Brain

by Candace Blevins

  Harmony

  We packed up the house and left — Gonzo and Bash on the scooters, the rest of us in the van. We took our luggage and equipment to the plane, got Brain set up so he could run everything from the plane, and then Ranger, Duke, and I drove to the mall to meet up with Gonzo and Bash, who’d turned the scooters in and bought two decent sized rolling suitcases.

  We didn’t have to hide our route to the bank by much today. We made it so it would take them a few hours to trace it back, but we didn’t need to jump through a ton of hoops for that. It wouldn’t matter if they traced us back to the house and airport later tonight, as we’d be long gone by then. We turned the van in, and went somewhere else to rent three BMW’s, as Ranger wanted us in fast, easily maneuverable vehicles for our getaway.

  I knew how hard it’d been for Brain to watch me leave, and I was sorry he couldn’t come, but I also knew we needed him on the cameras and in our ears. None of us had a cellphone, so there was no way for us to be tracked by anyone but Brain. I had a GPS chip implanted near my hip that would give away my location at specified, random times, but not constant, so Brain could find me if I was captured. However, if I was swept for electronics, it wouldn’t show up unless it happened to be during the three second burst it would give out four times a day.

  Ranger drove Duke and I to the bank. Gonzo was a block away, and Bash was set up where we needed him. Brain had hacked into the bank’s security and had eyes on us.

  I told him I loved him as I got out of the car. I hadn’t told him before, and maybe it was a shitty time for it, but I suddenly needed him to know how important he was to me.

  His soft, “I love you too, Buttercup. Now do this and get your ass back into my arms,” reply made me smile. I knew the other guys had heard it, and I didn’t give a fuck.

  Before we stepped up onto the curb, Duke stopped, looked at me a few seconds, and said, “I’m sorry I lost him, but I’m glad he has you. He deserves to be happy.”

  “All right, everyone,” came Ranger’s voice in my earpiece. “Mind on the mission. Look around, be aware of your surroundings. Know the danger spots, keep an eye for where you’ll run if all hell breaks loose. Mushy stuff later.”

  I nodded to Duke, and looked around casually as we stepped towards the door, both of us rolling a large empty suitcase behind us.

  The bank manager was waiting for us, and he walked us into the vault, where money was stacked on a table. We’d asked for a specific number of twenty and one hundred dollar bills, carefully figured for the space we’d have in two large suitcases. I put a few thousand in my backpack, and then we proceeded to count the rest of the money as we put it into the suitcases.

  I wanted to punch the bank manager on the way out, for ratting me out to the Russians, but I couldn’t let him know we knew without tipping them off. It was better if Ivankov thought he had the element of surprise.

  We put the suitcases in the trunk, wedging them in because they barely fit. A little over three million dollars in mostly twenties takes up a lot of room, and getting it this way was a pain, but it would make laundering it so much easier, later.

  For now, though, we needed to get back to the plane and off the island.

  I was wearing a bullet proof vest under my clothes, and as we got into the passenger seat my feet went into the large Kevlar bag, and I slid to the floor as I lifted it up, so I was sitting backwards, my butt on the floor, my face on the seat, and was totally covered by the bag. I could lift my head a little and see the back of the seat in front of me, and could hear the guys talking, but I would be no help. They’d convinced me I was human and they were werewolves, and they could survive a firefight a whole lot better than me.

  They also wore bullet proof vests, though. Just to be safe. It’s hard to kill them, but not impossible.

  My first hint of trouble came a handful of seconds after we pulled out onto the main road. Someone rammed us, and I heard Ranger barking out orders. “Stay down, Harmony. Duke, keep your weapon down so no one sees it. Gonzo, need you to pull out so you’re between us and the Russians, and act as a buffer.”

  Firearms possession could get someone a lengthy jail sentence down here, and firing one in the middle of a crowded street would be very bad. We hadn’t entered the country legally — we all knew the risks, both from the Russians and the Cayman authorities. And yet here they were, fighting on my behalf.

