Swords Of Exodus Part 11

"What of the other captives?" Antoine asked.

"Not our problem," I said. They might have been pure as the driven snow, but on the other hand they might deserve to be in a place like this.

"Unlock their doors," Ling ordered. "We do not have time to sort out who they are. They are on their own."

I shrugged.

Dr. Silvers finally piped up. "You people have a lot of nerve, coming in here. Do you have any idea the hornet's nest you've just kicked? Do you have any idea at all what you're bringing down on yourselves?"

"Not entirely, but I'm sure we'll figure it out. Thanks for the hard drives."

The Majestic scientist shook her head in bewilderment. "You. You're not Roger Smoot. Who are you? What the h.e.l.l is going on? Why did you take Valentine?"

I smiled at her but offered no answers.

She grew frustrated. "It doesn't matter. You will never get away with this. We're too powerful. We're everywhere."

"You mean Majestic?"

She sneered at me. "They'll catch you, and then they'll bring you to someone like me. They'll drill out every last piece of information you know. There's nowhere you can run to, noplace you can hide, where they won't find you. Sooner or later, you'll end up in a place like this, and someone like me will be there to make you regret this decision. I promise you that . . ."

Ling stepped in front of Silvers. Her dark eyes were like daggers. Silvers trailed off as the Chinese Exodus operative stared her down. "You never imagined this day would come, did you?" Ling asked quietly. "I know your kind. You sit here in your little kingdom, removed from the world, committing your little atrocities because it's your job. You say you do these things because powerful men tell you to, but really, you do these things because you enjoy them. You never imagined that you'd have to account for your actions, did you?"

Dr. Silvers said nothing. Fear was on her face.

"Of course you didn't," Ling continued. "You never dreamed such a thing could happen, that one day it would all come cras.h.i.+ng down, that your insulated world would fall apart. That day has come."

The doctor stumbled on her words as she tried to speak. "If . . . if you want information . . ." she trailed off as Ling seemed unimpressed with her attempt to negotiate. "What is this?"

"I would like nothing more than to shoot you and be done with it, however . . ." Lings eyes narrowed. "My order has an old saying, when a criminal has been caught and justice must be satisfied, the wisest judges are his victims . . . Carry her downstairs. Leave her bound. Unlock the doors. We will let her prisoner's decide her fate."

"No! No!" Silvers began to scream as Shen and Antoine picked up her chair and carried her away.

"Harsh." Then I thought of the weird machines. "But fair."

"I am confident she will receive as much mercy as she has given . . . Come, Mr. Lorenzo, we've been here too long already."

I followed her outside. Valentine was wrapped in a blanket, pa.s.sed out in the back of our car. He looked like s.h.i.+t. "Son of a b.i.t.c.h better live." I muttered. "I didn't just audition for public enemy number one for nothing."

Ling glared at me. "How can you-"

"Be so heartless?" She was obviously distressed by Valentine's condition, and she had to suppress anger at my callousness to his fate. I'd grown to like the Exodus operatives over the last few days, but that didn't make me their errand boy. "I just killed a whole mess of people to get your boyfriend back. I fulfilled my part of the bargain. So where the f.u.c.k is my brother?"

Ling sighed. "Altay Krai, in the Golden Mountains."

"The Crossroads?"

Ling nodded.

I couldn't believe it. I knew that area well. "s.h.i.+t . . . Bob, you stupid idiot . . . And the rest of the note?" I demanded. Ling reached into a pocket on her black fatigue s.h.i.+rt and pulled out half a paper napkin and handed it over. It was the bottom half of the note that Bob had left me. "You had it the whole time?" I shouted. I was used to being lied to, but it didn't mean I had to like it.

"Yes. It wasn't my wish to be untruthful."

"Well you did a bang-up job."

"It was your brother's idea."

Son of a b.i.t.c.h. I unfolded the torn napkin. "It's blank."

"Bob said you wouldn't trust us. He said you would not help unless you had an incentive."

I didn't answer. I was too mad. But Bob had been right. I stood there in the gently falling snow and the grey light of the Montana sunrise and cursed him to h.e.l.l.

"Bob said you were the only man who would be able to free Valentine, and even at the last moment, when your brother knew he was going to be captured or killed, the very last thing he did was write that note and make us swear to free Valentine, no matter what . . . " Ling paused, uncomfortable. "He said you would react exactly as you did, and that you only had one weakness we could exploit."

