Rachel sat near Nick’s sniper rifle, far back from the window, with the spotter scope in her hand. The suite Nick had picked out in downtown Denver was their third habitat in the two weeks since they’d arrived. She felt the usual guilt well up in her as she glanced over at Jean, sleeping in her bed with Deke lying at the foot of it. Nick insisted she be with them now, no matter what they had to do.
All of what seemed some scatterbrained nightmare he had thought up for a novel unfolded. First, they had watched Nick’s handler, a guy named Frank, give a detailed briefing as to how this man in Denver was behind the attempted hit on Rachel, Jean and Nick. Then Nick had run the transmission again, showing all the flaws in Frank’s presentation: his tone, body language, and even slight facial expression changes.
Rachel smiled, remembering how Nick had explained it.
“The prick doesn’t know I’ve spent months observing him. He’s a gambler. I’ll give him that much.”
“Maybe he’s just scared. He looked convincing.”
“We’re going to Denver. We’ll take our time. We’ll keep in touch with Frank. I’ll give him a time frame for when the job will be done. It would be easier for me to show you, rather than just string together words with no reference. I’ll make it educational, too, involving lots of geometry.”
“I hate math,” Rachel kidded.
Nick had been right. Rachel sighed, leaning back in her chair after glancing at the watch Nick had given her before leaving the room. They were staying at a nice Ramada Inn with an indoor pool for an entire week, checked in separately. Nick, Jean and Deke stayed in one room, and Rachel in the other. Nick explained that, when Frank did sweeps of new motel check-ins, they hopefully would not show up on the radar until moving to the next location. Three days later, Nick finished with his recon, identifying the optimal place to assassinate Senator Anthony ‘Tony’ Ambrose, the man Frank had fingered. The killing would be blamed on a tragic overreaction to the Senator’s continuing sponsorship of anti-gun legislation. Nick moved them out of the Ramada Inn, much to Jean’s dismay, and into an even plusher hotel near central Denver. From his new outpost, Nick was able to anticipate the most likely place a second team would be stationed to take Nick out after the Senator was dead.
Rachel shook her head, still somewhat disbelieving this could be happening as if they were using Nick’s template. But there was no denying the facts. Two days after Nick’s prediction, a sniper team had arrived in the very room where Nick’s sniper rifle was aimed. He had explained the angles, wind shear, and all the reasons for their appearance, as if he had called them to the very spot he anticipated. He’d spent two days finding every inroad to the sniper team’s room without being seen. Rachel looked again at her watch, breathing deeply as Nick had suggested. Her job was backup: relay positioning and movements in the room when Nick went in. She was only to shoot if he went down.
Five minutes later, Rachel scoped the sniper team’s room, waiting for Nick’s signal with her headset in place. She had all the lights off in her hotel room. Only a faint glow illuminated the sniper team’s room. They had one man on watch twenty-four hours a day, which is another reason Nick had waited this long.
“All the reasoning, inside information, and final positioning in the world won’t get it done,” he explained to her after observing the team for a day. “Waiting, covering all the angles, and patience is the only way to get the shot and protect your ass. They’ll be hot to trot at first, but as hours and days pass, they’ll get sloppy. I can tell they haven’t worked together long. They’re already gettingantsy. No way to get the drop on them if the spotter’s doinghis job, but as you’ll see, I will get the drop on them.”
“Confidant, are we?” Rachel had kidded him.
“I better be,” had been Nick’s grim answer.
Rachel heard Nick’s single click in her headset, which meant she needed to be in position. It was a hundred meter shot Nick had told her he hoped to God she wouldn’t have to take.
“It’s not that I don’t think you would,” he’d said. “It’s because my hoped-for setup will be history if you have to take the shot. Remember, first pad of the finger, slow movements only, and squeeze the trigger. I should have at least one of them down, even if I’m dead. Put another round through him, too, anyway. Repeat the procedure striking both men. Pack up. Get in the Escalade with Jean and Deke. Head for parts unknown. I’d suggest Idaho, North Dakota, or Utah. Find a very small community. There’s a hundred grand in the false bottom of the Escalade I showed you. It’ll get you through until you find work.”
Rachel grabbed his hand before he left, moving her body into him. “What made you decide to adopt me and Jean?”
“When you invited yourself to sit down with me at the restaurant,” he answered with a grin. “I like a woman who shows an interest.”
Nick repeated the single click, meaning he was at the door.
“Hold.” Rachel sighted in on the shielded sniper nest covered with bedclothes. “One man at the gun. Other out of sight…he’s approaching the gun…back turned to you…”
Rachel jerked in spite of knowing what would happen next, glad she had remembered to keep the pad of her finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. Two crackling charges felled both sniper team members. Nick stayed low to the floor, jolting the men until they were unconscious.
