by Wade, Maddie
“That is the burning question. We have spoken to the Governor of the prison, and he assured us that Preedy has been kept in solitary since his arrival,” replied Zack.
“So, that means someone on the inside is helping them,” said Nate.
“Yes. I’ve spoken to Jack and he is sending a man to the prison now.”
“Reg has admitted that he and a few of his friends from the MC he belongs to have been poking around into Felicity Lockwood. Obviously, that has garnered him this attention. He has assured me it won’t continue,” Zack gave Reg a very stern look, causing Reg to grumble under his breath.
“Zin is going to have a word with the guys from the MC and ask them to back off.” Zin nodded slightly a frown firmly in place.
“Next question,” Lucy said, “What the hell was that he said at the end?”
Ava sat forward then, “I think I can help with that,” she said. “I’ve identified the language as Thracian. Very little is known about it. I can tell you that it originates in Europe in the area of Bulgaria. The phrase he uses means ‘Noble Thracians Settlement.’ I don’t know, exactly, what it tells us, except that the sacred settlement was originally a Thracian settlement, known as Menebria. The town became a Greek colony when Dorians settled there from Megara at the beginning of the 6th century, BC. It was later taken over by the Romans. What is interesting is that there was a large belief among the Thracians that paranormal abilities were the way of the righteous.”
Wow. Nate was impressed this woman had found out more in two days than the rest had in months of work.
“Thank you, Ava,” Zack said sincerely. She nodded graciously.
“Umm, isn’t Bulgaria where the Olympics are being hosted next year?” asked Drew.
“Yes,” Zack confirmed.
Drew looked around, “Well, doesn’t anyone else find this strange?” he asked. “The main settlement is mentioned by them, the Olympics are being hosted next year, and they are threatening world annihilation.”
Nate nodded. That was more than a coincidence. “I agree,” he said.
Zack scrubbed his face with his hand, “Okay. Let’s take this one step at a time. Drew, I want you to work with Ava and help with any searches she needs. Zin, talk to the MC and secure that end, then I want you chasing the link between Felicity and the Russian mafia.
Dane and Lucy, work with Will to find the money. An operation like this needs an immense amount of money. Look into Redcast and find all the addresses of these medical facilities in Europe. Go speak to people, but be discrete. We may need to send someone in undercover.
“In fact, use the aliases that Will set up for you and make some innocent inquires to get you in the door. I don’t care how, just do it. Daniel, we need to increase the training schedule. I want these recruits ready in half the time. If they aren’t up to it, cut them from the program and find new ones.
“Nate, you need to spread your time between guarding Skye and Noah, and looking for Hugo. Jack is willing to let Ambrose, and a man named Liam, help out with that. Any questions?” he looked around the room. “No? Good. Let’s get going.” Everyone got up and left the room. Reg and Nate remained.
“What can I do for you, Nate?” Zack asked.
“What’s the score with Ambrose and this Liam guy?”
“They are solid operators. Ambrose is Jack’s right-hand man–ex-spec ops– and he also has a degree in virology. He might look like a muscled-up tough guy, but behind that muscle is an extremely clever man. I’ve worked with Liam a couple times. He is a weapons and demolitions expert and you definitely want him in your corner. They are both south London boys and came through spec-ops together.” Nate nodded, he was impressed and if Zack trusted him, that was good enough for him.
“Right, as Ambrose is with Skye and Noah, I’m going to get going chasing down leads on Hugo.”
“Liam will be here in a few minutes, if you wait he will go with you,” Zack said.
“I’ll wait out front.”
Zack looked to Reg, “Reg?” he said in question.
“I need a word in private, Zack.” Nate wondered what that was about? He should make sure he has somewhere to stay. He could offer him the flat he used as a weight room. Not wanting to hang around, he decided to mention it to Skye and she could call Reg later.
Walking towards reception, he fell in beside Zin. They walked in a comfortable silence. He walked in front of Zin to go through the door, remembering his aversion to people walking behind him. Nate stopped by the reception desk to wait for Liam, taking the time to scratch Samson’s belly. He was such a sweet dog. Noah would adore him. Maybe one day in the future he could persuade Skye to get one.
