Rogue Wolves

by James Quinn

  He thought for a moment, unsure what to say, then he said, “This isn't the time. One day it might be. That's the time when I will tell you all about it. But for the moment, I don't want to feel pain as I lie here with you, I just want love.”

  She looked into his eyes and said, “I agree.” Then she rolled over and snuggled her body against his.

  The next morning after breakfast, Eunice took him out to show him the land. She grabbed his hand and held it as they walked. “Oh, don't you go all shy on me now, Jack Grant. Not after last night.”

  Grant smiled. It was funny how she could put him at ease. They walked around the ranch, finally coming to a stop at the horse paddock. The horses came over, eager for a treat and they petted them, rubbing their heads.

  “I have a question for you,” she said.

  Gorilla nodded. “Ask away. I'll do my best to answer.”

  “How do you reconcile what you do, Jack? The redactions, the killings?”

  “Who says I have to reconcile anything? It's just a job,” he replied.

  Eunice frowned at that. “State-sponsored assassination. I know your background. First for the British, even though they would deny it forever and a day, and now for the French.”

  He shrugged. “Eunice, you're not the first person to ask me that. I suppose I don't think about it the way you do. It's a job I'm good at and qualified to do. On the whole, I remove people who are similar to, or worse than, me. By taking them out, I hope I will have saved innocent lives. How many? Who knows? It's not the job of the field agent to question that, just to complete the operation. If it wasn't me, someone else would do it.”

  “And that's okay with you?”

  “The only person who I answer to in real terms is my daughter. When and if, and it's a big 'if', I get to heaven, the only person who has the right to judge me, and the only person whose opinion of me matters, is my little girl.”

  She looked at him for a long minute, as if weighing up his answer. But Jack Grant wasn't finished with the conversation. “Anyway, what about you 'Nikita'? We aren't that different in what we do.”

  She came back at him instantly. “Well, pardon me, sir,” she said, the Virginia drawl coming out as she began the process of correcting him. She had her hands placed squarely on her hips, which Grant was fast learning was the code for 'I mean business'!

  “I don't kill on contract. I bring my targets back alive, that's what I do,” she said haughtily.

  “Have you ever killed anyone? Directly?”

  She shook her head. “Not in cold blood, no. Only in self-defence. There's an art to tracking a man and bringing him back to face justice. Killing someone isn't a badge of honour, Jack.”

  “No, you're right, it's not. But it's part of what I do,” he said. Gorilla stroked the horse's head, felt the warmth of it against his hand and smiled. “My daughter would love this,” he said. “She always wanted a horse.”

  “Maybe she could come and visit us here. What's her name?”

  “Katy. She'd like that.”

  “Do you have any other children, Jack?” she asked innocently.

  He caught himself for a moment, then said, “What breed of horses are these?”

  She looked at him for a brief second. Gorilla wondered if she was unsure whether to press the point, but she obviously decided against it. “They're Palominos,” she told him.

  “They're beautiful,” he said. “What about you? Children, marriage? Any of that ever play a part in your life before all… this?” He waved a hand.

  She smiled sweetly. “Oh, I'm not that type of girl. I've always had one eye on the next challenge, the next adventure. For most of my life, all of that would have just been in the way. Maybe I'm just a selfish bitch.”

  He nodded to himself. He understood that guilt that he had held within himself for a long time. The pull of family and the pull of who he was and what he was good at. It was a bind that had tortured him for many years. Thankfully, his life was now in balance.

  “Or maybe I just never found the right partner to make me want those things,” she added.

  “Maybe,” said Gorilla Grant. All at once, he felt vulnerable, because he was sure – no, he knew – that this woman was making him think about possibilities and choices that he hadn't considered in a long, long, time.

  After their walk, Eunice had retired to her office and Grant had lain down on the bed. His mind was a hurricane of what to do next regarding the operation. Finally, admitting defeat at getting any rest, he went in search of her. In truth, he was eager for some news of the operation.

