Abomination (27 page)

“I believe you, Derek,” said Ryan, moving in even closer
to the man that could kill him with little effort. “I really do, but you need
to know something. I’m trusting you as well. My people are out there right now
risking their fucking lives to help you. You and I need to drop the bravado
bullshit and end this mess. You and I are going to end this so we don’t have to
worry anymore about the people we care about getting hurt. Can you do that,
Marine?”

Derek looked at the ground for a moment and then fixed
his eyes on Ryan. “Yes, I can. Come back here tomorrow morning after 8 a.m.
when Jennifer leaves for work. I’ll be here. I’m always here. Just walk up to
the creek bed in the backyard.”

“Okay, Derek, I’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks for not
breaking my neck.”

“Thanks for not shooting me in the face.”

Ryan sat in his car and watched Derek re-enter the house.
He backed out of the driveway absorbing the intensity of the last few hours. He
went from seeing old friends over dinner and drinks to being set up by a good
friend to be attacked by one of the most dangerous men on the planet. He
thought about how lucky he was to be alive. As he drove away from the house, he
reached down and picked up his untraceable cell phone. There were nine
messages. The last message, “
We’re on our way to the safe house,
” made
him stand on the gas pedal and fire up the blue lights.

It took him less than ten minutes to arrive. He parked
his car next to the sedan that had skidded to a halt on the sidewalk. There was
no movement outside. He popped the trunk and bolted out of the vehicle. He
grabbed his automatic rifle and leaped up the stairs to the front porch with
one step. He lowered his weapon when he entered the kitchen. He saw Dallas
sitting at the table with his head in his hands. Dallas slowly lifted his head
and looked at Ryan with swollen eyes.

“I fucked up, Boss,” said Dallas. “This is all my fault.
I really fucked up.”

“Where’s Tom and Michelle. Are they okay?” asked Ryan in
a calm voice, noticing the numerous bullet holes in the walls.

“Tom’s on the back porch. Michelle is upstairs.”

Ryan had never seen Dallas so distant and disconnected.
He was relieved to hear Tom and Michelle’s location, but he needed to put his
eyes on them. He slowly walked up the stairs. He saw more bullet holes in the
hallway leading to Kristina’s room. He turned the corner and saw Michelle
sitting on the bed. She lifted her head and looked at him and then turned her
eyes to the bathroom. Ryan felt an unusual pain in his chest. He knew what
might be in there but tried to clear the thought from his head.

He put his hand on her shoulder as he passed. He stood
in the bathroom doorway and deflated. Lying against the bathtub, Scott Wilson
with a back full of bullet holes was covering another body. They were sitting
in a large pool of blood. He took a step inside to get a better look at the
body he had been protecting. As if they were frozen in time, Ryan saw Kristina
wrapped in Scott’s arms. She was dead.

The wall of the small bathroom kept Ryan from falling to
his knees. Kristina’s face was covered in Scott’s blood as well as her own. He
could see a large bullet hole in the top of her head. Several more holes among
the blood spatter were in the tile wall behind them. The men who killed them
wanted to make sure the job was complete. There was no mercy.

He slowly slid down the wall until he was sitting
motionless next to them. Kristina’s head was cocked to the side with her eyes
still open. She was looking right at Ryan with a question. “Where were you when
I needed you?”

“I’m sorry, sweet girl,” whispered Ryan with a
tightening chest. Lying next to her hand in the pool of blood was her copy of
Treasure
Island
. He wiped what he could off the book with a towel. It only took a
few moments before the tight feeling in his chest turned to anger. He stood,
cleared his throat, and walked out of the bathroom to Michelle. “Why is Scott
here?”

“The real question is why you weren’t,” said Michelle,
defiantly. “We’ve been trying to reach you for over an hour.” She stood up with
tears in her eyes.

Ryan lowered his eyes to meet hers and asked her again.
“Why is Scott here?”

“He told us Colonel Brown and Alex knew where she was
and they were planning to take her tonight. Donaldson ordered us to an assault
briefing because they had a location on Derek and Joshua. We told Steve’s men
to move her and then we went to the briefing to maintain your facade, but there
was no briefing. We were set up by our own fucking boss, and Scott led them
straight to her. He obviously was in over his head.”