Weirdly, when Zin walked past, he threw a cold look at Celeste. Nate was surprised by this. Zin wasn’t an overly communicative man, but he wasn’t hostile either. Somehow, his hostility towards Celeste transmitted to the dog and he jumped up and settled beside Celeste, a low growl rumbling in his throat.
Zin took no notice. Just slammed out the door, fired up his Harley, and flew out of the car park. He passed a slick red sports car on his way. Nate waited, wondering if that was Liam in the flash car. His question was answered when a tall man, who looked just like Tom Hardy, walked in.
He was wearing old faded jeans, a blue crew neck jumper, and a leather jacket. He epitomized the vision of a cockney wide boy. The only give away to his lethal ability was the gun in a holster under his arm, and by the way his jeans hung on the ankle, an ankle holster, too. Nobody else would have noticed, but Nate had both, these on, too.
“Hey, me old, mucka. You must be Nate?” he said in a very strong east London accent, thrusting out his hand to Nate. He appeared very friendly and Nate liked him on sigh.
“Pleased to meet you. You must be Liam,” Nate replied.
“Yep, so, me old mate, we gonna go looking for this toff in the boozer, or is he off scoring some Charlie somewhere.” Nate laughed and thanked god for his friends down south. He never would’ve understood Liam, otherwise.
“Yes, let`s go look for the posh guy in the pub and see if he is off buying some cocaine.”
“Tidy, lead the way,” said Liam. Nate was about to leave when Liam veered back and walked towards Celeste.
“Hello there, my beauty. What’s your name?” Celeste looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
“Umm…Celeste. My name is Celeste.”
“Well, my sweet Celeste, are you going to let me take you up the Shard?” The Shard was the tallest building in the UK and shaped like a shard of glass hence the name. Somehow Nate didn’t think Liam meant that literally when he asked that double entendre question. He was about to intervene when Samson made his presence known.
Liam had rested his hip on Celeste`s desk and was leaning towards her. He hadn’t seen Samson at her feet. The dog chose that moment to let out a loud growl. Liam jumped back, “What the fuck!” he yelled, putting some distance between him and Samson.
“That’s Samson. Apparently, he has a problem with you taking me up the Shard, sorry,” she said prettily, but Celeste didn’t look even a tiny bit sorry.
Liam recovered his charm pretty quickly, “No problem, treacle.”
“Come on, leave her alone before Samson decides he hates your chat up lines more than the rest of us do and bites you,” Nate said, saving Celeste from more corny chat up lines.
“Later, treacle.” Liam waved and Celeste smiled and waved back, “Bye, guys.”
Walking into the frigid air, Nate noticed the temperature had dropped a lot. The sky was grey and overcast and the promise of rain wasn’t far away.
“I’ll follow in my car, chief,” Liam said, “Don’t like getting caught without transport.
“Fine by me. We’ll try the Jailhouse first. Do you know it?”
“Yep. Did my spec-ops training in this neck of the woods and part of that training was learning to hold your booze. There ain’t a pub for miles I ain’t been pissed in.”
Okay, then, thou
ght Nate and wondered how this was going to work. He hoped this guy could be serious when shit went down. Having met Jack, he didn’t think it would be a problem–he only hired the best.
He guessed time would tell if this guy was a total twat or a good operator with a weird sense of humuor.
After they visited their fifth pub, they decided it was time to grab some food. Nate was relieved when they got to the Jailhouse and Liam proved exactly what kind of operator he was, handling the manager so deftly. The man had been ready to sign over his first born son by the time Liam had finished with him.
Nate had remarked on it, and Liam had shrugged it off, saying it was how he was brought up. His dad had been a hard-ass and he had grown up on a diet of getting your ass kicked or kicking someone else’s. He had chosen the second.
Nate went the friendlier route; he knew nearly every doorman in Hereford through the MMA club he trained at. Most of them trained there and were good guys. There was the odd wanker, but most were just doing a job. He put the word out that he was looking for Hugo Lockwood, who was well known for different reasons.
