by Hawk, Nate
Niko had killed by blade many times. He knew that his strike had hit Stan’s heart immediately and the lifeless expression on Stan’s body confirmed it. At the same time Niko procured control of the revolver so that it neither fired nor crashed to the ground. Niko pulled out the blade and wiped it of on Stan’s pants. Then he pushed the hat down over Stan’s face to hide the dead man’s expression from anyone that might glance at him. Niko pocketed the .357 and began exiting the bus behind the other passengers.
***
Chapter 60
Owen watched as the driver raised his voice in hopes of getting the last passenger’s attention. Apparently the rider had fallen forward when the bus had come to a stop. The operator pushed back on the incoherent man’s shoulder. As the man fell back in the seat, a gaping wound was revealed, still oozing a stream of blood. The driver lurched back when he realized the man had been murdered. He bounded down the aisle, out the door and ran towards two policeman who had taken a position near the entrance to the train platforms. Owen turned around and began walking briskly for the door. At the same time, Angelo clicked his mic.
“Tiny, what’s the status?”
A few moments went by as Owen studied Stan and thought about what happened.
“Tiny, repeat, what’s the status?”
“They took out Stan on the bus,” Owen said with immense disappointment. “Goddamnit!” Owen said furiously and a bit too loudly.
He thought about what to do now that they were down another agent.
“Shit! Angelo, keep eyes on that group as they exit the main station. We’re on their six, moving towards you, Angelo. You copy Kelly?”
“Roger that,” Kelly said somberly. “I’m right behind you.”
He watched Owen stride purposefully through the station towards the front door. The drop-off and pick-up area was large enough for dozens of vehicles to be parked along the curve at the same time. The area was crowded to full capacity as it always was that time of the evening. As Owen and Kelly exited through the main doors of the station, three luxury SUVs pulled up as a convoy. Finding no open space to park, they momentarily paused in the middle of the turnaround. The group of men made their way towards the three silver Land Rover LR4s. They stowed their gear in the rear and climbed into the comfort of the roomy interiors. In an anti-climactic fashion, they zipped away from the curve, still maneuvering as one unit.
This left Niko all alone. Kelly saw him standing on the curve and eying an incoming vehicle. Kelly knew he could drop Niko there. He did have a submachine gun under his jacket after all. The burning desire to kill Niko was quickly overpowering Kelly’s discretion to kill him later, without witnesses. Kelly’s mind wasn’t thinking about getting caught. He wasn’t thinking about any perceived loyalty to the other men he was working with. Kelly wanted blood and he had almost decided to take it then.
Owen said, “We’ve got to follow those guys in the LR4s.”
Kelly said nothing as he began to adjust his short-barreled rifle that was barely hidden under his jacket. Owen saw the look on Kelly’s face and hollered in his ear.
“Kelly… Kelly!”
Owen grabbed Kelly’s shoulder and quickly shook him. “Kelly, snap out of it. You can’t do it here. There’re too many witnesses.”
Kelly’s focus came back and he processed what Owen had said.
“Sorry,” he said. “Listen, I bet he has Stan’s pistol, at the very least. I’ll stay and follow him,” Kelly said, nodding his head towards Niko.
“OK. Let’s see where he goes. And you’ve got my number. If it falls apart we regroup at the city center.”
Owen jumped into the BMW.
To Angelo, he said, “Let’s go.”
Kelly was left to take care of Niko by himself, which was just what he had hoped for.
In a display of immense wealth and true playboy fashion, a white Audi R8 pulled to the curb in front of Niko. Kelly was watching but he remained positioned behind a crowd of people working their way out of the station. The driver opened the door of the two-seater sports car and stood up, as Niko finally put a face to the Syrian voice he had spoken with over the phone. The man raised his head up in a show of a tough-guy-greeting. Niko seemed reluctant at first but, eventually, moved towards the car. What other choice did he have, at that point? Niko somewhat guardedly received a fist bump from the Syrian born driver as the two men seemed to size each other up. Figures, Niko thought. He sounded like a self-absorbed idiot over the phone. Niko glanced around, almost hoping that there was a different option. He quickly concluded there wasn’t. So he climbed in the car.
