“What’s that?”
The man sniffed and glanced up from putting the equipment together to form some sort of gun. “You need to be branded,” he replied nonchalantly.
“Branded?” Her voice came out as a squeak.
“Yes, stay still, my dear. This won’t hurt a bit.”
Chapter Eight
Seth stepped out of the pulsating event horizon and let out a frustrated groan.
“Oh, you gotta be kidding me.” He immediately pulled out his cell phone and dialed the first number on his list.
Dawson picked up after one ring. “What do you want, Langdon?”
“Why did you send me here?”
“What are you talking about?”
Seth kicked a shard of broken glass across the ammo factory. “Did your mother drop you on your head as a baby? I’m in the same Oklahoma factory where I killed David fucking Bloom. I’ve never been sent to the same location twice—ever!”
Dawson’s end went silent. “I’m checking the paperwork, Seth. I didn’t send you there. I had you slotted for Maine.” He let out a sigh. “There must be a glitch in the system. It’s rare but it does happen.”
Seth rolled his eyes and glanced around the familiar factory. Bloodstains left behind from David Bloom’s fractured skull had soaked into the concrete. All other evidence, shell casings, fibers, hair, and footprints were non-existent, taken care of by Carmichael’s men or local predators.
It wasn’t a glitch. Spencer must’ve had a role in this happy accident, sending Terra to the same place I butchered her father. How poetic.
“Is my target still en route?” he asked. “If there’s a glitch, they might appear in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.”
He heard Dawson typing on a keyboard. “That won’t happen. Your target is scheduled to arrive in four minutes. This one is marked as high priority so my access has been cut off. I can only see the time and coordinates. Whoever this is, you have your work cut out for you. Do you know who it is?”
Seth feigned innocence. “I may be an Expult agent but the same rules apply, Dawson. All I know is Spencer wanted this target out of range for security purposes. I’ll bring back the finger in a few.”
“Okay, I’ll be here. I can’t wait to find out who the poor sucker is.”
Seth hung up and pocketed the phone. The footage of Terra Bloom at the protest outside NYPD came to mind. In his eyes, the woman was a snake for drugging Jack, and she was probably the most outspoken and public target he’d ever killed. Her father’s death was a like a buoy on the sea, bobbing into his conscience whenever he let his guard down. How easy would it be to kill the daughter? He hoped her head was at least covered. That was the one request he made to Joca before he put her into circulation.
The wind picked up outside, smashing leafless branches onto the windows. Seth took a deep breath and double checked the rounds in his pistol. He hadn’t decided on the method of Terra’s death yet but a shot to the head was quick and painless. He owed her that at least.
The air in the factory dropped to freezing point and a high pitched screech signaled the incoming portal. A blue orb materialized ahead of Seth, spinning, pulsating, and spewed out a figure onto the concrete from the event horizon. Like he’d requested, the head was covered with a hessian bag. The woman didn’t move for a few seconds and he wondered if she’d died during transport. Her slim body was dressed in a black long sleeved t-shirt and leggings, making her look like a spider. Her wrists and ankles were bound.
Seth remained planted to the spot, unmoving. The woman stirred and rolled onto her back slowly until she was facing the warehouse trusses.
“Oh man. What did they feed me last night?”
He smirked and took a step toward her, intentionally stepping onto a piece of glass to attract her attention, to frighten her. She froze and sat up, blindly looking around her.
“Hello? I need help. I think I may have been kidnapped.”
Seth kicked at the chains around her ankles and she screamed, jerking away on one elbow. “Don’t open your mouth,” he ordered. “You don’t get to speak.”
“Are you the same man who attacked me last night?”
Seth circled her, noticing the white bandage around her left arm. Joca must’ve branded her. “No, I am not. Do you know where you are?”
“No. Some fucker took me from my home and I woke up in a cell.”
“Did you see his face?”
The woman sat upright again. “Yes, I did. Older man with thinning blond hair, hook nose, and wide forehead. I’ll never forget his face.”
Seth swore under his breath. Joca was a professional. Why on Earth had he shown his face to a target? What if today went unsuccessfully and the woman escaped? Spencer would have both their asses.
“What’s your name?”
She sighed. “Terra Bloom.”
Once identification had been confirmed, Seth reached over and yanked off the hessian bag. Two big blue eyes wide with fear stared back at him. It was definitely Terra Bloom. He recognized her trademark Louise Brooks bob and dark eyebrows. For a fleeting moment, he could see her father’s face looking up at him, pleading for his life. He turned his back and pulled at his bottom lip, nibbling the image away.
“Can you tell me what I’m doing here?” Terra asked.
Seth blew out built up pressure through his nose and faced her. “You talk too much. Shut up. I do the talking, got it?”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve been kidnapped,” she announced. “It’s pretty common in my line of work, so just point me in the direction of your employer and I’ll be out of your hair.”
“There’s no one else here, love,” Seth replied. “It’s only you and me.”
Fear shone brightly in her eyes. “What?”
“You’re the broad who protests for animals and stuff, right?”
