The Remote Traveler (The Remote Series Book 1)

by Finian Blake

  “Grab a beer from the pull and I will be along.” Ted helped himself to a beer. He was surprised to find a pull for ale mounted next to the kitchen sink. Ted strolled around the flat sipping his pint. Everything was clean and in its place, but this was decidedly not a girly place. He noticed that all of the furniture was made for large people appearing to be very comfortable and well made. Her kitchen set was made of solid English oak and did not move when he rested his elbows on it. Ted studied the view out the kitchen window. He could see two distinct properties below with a road separating them. The view from the kitchen was a snipers dream. Every corner of the property was in sight. He wondered who owned the property below and if they knew that they were that exposed. After twenty minutes Nadia came out. She was wearing a dark emerald green blouse with a short black spandex skirt. Her knee length boots had a two-inch heel which put her eye to eye with him. Nadia’s body was in perfect proportion with her height and did not give that rail thin look as tall women often do. Ted’s attention was definitely captured. Ted gave her an appreciative look up and down since he had never met a woman as tall as he was. There was no doubt that he definitely liked what he saw. Nadia led the way putting a little extra sway in her hips as Ted followed her down the stairs. Ted went to get in the car, but Nadia turned him toward the cart parked next to the car. She pointed to the building in the middle of the courtyard just below them.

  “We are just going down there.”

  “Who owns that place?”

  Nadia was happy to answer, “Susan’s firm owns this place, the two properties down there and the property across the roadway. She has just over 400 acres total.” Up here at the top of the knoll we have Suki’s security company, the resort is in the center, the equestrian center is across the road, and there is a 160-acre farm on the other side of the main roadway. The road in the center of the property can handle Short Take Off and Landing aircraft (STOL) and we have two helicopter pads by the security center. With a caribou, two Twin Otters and a Bell Jet Ranger we can provide our own transportation.”

  Ted nodded his head appreciatively, “Which agency handles your funding?”

  Nadia brushed his cheek lightly, “We are completely independent, and even though we are primarily British we are an international corporation with completely private funding.” Ted looked confused but decided to see what she was talking about. Nadia took the cart down the terrace road and drove to the pub. Suki and Mark were sitting at a table near the front door.

  Nadia placed both of her hands on the table wading in without ceremony, “I hear that you need another trainer for your security business. Ted would retire if he found something worth doing.”

  Suki smiled warmly. “We have an opening for the right man. Nadia is he qualified?” Nadia held her hands about a foot apart. “Well, I will take your word for it. I will let you take care of the details.” Nadia turned to talk to Ted. Suki ran her hand up the back of Nadia’s skirt. “Be sure to show Ted exactly where that opening is. We have two holes to fill.” Ted reached past Nadia and shook Mark’s hand. Overhearing the conversation Layla chipped in without thinking, “It’s been awhile since anyone was in that hole. Are you sure that you can find it?” Nadia did not like the inference and snapped back.

  “Is that Terri talking?”

  Ted was thoroughly confused. “Who is Terri,” He asked as she backed down.

  “She is just a pain in the ass friend with a sick sense of humor. Come on I will introduce you to the other ‘Old Men’.” Nadia guided Ted over to the bar with Mark following close behind. She received rave reviews on her looks. Nadia joked with Ted, “They are old men, not dead men.”

  Suki turned to Layla, “You need to be careful about when you let Terri out. It may bring out a Nadia that you don’t want to see. Did you see the way that she was dressed? Nadia has gone ‘Amazon’ hunting and she will bag her prey.”

  Layla took Edward back to the guest house. She was still slightly embarrassed by her comment.

  “It is not Terri making those comments. It’s what she would have said. You have to understand. Terri has left a while back.”

  Edward looked frustrated, “Then why are you saying those things?”

  “Terri had some strong tendencies. I am holding her memories both mental and physical, so it just slips out. Did you see me on the firing range today?” Her enthusiasm was clear.

  Edward’s pride in her was obvious, “You couldn’t miss!”

  “Those were her physical memories. I remembered the instructions that she was giving her body. The only thing that is stopping me is the muscle tone. As soon as I bring up my conditioning, I will be able to cover more territory.” Layla kissed him on the cheek. “I was the nerdy geek until a few days ago and Terri was a major tomboy.”

  Edward had to ask, “Was she the one cramming nerds in their locker?” Layla thought for a moment.

  “No, she was the one that defended the nerds. She tends to fight the bullies. I really do love her. She was on Alex’s case for killing too much. After seeing who he was killing, it was not such a bad thing. Victoria would not have complained. I was wrong about being able to imagine how bad that someone could be.”

  “Speaking about bad people it should be nine o’clock in LA. I wanted to pay Evan a visit. Would you care to come with me?” A wicked smile came across Layla’s face. Edward held her hand tightly.

  “Baby, remember keep your intent neutral and intend no harm. Your thoughts can do your body harm. Remember that you are just an observer.”

  Layla teased, “You sound like my mother.”

  “Is that such a bad thing?”

  Layla thought a minute, “No, not really. She had some definite opinions but I loved her dearly.” She thought over Edward’s request. “It will be difficult, but I will try.”

