by J. M. Madden
Suddenly, lights flared as the ATV came to life. Amberly gasped as the light overwhelmed the AVGs and pushed them off her head. She blinked several times in the darkness, then the chase was on again.
Dev tried to take aim out the window, but his hand bounced like crazy. There was no way he’d get a decent shot off.
Then he heard something over the sound of the vehicle engines. It sounded like rotors from a chopper.
“Is that a helicopter,” Amberly cried, glancing around.
“I think so. Keep after him. This must have been his escape plan all along.”
Amberly stomped on the gas and the truck leaped forward. Dev wasn’t sure how the fuck she kept it going in a fairly straight line, the way it was bouncing around. The only comfort he took was in that the ATV was probably having just as hard of a time as they were as they climbed the mountain.
The sound of the helicopter built as it flew over top of them, closer than was comfortable. A spotlight flipped on, blinding in its intensity, but Amberly never wavered. The chopper flew on, spotlit the ATV for them, then swooped up the mountain. Whoever the pilot was, he was doing a damned good job.
“Frank is dirty,” she called, glancing at him.
“Callypso?” he asked incredulously.
She nodded. “That’s his granddaughter in Fort Collins. He’s had his nose in everything, and I was too blind to see it.”
“Is he working with Regent voluntarily or by force?”
“I think voluntarily, but that Regent was looking for leverage on him.”
Yeah, that made sense. He looked at Amberly. “Are you okay?”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “Yeah, I’m fine. Kind of half hoping that he’s in the chopper. Brown says his phone pinged in Bozeman, so he’s around.”
“Fuck,” he breathed.
Amberly hit a depression in the field and they ramped out of it, then it seemed to smoothe out. She laid on the gas, plunging up a rocky hillside. The ATV was only a few dozen yards ahead, tires spitting gravel as it climbed.
Amberly shifted the Jeep into a lower gear as gravity began to pull. This was a steep hill. As slow as they were going, though, it gave him a chance to take aim and fire at the ATV. Several of his hits struck, but in the dark, it was hard to guestimate where the tires were. And if he hit the tires, it may not make much difference on this hill.
The climb began to level out as they crested a rise. The helicopter was hovering, spotlight scanning the dark night. The ground sloped down to a small cleared spot, just big enough for the chopper to land.
“Stop, Amberly.”
She hit the brakes and skidded to a stop. Dev scrambled out and reached in the back for Requiem. “Don’t foul my shot,” he warned her, and she grinned at him, taking off after the ATV. Absolute terror filled him, because she was going so fast down the hill. If she didn’t slow down, she could go over the edge. Was she going to ram him?
A man scrambled from the ATV and starting staggering for the helicopter.
Dev dropped to the ground. They had to end this, now. Amberly was giving everything she had to stop a madman, and he could do no less.
Centering himself, he took aim on the chopper. There was a light on in the cockpit and he could see the pilot. Breathing out, Dev tried to focus on the chopper’s trajectory, settling to the ground. There was a second man leaning out the door with a weapon, but he was more invested in the pilot. No pilot, no fly away.
He squeezed his finger on the trigger.
Two things happened at once.
Dev heard Amberly strike something with the Jeep, then the skittering of gravel as she hit her brakes. The Jeep, as hardy as it was, couldn’t stop at that speed and he watched in horror as the vehicle slid off the side of the mountain.
19
Amberly knew she was fucked.
The Jeep had done them well, but she’d been going too fast as she’d struck Cole Regent when he got out of the ATV. It was worth dying, as long as he was dead. He’d been thrown into the air with the hit, and had landed in a crumpled heap.
Amberly gripped the wheel, fighting to maintain control as the Jeep slid down a rocky incline. Then she hit something hard. Her neck rocked forward and she bumped the steering wheel with her forehead, but the airbags didn’t go off. When she looked up, she saw by the light of the headlights that the Jeep had come to rest against a tree.
Allowing herself to take a breath, she did a quick inventory of herself. Her insides felt like a milkshake from the crazy ride up the mountain, then down, and her head hurt, but overall she was okay. Pushing her door open, she looked up the rocky incline, where Devlin might still be fighting.
“Fuck, this is going to hurt,” she breathed as she shoved her gun in her holster and started climbing. She was only about twenty feet down the embankment, but it was almost vertical, with loose, jagged rocks to contend with.
She heard the ping of bullet on metal and realized Dev was still firing at the chopper. Pouring on the power, she scrambled up the mountain, determined to be there at the end. They needed to confirm that Regent was dead. And if he was in the chopper, Frank, as well. That made her heart ache, but she turned the emotion off. Frank had chosen his side.
As she neared the top, she slowed and removed her weapon, holding it out in front of her. She lifted her head above the line of the rock, scanning for danger.
The helicopter thumped down just as she got into position. Amazingly, it sat and didn’t move, other than the rotors spinning. Dev must have gotten the pilot.
Even as she watched, a big man jumped down out of the chopper, and she recognized him immediately. Frank Callypso. He ran to the crumpled body on the ground, and she knew what he was doing.
