The Genesis Group

by Mike Dagons

  On the other side, he ran through the woods until he reached the stretch of neatly trimmed lawn that lay between the woods and the house.

  Ice saw the huge maze hedges off to the left of where he was, and knew that Basin’s bedroom was on the east side of it.

  Using satellite surveillance, Bender had noted that there were only four armed guards making perimeter checks at twenty minute intervals.

  Having only four guards on patrol showed that Basin didn’t fear or feel threatened by intruders, but men who had as much money and power as him seldom did.

  Ice waited until the first two turned the corner at the west wall, and then he ran to the house and entered through the backdoor before the other two made it around to the back of the house.

  There were cameras located throughout the house, and the control center was on the third floor. Bender had the cameras on a loop, and had advised that it would go undetected for twenty minutes before the system reported a problem.

  Ice set the timer on his watch when he stepped inside the door, and it started counting down. The big house was quiet, and Ice walked lightly so he wouldn’t disturb anything. The servant’s quarters were located on three, and since Basin’s bedroom was on two, he was hoping not to run into any of them in the hallways.

  Ice took the east stairway up to the second floor, and used a thermal scanner to read how many bodies were on guard in the hallway at the bedroom door.

  There was no one guarding the door. There were no extra precautions in place, and it made him angry that Jeff Basin thought so little of him that he hadn’t bothered to protect his house better after they killed Monique.

  Ice entered the bedroom quietly. Tyler Basin was asleep in bed with his wife next to him. He had just reached the foot of their bed, when the old man sat up.

  Ice dropped to the floor and out of sight quickly.

  “Where are you going?” Shirley Basin asked sleepily.

  “I’m going to the bathroom for the fourth time tonight,” he grumbled. “This damn prostrate problem is a nuisance. You go back to sleep.”

  “Every time I do, you wake me up going to the bathroom,” she complained.

  “You want me to sleep in another room, Shirley?” his tone was clipped.

  “No baby,” she cooed. “You know I can’t sleep when you’re not in bed with me.”

  Ice stayed completely still, and watched Basin open the bathroom door, and then go inside and close it.

  “Men are such babies,” she whispered to herself.

  Shirley fluffed her pillow, and then snuggled it under her head.

  Ice crawled around from the foot of the bed to the side where Shirley was laying. He got up off the floor quickly, and hit her in the face with his fist three times, hard and fast. He felt her cheekbone cave under the power of the punches, and he resisted the urge to hit her again.

  It was so fast, Shirley didn’t know what hit her, and she made very little noise before she lost consciousness. Ice turned her over onto her side with her back to Basin’s side of the bed. He pulled the covers up to her ears, and hid next to the bathroom door.

  He’d been informed that the old man had some training in hand to hand. He only wished he had time to engage him in a real fight. He wanted to beat him to death for failing to teach his son not to drag the innocent into the bullshit.

  “Did you say something, Shirley?” he asked as he walked out the bathroom.

  Ice pulled the garrote wire from his watch, wrapped it around Basin’s neck, and then held the noose securely in place with one hand.

  Because he expected a fight, he was not surprised when Tyler reached over his head and attempted to gouge his eyes instead of groping for the wire cutting into his throat.

  Ice moved his head back out of his reach, and Tyler pushed his body back into Ice, slamming him against the wall. They made a loud noise, but there was no one there to hear it.

  Tyler was putting up a gallant effort, but he was no match for the younger more experienced man.

  Time was ticking, so Ice decided not to waste another second toying with him. He shot him in the back of his knee with the silenced P226, and when the knee buckled, he shot him in his other one. After that, it only took a second for him to die.

  Ice let his body drop to the floor, and then he went back over to Shirley, who was slowly stirring into consciousness. Ice pushed the hunting knife in between her breasts. Her eyes sprang open in shock, and stared up at him in horror.

  “You have your son to thank for this, Shirley,” he said.

  Ice locked eyes with her, and watched her die, and then he cut her open and removed her heart.

