Laura 02 The God Code

by Anton Swanepoel

  Quickly Victor opens the engines up fully and pulls back on the control stick. Nikolai is gaining fast, and his accuracy is getting better by each stride. The helicopter lifts up from the ground just as Nikolai is 40 yards away. Dropping to his knees, he takes aim at the cockpit’s side window, directly at Laura’s head and fires. At the same moment Victor turns the helicopter sideways, causing the bullet to miss Laura by an inch and bury itself in the roof of the cockpit. Nikolai adjusts his aim, determined to kill Laura, but Victor tilts the helicopter sideways, causing the rotors to form a shield. The bullets bounce off the blades harmlessly. Undetermined Nikolai jumps up and runs to the end of the helipad, trying to shoot the engines, but the distance is too great for the bullets to penetrate the hull of the helicopter.

  Victor lets the helicopter climb as fast as possible while the sound of bullets hitting the body of the helicopter continues. Suddenly the shooting stops. Has he given up? Victor turns the helicopter to allow him to see Nikolai while still climbing. To his horror, he sees Nikolai putting his pistol away and quickly dropping his backpack to take something out.

  “What is he doing Victor?”

  “Getting out a larger weapon,” Victor replies as he turns the helicopter fully around, letting it drop fast until they are just over the river. Quickly he angles the nose down with the rotor blades skimming closely over the water. Nikolai is assembling his sniper rifle as quickly as he can. The helicopter is returning at a fast pace. Nikolai smiles as he fits the last piece of the rifle and jumps up to take aim. Fear grips his body and his heart almost stops. The helicopter is almost on him. Nikolai runs backwards a few steps, dodging the deadly blades. A sickening feeling fills his stomach as he slips on one of the kid’s toy cars and falls down backwards. Nikolai tries to get up, but it is too late. Instinctively he puts up his arms to protect himself just as the rotor blades hit him. Searing pain fills his body and a scream escapes his lips as the blades chop his arms off in slices. For a split second Nikolai looks at the bloody stumps where his arms were and then the blades hit his head. Victor pulls the helicopter back as soon as he sees the blades chop Nikolai’s head into pulp. Quickly Victor turns the helicopter around. A group of people is running towards the helipad. Victor pulls back hard on the controls to let the helicopter climb as fast as possible.

  At 300 feet above the river, Victor levels off and flies along the river towards Cusco.

  “Laura, please get my cell phone in my backpack and phone Manco. Ask him to meet us just outside Cusco on the main road. Tell him we need to get to the airplane we came with originally as fast as possible and that he needs to get it fueled for us.”

  “Okay, but can we not use the helicopter to get there?”

  “Nope, they will be tracking the helicopter and the police will be on us with their helicopter before we get there. We can make it close to Cusco before they will find us on radar and have time to get their helicopters in the air and to us.”

  Laura nods, and then calls Manco relaying the message. Manco is impressed to hear that they stole a helicopter, and promises them that he will meet them, in addition to calling his cousin that works at the airport in the control tower. Manco will ask his cousin to delay finding their helicopter until Manco finds them. It takes them just over an hour to reach the spot Victor asked Manco to meet them at. Victor is a little out of practice, but still manages to make a half decent landing. Quickly they get out while looking around for Manco, but he is nowhere to be seen.

  “Think we have the right place?” Laura asks.

  “Do not worry. He will be here as soon as he can.”

  “I hope you are not going to do any more loops or fancy tricks, last time you really messed up my hair,” Laura says, giving Victor a wink.

  “I kind of like it that way.”

  “You do?” Surprise shows on Laura’s face.

  “Yes, it looks like you just stepped from the bedroom.”

  Laura blushes, then jokingly punches Victor on the arm while responding, “It’s not my fault you are so good.”

  Victor just laughs, picking up their bags as Manco pulls up in a red 4X4 Jeep Cherokee. Manco barely stops the Jeep before jumping out, running towards them. Hugging them eagerly, Manco gives them a friendly welcome. As Manco lets Laura go, she stands on her toes and gives him a kiss on the cheek.

