Search and…
Shots fired
“It’s gotta be my dad!” Athena gasped. “He always says, ‘My bad’!”
Theo let a little smile through and nodded. “Nea, Xander is following protocol. Simo would not say this, and ‘Finn’ is Halo’s old emergency word.”
Halo was nodding, relieved, as she sent her text. She read his reply and shook her head sadly. “I—I think he is going to go after Joel.”
“Ari does not even know where Joel is… protocol is to come to Ari’s or Aurae,” Theo replied.
He looked up in thought, then tapped his earpiece.
“VIP may be following protocol. Have resources waiting at destinations.” He received a series of beeps.
“We sit and wait until they get us out. Nea?” He reached out and held JJ’s hand as everyone replied by nodding.
Johnna handed him his key fob. “I won’t enter the payment details until tomorrow. Please be careful.”
“Thank you for all your help, you are a life saver.” He accepted the key fob and began heading out the door when suddenly he stopped and stared down at the cellphone in his hand. He spun back around to Johnna.
“Sir?”
He rushed up to her. “Do you have a computer with internet access?”
“I—I have my laptop?”
“I am sorry to ask, may I use it? I need to see if I can locate my iPhone.”
“Oh, sure!” She smiled, happy to help. She ran back to the breakroom and brought back her laptop.
Xander opened the browser and prayed his hunch was right. He ran the ‘find my phone’ application, and suddenly his phone was showing up on a map of California. He nearly laughed out loud. Apparently, his would-be attackers stupidly took his phone with them.
He eyed Johnna, grabbed a pen and the notepad off the counter, and began to write: My phone is north of Gray Butte Airfield. The house is directly north of the runway on El Mirage Road, about a mile. Looks like three buildings. It’s showing in the easternmost building. This is west of Adelanto.
Xander folded the paper, wrote down Ari’s address, then peered hopefully into Johnna’s pretty brown eyes. “I need another favor. You will be paid five thousand dollars if you can deliver this right now, and I mean immediately.”
“Oh! Well… I suppose I will take a lunch break! Where do I deliver it?”
“Ari Ascher, off of Mulholland. You tell him or Andrew it’s from me, to hurry and to pay you. I am going to see if my helicopter ride is still here to take me out there.”
“Oh… ok”
Xander sprinted out and found the helicopter had just finished being refueled. He found Meletis and began telling him the story, telling him to name his price.
Xander opted to sit in the back, and soon they were airborne, headed east over the mountainous Angeles National Forest and out toward the desert.
Xander pulled out his gun and checked it.
One magazine was all he had, plus his knife.
He shook his head, trying to formulate a plan.
It was going to be dusk by the time they landed.
He would have to try to find someone to drive him the mile to that building or walk it.
He knew it would be heavily guarded. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and looked at the screen.
The text was typed in phonetic Greek using the English alphabet, and he began deciphering it. Stand down. Got your message, repeat stand down. Our leader and both women are missing and maybe dead. Resources are inbound for indicated destination. Repeat, stand down. Over.
Xander did his best to phonetically type back in Greek. Will not stand down. Am almost at my destination. Suggest you hurry. Tell them both I love them. Will update if possible.
The reply came quickly: She asks you to stand down, but will try and understand if you won’t. Her love to you.
Xander sighed and put his phone away. He tapped the pilot on his shoulder. “Do you have a map?” The pilot nodded and handed the map back.
Xander found the airfield and found another one three miles east of the buildings where his phone was located.
“Meletis! Can you please fly over this area, like you are heading to El Mirage Field, then turn south and land at Gray Butte Field?” He pointed to the map, and Meletis nodded. “We are looking for three buildings.”
A few minutes later, they were flying slowly over the buildings.
He noticed three SUVs parked in front of the east building and saw one man guarding what he thought was the entrance to a house.
The pilot neared El Mirage and then headed due south, then west to Gray Butte.
Meletis landed near several manufacturing buildings and waited as Xander got out and ran toward the offices.
As Xander neared the building, a security guard rushed out and ordered him to halt.
“Sir. This is private property. No admittance is allowed.”
Xander walked up to the man and introduced himself. “Sorry, this is an emergency. I need to get one mile up the road, no questions asked. I have two hundred dollars cash…” Xander showed the man the cash.
