Outside the Wire

by Holly Copella

  “Drop it,” Gil cried out.

  Zack remained positioned behind Jackie, keeping every inch of his vulnerable body concealed behind hers.

  “Gil,” Jackie gasped but was uncertain how to finish the outburst.

  Don’t shoot; it’s Zack? He just shot Monroe! He attacked her and stuffed her in a bag. He was tampering with their planes! She was suddenly torn. Had she really seen correctly? Was it really Zack or was she just hallucinating from whatever drugs she’d been injected with?

  “Gil, wait!”

  Gil couldn’t take the shot anyway, but he didn’t ease his finger on the trigger. She could hear someone thumping around within the plane. It had to be Sal who turned on the plane lights.

  “Listen very carefully, princess,” Zack whispered in her ear in a low, threatening tone. “Cross my path again, and you’ll go down like ‘Old Marge’.”

  The sound of a gun cocking caused Jackie to twitch. Zack’s grip on her arm behind her back tightened to the sound. Jackie, Gil, and Zack darted looks just beneath the plane. Jackie held back her startled gasp when she saw Mac crouched beneath the plane, partially hidden behind the wheel with something resembling a shotgun aimed at them.

  “Zack,” Mac warned in a low, threatening tone. “Put the gun down!”

  He repositioned Jackie to keep Mac from getting a shot at him. “We’re going to take a little walk,” Zack announced softly into Jackie’s ear. “No sudden movements.”

  He took a step back forcing her to back up with him. A small part of Jackie wanted to go along. She wanted answers. She had questions. Another part of her wanted to break her best friend in two after seeing him gun down Monroe.

  “Zack, I’m warning you,” Mac cried out. “Not another step!”

  Zack suddenly released Jackie and dropped something to the ground. A small round disk expelled thick smoke. Jackie immediately coughed and considered which direction to run. Before she could make the call, Zack cast her forward, keeping her between him and Gil then turned and fired at Mac. Mac pulled the trigger of the PHaSR rifle. A laser light flashed brightening the entire area. Jackie was already on the ground when she saw the flash. It was worse than light from a thousand cameras going off in her face. She could only imagine what the effects were to someone standing directly in its path. As Mac lowered the weapon, all three realized Zack was already gone.

  “Son-of-a-bitch,” Mac cried out and ran in the direction Zack had most likely gone.

  Gil ran for Jackie and pulled her to her feet. He hurried her away from the general area while keeping watch for any signs of Zack.

  “Did I hear her correctly?” he suddenly demanded while staring at her.

  “Yeah, Gil,” Jackie gasped while holding her pounding chest. “It was Zack.” Concern swept over her as reality returned. “Monroe!”

  She pushed past Gil and ran toward the front of the plane. As they approached the clearing, Pinto was kneeling on the ground alongside Monroe who gingerly rubbed his chest. Jackie then saw he had his shirt open to reveal the bulletproof vest. She sighed with relief and helped him to his feet.

  “You were wearing?” she suddenly demanded.

  “Of course I was,” Monroe muttered with some irritation from the sting of the shots to the vest. “I always wear a vest after someone tries to bump me off. Don’t you?”

  Gil helped Pinto to her feet as Sal ran toward them from the lit plane with Darth on his heels.

  “I don’t know,” Jackie huffed in response. “Every time someone tries to bump me off, I always seem to be running for my life.”

  “Did you kill the bastard?” Monroe demanded.

  “No,” Jackie replied while frowning and almost choked on her words. “It was Zack.”

  Monroe stared at her with a look of disbelief. “Zack?” he suddenly gasped. “Zack’s alive?” He then reconsidered the question and turned hostile. “Zack shot me?”

  “It’s not how it seems,” Jackie insisted and shook her head with disbelief. “It can’t be. He’s either lost his mind or someone’s forcing him to hunt us.”

  “Oh boy,” Sal moaned softly while looking away.

  He received several looks.

  “What?” Gil suddenly demanded.

  “You said it had to be someone close; someone who knew you intimately in order to come after you like that,” Sal remarked while exchanging looks with the team. “Who knows your team better than Zack?”

