Heath’s body went rigid, bracing for an impact that never came. Pained sounds rang out behind him. He turned to see two men dressed in black face down in the gravel.
“If I found out you’re lying to me, that will be you,” the man at the gate said.
Heath nodded and walked forward. “Who are you?”
“Lieutenant Stone, United States Marine Corps. My men and I are here in a joint operation with the FBI.”
Heath motioned back into the house. “Yeah, I know.”
Stone began to speak, then paused. “You know?”
“Um, yes sir. Your agent. She’s with us. Well, she’s with my brother.”
Stone eyed Heath. “What is her name?”
“Agent Kelly Mandrake. She showed us her credentials and everything.”
“Son, I hate to break this to you, but Kelly Mandrake is a man. And he is very much dead.”
Heath’s jaw dropped open. “Are...are you sure?”
“I saw his body earlier tonight. Disemboweled, staked to the ground and left for dead.”
Heath turned and began moving back for the fence. “I’ve got to get to my brother!”
Stone fired a round into the ground by Heath’s feet, sending gravel shards into the air. “Hold on there, son! What can you tell me about what’s going on right now?”
Heath turned towards the gate. “All I know is we were lured here under the pretense of a benefit. My brother saved some children last night from a burning orphanage and they invited us here for a celebration.
“As soon as we got here, they stuck us in this giant maze of horrors and we’ve spent the whole night as entertainment for a bunch of international drug runners.”
“What can you tell me about the grounds?”
“I know there is one main front door that opens into a large foyer. At the back end of the foyer are three sets of double doors. Some sort of banquet hall. Everybody you want is in there.”
“Anything else?”
Heath paused and thought hard a moment. “I arrived late. That’s why my car is the only pile in the lot.
“When I got here they took me through a private entrance. Just around the bend there on your left is a door. Go through it and make the first right. Follow it all the way to the end. It’ll spit you out right by the banquet hall in the front foyer as well.”
Stone pulled his weapon up through the crack. “Thank you. Good luck Doctor, I trust I’ll see you again soon.”
Heath nodded once. He began to run back towards the fence but pulled up short. “Hey! You wouldn’t have an extra weapon with you would you?”
Stone shook his head. “I’m sorry. These are United States Military issued firearms. I cannot hand them over to a civilian.”
“Anything?” Heath pleaded.
Stone paused a moment, then tossed a long thin object onto the gravel towards Heath. Without another word, he disappeared into the darkness.
“Hey, thanks!” Heath called as he jogged over and scooped them up from the ground.
It was a standard issue Marine Corps k-bar knife.
Eighty-Nine
“Do we have cameras on the grounds?”
Winston shook his head. “Just inside the wall, where our fighters are.”
“That seems mighty foolish now, all things considered. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Winston gritted his teeth and rotated his head to Rosner. “It wasn’t a decision. We only had the wireless capability to carry two-hundred camera feeds. We used them all inside.”
“Again, mighty foolish now. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Winston sighed. “Would have been much more foolish to be sitting here with a rabid audience wondering why they couldn’t watch Maake and Kekoa because they were in a black spot. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“But that didn’t happen, now did it?”
“And we had no way of knowing that beforehand, now did we?”
“I’m just saying—“
Winston slammed his fist down on the table. “I know what you’re saying!”
Several heads turned at the commotion. For a moment the room quieted as nosy guests peered over.
Rosner removed his glasses and began polishing his lenses again. “Do try to control yourself Eric. Remember, you serve as the face for all of us here tonight.”
“You’re an asshole, you know that?”
Rosner continued wiping. “So I’ve been told.”
Winston drew the betting machine over and studied it. “And then there were three. Well, five.”
“Maake, Kekoa and Honeycutt. Of course the extra Honeycutt.” Rosner paused. “And who is she exactly?”
“You mean our stand-in Kelly Mandrake?”
“No, I am referring to the other she still alive.”
Winston slid his gaze to Rosner and then to the screen displaying Kelly and Will. “Her name is Erica.
“She’s Harvard educated and speaks three languages. Proficient with firearms, excellent swordsman, deadly archer.”
“So what’s her angle in this?”
Winston rested his hands in front of him on the table. “Came to me a few months ago and said she wanted in. I told her about tonight and that if she could find a way to impress us, we’d consider taking her on.”
“I hardly think playing wounded and tagging along with Will Honeycutt all night counts as impressing us.”
“She impressed us long before tonight. She’s the one that sniffed out Kelly Mandrake. Tonight she took it a step further by volunteering to take his place.”
Rosner pondered the information. “How did she know about what we do?”
“She pieced it out through a pretty extensive network of people on the ground.”
“And that was enough to get her a meeting with you?”
“Yes.”
Rosner thought a moment longer. “This concerns me Eric. If it were that easy for someone to get invited in on this, what happens when somebody else wants in?”
“Somebody else won’t get in.”
“And why’s that?”
“Because somebody else won’t be my daughter.”
