Good Intentions - Adrian Hell #6 (Adrian Hell Series)

by James P. Sumner

  Lily and I exchange a look, then I turn to Kaitlyn and shrug. “That’s a good point, and one I’m trying not to think about.” I turn to Lily. “What do you think?”

  She shrugs. “If you’re right, and Pierce still thinks we’re trying to take each other out, he won’t feel the need to use the detonator. He’s here to help you kill me before killing you himself, most likely. It makes no sense to simply pop our heads off—they’ve gone to so much trouble fucking with us to prove a point, why undo all their hard work by simply pushing a button?”

  I nod. “Agreed. Plus, from their point of view, it must be hard keeping a bunch of trained killers in check all the time, so I bet they use the threat of being able to remove our heads remotely, with no warning, to keep us in line.”

  Lily picks up her gun and heads for the door. “Okay, I’ll head right, you two head for the main entrance. Watch your backs. Pierce might be just a trained grunt, but he’s not stupid. If he suspects anything, you’re dead.”

  I move next to Kaitlyn and hold out my gun. I look her in the eyes, my face softening with regret. “Take this.”

  She looks at it and shakes her head. Tears begin to well in her eyes. “I… I’m not using that thing, Adrian. It was bad enough carrying it for you.”

  “Look, I know you don’t like this, but with one hand, I’m only half an assassin. You need to have one.”

  She takes it from me apprehensively and wraps her own hand around the butt. She assesses the weight and looks at it, steeling herself to the inevitable fact she might need to use it.

  Lily steps toward her. “Screw the safety, alright? Rest your index finger against the trigger guard—that’s your safety. Only touch the trigger itself if you want to shoot someone.”

  I watch as she helps Kaitlyn adjust her grip to make it more comfortable. Yet again, things have taken a random U-turn on me. After yesterday, I never thought I’d see Lily and Kaitlyn working together…

  I take out the other gun from my back and open the door. I glance over my shoulder at the women. “Come on, time’s a-wastin’.”

  I step out into the corridor, and the two of them follow a few steps behind me. We stand in a tight triangle, with me facing my room, and Lily and Kaitlyn either side of me. We all check our weapons.

  I look at Lily and hand her one of my spare mags. “Go on, get out of here. I’ll make contact when I’ve dealt with Pierce.”

  She nods and turns to leave, but stops almost straight away. “Uh, Adrian…”

  I look left. At the end of the corridor are two men, both wearing Kevlar body armor and carrying automatic rifles.

  Shit.

  Instinctively, I look right. Kaitlyn’s already seen Pierce and two more men standing at the opposite end, dressed and armed the same as the others.

  The two men on either side move closer and take aim, gesturing menacingly with the barrels of their rifles. Pierce pushes through and steps toward me. His own rifle is hanging loose from its shoulder strap.

  He points to my left hand. “Put your gun down, Adrian.”

  There’s no way I can talk my way out of this. There’s no way he doesn’t know Lily’s told me everything. He has us surrounded, and there’s enough distance between us and them that we can’t do anything fast enough to be successful.

  When in doubt…

  I shake my head. “Fuck you.”

  He rolls his eyes. “See, this is why Horizon’s decided to cut his losses with you. Your fucking attitude and your fucking arrogance.”

  I sidestep and put my body between him and Kaitlyn. I aim my gun at him, but almost immediately I feel my arm wavering slightly. I’m still not fully functioning after my surgery.

  Behind me, I feel Kaitlyn place a hand on my arm. “Adrian, what do we do?”

  She sounds terrified. I close my eyes for the briefest of moments, silently cursing my own uselessness.

  I honestly have no idea.

  22

  12:46 AST

  I’m fighting to keep my arm raised, to keep my gun pointing at Pierce’s head, but it’s not happening. I lower it, but still keep a firm grip of the weapon. The two guys behind Pierce are maybe fifty yards away, with Pierce himself a few steps in front of them. The other two at the opposite end of the corridor are easily a hundred yards behind us.

  Too great a distance for anything effective.

