Soldiers of Fame and Fortune Full Series Omnibus: Nobody’s Fool, Nobody Lives Forever, Nobody Drinks That Much, Nobody Remembers But Us, Ghost Walking, 12 Book series...

by Michael Todd

  Holly wrinkled her nose in real distaste. “Those are the kind of things I try to avoid picturing. Nonetheless, it’s nice of you to send him gifts.”

  Hickok shook her head. “It’s a gift, but there is a reason behind it. Eventually, his lust for new tech will overcome his reticence to being here and we will have a new hire.”

  “I don’t get it. Are you trying to manipulate him to join our company?”

  Billie tilted her head from side to side she considered this. “I don’t know if it’s so much manipulation as it is helping him see the light.”

  Holly put her coffee down. “Why would we want to have someone come work for the company who didn’t want to be here before he received a shit ton of really expensive toys? I mean, wouldn’t we want someone here who wanted to be here no matter what technological tools they had to work with?”

  Her friend stuck her bottom lip out and patted Holly’s head. “Aww, aren’t you sweet? Even after all this, you still think there are good people in this world. Let me tell you something, Holly. Everyone in the world has a price. No one does things for nothing. The return could be anything from feeling good about themselves because they fed the hungry, to world domination. Either way, there is a payout in the end. Marcus cares, but he knows that his payout could be extermination. We need to show him that his payout will be anything but that.”

  Holly grimaced. “Okay. I guess I can see why he chose to stay away. He spent years in the business and now, he wants a stress-free, quiet life. You can’t fault the guy for that.”

  Billie shook her head. “Nope, I don’t fault him for that at all. I can see how he would want that. I would love to have that one day too. But for me, there is more to it than going dark and working under the table. He always told me that to get the assignments I wanted, I had to put in my time and do the work. That applies to anything in life. You have to put in the time and do your due diligence.”

  She could see where Hickok was coming from. “But does he know you are going down this trail?”

  “If he doesn’t, he should.” Hickok laughed. “He knows I don’t give up on things that easily. And to answer you, it isn’t about tricking him. It’s about allowing him to see the need quicker than he might otherwise. And taking the extra time to get him where he will end up anyway. He’s known it since the day I left him in that hostel. Eventually, he would come to work for us anyway, so this is simply about how to get him to come here.”

  Holly straightened and sighed. “Maybe it’s just me but I still haven’t figured out how you people live your lives with all these games. In my family, if something is going on, if we need something, we say it and that is that. There is no game, no beating around the bush, no manipulation. Honestly, I couldn’t keep up with it. That stuff is way too much for me.”

  Billie smiled as she clicked the button to send the equipment. “That is why we work so well together. You know how to get what you need from normal people. I know how to work with those who are more complicated.”

  She put her cup in the sink. “I also know how to turn off and go to bed. We have a big day tomorrow. Or, you have a big day tomorrow. You know, killing people and stuff.”

  “I do, and I can never sleep the night before.” The woman smirked. “You go ahead and go to bed. I will get ready for my trip. If I don’t see you before I leave, I’ll be back soon. Keep an eye on JB for me. Make up some good excuse why I’m not there.”

  Chapter Nine

  Although the sun was about to slip below the horizon, the heat was oppressive in the small Jamaican town. It was set apart from the hustle and bustle of the tourists but had more than enough people to fill the streets and shops along the strip. Billie stepped out of the cab and handed the driver money. She pulled her bag onto her shoulder and slid her sunglasses on. A bobbed black wig with long, blunt bangs suited her hunter green carpenter shorts that were short but not short enough to attract too much attention. Tucked into them was a tight white wife-beater.

  Her white Keds were crisp and clean as she stepped carefully onto the curb. A man caught her attention in an attempt to sell her some hand-crafted bongos. She shook her head with a smile. “No thanks.”

