I climbed into the car, started the engine, and drove off. “Please tell me you’ve got someplace for me to go?” I asked my US team.
“I think so, it’s a little ways away from where you are. But, it’s located in a home on the market that hasn’t gotten many viewings. It’s been on the market for three years and the last viewing was two months ago. It’s isolated enough that you won’t have any neighbors next door, the closest one is half a mile away from the looks of it. Lots of trees in the area for privacy and cover, so be aware of that,” Jordan said, then gave me the address. I jotted it all down at the first stoplight, then continued to the hotel to pick up Bishop.
“This will work,” I told J. “Bishop, where you at, man?”
“At the coffee shop we saw on the way to the hotel that had Soviet in the title,” Bishop said.
“I’m almost there, I’m in a black Mercury sedan,” I said.
“Alexi, do you see now what I’ve been talking about?” I asked him. He’d been kind of silent and I was wondering what he was thinking.
“I’m still processing,” Alexi said.
“I know I’m glad we have him, because as decent as my translation software is, it was nowhere near Alexi’s level,” Jordan said.
“True that,” I agreed, then pulled to a stop in front of the café. Bishop was waiting, but making sure he was standing behind someone else as cover. Once he saw my face, he dashed out of the café and hopped into the back with two suitcases.
I drove off, because we didn’t know who was watching us. “What’s in the cases?”
“Not clothes. I couldn’t get those. I took what was important, our comm equipment and costumes. They were there too, searching the room.”
“You went invisible?”
“Had to. I’m glad we hid the comm equipment, but they were pretty thorough, they would have found it eventually when they got to the other rooms we’d booked,” Bishop said. It was his idea to hide the comm and weapons in one of the empty hotel suits we’d booked instead of the room we were staying in. Apparently, that was smart, as it brought us much needed time. Too bad we couldn’t save out clothes. Good thing was, nothing was in our suitcases that could link to us. The clothes were new, so none of our hairs or skin follicles were on them. Had we left our costumes, well, that would have been another story. I was learning my lesson about how important and sneaky DNA could be.
“J, what’s the update on my DNA?” I asked.
“Official police reports show it being inconclusive. More tests need to be ran. As for the blood found on the plane, so much of was Takahashi’s, and it mixed with an ‘unknown sample’ and they can’t get a good bead on either of yours. Apparently, becoming an Enhanced Human has changed your DNA. This is just what law enforcement is working with. There’s no telling what the Killing Game will find out.”
“And that’s what worries me. My DNA being altered does make sense, and I wonder if the people who recruited me knew that it would be altered? I mean, they did recruit me for a special ops team where we were supposed to perform the missions the government couldn’t know about, but knew about,” I said. “Probably why they had no problem just burying us.”
“Facial recognition is still a thing,” Alexi pointed out.
“Yeah, but it was in a remote area. They probably figured no one would find the bodies and even if they did, there was nothing to tie us to them anyway, not to mention decomposition,” I said.
I was following the GPS as the four of us tried to figure out what we were going to do next.
“Are we even going to be able to get out of Russia?” Bishop asked. “Remember, they know my face.”
“Motherfucker, you can go invisible,” I reminded him. “Are you so straight-laced, law abiding, that you haven’t used that little skill of yours to the full advantage?”
He was quiet for a few seconds, then replied, “You have a point.”
“The only thing we have to worry about is infrared body heat sensors when you’re invisible. But there are so many ways around that. You can sneak on a plane easily for free and if the plane has empty seats available, you can be sitting in one.”
“I’ll make sure to book you two first-class seats,” Jordan said. “You have your other passport and visa?”
“Oh yeah, you know I do.”
“Other?” Bishop asked.
“Well, we… Jordan and I, thought shit might go down in Russia. I didn’t expect it to happen the way that it did, but we were prepared for an exit plan. You’d go invisible, I turn into a female, and Richard was supposed to be my husband. Well, Richard is dead now, but the visa and passport I have is for my female persona,” I said. It was nice to know that J and I had thought of something Bishop hadn’t. “Now you can have his seat.”
“Sound plan if I could stay invisible for the full length of the trip, but I can’t,” Bishop said.
Oh shit, that was right. “Fuck, I didn’t think of that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m on it. I’ll be able to send Bishop updated paperwork so he can sit next to his ‘wife’ on your trip back. Hopefully, if they have any cameras in the area surrounding the church, they didn’t get a good look at you when the assassination went down,” Jordan said.
“Fingers crossed then,” Bishop said, then opened the suitcases with our gadgets inside. “Richard was right about Zia, she checked herself out and ditched the tracker. It’s been at the same location all this time, which is the parking lot near the church.”
“I figured she would, but it was worth a shot. We’ve got a partial on her face, so I’m running that through my facial recognition software,” Jordan said.
“How did you see her face?” Bishop asked.
I took off my sunglasses and waved them at him. “There’s a camera in these. They see what we see. I’m telling you, the CIA has some revolutionary shit and I’m glad it’s mine now.”
“I still want a drone,” Jordan said.
“And you shall have one,” I promised.
