by C. G. Cooper
Ponder couldn’t find the words to speak. He’d used every ounce of his skill to cover his tracks.
“I’ll bet you’re wondering how I found you.” Cal smiled and turned toward the living room. “Why don’t you come in here, Neil?”
Neil Patel walked gingerly on a new prosthetic device. Assisting him was the blond-haired sniper, Daniel Briggs. Nick Ponder’s mind screamed. He was in Pakistan tracking down that damn Benjamin. He’d hoped to somehow kill the Pakistani and re-kidnap Patel. It looked like the double-crossing raghead had lost his prisoner too.
“Double surprise, Nick. I’ll bet you thought your buyers had Neil hard at work by now,” said Cal.
“How?” Ponder managed to ask.
Now it was Neil’s turn to grin. “While you had me shutting down that power plant, I planted a program on your server. It not only infected and tracked that computer, but it also sent all the information about everything you hold electronically back to our servers in Tennessee. The minute I had access to my laptop we started tracking you. We’ve been reading every email you’ve sent and listening to every phone call you’ve made.”
“Not too bad, huh?” Cal asked. “We figured you might be coming to get your money back from the Pakistanis. It would’ve been easy to take you at any time, but ‘ol Snake Eyes over there,” Cal nodded toward Daniel, “thought we should wait and see how your investigation progressed.”
When Ponder didn’t respond, Cal continued. “Nick, now you’re gonna tell us what you found out at your whorehouse meeting.”
Ponder felt like a fool. Already disgraced and dead broke, tomorrow was supposed to be his chance for payback. Not even a week before, he’d been so sure of himself. He was supposed to be on some exotic beach drinking all day and screwing all night. Now he didn’t know what to say. Ponder shook the helpless feeling away. His confidence returned when he remembered that he was dealing with Goody-Two-Shoes-Stokes’ son. They might rough him up a bit, but he’d been through worse.
“You can go fuck yourself, jarhead.” Ponder grinned at his comment.
Cal shook his head. “Go get Higgins.”
Daniel left the room to make the call to the battered van on the street below. Two minutes later, Dr. Higgins walked into the bedroom with a leather medical bag.
+++
As with the FBI agent and the traitor, Ponder talked soon after the drugs took hold. Cal now had Benjamin’s location. He’d instructed Higgins to administer the reversal drug that would bring Ponder back to normal awareness. Dr. Higgins nodded to Cal when he felt Ponder was back to his old self.
“Thanks for your help, Doc.”
“Anytime, Calvin. I’ll be in the van.”
Higgins left, surrounded by four robed SSI security staff.
Cal turned back to his prisoner. “Well, Nick, now that we have what we need, we don’t need you anymore.”
“What are you gonna do, kill me?” Ponder laughed.
Cal stared back, unblinking. Instead of responding, he pulled out a pistol with a suppressor screwed onto the barrel and stepped up to the bed.
“Come on, man. I’m sure we can work something out,” Ponder offered.
“We have Neil, the money, and the buyer’s location. Tell me what you might possibly have to offer, Nick.”
The comment shook Ponder’s bravado.
“You have the money?” he asked.
“Oh, didn’t we mention that? Because Benjamin had Neil use your computer, we easily tracked the money and took it. So you see, Nick, we don’t need you anymore.”
Ponder’s eyes went wide, his mind finally comprehending the danger. He’d underestimated the Marine’s ruthlessness. Before he could respond, Cal extended the pistol and fired two rounds into Nick Ponder’s face.
“That was for Brian.”
Chapter 42
Hanna Lake, Balochistan Province, Pakistan
6:37am, October 2nd
Benjamin relished his early morning rowing on the nearly empty lake. Rowing was a passion he’d picked up while studying at Oxford University nearly twenty years prior. He didn’t like much about the Brits, but he appreciated their love of history and sports like cricket and rowing.
After being on the lake for close to an hour, he had worked up a good sweat. In a country where physical fitness was uncommon, Benjamin was a rarity. He never overindulged and, unlike the majority of his countrymen, Benjamin never smoked. His lithe body was a testament to his dedication. There was always the occasional newcomer that would laugh about his workout routine, but that reaction was always their last. The jokester quickly learned that Benjamin’s physique was the least of his worries. There was a reason he’d become one of Pakistan’s leading terrorists.
This morning’s row was especially important because it gave him time to think. His current predicament was aggravating, but did little to unnerve the unflappable assassin. Not only had he lost his entire team, he’d also lost Neil Patel. The only satisfaction he’d received after the berating from his masters was finding out that someone had apparently stolen all the money the Pakistanis had stolen back from Ponder. Luckily, Benjamin had nothing to do with the technological aspect of the operation. Some poor Pakistani geek was probably already dead for failing to protect their masters’ funds.
A plan was starting to form in his head as he pulled his racing shell up to the small dock. Standing up, one of his bodyguards handed Benjamin a towel.
“Any phone calls?” asked Benjamin.
“No, sir.”
“Good. Pull the car around. I want to go home.”
