Operation (23 page)

“Gas. They’re using tear gas,” Iliga said. “It would be quick and efficient in subduing the inhabitants.”

“Yet no harm to us,” added Dimitri.

“They know we would be in a resting state at this time of the day,” Iliga added.

“Ah yes, good point,” said Dimitri. “We would not have posed much of a problem. I see now. Smart, very smart.”

Minutes later they watched as the men that had been placed inside the home were led up from the shelter and lined up against the wall in one of the larger empty rooms. Dimitri noticed that the men’s coveralls were covered with black spots.

“They aren’t taking any chances,” Dimitri said as he pointed to the screen indicating the markings on the coveralls. “They have sprayed them with the elixir.”

Two new men entered the room and instructed the men to remove the masks.

“That one,” Dimitri said, pointing at one of the images, “can you zoom in on him?”

Andre placed his hand on a joystick type device and moved his hand. The image of the man grew larger.

“Just his face,” added Dimitri, “that’s all I need to see.”

Andre zeroed in on the back of the head of the man who was currently facing away from the camera. “Turn this way…” Dimitri muttered.

As if in response to Dimitri’s request, the man slowly turned to face the camera.

“Well that settles that,” Dimitri said, “The question of Commander Reese’s involvement has been solved.”

“Yet this doesn’t mean that he is a willing participant,” Andre offered, “was it not the same before?”

“Perhaps not in the end, but he was a willing participant in the beginning,” said Dimitri flatly as he returned his gaze to the monitor.

Reese’s face continued to stare at the camera as if he had just discovered it was there. He and another man moved toward the camera.

“Cut the feed,” Dimitri said, “they see it.”

Andre’s fingers slid across the computer keyboard. In a few seconds the monitor went blank.

“It is not traceable any longer?” asked Dimitri.

“No. All they may learn is the frequency of the transmission. It will tell them nothing important.”

“Good.” Dimitri said. He fell into thought for a few seconds as he remembered what he had decided the night before: To find Reese and learn what had created the connection he had felt.

“We have gone in a circle,” Iliga said breaking the silence.

“Yes it appears that once again our Commander Reese is looking for us,” said Dimitri, “that answers the question you posed earlier about our ‘friend,’ and seeking help from him,” he said to Andre.

Andre didn’t speak but nodded in agreement.

“It also makes a meeting with him more important,” Dimitri added. “We need to find out what is happening. Perhaps even take him back with us.”

“You don’t propose that we take him?” Andre asked.

“If we remove him, they will lose their expert,” said Dimitri.

“But that may also compromise our position,” Andre argued, “he is not looking for us, but the girls.”

“Are you sure? He’s smart enough to figure this out. If he didn’t know we were responsible for the removal of the girls before, he does by now. The men we planted in the house, as well as our surveillance will certainly make him suspicious.”

“But he still will not have any definite proof that points to us,” Iliga added. “Perhaps he is trying to avoid anything that points to us and pursue whoever took the girls.”

Dimitri looked toward Andre who didn’t respond.

“If I’m not mistaken,” Dimitri began, “it appears as if you two are trying to protect this man. Is that so?”

“Not protect,” Andre said, “just give him the benefit of the doubt. He did give us the opportunity to escape when he did not have to.”

“As well as placing himself in potential harm,” Andre added. “We should reserve any judgment until we know the entire story.”

I agree with both of you,” Dimitri began, “however I had already decided that we needed to find him.”

Dimitri was surprised at this mounted defense that Andre and Iliga had offered for this human. In all the time that he had known them, he had never seen such…humanity toward anyone besides their own kind. He wondered how Commander Reese had accomplished this.

“This latest occurrence just makes it more necessary. We will go to him tonight.”

“Where?” asked Andre.

“You know where he lives, correct?”

“Yes.”

“Then we will go there,” said Dimitri, “and pay a social visit on Commander Reese after he has had such a busy day.”

