Amy Lynn: Golden Angel

by Jack July

  Kristy began to wake up. The drugs made her a little weepy so Cai sat next to her talking and trying to comfort her. Then he said. “I know what you need. Come with me.”

  He took her hand and led her to a large old cast iron bathtub. He filled it with warm water and lilac bubble bath. “Lilacs make you feel good naturally,” said Cai with a smile.

  “I’ll turn around and you take off your clothes and get in.” Kristy shook her head and said, “No, I don’t want to.”

  “You want to be nice and clean for your trip home don’t you?”

  Kristy was almost cowering. Something was wrong, and even with as much as she had been through, she could feel it. Kristy once again shook her head. “I insist that you bathe. I’m sure even your mommy and daddy expected you to bathe. Would it be better if I left while you undressed and got in?”

  Kristy nodded her head. Cai smiled and said, “When you get in and are comfortable, let me know so I can come in and wash your hair.”

  Kristy looked at him out of the corner of her eye and said, “I can wash my own hair.”

  “Not like I can. You call me, okay?”

  Kristy nodded and Cai walked out. He took a bottle of Redken shampoo from a cabinet. It was what Cassidy had used. He opened the lid and smelled it. It smelled just like her. He felt his body vibrate a little, then he got another beer out of the refrigerator. He stood a few minutes with his memories, smiling, then frowning, then feeling the rage. He calmed himself and called to Kristy, “Are you ready?”

  A little voice answered, “Yes.”

  He walked into the bathroom. She had pulled the bubbles up around herself so he could not see her nude body. He took a small bowl, filled it with bathwater and poured it gently over her head a few times to get it wet. Then he slowly lathered her hair, his fingers playing in its thickness while gently rubbing her scalp, “Does that feel good?” Cai asked.

  Kristy barely grunted while trying to keep the ever-disappearing suds pulled up around her body. He finally rinsed her hair and held a towel up and open in front of her. He closed his eyes and said, “Okay stand up.”

  He heard the splashing of water as she stood. He moved forward and wrapped the extra-large towel around her. “Dry off and put on this little robe. Then come out and I will do your hair.”

  Kristy nodded, and Cai walked out. Moments later, Kristy walked out in a robe. Cai held up a very pretty, frilly, pink dress. He smiled widely and said, “Kristy, this is for you.”

  T, Elle and Cody sped toward the area where the buildings were supposed to be located, well into old East Germany. Danny was trying to direct them. “T, They’re between Gering St. and Gottleib St. They span the entire block.

  “Goering, like Hermann Goering?” asked Cody

  “No, Gering, G-E-R-I-N-G, Gering,”

  Edie called out to Danny, “Hey! I got them on satellite.”

  “Okay we have you guys on the screen. Turn left at the third intersection and go straight. You should see them in the distance. This street comes out in front of the center building.”

  “Got it.” A minute later Cody called back and said, “We see it, thanks Danny.”

  “We’ll be watching,” said Danny.

  Cody stopped at the block before the buildings, “They’re pretty big. I’d like to go in heavy,” said Elle.

  “Okay, good call. Let’s suit up.” said T

  Cody popped the trunk. Elle looked in and asked, “Where are our H&K’s?”

  “Blown up. Cody grabbed these from the last safe house.”

  “Vests?”

  “Yeah, here. Cody grabbed a couple of those too.”

  “It’s too big,” said Elle.

  “Yeah, it’s made for men. Adjust it down the best you can, it’s better than nothing.”

  “What is that thing?” said Elle pointing to a weapon and backpack that looked like something from the movie Ghostbusters.

  “That’s Cody’s. Let’s hope he doesn’t need it.”

  After working with the Velcro, they got the vests snug enough to work. Tatiana handed Elle an M-4 and a couple of magazines. They clipped on headsets and tucked a small communications radio in their back pockets. “Run the wire under your shirt so it doesn’t get in the way,” advised Tatiana.

  She then looked at Cody, “You are the cavalry, stand by.”

