ASCENSION (39 page)

His
dog barked and Christopher
sat forward. He
grabbed Townsend
and pushed him down at the sound of glass shattering. A
barrage of bullets
cracked
the night into explosive chaos.
Particles of glass struck the floor
; bullets knocked down lamps and pushed
pictures
from the walls. They
rocked before dropping with a clang
to the floor
.

He stayed low reaching for his weapon keeping his eyes toward the door. His dog whimpered in a corner of the living room but it was the lack of movement from Townsend which
drew his concern.

It
seemed an
eternity
until the
air cleared and the house became eerily silent.
Townsend lay on the floor with a mortal wound to
the
head.
Christopher
peeked
from behind the sofa a
t the sound of screeching tires
and scrambled away
whistling for his dog
as a Molotov
Cocktail
came barreling through the window.

C
HAPTER
THIRTY-TWO

W
ith
long purposeful strides
Nico
reached the
edge of the estate
. He
counted three
armed
guards circling the property.
A five foot high
metal gate
enclosed the
Spanish-colonial style home
. W
ith
aid of
night goggles he
scanned the property but
wasn’t able to discern any visible security systems. Of course men like Monticelli
would only have the best high-tech monitoring with motion sensors
undetectable by the naked eye.

There were usually three levels of security
;
armed
guards,
a
reinforced
compound and electronic monitoring. Outward appearances
were deceiving.
The unassuming estate appeared
s
imple
,
however these were often the
most complicated jobs.
T
he entire undertaking was
risky
,
having
Selange
along increased
the dangers two
-
fold.

In the cover of dark he slid backward on the ground and signaled for the pair to move forward. They scurried
to his side belly flopping on the grass.

“I see thre
e armed guards so far. I think I
found
a way onto the property from the south
-
side
w
ithout getting spotted unless there are motion detectors.
I’ll go through first and you guys
f
ollow on a count of thirty, got it?”

“Got it.”

“
B
e quiet and move
quick
.”

Selange
stayed in step with the men, scurrying at intervals
determined
not to fall behind.
Mosquitoes bit at her face and hands as they continued
through the everglades
for
another fifteen minutes until they were within the perimeter. Far away
in the east m
iniscule lights
from passing cars
on the roadway were the only movements visible in the
darkness
.
She listened
to her
labored
breathing as they
scrambled around a grassy knoll and used the camouflage of deciduous trees
to
reach
t
he south gate.

Nico put up his hand and they stopped. Another signal to Giuseppe and Nico hopped agilely over the gate with
out a
sound. Nico’s
athleticism surprised her due to his massive size. On the county of thirty
Giuseppe followed
,
less gracefully and landed
with a soft thud then helped Selange climb down. They crouched and searched
for
Nico in the dark.
Giuseppe
gestured to a shadow creeping to the rear of the house and they hurried across the grass toward it.

Nico put his hand to his mouth then slid a knife
from his belt
and
cut the wires
t
o the electrical box
. Instantly all the lights went out in the house.
Selange held her breath as
Nico worked
cutting a secondary feed camouflaged at the base of the house by manicured shrubs. T
his was the
world Alfonzo protected her from; the side he didn’t want her to know about.

Fast moving footsteps approached
and Nico motioned for Selange to
stay hidden.
He and Giuseppe leaned their backs against the brick exterior of the house.
In
seconds the footsteps were bodies.
Men
seeking the source of the black-out, fanning out around the property brandishing weapons.
Ni
co caught the first man as
soon as
he turned
the corner with a silent shot to the head, the second man went
down
and the third
Giuseppe stopped with a knife throw to the throat then it was quiet.

She waited
for the all clear then
scrambled
to her feet. The bodies were dragged out of sight and
Nico sprint in the lead checking a nearby window for movement. Finding none he jimmied it open and went through.
Within minutes they were inside the darkened ho
m
e
methodically
moving from room to room.
A woman in a maid’s uniform emerged from the kitchen as they
were about
to ascend the stairs. Her mouth opened to scream but Giuseppe’s arm flew around her throat and a crushing hand stifled
the woman’s fearful
cry. The helpless woman whimpered
and
Giuseppe’s knife slid unobserved by his captive
to her throat.
He was poised to
slice
until Selange subdued his hand
, “No, tie her up.”

She’d thought of her housekeeper-nanny-friend-mother figure, Anita. She could not blame this innocent woman for the treachery of her employer or make her subject to his fate. She was not Monticelli and would not kill innocent people. She was here for Monticelli; the blood of others would not rest on her conscience.