She curled her lip at his response. “I see you’ve done your homework. Good job.” Terra lifted up her wrists. The handcuffs glistened in a bar of sunlight entering the factory. “Can you let me go? I have four million credits sitting in a bank account in the Cayman Islands. It’s all yours if you let me go now.”
Seth smirked and dangled the pistol into view. “Oh honey, I’m not your garden variety kidnapper. I’m far worse.”
The color drained from Terra’s cheeks. “So you’re not working for Global Wells or King Oils?”
“Nope.”
“Oh, shit.” Terra tried to climb to her feet and stumbled, landing hard on one knee. She bit back a cry. “I knew something like this would happen.”
“Miss Bloom, its best you stay put.” Seth pushed her back down onto her buttocks. “Shut up or I’ll pop a bullet into ya.” To his surprise, the woman began to cry. She fell into the fetal position and wailed. He was used to politicians begging for their lives or the odd mob boss wetting his pants, but he’d assumed Terra Bloom was as hard as they came. He hadn’t expected her to fall apart so quickly.
“Hey, cut it out. I’m not going to kill you.”
She glanced up, tears running down her pale cheeks. “Are you going to rape me?”
“No, I don’t need to force a woman.”
“Okay, are you going to tell me who you are, or where I am?”
“I’m not telling you squat about me,” Seth quipped. “However, you are currently sitting in a seventy year old ammo factory outside of Tulsa, Oklahoma.”
“I bet it’s the same one where my father died.”
Seth’s blood went cold. He was now certain Spencer was playing games with him, testing to see if he was really Expult material. What kind of man would Seth be if he put a bullet in Terra’s skull? Would he be having the same reaction if it was any other woman? Spencer had chosen this factory for a reason.
“Do you have it?” he asked.
“Have what?”
He reached down and began to unwind the bandage from her arm.
“What the hell are you doing? Get away from me!” Terra screamed, jerking her
arm.
“Were you given a tattoo?”
“Yes, it hurt like hell.” He rolled up her sleeve. As he predicted, her arm was branded with her location and time of death. It was still fresh. “Who are you people?”
“Look, I don’t know why you were brought here. My orders were to kill you, and I’ve killed enough people already this week.”
Terra’s bottom lip quivered. “Who do you work for?”
“You know I can’t tell you that. That will put me at risk.” Seth glanced down at his unfired pistol and slipped it into the holster at his hip. “But I’m going to let you go.”
“What? Why?”
Seth didn’t know how to answer her. Who was he? Was he a killer or a redeemer? He didn’t recognize the man in the mirror anymore. For years, he’d killed first and asked questions later. It was wearing and debilitating on a human soul. How much more could he take? For the first time in a decade, after years of bullets, death, blood, and endless victims, a flicker of humanity began to nibble at his resolve, changing him. David Bloom was the last life he’d take.
“I’ll unlock those cuffs, however, I need one thing from you.”
“What’s that?”
His hog cleaver replaced the pistol. Terra’s eyes widened at the sight of the blade and she scrambled backward so fast she whacked her head against a supporting beam. “Get away from me!”
“I need your finger.”
“For what?”
“The kill isn’t complete until I have a finger to bring back for confirmation.”
“Can you let me go instead and say I escaped?”
“They’ll kill me,” Seth said bluntly.
“That’s a pretty good result in my opinion,” Terra mumbled.
“If I don’t come back with some piece of you, both of us will have a bounty on our heads by five o’clock.”
“My God, what type of work do you do?”
“You don’t want to know.” He pulled a key from a slot in the sole of his shoe and unlocked her handcuffs.
“Why are you doing this?”
Seth kicked the handcuffs across the room, his head swimming. Being at the factory again resurfaced emotions he wasn’t ready to face—guilt, anger, regret. He didn’t know what he was doing anymore, questioning his choices in life. He’d been a hit man for a decade, taking the lives of countless men and women. With Spencer tracking his every move, he felt violated and betrayed. Maybe today was the change he needed.
Seth took the nook of Terra’s elbow and headed toward the doors of the factory. “Quite frankly, I’ve had enough of this life. Do you want to come with me?”
Terra glanced up at him, an odd smile on her face. “I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere so I’m willing to take the risk. Where are we going to go if people will hunt us?”
“There’s a safe house I know of. But first I need to make a call. Do you trust me?”
Terra studied him under her thick lashes. Her bottom lip quivered slightly and he could tell her body was poised to run if he spooked her. After a long time, she nodded slowly, accepting her fate. “Let’s look at my current situation. I’m in the middle of nowhere with a strange man with a gun, telling me if I don’t run away with him, I’ll be dead by morning. I don’t have a lot of choice here. Let’s go. This place smells too much like death.”
***
A buzzing fly was really testing Seth’s patience. Standing on the side of the road, he and Terra waited for a taxi an hour outside of Tulsa. The sun beat down from above, warming the ground at their feet. Beads of sweat rolled down Seth’s suit and he squirmed against the humidity on his skin. There wasn’t a tree for miles so they had to make do for now.
