She sat in the quiet of her room dissecting all that she had heard on the phone call. She only knew of three bikers that were killed at her apartment and the three Fred had taken out when he was ambushed. Where had the other twenty bodies come from? She turned on the local news and saw the crime scene playing out on TV news bulletins. The newscasters were actually painting the vile bunch of thugs as pillars in the communities that all held decent jobs and took care of their families. This is what pissed her off the most. How could these people spin the evil of others into tantalizing sound bites that the general public buys as gospel?
She needed coffee or something stronger after what she saw on the news. Slipping quickly into jeans and a sweatshirt, hair pulled up in her customary ponytail she set her sights on the kitchen. Pulling the bedroom door opened she saw there was an envelope taped to it with her name. She opened it on her way to the kitchen, the note simply read “Thank you for the walk, I hope we can do it again soon.” It was signed by Gabriel. Walking toward the kitchen, she remembered just how good she had felt last night. But that had ended with the damn phone call this morning.
When she walked into the kitchen she jumped with fright as she saw Michael in his little outfit bent over looking for food in the fridge. Gabriel broke out laughing hysterically when he saw her reaction to Michael. He turned around to see why Gabriel was laughing so loud, by this time Raven had gotten over some of the initial shock of the sight and was laughing right along with Gabriel. Michael walked to the island and sat down, “Hello again Raven, I do hope you are comfortable at our little house here. Are you being fed and entertained?” She couldn’t stop laughing as she noticed that on his shorts, across the butt, was the safety tape used by almost all clothing manufactures, in the light of the sun coming through she realized it read “Smokin” With a big smile on her face she walked over and hugged Michael. “Why yes, Michael I am being very well taken care of and in the past two minutes I have had the best entertainment that I can remember!!, you work it “Smokin” especially the slippers with the joint smoking Shaggy!!”
Without hesitating Michael wiggled his booty and lifted each foot as he sang “I’m Too Sexy.” by Right said Fred. Gabriel lost all composure as he fell from his stool laughing at his goofy ass brother. Michael went to help him up. Gabriel reached around and slapped him right on the ass, making him jump. Turning to Raven, Michael says, “See even he thinks I got a Smokin Booty!” She began laughing at the two all over again.
Maree walked into the middle of the laugh fest, wishing she could keep the laughter going, but she had to explain to them all what had happened in the recovery room. As she gave a full detailed account of how Aubry was doing and what was discussed Michael and Gabriel could only say “Wow” while Raven let out a “Holy Shit”.
Maree went on to explain the phone call with the mother and how the mother told her it wouldn’t be a cake walk to get her out of the house much less on a plane. She asked the brothers to “do their thing” and get the mom safely out of Blayne. Raven interjected that she wanted to help. Gabriel looked over at her and asked “Aren’t you on indefinite leave as of 0500 this morning?” She looked at him with the “How the hell did you know that?” look. Finally saying that she was, but she still wanted to help.
Michael and Gabriel agreed that a female gun slinger with an attitude may be helpful on this one. They all headed down the hallway. When they got three doors down Michael placed his hand on the wall activating a control panel that extended from within.
“Well,” Gabriel spoke “I guess she will see it all now dude” as the door opened with a vapor lock sound. They all walked in the room and she was speechless. Before her was basically a command center that even the richest Police departments in the world would love to have. It even had active radar for watching the plane traffic at the nearby Santa Monica and LAX airports. As she took in the room the others heard her say “I think I need to write a book or two- myself!!” They smiled. “We didn’t get this from writing books. We have some friends that like to donate cool toys for us to play with to see how they will do on the commercial market. We didn’t pay more than $20.00 for this whole room, including this.” Gabriel hit a button on one of the desks, the two large LED screens lifted as the surface of the walls in the room began to lower on tracks revealing a weapons cache that would take out most
Armies in the world if all fired at once. Another “Holy Shit!” slipped out of her mouth. Michael sat down in front of a keyboard and brought up the call manager for the Cisco phone system that was wired throughout the house, he found the number dialed from the recovery room and did a reverse trace on another system to get the physical address of the number.
A screen came down from the ceiling as a satellite image came up with the exact location of the house. Gabriel did a quick assessment for ingress and extraction from the property. The images coming up were from a live feed and he could tell what the mother meant about it being hard. Across the street were over fifty motorcycles. Michael zoomed in and was able to make out the signage on the building. They all looked at one another.
The building was the Northwest HQ for the gang. This would in fact be quite a fun extraction!! Michael made three phone calls, the last one putting a plane on standby at Santa Monica Airport. He looked at Maree and gave her the run down on what to say to the mother when she called her back. Maree nodded in approval. Michael then dialed the home number for the Adams family again. Mrs. Adams answered speaking softly; in the back ground they could all hear cussing and talking from what seemed to be a large group. Maree asked for Mary. “Okay Mary, there will be three people coming into your area this evening” she described Michael, Gabriel, and Raven to her. “When they knock on the door be ready for anything. They will have other people with them but their attention will be on the club house across the street.” Mary acknowledged what she had been told then they all heard a loud voice in the background telling her to hang up, it was her turn to be on camera. Then phone went dead.
