by Eason, Mary
I picked up on that little glint in his eyes that told me he was looking forward to taking me out right before I ducked under his flailing arms and watched him fall flat on his face.
I figured this guy for a member of the Red Jihad more by attitude than anything else. Those guys were used to accomplishing whatever they set out to do after all they were made up of the best of the best.
This guy was still wondering what had happened when I straddled him and struck the butt of the gun handle across his temple knocking him out cold before he even knew what hit him. Just before the lights went out, the look on his face as I smiled down at him was priceless. One of the few rewards any of us could ever expect to get. He was stunned, floored. He was beaten by a woman.
Unfortunately, I didn’t really have time to enjoy the moment. From close behind and coming upon me much faster than I could have imagined, I felt more than heard the approach of the others. When I turned to face my attackers, I just managed to overcome my shock and get my weapon up into position before victim number two lunged, or more to what could only be described as almost flying. The guy literally flew through the short distance of space between us, his huge claw-like hands reaching for my neck just before he realized his mistake.
I fired once hitting my target straight through the heart. But the momentum of the guy his size already falling against my smaller frame sent me flying backwards with him.
I felt the warm splatter of his blood strike across my face, chest, and hair. My hand that still held the gun was soaked in the blood of the guy.
The sheer weight of him, a good hundred pounds more than me sent me sliding backwards on the cement. I landed on my backside with the guy looking down at me with that shocked expression as he took his last breath a few feet from where victim number one was still unconscious.
I knew without even checking that the guy was dead. I’d just killed someone without authority to do so. No on including my superior officer knew I was out here.
Frantically I began trying to remove the gun from where it lay wedged beneath the man’s bulk while trying to push his dead weight off me when victim number three caught me unprepared.
He tossed his fallen comrade aside as if tossing out the trash before hauling me up, raising me off my feet, and forcing me to look into his eyes. I couldn’t keep from shivering, even now after all these years in trenches at the unbridled hatred in those eyes.
With one hand around my neck, he slammed my body hard against the wall of the building causing me to lose consciousness for a moment.
The guy shook me hard to bring me back and then he smiled. He was ready to play with me for a little while. I’d no doubt be put through the worst possible form of torture he could come up with before I became his revenge.
I saw it all in that nasty little smile. He knew who I was all right and I’d just killed one of his buddies. It was payback time.
I closed my eyes refusing to allow him the satisfaction of seeing my pain or my fear. My fingers spread out desperately across the wall as far as I could reach trying to find something to use to at least get him off of me and get some advantage back.
I heard his laugh--it sounded just as evil as his smile had been. He knew what I was trying to do and he was enjoying my fears quite thoroughly.
At the sound of that laugh, I became desperate. I kicked his legs, his groin anything that I could reach but my feeble attempts to escape only seemed to amuse him that much more.
He shook me again, sending my head crashing back against the wall. I screamed at a sharp piercing pain that ripped through the back of my head.
My capture ripped the buttons of my shirt open, his long fingers cold against my skin. He wouldn’t kill me right away. He’d bring me close then bring me back to torture me some more.
I knew that I couldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing just how frightened I was at that moment. To cover my fear and give me strength to endure the torture I tried one final tactic.
“Go ahead creep, give it your best shot. But you should know there are others on their way here right now. They’ll be here any minute and then you’re toast just like your two friends over there.”
For a second I thought I saw his uncertainty. He took his eyes off me for a moment looking around the dark section of the alley giving me the opportunity to see just how desperate my situation truly was.
I was alone, without my gun, which had landed somewhere off close to victim number two when this guy had slammed me against the wall. I didn’t see one single thing that I could possibly use as a makeshift weapon. And no one knew I was here.
When my captor’s eyes came back to mine he knew the truth. He’d figured out I was bluffing and that nothing was standing in his way of doing whatever he wanted with me. As his eyes went over me, I saw that that was going to be quite a lot.
He said something to me that sounded part English part Arabic of all things but I got the gist of it even while my mind wondered ideally, why a member of the Red Jihad was speaking Arabic.
The guy knew that as an agent I was supposed to be working with someone else but clearly that wasn’t the case here. He knew I was acting alone as a renegade. The bluff was over.
I tried hard not to show him any emotion. I was so close to tears that it was hard. My mind went over all the reasons why I was here tonight and realized I’d never know if my brother were truly alive or dead. I’d never know what happened to Judah or my parents.
Then I thought about Noah. Dear God, I still loved Noah. I didn’t want to lose him because of my own stubborn pride.
I thought about how much my actions had played a part in the strain of our marriage as of late. In fact, if I was being honest, and being this close to death I certainly should be honest at least with myself I’d been the only cause of it.
It was then that I started to pray. I prayed that Noah wouldn’t have to find out what had happened to me. I prayed that someone else would be the one to find my body. When I said that word to myself again I realized just how much I wanted to live. I was sick of dealing with death. I didn’t want Noah to have to deal with mine.
