Brady Hawk Series, Books 4-6

by R. J. Patterson

  She looked up, wincing as she caught a glimpse of his arm. Immediately, she started to slide on her butt across the kitchen floor.

  “Let me take a look at that,” she said.

  “I hope that shot in Prague wasn’t just a lucky one,” Hawk said.

  “Why? Because you’re going to need me to take out Thor?”

  Hawk nodded. “You’re going to at least need to hold him off.”

  She gently pushed Hawk’s hand aside, revealing the full nature of the wound. Instinctively, she covered her mouth with her hand, feigning a vomit.

  “Cut it out with the theatrics,” Hawk said. “I need your help in one way or another. I think I can dress this wound by myself, but we won’t be dressing anything if Thor comes through that door with guns ablazin’.”

  “What do you want me to do?” Alex asked.

  “Garage. Weapons. Pronto.”

  Hawk watched her leave the room, crawling on her hands and knees toward the garage. While he waited for her to return, he ripped a large swatch of cloth from the lower part of his shirt and formed a makeshift bandage to help keep constant pressure on his arm. He then searched the kitchen drawers for a sharp knife.

  Moments later, Alex hustled back into the room carrying a couple rifles, four magazines, and two boxes of ammunition.

  “Think this is enough?” she asked.

  “It’ll have to do. Now, I need your help. There’s a bullet in my arm, and I have to dig it out.”

  She exhaled slowly, followed by a deep breath. “Is there anything else you can have me do? You know how I get around blood.”

  Hawk locked eyes with her and gave her a grave gaze. He needed to convey both the seriousness of the situation as well as confidence in her ability to successfully help him.

  “I’m afraid this time there’s no other option,” he said. “We could both easily die if I don’t handle this now.”

  Alex gave him a barely perceptible nod. “I can do this.”

  “Yes, you can.”

  Hawk walked her through a tense sixty seconds as she rooted around in his bicep for the bullet, all while Thor continued to pepper the outside of the house.

  “I got it,” she said with an exuberant smile.

  “Now, re-tie this bandage, and let’s get this sonofabitch.”

  As Alex returned to working on Hawk’s arm, an eerie silence fell, a quietness much longer than before when Thor had paused to presumably reload. The stillness was broken with the sound of shattering glass and a hard thud.

  “Get down,” Hawk said, instinctively covering Alex.

  A flash grenade rolled along the floor before detonating a few feet away just out of their reach. But it was effective.

  Hawk experienced a temporary loss of hearing and struggled to stand, but he knew they had to move. In a matter of seconds, Thor was likely to come rushing through the door and it’d be over.

  Hawk winced and gritted his teeth as he grabbed Alex and dragged her down the hall. Listless, she remained disoriented and barely conscious. Storming along, Hawk reached Blunt’s special room. It was a panic room for sure in case an incident like this ever occurred, par for the course with the overly paranoid senator.

  Windowless with walls of reinforced steel, the room served as a fortress in an otherwise easily penetrable cabin—if you could find it. But Thor had more than found it, and his assault had forced Hawk and Alex into their last line of defense.

  Once Hawk secured the door, Alex rolled over and pushed herself up off the floor.

  “What just happened?” she asked, squinting and shaking her head. “Something doesn’t feel right.”

  “You’re fine,” Hawk said. “Just a little shaken from the flash bang. I brought you back here to Blunt’s panic room.”

  “Did you get the weapons?”

  “I couldn’t. Not enough time.”

  “So, what now? He’s just going to wait us out.”

  “That’s not how we’ve been trained. It’s do the job and get out.”

  Alex shook her head again in what appeared to be an attempt to reset her balance. “But it’s personal with you two. He wants to see you before he kills you.”

  “In a perfect world? Yes. But more than anything, he wants me dead—and he knows sticking around isn’t the ideal way to handle this.”

  Hawk put his index finger to his lips, signaling for Alex to be quiet. The heavy footfalls of combat boots echoed down the hall. Frozen and barely breathing, Hawk and Alex listened as Thor romped through the cabin, screaming and yelling for them to come out and face him.