"Loyalty," I spat the word.

"Yes, your brother knew that you would do anything to help those few people you've claimed as your family. But Bob said that Valentine was more important, or rather, something he knows, is so important that . . ." She trailed off.

"What?" I did not like where this was going, and the combination of fatigue and anger boiling through my system was threatening to blow.

"That if you tried to hinder us, or betray us, or anything that would stop us from retrieving Valentine, we were to kill you," Ling stated calmly. "If necessary," she added, almost as an afterthought.

It was like being hit in the stomach with a hammer. I could taste sour bile in the back of my throat, and the idea of being betrayed by my own brother physically hurt. The napkin was still in my hand. I crumpled it into a tight ball and squeezed until my fingers ached.

What did Valentine know? What was so important that Bob would jeopardize his own life, ruin his career, endanger his family, and be willing to sacrifice his own brother? "d.a.m.n it, Bob . . ." That didn't matter now because tonight Majestic was going after Bob's wife and kids. His family. My family. I didn't know if I could do anything, but I wasn't about to do nothing.

"Ling, change in plans. We need to go to Arizona."

We drove down a lonely two-lane highway, heading into the sunrise, as we made our way back to the airport. The sooner we were in the air and the farther from North Gap we got, the better off we'd be. The longer it took them to discover our attack, the greater our chances of getting away. Every minute we travelled increased the diameter of the search they would have to undertake, and since we were talking about an outfit that probably had access to spy satellites and ma.s.sive databases, I hoped to turn minutes into hours.

Valentine was in the back, on a litter, still unconscious. Shen had hooked him up to an IV. Our wagon had a poorly-done tint job on the windows that kept our patient out of the sight of prying eyes. That would be important when we stopped for gas. Antoine drove just below the speed limit. We wanted to avoid attention and law enforcement at all costs.

Ling and I went through Dr. Silvers' iPad. I was definitely curious about what they were doing to the kid, but I wasn't nearly as interested as Ling was. I was mostly looking for anything that would help me figure out what happened to my brother.

Some of the hard drives we grabbed were sure to be encrypted. I didn't know much about that kind of stuff. That's why I had Reaper. Silvers had used her iPad to keep notes on her work, and she'd been lousy with information security. I'm sure Majestic, being secret black ops types had rules against this sort of thing, but over the years I'd found that the know-it-all academic types considered themselves too smart to listen to mere operators. Silvers had been interrogating him about something called Project Blue, and specifically, something called the Alpha Point. Ling didn't know what that meant either.

"Big Eddie mentioned this back in Quagmire," I muttered. Ling looked at me curiously. "That's why Gordon Willis turned traitor. Those two were in on it together. It's something huge."

"Your brother was concerned about it as well, but he was unclear on what it entailed. It was this search that brought him to The Crossroads."

"Do you know who this Evangeline person is?"

Ling shrugged.

They'd sure worked him over good trying to find out. Whoever she was, Valentine had no clue one way or another. Dr. Silvers had become convinced of that early on.

So why did they keep him alive?

VALENTINE.

The morning sun was still below the horizon as I turned onto the long gravel driveway that led to our house. I'd been driving a long time and was happy to be home. Three of my friends and I had gone on a road trip to Detroit, and we'd driven all night on the way back. I'd dropped them off at their houses before heading home myself.

As I pulled to a stop in front of the house, I was making plans to sleep through the day. It was my last day of Spring Break, and I'd have to be back in school the next morning. I doubted that I'd get much sleep. Knowing my mom, in a few hours she'd drag me out of bed to help shovel the horses' stalls.

I parked next to my mom's pickup. There was a truck, one I didn't recognize, parked in the drive. I quietly made my way to the front door, wondering who could be over so early.

Holy c.r.a.p, I thought. I wonder if Mom had some guy over while I was gone? I was uncomfortable with that thought. Being honest, I couldn't blame her. It'd been eight years since my dad had died. My mom had been alone for a long time. Maybe she has a boyfriend?

Those thoughts faded away as I walked into the house. I expected to find my mom sitting at the table, eating some toast and smoking a cigarette like she always did.

Whatever I may have expected, it wasn't what I found. The kitchen was trashed. There was broken gla.s.s everywhere. The chairs around the table were dumped over. The refrigerator was wide open, and food was out on the counter.

My mom was on her back in a chair that was lying on the floor. She stared up at the ceiling and didn't say anything.