  He put it in her hands, and then tied her wrists together with rope to make her hold it. Then he tethered the rope to the bedpost overhead, so her arms were held up, and outstretched in a grotesque pose that looked like she was offering her heart up in sacrifice.

  Ice picked up Tyler Basin and put him in bed next to his wife, and then he cut out his heart, and posed him the same way. He picked up their cell phones, which were on chargers beside the bed. He took photos of them with their cells, and then he put the phones in his pocket.

  Ice left the bedroom, and closed the door behind him. Then he went up to the security office. He had two seconds left on his timer when he walked through the door. He killed the three guards on duty quickly.

  He heard the system reboot, but it didn’t make any difference now. He put the goggles back on and went back down the stairs and through the kitchen to the backdoor.

  He planned to kill the perimeter guards before he left, but when he came outside, he found two of them already dead at the bottom of the stairs. A light flashed in the helicopter, and then the blades started rotating. Ice ran to it. He got inside, and Anakin lifted off.

  Ice put on the headset, so he could speak to Anakin. “Was that you?” he asked, referring to the dead guards.

  “It’s a present from Valow,” he smiled. “He wasn’t inside Genesis when it crumbled. He said to tell you that your family is safe, so you don’t need to worry. Also, Severe checked in. Roc is with her. He was tortured, and he’s out of commission. Valow is going to fly them to an undisclosed place where they will meet up with the people on the plane. I told them not to tell me where just in case something goes wrong. They have Chanay. She and the baby are safe onboard.”

  “You talk to her?”

  “No, I didn’t want her clouding my judgment.”

  “I can understand that. You saw Monique? After, I mean?”

  “Yeah, Bender sent a photo. It was Jeff Basin’s idea to take her as leverage. He says her death was an accident, but he didn’t sound too distraught about it.”

  “He will be. Now that I know the family is protected. I’m taking the gloves off.”

  “Get this, Ceylon Battle saved Roc and Severe. According to Severe, he’s going to give you a hand after he gets them to Valow. She gave me his number. He’s waiting to hear where you want him.”

  “What the fuck? He must really love that girl,” Ice said, and they shared a much needed laugh.

  Anakin sat the helicopter down ten miles west of Bay City, Oregon, in a clearing in a field. He cut the motor, and they got out and walked to a Jeep he had hid in a ditch on the side of the road.

  “You did all of this in twenty four hours?” Ice asked.

  “I was here when I called you. I was going to do it myself if you didn’t feel up to it.”

  Ice only smiled. Once they got on the road, he took out Shirley Basin’s cellphone, and called her son.

  “Mother, can I call you back? I’m right in the middle of something.”

  “No, you can’t, son,” Ice answered coldly.

  Jeff paused for a beat, and Ice imagined he was checking to make sure he hadn’t misread the incoming number. “Who is this?” he sounded unconcerned. “Speak up. Why call me if you weren’t prepared to talk?”

  “It’s the man you’ve been killing people to find. You got business with me; you d
on’t make my wife a part of it.”

  “It was unfortunate that she died. I assure you that it was an accident, but as you know, shit happens in our line of work,” he answered coldly.

  The son-of-a-bitch still didn’t sound worried, and Ice was reminded that Jeff Basin didn’t fear him. “She was pregnant, you know?”

  “As I said, I am sorry. It was my client’s choice,” he answered impatiently, showing little regard for the information.

  “Yes, you did say that, but it was your choice to accept him as a client. You found her for him to kill.”

  “And I accept responsibility for it.”

  “Yes, you will, and I will make sure both of you pay the debt to my satisfaction.”

  “You have my mother’s phone? How did you get it?”

  “I took it from bedside,” he answered honestly.

  “Liar!” he barked. “Unlike your wife, my parents are always protected. If you turn yourself in to us now, you can spare the rest of your family her fate.”

  “Is that the message your punk ass client wanted my wife to deliver to me?”

  “Mr. Luther Scott would prefer to answer you himself. You are already on speaker with him.”

