“I know. I do know that. I know it feels like a trap Xander, but that’s the risk I’m willing to take. I can’t just follow protocol and leave him to die. I can’t do it and I don’t think you or anyone else can either. That’s why we’re going… If it wasn’t a trap I would never be able to forgive myself.”
I nodded and agreed.
“Okay, Captain… Let’s go.”
A little smile pulled at the corner of her delicate mouth and she stood on the tips of her toes to kiss me.
I kissed her back, showing her how much I loved her.
When we pulled apart I knew it was time to move.
Time to go.
Night gave us the perfect cover.
I hated the terrain here, it was the sort that was difficult for anything.
And we were heading up to the mountains in a truck that the driver used to transport chickens.
It smelled like shit. Literally like we were sitting in a pile of shit.
“Guys, what if we see Balthazar?” John asked.
Lucas gave him a sarcastic laugh. “Are you kidding me man? You think we’ll see him? I doubt we’ll even see Paul.”
“Lucas,” Claire chided.
“We’re all thinking it, Claire. We’re all thinking that this is a fucking trap to piss on us. We’re the guys who’ve been so close to catching Balthazar. We’re what they call obstacles, for the fact that the idea of catching him drives us. It stopped being a job from Kazakhstan when that bastard murdered all those people, all the children. It’s not a job anymore. People like us are dangerous to him.”
The man spoke truth, it didn’t feel like a job anymore to me. It never did. I’d always seen the threat Balthazar posed and his unhealthy obsession with women rubbed me the wrong way too. We’d seen the rough stuff. We’d seen the stuff nightmares were made of and seen him at his finest, but there were other things too.
The links to the sex trade. The links to him mutilating the women he held captive. The things I’d heard he did were enough for me to kill him on sight. No questions asked.
Bullet to the head to take him out. That was my take.
“You kill him on sight.” I spoke up in answer to John’s question. “If this is real and Paul truly got to us to get us to come in and help him, and we see Balthazar. You kill him on sight. You will not need to question him.”
Lucas nodded, as did Claire.
I was glad she agreed with me. I supposed the unit would have loved to hand him over to the Ministry of Defense or our CIA liaison, so we’d look good for bringing such a guy down, but our orders from Ethan were to kill the motherfucker if we got the chance and take him out.
That was what I would be gunning for, with my rifle on the rooftop of the facility.
Twenty minutes later we pulled up near a river bank.
It was on foot from here.
We knew Paul was in one of the storage rooms on the second floor of the facility. He’d said to look for the room near the computers.
We jumped out of the truck and in true stealth mode got across the river and split up.
Claire looked to me, telling me with her eyes to be careful. I nodded and she knew damn well that she should be careful too.
While they went around the side to get in through one of the windows, I went for the roof. The facility covered a vast expanse of roughly a hundred feet across and was more of a factory than a warehouse, with the floor structure and machinery. They made car parts here. Or, rather it was a front to make it look like that’s what they did.
I got to the tower on the roof. It was a little hollow where it looked like they stored tools. Like we knew it would, it gave me a good view and position to provide cover to the team. Most of the roof here was glass. Then a brick area near the stair well that would take me down inside.
I readied myself zooming in closer through the scope attached to the rifle, positioning to open fire the minute I caught sight of trouble. It would help if I could take down anybody who looked like they might give that trouble.
There were several floors down and people milling about on the inside. None of them looked like they belonged to The Ra though. These guys were all Oriental and looked like run of the mill workers. I guess though that it didn’t matter. People worked and often didn’t know who they were working for.
Claire and the guys were supposed to enter on to the second floor and the room Paul was being held captive was at the end of the corridor. If this went to plan they should be able to get him out. But… when did things ever go to plan?
Shit!
Some men with guns just came into view. They were on the third floor.
I could also see Claire and the others creeping out on to the second.
“Babe, there are some guys looking to party on the third floor, hang back for a minute,” I told her, speaking into the communicator attached to my headset. I wasn’t the kind to panic, but I couldn’t keep the tremor out of my voice. It was getting to me that I wasn’t down there with her.
“Thanks,” she replied.
I watched her hang back for the minute and the men passed. Thankfully they went down the corridor.
“All clear, baby,” I told her and she moved forward with John and Lucas, heading to the room Paul was in.
Anxiety ate away at my insides as I watched them go into the room and the large metal door closed behind Lucas. I couldn’t see them anymore. I just had to wait.
How I hated waiting. Fucking waiting, and patience were not virtues of mine.
The anxiety continued to gnaw away at me with every second that passed and, fuck, the crackle of static in my earpiece actually made me jump.
“Xander Paul’s dead,” came Claire’s hurried voice in my ear. “Oh God. Looks like he’s been dead for a while. It wasn’t him we spoke to this morning Xander! It someone else. Oh God, he’s dead.”
Fuck!
Fuuuck!
Here we go. This was a fucking trap. “Get out of there, Claire. Get the fuck out. Claire get out.”
Bullets firing sounded in my ear.
“Xander I –” her voice snapped away.
Shit!
Fuck!
I was already moving before my brain could process the thought that I had to do something.
I ran across the roof and growled when I saw more men with guns running below on the same floor Claire was on.
This was one hell of a trap.
Fucking hell why hadn’t I been more forceful. I should have been more forceful in insisting we check this out before coming here.
And Claire…
Please be alive.
Please be alive…
I looked down through the glass. I’d just neared a section below with flooring
on the fourth floor. Shooting through the glass on the roof with one of my handguns I jumped down, tucking and rolling right into the path of another group of men who’d emerged as I landed. It was a good surprise attack accompanied by my double barreled shotgun.
A few shots took them down but more men came. I dashed and ran to the steps leading down to the floors below. Adrenaline took over when I got to the second floor and burst into the room Claire and the guys had gone in.
My gaze landed on her straight away, then John and Lucas. They were fighting off some goons who looked more in line with the Spade guys we’d seen. They wore the mark. The Spades didn’t just have the Ankh tat on their wrists, they had a spade tattooed on their cheek. Looked like a teardrop, but a closer look would confirm it.