  They could hear Thor checking each of the rooms, systematically clearing them before moving on to the next. Eventually, he reached the panic room and jiggled the door handle. Unable to gain access, Thor stepped back and fired a couple rounds, which ricocheted down the hallway.

  “Reinforced steel—slick trick, Senator Blunt,” Thor groused.

  Hawk sat still and listened as Thor kicked at the door a couple times, unable to get it to budge.

  “Don’t make this any harder than it has to be, Hawk,” Thor said.

  Silence.

  “This is your last chance,” Thor said. “I’ll make it quick. I promise.”

  More silence.

  “Okay. Have it your way, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

  The room’s ventilation unit was separate from the rest of the house, but it still pulled in air from the outside, the lone design flaw. Hawk guessed Blunt figured to use the room more against a potential intruder and never seriously considered what might happen in a standoff. And Hawk knew what was coming next.

  After a minute or so without hearing a sound, Alex looked at Hawk, her eyes begging for permission to speak.

  Hawk nodded, green-lighting her burning question.

  She was nearly breathless as she rapidly fired off her questions. “Where did he go? What’s he going to do now? Can we make a run for it?”

  “Slow down and speak softly. He’s still out there, so we need to stay put for now.”

  “For now—meaning we’re going to run in a bit?”

  “Only if we have to.”

  “Why would we have to?”

  Hawk heard the sound of someone walking through foliage in the wooded area along the side of the house. He put a finger to his lips again.

  For a few seconds, Hawk heard footsteps, which were followed by the sound of liquid being spread along the ground.

  “That’s why we’re going to have to leave,” he said, pointing toward the outside wall.

  “What?” she said. “What do you hear?”

  Before he could answer, the stomping of Thor’s boots arrested both of them.

  “All right, Chosen One,” Thor chided. “This is your last chance to have a relatively painless death. I think you know what’s coming, and you know how painful it’s going to be. You may not care, but I suspect you wouldn’t want that pretty little handler of yours to die in such a gruesome manner.” Thor paused. “But it’s your choice.”

  They didn’t make a sound.

  “OK, have it your way then,” Thor said as he raced out of the house.

  “What’s he doing?” asked Alex, her brow furrowed.

  Hawk didn’t have to answer.

  They could both hear the sound of the house bursting into flames.

  CHAPTER 35

  THOR STEPPED BACK AND ADMIRED his work. He prided himself in his pryo skills, working hard to develop a system for getting a structure to be enveloped by a fire in a matter of seconds. With satisfaction, he smiled knowing that Hawk’s death would occur in a much slower manner. Getting burned alive had always been Thor’s nightmare, though he took solace in the fact that none of his burn victims had ever survived.

  Waiting patiently, Thor leaned against his vehicle and watched Blunt’s beloved cabin begin to collapse. The accelerant he used was a natural one, designed to dupe arson investigators into believing it was from natural causes. Blunt, of course, would know differently, discov
ering his favored operative scorched to death. But it’s not like Blunt could tell anyone. The beleaguered former senator was on the run himself, unwelcome on U.S. soil for his own transgressions against his government.

  After ten minutes, the roof began to collapse. Yet still no sign of Hawk or Alex. Thor grew concerned for the first time. He knew they were in the cabin and had never left. There were only two exits, and he’d booby-trapped the side exit with a mine that not even Hawk would be able to diffuse. And there was practically no way Hawk and his handler, who was far from a trained agent, could slip outside onto the front porch without Thor hearing it.

  Yet something didn’t feel right.

  No matter how strong Hawk’s resolve, he wouldn’t allow Alex to be burned alive. Or so Thor believed. By now, Thor had fully expected to see the couple flying out of the house, arms flailing as they struggled to douse the flames consuming their flesh. That’s the scene Thor wanted, giving him the opportunity to look once more into Hawk’s eyes before snuffing out his final breath.

  Another major structural beam tumbled downward, sparks kicking up and drifting upward into the dusky sky.

