Reciprosity

by A. J. Ragland

I got on with it. I hurried back into the cellar, found the control switch for the cavern lights and flipped them off, then jogged up the stairs to the ground level. I crouched and listened for movement while Rory updated me.

  “The castle is like a square donut with a courtyard in the center. You are in the northwest corner. Down the long west hallway on your right is the banquet hall and other formal living areas. The north hallway, which is narrower, leads to a series of smaller rooms and one larger room where a group of players may be sleeping. The doorway directly in front of you leads out into the courtyard. Two and Three are patrolling out there. Five is patrolling up and down the north hallway. Six is doing likewise near the banquet hall.”

  I had to exfiltrate with my target the way I had entered and I didn’t want to trip over Five and Six. Also, since they were awake, I wondered how long it would be before they missed Seven and Ten.

  It was dark down both hallways so I pulled my NV glasses down. The Phantom was still in my right hand. Twelve rounds left. I moved quietly into the banquet hallway, hugging the wall on my left. The hallway was wide and high with display cases, statues, and other odds and ends collecting dust on either side. They presented cover as I moved toward Six.

  After sixty cautious paces I reached a second doorway leading to the courtyard. I was about to move past it when Virna practically shouted in my ear.

  “Two and Three are moving toward that door and it looks like Six is moving to join them.”

  Shit. I backtracked behind a tall display case filled with Nazi memorabilia. I waited. The door swung outward and Two and Three walked through. They closed it behind them and turned toward the approaching Six. The two men from the courtyard were wearing heavy hooded parkas. They were drenched and the rain water was running off and forming pools on the tiled floor. They removed the parkas and shook them out, oblivious to the mess they were leaving for the cleaning crew. They were wearing sidearms and had radios and hand mics near their shoulders. Six joined them.

  “I’m worried,” Six said. “Bill went to check on Scottie five minutes ago. He hasn’t checked in. Neither has Scottie.”

  Two said, “Maybe radio issues like the cave alarm that wouldn’t stop going off this afternoon.”

  “Or the weather,” Three offered.

  “Or me,” I said out loud as I squeezed the 9mm trigger.

  I dropped them in numerical order where they stood. Shocked expressions frozen in time. No time left to pussy-foot around. I hurried forward, switched off their radios and added their rings to my growing collection. No time to hide the bodies.

  Back at the tower intersection I looked down the north hallway. Five was nowhere in sight.

  Virna could see what I was doing and offered advice. “Keep walking down the hallway. Five is sixty feet ahead on the right, just outside the room where eight players are stationary. Five won’t be able to see you unless he moves.”

  I started walking, hugging the right-hand wall this time. The only items in this hallway were dozens of shipping crates stamped with the Guardian Eagle crest. One was labeled RESEARCH. Two others were labeled LABORATORY. A fourth was labeled GENESIS. It stood outside a door marked LAB. I thought of the mysterious Helena Kincaid as I turned the knob and pushed the door inward. I only got a quick glance before Virna warned me.

  “Five is hurrying toward you.”

  It was dark in the hallway and I probably looked more like a shadow than anything else.

  He was ten feet away when he asked, “Who is that? Identify yourself.” He moved his hand toward his holstered weapon.

  I said, “Death,” and shot him in the head. I followed the same routine with his radio and ring. Then I continued down the hallway to the room where eight warm bodies waited. Hopefully asleep and dreaming.

  The door was labeled DORMITORY. It was a strange name for a barracks where a bunch of killers hang out. There was no handle, just a keycard reader. I pressed my hand against the door in the hopes that it was unlocked. It wasn’t, which raised an alarming assumption. You don’t lock your soldiers in a room. Not unless they’re a bunch of crazed zombies. What you do lock in is someone you don’t want out.

  I ran back to Five and searched him. I found a keycard.

