G-Men: The Series

by ANDREA SMITH

  The call back came in exactly one hour to the minute later. It was Slash.

  “So is your Betty in luck, Slate?”

  “I have the fucking key, Delbert,” I said, putting the emphasis on his given name. I guess if I’d been named ‘Delbert,’ a name like ‘Slash’ would’ve suited me better too.

  “Fuck you, pig,” he sneered. “You don’t wanna piss me off when I have your girl here no farther away than my hardened dick, right?”

  My blood boiled at the thought of that piece of shit slime ball touching her. I needed to keep my cool for her.

  “What’s the deal, Slash? I give you the key, and you give me Sammie?”

  “Not quite, Slate. There’s a matter of trust here - or should I say, mistrust? Here’s how this is gonna go down. I’ll give you a drop-off location for the key, which I presume has a password with it?”

  “Yep,” I answered stiffly.

  “Okay. Once we determine that no other feds or locals are involved and we collect the goods without incident, you’ll get a phone call giving you the location on where you can hook up with your girl.”

  “What makes you think I trust you?”

  “You really have no choice, dude.”

  I wasn’t sure when Slash said ‘we’ how many others that meant.

  “Don’t worry about her, Slate. I’m going to be right here with her the whole time, making sure she’s safe and doesn’t get frightened in the dark. Once the others give me the all clear, I’ll be in touch with you letting you know where you can find her, got it?”

  “Let me talk to her first.”

  I heard some muffled conversation, then Sammie’s voice on the other end.

  “Slate - did you find it?”

  “I sure did, baby. You did great. I’m going to do everything he wants so that you’re safe. Do you trust me?”

  “You know I do.”

  “That’s my girl. Just hang tight and don’t do anything to piss them off, okay?”

  “Yep,” she said with a tired sigh.

  “I love you, Sammie.”

  “I know you do, Slate.”

  Slash got back on the phone, giving me instructions on where to drop the envelope with the key inside. It was about sixty minutes from Indianapolis. I told him I was leaving now. He said he’d check my progress in an hour.

  chapter 54

  ~ SLATE ~

  I was on schedule for the drop off. I was about fifteen miles from the designated location. My cell phone rang. It was Taz.

  “Everything’s in place in Fort Wayne,” he confirmed. “We have plain clothes local officers and U.S. Marshalls. The owner of the storage facility has opened up the empty storage locker next to the one Susan rented. They’re stationed inside, ready and waiting.”

  “Great job,” I said. I never had to worry about Taz fucking up. He always came through. “What about Garnet?”

  “She’s in the car sitting next to me. A bit reluctant, but I used my powers of persuasion to get her on board.”

  If I hadn’t been so concerned about Sammie, I’d have found a bit of humor in that. Taz had, evidently, let her blow him.

  “Does she have any idea where they might be holed up?”

  “Given the location of the drop-off point and its proximity to Fort Wayne, she’s pretty sure it’s an old deserted farm that the bikers used to rent in the fall for their annual ‘bike-in.’ It’s near Kokomo.”

  “My drop off point is just south of Marian,” I said. “I’m ten minutes away. Where are you?”

  “We’re on Route 31. She thinks she might be able to remember the location once we get near Kokomo. It’s all we’ve got, bro.”

  “Keep with it, Taz. I’ll be back in touch as soon as I complete the drop.”

  My cell phone rang about thirty seconds later. It was Slash, asking my current location. I told him. He then gave me turn by turn locations to the exact point of drop off. I followed his directions, reporting various landmarks and intersections back to him so that he knew I was following his instructions. He must know this area fairly well.

  I finally reached a residential neighborhood, as guided by him. There was an elementary school on the right. I was to drop the envelope off outside of camera range at the edge of the parking lot. There was a brick near the sidewalk. I was to put it underneath the brick and drive away. He informed me that he had people watching.

  I located the brick and deposited the envelope underneath. I hustled back into my truck and took off, heading back the way that I’d come.

