The Gemini Deception

by Kim Baldwin

  “That was the deal, and excuse me for not choosing a lethal injection.”

  “That was never the deal.”

  “You’re not listening. They—”

  “They’re taking us to a nice remote place to kill us.”

  Wagner shifted loudly. “Listen to me—”

  “Stop,” Shield said. “Just…stop talking. I can’t listen to you anymore.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Jack could hear occasional yelling from the back of the van, and she was pretty sure it was Kennedy. The two women either didn’t know their captors could hear them or they didn’t care. What was clear was that Kennedy was pretty damn pissed, and for good reason. Although Wagner had sealed her own fate and probably deserved what was coming to her, Jack had to find a way to get the op out alive. It wouldn’t be easy; the sedan with TQ’s two backup goons was still on their bumper.

  She turned to the driver. “Did TQ tell you one of the women is a contractor for a private organization?”

  “So?”

  “I’ve dealt with companies like that. They won’t rest until they find out what happened to her.”

  Bill shrugged. “So? What if they do? No one can touch that crazy bitch.”

  “And by that, you mean TQ.”

  “Who else?”

  “You don’t like her?”

  He shrugged again. “I like her enough to want her alive and kicking so she can continue to pay me what she does. The woman pays well.”

  “But you know she’s deranged.”

  “I have a cousin who thinks he’s Napoleon. He used to run through Central Park wrapped in nothing but the French flag.” He paused, eyebrows furrowed as if trying to remember something. “Oh, yeah. He ate bugs, too. Anyway, he’s in the psych ward now. Straitjacket, padded walls, the works, and shit.” He chuckled and turned to look at her.

  “Okay,” Jack replied.

  Bill stopped laughing. “TQ puts him to shame,” he said seriously.

  “Look, I don’t want trouble with the authorities. My record’s a mile long, and they’ll use anything to lock me up for life. I can’t afford to have some money-hungry contractor looking for me. Why not let this one walk?”

  “Because I enjoy breathing. I’ve done three years in Attica and I can tell you, it’s nothing compared to how the bitch handles treason. She’d never buy some broad got away from the four of us.”

  The van pulled into an industrial complex on the edge of Alexandria, Virginia. The streets were vacant, the buildings closed and shuttered. This wasn’t looking at all good, and Jack was running out of ideas.

  “You know, scar aside, you’re one fine-looking woman,” Bill said.

  “Say what?”

  “I’m just saying, maybe we could get together later and fuck.” He glanced at her. “What do you say?”

  “I say, I’d rather fuck my hand for all eternity.”

  Bill smiled, as though oblivious to Jack’s answer. “Well, think about it.” He nodded toward a warehouse just ahead. “We’re here.”

  Jack peered out the window at the dark, abandoned building as they parked. Both got out, and once Bill had retrieved an assault rifle from behind his seat, he opened the back. The sedan that had been following parked as well, several yards behind, its headlights illuminating the scene.

  “Let’s go, ladies,” he said.

  Wagner got out first and looked around, her expression one of terror.

  Once she got her first good look at Wagner, Jack understood a great deal more about the exchange she’d witnessed earlier. The woman was a dead ringer for the president. What had she been assigned to do for TQ? The possibilities were mind-boggling.

  “Where are you taking us?” Wagner asked.

  “No questions,” Bill replied.

  “I was promised money and freedom,” Wagner insisted. “I did what you people asked me to. I kept my word. Now you had better keep yours.”

  “Or what?” He pointed his AK-47 at her.

  Kennedy jumped out of the van and stood in front of Wagner. She placed her hand on the weapon’s muzzle. “Relax. She’s afraid, that’s all.”

  Bill pulled the automatic away and pointed it at Kennedy. “Don’t touch my shit.”

  Kennedy raised her hands. “No offense.”

  He poked the muzzle in Kennedy’s stomach. “You don’t seem too worried. I can change that.”

