The Phoenix Blade: Project Justice

by Andrew Hess

  The agent showed another white sheet covering a body in a cluster of trees. Peterson pulled the sheet back. “What happened to this one?”

  “Mark Mason, he appeared to be attacked near the road. One of his shoes was found just off the path. There are multiple bruises around the face and neck; consistent with a struggle. The victim has a stab wound just under his ribs on his left side and died from his throat being slit open. The blood trail leads from here to the dirt path.”

  Peterson brushed his hand over his short hair. “Tell me you guys have some good news for me.”

  We have analysts looking into two sets of tire tracks that are believed to belong to the suspects.”

  “How do you know it’s theirs?”

  “We compared them to all other vehicles on the property and haven’t found any that matched. They said one looks like it belongs to a van; the other a pickup truck.”

  “Good, I want to know who they belong to immediately.”

  A red headed agent inched closer to Agent Peterson; listening in to his conversation.

  Peterson put the white sheet down and walked towards the house. “What else?”

  “There was a scuffle in one of the bedrooms. There were broken lamp fragments found scattered along the floor.”

  “Were you able to get any DNA?”

  The agent flipped through his notepad. “The only blood we found seemed to belong to the victims; Jesse and Judith Mason.”

  Peterson shook his head in disbelief. “This is just great. Ten dead bodies and all we have are a few tire tracks.”

  “We have bullet casings too.”

  “Well that changes everything.”

  “There’s more.”

  Peterson rubbed his eyes with annoyance. “What else can you possibly tell me?”

  The agent escorted Peterson into the house; stepping over another body wrapped in a white sheet. “There are five children and a maid still not accounted for.”

  “How do you know they’re missing?”

  “Well for starters, they’re not here.” The agent watched Peterson flash him a dirty look. “Sorry sir; I mean there are pictures of the families over here on the walls.”

  They examined the pictures finding five small children, all under the age of ten, and a woman in her mid-twenties dressed in black pants and a white shirt.

  “Good work agent.” Peterson stepped outside and looked down at the white sheet covering Erika Mason.

  “Agent Peterson,” a man shouted as he exited the house. He was a scrawny looking man with black rimmed glasses wearing a wrinkled white striped dress shirt. “Thank god you’re here. We have a situation in the basement.”

  “What kind of situation?”

  “One that’s going to require a call in to Homeland Security.”

  “What the hell do we need them for?”

  “One of the victims was found in the cellar with a gunshot to the head. But the room we found her inside a room what had two locks that were tampered with.”

  “Why is she different than all the other victims?”

  “Not the victim; the room. It was filled with documents and records of business transactions between the Mason family and the Whitman Agency.”

  “How is this important?”

  “The Whitman Agency is believed to be a front for the terrorist known as the Reaper.”

  Peterson gasped at the sound of the name. Reaper had been on every agencies radar for years. He was responsible for thousands of deaths overseas and believed to have had a hand in a several in the United States.

  “Thanks, I’ll give them a call in a bit.” This was too much for Peterson to handle and knew he couldn’t work both cases.

  “I collect the evidence for them, but shouldn’t we call the President too. I mean after all the victims were members of his family.”

  It took Peterson a moment to connect the dots. He kept hearing the names of the victims and not once did he place the Mason name along with the President.

  Peterson quickly called the White House. “Mr. President, this is Special Agent Peterson with the FBI.”

  “Good morning, I hope you have some good news for me.”

  “No sir, I regret to inform you they struck again.”

  “Where and how many victims?”

  “Ten bodies in Austin Texas, but there’s more.”

  “Out with it. What aren’t you telling me?”

  “Sir, I’m sorry to report the ten victims were all members of the Mason family.”

  “The Mason family; my family? Those bastards targeted my family?” There was rage in the President’s voice. “You listen to me Peterson. You find them and stop them no matter what. I want them caught dead or alive.”

  “Yes sir. I’ll bring them to justice.”