  He told me once everything went as planned and his associates returned to pick him up, he’d call me with her whereabouts in a couple of hours to ensure they had a head start towards their ultimate destination.

  If his associates failed to return or respond to his attempts to contact them within a reasonable amount of time, he’d assume the worst and slit her throat. My blood ran cold. Taz and I had to fucking get to her - and fast.

  I called Taz immediately to get his location. They were on Fletcher Road off of Route 31. The fact that it was now getting dark was hindering Garnet’s ability to identify a deserted farm that would have no lights on anywhere to help with recognition. I relayed Slash’s latest conversation.

  “Don’t worry Slate, we’ll find her.”

  chapter 55

  It was getting dark outside. Very little light was filtering in now between the rotted out wooden planks of the barn.

  Slash had dozed off. I’d taken advantage of his eyes being closed by looking around trying to figure out some way I could feel less helpless. Slate always said that people are almost never helpless.

  I’d spotted my cell phone over on top of the wooden crate. Once I’d sent the text message to Slate, they’d pulled the battery from my phone so it couldn’t be tracked. Somehow, the battery had ended up on the pile of straw next to me. It must have fallen out of Darrell’s pocket when he’d bent down earlier to re-tie my hands.

  If I could somehow get my hands untied so that I could pick up the battery and get it back into my cell phone, I could maybe sneak a text to Slate. Having both my hands and feet tied made that impossible. I was going to have to enlist Slash’s help.

  “Slash” I called out. “Hey Slash!”

  He stirred and his eyes flew open.

  “I hate to wake you, but I really, really need to pee. I mean could you at least let me pee and then maybe let me have a drink of water? I’m pregnant for Chrissake. How much of a flight risk could I possibly be?”

  “Alright, alright - stop your yammering.”

  He got to his feet, stretching. I twisted my position so that he could unbind my ankles without glimpsing the cell phone battery on the ground next to me.

  Once my feet were unbound, he pulled me up by my arm to a standing position. It took a couple of moments for my circulation to regulate in my feet. The heat and humidity had made my ankles swell up.

  He led me over to a far corner of the barn, behind a stack of baled straw.

  “You can cop a squat over there, milady. I’ll even give you some privacy.”

  “What about my hands?”

  “What about ‘em? It ain’t like I got toilet paper to offer you. Drip-dry like a normal chick.”

  “This normal chick wears underpants, Slash. How am I supposed to get them down?”

  “I can help with that,” he snickered, coming closer.

  I froze in fear, poised to run from him if I had to, knowing I would never be able to get away from him.

  “Relax,” he sneered, grabbing my wrists and yanking the ropes off. “Pregnant chicks don’t do it for me. I guess that’s lucky for you, huh?”

  I scrambled behind the bales of straw and relieved myself, not caring that he was standing two feet away and could hear my stream. No bashful kidneys here. I allowed myself to ‘drip dry’ as he’d so eloquently put it, because I had no other option.

  Once I’d reco
mposed myself, I went back around to where he waited. I walked back over to my pile of straw and he bent down to grab the ropes to bind my hands and feet again.

  “Wait,” I said, sounding pitiful. “You can see how swollen my feet and ankles have become because of the circulation and heat. Can I please have a few minutes without being tied up so they can get some relief? I just need a little bit of water to cool down, and then you can tie me back up. Where would I go anyway? I don’t even know where we are, for Chrissake.”

  “God damn, you’re a whiner,” he griped. “How in the hell does Slate put up with your shit?”

  He walked over to the blanket on the floor where he’d been dozing and picked up a water bottle. It was nearly empty. He tossed it back to the ground.

  “Shit, alright. I’m going out to my bike to get another bottle of water. You sit tight. I’m closing and locking the barn door behind me, so it ain’t like you have any other way out. I’ll be back in sixty seconds. I repeat - stay fucking put.”

  I nodded my head up and down. He sauntered out through the door and as promised, I heard him throw the latch down on the other side.