  My priority’s Kaitlyn’s safety. I need to get her out of here.

  I stare into Pierce’s dark eyes. “So what happens now?”

  He shrugs. “That’s up to you. You can either kill Lily like we’ve told you to, and put all this unpleasantness behind us, or you can continue down the path you’re on and be killed in the next thirty seconds.”

  I take a small step backward, closing the gap between Lily and me. This is a pretty shit situation. Even if I did kill Lily, that wouldn’t be the end of it. He’s insulting my intelligence if he genuinely believes I don’t know he’ll try to kill me before her body hits the floor.

  Under the circumstances, I can only see one way out of this, and it’s a long shot. Literally as well as figuratively.

  Pierce is directly in front of me, partially blocking the direct line of sight for the guys behind him. I need three accurate shots in quick succession. Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue, but left-handed, not feeling a hundred percent… it’s a big ask.

  I just hope Lily’s thinking the same thing I am, or this is going to be the shortest escape plan in history.

  I nod. “Thirty seconds, eh? If I were you, I’d give me five. I’m too good to justify leaving it so long…”

  He smirks. “Why? What are you gonna do? You’re a washed-up cripple with an attitude problem, nothing more. You’re not even half the man we thought we were recruiting.”

  I frown.

  Washed-up?

  Does he know who I—

  Nope… Stopped myself saying it! Don’t want to look like a douche.

  Anyway, fuck him. What does he know?

  I’ll show him washed-up…

  I drop to one knee and fire three shots. The first hits Pierce in the center of his chest. He’s protected, but the impact sends him sprawling to the floor anyway, as I’d hoped. The second and third are aimed at the heads of the men behind him. The first hits the mark, and the guy drops, leaving a faint spray of crimson on the wall behind him. The second misses, catching the guy in the shoulder. His body armor doesn’t protect him, but it’s not a fatal wound—just enough to make him drop his rifle and spin away.

  At the same time as my final two shots, I heard two more behind me, which I took as a sign that Lily had indeed been thinking along the same lines as me. I snap my head around just as the second of the other two men is hitting the floor. Both are dead. I lock eyes with Lily for a brief moment, and we exchange a nod of thanks and understanding.

  Three out of five dead, and two distracted. Not bad.

  I turn to Kaitlyn. “Come on, we’re leaving.”

  The color has drained from her face, and her unblinking gaze is transfixed on the bloodstain spread across the wall in front of her.

  Lily appears next to me and puts a hand on her arm. She jumps with shock and spins around to face her. Lily smiles sympathetically. “Kaitlyn, come on. I’ve got you.” She looks at me. “Go on, we’re right behind you.”

  I nod and set off down the corridor, heading away from the main entrance toward the men Lily took out.

  “Which way?” I call over my shoulder.

  “Left, then right, then left,” replies Lily.

  I follow the network of corridors as per her instructions. It’s not going to take long for Pierce to get back to his feet. Even though body armor will withstand a low caliber round at mid-distance, it still hurts like a bitch. It’s like being punched in the sternum by a sledgehammer. It’ll knock the wind out of you and leave a bruise the size of a watermelon. But Pierce is a tough sonofabitch. I can attest to that personally. He’s probably organizing his men as we speak. I’ve no id
ea how many he has, and have no wish to find out.

  As I take the second left, we come to a dead end. There are two doors on the left—one of which has a plaque on it saying SUPPLIES. Must be where Lily dropped in. Opposite that is a fire exit, which is closed and looks alarmed. I can see the shadow of a guy standing outside it through the frosted glass.

  I stop and turn. Lily and Kaitlyn move next to me. I aim my gun at the corner. “What’s the move, Lily?”

  She lets out a short sigh, which I think is frustration. “We need to get outside. I can take the guy out who’s standing there, but I don’t know who else is nearby. Also, we’re on the opposite side of the building to the front entrance, and more importantly, to the parking lot. There’s no quick way out of here.”

  I stare at the corridor, focusing all my strength on keeping my arm raised. I wait a few moments, to see if anyone appears.

