Nick didn’t like Jim. But he knew Jim liked Brooke. When Zeke’s message made it to Jim, telling about how Kimber had taken Brooke hostage, Nick knew he would use whatever powers he had at the FBI to help. Nick only hoped he wouldn’t need it. Not here with Kimber at least. The attack that Nasir Samara was planning might be a completely different story.
The sun was just coming up over the capitol, so it was quiet around the street they landed on. The neighborhood was full of townhomes, and all of them were covered in a light snow and a smattering of festive decorations. Kimber hoisted Brooke to her feet as he held his gun to her back.
“Don’t make any sounds. I will shut you up if I have to.”
Brooke didn’t respond. She just let Kimber lead her to the edge of the sleigh where he stopped abruptly. He took a second to look around, seemingly to see if anyone were watching, and a sly smile grew across his smug face. He reached into his pocket, then he and Brooke disappeared. The cloaking device worked to cloak anyone in a one foot radius of the fob. That’s why Brooke went invisible with him. Zeke must have explained this to Kimber because before they were cloaked, Kimber had wrapped his arm around Brooke’s waist and pulled her close.
There was just enough snow on the ground to see Brooke’s footprint as she stepped down from the sleigh. Kimber’s immediately followed. No sound came from them; not even the squeak of a shoe. The cloaking device continued to blow Nick’s mind. He stepped down behind them and followed the appearing footsteps to the front door of the red-brick townhome. A man wearing a black ski mask opened the door for them—probably yet another corrupt agent—and Kimber and Brooke reappeared. Nick understood right then that Kimber had texted ahead and told this agent to wear a mask. Kimber hadn’t forgotten the ASE could see all if it dialed in. The masked agent jumped back in shock when Kimber came out of nowhere. Nick couldn’t see his facial expression, but his body language said it all.
“Pretty cool, right?” Kimber said. Then both of them stepped inside.
“Unreal,” the agent at the door responded.
The agent was still bewildered, and that gave Nick the opportunity to rush through the door as the agent marveled at The Amazing Kimber and his beautiful blonde assistant. Nick’s combat boots squeaked loudly against the tile floor as he stopped himself from running into Kimber’s back. It was absolutely mind busting that they couldn’t hear it—pure magic—and Nick danced quickly around the two agents before the man at the door ran into him from behind. He could see a bit of mud streak from his shoes so he stopped in his tracks and took them off. He wasn’t going to let residue be the thing that blew his cover.
The first floor of the townhome looked completely normal upon entering. Ten-foot ceilings, open floor concept, the kitchen to the left, open to the living room to the right. That was where the normalcy ended. Instead of a couch and a TV, there were workstations set up. Four desks with two monitors atop each of them, and a man sitting at three of the four of them. All three of them wore masks, and they were all looking at Agent Kimber and Brooke, which was freaking Nick out, because to do so, they were looking straight through him. Nick walked over to the far right wall to take in the scene.
Never in the history of US intelligence, or any other agency throughout the world, could an agent actually be a fly on the wall. It was one of the most worn-out cliché statements in combat—wishing you could be a fly on the wall during an enemy’s meeting. Now, there Nick stood, ready to take it all in; absolutely no one the wiser.
Kimber pushed Brooke along and sat her in a seat at the small dining table that separated the kitchen from the living room.
“This is Brooke, she’s FBI. She won’t be staying with us long. And in case you didn’t notice, I got the cloaking device. It’s actually real.”
Kimber pulled the fob from his pocket, pressed the button, on-off, on-off, appearing and reappearing like he was a hologram. The men in the room marveled.
“All right, enough fun,” Kimber said as he put away the fob. “Time to get down to business. Has he arrived yet?”
“Twenty minutes ago,” a masked man at the first computer station in the room answered.
Nick’s adrenaline spiked a bit. If they were talking about Nasir, Nick was actually going to get a chance to take him down himself. It would be a Ranger’s dream to take down any terrorist leader, but for Nick, it meant so much more. Six years ago, he led a team into Nasir’s camp in Afghanistan. Just as Nasir had inside information this time from Kimber and Andrews, he’d had inside information that a team of Ranger’s were moving in. And it cost Nick seven of his twelve-man team. Including his closest friend in the world, Ricky Thompson. Worst of all was that Nasir wasn’t even there. A video surfaced a day later of his ugly mug taking credit for killing so many of the elite US combat soldiers. Much like Santa––Nick supposed—Nick had put Nasir’s name on a list. It wasn’t the naughty list, of course, but if the list did have a name, the word kill would be somewhere in it.
“Okay, is everything set? You let him know I am here? Because I messaged him as I was leaving the North Pole, but haven’t heard back from him.” Kimber said.
“Everything is ready to go.”
“All right, don’t say another word. Shut this down and move out. This place has served its purpose, but now it is burned.”
19
Nick looked on from the wall of the townhome turned intelligence center—invisible as the wind. He was ready to take them all out, but he wanted to get as much information as he could about the attack Nasir was planning. It could mean saving hundreds of lives. If Kimber was dumb enough to talk about it. Either way, Nick was ready. He already had his finger wrapped around his Beretta’s trigger as he held it down by his side.
