Derrick's Choice (Titan Security Book 1)

by Cynthia P. O'Neill

  Khalid reached up, running a hand through his hair, obviously troubled by the next part he was about to reveal—a part I’d already heard, “There were many people against these changes, mainly the wealthy and the heads of military. They twisted my eldest brother’s mind to their thoughts and disciplines. As soon as Raqeem’s 21st birthday had passed, he succeeded in killing our parents, through the help of hired guns, and claimed the throne as his own. My other brother, Farim, and I were livid, but we had no recourse except to follow in Raqeem’s footsteps while we attempted to build a resistance that would hopefully overthrow him and restore order to our people.”

  Tennison spoke up. “So you were against Raqeem? But I thought…” His words trailed off.

  Khalid nodded and attempted a smile. “Raqeem had turned mad, guided by a man we knew went by Diable. When we’d heard his English accent over the phone, we knew he’d been the one behind my brother’s quest to take over the world. What my brother didn’t realize, though, was Diable was using him. Diable told my eldest brother of your military raid to destroy the plans and had set both of you against one another, intent on everyone being destroyed and stealing the top-secret military treasure for himself.

  “Farim and I wanted to get to the plans first, switch them out for fake ones and destroy all evidence of the real ones, including the prototypes, but your special ops team beat us to it.” Khalid looked Tennison in the eyes, adding, “The only reason we had guns was to defend ourselves against being killed and to stop Raqeem. We were trying to get word to you that we were on your side, but your buddy had reacted too quickly, shooting me in the leg and killing my youngest brother. I wasn’t determined to kill you; I wanted your buddy instead.”

  He hung his head in shame. “I wanted to seek revenge against him, but my mind was too occupied with the unrest your invasion caused. We were without a king, I was injured, and the resistance went into action trying to restore order. I wasn’t sure if I’d be allowed back at the palace once peace was restored, so I had the foresight to move some of our most precious gems and gold into a hidden account in Europe for myself, while setting up the resistance with enough money to continue until our country was brought back to peace. I was right in doing so, because Diable put a price on my head, and I had to fake my own death, pay through the nose for plastic surgery, and came here hoping to start a new life.”

  “So where have you been? And why were two people from your country sent to kill me years ago?” Tennison’s voice was full of misplaced hate.

  Voleur spoke up. “I sent them. I wanted it to look like Khalid was after you. I knew you were the only two people still alive who’d ever seen those plans, and I was hoping that one copy of them might still be around. If not, then I’d force you to redraw them from memory and kill you afterwards.”

  Khalid, defending himself, pointed over toward Voleur, “See, it wasn’t me. I kept a low profile when I first came here. I didn’t trust that someone wasn’t sent to spy on me despite the new face. I wasn’t proud of taking someone else’s look and creating a new identity, but I did what I needed to do in order to survive.”

  Khalid went on to explain it was Diable, not him, that had sent two soldiers, loyal to Raqeem, to track Tennison. Diable believed Tennison had stolen the plans he wanted, but when he’d discovered differently, he wanted Tennison dead as revenge for destroying his chances of a perfect world—a world ruled by non other than Marque Diable Maléfique.

  Khalid ended up finding love with Amy Milton. Fearing Diable’s retaliation, Khalid couldn’t marry her, since he didn’t want to draw attention to who he was. They’d had Blaine and Cassidy within the eight years they were together, until one night he was ambushed and dragged to a personal prison in France, created by Diable.

  He’d orchestrated a long-drawn-out plan with the intention of hurting both Khalid and Tennison. Diable managed to finally track Tennison down by bribing a government official at the Pentagon, while he’d done a similar feat with those who’d helped him find Khalid—living as Calleum. He’d known for years where everyone was at, but was sitting back and waiting for the perfect moment to implement his plan.

