The men gripped her tight. Her arms were stuck high, reaching over the shoulders of the men who were there to protect Payne. As they held her, Payne stepped near, grinning. “What to do now?” He walked over to the chair that rested next to Vali’s corpse, rubbing his hand over the leather. “Let’s set her down here and have some fun, shall we?”
Niki wrestled against the men who held her. She flailed her arms and legs as they dragged her toward the empty chair. She wouldn’t give up so easily. She was able to rip her right arm free, and when the guard who let go tried to reach for her again, she connected with a right hand across his chin. He dropped to the floor, but another caught her and regained control of her.
Payne laughed deviously when she reached him. “You’ve got some fight in you. I like that.”
Niki squared him and spit in his face.
He wiped the spit away and nodded to his men, who then lifted her up and tied her down. Her legs were the first to be tied, her left ankle, followed by her right. Payne stood at the end of the chair, staring into her eyes.
His were cold. Dark. Calculated.
Hers? Hers showed fear. Real fear. Fear she’d never experienced.
And just as the two other guards moved toward her hands, a burst of light lit up the night outside the window behind Payne’s head.
The explosion was loud and shook the warehouse, causing dust particles to drop from the ceiling. Payne shuddered and spun. Confusion set in. Then panic. All the men turned, and Payne gave the order, “Go!”
Every man ran toward the explosion.
It was now or never. Niki sat up and ripped the ropes free from her left leg first, then her right. It took less than ten seconds for her to tear the knots loose. With all the men moving for the truck, Niki lifted the rope that was tied to her feet, stretched it tight between her hands, and crept toward Payne.
“I can hear your soft footsteps.” Payne projected his voice so that even in the chaos Niki could pick it out.
Niki stopped in her tracks and watched him turn around. He held his gun low at his chest; Niki didn’t notice the gun until he extended his arm.
“Walther PPK?” Niki said.
He glanced down at his weapon. “I see you’re a connoisseur of weaponry.”
“Not really, just a big Bond fan.”
“That’s not surprising considering your choice of career.” His cheeks rose in a subtle smile. “What weapon do you carry?”
“Are we going to talk about who carries the bigger gun, or are we going to finish this?” Niki said.
“Why not just finish you here and now. Amongst this chaos.” He rotated at the waist with the palm of his free hand upward, indicating the explosion outside. “After all, this is your doing, I assume.”
“My doing? How could I—”
Payne held up his free hand. “Please. You think I didn’t know your government would send someone else to rescue you. They always show up unannounced, like a thorn in my side, but I digress. Like I said.” He aimed his Walther at Niki’s head.
She lifted her hands out of instinct but had no intention of surrender. She needed to think of something to say to get him to fight her. She knew beyond a doubt if it came to hand-to-hand combat, she would win.
“You’re not going to shoot me.”
“No? Nothing would give me greater pleasure.”
“Ha. Pleasure.”
Payne looked shocked.
“You don’t take pleasure in the quick kill. Otherwise, your name would be Swift. You take pleasure in the suffering of others.”
He chuckled to himself. “True. But for you, I’m willing to make an exception.”
Niki painted herself into a corner. Now what?
She’d had enough talking. Her only move was to rush him; she might take a bullet for it, but what choice did she have? Then she whispered something aloud, a tactic she learned from ZULU.
“What was that?” Payne asked, moving his body forward out of instinct, in turn lowering his Walther just enough, creating her chance to rush him.
Only three bounding paces separated them. Payne raised his Walther and pulled the trigger, but the shot was low and to the side, missing Niki altogether as she wrapped her arms around his midsection and tackled him to the ground. Once there, her first move was to eject the weapon from his hand. She then received a left fist to the side of her head, narrowly missing her temple. Niki came back with a blow of her own, a right elbow to his jaw, fracturing it with one strike. The hit sent him into a daze. Niki realized this fight would be over almost as quick as it started. From the momentum of the blow, his head whipped back and hit the hard floor. Niki came with another elbow to his face, this time with her left hand as she straddled him. His eyes rolled back into his head. His consciousness was teetering on the brink. One more should shut his eyes for good. But she didn’t want him to pass out; she wanted him to experience the pain. The excruciating pain he’d put thousands through during his reign as supreme warlord in West Africa. But as she peered down at him, she couldn’t help herself as she continued with another strike. He was out cold, and if she continued there was no going back: Payne would be dead, and there would be one less bad guy in the world. But that’s not what happened.
“Get up!” Jabar shoved his Beretta M9 into her temple.
She breathed heavily and stared down at Payne. His face was battered. Bludgeoned. One or maybe two more blows and it would’ve been over. But she couldn’t have gotten those hits in before Jabar pulled the trigger and ended her life.
She pulled her legs back and fell off him. Three guards picked up Payne from the floor and pulled him out of the barn.
Jabar stepped in front of Niki, cutting off her view of Payne.
“He’s never going to be the same again.” Niki grinned from the floor all the while trying to catch her breath.
Jabar reached down and lifted Payne’s Walther from the floor. He looked at the weapon, then at Niki who sat helpless. “And neither will you. I wonder how long it will take you to bleed out.” Jabar grinned and squeezed the trigger and put a slug into her belly.