  Not knowing where we were, and unable to see what was going on — it was maddening, but I sat quietly as the guys negotiated getting us and the bad guys outside of town.

  I could tell we were close to the switch by their radio exchanges, and when Ranger finally pulled into the garage and the door closed behind us, I came up from the floorboard but stayed silent, listening to Brain and the others in my earpiece. Bash was wearing the same ball cap and shirt as Ranger, and he would come back into camera range in our place. We’d made the switch in a curve, so when the Russians got him back in their sights, they wouldn’t realize the change had occurred. Duke had ducked down a while back, so it wouldn’t look odd that he wasn’t in the backseat.

  Bash had dyed his hair black last night, and he and Ranger both had about the same amount of scruff on their face. I hoped it’d work.

  Ranger took the ball cap off, used a battery operated electric shaver to get rid of the scruff, and changed shirts. Bash and Duke had stolen an older SUV after Brain and I found someone who was out of town, so we knew they wouldn’t report it stolen anytime soon. Ranger got into the driver’s side and Duke and I stretched out in the back, with the two suitcases.

  The cars had been rented under fake ID and heavy disguises. The owners of this house would come home to discover a slightly damaged rental BMW in their garage, and their normal car parked in their side yard, and nothing else missing. It would give them something to talk about at parties.

  I had the name and address of the owner of the SUV we’d stolen. If it got trashed during our escape, I’d mail some cash to the guy.

  It seemed everything was going great until we turned into the airport parking lot and Ranger told Brain, “I see one of Ivankov’s people sitting in a delivery van pretending to eat lunch. You okay in there, Brain?”

  “Yeah, I’m good, and the priority is getting her off the island — Plan B is in effect. I won’t try to leave the plane until I get the all clear from you as you leave.”

  “No!” I protested. “It’s just one guy. We can take him out and still leave with you!”

  I heard Brain in my ear, the voice of reason. “Ranger saw the lookout, we don’t know how many people the asshole brought with him. Maybe they’re watching the hangars with an assumption it’s how you’ll get off the island, or maybe they know which plane we came in on and it’s surrounded and we just don’t know it. We’ve talked about this, you know you have to go with them.”

  “No, I don’t know it. Not yet. There’s nothing to say the three of us can’t drive into the hangar, get on the plane, and fly away. The other two are going by boat no matter what.”

  Gonzo and Bash would drive to a remote part of the island, run from their cars into the woods, and turn to wolf so they could easily outrun my enemies. I hated they were having to do the final leg of getting away, but had been assured they could run fifteen miles through the woods with no problem, make it to their stash of clothes, change to human and dress, and then walk the final quarter mile to the yacht we’d hired, and meet us in Cancun.

  The yacht was stocked with food and clothes for all of us for five days, just in case, as Plan B put the rendezvous point in Jamaica, and then we’d all go to Cancun together. However, I wasn’t prepared to leave Brain behind.

  “Brain, leave the plane and walk out to us. We can all make it to the boat, together.”

  “It’s too risky.”

  “I love you. Don’t make me leave this island without you.” Yeah, it wasn’t playing fair, but I didn’t give a fuck.

  “Ranger?” he asked.

  “You told me no
t to put her in danger more than I absolutely have to. We’re across the road and down the street right now. You coming out puts her at risk, but if you walk to us down the street and aren’t followed, I think we can minimize the threat. Might put you in more danger, though.”

  Right, because if they didn’t know he belonged to us, they’d figure it out when he came to us.

  “Go out the airport side of the hangar,” I told him, “walk to the post office, and we’ll be in the parking lot there. The guy’s in the hangar parking lot. Play your cards right and he likely won’t even realize you’ve left the building.”

  “We’ll be in the shopping center across the road from the post office,” Ranger amended. “Otherwise, her plan should work.”

  “Okay, ya’ll drive somewhere else while I get a good look at everyone in the vicinity. Then I’ll destroy the electronics so no one can get info off the hard drives or from the memory. I’ll let you know when I’m ready for you to come back.”

