by mike Evans
Gabriel pulled the keys from his pocket and belt and backed up out of reach holding the gun and tucking it in his belt. Gabriel said, “These men came here with nothing in mind but killing me. The order out on me was to murder me because they didn’t want to answer any questions about the last few days and the kills that took place at HG Prison in Virginia.”
The man said, “What in the hell do you know about that? A bunch of them towel head terrorists all got their asses blown up, except for one of the unlucky fuckers, they went and got their ass tortured, seems he ain’t too lucky because the news said it was the second incident in a short time span that it had happened.”
Gabriel leaned in close and said, “He deserved it...both times.”
The sheriff took only a second to realize he’d just taken out a highly trained CIA SWAT team and knew that there was an extremely good chance that he was the one that took out the men and he didn’t feel bad for them at all. He turned around to say something and realized that Gabriel had already disappeared.
Chapter
Seventeen
Gabriel made his way through the woods, not stopping his full out sprint until he reached the truck that he had stashed. The captain's phone rang again, this time not going to voicemail. Gabriel looked down seeing the words Director Lincoln in the phone message display. He hit the talk button on it but did not speak. The director said, “Oh Christ Captain we don’t have time for this, would you tell me what happened for God sakes? Did you secure him? Did you eliminate the threat?”
Gabriel whispered, “Director you should have sent more men, that wasn’t even a challenge for me.”
“What did you do to them you sick son of a bitch?”
Gabriel said, “Well that isn’t very kind language Director. I stabbed them, I shot them. I broke their necks, interestingly enough, one of them got a helicopter blade which split him from skull to crotch. The captain blew up but that was really more his fault because he was the one that pulled his own grenade pin, all I did was insert the knife blade into his jugular.”
“What kind of man would pull their own pin on their grenade?”
“A committed one sir. When he saw the knife being pulled back out of his neck he used
his final breath on earth to try and make your mission a success. Let’s just say since you are talking to me, that he won’t be debriefing you later.”
“You realize that you need to be dealt with, killing for a reason might be justified in your deranged mind but we aren’t going to stop, it doesn’t matter who you take out, we’ll just keep coming.”
Gabriel laughed a little at this, remembering a conversation much like this one that he and his previous handler before Forsyth had. He said, “You know who Tony Baker is Director?”
“Yes, yes I do. He was a damn good man.”
“Well he told me kind of the same thing that you are telling me now. He didn’t take my advice either.”
“So then what is it that you are trying to get across to me?”
“I just want to give you the same warning that if you send men for me, then I’ll send them back to you….but they’ll be in pieces. I’ll take my time making sure that pain becomes a word that they understand better than the air that they breathe. You’d do best to let this go. I’m going to be a ghost, someone this country won’t have any reasons to worry about or to see again. I’ll be gone, and take care of my son and retire. That is all that you need to know. I’ve done a great service for your agency and I think that you must know that by now. The work in HG Prison was enough to give me a pass. The fact that the CIA took out my wife should leave you thankful that I’m not there knocking on your door right now.”
“You have, and I won’t deny that you have earned enough to get a pass. Unfortunately though for you, there are laws and rules which we must keep track of and for this reason you are going to have to bring yourself in, or like I said previously, the second batch of men are going to be coming for you and they'll be doing so just as quickly as I’m able to assemble them.”
“You might want to pass on a message to them then.”
“Yeah, what is that?”
“To tell their wives and children that they love them, because I promise you that once I see them, they’ll never have that chance again. I won’t turn my back to anyone until I know that I am safe. I didn’t ask for any of this, you guys brought the fight to me and just keep on bringing it. It doesn’t matter what I do, no one at your agency is smart enough to just walk away from it all. You truly need to think long term, because at some point even though another idiot will take your spot, I'm going to decide that it is time to deal with you even if it just gives me a week’s break while your funeral arrangements are made.”
“You can’t come after me. You don’t understand how powerful I am.”
Gabriel said slowly and measured, “Director, I can assure you that I have gone after much more connected men than you in my jobs and I have never had an issue. I will go to no ends for revenge if you threaten my friends or family. In this case you just want to murder me, but I can only handle so much of this and I'm confident I'm past my point of tolerance. You say that I need to answer but everyone you are going to send simply wants to kill me. I think you are more worried about the answers that you are going to be asked than the ones that you want to ask me.”
Gabriel hit the end button, happy to have the last word and then ducked down low. He checked the truck, knowing he was wasting a minute, but a minute was worth a lifetime if it meant there was a bomb that had been planted on it. When he deemed that it was safe he climbed in, not worrying about driving with a full rig of guns on. Anyone that got in his way until he got out of town would not be shown a great deal of mercy. Gabriel pushed the old truck to its limits until he was two towns away. When he had found a bus route he stopped and parked. After wiping down the truck he slid all of his weapons but two into his pack. The only other contents within it were a fresh set of clothes and his laptop. As Gabriel rode the bus he saw roadblocks going up as he had passed one intersection and felt extremely thankful that the bus had not been stopped to be searched.
