Vendetta Target: Six Assassins Book 5

by Heskett, Jim

  “What? I thought maybe we could—”

  She whipped back the blanket. “I mean it. Right now.”

  Ember jumped out of bed and snatched up her clothes strewn about the floor. She was dressed in four seconds, while Zach was still fumbling with his jeans. She grabbed his shirt and tossed it at him. Heart rattling, senses ablaze. Something was about to happen, and they needed to be ready to run.

  “You have your wallet?” she asked, looking at the door.

  “Yeah. What’s going on? Talk to me.”

  Instead of answering, she hunted around the room, looking for anything to use as a weapon. There wasn’t much, so she yanked the ceramic lamp from the nightstand, then she pulled the cord and wrapped it around the base so she wouldn’t trip on it. It was solid, at least fifteen or twenty pounds, but too bulky to swing with any accuracy.

  Once, in Rome, Ember had strangled a corrupt politician with the cord from a hotel lamp, a lot like this one. But she didn’t have the luxury of plotting a sneak attack this morning. They were on defense.

  “Ember. Talk to me.”

  “Someone is here. Be ready to move.”

  Before she could speak again, a thud came at the door. Something heavy, hard, with harsh intent. The door shook, and the force from the deadbolt made the door frame crack a little.

  “Get behind me,” Ember said, waving Zach to her. He scrambled over the bed as she raised the lamp. But he did not stand behind her. He stood to the side, fists up, panting, eyes flashing. He was dressed now, at least.

  Another push on the door. The doorframe splintered. The door swung open, and there stood a giant of a man in a dark suit, with a stubbly shaved head. Blinding morning light surrounded him like a shining aura.

  “Helmut?” Zach said.

  Thomas Milligan’s man had come for them. And for the moment, he was looking at Zach, not at Ember.

  She heaved the lamp, and it smacked Helmut in the face, shattering over the bridge of his nose. He’d tried to raise a hand to block but had been a fraction of a second too late. Helmut cried out and took a step back, bumping into the door. Now Ember could see outside, and there was a second man out there, in a similar dark suit.

  And at the edge of her vision, another man was running across the parking lot. She knew this third one, though. It was Kevin, the Boulder Branch member who had been charged with keeping an eye on Zach. He was frantic, galloping toward their room at full speed.

  Ember grabbed Zach by the arm. “Run!"

  She gave him a shove as Helmut wiped pieces of ceramic off his face. Zach leaped over the bed, headed for the door. Helmut was standing right next to it. No way could Zach slip past him.

  Ember scrambled to think of something to do; to find another object to hurl at Helmut, but she ran out of time.

  Zach approached the door, and Helmut bared his teeth. He put his meaty hands out, poised to wrap his arms around Zach.

  Then Zach did something that took Ember by surprise. In mid-stride, he changed course and launched the crown of his head straight at Helmut. His temple crashed into Helmut’s chin, driving the much larger man back into the door again. He thunked into the wood, his head snapping back. Ember immediately saw blood on Helmut’s lips. He must have bit his tongue.

  In the chaos, Zach dashed out the door, and Ember followed. The other man in the suit reached into his coat interior, going for a gun. Zach saw this and darted to the left. He ducked and put his hands above his head, maybe hoping to persuade the shooter to rethink his plan. A natural reaction, but it wouldn’t save him from bullets.

  Kevin paused in the parking lot and aimed his pistol. Elbows locked out, one eye looking down the sights of his CZ P-09 pistol topped with a noise suppressor. He shot the suited man in the back four times before the second intruder could raise his gun to fire. The man sank to his knees, mouth open. Each of the rounds had landed somewhere inside of him, puncturing internal organs and coming to a stop deep in his body. He fell forward on his face, arms splayed out at his sides. Dead before he’d even hit the ground.

  “I was in the bathroom,” Kevin shouted at Ember, out of breath and haggard. “So sorry. Get him out of here. I can handle the other one. Probably more coming.”

