The-Forgetful-Spy-Santiago

by The Forgetful Spy (lit)

  “Who’s going inside?” Paul asked. He crossed his arms and Rachel figured she was about to be put on com-link detail even though Frankie was better at it.

  “Frankie will be assigned to monitor communications during the mission. Jake is on perimeter control.” Ken glanced at Colin and added, “The other two will go inside. Any other questions?”

  Rachel had an uneasy feeling, but decided it was due to the rampant and unholy urges she experienced whenever she caught Colin’s gaze. Physically, they maintained a healthy distance, but the air in the small aircraft crackled with the sexual tension arcing between them.

  Once they landed, the team divided into groups and assembled at the safe house by mid-afternoon. Rachel anticipated the mission and promised herself she’d try her best not to have any challenges. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t looking forward to working with Colin. She was.

  Smart, resourceful and capable, she recognized that Colin was a solid agent from working with him briefly both in Columbia and in Las Vegas. Rachel wanted their mission to be one hundred percent successful. No trials this time. She vowed to remain focused and professional until the end of the assignment.

  The street where the building resided was secluded and quiet. It wasn’t a dead end in the traditional sense, as the road turned to a dirt one, and eventually led to a developing construction project.

  Large tree-filled lots on three sides of their target made each property along the way seem sheltered and remote. Across the street, a line of tall trees stood in even rows just inside a high chain link fence marking the property line of a city park. Three blocks further was the edge of the bustling city but here it was almost like being in the country.

  Having studied the blueprints of the small structure, Rachel had the layout secured in her mind. The front door was unlocked and unmanned, and the way they intended to enter after dusk. Posing as salespeople in case there was anyone living there, she and Colin wore business casual over their tactical gear.

  Frankie and the van were parked unseen a block from the target. Together they sauntered down the uneven sidewalk until they reached the opening in the battered low fence flanking each side of a weed-strewn path to the building, they made a sharp right following the path leading to the front door.

  Three splintered and dilapidated steps greeted them as they climbed to the porch. Rachel grabbed the rusted metal knob and pushed the door inward. Surprisingly, it didn’t squeak.

  Colin stuck his head inside and nodded. She pushed it in the rest of the way. They both entered the foyer carefully. Rachel kept the door from slamming, then clicked her collar transmitter twice to let Frankie know they were safely inside.

  The original blueprints showed two main doors leading to apartments on the ground floor, but someone had sheet-rocked the doors over.

  A narrow staircase climbing to a platform stood before them. There was a single bare bulb from half way up the landing dangling from an unseen ceiling above illuminating the two-story entryway.

  Colin signaled for them to ascend to the second floor. She nodded and followed him upstairs. The eerie silence gnawed at her nerves. They weren’t expecting to find anyone, but a fanciful part of her imagination hoped they wouldn’t stumble across Salerno’s ghostly presence.

  Arriving at the top of the surprisingly solid staircase, they were faced with two doors, one on the left and one directly across from it. Colin nodded to her and pointed to both doors. She shrugged and pointed to the one on the left.

  Thus far they hadn’t spoken a word since leaving Frankie in the van. Jake was supposed to follow and circle around the perimeter in case he was needed. The quiet became unnerving for some reason. It was like sneaking around a haunted funhouse waiting for something to jump out and scare the crap out of you.

  Colin tried the door she’d selected. It was locked. He crossed the landing to try the other one. Also locked. Rachel squatted before the first sturdy looking, six-panel wooden door and pulled out her lock picks.

  As she manipulated the picks, she was suddenly very aware of Colin standing beside her. The last time she’d used lock picks in his presence she’d been sans panties and shaking from the orgasm he’d just given her. Dismissing the seductive recollection a single word blasted in her mind.

  Professional.

  She needed to remain aloof and simply do her job right now, not take a trip down memory lane.

  The final tumbler clicked into place releasing the mechanism and opening the door inward. At the same exact time a shaft of light illuminated the space below the door’s kick plate.

