by Chase Austin
The next three rooms gave him no surprises. But no water either in any of those rooms.
It finally came down to the last two rooms.
Basit was in one of those rooms. With the Ka-Bar in his left hand, Wick proceeded with caution. The penultimate room was empty. He didn’t waste much time there. He had to move faster now; the finish line was closer.
The door of the last room was slightly open. Inside, was a two-way mirror behind which was unfolding the same scene he had seen on the TV screen in the guard room. Five men in total. One stood on Wick’s side of the mirror, watching the other four who were on the other side; one of the four was Abdul Basit. They were all looking at someone on the floor. Wick knew it was Josh, though he couldn’t say if he was dead or alive.
Wick decided to focus on the man standing on his side of the mirror, his back towards him, engrossed in watching the torture through the glass. No one on the other side would know when Wick killed him; he only had to be silent.
The other thing he noticed was that the room was soundproofed, unlike any other room he had seen so far in the facility, and that explained why the sounds had not alerted them.
Pushing the door open further, he stepped in quietly, checking both sides to make sure no one else was in the room. He approached Wasim from behind, his pace measured, his steps silent, heel first, followed by the rest of the foot.
His blade clutched in his left hand, with fluid precision, he grabbed Wasim’s hair with his right and yanked his head back. His left hand moved at the same time and the tip of the knife went into the man’s neck and then thrust upwards. Six inches of steel sliced through the windpipe and penetrated deep into the base of the brain. With a forceful twist of the blade, the fragile brain stem was torn.
Still holding his hair, Wick lowered Wasim’s lifeless body on the floor, careful not to make any noise.
Chapter 35
Leaving Wasim’s body in a pool of blood, Wick put his knife back in its place, took out the Beretta and checked the magazine. There was only a thin wall between him and the last four. Yet, he had the advantage of being able to see them, while they could not. There were no guns inside. They had gone inside unarmed as though showing their strength against a helpless prisoner would prove their masculinity. All his earlier feelings came back with force, and his jaw clenched.
He kicked the wood hard and the door opened with a loud crack. Almost instantly, the first bullet burned through the head of the man standing at the farthest corner and emerged from the other side of his skull.
The second guard was shot in the neck. His attempt to scream resulted in more blood from his mouth. He hit the ground hard, still alive, but Wick knew he wouldn’t amount to much. Abdul Basit and his only companion whirled around, but not before Wick fired again, and the third militant’s head exploded.
Basit stood frozen amidst the carnage.
Chapter 36
“Sit,” Wick ordered Basit.
There was no response. Basit remained on his feet observing Wick. Something had dawned on him. He would not get out of here alive. The man in front of him was a trained killer. The evidence was in front of him, drowning in a pool of blood. But he wasn’t going to cave in so easily. Quite unexpectedly, he leaped at his attacker.
The move took Wick by surprise. The dead bodies on the floor hindered his movement. Basit aimed his right fist at his enemy’s face as he came down on him. Wick tried to deflect the incoming punch and almost lost his grip on his gun in the process.
Basit had put little thought into technique or balance. Most of the punches he had thrown in recent years had been at men tied to a chair or strung up. His street-fighting skills were not what they had once been, so when his target blocked his swing with an awkward step, his power was spent for nothing. His right foot landed on the arm of a dead body and he lost his balance.
Wick was now in control in this impromptu fist fight. He took a steady step forward sidestepping the cadavers. His punch came in at lightning speed and hardened knuckles connected with Basit’s nose. A bone-splitting crack sent Basit careening off his feet. The pain blinded him, and he covered his face with both palms.
Wick took the opportunity to quickly crouch beside Josh and check his pulse. He was still alive. He then grabbed the militant who was still breathing by the collar, dragged him over the bodies and dropped him next to Basit.
He then pulled his Beretta’s hammer back into the cocked position and leveled it at the militant’s knee. Without a question or word of warning, he squeezed the trigger.
Before Basit could react, Wick brought the weapon to bear on him and fired again. Basit’s right knee shattered.
The entire thing happened in less than a second, with both men bent over screaming in pain but unable to clutch their shattered kneecaps.
Wick stepped over the dead bodies and looked down at the two agonized faces. “You didn’t really think it was going to be that easy, did you?”
Through his clenched jaw, Basit’s eyes still had the same defiance. The militant, on the other hand just lay there on the dirty floor and whimpered to himself.
Wick lowered his weapon and said, “So tell me about the abduction.”
