by CW Browning
Damon glanced over his shoulder and stared at the headline.
BREAKING NEWS: VICE PRESIDENT ALEX LUDMERE COLLAPSES AT HOME
“Hey, O'Reilly!” he swung around. “Did you know about this?”
Michael came across the room and glanced at the headline.
“Blake told me when I talked to him,” he replied. “Regina was at the hospital. It's not serious. If it was, I would have been recalled by now.”
“We have to get going.” Hawk glanced at his watch. It was five-thirty. “With Ludmere in the hospital, Regina will be even more careful about leaving. She'll have to avoid the press now, which means she'll have to leave even earlier, and she'll have lost time at the hospital.”
“You said Viper would have her covered,” Michael reminded him, glancing at his own watch.
“She will.” Damon turned to go into the kitchen. “But that doesn't mean I'm going to let her go into that fight alone,” he added over his shoulder.
“I'm coming with you,” Stephanie suddenly announced.
John and Michael turned to stare at her and she lifted her chin stubbornly, her eyes narrowing and daring them to disagree with her.
“That's not a good idea.”
Damon emerged from the kitchen with two bottles of water. He tossed one to Michael and Stephanie moved swiftly, catching the bottle instead. Damon's lips twitched.
“I'm coming with you,” Stephanie repeated firmly, staring at him.
Damon met her glare for a long moment, considering her, and suddenly grinned.
“Far be it from me to argue with you,” he murmured. “You're a big girl. But you're taking your safety on yourself the second you step out that door.”
“Agreed,” Stephanie said with a nod and Damon winked at her.
“I knew I liked you for a reason,” he said.
“Wait a minute.” John was standing up now, scowling. “If you go, I go.”
“What is this, Backdraft?” Michael exclaimed. “Neither of you are going! I'm not making myself responsible for two federal agents and a...a...whatever you are.” He motioned to Damon, drawing a laugh from him.
“You're cute.” Stephanie swung around and patted Michael on his cheek before turning and heading down the hall toward the bedrooms, John right behind her. “Give me five minutes,” she called over her shoulder.
“Did she just call me cute?” Michael asked Hawk, stunned.
“Yep.” Damon grinned and tucked his water into the outside pocket of his duffel bag. He glanced at his watch. “You've got three minutes!” he called out to the other two.
“You're not seriously bringing them with us,” Michael exclaimed. “We'll look like a damn circus!”
“Do you have a better idea?” Damon demanded. “If we leave them here, she'll just follow us. She knows the name of the airfield. She knows what time the plane leaves. You don't think she won't just show up there? At least this way we can control her.”
“What if we all walk into a firestorm?” Michael demanded.
“They're Federal agents,” Hawk said with a shrug. “They'll have to hold their own...just like you.”
“Hmpf.” Michael acknowledged the insult with a grin. “You still owe me beer.”
“Bullshit,” Damon retorted. “You owe me beer.”
Alina glanced at her watch, pressing the button to illuminate the face. There was still plenty of time. She was on a motorcycle, hidden in the woods about a mile from the small airfield located in Fredericksburg, Virginia. The sun had disappeared half an hour ago, after Viper settled on her point of ambush. There were more possibilities around the airfield than she was expecting, and she was pleased with her final decision. The trees were thick here and a slight rise above the road gave her an unexpectedly good view of the traffic coming toward her. While there were any number of routes Regina could take from DC to Fredericksburg, the road below her was the main road leading to the airport and the most likely one her target would take. If Regina did take a little-known back way into the airport, the tracking dot Viper had placed on Regina's SUV would alert her in enough time to improvise.
