A Lone Wolf

by J. C. Fields

  Additional objects remained inside the safe. He extracted all and lay them on the desk next to the cash. Five flash drives and ten CDs in jewel cases comprised the rest of the safe’s contents. Each would be examined later. With the safe empty, Wolfe slipped the sling bag carefully over his helmet and removed the two beer-can-sized objects from inside. Into the bag went the cash, the passports, flash drives and the CDs. He closed the safe and resituated the bag back over his shoulder.

  He placed one of the cans in his pant pocket and took the other in his left hand. Leaving the library, he approached the staircase leading to the upstairs portion of the residence.

  Wolfe felt a vibration in his right pant pocket. After retrieving the phone, he started to read the message when he sensed the distinct muffled sound of a distant helicopter flying low.

  Without hesitation, he ran toward the front entrance of the house and pulled the pin on the can-shaped object in his hand. Once within sight of the massive front door, he tossed the object forward, turned and ran back toward the rear of the house. He was almost to the library when the first incendiary grenade detonated.

  Not stopping to admire his handiwork, Wolfe reached into his pocket for the second grenade and pulled the pin. As he ran past the library, he tossed it toward the desk and then rushed for the back door.

  By the time he emerged onto the large patio, he could hear the helicopter approaching from the south. Glancing at his watch, the digital numbers showed 11:34. With a solid cloud layer obscuring the stars and his black attire, he would be invisible during his trek back to the SUV. Wolfe broke into a sprint and arrived at the Equinox a minute later. Flipping the NVG googles up, he turned to see the front of the house engulfed in flames as a Bell Model 429 helicopter hovered low while circling the structure before landing in the front yard.

  After slipping the backpack off his shoulder, he opened the driver side door and tossed the bag onto the front passenger seat. The worse thing he could do at this point would be to expose his position with car lights. His solution was to take the Equinox out of gear, flip the night vision goggles back down and push the SUV toward a downward incline. With the vehicle now moving on its own, he jumped into the driver seat and steered the vehicle, without power steering, until the house was out of sight.

  Once clear of being seen by anyone in the helicopter, he made sure the vehicles lights were off as he started the engine. Still utilizing his night vision device to steer the SUV, he drove deeper into the dark rural Virginia countryside.

  Chapter 30

  Paris, France

  G erald Reid sat in the Charles De Gaulle International Airport departure gate awaiting his connecting flight to Barcelona, his cell phone pressed to his ear. He stared numbly at the floor by his shoes while the caller described the events at his house. When the caller finished, all Reid could think to say was, “I see. Can they tell what started the fire?”

  More listening and more staring.

  “I see.” He paused, as his mind raced. “No, I just landed in Paris on my way to Barcelona. There is nothing I can do about it from here. Please keep me informed when they discover what caused the fire. My return depends on events in Spain and I will get back to you when I know the date.” More silence. “Yes, that will be fine.”

  Reid studied the now silent phone. After hesitating several minutes, he dialed a number committed to memory. The call was answered on the fourth ring.

  “Are you in Barcelona?” Asa Gerlis sounded tense.

  “No, my flight is delayed an hour.”

  “Then why are you calling?”

  “Wolfe burned down my house.”

  Silence was his reply. Finally, he heard. “Are you sure?”

  “Who else could it be?”

  “Lots of factors—”

  “No, it was him, Asa.”

  “No names.”

  “Whatever.” Reid took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “He’s out there. I saw him three days ago.”

  Gerlis did not comment.

  “He’s taunting us. I received a picture via Fed Ex. A picture of me in my driveway with the crosshairs of a rifle scope centered on my forehead.”

  “What did they say about the fire?”

  “There was a power outage in the area, which kept the local firefighters from arriving for two hours. There is nothing left of the house and it’s too hot to investigate. It will be sometime later today before anyone can start looking for the cause.”

  Gerlis did not respond right away. When he did, it was short. “Send me a text when you land.”

  The call ended.

  Reid stared at the silent phone and tried not to scream.

  At the same time Reid spoke to Gerlis, Wolfe and Nadia were transferring luggage and equipment from the rental cars to the Beechcraft B55 parked at the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport near Harrisonburg, Virginia.

  Nadia turned to Wolfe. “You haven’t said a word since we got here.”

  “Thinking.”

  “About?”

  “How I screwed up.”

  “I am not sure how you were supposed to know he had agency assets watching the house.”

  Michael stopped before placing the Barrett’s case in the plane’s luggage compartment. He faced Nadia and shook his head. “Those guys weren’t agency. When the agency cuts you off, they completely cut you off. My guess is a private security contractor.”

  She crossed her arms and tilted her head before she replied. “So how is that screwing up?”

  “The short length of time it took for a response to my intrusion means there were other monitoring systems I didn’t plan for.”

  “Do you think they can tie it back to us?”

  “Not officially.” He smiled grimly. “We’re dead, remember?”

  She remained silent as she stared at him. “But Reid knows we are not.”

  “If he doesn’t, he’s not as smart as I give him credit.”

  “I am not following you. What are you worried about?”

