Kharon

by Wayne Marinovich

  'Young Michael took too long to fix my phone. Find me another assistant, would you.'

  Lord Butler dialled a number and waited. 'I am fine, thanks. Are you still in position?' he said.

  'Good. A few things have happened, and I have decided that we need to bring the plans forward again. Yes, I know that it’s risky to call you but I am making you a very wealthy man, so suck up a little extra risk,' Lord Butler said and started to tap his foot in anger.

  'What did I tell you about questioning my orders?' he snapped at the other person. 'I am done leading Gibbs, the NEG, and the NAG, around by their noses. It is time to spring the trap and kill the lot of them. It took a lot of planning to get them all in the right positions, and once the final person has arrived in New York, revenge and success will be ours.'

  'Yes, I always take care. Now just stick to the plan and all will be fine,' he said and pressed the disconnect button, looking at the blank screen for a while.

  'Woolf, I must admit the adrenaline is starting to course through me. One final move for us and then we can get stuck into them all.'

  'I’ve been waiting a long time for this,' Woolf said.

  'You will be leading the battle against them on my behalf, so I can assure you that you will get your chance,' Lord Butler said and stood up. 'Right now we need to keep one step ahead of them. Time to round up our supplies and my soon-to-be adopted young son.'

  'Everything is set up as planned, sir.'

  'I think I'll make a good father don't you think? Maybe it's just what I need when this is all over.'

  'Yes, sir,' Woolf said. 'But you are already a great father to all these young boys.'

  Lord Butler grabbed the back of Woolf's neck and pulled his head down to meet his own, their foreheads touching. 'You are truly like a younger brother to me.'

  'Yes, sir,' Wolf said, and watched Lord Butler leave, a large smile appearing on his face.

  • • •

  The afternoon sun soon warmed Gibbs and his team as they stood in front of the trucks. 'Heads up! Here is the man of the moment,' Shredder said and pointed to the dark green van that slowly drove towards them along North Washington Avenue. It pulled up behind the trucks and Bob Dweck got out the passenger seat.

  'Evening, gentlemen. Feels like a great night for a little mayhem doesn't it,' he said.

  'Where the hell have you been, Bob?' Smithy barked from behind the group of men.

  'Hello, Gibbs,' he said and held out his hand.

  Gibbs shook it. 'We have been trying to get hold of you for the past hour. Why have you been on the phone all this time?'

  'My informants have been busy scouting out eight factories across the country.'

  ‘Well, what information do they have? Are we about to hit the right factory or are you still saying that it is empty?'

  'The man we are pursuing is a very cagey individual, but I still believe that he is at the 2100 North Washington factory.'

  'I know who we’re following, Bob. I know all about him. That address is a mile down the road from here, and we are all ready to go. Are you prepared to get in there and kill Butler?' Gibbs asked, looking into the man's eyes.

  Bob smiled and tapped his pistol in the holster behind his back.

  'Have any of your contacts seen Christina, Kat or Stuart?' Warren asked as he stepped from the group.

  'Not sure of the womenfolk, but Butler has been seen travelling with a small boy of Stuart's description.'

  Bob took a step towards Gibbs and said in a hushed voice, 'Incidentally, one of my contacts who had been getting me a lot of good info has turned up dead. He told me a few days ago that he felt that he was being monitored by someone close to Butler.'

  'So do you think he knows we’re on to him?' Gibbs asked.

  'There is no evidence to suggest it, but I do. I think that Butler will be in even more of a hurry to get away from here if he is still in the factory.’

  'We better make sure that no one leaves then,' Gibbs said and walked towards the trucks. ‘Let's go, everyone. You all know your missions. There are a lot of innocents around, so please be thorough when picking your targets.'

  The men got into the trucks and the convoy moved down the empty dual carriageway. The sun was setting, and the warm light shone into their eyes as they drove.

  'Boss, are you sure this approach is the best one?' Smithy asked as he flipped down the sun visor.

  ‘We don’t have much of a choice. Butler intends to get us all. So every time we find one of his sites it could be a trap.’