  “Thank you for coming to get us Manco.”

  “My pleasure. Wow Laura, you get more beautiful each time I see you. You are glowing from inside. You must be in love.”

  Laura blushes, her cheeks on fire. Realizing Manco has put Laura on the spot, Victor reaches down and takes her hand.

  “Ready to go?”

  “Yes,” she answers back softly.

  “Wow, it is good to see you two again. Your airplane is on the runway and will be fueled and ready to go when we get there. We will make good time in the Jeep, that old truck I had was barely faster than walking.”

  “Thanks Manco, good to see you too,” Victor replies as he puts his backpack in the back of the Jeep, and then holds the door open for Laura, closing it when she is in. Walking around the Jeep, he climbs in on the other side, next to Laura. Laura already opened the door from the inside and holds it open for him. Manco and Victor take turns hammering the Jeep, going as fast as the roads allow them to.

  After 12 hours of travel, they decide to rest for a few hours in a small town called Piura. From there they will pass through Loja before reaching Vilcabamaba. Manco drives the last stretch, taking them to their airplane. A few trusted locals that helped get the airplane ready, are sitting around, waiting to see them off. Manco helps Victor get the airplane ready, while Laura talks to some of the locals that have come to see the Jaguar lady.

  “Thank you Manco, I owe you,” says Victor.

  “No Victor, I owe you, we as a country owe you both. Now go and do what you must, then come visit us soon. And Victor, keep her safe, I feel great danger and death coming your way.”

  “I will,” Victor replies, looking at Laura being surrounded by people. Her charisma is amazing. People love her.

  “Victor, I am serious, I saw her in a dream lying on the ground, blood on her hands and body. I am never wrong with my dreams.” Manco’s face is filled with sadness as he speaks, holding Victor by the shoulder.

  “I will not lead her into danger.”

  “Danger will find her Victor, it is her destiny.”

  Slowly Victor turns and walks over to Laura without a word.

  “You ready to go?”

  Laura turns to face Victor, four children between three and five years old holding onto her hands and legs, not wanting her to go. “Are they not cute?” she responds.

  “Ummm….if you say so.”

  Laura bursts out laughing, then comments, “You jump out of airplanes, take on people with guns with only your hands, yet you are afraid of a few kids.”

  “I am not afraid of them, I am afraid that I might break them.”

  Laura walks forward until she is only inches away from Victor, then whispers, “You will make a great dad.”

  Victor is totally speechless as Laura turns and walks past him towards the airplane. Stopping at the airplane she calls over her shoulder, “You coming or are you thinking of volunteering for a kindergarten teacher position?”

  “Heck no, I am coming,” Victor replies as he quickly joins her.

  After making sure all the instruments are working and the engine is warmed up, Victor pulls the throttle full open while pulling back on the controls, letting the small airplane run down the dirt road until it lifts off and climbs. Laura loosens her hair and takes a book out from a few someone had placed in the door pocket. Just then Victor does a barrel roll, causing Laura’s hair to fall back down in a mess, all over her face. Laura slowly takes the hair out of her face while giving Victor a stern look, who is innocently checking the gauges, then slowly turns to look at her.

  “What? It is a good look,” he comments, trying to contain his laughter. They both
burst out laughing and Laura hits Victor on the shoulder with her book.

  “Ass,” she says smilingly.

  Laura takes Victor’s cell phone and snaps pictures of him flying and the scenery as they fly along the river, taking the same way back as they came more than a month ago.

  Chapter 3

  “Cut off another finger.” Marcos takes a pull on his Cuban cigar as he waits for Bruce to respond to his command.

  “No please, please, I beg you.” Tears are running down Alejandro’s cheeks. His legs are bound to the legs of a chair, and his upper body is spread over a low table. His arms are stretched out in front of him, held in place with wire that runs through holes in his hands and the table, made by an electric drill. He is already missing all the fingers on his left hand.

