by JT Sawyer
“Look, she handled that German fellow at the cabin just fine. If she spent time in the Israeli military then she’s got firearms training. We can use another shooter, Ed, since you decided to hamstring our manpower on this trip.”
“Not on my watch.”
Dev pushed past them both and continued down the trail. “Never mind—we’re wasting time and Mitch and the others might not have much of that left.”
The two men followed behind with Roth eventually overtaking Dev’s stride and asserting himself in the lead position. As they neared the rim, the footprints faded. Dev squatted down to scan the ground for signs just as she heard a dull thud impact Brenner to her right.
He fell back with a single gunshot wound in his left shoulder, above the bulletproof vest. Roth darted a few feet over to an outcropping of jagged rocks then began firing his M4 at a lone figure thirty yards away.
Dev crouch-walked over to Brenner and could see his eyes rolling back in his head as shock overtook him. She heard a few bullets zing into the trees behind her and knew she needed better cover. She grabbed Brenner by the back of his vest and started dragging him into the woods. Once she was out of the line of fire, she yanked the trauma kit from his vest and tore out an Israeli bandage, thrusting the large gauze pad onto the wound. “You can thank my country for their fine medical products later.” He was half-conscious, shrieking in pain. She grabbed his other hand and placed it over the gauze. “Keep pressure on this until I get back. That looks like it was probably a .308 round or other large caliber so you’re gonna be in a world of hell.” She elevated his feet and removed his M4 and two spare magazines then swung in a wide arc away from where Roth was engaged in shooting at the distant assailant.
She trotted through the forest, stopping periodically to check on the enemy, who was holed up beside a cluster of bulldozed aspen trees. The staccato of gunfire between the two men continued as she sprinted. Dev closed the distance quickly, taking a firing position at the enemy’s three o’clock. After checking the scope on the sheriff’s rifle, Dev flicked off the safety and steadied her finger on the trigger. With the man’s head bobbing up and down as he fired from his hiding spot eighty yards distant, she took aim and focused her breathing. A second later, the man’s skull splintered apart above his ear and he slumped forward.
Roth’s weapon went silent and Dev saw him skirt along the edge of the meadow, making his way over to where the dead man lay. “Idiot; there were two sets of tracks—so two shooters.” She scanned the terrain for more hostiles then got up and walked over to where he was inspecting the body, keeping her rifle at a low-ready.
“Hell of a shot,” she said, knowing it was the result of her effort but wanting to momentarily distract him with his misplaced achievement.
She shoved the limp figure over with her boot then knelt down to inspect the disfigured face of Marcus. “This has to be one of the three Stasi guys who flew into the Denver Airport a few days ago.”
As she went to stand, she felt the barrel of Roth’s rifle pressing into her back. “Could be; frankly I don’t give a shit who he is. What I do care about is that he’s gonna give me the perfect alibi. You see, you and Brenner got whacked by this guy in a fierce battle just before I capped his ass.” He stood back a foot, chuckling. “Hell, this is going to solve a lot of my problems. You’re just like Mitch, stirring up a shitpot of trouble and then thinking you can just walk away—well, not this time.”
Dev turned around to face him. “So all of this was for those counterfeit plates in your possession—you were the one who stole them?”
“I didn’t steal jack shit, little lady. Kruger was a wanted criminal. Hell, an opportunity to snag a payload like that comes along in this town—ah,” he paused, fluttering his eyelids, “how about never. With the plates, I can put in for early retirement. No more dealing with weekly calls to investigate another deadbeat dad who skips out of town with his kid or serving a warrant for some thug who robbed an ATM user at the mall.”
Dev heard a bullet zing past her head and thud into an aspen just beyond Roth’s right shoulder. His eyes went wide as he looked beyond Dev, moving his rifle aside enough for her to lunge and grab the barrel with both hands. She yanked it violently up, hearing the bone in his trigger finger snap as his grip loosened. Dev twisted the rifle away as she sent a boot into his kneecap. With the M4 secure in her hands she smashed the rifle butt into his face, flattening his nose and sending him down to the ground.