  “I’m not really worried. I’m mad at myself for not doing more research on his security setup. Most home security companies have retired cops driving around in leased cars. These guys weren’t rent-a-cops. When I glanced at the burning house, I could see a helicopter circling the house before it landed. It was a Bell Model 429 and those aren’t cheap. Over the course of his CIA career, Reid probably dealt with his fair share of private security contractors started by ex-military types.” He paused and finished placing the last suitcase onto the plane. “I saw the identification numbers on the tail boom. I can use those to find out who was watching his house.”

  “But you already suspect something, don’t you?”

  He smiled to himself. She’d used another contraction. Choosing not to mention it, he nodded. “Yes, I do. If it’s who I think it is, they’ll have resources we don’t.”

  She smiled as she walked to her rental car and looked back at him. “Then we will just have to be smarter.”

  The smoldering remains of what used to be Gerald Reid’s lavish home remained too hot for the fire marshal to start his investigation. Travis Fox, owner of Regis Worldwide, walked cautiously around the once-grand structure. As an ex-Army Ranger, Fox started Regis to get in on the United States’ increasing dependence on private military contractors. With Gerald Reid supplying his first overseas contract, Fox felt loyalty to the man, to a point. The sizeable sum Reid paid each year for Regis Worldwide to keep his property safe helped Fox overlook the negatives of dealing with the man.

  Fox wore a frown as he walked the perimeter. He saw two areas he suspected were the ignition points. The front door and a room in the middle of the house on the west side.

  Once the fire marshal arrived to start their investigation, he would be able to confirm his suspicions.

  Now in his mid-forties, Fox remained a compact man with broad shoulders, thin waist and sandy brown hair worn short. Mirrored Oakley sunglasses shaded his eyes from the early morning sun now climbing high
er in the sky. As he surveyed the scene, his helicopter pilot, Sam Harris, approached with a Samsung tablet in his hand.

  “We have the surveillance videos downloaded from the cloud, Travis.” The pilot touched the screen and handed the device to Fox. “We think he was parked just outside the fence line on the north side of the property.”

  Fox nodded as he studied the video. A black-clad figure appeared at the outer range of the infrared camera, moving toward it. When the figure was within thirty feet, he pointed an object at the camera and the screen went dark. Travis looked at Harris. “What the hell?”

  “Paintball gun. We found it on the back deck with red pellets.”

  “Can we trace who bought it? Maybe get some fingerprints.”

  The pilot shook his head. “Heat from the fire partially melted the gun and all of the pellets left in it. I checked the brand—it’s one of those cheap ones you can buy at Walmart. If you close in on the guy just before he shoots, you can see he has gloves on. This guy was a pro, knew what he was doing.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Follow me.”

  As they walked toward the rear of the house, Harris said, “The countywide power failure was deliberate. Someone sabotaged the main transformer for this area around 10:30 last night.” When they arrived at the northwest corner of the destroyed home, he pointed at a partially melted beige object. “Notice the two holes in the side?”

  Fox knelt down and studied the side of the generator. He looked up. “He disabled the emergency backup power. What do those look like, 50s?”

  The pilot nodded. “That would be my guess. Like I said, the guy knew what he was doing.”

  Standing, Fox brushed his hands on his jeans. “Interesting. Whoever did this possessed a few exotic toys, 50 caliber weapons and, I suspect, incendiary grenades. Okay, let’s get a security detail out here and then you can take me back to the hangar. I’ve got work to do.”

  As they approached the helicopter, the pilot said in a low voice to Fox, “There’s a rumor going around Reid’s no longer with the agency.”

  Stopping, the ex-Ranger stared at his pilot. “Where’d you hear that?”

  “I called Barry in IT to get the security camera video. He told me it’s all over CNN.”

  Frowning, Fox stared at the pilot. “Shit.” He returned his attention to the smoldering remains. “This may not have been just a well-executed burglary.”

  “Kind of what I was thinking.”

  Fox looked back at his pilot. “Apparently, Reid finally pissed off the wrong guy.”

  Regis Worldwide headquartered on the northern edge of Dulles International Airport. The hangar it occupied was wide enough to accommodate the company’s two Bell Model 429 helicopters and its first jet, a recently purchased Embraer Phenom 100EV. Travis Fox retreated to his office in the back corner. Compared to the trappings of other private military contractors, he preferred to spend the company’s money on equipment and hiring the best personnel. He sat behind his military surplus gray metal desk and opened his laptop. The first order of business was to see what had happened to Gerald Reid.

  On the CNN website, he found several reports. After skimming through several, he concluded Reid had indeed retired from the agency. Rumors and innuendos were rampant, but no solid explanation as to why he retired suddenly were stated. His next task was to make sure his other contacts within the agency and the Pentagon were secure.

  By late afternoon, Fox felt his status as a go-to company within the private military contractor sector remained solid. With the last call completed, he looked up to see Sam Harris appear at his office door.

  Fox noticed a look of amusement. “Why the grin, Sam?”

  “Just heard from the fire marshal.”

  “And?”

