Rachel heard Nick’s single click in her headset, which meant she needed to be in position. It was a hundred meter shot Nick had told her he hoped to God she wouldn’t have to take.
Nick repeated the single click, meaning he was at the door.
“Hold.” Rachel sighted in on the shielded sniper nest covered with bedclothes. “One man at the gun. Other out of sight…he’s approaching the gun…back turned to you…”
Rachel jerked in spite of knowing what would happen next, glad she had remembered to keep the pad of her finger off the trigger until ready to shoot. Two crackling charges felled both sniper team members. Nick stayed low to the floor, jolting the men until they were unconscious.
He closed the door and hurried to the fallen men. He disarmed each of them, while keeping the silenced muzzle of his own weapon covering them.
“Everything’s okay, Rach. Neither of these boot camps is armed. This is an insult. How dare Frank send ‘Beavis and Butthead’ after me?”
Rachel laughed.
“I’m going to be a few minutes longer than I’d hoped. Without any silencers, I’ll have to rig this up the old- fashioned way. Pack up. I’m going to hit the good Senator tonight.”
“What?” Rachel yelped incredulously, cringing as Nick put a knife into the fist of one downed man and forced it into the chest of the other. “We’re…we’re not in position for the shot.”
“The most righteous Senator Ambrose is in bed with his mistress,” he explained, while positioning the stabbed man over his comrade and using his hands to crush the man’s skull under him with a stone flower vase. “That’ll teach you to stab me, you varmint.”
Rachel laughed again, unable to look away from the horrendous killing of two unconscious men, ending in a cartoon dialogue joke. She glanced again at her daughter guiltily.
Nick waited for twenty seconds more, making sure the two men were dead. He took a black plastic bag out of his pocket, and loaded in his two Taser guns, H &K.45, jacket, and gloves. Taking out a fresh pair of Nitrile gloves and donning them, he left the room, making sure the door locked. With the ball cap down low over his face, he made his way out of the building by his planned route.
“I’m going to the Cad. I’ll drop off this stuff and pick up my next outfit for the visit to Senator Ambrose.”
“Why do you have to kill the Senator?”
“Because Frank was right about one thing: Ambrose is trying to kill us.”
The tone of his answer prompted Rachel to dispense with the questioning.
“We’ll be packed and ready to leave when you get back.”
Nick parked the Escalade around the block from the apartment building where Senator Ambrose’s suite was located. Putting on a dark blue windbreaker and ball cap, Nick carried a small shoulder bag with him to the alleyway entrance. He used the access code stolen during his first days in Denver, and made his way up the stairwell through the predawn silence. Outside Senator Ambrose’s door, he listened intently for a few moments, before using his access card to get in. After shutting the door silently, Nick took off his shoes. Seconds later, he stood at the entrance to the Senator’s bedroom, where the outlines of two bodies breathed in varying degrees of sleep.
Nick crept over to the woman’s bedside. He placed the chloroformed white pad next to her nose. When her breathing changed, he removed the pad and moved to the Senator’s side. He gently pulled the cover back from the Senator, who was lying on his back, snoring slightly. Nick position himself above the Senator and jammed his knee into Ambrose’s Solar Plexus, driving the breath from him. Ambrose’s eyes popped open as he gasped and flailed. Nick put a gloved hand over his mouth, easing the knee back until Ambrose could breathe.
“Hi, Senator. Stay quiet. Keep your arms at your sides and legs still, or I’ll crush your chest. Nod if you understand.”
Ambrose nodded. Nick removed his hand.
“I’m Nick. I have some questions for -”
“Nick…McCarty?” Ambrose managed to interrupt with a wheeze.
“One and the same,” Nick confirmed. “How many other people besides you and Frank know about me?”
“You…you murdered the only others who knew about you.”
“If you’re the lone boss man, why does Frank always make it sound like there’s a board of directors?”
“No one has all the pieces. I formed the group after -”
“Khobar Towers. I know. Do you deal all this shit out on a whim, or do you actually run it by a committee?”
“We’ve split off from everyone…but everyone reports to me in some way through Frank. How did you find… Frank…? Frank gave me up?”
“Yep. I believe old Frank is tired of taking orders from you and shit from me. He rigged it up so I’d kill you and another team would kill me. It didn’t work out. Was Tanus a real national security threat?”
“We have to take some bad with the good. Come on McCarty, you…you can’t be that naive,” Ambrose blustered, starting to move around. “To get intel, we need bad men to get it for us, and bad men like you to end the lives of ones who cross the line. Now get the hell off me.”
“I like that,” Nick smiled, sealing the Senator’s mouth once more, as his knee dug in again. “Bad men to end the lives of the ones who cross the line. Works for me, Tony. Adios.”
“Sorry we had to leave so quickly, Danger,” Nick told Jean, sliding in behind the steering wheel and looking back at the little girl with her ever present lap dog.
“It’s okay, Nick.” Jean shrugged. “I’m getting to like this traveling. We get to stay in different cool places. Too bad it’s so hard to find places that’ll take Deke.”
“It usually just takes a little extra money.” He started the Escalade.
“Are we going to Washington D.C.?”
“Why would we go there?”
“To meet up with your friend, Frank.”
Nick feigned surprise. “I’m shocked at you, Rachel. I think you’re getting a little bloodthirsty, my dear. We can’t just flit around the country, hunting poor dupes of the government/media complex down on a whim. You are a monster. Shame on you.”
Halfway through his performance, Jean was giggling, and Rachel’s mouth had dropped open in actual shock. Her eyes narrowed suddenly. She punched Nick’s arm.