With Roth partially subdued, she swung around long enough to check on the other shooter. It was Brenner, staggering across the field, his pistol in hand. Was he shooting at me or at Roth? Is he in on this too?
Chapter 24
After a series of sinewy bends in the path, Mitch saw the dilapidated old cabin ahead. The twelve-by-fifteen shack was backed up against the cliff and had a small water trough beside it that collected runoff from a spring at the base of the rocks. The windows were all broken out and the door was ajar. Lying in the entrance was Brian, whose chest was impaled by a large rebar spike that was attached to a springloaded device inside the doorway. Damn, he must’ve bolted after he witnessed Julie killing Lisa. He probably tripped that device when he shoved the door open.
Mitch stopped in his tracks at the edge of the treeline while Julie walked up to the porch.
“Roan Kruger would be proud of you, Julie—if that’s your real name,” shouted Mitch from the cusp of the forest. “Is he just your puppet master or something more?”
Julie slowly turned and stood with her feet shoulder width apart, her hands on her hips. She arched her head back, staring at the clouds, then sighed. “Roan was my uncle actually.” She ground her boot over a black beetle, crushing its body on the tawny rock. “When did you figure it out?”
“Not until after Lisa’s death. Your and Brian’s tracks didn’t match up with what you were saying. Then when you saved my ass off that ledge this morning—your iron grip was somewhat suspect for a writer with delicate red fingernails.” He took a step forward. “Why did you rescue me? Clearly you could have watched me die right there. Then that would just leave Brian and Lisa to walk into this trap.”
“I had planned to kill you last all along but had just sent Nicholas on his flight when I heard you coming. When I saw you slip and realized it might end right there for you, I stepped in—your death couldn’t be random.” She smiled, showing her white teeth amidst her tan face.
Julie moved forward a few steps, placing her feet down with great deliberation, like a puma stalking its prey. “Plus, by saving you I removed any doubt from your mind about me being the one who orchestrated all of this.” She leaned to her right, resting her weight on one leg while grinning. “You were the most competent person amongst the group and I knew you’d take the initiative as leader, unlike the other sheep. Oh, Mitch, you were the glue that held it all together—just like when you hunted down Anton last summer.” She fluttered her hands in the air. “You were the star then too, even though you shunned such limelight afterwards. Do you know how hard it was to dig up everything on you? So many federal firewalls to hack through for my European operatives; that cost me and my uncle a helluva lot.”
“Speaking of the old man, is he waiting up top to take you to brunch after this?”
She lowered her head, driving her tongue into her cheek like she was drilling a hole. “Unfortunately his last dialysis treatment was three months ago when we began finalizing the details of this operation and he couldn’t cling to life any longer. My uncle died some time ago but, like you said, he’d be proud.”
“So you used his reputation to fan the flames of this and to rally his men, I suppose.”
“His men are all loyal to him though none of them know that he is dead. Once this is over, I will eliminate his old team and start anew.”
“And the journalist façade you’ve maintained all these years—why take on something so public, risk exposing yourself?”
“It was my Uncle Roan who insisted on p
roviding me with a formal education and encouraged me to become a journalist, given my penchant for incessantly writing horror stories from an early age. He created my new identity long ago. With my connections in the media, it was the perfect cover. I could move between countries covering stories for my paper while handling my uncle’s business transactions abroad. He even suggested writing the definitive book on the manhunt for Anton so we could control the presentation of information.”
“So Roan had his own version of a sleeper assassin embedded in this country for use when he needed it—very clever. And if Anton hadn’t been in that car wreck on that fateful night outside Durango last summer, we probably wouldn’t be standing here and all these people you killed, their lives wouldn’t have intersected in this canyon.”
“My cousin was reckless—I loved him dearly but we were both driven by different forces. He was the only family I really had once my own parents died.” She stopped moving and narrowed her eyes. “You should know what that’s like though—when the world crushes your soul and takes all that you once loved. You hold on to those few people around you that understand your pain and remind you of the ashes you were born from. But, Anton never had his father’s calculated mindset like I did. Fast cars and augmented women were what motivated him.”