  ‘I don’t like going into an operation without a good recce first.’

  ‘That’s how we were trained, mate. I don’t like it either, but they are our family and friends so needs must. Besides, you and Warren scouted the front of the factory and only spotted a single security guard. We will turn down the street before that and then come around to the back delivery gate. There are more guards at the rear, but we will be attacking directly with the sun behind us, so they should be blinded for long spells.'

  Smithy nodded and readjusted his M27 that was lying across his lap. 'I do like the idea of being the first through the gate. More men to kill for us.'

  Gibbs smiled.

  • • •

  The truck screeched to a halt as the bullets raked along the passenger's side. Smithy and Gibbs were out the driver's door and running around to the back to neutralise the last group of men who were firing at them. The crumpled metal gate lay underneath the wheels of the truck and the smell of shredded metal filled the air.

  The second truck, driven by Warren, and with Shredder firing out the passenger window, arrived and turned in behind them. It drove past the parked truck to cover them from the factory side.

  'Cover the others,' Gibbs shouted, and carried on firing at two men who were trapped in the small gatehouse. The small building with its red bricks up to the window level had one-way glass in the windows with bright spot lights on the flat roof. Two of the windows were ajar with short muzzles pointing outwards, flashes of stuttering yellow as they fired.

  Plaster and brick fragments flew up into the air as Gibbs strafed the side of the building, shattering the windows. More bullets hit the side of his truck, but this time coming from the direction of the factory parking lot. Gibbs peeked around to see a group of men engaging them from the left side of the factory, and another group taking the position from the right-hand side of the T-shaped building.

  He retreated just as a third vehicle entered the gate, the beams of headlights illuminating Gibbs as he disappeared around the left of the truck. He turned and signalled to Bob, who was in the passenger seat, to take care of the gate guards.

  Gibbs crouched next to Shredder, who smiled at him. 'They look pretty wedged in there, boss. And we cannot even see around to those men on the right. There is no knowing how many are back there.'

  'I'll get Bob to head around there once he is done here.'

  A crashing noise and the screeching of tyres on tarmac made them spin around towards the furthest side of the parking lot. Gibbs ran to the back of his truck, loading a fresh magazine into the M27. Raising it, he edged around the corner. Another crash as an army fusion truck went through the perimeter fence, bullets from his team ricocheting off the bodywork as it forced it way through. The fence uprights flew forward in all directions, flicking up sparks as they hit the tarmac of the outside road and spun out of sight.

  'Bob!' Gibbs shouted and pointed to the fleeing occupants in the truck. The tall American fired another burst at the gatehouse, sending the last man reeling backwards, clutching his throat.

  Gibbs ran forward and jumped on the side runner of Bob's truck, leaning into the window. 'Follow them and make sure you get them. There are six of you here, so force them off the road and kill the fuckers if you have too. I want to know why they are in such a hurry to abandon the rest of their men.’

  'Sure thing, boss,' Bob said, his big smile never leaving his face.

  Chapter 31

&nb
sp; North Washington Ave, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA- 2033

  The flimsy door folded in with the second kick from Smithy's black boot. Cold air from the air-conditioned corridor flowed out as the group gathered at either side of the doorway. He went down on one knee and peered around the corner, snapping back as a volley of machine gun fire ripped into the doorframe. Turning back, Smithy raised two fingers for the number of guards.

  Gibbs nodded then pulled a stun grenade from Smithy's vest webbing and lobbed it back in the direction of the shooting. The blast of noise and light erupted in the corridor. Dust and silence followed the groans of agony.

  'Ready, men! This is going to sting a little,' he said as he got up off his haunches and covering his mouth and nose with a piece of cloth, walked into the acrid smoke.

  The two guards came staggering towards them, arms over their faces, only too glad to be led outside as prisoners. Gibbs and the team walked through the haze towards the next closed door. Grabbing the handle, they rushed through the door then found themselves in an identical white corridor. Taking slow, deliberate steps, they fanned out and walked forward their M27s raised out in front of them.

  'Windows on the left, boss,' Smithy whispered and eased forward to look through into the first window. 'It's a production line of sorts. All seems quiet, not a worker in sight.'

