As she went back down the passages, she met the team as they came to the first exit into the drainage sewers. She explained the plan and the bodies were moved one more time. She took the guy from John, and Eric took the girl from Darrell. The three without the hackers went up the ladders, ditched much of their weaponry and found a couple of shirts with paint all over them. They checked the vans and both had keys under the front seats. Scott drove one away and parked it in a daily parking lot and jogged back. John was circling the block until they were ready.
On his fourth lap around the block Scott signaled him it was time. They opened the metal security door and John just drove the van over the curb and halfway into the shop. They must have removed the front wall behind the security door for this reason. Opening the van doors, they placed the hackers inside while Eric loaded the gear into the back. John got out and switched to the front passenger seat and Eric took the driver’s seat.
Scott stopped traffic really quickly by just standing in the street. It wasn’t like any cops nearby weren’t already over at the Southeast Financial Center. No one was going to race over here in the next minute.
Eric pulled out and Darrell closed the security door. Bethany Anne was already in the van before they pulled out. No need to allow her face to get on any security cameras on the street, if there were any.
Darrell and Scott jumped in and Eric just casually pulled away, sticking his arm out the window in a friendly wave to the honking cars behind him.
Bethany Anne was on the phone again. She had located a lot on Google Maps about eight miles away in south Miami. She wanted Bill to come land there. He had been flying off the coast near Palmetto Bay, so it wasn’t so bad for him. He headed north towards the pickup zone.
Landing, he saw a beat up white van with some building contractor’s name and number on the side. It was coming over the field towards him so he hoped it was his people.
Considering the permissions to fly over downtown in a Black Hawk, and the knowledge of the person who talked to him on the phone about his security clearance, he was pretty sure he was working with a team that was helping with the terrorist situation downtown. He didn’t know how they had dropped from his helicopter so he would never have to lie anyway. But they didn’t leave any gear hooked up behind.
He just assumed that they had something new the military didn’t want anyone to know about yet.
Sure enough, the doors opened and he got not only his original team, but two newcomers that looked, yup, they were out of it. No blood, so they were probably alive, just unconscious. Two of the team had paint-spattered shirts over their gear. Not sure what that was about, but he was sure someone had a good story. Not that he would ever hear it.
They emptied the van of their gear, loaded up the chopper and Bethany Anne gave Bill the signal to take them up. She sat with John. “Does Dan have a place he wants us to land?”
“No, nothing yet. All hell’s breaking loose over at the building. With all of the hostages leaving so quickly it took a minute for the cops to get past them and into the building. They found the dead from group one and the guys in the server room. Since we didn’t fix anything, they know two ‘got away’ and Dan says they’re giving updates about the situation in the basement. Everyone is clearing the building until they can confirm the demolition charges have been neutralized. He can’t leave just yet, too much pandemonium and it would look strange for a support vehicle to try and leave.”
She nodded in acknowledgement, putting on the extra pair of headphones from the chopper. She got Bill’s attention.
“How’s it going?”
Bill gave Bethany Anne a quick glance with a smile and quickly resumed watching where he flew. “Really? You’re asking me how it’s going when I’m back in some action with my baby here?” He patted his girl with love. “Where do you want to go now?”
“Uh, somewhere a Black Hawk helicopter won’t make the news?”
He laughed. “Lady, Black Hawks always make the news. Didn’t you know that?”
She grimaced; this wasn’t the best choice for an unobtrusive getaway. How could she turn it around?
“OK, let’s do this. Take me sightseeing where the most expensive homes are. Your story is you had a very wealthy and eccentric lady want your services and wanted this helicopter. I didn’t care about the price but I’m looking at homes.”
Bill smiled, this is what he lived for. Hot dames, hot guns and hot times. Hell yeah!
“You got it. We’re close to the best of Coral Gables; we’ll head down the beach. You want to be seen, right?”
“You got it, I’ll flaunt it.”