Michael ran a quick background check on Mary Adams. The mother was forty years old; she was born and raised in the same town as they were. Looking at picture closely Michael pushed his chair back in disbelief. Mary also went by another name she had used for the past nineteen years as Porn star.
Gabriel looked at her picture and back at his brother, the pieces all fell into place. “Isn’t that umm... Michael, is that Candy?” Michael nodded his head. “Well if that doesn’t beat all.” Gabriel said. Both Maree and Raven looked at them, “What is it?” they asked in unison. Gabriel explained that “Candy” was one of the first porn stars Michael guarded when he worked in “the industry.” He had taken on wildly perverted persona while protecting her. Then one night all hell broke loose. A drunken patron at a bar she was stripping at in El Paso had put his hands where he shouldn’t have. Michael kicked him out and thought nothing of it. When the bar closed the patron was waiting outside he opened fire on them. Candy was hit by a stray bullet. Michael was shot three times before it turned to hand to hand combat. The patron was dead about thirty seconds after the fight started.” He just sat there looking at the picture on the screen. It was Mary in her senior year photo. Maree remembered the face as well.
“Michael can you do this?’ she asked him bluntly. “I haven’t seen this woman in almost twenty years, now I have to go save her ass again! Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor?” He replied. “I am ready and more than willing to do this, let’s go!” He gave last minute instructions to Maree for Aubry. His mind going back nineteen years to when he held that little baby in his arms after her mother delivered her. Her boyfriend had skipped town when he found out she was pregnant. Michael never regretted or questioned anything in his life; this memory though pained him when he realized he didn’t do enough for the child back then.
Gabriel saw the look in his eyes and knew where his mind had gone. Smacking him upside the head with considerable force he shouted “Pull your head out of your ass, here is your secon
d chance.”
They grabbed some gear and began placing it into Hockey bags. Raven took a side arm from the armory. She chose a Sig Saur .45 combat pistol. She always wanted one but the department wouldn’t allow it. It was on the banned firearms list for the state. As she placed it at the small of her back Gabriel looked at her and smiled. ”It’s a great little piece isn’t it? She smiled back. “Yes, it is. How did you get one of these?” Michael looked over and said something that didn’t really answer her question but made sense to her just the same. “Doing what is right isn’t always what is legal. We will be wheels up in forty minutes.”
The three took the elevator to the parking garage placing their stuff in the back of a Ford Excursion. Raven knew this was no normal SUV but she held back her questions. Michael got in the driver’s seat, Gabriel took shot gun after holding the passenger door open for her. They drove to the airport in silence each occupied with their own thoughts. As they pulled onto the tarmac she was surprised at what was sitting in front of her. On the tarmac was a Gulf-stream G550, a private jet with the coolest paint scheme she had ever seen. Draped in the stars and stripes there were overlays of various branches of the military and their Special Forces. On the rear was the tattoo each of the men had earned. It was quite a sight. It wasn’t gaudy, just something that caught your eye and seemed to keep it there.
Michael pulled the rig to a stop just to the side of the jet where they were met by a crew of three men who put their gear into the storage under the plane. Once the gear was secured one of the crewmen took Ravens’ hand and guided her into the plane, then shook hands with the brothers. As the three sat down he said with a grin “Well there’s a trinity if I’ve ever seen one! An unholy one, that is!!” Michael flipped him off and told him to just shut up and fly. Smiling at the pilot he knew will and had flown him anywhere he needed to go without question. Looking at Raven, Gabriel said “Raven Wagner, I would like you to meet Major Barry W. Forrester, he and Michael go back a ways - “Very nice to meet you Major Forrester.” she replied as she shook hands with the pilot. Barry excused himself to go prep for the flight.
“So how do you know him,” she asked Michael. “Oh well, hmm. I decked him when he was only a Lieutenant. He felt I had issues with authority, I felt he needed to have his attitude corrected. I broke his nose in front the base commander at Camp Pendleton. That was right before they were going to give me the Congressional Medal of Honor that I never accepted. It seems that I do have issues with authority!” Raven laughed saying “You?? Really?? Why I would have never thought that!” Michael winked at her and she smiled back, she felt herself coming alive around these men. Michael was like the older brother she never had, Gabriel well he was the man she had always dreamed of finding. She just gave up trying.
She looked out the window as the plane taxied down the runway. In the reflection of the window she could see Gabriel taking a seat in the isle next to her. She wondered if these two always had such adventures in their life. Within seconds she was pressed back into her seat as the Major got the plane off the ground. She had never climbed so fast in an airplane before. She looked around and both Michael and Gabriel were already asleep as she heard the landing gear closing into the fuselage of the plane. How do they do that? She asked herself. Once they reached the correct altitude she felt the plane level off and she too drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 19
Maree went up to check on Aubry. She walked in to find her sleeping fitfully, her body involuntarily trembling with shallow breaths. Maree knew she was re-living the past year in her sleep. She could remember how she had slept like that when she first came here. She sat down and gently rubbed her back, thinking what a precious gift she is. As she sat there she wondered if Aubry knew all the things that she was to this very place or if she knew that the man that carried her out of hell last night was the man that helped actually deliver her when she was born? Maree knew she couldn’t ask these questions of her right now, so she sat there and hummed a tune while she continued to gently rub Aubry’s back.
