by R J Johnson
“I thought the mission was to call in the big guns after we ID’d the target,” Alex was confused. But this wasn’t the first time the mission had changed on the ground.
“We don’t have time for that, we don’t know if he’ll be there long enough for the drones to light that target up,” Ash said frowning. “I want you to deploy that C4 around the building. We’ll provide cover fire if you need to get out.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Alex said. He withdrew the explosive from out of his rucksack and checked the explosive’s timer. Nodding, he set it aside and moved to make his way over to the school.
Ash lined up the scope over the side of the wall separating the road from the school and took careful aim at the building. “Ready when you are,” Ash whispered.
Alex gathered his things together and pulled his rifle to the side. He kept his head low as he darted across the open field between the wall and the school shack.
He neared the schoolhouse and slowed his approach. No need to get cocky and become discovered. Not for the first time, he wondered what he was doing in the middle of nowhere. Unfortunately, he wasn’t careful enough and his boots scuffed a rock and tripped, making a racket.
He froze, hoping that his carelessness didn’t just kill him. He heard someone stirring inside the school and he moved quickly underneath the window, hoping the person inside didn’t spot him.
After a few moments while Alex refused to breathe, he heard a pair of feet shuffle away from the window and return to the interior of the school. Sighing, Alex scooted his way back toward the rear of the building where a small propane tank was located.
Withdrawing his explosive, he placed a charge on the building’s propane tank. When this thing went off, there wouldn’t be anything left but a large crater where Al Qaeda’s current Number Two stood.
And hopefully that would set a good example for the next person who wanted to step up and make war against the United States of America.
Ash voice floated over the comms into his ear, “Get a backup charge on that bus. I don’t want any chance of him escaping.”
Alex double clicked his mic, acknowledging the order. He leaned in closer to the wall, hoping to stay out of the eye line of anyone who might spot him from the road.
He heard voices inside the school and figured that the meeting had begun. This would make for a big score for them if they took out the top level Al Qaeda militants in this area. Supposedly they were all coming in for a meet to discuss the strategy for the upcoming fighting season. The opium was nearly all harvested and the men would be flush with cash and energy to fight the infidels.
Alex didn’t want them to have that chance, which was why he was crawling on his belly through something that definitely wasn’t mud. Ash had roped him into this band of mercenaries after stealing the money. It hadn’t exactly been the type of champagne and caviar life he’d expected after stealing nearly seven billion dollars, but he couldn’t call it boring.
Reaching the side of the bus, Alex withdrew another explosive and attached it to the undercarriage of the aging school bus.
“Two buns in the oven,” Alex said. “Ready for Betty Crocker to light that birthday cake.”
Alex rolled onto his stomach and crawled back through the muck and toward the wall where Ash was waiting. After dashing through a hundred yards of the worst smelling mud he’d ever encountered, he reached Ash.
“You need a shower,” Ash said, his nose crinkling at Alex.
“It’s a musky scent I’ll admit, but they’ll have to peel the ladies off of me once we get back,” Alex replied, scraping the mud off his trousers and arms.
“Sancho Five, to Betty Crocker, we got movement within the schoolhouse,” the voice cried out over the radio. Alex and Ash whirled around to get a look at the school.
Inside, a dozen schoolchildren ranging in age from six to twelve were filing out of the school and into the bus.
Alex grabbed Ash’s arm, “What the fuck Ash? We got civvies in there!”
“I see them Alex,” he replied. He raised the mic up to his lips, “Sancho Five, is our tango still inside?”
“Negative Betty Crocker,” the voice came back sounding scared. “Tango staying close to the non-combatants. Recommend you take out priority one target ASAP.”
Alex shook his head, “We can’t do that! The kids!”
Ash ignored him. He held out his hand, “Give me the detonator.”
Alex looked up in horror at his friend, “You can’t be serious…”
“We’re on a mission Alex!” Ash nearly shouted. The number two entered the bus and the driver got on, sitting down in the driver’s seat. He struggled with the ignition, trying to get the ancient engine to turn over.
“They’re kids Ash!” Now Alex did shout. He didn’t care if he blew their cover. He wasn’t letting Ash kill children.
“We do not deviate from achieving our mission objectives!” Ash shouted back. He withdrew his .45 and pointed it at Alex. “Give me the detonator and let me go about conducting the business of the United States Government!”
Alex was ready for Ash pulling on him this time and grabbed the barrel. He yanked it down and to the side while throwing a huge haymaker into his friend’s jaw. Ash grunted as he absorbed the blow. He yanked his arm to the right and threw Alex as far as he could.
Alex landed a few feet away, hitting his head on the wall. Dazed, his vision swam as he watched Ash loom over him and take the detonator off his belt.
“It’s always about the mission!” Ash panted. He flipped the safety switch and opened the trigger.
The bus was pulling out of the village when it erupted in a huge burst of flames. Alex screamed in horror as the heat from the explosion washed over him and debris landed everywhere. Fire completely enveloped the bus. Ash walked calmly over to Alex, striking a blow across his face.
