“Yah, yah, yah,” Levont said. “We’ve heard it all before. You’re superior. You’re better. You are going to rule the world.”
“But we shall,” the man stated. “We shall reshape the world in God’s image. Tomorrow’s sunrise will be set on fire.”
“You got anything more specific, dude?” Levont asked.
Then the man coughed and died.
“Great, just great,” Levont murmured. “More fruit loops.”
* * *
Bunny paced back and forth beside Liza’s bed. Something was wrong. Stark had reported that something was afoot and that he had lost communications with the team.
So she wasn’t surprised when a man, dressed in a dark suit and slicked back hair walked into the hospital room.
“Belinda?” the man asked as he extended his hand.
Clearly he had no idea who she was or what she was capable of. She accepted his hand and didn’t bother to correct him on her name. Let him believe that he was building rapport.
“And you are?”
“Mr. Theodore Homely.”
Did he really expect her to believe that? Anything that came out of his mouth was as suspect as his choice of hairstyle.
“There has been a change of plans,” the man said. “We will be transporting Liza to Israel then straight to DC.”
“Great,” Bunny said and watched his face beam with accomplishment. “Just show me the orders and I’ll send her on her way.”
Oh, how sad it was to see his face fall. Did they really think after all the intergovernmental agency liaison positions she’d held that she would just take this spook’s word for it? Seriously?
“The orders will be along, but we’ve got to get moving if we are going to catch the plane.”
“The plane is your own, so there is no ‘catching it,’ and if you had legitimate orders, they would have come through email, fax or cable, so let’s not waste both of our time.”
The false compassion fell off “Teddy’s” face. The flint in his eyes shone. “You do not want to interfere.”
“Probably not, but I am going to,” Bunny said, then hit the base of her ear even though she didn’t have to, to turn the mic on, but she wanted Theodore to know she had backup. Maybe back in DC, but back up none the less.
“Stark,” Bunny stated. “I’ve got a Teddy Homely here saying that he has orders to take possession of Liza and send her to DC via Israel. Could you please verify?”
It was kind of cute how white Teddy’s face went. The CIA loved to play games and power moves, but seldom liked to be double-checked. Mainly because they knew what Stark would find. A whole lot of bullshit.
The Vice President wasn’t going to be pleased that the CIA had tried to kidnap his step-daughter.
She turned to Theodore. “Is there anything else?” she said with a smile about as insincere as Theodore’s had been to her.
“No, nothing, but I will be back,” the man promised.
Bunny didn’t allow her smile to waver until Theodore had left the room and headed down the hall.
“You’ve got to punch through the static and get Davidson and the rest back here pronto. Teddy is not coming back alone,” Bunny informed Stark.
“Working on it,” Stark reported back. “By their timetable, they should be back within the hour.”
Bunny took in a deep breath and stroked Liza’s hand as she struggled unconsciously against the restraints. “Not sure if we have an hour.”
Come on, guys, hurry up, Bunny thought. But the guys thought that Liza and she were safe here. Yah, like a CIA black site was ever safe for anyone. Even their allies.
* * *
Davidson waved for Lopez to land the chopper. Clearly he was reluctant, only bringing the chopper down a few inches off the ground.
It would have to do.
Prenner and Levont loaded two bodies onto the chopper’s deck before Davidson climbed up into the vehicle.
“What’s up with that?” Lopez stated. “I thought we were only taking samples? The extra weight is going to slow us down.”
Levont turned both faces toward Lopez.
“Holy…”
Lopez didn’t complain any more as he lifted the helicopter straight up even before anyone was buckled in.
“Anybody else have a bad feeling about this?” Lopez asked the group.
“Probably a better question, does anyone have a good feeling about this?” Levont asked then chuckled as no one answered. “A ringing endorsement.”
They whisked out over the forest, striking east back to the base.
Lopez didn’t seem to let the extra weight slow him down one bit as they crossed over the tree line and toward the rolling meadows that stretched out to the sea.
“Mayday, mayday,” Stark crackled in Davidson’s ear. “Can anyone here me?”
“What’s the problem?” Davidson asked.
“The CIA are trying to take possession of Liza,” Stark relayed quickly. “Bunny challenged them and they backed off but she is worried they are going to come back with more firepower.”
“Tell her to sit tight, we’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Will do,” Stark answered.
Anger coursed through Davidson’s veins. The arrogance of the CIA. And the stupidity to take on Bunny, with or without her Special Forces team.
“Are you working an angle?” Davidson asked Stark.
“We’ve contacted the Vice President directly and put in a formal request for information from the CIA, but you know how those go.”
Probably the only other agency in the world that came close to the CIA’s desire and ability to keep everything they did under a tight lid was the KGB, now the FSB. The agency wanted all information, all of the time, yet it was a decidedly one-way street. To get information to flow in the other direction was usually a futile task. One that he would allow Stark to undertake.
Davidson looked down at the two bodies. Maybe they had something more valuable than Liza. “Stark, let the agency know we are willing to trade.”
“What?” the techie asked.
Davidson nodded to Levont to start uploading pictures. “Take a look at these and then pass them on.”
