The Count of Carolina, page 7
part #2 of A Clean Up Crew Series
Dan took one in each hand. Both were .45 caliber automatics. The one in his right hand was a Heckler & Kotch, and as he’d fired one in Bucharest, he already knew it would be okay. The one in his left was a SIG Sauer P220, and though unfamiliar, Dan thought he liked the feel of it even more than the HK45. “Yes, they’re good,” he said, holding them out for her to put them with the others.
“Keep one or the other on you,” she said.
“Are they loaded?” he asked Gail.
“Not yet,” she replied as he considered them each again.
Dan held them both up and tried the trigger on each. He felt the P220 had a little bit better action, responding to the pressure of his finger more easily. Handing the HK45 to Nicole, he stuck the other in the waistband of his jeans.
She moved on to some of the bigger cabinets. Dan’s eyes widened as he realized what they contained: row after row of rocket launchers, suspended neatly on perfectly aligned hooks. She picked two; a GROM, built by the Polish company Mesko. The second was a LAW 80, a British-built model. At the bottom of the cabinet were a series of drawers marked with manufacturers’ names. She slid two open and collected a total of six rockets, three for each.
“Cole, do you think we’ll need those?” Dan asked, clearly intimidated by the hardware.
“Yes, but no more than six times,” she replied absently.
Next, she moved to another large container, which held what Dan immediately recognized as sniper rifles. He’d seen Nicole assemble one in the dark and take out a guard from quite a distance with a single, perfectly placed shot. This time, she settled on a Valmet 7.62 Tkiv 85. The Finnish rifle was long, its wooden stock light in color and with attached stabilizing legs. She immediately began taking it apart and placing the parts in a felt-lined briefcase made specifically for that purpose.
After grabbing a couple of shotguns as well, she began to collect ammo, handing Dan a half-dozen clips for the SIG Sauer. He inserted one and caught Gail nodding with approval out of the corner of his eye as he did so. He turned to face her.
“That’s a little more like it, Two-Gunz.”
“Gail has found a possible location for us to check out,” Nicole told Dan. She went on to relate the substance of Gail’s briefing, then said, “We’re going right away.”
“Of course,” Dan said, nodding emphatically.
“We’re heading there right away,” she continued, “but we are probably going to spend a good chunk of time just watching. Unless something happens, like us seeing them move her or something, we’ll wait all day till it’s dark again to commit to any course of action. Gail, this guy’s going to need some sandwiches or something.”
“Not a problem,” she said, closing the cabinet doors one by one. When they had all clicked shut with a sound similar to a gasping inhale, she opened the door that led to the interior and beckoned them to follow.
The house was spartan in décor but was still very well appointed, with state-of-the-art tech in every room. The lights responded to Gail’s voice as they moved toward a spacious kitchen that would have made Rachael Ray seethingly jealous. As she pulled meat and condiments from the refrigerator, Nicole asked her if she had a tablet available. Gail pointed to an iPad sitting on a countertop and said “Six-one-six-two.” Cole used the PIN to wake it, then opened Google Earth. After a few seconds, she held it so Dan could see.
“This is the place,” she said, pointing to a sprawling home surrounded by dense trees. Dan took the tablet and zoomed the picture out slightly so that he could see a little more of the area.
“It’s the only house on the road,” he observed. Nicole nodded, impressed that he saw straight to the issue, which was simultaneously their biggest asset and their greatest liability.
“Right, so obviously, if we’re seen, there will be little doubt what our objective is. Thus the key is to not be seen. We’ll need to park quite a distance away.” Zooming the view of the area out even further, Nicole pointed to a place about a quarter mile from their goal. “When the satellite took this picture, this was all still wild, but Gail showed me a place where they’ve just begun to clear for new construction. With any luck, there’ll be a little out-of-sight niche where we can park. We’ll approach from this side,” she said, pointing to a large wooded area that would bring them to the house from the opposite direction that the road connected to it. “If we’re careful, it will be as if we don’t even exist.”
By the time Cole shut down the iPad, Gail had placed a day’s worth of provisions into a backpack and handed it over to Dan. “This should get you through.” She smiled.
They moved back out to the garage and Dan opened the back door on the driver’s side and placed the pack of food on the seat. Gail had also filled a thermos of hot coffee for them. That he put up front to readily access. As he and Nicole slid into the SUV, Gail reached through the open passenger side window and placed her hand on Nicole’s arm. “Be careful, boss,” she said. “Remember, you’re in the South. All water is deep water here, still or otherwise.”
Nicole nodded, knowing that she meant they were to trust no one and be ready for anything. Gail wished them both good hunting, then moved to push the button to open the door. As it rose, Dan started the engine. To his surprise, after it had lifted only about a third of the way, a huge mastiff bounded into the garage and immediately ran to Dan’s window. The huge dog reared up and placed its forepaws through his window, reaching its massive head in and planting a series of slobbering kisses on his face. Gail laughed.