Gabriel pulled up his hood, ducking down in his seat and resting his head back. He rubbed his hands on his face and then took a better look at them, seeing specks of blood all over them. He got up and headed to the small restroom on the rear of the bus, locked the door behind him and scrubbing everything. Gabriel stripped out of the dirty clothes that screamed he had been up to no good. A much fresher Gabriel found his seat again and slept until his ticket ran out. He needed to get more cash before he would make his final leg of the trip, something that he could spend while he made his way across the ocean and to Paris.
When the bus stopped Gabriel wired himself an embarrassing amount of money. This time he did not care if someone might be tracking it or if they said something to others in town. He knew from the population sign that this place had plenty of people and that there would not be a small town vibe and that was something he was ok with. Gabriel flagged down a taxi and took it to the local airport, the type that had small planes and private jets only, no commercial liners. Forsyth had given him the directions to it and when he came into the field he asked for the man that Forsyth had also suggested. The desk attendant pointed to a hanger to another man, this one was much younger and was wearing an army jacket. Gabriel thanked the attendant then walked up to the guy in the hangar and tapped him on the shoulder. Gabriel said, “Excuse me sir, can I ask you for your help?”
The man was tightening something on the motor and didn’t stop until he was done. When he finished he climbed down the step ladder while giving Gabriel a once over, seeing the fading bruises and plain clothes. He said, “What can I do for you? We don’t need any more pilots unfortunately.”
Gabriel looked at the patch on the man’s jacket, seeing infantry, helicopter gunner, and that he was a sergeant. He held out a hand and said, “My name is Gabriel and trust me, if I knew how to fly I wouldn’t be standing
here right now talking to you.”
The man held out his hand and said, “My name is Nick Lambert. You can call me Nick, or you can call me Lambert, just don’t call me an asshole.”
Gabriel smiled at this, liking the man instantly. “I think I can handle that Lambert. I think that we have a mutual friend it would seem. My buddy Forsyth gave me your name. He said that you were one hell of a pilot and that you might be able to assist me with a couple of flights that I'm looking into. Are you able to fly private jets and small planes?”
Nick nodded his head. “Yeah I can fly about anything with wings on it. What were you thinking?”
“I need to go up to Maine to start, depending on how that goes I’d like to hire you for one more flight. I could probably keep you busy for the next three or four days if you are ok with it. I promise that I pay better than the other guys.”
“Are taking anything with you that I need to worry about biting me in the ass later?”
Gabriel said, “The most dangerous thing on the plane is going to be me I suppose. Really, if we could leave soon, that would be great.”
Nick held up his hand while shaking his head. “This plane isn’t mine. I know it looks like a piece of shit but it flies like a champ. I need to clear it with my boss before I just head out of here. He has jobs that need done after this. We haven’t even started talking money yet to see if it is something that I am even interested in doing.”
Gabriel smiled knowing that gas, plane rental, and his time wasn’t going to be cheap, especially for the flight he was asking for in the private plane. Gabriel pulled out a bundle, tossing the cash roll over to Lambert. Nick looked down at it then fanning through all of the hundreds and seeing that his day rate of six hundred plus gas was being greatly made larger. He said, “It isn’t that I can’t use the money sir, but this is way too much. I am not a firm believer in something for nothing. Is there a reason I need to worry about taking you in my plane? You do know that being friends with Forsyth and paying me ten times my daily rate doesn’t exactly scream great things about you right?”
Gabriel said, “That’s enough money that you could go give your boss a kicker for letting you off and not giving any hard time about it. Consider that money tax free for all I care, I don’t want a receipt and don’t need it.”
Nick thought about it once more briefly, figuring that tax free was even better. He stuffed the bills in his pocket and smiled. “Well I do have some vacation time that I can dip into, there’s not any reason that I can think of that I need to give anything to him. Hell he makes more than I do, and I got Christmas coming up to think about.”
Gabriel shrugged saying, “It’s your money, nothing to worry about from me Nick. I just need to use the bathroom and we can be on our way if you want to fire this thing up.”
Nick nodded pointing to where the restroom was and Gabriel headed in there, dumping all of the guns and his vest into the backpack to make the ride more comfortable and to look just a bit less creepy to Nick when he took off his jacket. Gabriel couldn’t think of any reason why Nick needed to know anything about who he really was. He sent Forsyth a quick message letting him know that he would be on his way if everything continued to go well as he wanted to. Nick was slamming a Pepsi and walking around the plane while looking at a checklist. Gabriel pointed to it saying, “So is that going to get us where we need to go?”
Nick nodded, tossed the clipboard in the plane along with his gear bag. He opened up Gabriel’s side, showing him the safe places to stand on the wing and put his backpack in the rear of the plane. “You carrying around a bunch of metal pipes or something?”
“Sure, something like that.”