After making sure Regina hadn't changed plans after Ludmere's collapse this afternoon, Viper came down to Fredericksburg ahead of time, leaving straight from the hospital where Regina had received two text messages to her phone. One was from Leon, confirming the flight for that evening in light of Ludmere's health situation. The other was from an unnamed number, informing her that the target had been eliminated. The first made her frown before she assured him that they were still on for the flight to Miami, and the second had wreathed her in such smiles as to leave Alina in little doubt as to who the intended 'target' was. She had wondered at the time, and wondered again now, who was the woman Regina's assassin had mistaken for her? As soon as the question entered her mind, Alina put it out of her head. The identity of the unknown victim didn't matter. All that mattered was that Regina now thought Viper was dead.
And that gave Viper the biggest advantage of all.
Alina got off her bike and walked it over to rest against the trunk of a tree in the midst of some underbrush. Breaking off some low-hanging branches, she draped them over the motorcycle, concealing it as much as possible. She checked her watch again, flipping the screen on the digital display and checking her co-ordinates before flipping it back. She tightened the straps on her backpack, lifting her head to breathe in the smells of the forest around her, then turned and set off for the rise above the road.
It was going to end tonight.
Three months ago, Regina and Alex opened up Pandora's box by inviting Viper back into their world, convinced that they could control and destroy not only her, but every last shred of evidence that the Vice President had knowingly, and willfully, engaged in treason against the government and people of the country which he served. They had both grossly under-estimated their opponent.
Alina would probably have been content to remain silent about what she saw two years ago in Cairo, never looking any further than the unfortunate fact that the Vice President had been in the wrong place, with the wrong person, at the wrong time. In the course of her career, she had seen a lot of things that she would never mention and never expose due to national security risks, personal ethics, and just plain old-fashioned morals. Some things were never meant to be made public, and the word public to Alina encompassed anyone other than the direct people involved. She would have kept silent on what she had seen in Cairo.
If they hadn't imported a terrorist to kill thousands of Americans.
Alina was very prosaic about her job. She was a government-paid assassin, and her job was to kill people. Many people would consider her job no different from that of a terrorist, but they didn't know the truth. She was sent after the worst of the bad people. The people Viper dispatched to their terminal end were not innocent. They were not misunderstood. They were not victims of random profiling. They were the people no one else could touch.
They were people who believed they were above not only man-made laws, but the higher ethical and moral laws that governed every human being on the planet. The second Alex Ludmere and Regina Cummings decided to pay Johann to kill thousands of innocent Americans, they had joined those ranks. They had gone beyond what was acceptable even by the current intrusive and entitled policies sweeping their nation. They had joined the ranks of the doomed, and Viper was coming for them.
Alina paused at a break in the trees, looking down the slight rise and along the road. She crouched down, casting an experienced eye along the road and shook her head slightly. Straightening, she moved a few feet over to the left and crouched again, looking between two tree trunks that were close enough together that a man would be unable to squeeze between them. Satisfied with the angle, she swung her backpack off her back and unzipped it.
The darkness was thickening as night started to set in, and Viper listened as crickets grew louder and the night creatures of the woods stirred around her. She pulled a smaller bag out of her backp
ack and opened it, setting it on the ground. Her hands moved swiftly, assembling her rifle with sure and silent movements. She attached her night-vision scope and silencer last, then slung the rifle over her head so that it hung diagonally across her body. Picking up a stick from nearby, Alina used it to break-up a thick spider web that was strung between the two tree trunks before she settled on her stomach and positioned the rifle between the trees. She lowered her eye to the scope and adjusted the focus until she was satisfied before raising her head and settling in to wait.
Who had Regina's thug killed in mistake for her?
The question popped back into her head persistently. And why were they convinced it was her? Alina knew from long experience that the most bizarre coincidences could conspire to make even the clearest fact appear distorted, but something had to have happened to convince Regina that she had found Viper at last. It must have been that phone call right before Art arrived yesterday, when Regina had been visibly ecstatic.
Viper pursed her lips in displeasure. She should have had her listening gear with her yesterday. There was no excuse for not having it. It had been a miscalculation on her part to think it was unnecessary on the first day of surveillance.
