He huddled in the corner, afraid to move, hoping against hope that the impact had killed her as well.
Then the back of the yacht shifted. Broken pieces of hull fell away and there she was, standing up, cracking her neck, wrapping the infamous red scarf around her mouth as she walked toward him, her eyes like a demon’s with blue fire.
“Now, let’s talk about where you’re sending those girls.”
Chapter 15
Capitan Garnez of the light freighter Ramera stood on the bridge overseeing the operation. The ship itself was sixty feet long. They had eighteen cargo containers on board. The inner six contained the real cargo, the rest was maize from Mexico they would sell as a bonus.
“No contact, señor. Nothing.”
“You try your cell?” he asked his radio operator.
“Si, but we’re still out of range of any towers. You want me to fetch the sat-phone from the locker?”
Garnez shook his head. He had to keep the damn thing locked up or his crew would use it to call home—and not only did his missions require secrecy... it cost a lot of money to use the thing.
“No, they’re probably just busy with the party,” he said with a smile. A party his crew was certainly looking forward too.
They were half a mile out and he could see the lights on the beach exactly where they were supposed to be. Using binoculars, he scanned the beach and didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. Twenty-seven runs in the last two years and not once had there been any sign of a problem. ISO-1 owned every level of law-enforcement and government from here to Texas.
The only thing different about this run was that he was short almost twenty-girls from the US. No one had told him why; they just hadn’t shown up. It was the first time anything like that had happened. Garnez just chalked it up to bad luck.
A quarter mile out and he buried himself in the business of docking the ship. It was big enough that coming up to a small dock wasn’t the easiest thing in the world, but he was an experienced ship handler and he had done this run many, many times.
“Let’s bring her in,” he told his helm as he stood up. What could they possibly have to worry about?
✽✽✽
I watched from the rooftop, my enhanced vision filling in the darkness with light as bright as in the noon sun. To my surprise, the ship filled my vision as if I were looking at it through a pair of binoculars.
“This is new,” I murmured.
“You collected a lot of energy tonight. It won’t last though. The abilities you gain from this much killing are the ones that go away first as you expend your power,” Spice said from beside me. She had her legs over the edge of the roof, swinging them carefree with a huge smile on her face.
“I take it that zoom-vision is not something you can grant me?”
She shook her head. “Regeneration, teleporting, strength, and speed are easier to give you when you’re low energy than the more fine-tuned enhancements. And I can’t ‘give’ them to you for very long without you killing. It hurts me—which is why you age. A girl’s got to eat.”
I shook my head. “You’re like a vampire,” I said jokingly.
“Where do you think the legend came from?” she said and vanished. I was left with my mouth open. No. No way, she was just messing with me. Even if my powers all seemed to line up with vampire legends, there was no way. Those stories are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Whatever Spice is, she’s just another kind of superpower... right?
I shook my head again. She was just being her enigmatic self. There were other things demanding my attention, so I shuffled those thoughts to the back and tagged them for later.
The freighter was slowing down to a crawl as it pulled up to the dock. I needed to make sure they were one-hundred percent docked before I acted. I had no idea how to park a beast like that and I doubted Krisan could just Google it and tell me.
Speaking of her, my phone vibrated.
“Go for Wraith,” I said in my scary voice.
“That gives me the creeps. It’s like your voice is peering into my soul.”
“Sorry,” I said, letting my powers drop for the moment. The world turned dark as my eyes adjusted to normalcy. For a second I was a normal girl on a rooftop, letting the wind blow my hair around as I stared out at the ocean.
“I’m getting a lot of activity on the cell phones I have access too. I think they may be aware that something is wrong on the island. There’s a lot of activity at the docks in the city and more people heading that way,” she said. “In about an hour they are going to flood your location with backup.”
Great. How am I going to get all these women out of here?
I glanced down at the ruined yacht and shrugged. That could have worked. Now it’s the freighter or nothing. I’ll just have to make it work. Once I have them out, I can focus on the next part. Before Alvarez died, he told me about a secret facility inside the Crooked Tree wildlife reserve. A place where girls went and none ever returned.
I blinked a couple of times to refocus. The ship was almost docked.
“I need a boat, Kris. Something light and fast that can go up river through the jungle.”
“Jungle? Where we going?”
“We aren’t going anywhere, I am. I’ll tell you later. I’ve got to finish up here before those reinforcements show up,” I told her.
“I’ll get working on finding you a boat then,” she said before hanging up.
It was nice having a partner. Someone I could rely on. Not having to do everything myself was pretty good too. What the heck did I know about buying or renting boats?
I waited patiently for another ten minutes as they finished their docking procedure. When the gangplank came down and the crew started tying her off, I made my move.
I leaped off the roof, landed in a roll, popped up, and ran down the beach toward the little dock. It was the same one the yacht had used.
One of the crew must have heard me coming; he turned and I shot him in the head. I shadow stepped up to the main deck, landing in a crouch on the metal hull next to a startled crewman. I spun, bringing my foot around to hit him in the back of the knees and sending him sprawling backward. I followed it up by driving the knife edge of my had into his exposed throat.