  Gibbs stood up and walked past him to the second window, and then the third and onto the end of the corridor. A blue door, with a small rectangular glass panel at head height, blocked their progress. He pressed his head to the wood and waited. It was all quiet. Looking back at his men who were pressed up against the wall opposite the windows, he nodded and craned his head forward to peer through the glass. Gibbs snapped his head back and jumped to the side as bullets ripped through the wood, destroying large parts of it.

  Gibbs looked at Smithy, who had just popped a grenade into the launcher. He crouched as he ran forward keeping to the right of the corridor. Dust filtered through the massive hole in the cheap, soft plywood door as a burst of gunfire split more woodchips below the glass panel. The firing ceased from the other side of the door as the murmur of voices filtered through. Smith knelt down and fired. A hollow pop echoed in the corridor as the grenade went through a hole in the cheap plywood. Both he and Gibbs jumped to the side of the doorway as the blast ripped away what was left of the door. A hand gesture from Gibbs was the signal to storm through.

  A man lay on his stomach, screaming in pain and stretching for his weapon with a bloody hand. Smithy finished him off and checked the two other bodies that the grenades had ripped to shreds.

  'Do you hear that?' Gibbs asked.

  'It's just gunfire from Shredder and Warren's team, I think. They must have encountered some resistance on the other side of the building.'

  'No, I heard people calling for help,' he said and placed his ears to one of the doors.

  'Hello!' he shouted.

  'Help us!' a distant voice called.

  'It's coming from somewhere down on the production floor,' Smithy said, and put his head to one of the windows.

  'Let's go, men, there are people down there!' Gibbs shouted.

  A small staircase to the right allowed them to get down to the operational level. Once the men were standing at one another's shoulders in front of another blue door, he turned the handle and pushed it open. A squeak rang out as it opened, and they charged through, fanning out into a semicircle to cover the production area.

  'Here, boss, on this side. There is a storeroom over there,' one of the young NAG soldiers said. Gibbs walked over and patted him on the shoulder as they both walked towards a door.

  Gibbs knocked on it. 'Hello, can you hear me?'

  A reply came in the form of a continuous banging on the other side of the door.

  'Okay, folks, we are here to help. Please stand back from the door. Try and shield yourself, we're going to blow the door open,' he shouted and then turned to signal one of the team. A young soldier ran forward.

  'This door is quite sturdy, blow the hinges and locks and remember there are people inside.'

  'Yes, sir,' the young man replied, and knelt down with a green canvas bag he was carrying. Reaching inside, he pulled out clay-like strips of explosives and thin metal detonators then packed them on the concrete floor front of him.

  ‘Everyone pull back to behind that partitioned wall,’ he said. With a quick scuffle, they took their positions. The young man calmly walked around the wall with a small remote in his hand. He nodded at Gibbs.

  'Blow it,' Gibbs said. A smile crossed the young man's face, and he pushed the button. Three successive thuds filled the production space and a sprinkling of dust filtered towards them.

  Several female workers of Hispanic origin walked out first. The first two ladies were dazed, covered in a fine layer of dust, followed by two younger women walking arm in arm and sobbing with shock. They all stopped, eyes blinking as they stared at the men in the green army fatigues who had encircled them.

  'Please move back to the far wall so we can make sure that everything is safe,' Gibbs said and walked over to Smithy. 'Take two men and do a quick sweep of this production area. I will try and establish what the hell happened here.'

  Gibbs turned to see more dazed men and woman walking through the door. All dressed in white lab coats and talking frantically to one another, the panic showed in their body language. One of them walked up to Gibbs. 'You have to evacuate the factory. They have planted a bomb somewhere.'

  'What? Are you sure?' Gibbs asked, but the man had already rushed off.

  'Kyle!' someone shouted from the storeroom. Gibbs was shocked when he looked up to see a face he had only ever seen in photographs.

  'Ruth. What are you doing here?' he said to the short woman who ran over and hugged him. He felt his mood lift a little as the small woman hugged the breath out of him. She pulled away and grabbed his face with both hands and kissed him.