Headlights blinked in the distance, drawing her attention from her thoughts. Setting the few unanswered questions she had aside, Viper lowered her head to the night-vision scope on her rifle and adjusted it slightly, focusing in on the black SUV traveling along the dark and deserted road at high speed. A sense of anticipation washed over her.
Regina was right on time.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Viper slid her finger over the trigger and watched through the scope as the SUV sped closer. Adjusting the angle ever so slightly, she centered the cross-hairs and exhaled slowly as she squeezed the trigger. The SUV swerved violently as the driver was thrown back, killed instantly by the round that went through the windshield and into his forehead. The armed guard, seated in the passenger seat, reached over to grab the wheel as Viper fired again. The SUV skidded out of control as the second round entered the guards heart.
Raising her head, Viper watched as the SUV veered toward the edge of the road and careened into the slight incline. The speed with which the vehicle was traveling caused the SUV to hit the rise and travel halfway up before gravity rolled it over. It rolled twice before coming to rest on its side, all four wheels spinning, about fifty yards from where Viper was concealed.
She sat up quickly and grabbed her backpack, swinging it onto her back with a smooth motion as she rose to her feet. Backing away from the two trees, she turned and ran swiftly along the rise toward the incapacitated vehicle in the distance. She knew from her surveillance that the only security Regina traveled with was in the front seat, dead. She would be alone in the back of the truck.
Adrenaline coursed through Alina as she ran, her legs covering the ground quickly. She darted through trees and leaped over underbrush, reaching the incline above the vehicle a bare minute or two after the crash. Even so, the back door to the SUV was open and Alina knew the backseat would be empty. Viper whipped out her night-vision binoculars, scanning the area quickly. She smiled slowly a few seconds later.
Regina was stumbling through the woods a few yards away, heading away from her.
Viper tucked the binoculars away and turned to follow her target, moving silently and allowing the sounds of cracking underbrush to guide her. Once she was behind her, Alina looked down in the darkness and followed the trampled underbrush as a trail. Regina was moving quickly, but Alina didn't pick up her pace. She didn't have to see clearly in the darkness to follow her prey, she just had to listen. Keeping her target several yards ahead, she stalked her silently, listening to the sound of her stumbling through the woods. Viper reached out and moved a low-hanging branch out of her way, stepping past it and releasing it without a sound. Her attention was focused entirely on the woman in front of her, heading through the woods in the direction of the airfield. When the sound of movement suddenly stopped, Viper paused, frowning slightly. She moved forward quickly until she came to a break in the trees.
Alina found herself at the edge of a clearing of sorts. The ground was flat and grassy here, with a stream running along the far side. Regina was bent over in the middle of the clearing, gasping, and Viper watched her dispassionately for a moment. Dressed in slacks and platform sandals, Regina looked sharply out of place in the woods. Viper set her bag on the ground and removed her rifle, leaning it against a tree before advancing into the clearing silently, her eyes narrowed and focused on the woman struggling to catch her breath.
Intense anger flowed through her as she moved toward the woman who had caused such chaos in so many lives. Memories of the files on Billy's hard-drive flitted through her mind, fueling the anger. This woman had willfully and intentionally ruined hundreds of lives through her selfishness and disregard for basic human principles. She had arranged for Billy to torture and kill innocent men, women and children. She had arranged for Johann to come into the United States and kill thousands of Americans. Because of her, an innocent DHS agent from Washington was dead, run off the road for asking too many questions. Because of her, three of Alina's old friends from long ago had been dragged into an international mess that got one shot and had two others in hiding in Baltimore. It was because of this woman that Hawk was God-knew where, evading international killers of every type, instead of here to witness the end of their joint mission. Regina had gone after everything and everyone that Alina held dear.
And then she had gone after Viper.
Regina was just straightening up when Viper grabbed her shoulder and swung her around. Her fist smashed into Regina's jaw, catching her by surprise. Regina's head snapped back sharply as she stumbled backwards, lost her balance and fell to the ground on her back.
“Remember me?”
Regina stared up at her with wide eyes, stunned.