Stars exploded in Alex’s vision as he took another hit from Ash’s massive fists. After all this time, after he’d saved Ash’s life and Ash had saved his. From fighting meth addicts robbing liquor stores to every two bit militant from Iraq to Pakistan, they’d run a long road together and done the kind of things that built friendships that lasted for the ages.
But this was too much, even for Alex’s diminished conscience. Killing a bus full of children to get one man went too far. These kids were just looking to educate themselves and now their lives had amounted to nothing more than collateral damage.
Ash had taken that away from them, and Alex knew he could no longer be a part of that.
Alex felt Ash kicking at his stomach and he took a chance. Grabbing Ash’s ankle, he pulled it close and twisted.
Ash roared in surprise as his body twisted and he fell to the ground. Alex took his chance and got to his feet running away from Ash. He needed to get out of there.
“Kill him!” Ash roared into the mic. “Snipe that traitorous motherfucker!”
“Come back?” Sancho Five asked, sounding confused.
“Alex has gone rogue Sancho Five. TAKE HIM OUT!” Ash shouted over the radio.
Alex ripped the earpiece out of his ear and put more gas into running for cover away from Ash. Fifty caliber bullets ripped the side of the road where he was running. Alex zigzagged away from the road hoping to make himself a harder target for Sancho Five who was perched above them on the mountain.
He managed to make it behind a burning car that had been set on fire by the exploding bus. He glanced over at the burning bus and swallowed thinking of the children that had been inside only moments before.
A hole the size of a dinner plate ripped open beside him as Sancho Five continued to fire on him from above. Alex knew he had to keep moving unless he wanted to be dead.
“ALEX!” Ash shouted from across the road. “You’ll never get away! I’ll spend every dime of that money tracking you down!”
Alex screwed his face up in determination and decided this was the moment he stopped running and took control of his life. The last six yea
rs had been a blur of bad decisions and choices that led him where? The middle of nowhere, responsible for one of the worst war crimes imaginable?
When he’d signed up with Ash, he didn’t know what to expect, but it wasn’t this. He’d been reacting to life this whole time, thinking his fight with Emily had been the most important thing in the world. He’d missed her more than anything, but, there was something he was beginning to realize.
He’d been so screwed up over Emily he hadn’t bothered to live the life he’d had. Every choice he’d made over the last six years had been designed to help him forget her. What he was realizing now was that running from the past often made you travel down some dark roads.
And he needed to get off on the nearest exit.
That’s when the Al Qaeda militants showed up. Attracted to the scene by the explosion and gunfire, they fired on Ash’s position as they encroached on him from the opposite side of the village.
Ash cursed and began to return fire, glancing back at Alex, his eyes narrow.
Alex took his chance and began running for the hills. Sancho Five, now flush with targets, ignored him as he fled into the mountains and away from his past.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Scott looked at him horrified as Alex finished his story. There were no words.
“I killed them, I know I did,” Alex said softly. “I didn’t detonate that bomb, but I may as well have.”
“You were doing what you thought was right…” Scott said in disbelief. “You even tried to stop him…”
“I didn’t try hard enough,” Alex said sadness in his eyes. “I’ve heard their screams every day since then.”
Scott didn’t know what to say. Alex didn’t really either. He just wanted his friend to know he was still there for him.
“Why tell me this?” Scott asked. “To tell me I’ll regret killing JT?”
Alex shook his head, “No, to tell you that it’s perfectly natural to want revenge. To tell you that even when you think you might be doing the right thing, you might knock off some dominoes into a chain reaction you can’t control. I kept waiting for justice and I thought I was the one meting out the punishment. But, getting revenge comes with a heavy price. You lose a part of yourself along the way.”
“I got my revenge…” Scott said stubbornly. “No one got hurt besides the man who killed Molly.”
“And I’m not saying he didn’t deserve to die,” Alex said. “But, like I said, one thing I learned it’s that unintended consequences happen all the time because of the choices we make. Sometimes we can prepare for ‘em, but most of ‘em, we just don’t see coming…” he drifted off, thinking about the bus full of children.
The smartphone in his pocket rang and interrupted their conversation. There was only one person in the world that had that number and Alex had been hoping to hear from them all day.
Alex took out the phone from his knapsack and opened the connection, “Don’t say my name. Don’t say anything other than if you’re all right or not.”
“I’m fine,” Emily’s voice sounded distant, but Alex chalked that up to the connection. “I think we’ve got something.”
“Don’t say anything more,” Alex warned. “Echelon’s definitely looking for me now with my face everywhere.”
“Echelon?” Emily asked.
“NSA and NRO project that dates back to the 90’s. Trust me, we’re better off keeping this brief. I got our boy back.”
“He’s okay?” Emily sounded hopeful and a bit relieved. “And the…?”
“He’s fine, and I got that back too,” Alex assured her. He looked over at Scott who was lost in his own thoughts staring out at the bay. He didn’t need to worry Emily. “When can we meet?”