“Get down, Hercules!” she admonished, and the dog obeyed instantly, though it continued to look up at Dan, its narrow brown tail wagging frantically. “Dan doesn’t have time to play with you now.” Then to Dan, she added, “That’s a weighty endorsement you just received. Herc is an excellent judge of character.”
Dan reached through the window and gave him a pat on the head, much to the dog’s obvious delight. “You let him just roam around on his own?” he asked Gail.
“He’s very well known in the area,” she said. “And everyone can tell where they stand with him. They either look forward to his happening by, or head inside and wait for him to leave, depending on where they fall in his character continuum. But he’s never hurt anyone, and this is, as I just said, the South. Leash laws are a Yankee invention. He likes to range far and wide. Never know where he’ll turn up.”
As Dan put the car in drive, Hercules moved a safe distance away. He began to pull out and Nicole called back, “Be prepared for a second briefing once I get this situation settled. There’s still a cleaning to be done.”
“Just text,” the young woman said, waving as they moved down the drive.
After a moment, Dan said, “I think I’m beginning to understand the importance of the handler.”
Cole nodded once. “Yup. Most everything hinges off them. That’s why losing Viktor was such a blow. Not only was he a good man and a good friend, but he was one of the top two or three handlers in the organization. He won’t be easy to replace.”
The statement was a simple one, but it caused Dan to look at Nicole in the guise of the Cleanup Crew’s director, not simply as its most accomplished cleaner. She had to work through angles and issues that never even occurred to him. And, not for the first time, he realized she was doing exactly what she’d been placed on the Earth to do. It was a comforting thought and a chilling one at the same time.
“Take a left out of the driveway. It will take about twenty minutes to reach our parking place, then probably pretty close to a half hour to work our way through the woods to where we can set up the best observation point.”
“As you wish,” he said, referencing one of Nicole’s favorite films.
“Thank you, Farm Boy,” she responded, not missing a beat.
7
Easy-Peasey
Nicole was not completely pleased with where they finally parked the rental car. She felt there were a couple of places where its silver color showed through and could possibly be spotted from the road. However, anything further in made them visible to the construction area of the new development. But after twisting and snapping a few green branches, she managed to cover the areas about which she was concerned.
She walked to the back of the SUV, which Dan opened with the key fob, and lifting the tarp that was covering their arsenal, she grabbed the briefcase containing the rifle, as well as an automatic .45 for herself, Dan’s H&K .45, and a lot of clips for both of them.
Dan asked Nicole to point out the correct ones, and he grabbed a few more clips for the SIG Sauer as well. They were ready to go.
“I’m glad you didn’t bring a rocket launcher,” he whispered to Nicole as they made their way toward the street. Avoiding the dirt path on which they’d entered, she led them out through the dense growth, keeping them hidden beside the road while they checked for any traffic.
“I was tempted to grab one,” she replied. “Once we have J.J. safe, I wouldn’t mind sending a message in the form of a big-ass hole in their house. But ultimately, I thought we should probably save them for later.”
“Why? What comes later?”
“I still have to complete the cleaning I was sent here to do.”
“Hmm,” Dan said, poking his head out to see that the roadway was clear of any signs of traffic. “Not thinking in terms of a ‘surgical strike,’ I take it?”
Rather than answer, Nicole made her own assessment of their chances of crossing the road unseen and, satisfied, said, “Let’s move. Quick.” She took one last look both ways and darted across the pavement, Dan two steps behind her.
Once they were ensconced in the opposite bank of foliage, Nicole crouched and encouraged Dan to do the same. “We can talk about that later. Once we get in position,” she said. “Right now, the task at hand is navigating this forest and finding the house.”
Dan nodded and looked around. “According to the man-map, we need to go that way,” he said, pointing to the southeast.
Despite the dire circumstance, Nicole had to smile. “Of course that’s the way. This is not exactly a subterranean maze. It’s trees. Try not to make too much noise.” She set off in the direction Dan had indicated.
Dan had never considered the strategy involved in approaching a target through thick cover. Nicole did not move in a beeline, but occasionally changed direction, seemingly at random, before moving again in what felt to Dan like the right orientation. She was also very careful about stepping on dead twigs or snapping branches. And she held any branch she had to move until Dan had gotten past it, to avoid it whipping back and lashing him. Seeing her expert maneuvering brought back some of the feelings of awe he’d experienced watching her work in Bucharest. She is so damn good at this, he thought.
And because stealth was so important, it took them nearly thirty minutes to arrive at a point where they could see the house without being spotted themselves. It was near enough that they could act quickly, but far enough away from the building that they could hold a whispered conversation. Once she was comfortable that it was the best location, Nicole told Dan to sit tight while she did a quick recon of the areas of the modern-styled house that they couldn’t see from their vantage. When she returned five minutes later, it was with good news.
“There is a sliding door on the back, but it leads to a second-story deck. There are stairs down, but there’s no way for them to leave the property from that side.”
“Unless they go through the trees like we did,” Dan realized.
