by Utley, Todd
“All right, go Bobby!
That’s good work guys but you’re not out of this just yet, you may have lost them for a few minutes but they’ll be back on your tail very soon. We’re fairly certain they’re using satellite imaging to locate you. If so they’ll easily find you again so we have to act fast.
“Okay, just tell us what to do,” Said Matt.
There are three major parking garages in the area and we have a driver waiting for you at the busiest one. I already programmed the directions into your phone. Just hit go. When you get to the garage, go up to the fourth level and park the GTO in spot D123. Our driver is waiting for you in D129, see you at the farm boys, nice job.”
“We’re on our way, thanks John, you’re a lifesaver!”
Matt hung up the phone and hit the go icon on the screen and it loaded the map. It was only 3.4 miles away. Bobby noticed some vapor coming from under the hood. He checked the temp gauge, it was running a little hot. He must have busted the radiator or punctured a hose when they landed in the grass and drove though all those little trees.
Two minutes later they arrived at the garage and so far they had not seen anything that resembled Cyrus’s men. The temp gauge was in the red now and the car was running bad. They wheeled into D123 and shut it down. A huge cloud of steam rolled out from under the hood. The old Goat let out what sounded like a groan and a long sigh that almost brought tears to Bobby’s eyes. He had destroyed the GTO. Two men approached the car immediately.
“Come on boys we have to move!”
The doors were jammed shut due to the cars twisted frame so they slid out through the windows instead. They walked back to the car in D129 and started getting in when Matt suddenly went down on one knee and leaned against the car.
“Matt, what’s wrong?” Then Bobby noticed the blood soaked leg of Matt’s jeans and the drops of blood he had left across the garage floor. One of the men quickly helped Matt up and into the car while another wiped up the blood very quickly with a towel that seemed to come from nowhere.
“Get in! We have to go NOW!” one of them shouted.
They all got in and the driver sped away down the ramps to the ground level and out onto the road. Just as they turned out two black vans went speeding into the parking garage. They had narrowly escaped. Bobby’s attention quickly turned to his friend in the back seat of the speeding car. Two of the men had already cut the leg of Matt’s jeans from the ankle all the way up to his thigh to get at the wound.
“Yip” one of them said, “Hit a small artery but he’s going to be fine.” The second man was making a tourniquet out of his belt and telescoping baton while the first man applied pressure.
Matt was looking a bit green around the gills but was still conscience.
“I didn’t even know I was bleeding, was it a bullet?”
“Hard to say Son, looks like you either caught one or maybe a piece of one. It went right through, clean in and out, you’ll live.”
“I felt something tear my jeans back at the house but I just thought that I had snagged them on something when we were trying to escape.”
“That’s how it is when the adrenaline’s pumping, but when it wears off it hurts like hell. Here take two drops of this on your tongue. The man presented Matt with a small bottle of liquid. He opened the bottle and put two drops of it in his mouth. The other man handed him a bottle of water and he quickly took big slug of it to washed down the awful taste.
“So who are you guys?” Bobby asked.
“We’re part of the Black Ops team, well an extension of it really. We heard about what your Father and John were taking on and we volunteered. All total now there are over two hundred of us working on this. Most of us are just on standby but we’re ready to go at a moment’s notice if needed. Most of us worked for five different agencies that all had run-ins with Cyrus at one time or another. He has made fools out of most of us more than once, he’s very tough to corner.
We didn’t even know his name for a long time and we never even got close to catching him, but Dodge and John, now they have a chance. The government disbanded most of our teams as part of the most recent United Nations agreements. We had leads on what we now know as Cyrus but at the time we were not sure if all the different incidents were related.
Now we know that Cyrus was behind almost all of the strange situations where very wealthy and powerful men were stripped of everything and laid to waste. Cyrus even used his power to influence several world leaders into creating this last treaty that relaxed the security efforts of several governments including ours, that is why we lost our jobs.
Most of us got screwed out of our pensions and everything that we worked so hard for. After we got dumped by our government we began to communicate across teams. We decided to merge our teams together and pool our resources. That is when John began giving us projects from time to time and funding it privately.
We became a highly organized vigilante group. This is what we do now, and we’re really glad we could help you boys out today. We’ll get you safely to the farm don’t worry.”
The phone rang again in Matt’s pocket, he was getting a little groggy now but he managed to get it out and hand it to Bobby.
“Hello?”
“Hey, John here, I see one of our teams scooped you up, and you’re on the move, how’s Matt?”
“How did you know he was injured?”
“I hijacked the security cams at the garage and I saw him go down on one knee there by the car, is he okay?”
“Yeah, he’s gonna be fine, thanks to the fast actions of your men.”
“Yeah, well they’re damn good and they know how to handle themselves, so what happened to Matt?”
“Well it looks like he caught a bullet in his thigh, went right through though, they got it bandaged up and the bleeding is nearly stopped, so it looks like he’s going to make it to the farm just fine.”
