by Hawk, Nate
***
Niko had finally made it to the Al Quds Mosque in Homburg. His arrival was well received but his debriefing hadn’t gone well. He’d found out what had happened in Red House and he was told that the same man was only hours behind him. Niko figured it was his responsibility to fix the problem and he knew just what to do.
In the middle of the afternoon, visibility was at its best. Niko and another member of the German ISIS cell were standing on a bridge and listening intently. Their steady gaze was on the train tracks that passed underneath them. It was not at that precise location where they were focused but at a different location about a half-mile down the line. There was a sharp turn in the rails at the base of a hill. The men knew the train had to slow down substantially to pass through that point safely. They envisioned the decelerating train with immense satisfaction.
“It is fortunate that we have our own agents watching our backs,” Niko pointed out.
“Praise be to Allah,” the other man said.
“We cannot allow ourselves to become overconfident. This man Kelly has penetrated our security stateside. He killed our comrades and kidnapped my long-time mentor Abbas Zaki. He has forever taken a leader from Islam and our shared goals,” Niko said. “Do not under-estimate him.”
“Of course not,” the man said. “They have been following him since that day?”
“Electronically, yes. Abbas recognized the man’s face from the news and leaked the details up his chain of command through his lawyer. In turn, one of our Turkish friends, working for European Union Immigration, personally flagged his passport. Once Kelly entered the Union, our agent was notified. He has notified us and we surmised that it is us that Kelly seeks.”
“You are sure he rides on this train?”
“Yes. One of our comrades was waiting at the train station. He said that he saw him board. In fact, the train will be here any minute.”
A few seconds later, the engine came into view. It had a big front window that was darkly tinted. The front of the train had a streamlined but slightly convex profile to it. It was truly a marvel to behold and the two men took much satisfaction in their effort to destroy such a western creation. Not only were Westerners rich, they sped around at ten times the speed of the trains in Niko’s home country. It was impossible not to feel animosity towards them.
The white train began to slow from its top speed of a hundred and eighty miles per hour. It decreased to nearly half of that speed as it prepared for the turn. Past the turn, there was a small town that the train was forced to slow down for anyway, so the curve itself was never regarded as much of a limitation to the train engineers or to the construction engineers before them. However, the curve had proven to be the ideal location for the two-man ISIS team to set up the explosives. The train would be slowing, therefore making it an easier target. Additionally, the men who would detonate the explosives had a good line of sight and a quick escape route. This was precisely the type of expertise that ISIS had hoped to acquire when making the decision to attach Niko to the German group. Another man within the ISIS group had made the arrangements to acquire the explosives. That particular batch had been smuggled through a port city in France and simply driven across the boarder into Germany. Initially, it had been set-aside for a different purpose but Niko had been successful in relaying his need for the explosives. His ISIS group had shared the same concern so it hadn’t taken much effort to convince them to reallocate the explosives to eliminate the threat that Kelly posed. Niko was just glad he didn’t have to take care of the acquisition logistics himself. Just thinking about his Syrian contact made his head hurt. Unfortunately, he knew he’d have to meet with that guy soon enough.
The front of the train was just pulling through the curve when Niko set off the series of IEDs. They exploded as one on the port side of the train. The big machine immediately went up on one rail and began to roll onto its starboard side as its momentum continued sliding it forward.
***
Chapter 55
Kelly was trying to do two things. He was trying to make the huge black man empathetic to his plight and he was stalling. He needed a few moments to figure out how to wiggle out of the trap that he found himself in.
“I’m sure you know what this group did to my family. Surely you understand my perspective,” he said.
“Listen. You’ve got my word that this man will be dealt with. We won’t move on until he has been eliminated.”
Kelly paused and considered the man’s vow but it wasn’t enough for him.
“I won’t move on either,” Kelly said rebelliously. “I’ll finish what I came here to do.”