  Cody nodded then Tatiana turned to Elle and said, “Let’s go.”

  CHAPTER 48

  November 27th 5:30 p.m.

  T and Elle split up. T took the front entrances of the buildings and Elle the rear. Cody was parked out of sight down the block, listening and observing. T looked at every pole, every façade, searching for video cameras. Satisfied she wasn’t being watched, she went up the steps of the first building to the right. The steps and landing area spanned half the building. Five sets of double doors meant this was probably the employees’ entrance and exit. She carefully checked every door for signs of use. The doors were steel and so were the doorframes. Each door had been stitch-welded closed. Every twelve or so inches was a two-inch weld. The windows were also boarded tight. There was no way anyone had use this as an entrance or an exit in decades. She immediately moved on to the center building.

  Elle cautiously moved down the alley between the buildings. Trestles remained where trains had run between the buildings to move raw materials and finished product. The big steel doors on the side of the building where cranes would load and unload were welded shut. She kept moving to the back of the building. After checking both directions, she cautiously moved away from the buildings to scan all three entrances. It became clear which building was being used. The winter had claimed the weed population that had grown up in front of the doors but their tall brown stalks remained. Years of undisturbed dirt and gravel blown and pushed in front of the large rolling doors showed no signs of activity. The small garage door on the middle building clearly had tracks from car tires entering. Elle was no expert but they certainly looked recent. Another thing Elle wasn’t an expert at was spotting the six cameras strategically placed on the poles across the street and on the corners of the buildings.

  Cai finished blow-drying and brushing Kristy’s hair until it shone like spun gold and was as soft as a kitten. He sat her on the bed and posed her for snapshots he would keep. Suddenly a red light in the corner of the room began to blink. He stopped, left the small enclosure and checked the bank of four computer monitors. He saw Elle, and frantically changed the remote camera angles looking for others. He saw T coming between the buildings, and Cody in the car down the block. He picked up the phone and dialed quickly. “Father, Father, they are here. They have come to kill me.”

  “Okay Cai, be calm. I will send help.”

  “Hurry, father, hurry!”

  Long Cho picked up the phone on his desk and called his personal head of security. “Feng, take the team to the studio. I want no survivors.”

  “Do you mean—” Long Cho cut him off.

  “I MEAN no survivors.” He enjoyed Cai’s little films. Cho thought in a perfect world, they would be legal. Maybe he could have another son. He had grown tired of Cai’s weakness and whining. He was not about to risk the fabulous life he had built for himself over a defective child like Cai. Those movies would most certainly destroy his life. He went into his safe, pulled them out and ran the disks through the shredder.

  Elle tried the handle and latch on the first small door. It refused to open. “T, I found an entrance into the center building. It looks like cars have used the small garage door. The small man door is locked.”

  “See if you can shoot it open. I’m on my way.”

  “Roger that.” Elle stepped back and fired three rounds into the latching mechanism. The door moved a bit in the frame. She grabbed what was left of the latch and wrestled the old rusted door open. The inside was dark. A few overhead sodium halide bulbs
produced a small amount of light, and a dim glow came through the filthy windows in the back left corner. The light was just barely enough to see where she was walking. Off in the back she saw lights reflecting off what looked like a car. Then the smell hit her, the smell of death.

  She crept from machine base to machine base, weapon up, prepared for anything, just as she’d been was taught. Then she heard the sound of cracking plywood as the floor gave way.

  Cai heard the gunshots and checked the cameras. He saw Elle enter, picked up Kristy and ran upstairs to hide. He had installed a false wall between the kitchen cabinets and the outer wall of the building. He knew help would surely arrive before the intruders found him.

  Tatiana made the corner around the back of the building and scanned the area. There were cameras everywhere. Oh shit, she thought, then she called to Elle, “Elle, they know you are coming. Elle, ELLE! DAMMIT!” The building was concrete and reinforced with steel. It could not have withstood a direct bomb blast but could have withstood a near miss. The building composition made their radios inoperative. “Cody, we’ll be out of contact. The radios aren’t working in the building. Keep watch. If you don’t hear from us in twenty minutes, come and get us.”