  Bruce steps forward, his 200 pound muscular frame intimidating almost all who cross paths with him. He has short cut black hair and is of Columbian descent. His arms are covered in tattoos of snakes. Slowly he raises the wire cutters and places the cutting edge over the little finger of Alejandro’s right hand. Marcos nods and there is a crunch sound as the cutter breaks the bone and cuts through the finger. Alejandro yells in pain and Bruce punches him in the face for added measure.

  “You stole money from my father, and think no one will notice you driving around in a new car. Who killed my father?”

  Alejandro smiles as he replies, “I am not afraid of you, go to hell.”

  “Kill him.” Marcos has changed much in the last month, after being humiliated by Victor and losing his father. Even though he has taken over his father’s drug trade, he has to lay low as General Conzales declared war on him and his men.

  What the General does not know is that Marcos has many friends, and is secretly planning a rebellion, as Marcos wants to become President.

  Bruce takes the wire cutters and cuts the wires holding Alejandro’s hands to the table, then uses his knife to cut Alejandro’s legs free. After freeing Alejandro, Bruce pushes him back in his chair in an upright position and then takes his knife and places it low on Alejandro’s stomach with the cutting edge upwards. With a swift action he pushes the blade into Alejandro, and then pulls up, cutting his stomach open, blood and guts spill onto the floor. Letting the knife go, Bruce leaves it in Alejandro’s guts, who is gasping for air, blood coming out of his mouth with every breath. Positioning himself behind Alejandro, Bruce takes Alejandro’s head in his muscular hands and gives a swift twist, snapping Alejandro’s neck. When Bruce lets go of Alejandro, his body topples off the chair, landing on the ground with a thud sound.

  “Next,” Marcos yells, taking another pull from his cigar.

  Two guards step forward and drag Alejandro’s body away, while Bruce walks over to two Columbians, kneeling on the floor with their hands tied behind their backs. Selecting the only woman, Bruce grabs her by the hair and effortlessly picks her up into the air by her hair. The woman screams and kicks Bruce on the right thigh. Bruce responds by punching the woman hard in the face, breaking her nose. For a few seconds the woman is half dazed, then as she recovers, blood freely running from her broken nose, she spits in Bruce’s face.

  The action angers Bruce so much that he lifts her high in the air, bringing her over in a half circle and slams her head first into the ground, busting her skull open. As her brains spill over the ground, Bruce kicks her body twice.

  “Damn it Bruce, you are supposed to interrogate them before killing them,” Marcos yells.

  “Sorry boss.”

  “Bring the last one, alive.”

  “Okay.” Bruce leaves the dead woman and walks over to the last prisoner.

  “I will tell you everything I know, please do not hurt me.” Marcos lifts an eyebrow on hearing the man pleading. Slowly he walks over to the man, coming to stand right in front of him.

  “Who killed my father?”

  “It was a white man and woman. I heard her call him Victor. Jose knows who they are. I heard he gave them his airplane to fly out of the country. Jose was on the bus with us.”

  “You are telling me, that the man who broke my nose killed my father?”

  “I do not know who broke your nose, all I know is the woman called him Victor, and that he borrowed Jose’s airplane.”

  “Where can I find Jose?”

  “He works at San Luis airport. His father is the new General.”

  “If you are lying to me, I will hunt down your entire family and any friends you ever had. I will kill them in front of you, and then I will slowly kill you.”

  “I am not lying.”

  “Bruce, lock him up, then prepare a party to attack the airport, I want that Jose.”

  “Yes boss, when should I send the men?”

  “The weapons and men from America should arrive in a few hours, send them then.”

  Bruce nods, then picks up the prisoner and walks him out of the room. They are in an abandoned farmhouse in Columbia, now Marcos’s temporary base. Even if it takes him every cent he has, he will find and kill his father’s killer.

  ***

  After hours of flying, a small airplane approaches an airstrip.

  “San Luis tower, this is Alfa September Indigo November One requesting permission to land, over.”