In her sleep Aubry could feel the warm rubbing on her back and hear the humming of her new friend. It allowed her to escape from the cage she had placed herself in to escape into a dream where she was free flying above the world. In her dream she remembered her mother talking about the only man she ever knew that had a chance at knowing love, how he helped deliver her and saved her mom’s life one night. She remembered that her mom would look out from wherever they were and simply say the name Michael. As she dreamed she rested more comfortably falling into a healing sleep only known by those that have been massively injured. To her it was the first piece of heaven she had felt in a long time. Maree had fallen asleep next to Aubry one of the nurses came in and put a blanket on her, while checking Aubry’s vital signs. When she was done she shut off the lights to let the two women sleep.
Raven woke up as the plane was making a final approach to a place she knew wasn’t any airport near Bellevue, she turned to see Gabriel and Michael still asleep until the landing gear started to descend. They made a tight sharp right turn and began descending at a rate that felt like the plane was falling out of the sky. Gabriel stretched a bit as Michael rose from his seat. She heard various joints pop and crack as they moved around. Michael rubbed his elbow and shoulder gingerly. Gabriel began making a smart ass comment about how he hoped he didn’t look that bad when he hit forty years of age. Even though Gabriel was only eighteen months younger, his secret came out when he stood and his knees and hips popped so loud both Raven and Michael looked to see if he was still standing. “Oh I see you are just a walking specimen of perfect joint health aren’t you?” Michael said. Gabriel shrugged. He knew the same pains as Michael. He just thought he was better at hiding them.
Fortunately the subject changed when Raven asked where they were. Gabriel explained that they were landing in Spokane to pick up some of their security team from the safe house there. As the plane touched down at Spokane International Airport, she looked at the surroundings and thought the landscape was breathtaking. “What a beautiful place.” She said. Michael replied, “It is beautiful to visit, living here takes a special kind of person.” The plane stopped and a crewman opened the door. Six of the meanest looking guys she had ever seen boarded the plane; the last guy was older than Michael by a few years with a long pony tail and earrings. “He looks like a pirate.” She thought as she stood up. “Who is that?” she asked as she pointed to the man. Gabriel replied “He is our head of security.” He motioned the man over. “Raven this Frank, Frank this is Detective Raven Wagner.” The two shook hands, Frank told her what a pleasure it was to finally meet her. They all sat down with Frank sitting in the posh reclining chair in front of Michael, the other five sat in the rear of the plane for take-off. She wondered how someone that looked like him had become the head of security. But in the flight over to SeaTac Airport it became very apparent.
He stood up five minutes after take-off and briefed everyone on what they were going up against. He had three plans for every one scenario he could come up with. He had intimate knowledge of the layout of the club house, the people in it and the ones that were in the house across the street. She marveled at the amount of detail he disseminated.
He continued to go over the layout via a satellite image that hung down at the front of the plane, assigning each person a quadrant of the map, except Gabriel and Raven. Michael and Frank were the breach team on the house. Raven and Gabriel were going to be playing a game of cat and mouse using concussion grenades and less than lethal grenades most commonly used in prison riots. These grenades sent out about a thousand hard plastic balls at about 1500 feet per second. The plastic would break skin but not penetrate.
Frank handed three satchels of the grenades to Gabriel as he began to walk them both up to the roof of the club house via the thick forest behind it. He then handed her a printed map of the image with the route they had to take highlighted, including the details to the moss pattern on the trees th
at would have motion sensors attached to them. When he handed her a Garmin hand held GPS navigator she noticed he had already programmed it from their drop off point to the club house. He handed out gear to the rest of the team that would be hitting the club from the front. When he was done he asked if anyone had any questions. Raven stood up and asked, “How the heck do you know this? I mean, how can you know with this much certainty and detail? You act like you built the place or something.” Frank rubbed his goatee for a moment before answering, “Well ma’am. I did build it actually. I use to be one of them.” She sat down with an “oh shit” expression on her face. Gabriel looked over at her smiling mischievously. “There is way more to his story. If we make it out of this alive, I’ll tell you someday how we all met.
The plane began its descent into SeaTac Airport with a fast approach to the private airfield reserved for Boeing and other companies. Barry brought them in for the landing low and fast, the braking almost sending everyone into his lap up in the cockpit. Over the intercom they heard him say “Thank you for flying with me today. Now get the hell off my plane.”
They disembarked the aircraft swiftly, Michael leading them to their transportation for the ride to the sleepy town of Blayne. Two decked out Excursions sat on the tarmac all blacked out and looking like the wrath of hell, these two vehicles made what SWAT uses look like Yugo’s with armor plating. As she got in with Gabriel and three operatives she was impressed with the comfort and seating arrangement. She thought the trap door in the floor with the hole cut in the floorboards was a perfect touch to the rig.
The Road to Lazarus (The First book in the diaries of Lazarus House) Page 11