He closed the door and hurried to the fallen men. He disarmed each of them, while keeping the silenced muzzle of his own weapon covering them.
“Everything’s okay, Rach. Neither of these boot camps is armed. This is an insult. How dare Frank send ‘Beavis and Butthead’ after me?”
Rachel laughed.
“I’m going to be a few minutes longer than I’d hoped. Without any silencers, I’ll have to rig this up the old-fashioned way. Pack up. I’m going to hit the good Senator tonight.”
“What?” Rachel yelped incredulously, cringing as Nick put a knife into the fist of one downed man and forced it into the chest of the other. “We’re…we’re not in position for the shot.”
“The most righteous Senator Ambrose is in bed with his mistress,” he explained, while positioning the stabbed man over his comrade and using his hands to crush the man’s skull under him with a stone flower vase. “That’ll teach you to stab me, you varmint.”
Rachel laughed again, unable to look away from the horrendous killing of two unconscious men, ending in a cartoon dialogue joke. She glanced again at her daughter guiltily. Go straight to hell. Do not pass go. Do not collect two hundred dollars. You’re as big a monster as he is.
Nick waited for twenty seconds more, making sure the two men were dead. He took a black plastic bag out of his pocket, and loaded in his two Taser guns, H &K.45, jacket, and gloves. Taking out a fresh pair of Nitrile gloves and donning them, he left the room, making sure the door locked. With the ball cap down low over his face, he made his way out of the building by his planned route.
“I’m going to the Cad. I’ll drop off this stuff and pick up my next outfit for the visit to Senator Ambrose.”
“Why do you have to kill the Senator?”
“Because Frank was right about one thing: Ambrose is trying to kill us.”
The tone of his answer prompted Rachel to dispense with the questioning.
“We’ll be packed and ready to leave when you get back.”
Nick parked the Escalade around the block from the apartment building where Senator Ambrose’s suite was located. Putting on a dark blue windbreaker and ball cap, Nick carried a small shoulder bag with him to the alleyway entrance. He used the access code stolen during his first days in Denver, and made his way up the stairwell through the predawn silence. Outside Senator Ambrose’s door, he listened intently for a few moments, before using his access card to get in. After shutting the door silently, Nick took off his shoes. Seconds later, he stood at the entrance to the Senator’s bedroom, where the outlines of two bodies breathed in varying degrees of sleep.
Nick crept over to the woman’s bedside. He placed the chloroformed white pad next to her nose. When her breathing changed, he removed the pad and moved to the Senator’s side. He gently pulled the cover back from the Senator, who was lying on his back, snoring slightly. Nick position himself above the Senator and jammed his knee into Ambrose’s Solar Plexus, driving the breath from him. Ambrose’s eyes popped open as he gasped and flailed. Nick put a gloved hand over his mouth, easing the knee back until Ambrose could breathe.
“Hi, Senator. Stay quiet. Keep your arms at your sides and legs still, or I’ll crush your chest. Nod if you understand.”
Ambrose nodded. Nick removed his hand.
“I’m Nick. I have some questions for -”
“Nick…McCarty?” Ambrose managed to interrupt with a wheeze.
“One and the same,” Nick confirmed. “How many other people besides you and Frank know about me?”
“You…you murdered the only others who knew about you.”
“If you’re the lone boss man, why does Frank always make it sound like there’s a board of directors?”
“No one has all the pieces. I formed the group after -”
“Khobar Towers. I know. Do you deal all this shit out on a whim, or do you actually run it by a committee?”
“We’ve split off from everyone…but everyone reports to me in some way through Frank. How did you find…Frank…? Frank gave me up?”
“Yep. I believe old Frank is tired of taking orders from you and shit from me. He rigged it up so I’d kill you and another team would kill me. It didn’t work out. Was Tanus a real national security threat?”
“We have to take some bad with the good. Come on McCarty, you…you can’t be that naïve,” Ambrose blustered, starting to move around. “To get intel, we need bad men to get it for us, and bad men like you to end the lives of ones who cross the line. Now get the hell off me.”
“I like that,” Nick smiled, sealing the Senator’s mouth once more, as his knee dug in again. “Bad men to end the lives of the ones who cross the line. Works for me, Tony. Adios.”
“Sorry we had to leave so quickly, Danger,” Nick told Jean, sliding in behind the steering wheel and looking back at the little girl with her ever present lap dog.
“It’s okay, Nick.” Jean shrugged. “I’m getting to like this traveling. We get to stay in different cool places. Too bad it’s so hard to find places that’ll take Deke.”