  Where the hell are they?

  Thor circled the house, stepping deliberately as he managed to maintain a safe distance from the fiery house. Yet he couldn’t see anything that gave him any clues where they could have escaped.

  In the distance, he heard the wailing of fire engines, undoubtedly alerted to the scene by a concerned neighbor. People living in the mountains had reason to be jumpy about a roaring fire, though Thor watched it closely to make sure it wasn’t in danger of burning down the mountain. The entire fire was contained as it turned Blunt’s cabin into a pile of rubble and ashes.

  But still no Hawk, still no Alex.

  Thor waited five more minutes, the sirens getting closer and closer. Disappointed he didn’t get to see their dead bodies, he climbed into his truck and headed down the driveway. He waited until he reach the road and was a safe distance from the house before reaching into his console. Pulling out a small black box, Thor flipped a switch.

  “Goodbye, Hawk,” he said with a sardonic grin.

  Thor pressed a button and watched the explosives he’d set near the corners of the foundation obliterate the mountain home.

  He glanced down at the beaver trap on the passenger side floorboard.

  “My only regret is that I didn’t get to set that off on your leg before I killed you.”

  Thor shrugged. It didn’t matter now. He’d gotten the ultimate revenge, entombing Hawk—and Blunt’s favorite handler, Alex—in a pile of rubble in Blunt’s cabin that was given to him for a shady deal with an oil executive. When Thor added it all up, it was a four-for-one deal.

  He calmly drove along the winding two-lane road, waving at the volunteer fire department’s engine as it raced past him in the opposite direction.

  CHAPTER 36

  HAWK SWIPED AT THE VINES that had grown over the mouth of the secret underground passageway Blunt had dug for the mountain home. When Hawk first visited Blunt there, the senator apologized for it, suggesting it was likely overkill. But after using the tunnel to save his life—and Alex’s, too—Hawk considered it utilitarian, perhaps even necessary.

  “I’m far too paranoid,” Blunt had told Hawk at the time as they navigated the quarter-mile passage. “It’s not like anyone is really going to try and kill me.”

  “Well, if they are, I guess you’ll be ready, sir,” Hawk had told him.

  Hawk cleared a space wide enough for them to turn sideways and shimmy through without getting too cut up by the brambles entwined with the branches shrouding the exit. He looked back at Alex, offering his hand to her. She took it and eased into the forest.

  They both crept back around the side of the mountain, bringing the cabin site into plain view. Firemen zipped around the property, dragging hoses and tools around the back. Several men furiously dug a fire line. Hawk looked up in the trees and noticed where the explosion had likely spewed fire into the branches and spread the fire.

  They both glanced at the driveway. Thor was gone.

  “He was prepared to burn the whole forest down if that’s what it took,” Alex said.

  “These guys are pros. It won’t spread far.”

  She nodded. “Good. I’d hate to be indirectly responsible for hundreds of acres of charred forestland.”

  “I wouldn’t hate it if Thor was tied to a tree in the middle of that same forest.”

  “Don’t stoop to his level, Hawk.”

  “That fool thought he could kill us—and he wanted to burn us alive. I have no grace for a man like that.”

  She sighed. “It’s that kind of pettiness that could get you killed in this business.”

  “I’m far too aware of that,” Hawk said. “I laid aside personal grudges a long time ago—but this isn’t about a grudge. This is about a guy who’s trying to kill me, kill us. Don’t you want to see him brought to justice and eliminated?”

  Alex bit her lip before responding. “We can’t let personal vendettas get in the way of our primary objective, which is to make the world a safer place.”

  Hawk gazed toward the fire raging in the distance. “Part of making the world a safer place is removing threats like Thor. My intentions are true to the mission—with maybe a little private retribution thrown in for good measure.”

  “I can go along with that,” she said. “However, the most pressing question I have is how are we going to get back to the city without getting questioned or spotted?”

  Hawk winked at her. “I guess we’ll have to borrow a car.”

