"We would like to come back here to work again afterwards," said Hendrick.
Sandy said, "That's not a problem. No one outside of this room ever hears a word of it, right?"
Jack said, "Of course. You have a deal."
Hendrick said, "Tell us what we need to know about him."
PANAMA CITY
MARCH 6th
Julie and Helen had slipped into the local Kunoichi building unobserved. They had invited the Costa Rican reporter, Alicia and her cameraman, Raul, to spend the day with them monitoring the news, waiting for word to come through about statehood. In the previous weeks voting, the only holdout was El Salvador, which would remain a territory loosely governed by the United States.
Reporters and friends of the company were invited to a reception thrown at the building and security was tight. When the announcement was made that all of the territories except for El Salvador had been accepted as states, the entire southern half of the continent erupted in one large party.
Helen, Julie, and Matt took that as their cue to travel upstairs to the party, which was already well underway.
When they walked in the room, things went from being lively to being completely ballistic. The cheering went on for several minutes, before they were able to get the room quiet enough to talk.
Julie said in Spanish, "My fellow Americans!" The crowd roared. "You now control 24% of the US Senate and I don't even know yet how much of the House. Congratulations, my friends!"
Pausing for the guests to quiet, Helen said, "It's long past time for you to have a voice in world affairs. You now have a very loud voice!" The cheers were deafening.
Helen continued. "Enjoy your celebration. You have earned it many times over. With your help, we will reshape the entire continent for the benefit of all. Thank you for placing your trust in us. We will do everything in our power to make sure that we never let you down."
Julie held up a glass of sparkling cider masquerading as champagne and said, "To the glorious new states! May they prosper and thrive always!"
They made their rounds in the party and left for the airport with Alicia and Raul in a helicopter. Taking a jet from the airport, they were soon landing in San Jose, Costa Rica. They again were transported by helicopter and were dropped off on the pad at the top of the Kunoichi building.
The next party was well underway. They repeated their performance and left again after an hour or so. They repeated this pattern several times in order to make appearances in as many of the new states as possible while giving interviews on the plane in between cities. Each stop was broadcast live. For the states they couldn't make it to, including two of the three new states in Mexico, they made live video appearances.
By the time they ended the evening in Cancun, the revelers were good and truly lubricated, making Helen thrilled beyond belief with their decision to only drink nonalcoholic beverages that evening.
Alicia stayed with them until Cancun, where she and Raul met their producers and turned over their video for editing.
Helen said to Julie, "You realize that we just made Alicia the top Spanish speaking reporter for the next few decades."
Julie kissed her, and said, "I think we've become indispensible."
They were both sound asleep seconds after their heads hit the pillows.
NEAR RAWLINS, WYOMING
MARCH 7th
Kemp was relieved to find his cache had not been discovered. He opened the hidden door covering the mine entrance to reveal the two cargo trailers that were hidden within. The four Tomahawk missiles inside the larger trailer appeared to be functional. The other trailer's boxes of cash and the briefcase he had left were still there.
He spent the day checking and prepping the launch systems. He knew where the congressman's home was in Casper and targeted it with two of the four missiles with a programmable launch delay from the time he would give the fire command. The other two he set for the conspiracy's headquarters in Colorado and the last of its missiles. Now it would just be a matter of waiting for Larson to go home.
He left the trailers in the tunnel and closed the camouflaged doors into the side of the mountain for good measure.
Kemp used the internet over a satellite connection to check the congressman's website. There were two events scheduled in his hometown on March 12th and 13th. He would launch the missiles on 13th, very early in the morning.
He spent the evening hours uploading hard drives from the briefcase onto several laptops. He had already loaded the cipher onto the computers so that the data would be accessible. The data contained the complete conspiracy and incriminate all of the major players involved. It would incriminate him, as well, but at this point there was nothing to lose.
He had six days to wait. He'd like to leave and come back, but it was too important to risk. Good thing I brought some decent books, he thought. Besides, this is cake compared to that abandoned mine in Montana.
ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
MARCH 11th
Larson was in the best mood he'd felt in years. The Columbian assassins he hired were in place and would eliminate the president and vice president in a little over 72 hours. He felt downright gleeful. He would be the president three days from now and nothing could prevent it.
It is moments like this that make life worth living, he thought, cheerfully. He could almost hear the rifle shots already. Goodbye Jim and Rob!
NEAR RAWLINS, WYOMING
MARCH 12th
The time had come. Kemp used the motor home to pull the trailer out of the mine just after dark. He placed it in position, leveled it, and turned on the hydraulics to lift the front of the trailer into firing position. Next he placed the external hard drives and cipher in the brief case and left it in the tunnel, closing the outer doors behind him.
Whoever came to investigate would find it, he was sure.
He set the launch time for the missiles to 03:00 hours. He had done everything he could to make sure it was ready, now it was time to move to the next step and not worry about it.
After attaching the smaller cargo trailer full of boxes of cash, he slowly drove the motor home on the dirt road back toward pavement, then East on the I-80 toward Cheyenne.