31
Three days later
Asheville, Virginia
CONSTANT BEEPS INVADED Niki’s psyche and a fog lifted only as she opened her eyes and blinked out the blur. Her head was tilted to the left, where she saw a man asleep, hunched over in a horribly uncomfortable hospital chair. His hair was disheveled, and his T-shirt was untucked over his blue jeans.
As Niki opened her mouth to speak, a pain shot through her gut. She scrunched her abdomen, which caused more pain, but she knew she must push through it; she needed to feel strong again. A blank clipboard lay on her legs, and she needed answers. She chucked the clipboard at Winter as he slept. The corner contacted his leg, and he shot bolt upright. In a panic he looked around.
“I’m up. What is it?” Then he caught eyes with Niki, who shook her head and eyed him as if expecting him to fill her in. Shocked to find her awake finally, he leaped out of his seat and tended to her bedside. “You’re awake. I’ll get the doctor.” He rose from her side, but she grabbed his arm and wanted an explanation stat.
“What happened?” she whispered, her voice hoarse.
“You were shot.”
“No shit! What happened with Payne?”
“They took him out of the building. His men, they all . . . all escaped.”
“Escaped?” she said, her voice louder now.
“And the professor?” Winter added.
“Lord?”
Winter shook his head no.
“How?”
Winter dropped his head. “They had way more men, we were outnumbered, and . . .”
“And what?”
“We couldn’t get to him. We tried, but we . . . we just couldn’t. We didn’t see you leave with them, so we came hunting for you. We found you in a pool of your own blood. Left there to rot with the animals.” Winter raised his head and looked toward the opposite corner of the room. Fox was there too.
She flicked her hand in a wave.
Niki looked at Fox, then back at Winter. “How did I end up here?” She looked around the room. “Wait, where is here?”
“You’re in Ashville.”
“Virginia?”
Winter nodded and then someone else joined the party. Collar pushed through the hospital door, followed by a man in a white doctor’s coat.
“Because I sent for you. You think I’d leave you to die in Africa? Hell no. You’re too valuable.”
Niki’s mind switched back to business. “Tell me Payne’s dead. Give me some good news.”
Collar stood at the opposite end of the room, turning her back to give Niki privacy as the doctor tended to her vitals. “Payne’s gone.”
“What do you mean, gone?”
“I mean, he’s vanished. No longer in West Africa. Not one of our assets has seen him since that day.”
“And the professor? Winter said he was gone too.”
“No sign of him either.”
“So, what, you’re just going to leave him out there to die?”
At that, Collar turned to face Niki. “How do you know this wasn’t their plan all along? To get you to face Payne alone.”
“Because the professor and Payne are not partners. He used the professor to do his dirty work.”
“Is that a fact?” Collar wasn’t sold. “And you know that how? Did the professor give you that pearl of wisdom?”
“No. I figured it out for myself.”
“And how did you do that?”
“Wait. Am I on trial here? What’s with the interrogation?”
Collar stood upright. “I assure you, Niki, this is no interrogation. I, but more importantly the director, wants to know the facts of what happened. This was supposed to be a reconnaissance mission. None of you . . .”—now she eyed Winter and Fox as well—“and I mean none of you, were supposed to have any contact with Payne, ever. You were to collect data. Put together a case against Payne, and the professor. Was there a link? If so, of what sort? How deep did their ties go? What exactly was Payne doing with his conflict diamonds? Everything was laid out in your dossier before you left for Africa, but you three idiots went ahead and made your own bed. Now it’s time to sleep in it. Tell me what the hell happened.”
Winter opened his mouth, but Collar chastised him. “I’ve heard your brief. Shut your mouth and let Finley talk.”
Of course Niki wasn’t privy to anything Winter or Fox did, so she started with her side. “Payne’s a cold-blooded killer. Forget about the mines, although that’s a problem for sure, but his particular interest is genocide. Slaughtering innocents.”
“I’ve heard that tale from Winter already.”
In shock, Niki eyed Winter. “You mean, you saw them burn down the village?” Then she looked to Fox. “And you did nothing to stop it?”
“Niki, please.” Winter reached for her arm to comfort her. “What could we do?”
She shooed his hand away.
“Enough,” Collar rebuked. “Yeah, he did bad things. Get to the part about the professor.”
“It’s not so much what he said, although he did claim that Payne burned his hand, but what he didn’t say or, more importantly, what he didn’t do. His actions were that of a coward, not a man of action. Even when he faced Payne himself and all his men, he was meek. And Payne spoke to him like an inferior, not a partner. Payne used him as an errand boy.”
“Why?” Collar asked.
“My best guess?” Niki asked.
Collar nodded.
“I assume he used his people, the villagers, against him. And when something happened, for example, me supposedly ‘spying’ on him . . .”—she made air quotes with her fingers, but then turned to Fox, knowing it was really she who got caught—“Payne no longer felt obligated to protect the villagers, but rather felt Lord needed to be taught a lesson.”
“And you figured this out how?”
“Because I’m a spy, and it’s my job to think like a criminal, correct?” Now she stared directly at Collar.