  …

  …

  …

  …

  Nothing.

  Could be a good sign.

  Probably isn’t, but I feel optimism is the way forward right now.

  I turn my head slightly. “I’ll cover you. Do what you gotta do.”

  Behind me, Lily says, “Kaitlyn, stay low against the wall. Get your gun ready. Watch Adrian’s back, shoot anything you see that isn’t him. Just point and squeeze like we talked about, okay? I’ll call out when it’s clear.”

  I take slow, deep breaths, concentrating on keeping my aim steady. I hear Lily kick the door open… The guy outside grunts… Then shouts out in pain… It’s cut short… I hear the thud of a body hitting the ground outside.

  “We’re clear,” announces Lily.

  I walk backward until I’m level with the fire exit. Kaitlyn’s already moved outside. Still no sign of anyone following us. My guess is they re-grouped out front.

  I force myself to lower my gun and step through the fire exit. The heat is intense, and a faint wave of nausea hits me. I stand still for a moment while it passes…

  I hate this.

  I stride over the dead guy. I can tell he’s dead, because his eyes are open and blank, looking up at me. From the position of his head, I’m guessing Lily snapped his neck.

  Nice.

  There’s a small grassy area ahead of us with trees planted sporadically around the perimeter. A high wall surrounds the miniature garden ahead of us and to the right, with benches positioned in front of them. The graveled courtyard stretches left around the corner.

  Lily takes point, with Kaitlyn close behind. I’m bringing up the rear, moving backward as fast as I dare, aiming at the fire exit. I round the corner and turn, quickly catching them up. It’s a wide passage that seems to lead around the back of the facility. There’s a set of double doors about halfway along on the left.

  Lily’s pressed against the wall at the end, peering around the corner. Kaitlyn’s next to her, holding her gun awkwardly and staring ahead with a ‘what the fuck am I doing here?’ look on her face.

  I smile to myself. I know that feeling.

  I rest against the wall next to her and catch my breath. “What are we looking at, Lily?”

  “It’s a parking lot, maybe half full. It runs all the way around the side and links up to the front, which is the good news.”

  “I’m assuming there’s bad news, too?”

  “Yeah… I can see eight men at the far side. They’re spread out, but in an obvious formation. There’s a chance they won’t see us back here, but there’s no way past them.”

  “Shit. Okay, let me take a look.”

  We swap positions and I peer carefully around the corner.

  She’s right—the formation is spaced, but tight. There’s no way we can get past them unseen. I can’t make out facial features from this distance, but I can tell by how they’re all standing that Pierce isn’t among them.

  As of right now, we’re against the clock. Realistically, I have to assume it’s only a matter of time before someone decides enough is enough and the button’s pushed to remove both mine and Lily’s heads. There are only two people I know of who can do that, so the safest option is to kill them both. Unfortunately, one of them, as best as I can tell, pretty much runs The Order, and is surrounded at all times by a sizeable security detail. The other is somewhere on the other side of this parking lot, also surrounded by a sizeable security detail.

  Shit.

  I turn back to Lily. “What do you know about The Order’s network?”

  She frowns. “How do you mean?”

  “Well, when Pierce was feeding me his bullshit, he said you’d hacked into their network and hijacked the signal from the tracking devices, giving you visibility of everyone’s location. I assumed, because I wasn’t dead, that viewing the tracking signal wasn’t the same thing as having control over the detonator. That might still be the case, I don’t know, but is anything like that remotely possible?”

  She thinks for a moment, and then shrugs. “It’s possible, I guess. But I wouldn’t know how to do it.”

  “Do you know anyone in The Order who could? Who you trust enough to ask?”

  She shakes her head. “No. You?”

  I return the gesture. “Nope. Only person I know could do that shit, I’m not allowed to contact.”

  “Your GlobaTech friend?”

  I nod.

  “Listen, Adrian. Whatever happens from this point on, you have to accept that you’re done with The Order. If reaching out to him is our only way out of this, maybe you should consider it?”