“Scott brought them?” asked Ryan, confused.

“Yes, he brought them,” said Michelle, gritting her teeth.
“Since you don’t believe me, go ask Tom.”

Ryan left the room and found Tom staring off into the
backyard. Tom didn’t notice him walking up behind him. He put his hand on his
shoulder, startling him.

“Ryan,” said Tom, “Glad to see you’re okay. I thought
the worst. I thought we were going to find you here as well when we couldn’t
reach you.”

“Michelle said—“

“Oh, yes, here,” said Tom, handing him a small GPS
transmitter. “They always make a mistake. They always leave something behind
letting us know who they are. I found this on Scott. He led them right to her,
Ryan. He played us.”

“I’m tired of getting played, Tom,” said Ryan, fighting
back his emotions. “The gloves are coming off and I’m not putting them back on
until this is over.”

Holding the bloody copy of
Treasure Island
, Ryan
stood alone on the front porch. He was thinking about the story he overheard
about Kristina’s father beaming with pride while his little girl was reading to
him when he was sick. Ryan didn’t have any children, but he imagined all the
hopes and dreams her father must have had for her. Hopes and dreams any father
would have for his child. He had never met the man, but Ryan felt an
overwhelming sense of guilt for letting him down.

He had only known her for a few weeks, but he couldn’t
ignore the significance of the impact she had on him. It was obvious she was
highly intelligent and driven in her career, but what he remembered most was
her walking into the bookstore in Baltimore with a beaming smile and childlike
excitement. There were very few days Agent Ryan Pearson wished he didn’t work
for the FBI. The day he met Dr. Kristina Anderson, he very much wished he was
just a guy in a bookstore running into a beautiful face.

As he rubbed the dark red stain on the leather binding
of her book, Ryan did his best to try and keep himself at a safe distance from
the rage. He knew the emotion had claimed the lives and careers of many before
him. It was critical for a man in his position to remain objective at all times.
The moment he wavers will be the moment he puts everyone else in danger and
gives the men responsible exactly what they need. And what the Colonel needed
was for Ryan to become angry, confused, and to make mistakes. He knew the agent
was already on his heels. He also knew killing Kristina would put him on his
knees. Ryan’s untraceable phone alerted him to an incoming call.

“
Are you at the safe house?”
asked Steve
.

“Yes,” said Ryan. In spite of the deaths, both men knew
work needed to be done immediately.

“
First things first. More of my guys will be there in
a few minutes. They’re going to recover the men I lost and sanitize the house.
Do you want them to take Kristina and the rat?”

“No,” said Ryan, trying to maintain his composure.
“Recover your men, but I’m leaving Kristina and Scott where they are. As soon
as your team is gone, I’m going to call the murders in to my boss.”

“
I’m not following you.  He’s going to wonder why
you’re there in the first place. If you stay, you’re basically telling him you’ve
been hiding a fugitive. Didn’t you say he sent another FBI team to find her?”

“Even though he’s dead, Scott’s going to help me one
more time,” explained Ryan. “I’m going to tell my boss Scott found out where
she was hiding. I’ll say my team and I were on our way to verify her location
and set up surveillance. When we arrived, we found them dead. Unless he wants
to implicate himself, he’ll have to play along.”

“
Not bad. It’ll explain why your team’s fingerprints
are all over the place.”

“
How long will it take them to figure out the
blood inside the house is from your men?”

“
I seriously doubt they’ll ever find out. My guys
operate on the fringe. We make a point to erase any fingerprint, DNA or
military files associated with any of my men. I basically turn them into ghosts
when they start working for me. I hate to say it, but I do it for situation
just like this.”

“Okay,” said Ryan, pausing. “Steve, I am sorry about
your men. I know you guys are a pretty close group.”

“
It’s okay, Ryan. This is the way our world works.
Most of the time we hurt the bad guys, but every once in a while we have to pay
the piper. If anything, I should be apologizing to you for failing the mission.
I know she was more than a material witness to you.”

“
Is the mission over?” asked Ryan.