There was a brief silence then a sharp intake of air. “Yah, I think the agency is going to want a piece of this.”
* * *
Baasha remained hidden in the forest until the Special Forces helicopter, in truth his helicopter, was long out of range. His Righteous brothers were dead. All of them. It had been their arrogance in their lineage and training that had brought them low.
Once it was discovered that the pirates had been routed and a Special Forces team, especially one with such a gifted sniper, had taken over the camp, they should have aborted. Far better to retreat in silence and anonymity than to be discovered and destroyed.
Baasha had suggested this to Aaron, however the leader of the strike team had disregarded his advice. Who ever listened to Baasha, at least the first time? Who listened to the club-footed, nearly blind genetically mangled brother?
The Righteous had dabbled in cloning long before even Dolly the cloned sheep hit the media. Several decades ago, the process was not as refined as it was today. These new generation brothers were all nearly perfection incarnate. As they should be.
In the days of Baasha’s birth nearly one out of four babies had such bad mutations they were aborted rather than brought to term.
Baasha had somehow slipped through the cracks. So despite his one eye that was as large as a marble and the other the size of a grape, he had been born into the world.
And once born, there was little the Righteous could do but raise him as one of their own. Since a child, he had made sure that he was indispensible. He made sure that he knew every one of the Righteous’ secrets. It made it slightly harder for those on the counsel who hated the sight of his deformity to “lose” Baasha.
He was certain many of the counsel would be rather disappointed that only he survived the assault.
Many good Righteous men died today. There would be repercussions from today, not the least that Liza was now in enemy hands. There would be none for him though. He had made certain to register his disagreement with Aaron before the strike. To some he would seem prophetic. Many believed that God had burdened him so, to make him stronger and that he alone might have a channel to God that none of the “perfect” brothers had.
These events would only reinforce their belief.
And if he were to recover Liza? His place amongst the Righteous would be secured.
All of the suffering.
All of the doubt.
All of the pain would finally come to fruition.
But there was little time. Liza must arrive in Haiti before the week’s end, otherwise all their work for millennia would be for naught.
CHAPTER 5
Bunny sat beside Liza who finally seemed comfortable. Maybe it was the cocktail of anti-psychotic drugs the doctor had given her or perhaps she finally felt safe.
Although that was a bit of an illusion right now. Bunny knew that she sat here with a dagger over her head. The CIA could come busting in here at any moment. And what could she do? Flick her hair and smile? That might work on frat boys, but not on the agency.
She squeezed Liza’s hand. The boys would be back in time. She simply had to believe that. Stark was doing everything he could from across the Atlantic. The more people, the right people, who were aware of what the CIA was trying to do here, the better. They were not all that into accountability.
Therefore Bunny was not surprised when the door burst open and a woman in a starched black suit with two large men flanking her, entered the room. Bunny just smiled. For being such a stealthy, covert agency, the CIA was rather predictable.
The woman flashed some credentials, which Bunny was sure were false and rambled on about jurisdiction. Bunny allowed it all to flow over her like the slurry of bullshit that it was.
“And if I don’t comply?” Bunny asked. Because even though she really hadn’t been listening to the woman, the chick definitely wanted Bunny to comply to something she didn’t want to.
This stopped the woman in her tracks. Her cheeks flushed a bit as she regrouped. “We will arrest you.”
“Under what authority exactly?” Bunny asked tilting her head. “The CIA has no law enforcement powers. And even if you say you are FBI, you have no legal claim in Somalia, so DOD? ATF? Which acronym are you threatening me under?”
The woman obviously thought that a woman named Bunny would be an easier mark than she was. That was fine by Bunny. Let everyone underestimate her.
Besides all Bunny needed to do was stall this woman for just a few more moments.
Then the boys would be here and they could have a very different conversation.
Right?
* * *
“Come on, come on,” Davidson urged Lopez although he didn’t know why he bothered. The stolen helicopter’s engines were screaming already sounding as if the components were ready to fly apart at a moment’s notice.
As a matter of fact, something was smoking out the back. It wasn’t pretty.
The helicopter would never be the same after Lopez got a hold of it.
The airport was close enough now that they could see the outline of individual planes. Which meant they could see when two fighter jets took off from the CIA compound.
“Maybe they are just provided us with an escort?” Levont suggested but even his optimism seemed half-hearted.
“Really?” Lopez questioned. “After everything we’ve done for them, they are going to take us on?”
Davidson didn’t bother to answer as the jet’s turned around and bore down on them in assault formation. “What have we got?”
“Everything,” Lopez answered, “But do we really want to shoot down two of our own?”
Davidson wasn’t any more comfortable with it than Lopez, however the CIA was trying to kidnap Liza away from them and oh, by the way, down their chopper. Minor details.
“They’re lighting up,” Levont stated as Prenner frowned.
“We’re just defending ourselves,” the tall man reminded them.
Lopez flicked on a few switches, prepping their own weapons, his finger hovering over the red trigger.
“Stand down,” a voice came over their headset. Was it directed at them or the fighter jets? “This is the Vice President of the United States and if any harm comes to my step-daughter or any of those protecting her, you will have to answer to me.”