“We’re on our way back to the states,” Emily said. “We caught a flight back to San Francisco after we saw what happened at Auburn Industries. You guys have made a big impact on the 24 hour news channels. You’re all they’re talking about…”
“Scott knows how to make a splash…” Alex said. Though a dragon flying through one of the nation’s biggest cities wasn’t exactly something that happened every day.
“We need to meet,” Emily said. “Where’s a good place?”
Alex felt a shadow cross his face. There weren’t many places left in the city where he could travel. Of course, he could always shapeshift his and Scott’s face into someone else, but there was no guarantee that Emily wasn’t being followed.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my face is front page news right now.”
“Use the stone to disguise yourself,” Emily urged. “I need to see you face to face.”
He frowned. There weren’t a lot of places he felt comfortable.
However, he might be able to spot anyone out of place in one of the largest tourist attractions in the Bay Area.
“We’re hanging out on Alcatraz at the moment,” Alex said finally. “Meet us on the island and we’ll go after Kline from there. We can use the shapeshifting stone to get away together afterward.”
“Got it,” Emily said sounding brusque.
There was a bit of silence there for a moment as neither of them really knew what to say.
“It’s good to hear your voice…” Alex added finally.
There was a longer pause on the other end while Emily absorbed what Alex said. After a moment, her voice came over the line.
“We’ll be landing in a few hours. Stay put, we’ll get there as soon as we can.”
“See you in a few,” Alex replied. The phone disconnected and Alex stared at the screen for a moment.
“Is there a problem?” Scott asked, looking worried.
“No, not at all. Emily’s on her way. If she’s coming, that means she found something.”
“She didn’t tell you what over the phone?”
“Like I told her, with my face everywhere, the NSA’s got to have keywords related to us flagged. If she mentioned anything, it might trigger Echelon to ping our cell phones. It’s better she tells us what she found in person.”
“Echelon?” Scott asked, his brow furrowing.
“Let’s just say the tinfoil types don’t go far enough…” Alex replied, mysterious. “The important thing to know is that she felt like she’s got something worth flying back to the mainland to tell me in person. That tells me she’s got something.”
“How long?” Scott asked.
“She said she’s landing in a few hours. Once we meet up with her, we’ll be back on track to take on Kline and keep him from collecting all twelve stones,” Alex said, feeling confident.
There was a small voice niggling at the back of his subconscious. Emily’s voice had sounded so strange over the phone. But, he was tired and chalked it up to the fact she was too. Whatever she’d learned, it was enough to bring her back to the states and he was curious to know what that was.
He shook it off. He was tired of being so suspicious of his friends. It was time to start trusting again.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Kline sat at the head of the dining table feasting on the sumptuous banquet that had been laid out for the owner of the house. After teleporting across half the Lonely Peaks looking for Halprin, Kline had decided the easier course of action was to wait for the man back at his expansive estate. He’d hadn’t even bothered knocking when he returned. He just walked right in and casually disposed of the first two people who’d challenged him.
He’d discovered the buffet of food being set up for Halprin upon his return and decided to help himself. After disposing of the help, he put together a large plate and began eating. It was only a few minutes later that Charles Halprin walked into his dining room. He looked at Kline sitting at the table eating his food, and then over to his right where two of employees lay there, their necks broken and limbs askew in unnatural angles.
Charles stood there, watching Kline for a moment while the man finished eating his food. The bandages crisscrossing his face were again soaked with his blood. Kline’s bur
ns from his fight at San Ellijo looked worse than ever.
“By God man…” Charles whispered in wonder. “What in the hell happened to you?
He recognized the man eating at his table of course. You didn’t run around in their kind of social circles without knowing who Rupert Kline was.
“Gods do not concern themselves with the problems of mortal flesh…” Kline replied quietly. He set the knife and fork down carefully on the side of the gold plated plate and thrummed his fingers against the oak table. His stone of strength flashed in the light as he tightened his hand into a fist.
“You don’t need God Kline,” Charles said, setting his hunting supplies down. “You need a hospital.”
He took off his vest and stood behind one of the high backed chairs that surrounded the expansive dining room table.
“Mr. Kline…” Charles drawled from across the room, “I’m so sorry to see my people disappointed you.” He waved over at the two dead security officers.
Kline sucked out a piece of meat from in between his teeth, the sound echoing through the opulent dining room. He started at Charles Halprin for a moment as if examining him for any potential threats.
“You’ve been a very bad man Mr. Halprin…” Kline hissed finally.
“What’s it to you Kline?” Charles snapped back. “I pay your people well enough. You’ve never complained about what I did with them before.”
“But you never took someone I cared about before…” Kline said slowly. He laid the napkin down carefully on the plate in front of him and stood.
Charles backed away, his hand instinctively reaching for his gun as if expecting the man to come for him. Kline cocked his head and smiled at the move.
“Useless I can assure you…”
“You’d best be leaving Kline,” Charles’ voice filled the room with a quiet venom. “You have no idea what I’m capable of.”
“Neither do you…” Kline said casually. He waved his hand and Charles suddenly found himself unable to move.
His two guards moved to rush Kline, but they too suddenly found themselves frozen and unable to move. Kline chuckled and lifted his arm, and suddenly the two guards were floating in midair.