by Mark Graham
Bringing his attention back to the battle ground he watched as Karen, Hank, and Yankee slowly snuck back to the buildings. It seemed like some must still be alive, or almost dead. The three down from him were shooting anything that moved or appeared to move. They did receive some fire back. Watching, Ice saw two men and a boy running out the back door. He took them out with one thrown grenade, giving them all a headshot with his AK-47.
Hank yelled up to Ice, “Hey Ice!, there are four or five holed up in that building closest to me. Give me a minute and take care of them.
Ice had a new trick up his sleeve and knew the others would love it. He opened a duffle bag and pulled the apparatus out. It was a flame thrower. Within a minute Ice had the thing connected and turned on. He covered the roof of the building in question with what they used to say was napalm. The stuff dripped in flames down two sides of the building. Within 30 seconds a man ran out and Hank drilled him on the spot. Anybody who might have been left would be cinders in no time.
Karen called up and told him to continue on all the buildings. He did, then shortly after heard some screams. From one building there was massive damage when all the ammunition in the building caught fire and everybody scrambled for cover. A few minutes later he could see Karen and Hank getting to the front gate and at the same time his satellite phone went off. He heard Karen say, “Get your shit and move out. Take care of everything, shower, and change clothes and we’ll meet back at the grill in two hours from right now; in the parking lot behind the place. Ice didn’t get a chance of saying anything but knew what he had to do. When he returned to the vehicle and looked in his rearview mirror he could see a small section of the top of his ear missing with blood running down his ear, neck, and onto his shirt.
He was able to drag all the stuff down in one trip, so once he got to his car and the stuff thrown in his trunk and he took off and went back to the motel. Ice was glad to see no one was out near his room so he parked right in front of it and went inside. His change of clothes were already inside. He showered well, got out and shaved, and doctored his ear. Before getting dressed he put his shirt and jacket into a strong plastic bag after he soaked them with bleach. After dressing Ice took all his stuff he had in the motel and put in the trunk. He checked one more time, insuring that he didn’t leave anything then walked behind the motel where the dumpsters were and threw the bag in. Nothing really important because he didn’t do any wet work of his own and the only blood was his. He also wanted to neutralize the flashback gun powder that would definitely been all over both shirt and jacket. He had showered well and washed his hair twice just in case. Before he had left his crime scene he used a magnetic strip and picked up all the casings he could find, putting them into a small bag and got rid of it on his return to town.
Ice met the other three at the time suggested. All three were there. They talked about what they did and how it went down. Karen said, “The clean up crew will be there in about an hour with a bulldozer and back-hoe. All the bodies will be put in the ground and burned, and then everything will be bul-dozed level. Should be a good deer season there next year. Now, let’s all of us get out of town. Ice, I know you’re driving. Yankee will be driving east to the Mackinaw bridge and going down through Michigan. Hank and I will drive around the other side of the lake and board an airplane out of Toronto. Can I assume you’ll be going south and around the west side of Lake Michigan and back home?”
“Yeah, that’s a good way for me and will be lots of miles between the three of us. I’ll go home until my next assignment,” Ice said matter-of-factly, got in his car and took off. The other three were gone within two minutes.
Chapter Eight
Ice was walking from a Starbucks in Maumee, down the street to a computer shop. He thought he needed a new one with all the bells and whistles. All of a sudden he heard a ping, followed by what sounded like a rifle shot. He hit the ground and looked up at the brick wall that was to his side. He could see a spot that was probably at his head level when standing up. He felt real lucky he wasn’t hit and and quickly crawled into a door way, got up and entered the shop that sold suitcases. From there he went out the back door and over to the computer store. Before going in he called the Director and reported the incident.
Ice found the perfect Apple lap top for himself. He got one with the highest amount of RAM they could put in it, and large capacity hard drive, and a battery that would work for hours before having to be charged. While there he bought himself another I-phone just because he could. He would have to bring the computer to headquarters and have the computer geniuses do whatever it took to do to put the secure programs he had to have, and some security devices too. The last computer he owned was similar but got two bullets shot through it when two thugs tried to gun him down in a bar. He’d mistakenly picked up the computer to shield himself and ended up killing one guy by beating him to death with the computer. His boss was still trying to figure that one out.
Ice’s home phone rang and right after the recording started he saw it was the Director so he picked up the phone and talked to his boss.
“Everything going well with you Steve? Getting rested up?” The Director started with those two questions.
“I’m doing great Director. All rested and ready to go, and yes, thank-you, all is well. What do you have?” Ice responded.
First, we ran that telephone number, or should I say numbers. The first one came from a throw away phone in North Carolina, and the one you called was to a moving throw-away phone on the west side of Chicago driving north. Nothing other than that on that one. The local police found the spot the sniper was when he shot at you. Evidently he knows some of your habits and probably waited there for quite awhile. For your information, we don’t think this is related to the other agent killed. On this one he used a 30-06, with a cheap rifle. Dumb ass left the gun there, or maybe it was smart for him. Something I don’t like is going on Ice!” The Director sounded real serious.
