“Cover,” the leader yelled and ran behind the couch, as the other two men hid behind whatever else they could find. The grenade went off and they aimed their weapons at the window, shattering what remained into splinters.
“Hold your fire,” the commander shouted. He was processing the events that had transpired all around him. “Assume the formation,” he said, most likely hoping that sticking to his original strategy was the safest option for him at that given moment. “Keep your eyes peeled,” he said.
Fighting a battle half-blind is by far the worst thing in combat, so he defended himself and his position. “Back through the door, boys,” he said. The three of them moved, the commander’s gun aimed straight at the window, the other two covering the door. The fact that there were no gunshots after the flash grenade made him worry and his heart flutter. Then Marcus appeared on the window for a split second and the commander started shooting. The men guarding his back crouched and turned toward the window, giving Jack the perfect opportunity to move from behind the entrance door and riddle the invaders with bullets. Their skin was bursting, sending spurts of blood all over the place. The men groaned and moaned, trying to take aim at the door, failing miserably to do so. It was only seconds later that one of the men let out a death rattle. The other man was wailing, his pain stronger than his will. Only the commander had remained on task. He was bleeding, leaning on his wounded knee, covered in sweat, still trying to aim at the window. Jack calmly approached him from behind and pressed the pistol against his head. “Drop the gun,” he said. The commander was reluctant, but he did it anyway; instinct is a funny thing.
Marcus looked up from the window to see the commander on his knees and Jack looming behind him with the determination to finish what they had started.
“How long do we have before back up is sent,” Jack asked.
Marcus, unlike his friend, could see the tribulation on the commander’s face, the desire to stay alive, the need to honor his word and keep his mouth shut, and the wounded ego. “Go to hell,” he ultimately said, and Jack pulled the trigger. The commander’s body fell straight to floor, as firm and gracious as it ever was.
“They are still using the same tactics,” Jack said.
“Just like you told me,” Marcus replied. He looked at the rifle in his hands like it was alien technology.
“Yeah, you know that is the Company,” Jack said. “They always get the best toys before its launched onto the market.”
Marcus remembered a file he laid his eyes upon as he was scanning Thoros’ computer. “The patents?”
Jack nodded. “Murphy’s Law, my friend,” he said. “What can happen, will happen, and the Company always makes sure to move the future faster to their own benefit.” Jack looked down at the body. “The second team will be upon us soon enough. It will be more than five guys. And the little stunt we pulled off just now will not work with them.”
Marcus didn’t need more motivation than that. They were hoping they had at least three minutes before the second team shows up, by which point they will be off the lonely road to their house. “When we get to the intersection, we’ll be free and clear.”
They came to a sudden stop. “Where is the Toyota,” Jack asked. Marcus looked around for it but he couldn’t see it. Then he remembered. “Chang,” Marcus said, his temples aching.
“What?”
“He went for a beer run last night.”
“God damn it,” Jack said. “What now?”
“I guess we take the one we found here in the garage.”
Jack looked at him, worried and conflicted.
“There is no alternative,” Marcus said.
In the garage next to the house a Yugo 45 was parked. It was a small, ruined car that wasn’t good even its old days, but that’s how Socialist countries made everything—sturdy and cheap. It was a good getaway vehicle because it had zero technology with which they could be traced. “Let me just get it started real quick,” Marcus said. He popped the wiring open and went for it. The car stuttered, coughed, but it started. He let out a sigh of relief.
“How did they find us,” Jack wondered aloud when the car took them to the street. “And where are Chang and Didier,” he added. Marcus didn’t reply to that, staying focused on his rearview mirrors. “This is bad, brother,” Jack continued. “Someone had to have betrayed us. Otherwise, how would they know our location?”
Those questions, Marcus realized, were in the back of his mind since the shooting stopped. Chang and Didier were conspicuously missing, Evelyn was quiet, and they were facing new high-caliber rifles by the most capable men in the world.