  “I’m counting on it.”

  Chapter 53

  The Benefactor was in the middle of a meeting when his phone went off. He wanted to ignore the call, but the name Agent Ruiz caught his attention.

  “Excuse me gentlemen this will only take a minute.” The Benefactor rushed out of the room and accepted the call. “This better be good.”

  “Sir I’m at the Mason house right now,” the man whispered into the phone. “Your team struck last night and Agent Peterson is already here snooping around.”

  “Well this is news to me. Have you heard from Agent Fields?”

  “No sir.”

  “Then I suggest you get over to the safe house immediately.”

  “But I-I just can’t leave here. It’d look suspicious.”

  “If they’re found by Peterson, we’re all screwed. Get down there and make sure they get to California immediately.” The Benefactor ended the call and clasped his hand over his mouth. “Morons,” he whispered. He quickly dialed a number into his phone.

  “Hello,” Agent Fields yawned.

  “Get your ass out of bed. You need to be down at the safe house ASAP.”

  “Why? What happened?”

  “The team went through with it last night and didn’t contact anyone. We need to get them out before the road blocks are setup.”

  “I’ll be there in a half hour.”

  “Hurry up. I dispatched Agent Ruiz to join you. Maybe one of you two can do their job right.”

  The Benefactor hung up and rejoined the meeting. “Sorry about that. A husband’s work is never done.”

  Chapter 54

  It was the image of a gun pointing at my chest that haunted me all night. A blurred figure stood a few feet away; keeping the barrel locked on to my chest. At first it was only me reliving my final moments at the Mason house, but then the dream changed. I was lying on a beige carpet with a man standing over me; his gun dangling above me. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I could only watch as he finger inched closer to pulling the trigger.

  I woke up in a cold sweat every hour. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to pop out of my chest. It was hard to keep Lilly from noticing. She didn’t need to know what happened at the Mason house. It would only complicate things further; for the mission and for us. The only thing that eased me back to sleep was watching her as she kept her head on my chest as we lay on the floor in the hallway.

  After the last dream, I opened my eyes to a bright light; blinding me with rays of sunshine. The last opportunity to capture a moment of sleep was gone; ripped away by the radiant sun and the constant pounding noise from the front door.

  Lilly quickly pushed herself off of my chest and craned her neck nervously checking for the source of the noise.

  “What’s going on,” she asked.

  “Lock yourself in the room and don’t let anyone come out till I tell you it’s safe.” I could see the fear in Lilly’s eyes.

  “What if it’s the police?”

  “If it was, they would’ve found a way inside without us knowing and had us in handcuffs. Now go; I’ll take care of whoever is at the door.”

  Lilly took the key from around her neck and unlocked t
he bedroom door. After I heard it click shut, I took the twenty eight caliber from the floor and rushed to the living room.

  My body hugged tightly to the door as I peered through the peephole; seeing a man with blond hair wearing blue jeans and messy blue t-shirt standing on the front step.

  “Agent Fields,” I gasped as I opened the door. “What are you doing here? We weren’t expecting you.”

  Agent Fields grabbed a fist full of my shirt and pushed me back inside the house. “Shut up and get inside.” He looked around anxiously. “Where are the others? Where are the hostages?”

  “They’re in the other room. What’s wrong?”

  “What’s wrong is you completed the mission last night didn’t have the common sense to inform us. We needed to get you out before the F.B.I. showed up.”

  There it was; yet another critical mistake I made in this war we were fighting for the Benefactor. How could I forget something so important as calling the Benefactor to let him know what happened?

  “We ran into a few problems during our surveillance. Mark Mason found Lilly on the side of the road; so we had to put our backup plan in motion. While eliminating the targets, one of them got the jump on me. I lost my gun in the scuffle and nearly had my head blown off.”