“And you—is revenge your only game? What happens to Julie the killer after all of this—pen a murder mystery? Isn’t the world going to wonder what happened to the seven of us who were all connected to the Kruger case?”
“With my uncle’s resources—his funds, safe houses, and contacts—I can call my own shots, take on my own assignments and then disappear as he did between jobs. I plan on starting over somewhere other than LA—God, you people and your obsession with celebrities. That city sickens me.” She pressed a hand to her black-and-blue cheek from the blow delivered by Lisa around the campfire. “And besides, the things they can do with plastic surgery nowadays are amazing compared to those awful Hollywood bubblefaces they created a decade ago.”
Julie placed her hand in her pocket and began fiddling with something, moving closer to him. “As for all of you in this canyon, the floodwaters due to scour this place tomorrow will erase any signs of your presence. The world will be left with a great mystery that people will be writing about for years.”
“And you’ll sit back and watch it all unfold while sipping a martini in some beachside retreat.” Mitch slowly lowered his right hand, placing it near the improvised wood shank he had hastily carved last night.
“Something like that. As long as it doesn’t involve being out in the woods anymore.” Her eyes traveled along his face. “This is the part I’ve looked forward to the most.”
Before he could yank out his weapon, she removed a Bersa .380 pistol from her coat pocket. Mitch rushed forward, closing the distance and jamming the gun at her chest. She responded by driving her fist towards his jaw but he swerved to the side and then head-butted her. The force sent her toppling backward while the pistol was flung under the cabin porch. Instantly, Lisa sprang up and ran at Mitch with a jump kick that caught him in the shoulder and sent him reeling into the trunk of a large oak tree. He met her next incoming roundhouse kick with an angular step, deflecting her leg with his elbow and then wrapping his arm around her shin. He drove the toe of his boot into her supporting calf, sending her to the ground, then slammed his foot into her ribs. She shrieked in pain but rolled off to his left, coming up with a handful of mud that she flung in his face. The move distracted him long enough for her to close the gap with a right hook to his temple. The blow felt like a hammer and he was surprised by the strength of her attack. He raised his cocked arm, causing the next punch to graze off his wrist, then he crashed his elbow down along her cheek while coming up from underneath with a savage uppercut into her lower jaw. He heard the sound of teeth chipping as she arched back, resembling a warped piece of driftwood. She tumbled to the ground, a foot away from the pistol.
Mitch deftly removed one of the improvised wooden shanks and flung it at her face then darted back into the woods.
She laughed, a savage grin creeping over her bloody lips as she palmed the pistol. “You can run, it doesn’t matter to me. I’ve still got a few hours.” Julie removed a handheld GPS tracking device from her other pocket and studied the green blips. All five of the other signals were stationary, spread along the canyon over several miles. The one nearest her was on the move, arcing out to her right away from her static location.
“Gonna come up and surprise me from behind—good for you, Mitch.”
She veered away from the cabin and hid amongst some gray boulders down near the canyon floor, keeping her eye trained on the green blip on her screen.
Mitch did a hundred-yard bound into the forest then made an abrupt right turn, pausing before a waist-high spruce stump. Once he was sure Julie wasn’t following him, he zig-zagged through the brush until he had made a wide arc out from the cabin. Removing the tiny electronic tracker that Lisa had helped remove earlier, he placed it on a moss-encrusted section of bark that had peeled off the trunk of a dead pine. He removed his wool coat and propped it up with a few branches near the rear of the tree. Then he retraced his steps back to the main trail and cut off on a sharp angle to the opposite side of the cabin from which he had first approached.
