Tomahawk (12 page)

Chapter 9

"They'll be here soon enough. Why don't you try to get some sleep.  You go ahead and take the spare bedroom and I'll hit the couch."  Kinney told her as he stretched out almost touching her with his socked feet.

She recoiled.  "I'd rather wait up.  And you don't have to stay. I think that I am capable of keeping myself safe."

"Don't think so."  He laughed.  "If that pretty thing wakes up and sees you here, I think she just may make true about you sitting in the corner." 

"Please.  If you think she looks bad now, let her try something."  She snarled thinking of Tonya's previous insult.  How dare she!  That chick had no idea of what she could do, not only with a weapon but with her bare hands.  "I wish she would."

"I'm not a genie, but I'm sure that your wish can be granted."  Tonya limped over to the couch.

Kinney stood and came between the two women.  "Tonya, didn’t know you were up."

"I can't sleep forever.  When are the guys coming back?"  She rubbed her eyes, not even giving Melissa a second look.

Looking down at his watch.  "They should be coming back sometime in the morning.  Do you need anything?"  Melissa huffed and walked back to the couch.

Tonya’s busted lip turned up in a smile.  "Thank you, Kinney was it?" 

He nodded. 

"No, thank you.  Just gonna watch some television.

"Well if you need anything, I'll be out here.  Okay?"

Before she could walk back to her room.  Kinney's cell phone rang.  "Kinney."

"Hey, Kinney. This is Vic.  We are about to board the plane.  I need for you to get everything you can on a Steven Sanders."

"Is that our guy?"  Tonya's body tensed and Melissa sprinted to Kinney's side.

Kinney put him on speaker.  "Yeah, right now he is the one and only suspect in this.  I need for you to find out everything.  Get some eyes and ears on him."

"My computer is at your house.  I'll get it."  Melissa reached for her parka.

Kinney pulled her by the arm.  "No!  I'll go.  If he's still at the house, he doesn't want to play with me."

"Melissa, Kinney's right.  You stay there with Tonya," Victor said as they both rolled their eyes.  "We will be back in the next few hours."

"Hey, Mel." Melissa’s stomach flipped flopped at Ryan's voice.  "We are thousands of miles up, but I'm going to send you a picture of this guy.  Gives you a head start while Kinney is getting our set up."

"Sure."

"Tonya," Vic said.

She was crossing her arms and leaning against the door jamb,  "Yeah."

"We're going to get him.  You hear me?"

"Yes.  Thank you Vic."  She walked back into her room.

"I'll get everything. It won't take nothing but a second."  They both hung up.  "Now, you ladies play nice while daddy is away."

"Don't just tell me," Melissa replied.

"You're the one that I'm worried about.  I'll be back."  He was out the door before she could come up with something smart.

The sun was beginning to set and it was almost a slap in the face.  God could make something so magnificent, something that only He could do.  And here on earth, it had all but gone to hell.  I was hoping that the promise to Tonya would lift her sprits, and provide her some sort of relief.  But she sounded just as sad and unsure as when I left. 
"We are going to find this guy and we are going to kill him.  Not for Jake, but for Tonya," Drew said with a smile.
"Take a look. This is him."  Ryan turned his laptop over and the men stared hard and long at the man that had turned their lives upside down for the last 24 hours.
"Doesn't look like much," Drew growled.
"Tonya wasn't lying.  He looks like the guy that bags my groceries," I said.  Undeniably normal and average.  We continued to look at every nook and cranny of this guy.  The picture was from a military ID card.  "He had special clearance. Please God, don't tell me he was Special Forces?"
"This whack job couldn't be on our level," Ryan snapped.  "We would have heard of someone falling off the sanity wagon."
"In this plane, there is over thirty years of training.  But just like every other mark, we don't underestimate him.  He's been planning this for five years. He’s prepared.  He's done his homework on all of us.  He knows our weaknesses and our strengths.  If what Kinney says is true and Sanders was in my house, he didn't want to strike while we were there."
"Kinney would have killed him a hundred times."  Ryan said, sitting back in the air craft seat.  "So he knows us.  Once Mel gets her hand on a computer, we won't be at a disadvantage."
"We have an hour before we hit DC.  We go black when we down. No mistakes," I said. They nodded in agreement. 
For the first time in my military career, I had no fear.  I didn't know if this was a good or bad thing.  For the first time I wanted to kill, and I knew that I would enjoy it.