  There was worry on Agent Fields’ face. He didn’t know the full story, but knew a crucial member to the Benefactor’s team almost died. But worse, the whole mission was now in jeopardy due to me no thinking clearly after we left.

  “You’re team was sloppy; there’s no excuse for that. You need to focus on the big picture and surviving instead of what’s in the past. You’re just lucky one of our men on the inside tipped off the Benefactor this morning. I suggest you get your team ready. We’re leaving as soon as our escort gets here.”

  “Escort?”

  “Yes, thanks to you breaking protocol last night, we have to deal with road blocks. It’ll be a miracle if we can get your team and the hostages out without alerting the police.”

  As I ran down the hall to get the others, there was a light rapping on the front door in what appeared to be a code. I watched Agent Fields open the door; revealing a red headed man in a suit with his coat hung over his arms and his sleeves rolled up.

  “We’ll be ready in five minutes,” Agent Fields said as he greeted the man.

  “Good. I overheard them saying the roadblocks were getting put up as we speak. We don’t have many options to choose from.”

  I returned moments later with the group, our duffle bags, and the hostages. The kids were in tears; crying for Sue to bring them home. I knew they wanted their parents to tell them everything was okay and that they were safe now, but their parents were dead and we were to blame.

  Agent Fields hurried to rip the bags from my hands; replacing them with a small cell phone.

  There was only one person he could possibly want me to talk to. “Hello,” I answered while putting the speaker to my ear.

  “Oh so you do know how to use a phone,” the Benefactor replied coldly. He had every right to be pissed. After all, we could have just blown our cover and put everyone in danger; including him. “Start explaining.”

  “There was a complication at the end of the mission. Two targets nearly escaped. Mike eliminated the wife while the husband attacked and tried to use my gun against me.”

  “Were you hurt?”

  “No sir, Mike intervened and eliminated the target before he was able to pull the trigger.”

  “Consider yourself lucky Mr. Santangelo was there to save you. But if you desire to keep your team out of jail, I suggest you contact me after every mission.”

  “Yes sir.”

  “Your next mission has already been uploaded to your computer. I recommend you reading it on the way to your next destination.”

  “Yes sir,” I replied as I hung up. I could feel a pair of eyes burning a hole right through me. I turned to see Lilly staring intensely at me with her eyes welling up with tears. “I know I should have told you but…”

  “You’ll have time to talk later,” Agent Fields said as he handed us a pair of black long sleeve shirts and masks. “Put those on. We need to get this video made before we hit the road.”

  “Let’s make this fast,” the red headed agent said. “We don’t have much time.”

  Chapter 55

  The truck drove in silence, but I could hear every word in Lilly’s head. Her eyes were staring daggers through the back of my headrest. I didn’t know what was worse; waiting for her to unload on me or the quiet bumpy ride from Texas to California in an old truck.

  Agent Fields slowed down to pull onto the exit ramp. “We’re almost there. I suggest you check the computer for your mission.”

  I reached back and felt the laptop back forcefully placed in my hand. I didn’t want to start a fight in the truck. I held my tongue and opened the laptop to set up the secured network. Within minutes I found an email from the Benefactor with an attachment.

  The file contained pictures of a tall man in his thirties with short dark brown hair. He stood in front of a large white house with a red door alongside a woman with brown curly hair and a young boy. The second file was a note from the Benefactor.

  Andrew, the attachments in this email contains all the information you need to complete your next mission. The man in the photo is Tino Arcana; a producer for NBC studios in Burbank. Your mission is to convince him to play the Revolution video by any means necessary, but not until you call giving him the authorization. Call me when it’s done for your next mission.

  “Care to tell us what’s in the file, or do you want to keep that info from us as well,” Lilly said sarcastically.

  “It’s info on the man we need to meet with about the video.”

  Lilly refused to look at me directly. Instead, she stared out the window at the starry night sky. There wasn’t much to look at other than the traffic surrounding us. It was the perfect cover as we entered the rear entrance to a large hotel.