  Jack could tell he was getting irritated. Their orders were to off the two inside, but if Kennedy pushed, Jack didn’t put it beyond the idiot to shoot. It wasn’t like anyone would hear them out here. Just then, the two goons from the sedan came to stand next to them.

  Kennedy stared Bill straight in the eye. “You look pretty stupid pointing your shit at two defenseless women.”

  The two guys from the sedan laughed, which irritated Bill even more.

  “Who the fuck are you calling stupid, Kennedy?” He shifted the muzzle from Kennedy’s stomach to her head. “If anyone looks stupid, it’s a fucking private contractor with a gun pointed at her head.”

  Maybe the words rang too true to Kennedy, because her stance said she was about to pounce, which would be a disaster.

  “Whoa, big guy.” Jack went to stand next to him, grateful he was too distracted to notice her hand slip in and out of his pocket. She looked intently at Kennedy. “Same goes for you.”

  Bill lowered his weapon. “Fucking contractor.”

  “Understand?” Jack asked, her serious gaze still on the op.

  Kennedy continued to look at Jack as if trying to follow her.

  “My people use whatever means necessary.” Jack used the EOO motto.

  “So do mine.” Kennedy looked confused.

  “I’m scared,” Bill said, oblivious to what was taking place. “This way.” He gestured with his assault rifle toward the dark building.

  Kennedy looked at Jack one last time and moved forward with Wagner, one hand on her elbow.

  “I want to talk to my lawyer,” Wagner shouted. “We had a deal.”

  “Hold on, I’ll get him on the phone for you.” Bill laughed.

  Wagner pleaded. “Kennedy had nothing to do with this.”

  “Don’t know what her deal is, but I’d take her out for the fun of it,” he replied.

  Wagner stopped walking and turned around. “Let her go, she hasn’t done—”

  He slapped her so hard across the face that Wagner fell down. “You don’t tell me what to do, bitch. Now shut the fuck up.”

  Kennedy helped her back on her feet. “You have very bad timing when it comes to telling the truth.”

  Wagner was bleeding from her lip and nose. “I kept my mouth shut to protect both of us.”

  “Keep walking,” Bill said. They moved forward again as a small group, with the two guys from the sedan following all of them from behind.

  Once in the building, Bill turned on a flashlight and led everyone down a short, dark stairwell to the basement. While he covered the two women, one of TQ’s men from the sedan flipped a switch and a single dangling light bulb came to life, casting shadows in the cavernous room.

  The beams above their heads were damp with moisture, and large dark stains marred the concrete floor, both contributing to the rank, stale air. A few broken pallets lay beside a small half-wall of concrete to Jack’s left, and stacks of metal barrels were bunched in groups around the perimeter, but the center of the room was empty. The EMERGENCY EXIT sign above a heavy door at the far end of the room illuminated it.

  The second man from the sedan walked over to the most foreboding feature of the room, the massive industrial furnace that dominated one wall. He turned on the burner and opened the heavy steel door. “Should be nice and toasty in a few minutes.”

  TQ’s three henchmen had clearly all been here before; separately, or together, they had used this building for similar purposes. Their expressions and demeanor indicated this was just another day at the office for them.

  Wagner looked terrified. “What’s going
on? Why are we here?”

  One of TQ’s men laughed and turned to Jack. “Tell her. It’s your show, after all.”

  Jack looked at Kennedy. “It would appear my new boss likes to haze her newcomers.”

  Kennedy simply nodded once.

  Wagner stepped forward. “What does that mean?”

  “It means Silent Death here is new, and this is her first test,” one of the men said. He looked at the furnace and back to Jack, then crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re on.” He smiled as if anxious to see her perform.

  Bill took the pistol from his shoulder holster and handed it to Jack. He stood to her right, facing Wagner and Kennedy, while TQ’s two other goons stood to her left.

  Jack stared at Kennedy. “Showtime.”

  Bill patted her on the back. “Damn right, and no worries about the contractor. She’s all words. Take her out, and you never have to worry about her or her people coming after you.”