I didn’t have time to wait. There had to be twenty people on board, and they all had to go. I ran like hell down the side of the deck, jumping over equipment and ropes. It was vaguely unsettling since I had only been on a ship like this once before. Strange machines and signs were everywhere, and I didn’t know what any of them meant. Of course, I didn’t have to.
I ran into another man coming up from below decks. I latched onto his chest, spun around and dragged him with me, building up momentum until I let him go. He sailed right into a metal crossbar, landing with a crack as his back broke and his head slammed into the deck. I kicked him in the throat as I ran by for good measure.
They were on to me then. A klaxon lit up the air, whining its warning. All the lights on the ship turned on one by one, lighting up the whole area. I took one last shadow step before it was too bright, landing on the flying bridge at the back of the ship.
Six men held stations in the large room full of tall screens and workstations. I flung the door open, pulling a pistol in my other hand as I did so. The helmsman looked at me and opened his mouth to say something; I shot him between the eyes.
The bang of the pistol in the enclosed space was deafening. The remaining five turned to face me and I fired in rapid succession, taking out men and windows until there were six bodies on the floor and my slide was locked back.
I made my way into the room and made sure they were all dead as I reloaded. A heavy metal weight slammed me in the back, knocking me forward.
Sloppy, Madi. Check those corners.
I stumbled forward, I turned brought up an arm just in time to block his next blow as the fire extinguisher came down on me again. I groaned as my forearm snapped. He lifted it up to hit me again and I shot forwa
rd and snapped my foot into his groin. He grunted, stepping back and letting the extinguisher fall to the floor.
“In the back is a dick move.” I picked up the extinguisher, raised it with my working hand and brought it down on his head. He slammed into the deck and I hit him one more time for good measure.
I had to take a second to steady myself as the euphoria hit me. My arm healed almost instantly, and I felt that rush of endorphins.
“Okay, okay, where to,” I muttered. That was seven? There had to be more. I went over to the front of the bridge with its angled windows and looked down on the deck. I took a second to reload while I did it. When the slide slammed home I was ready to go.
The remaining crew were on the main deck armed with shotguns, pipes, and whatever they could find.
The deck was twenty feet below and I could only see the aft section. There could be more below, hidden in the stack of cargo containers. I guessed I would find out.
Chapter 16
Cary Ann stifled another sob as she waited in the dark. It was hot—so hot—she’d felt like she would die if she didn’t get a drink of water soon. Her clothes were stuck to her skin with days old sweat. Fourteen other girls were huddled in the container with her—none were from the US. When they had first loaded in her in, she’d seen five other cargo containers with lines of girls and women formed up and forced in at gun and Tazer point.
They made a point of executing one of the girls the first night. Just to let them know that they were valuable enough kidnap, but they didn’t need all of them.
She had never felt such fear in her life. It shamed her that she went along—she knew it shouldn’t—but they made them all walk past the dead girl as a point… to teach them the price of disobedience.
Cary Ann jumped when the engines on the ship went full reverse, vibrating the hull and causing such a racket she could barely hear herself think. She’d spent the last three days trying desperately to avoid thinking about what was next. The first day they were in here some of the girls told stories of drug addiction, forced prostitution, and other horrors.
She wasn’t a religious girl—had she been she probably wouldn’t have traveled to Cabo San Lucas for a weekend of drinking and partying. Now she regretted all of it.
After a few minutes the engine died, and Carrie Ann was forced to come to terms with what was about to happen.
She had only one option left. She knelt down and prayed. Once upon a time, she had prayed every night. After her parents split, she had prayed and prayed for God to bring them back together. When he didn’t, she decided he wasn’t real. She bowed her head and prayed with a fervor that would have made a preacher envious.
“Lord, please, please, save us from this. I will do whatever you want. I’ll never drink again, I’ll listen to my parents, even when their suggestions are stupid. I’ll go to church, I’ll be the best person I can be, please, God, don’t let this happen.”
She hadn’t meant to say it out loud, but she couldn’t help it. Terror unlike anything she ever imagined filled her, blocking out even the terrible thirst.
The door to the container screeched as the pull bar outside was pushed aside.
Please God, save me.
The door opened, shining light through and outlining a woman in black with a red scarf around her nose and mouth. Her eyes, though, glowed with a blue fire that both relieved and terrified Cary Ann.
“Everyone out. The crew is dead and you’re safe, but you won’t be for long if we don’t hurry.”
No one moved, not even an inch. Cary Ann decided to stand, slowly rising to her feet. “Are you an angel?” she asked. It couldn’t be a coincidence, could it?
“If I am, I’m the angel of death. Get moving,” the woman said in a voice that sounded like a mix of heavy metal and hell. It sent a chill down her spine and almost made her step forward. She looked down to the floor where she had just prayed and decided it wasn’t a coincidence.
