by Clark, T. C.
“Damn, did she make this herself?” Haruaki asked, impressed with the craftsmanship. She had reinforced the grenades with shrapnel to enhance their effectiveness. Thank God Rhea had wanted to be a hero and not a villain. If she had chosen a different path, she would have made a hell of an enemy.
“Yes, she did.”
“I like your woman, Yuuto. She would actually fit right in at home. We still need to talk about what happens after all of this goes down.”
“Let’s do that later. They are finally landing,” Yuuto said. His eyes were cold, and Haruaki immediately matched his emotion. He knew it was time to get serious. He moved a few feet back.
They’d pulled out two pallets to use as manmade shields in case Slav came off the plane shooting. The plane landed, and Slav exited with ten men behind him. There was emptiness in his eyes that Yuuto recognized. It was the same look he had after he’d lost Rhea. The Linguist had really done a number on the man.
“Hello, Slav,” Yuuto said as he walked up. He kept his stance relaxed and non-threatening.
“Hello, Surgeon. Are you ready for the day ahead?” Slav asked as he turned and examined the airport. He looked worried. Good, he should be nervous.
“As ready as I can be. But first, we need to lay down some ground rules,” Yuuto said, pulling out a map from his pocket. He held it up when his men made a move for their weapons.
“Are you really in a position to make ground rules? You are outnumbered,” Slav said coldly.
“You are more than welcome to find out,” Yuuto answered with confidence. He took a step towards Slav and didn’t flinch when his men moved forward. Slav didn’t want these problems.
“No, you are not my problem. While we are on this island, I will follow your rules.” Slav intentionally left the future of their relationship in question. Yuuto could deal with that. After he dealt with the other people on his kill list, he would make his way back to Slav and eliminate him as a threat.
Rhea was right. An enemy of an enemy was a friend until they weren’t. He would use Slav’s anger against him. He couldn’t allow his feelings for the man to cloud his judgment right now.
Yuuto nodded. “We have a plan. Jorge has regular drop-off shipments delivered nightly. We are going to use that vehicle to access the base and deliver the modified explosives. Once they start to go off, we are going to have the rest of you enter through the east and the west gate. The Linguist is staying in one of the cabanas near the main house. We have other people who will take care of the communications by shutting down the local cell tower and corrupting their servers. We want to incite chaos, and in the midst of it, the real mission will begin.”
“No, we don’t have that kind of time. My contact says the Linguist is planning to leave the compound today. We need to move now!”
“How reliable is this contact?” Yuuto asked. Moving the time wouldn’t be ideal. A lot of the plan still relied on the confusion of the surprise attack with the explosives, and that meant using the cover of the night to their advantage. Even with Slav’s team, they were still outnumbered. For every twenty men Jorge had, they had one.
“I have his daughter, so I would say he is reliable enough,” Slav answered with an arrogance that made Yuuto’s skin crawl.
“Shit,” Yuuto said. Haruaki walked up and stood by his side. He was waiting for his verdict. Did they hit the base now? Altogether they had a team of fourteen men. It wasn’t the army he’d hoped for, but he knew how Slav operated. Whoever these bastards were, standing with them would be skilled enough to do major damage.
“What do you want to do?” Frank asked softly through the earpiece. He was waiting to see what he thought as well. They couldn’t risk the Linguist leaving the island. There was no time to verify.
“We will move now. We need to contact our people first and go over the plan with your men. I want to be clear: If you do anything outside of the plan, your life is forfeit. I don’t need a witty comeback or a veiled threat from you. I’m just stating the facts. You wanted the Linguist, and we are giving him to you. Fuck us, and it will be the last thing you do.” Yuuto turned and headed in the direction of the vehicle.
He missed the dark look that lit Slav’s eyes but Haruaki didn’t. Haruaki showed Slav his palm and was satisfied when the man paled. Yuuto may not like to use their notoriety to make a point, but he wasn’t above doing so.
“I am with the Tanaka clan of Tokyo. I am heir to the throne, in fact. You know what that means in your part of the world. I stand with my brother. If you betray him, then you betray us,” Haruaki bluffed. The news had enough power to shake Slav. His family’s name was feared worldwide. Slav nodded his head and followed after Yuuto.
Yuuto kept his eyes forward. He wondered if Slav was contemplating shooting him in the back if their positions were reversed he knew he would be thinking about it. There was no way he was going to let Slav know where the others were.
They would have to figure out a way to get the bombs onto the base quickly. His eyes caught Aidan, and a thought formed in his mind. One that would be very dangerous for the doctor, but that could get them on base quickly. He wondered how willing he would be to help.
* * *
“Fuck, no! We can’t go after the Linguist in an hour. I need time to set everything up. Do you have any idea how hard hacking is? His system isn’t sophisticated, but I also don’t want to be detected,” Kara screamed into the phone. Ghost and Rhea watched her lose her shit for the second time.
Clearly, something was going on. From what she could gather from Kara’s end, the Linguist was going to be leaving at some point today. This meant they needed to eliminate him now. Kara wasn’t used to the chaos of a live mission.