  *

  Shield stared intently at the dark-haired woman with the scar, trying to anticipate her intentions as she checked the pistol her associate had given her. Was she reading her right? Was this mysterious stranger trying to help them? She seemed to be their only possible way out of this situation.

  “This is crazy,” Wagner said with a trembling voice from her right. “Kennedy hasn’t done anything.” She went to step in front of Shield, but Shield quickly pulled her back behind her as the woman raised the weapon and pointed it at them. They were only ten feet apart.

  Shield could feel Wagner’s trembling hand on her back, and her rapid breathing from behind filled her ears.

  The woman aimed the gun not at her, but over her shoulder, at Wagner. Her gaze, though, was fixed on Shield. She had expressive eyes—and they conveyed a clear, pleading message to play along. When Shield stared unflinchingly back with understanding, the woman gave the slightest, subtlest nod.

  “I told you, they don’t care,” Shield said over her shoulder to Wagner. “Look at them. It’s obvious they don’t have a mind of their own. They’re too stupid to know right from wrong or to realize what my organization will do to them.”

  The woman facing them lowered her gun. “You know, before I met one of you fucked-up contractors I used to care about these threats.” She stepped forward until she was only two feet away. “But now,” she continued, as she lifted the gun to Shield’s forehead, “not so much.”

  “Do it,” one of the men said, and his friends laughed. “Maybe you can get them both with one shot.”

  “No!” Wagner screamed from behind her.

  The woman’s intense green eyes looked from the gun, to Shield, and back to the gun. “By any means necessary,” she muttered, repeating the EOO motto.

  That was enough for Shield. She grabbed the weapon. Although outnumbered, it was her only desperate chance.

  She got off three quick shots, firing next to the woman’s head, and got two of the men—one in the head and the other in the stomach. She missed the third one as he ran for cover behind a stack of barrels near the stairwell. “Let’s go.” She grabbed Wagner by the wrist.

  The woman who’d helped them was bent over, covering her head. She was in obvious pain from the loud gun reports so close to her ear.

  Shield put her free hand on the woman’s back. “Can you hear me? We have to run.”

  “Leave me.”

  Shield released Wagner. “Don’t move,” she told her. Then she turned back to the woman and put an arm around her waist. “We never leave one of our own behind,” Shield said, not knowing if she could hear or if she was indeed one of theirs.

  But the woman tried to pull away. “Leave me,” she said again.

  Shield couldn’t understand what was going on with her and didn’t have time for riddles.

  “Watch out!” Wagner yelled, and pushed her forward. A second or two later, a shot rang out from the direction of the stairwell, followed by a muffled chink as it tore a bit of concrete from the floor near them. Wagner screamed again.

  Shield pulled Wagner behind her and fired back. Once. Twice.

  Wagner poked her on the shoulder and pointed to the emergency exit.

  “Use me to get out,” the dark-haired woman whispered. “Threaten to kill me.”

  “I can’t do that.”

  The woman punched Shield in the face. “Fucking do it.”

  Shield aimed at the overhead bulb and shot out the light. “Move and I’ll shoot you in the head,” she said loudly.

  With the woman in a headlock and Wagner behind her, Shield kept the gun pointed in the direction of the stairwell as she shimmied the three of them over to the emergency exit.

  Wagner pushed the door open and held it.

  Shield turned her body to let the woman she had hold of through it first, but as they crossed the threshold, the woman struggled to get away.

  “What is your problem?” Shield said as she tried to get the woman to stay put. “Why are you—” She heard the shot before she felt it.

  Chapter Thirty-one

  “Kennedy!” Ryden screamed, and shut the door. There were thirty feet from the bottom of another stairwell, and the vague reddish glow from the exit sign provided her enough light to see Kennedy, motionless, facedown on the floor. “Oh, my God. Kennedy!” Ryden fell to her knees. “Can you hear me?” She wiped the hair from Kennedy’s face. “Kennedy, please don’t—”

  The woman in black bent over and grabbed the gun from Kennedy’s hand.

  “Are you crazy?” She turned to the stranger with tears in her eyes. “She was trying to get us out and—”

  “I told her to leave me.”