The security man looked toward the helicopter, then nodded and took the money. “If it will get you off the campus, I’ll drive you myself.”
The drive was short, down the dusty dirt road. As they neared the main road, Xander spoke up. “Please let me out here.”
“Right here? You realize it’s ninety degrees and it will be dark soon.”
“I do. Thank you so much.”
With a shrug, the security man stopped the car, reached into his lunch bag and handed him a bottle of water. “You’ll need this… and thanks for the cash.”
Xander walked down the paved road and then turned north up a dirt road named Old El Mirage Road.
He walked slowly, keeping his eye on the buildings in the distance to the east. By the time he was parallel to the buildings, it was dark enough to creep across the spiky Joshua-treed patch of desert.
He neared the first building and realized it was a burned-out home.
The large east building, where a single black SUV was parked, was actually a newly built home.
Turning his back, he pulled out his phone and texted using the same phonetic Greek as before: In position. East building now only has one SUV in front. Three were here earlier. One guard up front. Looks military and armed. West building burned-out home. North building is an open hangar.
He waited for the reply, and soon it came: Inbound ten minutes. Stay there and observe.
Suddenly, he heard the sound of a muffled gunshot coming from the east building. He fired off a text: Shots fired! Am investigating. OUT.
He pulled out his gun and circled around the small hangar.
He noticed lights on inside the home but none were on outside.
Anticipating motion-activated lighting, he kept his distance coming around the back of the house.
He paused near a junk pile and found a piece of old galvanized water pipe.
With the pipe in hand, he crept toward the side of the house and paused, waiting for any lights to come on.
Suddenly, another shot rang out, and he heard a deep voice. It was Simo, and he was in pain.
Without further pause, Xander sprinted around the corner and smashed the utterly surprised guard right in the face with the heavy, rusted pipe. He dragged the unconscious guard off into the darkness and began stripping him of his clothing and gear.
Harding laughed as Simo took the second bullet in the chest. “Gotta love those bulletproof vests. Hurts like a motherfucker though, doesn’t it?”
Simo grunted in pain. He thought his rib might have cracked on the third shot.
Harding was playing with him. Simo overheard one of them saying they were waiting for dark for Joel to land somewhere, and Joel would be there in the morning.
As far as Simo could tell from inside the windowless basement, it was more than likely dark already.
There was nothing he could do, as he was tied down and shot in the thigh from today’s earlier firefight with Harding and his small army.
Eleni was being held in another room, and Jessie was hanging from a hook by her handcuffed hands on the rafter close by, moaning in pain from the weight on her wrists.
Seeing her like that again set his blood on fire, but he had to play it cool.
“Having fun yet?” He grunted.
“Ha! You are a funny bastard, aren’t you?” Harding aimed and shot again, hitting him right under the first bullet.
Simo grunted hard and began coughing, sending a hot spurt of pain from his rib. He choked out another cough, then grunted. “Yeah. Been told that a few times.”
“Ok, funny fuck. How about I aim where there is no vest?”
Simo coughed again. “And ruin Joelly’s fun? Hurry the fuck up already!”
“Not going to be that easy. You get to watch this bitch and the other one die in front of you before you die. I have to tell you, it’s not going to be fast. Like I said, you will be losing some body parts along the way.”
Simo nodded. “Figured as much… so you catch that fucker, Xander, yet?”
“Oh, I have special plans for that piece of shit. He dies the slowest, and piece by piece, too. We will be posting a video and sending his bitch his pieces.”
“Sucks to be him.” Simo managed a chuckle.
Harding laughed and shook his head. “Kinda wish you were on my crew.”
Simo chuckled through the pain. “I’m too expensive. Joelly’s a tightwad motherfucker.”
“Ha!” Harding laughed and shot him square in the chest once more. “Fuck, that one had to hurt.”
Simo coughed hard, trying to maintain consciousness. It felt like an elephant had just stomped on him. He shook his head and coughed again. “Mosquito bite…” he groaned.
“You are one cheeky fucker!” Harding laughed. He turned his gun toward Jessie. “How about I put one in her leg, just like yours…”
Simo shrugged as best he could. “Why ruin a sexy leg like that?”
Harding eyed Jessie’s long legs and nodded. “Ha! Good point.” He turned toward Foster Lee. “Get me a chair. My fucking knee hurts standing on this concrete down here.”