  “No, it can’t be,” Jackie remarked with concern. “He wouldn’t. Besides, Holden and Ross were attacked while Zack was on the island with us.”

  “The two may not be related,” Sal warned her.

  “We need to warn Beck and Kirk,” Gil announced. “You guys need to take off. It’s not safe here.”

  “What about Bogart?” Jackie asked with surprise. “We can’t just leave without him.”

  “We won’t,” Gil informed her. “I’ll pick up the guys at the tower and then we’ll arrange to meet Bogart at the train station Saturday afternoon.”

  “We need a rendezvous where we can land planes,” Monroe informed them. “Someplace no one will ever think to look for us, even if it’s just for a few days.”

  “A friend of a friend has a ton of land about thirty minutes from here by plane,” Sal informed them. “I don’t know the guy that well, but if we can land on the back hundred acres, I doubt anyone will know we’re there. We’d be completely roughing it without any food or water, but there is a cabin near a stream.”

  “Perfect,” Monroe reported. “We can pack the provisions from the vault and stay there a few days. Hopefully, by then we’ll have some answers.”

  “Or until we come up with a better plan,” Gil remarked. “Give me the coordinates, and I’ll meet you there after we nab Bogart at the train station Saturday afternoon.”

  “You can’t hike to that tower in the dark,” Jackie insisted. “You don’t know if Zack is still out there. Obviously, Darth isn’t of any use against him. That’s why he never barked a warning. He knew it was Zack.”

  “I wasn’t planning on hiking,” Gil replied matter-of-fact while raising a brow. “I intended to taxi most of the way.” He indicated the plane. “I’m sure Beck and Kirk will hear me coming and meet me halfway.”

  Jackie frowned at the idea.

  He noticed the look he received. “I’ll be fine,” Gil informed her then eyed his plane. “We’d better do a quick engine inspection on both planes. No telling what trouble Zack was getting into before we caught him.”

  “Sal and I will stand guard,” Monroe informed them.

  “Me too,” Pinto announced and removed the semiautomatic from her shoulder holster.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The satellite tower was almost three miles from the aircraft boneyard. It was a little after sunset. There was still some light, but the area would soon be only visible by moonlight. Beck sat on a large rock at the base of the tower with assorted cables plugged into his laptop computer. He accessed files and downloaded anything of interest, so he’d be able to look at it later at his leisure. Kirk paced the area only a few feet away from where Beck worked. He had his assault rifle slung over his shoulder but kept his semiautomatic in his hand. The sounds of the night were nearly deafening. Every cricket in a three-mile radius was putting on a concert for the men by the tower.

  “How much longer?” Kirk finally asked.

  “Someplace you need to be?” Beck asked without looking up from his laptop.

  “I know where I’d like to be,” Kirk scoffed. “Anywhere but here and with anyone but you. I’d prefer a redhead, but at this point, any woman with a pulse will do.”

  “I’m sure,” Beck remarked.

  “I hate this radio silence bullshit,” Kirk informed him while pacing and watching the surrounding area, paying particular attention to the distant boneyard. “I thought I saw a flash of light from the boneyard, and I’d like to know what it was.”

  “Probably Monroe trying to light a fire,” Beck remarke
d then grinned at Monroe’s expense. “Wouldn’t doubt he used gasoline as an accelerant. The grill master will probably be missing both eyebrows when we return.”

  Kirk groaned and threw his head back with annoyance. “Why’d you have to say that?” he demanded. “Now I’m thinking about steak.”

  “Must be quite the battle royale,” Beck teased. “Kirk’s stomach versus his dick.”

  “Just because you finally have a sex life, that doesn’t mean you get to make fun of my little dry spell,” Kirk remarked. “Your dry spell lasted longer than our last tour of duty.”

  “No need to get personal,” Beck casually replied. “Just passing the time.”

  “Are you finding anything useful?” Kirk demanded, unable to mask his edginess.

  “Coming up with a lot of interesting things in the news. Holden’s boss reported a break-in at Jackie’s house,” Beck informed him and snorted a soft laugh. “Apparently, five burglars were apprehended.”

