Sweet Dreams (38 page)

already been tagged and will be brought in alive for questioning, any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

Just as Johnny was wrapping up, Solomon walked in and took the floor. He looked concerned and avoided eye contact with the group. "I have some new information I think you all should know before you go on this mission," He looked up and took off his glasses.

"We just learned that General Karjanski has kidnapped two others. We learned this information from Agent Seloent, who we picked up thirty minutes ago,"

Mark could feel his stomach tighten; it was never a good thing when Solomon was acting nervous. He tried to clear his head as Solomon went on.

"The two that were taken are very close to me and Mark,"

He looked up and into Mark's eyes. "It's K and Sam, Mark,"

The world went white and for a second or maybe more Mark felt like he was losing his mind and might never come back from it. He stood up with a look of fear and anger in his eyes.
No, it can't be them, this has to be a mistake. I saw
them only a week ago.
Marks mind flooded with a million thoughts of what could be happening to his family and tried to see if he could see them, maybe force a dream so he could see if they were okay.

"I'm so sorry, Mark, we'll get them back." Isis put her hand on Mark's shoulder.

Mark sat down and looked up at Solomon. His training took over as his heart slowed down to a normal beat. He knew he had to be strong for them...for his family.

Mark nodded for Solomon to go on.

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"Okay, we think they were grabbed last week sometime and are being held in the same building as Detective Weston. Our mission is now one thing, and only one: Top priority is K

and Samantha. We are to ensure their safety at any and all cost. Second is Weston, he is someone we need on our side. We are on the clock now people, this is a rescue operation. If we come in contact with either of the two targets, take them out, but don't go looking for them."

They were dismissed, and everyone headed down to the main
Taxi
room. You could access around ten different locations from the New York headquarters and fifteen more throughout the City at different safe houses.

Mark was scared but tried not to show it. He could not understand why his family was taken.
How do they know who
I am?
He wasn't connected to this Russian or anyone involved.
Is it a random thing?
Mark didn't think so. He thought this had to be a direct hit against him. Isis smiled at him and tried to show her support as she suited up for the hour ride on the
Taxi of death
. She called it that due to the fact that, if anything went wrong, you would be dead before you knew what hit you.

Mark was soon suited up, and the four looked at each other without saying anything. They all knew their parts, and what was at stake. With a nod, Mark climbed inside one of the tubes and soon was on his way to the most important mission he would ever go on.

He had lost his family once and was not about to lose them a second time.

________________________________________

356 AARON

BLOOD RAN DOWN KIRK'S face from a large cut above his left eye. The beating was severe, but he still cursed and spit at his attackers. They wouldn't know how much he was hurting; they wouldn't break him!

All he could think about the last few days was the woman and little girl he had helped.
Are they okay? Did they make it
out?
He hoped they had. The only thing that kept him alive was the possibility of escape and making sure they were okay. He hadn't been looked at as a hero in a long time, and the look on her face when he opened their cell door was worth every beating he had endured.

Looking up from his empty cell, he stared at the open door and the light in the hall beyond. It seemed so easy...just walk out the door. He knew it wasn't so simple. The cell floor was littered with broken glass and sharp metal shavings, and the hallway had the same thing for a hundred feet in all directions, the hundred feet to freedom. It was a cruel joke and the two masked men who scattered the glass and metal laughed and seemed to be having a grand old time, as if this was their only entertainment.

His feet were bare and had been cut open with razorblades so even without going anywhere his feet were bloody and swollen. Every step would be enough to make a strong man pass out from the pain. They mocked him and left the door open, just to see if he had it in him to try to escape, he was sure that they were waiting for him just down the hall. As Kirk sat in the middle of his cold cell, he tried to work himself up to make another try for it. He had been stripped down, was naked and bleeding from his hands and feet.
Come on, man! You never give up, NEVER!

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________________________________________

K SAT WITH HER new automatic weapon lying across her lap and a bad feeling in her gut. She went over in her mind what she was going to do when the guard woke up. She had never killed anyone before and supposed that it would be hard for anyone.

How did I get into this? She thought as Sam turned over and began to wake up with a little yawn. This was the last place she had ever thought she could end up.

I won't die here, not now...

Sam opened her eyes, and K put her finger over her lips and smiled. Sam knew that she was supposed to be quiet. She was such a brave little girl. K was proud of her and how she still smiled up at her, even though they were trapped with a lunatic sleeping just a few feet away.

Rising to her feet, she picked up Sam and moved to the back of the little shed. She wanted to hide her, just in case something went wrong.

"Now, you stay hidden until Mommy calls for you, okay?"

she whispered as she set Sam down. Sam nodded, leaned back against the wall, and hugged her knees.

"Good girl,"

K stepped around one of the grinding clunking pumps and looked at the gun in her hand. It had a silencer clipped to the side of the barrel. She figured that was what it was from watching CSI Miami with Mark every Thursday night.
I should be able to screw it on the end.

Pulling it free, she threaded it onto the end of the barrel. It was easer than she thought it would be and this made her feel a 358 AARON

little better. Sliding the action back, she loaded a round in the chamber with a click that she was sure had awakened the guard.

Peering around the corner, she tried to see if he was still sleeping.

The spot where he had been was
empty
.

Looking around wildly, she stepped out around the second pump just as one turned back on with a loud whirring sound. The noise made her jump, but not as much as the hand, that came around her mouth and pulled her down to the ground. The shock of the fall made her lose her grip on the gun. It went flying into the corner and a puff of dirt rose around it like a small tornado. Before she could turn over, she felt a kick to her side, which sent a shot of pain up her spine as she lost all the breath in her lungs.