Once in Cheyenne, he rented a hotel room with internet and connected a laptop to the net. It would stay connected and start emailing files at 03:30. This will be fun, he thought with a chuckle.
Kemp drove to pick up the cargo van he had stashed. It took just a couple of minutes to transfer the cargo trailer over to it and throw his bags into the van. He left full gas cans on top of the counters and set and incendiary device inside to burn at 06:00.
When he looked at his watch, it was past 11:30 PM. He drove a half hour and stopped at the secluded area he'd marked on the map. Pausing only for a quick bathroom break, he pulled the Kunoichi Shipping magnetic logos out of the back of the van and placed them on both sides. 20 minutes later, he had carefully loaded the boxes into the van, dropped the trailer, and was back on the road.
CHEYENNE, WYOMING
MARCH 13th
Just after 3:10 AM, Senator Larson's security woke him. "Sir we have to go now!" They dragged him out of bed and to the waiting SUV. They were a half mile down the road when the missiles hit Larson's home.
Larson's immediate thought was, Kemp! Just you wait till I track you down. You're going to pay for this, you bastard.
His thoughts were interrupted by the driver's head disintegrating into a fine mist as the .50 caliber round passed through it. The other two agents suffered the same fate an instant later. The driverless SUV crashed into a tree and Larson remembered nothing more.
He woke briefly as he was bound and thrown into another vehicle. A low, booming voice said to him, "Hello, Senator!"
"Who the hell are you?!"
"I'm the Reaper, and I've been waiting for this a very long time."
Larson wet himself.
Will laughed wickedly and said, "I see you've heard of me."
Larson felt a
painful injection into his right leg and a sinking feeling as he drifted to sleep over the next couple of minutes.
The last thing he heard was the Reaper's voice telling him, "I'm going to make sure this lasts for years."
DENVER, COLORADO
Just before two in the morning Kemp drove into Denver. He refueled the van, took care of necessities and soon was on his way again, this time taking the I-25 south. He had debated staying in Denver, but wanted to put more distance between him and Rawlins before things went haywire.
Before long, he found himself in the middle of a convoy of Kunoichi trucks that were flying down the freeway. He sped up and joined the progression all the way to Pueblo, Colorado, where he stopped at a truck stop to refuel with them.
While gassing up, one of the Kunoichi drivers walked over to him and said, "I didn't know we were running van service yet."
Kemp shook his hand and said, "It's a direct private delivery to New Orleans. I don't know about you, but my ass is glad to get out of that seat for a while. I'm George Anderson."
"Good to meet you George. I'm Bill Jackson. Hey, have you met Luke and Jamie yet?"
"No, they're here?"
"Come on over and meet them. They're a couple of amazing kids."
On a whim, Kemp grabbed one of the remaining laptops and its case from behind the seat and walked with the driver over to another of the trucks.
Bill saw Luke standing with Jamie and said, "Hey, Luke! I want you to meet George Anderson!"
Luke looked at him with eyes that seemed to look right through him and said, "You have to have lunch with Jamie and me, George. Our treat." Luke's smile wasn't quite a smile.
Kemp knew he was stuck and agreed.
Over diner food that was better than Kemp expected it to be, Luke said, "We appreciate what you did last night, but I have to ask, why Flagstaff. And please keep your hands above the table."
Kemp almost choked on his food. He could tell that Jamie had a gun on him under the table. He thought for a moment. He had been made and there was no way out.
"I didn't know that Larson had the targets reprogrammed, probably by his guy, Lance Foster," said Kemp. "I had them set for Iran. I launched them as a distraction to let me get away while taking out the last of the bastards who killed my family. I'm very sorry about your friends."
"It's pretty obvious that Larson was setting you up. You know you missed him, don't you? It was a clean strike but he had just left after someone warned him." Luke paused to let that sink in. "Unfortunately for the senator, my friends were waiting for him. The official story is that he died in the explosion. The truth is that he'll wish he had."
After a few more seconds, Luke continued. "The strike on his headquarters exposed his current plan to take out my dad and uncle. He probably would have succeeded this time."
Kemp considered that for a time, relieved. He said, "That's why I had to come back. Your family has done an impossible job and done it well. Larson would have unraveled everything. I brought this for you." He handed over the laptop case. "It's just a laptop with all the data on Larson's conspiracy. It's the same as I left in a hotel room in Wyoming, except with a little more."
Luke asked Jamie, "What do you think?"
"The plastic surgery is good. We wouldn't have recognized him if we hadn't been taught what to look for. If we let him go, he's gone for good."
Luke asked Kemp. "Is that accurate? If I let you go, will you be gone for good? Never to set foot on United States soil again?"
Not yet daring to hope, Kemp said, "That is a given."
"But is it an agreement?"
Kemp said, "It is."
"You know how bad it would be for you to be caught."
Kemp looked at Luke and Jamie and realized how formidable the pair would be, despite their youth. "Of course. One question? Who put up the Kilroy was here sign?"