“Do you have everything that I need?” Niko asked the driver.
“Yes. All of it,” the other man said confidently.
“The tools?”
“That too,” the Syrian said, looking at Niko with a small amount of irritability. This man lacks confidence in my abilities, the driver thought, becoming annoyed.
“Quick connectors?”
“Everything! It’s all been done,” the man said reassuringly, hoping to finalize the mini interrogation.
Niko found it hard to believe that this man had gotten everything right.
“How far of a drive?” he asked.
“In this car?” the driver asked with a grin. “Twenty minutes.”
“Well, take your time, considering how dangerous the items are that we are traveling with,” Niko said.
The driver understood. He pictured them hitting a bump too hard, or worse, getting into an accident. That could kill them both.
“Forty minutes, then. I guess it’s going to be a long night, anyway,” the driver said.
Niko just smiled.
The man kept the radio on a low setting. He shifted the manual transmission into gear and pressed the gas pedal. With its all wheel drive, the car lurched forward effortlessly. As the car came to life, the engine noise purred from the sound-dampened exhaust pipes. The car shuddered with power as it pulled out onto the main road. Kelly looked back to the queue of people who were patiently waiting for their turn to hire a taxi. That’ll take way too much time, Kelly thought. He sprinted out towards the main road, the whole time examining the oncoming traffic for a taxi. Up ahead he saw a cab preparing to turn into the terminal queue. He hailed the taxi with his right arm, careful to keep hidden the machine gun under his jacket. The taxi hesitated as if he perceived some type of potential threat. At the last moment, he slammed on the brakes and pulled to the side, seeing the efficiency of avoiding the main station’s queue. Still hesitant, the cabbie looked at Kelly through the passenger side window, as if he expected an explanation.
“I left my cell phone in the Audi up there at the light. I’ll pay good for you to follow him.” Kelly added, “… and fast.”
“Get in,” the rough old cabbie said.
He didn’t buy Kelly’s explanation but he didn’t care, either. He had heard it all over the years and he was indifferent to Kelly’s reasoning; as long as the money was good.
The driver merged back into traffic, past the entrance to the Hauptbahnhof. There were some anxious horns beeping and a rebellious car that sped in front of the taxi, cutting him off. The cabbie took a position in a middle lane and rocketed forward through traffic, the force of acceleration pulling Kelly back into his seat. All and all, it seemed to be an adequate solution for Kelly’s transportation needs. The Audi’s driver paid no attention to the cab behind him. There were thousands of the vehicles motoring around within the city and there was nothing interesting about the car. The two vehicles drove primarily on major thoroughfares that crossed the city. Alongside of the roads, the building facades averaged about five stories in height. The only thing that seemed taller than the building facades were the church spires.
The architecture seemed to date back hundreds of years but Kelly knew the city had been heavily bombed during the Second World War. Even so, the city had been rebuilt to its original impressive standards with all of the small but appreciable details of such
German architecture. The v10 Audi roared ahead, the epitome of overindulgence. Its throaty tone seemed to bellow during each opportunity to accelerate but Kelly knew that most of its power curve was useless for driving in the city’s traffic. Thank God or I’d never be able to keep up, Kelly found himself thinking. Nevertheless, the vehicle powered past an occasional car when it had the opportunity. The taxi driver continued working diligently to earn the big payday that Kelly had promised and was successful at his attempt to keep the car in sight, most of the time.
