by Brent Towns
“Yes, sir.”
Peacock left them, and Thurston said to Jones, “Thank you for all you did, sir.”
Jones nodded. “This is a new beginning for us all, Mary. I’m hoping that it’ll work out. After you get settled, come and see me tomorrow, and we’ll talk.”
“There’s still one more mission to complete, sir,” Kane said.
Jones nodded. “I know, Gunny. I know.”
Chapter 20
Bucharest, Romania
The café was small and out of the way, surrounded by the desert-colored stucco buildings that lined the alley. Seven round tables sat outside on the cobblestone street. Only one was occupied. The woman in the sunglasses and wide-brimmed sun hat sipped her tea in the early morning sun.
A butterfly floated down and landed on the edge of the table, its wings slowly pulsing as it thought about taking flight. Then it lifted off and flew away, disturbed by the approach of a man coming along the alley.
Grayson stared at him for a moment, but the bearded face was unfamiliar. When the man drew close enough, he changed direction and sat down opposite her. “You really shouldn’t go out on your own,” Knocker said to her. “You never know who you might meet. And don’t become a creature of habit.”
Grayson placed the cup on the tabletop as she moved her opposite hand beneath the table. “Leave the gun where it is, Ellen. I’ve got a Beretta pointed at you.”
She sighed and raised her hands, resting them on the table. “So, what now? You kill me? Is that it?”
“Maybe.”
“You don’t have the stomach for it, Raymond,” she said, her voice filled with sarcasm. “If you did, you would have been able to do as you were ordered years ago.”
“I’ve come a long way since then.”
Grayson picked up her cup of tea and took a sip, then replaced it. A voice came to Knocker through his earpiece. “She’s triggered a silent alarm. You’ve got three minutes tops.”
Knocker stared at her. “You know we’ve got your money, right?”
“You’re lying,” Grayson said smoothly.
“Seized your electronic funds and found the millions in cash you took from Alfredo Costa.”
Grayson stiffened. “You’re lying.”
“You know me better than that, Ellen. I have no reason to lie.”
Her face twisted into a mask of rage. Knocker smiled. “There she is; the bitch is back. What now for your Cabal?”
“They will never be gone,” she hissed. “They will always be there in the shadows, waiting to come out at the right time.”
“Two minutes, Knocker.”
She shrugged. “I hear that you and the others aren’t welcome at home any longer.”
“Is Edison one of you?” the Brit asked.
“We are many.”
Knocker nodded. “The thing about the many is that they seem to be becoming fewer.”
“There will always be a Cabal. Who else will watch over the world? Watch over the Chinese, the Russians, the Middle East minority groups that seek to wreak terror on the world? We weed out the weak and—”
“All you do is line your own pockets with money,” Knocker interrupted. “You claim to be watching over the world. Protecting it from bad people on both sides of the spectrum. But in fact, the only people you give two shits about are your own kind. And when that doesn’t work out, you kill them off and start again. You shouldn’t be called the Cabal. You’re like a phoenix. You keep rising from the ashes. Well, guess what? From now on, whenever and wherever you all stick up your heads, old Knocker is going to be there to kick the fucking shit out of it.”
“You can’t stop—”
The sound of the suppressed Beretta could be heard from beneath the table. Ellen Grayson jerked under the impact of the round. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth, trying to speak. Blood flowed from the corner, and her head lolled forward.
Knocker climbed out of his seat and tucked the Beretta into his waistband before casually walking away.
“One minute, Knocker.”
“Job’s done. So is the Cabal.”
National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland
“Sir, I’ve got something you should take a look at,” the thin-haired, bespectacled man said to Edison from the doorway to his office.
Edison glanced up from his paperwork. “What is it, Henry?”
The man called Henry walked forward. In his hands, he held a laptop computer. He placed it in front of Edison. “This came off the main server thirty minutes ago.”
“What am I looking at?” Edison asked.
“Just watch, sir. You’ll see.”
Edison watched. It was feed showing a woman sitting at a table. “Where is this?”
“Bucharest, sir.”
A man entered the picture and sat down. The angle of the feed didn’t show the man’s face. The man and the woman talked, and things turned nasty when the man shot her.