Terra stood at arm’s length, motionless, speechless, not saying a word since leaving the factory thirty minutes ago. From the corner of his eye, he took a moment to study her. Terra had a stunning profile, slim nose, plump red lips which she kept squeezing between her teeth and a diminutive horse tattoo under her studded left ear. Her dark clothing only accentuated her trim waist, round hips, and ample breasts. He’d never seen her in person, only on television, so he had no idea what to expect when he arrived at the factory. She was one of the better looking targets he’d had to take down over the years. His gaze drifted to the nasty red abrasion under her chin.
She caught him staring and narrowed her eyes. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
He pointed to her neck. “Where did you get that from?” He knew Joca was somehow responsible for the injury. Spencer had given him the task of apprehending the target to the holding cells.
Terra raised a hand to finger the sensitive skin and grimaced. “I got ambushed at home last night. Some brute attacked me from behind, almost suffocating me and then I ended up…” She paused and stared hard at him. “He works for you, doesn’t he?”
Seth shook his head innocently. “Not for me personally.”
Unconvinced, she hooked an eyebrow at him. “You’re not trying to be a martyr, are you? By the sounds of it, you work for a pretty unstable employer.”
“I’m trying to do the right thing for once.” As if on cue, Seth’s cell phone vibrated in his pocket. He answered Carmichael’s call. “Hey, thanks for calling me back.”
“What the fuck are you doing?” the older man said with an authoritative tone. “Is what I’m hearing correct? Have you really taken off with a high priority target?”
“Well, I wouldn’t call it ‘taken off’. More like babysitting.”
He groaned loudly. “Seth, you can’t just ignore protocol and bang the next pretty thing that falls out of the portal. Make the kill so my guys can clean up.”
Seth hoped Terra couldn’t hear the conversation. By the looks of her digging her boot into the dry grass, she was clueless and he wanted it to stay that way. He wandered down the road for a few feet, out of earshot. “I’m not trying to screw her. I don’t know why I’m doing this.” He sighed. “I just want to save her.”
“Why?”
“To right some wrongs, I guess. She deserves it.”
“Who is she?”
He glanced back at Terra, noticing she held herself the same way her father did—shoulders back, feet slightly apart. “She’s the daughter of David Bloom. You may have heard of her.”
Carmichael scoffed into the phone. “Heard of her? That broad is on television almost every night protesting and philandering. Geez, man. What have you done?”
“I need your help. We’re standing on the side of the road like a pair of hippies. I’ve called for a taxi but I don’t think it’s coming. Is there a safe house close to our location?”
“Why not use the portal?”
“It will take me back to the agency and I can’t rock up with my target alive, especially this one.”
Carmichael rustled some papers. “I’ll arrange a pick up for you. There’s a safe house in Tulsa City.”
“I owe you one, Carmichael.”
After a long moment of silence, Seth thought he lost connection. Then Carmichael said, “Son, do you know what awaits you when Spencer finds out about your little charade?”
The breeze carried a chill that froze Seth’s skin. “I know I’ve signed my death warrant.” He looked at Terra again, who was staring back at him. “If it’s to save a life instead of taking one, it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Ninety minutes later, Seth showed Terra her new accommodations for a few days. The run down fibro cottage was the perfect disguise in the white picket fence neighborhood. No one would suspect a young couple moving into their new home.
Terra inspected the new digs with a curled nose and downturned mouth. She wandered the house wordlessly, frowning at the curling paint, cracking floorboards, and clogged toilet.
“You can’t expect me to stay here,” she whined, picking at a poster that was glued in place. “This house is worse than the homeless shelter I volunteer at.”
Seth dropped two shopping bags onto the kitchen bench. “What do you want
me to do? I can take you back to the factory if you want.”
“No.”
“Well, I’m not forcing you to stay here. Go on, step outside and get shot. I don’t care.”
While he unpacked the groceries, Terra threw herself onto the couch like a moody teenager.
“Who are you?” she said. “Oh, let me guess. You’re a private detective or a rogue police officer?” Her eyes lit up with glee. “No, you’re a former Marine bent on destroying the country that did him wrong.”
Seth opened a can of beer. “Let me guess who you are: a massive pain in my ass. Shut up.”
She joined him in the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the six pack. “Why did you save me back there? What made you change your mind from putting a bullet in my head?”
He took a swig of the lukewarm alcohol and cringed. “I don’t know what I’m doing these days.”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
Seth exited the kitchen and slumped onto the couch. To his surprise, Terra followed him. “Yeah I do. I don’t know how I’m going to explain you to her.”
“What does she do?”
“Why do you want to know? That’s my business.”
Terra ran a finger up and down the beer can almost seductively. “If you and I are going to be stuck together for God knows how long, I want to know more about my abductor.”
“So you can use it against me in court?”
She smirked. “Now you’ve put the idea in my head.”
“Actually, there is something you can help me with.” Seth walked to the dining table where he’d left a plastic bag from a drugstore. He withdrew a handful of bandages, needle and thread, a bottle of whisky, and a box cutter. The items piqued Terra’s interest immediately.
“What do you need those for?”
Seth motioned her over and rolled up his sleeve, pointing to the faint outline of the chip in his wrist. “My company uses this as a log-in tool, and also as a tracker. Before we go any further, it needs to come out.”
Fear registered in Terra’s eyes. “How long do you think we’ll be on the run for?”
Rogue Agent Page 8