This was going to be the best PR he could ever receive. Bethany Anne maneuvered into the copilot’s seat. She was pretty damn limber.
Pulling out her phone, she searched for property. She found one she liked going for $8.9 million and called the broker. She told the broker she wanted to see the house, right now. The broker said she would close out her late lunch and drive right over, did she need directions?
“No, no directions. I’ll just see where my pilot can land nearby.” She hung up.
“Hey, Bill. Here’s a house I want to see. It has a pool so if you can hover over it I can wash some of this blood off my hands by jumping in. That would be pretty eccentric, don’t you think?”
“I think it would be crazy, but then I like crazy. Or, you could use the baby wipes that are under your seat. I use them to get the oil off when I work on the engines.”
Bethany Anne reached under the seat and pulled out a half-used tub of baby wipes. They did a bang up job cleaning her hands. She got a fresh one to clean her face. Now she smelled like a baby’s bottom.
The house she wanted to see was in Smugglers Cove in Key Biscayne so Bill had to angle the Black Hawk over the water. The house was near the Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Bill was able to find a decent landing spot that didn’t upset the very rich neighbors and Bethany Anne just jogged over to the house. She jumped a fence and slipped through the etheric across the canal when no one was looking. This area had no desire for unwanted visitors. Of either the animal or human variety.
She arrived at the house with the help of her phone just as the real estate agent pulled up.
The real estate lady arrived in a late model BMW 5 series. Her name was Nancy, and she was decked out in an expensive white suit and beautiful pair of Brian Atwoods that Bethany Anne had to admire. Comparing the woman’s garb to her present outfit, she felt like she was slumming. Then again, she had the money to buy the house. So, fuck it.
“Are you Nancy?”
“Are you… Bethany Anne?” Nancy wasn’t so sure this wasn’t a prank. How this lady got into this subdivision was beyond her.
“Yes, sorry about the look but I was having a Rambo day when I spotted the house. I asked my pilot to land over there in the state park. I’ll make this quick, I don’t think they want the Black Hawk staying there too long.”
“Um, Black Hawk? Isn’t that a military helicopter?”
“Yup.” Bethany Anne pointed to her outfit. “I had to dress appropriately. I just love your Brian Atwoods!” Bethany Anne put the most kissy-smoochy voice she could dredge up when talking about Nancy’s shoes.
That cinched it. Any lady who was playing Rambo with a helicopter for the afternoon and could recognize her rather exclusive and expensive pair of Brian Atwoods was a good client for her.
It took about ten minutes for Bethany Anne to decide she wanted the house.
Nancy asked her what she wanted to counter-offer from the $8.9 million asking price and Bethany Anne decided to play it to the hilt. “What do I care if I can get the house for one or two million less? Negotiating is a pain in the ass. When I want something, I buy it. Let me call my secretary to work with you to finalize the deal. She’s a European that has just come over to America with me. So be a little patient with her, OK?”
Nancy assured Bethany Anne that she would be the epitome of patience.
&
nbsp; Bethany Anne got her phone out and called Ecaterina. “Hi Ecaterina, listen, I’m going to give you the contact information for a real estate agent working a deal with me for a property outside Miami. Oh, Nathan is there? That’s a complete shock. So yes, work with him on the particulars but I’m purchasing it for $8.9 million. I’ll send you her contact information and a link to the property as well as a check. Yes, I’ll probably be back in two days now. OK, bye.”
She hung up and texted her Nancy’s information. “OK, got to go! You have my phone number but I’d rather not deal with this while I’m playing, ta ta!” With that she left Nancy to close up the house.
Well, one base of operations was just accomplished. Not sure why she wanted one here, but it seemed to be a focus for the forsaken so it might just work out well.
She was going to have to get Ecaterina to come down here. Besides, ice was a bitch in high heels up north in the winter.
