Valeria set her fork down and stared at him, mouth hanging open. "Excuse me?"
"I'm completely serious. I've been in this business long enough to know that there are people who excel in it. They're typically resourceful people who don't scare easily. They're survivors. Often they don't have families and maintain few connections to their past. In short, they're people exactly like you."
"Uh, I'm a kid—a college student," she sputtered. "I don't know anything about this business you're describing. Until a minute ago I never even knew such things existed outside of movies."
Ricardo shook his head. "You're more than a kid. I think you can be significantly more than that and I'd like to give you the opportunity."
"What about school?"
"There's no reason you can't continue your studies when school resumes. You can work and attend school at the same time. As far as my business goes, I'll train you. You're fully capable of doing the job. I can tell that about you just from our conversations."
"Wow." She looked away, blowing out a long breath. "I'm not sure what to say."
"I don't mean to be insistent but here's the deal. If you don't mind sharing space with me again, I'd like to shelter here for the night. Once I leave tomorrow it's highly unlikely I'll be returning this way. If you're the least bit interested in what I have to offer, you'll need to let me know in the morning. I'd normally allow more time but the circumstances here are quite unique, to say the least."
"Then what happens? I mean, if I say that I am interested, where does it go from there?"
Ricardo gestured around the room. "You'll gather the things that are important to you and we'll head out. I have some sparse accommodations in the country. It's nothing fancy but there's plenty of food, I have heat, and it appears to be safe."
"What will I have to do? It's not like I can sit in the office and answer phones right now."
"For now you'll simply learn the basics. You'll learn about the gear we use and I'll teach you how we operate. You won't be in any danger."
She lowered her voice. "Will I have to kill people?"
Ricardo shrugged. "Considering the state of the world right now, I can't guarantee that conditions won't force you to kill. These circumstances have made killers out of people who never expected to be in that position. I can promise you, though, that I will never ask you to kill unless it's something you feel you're ready to do."
She twisted her mouth, staring at her hands folded in her lap. "This is a lot to think about."
"I get it. Like I said, sorry about the short turnaround time but that's just the way it is."
"That's okay. I don't need any more time. I will accept your offer. I'm going nuts trapped in this building by myself. I understand better than most that life can change in an instant, both for better or worse. Something led you here. I don't know what it was, but I know better than to question it. I'm going to start getting my stuff together right now. When we get up in the morning, I'll be ready to go with you."
Ricardo grinned. "Excellent. Still, if you get up in the morning and you've changed your mind, that's no problem. It's entirely up to you. Sleep on it."
Valeria was already on her feet. She threw her empty suitcase on the couch and began picking clothes up off the floor. Ricardo helped himself to another beer and plotted his next steps. If he couldn't raise Hoffman on the phone, he wanted to pay him another visit and tell him what had happened with Long.
Then there was Conor. He and Barb would be aboard the Shandong off the coast of Georgia right now and hopefully, their operation was underway. He'd issued Conor a new phone and could ring him up to check on his status, but he was afraid to do it. They'd agreed that calls would only be on an emergency basis. Despite their best efforts at keeping comms secure, there was always the lingering concern that people on the ship might be able to use an incoming call to discover that Conor was on the ship. He just couldn't force himself to make that call right now. He had to wait and hope that Conor would call him if the situation merited it.
13
George Mason University
Valeria was still packing when Ricardo fell asleep. He'd had a long couple of days. Despite the thoughts rushing around his head, the combination of food, beer, and exhaustion overtook him. His watch beeped at 3 AM, the hour for which he'd set his alarm to go off. He hoped to load the Hummer and escape the city before the sun came up, using the nightvision to navigate just as he'd done when he left Long's house. He thought he had enough fuel to get back to the quarry. He hoped so anyway. With the addition of Valeria's belongings they would now have more than they could carry on their backs.
"Is it really time to get up?" Valeria groaned, stirred by the beeping of his alarm.