C
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F
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IX

“The operation was a bust,” Smith said into his cell phone. “It was a false front set up to divert attention. But it does reveal that whoever we are looking for are very intelligent and dangerous lot. If they were cautious enough to set up a fake safe house for us to find, this might be more difficult than we first imagined.”

“What are your thoughts?” asked Samantha.

“We don’t have much to go on and no real course of action outside of continuing the searches. But if whoever took the girls is smart enough to set up these safe houses, they understand the methodology we are using to search for them. We might just keep spinning our wheels breaking into house after house while they sneak out the back door.”

“Do you suspect inside involvement?” she asked.

“Possible. Are we really sure that there are no other…agencies involved with this?”

“Yes, I am sure of that,” confirmed Samantha. “So who looks promising?”

“My feelings keep turning back to Reese. He’s the one calling the shots right now and if he wanted to keep us moving in the wrong direction, he’s in the perfect position to do it.”

“Why? Why would he do this?” she asked. “You’re not making this personal, Mr. Smith, are you?”

“Of course not,” he said trying to keep his voice level. “Maybe he wants the inside track on the two girls. If he had them, he could turn it into a bidding war. He could become quite rich.” He knew he was giving Reese more credit than he deserved but it was a useful diversion that might keep the bitch happy and off his ass.

“I don’t believe money is the primary motivating factor for our Commander Reese.”

“Maybe not,” Smith agreed. “I don’t think he’s smart enough to pull it off anyway. But something just isn’t right about him. He acts like he’s above all this somehow. It’s like he’s on some moralistic campaign or something. Sometimes I just want to ram it back down his throat so he can choke on it.”

 “Are you watching him?” she asked.

“Yes. In fact I have something to follow up on tonight that might have something to do with him; this woman he’s been seeing might be able to provide us some insight.”

“Don’t move until you let me know what you have on him. I don’t want him to have any ‘accidents,’ do you understand?”

“Yes, but…”

“Did you not hear me?” she asked, her voice becoming stern and extremely coarse. “I don’t want him harmed in any way. Is that perfectly clear?”

“Yeah. Sure,” Smith agreed through clenched teeth.

“Good. I’ll be coming down there tonight. I have some things I need to attend to,” she said and then added, “Ensure that you keep an eye on things.”

The line went dead.

Smith pressed the end button on his cell phone.

“Shit! The bitch is coming here,” he muttered as he thought about his own plans of having some entertainment later which were now ruined. She would expect him to be on call every minute she was here. And this shit with Reese, this ‘kid glove’ approach was really starting to piss him off. He should have had an ‘accident’ a long time ago like the guy at the abandoned base.

“Well… I won’t touch a hair on his pretty little head,” Smith said aloud. His hand reached inside his jacket pocket and wrapped around the knife that he kept there. He gripped it tenderly the way a man might grip a lover’s hand in a show of affection. “But his girlfriend, now that’s another story. I know he’s hiding something and when I start taking his bitch apart, as I cut each limb off one by one, I’ll get it all from him. All of it before I kill her and then I’ll kill him too. Yes…that part I will enjoy immensely.”

He indulged himself in the feel of it and imagined how the knife would cut through the flesh and bone.

“Whoa…” he suddenly said and laughed realizing that as he envisioned his pleasure, he was becoming aroused. “Best save that for later.”

C
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F
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EVEN

When Reese returned to the base he grabbed a quick shower. Between the operation and the realization of what this was turning into, he felt like he had just run a marathon. The hot water helped to ease some of the tension, but not much. He dressed quickly and headed back to his office.

His route took him past the command center, so he stopped in to see if anything else had come up. Commander Pattoon had resumed his seat at the center of the activity and despite the bored look that indicated nothing new had been learned. Reese had to ask.

“Anything?”

“No. Still proceeding with the surveillance of possible places,” he answered without looking toward Reese. “Did you have fun on your outing?” Pattoon asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm and resentment. “How does it feel to have it thrown back at you when you’re supposed to be the expert?”

“At least I was there,” Reese shot back. He knew it was a childlike response but it was the best he could do at the moment.