  “Apprehended? Is that the new term for mutilated beyond recognition?” Kirk remarked with a curious look. He then sighed. “Always nice having the feds on our side.”

  “And Chicago police have not yet identified two men who broke into the home of Salvatore Romano last night,” Beck continued to read from the news feed he’d found. “According to Romano’s housekeeper, two unidentified intruders broke into the mansion of millionaire businessman Salvatore Romano. The two intruders got into a shootout with Romano’s security guards. The intruders were killed on the premises. The millionaire businessman was not home during the attack.” Beck raised his brows. “Nice of Sal’s maid to lie for him.”

  “So the police scraped up six bodies, but we still don’t know who they are?”

  “If they know, they’re not saying,” Beck replied without looking up from his computer.

  “Well, that was a waste of time.”

  “Not exactly,” Beck informed him while typing into the keyboard. “I’m using Holden’s credentials to login to the FBI’s computer network. Blake Harris is an efficient man. I’m sure he has some sort of report on the guys they found at Jackie’s house. He’d make that a priority.”

  “Holden gave you his security clearances?” Kirk asked with surprise.

  Beck made a face and casually shrugged. “Gave is a strong word.”

  Kirk snorted a laugh.

  Beck watched the screen with great interest then tapped it. “Got it,” he announced with enthusiasm. “Two of the five men at Jackie’s house have been identified. Blake is just withholding their identities from the press.” Beck frantically typed into his computer then pressed enter and sat back. “Now I just need to see if we get any matches in the FBI database when I cross-reference the two men at Jackie’s house with the men who attacked us on Giovanni’s island.”

  “Will that take long?”

  “Thirty minutes or longer,” Beck replied with a bored sigh. “Another few hours if I cross-reference those names with those in my personal database from our missions.”

  “I suppose you need the internet for that too,” Kirk muttered.

  Beck eyed him and grinned. “Now you’re catching on,” he teased and returned his attention to his computer. “And Ross said you couldn’t learn new tricks.”

  “I don’t need to learn new tricks,” Kirk snapped in a gruff tone. “I’m just here to break things and shoot people.” He groaned softly. “I’m going to patrol the perimeter before I fall asleep standing up.”

  “Happy trails.”

  Kirk walked along the small path in the slightly overgrown field. It was a beautiful countryside despite the massive, ugly aircraft boneyard just a few miles away. Kirk avoided the shaded areas near sporadic trees but kept close watch for anything that moved. Apart from the crickets, there was little sound. A peaceful, quiet countryside made Kirk suspicious. He kept within view of the tower, making certain Beck remained within shouting distance. Kirk stopped and stared at a small cluster of trees not far to his left. Nothing moved, and he didn’t see anything, but something made him stare all the same. All at once, the crickets suddenly silenced. Kirk continued to stare at the trees. He returned the semiautomatic to his holster and removed the assault rifle from over his shoulder. He took a few steps closer to the trees while raising the rifle. One tree, in particular, caught his attention. As he moved closer, he saw an ATV parked in the shadows. He stopped and scanned the area down the barrel of his rifle.

  He slowly approached the ATV while keeping an eye on the area. There was a large duffel bag strapped across the back of the four-wheeler. Kirk poked the bag with the barrel of his rifle. Nothing moved. He again scanned the area and felt the vehicle’s engine. It was still warm! Kirk spun his back to the ATV, crouched before it, and scanned the area with his assault rifle. Whoever owned it wasn’t far away. He remained there for several minutes watching the field, trees, and underbrush. When nothing moved, he again straightened and unzipped the bag strapped to the back of the vehicle. As he peered inside the bag, horror crossed his face. He heard the crunch of a twig behind him. Kirk spun with his assault rifle raised. Zack stood behind him with a sinister grin on his face. Kirk stared at him with a dumbfounded look and lowered the rifle.

  “Zack?” he gasped.

  Zack knocked the assault rifle from his hand then spun into a high, roundhouse kick, striking him across the face. Kirk was thrown to the ground. He immediately moved to his hands and knees while removing the semiautomatic in his shoulder holster. Zack kicked him, throwing him onto his back, allowing the gun to fly into the grass. Kirk immediately rolled onto his knees, prepared to fight. He saw the barrel of a gun aimed at him.