Getting her legs under her, Amberly broke into a shambling run across the field. “Frank,” she screamed, taking aim.
Frank went still, leaning over Regent’s body. Amberly assumed she’d killed the fucker with the Jeep, because he was a bloody mess. Frank had to be looking for the phone, though. Did he honestly think it would do him any good now? None of the people were in place. They were all dead down the mountain. The only people he could possibly kill were the family members of the men already dead.
“They’re all dead, Frank.”
The older man peered over his shoulder at her. “I know, Amberly. I saw the bodies on the way up here. How did you do that?”
“It doesn’t matter. How could you do this?”
Frank sank back on one heel. Amberly couldn’t see his hands, but she assumed he’d found the phone. She also assumed Frank had a weapon in his ankle holster, at the very least. He may actually have his main weapon, a Glock, in his hand. She hadn’t seen it yet.
“You’re the one that got Regent out of prison,” she panted. “And Zed. And how many others?”
Frank chuckled. “A few.”
“Do you seriously believe in what he was doing?” she asked, moving carefully around so that she could see his face better.
Frowning, he looked down at the man lying dead in front of him. “In a way, yes. Sometimes, when you’re so close to it, you don’t realize how deep the bullshit gets until you’re almost drowning in it. I’ve been drowning for a long time, so I’ve done my part to keep the bullshit in line.”
“And how is killing family members of domestic terrorists going to help you do that?”
Frank snorted. “I’m not worried about them, although they might want to die just for the hell of it when they realize their family is gone. No, I need the phone to blow up the rest of the devices we’ve already planted.”
Amberly blinked. “What?”
Laughing, Frank pushed to his feet, a black touch screen smart phone in his hand. “Oh, didn’t you figure that part out?”
She shook her head, trying to catch up. There was no mention of other explosive devices. Oh, fuck. “How many?” she demanded.
Frank gave her a sly grin. “Oh, I don’t know. A dozen. Maybe two. You’d be amazed how many places they let an old C
IA officer in.”
“And what is your granddaughter going to say when she finds out you were targeting women and children?”
For the first time, she saw some emotion on his face. Sadness, or maybe regret. “She’s never going to know I was involved.”
“Oh, yes, she will. I’ll make sure of it,” Amberly vowed.
Anger clouded his face, along with determination. “Then I’m going to have to make sure you don’t make it off the mountain. Maybe I’ll give you a hero’s ending, dying while killing the notorious fugitive Cole Regent.”
Amberly could tell that Frank was going to make his move, and she prayed Dev was in position. As soon as he lifted his weapon, Dev fired. She didn’t hear it, just saw the effect. Frank’s body jerked and blood sprayed from the bullet wound in his chest. He looked down incredulously, then crashed to the ground, gasping for air.
Amberly should have felt more, but she didn’t. What Frank had chosen to participate in was reprehensible, and she couldn’t condone anything that he’d done. At one time, he might have been her friend, but she doubted it. She had a feeling that once they started digging into his actions and movements, they would find all his crimes.
Dev materialized out of the dark and walked into the circle of light from the ATV. Stopping in front of her, he cupped her face in his hands. “Are you okay?”
Amberly nodded, feeling a little numb. A lot had happened in the past hour, and it would take a while to come down off the adrenalin rush. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. Just wondering how we’re going to get out of here.”
She mustered a grin for him. “You can’t fly a helicopter?”
Dev barked out a laugh. “I might be able to turn it off, but I definitely can’t fly.”
Lowering his head, he kissed her for a moment, then wrapped her in his arms. Amberly sagged into him, wishing they were in any fucking nameless motel anywhere in the world that had a bed.
“What do we need to do to get the fuck off this mountain?” she murmured.
They turned around to look at the body of Cole Regent and found themselves looking down a wavering gun barrel. Before either one of them could move, the gun fired.
Dev knew what was going to happen, and he dove at Regent, taking the shot aimed at Amberly. Burning pain swallowed his leg, giving him extra fury as he landed on top of Regent. The man was mostly dead. There was a gunshot wound high on his chest, surely from Requiem. And several other bruises and abrasions all over, probably from being slapped by tree limbs on the ride up here. The ATV didn’t have a windshield or anything.
His legs were obviously broken and he was laying wrong. There was also a bleeding hole in his gut, and Dev wondered if one of the other men managed to shoot him. That would be a story. Turned on in his hour of need by his own people. Even as they watched, he took his last, gasping breath. Kneeling down, Amberly checked for a pulse, then shook her head.
Pulling out his phone, Dev took a picture of the dead man and sent it to Charley.
“Are you okay?” she asked, resting a hand on his shoulder.
Dev nodded, looking down at his leg. A long, thin line cut through the fabric of his BDUs, but it wasn’t bleeding too bad. It was just a scratch.
Frank was gone, the light faded from his eyes. Both of them were angry fools, dead by their own actions.
Reaching for her phone, she took a picture of the dead bodies as well, then a short video, because she knew it would be needed in the investigation later. The burner phone wasn’t equipped with a great camera, but it would be better than nothing. Then she sent it to Brown.
Within just a couple of minutes, Brown called. “You got them both?”