  After a right turn, she headed down the block and finally entered a small, crowded café. The large fans in the ceiling spun wildly but didn’t seem to do anything for the heat. In the corner, a man sat in a white large-brimmed hat and cream-colored lightweight suit. Beneath his jacket, he wore a blue tie-dyed T-shirt. Hickok smiled and walked through the café to slide into the seat opposite him. He held an American newspaper in front of his face and didn’t look at her even once.

  Billie leaned forward. “Do you mind if I took a look at the sports section? I hear the new Boche team is kicking tail.”

  The man laid the paper down on top of a large envelope and slid it across the table. He turned and pushed his hat down on his head, grabbed his briefcase, and left the café. She waited until he was out of sight before she glanced around the room. The patrons seemed mostly locals, and no one paid her any attention. She slid the contents out of the envelope and studied a picture of the target. On the back were his name and his last known location and a full list of his crimes.

  As Billie read through them, she could feel her blood begin to boil. There was a possibility that she had come face to face with a man like that during her time with the organization. The difference was, she would have had no idea. They never told her why her targets were targets. She was only told who they were and where to find them. Once the job was done, she cleared her mind of anything that had to do with them.

  This target, though, was the worst and she could almost feel herself preparing internally for the job. She put the papers into the envelope and slipped it in her bag to dispose of them when she left. Billie sat there for several moments to control her emotions since she knew she couldn’t take them with her on the job. Distractions were the same in that kind of work as they were in the Zoo. They could easily get you killed.

  Hickok looked at her watch, picked her bag up, and slung it over her shoulder. She walked out of the café and grabbed another cab. “To the harbor. The West Harbor.”

  The driver glanced at her for a moment and nodded before he drove off. As they moved through the streets, he glanced constantly at her in the mirror. “Are you sure you want to go there? It is very dangerous for a woman,” he said at last.

  “I appreciate your concern but I’m sure. There is nothing there that is scarier than the shit I’ve seen before.”

  The driver nodded and suddenly increased speed, obviously nervous about having her in his car. He pulled up to the side of the road and let her out. She tipped him extra and thanked him. By that time, the sun had set fully and the early moon reflected off the calm water of the harbor. The area was mostly used for cargo ships, but to the right was a small but elite area for larger yachts. Her target was in that group.

  Billie lowered her head and moved quickly down the fence line and finally crouched behind a large electrical box. She opened her bag and retrieved her suit, the same one she had worn into the Zoo. It wasn’t as impressive as the old company one but it would definitely get the job done. She’d had a few modifications made to it that would improve the secret agent aspect of her job.

  Once she was zipped up, she pulled her helmet on and tucked her clothes away in her bag. She pulled the suppressor from her pouch and twisted it onto her pistol before she holstered the weapon on her hip. After a quick mental check, she stowed her bag behind the box and activated her HUD. “Sound detection.”

  The software switched to scan the yachts for both infrared readings as well as conversations. She focused rapidly from one ship to another until she finally found the right one—more or less in the middle—and identified the target on the lower level with two guards. She could see only two others, one on the deck and one on the first floor. The target was talking to his men. “Kill her and throw her body to the sharks. I have no time for this useless drama. When yo
u are done, bring me my dinner. I am starving.”

  The two men moved out of the room and up to the deck. They spoke to the other two guards on the way but then left the ship. Billie ducked and watched as they went out onto the dock and up to the parking lot and finally drove away. This was good for her. It meant she only had two guards to deal with, nothing she hadn’t handled before.

  She deactivated the sensors, drew in a deep breath, and released it slowly. This was the first assignment of two, and she knew that when she was finished, they would have their money. Even more than that, she would have killed someone who didn’t deserve to be alive. She wasn’t sure if that would bring her atonement, satisfaction, or neither, but she would find out soon enough.

  With deft movements, she snipped the fencing and climbed through the hole, careful to remain low. There were no security cameras there and for good reason. Most of the shipments going out of the place were illegal. On top of that, the people who owned the yachts were not the type who wanted to ever be caught on camera. That only made things easier for her.