Nate had phoned Skye earlier about Reg. She promised to call him after she had chance to talk to Reg. He told her he would drop by at lunch time, and if they got the okay to leave before then, to let him know.
His body reacted as he thought about her sweet voice. She was like a drug, one taste–okay, two–and now he couldn’t go more than three or four hours without hearing her voice. He told her about Liam and told her he would bring him to the hospital to meet her later since he was on her guard team.
They were cruising towards the hospital when his phone went off. Answering using the Bluetooth, he was surprised to hear from Dane, “Hey, Dane. What’s up bro?”
“We just heard from Jack. Marcus Preedy was found in his cell this morning with his throat slit.”
“Fuck! Do Drew and Lauren know?” he asked. They had been through hell at Preedy’s hands, but even so, he was their father.
“Drew knows–Zack just told him. I’m going to collect Lauren from school and tell her now. I’m honestly not sure how she will take it. She despises him, but it’s her father, so, who knows. I just don’t want upset her, what with the pregnancy and all.”
“Yeah, I feel ya, man. Let me know if we can do anything.”
“We will. Anyway, Zack wants you and Liam back at Fortis, ASAP.”
“Okay, we’re on our way. I’ll let Liam know. Catch ya later.” He hung up and called Liam. He quickly explained what had happened and told him to head back to Fortis. Next, he called Skye and explained that something had come up and he would see her tonight. The doctor was releasing Noah after they had taken a last set of blood tests. Ambrose would take them home and wait until he returned.
He didn’t like the idea of another man doing the job he should be doing, but he, also, realized now was not the time to be a control freak.
Quickly cutting through, traffic, he headed for Fortis. He pulled into his space and Liam pulled in behind him. They got out of the car, both turning and ducking when they heard, and felt, an explosion. Nate dove behind his car, Liam following right behind him. The air was full of smoke and Nate immediately heard gunfire. Grabbing his weapon from its holster, he poked his head over the side of his car. Out of the corner of his eye, he spied Liam doing the same.
“Can you see anyone?” Liam shouted
“Negative,” Nate replied.
A shot hit close to his head and he returned fire, hearing a scream as he hit his target. Liam had his back to Nate as they hunkered down behind the car, he was returning fire and had also hit something. Nate saw the shutters go down on the building and knew Zack would have put the building into lock down, but would be watching on the monitor.
“How many do you see?” Nate asked.
“I make out six, heavily armed men.” Liam replied as he returned fire. “No, make that five.”
Nate tapped Liam on the shoulder as he heard a chopper. “Fuck. We have some serious company. We need some help,” he said, and a sick grin came over Liam’s face.
“If you can take care of these five, I have something in my car to help with that,” Liam replied.
Nate took aim and took out one more man. That’s four fuckers, he thought. Opening his car door from where he was hunkered down, he accessed the boot from the back seat and grabbed his semi-automatic. This was why he kept weapons in his car.
He put his head up over the top of the bonnet to lay down suppressive fire, allowing Liam to get to his car. Spraying the remaining four men with bullets, he managed to take out two with kill shots before gunfire from the chopper made him duck down again. His car was being pummeled with bullets and it was only a matter of time before he got hit with one.
His blood was pumping, adrenalin flooding his system. He needed that fucking chopper gone. Just as he thought it, Liam stood up, bold as brass, with a fucking RPG on his shoulder. That mad fucker, thought Nate.
Nate had no choice but to trust Liam to deal with that, and got back to dealing with the other two men. He only grazed the one, hitting him in the hand that held his weapon and then putting another on the man`s shin immobilizing him and taking out the threat of return fire. Zack would want answers and that way the fucker could still speak.
He heard an explosion behind him and turned in time to see Liam had taken out the chopper. The man was nuts, and Nate, for one, was glad he was. Who knew, there were other men that carried weapons in the boots off their cars like he did and especially RPG’s.