  Zach wobbled, gawking at the bleeding man in the parking lot. Ember looked up to the second floor as a room door opened and a head poked out to spy the melee in the parking lot.

  Ember grabbed Zach by the arm and rushed him over to the passenger side of her car, keeping his head down so no civilians could see him. She ripped her keys out of her tight jeans pocket and opened the door for him, then shoved him in. No time to be gentle. She raced around the other side of the car as Kevin waved her off, hustling toward Helmut.

  Kevin aimed his pistol and pulled the trigger, but nothing happened. It jammed. Helmut rushed forward to meet him.

  Ember hovered by her open car door. She wanted to help Kevin. Helmut had thirty pounds on him. Despite Helmut’s face being covered in blood, it still didn’t seem like a fair fight.

  “Ember, we have to go,” Zach said, leaning over toward her.

  Kevin bellowed, “Go, get out of here! I can deal with this one.”

  She didn’t know what to do. Kevin and Helmut locked horns, grappling with each other in the open doorway of the motel room. As much as she wanted to stay and help Kevin take on Helmut, she had to think about Zach. There was a good chance more of them were incoming. Plus, more civilians would soon start to poke their heads out of their rooms, brandishing phones, calling 911.

  “Shit,” she said as she ducked into the car and started it up. She barely had the door closed by the time she was in reverse and burning rubber out of the lot, with Kevin and Helmut both trying to strangle each other.

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  BAM

  Bam set the gym bag in the locker as the sound of buttons fastening and velcro ripping and chatter circled all around him. Twenty different Five Points members were in this locker room with him, donning camouflage, knee and elbow braces, lowering helmets that made them look like BMX bike stunt riders. Branch matters were often joyless. Today was a rare day when everyone involved cut loose. After this, they would invade whatever shit-kicker bar was in the nearest town and drink themselves stupid.

  Half of them put on armbands with a blue dot. The other half wore a red dot, to indicate the two teams for paintball today. Not that the team assignments meant much. Once the whistle blew, it would be anarchy out there, in true Five Points style. After an hour, everyone would be drenched in bright splotches.

  This complex in the tiny town of Hygiene had several playing fields: an indoor obstacle course, an outdoor version, an abandoned building, and a large, open outdoor area thick with trees, tunneled foxholes, and hills and caves. Five Points had reserved the entire facility for the day, but they only planned to use the open area. Many acres of space to roam, with such a large playing area, the matches could last endlessly. Also, they had paid Ace Paintball extra to keep the course referees and safety instructors off the field. They wanted a chaotic free-for-all and had paid handsomely to make sure they were undisturbed. For a day like this, it was worth the money. Bam didn’t know exactly how much it cost. The day’s financial burden would come out of his Branch dues.

  He only wished Niles was here to see it. Or Payton, or Tanner, for that matter. He didn’t exactly feel sad at the passing of any of them, but he did feel a sense of injustice that they couldn’t experience his new plan firsthand.

  He still wasn’t sure about the overall timing of everything, and all the details. But having a direction settled his mind, to a certain degree. It was far better than nothing.

  All the chatter around the room had to do with the Review Board, their choice as of late, all the terrible ways their quality had taken a nosedive over the last year or two. Bam picked up bits and pieces. He heard things he agreed with, as well as things he didn’t care about.

  The Review Board was a mess. There was no denying it. Maybe they d
id need a change in the DAC. Maybe sitting around and waiting for things to get better wasn’t an effective method of improving the status quo.

  Maybe assuming that the new boss would be exactly like the old boss wasn’t a fair assumption, either.

  He sighed and changed his mind about stashing his important items here as he picked up the gym bag. Maybe the locker room wasn’t the best place for it, after all. On his way out, he passed by the armory, and a teenage boy standing behind it caught his attention. “Sir?”

  The kid was holding up a black Spyder MR100 marker gun. “Don’t forget your gear before you head out to the playing field.”

  “Hang on to it for me. I’ll be right back.”