My attacker said something then that took my breath away and wiped away any hope I had for getting out of here alive away. He told me that he was going to take my life just as he had my parents. I started to cry then because I couldn’t control my grief any longer. I knew that he spoke the truth.
From somewhere close behind us I heard a sound but I was concentrating all of my strength on not showing this creep just how much his words had upset me. I was literally biting my lip and clenching my hands until I felt the pain and the blood as my nails and teeth dug in to stop the tears. At last it worked. I would go to my grave without shedding another tear or showing any further weakness to this guy because I knew that was what he wanted to see.
When he heard a noise coming from behind us, he turned. I think he thought his buddy had risen from the dead or possibly that the unconscious one had finally awakened and was ready to join him in the fun. But whatever he saw there clearly wasn’t what he was expecting.
The guy let go of me in a second, sending me dropping like a rock to the ground at his feet. But he’d lost all interest in me by that time. His full attention was now focused on the man in front of him. The second the guy stepped forward into the light and was close enough I recognized him immediately. It was my stalker from the night before. Only this time the guy had become my savior.
My attacker seemed to shrink before the man that had my full attention once more.
I still sat with my knees pulled up to my chest watching the two of them interact with helpless interest because I couldn’t seem to find the strength to bring myself up off the ground.
I knew I was hurt. The sharp pain at the back of my head told me that much. But my hands were covered with victim two’s blood so that I couldn’t tell if I were actually bleeding profusely from my own wound or whether it was simply the dead guys’ blood.
I could have been playi
ng cards for all these two cared. Just from body language alone I could tell that my stalker was someone of power in the other guy’s eyes. Quite possible one of their leaders or commanders or whatever they chose to call themselves these days.
Even though my attacker was quite clearly put out to have his little game interrupted, he addressed the guy with more respect than I’d seen one terrorist use towards another. Especially someone from the Red Jihad as I believed the three guys that attacked me tonight were. For the most part they respected no one not even their own comrades.
It was hard to pick up the language they were using because they had switched to something I barely recognized. It sounded like some ancient dialects that I’d head only a couple of times in my lifetime. It was clear that my attacker was having trouble both speaking it and understanding the leader’s words who spoke fluently. It dawned on me then that I should be considering it odd that these guys were using such an obscure language in the first place.
My attacker addressed the other guy as Davis or something to that effect before he asked him what authority he thought he had interfering with the situation.
The moment Davis took a step closer to the guy, my attacker changed his tune. He was all apologies.
I caught something in the lines of not wanting to do battle with Davis over me, but that they could both share in the fun before killing me.
When it became clear to both me and my attacker that that wasn’t happening there was another almost childish outburst from him before Davis looked at me.
His next words I understood very clearly. He told my attacker that if he had hurt me in any way that he would have both Davis and my brother--he actually used those words to deal with.
While I was still trying to understand all of this, my attacker simply turned and walked away leaving me alone with Davis.
At that point, I realized then that I still sat on the ground with my hands wrapped around my knees. Even though this guy had just saved my life he was after all my enemy and I was unprepared again. At his mercy.
I moved slowly to my knees and then stood. It took me a minute to keep from losing conscious at the pain in the back of my heard and then my eyes went to the unconscious guy and his dead buddy next to him. And my weapon.
Davis seemed to read everything that I was thinking.
He reached out to steady me, his hands only slightly more gentle than my attacker had been. But his fingers moved over my bruised skin was as soft as a whisper. It took me a few minutes to realize that he wasn’t just touching me to well, touch me. He was examining me for injuries.
One hand went behind my head. He spotted the blood and I winced taking a side step away from him closer to victim two and my weapon.
“You’re hurt. Here, let me take a look at it.” Davis took a step closer to which I took another step back and almost stumbled over the guy closest to my gun.
“No. I’m fine and anyways you’re the last person I’d want looking at my injury. Thanks but I’ll be fine.”
That seemed to take away whatever concern he might still have for me entirely. I saw his eyes go to the dead guy and then back to me.
“You killed him, Cameron? You have any idea how much trouble you’re in?” The question as well as his accent threw me. The guy didn’t look Middle Eastern as the accent indicated.
“What are you talking about?” I tried to laugh off my uneasiness. Something wasn’t right here but I had no idea what. I was finding it hard to concentrate with him standing so close. The guy definitely got to me in a way I didn’t really like.
“That creep was going to kill me. Of course, I killed him. There is no trouble. I should have killed his buddy there while I was at it. And if you give me half a reason to, I’ll do the same for you.”
Okay, so that probably didn’t really come off sounding as confident as I would have liked but then, my confidence had been shaken tonight. I’d come within a breath of death tonight. I was literally shaking in my boots.