  Edward hung out the DO NOT DISTURB sign and locked the door. He also locked the bedroom door. Edward and Layla lay down on the bed and started rhythmic breathing. Layla was first to leave and Edward followed. Evan was not in his office. Edward put his mind on Evan and found him outside his apartment finding Evan in the front seat of a van with Valery. The whole mood was disturbed with Valery being obviously agitated. The more upset she got the angrier he became. Evan drew back his hand to strike her. Valery stuck her pistol in his face. Edward was thinking that his problem may be over. Evan dropped his hand and Valery lowered her pistol keeping it on her lap. Valery was not the suicidal type, but she would kill Evan if he became a threat.

  The stake out was becoming a grind. Evan was using the sweepers to do the job. He sat in the front seat with Valery.

  Valery’s voice had a hard edge to it. “Evan, you know that this is a misuse of manpower. We came out here to do a job and leave.”

  “I have to complete this assignment and you are my primary resource.”

  “You might have more reliable help, if you had not brow beaten your secretary Yvonne until she committed suicide. Not one person at the Farm trusts you.” Evan drew back his hand to hit her.

  Valery put her Glock between his teeth, “You may do that to other women, but I will end your days if you ever lift your hand to me again.” Evan remembered that he was dealing with an assassin and dropped his hand. “When you have located a target, call us and we will do the job. Remember it would be my pleasure if they tell me to do you.” Valery yanked the gun out chipping one of Evan’s teeth.

  Evan had no choice, but to let the sweeper teams go. He needed to rebuild his teams, and it would be necessary to build from scratch, since not one person at the farm trusted him anymore. He had no chance of recruiting any of these sweepers to help form his core. Raymond was due back tomorrow and there was a good chance that Evan would be recalled. If Evan could catch one break, he could redeem himself. He backed out of the van.

  “I have to arrange for a surveillance team. I expect you to finish your shift before you leave.” He drove around the corner. Evan got out of the car opening the trunk, pulling a small pyramid shaped cha
rge out of a fiberglass case. It was a shape charge that would direct the force of the explosion in a specific direction when detonated. He drove back to the van.

  “I need my reports.” Evan reached into the console between the seats. As he did so, Evan dropped his keys on the street attaching the charge directly under the driver’s seat. “I will send someone from your team out to replace me.” He picked up the keys and drove off again. Valery moved into the driver’s seat picking up the binoculars. Valery knew that she made a mistake threatening Evan. She worked hard to be a team leader and this would not look good if he reported her. When he was two blocks away Evan pushed the button on the transmitter. The blast drove the seat into the roof of the van breaking Valery’s neck as it burst into flame burning intensely. The whole team rushed to the van. They were all incensed that their team was assaulted. In the two years that they had been together they never lost a member. This matter just became personal and they would do whatever it takes to get the killer.

  Edward was first to come back. He lay on the bed waiting for his muscles to start working. Layla remained out for several more minutes. He stood guard until Layla came back.

  “Where were you babe?” Layla smiled.

  “I had a look at some papers, on the desk in his office. Someone named Raymond is coming in tomorrow morning at eleven, so we need to be there.”

  Edward looked at his watch and made a note of the time that they would need to meditate. They were both starved. They ran down to the pub and had Carl the bartender order three meat pies apiece for them. Remote viewing drained vast amounts of energy from both of them. Nadia and Ted were still having a pint with the ‘Old Men’. Layla pulled Nadia aside.

  “I am sorry about the comment earlier. My brain was not engaged when my mouth started.”

  “It went over his head. Did Terri really take over you? You know a lot about her.”

  “She did not take over, but she left her memories. It is like having lived another complete life. It seems that I went to school twice. My body remembers the physical things and my muscles actually remember what she did, not my brain. Remember when I got here that I was the nerd that couldn’t do anything?”

  “Yes, you needed a lot of help.” Nadia made it a point to say it in a thoughtful tone keeping any hint of sarcasm out of her voice.

  “How much help do I need now?”

  “In a dust up you should manage nicely.” Nadia put an arm around Layla’s waist. “Ted, this is my sister in law, Layla. She is visiting from America. Since she is here and it is dark, I thought we would train her on the starlight scopes. We just received some Gen III equipment.” Ted perked up with the news having no idea that there was so much equipment on hand.

  “You have starlight scopes! I thought that they were restricted and Gen III just came out. We were waiting for the first models to be delivered.”

  “Yes, we have all of the permits up to and including the GEN III models. Sidney has all of certificates on file plus Suki owns five percent of the company that makes them. We are officially a test facility. We even send them a report now and then.” Nadia kissed Ted playfully. “Come on we have the range cleared and Ernie is marking for us.” Ted was surprised to find that Nadia was using a Dragunov rifle as her personal weapon. It was sixty-two inches with the silencer. Even with her extreme height the weapon looked ungainly. When Layla handled it the weapon was just a few inches shorter than she was tall. The other rifle types were Remington 700’s. Ted wanted to know about the Dragunov rifles.

  “Why did you pick the old Russian weapons?”