“Good, you’ll get to see everyone there in a few. Hey, tell your Dad I’m sorry about his car, Cyrus’s men set it on fire just a few minutes ago and left it to burn. I turned the sprinkler system on for level four right after they left. It isn’t a total loss but the interior is partially burned up and you already know what the outside looks like. Soooo . . . , anyway . . . , it’s gonna take some work to fix it.”
“Oh man, all right, well as much as I hate to do it, I’ll tell him, thanks again John.”
He hung up the phone and just sat back and took a deep breath and let it out real slow.
“What a day, what an experience, what a rush. This was going to make a really good story for his children some day. He just hoped that the GTO could be fixed, he knew how much his Dad loved that car.
A few minutes later they arrived at the farm. They drove around to the back of the building as the overhead door went up in perfect timing, they drove inside and the door went down just as quickly. They all piled out and there stood his Father, both of him, wow, what a weird site. His Dad walked up quickly and hugged him.
“Thank God you’re okay Son,” he said with a little bit of quiver in his voice. Then his clone walked up and hugged him too.
“Good to see you Son, welcome to the farm.”
He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. An exact copy of his father standing right there only he was about four inches taller, very muscular and younger looking but it was most definitely a clone of his Dad.
“Dad, I’m so sorry, I messed up the GTO, it’s a wreck.” Dodge immediately grabbed him by the shoulders.
“Son, it’s just a car, it can be replaced, my only concern was for your safety, you and Matt. I’m glad you were in the GTO, it probably saved your life and it was worth it!”
They watched as two of the team loaded Matt on a Gurney that Caitlin had brought out to the garage area. She was already loosening the make shift bandage as they wheeled him away. As He and both Dodge’s turned to walk that way there stood John’s clone.
“Wow John! Good to see the other you man!” JC laughed.
&
nbsp; “Yeah, I just got off the phone with John in Indy and got an update on how we helped you out. My original is pretty smart but I’m the good looking one,” he said. He flexed his muscles and laughed. “Hey call me JC okay, it eliminates a lot of confusion. John’s on his way here too, so the whole motley crew will be together shortly.”
Bobby couldn’t believe that he was seeing this. Alan Kerrington came out into the garage area, he had heard that Bobby and Matt arrived safely. His Grandpa was young from restoration but on top of that, he was ripped. He had obviously been working out with DC and JC and he looked awesome.
“Hey Bobby! Thank God you made it here in one piece. Close call with those guys huh?” He put his arm around Bobby’s neck, “let’s go get you something to drink and you can tell me all about it. I heard that you outran those guys hands down.”
“Yeah we did okay.”
“Okay? Shoot, stop being so humble, you humiliated those clowns! Hey, and don’t worry, I talked to your Mother, the team got her back to my place along with your sister and the McNeil’s, everything is going to be just fine, come on.”
Bobby sat and talked with his Grandpa for a while in the kitchen. He told him how he and Matt outsmarted Cyrus’s men at the house and how they got away from them in the garage and how he out drove them. He was enjoying the moment but he was also worried about Matt.
“Hey” Alan said, “Let’s go see how Matt’s doing. You know that gal Caitlin is something else, he’s in real good hands, and she’s pretty too.”
By the time they got down to the lab, Caitlin already had Matt’s wound cleaned, laser fused and bandaged. Matt was sipping on a big glass of coke with lots of ice through a bendy straw and had two IVs hooked up to him. He was smiling when Bobby and Alan walked in.
“Hey you look a lot better!” Bobby said.
“Yeah I feel better too. Caitlin gave me this stuff here through this tube and I feel great, in fact I feel better than I did before I got shot.”
Alan and Bobby started laughing, Matt was obviously high on whatever Caitlin had given him to relieve the pain. Scientist had developed non-addictive pain killers with zero side effects, so now practitioners could liberally relieve almost any pain until Restoration or healing was complete.
“You boys did a great job and it took a lot of guts to do it. I look at you both like men now. Matt, young man, get some rest and let that leg heal up. Come on Bobby, let’s get out of here and let him be, I’ll take you around here and show you all the stuff we’ve been working on.” As they left Bobby pauses.
“Hey Caitlin. Thanks for taking such good care of my best friend, I owe you one.” She smiled.
“You’re welcome Bobby, now be more careful out there.”
As he and Alan turned the corner Bobby took one more quick look at Caitlin
“Does she have a younger sister?”
Alan laughed as he slapped him on the back and said . . .
“You dog!”
Chapter 32 Cyrus paced back and forth along a line of eight men that stood before him. He scratched his chin as he pondered upon which one to kill first. All of these men had let him down; they were all incompetent. Two boys had out ran, out maneuvered, and out witted the entire lot of them. How did they do it? How did they get out of that parking garage? He knew that young Bobby had just returned from racing school, was he that good of a driver already?
He also knew the Kerrington family had a history of tenacity because Alan Kerrington was quite the military hero. Dodge was no slouch either, maybe he had underestimated these people a bit. But still how did those boys get away so easily when they had eyes on that parking garage? They must have stolen another car or hitched a ride in the bed of truck or something. But if they did it was done very quickly because he had his men on site within one minute of the Pontiac pulling into that garage.
