Frankie followed my gaze and shook his head. When he looked back to me he sighed.
“Kid, I get it,” he said with an uneasy smile. “I do, but right now we’re in this together. We’re going in for the same goal, same cause. I’ve been watching over Jia since she was a little girl. It gets to me too that this has happened. It’s why I’m here. We just have to work together.”
“Yeah. I’m grateful you’re here Frankie. We wouldn’t have made it this far. I’d be dead and I wouldn’t get the chance to help in some way. Whatever that way is.” I’d fully accepted that I was by no means out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. I wouldn’t be either until this was truly over and Balthazar dead, dead, dead.
I’d always be looking for him. Always seeking vengeance. Until I got it.
“This Balthazar guys seems to be of the worst variety. Shoot on sight?” he asked.
I nodded. “Shoot on fucking sight pal. No questions to ask.” There was nothing. Nothing I needed to know. I got the answers I’d wanted from the past and found out the link was Ethan. The traitor was him. He was the link that connected everything. What else did I need to know?
“Then I’ll aim for his head when I see him.”
That was exactly the plan I had too.
You couldn’t negotiate with people like Balthazar. You just had to take them down.
I’d aim for his head and blow it off his miserable body.
We got to the clearing a little earlier than planned.
Earlier was better.
We got set up outside some caves on the other side of where we wanted to be. The landscape around was a mixture of mountain range, desert and groves of trees here and there. In the bright daylight the place would look similar to being around certain parts of the Grand Canyon minus the green.
We were aiming for the route Dorian suggested which was through the meeting rooms and office section of the facility.
Although we were going in as one, I’d split the guys going inside into two further teams for the purposes of getting direction from Wes and Dorian.
Jack was in charge of the marine guys and they would get direction from Dorian. I was in charge of Giovanni and Frankie. I got Wes. I needed Wes for more reasons than just direction.
My best friend sometimes had a way of helping me to focus, just from hearing his voice.
Once we’d gathered the things we needed we were ready. We then gathered together in a circle by the trucks and I stood at the head to give the last piece of guidance.
“Guys this is a very dangerous mission,” I began. “The people we’re going to see are known terrorists and they won’t care about protecting themselves. Their goal if they see us will be to stop us and that means sacrificing themselves to do that. The Spades in the Ra are the elite. They are skilled. Very skilled. If you get in the vicinity of any of them shoot to kill.”
I thought that was the best advice I could give anyone. The shoot to kill missions were always the most difficult because often times you weren’t given the full run down of the crimes that made it so. You just had to shoot to kill and it felt more assassin like. I didn’t really like those sorts, but there was always a very good reason behind them.
Everyone nodded and looked ready.
I noticed how quiet Giovanni was. It was unnerving. I wasn’t used to it.
That fucking asshole was always blowing up about something, or shooting his mouth of about shit.
I took the lead and led everyone down the path. It was dark. Pitch black at one a.m. Perfect though for what we needed. I hoped we could be out of here by sunrise.
There was a cave that led to the tunnels. Dorian told us we could get to the entrance that way so we went through there. Next was the one mile walk to the entrance to the facility.
It reminded me a lot of the secret chamber Giovanni had.
Had that same shit smell too that made me want to heave. The facility was supposed to be hidden but I was certain anyone who happened upon the place would know from the smell that people were here somewhere.
We got to the entrance and the guys took out their tools to get in. The best part of the virus I set up for the place was that we could hack the rest of the system.
I got Dorian to replay the last couple of hours of footage so nobody would be any wiser on our entry. Nobody would know we were here.
Not one iota.
We got inside a section that looked like a large storage room.
“Here’s where you guys gotta be careful,” Wes spoke into my ear piece. His voice was as clear as if he was right next to me. “There’s a few patrol guards walking the floors just outside. Everything else is quiet.”
“Is there a path we can take that will evade him?” I asked.
“When you go outside head up the corridor then take a sharp right. Go down the stairs and follow the path on the map.”
That sounded like a good plan. Wes had made us maps that would definitely come in handy. He’d done a straightforward route to Jia and another with details of the whole place.
“Thanks Wes.” I looked to Jack and the others. “Just follow me guys. There’s a guard outside so let’s get in stealth mode.”
When they nodded I turned to continue to where Wes directed. We got out seamlessly and I almost felt hopeful that this would work. We’d gotten into this facility. This secret facility we’d christened Ra headquarters.
That had to be a plus for us. Something to hang on to.
We got down the path where Wes directed and the next thing to do was go up. we had to go up and the best way up was by using the stairs. The problem with the stairs though was the chance that other people could be using it too.
I led the guys out to the stairwell. It was one hell of a size for back stairs. There was an elevator shaft next to it. We needed to get to the tenth floor.
We proceeded up as quickly as we could go but something caught my attention just as we got to the fifth floor. It was a little light that flickered.
“Stop.” I held my hand up and the guys all stopped.
The light came back and grew bigger as it flickered over us. Then it split into two as it bounced over us, then five.
Fuck!
I realized in an instant that it must have been some type of motion detector that had been manually set up in the security system. Something that didn’t go down when I scrambled the security.
Shit!
The lights all jumped together and started swirling into a vicious circle. There was a snapping sound by the doors like they were sealing shut. Right from the bottom where we’d come and up.
“Guys move. Run! Get to the next floor and get out.” I called out, but fuck, the light turned into some laser beam and cut right through two of the marines with Jack. Without warning their bodies cut in half before us and fell to the ground. They were dead before they even realized they were.
When we saw that I didn’t need to give any further command. We all ran and tried to avoid the lasers that were growing bigger and gaining on us.
We got to the next floor but the doors wouldn’t open.
This looked like the atrium and there were three separate door entrances.
Jack rushed across to the door nearest him and opened it. We followed but by the time we got there the laser lights were there. The only escape for me and Giovanni was to rush to the other door.
We only fucking got through by the skin of our teeth.