by J. D. German
Chapter 23 – The Intruder
The way up to the mountain cabin was thirty minutes of dirt road full of curves and potholes, but her Avalanche handled nicely in this terrain. She had to stop twice to move fallen branches from the road, which slowed her down a bit, but they also told her that no one has been up this way recently. Finally she came around a curve and saw the cabin up ahead. She pulled off the road into the bushes, took out her binoculars, and moved through the trees to a place where she could see the cabin across the mountain lake. She studied the house and property carefully, looking for any sign that someone was there, then decided she was alone up here. From Google Earth satellite views she knew that the nearest neighbor was over two miles away, so she didn’t worry about being seen by someone else.
Finally she decided it was safe to approach the cabin, so she went around the lake shore through the bordering trees. She took her time, being as quiet as possible until she got to the edge of the clearing around the house and garage. After checking the house windows with the binoculars for movement inside, she stepped out into the clearing and walked quickly to the cabin. She circled it once looking for cameras but didn’t spot any, so she approached the back door. It looked too solid to break down so she pulled a case out of her pocket with lock picks of various sizes and shapes. On the third try the lock opened for her. She put the picks away and slowly pushed the door open while standing off to the side. She had heard about people setting up shotguns to fire at the door if it was opened, so she wasn’t taking any chances. Satisfied it wasn’t booby trapped she entered the kitchen and closed the door behind her. Her eyes scanned the room for video cameras or other sensors, then moved into the main room and repeated the process. If Preston has any surveillance stuff in here, it’s hidden well.
After going through the entire cabin opening drawers, cabinets, and closets and finding nothing interesting. Before she left Alexei’s house she put several useful items in a backpack and brought it up here with her. Now she took three wireless video cameras from it. After peeling the plastic film off the adhesive backing, she stuck two of them on the wall covering the back and front doors from the inside. Then she went out to the garage to install one there. The first thing she saw when she entered was a cute little Mazda Miata. That has to be his wife’s car – he would have a hard time fitting behind the wheel. I want to kill her in person so I can watch her die, but if I can’t find her, a bomb under the driver’s seat will do the job.
She rummaged through the backpack and found what she was looking for – a small block of C4 explosive, a detonator, and a pressure switch to set it off when someone sat on the seat. The C4 was more than enough to propel the seat and the driver – well, actually pieces of the driver – through the cloth convertible roof. Z laid down on the floor, scooted over to the driver’s door, and opened it just enough to slide the bomb under the seat and wedge the pressure switch beneath the seat spring. Once she was satisfied the improvised explosive device was ready to go, she made the electrical connections and closed the door gently. Then she left the garage and walked back around the lake to her truck, leaving almost no evidence that she had been there.
She ran through a checklist in her head – the surveillance cameras she put in the house would send an alarm and video to her cell phone if anyone entered the cabin or garage. If Lynn Preston sits in the driver’s seat of the Miata, the IED will kill her. The cabin was in such a remote place that no one would hear the explosion, so the birds and scavengers would have plenty of time to eat the flesh off the bones. I’ll stay in a motel nearby for a week or so to see if she shows up. If she doesn’t I’ll pay a visit to Tom Gutierrez, the one who put me in prison. I would really enjoy torturing him for a day or two before I kill him.
Zarah started the Avalanche and drove down the hill with a smile on her face. It had been quite a while since she had last smiled.