by Mike Dagons
He grinned like I knew he would. “So he didn’t just break your heart, and you a’ight wit’ him walking away from you like he did?”
“My mission was accomplished, so yeah, I’m a’ight with it. I can do this job, Roc. Stop worrying about me like I’m a fucking baby! Did we get the card?” I laid my head down on his thigh, and closed my eyes.
“Blue flew it out last night, and it’s already been delivered to the right people,” he said.
I knew everything was alright with him when he draped my coat over my shoulders, and then positioned his thigh so I’d be comfortable using it as a pillow.
Roc knew me inside out, and if I could hide my true feelings from him, then I could hide them from any man. I was going to be the best muthafuckin’ honey trap the business had ever known. I knew someday I’d be able to appreciate that, but right now I felt like the hunter who was captured by his game. My muthafuckin’ heart was breaking.
We rode the river for a few miles to a cabin, and docked the boat at the wooden pier behind it. Roc helped me out the boat and onto the deck. “We’re posing as vacationers out here for the fishing. We go out every morning geared up, and come back every evening empty handed like real city boys,” Valow reported.
“It’s a good cover,” I said.
The cabin was nice, and I wondered if it was company, but I didn’t ask because I didn’t want to get pulled into a long conversation.
“There are two bedrooms upstairs. A first aid kit is in the bathroom. Clean yourself up and get some rest. Blue is going to pick us up after he hears from Choc. Valow and I are going back out on the river just in case he needs backup. Will you be okay here by yourself?”
“Yeah, I hope you have aspirin, because Mark Basin really kicked my ass. I ache all over,” I started up the stairs.
“Severe,” Roc called to me, and I stopped and turned back to him. “You did good work, and I’m proud of you.”
“Fuck you,” I laughed.
They left me alone, and I went upstairs and tended to my wounds. I treated myself to four aspirin, and got into the shower.
In the steamy water, I stripped off my tough girl disguise and bawled about Ceylon like I’d been stood up for prom.
Chapter 34
Yeltsin pushed Janie’s head down as automatic rounds started punching holes in the Rolls’ back end. “We’re sitting ducks. We need to get off the road, Ivan,” he shouted.
Ivan cut a hard right, and the big car went off road and plowed through the tall grass heading towards the woods.
“They’re going to kill us and take the card back,” Janie cried in panic.
“Look at me,” Yeltsin took hold of her face. “You are not going to die.”
She had bypassed the jamming signal for him so he could contact his men. He told them to break through the barrier. She didn’t know if that was why Basin was coming after them, or if he’d discovered he didn’t really have the money they’d paid him for the card.
The big car bounced over the rough terrain, and she hoped it didn’t get stuck in one of the deep grooves before they reached the woods.
She could only see one truck chasing them, but they had no idea how many men were in it. If they could make it to the cover of the woods, maybe they could hold them off until Yeltsin’s men made it to them.
Ivan drove the car right into the deep ditch at the edge of the woods. The truck was still in pursuit, and bullets were flying. Sitting in the ditch, their car was hid from the traffic on the road, but they weren’t safe from the men chasing them.
They needed to get out the car and into the woods. Where they’d have some cover. “Janie, we’re going to get out the car. I want you to run and hide behind one of those trees. You stay hidden no matter what you hear. Do you understand?”
“I don’t want to leave you,” she protested.
“It’s alright, baby. I’ll be right behind you.”
“Give me a gun. I can help you hold them off.”
“You do not know how to use it, so the ammo would be better served with me and Ivan,” he kissed her hard and fast. “I love you. I want you to trust me to get us out of this, okay?”
Janie gripped his hand affectionately, and nodded, yes. “You take care of him, Ivan,” she ordered.
Yeltsin exchanged a smile with Ivan. The man had fought by his side many years. He was a tough son-of-a-bitch, and he sincerely believed they were going to make it out of this.
“Let’s move it!” Ivan shouted.
Yeltsin went first, and helped Janie climb up the side of the ditch while Ivan laid down cover fire for them. The grass on the hill was slippery, and Janie was glad she had on her running shoes instead of heels.
When they reached the top of the mound, she ran ahead into the woods, and Yeltsin returned fire while Ivan climbed up.
“Okay, let’s get out of here. Run!” Ivan shouted. He started walking backwards and shooting at the men following them into the woods.
“Keep running,” Yeltsin yelled at her. They ran a few more feet, and then stopped and hid behind some trees.
They saw one of the men pursuing them throw something. The metal ball floated towards them in a high arc. “Run!” Yeltsin shouted at Ivan when he saw what it was.
Grabbing Janie, he hustled to get out of the way of the incendiary device, even though he knew they’d never outrun it. Ivan didn’t try to out run it. He leaped out of his hiding place, and swatted the thing back at them.
Flames exploded in the air, and consumed Ivan and two of their pursuers. The men burst into bright yellow flames. Janie stopped and looked back when she heard the explosion. The men looked like screaming torches.
Yeltsin charge them like a madman, gun blazing, and screaming profanities. He put a bullet in Ivan first to put him out of his misery, and then ignoring the danger, he advanced on the others, shooting and swearing.