His three bodyguards trotted off down the road while Benjamin finished drying himself with the towel. Throwing on an Adidas windbreaker to ward off the chill, he stretched as he waited, still mulling over his options. The master terrorist still didn’t know who had stolen the funds and where Neil Patel had ended up. It bothered Benjamin that a new enemy had somehow ambushed him and probably ended up with Patel. None of the feelers he’d put out had yet to find any of the information he needed.
Benjamin finished his stretches and wondered what was taking his men so long. They’d parked just up the road. He decided to walk down the road and meet them on the way.
After a minute of walking, the car still hadn’t come his way. Benjamin cursed himself for not having a weapon. He was getting too lax in his supposedly safe surroundings. Coming around a bend, he spotted the armored black Audi A8 parked on the side of the road. He could hear the smooth engine purring. What are those fools doing?
Because the vehicle had blacked out windows, Benjamin couldn’t see inside. Moving cautiously around the vehicle, he made his way to the passenger side. I’ll kill these idiots if they’re looking at porn again.
He’d been forced to find new bodyguards after losing his most loyal men days before. Reaching out a hand, Benjamin went to open the rear passenger-side door.
“Hello, Benjamin,” said a voice in English.
The Pakistani whipped around, dropping into a protective crouch as he spun. Standing with his hands casually pointing a rifle at him was a man with brown hair and a sly grin. He’d apparently materialized from the tree line next to the road.
“Who are you?” Benjamin asked.
“I’m surprised you don’t know, Benjamin.”
He stared at the man dubiously.
“I assure you that I have no idea. It seems that you have the upper hand.”
The man nodded. “That’s true.”
“If you know who I am, I can also assume that you know I am a man not to be trifled with. My men will be here any second.”
The stranger laughed as if he were the only one privy to a secret joke.
“I’m afraid your men won’t be coming to your rescue, Benjamin.”
Benjamin’s eyes narrowed.
“Go ahead and take a look in the car.”
“Are they dead?”
The man shrugged. A chill ran down Benjamin’s spine. How did he get to my men? This was his territory.
He owned every roadblock and soldier in the area.
It would be unfair to say that the terrorist was afraid. He’d been in too many battles to be frightened by death. It would be accurate to say that Benjamin was concerned. No one had ever gotten this close to him in nearly twenty years. He still bore the scars from the interrogation he’d received at the hands of the Pakistani Intelligence Service.
“How did you do it?” asked Benjamin, now casually leaning back again the sedan.
“It turns out the big wigs in your capital don’t like you much. Sounds like you’ve been a thorn in their side for years. They were more than happy to give us safe passage. That, plus a little cash went a long way.”
“So you’re here to kill me.”
“Not me.”
“Who then?”
The young man motioned to the tree line behind him. Benjamin looked and saw a figure emerge. His eyes went wide as the second man limped out.
“Surprised to see me, Benjamin?” asked Neil, as he stepped up next to Cal. He stood with obvious discomfort on a new prosthetic. Neil held a pistol in his right hand.
Benjamin shook his head in disbelief. He could not believe that his countrymen would sell him out to the Americans. After all he’d done for them.
“I supposed there is no way out of this,” he asked.
Neil took a second to respond. “I can think of one way.”
Benjamin couldn’t hide his surprise. “And what would that be?”
“Apologize for my parents,” growled Neil, tears coming to his eyes as he spoke.
Would it really be that easy? These Americans are all alike. Weak, thought Benjamin.
“Very well,” Benjamin shrugged. “I apolo…”
Before he could finish the word, Neil raised the suppressed weapon and pulled the trigger twice. The rounds blasted into Benjamin’s chest. He slid down the side of the car and ended up on his ass, clutching his wounds.
Neil limped over to the dying terrorist, his pistol never leaving its target. Benjamin looked up at his enemy in pain.
“Apology not accepted,” said Neil.
Before Benjamin could utter another word, Neil fired a single round into his head.
Chapter 43
The Lodge, Camp Spartan, Arrington, TN
1:35pm, October 5th
Cal, Neil, Daniel, Travis, Trent, Gaucho and Dunn sat in the weathered leather chairs of the VIP lounge. Each man held a full glass of Tennessee whiskey. They’d just returned from a whirlwind of funerals for their men killed in Wyoming, including Lance. It had been a sobering journey for each of the assembled seven.
MSgt Trent raised his good arm, the other still in a sling, and called a toast. “To the brave men who have gone before us.”
Every man raised a glass in silent salute and took a heavy pull from their whiskey.
Cal stared into his glass, thinking about his lost friend Brian Ramirez. He couldn’t get the picture of Brian’s weeping parents out of his head. They’d hugged him like he was family when, in fact, he’d never met them before.
“Brian told us how much he loved his new friends. He spoke of you often, Cal, and considered you a brother,” Mrs. Ramirez had said between sobs. He’d held her and wept, the pain finally pouring out over the loss of his friend.
They’d exacted revenge on Ponder and the Pakistani terrorists. There was no one left to kill. It was the inner demons that would take time to fade. Like every man in the room, Cal had lost friends before. He knew there was a grieving process. Cal felt that it got harder with age. Maybe it was a finer sense of one’s own mortality and an understanding of the fragility of life.