Okay, good. That was directed at the fighter pilots.
However their missiles were still hot. Would even the Vice President have enough juice to give the CIA pause?
The jets streaked in their direction, not wavering in their course whatsoever. Lopez flipped few more switches. “I’m firing if you are firing,” he announced to the jets.
With their missiles red hot, the jets passed beside them so closely they could see the fins on the missiles. The helicopter vibrated from the passing wake, but they were alive and the jets didn’t fire.
Davidson was taking that as a win.
“Get us down,” Davidson grunted as he went back to have a seat for landing.
“On it,” Lopez answered, angling the chopper to the heli pad on top of a low squat building. Where they hoped Bunny was being held.
* * *
Bunny smiled as the woman in front of her squirmed. The two men didn’t seem to even hear the Vice President’s statement. They were as stoic as they came or they simply weren’t tuned into the channel.
“I think he was pretty clear,” Bunny stated.
“We don’t take our orders from the VP,” the woman replied, trying to be all brave, but Bunny could hear the tremble in the other woman’s voice. The slight shake of her hand on her hip.
“Drop them!” a shout came from the hall. The two bodyguards turned, drawing their weapons to find three well-armed Special Forces soldiers up in their grill. Bunny had never been so happy to see automatic rifles in her life. She really didn’t want to know what it felt like to be renditioned.
Levont came in first, quickly followed by Prenner and Lopez. Bunny wasn’t surprised that Davidson wasn’t with him. Knowing the sniper, he was somewhere up high, covering the scene from a bird’s eye view.
“What is it going to be?” Lopez asked the woman.
Apparently the VP plus a Special Forces unit was a bit much for the woman as she shook her head to her men.
“You haven’t heard the last of this,” she promised in a fairly hollow way.
Lopez didn’t even bother to respond to her, he just waved the men out of the room. “Get.”
Prenner came up alongside Bunny. “How is she?”
“Fairly incoherent except to insist that we need to head to Haiti.”
Lopez snorted. “Yah, right. We are getting on the first plane I can steal and heading to Germany. The Air Force will take her home from there because I think we are supposed to be headed to Libya.
“If it is all the same to you, I will head back to the States with her,” Bunny said. She’d had enough field combat for the week. A nice hot bath back at her Georgetown apartment sounded heavenly.
“As long as you don’t mind hurting Davidson’s feelings,” Lopez remarked.
Bunny just glared at him. Besides the sniper wouldn’t begrudge her a well deserved bath, would he?
She was about to find out as Davidson walked into the room. “I take it everything worked out for the best?”
Lopez threw his chin toward Bunny. “Your girl wants to head home once we reach Germany.”
Davidson draped his arms over his weapon. “Probably best.”
Was that really all she was going to get out of him? She almost would rather him pitch a fit. Be at the least upset that she wasn’t going to Libya with them. What the hell did he want from her?
“Then it’s settled.”
Only it wasn’t as Liza began to have a full on seizure. “Nurse!”
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But before anyone could respond, the seizure stopped and Liza’s eyes flew open as she sat up.
The young woman spoke in a deep, raspy voice. Bunny knew that the effect was from talking through your secondary vocal folds, but it was still damn creepy.
“Take me to Haiti or suffer the consequences.”
Lopez hardly seemed spooked. “Yah, not going to happen.”
“All will die if we do not stop the second coming.”
“Yah, yah, yah,” Lopez said with a snort. “We’ve heard it before, sister, The Knot. The Disciples. Now the Righteous, but this time we are off the clock.”
Liza turned to face Lopez. “Ricardo Dominguez Lopez, listen to your mother.”
With that Liza fell back to the bed, her breathing so shallow that Bunny had to put a hand on her shoulder to feel the rise and fall of her chest.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Levont asked.
“I don’t know, but how did she know my middle name?” Lopez asked as his phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the number. “It’s my mom,” he said with a look of incredulity. He answered the phone, “Mamasita,” he said, then listened carefully, frowning as his mother’s Spanish words drifted from the phone.
She rattled them off, quickly and precisely as Lopez’s face turned from its usual caramel brown to several shades whiter. His lips pursed, but he didn’t argue with his mother. He was a good Catholic son.
Finally Lopez hung up. “Um….”
Everyone looked keen to hear his next words.
“Momma says her Babbalowe has --”
“Babbalowe?” Prenner asked.
It was Levont who answered though. “It is the spiritual leader of a Santeria sect. He is the knower of secrets.”
Lopez nodded and Bunny concurred.
“I thought you were Roman Catholic?” Prenner asked.
“We are, as a matter of fact, you must be a baptized Roman Catholic to be a member of the La Regla Lucumi,” Lopez explained. “Look, my mom is into that stuff and has gotten Maria all hopped on religion as well.”
“But?” Levont asked.
“But she just called to tell me that the Babblowe said that I was in mortal danger and to follow the signs laid out before me.”
Bull's Eye Sniper Chronicles Collection (The Second Cycle of the Betrayed Series) Page 8