“It usually just takes a little extra money.” He started the Escalade.
“Are we going to Washington D.C.?”
“Why would we go there?”
“To meet up with your friend, Frank.”
Nick feigned surprise. “I’m shocked at you, Rachel. I think you’re getting a little bloodthirsty, my dear. We can’t just flit around the country, hunting poor dupes of the government/media complex down on a whim. You are a monster. Shame on you.”
Halfway through his performance, Jean was giggling, and Rachel’s mouth had dropped open in actual shock. Her eyes narrowed suddenly. She punched Nick’s arm.
“Okay, good one.” She leaned back, arms folded across her chest. “My daughter seems to know when you’re making fun of me faster than I do. How sad is that? Now, where the hell are we going, and do you think I’ll ever get the job at your friend’s café in Pacific Grove?”
“That’s our goal.” Nick steered the Cadillac out onto the road. “We’re heading for Sarasota. I’m hoping to be in Missouri before we call it quits today. We’ll take Danger to the best hotel we can find. You and Deke should be entertained enough with the portable Playstation and DVD player, right Danger?”
“Sure Nick, but we are going to stop to eat, aren’t we?”
“Yep. But I’d like to be out of Colorado when we do. We’ll stop the moment we get into Kansas. As for my old buddy, Frank, we’re going to play a little game with him and buy some time. I’m going to wait for his call and -”
“Pretend you’re coming after him,” Rachel interrupted, grabbing Nick’s arm. “You are such a monster. He’ll be going nuts wondering when and where.”
“Is this my plan or yours, Miss I’m Going To D.C.?” Nick glanced at her with an award winning look of annoyance. She’s good. “Yes, I’m betting Frank has to pretend he doesn’t know anything about anything. It will be impossible for the weasel to simply take off, especially when they find the surprises we’ve left behind. He knows I would arrive in a roundabout fashion, so who knows how big a dragnet he’ll put out for me between Colorado and D.C.? If I convince him I’m coming, he knows I’ll recon every possible item in his life. He will indeed be preoccupied with my arrival-enough so he will pull his resources out of Sarasota.”
“Leaving us to deal only with the thugs we expected before.”
“That’s the plan. I figure we can take our time once we split off for the South.”
“You’ll have to be subtle and not openly threaten him. If…what?” Rachel laughed, seeing the quick glances she was getting from Nick as she lectured him on the obvious. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to insinuate you don’t already have every detail of your conversation with Frank planned out, Master.”
“Very well, you’re forgiven, young Jedi.” Nick glanced back at Jean, who had her Playstation already out and headphones on. “I figure the room-temperature Senator will be discovered very soon. It’ll be interesting to hear how the cops play it out with what I left them. Frank will know instantly, which will lead him to try and make immediate contact with 'Beavis and Butthead,' who are also at room-temperature. I’ll bet he doesn’t have any assets in the area to clean up the mess either. Although I took all their personal stuff, you can bet their DNA and fingerprints are on file somewhere. They’ll be looking into that scene very closely. I believe he’ll be calling right around the time we stop to eat.”
“Those guys… the sniper team…do -”
“Don’t go there, Rachel,” Nick cautioned. “They were paid to take us out. We’re driving toward Kansas because we were better.”
“You were better.”
“When you told me to hold up at the door, I was going in. Chances are, without my spotter, I’d be dead. You can bet ‘Beavis and Butthead’ had skills. Don’t short change yourself. If all goes as planned, you and I may develop into one of the best teams around.”
“As long as we don’t raise Jean up in the family business, I’ll go where you go.”
“Hey, don’t limit your daughter’s potential, Mom.”
“Not funny!”
“Calm down.” Nick laughed. “Hell, you figured to be dead by now.”
“We’ll never really be safe after this, will we, Nick?” Rachel reached over to put a hand on his thigh.
“No one is really safe. Many times, having value means greater safety. If we make it through this, we’ll be quite valuable. Unfortunately, it may mean I won’t be able to put a bullet in that prick Frank’s head for a while.”
Later, Nick exited for gas and a pit stop off Route 70, in a town called Brewster, past the Colorado/Kansas border. As he drove toward the indicated gas station and restaurant his satellite phone vibrated next to him. He grinned over at Rachel, who was shaking her head.
“Now that’s timing.” Nick saw Frank’s ID on the digital readout as he picked up the phone. “Assassins R Us, Nick speaking, how may I direct your call?”
“I know what you’re thinking, Nick,” Frank said.
“No, you don’t.”
“You’re wasting your time. You’ll never get to me.”