  The black SUV pulled to the back of the hotel; escorting us to the rear stairwell entrance.

  “Wait here,” Agent Fields commanded as he exited the truck and met with the red headed agent. They pulled the children from the van. The older kids kicked and swung at Agent Fields as Sue the maid tried restraining them.

  “Where are we,” Lilly asked.

  “Burbank, but we won’t be here for long.”

  “Why do you think they had us make that video,” Mike asked.

  “I don’t know, but he has something up his sleeve.”

  Agent Fields returned without the other agent. “Let’s go.” He took us through the back door and up the rear stairwell. “Only use this area to go in and out of the building. The cameras in this area are broken. The rest of the building is under video surveillance. I suggest you don’t go wandering around.”

  We exited onto the fourth floor; finding the red headed agent leaving one of the rooms.

  Agent Fields handed us keys 432 and 433. “Sue and the kids are settled in. They know we’re coming back for them in a few days. She agreed to cooperate, but I still suggest someone staying with them at all times.”

  “Sure thing,” I replied as I grabbed the two keys.

  Agent Fields nodded to the red headed man to follow; leaving us alone for the first time since our attack on the Mason house.

  Mike ripped the key to room 433 out of my hand. “I’ll take first watch. He smiled; knowing this would force me to spend time with Lilly which would lead to her demanding answers.

  “No, I need you for tomorrow,” I replied.

  “For what?”

  “I have to find a way to meet with the guy in the file. I’ll need you to watch my back while I find a way into NBC studios.”

  “That’s too dangerous,” Lilly shouted. Mike and I both covered her mouth with our hands; muffling her voice.

  “Are you trying to get us caught or killed,” Mike asked. “Why don’t you just announce there are three killers and a roo
m full of hostages running around on the fourth floor?”

  “Sorry,” she whispered. “I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you two to go into the studio; looking for some guy the Benefactor wants you to see.”

  “Why not?”

  “Did you ever stop to think this is a setup? The place has gotta be crawling with security and tons of cameras. You’re bound to be seen by someone and then it’s just a matter of time before the cops get there.”

  “That’s why I’m taking Mike with me. He’ll monitor everything from the truck. If the police get called in, he can let me know so I can find a way out.”

  “I can do that,” Lilly placed her hands on her hips as if she had final say and was about to say and that’s final.

  “No, you can’t,” I replied. “If something went wrong, you would try to break in to get me out. I can’t go in there knowing I put you directly in harm’s way again.”

  I could see the anger building up inside, but also see she knew I was telling the truth. She was scared when she was in the Mason house alone and did not want to be put in that position again.

  Lilly walked up to Mike; putting her finger in his chest and pressed firmly. “If anything happens to him, you will have to answer to me.”

  Mike held up his hands in surrender. “Fine, whatever you say,” he smirked as he backed towards the hotel room door. “I’m just gonna hang out in here tonight.” Mike used the key and entered room 433; smiling as he closed the door.

  Chapter 56

  This was it; the uncomfortable moment where Lilly and I were left alone to face what happened in Texas. I could feel the heat radiating from her eyes as she stared me down in the middle of the deserted hallway. It was almost like we were having a showdown at the OK Corral; waiting for the other to make the first move.

  “We should get inside before someone sees us,” I suggested while using the key to unlock room 432.

  The room looked like a mini apartment. The plush beige carpet led the way towards the private kitchen; stocked with a fridge, microwave and sink. The King sized bed sat near the window with blackout drapes and across from a thirty-two inch TV.

  Lilly slammed the door shut. I was on edge and jumped at the loud noise. I turned to see Lilly with her arms folded; tapping her foot repeatedly on the carpet.

  “Start talking,” she commanded.

  “What do you want me to say?”

  “Tell me something. I’ve been silently screaming inside my head for the last few hours. I wanted to freak out every time someone mentioned last night, the Masons, the Benefactor or even the next mission.”