“No,” Basit yelled with everything he had.
Looming over the two men, Wick reacted instantly and without malice. He grabbed the militant by the hair and shoved his face next to Basit’s. He extended his gun and pointed it at the head of the militant. The men had their faces pressed tightly together. Wick pulled the trigger and sent a hollow-tipped bullet into the militant’s face. His entire body convulsed at impact and then settled, with only his fingers twitching. Basit was left gasping for air, his eyes stinging from the muzzle blast and his face covered with blood and flesh.
“So,” Wick straddled Basit and pointed the barrel at his head. “You and I were talking.”
Basit’s face contorted in pain from the gunshot to his knee. He looked over at the twitching hand of his dead comrade. A second later he shut his eyes and said, “I cannot tell you anything.”
Wick brought his gun up. He would not kill Basit, at least not yet, but the man did not need to know that. “Listen very carefully to me. If you don’t tell me everything I want to know, I’m going to kill you, and then I’m going to track down your entire family and kill them. I’ll kill your father, your mother, your two wives. I’ll kill your five sons. I’ll kill your two daughters. I’ll then find everyone who is related to you and I’ll kill them, too.” Wick leaned over, placing the hard steel of the Beretta against his temple and forcing his head onto the dirty floor.
Wick removed the pistol from his temple and shoved it into his groin. “…But first, I’m going to blow your balls off, if you don’t start speaking now!”
“Don’t shoot! Please.” the man pleaded. His face wet with tears.
“Why did you abduct him?”
“I got information from one of my sources that he was a CIA agent.”
“Who?”
“An undercover CIA agent stationed in Kandahar.” Wick swallowed his surprise and maintained a neutral expression.
“Names?”
“I don’t know, but I have their photos in a flash drive.”
“Where is it?”
“My locket.”
Wick snatched the locket without mercy.
“Who else is in on this?”
“I don’t know the last names of the others. Only their first names. Not sure if it’s their real identity.”
“Leave that to me to decide.”
“Peter, Matt, Scott, Anthony, Allen and Cody.”
“This is their side of the bargain, what about yours?”
“Cocaine and cash every week for intel on the CIA’s next move.”
“Why him?” Wick indicated Josh’s prone figure.
“He wasn’t a part of the deal but then he got suspicious about them and started to dig further.”
“So, you abducted him to kill him?”
“The plan was
to abduct him and then hand his dead body to the CIA. This would set an example for others.”
“Clearing the way for your small arrangement. Who ordered the kidnapping?”
“I did.”
“What about the Great Cleric? What’s his role?”
Basit hesitated and immediately regretted it when a bullet hissed from the Beretta and drilled into his other knee. The pain was worse than death.
He screamed with all his strength, his blood mixing with that of the dead.
“What is the Cleric planning?” Wick was relentless.
“I don’t know. I only know that he is the link between the ISI and Taliban and takes care of the assets in Afghanistan, providing them with the rations, weapons, and intel.” Basit gasped out, between heaving sobs.
“I asked, what is he planning?”
“I don’t know.”
Wick raised his Beretta again.
“Wait… please wait. Don’t shoot. I’ll tell you. There is an attack planned on America.”
Wick showed no reaction. He wanted an unfiltered version from him, without leading him where Wick wanted him to go.
“When?”
“Today.”
“Today? Where?”
“I don’t know. He didn’t share that information with me.”
“Bullshit!”
“I swear I don’t know. All I’ve been told is that they are targeting many cities.”
“What cities?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is it a bomb attack?”
“Yes.”
“Nuclear?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where are the bombs right now?”
“I don’t know.”
“Wrong answer!” Wick stepped forward. Basit crawled into a corner just as Josh had attempted earlier. Wick swung a kick that fell on Basit like a sledgehammer. He hit the wall. Stunned, Basit threw up his hands to block the next blow.
This time Wick grabbed him by the throat and, even though his opponent was some thirty pounds heavier, he yanked him off the floor and slammed him against the wall like he was a puppet. “Tell me, do you really want to live to see your family?”
Basit croaked, “Live. Live. I want to live.”
“Then you’d better get smart fast.” Wick threw him on the floor and circled around him, his left fist clenched, his Beretta pointed at his face. “Now, I will only ask you this one last time. What’s the plan?”
Wick stared down menacingly at the man and watched in silence as Basit wept. Through sniffles and sobs, he pleaded, “Please… I beg of you, I will tell you everything, but do not hurt me.”
