Lesson Learned- Mission Report 1
Page 21
“Bureau?” she replied.
I shook my head.
“Private? From the families?”
“You’ll never guess.”
“Who then?”
“I work for a badass group of people that won’t tolerate mass-murder for any cause.”
She paused as if trying to judge if I was making this all up. “How noble,” she finally said, raising her eyebrows. “And what are your plans for me?” she replied, letting the right-hand corner of her mouth drift open.
Mine mirrored her expression without my command. “You have two choices. I disobey my command and you can come with us. Or I have to eliminate you.”
“You couldn’t,” she said, rearing back.
“Your choice,” I said, raising the Ruger.
“You couldn’t, Cat,” she said, turning.
I thought of the body parts strewn at the base of the chimney. I raised the gun and pulled the trigger.
44
I knew the gun wouldn’t fire.
I knew with only an unreasonable doubt the gun was too dirty, too full of lint for the striker to connect and explode the charge the other side of the metal.
I knew there was a chance it would fire. I’d let the fates decide, and they had.
She was coming with me, if she liked it or not. Although I had to catch her first and she was fast. I watched the muscles in her legs working as I pumped my own, pushing off harder with every step. I felt myself gaining, but only a fraction and I could see the light from the compound for the first time as the path took a turn.
With each step the path widened, opened out, the brick of the building there and then not, all of a sudden blocked by the white of a Jeep lurching to a stop.
Frank jumped out, limping around to the rear passenger door and pulling it open. He then ran back around to the driver’s seat, pushing his foot and forcing the revs high.
She sped at his sight.
I gave it everything I could and somehow I closed the distance, catching faster, the whites of his eyes spurring me on.
Just out of touching distance, I threw the useless Ruger at her feet and it was enough to sway her off balance and she stumbled, tripping over, her knees digging deep into the mud and leaves as she skid.
I lunged at her back, but turned just as the momentum had bled off and ended up planted across her hips, my hands battering hers away from the Glock still tucked in her waistband.
I heard the car door open, glanced to see Frank pulling from his seat and felt her fist hard against my left cheek.
“I’ve got this,” she shouted, but not for my benefit.
I chanced a look up and another blow glanced at my face.
Frank stood, lingering at the car, glaring at me with such a hatred as I’d ever seen.
A third blow landed to my cheek, this time enough to take my balance and I was the one underneath.
Her hands pinned my wrists above my head. She huffed and puffed her breath and moved to look at Frank.
“I’ve got this,” she said, slower this time, letting her breath catch.
She turned back, her face close as she held my arms firm.
I didn’t struggle.
She leant forward, her sweet breath washing over me, her lungs still running hard. “We were meant to be like this,” she said, leaning closer still, letting her body rest on mine, her warmth soaking into me. Her lips so close.
My head had formed a scab over my heart and I wouldn’t let her pull it off, even though it had barely set. I knew if she did, it would make the pain all the worse.
I closed my eyes and let the words slip. “I’m sorry,” I said and rocketed my forehead straight into the bridge of her nose.
The release was instant, her hands jumping to her face. I turned her over, jumped up, looked to the car. I could see Frank deciding, the engine revving hard as his view switched between us and the way of his escape, past the chimney.
The shot rang out louder than I expected.
I was down, flat on my back before I knew it, my head smashed against something hard with Ally’s shadow standing over me, fixed with a fierce expression; her nose out of shape, flattened at the top, blood dripping as she scowled down the barrel of the Glock as I blacked out.
45
My energy had gone.
My right shoulder stung as if consumed with flames. I couldn’t see her anywhere.
I was too late, but then again I wasn’t dead.
She hadn’t killed me. Why hadn’t she taken the chance?
The rev of an engine pulled me from my thoughts and I bent my neck to turn my head upward. The sides of my vision darkened as I did.
There she was, running backwards with a smile on her face as she saw me lift, a kiss blown in my direction with a spray of blood. She turned and ran to the car with her left hand at her nose, the Glock still in her right.
I sat up, retching, but nothing came up.