Ricardo yawned, then unzipped his sleeping bag. "It's dangerous to travel in a vehicle right now. People will kill you to take them and not think twice about it. This is the quietest time of night. If we can get out of the area while people are still asleep, it will improve our odds of not running into trouble.
"Makes sense." Valeria got out from beneath her blankets and turned on the inflatable lantern. She shivered, then put on her jacket and shoes. While Ricardo repacked his gear, she got the last of her things together. When she was done, she had two suitcases, a student backpack, and a loaded pillowcase.
Ricardo studied the pile. "Is that it?"
"It's all I need. The rest can be replaced."
"I get it. I live kind of a spare existence too. I don't like to be burdened with a lot of crap."
"How are we gonna do this?"
"Let's take everything down to the loading dock and leave it until we get everything down there. Then you can wait at the door while I go get the vehicle from the parking garage. When I get to the dock, we'll throw our gear into the vehicle and get the hell out of here."
Valeria sighed and looked around the faculty lounge one more time, saying goodbye to the room that had been both her sanctuary and her cell for the last months. "You know, I never even got to attend my first class this semester. The attacks came before classes got started. I guess that's what I get for moving in a few days early."
"It's the past," Ricardo mused. "Your new life starts today."
By the light of their headlamps, they navigated their way downstairs, each of them rolling a suitcase. Valeria had her pillowcase of clothing balanced on top of hers and wore her backpack. Ricardo rolled the other suitcase with his left hand, his right wrapped around the grip of the P90. It took one more trip to haul down all the gear he had offloaded from the Hummer last night.
When they had everything, Ricardo clicked his headlamp off and dropped the twin-tube nightvision down in front of his eyes, powering it up. "You stay here. I'll be back in two minutes. When I roll up, you push everything out the door and I'll start loading. Got it?"
She nodded, looking slightly intimidated by his headgear. "Is that nightvision?"
"It is. We ready?"
"Ready."
Ricardo twisted the lever handle and pushed the door open, snapping his weapon up and scanning the dock area. When he didn't see anything of concern, he hopped off the edge of the dock and jogged toward the parking building next door. Before he entered the dark cavern of a structure, he checked his surroundings again, confirming that no one was following him.
With the coast clear, he jogged into the building and up the ramp, his shoes scuffing on the textured concrete. When he topped the ramp he was pleased to find the Hummer sitting there exactly as he left it. Apparently, no one had noticed him parking it, just like he'd hoped.
He transferred the P90 to his left hand and dug into his right pocket for the keys. As much as he hated to, he clicked the button on the fob to unlock it. He knew that some vehicles set off an alarm if they were opened with the key instead of the fob. He didn't know if civilian Hummers worked that way but he didn't want to take any chances. The lights flashed and the locks clicked as he pressed the button.
He opened the back door and removed his backpack
, tossing it into the back seat. He shut the door and was reaching for the driver's door when he felt a devastating blow to his shin. Before he even felt the pain, his leg gave way beneath him. Ricardo cried out and toppled over.
Landing on his side, he twisted his head to get a look beneath the vehicle. Whoever had attacked him was underneath it. He saw a young man, wide-eyed and grinning as he pulled himself from beneath the Hummer. He had a metal baseball bat in his hands and murder in his eyes.
With one hand, Ricardo raised the P90 in his direction and tugged the trigger. The first suppressed burst stitched the young man across the torso. He screamed and dropped his bludgeon, the bat clanging as it hit the concrete and rolled away from them. Ricardo sent another short burst and this one ripped through the man's forehead, silencing him.
Even over his rushing breath, Ricardo could hear pounding footsteps. He craned his neck, looking for the source, but the movement sent his nightvision askew and he saw nothing but blackness. He didn't want to fire without confirming his target in case it was Valeria responding to the young man's scream.
