by Heskett, Jim
Her heart sank. “Neutered dog?”
"You told me to get out of my apartment, and I did that. You told me to ditch my phone and my laptop, and I did that. Do you know how… emasculated I felt, waiting here all week for my girlfriend to tell me it’s okay to leave the motel?”
“Aww, I’m your girlfriend?”
“Damn it, Ember. That’s enough of the snark, okay? I trust that you’re looking out for me, but I need to know more about you. I need to know why I should listen to you and why I’ve spent the last week in this motel, waiting for you to show up.”
She grinned. “Can’t it just be that I think you have one of the nicest butts I’ve ever seen?”
He shook his head, with no sign the joke had landed at all. "Stop trying to be cute. I need something real from you, or I'm going to walk out the door and that's it."
She took a step away from him and paced around one side of the bed for a few seconds. She ran her hands through her hair and then stretched her jaw. Zach hadn’t ever been this assertive with her, but she supposed a week marooned in a motel room—plus all the other crazy things in his life—had put him on edge.
“Okay. Okay. I can tell you some things. I don’t know if you’re going to like it, but it’s time you knew the truth.”
He stood there, leaning against the built-in wall desk, hands behind him. Face flat, listening. When she didn’t answer right away, he waved a hand, inviting her to start.
“Okay,” she said as she slumped on the bed and slipped her hands between her knees. “I know your brother.”
“You… what? You know Harvey?”
“He goes by Ben now. I think he has for a while, actually.”
Zach’s mouth dropped open, his eyes searching her face. “Explain.”
“He came to Denver not long ago, for reasons I can’t get into.”
“My brother was an hour away from me?”
Ember nodded. “He was in trouble, and it was mostly my fault he was in trouble, but there’s a much longer story behind it. As a consequence of that trouble, he feared it might fall on you.”
“Doesn’t seem like he was all that worried, if he couldn’t be bothered to come talk to me about it.”
“I know that might make him look bad, but you have to trust me when I say it’s complicated. He sent me.”
“I don’t understand.”
“When we met outside the doughnut shop a month ago, that wasn’t the first time I’d ever seen you.”
Zach stood, jaw pushed out a little, looking frustrated. He crossed his arms, breathing harsh sighs through his nose. “I had a feeling.”
“I know you have every right to be angry with me. I just didn’t expect I would develop feelings for you the way I have.”
“What did you expect, Ember?”
“Ben asked me to keep an eye on you. I saw your first meeting with Thomas Milligan and Helmut, when they came to the lab at CSU to pitch you about coming to work for them.”
“You were there?”
“I was. I didn’t know the name Firedrake or Draconis, but I knew these people were bad news. I wanted to keep you close because Ben asked me to, but then… you know, with your cute butt and all…”
Zach spent a few seconds staring at the floor. Without looking up, he asked, “How is Ben?”
"Troubled. Look, Zach, I know you're angry. I haven't been honest with you, and I apologize for that. I can't take it back, but those are the choices I made, so all I can do now is be honest with you about right now."
“Right now,” he said, dreamily whispering the words.
“There are things I can’t explain at the moment. But, what matters today is I think you’re in serious danger. It’s possible that these people you work for sent someone to kill me, too, because of our relationship. I’ve seen guys like Thomas Milligan before. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but he’s as malignant as I thought he would be.”
“Do you know for sure Thomas sent this person to kill you?”
“I don’t. But I have a strong suspicion.”
He finally looked up. “So, after all that, what do I do?”
“You have to run. I can help transport you out of Colorado, maybe even out of the country. I can help you get new documents, like a new social security number and a new passport.”
“You can just ‘get’ me a new social? Who are you?”
“I’m someone who cares about you. That’s all I can say right now.”
He gave a pensive nod. “I need to think about this.”
“I understand. For now, please don’t go back to your apartment. Don’t go anywhere you think Thomas might find you.”
“Yeah. I’ve already come to that conclusion.”
“I know this is weird. I know it’s not what you want to hear.”
“That’s the truth. But, there’s something you should know. After you called me this afternoon, cops came to the motel. I don’t know for sure why, because I’ve been hiding in here all day, peeking through the curtains. I think they were going in and out of your assistant Gabe’s room.”
Ember instinctively looked to the door. “Gabe’s room?”
“Yeah. There were a bunch of cop cars and an ambulance. I haven’t seen or heard from Gabe since this morning. I think his car is still in the parking lot, though.”
Ember realized she hadn't even thought to look for Gabe's car in the lot when she'd arrived. She stood and took a couple of steps toward the door as a sinking feeling flourished in her belly. "I'll be right back."
Notes for “A History of the Denver Assassins Club”
Part 4 of 6
By Kunjal Anand
Recent documents have come to light that have filled in many of the gaps in the DAC's "dark ages," as some refer to the 1970s and 1980s. We know much of the chronology of the 1960s due to our founder Unger's personal notes, and after 1990, Branch record-keeping became more robust and systematized. But historical records of the period from 1970-1990 are filled with conjecture and handed-down oral accounts. This researcher will present only the known facts and will make educated assumptions based on natural conclusions.
By the late 1960s, the Club’s Branches had solidified. The bylaws had been crafted. By 1970, in-fighting had become a problem. Unger believed the same complication that had kept the DAC from forming when it was small could still tear it apart now that it exceeded a hundred members. Only now, the challenge had become much greater. There was significantly more at stake with operations in full swing.
So, Unger established the Review Board, sometime between 1966 and 1970. No one is exactly sure when. He created a system of government within the Club that was not part of any one Branch but had loyalty to and dominion over all of them. Government members would be chosen from Branches, but would only be allowed into office if they could demonstrate they were able to put Branch loyalty behind. An intricate and lengthy vetting process was created, as well as the apparatus for security and intelligence officers who would serve the government, not the Branches.