Luke laughed and said, "Thank you for having lunch with us. I'd say you should be out of the country in no more than twenty four hours. The Kunoichi logos will get you through almost anything, but don't take chances.
"We have to be going now, but you can stay and finish your lunch if you would like."
"You're really going to let me go?"
Luke sighed. "The choice is between killing you and letting you go. I don't think we're capable of keeping you a prisoner given your training and skills, and I'm very tired of killing people, anyway. The rest of my family might choose differently, and we have dear friends who would make your death last for weeks, but I just want your agreement to leave the country, never come back, and not to engage in any kind of war against the United States or my family."
Kemp said, "I want nothing more. Agreed."
Jamie asked, "We need to know if there are there more missiles out there?"
"I believe I got all of them, but almost everything I know is in the hard drive." He thought for a moment and then pulled a flash drive out of his pocket. Handing it over to Luke, he said, "This is for you two alone. It's not on the hard drive, but I trust you to do the right thing with the information and resources. Now you have everything."
He paused for a second before saying, "May I say one more thing?"
"Are you sure that you want to do that? It would seem foolish to jeopardize our arrangement."
Kemp said, "I want you to know that I believe in your family. I will grieve to my dying day that I was not on your side from the beginning."
Luke stood, leaving a tip on the table and taking the bill. "We have to get back to work rebuilding the country. Safe travels to you, my friend. Perhaps I shall look you up some day and we'll enjoy a long talk over a good steak."
Kemp felt himself tearing up for the second time in his adult life. "I would be grateful for such an opportunity."
Luke and Jamie paid the bill at the counter and left the restaurant.
Kemp just sat there, stunned. Bill came over from across the room and said, "They have that effect on a lot of people. Aren't they amazing?"
Kemp said, "I had no idea how much."
"You've got that right, brother."
Kemp separated from the convoy and pulled into another truck stop to sleep in the van. When he woke, he took his bag into the truck stop bathroom to catch a quick shave and shower. He felt much better afterward, though he was still stunned by the encounter with the first family. He bought a Kunoichi hat at the register and hit the road again soon after.
He continued south with the goal of getting to the Gulf Coast by his deadline. For the first time, he was completely sure he would make it.
By the next morning, Kemp was leaving Corpus Christi behind in his new forty-five foot motor yacht with a hired crew. "Next stop, Jamaica," he said to himself as he gratefully left the United States for the last time.
MIAMI, FLORIDA
MARCH 14th
Jim and Robs' meeting with the governors of the new states went extraordinarily well, with only a slight delay to target two Colombian snipers with a couple of tranquilizer guns. Rob took great pleasure in showing the footage of their capture at the conference as it was humorous to watch the hunters become prey, and rather pathetic prey at that.
Will would make sure that the men would talk, and Jim looked forward to hearing what they might have to say.
NORTHERN UTAH
MARCH 15th
Larson woke in a hospital air bed. He looked up to see two men and a woman looking down at him.
The woman said, "Senator Larson. Someone hit your house with a missile and you were badly injured. Can you hear me okay?"
Larson glared and nodded.
She said, "Good. You can talk. Your throat just hurts because the doctor took out the breathing tube this morning. Here, let me give you some cold water."
Larson tried to reach up with his right hand but his arm wasn't working. Ann put the straw to his lips. He drank and the cold water felt good on his throat. He remembered the car and knew damn well he hadn't been hit in the missile attack. He swallowed then said, "I'm
a senator. You can't hold me here."
Ann said, "Why would we do that? The door is right over there. You're free to leave any time you want."
"I want. Now." He tried to sit up and throw is legs over the side of the bed, but they weren't working. "What's going on, damn it?"
Ann looked him with cold eyes and said, "Do you think you can kill indiscriminately and not pay a price?"
Larson was starting to panic. His limbs weren't responding to his attempts to move.
Julio raised the head of his bed so he was sitting up at a better angle, and the woman said, "And here is your down payment on that price."
Will pulled back the sheets and Larson looked down to see all of his limbs missing, a feeding tube emerging from his abdomen, and a catheter where his penis used to be. He screamed.
They listened for a while then, Will said with a smile, "Sounds like he's in pain. Let's get him some pain medication."
Ann said, "Good idea," then drew up medication from a clear vial. As she injected it into his IV line, she told him, "We're out of regular pain medications, so we're kind of stuck making do. The good news is that this you will soon feel a lot better. The bad news is that we're using heroin."
He kept screaming until he drifted off to sleep from the drug. As they walked into the next room, they saw Rob standing in front of a wall monitor. Rob said, "Great work. He's all yours. Get the information about the conspiracy out of him however you want, but I want him alive for now."
Ann smiled and said, "I think we can work within those parameters."
"And remember, the longer this job lasts, the more satisfied I'll be with the information," said Rob.
Will said, "I'm thinking this could take a while, boss. We may all have to retire after this, it could take so long."
Rob nodded and said, "Well, quality takes time." He walked out, almost feeling sorry for Larson. Almost.
The Forgiven The Fallen The Forsaken Page 35