  “Roger that T.”

  As Elle fell through the blackness, all she could hear was the voice of her jumpmaster at Fort Bragg. PLF! PLF! Parachute Landing Fall, as she hit the ground she rolled onto a pile of something soft and squishy. She checked herself over and discovered she was uninjured. She reached into a shoulder pocket for a small flashlight and turned it on to discover she was standing on a pile of body bags containing small bodies. She had ruptured one of the bags, and the smell made her vomit as she struggled to get to the door. She grabbed the rusted handle on the primitive latch system and tried to move it. The smell overcame her and she vomited again. She pounded against the steel door with her shoulder, jerking the latch. The door finally released and she fell into a narrow passageway. She shut the door and continued to retch with nothing left to throw up.

  Remembering where she was and what she was doing she looked for her rifle. It was in the room she had just left. She took a deep breath, turned the flashlight on and went in after it. After exiting with the rifle she slammed the door and stumbled down the hall, her body still involuntarily retching with every step. She needed to find stairs in a hurry.

  Kristy was terrified as Cai carried her into the darkness behind the cabinets. He thought about killing her right then, but he had already fallen in love with her. Off in the distance echoed a muffled banging then what sounded like a series of muted screams. He was standing by a vertical pipe chase and could her Elle’s echo from far away. He ordered Kristy to be quiet. Bad people were coming, very bad people.

  T quickly made her way into the building and proceeded to follow the same path Elle did. The stench of death, now even stronger because of the open floor and ruptured bag, tipped T off to the pit. She shone her flashlight down into the pit and immediately knew what she was looking at. The door at the rear was slightly ajar, “Elle, Elle,” she whispered into the pit with no answer. She decided to continue to the rear of the building.

  Elle usually enjoyed being six feet tall. Not now. Pipe brackets hung from the low ceiling, each one determined to put a gash in her head. She slung her rifle on her back then put her .44 in her right hand resting it on the top of her left wrist. In her left hand, she held the flashlight as she made her way down the tunnel in a hurried, squatted walk. She came upon a stairwell on her right. She looked around to make sure she was alone and began to climb. At the top of the stairs she found the same old rusted and jammed mechanical latch. She grabbed it and pulled the handle while nudging it with her shoulder. It didn’t move.

  On the other side of the door, T heard it and figured it was Elle climbing from the basement. She started to reach for the handle but had second thoughts and stepped to the side just as bullets destroyed the latch. “SHIT,” exclaimed Tatiana under her breath.

  Elle stepped out and was momentarily startled seeing Tatiana to her right.

  “You okay?” Tatiana asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Okay, let’s get him.”

  CHAPTER 49

  November 27th 5:45 P.M.

  Cody sat in the car as ten minutes elapsed since T entered the building. Danny called and asked, “What’s goin’ on?”

  “T said give her twenty minutes, that’s what I’m doing.”

  “FYI, Dotson and Adele are watching from Langley on the feed.”

  “Okay, thanks Danny, keep me posted.”

  Elle went in first followed by T using the classic room clearing technique. The first floor studio seemed to be empty. A bank of five computers sat on a long table to the right. Three screens lit up showing the outside camera feed. They went to the back corner to where the mock up of a child’s room was surrounded by curtains. After finding the break in the floor to ceiling curtains, they cleared the small area. Elle broke her concentration when she realized that this was the place. This was the place she saw in the videos. This was where the children died. She was beginning to feel overcome by emotion when T snapped her out of it.

  “Hey, get up the stairs,” T whispered.

  Elle pushed Amy back deep inside and quietly walked to the stairwell in the back right corner of the room. Taking two stairs at a time, they went up making only the sounds of rustling material. She glanced back at T, nodded, and then turned the knob. The door was locked, however, it was a newer door. T pulled a small set of picks from a pocket on her jacket and went to work. Two minutes later, she turned the knob and the door opened.