  “I had to watch as Diable followed my family around, taking photos and video of them. He’d threaten their lives if I didn’t cooperate by trying to remember any details of the military plans that had been destroyed. I kept arguing that it had been too long to recall those kinds of details. So his revenge was me losing the love of my life to another man. He knew that would crush me—more than anything—having to watch her with someone else. So he’d pushed her toward Tennison.”

  Tennison gasped. “Holy mother of…You mean to tell me,” he pointed over at Voleur, a.k.a. Diable, “This sorry son of a bitch was instrumental in me meeting my ex-wife?”

  Khalid nodded, his face full of sadness, and a hitch in his voice, “He’d hoped to destroy me, to get me to talk by forcing her on you. But I didn’t have any information to give, so I had to watch as you fell in love with Amy, married her, and raised my children as your own.”

  “But why?”

  Voleur spoke up, “I’ll answer that one. I wanted Khalid hurting enough to give me the information. When I couldn’t break him, I instead saw an opportunity to see if you’d remember the plans. I waited for the moment you needed an employee and lucked out after your former vice president had his little heart attack, or at least that’s what everyone was led to believe. It worked out better than I expected; no one ever thought to do an autopsy. How perfect to have myself placed right next to you and your office, becoming your most trusted advisor.”

  He threw his head back laughing. “I watched as you drew plans late into the night, and I knew you’d come in some weekends to put prototypes together. I could see the electrical supplies you’d had in your office diminish, but I’d realized your success several months ago when you’d managed to blow all the fuses in the building, testing the prototype. The only problem was you kept your office highly guarded with security cameras and equipment.”

  He leaned back against the wall, a gun in each hand now, as he continued, “I’d tried to position myself where, in the event something happened to you, I would take over as CEO of the company until your son reached the proper age, giving me access to your office and safe. It was only too perfect when I’d conceived the idea to kill you.” With a Cheshire smile plastered across his demonic face, he looked over at Tennison. “Khalid had managed to escape and return. I didn’t realize, at the time, those two brats of his had blackmailed me to arrange for his release.”

  “Blackmailed?” Tennison asked.

  “I’d been skimming funds from the company. Blaine had caught me with a carry-on full of money as I was leaving work to go to the airport. I thought he’d leave well enough alone, but between him and Cassidy, they’d uncovered my deceit. In exchange for their silence, they’d blackmailed me into paying them a pretty penny. Only later did I learn one of my team had gotten greedy, offering to release Khalid in exchange for several million dollars.”

  Voleur’s hand began to clutch the gun tighter as fury radiated through his entire frame. “Those bastards of yours,” he looked right at Khalid, “ruined my plans. I had to gain control of the situation by seizing the money my now deceased employee had taken. I was going to kill your little brats, until I realized they could be pawns in my game.”

  I watched as Voleur turned toward Tennison. “Khalid was so appreciative of you raising his children into fine young people that he’d asked them for advice on what gifts to get you to repay your kindness. They were the ones to take your cars to be detailed, while I ensured the brake lines were cut. They were the ones who’d replaced your older, worn handguns with new ones designed to misfire as soon as the safety was disengaged. They were the ones who’d snuck into your office at home to give you a new crystal decanter filled with an expensive scotch, laced with odorless and tasteless poison.”

  He started laughing to himself. “It was all too perfect.” He waved one of the
guns between Tennison and Khalid. “Your kids were so happy to please each of you that they ended up implicating themselves with murder. I’d hoped they would’ve been arrested, but I guess I was being too optimistic. I hadn’t expected Derrick to be called in to assist you, but he’s as naive as his old man; a man too stupid to realize his contact at the Pentagon, the one who was supposed to keep Tennison’s new identity a secret, was the very man betraying him.” He looked over at me with pure hatred, “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: anyone can be bought for a price.”

  Voleur started yelling at Tennison. His persona of calmness and control fell apart before our eyes. “You couldn’t leave things alone could you, Tennison? Why couldn’t you just die and leave me as CEO? No, you had to put your niece—your namesake—in as co-CEO with Derrick.” He paused his tirade long enough to ask, “Don’t you love your family? Did you think I would stop at trying to kill only you? And who the hell buys a biometric safe incapable of being opened by anyone other than you, when you were supposed to be dead?”