Victor's house was darker than death.  He crept up the back staircase.  Following the path of Sanders, he put his back against the wall and opened his eyes wide to adjust to the dark.  He didn't stumble or fumble through the house.  Kinney had made it his business to enter all of his 'employees' home when they were unaware of it. Kinney knew every crack of every floor board in every home where his people lived.  Knew their favorite foods, likes and dislikes.  He didn't allow secrets within his teams.  He is the almighty secret keeper.
Stepping over the last step that had a weak board, he saw the two computers sitting just how they had left them this afternoon.  His hand was still on his chrome plated Smith & Wesson. He continued to the kitchen, keeping his eyes open for any movement in the shadows.
He placed the monitors back into their cases as quietly as possible. Ears perked up.  He didn't dare go out the way that he came.  Kinney balanced the computers to walk out the front door.  That damn creaky door frame. If it wasn't for the small creak of the door opening, he wouldn’t have heard that he wasn't alone.
Kinney dropped the computers and put both hands on his weapon and spun.  He got one shot off. His arms fell at his side.  Kinney tried to register what happened. There was no pain, but there was something wrong.  In the dark, the shadowy outline of a knife handle stuck out of his chest.  "Means to an end, Agent."  Pulling the knife out would be a fatal mistake, he knew.  The gun was no longer firm in his hands. In the back of his mind, he heard it fall to the ground.  "You had to come back here. Didn't you?"  Kinney took his focus off the knife and out of the shadow of the staircase. Sanders approached.  He was cloaked in a dark shade of midnight. 
"They'll kill you.  They know who you are, Sanders," Kinney wheezed.
Sanders smiled as Kinney fell to his knees.  "That was the whole idea." Kinney tried to process, until he fell to his side.  He couldn't have his eyes closed for longer than a second. Then there was the overwhelming smell of gasoline.  Struggling to open his eyes, he watched the shadow dart from one room to the other pouring a flammable liquid.
Kinney blocked out the smell and focused on the aroma of Melissa's hair and how he would never smell it again.

Melissa’s right hand began to throb from holding her cellphone so tight.  "Come on Ryan, text me back." She said.  Kinney had been gone way too long.  She dialed Kinney for the fourth time and just like the three other times it had went straight to voice.  "Shit."  The urge to throw the phone in frustration came and went.
"Everything okay?"
Not even looking at Tonya.  "Nothing you would understand."
"Try me."  Tonya stood in front of Melissa on the couch.  "I can be a good listener."
"No thanks, Kindergarten teacher.  I think that I will be fine."
"Suit yourself."  Tonya started to walk away, then stopped at the entrance of her bedroom.  "If you really want to get his attention.  Ignore him."
"Since you feel compelled to start a conversation.  Ignore who?"
"Well, since you aren't dating Victor, you must have a thing for Ryan."
"Stay in elementary school." Melissa rolled her eyes and looked back down at the silent phone.
"Just saying.  Ryan likes girls that don't like him.  If you acted like you could care less about him, he will follow you around the world.  Just a word of advice, woman to woman."
"What makes you think that...I mean you think I want him or something?”  Melissa was screaming to herself to shut up.
Tonya came closer and leaned on the chair.  "I used to look at Vic the same way you look at Ryan."
"You mean Vic looks at you like that right now."
Tonya's smile faded.  "Too much water under that bridge. Like the Pacific Ocean under it.  Once this is over, believe me I will be eternally grateful, but it was a long time ago."
"You should know more than anyone that sometimes things from years ago can creep into your present.  And in the case of you and Vic, it may flood into your future."
Both women stood in silence over their own personal dilemmas.  "Shit, finally."  Melissa couldn't help but smile looking at the caller ID and seeing Ryan's number.  "Hey, are you sending over the picture?"
"I already sent it. Reception is spotty.  Check your email again. It should be coming through.  What do you guys have?  We'll be landing in the next thirty to forty mintues.”
"Waiting for Kinney to get back with my equipment.  He should be back in second."  She looked over to Tonya who gave her a nod.  "We'll see you in a second."  Then she hung up.
Melissa bit her bottom lip.  Tonya smiled.  "5...4...3...2...and 1." Tonya pointed to the phone and it rang.
"Yeah," Melissa said, trying to sound nonchalant.
"Um, everything ok?"  Ryan said, confused by her abrupt termination of his phone call.
"Yeah, we're good.  Like I said we will see you in a second.  Goodbye."
"Ok, well.  See you.  Bye."  He waited until she hung up the phone.
"Told you.  Now he won't be able to get enough of you."
"Damn, Kindergarten.  You know them well. Don't you?"  Melissa smiled down at her phone.  "Let me check this email.  Then you can tell me if this is the same guy that...came after you."  Melissa sat down and flipped through her phone.  "Damn the link is too big.  That's why I'm the computer person and not Ryan.  It's going to take forever for this to load."
"I know that you don't want to babysit me and all, but I just want to thank you for all you've done."  Tonya walked back to her room best she could.  "Look, I'm going to call some room service.  I know that you must be hungry.  Thank God for 24-hour room service."