by Ty Patterson
‘I retired.’ His smile had no humor. ‘I am sorta attached to this life. My kids deserve to live theirs, fully.’
‘They let me live. I guess it was easier to control me, when alive.’
‘Kittrell kept his head down and continued working, though no longer on such cases. He got transferred to New York and I lost track of him. Until I got a call.’
‘I was to say he was dead. To whoever inquired about him.’
‘What happened with him?’ Meghan prompted him when he fell silent.
‘Kittrell was hot tempered. Had outbursts of rage. Couldn’t control them.’
‘I think he threatened the unit during one of those red-mist moments. They probably retaliated. You know the rest.’
‘What about his identity?’ Beth asked, fascinated by the emotionless recital.
‘Dividing Zero happened,’ Keyser replied baldly.
‘So all along, Mayo and Kane have been involved,’ Meghan removed her shades, wiped a speck of dust from the lenses, polished them, and donned them again.
The sun was hot, beating down on them mercilessly, as if it too wanted to hush up the program.
‘Mayo and Kane?’ Keyser looked at her in surprise. ‘Nope. They knew nothing. We worked there, but we were in effect a rogue unit.’
‘We took orders from –’
His head exploded in a spray of blood and tissue.
Chapter 39
Meghan flung herself at Beth without conscious thought. She rose, pulled her sister upright, and they ran.
Toward the concrete road. Beyond which woods beckoned. Thick and inviting.
Sanctuary.
She turned her head once and saw men. Four or five of them. In suits. Carrying weapons.
Rounds flew in the air. Thudded in the ground as they ran. Threw up dirt and gravel.
‘No danger, you said,’ Beth screamed.
‘I was wrong,’ Meghan yelled back.
‘Do you have a plan?’
‘No.’
‘I’m going to die here?’ Beth shouted, anger overcoming her fear.
‘I’ll die with you.’
‘You’d better,’ Beth swore hotly.
Meghan upped her pace, ducked and weaved, ignored the angry whining of bullets in the air. She heard Beth panting behind her, matching her stride for stride.
Across the road. Down a small incline which gave them some cover.
She took a second to stop and peer back.
Five men. Running as hard, giving them chase. One of them spotted the sisters and pointed.
The ticket agent. He was one of them. Or warned them. Whoever they are.
Meghan turned around and ran to the woods, Beth following.
Thoughts whirled in her mind. One stood out. If Keyser was killed who stood to gain?
Gravel turned to grass. The first plants appeared.
They became man-sized vegetation.
Trees. Thick and close, blocking sunlight. Turning day to dimness.
Branches swatted their faces, slowed their response.
A stout one slapped her face and when she pushed it away, all the pieces fell in place.
Who else could it be?
She turned and twisted, finding trails to go deeper, away from the pursuers.
She knew who and why now. Not all the details. They could wait, if she and Beth survived. Escape came first.
She slowed her breathing. Tried to hear above the beating of her heart.
She heard shouting. Pounding in the distance.
She paused under the cover of a tree thicker than the two of them put together.
Glanced back. Saw her sister’s white face. Scared eyes.
Cursed herself.
I was overconfident. I should have known it was a trap.
Beth straightened when the voices came closer. Took the lead and headed off.
There was no particular direction in which they were heading.
Away from the gunmen. Deeper. That was all that mattered.
Meghan followed her.
We didn’t even bring our handguns. The GPS tags on us probably won’t work. Poor signal.
She cleared her mind. Zeb had taught them to focus on the now and the immediate, in times of combat. Negativity was to be discarded.
Beth picked up speed when the woods thinned out, the trees spaced out.
Meghan followed.
Trying to breathe lightly. Trying to keep their jackets from brushing against foliage.
Beth stopped suddenly.
Meghan rammed into her. The two stumbled.
She bit back an oath and recovered. Looked angrily at Beth.
Why did you stop?
The words died in her throat when she saw why.
Four men were ranged in front of them.
Fifteen feet away.
Holding guns. Assault rifles. Confidently, the way experienced shooters did.
Their eyes and faces were expressionless. Some of them were in suits while others were in combat fatigues.
She looked behind as the sounds of running came closer.
The five pursuers crashed through the woods and halted behind them.
Gunmen at the front. Shooters behind.
It ends here. Maddie will never be found.
‘You’re right,’ a voice read her mind.
Her eyes widened. She didn’t expect him to be here. Beth made a small sound.
They knew that voice.
She schooled her face and marshalled her thoughts.
A man stepped forward from the four men.
He was dressed in camouflage trousers and a black T-shirt. The handgun in his hand was held loosely. Confidently.
He looked at ease and in command.
He had looked at ease and in command when they had met him first.
Josh Kittrell, the lawyer, smiled at the shock on Beth’s face.
‘I am sorry, Ms. Petersen. It does end here.’ His voice wasn’t regretful.
His eyes rested on Meghan. ‘You don’t look surprised.’
‘I figured it out.’
The lawyer looked at two men. They stepped forward and frisked the twins thoroughly. They grabbed their jackets and ripped them from their bodies.