  When she reached the dock, she switched to camouflage. It worked well at night, especially when the lights were few and far between. She moved carefully down the row of boats, remained in the shadows as much as possible, and moved very slowly. The first of the two guards was now visible where he paced back and forth on the open deck. He looked directly at her, which forced her to freeze. She breathed heavily as his gaze moved on. Clearly, he hadn’t actually seen her. Nonetheless, it made her heart skip a beat. The sound of the water slashing lightly against the dock pulled her from her own head. She had to keep going. This was no different than any other job.

  She snuck up to the boat and clicked a button on each of her wrists. On the outside, a small green light lit up. She pushed her fingertips to the side of the boat and began to climb. With each flick of her wrist, the gloves clung to the surface of the boat. She moved to the center and clambered upward. When she reached the top, she peeked over and saw the guard at the front with his back to her. She grabbed the railing, flipped herself over onto the yacht, and landed with almost no sound.

  Slowly, she crept forward and glanced continually around her for anyone she might have missed. The coast was clear, which made it a very simple assignment, at least for her.

  As she approached the guard, he stopped and put his comms to his mouth. “All clear up here.”

  The guard on the first floor responded. “Copy that.”

  The guard hung up and before he could turn, she pressed the barrel of her gun to the back of his head and pulled the trigger. He fell forward over the edge and landed in the water to leave not even a drop of blood on the ship. She froze and listened into the silence after the loud splash, but no one seemed to have heard it. Satisfied, she turned and jogged across to the stairs and engaged her heat sensors once again. The guard was around the corner at the bottom. He seemed to look down at something, possibly his phone.

  She hurried downward, turned right, and instantly squeezed the trigger, the weapon aimed at his chest. Before the man could fall or make a sound, she caught his body and dragged him into the bathroom close by. She closed the door carefully, drew a deep breath, and recalled the position of her target. “Down the passage, turn right, and there you are.”

  Billie smiled as she stepped over the blood splatter and headed down the passage. She reached the end without problems and turned right. A set of large oak double doors stood open directly ahead. Her target sat in a chair inside and across the room, watching his very large projection screen television. He wore headphones and most of the lights were out.

  She shook her head. “Sometimes, my job is so easy I can’t even believe I get paid for this shit.”

  With each careful step she took, the list of atrocities the man had committed played through her head. She stood behind him and breathed heavily as she stared at the back of his head. In almost slow motion, she raised her gun and swallowed, held it up, and aimed at his skull. For several moments, she waited for her own finger to press the trigger. She waited…waited…and waited. Her mind screamed at her to do it, but her hand wouldn’t comply. It wasn’t apprehension, however, but something much deeper than that. It was revenge—revenge for every bad thing he had done.

  After a couple of minutes, she lowered the weapon, unclipped her helmet, and removed it silently. She set it on the floor and stared at him with contempt as the anger blew through her. With one quick movement, she knocked the headphones out of his ears and put her hand around his mouth. She wrapped one arm around his neck and leaned down, her lips barely inches from his ear.

  He struggled for a moment before he froze and strained to look back in fear. She licked her lips and breathed out. “Amber, age seventeen. Rape, dismemberment, death. Joshua, thirty-four. Gunshot to the head. Theresa, twenty-two. Slavery, sex crimes, battery, dismemberment. Melissa, age fifteen. Prostitution, rape, battery, and branding. Let’s not forget that you carved her body full of phalluses and buried her alive. And that is only the tip of the iceberg. Your crimes are far too many for me to stand here and list them for you. But I can promise you I do know every name. Does all this ring a bell for you?”

  She removed her hand slowly from his mouth. He smiled and began to laugh. “And I will do the same to you.”

  Billie sniffed disdainfully and looked at him with no fear. “Not in this lifetime.”