Wick’s face twisted into a grimace of disgust. “I am listening.”
“Multiple attacks… different cities… same time. The cleric… is working for a man called… P… Professor.”
“Professor?”
“No one knows who he is… but he has money and means.”
Professor. Wick had heard this name before. He had that email still in his inbox that he had received after his Venezuelan mission about his parents and their connection with a man called the Professor. For the last several months he had found nothing about his family or about this man. Now hearing it again made his head spin. The connection was eerie, and he was in there somewhere in the middle.
Wick knew Basit had a lot more to offer but there wasn’t any time. He needed to immediately get this information to Helms. Helms was in a position to alert others. He checked his earpiece. Still no connection.
“Where is the cleric right now?” he asked his last question.
“Kart-e-Parwan, Kabul.” Basit parroted out the address.
Wick knew what that address was—Pakistan’s consulate in Afghanistan.
Chapter 37
Eddie checked his watch. It was eighteen minutes since Wick had disappeared behind that door. As they both had suspected, comms did not work from inside the fortified bunker, so Eddie had no option other than to wait. He checked his earpiece for the tenth time and caught only continuous static.
He looked again through the lens; the coast was clear. Based on his mental calculations, Wick should come out any minute now.
Five minutes later, he heard the static diminishing and a voice rising above it. He plugged his earphone again and heard Wick.
“Eddie, can you hear me?”
“Loud and clear.”
“How is the situation outside?”
Eddie surveyed the area once more through the glass. “Clear.”
“I am coming out. Josh is with me. He is injured.”
“I’m covering you.”
The wooden door opened, and Wick stumbled out, supporting Josh on his left shoulder, the Beretta in his right hand.
He made for the open Toyota in which Basit had arrived. Wick had grabbed the keys from Basit.
Wick put Josh on the passenger seat and switched on the ignition.
“Eddie, I am going inside again. Watch him for me.”
“Okay,” Eddie whispered.
Wick went straight to the last room and retrieved Basit. He flung his unconscious body on the back seat before disappearing again inside the hut, this time to the weapon store. He checked the shelves and found a crate of grenades along with a canister of flammable kerosene oil. He took the crate and carried it to the turn of the staircase.
He then went back, grabbed the canister and splashed the flammable liquid on the floor of the corridor. He returned to the stairs and took out a grenade. As he exited the hut, he yanked its pin and threw it back at the crate of explosives, closing the door behind him.
Running towards the Toyota, he hopped into the driver’s seat and pressed hard on the accelerator. The four-wheeler growled and shot forward. Wick changed gears and drove straight with maximum speed.
Multiple blasts started to rock the terrain. In the rear-view mirror, Wick watched the bunker crumple to the ground. The shock waves rocked the four-wheeler and Wick thought for a moment that the SUV would tumble sideways. But he kept the accelerator floored and the SUV zoomed away. Through the earpiece, Wick could hear Eddie gathering his things.
If Basit had been telling the truth, then Wick needed an urgent talk with Helms, but first, they needed to get to safety.
Chapter 38
Wick finished the bottle that was in the Ford while intermittently speaking to Helms. Wick was careful not to reveal his connection with the Professor while revealing the information he had received. He needed more time to establish his link with the name.
Helms listened to Wick without interrupting. He was happy that his assets and Josh were breathing. The information on the rogue agents and cash for intel was alarming, but the pressing concern was the attack.
“How many bombs are we talking about?” asked Helms.
“Basit didn’t know it, but I don’t trust him. We need more time to grill him,” answered Wick.
“Why can’t we go and extract the cleric?” Eddie asked.
“That won’t matter for now. If what Basit is telling is true, then the attacks can start any time today.” Wick said.
“How much damage?” asked Helms.
“That’s contingent on whether we’re looking at an air burst or ground detonation, and if it’s detonated during the middle of the day or in the evening and how many cities. Immediate casualties could be in thousands,” Wick said.
An uncomfortable silence fell over the group as everyone grappled with the enormity of the possible carnage. Eddie uttered a soft curse.
“We don’t even know the type of bombs,” Helms said. “My team is notifying the FBI and CIA.”
“Any response from them yet?”
“FBI—yes. CIA—no, as of now,” Helms said.
“Dammit,” Wick muttered.
“What do you want us to do?” Eddie asked.
“Get Josh to the army medical facility in Helmand. Get Basit here. We need to drill him further. A plane will be waiting for you at the air base. I am going to t
alk to the President,” Helms said.