Collar turned to face the middle of the room. The doctor pushed away from Niki and said, “She checks out. The shot was through and through. It missed all vital organs. Healing will mainly be tissue damage.”
“How long?” Collar asked.
The doctor looked to Niki. “Two weeks. Maybe three.”
Collar nodded, and the doctor left the room.
“Three weeks?” Winter questioned.
“Recovery,” Collar said. Then she glared at Niki. “And not a minute more.”
“What does that mean?” Niki asked.
“It means the three of you”—Collar looked at each of them for a moment—“are going to fix your mistake. You’re going to find Payne and the professor. If you get killed in the process, my conscience will be clear. As I assume will be the director’s. If you succeed, all the better. I can only stick up for you and this program for so long. It’s time for you to show us exactly what you’re made of.”
“What if we can’t find him?” Winter asked.
“Then you might as well find a nice spot in Africa to hunker down in, ’cause you’re sure as hell not going to be welcomed back here.” And like that, she was gone.
32
Three weeks later
Freetown, Sierra Leone
THE WIND HOWLED AT the midnight hour and Niki had fully recovered from her injuries. After being cleared by the doctors, she was put through extensive testing with ZULU, enduring another polygraph to test her fortitude, a rigorous obstacle course, and a written examination. It was almost harder than her original training in Colorado. But now, in the black of night in the heat of Africa, she lugged her rucksack on her back and hiked away from the airport. She had an idea where Payne was held up, but she couldn’t be certain without visual confirmation. It was speculative at this point. When Vali brought Niki and Lord to the active mine, it seemed they had only just begun mining the area. Her hunch was thin, but it was all she had at the moment. If ZULU, or any other branch of the US government, wanted to know where Payne was, this was the best place to start looking.
Payne would lie low for a while, she knew that. No way he would show his beaten and battered face; that would discredit his biggest asset. His presence was his way to inflict fear, but after a three-week hiatus, he likely would have recuperated from his injuries by now.
Winter and Fox followed behind Niki. She hadn’t said a word on the flight over, not so much as a thank-you. She didn’t figure she needed to give one. She was willing to give her life to the cause and to the mission.
Sure, Winter and Fox were there for backup, but Niki didn’t think she needed it. Her mission was to find Payne and make him pay for his crimes, and she was confident she could get the job done on her own.
“How’s about telling us where we’re going?” Fox caught Niki’s stride.
Niki stayed silent and continued her jog.
Fox persisted. “Niki, where are we going?”
This time Niki turned to look her in the eye as she ran, but still remained silent.
“Damnit, woman.” Fox grabbed Niki’s arm, then jumped in front of her to cut her off. “I kicked your ass once, I can sure as hell do it again.”
Niki stopped jogging. “You sure about that?” But her momentum carried her forward, forcing Fox to walk backward and putting her on the defensive. “I’ve learned a few things since Colorado. Pretty sure I could have you on your ass in less than five seconds.” Niki gritted her teeth, ready to throw down, but Winter stepped in between them.
“That’s enough. No use fighting amongst ourselves. The enemy’s out there, not here.”
“What’s your problem?” Fox told Niki, peering over Winter’s shoulder. “If you’ll recall, you’re here because Mitch and I saved your ass. You would’ve bled out and died in that barn like an animal if we hadn’t come and saved you.”
“I didn’t ask for that.” There it was, finally—the tension, the walls were breaking
down. “If you would’ve gone after Payne and his men for what they did . . . to all those . . . those people. You saw them, they were helpless. And you, you two”—Niki pushed Winter in the chest—“you let them burn.”
“What could we do?” Winter backed away, joining Fox by her side. “It was two against twenty.”
“More like fifteen,” Niki said.
“Regardless of the number. We were outmanned and outgunned. Only a fool or a superhero would’ve gone in guns blazing. I’m no superhero.”
“No shit.” Niki pushed by, annoyed they were still talking and not moving.
Her comment cut him. He was no coward. He acted to the betterment of the mission. To their code.
Once again, Fox caught up with Niki. “For your information, your boyfriend back there stuck to the mission, to the orders he was given, and he saved your ass.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Niki shouted. “And what about you?”
“What about me?” Fox said.
“I know it was you who Payne saw.”
Her mouth fell agape. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play coy. The reason Payne burned the village. The reason he came for me, Vali, and Professor Lord in the first place was because of you.”
Fox stepped back dejected. “Me?” She grabbed her chest.
“That’s right, you.”
Fox never showed emotion, not ever. She knew her mistake had been costly, but now she knew to what extent. In the thick, humid, dark air, there was silence. Winter stepped forward and was about to speak on Fox’s behalf, perhaps to defend her, but she wouldn’t allow it. She wouldn’t let him fight her battles for her. “I know I screwed up. And I’ll pay for it with my life if I have to. Even if it doesn’t come to that, I know I’ll never live it down or be able to forgive myself, but I’m here to help you. To help you bring retribution for those villagers and for . . .”
“His name is Vali,” Niki said. “He was their doctor. A doctor to all the villagers in the area.”
“Right, Vali. And the professor.”
Second Best: A Niki Finley Novel (A Niki Finley Thriller Book 2) Page 15