‘Remove your shoes,’ Kittrell ordered. ‘We know you have sensors in them.’
‘Like hell we will,’ Beth shouted.
Another man stepped forward. A knife appeared in his hand. He thrust it at her left shoulder. Where another blade had pierced, previously.
‘Do it,’ Meghan urged and slipped off her sneakers and threw them at a gunman. He caught them easily, pierced a blade in the heels and removed the GPS tags.
He crushed them and destroyed the ones in Beth’s shoes.
‘We aren’t alone,’ Beth spat.
‘But you are,’ Kittrell laughed. ‘We have been watching you since New York.’
‘We have friends. They will be coming soon.’
‘No they won’t.’ His voice was bored. ‘They will come at some point. They will find your bodies.’
The lawyer’s eyes remained on Meghan’s face. ‘How did you figure it out?’
Tell him. Anything to buy time. Anything to delay the inevitable.
She told him about the interview with Stoll. Ignored his, we should have killed him long back comment and mentioned the disappearances.
She took her time, scanning discreetly for any escape routes.
There were none. Shooters surrounded them. They were alert, vigilant, not paying attention to Meghan’s recital.
Kittrell’s brow creased when she brought up the news article. ‘We should have gone after that server.’
He shook his head. ‘I thought removing it would be too noticeable. That picture was taken by some whistleblower.’
‘He’s no trouble now,’ he concluded in satisfaction.
‘Why?’ Beth burst out, unable to contain herself any longer. She had her arms crossed across her body protectively, yet her eyes blazed, her face was fierc
e.
Kittrell looked genuinely surprised. ‘Money. Lots of it. Why else?’
‘I got the idea when a contractor approached me.’
‘They had a problem employee. They knew I was a good negotiator. I solved that problem.’ He spoke without prompting, relishing the captive audience he had.
‘The client was happy. Mayo and Kane got a bonus; they were happy. I wasn’t. That bonus should have been mine.’
‘A four-star general had mentioned Dividing Zero when he was drunk. I was entertaining him.’
‘I did some very discreet digging. Understood the program. Realized I could use it for myself.’
‘You stole Stoll’s program?’ Beth asked incredulously.
‘Nope. The software wasn’t important. I got other folks to write it. The genius of the program lay in its concept.’
He grinned expansively. ‘I went freelance. I got access to all the databases. You’ll be surprised at how many doors, the right sums of money will open.’
‘I had access to defense contractors. To generals. I could make their problems go away.’
‘Initially it was just negotiation. Then I amped the pressure. Made one dude disappear. Killed him, really.’
‘Word spread around. I got more work. I recruited Keyser and Kittrell. Kittrell was like heaven’s gift to me. A man with the same name as mine?’
He laughed in amusement, relaxed, yet alert. No one else shared his humor.
‘As soon as Keyser and Kittrell got on board, I made plans for Kittrell. He would be the red herring if anything went wrong. The two of them didn’t suspect a thing. They followed my orders and executed them without a question. They thought this was Mayo and Kane work.’
‘Kittrell did the background checks on any problem person. Keyser did the threats. Not physical. Verbal. He has this look. Had.’
The deep laugh came again. He could have been in a corporate boardroom. Or out on the golf course, schmoozing with clients.
‘I had these guys,’ he looked at the gunmen, ‘for wet work. I knew enough of them from my black ops days.’
‘We had a sweet operation that the law firm didn’t know of. No one would suspect me. I was too obvious. People would reckon I couldn’t be that stupid.’
He slapped a palm against his thigh and laughed louder at Meghan’s expression. ‘You didn’t think I was involved, did you?’
The laughter died out and his face darkened. ‘Then Keyser and Kittrell grew a conscience.’
‘Toccoa man came up. He had to be eliminated. Those two didn’t want to go that far. They realized this wasn’t law firm work.’
‘I could have had them killed,’ he ran a finger along the barrel of his handgun. ‘It would have been messy, though. I put watchers on their families. They got the message.’
‘Keyser retired, but I still had eyes and ears on him.’ He turned his head in the direction of the station.
‘He gave us the slip today. Brought his death on himself.’
He smiled smugly at his justification and carried on. ‘Kittrell followed me to New York and behaved. He didn’t have a choice. His home was bugged. His phones were tapped. He and his family had men on them constantly.’
‘Then he heard about Feitz. He hadn’t been involved in it, however he felt guilty.’
Disbelief spread across his handsome face. Guilt didn’t belong in his world. He delivered a service, got paid handsomely, that’s all that mattered.
‘I tried reasoning with him. He didn’t listen. He wanted to go to the cops. I told him his family would die.’
He sighed. People. If only they would be reasonable. ‘I didn’t expect him to kidnap his daughter. That was a curveball.’
‘I did the next best thing.’
‘I deployed the program on him.’
He chuckled, a rich warm sound that had soothed and comforted his clients. ‘I almost laughed and gave it away when you folks visited me. That would have been something.’
‘You two didn’t give up.’ His tone was almost admiring.