Fortunately, in the two instances that red traffic lights had separated the two cars, the taxi driver had known the roads well enough to make an educated-guess of where to regain sight of the Audi. Kelly repeatedly glanced behind him so that he would recognize the landmarks on his return trip. As the speed limit increased, the cabbie was forced to back off the trailing distance of his pursuit. This caused no issue, however, as the Audi’s taillights were easy to follow. The cars thundered down Germany’s Autobahn for about fifteen miles before turning onto a State Road marked ’13’. When they had initially gotten onto the Autobahn, Kelly had worried that the Audi would take advantage of the Autobahn’s limitless speed zones. For whatever reason, the car continued on at a modest pace. Why was the car driving at such a conservative speed? Kelly could tell the cabbie was getting nervous about the distance but he reassured the man it would go well. Kelly took the opportunity to slip the driver a hundred Euros as encouragement to keep following the car. Around twenty-five miles south of Munich, the two cars were coming up on Bad Tolz. At that point Kelly was wondering himself, where exactly the two men driving the white R8 were headed. They continued past the imposing buildings of the colorful medieval town within the backdrop of the mountains. The road began narrowing as it continued its ascent into the mountains. Below, the Isar River’s flooded banks roared with energy. Kelly thought back to some of the news headlines that had mentioned the European flooding. Then Kelly began to understand. He was confident that he had figured out what Niko’s role was in Germany and why he had been attached to the ISIS group. Could it be?
The drive continued south for a span of fifteen more minutes. The twilight views of the Alps were almost as breathtaking as they would have been in daylight. This was the first time that Kelly had sped through a mountain range without much regard to its natural beauty. Momentarily, he found himself wishing that he had time for a hike.
Eventually, the road made a sharp turn and crossed the Sylvenstein Reservoir as Kelly’s dreams of hiking were cast away. As the cab slowed to make the turn, Kelly and the cabbie gazed across the bridge before them. The R8 was braking hard and confidently made a turn down an access road, before disappearing into the tree cover and a shroud of darkness. The cab’s headlight beams shown ahead on the gravel road and Kelly pointed.
“Drop me off there,” he commanded, looking forward to adjusting the MP5 that was digging into his side.
Kelly gave the man two hundred more Euros, thanked him and told him not to wait. Then Kelly himself disappeared from sight as he walked away from the car’s lights and down the access road. If he had any doubts before, at that moment he was sure exactly what brand of terrorism Niko was providing for ISIS. It was a bit rudimentary but he saw instantly the genius in its effectiveness. Kelly removed his cell phone from his pocket and dialed Owen.
The call dropped immediately. No service. Great, Kelly thought. Well, no going back now.
***
Chapter 61
The three silver Land Rovers drove with a familiarity through the city. They accelerated and braked effortlessly as if they had driven the area many times. The Jihadists travelled from the Hauptbahnhof towards Grunwald, a municipality in the south of Munich. Traffic was in a near gridlock at that hour of the evening and with the crummy weather the navigation was time-consuming. As the vehicles neared Grunwald, the urban rise of Munich was abandoned for a more rural viewscape. The properties before them were larger and provided more isolation. It was clear that the ISIS group welcomed the privacy to hide their dastardly preparations. The three SUVs were separated by a traffic light in the suburbs, as the leading two Rovers continued on. The third driver knew where he was going so he didn’t need a point man. The light changed and the silver Land Rover powered on with the black BMW SUV, two cars behind. Traffic was congested enough but combined with the darkness of the night, there was no need to trail any further back. The city’s dense population was quickly replaced with residential landscaping at the base of stoned archways replete with black iron gates.
The men were talking to each other, trying to make sense out of the day’s events. How had they lost Laura? Her death had been so pointless. And then, how had they lost Stan? Both Laura and Stan had been with the Agency for a long time. Angelo and Owen couldn’t picture working Western Europe without them. Death was an understood risk but neither one had been anticipated. Owen and Angelo understood the dangers of the job but killings were so senseless. Their humble team had been winnowed down to nothing and the man responsible had done it effortlessly. Perhaps, it was an effect of throwing a team together at the last minute. Or, perhaps, Niko was just that good.