Mitch crept through the brush, the damp ground masking his footsteps. Arriving at the edge of the forest where it meshed with the rock foundation near the cabin, he crouched low and saw a man descending the trail a hundred yards behind the cabin. He had an M4 slung across his chest and was peering at a GPS device. Must be another member of Julie’s little brigade. The foliage along the path was thick and Mitch knew he’d have a better chance of surprising the man on the trail than he would at sneaking up behind Julie. With the pathway snaking around the base of the cliff, he lost sight of the armed figure temporarily. He crouched low and sprinted to the first bend in the path and hid in a low tangle of willow saplings. A minute later, he heard footsteps approaching. As the lanky figure passed in front of him, Mitch dove forward in a tackle, sending him over the incline into a pile of rock scree. The impact on the man’s forehead stunned him long enough for Mitch to jump on top of his chest and slam a vicious right hook into his face, rendering him unconscious.
He removed the rifle and then looked over the face of the man. He quickly unslung the rope from his shoulder and tied a series of clove hitches around the man’s hands and ankles, securing him to a tree. I knew this would come in handy somehow, just never figured it would be for hog-tying a mercenary.
He picked up the GPS device and studied the screen. He saw a green blip down in the canyon moving slowly towards a stationary signal. Mitch ran along the trail, bolting past the cabin and continuing back down the path he’d arrived at earlier. A few minutes later, he caught sight of Julie stalking up to where his coat was braced against the pine tree.
He crept up closer until he was fifty feet behind her. When she was close enough to the tree to discern the deception, Julie lowered her pistol and stood still.
“Checkmate,” said Mitch. “And I’ve got your man’s rifle in my hands. Looks like he won’t be needing it.”
Julie slowly turned to face him, the Bersa resting alongside her leg. “You gonna shoot me in the shoulder like you did Anton so I can have my day in court too?”
“Not sure—I’ve got every reason to drive a round through your skull for what you did out here.”
She stared at him, taking a few steps closer. “There’s only one way this can end but I don’t think you could shoot a person in cold blood—you’re still too much of a lawman.”
“You’d be surprised at what I’m capable of. You think you know me from some personnel records you looked up or the past day of surviving out here?”
She dropped the pistol on the dirt then raised her hands up. “Go on, kill me or turn me in—the choice is yours. I’ll go to jail but I’m not like my cousin Anton. I’ll escape—I have contingencies already
in place. And then a year or two from now, I’ll come for you and finish what you couldn’t.” She moved her clasped hands behind her head. “Go ahead, Agent Kearns. Take me in. You’ll be a celebrity all over again. The man who was too good to gun down an unarmed killer.”
Mitch steadied the rifle sights on her forehead, his trigger finger hovering in place. He thought of Dev and their life together, then about the innocent people who had just died. And he knew all too well how the dysfunctional justice system worked. Julie would probably be tied up in court proceedings for months with a crazed media sensationalizing her every move. He lowered the muzzle slightly and took a deep breath, his eyes fixed on her. “There’s no good in either decision but there’s only one I can live with.” He raised up the rifle and fired off two rounds into her head.
Mitch slowly walked down to where she lay, studying either side of the canyon for movement and then staring down at her empty face before stepping back. He slung his rifle and peered up at the clouds beyond the dense canopy, then let out a long breath. He wondered how all this could have happened—so many lives lost and all because of the events that transpired around Anton Kruger nearly a year ago. He just wanted to run—to leave the wilderness. The very place that had always been a haven for him had become a nightmarish prison.
He turned and walked back to the cabin, realizing he still had a long walk out to the rim and then even further to reach a road or some sign of civilization, assuming there weren’t more thugs waiting up top. All he could think about was getting back to Dev. As he neared the water trough, which was overflowing, he knelt down and splashed the cold spring water on his face then gulped down several handfuls. When he was done, Mitch strode over to where he had tied up the surly henchman and double-checked the lashings on the still-unconscious man.
Chapter 25
Dev was surprised enough at Brenner staggering towards her that her vision lingered too long on him. When she turned, Roth had sprung up and was extracting his holstered Glock. Dev dropped and aimed the M4 at his chest and then saw three rounds had already perforated his neck and face. Roth dropped like a fractured kite in the wind. Her finger was hovering over the trigger and she realized the shots had come from Brenner.