  Rachel registered that someone was inside in the same second that a woman’s scream ripped through the air.

  Chapter 12

  “Who…who is out there?” A young woman’s stuttering panicked voice registered.

  Rachel unsnapped her holster and put her hand around the grip of her gun. The front door swung open on silent hinges and she entered the apartment in a crouched position pulling her gun before she entered. Colin drew his weapon and followed close behind into the small living room.

  “FBI,” Colin shouted as he raised his gun to shoulder level.

  The occupant of the apartment stood on the far side of the room in the doorway to what looked like a kitchen.

  Dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, her stringy, dirty-blonde hair hung down past her emaciated shoulders. She lifted her skinny pale arms in the air and he saw her shaking from across the room.

  Colin was about to apologize for making a horrible mistake until a man stepped into the doorway behind her, wielding a nine-millimeter pistol. He shoved the gun past the girl’s shoulder and got off a round as Colin pushed Rachel to the floor one-handed.

  “Drop your weapon,” Colin yelled and fingered the trigger.

  “Screw you.” The gunman shoved the frail woman out of the doorway and took aim. Colin fired a round directly into his chest. The man pulled the trigger of his weapon but luckily the shot went wild and into the ceiling.

  The young woman slid her hands over her ears and screamed. She scrambled across the living room in a hunched-over run and disappeared into an arched doorway along the opposite wall.

  From the floor Rachel shouted, “She’s getting away!”

  In his ear he heard Frankie’s concerned voice, “Was that gunfire? Do you need back up?”

  He keyed his radio, “No, stand by. There’s a male and a female in the upper west apartment. The male is down and the female is on the run.”

  Rachel leapt up and sprinted after the woman. She chased her through the arched doorway and out of his sight. Colin shouted, “Wait!” but Rachel was already gone.

  Colin ran to the gunman now flat on his back and not moving. He kicked the gun out of the guy’s hand watching it slide out of his immediate reach across the nicked linoleum of the small kitchen.

  Studying the features of the gunman, Colin thought he looked familiar, but couldn’t place him. An associate of Salerno’s maybe? He felt for a pulse and found a strong one beating at the man’s throat. Not dead, just out.

  Colin rolled the guy over and slipped on handcuffs. He turned and followed cautiously through the doorway where Rachel had disappeared. It led into a short hallway with an open door at the end.

  He didn’t see either the woman or Rachel.

  From the opening he heard a man’s voice shout. “Drop it or I kill her!” He knew that voice. Impossible. It couldn’t be.

  “You won’t kill her,” Rachel’s angry tone shot out to where he stood.

  Salerno’s voice drifted out to the hall where Colin waited. “She’s a whore I brought up here to fuck. Her life means nothing to me.”

  “You shoot her and you’ll lose your human shield. I’ll take the next shot and kill you, I promise.”

  Through the crack between the door and the wall, Colin saw a narrow sliver of the scene in the bedroom. Salerno held the woman against him as he slowly backed up towards another door across the bedroom.

  “You
aren’t allowed to kill me. You have rules!”

  “Guess again, slime ball. Everyone already thinks you’re dead. If I kill you, it’s no problem at all.”

  Salerno took another long step backwards.

  “Stop moving.” Rachel moved into Colin’s view and leveled her gun at his head.

  “You won’t take me.” Salerno pushed the woman towards Rachel and darted into what Colin presumed was the bathroom.

  The door slammed shut and Rachel advanced a step. The woman flung herself past Rachel and fell on the bed as Colin entered the bedroom.

  Two gun blasts came through the door where Salerno had disappeared splintering the wood and narrowly missing Rachel.

  “Where the hell does he think he’s going?” Colin crouched down and duck-walked to Rachel keeping an eye on the door. “Is there a fire escape outside the bathroom window or something?” Colin flattened himself against the wall next to the bed where Rachel squatted.

  She didn’t answer at first. She squinted at the bathroom door from behind the edge of the bed where she dove when the shots came through it. After a second, her eyes rounded. “No. He’s going to the basement.”