“What do you mean this place is burned?” the masked man at the computer said to Kimber as he stood. “How? Were you followed?”
“Yes, but not in the way you think. They can see everything. That’s the reason you have masks, so they won’t have your identities if something goes wrong. This Nick, he might be dialed into the all-seeing device and watching right now. That’s why we are leaving right now to head back to the North Pole to take every scrap of technology they have. With the cloaking device, and the All-Seeing Eye, we won’t need guys like Nasir Samara anymore. Every rich guy in need of a mercenary crew will be beating down our doors. That is, of course, if we don’t sell this stuff to the highest bidder. It could be worth billions.”
“We’re not going to give the device to Nasir?” the man in the mask asked.
“Didn’t you hear what I said? It’s worth billions. And it’s unguarded. The five of us here can easily go and take it now.”
“But you didn’t kill the Army Ranger while you were there? We’ll have to deal with him.”
“Nasir said we needed someone to show us how it all worked, that’s why he wanted him alive. I could easily have killed him, but I wasn’t sure about taking the technology for ourselves yet.”
“Okay, what changed your mind? How do you know this will work?”
“The ride here changed my mind. As silly as it sounds we can be anywhere we want in minutes with this sleigh. Undetected. The sky is literally the limit. This place at the North Pole is so remote, they’ll never find us. And by the time they maybe could, we’ll have it set up like a fortress.”
Nick couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Kimber had made a lot of changes in his plan since seeing how the ASE worked. Nick had done the same when he saw it, but he wanted to use it for good. Kimber obviously had other intentions, and Nick had to end things right then and there. Kimber’s next words made him pause.
“What about Nasir? Won’t he come after us?”
“Just shut everything down here. I’ll take care of Nasir when he gets here.”
Kimber’s masked agent let out a satisfied laugh.
Nick wanted to be the one waiting for Nasir, and he couldn’t let Kimber take a single step outside this house. Nick couldn’t put the North Pole, and more
importantly, all of its technology at risk for another second. He had to end this threat right here, right now.
He didn’t get the chance.
Before the sound of the suppressed weapon registered, the back of Kimber’s head disappeared. There was a new masked man standing at the entrance to the back hallway. Several more shots from his suppressed gun popped off, but Nick didn’t see who they hit. He raised his Beretta and shot the masked man who’d just killed Kimber three times in his chest. Then it was pure chaos.
Brooke’s scream echoed above it all as she dove under the table she’d been sitting beside. The front door burst inward, and several more men came running in. Nick looked to his left. Two of Kimber’s men were still alive, and the unsuppressed gunshots blasted into the air. Nick and Brooke were caught in the crossfire. He dove to the ground and Army-crawled toward the table Brooke was hiding under. He grabbed her arm, cloaking her, and the fear on her face shifted to a terrified look of relief. He pulled his legs under himself as he covered her with his body. There was nothing he could do but wait. He couldn’t risk her getting hit. He’d already put her in enough danger.
The gunfire continued for a few more seconds until the rest of Kimber’s team was down. Nick pulled his head back far enough from Brooke so that she could see his face. Then he mouthed the words stay down. She shook her head no and grabbed at him to stay. Before Nick could make his move, he looked over her shoulder and saw a man with goggles over his eyes, bent down, pointing his gun at Brooke’s back.
In a Middle Eastern accent, the man said, “Drop the gun, Santa, or I’ll blow the back of her head through the front of yours.”
Nick could tell the goggles were infrared. Though the man holding the gun couldn’t see Brooke and Nick, Nick knew he was picking up their shapes through thermal imaging. Nick had no choice, he had to drop the gun, because there were five other men in the room now, all pointing their guns in his direction. Adding insult to injury, Nick knew this was Nasir Samara: the man who murdered half his team—his brothers—six years ago, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“All right. Don’t shoot.” Nick laid his gun on the hardwood floor and pushed it out from under the table.
“Now, in slow movements, turn off the cloaking device.”
Nick’s mind was racing, searching for a way out. His ace in the hole was that Nasir not only didn’t know how to work any of the technology, which was why he needed Nick. Nasir also didn’t know how to get the sleigh to take him back to the North Pole. Normally, Nasir wouldn’t even have known where the sleigh was, but his infrareds couldn’t miss eight warm-blooded reindeer standing out on the street on a cold winter day. He didn’t have many options, but the one thing he could do was ensure that Nasir didn’t get on the sleigh. Not immediately anyway.
Nick reached into his pocket and felt the fob in his hand. He thumbed the front of it, feeling the top button, which turned his cloaking device on and off. He pressed it, hoping that would make Nasir lift his infrared goggles for a moment, giving Nick time to press the second button while his goggles were off, so he wouldn’t see the sleigh leave the street.
“All right, I did what you asked. Now let her go.”
Nick looked over Brooke’s shoulder and watched Nasir lift the goggles. It was the first time he’d looked the monster that ambushed his team in the eyes. He had to swallow the rage that moved like a tidal wave over his body. It was a win that Nasir removed the goggles. He knew there might not be another win for a while, so he had to take advantage of this one.