“
That’s your call. You know where I stand. I will tell
you this: My mission isn’t over until I put six feet of dirt on every prick
making the choice to kill my men. The real question is, where do you stand,
lawman?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here,” said Ryan. “But I
need you to bring someone with you. We’re going to need a rat of our own to get
inside the Michaels Lab.”

“
I read you loud and clear. I’ll see you in a few
hours,”
said Steve, ending the call.

Several cars and SUVs pulled up to the house as Ryan put
his phone in his pocket. Without the need for much conversation, Steve’s men
quickly removed their fallen comrades and cleared anything from the house that
would identify its occupants. They were finished and gone in less than fifteen
minutes.

 Ryan asked Dallas for his cell phone and notified
Deputy Director Donaldson that they had found Kristina dead. The deputy director’s
only question was if his team was okay. He even made the comment that it
probably was Joshua or Derek who killed her. Ryan took a moment to think about
what he would do when he finally came face to face with the man that was
helping Colonel Brown. He handed Dallas his phone and sat at the kitchen table
with his friend.

“This wasn’t your fault, Dallas,” said Ryan, breaking
the uncomfortable silence. “I should’ve moved her the first time they tried to
take her. We’ve been played since this mess started and –”

“Don’t even, Boss,” said Dallas, standing. “I’m smarter
than this. There’s no fucking excuse for what I did. That woman is lying up
there dead because I was an idiot. I should’ve seen it coming. I really am smarter
than this. I fucked up. Plain and simple.”

“Sit down, Dallas,” ordered Ryan. “I need you to listen
to me, okay?”

“I’m listening.”

“Is your head clear? Are you still with me?”

“Of course I am,” responded Dallas. “I just know you
cared about her and I –”

“That isn’t what I asked,” said Ryan, cutting him off
and leaning in closer. “I’m asking if you’re still with me on this, or are you
done?”

“I’m with you,” said Dallas. He’d been with Ryan long
enough to know when he was going to step into the grey area between the laws of
man and the laws of nature. He had no idea what Ryan was planning, but he
welcomed the opportunity for redemption by the man he respected above all
others.

“More feds will be here any minute,” said Ryan as
Michelle and Tom entered the room. “I’m telling them I received a call from
Scott pointing us to this house as Kristina’s hideout. When we arrived, we
found them exactly as they are upstairs. Are there any questions?”

“Where were you?” asked Michelle again.

“I’ll tell you later,” said Ryan, hearing the arrival of
the agents looking for Kristina.

They were questioned briefly by the investigators before
being allowed to leave. It was business as usual and nobody suspected Ryan had
been hiding her for almost three weeks. He knew it would be the last time he
would ever see her face, so Ryan slowly walked upstairs as his team waited
outside in the front yard. He knelt beside Kristina and took her hand in his.
He looked around to make sure no one was near. He stared into her lifeless eyes,
allowing his rage to feed. It only took a few moments to take him to the dark
place he needed to find.

With his resolve galvanized by his anger, he finally
lowered his guard. It was his last chance to talk to her.

“I’m not sure if you have any idea how beautiful you
are,” whispered Ryan. “I was hooked the second you walked into the bookstore.
Even though you were dressed down with your hair up and glasses way too big for
your face, nothing could hide that smile. It was brilliant. For a few seconds,
I actually forgot why I was there.

“It’s always been difficult for me to think about having
someone in my life. But with you, it was easy. I even practiced how I was going
to ask you to dinner after all this was over. Crazy, huh? I was positive you
were going to say no, but I had to at least try. I’m so sorry I let this happen
to you. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to protect you.”

Ryan swallowed hard, trying to force down the lump in
his throat. He didn’t realize he was crying until he looked down to see one of
his tears fall on her arm. He watched as it slowly rolled off her skin and
splashed into the pool of blood on the cold tile floor.

He closed his eyes and forced himself to imagine her
terror and fear as men who knew nothing about her brought unthinkable violence.
He pictured her scared and trembling on the bathroom floor, powerless to stop
the advance of the monsters standing over her. He squeezed her hand while he
thought about her last breath before the bullets exploded into her body. He
wanted to feel every ounce of the fear they forced into her. He wanted to feel
every ounce of the pain they inflicted on her. He wanted to remember every
detail. He wanted to remember so he’d know exactly how much to give back to
them.