  “This is Luther Scott. I know you killed my brother, so it is pointless to deny it. I have not been able to locate my sister, so I can only assume that you have killed her too, probably with poison, given the coward that you are. You have twenty four hours to turn yourself in to me, or I will capture and kill another member of your family,” he pronounced. “Your friend Anakin Fury is shark food, and soon, his woman and baby will join him.”

  Ice glanced over at Anakin, and he shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe if the pain of my wife’s death wasn’t so fresh, I’d find humor in your stupidity. I didn’t kill your sister, Luther, but I wish that I had. I will kill you, however, in the worst possible way that I can imagine.”

  “Ice, he is no longer listening. He has made his demand, and he expects you to do the right thing and turn yourself over to him. You accepted the wrong contract, and you must pay the consequences. Mr. Scott wants you to pay for blood with blood, so the hunt will continue to rack up casualties until you are dead.”

  “Tell that muthafucka we like minded on that shit. I just sent you a text, Jeff, open it,” he ordered.

  Ice, heard the audible gasp, and the uncontrolled wails that followed. “It is unfortunate that they had to die, but as you say, shit happens in our line of work! Tell your bitch ass client that I will turn myself in to him, but not until you muthafuckas give me a heart as big as the one you took. You’re the one who took the wrong contract, Jeffrey,” he ended the call.

  They got out the truck and went to the door of the pretty blue house. Ice knocked on the door, and a teenage girl with blonde curls answered. “Are you Luther Scott’s daughter?” he asked, knowing that she was.

  He had three daughters and four sons by five different baby mamas. This was the house of his youngest two. The girl was seventeen, her brother fifteen.

  The boy stepped into the doorway behind his sister, and Ice was glad to see he was damn near tall as him. “It’s kinda late to be visiting, ain’t it, man?” his voice was deep like his father’s.

  “Hush boy,” she chastised. “Yes, I am Luther’s daughter. How may I help you?”

  “By dying,” he cut her throat, and pushed her back inside the house on her brother.

  He killed her brother, and then he beat her mother like they had beat Monique before he strangled her to death. He cut out their hearts, and posed them like he had the Basin’s.

  Ice took pictures with his daughter’s cell, and sent them to Luther’s phone. The message he sent was simple. These hearts were too small to replace the one you took. It’s only the beginning…

  The story continues in Ice Capades

  Book Three

  Ice Capades

  This book is a work of fiction and, as such, is a product of the author’s creative imagination. All character names and events are fictitious or used fictitiously. Any similarities of characters to real persons, whether living or dead, are coincidental. Any resemblance of incidents portrayed in this book to actual events is likewise coincidental.

  Copyright © 2014 by Mike Dagons/Qiana Wilson

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission of the authors.

  The only time revenge is best served cold is when you ain’t talented enough to handle it while it’s hot!

  Isaak Charles Edwards, aka ICE

  Chapter 1

  I never suspected Leon Turner of being anything other than what he portrayed, and I see now that was a big mistake.

  My wife, Monique, had only been dead a few days, so the people who loved her were still grieving. Chief among them was me. I blamed myself for her death because the man responsible for taking her life, Luther Scott, an Aborigine drug lord, had her killed because I killed his brother, Lincoln.

  Luther wanted revenge, and he hired Jeff Basin, an intelligence contractor, to help him get it. In a perfect world, Luther would have hunted me down, and killed me for taking his brother’s life, but he elected to declare war on my family and friends. He broke the rules, and killed or seriously injured a lot of noncombatants that meant a great deal to me.

  When I learned that Monique, and my unborn child, had been brutally murdered, it damn near destroyed my sanity. I went on a revenge killing spree, and I was not even close to being done.

  By now, everybody who knew me knew that I was hunting for anybody who was even remotely connected to anybody who had anything to do with Monique’s death. I intended to make them pay for taking my heart. Parents, children, cousins, friends, the fucking family pet— nobody and nothing was off limits to me.