“I don’t know, Brother,” Marcus said. “It makes little sense.” He was on high alert, watching everything around him, waiting for someone to come out and start shooting at him. It was only a matter of time before the second team arrives and gives them hell. He had hoped that by then they would be far away enough, at least at the intersection, to miss the second wave. As hard as he tried to stay focused, though, the problem remained—who betrayed them? Chang or Didier? Or Evelyn again?
“I don’t think it was Didier,” Jack voiced his thoughts. “We have too much history.”
“Yet he was the one that was kidnapped during the whole affair with Evelyn,” Marcus replied. “He returned to us without a trace of any violence. How is that even possible?”
Jack sighed. “I really don’t want him to be the one.”
“It is hard to accept the truth sometimes.”
“But why not Chang,” Jack tried before he got annoyed. “And why now? Why not before? Now we just have to find Daniel and put him on his knees. And that is it. We won.”
Marcus said nothing at first, a seed of doubt that was planted in his head the night before was no blossoming, giving not only plants but also fruits. “What if we were wrong,” he asked. “What if Daniel didn’t want a president? What if he was sucking up to him only to keep his enemy close?”
“No,” Jack said. “No way.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure.”
“No, man, come on. Even if that was true, we still took Jim out. He would’ve come at us before.”
Marcus wanted to continue the argument with Jack, but he had spotted something and pressed the break pedal all the way to the metal. The tires stopped after a delayed effect, and the car slid for ten yards before it came to stop. Marcus quipped his head back toward the leaves covered in last night’s snow.
“What are you doing,” Jack asked, but the car was already going in reverse. Marcus ran out, hopped over the weeds, and stopped. “Look,” he said, pointing to a sparse blood trail leading into the woods. Jack pulled out his gun and looked around, seeing only leaves and birds. He followed Marcus into the woods, watching out for any signs of the enemy. It was better to just keep on driving, in his mind, but they were in this together.
“God damn it,” Jack said. His eyes laid upon the white Toyota wrapped around a tree, the smoke from the engine swiveling softly into the air. When he got closer, he saw Chang’s white eyes, life sucked out of them.
“There is no more room to doubt, J.J.,” Marcus said. “Didier betrayed us. Her I saw coming from a mile away, but not Didier. We should’ve known earlier. We should’ve known,” he said resigned. How many more sacrifices he will have to make? How many more people will have to die before things make sense? Then his pain quickly turned into rage. He kicked the car door again and again and again. With every kick he bounced off a little to the side, eventually landing his foot on the glass of the back seat, shattering it into pieces, almost cutting himself.
“I will kill them all,” Marcus whispered. “I swear to God that all of them will die. Either by my hand or that of the people.” He wiped the spit from his lips. “Evelyn was right—I was weak. I was very weak. I doubted myself and everything else. And even when I killed Thoros, I didn’t feel strong. I just wanted to die. Now, though, it’s over. I am going rogue. And all of them will pay for what they have done. And the next tim
e I see Evelyn, she will die, too”
“Don’t forget Didier,” Jack said. He took a deep breath after that and sighed. There is no stronger pain or larger burden than to be betrayed by a person you considered to be your family. “All of them.”
Marcus stood up and looked at Chang’s glass eyes, seeing his ally dead. Jack, on the other hand, had lost a friend. He leaned in through the window and closed Chang’s eyes. “I am sorry this happened to you, brother,” he said. “I am sorry that I dragged you into this. Rest in peace now.”
Marcus had already begun his walk toward the car as Jack finished his speech. When he sat back in the Yugo, he needed to take a deep breath and calm his mind, focus it on what matters. As he buckled his seatbelt and turned the engine on, a black SUV passed them. Both of them looked back at the vehicle before the car pulled to a sudden stop in the middle of the road. They could feel that the men in the SUV were watching them. Jack cocked his rifle. Marcus cocked his pistol and moved into first gear. Then the SUV window rolled down, a rifle stuck out from it, and the windows on the car broke into a million pieces before they even heard the shots.