Nico quic
kly withdrew duct tape from
the backpack, secured the woman’s mouth, hands and feet then
shoved her in the coat closet with a warning inaudible to Selange’s ears, “Make a sound, talk to anyone about what you’ve seen I’ll track you down and kill you!”

The woman cowered in the corner of the closet and he shut the door. Giuseppe and Selange were climbing the stairs
, he saw the man at the second floor concealed by a wall
brandish
ing
a weapon which glimmered with lethal intent.
Nico’s assessment occurred in a split second. The concealed
man
aimed
at
his target, Giuseppe. –But his hand did not squeeze the trigger instead he fell forward exposed with a bullet to the center of his forehead.

Giuseppe
ducked
and turned to see Nico rushing behind them gun
smoking, “Grazie.”

“You’re welcome, now keep moving. Stay sharp!
”
He said then ran ahead.

Nico stepped over the body and systematically began checking each door. His
expeditious
actions were fostered by necessity. They didn’t have much time before the next patrol. Only one door remained.

This must be the room
.

Nico
slowly twist the handle and
several shots
greeted him
through the closed door
.

S
inesi
filled the gas tank in Fort Lauderdale. He’d driven five straight hours stopping
o
nly once in Orlando.
He closed the gas cap then went to use the
public
men’s room before climbing
back into the rental and merging onto I-95.
The traffic was light and he floored it. Monticelli was hiding right under his
g
oddamn nose
all along and
Dominick led him straight to the old man.

The business card contained a thin tracking device
which pin-pointed
Monticelli’s
location
in south Miami. The address belonged to
a
Nathan Peyton
, undoubtedly an alias
.
Sinesi took a swig of coffee and zoomed past a slow moving
mini
van with New York
City
license plates.

Sometime later he
sped by a
sign welcoming visitors to the
beautiful
city of Miami
. He
q
uic
k
ly pulled into the welcome station to
program coordinates into the GPS
system. He activated the voice directional feature then sped back
on
to I-95
south.

Townsend proved to be smarter than he looked. It
’s
a shame he decided to snoop
around.
Sinesi scratched his head, he still couldn’t figure out how Townsend pieced it together. He’d been
extremely
careful
. Covered
his tracks
, tried
not to involve his partner but inevitably his plan went awry when Townsend began acting suspiciously. Then he pieced it together, the lost identification and this morning finding Christopher’s address on Townsend’s computer
, forced him to do something
.
His only recourse was to stop his partner.
He told Townsend the D.A. in New York requested to see him then se
cretly followed his partner straight to Christopher’s.

Five million dollars was at stake
and wasn’t letting anyone get in his way
.
Why should people like Dominick and Diaz reap the benefits of their ill-gotten riches while hard-working civil servants
l
ooked forward to paltry salaries and an even more dismal retirement? He considered it a public service to retake some of the money gained through
their
criminal activity and put it to good use.
He laughed,
yeah,
the money was going for a good cause, his
hefty retirement package!

Once he dealt with Monticelli
he’d collect hi
s money and fade into oblivion on a Polynesian Island somewhere.
H
is retirement papers were
submitted
and he was virtually a free man.
Everything was set. Townsend and Christopher were
simply
collateral damage. The
ir deaths would be
attribute
d to
organized crime.
Yeah, he was set
!

***

B
lood
splattered
across
Selange’s face
as Nico’s massive body propelled backward to the floor
causing it to vibrate upon impact
.
In the d
ark
corridor she witnessed Giuseppe crawling forward to retrieve the fallen man. The gunfire coming from within the room
boomed
like canons as bullets opened large holes in the door striking the wall above her head.

In the
shadows
Giuseppe
waved her
to the floor
and
shout
at her as he dragged Nico to cover
,
“Move!”

She got down
and frantically
crawl
ed
where Giuseppe crouched
with Nico
behind a
large decorative
potted plant. She made it clear of the bullets
. S
uddenly
the bedroom door
opened and a
figure
appeared with a semi-automatic firing wildly
.
She only saw the muzzle flashes as the deafening noise cracked the air bringing with it a maddening clatter
as it
ripped apart pieces of the wall. Then she saw it, moving slow but in real time, Giuseppe’s hand clutching the Italian pistol firing rounds. They landed dead center and the ensuing quiet told her he hit his mark with deadly precision.