That was not what Owen wanted to hear. He could see that Kelly wasn’t the type to back down. In fact, Kelly was proving to be an obstinate pain in the ass. Maybe he would have to take him in. They would find someplace to “explain” the situation to Kelly until he understood. Owen didn’t especially like the idea but Kelly wasn’t making things any better. The men were at an uncomfortable impasse that was causing the conversation to become increasingly animated and uncomfortable. As the two continued sizing each other up and determining what level of resolve each individual possessed, the train began braking. The men felt the train making its way through a curve. Kelly instinctively gripped the edge of the seat to stabilize himself.
Kelly was always aware and he was always thinking. He had already raised his alert level to Condition Orange. Initially, it had been due to the other man’s presence but it adjusted quickly to Condition Red. It was his continued level of alertness that had enabled him to notice the sub-second warning that the bomb had provided to him. The actual sensation that he detected had been the well-known feeling of the air escaping his ears. It was a familiar precursor to an explosion that he had experienced many times during his military career. It was enough to reflexively tighten his grasp and close his eyes before the force of the explosion rocked the train on its side at nearly one hundred miles an hour.
First there was a storm of flying glass. Surprisingly, the sub-structure of the second-class cabin helped insulate the two men from the flying debris. Then the train rocked upwards on one side’s wheels, momentarily pausing and then increasing its momentum as it slammed onto its side. Kelly was holding tight but even he was tossed around like a tetherball. Owen had felt secure in his environment and had considered no need to hold on through the curve. He had kept his hands in front of him at the ready just in case Kelly decided to get physical. Or, in case he decided to get physical.
He had no opportunity to grasp for support once the bomb went off. Kelly wasn’t sure but he thought his trained ears had heard a millisecond between smaller explosions. The thought was quickly forgotten as he was thrown around like a bull rider whose hand was stuck in the saddle. The friction of the train on the ground was causing the front cars of the train to slow down quicker than ones following. The train was folding on itself an old ream of dot matrix paper being put into a box. Owen was slammed to one side of the car where he hit his head. He was out cold.
His unconscious body was flopping around and was getting dangerously close to being sucked through a blown-out side window. Kelly saw the ground ripping and tearing at the train car, through the broken window, as it skidded across the landscape. Kelly released his grip and dropped down to the frame of the train. The cars were slowing some now so he was able to support himself as he made his way to the man, one inch at a time. He put his feet between the man and the broken window in an effort to stop Owen from getting sucked out and smashed. The train rolled some more and all perceived orientation was lost. As it did so, they tumbled around like hamsters that had lost their footing. As the train slowed, the force at which they’d been thrown around gradually diminished. Then their car came to an abrupt stop as it seemed to crash into a stationary object outside. Kelly quickly assessed himself and couldn’t find any real damage, though his arm and shoulder hurt from being thrown around. Kelly felt for his nuts out of instinct, when working wi
th bombs. He was pleased to feel that they were still in tact. Despite his soreness, he knew that he had been hurt much worse than he was then. He listened to the unfolding noises around him. There were more impact and scraping sounds but eventually the crash scene was silenced.
After a few seconds of complete stillness where even the train seemed to be in shock, two types of noises began to permeate from the area. The first were cries and wails erupting from the surviving passengers. All of the survivors seemed to be experiencing some type of pain. There were numerous broken bones that included dozens of compound fractures. There were blunt trauma victims, conscious, unconscious and deceased. There were horrible lacerations that included severed limbs and decapitations. It was a scene of tragedy and misery. It was a scene Kelly knew all too well.
Then the second type of noise began. There was the sound and the impact of an explosion. Kelly thought it sounded like natural gas. He wasn’t sure where it was coming from but he knew the sound. Then Kelly smelled it. He quickly realized that his own car was in danger of catching fire. He looked down and thought hard about leaving the big black man behind. He was clearly there to send Kelly back on his way. If that didn’t work, Kelly wasn’t sure what the man was capable of. But, he had other concerns regarding capabilities. Was Kelly himself capable of leaving the man behind for a sure death? That didn’t take any time to contemplate. Kelly’s mind didn’t work like that. Owen was an American who had, in his own way, been trying to help. Kelly leaned down to his suitcase and pulled out the ACOG scope. He knew that he would need that later. He walked over to the man and checked him for a gun. Holstered inside his waistband was a .40 Glock.