  Back at the dormitory door I readied my Phantom and slid the card in the lock. A reassuring buzz let me know the door was unlocked. I pushed my NV glasses up on my forehead just in case lights were on, and pushed the door open a crack and peeked into darkness. No one attacked me. The only sounds were those of heavy breathing and snoring. I took a deep breath, exhaled and stepped over the threshold. Automated overhead LED lights blinked on. What I saw in the glaringly bright white room I would never forget.

  A dozen hospital beds stood against the far wall. Eight of the beds were occupied by women. They appeared to be in a comatose state because none of them responded to the bright lights coming on. The women were hooked up to monitoring devices, which were beeping quietly like an unorganized orchestra. I approached a center bed and looked at the occupant. She appeared to be in her seventies. Charts hung at the ends of the eight occupied beds and I began to check them. The charts listed the names, dates of birth, places of birth, placement dates and locations, physical measurements, children, and a bunch of other data.

  I wouldn’t have believed what I was reading had Virna not told Helena Kincaid’s harrowing story. Each of the women was born in Entstehung, Germany in 1920—the same as Kincaid. That meant they were over one-hundred years old. Their last names were all common Euro-American family names, including one that jumped off the chart.

  Name: Loren Elizabeth Adams.

  Children: John J Adams

  Virna interrupted me, “Nine is coming down the hallway.”

  I ran over and hid behind the open door. A moment later a tall man walked in. He was wearing a green medical smock. From his back he looked to be in his sixties and apparently blind since he never saw Mr. Five’s body in the hallway. He approached the beds. I crept up behind him and pressed the barrel of my Phantom against the base of his skull.

  “Not a sound, understand,” I whispered.

  He froze in place. “What do you want?”

  Not a who are you, or what are you doing in this locked room, or where is Mr. Five, or what do you think of this crappy weather. Just a what do you want. So I told him.

  “What I want is to kill every last fucking person in this castle. Everyone except these lovely ladies, and if you’re really cooperative, you. So, let’s start with who you are, and who these ladies are, and what are you doing with them?”

  He started to move.

  I pressed the barrel deeper into his skin. “I don’t recall telling you to move.”

  “Sorry. My name is Doctor Barnhart. The ladies are my patients. I’m treating them for...”

  I clubbed his right ear with the butt of my Phantom. He cried out and dropped to his knees and held his bleeding ear. I walked around and crouched in front of him so we could look into each others eyes. His grew wide when he saw how I was dressed and armed.

  I said in my calmest, most sinister tone, “Do I look like a man who means what he says?”

  He nodded.

  “Good. Let’s try this one more time, Doctor Barnhart—is that German?”

  “Yes. Please don’t hurt me anymore. I’ll tell you everything.”

  And he did. He told me things that made my blood run cold.

  When he was finished and I was exhausted, I zip-tied his hands to the base of a bed frame and wrapped some duct tape over his mouth. For good measure, I zapped him with my stun-gun. He would sleep for an hour or so.

  Now came the hard part.

  “Everyone,” I said to Virna and Rory and Aila, “listen up. We have a situation here and it’s not pretty.” I quickly described what I discovered and what my current status was—body count and so forth. “Rory, how is your relationship with the local authorities?”

  “My cousin is the Chief Superintendent in these parts. Will that do
?”

  “Yes, that’s good. What about medical help? Doctors, etcetera?”

  Aila answered, “I have two doctors in my family. My brother has a practice in Glasgow. My sister is head of emergency at our district hospital.”

  “Okay, here’s what I want you to do. Head back to your shop and drop off Rory, then Aila, you return to pick me up. Rory, get your cousin on the phone and have him send a squad or whatever to meet you at the front entrance of Castle Christoph. Aila, same thing with your sister. Tell her what I found and to get the hell up here fast.”

  “What about you, Luke? There are still three players plus Zero.”

  “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be waiting at the footbridge when you return. Now, get moving.” I glanced at my watch. I figured I had at least an hour, considering the weather conditions, before first responders would be knocking on the drawbridge. “Virna, you still on?”

  “I have Ray and Kate and Helena on conference.”

  “Smart girl. I knew there was a reason I wanted to marry you.”