The two of them ducked while bullets riddled the car, while the glass crashed all around them. They realized they were in a check-mate position without a way out. The doors of the SUV opened as the fire seized and the men threaded toward the Yugo. Marcus heard them approaching and released the clutch, shifting into second gear and driving off. As the Yugo slowly sped up the fire resumed, sending a salvo of bullets toward them. Marcus couldn’t even look up. Instead, he used his memory of the road, knowing that it was straight for at least a hundred yards. He peeked over the dashboard and curved along with the road. The firing had become distant as the car kept going forward at full speed, shivering and raging as it did.
“We’ll never get away in this,” Jack said, looking back.
“I know,” Marcus said, his brain working on a solution.
He took a sudden turn onto a dirt road. He had no idea where the road led or if the car was going to break, but he kept on driving. To stop meant to die.
“The second team came much sooner than anticipated,” Jack said.
“And we chose this clunker for our getaway vehicle,” Marcus replied. “Stupid, stupid idea.”
Jack kept looking back over the seat for the people chasing them, hoping—praying!—they aren’t being followed. “Looks like we lost them,” he ultimately said, his voice revealing his continued fear and paranoia.
“Just in time,” Marcus said as he pulled the car over behind a barn. “Let’s go,” he said. They sat in a pick up truck that was parked in front of the house. The wires went down quickly and Marcus was able to start the car without any alarms or problems. Sooner or later, another wave will show up; the Company will not stop chasing them. How they had managed to stay in hiding for so long was escaping Marcus; it made no sense that they instantly knew their location. He said as much to Jack.
“I don’t know what to tell you,” Jack replied. “Chang’s death, Didier’s absence, and Evelyn’s silence all came at the same time. I don’t know if he betrayed us, or if she betrayed us, but this is just odd. I mean, if they knew the location this whole time, why didn’t they wipe us out sooner?”
As they pulled up onto the road, they heard the shouting of a man behind them, probably the man whose car they stole. They paid no attention to him.
“Exactly what I’m wondering,” Marcus cooly replied to Jack.
“Maybe I was wrong about Evelyn.”
Marcus nodded in agreement. “And then there is Didier.”
“What about him?”
“If he betrayed us, why now and not sooner? It’s the same question we are asking ourselves, over and over again. And it makes no sense.”
“Maybe Daniel was waiting to see how much we know and what we intend to do. I don’t know. I don’t get it.”
Marcus couldn’t agree more with Jack—nothing made sense. That Daniel was watching them was confusing to him because the moment they discovered their secret meeting in the woods was the moment they should’ve died. It was the only sensible way forward, especially for a man like Daniel. “Why risk exposure? Why not stop us sooner?”
Jack gave a huff in response. He was perplexed, paranoid, and afraid. Much like Marcus, he was trying to figure out the situation, but nothing sensible came to mind. “This is one of those situations where we have to survive and wait to see what happens,” he said. “We are in the middle of it, so we can’t see the big picture.”
“And where is the line between the big and the small picture? All of this, globally, personally, nationally, is senseless. Covid makes no sense, the Company makes no sense, and this situation makes no sense. What is the point? What is the meaning?” Marcus was furious. The questions in his head were growing larger in number, repeating themselves in circles without an answer, becoming louder with every revolution. The question why echoed around his head without respite.
Before he even realized it, New York City was coming up to meet them. It’s beautiful, tall buildings were spread around, structures with hundreds of years of history, streets soaked in blood, and the corruption embedded deep into the pores of that majestic city. Lady Liberty was once a sign of better days, of better and more peaceful times, a symbol of hope; now even she looked warped.
“You’re right,” Marcus suddenly said, breaking the long silence that had beset them a long time ago. “We have to step back and look at this objectively.”
He felt Jack looking at him.
“We can’t see anything clearly now,” he continued. “We cannot be the only fallout of this. We have to step back, see what the hell happened and is happening in this very moment, before we can move forward.”
“We need to see our man in London,” Jack said.