  “Alfa September Indigo November One, this is San Luis tower, we have you 20 miles out. You have permission to land on runway one, over.”

  “San Luis tower, understood, runway one. Beginning my descent and changing course for approach, over.”

  “Roger that, beginning descent and changing course for approach.”

  Victor gently pushes down on the controls to let the airplane descend while also banking the airplane to the left, using the GPS device to line the airplane up with the runway until he makes visual contact. Noting that he is in line with the runway, he rights the airplane while maintaining a slow descent rate.

  “Jose will be happy to see you, bet he is looking forward to a lot of stories.” Laura winks at Victor as she speaks and he knows that she is just as eager to hear more about his adventures.

  “I think he will be happy to have his airplane back. Wonder how the country changed after his father took over control of the army?”

  “I hope there is peace in the country between him and the drug dealers, it will be nice to just relax awhile, no running or hiding.”

  “That will be nice.” Victor however knows that there is nowhere on earth he can hide that his old company cannot find him, given enough time. The only way is to kill the person that has put the price on his head, if there even is one, or kill all his ex-coworkers.

  Victor looks into the distance, the runway is just visible up ahead. Victor starts to make small adjustments to his flight path, airspeed and altitude, to get the airplane lined up correctly for landing. Within a few minutes the airplane’s wheels touch the runway as Victor expertly lands the airplane. Pulling the engine power back and stepping on the brakes, he quickly slows the airplane down. After taxying the airplane for a distance, they come to the end of the runway and a side road leading to the terminals. Victor taxies the airplane towards the terminal building and follows the direction of the single ground crew member, helping him park the airplane in the correct bay.

  A silver Jetstream airplane in the bay next to them is ready to take off, its pilot waiting for them to clear the runway. Slowly the Jetstream starts moving backwards.

  Movement inside the jet catches Victor’s attention and he focuses on the jet’s windows. A child is looking out of one of the windows at them. Laura follows Victor’s gaze and instinctively waves at the child when she sees her. The little girl has two pixy tails and they bob up and down as she excitedly waves back at Laura.

  The airplane pushes back onto the start of the runway and starts to spin its engines up, getting ready for takeoff. Victor and Laura climb out of their airplane just as the Jetstream starts to move forward. Laura smiles at Victor and is just about to ask if one day they can fly in a Jetstream when the expression on Victor’s
face makes a cold chill run down her back.

  “What’s wrong Victor?”

  Victor listens intently for a moment, and then reacts with lighting speed.

  “Get down,” he screams as he grabs Laura by the right arm, pulling her down roughly to the ground. Laura lands hard on the ground, hurting her left knee, scraping the skin off.

  “Are you-” The sound of the Jetstream exploding drowns out her words. A piece of the wing comes spinning through the air, passing just over Laura’s head and embeds itself in the terminal building wall. Had she been standing, she would have been cut in half. With horror she looks on as flames engulf the Jetstream airplane.

  “What happened?”

  “Mortar fire, we need to go.” Victor effortlessly picks Laura up from the ground as he speaks. There is a strange whistling sound, and then suddenly another mortar slams into an airplane down the end of the terminal building.

  The airplane, a Boeing 747, explodes into flames and sets two airplanes next to it on fire. Victor runs towards the door of the terminal building, while dragging Laura behind him. Movement to his left draws hit attention and Victor gives a quick glance to his left. Two army jeeps with machine guns mounted on the back are speeding towards the terminal building. Just as Victor looks forward again, four security personnel clothed in army uniforms storm out of the building. They stop in shock and horror upon seeing the burning airplanes. The machine guns on the jeeps open fire, cutting down two of the four men before they can react. The two men, still alive, drop to the ground and return fire. One of the men manages to score a direct hit, killing one of the machine gun operators. Victor quickly runs towards the two dead men and grabs their automatic weapons and spare magazines. He is about to turn around to return to Laura when he realizes with a shock that she is next to him, having grabbed one of the dead men’s sidearm pistol and spare ammo for it.