  “Not in mixed company, Luke. Go ahead, you’re on.”

  I took a deep breath. I didn’t have time to beat around the bush. “Ray. Kate. Nice to meet you, Helena.”

  “You as well, Luke,” Helena said in a strong voice.

  “Virna told me your story, Helena.” I took a deep breath. “I found eight of the Genesis children.”

  22

  Helena’s response surprised me when she said, “Don’t call the authorities or those doctors. We need people that are completely loyal, that will follow orders without question. And we need to get those women to a secure location where they can receive specialized care.”

  “Hang on, Helena.” I switched back to my two-way and told Rory and Aila to stand down and wait. They agreed without question.

  “Helena,” I began, “this is Scotland. I don’t have access to resources like that. Plus I have a few things I need to finish here that’s not part of this Genesis business, and they’re being a real pain in the ass. Pardon my French.”

  Ray broke in, “Luke, what about the GCE facility in Glasgow? There are bound to be a few security guards on duty. Plus, they have the air transport.”

  Not a bad idea. I should’ve thought of it. GCE only hires family and they are defiantly loyal to Don Vittorio. “Good Idea, Ray,” I said. “Will you call Vittorio and get his ass moving. We’ll need four ambulances.”

  Aila was listening on the two-way I forgot to mute. “My sister can arrange that. You can trust us, Luke.”

  “Same goes for my cousin,” Rory added. “We take care of our own in these parts. If you want secrecy, you got it.”

  I considered their proposal for maybe two seconds. “Okay,” I said. “Back to the original plan. Rory, you and Aila get going. Ray, get GCE up here ASAP and have a jet standing by. If they have a chopper they can land in the courtyard. Helena, Where are we taking these ladies?”

  There was a long pause, then Helena said, “I don’t know.”

  But Kate did. She said, “Bring them to San Francisco. To UCSF. Thomas and I have endowed a number of their facilities and I know the chancellor. I’ll make all the arrangements. I’ll pick up Helena and we will both go there and lay the groundwork.”

  Ray added, “I’ll join you. This is going to require some legal juggling.”

  Then Virna broke the mood, “Zero is coming your way, Luke. And he has players One and Four and Eight with him”

  “Got to go, folks. Talk in an hour. Where are they, Virna?”

  “Descending the keep tower. Level two. They’ll be at the north hall in seconds...now level one.”

  I wanted to avoid a gunfight that would probably endanger the eight comatose women. I ran through the open door to the hallway and paused just long enough for the players rounding the corner to catch a glimpse of me in the shaft of light streaming through the doorway. Then I bolted for the next corner that intersected with the east hallway. I heard two men shout after me before I disappeared into the shadows.

  I was crouching in near darkness at the corner when I heard Zero order two of his men after me. Virna confirmed that Four and Eight were hurrying in my direction. I waited until they were bathed in the light streaming through the dormitory doorway. Like dear caught in headlights, for a split second they were frozen in time—time for me to aim and shoot. They both fell, guns clattering across the tile floor. Zero and One were still in shadow.

  “They stopped,” Virna announced. “About six feet from the doorway.”

  I pulled my night-vision glasses down and could just barely make out portions of their forms through the interference of the dorm lights.

  “Which one is Zero?” I asked.

  “On the left, Luke.”

  I guessed they were using the crates for cover as I did. I also figured their vision would be greatly impaired, staring through the shaft of light to find me in the darkness beyond. I holstered my Phantom and drew my .44. This last act required sound and fury.

  I stepped out from the corner wall and began walking toward my targets. They did not see me or hear me. Before I reached the light I stopped and crouched behind another crate.

  “Mr. President,” I said, “You can either die now or live to see another sunrise. Tell your remaining guardian to throw out his weapon. Stand and walk into the light now. You have five seconds.”

  “Who are you?” he shouted. “What do you want? I have very powerful friends. You’ll never get away with this.”

  “You just waisted your five seconds,” I replied.