  As he entered the office, the teleprinter kicked into life. Eunice was behind her desk, her feet propped on top of it. She swung them down, went over and ripped off the computer paper.

  Her eyes scanned the paper. “It's from EXIS. They feed me updated information as and when they get it from the CIA. Oh my God, Jack, look!”

  She held up the printout from the teleprinter and handed it to him. It read: BODY OF THALLIA DIMITRIOU FOUND. ATHENS – GREECE.

  “Maybe we shouldn't pass any more operational information back to our controls for a while? As a precaution,” she said.

  “You think there is a leak?”

  She nodded. “Could be. Either that, or we still have someone tailing us.”

  Gorilla thought it through. “The Chinese? Is he Chinese Intelligence, or is he Caravaggio's bodyguard? The one that Thallia told us about?”

  “Whoever he is, he seems to be snuffing out anyone connected to Caravaggio. So far, we've been lucky and have been ahead of the game, so at least we have good information. Let's keep it that way.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chang sat upright in the darkness. He was naked in a meditation position and had been that way for the past two hours, the sweat glistening on his body, as he waited in this cheap motel on the interstate, watching the clock tick down. He had been here for the past few days, waiting by the telephone for the call from his controller.

  12.35 In the morning. The call would happen soon.

  He breathed in, slowly and steadily, his mind clear and focused. Even the ringing of the telephone did not disturb him when it happened. He slowly stretched one arm over and picked up the handset. He spoke the recognition code clearly: “Mortis.”

  “Is the team ready?” said the voice of his controller. Strong, clear, in control.

  “Yes. They are on standby. I have a surveillance operator watching the house. The assault team can be at the target location within the hour,” said Chang, his eyes still closed.

  “Good. Then send them in,” came the order.

  “To kill or to capture?”

  The voice of his controller laughed softly. “Oh, to kill! Let's see if Grant and Brown are worthy of our time and effort. If they survive, then we will move them onto the next rung of the ladder. If they fail, then they were not worthy of our time in the first place.”

  “I understand. It will be done,” said Chang.

  He replaced the handset and made the call to the assault team stationed at a rented warehouse on the outskirts of town, giving them the green light. He heard a mumbled “Okay” and then the call was cut. Chang would have preferred to have been given the opportunity to eliminate Gorilla Grant and Nikita Brown himself, but he understood that they had to be tested first.

  The Master was nothing if not thorough. He would view it as an almost Darwinian test, a service to the profession that they had chosen. The weak were killed, but the good would survive and even go on to excel.

  It was the dogs that alerted them both. They had been wrapped in each other's arms after a night of lovemaking when the two German shepherds lying at the base of the bed had started to bark uncontrollably. Eunice was instantly awake and alert. She knew her house, she knew her dogs and they never barked like that unless there was something in the vicinity that wasn't supposed to be there.

  “Jack. Wake up, we have a problem,” she whispered.

  She jumped out of bed and start
ed to grab clothes. Jeans, boots, a sweater. She rubbed the ears of the two large dogs to calm them. “Easy, Axel, easy, Ada, hush now.”

  Gorilla roused himself from sleep and checked the clock. 2 a.m. He reached for his ASP, half dragging on some clothes and shoes. “What is it?”

  “The dogs don't like it. They don't spook easily. They sense something,” she said, rubbing the fur of the large dogs. The dogs definitely didn't like it. Their faces were curling into a snarl and a low rumble of aggression was bubbling beneath the surface.

  “Weapons?” said Gorilla. “We should check it out.”

  “Under the bed. Just reach a hand down and pull. Pass it to me.”

  Gorilla finished dressing quickly and knelt down, snaking a hand under the frame of the bed that they had slept and made love in only hours before. He felt the cold, hard steel of a weapon and pulled it free from its harness. It was a Mossberg Pump-Action shotgun with a fully loaded ammunition bandolier/sling. He threw it across the room to her and she caught it one-handed.