“Yes,” she confirmed, “along with about seven others. You’re going to have to send a clean-up crew out, posthaste.”
“I’ve already got one on the way. I knew something like this would happen.”
“Brown,” she paused. “There are more bombs. Not just in the phones. I think Frank has been planting them around D.C. We need to look at his movements for the past week to two weeks, at least.”
“On it. I expect you to gather all the documentation you can and get it here, pronto.”
“I’ll do pictures first,” she promised. “As soon as I figure out how the hell to get down off this mountain.”
They ended up loading Frank and Regent’s dead bodies in the back of the ATV. It was the only thing driveable at the moment, though they saw the Jeep wedged against the tree on the way down the mountain.
“I liked that Jeep,” Dev grumbled.
His leg was bandaged and Requiem was between his knees, the muzzle pointed up. Amberly was behind the wheel again, but the narrower ATV was a lot easier to drive down the mountain, even in the dark.
There was a lot of work to do once they got to the cabin. Apparently, the shoot-out had drawn enough attention that the law had been called. There was a young Sheriff’s deputy taking pictures of the bodies outside with his cell phone, the blue lights of his cruiser flashing in the night. When they parked the ATV near the cabin, they were met with a drawn gun.
“Hands up where I can see them,” the kid ordered.
“You’re going to want to put your weapon away, deputy,” Amberly told him calmly. “This is a CIA operation.” Very carefully, she removed her ID from her bag and held it out.
“What the hell happened here, ma’am?” he asked, voice wavering.
“I think it’s best if you don’t know a lot, Deputy, unless you want to testify in federal court.” His eyes widened comically. “This is what I’m going to need you to do.”
Within minutes, he was cordoning off the area around the cabin with police tape. Squads had gotten there not long after, as well as the sheriff. Amberly filled him in a little, enough to appease the man and explain why she was using his resources.
“It would have been nice to get a call beforehand so my county could have responded a little better.”
Amberly sighed. “Honestly Sheriff, we had no time. If you look in the back of the truck, they’re packed and ready to go. They were leaving in hours. And I had to move on the information I’d been given.”
The older man sighed. “Yeah, I supposed you’re right. It wouldn’t have done to have this stuff come out of our state.”
Sheriff Belle arranged to have the bomb squad come from Billings to take care of the devices in the back of the truck. He also, very helpfully, arranged for a team to go up and retrieve their Jeep, and catalog evidence on the mountain top. Then, finally, Amberly walked inside the cabin to begin gathering evidence.
20
Dev looked at the amount of data around them, and he shook his head.
The inside of the cabin was lined with diagrams, maps, pictures of people- mostly politicians. He recognized several of the head honchos from Washington, and he didn’t watch the news much.
There was a long wooden table where it looked like Cole sat and ran his kingdom of paramilitary fanatics. The man had been like a modern day general, planning out who would go where, the exact time, what train line, what he would carry and who he was to target. He had also written down a master list of demands, meant to be implemented as the devastation began to spread.
Regent wanted to hold the safety of the politician’s families over their heads to have emergency measures passed, because he felt like his personal liberties as an American were being eroded away. And he found enough people that believed the same thing to rebel against the government and commit their lives for change. The men were going to be suicide bombers, and Amberly actually found a waiting list of people ready to take their place if something fell through or they backed out.
“My god,” he breathed.
The dedication was truly something. She’d never spoken to Cole Regent herself, just saw footage of him from years ago. Obviously, he had refined his pitch, because he went from being a one-man band to compelling hundreds to take part in his madness.
“This guy was something,” he said
softly.
They were taking pictures of everything and forwarding them on. Hopefully, something in this shit pile would indicate where the charges were that Frank had planted. Because of the September 11th anniversary coming up, it was paramount that they find them.
Dev found the contact name for the Russians, and Amberly forwarded it on to Brown. Maybe he could track down their movements and contacts.
The sun was actually coming up behind them when they finally got ready to leave. The CIA team had arrived and were taking over, wading through piles upon piles of information and names. Amberly and Dev were going to hand carry what appeared to be the most pertinent evidence back to Langley, though it had all been thoroughly photographed.
The Sheriff’s team had dropped off the Jeep in front of the barn when they’d come down the mountain. Dev didn’t know how they’d gotten it down off that incline without rolling it. Whatever. He was happy to see it, since all their crap was still in it.
Dev didn’t know if he even wanted to go back to the D.C. area. After the whole SAC setup three years ago, he was less than thrilled with the thought of being back in Langley and on their home turf. He wanted to be there for Amberly, though.
He needed to ask her what she wanted to do. Actually, they needed to talk about several things.
Tiredness beat at him, though, and he knew they needed sleep. And shower. Eating would be nice.
If he could steal just a few hours of her time before they dove back into the craziness. There were still an unknown amount of explosive devices to be found. And reports to write. People to interview and talk to.
Technically, though, his job was done. It had been his responsibility to rescue Amberly and dispatch Regent, both of which had completed. In all honesty, he was looking forward to getting back to Tennessee. It had been nice to finish one last mission, but it was time for the younger kids to take over the dangerous stuff.