“Now the fob,” Nasir said. “Toss it over to me.”
As Nasir spoke, Nick ran his thumb down to the second button. On a car, this would be considered the panic button. Jack had explained that sometimes Santa would have to move the sleigh before he could get back to it. He said that Santa couldn’t always land on a roof, and sometimes something would be about to walk into the sleigh while it was cloaked so he had to put this button on the fob for those instances. When pressed, the reindeer would feel a vibration on their harnesses. They’d been trained that this meant for them to go back to the stables at the North Pole. When Santa pressed the button again, they would come back to the location of the fob.
Nick hadn’t actually seen this happen. He’d never pressed that button to make them leave. All he could do was press and hope, and that was what he did. He had to hold it for three seconds—a safety against an accidental press. You had to hold it three seconds to bring them back as well.
“The fob!” Nasir shouted.
Nick held it for an extra second, just to be certain, then tossed the fob from under the table, and it slid over to Nasir’s feet. That was it, Nick was officially out of moves. Now he and Brooke were at the mercy of a terrorist. Nick knew what that meant for him. An Army Ranger and American patriot like him would most certainly end up on a video with his head being removed. What he didn’t know, and what he had to fight against now, is what they might do to Brooke.
20
Nasir bent down and picked up the cloaking fob.
“Stand the two of them up,” Nasir ordered his men.
Two men dressed in black walked around the table and yanked Nick and Brooke to their feet.
“Your first test, Mr. Santa,” Nasir smirked.
A flame of adrenaline sparked inside Nick. He felt like a pit bull on a leash, just waiting to get the chance to attack. But there was nothing he could do. Yet.
“How does it work?” Nasir said. “Lie to me, and she gets hurt. I don’t have much time, so don’t play games.”
Nick decided it was best to give him what he wanted. “Okay, but to get the full effect, you should stand in front of a mirror.”
“So I can see myself disappear,” Nasir said.
“That is if you even have a reflection.”
Nasir shot Nick a look. Nick could tell Nasir didn’t get the vampire joke.
There was a mirror behind Nick at the end of the dining room table. Nasir walked over and stood in front of it. Nasir could see himself from the waist up. Nick could see even better now that he was an ugly son of a bitch. His olive-yellow skin was his best feature. His dark, deep set eyes were hideous, and the ski-slope disguised as a nose was just disgusting.
“Press the top button,” Nick said. “Anything within a foot of you will go invisible.”
Nasir was almost close enough to reach out and touch. Nick knew he could get to Nasir and kill him before his men could react. The problem was that it would leave Brooke completely exposed.
Nick watched as Nasir stood in the mirror, and he could tell he was getting frustrated.
“I told you not to lie to me. This button isn’t working!”
At first Nick couldn’t understand what the problem was. Then he remembered that they hadn’t been able to find Nasir on the ASE. And the reason the cloaking device wasn’t working for him right then was the same reason Nick and Zeke couldn’t find him on the ASE.
“Turn off your jammer. Then it will work,” Nick said.
A wry smile grew across Nasir’s scraggily bearded face. He dug inside his pocket and tossed a small, black square object on the table. There was a short antenna jutting from the top of it. Nick had seen these many times before. It was a radio jammer. Just as Nick had suspected back in the warehouse.
Nasir turned back toward the mirror, then he disappeared. A second later, he reappeared, and he was laughing. There was astonishment in the room. It didn’t matter what kind of dark soul you had, the invisibility cloak had the ability to bring the innocent child out in you.
Nasir pressed the button a couple more times. Disappearing and reappearing with delight. Then he put the fob in his pocket, and the resting bitch face that Nick assumed he always wore returned.
“Good, you passed.” He looked at two of his men by the hallway. “Get the car ready. Two of you might be taking the woman.”
Nick didn’t like the word ‘might’. He knew in terrorist speak that it meant she was going to die.
Nick didn’t give him the satisfaction of a reaction.
Nasir walked over and stood right in from of Nick. “All right. You are one for one. Now for test number two. If you pass this one, I’ll let her live.”
Nick knew he was about to ask about the second button on the fob. He couldn’t tell him the truth about that one. But he was going to have to sound convincing in the lie. Nick nodded.
“The second button?”
Nick didn’t hesitate. “A distress signal.” Short and sweet.
Nasir laughed. Nick couldn’t decide whether that was good or bad. When Nasir reached in the pocket of his black pants, pulled out a gun, and pointed it at Nick’s head, he supposed then that it wasn’t good. Nasir stopped laughing.
“Does it look like I have time for jokes? What is the button for?”
Nick had heard somewhere that if you are going to lie, commit to it. If he was going to die right here, he wasn’t going to half ass it. “It’s what I said, a distress signal, but not in the life or death way you are thinking.”
No reaction from Nasir. But he did move his gun from Nick’s head, over to Brooke’s.
Nick continued, “They put it in place so that if Santa ever got stuck in a house or separated from the sleigh, he could press that button and it would relay his exact location. That’s all. Nothing exciting.”
Saint Nick Page 9