“You don’t know who I am, Cameron Alexander, and I can‘t tell you, but you should trust your instincts and your brother’s words and get out of this business before it costs you your life. We both know you have no authority to be out here on your own. You aren’t acting on any authority but your own. Otherwise, this place would be crawling with agents by now. I suggest you get out of here while you still can. I’ll take care of this.“ He pointed to his two comrades. “Go home before someone finds out what you’ve done here tonight.”
“How do you know what authority I’m acting own?” I snatched at his word when I realized he’d just picked up my weapon from close by victim two, emptied the bullets and slammed it hard against the wall crushing it to smithereens. His eyes had never left mine.
Davis didn’t answer me. I knew he had no intention of explaining any of the mysterious here tonight to me.
Instead, he leaned close to victim number one and slapped him until he regained consciousness.
The man looked around for a minute or two before realizing what had happened and then he was on his feet his eyes going from myself to Davis. Davis said something to him in that same strange language he’d used with the other guy. Then the man lifted his fallen comrade and carried him from the alley.
With Davis’s attention momentarily off me I decided it was time to get out while he was giving me the opportunity. I started to run but barely reached the streetlight when Davis caught up with me holding me in place.
“Not so tough after all are you, Cameron Alexander. Maybe you’d better remember that next time you go out on a one-woman crusade again.” Behind him, I saw the empty alleyway and shivered at what had just taken place there tonight. At just how close to death I’d really come this night.
To anyone coming upon us at that moment, we probably looked like a couple of people having a lover’s quarrel. There was no evidence left of the terrible things that had happened here.
“Who are you? How do you know my name? How do you know my brother?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking him any of those things because, frankly I desperate to know the answers to those questions.
This guy wasn’t a member of the elite terrorist cell as far as I’d ever seen. He had never been a part of any of our surveillance before. Who was he and how did he come to hold so much power over members of the Red Jihad? “Who are you?”
To all of my questions he only smiled and handed me back my purse, which I somehow managed to hold onto with fingers that literally trembled.
“You are full of questions tonight aren’t you? You want to know about your brother?”
I pulled out of his grasp and he let me go watching as I put as much space as I possibly could between us before I had to ask.
“What do you know about Judah? How do you know him?”
“I think you’ll have to ask your brother those questions. I think you already know what he is. The real question is whose side does that put you on?”
Before I could think about answering him, I turned back and he was gone.
I was alone again with the stillness of the night that was unnerving.
I started walking as fast as I could away from the terror I’d been faced with tonight. And then my walking turned into running.
I ran as hard as I could all the way back to my apartment. When I was safely inside, I locked every single door and window in the apartment and yet still I didn’t feel safe.
I was literally shaking all over as I curled up into a tiny ball front of the TV and tried to force myself to relax. I was safe here. This was my home. Nothing bad could hurt me here.
But I felt hunted and alone.
At that moment, I wondered if I’d ever feel safe again.
Once I was finally able to stop my shaking, I felt the first onset of reaction at what I’d learned tonight.
That Davis was someone with great authority was clear. That he knew my brother was unmistakable. Was my brother, Elijah Jacobs? I wasn’t ready to accept that even though I knew that was wh
at Davis had been trying to tell me tonight.
I just couldn’t believe it because in my mind it didn’t compute. I couldn’t see the skinny young kid that I remembered Judah being as the leader of the Red Jihad.
Something Judah had said to me the night I’d spoken to him had been troubling me since that time. He told me it was too late to help him. That he‘d only come back to warn you. Judah told me that I needed to get out of this before it’s too late for me. He had told me to stop what you’re doing. Walk away from it while I still could. My brother had told me I was on the wrong side, fighting the wrong enemy. An enemy that I couldn’t win against. He told me that I didn’t know what was really happening. I didn’t know him or what I was really fighting for? Just told me that I had no idea what the truth really is. I was fighting against an enemy that I didn’t know.
I must have picked up the phone at least a dozen times during that long sleepless night to call Noah and confess my sins but in the end I couldn’t do it.
Not because I believed Noah wanted to be married to me, but because I believed anyone at the Bureau ever discovered my connection to Elijah then both my loyalty as well as Noah’s would be on the line.
Almost for certain I would be out of The Organization. Considering my family connection and the information, I knew I had to wonder what else?
Round and round my thoughts went throughout that night. I went through my first pot of coffee and then made another fighting off the exhaustion that eventually came. I couldn’t sleep. Too much was at stake. My future, my child as well as my brother’s was in jeopardy. I no longer was thinking of myself in terms of being with Noah. I believed that our marriage was only another lie away from being over.
I sat down at my computer again and begin to read the document one more time, my thoughts went back over the language that Davis had used with the others tonight. While the first guy had been speaking what I believed was Arabic even though he’d botched the attempt terribly I now wondered if that had just been a very bad interpretation.