Sometimes the best-laid plans had to be tossed out the window. There was no such thing as perfect execution in their world. Ghost watched Kara with an indulgent smile. She would have to talk to him soon. He needed to know exactly what she would do to him if he hurt her baby sister. A man should have fair warning when it came to matters of the heart.
“I’m not going to let you speak to Rhea, and you can’t send Aidan. He’s not like you.” Kara was starting to get genuinely upset. Rhea walked over to her and patted her on the back.
“It’s going to be okay, I promise. Let me speak to Yuuto.” Rhea held out her hand and waited for Kara to calm down. Her little sister took a deep breath and handed it to her.
“What do you need?” Rhea asked softly.
“We need the communications shut down now.”
“How do you plan to get the devices on base? Before we were going to use the daily night shipment of foods and goods. If we move on him this morning, we don’t have that option.”
“Slav knows a guy who is willing to help. The man said they are always in need of doctors, and he could bring Aidan in as relief help.”
“Can we trust his contact?” Rhea asked. It was a little too convenient that Slav knew someone on base. They’d just given him the Linguist’s location a few days ago.
“Slav has his daughter,” Yuuto explained.
“Fucking bastard! You know we are going to have to do something about that later,” Rhea said softly.
“I’m aware of our responsibilities,” he said vaguely. His phrasing indicated that Slav was within earshot of their conversation.
“Did Aidan agree to do this?” The doctor was surprisingly starting to impress her. Most civilians wouldn’t be okay with risking their lives. She didn’t believe Yuuto would force him to do so, but times of war changed how people acted.
“Yes, he did. He says he wants to help stop this auction as well and that means helping out wherever he can.”
“Okay, we will handle the communications end. You stay safe. Send us a text when you’re ready.”
“Okay.” The phone disconnected, and Rhea forced herself to relax. She’d wanted to say she loved him but she knew better. Yuuto wouldn’t want to risk revealing the strength of his feelings for her in front of someone like Slav.
>
Slav was the kind of man who would hold onto that information to use it against him later.
“We need to move up the attack on the communications. What do you need to make that happen?” Rhea kept a hint of command in her voice. She knew her sister was starting to freak out. The one way to take away fear was to cut out the element of choice.
“Rhea, I can’t implement my plan in that time frame. I need a few hours for my attack to work. I told you this isn’t something I can rush. Why can’t they wait a few more hours?” Kara asked anxiously.
“Sometimes a mission can change in an instant. Don’t forget why we are here. We knew the risks. What do we have to do to make this work?” Rhea asked again.
“The only way I can shut their communications down quickly is by directly connecting to a hard line. That means I need to be on base for this to work, and you promised Yuuto you would stay off the base.”
“I can take Kara,” Ghost offered. “Rhea, you know I can protect her. I can get her there and back in no time.”
Rhea took some time to think about what he was saying. She didn’t like Kara going onto the base alone with Ghost. She wanted to be there as back-up. But she knew pushing them to take her with them would make things more difficult.
“Ghost, she is my baby sister. I trust you to keep her safe.”
“You know me. I won’t let anything happen to my future wife,” Ghost said confidently. He shot Kara a look hot enough to melt a candle.
“Be serious.”
“Who says I’m not being serious? I assure you I am very serious about your sister,” Ghost said easily.
Rhea didn’t miss the blush that darkened her sister’s cheek, but she didn’t say anything about it. They had bigger problems to deal with. She would never have put Ghost and her sister together. She didn’t know if she liked Kara with someone whose past was as dark as her own.
“If you go on base, you do the job and you leave. I don’t care what you see or hear. Is there anything I can do from here?” Rhea asked Kara specifically. Her job was to make sure the communications element was successful, and she would see it through.
“Yeah, actually, you can help us with this. Once we get there and I hack into their servers, a program will pop up on this laptop. All you have to do is hit the alert that asks you to initiate. Once you hit that button, the program will hack into my access point and start the shutdown protocol.”
“Okay then. Ghost is right. He is more than capable of keeping you safe. My main concern is you two getting there and back without being seen. How do you plan to do that, Ghost?”
“All I need is a few minutes to observe wherever we are sneaking into. Every place has a rhythm, especially places that are ruled with an iron fist. We can look over the layout. Kara can tell me the best place for her to do her work, and we will head that way.”
Rhea sighed. She hated this, but other than being a second bodyguard, there was nothing else she could do. Time was running out, and they didn’t have any time to hesitate. Slav was with Yuuto, and there was no telling what his real agenda was. “Kara, how do you feel about this?”
“I hate it. I don’t want to go. But like you said, we all know why we are here, and it’s time for me to do my part. I know enough about places like this to be okay. I think you should stay here, and me and Ghost should go to the base.” Kara struggled to get the words out. Her little sister was out of her element here, but she was still willing to try. Rhea was proud of her.
“Alright, I’m okay with this. As long as you two are comfortable with wearing trackers, I’ll wait here.” Today, Rhea would have to put her faith in her team. They could do this, they just needed a little luck and a few well-placed bullets.