‘Josh Kittrell was erased, several red herrings were in place, and yet you two didn’t stop looking.’
‘We were searching for his daughter,’ Beth spoke through gritted teeth.
Kittrell shrugged. The daughter didn’t matter.
His barrel pointed at Meghan. ‘You were attacked. That was my doing too. I created that social media storm, hoping someone would act on it. That punk did. That too didn’t deter you.’
‘You two survived that grab. You got lucky that the cops arrived on time.’
Something crossed his face and he stepped back.
‘No more hunting for you, ladies,’ he repeated. He looked up at the green canopy above them. ‘It’s a good place to die. Your friends will be taken care of, too.’
He glanced at his watch and made a gesture to his men.
A shooter came forward.
The gunmen at the rear moved to the sides.
Beth threw a panic stricken look at Meghan.
Meghan tried to reassure her with her eyes.
What can I say?
‘It’ll be painless,’ Kittrell promised, from behind his men.
The shooter’s gun rose. Meghan closed her eyes involuntarily; her body tightened.
A shot rang out.
Chapter 40
Meghan flinched and waited for darkness to carry her.
I haven’t died before. Don’t know how it feels. Wait! I’m ali --.
A body crashed into her just as more shots sounded around them. She landed, someone rolled on top of her and rolled off.
She was in a thicket, several feet to the side of the clearing. Something moved in her vision.
She turned slowly and saw her sister glaring at her. She was ten feet away, taking cover in another bush, her face streaked with soil, leaves stuck in her hair.
‘Is it Zeb?’ Beth mouthed.
‘Maybe. Don’t know. Did you see anyone?’
‘No. When this is over –’.
The shadow loomed over Beth without warning. A shooter, his gun lowering, his eyes fixed on the woman beneath.
Meghan moved without conscious thought.
Her hand swept on the ground. Grabbed what little gravel it could. Flung it at the shooter.
The shooter spotted the motion. Raised his head. Flinched and ducked.
Meghan rose. One foot to steady herself. Another to power herself.
She flew and came under the rising gun.
Slapped it away in a move Zeb had made them practice thousands of times.
Her elbow slammed in the shooter’s throat.
Beth kicked his legs from underneath.
The shooter fell. Beth grabbed his gun and the sisters fled.
Searching fire came their way.
They ducked and moved apart. Meghan hid behind a tree trunk while Beth burrowed in another dense shelter.
Silence returned to the wood.
Meghan dropped to the ground and peered around the trunk cautiously.
She was farther away from the clearing. Still with a good view of it.
She slowed her breathing, let time slow, and took everything in.
The shooter who was to execute her, lay sprawled on the ground. Another gunman lay behind where they had been standing. No one else was visible.
Shot by snipers from the front and the back?
She remembered a flurry of shots when Beth had dove into her. She didn’t see any more bodies.
Kittrell’s men returning fire at the snipers?
She counted the bodies.
Ten including Kittrell, now down to seven.
She strained her ears. Didn’t hear anything. No footsteps. No shots. No bodies moving in brush.
She sought out Beth and found her a distance away.
Beth sensed her glance.
Can’t see anything, her lips moved.
A bird call sounded in the distance.
A shot rang out.
Another bird call
ed out. Got an acknowledgement.
Beth’s pale face broke into a smile. She fist pumped silently.
Meghan felt a flame of hope surge inside her.
Bird calls. Bwana. Roger.
She studied the woods, trying to locate the shooters and her friends.
A wind blew lazily and branches swayed. A brush rustled and her heart leapt in her throat.
It was nothing.
She felt the man’s presence before he grabbed her by her hair.
He dragged her up; his barrel jammed against her back, and turned her around.
‘I got one,’ he murmured in a headset.
There was no gloating in his voice or face. He removed a wicked looking blade and thrust it at her eyes.
‘Where’s the other one?’
Meghan couldn’t answer. Words stuck in her throat. Her breath came fast.
The blade came closer to her right eye.
She stared at it fascinated.
‘I won’t ask again.’
‘You won’t have to,’ an amused voice whispered.
The earth seemed to part and from it rose a tall, dark figure.
The gunman whirled.
The figure moved fast, so fast that Meghan couldn’t comprehend. The gunman’s breath seemed to leave him.
He slumped against the figure for a second. Fell to the ground.
The dark man looked down, his face iron and granite, his eyes cold and merciless.
They were smiling when he raised his head and looked at Meghan.
Bwana.
Kittrell turned and ran the moment his gunman was shot.
Straight into the depths of the woods, following a dim trail that only he knew.
How, whirled through his mind several times. He discarded it and quickened his run when he heard shooting behind him.
At the end of the dim trail was a getaway vehicle that only he knew of. The rest of his men had concealed their rides near the station.
A private aircraft was waiting for him at the airport.
He had stashes of cash all over the world. Apartments. He would use Dividing Zero on himself.
He had planned for every outcome.
For this one too.
He lengthened his stride, confidence filling him.
His step faltered.
Was there someone behind that brush ahead?