  I think about it for a moment, but quickly dismiss it. “No. He believes I’m dead. Regardless of what Horizon told me I can and can’t do, I can’t just announce to him out of the blue that I’m alive and immediately ask him to risk his life for me. We need another way.”

  Kaitlyn stands up straight and steps away from the wall. She turns to face us both. “I… I might know someone…”

  Lily and I exchange a glance, both equally surprised. I look at Kaitlyn. Her face is contorted with the familiar struggle of an internal debate. I’m guessing she’s trying to decide if she wants to involve whoever it is in this mess. Can’t say I blame her, and under any other circumstances, I would try to talk her out of it.

  I move toward her. “Who is it?”

  She stares at the ground for a moment, fidgeting with the gun in her hand. “It’s… my neighbor. He’s a sweet kid, nineteen. It’s just him and his mom. He’s studying a Masters of Science at Zayed University in… I.T. and Cyber Security, I think it is. He’s off-the-scale intelligent. If you want a computer system hacking, I bet he’ll be able to do it.”

  I raise an eyebrow. “Kaitlyn, this is brilliant. Do you have a good relationship with them? Can we approach them with this?”

  “More importantly, do you trust him?” adds Lily.

  She looks flustered. “I… Yes, I think so. We can trust him, I mean. I speak with both Yaz and his mother when I see them. I think he might have a small crush on me, actually…”

  Lily giggles. “That’s perfect. Just show a little of what God gave you, and he’ll do anything!”

  Kaitlyn goes bright red and looks away.

  I roll my eyes and look back around the corner. The men are still fanned out across the parking lot. I glance around the area directly across from me. There aren’t many cars nearby, but one does catch my eye. It’s a white Range Rover Sport. A big, sturdy 4×4 with a grill on the front and large rims on the tires.

  We might be able to get to it unseen…

  I look back at Lily. “I’ve got an idea.”

  “Oh, no…”

  I smile. “You’re gonna love it.” I look at them both in turn. “You see that Range Rover behind me? We’re going to steal it and plough straight through Pierce’s team. Lily, you can drive. I’ll shoot whoever I can. Kaitlyn, I want you lay flat on the back seat, out of sight. It’s a strong vehicle, and I’m hoping the surprise means we won’t take too much fire on the way out.”

  The women exchange
a look, and then Lily stares at me. “Adrian, that’s fucking stupid.”

  I nod. “Correct.”

  “I mean, the chances of that working and us getting out of here are… next to nothing.”

  “I agree.”

  “And yet you’re still standing by your plan?”

  I shrug. “Unless you can think of a better one…”

  Kaitlyn clears her throat. “Ah… I know I’m not, like… y’know… one of you or anything, but would it not make sense to cause a distraction first? Get them looking somewhere else, and then hit them with the Range Rover from behind.”

  I look at Lily and smile. That’s a good idea, and I concede I didn’t think about that. I was too focused on what’s right in front of me.

  I wink at Kaitlyn. “You sure you’re not secretly an assassin?”

  She smiles awkwardly.

  Lily moves back along the wall, toward the fire exit. I look over at her. “Hey, where are you going?”

  She glances back and shrugs. “To cause a distraction. Kaitlyn will be fine driving… you shoot whoever you can… I’ll meet you out front.”

  “Lily, that’s… You talk about my plans being stupid! Pierce and God knows how many more men are still in there.”

  “I’ll be fine, just make sure you’re waiting for me out front.”

  “Okay, well at least take this.” I throw her my remaining spare mag.

  She catches it and nods. “Thanks.”

  Before I can say anything else, she disappears around the corner, heading back inside the hospital.

  Shit.

  I tuck my gun behind me and move next to Kaitlyn. I grab her arm in my left hand and turn to her. I take a deep breath. She does the same, knowing that the time for action has come. I look into her eyes and see her searching for every ounce of courage she can find, steeling herself for what lies ahead. She’s about to walk into a life or death situation and charge headfirst toward the threat. That’s never an easy thing to do, but I imagine that up until yesterday it had never even crossed her mind that she would be here.