Kelly took the handgun and placed it in his own waistband without a holster, like a gangbanger might. Then he picked up the man in a fireman’s carry. It took all of the strength that Kelly could muster but he stood up fully and stepped through a broken window. The man on his shoulders was probably the heaviest man he’d ever carried. Even considering the guy didn’t have any type of pack or gear. Kelly took deep breaths and short steps. He carried the man a hundred yards and climbed slightly to set him down on a small hill that overlooked the disaster zone below. He looked back and saw various other survivors crawling out of the train. Some of them were carrying the injured and unconscious as well. Then he heard tires squeal. He looked over through the smoke to a nearby bridge where he watched a blue car with two occupants speed off. He looked back to the train. Below, more fires were erupting and it seemed as if the whole train was in the process of becoming an inferno.
Owen was known for his tenacity. He looked towards Kelly as he began regaining his consciousness. Then he blinked his eyes and looked around. He glanced back to Kelly as if he were putting the pieces together and sizing the man up who had carried him. He looked back down on the wreckage and tried to process the impact that the current situation would have on his own circumstances. Still he didn’t quite put it all together.
“What… what the hell happened?”
“An explosion derailed the train. We barely made it out in time.”
Owen looked around to make his own assessment. This is a damn mess, he thought to himself.
“A bomb?”
“Yes.”
The agent was in shock. Now he felt responsible for the deaths that were beginning to pile up under his watch. Owen thought he understood Rick Quinn’s guilt at that point. Even so, it was difficult to take in everything. Then Owen had a sudden, new thought.
“I’ve got friends in there. I’m going back to the train.”
He tried to stand up but immediately fell back to the ground, experiencing vertigo. As he did so, a large fireball flared up in one of the cars as if to send him a personal message: stay away. Kelly figured there was more than one type of flammable substance used in and around the electric train but he wasn’t sure. He looked towards the rear of the train in the general area that they had come from and saw two figures emerging from the flames and explosions. A Hispanic looking man was carrying what appeared to Kelly to be a woman over his shoulders. The man had blood all over his face but it wasn’t clear whose blood it was. Owen tried again to get up but experienced the same general outcome as before. Kelly walked toward the other two in an offering of help. He closed in and saw operator eyes within the man’s stern facial expression. Kelly immediately discerned that this man had been through the shit before.
“Let me help,” Kelly offered.
The man didn’t respond or even acknowledge; he just kept walking. His eyes were fixed on Owen’s position. He picked up one foot after the other and continued the process until he had reached his friend. He set Laura’s body down and in the process revealed a laceration across her throat. There was still a large piece of broken glass protruding from the wound and the whole area was dripping with blood. She was clearly dead.
“She’s gone,” Angelo said, as he took a knee from exhaustion.
The men looked at the wreckage below. All of the cars were on fire and they could feel the heat, even from where they were standing.
“We need to get moving,” Kelly said as a reminder to the two men, in shock, on the ground next to him. “We don’t want to be around when the police show up and start asking questions.”
Owen looked to Angelo.
“You’ve gotta get that blood off your face.”
Angelo wiped his face on Laura’s shirt. Then he stood up and brushed himself off. He offered Owen a hand, pulling him to his feet. Owen proved to be steadier the third time that he attempted to stand.
“Do you think we were compromised?”
“I don’t see how. There is no way we were followed. If we were compromised then it had to be from somewhere further up the chain.”
Kelly hadn’t stopped thinking about how all of this had unfolded so unexpectedly. He thought back to the main station in Frankfurt.
“I may have been the target,” Kelly admitted. “I saw a guy looking at me back at the train station but I didn’t think much of it. Just a minute ago, I saw a car speed off from that bridge.”