Nick looked at him questioningly, waiting for him to explain further and when Gabriel simply climbed into the plane, realized that no further explanation was going to be granted to him. Nick boarded then turned the key starting the small plane and told the tower that they were departing heading north for Maine. Gabriel had every intention of sleeping on the seven hour flight but unbeknownst to him he had been set up with a chatty pilot, one that he was finding it pretty easy to like considering he could count on one hand how many people he cared to talk to and one of those was no longer with him.
Over the flight he had found out all about Nick, they had taekwondo in common, which they’d spoken about at great length. It felt good to be able to speak to someone about knowing it without having to hide the fact that he did. Nick showed him two small boys in a picture, Jake and Josh. Gabriel pulled out a picture of Mikey and his mom, explaining that he’d lost her recently and that was part of the reason for the trip was that their mutual friend was watching him for the time being. By the time that they were ready to land there was no question at all that he couldn’t have been happier and felt better about what he was doing. Nick had said that stories like that made his job worth doing, the only thing better were the angel flights for cancer patients he was allowed to take on the plane. Gabriel hoped that this would bring some long overdue good karma in his general direction.
Nick brought the plane in smoothly, landing and taxiing around pointing and whistling. He said, “You know anything about planes there Gabriel?”
Gabriel said, “Just that I prefer them landing over parachuting out of them.”
Nick wasn’t actually sure if he was kidding by the look on his face and laughed to be polite if he was attempting a joke. “Well that over there is a Cessna and that is one nice piece of equipment. You can remodel these planes to be absolutely beautiful on the inside and you could go from here to Iceland on one tank of gas and that ain’t bad my friend.”
Gabriel said, “So you know how to fly one of those, like with no worries, on your own?”
Nick nodded, looking at the money they were in. He said, “Sure as hell would beat the shit out of flying this little plane, although if I can keep you on full time as my boss it seems like I’d be able to afford it pretty quickly. Yes I could handle one though; it’d be a blast, I live to fly.”
Gabriel looked at the man, noting his enthusiasm and love for his job and believed him when he said that he enjoyed the work. He had been the same way straight out of CIA training. Always ready for a kill, no care for where it was, who it was, or how long he was going to be gone for at least until he’d met Addison. Gabriel said, “Why don’t you go show me the plane, I’d like to see what the big rollers can make out of a giant hunk of metal.”
“There isn’t any way that they are going to let us up on that plane Gabriel. I mean we can ask, but that guy standing out front looks like he has a stick up his ass.”
Gabriel looked at the man checking his watch as if he had somewhere much more important to be. “Yes, he sure does. I’m really good with people though. If he says no we aren’t out anything.”
Nick pulled the plane near putting on the brake and climbing out and then getting Gabriel‘s door and his gear out for him. Gabriel walked up to the man and spoke to him while Nick was getting his items out of the plane and securing it. When Nick finally joined them the man held out his hand and said, “Hello sir it is nice to meet you. My name is Michael Erickson, I'm brokering the deal on this plane.”
Nick held out his hand and shaking while introducing himself. Gabriel was biting the side of his cheek, one of the rare times he was actually going to laugh while working. Nick said, “You know I sure do appreciate getting to check out your plane sir.”
Michael looked curiously at him and at the papers again. He said, “I’m sorry sir there might be some confusion but this isn’t my plane. You said that your name was Nick Lambert correct?”
Nick nodded slowly and Michael handed him a set of papers. Nick looked at them, seeing that it was a contract of purchasing agreement for the plane and his name had been typed on it. He looked at Gabriel and said, “Gabriel what the hell is going on here?”
Gabriel said, “If I were you I’d sign that bottom paper and we can go aboard and talk privately.”
Nick said, “Well my wi
fe is going to kill me if I pop three hundred grand, that I most certainly do not have, on a damn plane. I mean not couch duty for a month but like worrying about my head getting cut off with a damn chainsaw kind of killing.”
Michael said, “Well let her know that it is paid in full sir. We got a wire transfer a few days ago for it. You simply sign that paper and this plane is all yours. You must have some serious believers in your abilities to get something like this to fly around.”
Nick stared at Gabriel while signing the papers and wondering who in the hell the man really was. Michael shook both men’s hands and signaled for a Cadillac limousine to come and pick
him up, and just like that the man was gone.
Nick said, “Ok, come out with it, are you a drug lord that is on the run and needs to fly somewhere safely and off the government's radar? Did you do something horrible and you are trying to flee? You can’t be an illegal because well hell, you are already here, and they never keep the rich ones out.”
Gabriel walked up the small flight of steps into the plane motioning for him to follow. When he did Nick saw nothing but money sitting inside of the plane he said, “Holy shit, would you look at that.”
He took a walk around taking the plane, which apparently now was his, all in. There were light tan leather seats and couches; a bar filled to the brim and crystal was the only thing to put a drink in. All of the wood was of the deepest, best cut grain that was polished and shined to an immaculate finish. When he went to the cockpit he saw that everything looked amazing. Gabriel leaned his head into the cockpit and said, “It’s gassed up, serviced, and ready to go. You think you’d be up for taking it out and stretching its wings?”