The Transamerica Cell: A fast paced, gripping, action adventure, conspiracy thriller, with a superb, breath-taking ending (Hedge & Cole Book 3)

by Kevin Bradley

  He turned around, just in time to see the police car backing up the street. It had obviously driven past the alley, but something had attracted the suspicion of the officers in the car. The vehicle stopped and Officer Joe Harper opened the driver’s door and jumped out.

  ‘What’s going on here?’ Joe could see the man lying on the ground.

  As he entered the alley, he pulled his Glock 22 handgun from its holster. He must have been about ten yards from the body, when he suddenly recognised who it was.

  ‘Seth,’ he shouted, as he ran forward.

  Joe stopped when he reached his brother. He raised his pistol towards Robin as he shouted his orders.

  ‘Turn around slowly, so that you are facing away from me. Move towards the wall and place your arms above your head.’

  Robin tried to speak, but no words came from his mouth. He was still in a state of shock.

  ‘Do it now,’ shouted Joe.

  Robin turned, and did as he was told. His hands were covered in blood still, something Joe noticed as he turned to focus his attention on the body in front of him.

  ‘Oh my god,’ Joe said quietly as he tried to find a pulse in Seth’s neck.

  Joe was a seasoned police officer. He had seen many dead bodies in his time. Some of them had been shot, a few occasionally drowned, and many of them had stab wounds. But this was different. This was his brother, his own flesh and blood.

  He tried to focus, but it wasn’t easy. There were tears running down his face. He pressed a button on his radio, and called for an ambulance. He knew it was too late for that, but that’s what you did in a situation like this.

  Joe stood up. He looked down at the body of his brother. His heart was pounding in his ears, and his eyes were stinging. His mind was racing. But most of all, his rage was building to an impossible level.

  ‘Who the hell has done this to my kid brother?’ he asked himself.

  He looked across the alley at the man holding his hands above his head.

  His red hands.

  Chapter Three

  Mary Taylor was just paying for the two pairs of black, cashmere gloves that she’d selected for her daughters.

  ‘Mummy, can we put them on now please,’ said Charlotte. The little girl was excited. She was enjoying the holiday in San Diego with her family. The only irritating thing was that her younger sister always wanted the same things as she did.

  ‘You should get a different colour,’ she had said to Emma.

  ‘I want black too,’ Emma had replied. ‘It’s my favourite colour.’

  ‘You can both have the same. It doesn’t matter,’ said Mary, as she ushered her daughters out of the shop. ‘Although why you want to buy woollen gloves on a day like this, I don’t know.’

  ‘Where’s daddy?’ said Charlotte. ‘I thought we were meeting him for lunch.’

  ‘He will be here soon. Then we can get something to eat.’ Mary was hoping he wouldn’t be too much longer. She was getting hungry.

  ‘Who are you?’ Joe’s voice was harsh.

  Robin was having trouble speaking. His throat had gone dry, and he was shaking violently. It didn’t help that there was a gun being pushed hard into the small of his back.

  ‘I am ... I mean I ... My name ...’

  ‘Spit it out. Who the fuck are you?’ shouted Joe.

  Joe’s partner was shouting something from the entrance to the alley. He was still standing next to the patrol car.

  ‘Is everything all right Joe?’

  Joe hesitated for a few seconds before he replied. ‘I’ve got this under control. Wait there. There’s an ambulance on the way.’

  He turned his attention back to the man with the red hands. He had managed to stop the flow of tears, but his anger was still boiling over.

  ‘What have you done to my brother?’ he whispered to the trembling man in front of him.

  ‘I’m sorry... I couldn’t help...,’ Robin managed to splutter.

  Joe pulled him away from the wall. Grabbing hold of the back of Robin’s jacket, he pushed him forwards, in the same direction as the other three men had gone a short while earlier.

  ‘You need to get out of here, quick. You’re in great danger. Do as I say. Run. Quickly, run. Get away from here as fast as you can.’ Joe’s voice was quiet, more like a whisper, but with urgency and panic in it.