  ***

  HAWK INSTRUCTED ALEX to wait behind a large boulder sitting just off the road while he scrambled down a steep driveway. He didn’t see any lights on in the house and hoped it was an unoccupied vacation home. Creeping around the outside of the house, Hawk peered into several windows and didn’t see any warning signs. So he proceeded to pick the lock of the side door and gained access to the garage. The whole process took him less than a minute.

  With the keys hanging from a rack by the door leading into the house, Hawk snatched them and inserted one into the ignition of the dark-blue Ford Explorer. He located the remote control for the garage door and depressed it, allowing him to drive right out. He closed the garage door and roared up the driveway, stopping by the boulder to collect Alex.

  “That was fast,” she said. “Makes me wonder if you were involved in shady activities in your youth before you saw the light.”

  “Who says I ever saw the light?” Hawk quipped as he put the SUV into drive and returned to the road.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror at the firemen still working feverishly to contain the fire. Thor had left a wide swath of destruction in his furious wake—and Hawk determined that it’d be the last time the former Firestorm operative got the better of him . . . or anyone else.

  They drove on in silence for a few minutes before Hawk turned and gazed at Alex. It was longer than the normal look he gave her while he was driving. This time, he looked long, almost as if he were searching her soul.

  “What is it?” she asked, breaking Hawk out of his trance and diverting his attention back to the road.

  He shuddered and drove on.

  “I know that look,” she said. “Something is bothering you, Hawk. Talk to me.”

  “I’m not sure if I should tell you.”

  “Aren’t spies supposed to be the best at keeping secrets?” she asked. “Technically, I’m a spy.”

  “It’s not that kind of secret.” He hesitated before continuing. “Just forget it, okay?”

  “Well, I’ve got a secret for you, one I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while. I wanted to wait until the timing was right. And by now, I’m fully aware that there will never be a time that’s right. I don’t want to regret not telling you this.”

  Hawk pulled off the highway and came to a stop at a traffic light.

  “Just spit it out, Alex,” he said.
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  “Thanks for protecting me back there,” she said as she tucked her hands beneath her legs and shrugged nervously. “I know that you care about me.”

  “Of course I care about you,” Hawk said. “We’re a team.”

  She sighed. “Why do you have to make this so difficult?”

  “Make what so difficult?” he said, flashing a quick grin.

  Alex proceeded to take Hawk’s face in her hands so that he faced her. She planted a long kiss on his lips.

  Wide-eyed, he stared back at her. “You found that difficult? It seems like you’ve been waiting to do that for quite a while.”

  Alex scowled. “That’s all you have to say? How about being a little more sensitive.” She folded her arms, shaking her head in a gesture of disbelief.

  “No, I have far more to say about that,” Hawk said as he eased back onto the gas. “But we’ll have to discuss this at a later time.”

  She exhaled and slumped into her chair.

  “A later time tonight,” Hawk said.

  Alex winked and patted Hawk on the knee. He didn’t mind so much. He’d always admired her professionally. And since they started working together on assignments in the field, she’d grown on him personally, too.

  “Good,” she said. “I just couldn’t bear for something to happen to you without you knowing how I feel about you.”

  “It’s safe to say the feeling is mutual,” Hawk said. “But we don’t need to lose our focus. First, we have an important mission ahead of us tonight.”

  CHAPTER 37

  Washington, D.C.

  THOR POURED ANOTHER celebratory drink—a glass of bourbon in honor of Hawk—and sifted through a file he’d pulled from the stack on his desk. Bozeman’s lengthy assignment list meant Thor would never be lacking for work in the foreseeable future. Hits included a Yakuza boss over a trafficking ring in San Francisco, a Belgian diplomat, a Chinese newspaper publisher, and a handful of undercover CIA agents operating in the Middle East. According to Bozeman, they were all corrupt and threatened The Chamber’s future plans. Thor shrugged at the veracity of Bozeman’s assertion, moving forward with the justification that the world would likely be better off without all these degenerates consuming Earth’s finite supply of oxygen.