The chopper crashed to ground on the other side of the building, towards the woods, with a sickening sound of twisting metal. Daniel came running out the door seconds later with Zack behind him.
“You guys okay?” he asked, checking Nate and Liam over with a quick sweep of his eyes.
“Yeah,” they chorused.
“Dan can you and Zin secure the scene and check those fuckers are actually dead.” Zack instructed.
“Sure, no problem.” Dan walked over to Zin as he came out the door loaded for bear and they both meticulously checked the area. Nate knew Drew would be backing them up by watching the live feed from the camera in the tech room.
Zack turned and walked for the door as Nate and Liam fell in beside him.
“I can’t believe you took that chopper out with an RPG,” Zack said turning his head to glare at Liam and making Liam grin. “How the fuck am I going to explain that?” Zack asked, shaking his head. “I don’t know whether to hire you or punch you. Get yourselves cleaned up. We’ll debrief in ten minutes.” Zack said as they strode to the front door.
Nate looked back at Dan, who was checking out the dead men.
“We got a live one,” Daniel shouted, with delight in his voice. Zack gave a feral smile, it was the scariest grin Nate had ever seen from him–angrier than Nate had ever witnessed. Nate knew he would take this attack personally.
“Take him to the holding room,” he shouted to Daniel. Nate went over and helped Dan drag the groaning man, none too gently, into the building. Liam followed behind. They walked past a petrified Celeste, who was being comforted by Ava in the hallway, and went straight to the holding room at the back.
“Zin!” shouted Zack. Zin walked up the hallway were he had stopped to check on Celeste. Nate watched as Zack cast a look at Celeste and Ava. Celeste was calm now, but still looked pale, Ava was as cool as a cucumber as usual. Dismissing them Nate watched Zack bring his eyes back to Zin who had closed down his expression, Zack continued, “I need to sort out this mess at the front and speak to the relevant departments. We don’t have time to question this prick, so I need you to get the information out of him quickly.” Zack said matter of factly.
Zin smiled a cold nasty smile, “My pleasure.” And by the look on his face, it would be a pleasure. He looked downright scary. Nate would not swap places with that guy for all the tea in China.
Liam followed them back as they walked to the holding room. Nate and Daniel tossed the man onto
a chair and he groaned as he held his leg, which was bleeding profusely. The man spat at them, and judging by the tone, swore at them in some sort of eastern European language.
Zin just grinned and rolled up his sleeves. The man’s eyes went wide when Zin replied in the same language. What was said must have terrified him, because he lost all colour in his face. Zin turned to the rest of them, “Wait outside,” he ordered, and it caused Daniel to grin. “Yes, Sir” he replied and left the room, ushering him and Liam out ahead.
“What the fuck is going on, Daniel?” Nate asked.
“Just wait. This guy will be singing like a canary within half an hour.” Nate’s eyes bugged. “Is he that good? I`d heard he was but have never seen it. We haven`t had a lot of call for this in the last two years.”
“Better. I’ve never seen anyone better at interrogation than Zin. He’s like some zen master.”
“Steady on, Chief. Shouldn’t you buy him dinner before you suck his cock,” Liam unwisely piped up, causing Daniel to get in his face.
“What did you say, you cockney wanker?” Daniel was nose to nose with him, now.
“Easy, Dan,” Nate said, putting a hand on Dan’s arm, “He doesn’t mean any harm. He just has a bad case of foot and mouth.”
“Yeah, well, check it at the door, arsehole. Someone could have been killed tonight and you’re making fucking jokes.”
“Okay, okay. No harm meant. Just having a laugh, don’t get your knickers in a twist.”
Daniel stepped back and they walked into the conference room, but continued glaring at Liam. They were still glaring twenty minutes later when Zin came in, rolling down his sleeves, he hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“They work for Felicity Lockwood. They’re just contractors. The plan was to take down our operation and then go after Noah. Did you find Hugo?”
“No, he’s smoke. I need to get to Skye and Noah. If they go after them now, Ambrose won’t be able to protect them on his own.” A sense of urgency and fear crawled down Nate’s back and settled in his bones.