She jogged back over and jumped the fence again and slipped back through the etheric to make it across the canal and back up to the helicopter, which was winding up the rotors again. Darrell, Scott and Eric stood around and looked fierce, and when she jumped on board she saw John with a pistol watching her two hackers who were awake, and very, very scared.
The team got in and closed the door and Bill got out of there. Dan had called while Bethany Anne was busy. They had finally escaped the madhouse at the Financial Center and were going out to the airport where Bill’s company was located. They planned to meet over at the hangar when Bill landed.
Worked for her.
“I see my two contestants have woken up. Did they have anything to say?”
John shook his head. “Outside of who are we, where are we, and claiming all sorts of innocence, nope.”
She looked down at the two hackers. If it was true that they were innocent, she might be able to use them. She couldn’t concentrate well enough with the helicopter racket to deal with this right now. Well, that wasn’t true. She could have, but she didn’t want to.
She just nodded and went back up to the copilot’s seat. She really liked this helicopter. She put the helmet back on. “Heya Bill, how they hanging?”
“One beside the other, sister, one beside the other.” She smiled at his easy-going attitude. She really liked this helicopter and this pilot.
“So, did you buy it?”
“The house?”
“Yup.”
“Yeah, I liked it. I have a team member working on the details but it should close in a couple of days at the most. Looks like I’m going to be in Miami more often now.”
Bill was truly nonplussed. This lady just really bought a house in Smugglers Cove? That place was notorious for having huge homes with price tags that could buy less expensive helicopters a couple of times over, easily.
“Need a pilot on your team?” He smiled to take the seriousness out of the question, trying to make it sound like a fun joke.
“Actually, Bill, I think I need a pilot who has access to a Black Hawk that wouldn’t mind becoming a member of my team. It includes purchasing his whole business and upgrading his equipment with some items that a few people might not, shall we say, appreciate. Know anyone who might be interested?”
He darted a look at Bethany Anne. She had stopped the fun loving bimbo act and showed him a very serious face.
He looked back out through the windshields. “Hell yeah, let’s get this baby on the ground and talk.”
“It could be dangerous.”
“How often?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “Beats the hell out of me. In the last month I’ve been in four firefights, been shot once, had to kill or incapacitate over twenty-five people, torture one and other stuff. John back there was stabbed, seriously, just last night. Still interested?”
He glanced back over at her. If she didn’t have four badass men in his helicopter and two obvious hostages and government connections, he would have questioned her statement. The way she explained so matter of factly made it obvious she didn’t think it was a big deal. He glanced back in the back of the chopper one more time and had a gut check. If she was offering to let him join this kind of team, he wanted in.
“I’ve been dying on the vine, sister. Keeping up this baby here is the only thing keeping me sane. I don’t know why the hell I planted myself here in Miami, it’s mostly people playing on the beach that I get to ferry around. This is the first truly interesting charter I’ve had in the last year. Anything else?”
“Yeah, but it’ll have to wait until we get down and the four in my team and you will have to get together and talk.”
“Looking forward to it.”
Bethany Anne just looked out of the chopper and had her own conversation with TOM about his efforts for a usable serum until they landed. She wasn’t sure of the outcome, but things were slowly coming together.
Bill landed the chopper outside of his hangar at the airport. There were three additional vehicles including a white cargo van and another van with a quick patch on the door. Not exactly the most interesting or expensive vehicles around. But the hard cases that he could see looked like his type of guys. Damn, it felt good to be involved in something real again. There is no drug like adrenaline to make you feel alive. The quickest way to get it was through danger. Maybe subconsciously that’s why he hung it all on the line and put everything into his Black Hawk. It wasn’t fat cats who wanted this type of ride, it was the people that needed the real deal and he wanted to be there with them.
Now, he had hooked an opportunity and he couldn’t reel it in. All he could do was ride it out into the sunset however long that took him. Sounded like it could be as little as a few weeks. Well, fuck it. You only lived one life, best not to be a boring one.