  Tennison smiled. “I made sure Derrick had access to the safe. I even showed him the plans and prototype before we destroyed them. We both agreed it was too much power for one person to have.” Thankfully, Tennison didn’t mention that only the prototypes were destroyed and not the plans. We’d hoped to do that right in front of his face.

  Jesse looked at us with curious eyes. “What kind of plans were they exactly? I’m not sure I follow.”

  I raised my hand toward Tennison to indicate I’d explain. “When your uncle and my father were serving our country, some plans had been swiped from one of the government’s agencies. They ended up in the hands of Khalid’s brother. At the time, the plans were in their infancy, with Raqeem hiring the most talented military engineers in the world to help develop them, and then build a working prototype.

  “They’d come damn close to succeeding until your uncle destroyed everything. The only problem: he couldn’t forget what he saw and decided to redraw things, to secretly work on them as technology advanced.”

  Jesse’s brows furrowed. “But what did the plans create?”

  I took in a deep breath before answering, “The United States and Russia were both working on EMPs or, in layman’s terms, electro-magnetic pulses. The plans were declassified a while back and are common knowledge now. In the early sixties, the military did an experiment with a nuclear explosion that created a magnetic pulse. The explosion was approximately 900 miles off the coast of an island and high in the atmosphere, but it affected anything electrical on the island, even knocking out the phone lines for some time. Since then, there have been numerous tests, both nuclear and non-nuclear in nature, trying to recreate similar scenarios. When the government realized it was too dangerous, they tried to do away with the project, but the plans were stolen. It was Raqeem and Diable’s hope to create a device, non-nuclear in nature, that could disable advancing armies.”

  Jesse’s face filled with horror. “Where did you get your information about the EMPs?”

  A smile played on my face. “Believe it or not, anyone can Google it nowadays. They even have a video online showing how to make an EMP gun to disable a radio-controlled toy for a short period of time. It’s common knowledge now.”

  “But if that’s common knowledge, why go through such extremes to get whatever my uncle was hiding?” She wondered.

  Voleur was growing impatient, and I’d seen some of the signs I was looking for from Rick—a specific light flicker, a fax machine fire up—letting me know to stall for more time.

  I stepped away from Jesse, Tennison, and Khalid, only moving a few feet to put myself into better position and, hopefully, draw Voleur’s fire if needed. Jesse’s face was filled with curiosity, so I continued my tale, “Imagine having a device, not much bigger than an electronic tablet, capable of locking in on the electronic signature of any military device, from any country, and disabling it—completely shutting it down. In the wrong hands,” I gestured over to Voleur, “the device would give the ‘other side’ the advantage, being able to wipe out whole armies. Think about it, if you only had guns and cannons to fight with, while the opposing side had full use of their planes, guided missiles and such…it would be a massacre of epic proportions.”

  Before I could get the words out, Voleur chimed in, placing both hands over his chest—still full of guns—relishing in the idea. “It would be world domination at its finest. Not even the greatest dictators throughout history had that much control. I would succeed where others had failed.”

  He was so enamored with his dreams that he’d failed to see the red laser light aimed at his chest. I knew my team was ready to fire, so I moved my hand behind the table I was leaning against, making it look as though I needed extra support to hold me up, when in reality I was working closer to my other gun. I looked over at Tennison, moving my eyes between him and Jesse, to indicate for him to cover her. His head gave an infinitesimal nod, letting me know he was ready. Khalid seemed to catch on to what I was saying as well. We were all ready for Diable’s reign of terror to end.

  Voleur continued talking about the power he’d have as king of the world, ruler over all of creation, as everyone else in the room fell to the ground in unison. The act disoriented him enough I was able to draw my gun and immediately fire after our sniper had taken a shot…but not before Voleur shot Tennison in the leg and put a bullet in me.