  The night I arrived back in Chicago, I received a text message on my encrypted cell from Leon Turner. He had gotten the news of Monique’s death, and he claimed to have important information for me about her killers. The text asked me to meet him at midnight tonight in Lenox Tower, a swank loft apartment building downtown.

  The number Leon was using to contact me was only privy to a select few, mainly my family, and the Genesis Group, the contract security agency owned by my brother, Melvin Ryan. If I had been operating on a hundred, the message from him would have set off all kinds of alarms in my head, but it didn’t. Primarily because I knew he loved Monique.

  We met Leon a few years back when I got the brilliant idea to retire from my career as an assassin for hire to open a dance school with my friend, Curtis Gladstone. We were teaching Chicago Style Steppin’, and Leon Turner was the man who promoted the popular, World’s Largest Steppin’ Contest.

  He was something of a legend in the Steppin’ community, and I had respect for him. Even though, I suspected he was trying to steal my woman. Under normal circumstances, this would have made me mad enough to beat his ass, but he was old enough to be my father, so I didn’t trip. If my game was so weak I had to worry about an old man stealing my woman. I figured I was the one who needed an ass whipping.

  Going on the assumption that Leon was a harmless old playa in the steppin’ game. I just warned Monique about getting too close to him and giving him false hope, and then I forgot about it.

  Like I said, I knew Leon cared about Monique, so I wasn’t surprised to learn that he wanted to help me find the people that murdered her. He told me that he knew the people I was looking for were dangerous, and he was aware that he could be putting his life on the line by getting involved, but he was still anxious to help. It was a gallant gesture, and it truly touched me.

  Because of the danger involved; I wasn’t offended or surprised that he wanted to keep our meeting a secret. Against the advice of my best friend, Anakin Fury, I agreed to meet him here at Lenox.

  I got off the elevator on the twenty-third floor like he’d instructed me to do, and walked down the hall to the double doors that were standing open. Although I didn’
t suspect Leon intended me any harm, I knew there were people out there hunting for me who didn’t mind using the innocent to get what they wanted. And since I couldn’t be sure that he hadn’t been coerced into arranging this meet. I took one of my Sigs out my double holster, and walked through the open doors cautiously.

  The place was impressive. The oversized windows offered a 360 degree view of downtown Chicago, and a panoramic view of the lakefront. The lighting in the room was dim, and the city nightlights looked absolutely beautiful. I spotted Leon sitting in an oversized chair on the far side of the room.

  “I’m alone, so you won’t need that, unless you don’t think you can handle me without it,” he spoke quietly.

  “What you got for me,” I asked, holstering the P226.

  “You got her killed, you know?”

  His words hurt, but I knew that he had loved her, and he was grieving for her like I was, so I let the comment slide. He hadn’t moved, so I moved closer to him, so I could see him better.

  “I take responsibility for it, and I will not stop until I make every single one of them pay.”

  “What good is that now?!” he shouted. “It won’t bring her back. She’s dead, and it’s because of your arrogance!”

  “Listen man, I know you feeling the loss, but I don’t have time for this. You got something for me or not?”

  “You’re supposed to be a professional assassin, but you handle your business like a spoiled ass, selfish brat, that’s got more ego than talent!”

  “ENOUGH! I don’t have time to stand here and try to explain the job to a man who dances for a living.”

  “You haven’t figured it out, have you? Not too long ago people were saying dancing was all you knew how to do. All it takes to be a killer is a little skill and a lot of luck. You have the skill, but your oversized ego is a liability. It’s why you’ve only scratched the surface. Indiscriminate killing is all you know how to do, and it’s not going to be enough. You’re going up against Jeff Basin. He doesn’t have emotional tantrums. He uses information to cripple his enemies. Regretfully, you don’t know a damn thing about the intelligence game. If I didn’t want vengeance for Monique, I would just sit back and let them kill you.” He stood now, rising to his full six foot two height, and looking me dead in my eyes. “You’re a simple minded, gun for hire that is apparently clueless about how to run a successful operation.”