was hidden and watching. He placed the impact grenade into the launcher and moved to a place where he could get the best possible shot. His hand went to the button on his phone, as he softly clicked the button once and then again. He steadied his aim and suddenly the quiet hillside reverberated with the explosion in the house.
Micah heard a woman’s scream as he vaulted through the window, he drew his fully automatic Glock-18’s. He had the special 33 round clips loaded into each gun, but he knew if he wasn’t careful he could unload the rounds in a blink of an eye and then would have to pause long enough to draw his two additional Glocks. But that wasn’t Micah’s style, fully automatic or not, his reactions were so precise that he would control the release of bullets by fractions of seconds. Even under tremendous pressure, he was deadly.
His first priority was the guards. Two were already down from the flying debris from the explosion and collapse and eight more fell to his guns in under two seconds. David was coming in from the other side of the room, taking out the deputy chief and another official. Martinez’s hands rose defensively as Micah approached, but they offered no protection as the last of the rounds emptied into him and the remaining man. It had been less than eight seconds and dead men littered the floor.
Micah moved to the bedroom, a fresh Glock in his hand as he looked at the woman trying to cover her children with her body in a corner of the room. He felt the touch of David’s hand as he raised his gun.
“We don’t have to get this bloody, bro-no women and children today.”
He could feel the emptiness draining and a little humanness returning; he didn’t want to kill them, but it was an automatic response inside him-responses were something he was going to have to learn to keep under better control. He nodded to David and the gun was re-holstered. He moved to where Martinez’s body was laying, grabbing the dead diplomat by the collar and dragging the body out the front door and down the hillside. He was so overloaded on adrenaline and testosterone that it didn’t take him long to get to the Land Cruiser. David was already in the driver’s seat as Micah threw the body into the back of the vehicle.
An hour later the body of Joaquin Martinez, the most successful Columbian diplomat to ever stem the flow of drugs from the rich fields of this South American country, was found lying in an alleyway in Bogota. A fresh shipment of cocaine was already in route to an awaiting frigate headed for the port of New Orleans.
There was an uneasy feeling that had been filling Micah since this mission had begun and it was becoming increasingly stronger. D’Angelo was up to something bigger than opening the vein of a new source of income. Micah and David had become the instrument by which D’Angelo would start a move for the top, Micah was sure of it. But someone else, whoever it was helping him reach his leadership goals, gave the information about their mission to Martinez. Someone wanted the brothers to make their last stand in Bogota.
It almost worked. He could still feel the pricking of his skin when Martinez exposed his suspicions. His training taught him if all was lost, make your target and accept your fate. It had been fated for him to draw his guns in that room and kill Martinez, but he overcame the urge and outwitted the death sentence. He had other plans to attend to when he returned to the States, but he would find out the answers he needed to this riddle one way or another.
Chapter Seventeen
We made it through the taping of the men’s show without Carrie giving me any trouble. I think she was still considering that I met her challenge in a most ‘un-princess’ like manner on our last go-round. I knew I’d face more problems with her, but the next time she’d calculate her attack a little more carefully.
Sadarius, as I hoped, turned out to be one of the best male singers in the group, and I knew he’d go far in this competition. A couple of the others were good, but he made them look amateurish.
As soon as the taping ended, I found Ryan and got out of there before Carrie could catch up to us. I really didn’t feel like a fight tonight, and besides, I wanted to get back to Colorado, back home to our place, a place I’d come to crave as a shelter from the rest of the world. Ryan appeared equally anxious.
Saturday morning I called my realtor, Jan Blakemoore only to discover someone put in an offer to buy the house I planned on leasing.
“It’s not a full priced offer,” she stated matter-of-factly, “I know you’d been trying to decide between buying or leasing, so if you are really interested in the house we could put in an offer to purchase it.”
I wasn’t concerned about the price, but more so the commitment I wasn’t quite ready to make. “Is there anything else in that general area for lease? I don’t think I’m ready to own just yet.”
“I’ll do a little research and call you back later.”
Within thirty minutes my phone was ringing with an excited realtor on the other end. “I found something even better, same neighborhood, but just came on the market this morning-and this one is fully furnished and has a pool.”
Ah, magic words to my ears. This time Ryan knew what was going on, so I invited him to come along. He was still against the idea of my moving out, but I could tell he liked the house.
“I’ll be over here all the time in your pool anyway,” he playfully threatened. “I don’t see why you’re even moving.”
I shot him an annoyed glance. We’d been through this already.
“I love it,” I told Jan. “How soon can we take care of the paperwork?”
“The owners will be completely out by next Tuesday, so you’re looking at Wednesday or Thursday at the earliest.”
“That works for me. I don’t have to be in L.A. for another ten days, so I’ll have time to get settled in before I’m out of here.”
Tuesday, I packed my stuff and was ready to make the move when I got a panicked call from Don.
“We caught up to Bryan Adams. He’s in Vancouver and will be flying back to London Thursday night. We’ve got a plane coming to get you. I need you in Canada by tomorrow morning.”
I sighed; moving would have to wait a little bit longer. I could tell Ryan’s feelings were a little bruised that he wasn’t coming with me to Canada, but I had to start applying the brakes between us. I told him I thought I’d be back sometime Friday evening.
It was a good thing I had gotten a chance to get to know Pete and Jason a little better on the return flight from Tennessee because now at least I didn’t feel totally alone. Vancouver was absolutely breath-taking. Once again, I was terrified to meet a legend in the music industry, but, although much quieter and subdued than I thought he’d be, Bryan Adams turned out to be a very inspiring artist.
The song was more difficult than I imagined, but mostly because I wanted to throw all my emotion so hard into it that I was overstressing it. He explained I needed less raw emotion and more control. He said I needed to open my heart without spilling the contents on to the stage.
It took practice to find that balance of control and emotion, but eventually he began to smile as I sang, and I knew I had finally attained what he had been explaining. We sang it as a duet, to each other, just to see if I could hold that control with his accompaniment. That proved to be a real lesson in digging down into the soul. It was as much a lesson on focused emotion as it was in singing, and I was awestruck by the power of the knowledge.
I got to spend a little more time with him just discussing music, the little bit about the show that I was allowed to tell, and what kinds of song choices I was thinking about for future shows, if I made it that far.
He assured me, if I could stay open to suggestions and be willing to stretch myself, I would end up in the finals.
It was five p.m. and I had the choice of staying for the night in Canada or flying home early. I decided to get a night’s rest and head back to Colorado in the morning. Pete and Jason followed me around Vancouver for a little while filming me as I did a little shopping (drawing a crowd as they did), when I finally convinced them to turn it off and have dinner with me.
When morning came, I was ready to head home, but the plane wasn’t. They had run into a problem with the hydraulics and I was told it would either be charter another plane or give them a day to make the necessary repairs.
“I’ve got a great idea,” Pete had a big smile spread across his bearded face, “Whistler’s.”
“Yeah, now that would be cool to film, just like we did for the Bachelorette,” Jason agreed.
I had no clue what they were talking about, but by the smiles on their faces I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know.