Angelo continued driving, somewhat uncomfortably though with a submachine gun poking at his side. He knew that he must be instantly ready for a firefight if the need arose. However, the firearm wasn’t the primary thought on his mind at the time. Angelo was worried most about losing sight of the SUV in traffic. Once Owen had become a passenger in the BMW, the extra MP5 had been propped against the center console and rested on the passenger side’s floorboard and that’s how they rode. The two men stayed vigilant. Owen was as attentive to the vehicle now three cars in front of them as Angelo was. Both men were ready to jump out and spray the LR4 with gunfire if they were spotted.
The streetlights became more sporadic until they became so sparsely placed that they were only present at intersections. Eventually, the Land Rover found its own stone arch and black iron gate. It pulled through and parked. The other two identical vehicles had arrived moments before and their occupants were still unloading gear in the roundabout near the front door and garage area. The house itself was a stone building set back from the road. Vines climbed the stone wall that mostly blocked the view of the house from the road.
The structure looked as if it had been there for eons while the outside world had crowded in around it, one building at a time. In the areas where the exterior of the home was wooden, it was painted muted yellow with contrasting dark brown gingerbread trim. The garage doors were open and that looked to be the staging area for the terrorists’ gear. The occupants of the black BMW took notice of the address. Angelo maintained a consistent speed and passed the property with seemingly little interest.
“Let’s get Kelly on the line,” Owen said.
His phone was already in his hand. He flipped through, found the number and dialed. The call went straight to Kelly’s voicemail.
“You’ve reached Kelly,” it said. “You know what to do.”
Owen waited a couple of moments until the prompt.
“Shit, Kelly. What the hell is happening on your end? Call me back ASAP!”
***
The Syrian man proudly popped the front trunk area so that Niko could see the variety of explosives and detonation material that his ISIS contacts had provided for the operation. The man did so with the smug look of a confident playboy. His role might have seemed rather basic to the men that he was working for but he yearned for the recognition that he thought Niko would deliver, after seeing the explosives. Niko exited the vehicle and glanced around out of habit. There was a parked vehicle there that was telling to him in a way that the other man was incapable of understanding. Niko thought the other vehicle’s driver may prove to be helpful if the situation ended up turning bad.
Niko had some concerns. First of all, the Syrian that had driven him to the dam had his own level of excessive narcissism. It was a special quality that even Niko had rarely witnessed duri
ng his lifetime. The guy had shamelessly blathered on during the entire drive about his successful endeavors with women and the large amounts of money that he had at his personal disposal. It wasn’t just the topics that had irritated Niko, it was the man’s attitude. He was an unintelligent braggart. Worse, he lacked credibility and competency. Niko took one look inside the trunk and his prior concerns immediately transformed into an urgent issue. Niko glanced over at the sparsely lit earthen dam and noticed more inconsistencies with the Intel that had been previously provided to him. Niko thought back to his experiences in Hamburg. He was grateful that he had been able to release the pent up dragon within himself. That release would help him remain calm during this increasingly frustrating situation.
“You guys really screwed this up,” Niko began.
The Syrian’s face went from smug to shock, in the blink of an eye.
“First of all, the explosives you’ve got are the wrong kind. I specifically requested military grade plastic explosives.”
“Yeah, yeah. Listen,” he cut in. “We had trouble procuring that… that exact type. Instead, we have these types of explosives,” he said with the effortless smile of a salesman. “The weight of these explosives is much more than you requested,” he added defensively.
Niko pointed.
“These seven here are anti personnel mines. They are for killing infantry soldiers, not blowing up structures, you dim wit. Those there,” he pointed,” those are unused Russian missile components that are best utilized for car bombs.”
“C’mon,” the other man pleaded, realizing he was in big trouble. “Surely we can make this work. We have to. You know we will get killed if we don’t deliver.”
“This assortment of explosives here is not going to blow that dam. I specifically asked if there was internal access to the structure and it is clear with only a cursory glance that there is not! Even with the correct explosives, there is no realistic way to get them inside the dam quickly and without being seen. This is a huge disappointment!” Niko said, as he looked toward the dam and kicked a piece of gravel with his shoe.