  Forty minutes later, he told us he was disconnecting his equipment, meaning we’d be out of communication via the earpieces. Ranger pulled the burner phone from the glove compartment, removed it from the signal blocking sleeve, put the battery in, and turned it on. He handed it to me, and I called Brain’s burner.

  He answered, and I said, “We’re about ten minutes away, we’ll head that direction and go ahead and park.”

  “Kay. See you soon.”

  We didn’t hear from him for thirty minutes, and I was getting antsy. I breathed easy when the phone finally rang, but my heart sank to the bottom of my abdomen when I heard Ivankov’s voice.

  “Ah, Ice. Such a pleasure to hear your voice, again. I’ve waited such a long time for you.”

  His thick accent made me want to puke, but I kept my voice steady and asked, “What do you want?”

  “I have your man, here, and we’re all in the aeroplane together. I assume you have a pilot?”

  I glanced at Ranger, deciding on my best plan of action. “The pilot should be along in the next hour or so. He isn’t with me at the moment.”

  “So, you have your boyfriend with you now? I think I’d like the two of you to come onto the plane. I have a pilot who can fly us out of here.”

  He thought Duke was my boyfriend, and Brain was a hired hand. That would keep Brain a little safer, at least. I analyzed my options, and talked to him a little to buy myself some time to come up with a plan. “You think I’m just going to walk right onto the plane?”

  “You know what I can do to a human body. How long do you think this geek is going to last under my tender ministrations before he tells me where you live, and the names you use? You’ll have to start all over again, rebuild your life from scratch in a new city. It’s just me and one guard, plus a scraggly pilot. Surely you can take us? The big, bad, Ice?”

  He said my name as if I’d been on his mind, annoying him, for years. Maybe I had.

  “You’ll let Bob go if I come on board?”

  “No, but I’ll offer him a job with my organization. Seems he has some skills I can use.”

  “I’m nearly thirty minutes away.” We were five minutes away, but needed time to plan.

  “I’m gonna let my guy punch him in the stomach every five minutes. You remember what that’s like?”

  “We’ll drive as fast as the traffic lets us.”

  I hung up and Ranger said, “You are not walking in there.”

  I looked at Duke, who held my gaze a few seconds and turned to Ranger. “Brain’s my brother, I won’t leave him with the Russians. I’ll go in with Harmony, figure out why Brain hasn’t shifted and killed them all, fix the problem, and then the two of us can take them out together. Harmony has her own skills, and she’s still wearing the vest. You can come later and help, if we need it.”

  Ranger shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

  “You don’t have to like it,” I told him. “You just have to back us up. I’m not leaving Brain to them.”

  As it turned out, we didn’t need long to plan, and fifteen minutes later Duke had put his face back to the one he used in the bank, and we walked into the airplane hangar together.

  They had a man at the foot of the stairs on lookout, and he waved us in. I didn’t like having him outside, at my back, but nothing I could do about it, so I dealt with it.

  They had Brain’s hands duct taped behind his back, his feet taped to the chair. They also had six guys, and the inside of the plane was pretty much trashed. He’d put up a good fight, but he had several deep slashes on his arms where they’d gotten him with a knife.

  I glanced at him as if he didn’t really matter, and then focused on Ivankov. “I’m here. Now what.”

  “Take your clothes off.” His sneer was just as disgusting as my memory of it. Ignoring the fact it was straight out of my nightmares, I took a few steps towards him, acted like I was going to play the temptress as I took my pants off, and grabbed my home made taser and shot it at him. I fired at his shoulder, in case he was wearing a vest, and hit him dead center, so he jerked and writhed on his way to the floor. I yanked the wires loose from the taser and crammed it back in my pocket as I pulled my knife and put my back to a row of seats and faced the other five guys. Duke took two of them out with no trouble, and I engaged the one closest to me.

  I needed to get to Brain and cut the tape on his wrists, so he could shift and heal. Duke was already mostly in his beast form, and two guys ran out of the airplane, but I knew Ranger would take care of them. I fought my guy nearly a minute before Duke swiped the asshole’s face and took him to the ground, and I rushed to Brain, cut his wrists loose, and then his ankles.