  “You were correct—the fire started in two separate locations. Burn patterns indicated two very hot sources, one at the front door and another in the library. While they don’t have the chemical analysis back yet, he suspects white phosphorus.”

  Fox remained silent as he absorbed the news. After a long pause, he nodded. “Last time I spoke to Reid, he was waiting for a flight to Barcelona. Guess I need to call him again and let him know.” He pointed to a metal chair in front of his desk. “You might as well sit down and listen.”

  Fox put the phone on speaker and made the call. Reid answered immediately. “What did you find out?”

  “Who’d you pissed off bad enough they’d burn your house down, Reid?”

  The ex-CIA official did not reply immediately. After several awkward moments of silence, he said. “Not sure what you’re talking about.”

  “Let’s put it this way. Someone sabotaged a local transformer and they disabled your generator. They then broke into your house and set it on fire. To me, that sounds like someone very upset with you. Care to comment?”

  “If there wasn’t any electricity how did you know the house was broken into?”

  “If your house loses electricity, we know. We were there in thirty minutes after the power was cut.”

  “I have a safe. They may have been after it?”

  “What was in the safe?”

  “Money and other things.”

  Fox rolled his eyes. “What other things?”

  “Documents and files.”

  “Who knew about the money?”

  Reid did not respond right away.

  “Gerald, I can’t help you if you’re going to keep information from me.”

  Although Fox and Harris could not see it, Reid closed his eyes and placed his hand over them. In a voice barely above a whisper, they heard. “Kendra Burges knew about it. She also knew the combination.”

  “We’ve spoken on occasion. I’ll start with her. Do you think she might be responsible?”

  “I don’t know. Last time I spoke to her, she seemed upset.”

  “Should we investigate her?”

  “No, I would start with another individual.”

  “Who?”

  “Michael Wolfe.”

  “Who’s he?”

  “A very dangerous man.”

  Fox chuckled. “How dangerous?”

  “Let’s just say he makes his living with a rifle.”

  “How do I find him?”

  “Talk to Gregg Simpson. Here’s his number.” Reid recited the cell phone number. “He’ll be able to tell you where Wolfe lives.”

  After the call ended, Fox looked over at Harris. “What do you think?”

  The pilot shrugged. “I’d say this Wolfe person would be a starting place. Reid said he made his living with a rifle.”

  “Yes, he did say that.” Fox tapped a pencil on his desk.

  “What are you thinking, Travis?”

  “While I was checking with my contacts at the Pentagon and the Agency making sure Regis Worldwide was still on the A-list, a couple of individuals I spoke to made comments about why Reid was forced to retire.”

  “What’d they say?”

  “He had become obsessed with a man who died two years ago.”

  Harris chuckled. “Let me guess. Wolfe.”

  Fox nodded. “Now Reid claims this dead person burned his house down.”

  “Huh.”

  “They also said no one at the Agency was sorry to see him leave. Apparently, he trampled on a lot of careers over the years and left a whole lot of folks in the dust during his rise within management.”

  “In other words, there are more than a few individuals that know how to use a rifle pissed at him.”

  Another nod from Fox. “Yeah, more than a few. The Agency is a tight-knit community, Sam. People talk. I didn’t consider this fact when we took Reid on as a client. Now he’s radioactive and no one wants anything to do with him.”

  “You’re going somewhere with this, aren’t you?”

  Fox stood. “Yeah, I’m going to get something to eat and then I’m going to our attorney’s office and see how fast we can get out of our contract with Reid.”

  Chap
ter 31

  Somewhere on the East Coast

  W hat are you going to do with the money, Michael?”

  Wolfe checked his altimeter and airspeed before answering. “We are going to use it to stay off the grid and figure out how to get our names back.”

  Faking a pout, she said, “You do not want to be married to me anymore?”

  He shot her a quick glance and saw the pout change to a mischievous grin. “I’m tired of hiding and the charade. I don’t want to be Mr. and Mrs. Lyon. I want us to be Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe.”

  “They are both predators, Michael.”

  He chuckled. “True.”

  “So, you are telling me you want to get married for real.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “You are not going to ask me, just tell me?”

  Another quick glance. “Not what I meant.”

  “I see.” She tried to hide her smile. “What did you mean, Michael Wolfe? You assume I want to marry you. Is that what you are saying?”

  He took a deep breath. “Nadia, why are you making this difficult? You know how I feel about you. I just want it to be legitimate—not this pretend marriage because we’re hiding from our past.”

  She grinned and watched the North Carolina countryside pass beneath the Beechcraft. Several moments of silence passed before she turned again to look at him. “How do we free ourselves of Gerald Reid and Asa and get our names back?”

  “We find them and make sure they never bother us again.”

  “How?”

  “We need to locate them first.” He glanced at her. “Probably in Spain.”

  “Where in Spain? It is a big country.”

  “Same way they found us over two years ago.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “How do you mean?”

  He smiled. “We draw them into a trap, just like they did us.”

  “That trap did not work very well.”

  “No, it didn’t. We’ll just have to make sure ours is a better trap.”

  They fell into a comfortable silence. After five minutes of watching rural Virginia pass beneath the plane, she turned to him. “Michael.”