Agent for a Cause (The Agents for Good) (19 page)

The meeting went on and it became clear that the planning of such a worldwide coup would take a few days in the preparation, which I objected strongly to but was overruled. I just wanted to save Kevin, but the board was now dead set on eliminating the whole enemy group.

Chapter Thirteen

The Iceman

It was a hard four days on both Anna and I. She hardly slept at all and well I rarely slept much anyway. We were in Prague and waiting for night to come on the fourth day. Anna had insisted on coming, but I had made it clear that she would remain a safe distance from the action.

Anna had been helping me dress for the last hour in our room. Chantry had done his part to see that I survived the coming fight. I was wearing several million dollars worth of the most cutting-edge protective gear ever made and no one would have ever known it.

The body armor went on in skins that were repeated over and over, but despite the many paper thin layers of armor I still had a complete range of motion and as the operative who had dropped the armor off had said, ‘It breathed like Egyptian cotton’.

I just hoped I got to keep it after this, because it was already making me feel better about my chances of survival.

I checked myself in the mirror and tugged on the white suit coat a little, “That should do it don’t you think, Anna?”

My eyes shifted to her weary face and she held out the white fedora hat and I took it from her. It was heavy for a hat, but just my style. I put it on at a slight angle the way I liked it.

“How do I look?”

“Like my white knight in shining armor.” She responded and I smiled glancing back at her.

She wasn’t smiling though and my smile fell off my face as I could read what she was feeling. I hugged her to me and her arms squeezed tightly around me.

“I love Kevin and I love you! I want you both!” She said crying into my chest.

I kissed the top of her head as my hands rubbed her back, “And God willingly you shall have us both. Now stop this crying. Soon you’ll have both of us and then we are going to go away for a very long vacation somewhere warm.”

“You promise?”

“I promise! Now I have to go Anna. You’ll be able to see when they get Kevin from the control room from their head cams.”

She nodded, but I had to practically pry her arms off of me. She let go suddenly and grabbed my face and we kissed for a long moment.

Her eyes were stormy as she drew back, “Now you come back to me Nikolai Gravitausky!”

“Yes Mrs. Gravitausky.”

And then I stepped away and out the door to make my way down the hall.

Anna stood in the doorway and watched her husband go.

“Oh God why does this have to be like this?” She whispered, as she felt cold fingers of icy dread squeeze around her heart as she watched her lover disappear down the hall.

Maria stepped out of her room poised on top of the stiletto heels that the long plain ordinary trench coat failed to hide. She clicked her way up to Anna and shared her view of Tyre’s departing back for a moment before she reached out her hand and squeezed Anna’s shoulder.

Anna looked over at her not bothering to wipe the tears off her face.

Maria’s face gentled in a way most people never saw, “Ever seen your man in action honey? I mean real action.”

Anna shook her head, “No, not really, I guess.” Anna said in response.

“Well, let me tell you, it’s something to see! Did he ever tell you how he came to join the agency?” Maria asked.

“If you mean about Chantry shooting him and then nursing him back to life then, yes, he did.”

Maria looked back at the departing Tyre for a moment, “Chantry once told me that hunting down Tyre was the hardest and most dangerous endeavor he had ever encountered in his life. Your man eats entire drug cartels for breakfast and while many men couldn’t take down a rave hall packed with doped out gun rockers, he can! We call him the Iceman. Me and my girls will be there to make sure he doesn’t get shot in the back, while he’s taking out the trash. He’ll come back Anna.” Maria said, as she squeezed Anna’s shoulder once more and then moved off down the hall after Tyre.

“Maria.”

Maria stopped and turned back to Anna her face inquiringly curious.

“Come back yourself Maria!” Anna said.

Maria’s white teeth showed in a smile of acknowledgment at Anna’s caring for her.

Out of sudden curiosity Anna asked, “What do they call you when you’re not around?”

One of Maria’s dark eyebrows rose and her smile deepened, “I believe the term Ice Queen has been applied to me a few times.”