“Okay,” Ice responded. “Any after problems with the militia folks?”
“Nope, none at all,” the Director returned, “except for some missing people reports being put in at the local sheriff’s department. They’re all confused over there and don’t know what to do. They ain’t getting anything from us.
We do have an assignment for you though Ice,” the Director stated matter-of-factly. Remember the man who got killed on some lake between the U.S. and Mexico. His wife got away but reported she thinks her husband was killed.
“Yeah, I do,” Ice said.
“Well, we have learned where that group is hanging out at. They’ve moved inland, but there they are terrorizing the area all along in that area. We want them taken out and we don’t care how. Mass murder at it’s finest hour so you have a free hand in whatever you do. We need it done within three weeks. Okay?” The Director sounded like he knew what he wanted.
“Got it Director,” Ice returned. “By the way, I got a new computer and I’m going to overnight it to you. Could you please get the computer guys to do to it what they need to do, including a note what I have to do, and get it back to me as soon as possible.”
“For you yes,” the Director said. “It will be returned to you within three days to you house. You then can use it on the next mission. Good luck and stay safe.” he hung up before Ice could respond or ask any question. He knew the Director trusted him without fault. Within two minutes the Director could order a mission where hundreds would die as easy as sending an employee to the dry cleaners to pick up a suit. Ice was only one man and he wondered how many jobs were assigned every month which ended with death or at least maiming. Ice didn’t know how many mothers and fathers he had killed, or children who just so happened to be where they shouldn’t be. At first recruits had to be told over and over again that any body who they killed were guilty of something, and just being there made them guilty. Do the job and move on. Sounded easy but many had a hard time doing it. With their game there were no rules, just like the criminals
didn’t have to play by the rules either. As Ice had heard many times, “kill ‘em all and let God figure out what do do with them.” In this next mission he figured he was going to fill the halls for those waiting to get into hell.
His next mission could be very dangerous and he knew it. One of the things he had in his computer was that he could use a satellite to get a lot of intelligence of the entire area. He could site down to being able to read license plates if he needed to. He called and set up a time he could have the satellite and reserved it for the next afternoon. Once he had enough information he would feel better about going down there. If need be he knew he could request help, but if he thought it might go well he would do it himself. Until he knew more he kept the question open for the time being.
That night Ice was getting ready for bed. The phone rang and he answered it. The voice was kind of shocking to hear, especially when the man said, “Mr. Steve, we are going to kill you and enjoy doing it. You have a very limited life span asshole. Get ready to get sent to hell.” The phone went dead. He just sat in the chair for few minutes and the phone rang again.
“Ice, this is the Director. We have your phone wired in and that last call you got came from Louisiana. It was from a pay phone outside a hole-in-the-wall gas station out in the middle of nowhere. We’ll check anything possible and let you know. Meanwhile be extra careful. If this continues you might want call yourself in, and I wouldn’t blame you. We may have a leak though because I can’t figure out how anybody got your name other than hacking. And that would only be possible if hacking into only two or three computers at the very most.
“Okay Director,” Ice replied, “as we have always said, Don’t worry about those who tell you they are going to kill you; watch out for those you know nothing about.”
“Okay Ice, just be careful,” the Director said as he hung up.
~~~~~
The next day Ice had an arrangement to meet Brad Hester for lunch. When Ice walked into the front door Brad was already standing there. He had already put in for the next table for two so within a couple minutes the waitress took them back to a booth.
“So what’s going on with you my mystery friend?” Brad asked in a friendly mood.
“Oh . . . a little here and a little there. I have to go out of country pretty soon and might be gone for a few weeks, but other than that nothing.” Ice tried to keep everybody in the dark about what he did but knew that Brad was starting to catch on.
Brad replied, “I don’t mean to be nosy, but what exactly do you do?” Brad was just curious and knew Steve was working somewhere that his identity was different. Brad also knew Steve worked for the federal government in some capacity. Steve’s oldest brother, the deputy chief of police implied as much. Brad knew that the deputy chief trusted Brad enough to be comfortable in talking with him, and knew it wouldn’t go any farther.
“My brother said you’d get around to asking me that very question,” Steve said with a grin. “But if I tell you, I’d have to kill you,” Steve said with a chuckle. Since it was a phrase that caught on with everybody he knew Brad wouldn’t take it necessarily seriously.
“That’s what I expected, believe it or not,” Brad said. “And I don’t mean to be in your business but if you are what I think you are I’d like to know. We can leave out that I’m a lieutenant on the city police department, or that I’m even a cop.”