  “The basement? How is that possible?”

  Instead of responding, she stood up and darted out of the room. Colin wondered what she was doing.

  “Where are you going?”

  Stifling the urge to follow her, he turned toward the closed door of the bathroom making sure to keep out of the line of fire should Salerno fire off a few more rounds.

  Colin eyed the woman cowering in the corner of the bedroom. Shaking, curled in a ball and quietly praying, he didn’t expect she’d be much help.

  He asked anyway, “Do you know Salerno?” She stared at him blankly but didn’t respond.

  “Buccaneer, do you copy?” Rachel’s breathy voice called in his head. She was apparently running downstairs.

  “This is Buccaneer. Go.”

  “Look for the laundry chute in the bathroom. Make sure Salerno isn’t hanging on from inside so he can crawl out later.”

  Colin’s eyebrows went straight up. “Roger that.”

  Holy shit!

  Salerno escaped through a laundry chute to the basement?

  Frankie’s voice uttered, “Salerno? Are you crazy? He’s dead.”

  “Not anymore.” Over the communications link, Colin heard her panting lightly. It sounded like she was still running. “I’m headed for the ground floor now. I’ll have to come out the front door and go around to the back.”

  Creeping towards the bathroom door silently, Colin listened. He didn’t hear any movement from inside. Impulsively, he kicked the door to the bathroom inward initiating a surprise attack, just in case. As the cheap door bounced off the inner wall, Colin brought his gun up prepared to shoot to kill.

  An overly large space greeted him, but the bathroom was empty. He swung his gun around wondering how in the hell Salerno was still alive.

  He flipped the bathroom lights on and found a large brass handle situated below a built-in shelf filled with towels. Gun drawn, he wrapped his hand around the wide knob pull and yanked hard, but only an empty laundry chute greeted him.

  On his radio Colin heard Rachel shout for Jake using his call sign. “Mustang, head for the back of the building. Look for the external basement doors. Salerno is escaping.”

  There was a pause before Jake said, “This is Mustang, I copy. I’m on my way.”

  From below and through the laundry chute, he heard hollow echoing shouts.

  Salerno was alive. Un-fucking-believable.

  * * * *

  Rachel ran like her ass was on fire, stumbling down the stairs in her haste to get out the front door of the apartment building. She leapt into the knee-high weeds off the front porch and zoomed around the corner of the house. Victory would be hers, if she could pull off the coup of the century, by catching and detaining Salerno fresh from his hidey-hole after he’d faked his death.

  She’d had to force her mouth not to drop open in surprise when she chased the woman into the bedroom. She’d gone straight into the arms of Salerno next to the bed. For an old man, he had good reflexes, she’d thought, as he snagged a gun from beneath one of the pillows and took aim.

  As soon as he’d disappeared into the bathroom she remembered the large laundry chute from the blueprints she’d studied.

  Hustling to the rear of the apartment building, she was afraid Salerno would get away before she could catch him. And she wanted to nail him very badly.

  Rounding the corner to the overgrown back yard, Rachel searched the darkness along the house for the basement doors she was certain Salerno would bolt from any second.

  A light flipped on from overhead as an old street light posted in the back yard flickered to life behind her position and startled her. She turned and saw Jake emerge from the tree line in the lot next door. He was fifty yards away and moved cautiously.

  Spinning back to search for the outer basement door, she almost tripped over it. Rachel only had time to bring her gun up before one side of the double doors raised and Salerno slipped out of the narrow opening. He was faced away and didn’t apparently see her at first.

  Bringing her weapon up in a two-handed hold she screamed, “Freeze, scumbag!”

  Salerno didn’t freeze. Instead, he shot one leg out and kicked her gun hand. Her hands flew apart wide, but amazingly she managed to keep her gun in hand. Salerno lowered his leg and promptly charged her with fists flying.

