“The last thing we want or need is dozens of hired killers crawling up our asses,” Quinn announced in their defense. “We were careful.”
“Then how did they find us?” Nevada launched in anger. “More than two dozen men are coming this way from every corner. It’s a coordinated attack.”
“Let us out,” Rowen insisted while looking at Ross, almost pleading with him. “There aren’t enough of you to handle that many men, especially if you can’t reach that chopper. You need us.”
“No one trusts you enough to let you out,” Nevada shouted back in anger.
Quinn glared at Nevada. “We’re sitting ducks in here,” he informed her. “Whether you like it or not, we’re in this together. They’ll kill us the same as they’ll kill you.”
“He’s right,” Rowen announced and again looked back at Ross, possibly hoping he’d be more rational than Nevada. “There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that we can offer to those men that would spare our lives. We’re dead men either way. We may as well go down fighting alongside you.”
Ross seemed to be mentally calculating his options while under extreme pressure of how fast things were going down. He looked at Nevada, who vigorously ran her fingers through her hair.
“How well do you know these men?” Ross finally asked Nevada.
She groaned and threw her hands in the air with disgust. “They’re idiots, not killers,” Nevada announced. “But they are right. Those men coming will kill them the same as us. The only way they get out of here alive is to fight with us.”
Ross cursed under his breath and unlocked the cage. He indicated Monroe to the men. “You two stick with Monroe,” he announced. “He’ll get you some weapons and set you up within the sanctuary.” Ross then pointed a warning finger at both men. “Anything funny, and my men will shoot you without thinking twice.”
Rowen held his hands in the air and shook his head. “No funny business,” he announced. “On my mother’s head, I swear.”
Monroe and Ross exchanged concerned looks. Monroe then motioned both men to the entrance. Ross was about to leave when Sam sprang to the cell door.
“Let me out,” she insisted with something resembling fear in her eyes.
“You’re not going anywhere,” Ross informed her.
“I can help,” Sam announced while pleading with her eyes. “I have just as much to lose as you do. Maybe more. If any of those men work for Vincent, they’ll recognize me. I’m dead where I stand.”
“You’re a liability,” Ross informed her while raising an arrogant brow. He then turned and started walking across the clinic.
“I know you only see me as some mob boss’s whore,” Sam cried out, “but I wouldn’t have survived all these years if I wasn’t resourceful.”
Ross paused and looked back at Sam, who clung to the bars while staring at him. The desperate look on her face was hard to read.
“Your relationship with Vincent was never the issue, Sam,” Ross informed her. “No one here cares that you were dating a mob boss or that you ratted him out. It’s your desire to get back in his good graces that makes us not trust you.” He again turned to leave.
“Everyone is so quick to think I’d want to get back in Vincent’s good graces,” she shouted after him. “Do you honestly think I’m that stupid? I just wanted to get close enough to Vincent to kill him!”
Ross paused and looked back at Sam. The look in her eyes could easily be the truth, but there was something cold and calculating as well. It was what made women more frightening than men. The uncertainty. A rage most men couldn’t even hope to understand.
“We’re all safer with you right where you are,” Ross informed her. “If it goes sideways, we’ll unlock the door and let you go.”
As Ross left the clinic, Sam sneered and slammed her palm against the bars.
§
Zack sat in the crook of a tall tree and scanned the nearby area with his binoculars. Through his binoculars, he could see several men standing guard over the helicopters. He frowned and shook his head.
“We could take out the men standing guard over the helicopters,” Zack announced, “but we wouldn’t make it very far before alerting the others.”
Jackie stood on the branch within the same tree directly beneath where Zack sat and lowered her own binoculars. She had to admit; it didn’t look good. “I’m seeing at least six men positioned within the woods on the other side. “Extracting Marco by helicopter without being shot down would be next to impossible.”
“With the woods and man-made rock formations, taking them out from above would be counterproductive,” Zack remarked. “We’d be sitting ducks in the helicopter.”
“They’re coming this way.” She lowered her binoculars and tapped Zack’s combat boot not far from her face. “We need to get back to the visitor’s center before they close in.”
Jackie quickly descended the tree and jumped the last few feet. Zack quietly followed. Once he landed on the ground, they hurried through the woods.
Zack touched his hidden ear transmitter. “Ross,” he announced. “A helicopter evac is a no-go. We have at least a dozen men heading for the sanctuary from the west. Jackie and I should reach the sanctuary before they do, but they won’t be far behind.”
“All hands on deck,” Ross announced over their ear transmitters, alerting the others. “We need to maintain a perimeter around the sanctuary and hold them off. Keep them from the clinic as long as possible. The clinic will be our last stand.”
Once they reached the sanctuary, Jackie and Zack shut the metal gates behind them. Zack placed a large padlock on the thick chain, then removed a sanctuary map from his pocket and showed it to Jackie.
“Okay. According to Ross, Beck’s going to provide some cover here at the visitor’s center,” he informed her. “Ross will stay with Marco here at the clinic. We have Monroe and those two bounty hunters here by the train.” He continued pointing to different locations on the map. “Nevada and Bogart are here at the reptile house, and Kirk and Gil are here at the bird aviary.”
