by Mike Gomes
Bang!
Reaching to his chest, Otto grasped for his shirt pulling it open, and revealed the gunshot wound that had just struck him. Dropping to his knees, the big man gasped for air looking back to Gabriella who had fallen into a crouch.
“Otto!” Gabriella yelled, torn between moving for cover and staying with her friend.
Chapter Thirty
“Hello Gabriella,” came a voice pasted with the husk that comes from years of smoking. The voice came from the darkness, and held a hint of familiarity, that caused a deep chill to run though her. “I will not shoot you. You are safe but he will die.”
The chamber from the handgun shined as it hit the light, revealing the man from the chest down. The gun still pointing at her did not match the words that had come from the man. The limited amount of his body that was showing, was of a man who was overweight with a hand that slightly trembled.
Frozen in place, Gabriella watched her friend drop to the ground face first with no effort to protect himself from the fall. His back lifted two more times as he gasped for air in a lung that could not hold it. Blood drifted out from below his body, creating a stream of red rolling with the pitch of the ground away from the restaurant.
“Who are you?” snapped Gabriella, not waiting for an answer. “Why did you kill him?”
“I would have killed the others inside had you not done it for me,” said the voice. “I think your friend is dead now.”
Looking down to the ground, Otto’s body had no movement. Clearing her mind to the task at hand, Gabriella moved herself closer to the shadows behind her.
“Why not kill me?” she asked.
“My mission is known only by the highest levels of the Russian government,” said the rasping voice. “I am shocked you do not remember my voice after all the time we spent together.”
Feeling the words sliding into the recesses of her mind, Gabriella felt a flash in her memory of a sterile white room and a .38 caliber revolver sitting on a plain table, and a large man in a military uniform standing in front of her, asking her to kill a man who had betrayed Mother Russia.
Snapping back into reality, Gabriella felt the flow of anger build in her body with confusion covering it, keeping her emotionally off balance.
“Colonel Makarov?” she whispered, looking into the darkness at the man that stepped forward, finally showing his face in the light.
The face was older, and the hair had grayed, but the steel-blue eyes were unmistakable. They had spent years penetrating her and issuing directives that she knew meant her life. The eyes that filled her with shame and let her know that nothing other than her full commitment to his commands would be enough.
“It is not Colonel anymore. I have risen to General,” the older man said, showing a smile that developed on only one side of his mouth. “It’s time for you to stop being the Mantis. You need to come home with me.”
“I have a home,” Gabriella snapped, trying to break eye contact with the man.
“You know that is not your real home. Your home is back at the training facility. Even after you left, you knew that was your real home,” Makarov said softly. “It’s why you have never felt at peace in your life. It is why you keep hidden. You want to return more than we want you to return. It is time to commit to your mission. You remember the mission, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Gabriella answered, falling into words that were ingrained in her soul. “My life is for Mother Russia, and without my mother to comfort me I am nothing. I shall protect my mother with my life. I shall obey my mother without question. I shall love my mother with my heart and soul. It is a privilege to give my life for Mother Russia.”
“Very good, young lady,” Makarov said sharply. “It fits well doesn’t it? Makes you feel good to say it out loud.”
“That’s not who I am anymore,” Gabriella replied weakly. “I have built a life away from you.”
“Excuse me?” Makarov huffed.
“I am sorry, I forgot to say, sir.” Gabriella could feel herself being pulled into the web of the older man’s command.
“I always knew you would return.” Makarov took a step closer. “Gabriella, you are my greatest achievement. You connected to my commands better than anyone. You were mesmerized by my voice, just like you are now. I never intended that, but once I saw it happening, I increased the connection. It is still effective I see.”
With another flash in her mind, a body slumped to the floor and the feeling of the wooden handle of the revolver became unbearable. Placing the gun back on the table, the young girl refused to look to the body of the dead man she had killed. Looking back up into the blue eyes of Makarov, the girl froze, keeping her emotions from spilling out of her.
“Why me?” Gabriella asked.
“There were many of you, but you were the best. The others dropped away. Some at your hands.” Makarov lowered the gun and took another step closer. “You don’t remember that. We helped you to forget that. I hope it will not increase your flash backs.”
Raising her eyes and meeting the man’s eyes with her own again, Gabriella looked to him with confusion.
“Yes, I know about the flash backs,” Makarov confirmed. “I can help you stop them.”