  'It is so good to meet you, Kyle.'

  'Come now, Ruth. Christina told us he prefers to be called Gibbs,' a deep voice said.

  Gibbs looked up to see the greying-haired man. Gibbs now knew where Christina had got her striking features and blue eyes from.

  'Hello, Pehr,' Gibbs said as the man came over and gave him a big powerful hug. ‘Have you any news of Christina?'

  Gibbs shook his head. 'Nothing I‘m afraid, but we can't chat now. You all need to get out of here.'

  ‘Lord Butler and that big blond ape of his have taken Stuart,' Pehr said.

  Gibbs stopped and took a deep breath. 'Just hold on, I need to contact someone.'

  Taking the satphone out of his pocket, he dialled Bob Dweck.

  'Hello, Gibbs, we are still trying to catch them. We should get them in the next few minutes.'

  'No! Don't engage them. Just follow them. I believe that my son is in there with Butler. Do you copy that?'

  Silence followed for a few seconds. 'Okay, boss, I think we should hit them now but it's your show, I'll let you know where we end up.'

  ‘Keep me informed of the direction you are heading. We’ll follow shortly.’

  Gibbs walked back to the group.

  'Pehr, would you please help to get everyone clear of the building. We need to find that bomb,' Gibbs said.

  'It is in production line four somewhere. That’s to the east of here,' Pehr said.

  'Okay, we'll take a look and see if we can deactivate it. You get everyone out and to the back parking lot.'

  Pehr nodded.

  'Ruth, can you escort them out. I need to get a few cases of vaccine for Gibbs and his men. Butler has moved the majority of it to another facility. But I had a colleague hide five cases. You will all need it if you are to chase the pig down.'

  Smithy walked back towards them. 'All clear, boss, I bumped into Shredder's team, and they are looking around the other lines.'

  'Right, change of plan, mate. There is a bomb in the production line to the east of here.'

  'Oh, crap. That�
��s where Shredder and Warren are.'

  'Shit. Come with me, and bring Miguel along. Let's see if we can deactivate it. The rest of you men, go with Professor Anderson and help get as many cases of the vaccine as you can carry. We'll all rendezvous back on the main road behind the parking lot. Clear all the trucks out of there and get ready to move out.'

  • • •

  Gibbs looked over the three-foot-wide silver pipes and couldn't see anything. The silver stainless steel vats and packaging equipment filled the room. Low air-conditioning ducts hung from the ceiling and could conceal the explosives. A smiling face suddenly popped up from behind the other side of the pipes.

  'Jesus, Shredder! I nearly shat myself,' Gibbs said.

  'Sshhhhh…' he said.

  'Are there still guards here?' Gibbs asked.

  'No, boss,' he whispered. 'A bomb. And a big fucker too.'

  Gibbs clicked his fingers at Smithy and Miguel, and they moved around to where the three large pipes disappeared into the tiled floor. Kneeling in front of a large packing crate near a chrome tank was one of Shredder's men. Miguel walked up to the crate and tapped the man on the shoulder. With a flick of the thumb, he got the man to move out of his way. Getting down on his stomach, he pulled himself to the left and right of the crate stopping to wipe a few beads of sweat from his brow. Turning over onto his back, he shook his head at Gibbs. Seven fingers were held aloft. Time would be tight.

  Gibbs clicked his fingers again to get all their attention and signalled them to all pull back.

  'No time to sort the bomb out now,' he whispered. 'Shredder and Warren, retrace your steps and sweep up any people who are lingering. We will check our side.'

  'I hope we got everyone out, and there are no more people locked away in some or other storeroom,' Smithy said as they walked with an increased intensity.

  'Pehr believed there were no more. Butler had been scaling down production to move it elsewhere so we must have got lucky,' Gibbs replied.

  They walked out through the smashed-in side door and into the warm evening air. The humid air filled their lungs as they looked around the parking lot. The truck that had been used to ram the gate was still parked with the mangled gate wedged underneath the chassis. Looking past it, he could see that everyone else had retreated beyond the perimeter fence.