  I stood and fired three rounds at the shape behind crate number two. The ear-shattering sound echoed down the hallway. I thought I heard a grunt, then Mr. One stumbled from behind his shattered crate and tried to raise his weapon. I shot him in the face. The force nocked him backward before falling beside Mr. Five.

  I stepped into the light. “Mr. President, if you are armed, don’t even think about it. Stand up now and walk toward me.”

  No sound or movement. I fired twice more over his head to get his undivided attention.

  “Stop. Stop. I’m coming out,” he moaned.

  When he was standing in front of me in the light I pointed the .44 at his head. The tip of the barrel was an inch from the tip of his nose.

  This is where I normally give my standard spiel before the bad guy gets it. However, in this case the bad guy wouldn’t be getting it from me. He would be getting it from the families of forty dead Cassine employees in a day or two. So I modified my speech.

  I said, “You made three mistakes, Mr. President.”

  “Huh?”

  “First. You were born. I have no doubt your parents would have flushed you down the toilet right then and there had they known what a piece of shit their son would grow up to be. But I guess we can let that mistake slide since you didn’t have any choice in the matter.” I liked this bit so I kept it in.

  “Second. You don’t learn from your mistakes. A wise man would’ve concluded, upon the deaths of his VP and the chairman of The Endowment, that he should probably change his ways.” Christoph glanced away from me toward the dorm and the eight comatose women. “That’s right, you didn’t change. Instead you doubled down, kidnapped these women and killed dozens of the Cassine family. Not to mention that poor girl in Vegas.”

  “What girl?”

  I wasn’t sure if he was serious or trying to be funny. “The girl on the bed in your room in the video. The girl your friends buried in the desert. The girl the Feds dug up yesterday morning. The girl your DNA is all over.”

  Christoph grimaced at the news, so I rubbed salt in the wound.

  “Your third mistake, Mr. President, was the stupidest of all. Your men missed Vittorio. But hey, not to worry. He sends his wishes and wants you to know he will see you at your funeral.” The news visibly shook Christoph but I wasn’t going to give him the chance to reply. “Also, you never learned how to count to six.”

  Christoph’s eyes narrowed as he stare
d at me. I could hear the wheels in his brain spinning: “What did he just say?” This is usually when realization dawns on those who look down the barrel of my .44 to the empty chambers.

  Not this time.

  Christoph regained his sense of defiance and angrily hissed, “You only fired five rounds. Now what the fuck do you want?”

  Okay. Talk over.

  I grabbed him by his right elbow, twisted his arm and body around and slammed him up against the wall with deliberate force. Then I zip-cuffed his hands behind his back and pulled the black hood down over his head.

  “What I want is to put a bullet through your sick Nazi brain and that’s exactly what I will do if you say another word. Verstehen?”

  I pushed him down to sit on the floor. Then I unmuted my two-way and phone and told Virna, Rory and Aila. “Mission complete. Don’t use names, just give me the status.”

  The status was promising. GCE was on the way with four armed escorts via helicopter. Arrival in twenty minutes. Ambulances would be here in ten minutes with Aila’s sister in charge. Two GCE jets were standing by. One destined for America with a precious cargo of centenarian Genesis children. The other was waiting to take my cargo to Italy and a deserved fate.

  Local police were also on the way with Rory in the lead, and Aila was sailing back to the pickup point. It was time to go. I pulled Christoph to his feet and removed the hood, figuring it would go faster if he could see where he was walking. Along the way I collected the final three rings from the goons still leaking blood from their wounds.

  Twenty minutes later I was shoving President Christoph’s ass from the skiff up to the Nord Star 28 deck when I heard the helicopter approaching the castle.

  EPILOGUE

  “Go in peace with Christ,” the priest announced.

  Virna and I turned to face our closest friends and family gathered together in the Chiesa di San Rocco in Lugano, Switzerland. They came from America, Italy, Scotland and France, to be part of the ceremony, surrounded by the 500-year old frescos depicting the life of Saint Rocco. The patron saint of bachelors, among other things.