  “In the corner of the world that we work, most of the arms are Russian. They can be found easily, are reliable, and ammunition is readily available in that region. As you know they have a particular sound signature when they are fired and we don’t want to stand out with NATO munitions when we work. We have several rich customers that have a load of oil money and require private security forces. One of the things that we teach them is night operations and we have added several tricks to our night ambushes. With the night vision and the radio system we have had no friendly fire mistakes. Ray has developed special reflectors that have a fifteen-degree recognition spread. We can range at night with pin point accuracy. We setup several hides on our customer’s land with all of the key locations ranged from each hide and the target areas are marked with the low light reflectors so that we can dial in without using laser range finders since they can be detected with the right equipment. Their security forces have the detail map of all the key points within a mile zeroed in for them.”

  Nadia handed Ted the range finder. Several small bright dots appeared in the scope. “We developed starlight reflectors for ranging at night. They only have a fifteen-degree angle that they will be visible from, so the reflectors from one hide are not visible from another hide and can only be viewed from specific hides. They will only reflect a certain wave length of light and will not tell with a flash light. Ted looked through the scope. Twenty or so little blue dots appeared in the scope. Nadia called in for the targets that they wanted to shoot and the fun began. She still wore her blouse, skirt, boots and hose that she started the evening in. Nadia hiked up her skirt so that she could take a kneeling position. Ted watched, transfixed as she fired off round after round at five different targets smoothly changing the range on her scope as she switched targets. Ernie called back with the report.

  “Nadia had two shots on each target, three hundred yards, four hundred yards, five hundred yards, six hundred yards and eight hundred yards.”

  “How did you know that it was Nadia?”

  “Are you kidding me? That’s her signature. Nobody shoots like that at odd ranges. The Afghans called her the ‘Red Angel’, because she called so many men to Allah. They didn’t get their seventy virgins because they were sent there by a woman. The Russians found out that being killed by a woman in combat would deny the Afghans peace in the afterlife. There are two shots in each target less than an inch apart.” The others stepped up and called in their targets one at a time with nobody even coming close to Nadia’s feat. Ted examined the ungainly looking weapon. It operated using a blow back system similar to the AK 47. A marksman could get off two shots in quick succession with very little barrel rise. Ted was finding a new admiration for Nadia and her weapon. Nadia went to the arms locker and pulled out a shorter version of the Dragunov.

  “This is the SVDS model it is ten inches shorter with a folding stock. The Teflon slugs are boat tailed and have less drag. That will add an extra two hundred meters to the overall effective range. I shoot the SVD model for the better effective range. Sidney does a hell of a job tuning these. Try my SVDS it is still ugly, but we Russians prefer function to beauty.

  After they were done shooting everybody started breaking down their weapons and cleaning them. Out of habit Ted walked around inspecting their work passing out compliments on their shooting. He was pleased that Layla did not need much prompting for her field strip. When she was done he inspected it, finding that the job was perfect. Sidney held back his comment when Ted inspected his job. Everything was cleaned and ready for use before anyone left. Nadia invited Ted to her apartment.

  “Ted, we have a guest apartment in the service center or I have a guest room in my flat.” Ted took the hint.

  “I believe your flat sounds like the better offer. I can’t find any other place that is specifically for people my size.”

  As they entered the flat Ted was surprised to find Mark and Suki sitting at the kitchen table having a pint.

  Nadia spoke up without hesitation, “I believe that you served with Mark in your earlier days. You were set up today. Mark made sure that you were the range instructor. We have your file from day one in the service. That was a real exercise today, but it was also a job interview.” Nadia eased Ted into a chair across from Mark. “Since Mark is retiring, we need a replacement and he remembered you from the SAS.” Nadia went to the pull drawing two glasses of ale placing one glass in front o
f Ted. Mark took over the conversation.

  “Ted, I’m 75 now and bone tired. They just finished my cottage across the road. Out of all of the people that I can remember you are the only one that I can trust with this job. Suki here needs a partner to work the security business, but she will not be working for much longer. We pulled your file and there is no one better qualified for a top spot. We just needed to see if you would be accepted by the others. We want you to join the team. You will be the top dog if you sign up and Nadia will take Suki’s place when she retires.” Ted had something else in mind when he followed Nadia up to her flat.

  “You mean this was just a set up!” Nadia kissed Ted putting the pint in his hand.

  “I didn’t know that I would be this attracted to you. Let’s say that it is a partial set up. No matter what you decide, we are going to have our time. I was not part of the bait. The job offer and our feelings for each other are two separate issues. Before you get upset, if you weren’t in to me they would have met you in the security center.”

  Mark looked at Suki, “We need to let these two have their evening. Ted would you sleep on this. It is the best deal that you will ever run across. Doing what you love to do for as long as you chose to do it. We can get together in the morning after we have had our run.” Mark and Suki left without further comment.

  Nadia pulled two more pints and curled up on the love seat. Ted sat across from her with his eyes riveted on her legs. Finally, Nadia stood up and removed her skirt.

  “This way you won’t have to pretend that you are not looking up my skirt. We can sit around telling funny stories, or we can go in the bedroom and shag.”

  “I, I…!” Nadia pulled Ted to his feet, surprising him with her strength.