  Robin turned his head slightly. ‘What ... why ...’

  ‘Go quickly. Run.’ Joe pushed him forward.

  Robin started to run off down the alley. He was terrified, and confused. In his current state of shock, he couldn’t think what would be the best thing for him to do. So he obeyed the police officer, and ran.

  Officer Joe Harper raised his Glock 22 and aimed directly between the shoulders of the running man.

  ‘Stop immediately or I’ll shoot,’ he shouted at the top of his voice.

  There was no second warning. And there was no time between the warning being shouted and the first shot being fired.

  In total, Joe fired three shots. They all struck Robin in the back. One of the bullets went straight through his heart. He felt a searing pain running through his body. Not a normal pain, this felt white hot, and it stung like nothing he could ever imagine. He tried to draw breath, but his lungs wouldn’t work. Then, suddenly, his vision went black.

  Robin died as he fell to the ground.

  A few streets away Charlotte was getting angry.

  ‘Where is daddy? I’m really, really hungry?’ she shouted, and stamped her foot hard on the floor.

  Chapter Four

  Officer Joe Harper walked slowly towards the body of the man he had just shot. He knelt down next to him. Picking up the man’s right hand, he tried to feel if there was a pulse.

  There wasn’t.

  The guy was dead.

  Joe’s head was spinning. What he had just done was totally out of character for him. He was a good policeman. His record over many years with the San Diego police department was unblemished.

  He stood up and walked back down the alley to where the body of his brother lay. Looking down at his younger sibling he felt overwhelming grief. He wiped his eyes once more.

  He realised that he needed to get a grip on himself, and the situation. Moving quicker now, he walked to where his partner was standing, next to the patrol car.

  ‘Did you see that? He ran. I thought I saw him pulling out a weapon. I had no time to think. Did you witness it?’ Joe was staring intently at his partner.

  ‘I saw it, exactly as you said. You had no choice.’ He held out his arm and slapped Joe lightly on the shoulder. ‘You did the right thing. Let’s wait for the ambulance and the back-up guys to arrive.’

  Joe nodded slowly, but he wasn’t listening.

  He wasn’t listening because something else had taken his attention.

  He had his back to the alley, facing the parked patrol car. He was looking straight ahead.

  But, he wasn’t focused on his partner.

  He wasn’t focused on the patrol car.

  He was looking up higher than that.

  Directly in front of him, on the other side of the street, was a four storey building, but not just any building. The sign on the roof said in large, bright green letters ‘Grand Avenue Hotel.’

  Joe wasn’t looking at that though.

  He was looking at a woman, a young woman. She was wearing a white shirt, and her long, light coloured hair hung loosely over her shoulders. The woman was standing in a large window, staring out of the building from her third floor room.

  She was staring directly at him.

  What concerned Joe was that she had one of her hands held directly over her mouth. It was the classic pose of someone who had just seen something they shouldn’t have.

  Even from that distance, Joe could also see that her eyes were wide open, and full of disbelief.

  Officer Joe Harper reacted immediately. With the Glock still in his hand, he started running across the road towards the main entrance to the
hotel.

  Chapter Five

  Maddie Millar watched for a few seconds as the police officer started sprinting across the road.

  She quickly turned away from the window. Directly in front of her was her small suitcase. It was all packed and ready to go. She was due to check out of the hotel very shortly.

  Grabbing hold of the case, she ran to the door of her room, opened it, and walked quickly down the hotel corridor. She read off the room numbers as she went.

  ‘319, 321, 323, 325, here it is,’ she said to herself, ‘327.’

  She banged hard on the door. It opened almost immediately.

  ‘I’m almost ready,’ said Hedge. ‘Are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.’

  He was staring at his sister. She looked frightened. Her hands were shaking.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘Shut your door, and lock it.’

  Hedge pushed the room door closed. He turned the lever just below the handle. There was a dull thudding noise as the locking mechanism engaged. He moved back towards his younger sister. She had taken a seat on a two-seater sofa. He sat down next to her.