  For a second, he thought the kid was going to ask him where he was going with the bag, but he didn’t. With as much cash as they had thrown around to make this day happen, Bam hoped they had been told to leave them the hell alone. If the kid knew what was good for him, he would keep his head down and not look anyone in the eye too closely.

  Bam left the main building and marched into the woods behind it. Thick pine and aspen trees in every direction. Birds tweeting, squirrels scampering, the whole nine yards. One major hill was off to the north, with smaller hills to the west and east. A series of foxholes connected the major thoroughfares, with a few well-placed barn and shack structures to give man-made cover along with the natural forest. This was a great paintball range. Bam only wished he could feel a sense of anticipation about it all.

  But no, his thoughts were on Ember and Niles today. Something in him had changed over the last few days. First of all, a sense of regret that he hadn’t concocted a better plan when it came to Ember. A week ago, when he had accepted a contract to kill her, he had been all full of vim and vigor to go after his mentor’s killer.

  But now, he felt like he had a higher purpose.

  All the talk about revolution had seemed like noise to Bam, even when it had come from Niles. Bam was mostly focused on getting out of debt, moving out of his apartment and into a luxurious house, getting a badass car with a nice sound system. All the usual stuff. But over the last few days, he had started to feel differently. There was a real inequality in the DAC. Some voices rose above the rest, most were silenced for the Greater Good.

  The Club had become too big and too bloated and full of personalities instead of principles.

  Maybe it took this long for everything Payton and Niles had been saying to sink in. To feel the sense of inequity and favoritism and understand why they had petitioned so strongly for a revolution.

  Bam strolled along a wooded path, boots crunching through snow. When he spotted it, he knew. A small building, like a one-room shack, off to the side in a cluster of trees. He hoisted his gym bag and hiked over to it, then gave the area an inspection before entering. Open door frame, no door. That was fine, though.

  He made sure no one else was out here, spying on him. He hadn’t yet told anyone else in the Branch about his plan. He didn’t want to be talked out of it. No way of knowing if they would try, but it wasn't worth the chance. Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.

  He walked through the open frame to find four walls, a dirt floor, windows on each wall with no glass. Probably for safety. There was a closet against one wall in this simple shack, and he opened the closet door to find it empty except for a few blankets. Perfect. No one in the midst of a paintball game would stress about a few lumpy blankets on the hard ground.

  Bam knelt and set the gym bag underneath the blankets. Inside were three bombs with attached detonators. He had planned to put them around Boulder, to send Ember on a crazy wild goose chase with no point, then to put a bullet in her back as she fretted about running out of time.

  But that plan didn’t work any longer. Ember didn’t matter. He could do something much more important with the tools he had worked so hard to acquire.

  What mattered now was putting these bombs to good use. A better use. Something that could make a real difference. An event worthy of a legacy.

  After paintball, he would put these bombs where they were meant to go, then he would program them to detonate. Maybe hours, maybe minutes. Once armed, he would drive out to Boulder and kill Ember, as he had intended to do all week. Because, after all, a promise was a promise, and the bitch still needed to die.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  EMBER

  Ember piloted her car up the ramp toward Denver International Airport. Her heart would not stop rattling around in her chest. Her knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. She kept thinking about her Branch mate Kevin, ordering her to move Zach to safety while he took on the larger man, Helmut. She should have stayed. She should have helped him. If Kevin was dead now, or in jail, she would never forgive herself.

  How many more had to die? Ember Clarke had always prided herself on being clean and leaving a small footprint. But over the last five weeks of this black spot trial by combat, there had been too many messes. Too many messes.

  In the passenger seat across from her, Zach didn’t seem to be doing much better. He was looking out the window at the plains east of the airport, mostly covered in snow. He hadn’t said a word since they had left the motel. Ember didn’t know what to say to get him to talk, either.

  This wasn’t how she had imagined the morning after their first night together, for sure.

  And then, like a man waking from a sleep, Zach shook his head and looked forward. “Airport? What are we doing here?”