She turned back around and was soon gone. Later Anna would go to the mobile control room that the agency had set up, but for now she would pray.

I stepped into the van that would take us to the rave hall. It was about 11 o’clock and things would be heating up in the rave hall by now. I heard a whistle before I saw its origin. It was Galloway.

He came up shaking his head with his usual goofy grin in place as his eyes took in my suit. He pulled one flap of my coat back to the side and glanced around to my back under the coat.

He whistled through his teeth again, “Whooee! You take the expression ‘dressed to kill’ to new levels little buddy!”

I positively hated it when he referred to me as ‘little buddy’, but I never let him know it because it would only inspire him to use it more often than he already did.

Chantry looked me over approvingly, “Well here’s to hoping that this new experimental and might I add highly expensive fabric, is all it’s cracked up to be! Don’t get it dirty!”

He finished with a chuckle and I barely avoided the childish gesture of rolling my eyes.

“Oh Tyre? Little buddy?”

Galloway was pestering me about something and I reluctantly turned back to him, “Yes?”

Galloway launched right into his spiel the picture of exuberance, “We all heard about how your house exploded in a volcano and oh by the way what a cool location! Way cooler than mine I have to admit! But anyway hearing all about that and given your stellar past of agent excellence I thought a song might be in order.”

Oh no!

Came the silent dread filled thought as I heard his words.

“Now relax Tyre it’s not like the last one, which I admit was a bit cheesy and you’ll be happy about something else to!”

“Will I?” I asked with my tone expressing no optimism whatsoever.

“It’s not a country song this time.”

I waited for it.

“It’s more of a hard rock kind of power ballad song, if you know what I mean.”

I groaned and turned to leave, but he grabbed my arm.

He held up a flash drive triumphantly, “I just got the file back! A buddy of mine in that vein of music did a quickie for me to get some basic lyrics hammered out. It’s still not quite polished given the rush, but I think it’ll do!”

“Do what?” I exclaimed, but Galloway was lost in the process of plugging the drive in and playing whatever horrible monstrosity had been concocted upon it.

He proved that he’d heard me though when he said, “Why so you can have a theme song playing to go along with your Saturday Night Fever impersonation.”

“Theme song! Are you serious Galloway?” I exploded, but the song was already playing with deafening cadence within the tight confines of the van.

I cringed as the notes played out.

Finally it was over and I was about to let Galloway have it when Chantry said, “You know that’s actually not that bad given the field of music that it belongs to.”

Galloway positively beamed with pride at what he took as, rarely given, high praise. Shocked beyond words I turned on Chantry as I fought to frame the excoriating words I felt rising up in me in response to the embarrassing song.

“Now Tyre you have to admit that this is one of Galloway’s finer musical composing’s and having a theme song to change the beat of the place up some might not be such a bad idea.”

“You call that chaotic corny screeching, music? For the love of the arts don’t call it that!” I fairly shouted out.

Chantry shrugged as a smile played across his face, “Music can be different things to different people.”

He half turned to a widely grinning Temple Boone, who sat at the van’s controls.

“Patch the song into the sound system once Tyre’s in action.” Chantry said authoritatively.

I turned back to Galloway and with dark intent I said, “I’m going to make you regret this many times over Galloway!”

Galloway was wiping tears of mirth away from his eyes as he responded, “I don’t care what you do! This is going to be absolutely priceless!”

I gritted my teeth and stalked out of the van feeling completely embarrassed and I hated to be embarrassed. It made me so angry!

The moment Tyre was gone from the van Galloway and Temples jovial faces turned completely serious as their heads swiveled to Chantry who was still smiling.

Temple asked Chantry, “Do you think he bought it?”

Chantry nodded, “Oh I would say so. He’s mad as ever right now at the prospect of being embarrassed in front of so many fellow agents, which he desires respect from, more than anyone else.”

Galloway looking puzzled asked, “Tell me why are we trying to make him mad?”

Chantry responded, “Anger makes most men sloppy and overreach themselves, because of the passionate state of mind they are in, but Tyre is different. He was born in a hell on earth place and it was anger that he fed on to survive.