The team egressed the helicopter quickly and professionally and took their two hostages over to the van and handed them off to someone inside. Another guy got out of the van and it looked to Bill like he was a leader of some sort. Bill finished his landing checks and finally got out himself.
He noticed Bethany Anne walking to the group by the van. Man, what a looker. Why the rest of the guys didn’t surreptitiously glance at that ass he had no idea. But he doubted he was going to stay on the payroll if he got caught doing it. He got out of the chopper and went to go get his four-wheeler to move the Black Hawk inside the warehouse.
Bethany Anne caught Bill’s attention. “Moving the chopper in?”
“Yeah, need me to leave it out?”
“Maybe. How long does it take to get it back out again?”
“Just a few minutes.”
“Oh, OK. Go ahead and I’ll join you after you get it in.”
Bethany Anne turned to Dan. “Hey, I need to ask you a few questions about how this outfit works. Can I get some of your time?”
“Now?”
“Yes, I’m a little clueless how all of this works and I need to see if I can connect with you and Frank and make a few changes.”
Dan’s naturally suspicious nature came back out. “What kind of changes?”
“Nothing bad, you dick-twaddle. Now stop being a suspicious fuck and let’s go over there and talk.” She walked towards the building and Dan looked at John who was smiling at him.
Dan just shook his head and followed Bethany Anne. She sure helped downtown when the police got their nuts in a vice. The FBI was still pissed off that some black ops group had gone through the ‘terrorists’ like a hot knife through butter leaving them with all of the dead bodies and nosy reporter questions. Dan assumed Frank would kill the investigation soon by rerouting everyone who was on the case until there was no one left. Can’t find out anything if there aren’t people working the case.
He caught up with Bethany Anne asking the owner if she could use his office. “Not my office now, right?” he said.
Bethany Anne retorted, “What, you think I’m going to have an office in here? You’re crazy. I just want to abuse your piloting skills and ride around in the Black Hawk.”
>
Dan wasn’t sure what he was hearing, was she buying this place?
She opened the office door and left it open for Dan to come in. It was a typical aviation office. Mostly crappy furniture and piles of paperwork on an old metal desk with a fake laminate wood top.
She got right to the point. “So, how does this agency work? Are all of you guys reporting to Frank or do you come in from the military?”
Dan ran a hand through his hair. Bill hadn’t cared how anything worked. He would arrive, get the op finished and then leave again. Wham, bam, no questions, man.
Bethany Anne was a whole different kind of vampire. Yeah, maybe she did act more like a Queen.
“We’re seconded from different outfits. Some military, some agencies, depending on where Frank can pull them from and what experience they have. Like Scott having that forsaken experience up in New York. He couldn’t talk about it outside of a group like us who mess with it all the time. Until recently, it only happened a few times a year so there was only myself and two other dedicated team members. We’ve grown to the four core agents on a team with a backup team and the rest are support and medical. With you, I suspect we can get a little leaner but I don’t know if I’m comfortable with that, yet.”
“What’s a budget like this run? For all twenty-two of you?”
Dan sat down on the incredibly uncomfortable chair. “That’s the thing. We don’t have much of one. We’re a line item in the DOD and it’s so incredibly small it doesn’t usually cause a problem with the bean counters. Carl had the big electronic tools that cost a lot so we always leaned on him for that. You saw what we had in the field over here. Frank is able to get us tasking most of the time but our living on twine and duct tape almost took us down last night. Why, you have an idea?”
“Yes. But, I want your buy-in completely and unequivocally. If I don’t get it, I won’t go behind your back.”
Dan’s stomach eased just a bit. He knew how her own team followed her and she had a few others as well up north. Now it looked like she just hired a pilot with his own damn Black Hawk.
Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Set One: Books 1-7, Death Becomes Her, Queen Bitch, Love Lost, Bite This, Never Forsaken, Under My Heel, Kneel or Die (Kurtherian Gambit Boxed Sets) Page 36