These people seemed to have nothing but good luck and he himself was having nothing but bad luck. Unless! Yes that must be it! They had outside help. Someone was helping this family or they were helping themselves but how. He had been watching them intently for months. There was nothing out of the ordinary, what could it be? Maybe he was losing his mind; maybe that electric shock that Glitch hit him with muddled his ability to think clearly. Maybe his mind just wasn’t as sharp as it should be right now.
Still he had to punish someone for the mistakes that were made, he had two men confirmed killed in the car chase and six more men unaccounted for, were the missing men dead? Or did they go AWOL while out on assignment? He needed answers.
“You there.” He said to the one on the far left.
“You are the Captain of this team, right?”
“Yes Sir! I am.”
He approached the man and stood face to face with him.
“So 751, why shouldn’t I break your incompetent neck right now and make an example of you here before these men?”
The Captain swallowed nervously. He had seen men try to talk their way out of these things with Cyrus before. He knew there was only one option that might save him.
“I have absolutely no excuse Sir, I failed you and I deserve death. I only wish I could have lived to have another opportunity to capture Bobby Kerrington for you Sir. I’m sorry.”
He looked at the ground expecting the worst and hoping for mercy. Cyrus was impressed with his fortitude and his lack of stupid excuses and groveling that most men did in these situations. He appreciated that this man had the stones to admit he failed and that he didn’t blame any of his men as prior Captains had done. He paced back and forth two more passes and then stopped in front of 751 again.
“Granted,” he said, “you will have that opportunity to get him but on one condition and one condition only. All seven of these men standing here with you must pledge that they too will die if you don’t get him next time.” Cyrus looked down the line of men.
“Those willing to die with their Captain will step forward and if even one man does not agree to this then your Captain will die now today, right here, right now, before your eyes. Well! what’s it gonna be?”
Four of the men stepped forward almost immediately then the fifth and sixth just a second behind also stepped forward. “Well, okay then, looks like Captain 751 and his men are a unit that has solidarity if nothing else. You’re all dismissed, be ready for action at a moment’s notice!”
They all turned in unison and walked away in utter relief. Cyrus paced a few more times and then walked off toward his office. He had enough killing lately, and besides he couldn’t kill all of them or he would have to do all the work himself. He needed to think, he needed to brew some new strategy. He had to figure out his next move and this time it had to be perfect. First Dodge had slipped through his fingers and now he was dead and he was of no use dead. Now the boy had slipped through his fingers as well, but at least he was still alive, or so it seemed. He had planned to use Bobby as leverage with the Mother. Any decent Mother would gladly give up any and all secrets she might hold to save her only Son from certain torture and death. But now he didn’t have Bobby either. He must have fled to some distant relative’s home for refuge. As he walked to his office, he decided that this must surely be the case. He would assign Glitch the task of finding all of Bobby’s friends and relatives. Surely this way they could find the boy and reinstate their plan. He went to his office to detonate the cranial charges of the six missing men. He couldn’t risk any of them talking if they had been taken alive.
As Cyrus disappeared into the darkness of the long corridor toward his office, Toby and Todd stepped out of the shadows. They had witnessed the entire ordeal with Cyrus and his men. They were surprised at the zero body count. It wasn’t like Slade to leave everyone standing. They heard the whole thing and were relieved to know that Bobby and Matt had escaped Cyrus’s clutches. They expected to hear word from the outside very soon. Surely this attempt on Bobby and Matt would result in Dodge and John accelerating the agenda. Operation Black Ice was surely coming sooner now and no doubt wit
h a vengeance.
At the Calhoun residence, John was packing a bag in preparation for going to the farm. He had received word from the team of the need to accelerate Black Ice. The time had finally come. John was heading out to the farm where he could be totally committed to the management of the attack along with the rest of the team. They were planning to move on the compound in the next twenty-four hours, and there was a great deal of work to be done. He had already shipped his primary computer equipment out to the farm. He had to be stealthy about it because it was a large number of items that required a large container.
He contacted his cousin at the pawn shop again as usual by making one of his special deposits but this time the box only contained instructions. It was a very simple plan; get some new appliances including a rather large deep freezer. All of his equipment was packed into the old appliances. His cousin arranged a truck and had decals applied just like one of the local high end appliance store trucks. John made a list of the exact models he wanted and provided it to them with the instructions.
They rolled in and swapped out the new for the old and carried out all of John’s key equipment needed for the job hidden inside the old appliances right under the watchful eye of Slade’s men and they never suspected a thing. The team members posing as delivery men returned to their own warehouse where they removed all the decals from the truck. They changed their clothes and the license plates, then drove the now unmarked truck out to the farm.
John was now headed there himself under the disguise of a business trip to Vegas. The watchers assigned to him had been doubled now that Dodge was thought to be dead, no doubt Cyrus was targeting both John and Tim Stance as the next best information sources to abduct. Now that they were watching him like a hawk he had to be extra stealthy.
He contacted an old trusted friend out in Vegas that owed him a big favor. He made him promise that he would do exactly as he asked and to not ask any questions. He assured his friend that he would explain everything in about a week. His friend suspected there might be some trouble and agreed without any questions.