  I scrambled quickly to my feet, grabbing the battery from the floor, and crossing the twenty feet between me and my cell phone. I slid the battery in, and hit the power button.

  ‘‘C’mon, c’mon,” I repeated in my mind. My hands were shaking. It powered up. I quickly located ‘G-Man’ and typed a quick text.

  ‘Phone on - Slash doesn’t know. Track location - in a barn somewhere.’

  I hit ‘send’ and then made sure that the phone’s sound settings were all on mute.

  I hurried back to my pile of straw. Slash was none the wiser when he came through the barn door ten seconds later with a bottle of cold water for me.

  I thanked him, taking a long drink of the water. I poured some in my hands and splashed it against my face. I poured a little of it on my head, immediately feeling myself cool down.

  The barn was nearly pitch-black now. Slash had left the barn door open, so a bit of a breeze trickled in. The stars and moon offered a bit of light from the pitch blackness of the countryside. He’d brought a flashlight in with him, leaving it turned on to provide a bit of light. He pulled his track phone out and checked to see if he had any text messages. Apparently, he didn’t.

  “Well, we should be hearing from Darrell in another twenty minutes or so. At least you better hope we do,” he said with his evil smirk. “So, break’s over. Time to get you trussed back up again.”

  He bound my hands and feet once again. At least now that darkness had enveloped this godforsaken place, the heat had dissipated somewhat. I sat back once again in the scratchy straw and tried to relax. I had to believe that everything would be alright. It was all I had.

  chapter 56

  ~ SLATE ~

  My heart stopped when my phone beeped that I had a text message. I nearly swerved off of the road when I saw it was from Sammie.

  Good girl - she’d somehow gotten her cell phone back on. I’d been trying like hell to track her location from that all afternoon. I figured the sons of bitches had taken the battery out of her phone so it couldn’t be tracked.

  I pulled the application of GPS tracking up on my cell. Sammie’s number had already been synchronized with mine. I’d done that the same day I’d programmed my contact info into her phone. I didn’t think she would mind.

  I hit the button again for ‘search’ and waited. Bingo! There it was. The location of the farm Garnet had mentioned.

  The GPS screen said I was a little more than five miles away. I tapped the screen for audio directions. I was going in the wrong direction so I screeched to a halt and did a three point turn. I called Taz while listening to the GPS directions.

  “Taz, the address is 11455 Millerstown Road. I’m about five miles from there. Plug it in to your GPS and haul ass. She’s in a barn. That’s all I know.”

  “Got it,” he said, ending the call.

  I wasn’t sure if he was any closer than I was, but I needed him with me. I didn’t need to instruct Taz to park away from the site and make his arrival on foot. He knew all of that. That’s the reason I knew he wouldn’t fuck up.

  Damn, this place was fucking remote. These narrow, country roads had cornfields on each side that looked ready for harvest. It sure as hell was making it difficult for me to see a damn thing. Each mile seemed to take forever. My adrenaline was pumping at full throttle.

  Finally, the computer voice on GPS indicated my destination was five hundred feet ahead on the right. I pulled my truck over so that it was in the ditch.

  I had my gun in my leg holster; another was tucked into the waistband of my black flak pants. I placed my night vision glasses on. I’d worn hiking boots that made it easier to move through these fucking cornfields.

  I’d traveled about a hundred yards when I hit a clearing. It was a narrow gravel driveway that must lead up to the farm. I crept as quietly as possible, staying in the weeds along the drive, so as not to make noise in the gravel. Up ahead I could see what was left of the old farmhouse. It was just the shell; no windows, no roof left to speak of.

  I spotted the barn about fifty yards behind the house. Slash’s bike was parked up by the side of it. I didn’t see any other bikes or vehicles around.

  Certainly, he wasn’t pulling this off by himself. Shit - maybe there was only one another person involved. Maybe two others at the most, I figured.