  In the distance, they heard the faint smashing of a window being broken. The dogs' aggressive tone ramped up to a full-on growl. Eunice hushed them and slung the shotgun over her head by its sling. She did a quick chamber-check, racked the slide and flicked on the safety. She looked over to Gorilla and saw that he was going through the same procedure with the ASP.

  “Whoever it is, they'll be in the house in seconds,” he whispered, moving closer to her and the dogs.

  She nodded. “How you want to handle it, Jack?”

  “We keep the high ground as long as we can. Let's see what we are dealing with before we turn things noisy,” he said.

  They moved into position, Eunice by the bedroom door and Gorilla primed and ready behind her. Even in the darkness of the house, she had a perfect view from the crack in the door of the dark-clad figures, weapons up, starting to spread out across the hall and move cautiously towards the stairs.

  She could make out four of them, all armed with semi-automatic pistols and all fitted with silencers. That at least confirmed that this wasn't a planned robbery. Burglars don't use suppressed weapons. This was a hit.

  Gorilla padded across the bedroom to the en suite bathroom. The bathroom had two separate doors. One led to the bedroom and the other one led directly out onto the hall. He waited behind the half-open door, the ASP at the ready. He could hear the slow tread of footsteps moving along the landing hallway. He just hoped Eunice could keep those dogs quiet.

  The masked figure passed the hallway door to the bathroom and gently nudged it open with his boot. His weapon was up and leading into the room. Gorilla appeared through the door and hit the intruder full in the face with the business end of the ASP. Instinctively, the gunman fired off two silenced shots, both rounds hitting the floor, before Gorilla hit him again, this time shattering teeth and busting the man's jaw. He hit the floor with a clump and Gorilla finished off the assault with a full-force stamp to the head, knocking the gunman unconscious.

  At the same time, Eunice emerged from the bedroom at full pace, the pump action shotgun up and aiming at the dark figures that were starting to head towards the wide staircase. The shotgun boomed twice, illuminating the darkness, and took down the gunman farthest away, killing him. The man looked as if he had been pushed backwards and into the wall by an invisible giant hand.

  At the same time, the dogs were let loose and the combined weight and fury of Axel and Ada launched themselves at the gunman who had begun to make his way up the staircase. The dogs impacted into him, Ada, the female, in the lead, leaping at the man's throat. The gunman screamed and managed to get a silenced shot off that took her in the leg. Ada yelped in pain but continued with the assault on the attacker.

  The second dog, Axel, joined in the fight and his huge mass knocked the gunman off his feet and caused him to topple backwards. The man and the two animals crashed down the stairs in a tangle of limbs, fur and teeth.

  Right behind them, and crouched low, came Eunice and Gorilla seeking out targets and shooting on the move. The chaos of the dogs had caused the other two gunmen to split into defensive positions behind the walls to the kitchen and Eunice's study area. As Gorilla passed the dogs that were ripping at the downed gunman, he nonchalantly shot him in the head and moved onto the next target.

  The gunman nearest the study went for the hero option and tried a full-on assault, but Eunice was in a perfect tactical position on the staircase and a solid round blast from the shotgun took the man in the chest, dropping him permanently. The final gunman, still concealed near the kitchen, had decided that enough was enough and tried to make a run for it. But he had not counted on the speed and ferocity of the large male dog, Axel.

  “Axel – attack!” shouted Eunice. The man had barely made it five feet before the dog had taken him down, his huge jaws clamped tight around the gunman's wrist, dragging him back to his mistress. Gorilla stood over the terrified man and finished him off with a bullet to the head. Then there was silence. Gorilla looked around him at the scene of carnage.

  The whole thing had taken no more than a few minutes. He looked at Eunice, the shotgun's butt resting easily on her hip, the barrel pointing skyward.

  “Are you okay? No injuries?” he said.

  She shook her head. “I'm fine. Not exactly how I want to spend my nights, but… I'm fine. Although maybe we should have kept one alive to see if we could learn anything?”