Rosner returned the glasses to the bridge of his nose and sighed. “You realize if something happens to her in there...”
“I know.”
“And you’re okay with that?”
Winston paused a moment and shook his head. “She’s my daughter only in blood. She grew up in Boston with her mother. I only just met her a few months ago.”
“Meaning?”
Winston again looked at the image of Kelly and Will on the screen. “Meaning if she wants a piece of what it took me a lifetime to build, she’s going to have to earn it.”
Ninety
“Here they come.”
Manus nodded as he and Briggs leaned against the hood of the SUV. Ahead of them, Nixon and Heller approached. Their lights off, they moved as a silent black block up the road.
As they eased past Manus and Briggs, steam sifted up from the edges of the front hood. Bullet holes riddled the side like Swiss cheese.
“Looks like they rolled out the welcome mat for them too.”
Again, Manus just nodded.
Nixon drove a little further and made a K turn on the road. He drew the second SUV up behind the first and put it in park.
The car made an audible sigh as the car turned off. Steam continued to rise into the cool night air.
“You guys alright?” Manus asked.
“Thank God these things are bulletproof,” Nixon muttered. As he approached, he cocked his head and surveyed the damage to the first SUV.
“I see you guys made some new friends as well.”
“Sure did. Whole bunch of them. You?”
Nixon drew up alongside him and rested his back above the front tire. “We made three passes along the far side of the property. Went down, looped around in the grass, came back.
“First pass, didn’t see anybody. Lights on, horn blaring, not a soul around.
“Second
pass, guys dressed like ninjas starting popping up everywhere. They were giving a little bit of chase and what not, but no resistance.
“We decided to make a third pass, give your guys as much time as we could.”
“Should have stopped at two huh?” Manus asked.
“Should have stopped at two. That’s what took us so long to get back here. Had to find a new route. No way we could have made a fourth pass through there, bulletproof or not.”
Manus nodded and again checked his phone.
Nothing.
“We heard anything from Stone?” Nixon inquired.
“Twice now. The first was to let us know they were over the wall.”
“That’s good.”
“Not as good as the second call.”
Manus pushed himself up from the car and turned to face Nixon. “Stone called to tell us they had reached the house and were looking for a place to breach. They would call as soon as they were in.”
“Okay?”
“While they were there they found the car garage and ran into a Dr. Heath Honeycutt. He and his brother are inside, stuck fighting in a tournament they had no idea even existed.”
Nixon narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“His brother is a firefighter here in Portland. Pulled a bunch of kids from a burning building last night, so today he was invited to some sort of reception as a guest of honor.
“He calls up his brother and they show up expecting a free steak. No idea they’re being included as participants. Next thing you know, they’re stuck in there fighting for their lives while a bunch of rich people get their rocks off watching it.”
“Is this legit? Do we buy it?”
Manus nodded. “I had Brenda run the names. Dr. Heath Honeycutt does work at OHSU as a surgical resident and Will Honeycutt is a firefighter in Portland and he did rescue some kids last night.”
“Too much detail to just be a cover,” Nixon agreed.
Manus nodded. “There’s more. Heath told Stone they’ve had some girl with them all night claiming to be FBI Agent Kelly Mandrake.”
Nixon paused, then snapped a confused gaze over to Manus. “Wait...what? We found Mandrake in the woods hours ago.”
“I know that. They didn’t.”
Ninety-One
Will never glanced back at Aello. He knew the look in her eyes well enough to know she was done.
Kelly looked back three different times. Each time, Will pulled her back around.
“You should have finished her,” Kelly said.
“I already told you, she was finished.”
“You’re not a doctor. How do you know that?”
“No, but I’ve seen enough injuries to know how much blood a person can lose before they’re done for. The light was gone from her eyes. She was finished.”
Side by side they walked on in silence. The wood floor beneath them creaked as they pushed forward. Otherwise, there was barely a sound in the halls.
“How many do you think are left?” Kelly asked.
“No way of knowing. We’ve found several and taken out a few ourselves. Assuming everybody else has had a somewhat similar night, we have to be getting down to the last ones.”
Silence fell between them for a few moments.
“What would you do with the money?” Kelly asked.
Will made a face and glanced over at her. “What?”
“You know, the money. If we were to win this thing, what would you do with it?”
Will stopped walking for a moment and stared at her. “You’re an FBI agent. Just the same as I’m a firefighter. We both took an oath a long time ago to protect and to serve the greater good.
"That means we don’t do things like enter illegal tournaments in the name of our job and we sure as hell don't keep the blood money afterwards.”
Kelly made a face. “Oh come off it, it was just a question.” She checked her watch. “It’s now just after five a.m. You make it another hour or so and you could walk out of here with ten to fifteen million. You telling me you wouldn’t take it?”
Will began walking again. “No, and I can’t believe we’re even having this conversation.”
Kelly jogged a few steps to catch up with him. “Come on, you said yourself the PFD doesn’t pay what the Bureau does.