Eventually, the Review Board would become elected positions, aside from Historian.
Also at this time, the first Oracle was established. A neutral third-party arbiter of conflicts and keeper of Review Board secrets. Unger felt it was important to have someone outside of the system who could step in to act as a voice of authority, mostly in emergencies only. The Oracle was used so infrequently, the position became something of an urban legend around the Club.
Unger’s system was careful and thorough, but human nature still presented the greatest challenge to order.
In 1971, a man named Theodore Banks committed the murders of several members of various Branches. For this crime, he was sentenced to a trial by combat, which had been used multiple times before as a disciplinary measure. But, due to the egregiousness of his crime and outcry from the affected Branches, he was given the “black spot” variety of trial, which had only been offered on two prior occasions. This meant he would have to face an assa
ssin from each of the six Branches, in sequential one-week spans as contracts sanctioned by the Review Board itself.
The black spot did not go well. Alliances formed between various Branches, as well as infighting over who had earned the right to kill Banks. At a cross-Branch gathering, a fight broke out, leading to at least a dozen deaths. The total death toll from that period is at least 25, although some unverified accounts put the number closer to 50. No one is certain as the names of the dead are not recorded anywhere this researcher has been able to locate.
Thus began the Club’s “dark ages,” which we now understand is named so not only for the lack of information about the era, but also the tension between the Branches, which lasted for several years.
And, human frailty contributed to the difficulty.
In the late 1970s or early 1980s, Unger fell ill and never recovered to full strength. Some suspect he suffered from Alzheimer’s, although there is no proof of this. What we know for sure is that by the early 80s, he rarely made appearances at Club or Review Board functions. Others became his mouthpieces.
Adding inter-Branch tension to Unger’s failing health, it did not seem as if the Denver Assassins Club would survive in the long-term.
* * *
FOUR DOWN, TWO MORE TO GO.
TO BE CONTINUED IN PART FIVE…
Get the next book, VENDETTA TARGET to continue the hunt today!
A NOTE TO READERS
If you would like to know more about how Ember Clarke knows Harvey Bennett, then you’re in luck.
Check out the jaw-dropping action thriller THE LETHAL BONES, and find out how Ember met Ben.
__________
Want to know to get books by Jim Heskett for free and learn more about Ember’s neighbor Layne Parrish?
Take a gander at the Layne Parrish thriller novella Museum Attack.
It’s Die Hard in a Denver Art Museum.
Museum Attack is not for sale anywhere, but you can get it FOR FREE at
www.jimheskett.com/readergroup.
READY TO KEEP GOING?
Bombs hidden across Denver.
A race against time to defuse them.
Will she die saving the city, or will she live to see it go up in smoke?
Elite assassin Ember Clarke has a lot to atone for in this life. And she knows the killer after her this week has plenty to be angry about. So angry, in fact, he’s planted a bomb in Denver, and it’s set to detonate within hours.
Ember scrambles to save innocent lives from becoming collateral damage in an assassins’ war. But the biggest shock of all comes when Ember learns this bomber has several more ready to detonate.
Can Ember find the hidden bombs and defuse them, or will the Mile High City’s citizens pay the ultimate price?
Vendetta Target is the fifth book in the pulse-pounding Six Assassins crime and action thriller series. If you like heroes with secrets, shocking reveals, and pages so exciting they almost turn themselves, you’ll love Jim Heskett's and Nick Thacker’s epic six-part tale.
Buy Vendetta Target to save the city today!
Jim
For everyone dreaming of Mexican beaches.
Nick
For Jim.
All material copyright 2020 by Jim Heskett and Nick Thacker. No part of this work may be reproduced without permission.
Published by Bad Tooth Books, an imprint of Turtleshell Press
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JIM HESKETT
Jim Heskett writes stories about outsiders who fight crime.
The author was born in the wilds of Oklahoma, raised by a pack of wolves with a station wagon and a membership card to the local public swimming pool. Just like the man in the John Denver song, he moved to Colorado in the summer of his 27th year. He's never looked back. Aside from a wild year traveling the world, he hasn't let the Flatirons mountains out of his sight.
Jim fell in love with writing at the age of fourteen inside a copy of Stephen King's Carrie. Poetry provided his first outlet for teen angst, then later a smattering of mediocre screenplays, and eventually crime thriller fiction a la Elmore Leonard. In between, he worked a few careers that never quite tickled his creative toes.
He hasn't ever forgotten about Stephen King.
You can find him currently huddled over a laptop in an undisclosed location in Colorado, dreaming up ways to kill beloved characters.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, he believes the huckle is the king of berries and he refuses to entertain any arguments to the contrary.
He writes award-winning crime thrillers seasoned with a dash of snark. Sometimes he writes these books with co-authors like Nick Thacker.
Details and FREE, exclusive books at www.jimheskett.com
NICK THACKER
Nick Thacker is a thriller author from Texas who lives in Colorado and Hawaii, because Colorado has mountains, microbreweries, and fantastic weather, and Hawaii also has mountains, microbreweries, and fantastic weather. In his free time, he enjoys reading in a hammock on the beach, skiing, drinking whiskey, and hanging out with his beautiful wife, tortoise, two dogs, and two daughters.
In addition to his fiction work, Nick is the founder and lead of Sonata & Scribe, the only music studio focused on producing “soundtracks” for books and series. Find out more at SonataAndScribe.com.
For more information and a list of Nick’s other work, visit Nick online:
www.nickthacker.com