Edison sat back and looked at Henry. “He just killed her. Am I right in saying that?”
“Yes, sir?”
“And we don’t know who the man was?”
“No, sir.”
“The woman?”
“We made her as former MI6. Ellen Grayson. She was supposed to be dead.”
Edison nodded. “Leave it with me, Henry.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Close the door on your way out.”
He waited until Henry had gone and the door closed before he took out the second of his cell phones. This one was encrypted and untraceable. He punched in a number and waited for the person on the other end to answer. When it was picked up, he said three words.
“Nemesis is dead.”
Hereford, United Kingdom
Kane lay on his back in the middle of the extra-wide double bed. Cara lay with him, her head resting on his chest. Knocker had arrived back in Hereford earlier that morning, his mission complete, and hopefully with it, the death of the Cabal. But as Kane well knew, it might only prove to be a deterrent for a short time. Or maybe they would go back to living in the shadows. Wherever they went, he hoped never to hear from them again.
“How’s Jimmy?” Kane asked Cara.
“He’s good. I’ve told him where I’d be if he needed me. He’s old enough to be left alone. Besides, who’s going to try anything on this base?”
“It must be good to have him with you now.”
“It is. I guess that it is the one plus to come out of this whole shitty deal.”
Kane thought of his sister still in the States.
“Are you alright?” Cara asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
She ran a hand across his chest until it reached one of his nipples. She gave it a sharp squeeze.
“Ouch, shit. The damn well hurt.”
He rolled on top of her and dug his fingers into her ribs. Cara let out a yelp, followed by a giggle. “Get off me—”
The cell on the table beside the bed rang. Kane buried his head in the junction of Cara’s neck and shoulder. “Fuck.”
“Answer it, Reaper. I’m not going anywhere.”
He crawled over to the edge of the bed and reached for the phone. He picked up the cell and hit the answer key. “Yeah?”
Kane listened for a moment. “No, haven’t had the television on all day.”
More listening, then he disconnected. He looked at Cara. “Three bombs have gone off in London. It’s time to go to work.”
Kane: Tooth & Nail (Fear the Reaper Book 1)
By Brent Towns
FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE TEAM REAPER SERIES COMES KANE…
When John ‘Reaper’ Kane is forced to gun down a fourteen-year-old boy in self-defense, the combat-weary warrior becomes disillusioned with the endless cycle of blood and violence his life has become.
He goes off-grid in the remote mountain town of Vesper Lake for a week of soul-searching, but when he steps in to help a young woman from being molested, his two-fisted interference finds him run
ning afoul of the local sheriff. In the violent aftermath, he discovers that the town suffers under the crushing stranglehold of Nazareno ‘The Nazarene Dragon’ Pedregon, a ruthless drug lord commanding his criminal empire from inside Black Bog Federal Prison, a cesspool of death and corruption.
Framed for murder, Kane is dragged into the prison and forced to fight for his life when Nazareno finds out who he really is. After surviving a series of brutal, kill-or-be-killed battles, Kane pulls off a brazen escape and flees into the deep, unforgiving woods of the Adirondack Mountains, hunted by both a prison special operations team and cartel kill-squads.
Alone, exhausted, and outgunned, with enemies closing in on all sides, the odds are stacked against him. But when the hunt turns primal, Kane knows that the only way to survive is by tooth and nail.
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Brent Towns
About the Author
A relative newcomer to the world of writing, Brent Towns self-published his first book, a western, in 2015. Last Stand in Sanctuary took him two years to write. His first hardcover book, a Black Horse Western, was published the following year. Since then, he has written a further 26 western stories, including some in collaboration with British western author, Ben Bridges.
Also, he has written the novelization to the upcoming 2019 movie from One-Eyed Horse Productions, titled, Bill Tilghman and the Outlaws. Not bad for an Australian author, he thinks.
He says, “The obvious next step for me was to venture into the world of men’s action/adventure/thriller stories. Thus, Team Reaper was born.”
A country town in Queensland, Australia, is where Brent lives with his wife and son.
For more information, visit wolfpackpublishing.com/brent-towns/.