“Me? I’d buy a Maserati. Or maybe an Aston Martin. Wouldn’t I be cool whipping around the streets of Boston in one of those?”
Will paused again. “Boston? Isn’t the Bureau in D.C.?”
“The Bureau is all over. My home office is in Boston.”
Will narrowed his eyes a touch. “They run an operation this large out of a field office?”
“By our standards, this isn't that large,” Kelly countered.
Will nodded his head and began walking forward again. Ahead of them, an intersection loomed.
“One last time,” Kelly pressed. “What would you do with the money?”
Will shot a glance at her. “Nothing that outrageous. Put back enough for my daughter’s education. Enough for the son I hope to have soon too. Get a little land outside of town, pay off my wife’s student loans.”
“Sounds kind of boring.”
Will smirked. “Naw, it’s just when you have a family your priorities change. That’s all.”
They approached the intersection and Will stopped. He threw his right arm out across Kelly and held his left index finger to his lips. From the right corridor the sound of talking wafted down the hallway.
Will cocked his left ear towards the voices. “I’m going over to the corner and peek around the bottom of the wall. See who’s down there.”
Kelly turned her ear towards the voices and nodded in agreement.
Will approached the corner, placing the balls of his feet down one at a time in front of him. A few feet from it, he pressed his back against the wall and slid to the ground. Using his fingertips and toes, he eased himself to the edge of the wall and peered around the base.
Twenty yards down the hall, standing in front of a sprawling wooden double door was Maake and Kekoa.
Will snapped back around the corner and pressed himself against it. He rested his head on the wall behind him and closed his eyes for the briefest second.
“Do you think your brother’s dead yet?”
“What?” Will asked and snapped open his eyes.
Kelly was standing in front of him. “If he’s half as dumb as you, I’d say he didn’t last a half hour alone.”
In her eyes was a maniacal look.
In her good hand was a long hooked knife.
Ninety-Two
The bat whistled through the air. It flew parallel to the ground, twisting in a perfect circular motion.
Will and Kelly both heard it a split second before it arrived. Kelly turned her head just in time for the barrel to smash into her jaw.
The impact sent her small body flying into the intersection. The bat clamored against the wooden floor and rolled to a stop along the wall.
Will’s eyes grew large as he stared at Kelly’s body for a moment, then back down the hallway they’d just came through.
In the middle of it, Heath was running towards him.
Will was on his feet in a flash. “Heath!”
Heath pulled to a stop and wrapped an arm around his brother. Panting, he leaned back and grabbed Will’s arm. He rotated it to look at the cuts on his shoulder and his opposite forearm. “Jesus, what the hell happened to you?”
“Somebody brought a knife to a fistfight. What the hell happened to you?!”
“It’s not my blood.”
Will grabbed his brother by the shoulders and looked him over. “Then who’s is it? You look like you were in a bad horror flick.”
“Some brute that kept calling himself The Butcher.”
“You took down Boucher?!”
Heath gestured to his face and ribs. “Oh no. He tuned me up something good. I just happened to jam a knife through his femoral on the way out.”
“Self pres
ervation at its finest?”
“Something like that.”
Heath tugged at the arm on his white t-shirt, tearing it free at the sleeve. He tore it again at the underarm seem and wrapped it around Will’s arm. The open wound seeped blood through the cotton on contact.
“You’re going to need stitches later.” He pulled the opposite sleeve off his shirt and wrapped it around as well. A much smaller blood spot appeared but didn’t spread. “But these should stop the blood flow for awhile.”
Will looked down at his arm and then at Kelly lying motionless in the hallway. “Nice shot with the bat. You do realize you just took down an FBI agent, right?”
Heath shook his head. “No I didn’t.”
Will nodded vigorously. “Yeah, you really did. She was a bitch and deserved it, but you really did.”
Heath held his hand up. “When I went to my car to get the bat, there were Marines swarming the grounds. I talked to one of them and he told me the real Kelly Mandrake is a guy. They found him dead in the woods earlier tonight.”
“So who the hell is this?”
“Some stand-in they inserted to fill his spot.”
Will stared down at her body. “That explains a lot. She was probably using Toulson before we showed up.”
“Probably.”
“Wait...the Marines are here? Where the hell are they?”
Heath shook his head. “I don’t think there are very many of them. They’re outside trying to get in as we speak.”
Will walked to the wall and picked up Heath’s bat. He examined the barrel, which had a small dent and some blood spatter on it. He walked back towards Heath and extended the bat to him.
Heath stared straight past him, towards the intersection ahead.
Maake and Kekoa stood in it, peering back at them.
Ninety-Three
The energy in the room amped up tenfold. The previous hours of eating and drinking and smoking melted away. People were on their feet, clapping and cheering. Every television in the room showed some angle of the matchup.
“And then there were four,” Rosner said.
Winston said nothing. His eyes were a bit glazed, a deep frown set in on his face.
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