“Wait, wait… I’m still trying to figure all this out,” Alexi said.
“I know things are moving fast, baby, this is the world I live in,” I said. “I have to make decisions in split seconds and I don’t have time to ask for permission or deal with red tape.”
“Yeah, I’m starting to understand that. So, what are you going to do with the assassin?”
“Something you probably don’t want to see,” I said.
“I’ll let you know if it’s something I want to see or not. For now, I want to see everything. You want to know if our relationship can withstand your vigilante escapades, then I need to have the full access,” Alexi said.
“Oooh, you’re brave, even I don’t want the full access,” Jordan said. “I can’t watch Cobra when he’s working… not like that.”
“I need to,” Alexi said.
Those three words made me so fucking nervous. Would he see a side of me he couldn’t deal with? Did I let that side of me come out to play or keep it buried because I didn’t want to scare him away? Oh god, this was why I didn’t gamble. Uncertain outcomes kept me on edge.
“I know I said that I didn’t want you to kill, but that was before I was nose deep in this shit,” Bishop said. “Killing might be the only way we get out of here alive. We have no allies here and we’ll have to do whatever it takes to survive.”
My eyebrows shot all the way up at that admission. I was glad we were at a stoplight or I might have swerved and hit a tree or something, I was so shocked. I turned to look at him. “Are you sure? I mean, serious?”
He nodded and by his very serious expression, I knew he was speaking the truth. “We don’t know where to go from here. We have a killer in the trunk that we need answers from. We’re in a foreign country that is extra careful with Americans. We are dealing with a secret organization that obviously has contacts everywhere from a fucking hotel restaurant to cabbie service to law enforcement and no doubt beyond. Everything we do or don’t do counts.”
“That’s fair,” both Bishop and Alexi said at the same time.
“Good, then it’s settled.”
“We need to be able to charge this equipment. Does the location we’re going to have utilities?” Bishop asked.
“Yes, one of the reasons I picked a house on the market, but not very marketable,” Jordan said. “You should have heat, water, and lights.”
“That’s why I love you,” I said, praising Jordan.
“Okay, works for me,” Bishop said.
“I’ll go shopping tomorrow for clothes for us,” I announced. “I’m also going to ditch this car for another.”
“Good, because I’d hate to only wear this or my costume for days on end,” Bishop said.
“Yeah, me too.”
“Silver Fox, do you still think this is something the police could have handled?” I asked.
“If I did, I wouldn’t have bothered to join you on this mission. I understand how deep this goes, but that doesn’t mean that with the right evidence some of these people couldn’t still go down the right way,” he said.
“That’s what I’m hoping for too,” Bishop agreed.
“If wishes were horses,” I stated, then thought about it. “What the fuck does that even mean, anyway?”
“The entire saying is, ‘if wishes were horses, beggars would ride,” Alexi corrected.
“I always took the saying to mean, ‘if dreams came true’,” Jordan said.
“You’re not wrong. It’s basically saying that even the poorest person could have everything they needed if wishing made it true,” Alexi said.
“So, I wasn’t out of context when I said it.” I smiled.
Alexi chuckled. “Next time, if you don’t want to sound like an uneducated dumbass, know what the fuck you’re talking about before you open your mouth.”
Jordan busted into laughter, and even Bishop got a giggle out of that.
“Fuck you, Al-Silver Fox, with your sly ass,” I said. I wasn’t often the butt of a joke, but I could take it. My skin was pretty thick, being bulletproof notwithstanding. Besides, I thought the levity was what everyone needed after what we’d been through.
“Getting back to the matter at hand, Bishop, you sat next to Richard on the plane, what did you gather from him? I’ve been wanting to ask you for the longest time,” I said.
“I knew he was going to die, because he knew it, too. One of the reasons I said to just let the guy enjoy his meal,” Bishop said.
“Yeah, I caught on to that.”
“Zia’s full name as Richard knew it was Zia Ivanov Romanski,” Bishop said.
“That asshole only told me that her last name was Ivanov,” I stated. “I’m glad his ass is dead.”
“Yeah, we all know. You’re probably pissed off that it wasn’t you who killed him,” Alexi said.
“As a matter of fact, yes. You have no idea how much pleasure that son of a bitch got out of torturing me. Did I mention how he had his boyfriend gouge my eyes out?”
“Jesus, okay… yeah, I get it. No love loss,” Bishop said. “Anyway, Zia goes by Ivanov in the Killing Game ladder of command, so he wasn’t entirely lying. She’s married to a politician here, Oleg Romanski, and yes, he is a member as well.”
“Pretty bold for her to meet us when she’s linked to such a public figure,” I said.
“Well, that’s because she was in disguise,” Jordan added. “The glasses and blonde wig concealed who she really was. I was able to look up her info now that we have her name. She’s pretty, brunette, brown eyes, and a socialite. Daughter of the late Boris Ivanov, brewery tycoon.”
“Well, I love the way that sounds,” I said, finally happy to have some more names to wipe off my list.