Kelly pointed. Both men looked at him with some apprehension. Angelo had a look of pure disgust. It was as if Kelly purposefully killed his friend Laura. As quick as the expression revealed itself, Angelo put it away somewhere deep in his mind. He knew reacting to the wrong things at the wrong times was the type of amateur behavior that got people killed.
“Makes sense. We were watching for you. It could be that they were watching for you too,” Owen proposed. “We’ll figure it out later.”
Angelo looked at Kelly. He could see the guy was tough. He wanted to like him.
“I assume you’re the guy that just took out a bunch of Jamaat Al Fuqra guys. I’m guessing that you had a hand in bringing in that Top Ten fugitive, too. Maybe they had one of their own guys flag your passport,” Angelo offered. “ISIS is big enough to have that kind of influence.”
Kelly was surprised how fast the word seemed to travel in the intelligence community.
“Well, I guess collateral damage isn’t a concern of theirs,” he said flatly.
“No, it never has been. They probably just wanted you off of their ass.”
“You’re probably right,” Kelly admitted. “This can’t be a coincidence,” he said as he eyed the carnage.
The men began walking up to the road where Kelly had seen the car speed off. They painfully climbed up the bridge and walked towards a populated area ahead. Sirens were wailing and the first responders were already speeding by. Other people were running towards the fiery crash too. Some of them came to gawk at the slaughter but most of the people ran towards the inferno to help. The three bloodied men received a couple of looks in the beginning but as they moved away from the crash site, nobody seemed interested in them.
“Kelly. One other thing,” Owen said. “I need my gun back.”
After everything that had happened, Kelly had almost forgotten about it. As he thought back to the conversation on the train, he found hims
elf reluctant to give it back to the man.
“OK,” Kelly said, as he felt his own control of the situation slipping from his grasp.
He pulled the firearm out of his waistband and offered it to the man, grip first. Owen took it and secured it inside his holster. He didn’t add any drama.
“I haven’t figured out what we are gonna do with you,” Owen proclaimed. “You seem like a good enough guy.”
“We could shoot him in the back of the head and leave him here,” Angelo said with a dry chuckle.
In light of the current situation, Kelly wasn’t sure if it was really intended to be a joke. The three men found themselves in an arduous situation. Something odd was happening in Kelly’s mind. Somehow the cowardly act of terror had bonded the men. He knew their type and they knew his. They were cut from the same cloth. They were fellow warriors. It was like the three men were orphaned siblings, reunited after a life apart. And although neither of the other men verbalized it, they found themselves having similar thoughts.
There was a sense of unspoken camaraderie between them. One of the team members had just died and Kelly had saved Owen from certain death. In addition, Kelly came with a tough-ass reputation that he had unwittingly earned in Virginia. Kelly wasn’t quite sure how word had gotten to Germany so quickly. But he had a guess. Damn that ASAC Steven Lynch.
The three men all knew that they shared the same goals. They also knew they were down an operator, so they kept their minds on what was important. Getting out of the area was the team’s top priority and they weren’t going to leave Kelly to fend for himself; not yet, anyway. Besides, Kelly was clearly competent in the face of danger. After all, he had pulled Owen from the flaming wreckage. Furthermore, now he knew the CIA team’s faces.
Angelo realized he had lost his phone. He had left it sitting on the small table in his second-class cabin on the train. Now it was nowhere to be found. Owen’s had been in his pocket and had somehow survived. He pulled it out and checked it to see if it would even work. Surprisingly, it did. He powered it up and called Stan. After a quick explanation of the afternoon’s events, that intentionally omitted Kelly’s presence, Stan was in a rage. He sent their driver to pick them up in the tiny town of Fischbach. They agreed to meet at a petrol station there on the outskirts of town. In the meantime, the three men went to an outdoor cafe and sat down. The scene was chaotic and no server ever came to their table. It appeared that at least half of the restaurant’s patrons and workers had hustled over to the crash in hopes of a rescue attempt. Although the turn of events had been tragic, the three men found some limited satisfaction that their efforts to blend in had worked. No one paid them any attention.