  He nodded. “Don't worry, we soon will. The one upstairs is just unconscious. I'm going to talk to him right now.”

  “I'm going to check the grounds with Axel… see if we can track down anyone else.”

  “Be careful.”

  “Don't worry, I will. Just keep an eye on Ada for me. She's a brave doggie, I'll deal with her when we get back,” said Eunice.

  Gorilla watched her go out through the kitchen door and into the night, the large German Shepherd trotting protectively at her heels. He settled Ada on the floor, placed a rug over her and rubbed her ears. She whimpered, obviously feeling sorry for herself. The bullet had hit her in the thigh. It wasn't a life-threatening injury, but she'd feel the pain for a while.

  He had made it to the top step of the stairs when, from outside, he heard a single blast from Eunice's shotgun. She had evidently found the last member of the hit-team.

  Poor guy, thought Gorilla with a smile.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gorilla rolled up his shirt sleeves to just above his elbows and went to collect his prisoner from the hall where he lay semi-conscious. The floor was a mass of blood and teeth. Gorilla ripped off the balaclava to reveal the damaged face of a heavyset man with a drooping moustache, covered in blood. The man's eyes were bulging wide in terror and his face was a mask of sweat.

  Gorilla knelt down in front of him, the ASP hanging loosely in his hand. When he spoke, his tone was matter-of-fact.

  “Now, you listen to me, sunshine. I don't have time to fuck about here. So here's what's going to happen. I want to know who you are, who hired you and what you've been told. I'm not going to count to three, or any of that bullshit – you understand me? This isn't the movies and I'm not George Lazenby.

  “You get one chance to talk. If you say nothing, I'm going to put two 9mm rounds in your kneecaps and drag you down to the basement. Yes, we have a nice big basement here with lots of room. Then I'm going to throw you in there, bleeding and smelling the place out.

  “Then I am going to give you a cellmate to keep you company – one very big and pissed-off German shepherd who has already acquired a taste for human blood. Add to that the fact that he's just seen his mate been shot by one of your team and… well, I wouldn't fancy your chances against him for very long.”

  The man continued to look at him without speaking.

  “So,” said Gorilla. “Who are you? Who hired you? What else do you know?”

  The man continued to glare silently. Gorilla let out a frustrated sigh and quickly placed the barrel of the ASP against the man
's kneecap and fired. There was the sudden smell of burning flesh and bone. The man screamed. So Gorilla shot out the other one, too. A second howl of pain came from the bruised and battered hit-man.

  But Gorilla was in no mood to be forgiving and immediately began to drag him from the bathroom by the collar of his jacket, along the hall, down the staircase and towards the door to the cellar. A trail of blood marked the wounded man's route. Gorilla ripped open the door and threw the screaming man down the small flight of stairs and onto the musty stone floor.

  “Eunice! Where's that bloody dog? Axel, come here, boy!” shouted Gorilla, as Eunice and Axel entered through the kitchen. The big dog's mouth was already drooling with blood from his recent victim.

  Scenting an intruder down in the basement, Axel started to bark, deep, woofing roars of anger. He looked at the door, looked at Eunice. She nodded. “Go, boy,” she said, and the dog bounded down the stairs. At once, the barking increased.

  Gorilla kicked the door closed behind him. Then the screams started.

  Despite the late hour, the phone rang at the appointed time. “This is Control.”

  “Yes, Master?”

  “Did they survive?”

  “Yes. They survived.”

  “And the freelance team?” asked the controller.

  “It appears they were all eliminated. Only the surveillance operator escaped and that was only because he was hidden too far away in the woods,” said Chang.

  “Excellent! Then it seems that they are worthy opponents!”

  “What would you have me do next?”

  There was silence from the controller as he ruminated on his next move. Chang thought that he was like a Chess Grandmaster or military strategist, always ready to instigate the next part of his plan.

  “For the moment, nothing. Close down the operation there. Return home to the island. I have already taken steps to ensure that Grant and Nikita Brown will find their way to Mexico,” said the voice on the phone.