Jackie briefly studied the map then pointed. “So you and I should be somewhere around here,” she announced and indicated a place on the map.
“The hippo habitat,” Zack remarked, then eyed Jackie and raised a curious brow. “There’s a huge pond in there that’s been covered over by plant life. Mostly a swamp now. One wrong step--”
“Yeah, I know,” Jackie informed him and grinned. “It’s a great place to lose someone.”
Zack chuckled and shook his head. “I love your devious mind.”
“Let’s stake out our spot for the show,” she announced.
Chapter 47
Jackie followed Zack along the overgrown walkway close to the tall stone wall surrounding the west end of the hippo habitat. Left of the walkway was the massive pond now overgrown with plant life. It looked more like a swamp. Jackie eyed the murky water and made a face while keeping close to Zack ahead of her. On the other side of the small, man-made pond was a fake stone cave, which would provide shelter for the animals during severe weather. Although there was an open field and some trees, most of the habitat was based around the pond.
“There’s a stench you don’t come across every day,” she remarked and wrinkled her nose from the foul smell. “What is it?”
“Decay,” Zack replied without forethought. “Rotting vegetation and possibly the remanence of an animal or two that fell into the pond and couldn’t get back out.”
“That’s a pleasant thought,” she muttered.
Zack paused before a tree blocking the path. He looked up the large tree and nodded his approval. “This is perfect,” he informed her. “His and her branches.” He indicated the branches on either side of the tree. “And the wall is about three feet above the branches. We’ll have the safety of the wall as a shield, and yet be able to fire over the wall at anyone approaching.” He extended his hand to the tree and grinned. “Ladies first.”
Jackie cast a look at Zac
k and raised her brows. “Yeah, I’m not falling for that one again,” she remarked and extended her hand to the tree. “Age before beauty.”
Zack didn’t appear amused. “I can run circles around you,” he informed her. “Don’t mock my age.”
Without another word, Zack scaled the tree to the first branch halfway up the ten-foot wall. Jackie watched and waited. As Zack was about to climb to the second branch, they saw something move beneath the surface of the murky pond. Jackie took a step closer to the edge for a better look. Zack’s hand was suddenly in front of her as he reached down.
“Jackie,” he cried out.
Jackie wasn’t sure what he saw, but she grabbed his wrist without question, allowing him to hoist her from the ground. An alligator lunged from the murky water and nearly caught her booted foot. Jackie grabbed onto the lower branch while digging her boots into the tree trunk. She screamed at the sight of the alligator’s teeth so close to her. Zack pulled her onto the branch with him. She just about leaped onto Zack, where he crouched, and clung to him. Her heart was racing while she stared in horror at the close call.
“What the hell--?” Jackie cried out in terror.
Despite everything she’d ever been through, that had to be her most frightening moment with the team. Zack held onto her with one arm while clinging to the tree behind him with the other.
“Now there’s something you don’t see every day,” he remarked, seeming less rattled than she was. Of course, it hadn’t been his foot either.
“Let me go down in a fiery ball of flames,” Jackie announced while staring at the alligator moving beneath the surface. “Being eaten alive is not how I want to die.”
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Zack casually remarked. “You and I are going to die “Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid” style.”
Jackie finally caught her breath and cast a look at Zack. “We’re going to jump off a cliff together?” she just about demanded.
“Well, yeah, but in a helicopter after being struck with a heat seeking missile,” he replied.
Jackie stared at him without releasing him. “Pretty detailed image,” she muttered. “Do you fantasize about us dying together a lot?”
“No,” he replied. “Only two or three times a day.”
She stared into his eyes a moment and had to wonder if he was kidding. Jackie pulled away from him and braced one hand against the branch beneath her and the other on the stone wall behind her. She glanced into the murky water below. Zack remained crouched on the branch and casually leaned his shoulder against the tree trunk. He observed the water as well then pointed with little reaction.
“There’s another,” he casually informed her. “At least now we know where the smell was coming from.”
“Even if they were left behind when the sanctuary closed, how could they possibly survive winter?” she asked. “I thought alligators couldn’t handle the cold, especially with how cold Colorado gets.”
“The habitats have plenty of cozy areas,” Zack informed her. “I guess they find warm spots and hunker down for the winter.” He then indicated the tree. “We’d better get into position.”
Jackie remained perched on the branch and stared at the ripples in the murky water below. Zack was about to continue his climb when he hesitated and studied Jackie.
“Are you scared of a couple of alligators?” Zack asked, seeming surprised.
She shot a horrified look at him. “Shouldn’t I be?”
“Would it make you feel better if I shot them?” he asked.
Jackie cast a look at him then shivered slightly. “No,” she muttered. “We can’t risk alerting the intruders to our presence.”
Zack removed his Bowie knife from his boot and playfully flipped it in his hand. “I always wanted to wrestle a gator,” he remarked. “I’ll just go for a quick swim and take care of them for you.”
Jackie stared at him with a strange look. She suddenly smiled and laughed. “You would do that, too, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course,” he replied. “And not just because it’d make you feel better. It’d make for a great story. I need some new material.”
“I think, under the circumstances,” she announced, “we should just let them be.”