"Mom?" I asked, stepping closer. There were extension cords wrapped around her, like she was tied to the chair. Her s.h.i.+rt was stained with little red blotches; around her was a pool of dark red liquid.

"Mom?" I repeated. Why is she lying on the floor wrapped up in extension cords? Is this a joke or something? It clicked a second later. My mom is dead. She'd been tied to a chair and stabbed over and over again.

My breathing sped up. My heart began pounding so hard it felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I became dizzy. My knees went weak. My stomach twisted, and pain shot through my groin. My mouth was dry. There was a loud buzzing in my ears. I stepped back, stumbled, and fell to the floor. My mouth was open. I was trying to scream, but no sound came out.

After a few seconds, I was able to tear my eyes away from my mother's brutalized body. A black and white lump lay in the next room. It was my dog, Buckwheat. He'd been killed too.

Something strange happened to me then. The dizziness stopped, my heart rate slowed, and the buzzing in my ears faded away. My head cleared. The shock and pain drifted into the background as the Calm overtook me for the very first time.

Focus, I thought to myself. Somebody did this. They might still be here. You have to get out of here and call the Sheriff. I gritted my teeth and managed to get to my feet.

It was in that moment that a man walked in from the next room. His image was forever burned into my mind: he had on cowboy boots and dirty, stained jeans. He wore a dirty white t-s.h.i.+rt and an old acid-washed jean jacket. His hair was long and uncombed, and his face was covered in stubble. His eyes were wide and his pupils were dilated. Hanging from his belt was a large hunting knife in a leather scabbard. Behind him was another man, taller and skinnier, with pale skin and no hair.

"Jesse, look!" the skinny guy said, pointing at me. "There's someone else here, Jesse!"

"It's just a f.u.c.king kid," Jesse said, wiping his nose with his hand. "How you doing, kid? Where's your mom keep the cash?"

"Let's cut him up, Jesse!" the skinny guy said excitedly, wringing his s.h.i.+rt in his hands. "Let's f.u.c.king cut him up!"

Jesse turned to his friend and shoved him. "G.o.dd.a.m.n it, Billy, calm the f.u.c.k down! We been here too long already."

"But, Jesse, please!" Billy said, his voice getting even more high pitched. "It'll just take a minute! Look how surprised he is! He came home and found his mommy all cut up! Surprise!"

Jesse slapped his Billy, causing him to let out a squealing cry. "Get a hold of yourself, Billy! We don't-"

Billy interrupted Jesse. "He's getting away!" Jesse turned around to see me running up the stairs. The skinny one, Billy, took off after me, but I made it upstairs before he did. I rounded the corner, ran down the hall, and burst into my mom's bedroom. I slammed and locked the door behind me, just as Billy crashed into it.

"Come out kid!" Billy said, almost giggling with excitement. "Come on out!"

My heart was pounding in my chest, but my head was clear. The shotgun! My mom had a pump shotgun in her closet. I hoped to G.o.d it was loaded, because I didn't know where she kept the box of sh.e.l.ls.

Vaulting across the room, I pulled open the closet door and pushed my mom's clothes aside. In the back corner was a little-used Remington 870. I heard a crash as Billy began slamming his body against the flimsy door. I grabbed the shotgun and stepped out of the closet, opening the action as I did so. It was loaded. I slammed the pump forward, pus.h.i.+ng the sh.e.l.l into the chamber, just as Billy cracked the door open. His arm reached in and began fumbling for the lock.

I was completely calm as I brought the stock of the shotgun to my left shoulder, pointed it at the door, and squeezed the trigger. The shotgun barked loudly in my mom's bedroom, and blew a hole through the door. Billy shrieked in pain and his arm disappeared back through the door.

Pumping another round into the chamber, I pulled the bedroom door open. Billy was lying on the floor trying to hug himself. Just below his left armpit was a gory wound. Blood was pouring onto the floor.

"Jesse, help me!" Billy cried, his screeching voice gurgling as blood filled his lungs.

I was on autopilot. It was like playing one of my first-person-shooter video games. I wasn't afraid or upset. I felt nothing. I stepped over Billy and pointed the shotgun at his face. "Surprise," I said, and squeezed the trigger again. Billy's head exploded in a ma.s.s of brains and blood.

I looked up, pumping the shotgun again, just as Jesse appeared at the end of the hall.

