Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Somewhere over Norway
The entire aircraft shuddered under him. Ramon grabbed the seat handles, while the rest of the guys held their drinks up so they wouldn’t spill and continued their conversation like nothing had happened.
Bear, sitting opposite him, eyed Ramon. “Not a comfortable flier?”
“I’m fine.” Ramon managed to bite out the words. Pretty sure he could keep from puking if he had to.
Bear said, “You square on what we’re doing?”
Ramon understood well enough, he was just surprised no one cared he was coming with them.
Or they didn’t care that he was going to report back to Kenna what they were doing at some point.
Probably once they’d actually achieved more than kidnapping a janitor.
“I don’t get how we went from a guy with no fingerprints to a town in Norway that’s supposed to have the Dominatus accountant in it. The rest of it, I have it straight.”
He needed Bear to explain it all over again, but only so that Ramon could listen and focus on not freaking out.
The plane shook again with the turbulence that came from traveling over mountain peaks, through changes in air temperature and pressure.
“The janitor has no name,” Bear said. “Not even Hazel could find out who he is. With burned off fingerprints and no way to access any dental records, given those are private, we took blood samples and did some genetic testing.”
“And it came back positive for Norway?”
Bear smiled slightly. “Kind of.” He shrugged one shoulder.
“The World Health Organization has been doing a study on herd immunity in Norway and discovered a group of people with a unique genetic code that protects them from getting things like chicken pox and measles. They all live in the town of Vinterdal, up in the mountains. The terrain is sufficient that it necessitates parachuting in.”
“Great.”
Bear seemed to find that amusing.
“But it’s only interesting in the sense that Dominatus has likely been testing and doing research on these people for generations, and this is the result. But it doesn’t mean this is where their accountant lives.”
Bear nodded. “You’re right that they are likely guinea pigs in a larger experiment. But the results drew some notice, and their genetic code ended up as a matter of public record. So, when we ran the janitor’s DNA, we got a hit with the people in this town.”
“It’s a reach from there to the accountant.”
“Not if they’re brothers.”
Ramon frowned. “You know that?”
“It’s close enough with Vinterdal; they don’t intermarry much with outsiders, so their genetics are much purer than the average person in the US—at least that’s what they claim.
The information you downloaded from that computer network in the office building yielded some encrypted communications between someone we believe is a Grand Master with Dominatus and the accountant. ”
Bear lifted the mug from the tiny airplane table beside his chair and took a sip.
“The communication originated in this town. The IP address leads us to a guy called Lief Holmberg. Fifty-four years old. Excellent health. Several degrees in advanced math and accounting. He fought in the Norwegian army for a decade right out of school. This is a guy who can take care of himself, and he’s incredibly smart. ”
“So we parachute in at night and hope we catch him off guard.”
Bear tipped his head to the side. “Pretty much.”
“He’s who you’ve been looking for, this Lief Holmberg guy?” Ramon wanted to believe one man could make or break the fight against Dominatus, but given who those people were, it was highly unlikely this would succeed.
“He’s their weakest link.”
“Doesn’t seem weak to me.”
Bear said, “That’s the point. If this guy is the weakest link in Dominatus, then we’ve got our work cut out for us.
He won’t go down without a fight. But it’s the only thing that connects the entire organization.
It’s like a spider web, but each time we find a thread, it seems like it isn’t connected to anything.
Holmberg is the one weaving the threads together.
” Bear pushed out of the chair. “We’re thirty minutes out. Everyone, gear up.”
They’d given Ramon a pair of black cargo pants and a fitted black shirt, under which he had base layers to keep the warmth close to his body.
Each team member donned a protective vest and strapped on weapons and extra ammo.
He was carrying his pistol and nothing else except a knife Hollace handed over.
Ramon pulled on a beanie and gloves. Hollace handed him wraparound safety glasses, and Ramon made a face.
“For the jump.”
Right. “Thanks.”
“Been a while.”
“Since I went on an op?”
Hollace shook his head. “Since you parachuted.”
Ramon said, “I’ve never parachuted.”
“Bear!”
Ramon kept himself from flinching.
Hollace yelled over his shoulder, “Our man needs a tandem jump! It’s his first time.”
“Explain it,” Ramon argued. “Give me the instructions, and I’ll be fine.”
Hollace looked at him like he’d grown a second head. “We train for stuff like this for years. You don’t learn it in three minutes.”
“Good thing we have ten.”
“We don’t.” Bear eased between his guys. “The headwind picked up, and we caught a current.”
“So talk fast.”
Bear stopped in front of him. “This is a terrible idea.”
“At least I’m not on your insurance plan.”
“That just means you’re a liability.” Bear shook his head. “I’m gonna regret this.”
“Just think.” One of the other guys clapped Bear on the shoulder. “If he bites it, he can’t report back to Kenna what we’re doing.”
Bear winced.
Ramon wasn’t going to deny it. “I haven’t contacted her yet, and I’m not going to.”