“I am not going with you.” Gabriella shook her head quickly, trying to clear her mind of the memories. “I do not fight for you.”
“You are the perfect killing machine, and you belong to Russia,” Makarov snapped. “You will return with me, Gabriella.”
Feeling the words of the man pulling at her emotions, Gabriella tightened her body and clenched her fists. “You’re too old to fight me. You know you cannot beat me. Not with that gun, and not with your fists. You closed the distance too much.”
“I know. Do you think I would get this close to the person I trained to kill if I did not feel like I was safe?” Makarov spoke like a parent speaking to a child. “You will not kill me, and you will not harm me. I am your father and Russia is your mother.”
“You are not my father. No father would do what you did to me.” Gabriella tried to hold back the tears, this man could not see her weak. “You bastard! You took my childhood. You took my life.”
“I am the only father you have ever known,” Makarov continued, speaking softly. “I never made you do anything. It was all your choice. It was the only way it would work. You had to give yourself fully by your own will, and you did.”
Taking a sharp step forward, Gabriella kicked hard with her right leg, landing the kick directly on the lowered gun and snapping it from the man’s hand. Sliding across the pavement, the gun disappeared into the darkness.
Moving forward with her kick, Gabriella grasped Makarov’s shirt, pulling him closer with her left hand as her right hand pulled back for a punch to the man’s face. Her balled fist froze in the air as her mind and body fought over the fate of her one-time captor.
“You can’t hurt me, Gabriella. Just like I could not shoot you. We spent too much time together,” Makarov said, as the hand holding his shirt started to weaken and the fist that was ready to strike him down dropped to her side. “Let’s go home, Gabriella.”
Turning away from her, he started to walk away hearing the footsteps behind him following.
“That’s a good girl,” Makarov praised.
“Not tonight, sir,” Gabriella whispered, then ran off into the shadows of the night.
Chapter Thirty-One
Putting out the remainder of the cigarette in the ashtray, Nathan Young looked at the subtle yellowing of his fingertips. Shaking his head in disgust, he thought back on the many times he almost quit the wretched habit. Again and again he would fail, but starting next Monday he would be off them forever.
Looking at the desk in front of him, he realized that none of the men or women outside of his office in the bullpen for MI6 had any need for an ashtray. He was a relic of a time gone by, when men who provided the law enforcement would chain smoke cigarettes and sit on the corner of their desk talking about cases they had solved.
Now he sat behind his desk, far from the streets and the danger he wanted, just looking over paperwork to make sense of more than a dozen cases that he helped command over.
Bing.
Picking up the cellphone that sat beside him, he touched the screen, bringing the device to life. The symbol for the text message displayed prominently on the lock screen, so he swiped his finger to the side and typed in this code. Fumbling through the screens, Young cursed his thick fingers and his age as he fought with the device.
"Stupid thing, they should make this easier," he muttered to himself, finally getting in to the text messages and activating the newest one.
"T. Now. The usual place. M."
A smile brushed across his face, and he felt his crush arise again inside him for the woman he knew he could not possibly be with. All his life the school boy crushes that he held for women the most, were considered outside his league, and were better than any of the actual relationships he had.
"If she wants it now, then I have to give it to her now." Young smiled.
Grabbing the hand sanitizer, he cleaned his hands, trying to erase the smell of the smoke. Unwrapping a stick of gum, he popped it into his mouth hoping the cigarette smell on his breath would not be too much. A woman like the Mantis would never be interested in a smoker, he thought.
Standing up from the desk, Nathan grabbed his coat and walked out of his office door, nodding to his secretary as he moved through the office. At times like this he left her with no destination of where he was going to, and she knew better than to ask. The level of secrecy was always more than she wanted to know."
Pushing the door open for the small Café, Nathan immediately saw the eyes of emerald green that penetrated his very soul. He could feel the redness building in his blushing cheeks, and he let his smile fill his face, which was returned by the woman.
"Mind if I sit down?" Young asked, trying to sound casual.
"Go right ahead, sir," Gabriella said with a smile. "Do I know you?"
"You better, or I'm in the wrong place," Young replied with a laugh and leaned forward on the table.
“So, did I do my job?" Gabriella asked as she looked across the table, giving the man with the gray hair another smile. Knowing he enjoyed the flirtation, she continued the subtle game of cat-and-mouse that they would usually play.
"You did an outstanding job, friend," Young confirmed, looking down at the table momentarily before bringing his eyes back up. “We learned a lot, and we got a lot accomplished."