  The woman looked down at Kennedy’s back, where a dark hole had appeared in her brown leather jacket. “Give her a moment. She’s winded, that’s all.” She flipped Kennedy over, onto her back, then slapped her.

  “Don’t you touch her.” Ryden pushed the stranger away. “What are you doing?”

  “She’s wearing a vest,” the woman replied, and went to stand with her ear to the door.

  No sooner had the words left her mouth than Kennedy’s eyes fluttered open.

  “Oh, thank God.” She caressed Kennedy’s face.

  “Are you all right?” Kennedy asked her.

  “You’re the one who got hit.” She couldn’t believe Kennedy was worried about her well-being after being shot at.

  “I’m fine. He got me on the vest.”

  “I told you,” the woman said.

  Ryden glared at the stranger, trying to contain her anger. “She could have died because of you.”

  “Last time I checked, it was because of you she almost died,” the woman replied.

  “Are you in pain?” Kennedy asked Ryden.

  “Why would I—”

  “You’re bleeding.” Kennedy touched her left arm, at the shoulder.

  She looked down and discovered a growing splotch of red on the sleeve of her hoodie.

  “Flesh wound,” the woman said. “He got you the first time he fired in there.”

  “But I didn’t…don’t feel any—”

  “Adrenaline.” Kennedy slowly got to her feet. “You’ll feel it later.”

  “You two need to leave…now.” The woman turned to them. “Take the van.” She dug in her pocket and threw a ring of keys at Kennedy. “There’s a safe house twenty miles from here outside Burke. Mitcham Court, north side of the big park. Stay there and have your people come get you. Keep clear of public places and transport, and ditch the car as far away from the safe house as you can.”

  “Can’t we go to the police?” Ryden asked.

  “No. The bitch has her people everywhere. Keep low until your own show up.”

  “You’re coming with us,” Kennedy said.

  “I can’t.”

  “I’m not leaving you here.”

  “Yeah, you are.” The woman handed the gun to Kennedy and waited at the bottom of the stairs.

  Kennedy led the way up, with Ryden behind her and the other
woman last, but she’d gone only a few steps when she paused and turned to look at the stranger. “Who are you?”

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “What you said—by any means necessary. Why did you say it?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” the woman repeated.

  “Why did you help us?”

  “I helped you,” she said to Kennedy, then tilted her head toward Ryden. “Not TQ’s bitch. If you want to help her, that’s your issue.”

  “Who’s TQ?” Kennedy asked, and looked at her like she had the answer.

  She, however, had never heard of anyone by that name. “I don’t know who she’s talking about.”

  “The hell you don’t,” the woman replied. “It’s the same crazy bitch who hired me to kill you both,” she told Kennedy. “The same woman who hired your friend here to play president. Enough talking. You need to go.” She pushed past them and stopped at the door one landing above. It had another illuminated EMERGENCY EXIT sign above it. “This looks like it comes out the back of the building. You’ll have to make it to the van from there.”

  “Come with us,” Kennedy insisted.

  “He may be out there, and he can’t know I let you go.”

  “Then come with us. You’ll be safe. My people will make sure of that.”

  “Your people don’t give a damn about me.”

  They all heard steps on the metal stairwell above them, and Ryden squeezed Kennedy’s arm. “He’s—”

  Kennedy placed her finger on Ryden’s mouth and gently pushed the door open. The woman was right—they found themselves in a narrow alley at the rear of the warehouse.

  Once they were outside, with the door shut behind them, Kennedy said, “I’ll shoot him as soon as he comes out.”

  “No,” the woman replied. “I need him to tell the bitch I tried to stop you.”

  “I don’t understand you.”

  “You don’t have to. Punch me in the face. Make it look good.”

  “What?” Ryden asked.

  “To make it look like I struggled to get the keys from her,” Kennedy replied, before she punched the woman hard in the face.

  The stranger fell against the brick wall. “Great,” she mumbled, and spat blood. “Now, give me the gun.”