“You're supposed to be dead!” she exclaimed, fingering her jaw.
“Clearly, I'm not,” Viper retorted coldly. “Get up!”
Regina's mouth twisted into a snarl as she leapt to her feet, facing Viper with all the hatred of years blazing across her face. Alina met the burning onslaught of loathing head on, her eyes narrowing slightly. In an instant, she set her own anger aside, her gaze becoming cold and clinical. Regina was going to attack, her reflexes impeded by emotion, giving Alina the opportunity to toy with her. She had some questions she wanted answered, and if Regina could be encouraged to expend all her energy on rash moves and bragging talk, Alina would get all the answers she needed.
Viper smiled coldly in the darkness as Regina came at her.
Damon pulled to a stop a few feet away from the over-turned SUV on the side of the road. His lips twitched slightly as he switched off the engine and got out, moving toward the vehicle quickly. He was aware of the others following him, but Damon had eyes only for the undoubted handiwork of Viper's rifle. He felt an unfamiliar sense of pride wash through him. The professional in him noted the two identical bullet holes in the windshield as he shone his flashlight through the glass, the beam of light catching and illuminating the dead driver and guard. Switching off the light, Hawk glanced around briefly.
“Back's empty,” John announced from the other side of the vehicle.
“Which way did she go?” Stephanie asked, looking around.
“She would have headed into the trees,” Hawk answered, nodding toward the woods at the top of the rise. “The airfield is that way.”
“Viper must have been waiting for her,” Michael said, turning to head up the slight incline at the side of road. “How did Regina get past her?”
“Let me look into my crystal ball and I'll tell you,” Damon retorted, bounding past him and into the trees.
Michael grinned and topped the incline. Stephanie and John joined him and they followed Hawk into the woods. A few yards into the trees, Michael stopped them and they watched as Damon stood silently, listening. After a moment, he pull
ed out the small powerful flashlight again and flicked it around the area, pausing for a brief moment before switching it off and motioning to them.
“They went this way,” he murmured. “Keep quiet. We're not very far behind them.”
“How can you tell?” John whispered.
“Because this is what I do,” Hawk replied shortly.
They followed him deeper into the woods, falling into single file on the trail behind him. Stephanie moved a branch out of her way, being careful not to make too much noise, and glanced back at John. His face was unreadable in the darkness and she turned her attention forward again. Michael was ahead of her, moving through the trees silently, and Stephanie followed his footsteps, careful to avoid any underbrush that would make noise. The trees loomed over them, thick and silent, and she felt oppressed by the heavy darkness. She didn't know what to expect when they found Alina and Regina, but the over-turned SUV spoke volumes for Viper's intentions. Stephanie hadn't missed the two bullet holes in the windshield, and she knew from experience just how good Alina was at that particular shot.
Viper had been waiting for Regina, and she had no intention of letting her stand trial for her crimes.
Damon halted a few moments later and held his hand up, motioning for silence. Muffled noises came from ahead of them, but it was difficult to make out just what they were hearing. Stephanie tried to peer past Michael's wide shoulders but could only see a tree. Standing on tip-toe, she was trying to look over Michael's shoulder when he moved suddenly, trying to push past Damon. Damon grabbed his arm and pulled him back firmly, but in the few seconds that Michael was out of the way, Stephanie saw what was ahead. Two women were fighting in a kind of clearing ahead of them, and one of them was taking repeated hits to her body.
Stephanie picked her way carefully to the right and stopped behind a tree on the edge of the clearing. Shock rolled through her as she stared at the scene in front of her. Alina was fighting with another woman, who was landing hit after hit on Alina's face and abdomen. In the darkness, it was hard to tell if Regina had any wounds herself, but she had certainly gained the upper-hand with Alina. Stephanie felt John move up silently behind her, watching over her head, and she heard his sharp intake of breath when Regina landed a solid kick to Alina that lifted her off her feet and sent her to the ground on her back.