"As the delivery that I brought you guys is pretty substantial, I would think anybody associated with you at work would be rather impressed that you got it."
"It was a fake," Nathan said as he drew in a deep breath and exhaled it all in one long blow. "The suitcase that he had attached to his arm had nothing in it."
"What?" Gabriella gasped, with her eyes widening and her hands grabbing the side of the table.
"Sorry, but when our boys looked at it, they said some wires were inside and the outside was refurbished to look like the real thing, but it wound up just being nothing but a fake," Nathan sighed as he leaned back into his chair "The guy wasn't as crazy as everybody thought. He wasn't dumb enough to bring the package out with him, but he made it look like he was. We still don't doubt that he had the bomb though. But the question is now, did he get rid of it before he died, or did he wind up hiding it and it's still there?"
"So, you mean to tell me that I risked my life for a bunch of wires?" Gabriella asked, shaking her head side to side
"No, not at all. You completed your mission as far as I'm concerned. You got rid of the threat that we were facing. We were also able to investigate Claudia, and learn a little bit more about what she has been doing over the years. We got into her home a few days ago and I went through everything that there was. We got some good intel that wouldn't have happened without you. They also confirmed the two people that you killed at the restaurant were Claudia and Mari Moto."
"But the threat of the bomb is still out there."
"It always has been," Nathan sighed. "We live with this threat every single day, there are several of the suitcase bombs that are unaccounted for. Nobody wants to think about it, and nobody wants to talk about it. But the fact of the matter is, if one of them ends up in the wrong hands it could eliminate a city in no time. Our only concern at this point, is that a bomb doesn't wind up in the wrong hands."
"I'm sorry I couldn't help you," Gabriella whispered. "I feel like I let you down in some way."
"Not at all, Gabriella, I'm very proud of you." Nathan smiled. "You made the world a safer place, and I have a little something for you."
Reaching into the pocket on the inside of his coat, Young pulled out a single card that looked no different than the average business card, and handed it to Gabriella. "So, it's just like usual. The number is on there, and you can connect into the bank at any point. You can try the funds out anywhere in the world, and then do what you like with them. I thought thirty thousand pounds was fair."
"Seems fair for a few days’ work," Gabriella said with a smile. “Thank you, Nathan, I'll be in touch again."
Chapter Thirty-Two
The wind blew cold into the mountains, much colder than it had been just a few days before. The sound of the rustling trees and the chimes on the house drifted across the sky.
Walking up the dirt driveway, Gabriella caught sight of her husband perched high on the side of the barn fastening a new metal panel to the roof.
Picking up her pace, she ran to the man who would not hear her coming.
"Hey there, Amigo, looking good," Gabriella chirped, looking up the ladder and causing her husband to slightly jump. "This is a good angle for looking at you, it's been a long time. "
"Thank God, you’re home!" He gasped as he raced down the ladder and embraced Gabriella with a strong hug.
"I like the hug, but how about a kiss?" Gabriella teased, smiling.
"I hate it when you go away," he said looking directly into her eyes. "These jobs have to stop, it's too much. I mean it's too much for you. We can make do, we don't need to keep doing this."
"Does that mean you're going to stop too?" Gabriella asked.
Turning his head away, the man placed hands in his pockets and took a step away from his bride. "You know it's not the same thing."
"Let's not start this again, with the man having to be the breadwinner."
"I can't help it, I'm an old-fashioned guy," the ruggedly handsome man said as he stepped closer to his woman. "I can't help what I am."
"I can," Gabriella teased again, broadening her smile, moving in close to her husband and placing her arms around his neck "I made thirty thousand pounds. And before I came back, I stopped in town and I got three men that will be out here later today. I also bought us the Bobcat that we need, and opened an account with a lumber yard. Everything should be ready by winter."
"You're simply amazing. You know that?"
"That's what you keep telling me, though I'm not so sure," Gabriella said shyly, pressing a gentle kiss on the man's lips. "All I know, is that with you I can accomplish anything. We're about the best team that there is. And I know that no matter what I go through or what I do, that you'll be there for me."
"I feel the same way about you."
Leaning in close, Gabriella held her husband tight, giving him the same passionate kiss that they did each time when one would come back from being away. As the two separated, they looked into each other's eyes. Gabriella smiled, knowing that where she was now, there was no need for her to be the Mantis.
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