It was anger that he embraced in order to become the coldhearted killer that he was as a young man. Since doing good deeds and meeting the love of his life much of that foundational anger has left him. I thank God for that, but tonight he needs to be cold, merciless and as deadly as ever. In short he needs to be angry.”

Temple looked back at the monitors in front of them. He had hijacked all the security camera feeds from the rave nightclub. The screens showed the club packed tight with the young bodies of mostly teenagers and young twentysomethings.

The massed youth twisted and ground against each other to the tune of strobe lights their doped out senses lost in the euphoria of the wantonness of their actions. Temple shook his head as he viewed the packed house, “God forgive us!”

“Amen.” Chantry said quietly in response.

Galloway’s lips quirked up slightly, “Catchy tune anyway. Wish I had written it.” He said as he listened to the theme song replay through a headset he’d put on.

It was after one o’clock when I crossed the litter strewn street towards the innocuous looking door of the nightclub. Maria and her team were already inside and everything was set. I had no doubt that they would come in handy, but in some ways I would be alone in the packed club.

Even now Flint and several other agents were infiltrating into the Iron Wills headquarters building, which was directly adjoined to the nightclub. I strode past the tattooed, barely clad, youth standing in line waiting to get inside.

The muscle bound bouncer grasped my arm hard. I let my eyes trace up the restraining hand to directly stare into the brute’s eyes. He must not have liked something he saw there because he let go, as if his hold on me had become too hot to handle any longer.

“Have a pleasant night, Sir.”

I gave him my most chilling smile as I tipped the corner of my hat to him. He stepped back as I moved past him into the nightclub.

A tattooed floozy gave me an interested go over before indicating that I had to pass through a body scanner, which I complied with. Her lascivious eyes flew from me to her screen as it beeped out at her warningly. I watched her eyes grow wide with shock, as she turned from the screen to gaze up at me.

I held up one finger to my lips, “Shhhh!”

She screamed.

Oh well it had been worth a shot. Two enforcers from opposite corners ahead stepped toward us as their hands reached inside their jackets. My favored pistols slipped into my hands as I cross drawled them out from my shoulder harnesses under the coat.

They each puffed once their silencers among the quietest available on the black market. As the two men fell I have turned and one gun puffed again at the man who had stepped out from a security booth in the wall near the door.

Turning back to the petrified woman cowering down in her seat beside me, I shook my head as if to say, “Should’ve been quiet.”

I tipped my hat up to look at the security camera that was focused in on me. I put a bullet square into the little red flashing light. Now the enemy would both know that I was here and who I was, but more importantly Flint now had the go-ahead to start busting doors down in search of Kevin, because the party was coming to me.

I exited the short hall before me and looked down the steps into the packed rave hall below. The place had once been a warehouse, but it had been converted into this flashing den of iniquity to help feed the excesses of a generation gone wrong and eager to spend their stolen grandma’s cash.

The hall stretched out before me from the base of the steps down to the dance floor. The sides were decked out with dancer pads for exotic dancers, who flexed to the insane beat of some tune gone wrong. Back into the sides were lounges where other activities were done and all the innocence of youth was lost.

Lights flashed in a dizzying array throughout the hall in an epileptic’s nightmare fantasy of hell. If I ever caught a child of mine in such a place as this I’d throw them in their room and lock the door and throw the key away.

No child belonged in such a place of wanton abuse and yet the place was packed full of them. Had parents ceased to care or had wickedness grown so much as to reap such an unholy harvesting of young lives that had decided it was better to run away and play than to work and have joy?

A door burst open halfway up the side of the old warehouse wall and men with guns spilled out onto the catwalk becoming the first of many. I opened up on them as I began to make my way down the steps to the dance floor below.

Some of them managed to get off some shots, but they were ill aimed. I holstered my empty pistols as I reached the floor. I pulled out a slim assault rifle that was strapped to a weapon harness on my back under the coat I wore.