  Silence hung between them as she walked around in front of him, aimed her pistol, and shot him once in the right leg. He screamed and clutched it with his hands. She moved the gun slightly and shot the other, finding pleasure in his suffering. He leaned back, his breathing heavy.

  “What do you want from me? Do you want money? Fine. I’ll give you money.”

  She chuckled. “No. I don’t want anything.”

  Her smile was dangerous as she raised her gun and pulled the trigger to shoot him in the crotch. He screamed without ceasing as blood flowed down his velvet-upholstered chair and pooled on the floor of his expensive yacht. After a few minutes of the noise, she grimaced and shook her head. She fired one last time and the slug struck home in his head. The shrieks stopped abruptly, and his body fell back as his arms and legs went limp.

  Nausea settled in her stomach with the realization that although he deserved every moment of pain, it did nothing to absolve her of the lives she had taken in the past. She walked around the chair and grabbed her helmet before she left the boat. With her mind elsewhere, she walked along the dock and made no attempt to hide. She strode the length of the harbor and climbed through the hole in the fence. Within minutes, she’d peeled her suit off and stuffed it in her bag.

  Billie withdrew a small mirror from her bag and stopped to stare at her reflection. Blood had sprayed across her face, and she couldn’t seem to look away. The sound of a ship’s horn was the only thing that shook her from her haze. She wiped her face with her suit before she donned her wig and clothes and hurried out on the road away from the harbor. As she climbed the hill, a taxi idled at the top. It was the same driver who had dropped her off.

  She looked at him suspiciously. He nodded. “I thought that when you were done…disposing of your trash, you might need a ride.”

  With a smile, she opened the door and slid in. The taxi accelerated as the car lights of what might be the two other guards turned into the harbor. Hickok leaned forward. “Thank you.”

  He nodded. “Did you complete your mission?”

  “I always do.”

  “Good.”

  He retrieved a small envelope from the passenger seat and handed it to her. It contained her payment for a job completed. She tucked it in her bag and leaned back to exhale a deep breath. “To the airport please.”

  The driver turned some music on and drove toward the airport. Billie watched the buildings fly past outside. All the disgust fell away as she saw three little girls playing in a front yard, their flashlights flickering all around. Maybe it was all the past jobs that had put that knot into he
r stomach. Maybe it was the unknown that made her doubt herself. In that moment, though, she knew she had a lot of good in her life. A purpose that was beyond the next job. And in the meantime, she got to clean the world up, one asshole at a time.

  Chapter Ten

  The bright sun shimmered on the lush greenery and rolling hills of the island. The beaches weren’t busy, and the sand moved under Billie’s feet as she walked. She held one hand to the top of her large floppy hat as her red curls fluttered around her in the ocean breeze. Her blue sundress was tied to the side so the water wouldn’t soak the edges as she walked along close enough to feel the cool ocean touch her feet.

  The palm trees on the shore waved back and forth with the breeze. It had been a really long time since she had walked barefoot on a beach. In fact, the last time she could remember was when she’d chased a target down the sand of the Bahamas in the middle of the night. Eventually, she’d gunned the man down and let the ocean sweep his body away. So, in reality, this was the first time she was able to enjoy a walk down the beach.

  I could get used to this. I could be like 007 but way hotter and only in tropical climates. No fucking skiing for this bitch. She laughed at her own thoughts and looked up to see an older gentleman in a white wide-brimmed hat and lightweight white suit ensconced on a large beach chair. He held a newspaper up in front of him, and his pant legs were rolled up and his bare feet in the sand.

  Billie sighed. Her fun time would only last until dark. She stopped beside the man and looked at the ocean. “Do you mind if I look at the art section? I hear they have a Rembrandt tour and make a stop in Bone, Idaho.”

  The man folded the paper and stood to place the paper on the chair. Without so much as a glance at her, he turned away and strolled leisurely down the beach, one hand in his pocket and the other holding his wing-tipped shoes. Billie chuckled and shook her head. Whoever her client was for the two jobs definitely had a sense of humor.