  They went through the door fast, with authority only to find a large sparsely-furnished room. The bathroom was in the corner. They cleared that and looked at each other with confusion. Behind the wall, the dust tickled Kristy’s nose and she sneezed.

  T looked quickly out the dirty window and saw the wall of the building was at least three feet back from the kitchen wall. T looked at the cabinets, raised her weapon and barked “LONG CAI, COME OUT NOW WITH YOUR HANDS UP!”

  They could both hear Kristy whining behind the wall. Elle holstered her side arm, set her rifle down behind her, opened a door on a cabinet, grabbed the edge on the bottom and ripped it off the wall. Wood broke and splintered and dishes crashed to the floor. She grabbed the cabinet next to it, jerked hard and tore it out of the wall. She looked at T and said, “Cover me.” T stepped to the side with her weapon raised while Elle took the butt of her rifle and tore a hole in the drywall higher than she thought Kristy’s head would be. She continued to punch holes in the drywall screaming, “GET OUT HERE CAI, GET OUT HERE NOW!”

  Suddenly, to the left, a narrow, false wall opening appeared and Kristy stepped out first with Cai’s left arm around her mid section and his knife to her throat. Elle drew and raised her weapon as Tatiana did the same. In a calm voice Tatiana said, “Let her go Cai. It’s over.”

  He responded with the disturbing cackle and the wild eyes of a drug-fueled psychopath. He sneered and said, “My father will be here soon and you will both be dead.”

  Elle moved and Cai tightened his grip. The blade nicked Kristy’s throat and the blood began to trickle. Kristy looked to be in shock. T lowered her weapon, looked over at Elle and said, “Amy, lower your weapon.”

  Wrong name, must mean shoot Elle nodded, began to bring it down and saw the three inches of target next to Kristy’s head. Smooth as silk Elle raised the weapon and fired. The .44 caliber bullet blew apart Cai’s shoulder. The humeral head or ball where the arm meets the shoulder was shattered. The knife flew from Cai’s hand; he spun and fell to the floor not sure yet what had happened. Kristy collapsed, but T picked her up her and sat her on the couch behind them.

  Cai started to swear, calling them vile names. His right arm was dangling connected to his body by skin and a few shreds of muscle. He jumped up and went for the kn
ife with his left hand when Elle stepped forward and backhanded him, splitting his lips and knocking him to the ground. “Cuff him,” said T.

  “He might be bleeding out. I really didn’t want him to die yet,” said Elle

  “I thought you were a corpsman.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  T turned to look at Kristy. Her eyes were closed and her hands were over her ears as she was balled up whimpering on the couch. T sat next to her and said with as much tenderness as T was capable of, “Kristy, we are Americans sent by your mom and dad. We are here to take you home.”

  Kristy stayed huddled and wouldn’t look at T when through sobs she said, “Everyone keeps saying they are taking me home, but they never do.”

  Yes, that’s what everyone would tell her to keep her calm and hopeful, thought T. “What if I can prove it?”

  Kristy didn’t move, she just let out short sobbing breaths. “Okay, your mom’s name is Connie, your dad’s name is Al. You have a baby brother named Randle. You have a little brown dog named Frenchy. In your kitchen at home, your Mom keeps a big plate of Rice Krispy treats just for you. Oh, the big stuffed cat on your bed is named Mr. Giggles.”

  Kristy turned to look at T and then jumped into her arms. This is awkward, thought T. She couldn’t remember ever hugging a child and couldn’t figure out how.

  Elle stood up after cuffing then applying a dressing to Cai. She made eye contact with Kristy, smiled and said, “Hey, you look good holding a child.”

  T turned to look over her shoulder and shot back an “I don’t think so,” then checked her watch. “It’s been almost twenty minutes. I told Cody to come get us. Let’s get out of here before he comes in blazing.”