The bartender, a crusty old Marine Sergeant Major, woke Cal from his reverie.
“Can I get you boys another?”
Everyone looked to Cal for a cue. For some reason he couldn’t explain that despite the deadly rescue in Wyoming, every man in the room, including Travis and Dunn, now looked to Cal as their commander. It felt strange, but his years in the Marine Corps had showed him that even the lowliest Marine can be elevated in status through his actions on the battlefield. Unbeknownst to him, Cal’s swift tracking and killing of Ponder and Benjamin had cemented him as their leader. In their eyes, Cal was his father’s son.
“I think I’ll finish this and take one for the road, Sergeant Major,” answered Cal. The others nodded in agreement and quietly went back to finishing their drinks. They would talk later.
After receiving their refills, the men said their goodbyes and left to get some much-needed rest. Travis followed Cal to the elevators.
“Can I do anything for you, Cal?”
“I’m okay. I think I’ll just get some rack time and then get back to work tomorrow.”
“Why don’t you take a few days off? There’s nothing that can’t wait.”
Cal shook his head. “I need to stay busy right now, Trav. I’ll go stir-crazy if I take time off.”
Travis understood. He knew the pain his cousin was feeling.
“Fair enough. Why don’t we grab breakfast tomorrow morning and then we’ll come up with a game plan.”
“Sound good.”
Cal stepped into the elevator as Travis paused to answer his cell phone. He motioned for Cal to go up without him.
Cal pressed the button for the second level and waited for the doors to close. Just before they slid shut, Travis’s hand stuck in and bumped the doors back open. His face had gone serious.
“What’s up?” Cal asked.
Travis extended his cell phone to Cal and said, “It’s the President.”
+++++
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Table of Contents
“ Back To War”
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
“Council of Patriots”
Chapter 1 Washington, D.C. 10: 35am, September 11th
Chapter 2 Turks and Caicos, Providenciales Island 9: 00am, September 13th
Chapter 3 Washington, D.C. 10: 40am, September 13th
Chapter 4 Las Vegas, Nevada 11: 30am, September 13th
Chapter 5 Turks and Caicos, Providenciales Island 12: 02pm, September 13th
Chapter 6 Camp Cavalier, Charlottesville, VA 7: 45am, September 14th
Chapter 7 Camp Cavalier, Charlottesville, VA 8: 39am, September 14th
Chapter 8 Las Vegas, Nevada 2: 48am, September 16th
Chapter 9 Camp Spartan, Arrington, Tennessee 7: 37am, September 16th
Chapter 10 Las Vegas, Nevada 7: 52am, September 16th
Chapter 11 Falls Church, VA 1: 46pm, September 16th
Chapter 12 En-route to Las Vegas, Nevada 1: 29pm, September 16th
Chapter 13 Washington, D.C. 2: 10pm, September 16th
Chapter 14 Las Vegas, Nevada 3: 16pm, September 16th
Chapter 15 Las Vegas, Nevada 7: 40pm, September 16th
Chapter 16 Las Vegas, Nevada 9: 30pm, September 16th
/> Chapter 17 Las Vegas, Nevada 7: 08am, September 17th
Chapter 18 Camp Spartan, Arrington, TN 12: 16pm, September 17th
Chapter 19 Outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada 8: 25pm, September 17th
Chapter 20 Atlanta, Georgia 11: 49pm EST, September 17th
Chapter 21 Las Vegas, Nevada 11: 03pm, September 17th
Chapter 22 Las Vegas, Nevada 6: 47am, September 18th
Chapter 23 Las Vegas, Nevada 9: 12am, September 18th
Chapter 24 Memphis, Tennessee 9: 15am, September 18th
Chapter 25 Eighth & I, Washington, D.C. 9: 22am, September 18th
Chapter 26 Las Vegas, Nevada 9: 52am, September 18th
Chapter 27 Tampa, Florida 11: 02am, September 18th
Chapter 28 Las Vegas, Nevada 11: 11am, September 18th
Chapter 29 Las Vegas, Nevada 12: 28pm, September 18th
Chapter 30 Las Vegas, Nevada 1: 34pm, September 18th
Chapter 31 Las Vegas, Nevada 3: 05pm, September 18th
Chapter 32 Las Vegas, Nevada 3: 17pm, September 18th
Chapter 33 Las Vegas, Nevada 4: 42pm, September 18th
Chapter 34 Washington, D.C. 8: 42pm, September 18th
Chapter 35 Las Vegas, Nevada 8: 45pm, September 18th
Chapter 36 Las Vegas, Nevada 1: 30am, September 19th
Chapter 37 Las Vegas, Nevada 5: 02am, September 19th
Chapter 38 Las Vegas, Nevada 6: 15am, September 19th
Chapter 39 Las Vegas, Nevada 6: 50am, September 19th
Chapter 40 Las Vegas, Nevada 7: 01am, September 19th
Chapter 41 Las Vegas, Nevada 7: 11am, September 19th
Chapter 42 Las Vegas, Nevada 5: 00pm, September 19th
Chapter 43 Las Vegas, Nevada 11: 36pm, September 19th
“Prime Asset”
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