  Ember slowed as she approached the terminal, then she pulled in front of the Frontier departure section. “I don’t know. I think you need to leave town. If you need cash, I can give it to you. But you need to get on a plane, today, and go somewhere until I can figure out how to keep you safe.”

  Zach rubbed his eyes and smoothed his hair. “I don’t think airlines even take cash anymore. It’s a security thing.”

  “Zach, baby, it doesn’t matter. You have to go. It’s my fault. All of this is my fault. And now, you have to leave town, please. You have to do it before something bad happens to you.”

  “I don’t know,” he said, drifting off at the end. “There was something I didn’t tell you. A couple days ago, before I went back to my apartment, I also went to see my advisor. I just can’t flunk out of my classes this semester. I can’t. When I was on my way out, Thomas Milligan was there.”

  Ember breathed through her nose, trying to parse this news. “What happened?”

  Zach shrugged. “He offered me a job. Same as always, except that time, he gave me a pen and a piece of paper to sign and told me they would pay me a million dollars a year to do something with a project that would save everyone’s lives. Something big. Something about a national park.” He closed his eyes for a couple seconds before continuing. “I didn’t understand the rest. But… a million dollars a year. Just think about it.”

  “You didn’t sign that contract, did you?”

  He shook his head. “I thought about it. But I can’t sign it. Not after everything that’s happened. My coworker, Wanda? She was the only one in the lab who was decent to me. She moved to California and died in a car wreck a few days later.”

  “You know they probably had her killed, right?”

  “Yeah,” Zach said in a distant tone. “When Helmut showed up at our motel room, I knew for sure. They are nothing but lies, and they always have been.”

  “What you did back there, at the motel? Going straight at Helmut? I didn’t see that coming. Nicely done.”

  Zach blew out a sigh. “It just sorta came over me. Anger, terror, adrenaline. They’ve been lying to me from the start, and I’m sick of it. I wanted to smash his stupid nose.”

  “Well, wherever it came from, it was fearless. You’ve got the heart of a warrior inside you, my young Zachary.”

  He turned in the seat to face her. “Who are you, really?”

  It was like a slap across the face. Still, he had every right not to trust her, after the lies she had told him. “I
’m someone who cares about you. That’s all I can say.”

  “Are you really Ember Clarke, or are you Allison Campbell?”

  Ember swallowed the bile rising in her throat. Allison Campbell. No one besides Isabel Yang had called her that in a long time.

  “Where did you hear that name?”

  “The internet. Your high school drama club. You were in West Side Story, right? Wasn’t that you?”

  She took her hands off the steering wheel and wiped sweat on her tight jeans. They were supposed to be her sexy jeans, but she didn’t feel too sexy at the moment. When Ember had been assigned undercover work in the FBI, the tech guys had gone to great lengths to erase Allison Campbell from the internet, going back years and years. They must have missed West Side Story.

  “That was one of the plays I did in school. I thought I was going to be an actress back then. Maybe a standup comedian. As you can see, my life took a different path. I’m sorry, Zach. I never wanted to hurt you.”

  He shook his head. “I’ve known you for over a month and you’ve never told me your real name?”

  “It’s complicated. I don’t work in consulting, which I think you already figured out. I can’t tell you much… but I’m part of a group known as the Club. Don’t bother trying to look it up on the internet because you won’t find anything. There’s an entire division in the Club responsible for making sure nothing about us ever gets out to the public. It’s like a guild, or a union… of assassins.”

  He smiled, but it didn’t look like a happy smile. “Assassins,” he said, musing on the word. “It kinda makes sense, actually. Is that actually how you know my brother? Is he one of you?”

  “No. I thought I could recruit Ben, but that was a terrible mistake that almost got him killed. I still lose sleep over that one.”

  “Did you have sex with him?”

  Ember shook her head. “No. I lied to you about who I was before and I’m sorry about that. I’m not going to do it again. Ever. From here on out, I’m going to tell you the truth.”