  “You should probably stay down,” Zack casually announced.

  †

  Beck sat before his laptop and peered at what was on the screen with great interest. He heard movement in the distance and realized it was getting louder. Beck shut his laptop, shoved it into his bag, and darted behind the tower pillar. He removed his assault rifle and looked around the area. He didn’t see anyone. Everything seemed peaceful.

  “Kirk?” he called out although not too loud.

  There was no response. Beck cursed softly under his breath, tossed his pack over his back, and then hurried for a nearby tree, darting behind it. He again searched the area then heard an assault rifle blast.

  “Kirk,” Beck gasped and ran to another tree for a better look.

  In the near distance, Beck saw something lying in the field. He scanned the area, knowing it could be a trap, and then hurried across the open field, keeping his rifle close to him and his finger near the trigger. As he approached, he saw Kirk lying face down in the field. His white shirt was speckled with blood, and his shoulder holster was empty. Beck immediately noticed the large caliber bullet hole through the back of his skull, indicating he’d been shot in the back of the head while possibly running from the shooter.

  “Kirk,” Beck gasped with horror.

  He again looked around while crouching alongside his dead friend. He attempted to turn Kirk over, but when he saw the degree of damage to his face from the exit wound, he reconsidered. Beck groaned softly and looked away, allowing Kirk to roll back onto his stomach. The sound of an assault rifle blast brought him back to reality. The shot was so close it tore his shirt and struck Kirk’s back. Beck leaped over Kirk’s dead body and rolled across the tall grass. He remained immobile on his belly just on the other side of his friend while keeping his assault rifle aimed in the direction of the fired shots. He then saw a man dart between two trees. Beck momentarily froze when he saw it was Zack. He was about to call out when Zack fired his weapon, hitting the ground near him. Despite his surprise, Beck flattened his body into the tall grass.

  The sound he had heard a few minutes earlier was now getting louder and the area was beginning to brighten. Beck looked behind him and saw Gil’s turbo prop plane gliding along the field toward him. Beck sprang up from the field and randomly fired into the nearby trees while running for the approachin
g plane. The return assault rifle fire was so close, the ground exploded behind Beck’s feet. Gil slowed the plane and stopped by the time Beck reached it. The side door opened, which lowered into stairs. Beck continued to fire at the trees as he scaled the plane steps. Gil fired into the woods as well, giving Beck additional cover. Beck closed the door while Gil returned to the pilot’s seat. Several shots were fired at the plane, but it was out of range. No sooner had the door sealed when the plane started its journey across the field back for the aircraft boneyard and a secure runway.

  Chapter Twenty

  The small, two-room cabin was nestled just inside the woods not far from a babbling brook. As promised, the area was peaceful and far from any sign of civilization. Beyond a large clearing of land they used for a runway, Jackie’s plane was partially hidden close to the woods to conceal it from prying eyes flying overhead. It was a little after five o’clock in the morning and just before sunrise. Jackie sat on the slightly rotted porch step of the old cabin that had seen better days. The cabin windows didn’t contain glass and wooden shutters were all that kept wildlife out. Remaining on the plane was almost the better option, but they decided to give the tiny cabin a chance.

  Jackie clutched her knees to her chest in an attempt to keep warm in the chilly morning. If she got two hours’ sleep, she was lucky. Whether she wanted to or not, she was forced to have a lengthy talk with Monroe after they’d arrived at the cabin. Their tragic run in with their teammate back from the dead and the feeling of betrayal was hard on both of them. Monroe wanted to make sure she was okay. She insisted she was okay even though she actually wasn’t. Zack shot Monroe. He put a gun to her head and threatened to kill her. She was almost one hundred percent convinced he was the one who shot her with a tranquilizer dart and attempted to kidnap her. She could excuse almost everything else away except that Zack had shot Monroe. Technically, he would have killed Monroe if it hadn’t been for the bulletproof vest he was wearing. None of it made any sense.