"Billy!" he said excitedly, seeing me standing over the remains of his partner. "You killed my little brother!" I pointed the shotgun at him and fired again. I missed. The mirror at the end of the hall exploded in a shower of broken gla.s.s as Jesse disappeared back into the stairwell.

I ran down the hall after him, chambering another round in the shotgun. I rounded the corner and looked down the stairs. Jesse was pulling a pistol from his waistband. He looked up and saw me point the shotgun at him. He turned to run, stumbled, and fell down the last few steps. His gun clattered across the floor and out of sight. I fired again, but missed again, blowing a hole in the wall of the stairwell. The intruder rounded the corner at the base of the stairs as he bolted for the door.

I went after him, running down the stairs as fast as I could. I went through the kitchen just as Jesse burst through the front door. I fired yet again. The buckshot ripped through the screen door and shattered one of the potted plants hanging on the porch, but I missed my target again.

Jesse jumped off the porch and ran for his truck. I stumbled on the steps and fell to the ground, skinning the heel of my hand in the gravel and dropping the shotgun. I didn't even feel it. I pushed myself up, grabbed the 12-gauge, and pumped the last round into the chamber. On my feet again, I took off in a run.

I caught up with Jesse just as he pulled open the door of his truck. He hurriedly tried to climb in, but I was right behind him. I aimed for the back of his head and fired. Jesse's head exploded, spattering the interior of his pickup with the contents of his skull. His lifeless body slumped forward onto the seat, slid off, and crumpled to the ground by the running boards. It left a stream of blood as it went.

I stood there, frozen, pointing the now-empty shotgun into Jesse's blood-spattered truck, for what seemed like a long time. I heard a faint ringing in my ears, and my hands began to shake. The Calm was wearing off, and I was rapidly going into shock. I slowly lowered the shotgun and turned away.

In a daze, I made my way back to the house, stopping only to throw up once. I sat on the porch, resting the shotgun next to me, and stared off into the distance. I didn't feel anything inside. I'd always imagined that when you killed someone for the first time, it'd be dramatic, or emotional, like in the movies. Now that I'd done it, I didn't see what the big deal was. I just sat there, not feeling a d.a.m.ned thing, as the sun climbed into the sky.

LORENZO.

Connley Field, Montana February 15th The tiny airport was uncontrolled. There was no tower, and only the most rudimentary of hangar facilities. Our Cessna was almost ready to roll, and Antoine and Shen were gently loading Valentine in. It had taken us hours to get here, stopping only for gas. We could have used a closer airport, but the nearer we were to the target, the more attention we would be sure to draw. This one had a great combination of obscurity and lack of witnesses.

"I understand what you feel you must do, Lorenzo." Ling said as she handed my bag to me from the back of the station wagon. "But I see one possible problem. If you encounter any Majestic agents-"

"And this plane was nearby both times? They'll focus on us like a laser beam. It won't matter where we go, they'll track us down. I know." We both knew how our foes would react, and the radar coverage over North America was just too good for them not to pick out the pattern. The government, when properly motivated, could process a whole lot of data very quickly.

But I had to go. I couldn't just call Bob's wife, Gwen, and tell her to run because surely the phone would be tapped. I had n.o.body in that area that I could rely on, and we were short on time, with the clock ticking toward the scheduled raid. "I can't just leave them. If these were normal government types, I wouldn't worry. But these people . . ."

"Yes, I know." Ling had just got done reading a whole lot of disturbing notes and emails about Silvers' interrogation techniques.

I barely knew my sister-in-law. In fact, I had only met her twice, but I wasn't about to let her be taken away by the kind of people who thought it was fun to give Valentine enough drugs to pickle an elephant and employed people like Smoot. "Then you know I've got to do this."

"It endangers my men and jeopardizes our mission."

"My mission is to get my brother back, and I'll be d.a.m.ned if I bring him home and his wife and kids are rotting in some secret prison s.h.i.+thole . . . Look, you drop me off in Flagstaff, then take right back off. Even as powerful as Majestic is, it'll still take them time to put it together. There's an airfield in Santa Vasquez, Mexico. I know a guy there and you can get a new plane, nice and clean. I'll cross the border and meet you there, and if I'm . . . held up, you just bail without me."

Ling folded her arms and studied me. "Bob was right about one thing."

"What?" The Cessna engine turned over with a cough and a belch of oil smoke.

"You love very few people, but to those, you are extremely loyal."

It was a stupid weakness. "Don't rub it in."