  Off balance from the kick, she fought to stay on her feet. His first blow glanced across one cheek but rolled off and slid past her ear. It stung like crazy. She tried to angle the gun toward his torso as he tackled her to the ground. The gun fired, but the shot went skyward.

  He punched her in the side and she felt the sturdy blow all the way through her rib cage to a couple vital organs. Drawing her arms up to protect her face, she twisted her hips and one of his knees folded and popped. He growled in pain as he fell forward. Rachel managed to slide sideways. She leveraged herself out from underneath him. Salerno grunted and fell on his side in the grass. She let momentum carry her over until she straddled his chest. He was panting but it didn’t stop him from aiming a fist at her face and connecting another punch to the same cheek.

  Rachel put her gun to his jaw. “Hit me again, old man, and it’ll be the last thing you ever do.” The ache in her side from his brutal punch was forgotten as was the sting of her face. He relaxed and stopped fighting. There was something to be said for the threat of a gun aimed under your chin.

  A frown shaped his thin mouth. “You’re the one who’s going to be sorry, girlie.”

  Gun drawn, Jake approached slowly. He whispered into his collar transmitter, but she couldn’t hear what he said. Hopefully, he was calling for reinforcements.

  “You okay?” Jake asked training his gun on Salerno’s forehead. The circular bead of red from the laser’s sight lit up the deep wrinkles between Salerno’s cold, angry, mud-brown eyes.

  “I’m good.”

  Glancing at her face Jake added, “You’re bleeding.”

  Rachel immediately wiped her nose with her free hand, but her hand came away clean. The sting of the cut on her cheek registered and she brushed her fingertips below the cut. Pulling away a small drop of blood, she smiled. “It’s nothing.” It’s a small price to pay for such a big mission win.

  Adrenalin raced through her system and made her breathing heavy, but Rachel felt a victory dance coming on after this completely successful mission. Beyond the fact that they didn’t expect any criminals to rise from the dead, she was excited to have avoided any challenges. Colin jogged around the corner to the back yard after several minutes and helped get Salerno up and handcuffed.

  Surprisingly docile, after his foiled great escape, Salerno didn’t resist when Jake and Colin arrested him. Salerno stared at Rachel. “I’ll get you for this, bitch.”

  Piercing him with a tired look, she said, “Yeah. Whatever. I’
m shaking in my government issued low heels.”

  Salerno glanced at Colin and Jake. He laughed. “And you will pay as well. All of you will pay for this.”

  Colin’s expression said he was less tolerant of Salerno’s threats. “I’ll remember that when you’re convicted for all the charges piling up for your imminent incarceration. And once you’re in prison, you’ll be the one paying, you fuck.” Colin nodded at Jake. “Take him to the car.”

  Turning to her, Colin gave her a quick once over. Not with sexual intent, but with obvious concern. Zeroing in on her cheek he asked, “You okay?”

  “I’m great.” Her exuberance was hard to contain.

  He grinned and moved closer. “I have to tell you, that had to be the most amazing work I’ve ever seen. From picking the locks to knowing that Salerno went down a laundry chute, only to end up pistol whipping him in the backyard. Fucking amazing.” He laughed. “Seriously, I’m in awe.”

  Rachel nodded. “Thanks. You weren’t so bad yourself.”

  “I didn’t do much, basically followed you with my mouth hanging open in admiration.”

  She laughed. “But you didn’t ever question me or once tell me I was crazy.” Piercing him with an appreciative stare, she added, “Coming from a male counterpart in this business, I appreciate that. Thank you.”

  He shrugged and took another step closer. His new predatory gaze seared through her and he whispered, “I miss you.”

  Rachel glanced around and didn’t see anyone. “I miss you, too.” Taking the rare opportunity of being alone with Colin, she threw her arms around his neck, and kissed him.

  In her ear bud radio, she heard Frankie say her name. She didn’t want to be interrupted. Failing to respond, Rachel ultimately answered the summons by turning her transmitter off. She just wanted a few minutes alone.