“Why…whatever do you mean, Frank?” Nick asked in a lilting voice. “Has something happened to make you think you’re in danger?”
“I…I have to hand it to you. They think Ambrose had some kind of attack. They’re hushing it up because of the mistress waking next to him with no idea what happened.”
“Gee, that works out really well for you, Frank. Maybe you were a little shortsighted in your cleanup idea.”
“Small damn doubt about that. Jesus! You can’t really be coming to D.C., Nick. You’re not that stupid.”
“Now see, I don’t really think of a nice trip to the nation’s capital as stupid. I consider it kind of a vacation-or even an adventure.” He pulled off the road for a moment to finish the call, with Rachel watching him closely.
Frank's voice came across as slightly panicked. “What can I do to make this right, Nick? I’m really in a position to help you.”
“How sweet, you’re going to help me now.”
“Don’t be an ass. We can work this out.”
“Let me think about it for a couple weeks, Frank. Maybe you’ll be around when I make the decision-or maybe not.”
Nick ended the call and steered onto the roadway again.
“How we doing?”she asked.
“Five by five, Rach, five by five.”
Rachel checked the speedometer once more, glad for the cruise control. It had taken them over ten hours, with stops for gas and food, to get across Kansas. Every time she had taken the Escalade off cruise control and operated the gas pedal manually, Nick had been forced to nudge her back down to seventy miles per hour. He kept reminding her that the last thing in the world they needed was to be stopped for speeding. After an hour of driving, seventy seemed like twenty on the highway. I’ve had about as much of the amber waves of grain as I can take without going stark raving mad.
“Did you say something?”
“I’m sorry.” She met Nick’s gaze. “Did I curse Kansas out loud?”
“It feels like you age a couple years driving through here, doesn’t it?”
“I kept glancing back at Jean the last half hour expecting her to be a teenager.”
He laughed. “She and Deke are good travelers.” Rachel saw him glance back at Jean, who was again dozing off. “They sleep when they can and play when they can. I’m glad Jean thought to get a Frisbee when we stopped. Did you know Deke was a champion Frisbee player?”
“It was a surprise to me. I guess we should have tried him out with balls and Frisbees before this. Work, eat, sleep, and life slips by without a stir. I noticed the goofy dog sleeps with his head on the damned thing now.”
“Deke’s grown quite attached to it.”
Hearing his name, Deke looked up with the black Frisbee in his mouth, gave it a few chomps and put his head down again.
“The border’s only five minutes away…thank God! Where do you want to stop?”
“I’ve been to Concordia before when Kansas has worn me out. It’s not far from the border. We should be there by seven. We’ll stay at the Day’s Inn, off of Route 70. They allow pets and Danger will like the indoor pool and hot tub. I know I will.”
“Sounds wonderful. I’ve noticed it doesn’t take much to make you happy.”
“These days, we have to take the good times where we can get them. Didn’t you like our stay in Denver?”
“Too much tension,” Rachel admitted. “All I could think of was what you were going to do and whether we’d ever make it out of there alive.”
“Okay, then this drive through Kansas was pretty nice, right, relatively speaking?”
“Gee, where was that count your blessings crapolla three hundred miles ago when I could have used a pick me up?”
“It looked like you were having the time of your life. We’ll check in separately again. I’m glad I had time to get a Colorado driver’s license for you. It makes checking into hotels a lot easier. This day and age, they need your life history even when you’re paying cash for the room.”
“I was surprised how fast you managed to get my false ID. How did you get the license, Nick, or is that need-to-know?”
“An old friend. We hadn’t seen each other in years. I have quite a few contacts across the country, but none I trust more than Jake. He does it professionally, so you can bet you’re listed in Colorado’s DMV as Jane Austin.”
“I liked the name you picked out.”
“I was surprised you’d read Pride and Prejudice. I figured you more for one of those Thomas Hardy fans.”
“Not likely.” She shook her head slightly with obvious distaste. “I read Jude the Obscure in college. I nearly committed suicide afterwards.”
“My thoughts exactly.” Nick chortled in agreement.
“You must trust the false ID guy implicitly.”
“I saved his life in the first Gulf War when we were just kids. Jake doesn’t ask and he doesn’t tell. It’s the first time I’ve asked him for anything. You should have seen his face light up. We’ll go see him under better circumstances. He hasn’t been to Pacific Grove in over seven years. Jake has a wife and three kids. That’s why I didn’t want to have a big meet up. No one knows we’ve kept in touch. I have to keep it that way.”
“Does he know what you do?”
“Jake thinks I’m one of the good guys.”
“So, you lied to him.”
“Exactly.”