“Makes me wonder,” Pattoon continued, “yeah…it sure does make me wonder how the hell you managed to get through the first assignment as long as you did without fucking it up.”

“You know what?” Reese said.

“What?” asked Ritter.

“The team, my team, might have been nothing more than a bunch of blood sucking creatures, but I knew that from the start. They didn’t hide that fact. You, on the other hand, are one of those slimy bastards that although you may not suck the blood out of living things, you’d wrap your lying lips around some general’s dick in order to get ahead. In my book, you’re worse than the creatures we’re hunting. They didn’t have a choice but you do.”

Reese didn’t wait for a response. He thought he better leave before he said anything else he might end up regretting.

“Well, Mr. High and Mighty, the information you wanted is on your desk,” Pattoon called still not looking in Reese’s direction. “I hope you like surprises.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” asked Reese. Pattoon didn’t say anything further. He kept his gaze on the monitors and away from Reese.

Reese closed the door when he entered his office and saw that Sam Barkley was sitting in one of the chairs. “Hey, Sam,” said Reese.

“You look mad enough to spit nails,” Barkley said. “Let me guess, Pattoon?”

“Yeah,” Reese said, “he’s a real work of art, isn’t he?”

“Sure is, he reminds me a lot of Commander Scott. The kind of guy that does whatever he has to in order to move up in the ranks.”

“Same mold,” Reese agreed. “Anyway, what’s up?”

“We believe we have the guy that developed the antidote for the elixir,” Barkley said.

“What? How did you find him so quickly?”

“You won’t believe this,” Barkley said smugly.

“What? Come on tell me.”

“I put an ad in the paper.”

“You’re shitting me?”

Barkley smiled a broad grin. “Yeah I know it was a long shot. But Smith’s idea of sending his people out to the pharmaceutical places was just too broad. They would have to go through personnel files looking for possible suspects that might do something like this and on and on. It would take weeks to find out anything. And I don’t think that this person has to be associated with a pharmaceutical place, he or she could just be intelligent enough to analyze what was in the elixir and develop a neutralizing agent. Would he need equipment? Sure, but not on any great scale. Hell, most colleges have what they would need to do this. So I decided to take along shot and see what came up.”

“And you think this guy is really it?” asked Reese.

“He has some interesting points in his story,” Barkley said in a tone that differed greatly from his earlier successful attitude. His gaze also turned more serious.

“Such as?” asked Reese.

“Oh, lots of things,” Barkley said. “Let me look at my notes, it’s in here somewhere,” he said as he handed Reese a small piece of paper. Reese unfolded the note and read the single line.

He understood the meaning of the note. Whatever Barkley had to say, he didn’t want it to be overheard. Reese felt his stomach seize as he wondered why Barkley had suddenly taken this approach. What had he learned?

“Sam, would you mind if we took a walk?” Reese asked. “I have a terrible headache and I could use some air, you can fill me as we take a little stroll.”

“Sure,” Barkley agreed. “It is a little stuffy in here.”

The two men got up and left the office. They walked down the long corridor that led to the exit of the building. Reese opened the door and the fading afternoon sunlight hit him in the face. They walked for several minutes without saying anything.

When Reese thought they were far enough away, he finally spoke. “What’s going on, Sam?”

“That’s my question for you, John?”

Reese felt his nervousness increase. Sam did not usually use his first name when they talked.

Barkley continued, “There is no doubt about this guy being the one who made the antidote for the elixir. At first I was skeptical because he’s kind of a strange one; he also has an expensive drug habit. He does freelance work at some of the local labs so he has access to equipment and to the drugs he uses. Anyway he responded to the ad in the paper. So I just confronted him and told him I knew that he had done the work. He sang like a canary just as soon as I promised he wouldn’t be charged with anything.”

“Okay, so why the secrecy then?” asked Reese.

“This guy might be the slime of the earth with his drugs and God knows what else he does on the side, but he’s no idiot. He videotaped the entire transaction,” Barkley blurted out. “Here is a photo of the man who had him do the work.”