“Yes, we do.”
“First we need—“ Jack started but something caught his attention.
“What,” Marcus asked, his eyes pinned to the rearview mirror.
“Something is wrong,” Jack said. In that moment, from the forest, the SUV they had seen before sped onto the road, wavering as it did. It stabilized and moved closer and closer to them, its angry headlights spewing danger.
“Oh, shit,” Marcus said. “Here we go.”
From the backseat window, a man propped up from the window and aimed his rifle at the car. Jack was quick to react as the man was coming out; he shattered the window and started shooting at the man in the back. His bullets were bouncing off the windshield and completely missing the man himself.
Marcus feared the fact that they were in a pick up a truck; when a man drives a car, there is a lot that can change the trajectory of the bullet. In a pickup truck, he was naked. There wasn’t enough space to even hide. His speedometer was showing that they were doing hundred and ten miles per hour, and by the feel of the car he knew he couldn’t go faster—his strategy was a losing one.
“Shoot the ground,” he shouted, a replacement plan for his initial idea. “Let bullets bounce off through the bottom of the car.”
“There is no space,” Jack said as he kept shooting right before the SUV reared them, throwing Marcus’ driving off and forcing Jack to drop his rifle into the back. “We need to get off this road, man,” Jack said.
Marcus caught a glimpse of his friend on the passenger’s seat, rolling way down to hide his head from the sight of the men chasing them. He looked at the rearview mirror just in time to see it shatter. His eyes moved to the left-side mirror as he leaned against the corner of the car cabin as much as he could.
The SUV bumped them again. This time, Marcus barely held control over the vehicle. It is only a matter of time before he is pushed off the road and into oblivion.
“There,” he yelled out. His salvation appeared before him, a way out; he could see the man pop out of the window again, so Marcus swerved on the road a little, making sure to take away the man’s shot. Then he came up with another idea.
“Jack, brother,” he said
as the bullets came in steady series. “Hold on.” Jack pressed all of his limbs into the roof and the dashboard when he saw what Marcus was planning, then Marcus pulled the handbrake. The car moved around the road in a perfect circle as Marcus lowered the handbrake and shifted into reverse; as the front of the pickup faced the SUV, his pistol was already in the air. He aimed, anticipating the movement of the cars. Then pulled the trigger. The bullet glided through the air at warp speed, ultimately lodging into the shooters skull. He plopped out of the SUV right next to the pick up truck. Marcus ran out and grabbed the man’s rifle. The SUV pulled to a stop a few seconds later, just when Marcus was taking his position. The driver’s door opened and Marcus began shooting, making the man move to the left, toward Jack’s line of sight. “Now,” he yelled; Jack stood up from his cover and shot the man in the head.
They could hear one of the men assaulting them shout that their comrade was down. “Two more to go,” Jack said.
“Let’s just go at them,” Marcus said.
“Let’s do it, brother.”
Marcus crouched over to the dead body and took a grenade. He pulled the pin, released the handle, and counted one, then two, before he threw it under the SUV. The fiery cloud lifted the SUV into the air as the grenade exploded. Marcus and Jack aimed their rifles and went toward the SUV, each sticking to his side, making sure to surround the enemy. The two of them had once used the same strategy in Iraq when they were younger.
One of the men stumbled away from the car, holding his head, giving Jack the shot he needed. He looked over to Marcus and nodded, speeding up his advancement as he did. When Marcus circled around the burning SUV his entire life flashed before his eyes. The last man was laying on the ground, his pistol aimed straight at Marcus’ head. Before Marcus could react, the man’s pistol went off, but the bullet completely missed Marcus. It was only the reflex of his finger, a last dying twitch created by a bullet that went through his head. Marcus looked up at Jack with a frightened but grateful look.
“Take his ammo and grenades. We have to move,” Jack said. Marcus snapped back to reality and swiftly collected the supplies the two of them needed.
All the Company Men: Marcus Grimshaw #2 (The Secret State) Page 17