Steve’s oldest brother had told him that Brad could be trusted and if he needed someone on the department there wasn’t anyone that would be more likely to trust and possibly get help from.”
“Well, my brother, my big brother tells me it might be to my benefit to tell you what I do especially with some things that have happened in the last couple weeks.”
Brad smiled, “Glad the chief and you have that much trust in me.”
“Well, he’s trusted me for years and years and kept it on the low. And truly, whatever I tell you, you can’t talk about it or tell anybody else including your wife, understand?”
“Yeah,” Brad said
“I started out like you did Brad, in the Marine Corps. We were in Desert Storm at the very same time with very similar jobs.” Steve thought Brad was going to interrupt him so said, “Wait until I get done telling you stuff, then you can ask me any question that I may or may not share with you. The biggest difference was that I stayed in government service and started out as an under-cover cop in a police department. Went through basic and all the stuff you probably did and got my time in as a street cop. Actually had that job for just over two years. Ended up busting a hand full of drug pushers, but the job I was sent to do was to find crooked cops and come up with all the evidence I could. It was a large department and only the Chief and a woman working in human resources knew what I was doing. Ended up busting over sixty cops of all levels, with all of them being fired and forty five of them given some prison time. Three or four got life without parole, and several others got over twenty years.”
“Wow, what department were you in?” Brad asked.
“Can’t tell you on that one Brad. I trust you but it is a very large city and department and in some ways I’m still doing the same thing. As far as the police department is concerned was that I took a job working for the FBI.”
Brad nodded his head and smirked letting Steve know he was finished. “Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“In short Brad, I kind of work for the federal government in a job only a handful of people know about. It’s real cover doing all kinds of things, some quite nasty. And, between you and me if I wasn’t on the job I could probably be charged with so many crimes that I would have at least a hundred death sentences, and a whole bunch more for a life sentence.” Steve continued to stare Hester in the eye, refusing to break eye contact. He knew how to tell how people would react by looking them in the eye and observing there body language. He didn’t read it in a book but was actually instructed one on one, and learned even more as he worked his job.
“I change things Brad,” Steve said as Brad saw the ice cold stare taking over his friends appearance. Brad had also learned to look in the other persons eyes. “Many times it means taking someone out, or a group out.” The orders come from way up on high and the victims are those that have been able to get around the rules of our country, and were guilty of their crimes. No, not guilty from a jury or judge but known that what was done was done by them. You as a cop have witnessed a bunch of folks doing dastardly deeds and getting off. You were involved in the investigation of child porn and know what I mean. The stuff those guys do to those kids . . . well, there’s no excuse for it. You also know that a lot of these guys get arrested, charged, and found guilty but the judge gives them probation, a year, or even a little longer. The same with other crimes. You, as I did, learned you could arrest someone for shooting at you, punching you out and they would be out of jail before you got the report written. It’s a good system I suppose but like anything else there has to be a safety valve when things just need to be done. I know too, that you have seen a criminal, or ass-hole and said to yourself that that particular person needed killing.”
“Well, me and several others are involved in this. We form a very small department and only those of us in that department know what we do. We have one boss, and he has two people with him who help decide what missions we get. Most of us have a friend or two who knows us from earlier in our life, but we have ID that we can use for almost anything. With my military background I even have ID for being a colonel in the Marine Corps and another with the Army. Of course if I go into another country that ID, is not used and we go in as a business man or tourist. That’s the short version. The reason we decided to let you know was because some one has learned, and we don’t know how, who I am and have made threatening phone calls to my private telephone number. They even identified me as the real person I am. Hell, I go by so many aliases I have a tendency not to remember who I am.”
“Damn, no shit, somebody is after you?” Brad asked.
“Okay, I asked and feel honored you have confided in me,” Brad responded with half a smile but very seriously. “So, is there anything I can do for you?”
Steve responded, “Yes, you can, and you do some of it already. That is to give me support and being able to listen and keep it to yourself. Other than that it will be good to be able to contact someone here, other than my brother, that we may need for a back up.”
“Hell, Steve, you know I will help you in any way I can. I like my job otherwise I’d ask if there were any openings with your department,” Brad stated.
“That’s good to hear Brad, and thank you. If you get a call from me other then to arrange lunch, it will mean the shit has hit the fan in some manner or another and I might need you right away, or whatever.”
“Done,” said with a smile.
“You have any problem knowing I can be considered a criminal, and do stuff you guys love to solve and imprison the bad guys?” Steve asked.
“None at all Steve,” Brad seriously replied. “I see it as you being just another arm of our law enforcement system; even if it is an off-shoot of an arm.”
“Good, thanks Brad,” Steve said kind of glad he had it off his chest. Some people might go bat shit on him and in those situations he would have to kill them.
During the rest of lunch and a cup of coffee, both men reminisced about the Marine Corps and wondered how they hadn’t run into each other as they could remember.