“Well, I guess with this new info, I can track her down faster. Thanks for finally bringing it up,” Jordan said in his sarcastic way of chastising Bishop.
“I’m sorry. So much shit was going down, I didn’t really have time to pass it along,” Bishop said. “Not to mention, Richard worried about how to avoid getting killed most of the time I sat next to him. I also discovered the name of the cop that is in his pocket, Captain Michael Longwood. He was hoping to fake his death with his help once he returned to America. Then he’d be able to access money he’d secured in a safety deposit box in the Caribbean, under the name Jacob Friendly. He was also contemplating on how much to tell them about you because he knew revealing too much would remove his leverage. The man was pretty clever and dangerous. Very untrustworthy.”
“Shit, I could have told you that,” I said.
“I know who Captain Longwood is. He isn’t captain of my precinct, but of the thirty-fifth,” Alexi said.
“Well, his days are numbered,” I said.
“Maybe we have already said too much, did you check the assassin to make sure he doesn’t have any bugs on him?” Alexi asked.
“Yeah, I did, we’re good. Of course, he could be listening to us, but then I don’t plan on letting him live,” I said.
“So, you’re going to kill him anyway?” Bishop asked.
“This guy, I’ll have to. He could have been listening to us prattle on the whole time, at least our end of the conversation. It’s not like the trunk is soundproof. Say we take him to the police, the Russian police who may have people inside the Killing Game just waiting to get to him. Hell, they’ll probably kill him themselves because he’s a loose end, but before that, they could learn what he may know about us. We can’t risk that information getting out. Think about everything we’ve discussed since getting in this car.”
“I hate to admit it, but he’s right,” Alexi said.
“I know I am. I was going to kill him, it just depended on if I’d do it slow or fast,” I said. “This is all about survival.”
“Then why even say you were going to do it my way at first?” Bishop asked me.
I shrugged. “Honestly, I was going to, but the more I thought about it, the less sense it made. We still need to do our little trick, but afterward, I’m taking care of the dirty business.”
“Well, I don’t want to see when you do it,” Bishop said.
“That’s fine.”
“Well, if he was listening, then he knows all of your plans. He might not tell you shit since he knows it won’t save his life,” Alexi stated.
“Oh, he’ll talk,” Bishop said, and the way he said it let me know that my boy, Black Knight, had a dark side. I wanted to see it.
“Okay then, do what you have to do,” Alexi said.
Oh, don’t worry, baby… I will. “Okay, Bishop, what else did you learn from Richard?” We had a ways to go, like Jordan said, and I wanted to hear it all. As a matter of fact, I was hoping the assassin in the back was awake and listening. No telling what his mind would reveal when Bishop was doing his mind reading thing and I was questioning. Let my game begin.
CHAPTER SIX
Bishop had managed to gather quite a bit of info from Richard, even when the man had fallen asleep, although that bit of info couldn’t be as well trusted as the tidbits he got from a conscious man. Turns out that six governors, seventeen mayors, two presidents, including the United States president and his son, were members of the Killing Game. That was just what Richard was aware of. Not to mention the many rich business men and women, bored celebrities, and socialites that were all members. Twenty-five years of the Killing Game certainly racked up quite the membership roster.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” was all Alexi could mutter after Bishop finished speaking.
“Now, I’m feeling in over my head,” Jordan said.
“I’m not. These are all people who can be brought to justice. I
t just might not be the ideal form of justice you two are clinging to,” I said. “The sooner you let that shit go, you’ll see the path is clear like I do.”
“Do you honestly think you can kill the president of the United States? Do you even want to?” Alexi asked.
“If he’s jerking his dick to a poor kid being brutally murdered on his orders, fuck yeah. Fuck him,” I said. “He’s not above any of these other pieces of shit and he’s not above getting the justice he deserves.”
“How would you even get close enough to do it?” Alexi asked.
“Baby, you keep forgetting who and what I am,” I said.
“Oh, yeah… I’m starting to understand more and more,” Alexi said.
“Honestly, I don’t think we’ll be able to take even a fraction of these people down by legal means. I would have to get my hands on their server and paperwork that keeps track of them and we don’t know if we’ll ever get to that,” Bishop said.
“No one said this would be easy. I’ve been working my way up that tree for a few months now and we’ve only just reached some low-hanging fruit. But we’re getting to those other branches. We can do this if we’re all on the same page,” I said.
“This is way above anything I’ve ever done. So, I’ll follow your lead,” Bishop said.
Finally! I figured he’d change his tune, Alexi too, once they experienced what J and I already have.
“I wonder if the powers that be in the Killing Game were aware of just how much information Richard had on them?” I asked.
“I doubt it, or they might not have been so quick to kill him,” J stated.
“His own fault for not playing that card. He was keeping too much close to the vest,” Alexi chimed in.
“Well, his loss is our gain. We’re here. We need to get this car into the garage,” I said, stopping in front of a huge three-story home that looked gothic and modern at the same time. It was brick with white columns that had dead vines twining around them. The grounds themselves were overgrown and I supposed that didn’t help the curb appeal of this mansion. I was curious to see what the inside looked like.
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