Of course, he would eventually. He didn’t work for them. His loyalty had Kenna as a filter. At least, until he trusted himself to see the truth in people.
He’d been wrong before—so wrong. But he didn’t want to be wrong about these guys.
So he lied. “She and I have parted ways. I don’t work for her anymore. Otherwise, I’d be wherever she is, pitching in with the case she’s working.”
Their boss had been revealed to be the one turncoat working for their enemy, so he figured he was good with the rest. They were most likely trustworthy.
But he was still going to watch his own back.
Ramon reached over and grabbed the parachute from Hollace’s hands. “Now explain this.”
Ten minutes later, he was sailing through the air because Hollace, laughing, pushed Ramon out of the plane.
Ice-cold wind whipped at his face and clothing. He tried to remember what Bear had said, but it really amounted to “Pull the cord.”
That, and “It’s not the fall that will kill you. It’s the sudden stop.”
Ramon counted in his head and, as they’d instructed, waited until the right moment to pull the chute free.
His entire body jerked back up in the air, the parachute caught the wind, and he descended much slower.
He held the toggles and looked around at the others, dropping silently in the night sky. “I hate all of you guys.”
Of course, there was no way they would hear him. That wasn’t the point.
He steered the chute in a straight line, and when he neared the ground, he pulled both toggles down to flare the parachute. The action pulled the back of the chute down and allowed him to touch down.
Going too far too fast.
His knees came up quick, and he fell awkwardly to the side, mostly on purpose. All around him, the guys landed on both feet like freaking gymnasts.
Hollace bundled his chute up and stuffed it back in the pack so they wouldn’t leave anything behind to let anyone know they had been here. He came over while Ramon was rolling his and helped him repack it. “Not bad for a first time.”
Ramon matched the guy’s volume when he replied, “I’m never doing that again.”
Hollace’s teeth flashed in the dark. Not quite a laugh, but Ramon got the idea. The other man slapped him on the arm with the back of his hand. “Come on.”
Ramon jogged after them, and the group moved as a unit through the shadows off this ridge, which turned out to be a rolling green hill. Not that he could see the color in the gray night, but they were running on grass that muted their footsteps.
Bear wound up beside Ramon, probably so he could keep an eye on him. Or make sure Ramon didn’t shoot any of these guys in the back.
The lead operator reached a barn that had been constructed with what looked like cobblestones. A huge wooden wheel leaned against the doors.
They all crept around the back, hopped a four-foot brick wall, and traversed two fields—one with sheep and the other with cows in it.
Ramon tried not to think about what he was stepping in and kept up the punishing pace these guys set.
He’d never been in the military. There wasn’t much call for exercise while working for a Mexican cartel, at least not the traditional strength training and cardio most people did.
He should probably start working out on a regular basis.
Ramon glanced at an oak tree they passed, craning his neck.
Bear grabbed his shoulder and dragged him into a crouch. He whistled at the same time. Everyone in the party crouched immediately, with nearly no sound.
Ramon whispered, “What is it?”
Bear flicked on a tiny light and shone it above them, in the tree. Hanging down from the branches under the canopy were strings of something that glinted in the light. It looked like decorations of some kind, crystals or glass.
Ramon stood slowly and reached for one. At the same time, the crystal burned and felt cold to the touch. He let go too quickly, the pads of his fingers sliding across the tacky surface. He hissed and dropped back into his crouch.
Bear shone his light on Ramon’s fingers, now wet with blood and too many cuts.
Pain echoed through Ramon’s mind more than his fingers, which seemed almost numb.
Or as if the nerve endings couldn’t tell what had happened.
His hand looked like he’d tried to catch a bunch of razor blades thrown at him.
He hissed through clenched teeth, and his head swam.
Bear slapped a bandage on his hand and wrapped the ends around his fingers, tying it off. “You good to go, or you wanna head back?”
“I’m good.”
“Okay.” He didn’t sound convinced.
Ramon stood slowly, making sure he didn’t accidentally touch the tree decorations again. It was crazy dangerous having something like that hanging from a tree. Whatever kind of people did that, they had no concern for animals or local kids who might get interested and wind up bleeding.
He shook his head as they walked, wondering if it was some odd kind of booby trap. Or a warning to strangers.
The hillside descended sharply, and they continued going down, exposed to the open between trees and the odd building. They passed a broken-down outbuilding, and as they neared a larger structure, he realized it was a farm with shattered windows and no one home.
Another half mile past that, they came to a squat building in the middle of nowhere.
“This is it,” Bear said. “The IP address came from here.” He peered at the screen of his phone, the brightness turned as low as it would go.
“It’s a shed.” Probably an abandoned one, at that.
“Let’s knock and see who’s home.” One of the guys approached the door.
Ramon looked around but didn’t see anyone moving in the dark. He highly doubted there was someone sitting in that shed. His hand stung, and this whole situation seemed odd.
Was this where they would find the Dominatus accountant?
The operative approached the shed, reaching for the handle. A step before he could grab it, he let out a little yelp.
In front of their disbelieving eyes, he fell beneath the ground.