The Ruger lay at my feet. I picked it up and turned, pulling back the slide and letting the round fly from the chamber as I tried to put one foot in front of the other.
Taking a deep breath, I blew hard into the barrel, almost passing out. They saw me coming and the engine revved high. She was in the back of the car and shouting, but the sound dulled as the door slammed closed.
The car kangarooed, jumping forward, then abruptly stopped.
I smiled. He hadn’t driven in years. An act of love in those first few. Or an act of guilt.
No matter now, the Jeep had gone from my vision. I ran on, the path more uneven at my feet than I remembered, but I made it to the end. Made it to the compound.
The Jeep built up speed and I listened as the gears crunched. The tyres swerved this way and that around each obstacle; tar lifted from the liquid road.
My gaze drifted left to the white-hot bricks at the base of the chimney, the tanker’s flame still in full flow. A smile rose as a thought came to mind and I swapped the pistol to my left hand, my shoulder too painful on my right.
I levelled the sights at a dent in the tanker’s curved white side and waited.
I waited for the SUV to pass clear of the cylinder, then pulled the trigger. The round exploding from the chamber was nothing compared to the violence of what happened next.
As the tanker blew, it knocked me to my ass, shrapnel pinging across every surface.
When I dared to look as the projectiles settled, I watched the brick chimney fall away from me in slow motion. I couldn’t watch and lay back down, not moving until I heard the mighty structure hit the ground.
***
The dust settled with each of my slow steps.
At first I saw the bricks strewn across the blacktop, some crushed, some whole, some unrecognisable as having been part of something hundreds of people had looked on every day.
Varying my path to avoid the rubble, I pushed my mouth into the crook of my arm. I had no stomach for breathing in the remains of Frank’s victims.
As I drew closer to where the top of the stack landed, I heard the first sound. The slow, pained moan in what remained of the SUV. The front half anyway.
The bonnet sat raised at an angle, its white paint gone, each surface caked in black ash. The ash of his victims.
The back of the Jeep was no longer there; everything behind the driver’s seat flattened beyond recognition.
I was thankful for the soot covering Ally’s pulverised remains leeching to the tarmac.
46
With the air rushing through the windows, I slowed the Viper, taking the exit from the three-lane. My shoulder stung as I took the turn; with more damage to my coat it was little more than a flesh wound, but still hurt like hell even after the long drive.
For the second time in just a few short days, it was my skull that had taken the brunt, the bullet making me stumble back, causing me to fall and smash my head. I would remember that one for the future.
I’d be more careful next time. I’d be more careful with my feelings, more careful with
my head. I’d remember not to mix business with pleasure and remember not to trust a pretty woman in a short skirt. Another lesson learned and something I’d keep with me for the rest of my career.
Taking the anonymous turn to the right, I rolled along the dusty road into the low commercial district with its small units and tall metal warehouses.
I watched addresses pass left, pass right, turning again as I found the one they’d given me once I’d made my second call.
Letting the V8 idle, I pulled up to the roller shutters, waiting as they rose high enough for me to pass. The engine growled as the metal closed behind me and I drew up to the intercom rising from the ground on a thin pedestal.
The engine purred as I pressed the call button and responded to the question.
“Agent Carrie Harris with a delivery. He’s going to need putting back together.”
Want more of Agent Carrie Harris? Check out Fate’s Ambition where she first appeared alongside James Fisher!
James can convince anyone of just about anything, but he’s seen nothing but trouble come of it, and he just wants to live a quiet, normal life. So when he and his friends are out, camping and climbing Mount Snowdon, everything seems perfect.
Then Susie, one of his friends, goes missing, and James is caught up in the ineffective police investigation that ensues. Distraught at the slow progress, he’s able to convince a higher authority to help him find Susie, but his attempt to rescue his friend soon becomes the very thing a shadowy government agency needs to hunt him down in order to harness his skills.
With an international ring of white slavers fighting their every move, James must team up with his hunter, Agent Carrie Harris, if they ever hope to save Susie and the other women who are disappearing before it’s too late. But can James put his guilt and past behind him, knowing that every time he uses his ability, someone else might end up hurt…or even dead?
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