He picked them off one by one until he was the only man left standing. He stalked over to a man on the ground, wounded but still alive, and kicked him. “You murdered my friend,” he kicked him again, and again.
“You thieving fuck!” the man shouted.
Ivan didn’t think he was worth a bullet, so he stomp him in the head until he was no longer recognizable as human. Seeing a man’s head smashed into a lump of bloody pulp was not a pretty sight, and Janie had to turn away from it.
Yeltsin picked up their weapons, and then he walked over to Ivan’s charred body, and knelt beside him. “Goodbye old friend,” he said, and then he got up and went to Janie.
“I’m sorry about Ivan,” she cried.
He nodded his acknowledgment, and then pulled her into his arms. “We have to move deeper into the woods, and stay out of sight.” He had killed all the men following them, but they were not out of danger yet.
Yeltsin draped his arm around her shoulders, and they started walking. They walked along quietly, staying in the cover of the trees, and moving cautiously.
When Janie saw the markings on the trees, she knew she was close to the path that led to her hidden boat. “I hear the river,” she said. “I heard one of the servants talking about the fishing being good around here. Maybe we can find a boat,” she said.
“That’s a good idea,” he took her hand, and pulled her towards the sound of rushing water.
“How are your men going to find us?” she asked.
“I have a tracker in my cell. When they turn off the jammer, they’ll be able to find me, but they won’t be doing that until they have stormed that house and killed everyone as I instructed,” he growled.
They could hear the gunfire in the distance popping off like fireworks, and Janie wondered if the Genesis team was going to make it out alive. They came up on the dirt path in almost the exact spot she had ran into Valow last night, and she prayed he wasn’t still there.
They saw the dead body on the side of the road long before they reached it. “It’s Mark Basin,” she noted.
“Stand back,” he ordered, desiring to
shield her from the horror of seeing it up close.
Janie stood back as he walked over and inspected the body. While she was standing there, she spotted the thigh holster on the ground near her. She knelt quickly and picked it up, and removed the Glock 19. She aimed it at Yeltsin, and waited for him to turn around.
When he finished frisking the body, he stood up and turned to her. Janie didn’t hesitate. She fired three tightly group shots into his chest. He died with the startled look of surprise on his face.
“Sorry, baby,” she said to his body. “But this is my chance to fix this in a way that nobody will come looking for me.”
She peeled his jacket back to see if she’d hit the card case like she’d been trying to do. The bullets had obliterated it. Now there would be no way for anybody to tell it wasn’t the real card.
Janie wiped her prints off Mark’s gun, and then put it in his hand and fired it. It was going to look like Mark shot him before he died. She picked up one of the guns Yeltsin had taken off the dead men, and then ran towards the lake hoping Valow hadn’t destroyed her boat.
She found the spot where she had hidden the boat, and was glad to see it hadn’t been disturbed. She removed the bushes and the tarp, and then started pulling it to the river.
Janie pushed it to the edge of the riverbank, gave it one final shove, and then hopped in and started the motor. The boat roared out onto the river, and she expertly guided it upstream away from Big Foot and the destruction going on there.
Janie wondered why Melvin had called her. Maybe she would call him back and ask once she was safe in Mexico. She planned to fly from there to Brazil.
She had enough money to stay well hidden, and nobody even knew she had it except Yeltsin, and he was dead. The further she got away from the plantation, the safer she felt.
It was still early so she didn’t have to worry about being on the river at night. She was going to dock the boat in Big Foot, and then rent a car, and drive to the next town, and then fly out from there.
She owed Genesis for trying to arrange her funeral, and she vowed to someday pay that debt. But for now, she was just relieved to be out of the woods. She had her life, and her freedom, and at the moment, it was all that mattered.
Chapter 35
Choc was standing in the window in their suite watching people rushing around on the south lawn. “Maybe I should have stopped the muthafucka myself,” he said.
“Severe asked you not to interfere,” D’Agon reminded him. “I think I speak for both of us when I say, y’all need to stop underestimating us young folk.” He knew what it was like to be undervalued because of your age.
The comment put a smile on Choc’s face, but it didn’t stop him from worrying. “I’ve never seen you act nervous,” Rayce observed. “I can’t wait to tell Severe you don’t have ice water for blood.”
“She’s a sweet kid. I hate to think I may have stood by and watched her being led to the slaughter without lifting a finger to help her.”
He had gone back to the house after Mark took off chasing after Severe. When he passed Ceylon on his way outside, Choc had stopped him. “The next time Mark Basin pulls a gun on me he dies,” he’d said. “And why was he dragging his brother’s fiancée into the hedges and sending the rest of us back to the house?” he had wanted to know.
The puzzled look Ceylon gave him, told him he knew nothing about Mark’s trip to the hedges with Severe. Choc had been able to relax some when Ceylon went after them.
It was easy to see the man had a thing for Severe, and he was pretty sure he was capable of stopping whatever Mark had in mind for her, but he was still worried. Ceylon had been gone a long time, and all the rushing around outside was making him nervous.
“If you’re really worried, maybe we should go looking for her ourselves,” Rayce said.