  I spotted a large double barn door that looked to be padlocked. At the other end of the barn, there was a single entry door. I needed to scope out each side of the barn, along with the rear to see if more vehicles were parked.

  Piece of cake.

  chapter 57

  The twenty minutes must be up, I thought as I watched Slash periodically check his phone while he paced. He’d left his flashlight on so there was some light inside now.

  I wondered if Slate had even received my text message. If so, how long would it take for someone to get here? Slash was making me nervous because I could tell that he was nervous.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “What fucking difference does it make to you what time it is?” he spat angrily. “All you need to know is that if I don’t get a call here within the next five minutes, your fucking time is up and I’m splitting.”

  “Geez,” I said, acting insulted. “You know, maybe he ran into traffic or something.”

  “Yeah - it’s the ‘or something’ that you better hope isn’t the reason. Shut up. I don’t like bitches talking when they don’t have nothin’ to say.”

  “Excuse the hell out of me.”

  He shot me a dirty look and took a couple of steps towards me. I guess he didn’t like sassy bitches either.

  “Listen bitch, I’m going to step outside to see if the reception’s bad in here. You keep your mouth shut and say your prayers.”

  I looked away from his evil face, vowing not to let him see that I was scared.

  He traipsed out of the barn, shutting the door behind him. I lowered my head against my knees, softly sobbing into them.

  I felt something fall into my hair. There it was again. Oh God! What if it was some deadly spider lowering itself down from its web? Spiders were nocturnal, right? I shivered.

  Then I saw what it was. From above, bits and pieces of straw were floating down from the loft above me. I heard the soft creaking of the floor above me.

  Someone dropped down behind me. I felt his warm breath on my neck as his hands worked to free mine.

  “Be still, baby. I’m here. Everything’s going to be alright.”

  I nodded.

  My heartbeat quickened as he freed my hands then crept around to get my feet untied. He was in my line of vision then.

  I saw him all in black, moving swiftly and precisely getting the rope untied so that I could finally stand when directed. My ninja-Slate was here.


  “He’s coming right back,” I whispered.

  “How many?”

  “Just Slash here. Darrell took a truck to Fort Wayne.”

  “Yeah, he won’t be back,” Slate whispered with a grin. He pulled the small handgun from behind him and pressed it into my hands.

  “Hang on to this. Be ready to use it if you have to, Sammie. Stay put for the moment.”

  Then he was gone. He moved quietly and lithely over to the door that Slash was due to walk through any moment.

  I clutched the gun behind me so it still looked as if my hands were tied behind my back. I heard Slash’s footsteps outside of the barn. The latch to the door slid back and he opened it, crossing the threshold into the barn.

  In a nanosecond, Slate was on him, kicking him to the ground with one swift movement. Slash was caught off-guard, but not for long. He leapt to his feet and pulled a chain from his back pocket. He wound part of it around his hand then snapped his arm and I saw the ball at the end of it land against Slate’s neck.

  Oh my God, whatever was on the end of that ball had cut into his neck. I saw Slate put his hand up to the wound to stop the flow.

  Oh God! I have to do something!

  Slash was using Slate’s momentary pause to his advantage. He was winding the chain back around his hand, preparing to deliver another blow.

  Slate was creeping towards him, but I wasn’t sure how dazed he might be from the shock of that blow. It looked like it had landed damn close to his jugular. I didn’t have time to debate it. I needed to do something.

  I brought my arms around from my back. The revolver was clutched in both hands. My fingers and wrist were still numb. I didn’t trust my aim to shoot. The two men were too close, circling one another, ready to strike. I aimed for the window and pulled the trigger. The shot rang out. Glass shattered, giving Slate the split second he needed to bring Slash down.

  He was on top of him, pulling the chain from his hand and slamming the ball at the end of it against Slash’s face and head. I crept closer to him and the look on Slate’s face was one that I’d never seen. It was pure rage. He wasn’t going to stop until Slash was dead. I couldn’t let that happen.