  ‘Do you want to tell me what’s up?’

  Maddie was breathing heavily. She sat quietly for a moment trying to calm herself. Then she looked up at him and spoke softly.

  ‘A police officer is coming over to the hotel. I think he’s looking for me. He’s probably in the hotel right now.’

  ‘Well that’s okay then,’ Hedge said, ‘you haven’t done anything wrong, so let’s go and talk to him.’

  Hedge jumped up from the sofa.

  She grabbed hold of his hand, stopping him from walking away. She looked pale. Her voice was quiet.

  ‘You don’t understand. I think he wants to try and silence me.’

  ‘Why would he want to do that? What are you talking about?’ Hedge looked confused.

  Maddie had a terrified look on her face.

  ‘I think I have just seen a police officer commit a murder.’

  Chapter Six

  Cole was one floor up from where Maddie and Hedge were, in room 421. His room, like Hedge’s, was at the back of the hotel, and so he hadn’t seen any of the events occurring just across the street in the alley. Neither did he hear the gun shots.

  Also, the noise of the shower was blotting everything else out. The water was piping hot, just as he liked it. He had spent many years in the British military, some of that time with Special Forces, and it would have been a rare treat to have started a day with hot water.

  He had just finished washing himself with the plain soap provided by the hotel. He cast his eyes around for the shampoo, but he couldn’t see any. He turned the flow of water off briefly and moved the shower curtain aside to see if there was any near the sink. There didn’t appear to be.

  He caught sight of himself in the large mirror on the opposite wall, just above the basin. He had often been told that he was quite a handsome man, for his age. He had kept his body lean and fit, not too bad for someone in his mid-forties. His hair was short and dark brown, and his face was rugged and well tanned.

  The phone in his room started ringing. It was a shrill, intermittent noise, not like you would expect from a normal landline. Cole assumed it was an internal call, probably from his friend downstairs. He had asked Hedge to remind him half an hour before they were due to check out. He decided to ignore it, and call back when he had finished his shower.

  He resigned himself to washing his hair using the bar of soap. Not ideal. He was about to turn the water back on, when he heard the door handle of his room being turned. He stood motionless for a moment, wondering who it could be trying to get into his room. His time in the army had taught him to be cautious.

  Then he heard his room door opened. He felt his heart starting to beat a little quicker, and the muscles down his back tensed. He closed his eyes momentarily, so that his hearing would become more acute.

  ‘Hello. Is anyone there?’ It was a young, female voice, spoken in good English, but with a Spanish or Portuguese accent. ‘It’s room service please.’

  Cole relaxed. ‘I’m in the bathroom,’ he shouted.

  ‘Ok, no problem, I come back later,’ said the voice.

  ‘Before you go, do you have some shampoo please,’ Cole shouted hopefully.

  ‘Ok. Yes, I get some for you.’

  Cole heard footsteps leaving the room, returning a few seconds later. There was a gentle tap on the half opened bathroom door.

  ‘Here is your shampoo.’

  ‘Pass it through the curtain please.’

  There was a moment of hesitation, and then the footsteps again, approaching the shower unit. The curtain parted a little, and a hand was pushed through.

  Cole took the sachet. He noticed that the hand was small, with tanned skin.

  Playfully, he grabbed the arm just above the wrist. He held it tightly waiting to see what the woman would do. Surprisingly, she did nothing. He thought she would pull away, but she didn’t. The arm just stayed where it was, firmly in his grip, with no attempt to oppose him.

  He couldn’t see the woman’s reaction as the shower curtain was between them. Still holding her arm, he picked up the soap and put it in her palm. The hand closed around the soap. He pulled the arm closer to him, and ran the hand up and down his leg slowly. The hand of the woman opened and rubbed the soap against the hard skin of his thigh muscles.

  Smiling to himself, he pushed the arm a little higher, and moved the hand so that it rested against his penis. This little game had aroused him, and so he was already semi-erect. For a moment the woman’s hand remained motionless. Then slowly, the fingers wrapped around him, and began gently moving up and down, rubbing in the creamy soap as it did so.

