try to get him to text you something. Keep your eye on your phone’s screen. We might want you to say something.”

  “Got it.” Rayna punched the number from Executive Privilege Travel.

  “Executive Privilege Travel. How may I help you?” answered Davy.

  A message slate appeared on Rayna’s phone.

  He’s using sophisticated voice masking software. Trying to trace.

  Rayna closed her eyes, then inhaled deeply. She answered in a low, throaty voice with a Chinese accent that promised… everything. “You may not help me at all. But I don’t like your voice. It’s not nice. Like a police computer.”

  Davy’s response was natural sounding. “Is this better? You’re very observant.”

  “I have to be. I am a supernova. I can take you beyond. When people find out what I can do, they will do anything to get me… and some of them are not very nice.”

  “I just sent you $10,000, and it was easy for me to find you. If I wanted to hurt you, you would be dead.”

  Play with him. Still can’t pinpoint IP address.

  “Mm. You sound like my kind of man. Deposit another $90,000 and I will do anything and everything you want. Anything. Everything.”