From nowhere a body dropped onto him, trapping the P90 between them. The weight of his attacker's body pressed Ricardo's finger against a pad switch and the weapon light burst to life. In the glow of the light, Ricardo caught a dirty, grimacing face above him, then caught the glint of steel as the man brought a knife down with both hands, directly in the center of Ricardo's chest.
Ricardo felt a dull pressure as the knife was stopped by his body armor. His attacker didn't let that failure stop him, immediately raising the knife and stabbing again. Ricardo gave up on freeing the P90 and tried to grab for the knife with both gloved hands. His attacker dodged the movement with astonishing speed, lowering the knife and ramming it upward beneath the armor plate. Ricardo cried out as the knife sank into his side.
The grinning attacker found satisfaction in finally hitting flesh. He yanked the knife out and plunged it into the same spot again. Ricardo's entire body constricted against the pain, the unnatural violation of a razor-sharp object penetrating a vital area. He desperately clamped onto his attacker's wrist with his left hand.
The man shoved away from Ricardo and tried to peel Ricardo's hand from his wrist. That movement opened up just enough space between them. Ricardo grabbed his Glock from his waist and shoved it in the man's face, firing a round at point-blank range. The explosion of unsuppressed gunfire echoed off the hard surfaces of the parking garage. Ricardo flinched and gritted his teeth as blood splattered onto his face.
The man didn't die immediately but arched stiffly against Ricardo. Not wanting to risk another shot, Ricardo rolled the man off him, then skittered back against the Hummer. He furiously righted his bump helmet, raised his P90, and killed the weapon light. As the brain-injured man arched and kicked, Ricardo scanned for more attackers, ready to fire.
If there were any, they'd fled already, but he wouldn't be alone for long. The sound of that gunfire would travel. While some locals would stay burrowed in whatever holes they lived in, others might sense an opportunity and sneak out to see what was going on.
Ricardo's eyes went from the man's ruined face to his own blood-soaked clothing. He knew some of that blood was his. He was hurt. "Fuck!"
He struggled to get to his feet, the nerves of his right leg screaming with pain as he tried to put weight on it. His eyes watered from the effort. He knew it was broken. Even worse, it was his driving leg. He pulled himself into the driver's seat and unclipped the P90 from the sling. He started the vehicle and reluctantly turned on the headlights while flipping his nightvision out of the way. He'd planned on departing in stealth mode, using the optic to drive, but things had gone south in a bad way.
Ricardo put the vehicle in drive and used his left foot to work the brake pedal as he coasted out of the parking garage and swung around to the ramp. The headlights caught a panicked-looking Valeria staring out through the crack of the dock door. Ricardo put the vehicle in park, turned on the interior light, and threw open the driver's door.
"Can you drive?" he barked.
She pushed the door open wider. “Yes.”
"You're going to have to load the vehicle and drive us out of here," he said. "I'm injured and I can't walk."
To her credit, Valeria asked no questions. She launched into motion, throwing all of her bags onto the dock and letting the steel door close behind her. She hopped down from the dock and hastily threw her belongings into the rear compartment of the Hummer. While she worked, Ricardo delicately extricated himself from the vehicle, tugged his individual first aid kit off his backpack, and hopped to the passenger side. He tried to keep his sounds to a minimum so he didn't terrify Valeria even further but there was only so much he could contain. The pain was excruciating.
After slamming the rear hatch, Valeria ran to the driver's door and started to get in. She hesitated when she saw the blood-stained seat and steering wheel. "Is that...?"
"We have to go," Ricardo said, his voice strained but patient.
Valeria swallowed her question and hopped in. "Where?"
"For now, just get us the hell out of here. Go west. Away from the city. I'll give you directions but I need to deal with this bleeding first."
She did exactly as he asked, shifting the bulky vehicle into reverse and carefully turning around. Driving perhaps a little slower than Ricardo would have liked, she obeyed all stop signs and even used her signal lights as she left the campus. He wanted to urge her to drive faster but he had his own concerns. He'd removed his thick coat before climbing into the passenger side though hadn't removed his armor yet. He unfastened the Velcro and tugged it over his head, groaning as he did so. He shoved it into the back seat, letting it drop to the floor, and raised his shirt.