  Cole was now getting very aroused. He let go of the arm, and leaned forward, placing both his hands on the side of the shower cubicle, so that he could maintain his balance. His breathing had quickened, and he looked down at the hand as it ran up and down his penis.

  The woman on the other side of the curtain still hadn’t said anything since entering the bathroom. Cole tried to imagine what she looked like. She sounded young, and probably foreign. But that was all he knew. It was all part of the fun, he thought to himself. Not knowing.

  The soft hand continued to move up and down. Then, suddenly, there was her other hand being pushed through the shower curtain. It rested on his lower back for a while. Then the fingers started to move slowly down onto his buttocks. The hand continued to travel down, until finally, he felt it cupping his testicles. The fingers caressed his balls gently at first, but then the hand took hold of both of them and squeezed hard.

  The pressure of the grip made him wince, and he clenched his teeth as he felt the pain run up his body. He closed his eyes again, as he concentrated on what the two hands were doing. The fingers running up and down his penis were starting to tighten their grip, and the pace was increasing. He could feel himself starting to get close to his climax. The hand around his testicles had tightened its hold even more, and the pain he felt from that was excruciating.

  He tried to control his breathing. It was difficult though, as the mixture of extreme pleasure and terrible pain was blowing his mind. He thought about grabbing the hand that was squeezing his balls, and pulling it off, but he was worried that doing so would break the spell of the moment.

  He looked down at his groin. The small hand was covered in lather from the soap, and seemed to be moving up and down very fast now. He shook his head from side to side as he contemplated the dilemma he was in. He was so close to coming, but he wasn’t sure that he could stand the crushing pain in his testicles for a moment longer.

  Just when it seemed impossible, the fingers on his scrotum increased their pressure even more. He cried out at the pain, a long, lingering shout. At that exact same time he began his ejaculation. Several spurts of warm semen shot out and splashed against the tiled wall.

  The shower curtain rustled ge
ntly, as both of the hands were slowly withdrawn. Cole rested his head against the side of the shower cubicle and tried to get his breathing back to normal. He heard the sound of gentle footsteps, and then a click as the door of his room was closed.

  As he rested, he felt overwhelming relief. Was it from the incredible climax that he had just had, or was it that the excruciating pain in his scrotum had now ceased, he wasn’t sure. It was maybe a bit of both. It had seemed like extreme pleasure and terrible punishment both at the same time.

  ‘Clever girl,’ he whispered to himself.

  The phone in his room was ringing again. The same shrill tone as last time. He grabbed a towel, and walked out of the bathroom.

  ‘Cole here,’ he said, as he held up the handset.

  ‘I’ve been calling you for the last fifteen minutes.’ Hedge sounded irritated. ‘Where have you been?’

  ‘I’ve been busy. I had my hands full. Well I didn’t, but...’ he started to explain. ‘Never mind, I’m here now. What’s the matter? You sound worried.’

  ‘Pack your stuff quickly. Then come straight down to my room. Don’t speak to anyone.’ Hedge said.

  ‘What’s with all the urgency?’

  ‘I think we have a serious problem’ said Hedge.

  Then he hung up.

  Chapter Seven

  Fifteen minutes later, the three of them were standing in Hedge’s room. He was looking very nervous. Maddie had quickly explained to the two men exactly what she had seen.

  ‘The police officer pushed the man away from him, and then a few moments later he shot him three times in the back,’ she had explained.

  ‘Are you sure that’s what you saw?’ Cole looked a little confused. ‘Why would a police officer do that?’

  Hedge shook his head. ‘I don’t know, but the guy is now over here in the hotel. We think he is looking for Maddie. She is a witness to what he did, and he knows that. We need to get out of here, and fast.’

  Cole took charge. ‘Let’s see if we can get out without being seen. We can talk about this more later. The taxi should be here any minute. Grab your bags and let’s go.’