  I was hit, but I didn’t go down, not easily. I stood my ground and was joined by Rick, Jonas, Tennison, and Khalid drawing hidden weapons and opening fire on Winston Voleur, riddling his body with holes. We wanted to ensure this bastard was good and dead.

  Everything moved in slow motion as Voleur dropped the guns. His eyes were large, in shock from our actions. I guess the bastard thought he was invincible, incapable of being killed or even discovered for his identity as Diable. I’d proven him wrong on all counts. I’d managed to complete my job, ensure the safety of my team and the people I’d protected. I felt a sense of pride and accomplishment sweep over me as I watched him fall to the floor. I could only hope in the afterlife—if there was one for him—he’d be damned for an eternity to pay for all his crimes.

  The edges of my vision blurred as I heard Jesse scream out, “Someone call an ambulance and get the medical kit, quick!”

  I tried to look over at her, to check and see if she was all right. “Help him, Khalid,” Tennison yelled out. I felt someone’s arms come under mine, guiding me to the floor. I tried to fight it. I didn’t want to lie down. I needed to stay alert; I had a mission to finish.

  “Soldier, you better stop resisting assistance and reserve your strength to get through this. Jesse, he needs you more than I do—go to him. Here use my coat to put some pressure on that stomach wound; we need to stop the bleeding. Where the hell is that fucking medical kit?” Tennison, or should I say Mr. Bradford now, was back to his authoritative self.

  Pain seared through my stomach as Jesse applied pressure to the area. I could feel wet drops hit the side of my face. I couldn’t seem to focus my eyes, feeling darkness wanting to pull me into its depths.

  I heard my brother’s voice telling the others to clear the way as he ran over to me, dropping to his knees beside me. “I’m going to inject you with some hormone desmopressin to try and slow the bleeding. The stretcher is in the lobby and on the way up. You better stick with us, bro. Your woman needs you. I need you, and damn it, our dad, while he might not admit it, needs you. You hear me, soldier?”

  I tried to nod, but failed. I was too weak. I knew he was using a trick we’d learned on the battlefield to speed up the clotting of blood and pack the wound as best as possible. I wouldn’t put it past him to have some sponges or other medical equipment on hand to try and slow the bleeding down.

  I was thankful I hadn’t been hit with one of Voleur’s hollow-point bullets he was notorious for. He’d only kept mine and Tennison’s main guns in his hands, but I still knew the location of the shot could be dea
dly.

  “You’ve got to be okay, Derrick. I finally found someone who makes me feel alive.” Jesse’s words were choked and broken. I could hear her sniff back tears. “I can’t lose you. I can’t go on without you there to challenge me daily. I love you.”

  She said she loved me. All that time I’d been worried she’d hate me for being the Master, hiding the truth from her to keep her safe, and for protecting her at all costs. I lifted my hand up to try and find the side of her face, wanting to wipe her tears away and pull her down to my lips for a kiss.

  I wanted to tell her I loved how much meaning she gave to my life. I tried to speak, my voice trembling as I held on to her face, “I lo….”

  “Derrick! No! Someone help him, please!”

  I hated hearing her cry. I finally had something to live for besides my job. I wanted to fight my way out of the darkness for her, but all I could see was a light, and all I could feel was peace. Which choice do I make?

  I felt free.

  It had been a month since the shooting, where Derrick had been torn from my arms and carried away on a stretcher; the paramedics working feverishly to revive him. I felt hollow and alone.

  Tennison—my Uncle Jesse—had insisted I ride to the hospital in the back of the ambulance with him the day all hell broke loose. “Derrick needs all the help they can get to revive him. You’d be better off riding with me. At least that way you can get into the hospital, and we can try to get word on how he is.”

  Everything was so surreal. I know Derrick had explained everything to me when he had me stay at his place, but finding out you had an uncle you thought had been dead since before you were born, and then finding out you’d been working for him this whole time and visiting the club he’d owned…talk about having your mind blown! I still had trouble wrapping my mind around it.