Chapter 17
From the back deck of the cargo ship I watched the island fade away. We managed to get everyone loaded up and the ship moving within thirty minutes. According to Krisan, we had about ten minutes to spare. With any luck, the rest of ISO-1 wouldn’t even know the ship ever arrived.
“Ma’am?” a sweet young voice said from behind me. I turned. It was the blonde who thought I was an angel. I still had my mask up and decided to take it down to speak to her. I let my Wraith voice and glowing eyes fade and addressed her as me.
“What?” I asked tersely. I felt bad for the girls, but they needed to do the rest of this journey without me.
She looked away for a moment, took a sip of bottled water and then turned back to me. “I just... I wanted to say thank you.”
I didn’t know why this was uncomfortable. I felt like crawling out of my skin.
You’ve gotten so used to killing, it’s become what you’re all about.
I decided to force myself to stand up and stretch before smiling at her. “I would say it was nothing, but it was actually really friggin hard.”
She nodded, not finding the humor in my statement. “Will we make it out of here?” she asked.
I shrugged. “Probably? If you stay to the course my friend provided the ship should take you to the US. By tomorrow night all you have to do is use the radio to call the Coast Guard and you’ll be back home in a few days,” I told her.
I looked back out to the sea. Moments like these were becoming fewer and fewer. Moments where I could just... relax. The weight of my family’s death wasn’t on me and I could just be me for a few minutes.
She stood there beside me, not speaking, just looking out at the ocean. With the cool night air blowing her hair about we could almost have been friends on a cruise ship, out for a stroll under the stars.
“Who are you?” she asked suddenly.
“When they ask you that, tell them I’m the Wraith. Nothing more, nothing less,” I said.
“Why?”
“The less people know about me, the better.”
She shook her head. “What you’ve done, you deserve a reward, recognition, something...”
I shook my head. “Honey, the only reward waiting for me is prison. As for recognition, when you get back to the states check the FBI’s most wanted list. I think I’m number one.”
Her eyes went wide and her mouth opened like she wanted to protest. “But... but... you’re a hero. You saved us. All of us. Even the girls who didn’t know. Some of them didn’t believe you until you brought them on board and they saw us. They still thought they were there for a modeling job or something stupid like that.”
I wanted to argue with her; modeling wasn’t stupid. But it wasn’t my job to change people’s opinions on anything.
It was my job to kill bad guys.
My phone vibrated.
Boat is ready. Water taxi will pick you up in five minutes, starboard side. It will drop you off in Ladyville where I rented a boat for you. -Krisan
Everything good? I typed.
Yeah. Eating room service and catching up on my Telenovela. Marie is about to marry a man her family doesn’t approve of!
I didn’t even bother responding, just stuffed the phone back in my pocket.
“Good luck...” I realized I didn’t know her name.
“Cary. Cary Ann,” she said, holding out her hand.
I looked down at it for a moment like it was a snake then took it, remembering for a second, what it was like to be a normal person.
“Don’t forget,” I said. “Just the Wraith.”
“I might add the angel of death part,” she said with a smile.
I liked that. “Do it. It couldn’t hurt.”
I gave her a nod and went to the starboard side. I was a little under gunned, having lost my rifle, one grenade, and my C4, but I was sure I could make it work. Whatever was going on, it was time I shed some light on it. Or bullets. Yeah, bullets might be easier.
Chapter 18
I still had hours befo
re the sun would come up, which was nice considering my powers worked best when there was no light. Shadows could work, but darkness was best.
The boat Krisan rented was a larger version of my abandoned Zodiac. Two Honda ten horsepower engines outfitted for river use. I could sleep on the thing if I wanted to, but it wouldn’t be comfortable in the least bit.
At least it had a seat to drive in and a windshield of sorts that made it easier to navigate. I didn’t need lights, of course, since I could see better in the dark than a bat.
“What’s your plan?” Spice asked me from the back seat. There were four seats total; two at the controls and two by the engine. I presumed for fishing or sightseeing.
“Scout the area out, see what their defenses are like, if they have any, figure out how to dismantle them, sneak in, kill the bad people,” I said over my shoulder.
“I like the killing part,” she replied. “Can’t you just jump to that?”
I let out a short, sharp laugh. “No. That’s not a plan. More like suicide. You want me to die?”
When she didn’t respond right away I looked over my shoulder to see if she was still there.
She was.
With a shrug, she said, “I’m thinking it over.” Then she smiled and I hoped she was joking.
“Riiight.” I shook my head. “Listen, Spice, you know the deal. You give me powers, I kill people. Don’t go thinking that means I kill anyone and everyone. Bad people only. It’s not like there aren’t enough of those floating around to keep you fed—or whatever it is you do—for the next thousand years.”
“You’d be surprised at how quick I burn through energy. The power I grant you is a fraction of what I once had.” For a second, her eyes blazed, not blue like mine, but red, like a fire. “I could burn a man down with a thought.” Then the fire was gone and she seemed... diminished. “Those were the days,” she said with longing. If anyone else could see her, she would look like a bored teen with her feet up on the side of the boat relaxing... in the middle of the night in anaconda infested waters.
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