Zack replaced his knife to his boot. “Okay, but I offered,” he announced. “Let’s get into position.”
§
Monroe took a lookout position within the old, rusted half-size train sitting on tracks that once carried the train around the entire sanctuary. He sat on the warped, wooden bench with his assault rifle across his lap and peered out the glassless windows with his binoculars. While watching the surrounding area leading up to the sanctuary, he periodically cast looks at Quinn and Rowen in nearby cars that were situated on the curve in the track. Monroe wasn’t particularly happy trusting a pair of bounty hunters who arrived with the sole purpose of snatching Marco out from underneath them. Ross trusting them may very well have been a mistake. Giving them weapons was possibly even the bigger mistake. Did they really have his back when he needed it? Or would they shoot him in it?
Rowen made a strange bird call sound, alerting Monroe and Quinn. Quinn and Monroe scanned the area with their binoculars in an attempt to see what Rowen had seen. There was movement within the woods. Although Monroe could only make out one man, the movement within the underbrush was consistent with soldiers moving in formation. Monroe moved to the train floor, kneeled alongside the glassless window, and positioned his rifle toward the woods. He tapped his ear transmitter.
“We have at least half a dozen men approaching from the northeast,” Monroe announced. “They’re too far out to make visual confirmation.” He glanced back at the train and saw Rowen signaling something to him. Monroe frowned and touched his ear transmitter. “Elmer Fudd is trying to tell me something.” Monroe looked at Rowen, made a face, and shook his head, indicating he didn’t understand. He again tapped his ear transmitter. “I don’t know what branch of the military this guy served, but I’m pretty sure it was in another country.”
Quinn rolled his eyes and shook his head at Monroe’s confusion. He, too, started gesturing and making hand signals, as if that would help clarify what he was attempting to convey.
Monroe groaned. “Great, now Daffy Duck is in on the act as well,” he remarked.
“Does it look as if he’s asking you to steal third base?” Nevada chimed in over Monroe’s ear transmitter.
“A little,” Monroe remarked.
“He wants you to wait until they’re in the clearing,” Nevada informed him. “Let them get past your position and then take them from behind.”
“That’s not the plan,” Monroe announced through his transmitter. “We’re not supposed to let them inside the perimeter.”
“He sees something you don’t,” Nevada insisted. “Listen to him, Monroe. Once they start shooting back, there’s only a thin wall of wood protecting you.”
“Ross?” Monroe asked while scanning the area through his riflescope.
“Any change in movement?” Ross asked.
Monroe continued to scan the area. “I’m seeing more movement now. We’re looking at close to a dozen men coming from this direction.”
“Listen to Elmer Fudd,” Ross insisted over his earpiece. “Let them get past you and then do a sneak attack from behind.”
Monroe frowned, then looked back at Rowen and gave him a thumbs up. Rowen nodded and disappeared inside his car. Once the men came into view, Monroe kept out of sight as well. Nearly a dozen heavily armed men made their way past the half-sized train and headed into the sanctuary. Once the last of the men had passed, they were now in a larger clearing. Before the men got too far into the sanctuary and would reach the next area of shelter, Monroe signaled to Rowen and Quinn. All three opened fire upon the men. Three men went down while the rest darted for cover and fired back. Before they reached shelter, three more men went down. The six remaining men reached cover within the children’s play area not far from the tr
ain and fired back. All three men within the train took cover as bullets pierced the small train's thin wood and metal sides. Monroe cursed under his breath.
Rowen was heard laughing and hooting from within his train car. “Woo hoo,” he cried out. “Just like Billy the Kid at the O.K. Corral!”
“Billy the Kid was never at the O.K. Corral,” Quinn shouted back.
“Buzzkill!”
§
Within the country club spa, Holden approached the police officer standing just outside the roped-off corridor. He flashed his badge while slipping under the yellow police line without waiting for permission. He walked along the hall to the back room and paused within the doorway. As the forensic photographer took pictures of the crime scene, Holden looked at the dead man lying face down on the massage table. The bright red blood soaked onto the white cloth covering the table, and a pool of blood collected on the white, marble floor. The medical examiner attempted to briefly examine the body without disturbing it. He straightened while shaking his head then seemed to notice Holden.
“Special Agent Falcone, I presume,” the examiner announced, then managed a smirk. “I was expecting you but not nearly so fast.”
“Another ‘family’ killing gets my immediate attention,” Holden remarked, then indicated the body with the sheet just covering his buttocks. “Who do we have?”
“Armani Visconti,” the examiner reported, then raised his brows knowingly.
Holden groaned and rubbed his eyes. “That’s not going to go over well with his family,” he remarked. “Are we sure it’s the same killer?”
“Well, I haven’t been here long enough to do a thorough investigation, but from what I can see, the knife used to slit his throat was similar to the other murders,” the medical examiner reported. “There aren’t any security cameras in the private spa rooms, but those within the spa itself suddenly stopped working about twenty minutes before our friend got his ticket punched. He was shown to this room by the receptionist. Ten minutes later, his therapist shows up and finds him dead.”
Witness Protection 9: S.N.A.F.U. Page 36