Flipping over onto her back, she kicked with both legs and felt contact. Her attacker fell back, hitting his head on a metal pipe, which sent him to the ground with a thud and a grunt. K looked franticly for the gun, which was three feet away, but felt like one hundred miles. Leaping for the weapon, she grabbed it and spun around just in time to see the raging guard jumping for her. She pulled the trigger and closed her eyes.

Chapter Twenty-Six

up at K as she pushed him off her. She was breathing heavy and leaned over to throw up. She had never killed anyone or even dreamed that it would ever be something she would have to do.

Samantha came around the corner and looked down at the dead man lying on the floor. K ran and covered her eyes, but Sam looked up at her and pointed at the body.

"Bad man,"

K couldn't help a chuckle. "Yeah, honey, he is a bad man, but he won't hurt us anymore."

That seemed to make sense in Sam's little mind as she looked up to K for the next task of the day. K tried to think. It would be dark in a few hours, and then they could make a run for the gate or maybe try to get on one of the delivery trucks 360 AARON

that came in through the gates in the evenings.

"I'm hungry." Sam announced.

"I know hon, I'm hungry, too." K couldn't remember the last time they had anything to eat.

I wonder if this guy has anything on him.
After going through his pockets, she smiled at Sam and held up a packet of trail mix and a canteen of water. They shared the trail mix until every piece was gone. It wasn't much, but it would have to do.

K jumped up when the small hand-held radio squawked on the dead guard's belt. It was in German or Russian; she couldn't tell. They sounded urgent, and K knew what that meant.

They would be coming after their missing guard. ________________________________________

MARK OPENED HIS EYES and tried to see the broken landscape out the window but all he saw was K's face. His watch said it was early evening. Yawning and looking out the window, he couldn't help but worry. They had made it to Puerto Rico early that morning. After a long ride in a beat-up old Jeep Cherokee and then switching to a station wagon for the final trip through the interior of the island, they were almost to their checkpoint.

The Taxi had put them on a part of the island farthest from where they wanted to be, but it was still faster than taking a plane and a lot less headache. Guns were frowned upon on airplanes, anyway.

Isis hit him on the arm and smiled. "How you holding up?"

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"Okay, considering--any news?"

"No, just that our FBI informant cracked and told us who else he had working for him."

"That's good news. Anyone I know?"

"Nope, just a CSI agent, and he ended up dead along with his wife, and that Geoff character who is a hired hit man connected with the Russian Mafia as well as the FBI."

Mark remembered the picture of the man. He must have been good to have fooled Detective Weston. From his file, he was a sharp guy and had solved more cases in the DPD than any other detective on the force. No one knew of his success rate though, due to his colorful personality.

"One thing that I don't get," Mark said, "why would they want my family? I'm not connected with them in any way. Do you think they know about my involvement in the WJA?"

"Not sure. That's one thing that confuses me, too," Isis looked up from her Palm Pilot. "At this point, I don't think it matters, we just need to get them back, and we will sort through the
why's
later."

Mark nodded and watched as they passed run-down houses and fields filled with workers picking coffee beans. It looked like a tedious job, and from the looks on the natives'

faces, they didn't seem to be enjoying it.

An hour later, they reached a small building made from old lumber and tin roofing material. A big, dark-skinned Puerto Rican man smiled and waved as they drove up. He looked like he could be Big B's brother.

"Welcome to the island, my friends. You have good ride, yes?"

They all nodded as they stretched, trying to work out their 362 AARON

cramped muscles. The inside of the shack wasn't much better than the outside. The floor was dirt, and the walls were uninsulated. A large wooden crate sat on the floor in the center of the room. Mark walked over to it and read the label on the top.

"
Bananas
,"

"Yes. It's our equipment. And it's the good stuff!" Big B

smiled and tore into the crate. The "
bananas
" were, in fact, submachine guns and sniper rifles. The folded up sniper rifle was tossed to Mark along with a scope and a few clips of ammo.

After the contents of the box were emptied, Big B was loaded up with mines, hand grenades and a few biological bombs. Isis had a machine gun and a belt loaded with throwing darts laced with a tranquilizer. Jamison smiled when he looked through his thermal glasses and tossed everyone a small earpiece that linked them all together. Jamison was the
lookout
; he was in charge of clearing the way and being their eyes and ears. Big B was the
groundkeeper
; he made sure that they had any diversion they needed and that their butts were covered in case of a problem.

Isis and Mark would go in hot. Mark had a long-range rifle, and Isis had short-range charges and the knockout power. Mark looked over his weapon, making sure everything was in place. His rifle could fold in two parts. In the full lockout position, it was loaded with a plastic bullet that was filled with a chemical. They called it
Liquid
Metal
. It was like mixing concrete powder with water, but in the body. The chemical would hit the blood stream and mix with

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incredible speed. In a matter of seconds, the victim would lose all motor skills and vision. The blood would carry it through the body and harden in less than ten seconds, leaving the victim stiff as a board. The best part was that the victim could not scream out or cry for help, making it the perfect weapon for this type of mission. Mark also carried a side arm, a fifty-round air gun that could shoot semiautomatic or full auto. The tiny darts had liquid explosives in them that would penetrate the skin and then explode within half a second. The only sounds that could be heard were the puff of air, and then a faint pop as the mini bomb scrambled the victim's insides.

Johnny Jamison went over the plan one more time as they all got ready to move in. They had to wait one more hour, until it was dark; then it was time. Mark was trying to hide his fear from the rest of the group. He wasn't afraid for himself, but for K and Sam. He couldn't bear to lose them again. ________________________________________