"Oh my God!" Valeria cried, shifting her eyes from the road to his wound. With the interior light still illuminated, she thought the wound looked awful. Perhaps even fatal.
"Eyes on the road!" Ricardo snapped. He took a deep breath and calmed his voice before speaking again. "Please. I can take care of this for now. You focus on the road. Be fast but careful."
He extracted a pressure dressing from his first aid kit, ripped it open, and held it against the wound. It had been bleeding steadily since the fight, and he had no idea how much blood he'd lost. If the blade had hit something vital it wouldn't matter. He'd be dead before this ride was over.
Using his elbow to pinch the dressing against the wound, he tore open a second dressing and slapped it over top the first. He held it tight against the wound, his head reeling, but he couldn't tell if it was from the pain or blood loss. He studied the road for a moment, then hit the vehicle’s navigation system.
"Just ahead you'll need to take a left,” he said. “Get on Route 620, Braddock Road."
"Got it. I know where that is."
Ricardo hated putting Valeria on a bigger road. It was extremely dangerous. Their chances of hitting a roadblock, being shot at, or being intercepted by a curious military patrol skyrocketed. But even getting to the quarry, to the safety of his container, meant nothing. He couldn't treat his injuries himself. He couldn't set his leg or assess himself for internal injuries. Without outside help, he was going to die. There was no doubt about it. With a sigh of frustration, he used his free hand to pull a satellite phone from his pocket.
"A cell phone isn't going to help you," Valeria said.
"It's a satellite phone. They still work."
She pointed ahead of them. "Is that the road?"
He looked up. "That's it, but stop at the base of the ramp for just a moment."
When she stopped, Ricardo fumbled to get his bump helmet off his head and passed it to her.
"Turn all the lights off and strap this on." He waited patiently while she fumbled with the awkward helmet. "Got it?"
"It's on," she said, sounding uncertain.
"Adjust the optic to where you can see out of it, just like you would with a pair of binoculars"
"Wow!" she m
uttered, impressed with her first view through military-grade nightvision.
"You're going to drive this vehicle with that optic. We can't risk the headlights. Be cautious, it takes some getting used to. Allow yourself a lot of room to get around any obstacle. If we wreck or get stuck, we're screwed."
Without a word she eased up the onramp, picking up speed. He had to trust that she had this because he couldn't see a damn thing. It was absolutely disorienting. In the glow of his phone screen, he found the contact he was looking for and dialed it.
In a moment a groggy voice answered. "Banks."
"Earl, it's Ricardo! I need help."
On the other end of the line, Banks snapped to attention. "What can I do?"
"I've sustained an injury. It's not something I can fix. You mentioned something earlier about maybe finding a pilot who could pick me up. If you think that's a possibility, now is the time."
"Where are you?"
"We just left the George Mason University campus. We're running dark on the highway in a stolen Catalyst Security Hummer."
"Wait a minute, did you say ‘we?’"
"That's affirmative. I've hired my first new employee. She's driving since I'm incapacitated, but perhaps we could talk about that another time?"
"Yeah," Banks muttered. "What's the extent of your injuries?"
"Broken leg. Two stab wounds in my left side."
"Got it. Let me make a call. I'll get right back with you, Ricardo. Be safe."
Ricardo ended the call and laid his head back. "How are you doing over there, Valeria?"
"Uh, it feels kind of weird but I think I'm getting the hang of it."
"Just be careful. Warn me if you see any people."
"I will."
Ricardo tilted his head and stared out the window but couldn't see a thing. Without goggles, the sensation of driving in darkness was a little nauseating so he tried not to think about it. He used his headlamp to check his wound again. The second he shifted the dressing it began bleeding again.
Ultraviolent: Book Six in The Mad Mick Series Page 13