“Right. And I don’t expect they’d have any reason to do that unless we screw up and make our presence known. And,” she said with a sardonic grin, “even then their first response is probably not going to be to sneak away. It will be to kill us.” Dan appreciated that she kept her eyes on the house as she said this, and did not look at him with an expression that said, “And by ‘we’ I mean ‘you,’” but he figured that if anyone was likely to screw up, it would be him. So he got comfortable and did his best to remain silent and invisible.
“Alright,” Nicole said after a pause. “Let’s talk about ‘later’ for a minute. I have a strong feeling that there are going to be a lot of people actively protecting this doctor. The fact that they sent the bald pudge-pile to get J.J. once they were able to connect me with Darlene’s bungled hacking tells me that they’re willing to be very proactive in throwing us off his scent. It also shows a lack of foresight bringing her to South Carolina. I’m sure they figured we’d think she would be still be local, if not in Denver, then certainly somewhere in Colorado.”
“I’m very concerned about the fact that they were able to make the jump from Darlene to you,” he whispered.
“I share your concern. It could mean something very, very bad.”
“When you say ‘something bad,’ what sort of something bad are you referring to?”
“Well, I actually said something very, very bad. My gut tells me it could mean a mole in the organization.”
The word struck Dan hard. “I don’t care for the sound of that.”
“No. It’s very, very bad.”
“You can stop saying that now.”
“The layers of bad boggle the mind,” she continued, heedless of Dan’s protest.
“Okay, my fault for asking. Let’s concentrate on J.J. for right now.”
Even though Nicole had never looked away from the house, Dan could see her expression change slightly. It was an interesting transition. First her hard expression, brought about by thinking through the complications the mole would create if she was right, softened as Dan reminded her that it was their daughter who needed their attention at the moment. Then it hardened again as she thought about the person or persons who might be inside this house, probably holding said daughter.
“No, it’s okay. It was a legitimate question. Let’s just say if I end up taking out multiple slime balls with a single rocket, it will be hardware well used. Now listen to me…”
Dan turned to face her and saw that she was looking at him as well. “There is one thing more we need to do to be ready in case something goes down here. We need to be positioned in two different places. Bullets coming at them from just one direction are easier to trace. If we give them hell from different angles, they may think there’s a whole army out here.”
“There is,” Dan said resolutely.
“There sure is,” Cole agreed, giving his arm a squeeze. “You stay here. See that big magnolia tree over there?”
“The one that’s in bloom?” Dan asked, looking to where she had pointed.
“Yes. That’s where I’m heading. That way, we’re coming at them from two very divergent spots, but we’re not in any danger of hitting each other.”
“Ow. That would suck.”
“Yes,” she replied, giving him a second squeeze. Dan could tell she was already lining up a shot in her mind. Quietly, she moved off.
From her new vantage point, Nicole had the best view of the front of the house. Their original spot, where she’d left Dan, had a better perspective of the side, as well as a clear line to the front door. She thought that if anyone decided to come out the back and down from the deck, they might come in that direction, toward Dan, and it would offer him a fair amount of time to make a decision, and she hoped that in spite of his lack of training, he’d make the right one.
This location allowed her a good look at the large picture windows, some running floor to ceiling. Unfortunately, vertical blinds kept her from seeing anything through them. Rather than discourage her, however, she took this as an indication that there were people inside the house, intent on hiding something. And it was her prayer that the something they were hiding was her twenty-year-old daughter, still healthy. Still alive.
Cole was determined not to take her mind off J.J. again, but that decision was not without cost. Just as had been the case during the flight, her mind continually drifted to a number of worse-case scenarios. She assumed Dan’s was doing the same. But she was quite certain that he was mercifully spared from her first-hand knowledge of the depth of depravity that Nicole now feared J.J. could face.
But even that thought had to be corralled.
Or did it?
She realized that she was very much on the fence about that now. Could knowing what might happen help her maintain even more focus? She shook her head. No. She couldn’t go there. Not just because of the potential to do just the opposite and corrupt her concentration altogether, but also because it meant she would have to recall. She had no technique for stopping this from happening in her dreams, but damn it, while she was awake, she was in control.
She watched the blinds for movement. But as the hours rolled by, there was none. At one point, Nicole became a little concerned when she heard Dan open one of the sandwiches that Gail had made them. In the predawn quiet, even unzipping a plastic storage bag sounded like a thunder clap. Fortunately, there was no reaction from the house. She realized that her ears were probably in a state of hypersensitivity as she strained every nerve for a sound from within. While there was likely someone in the house whose job it was to listen for outside noises, she didn’t notice Dan’s meal causing any activity.
Eventually, the day began in earnest, and as the sun rose, burning away the dew that had dampened her canvas shoes, she looked to make sure Dan was invisible. From her position, she could just barely see him crouching in the brush between the trees. That meant he hadn’t moved since she left him. And that meant he wouldn’t be spotted by anyone looking out of a window. After making sure her own position was ideal, she opened the briefcase holding the sniper rifle, placing a finger on each latch as she released it to make sure there was no click as the spring-loaded mechanism yielded. She realized that the faint breeze through the leaves around her was probably sufficient to mask the sound. But one of the reasons she was still alive was that she worried about detail. And because she did not rely upon the wind.