“Rayce, she didn’t let Choc interfere because she didn’t want Basin to make the connection between us. I say we give her the space she needs. I’m confident that Severe can handle it. She’s young, but she’s well trained.”
“GET DOWN!” Choc shouted as he dived away from the window.
The others moved without hesitation, diving for cover a split second before a hail of bullets thundered in the room, splintering wood, and raining down glass and plaster. D’Agon flipped over the marble top desk, and Rayce scurried behind it with him.
The helicopter danced along the side of the building, spraying it with automatic gunfire. Gusting winds and swirling dust poured in through the decimated windows.
When the gunfire paused for a second, Choc sprang to his feet and swan dived over the overturned desk. “What the fuck is going on?” D’Agon shouted over the noise of the helicopter and gunfire. He had his Glock out and ready, but he couldn’t see a target.
“A Eurocopter Tiger is spraying the house with bullets?” Choc replied in the same elevated tone. “We need to move out,” he said, but before they could make a run for the door, bullets started flying through the windows again. It wasn’t safe to even raise their heads to take a shot.
Rayce screamed when big chucks of plaster starting falling dangerously close to their hiding place. D’Agon appeared a little unnerved, but Choc was his cool, collected self. “Listen up! When they move again we head out!” he commanded.
They stayed hunkered down until the assaulted shifted to another section of the house, and then they all ran and scrambled out the door into the hallway. It was chaotic with people running for their lives.
They raced down the stairs and found the foyer crowded with guests and servants rushing in the house seeking shelter. Basin guards were struggling to make it through the press of bodies coming in, to get out the doors.
A concussive blast shook the house, and was followed by the distinctive whine of the Tiger’s engine stalling. The slow thump, thump, thump of its blades signaled it was losing velocity. “It’s coming down!” somebody shouted.
It put everybody in a panic, and the people that were pushing to get inside the house, started a stampede to get out of it.
“Let’s go back the other way,” Choc shouted, and then started pushing and shoving his way through the crowd.
Rayce followed in the path he was clearing, and D’Agon followed closely behind her. When they were finally able to make it to the kitchen, they found a dozen workers standing in a huddle paralyzed by fear. “You people need to get out this house, now,” Choc said in passing.
Mr. Joshua stepped in front him, making him pull up short. “And then do what, young man? Line up to be executed?”
Choc couldn’t help but smile at the dignified old gentlemen’s moxie. He could see himself being just like that at seventy. “Are you responsible for these people, Mr. Joshua?” he asked, surprising the old man by knowing his name.
“Yes sir, I am,” he answered proudly.
“Then what do you suggest we do to get them to safety?”
“We need to get them down to Mr. Basin’s safe room in the 2nd subbasement, but I fear the enemy has blocked the entrance to it.”
“He’s right,” a blonde haired white boy stepped up. He was a big kid, all muscle like a football player, but clearly not old enough to be out of high school. “They’re killing everybody they meet.”
“How you know this?” Rayce asked.
“I hid in a wall storage cube when I heard them breaking in through the windows in the east hall. They came in shooting. Mr. Rick is dead, and then some of them dragged Latrice off into the lounge. I think they were going to rape her. I heard them laughing about it. I didn’t do nothing to help her,” he sounded like he was about to cry. “She’s probably dead too now.”
“There is nothing you could have done to help her, Matt,” Mr. Sherman patted him on his back.
“I just hid like a coward until they were gone. They have people guarding the elevator to the subbasement, so I sneaked back here to warn the others not to try to get there. They’re killing everybody,” he said sadly.
“Hiding was the
right thing to do,” D’Agon told him. “If you hadn’t, you’d be dead too. How did you get back here if the way there is blocked?” he wanted to know.
“There are a lot of back doors in this house. Matt came back through one of them, but there is only one elevator that goes down to the subbasement safe room, and you can only get on it on the ground floor in the east wing,” Joshua answered for him.
“Let me in! Let me in!” someone pounded at the back door.
“It sounds like Stevie,” one of the women shouted.
Mr. Sherman moved to open the door, but Choc stopped him and moved into position to do it himself. He squat down in front of it, and then eyed Rayce and D’Agon. Both of them pointed their guns at the door, and he snatched it open. A teenage boy dressed in a red uniform shirt tumbled inside.
“Close the door, close the door!” he shouted in panic.
Choc shoved the door closed and locked it.
“Where are the others?” asked the woman who had recognized his voice.
“They’re hiding in the barn behind the yard where Mr. Basin had us park the cars. We saw some men drop down out of a transport helicopter on ropes. It was like watching a freaking real life movie!” he uttered excitedly. “They would have spotted us if we all ran for it together, so I volunteered to come get some help.”
“Who are these people, and where are all of Mr. Basin’s guards?” a woman who was nearing hysterics cried.
“The guards are fighting them, but they are seriously outnumbered. I think that they’re terrorists!” the boy answered.
“Terrorist? What do they want with us?” another person asked.
“They’re seizing the plantation for ransom,” someone else shouted an opinion.
“Then why are they killing instead of taking hostages?”