* * *
“Are you sure you want to go in there alone?” Frank asked Aidan. Aidan wasn’t like them. He was from the civilian world. The only reason he was here was because he happened to be friends with a few of the Sanctuary members. How was someone like him going to be able to handle placing seven self-detonating bombs?
Frank looked down at the insulated bag Rhea had given him. He had to admit that she’d designed them well. She’d intentionally created them to blend in with most environments. They were so tiny that most people wouldn’t even notice them. He handed the package to Aidan.
“Yes, I know all about the Genesis Project. It’s hard for me to wrap my head around a weapon that has the potential to do so much damage at one time. I may not be like all of you, but I made a vow to humanity when I took my oath as a doctor. If I’m the only person they will allow onto the base, then it’s my responsibility to do this. However, like I told the others, I’m placing these in areas where I don’t see any people. My need to help only goes so far.”
“I get that. Remember what I said. If anything looks off, I want you to slip out through the back. I just got off the phone with Kara and Ghost. They are heading this way right now. She needs a hard line to get into the system faster, whatever the hell that means. I set up a meeting point for all of you. They will take you back to the house.” Frank pulled out a roughly drawn map of the base and circled the spot he wanted Aidan to go to.
Aidan examined the map quickly and nodded. It was easy to follow.“Ghost is annoying, but he’s good. I’ve seen him in action more than once. He will keep Kara safe. What about Rhea, is she going with them?” Aidan adjusted his jacket and placed the devices into a hidden, flat pocket sewn into the side.
“No, thankfully, she agreed to stay home and wait for their contact. Kara has something she needs her to do online once she starts shutting down their communications.”
“You ready?” Slav said, walking into the room.
Immediately Frank placed himself between Slav and Aidan. He didn’t trust the man at all. He knew they needed their firepower, but fuck, he hated working with people like him. Frank relaxed when Aidan patted him on the back and gave him a reassuring smile.
“Yes, let’s go.” Aidan followed Slav outside and got into the antique Honda Civic. An old man with sad eyes was driving. He must be the contact. Yuuto and Haruaki were sitting off to the side going over the newly revised plan with Slav’s men.
Frank sent out a prayer for the young doctor. This was going to be a test of his nerves, but somehow he had a feeling that he could handle it.
* * *
Ghost and Kara drove to the base in silence. He could feel the fear coming off of her in waves. She was doing an excellent job of keeping herself focused on the task at hand. She was going over her codes.
When they were a few miles out, he parked the vehicle. They would have to access the base on foot. The plan would begin after the communications were cut. They had limited time. He’d talked to Frank, and Aidan was already at Jorge’s compound.
They jogged most of the way. Ghost was impressed. Kara was in excellent shape. She hadn’t complained about his pace. In fact, looking at her now, she wasn’t even out of breath.
“You must work out a lot. Most people would struggle after jogging a few minutes,” Ghost whispered as they crossed from the woods onto Jorge’s land. He kept his voice low and watched for anyone in the vicinity.
Ghost had chosen this spot because it was isolated from the rest of the base. It consisted of a few homes that surrounded several utility poles. He had a feeling that the area would have only a handful of men guarding. Jorge would be more concerned about keeping his drugs and weapons stash safe.
“I love to run. I actually completed three marathons last year,” Kara whispered back. He looked down at his watch. They didn’t have much time. When they finally got close enough to see the buildings, he put his hand up and Kara stopped running immediately.
Someone was outside talking on the phone. The man was too busy yelling to notice them hiding in the thick of the trees. Ghost motioned with his hands for her to stay low. He crept closer to the man. Once the guy turned his back to look at the house, Ghost struck quickly. He grabbed him from behind and choked him out. He pulled his limp b
ody back to where Kara was and dropped him behind a cluster of trees.
“Let’s go,” Ghost said. He started to turn away, but Kara didn’t move.
“Kara, we got to go.” Ghost reached for her and she stumbled back away from him. She looked afraid. “We don’t have time for you to freak out. Everyone is relying on us to handle this part; that includes Rhea.”
At the mention of Rhea’s name, Kara’s face cleared. “I’m sorry, I just…he’s dead, isn’t he?”
“He is. This is real life. If you leave an enemy behind knocked out, they wake up later and shoot you in the back.”
“I know, Rhea says the same thing.” Kara took a shaky breath and walked around the body. “Let’s get this over with.”
Ghost started to say something reassuring but he heard someone else talking inside. He was going to kill several people tonight. She needed to get used to the sight of bodies. His goal was to protect her from anyone who was a threat, and today that meant every person that entered their area. It was going to be a long morning.
* * *
Aidan knew the exact moment when the communications had been cut because everyone on base started to freak out at the same time. So far, his time among Jorge’s men had been uneventful.
Whoever this guy was acting as the contact for Slav was well respected. No one questioned him bringing a random doctor on site. As a matter of fact, he’d been very busy dressing wounds and sewing up lacerations. The contact wasn’t lying. They were in desperate need of a doctor.
Once they got to the next stop, Aidan slipped away easily. The contact was aware of the plan and didn’t do anything to stop him from leaving. He ran to the meeting point. He prayed hard that the others would be there.
“Thank God,” Aidan muttered when he found Kara and Ghost waiting for him.