  “Shift,” I told him. “Ivankov’s mine, but everyone has to die. They’ve seen Duke, I know the rules.”

  They were going to die, anyway, but it was nice the decision was out of my hands.

  I was on my way back to Ivankov when one of the guys managed to get a knife in my leg, through the thigh muscle until it hit and then scraped across bone. I fell to my knees, and used my knife — already in my right hand — to stab him in the thigh as well, since it was right in front of me. I sliced through his femoral, and deep red heart-blood came out in spurts as I pulled my knife from the wound. On his way down, I buried my knife in his gut, and cut him worse as a yanked it back out. Brain swiped him from behind and knocked him most of the way across the airplane.

  “I’m good for now,” I told Brain. “Take the rest of them out, but Ivankov’s mine.”

  A quick inventory of the anatomy around my wound told me it hadn’t likely hit a major artery. He’d angled in from the side enough, he was inches from the femoral. I couldn’t be certain he hadn’t hit one of the perforating arteries, but my instincts told me he hadn’t. I pressed the dull side of the knife into my flesh so I wouldn’t cut myself worse when I pulled the knife from my thigh, and I gave a short scream as it came out. I kept it in my left hand as I knee-walked four steps and landed on my butt beside Ivankov. His eyes were open, and he was aware, but didn’t have full control of his body, yet.

  “Part of me wishes I wish I could draw this out,” I told him, “but no matter, your death has been a long time coming. Thanks so much for coming to me, so I could do it with my own hands.”

  Using my knife, in my right hand, I sliced his right and left carotid, saw him understand he was going to die, and let him live with the knowledge he was about to die for another twenty seconds before I buried his guard’s knife in his throat, slicing and blocking his windpipe.

  Maybe I should’ve cut his cock off first, hammered on his knees and elbows, made him hurt some before I killed him, but the only thing necessary was that I made sure he never came after me again. This wasn’t about revenge, but about not having to look over my shoulder.

  I left the knife in his throat and watched him die, and then realized Duke was standing beside me, back in human form, wearing jeans and no shirt. Barefoot. A quick glance told me he’d taken the jeans from one of the dead men.r />
  “Ranger and Brain are gonna fly the plane out of here, but you can’t fly with that cut on your leg. Will you let me carry you to the car and get you to the yacht? We have supplies on it to take care of you.”

  Brain was still in his hybrid monster form, a bloody mess. Ranger was human, but also bloody. The plane was going to need serious cleaning to be useable again, and getting it off the island as soon as possible would be good. I recognized the look in Brain’s eyes, knew he couldn’t get back to human in the next five or ten minutes, and also realized at the rate my leg was bleeding, we needed to get to the boat fast and get the bleeding stopped.

  “I love you,” I told Brain. “I’ll see you in a few days.” I already knew he wouldn’t touch me in his monster form, worried his claws may scratch me and turn me. Same with a goodbye kiss, the risk I’d get enough saliva to change me was almost nonexistent, but he wouldn’t risk it.

  He nodded, and I let Duke carry me off the plane.

  I laid flat in the back while Duke drove, and felt my pants soaking with more blood. I wasn’t going to die in the next twenty or thirty minutes, but within an hour I’d be seriously weak from blood loss.

  “Not saying it’ll come to it, but I need to know, just in case…” he paused a good five seconds before finishing with, “I need to know if you and Brain have talked about what’s involved in being turned.”

  “He says there isn’t a group for the women who want to go lone wolf, and my choices would be the little bit of camaraderie I’d get from the RTMC as an ol’ lady, or joining a pack without him.”

  “So, if I have to choose whether to let you die, or turn you?”

  “Turn me. Also, if the choice is cutting my leg off, or turning me… I’ll handle being a wolf better than being a one-legged human.”

  “You want it to be me, Gonzo, or Bash?”

  Talking was keeping my mind off my leg, a little. “You’re the strongest, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you.”

  “We’ll have a… connection, for maybe as long as a year. I’ll be like your Alpha until you can break away from me.”