Blood Money (5 page)

Kelton watched the safe house for nearly six
hours, starting at a distance of 500 yards at 10PM and creeping
closer every thirty minutes, until he finally arrived at the tree
line just outside the property.

No one had left the house the entire time
he’d been watching, nor had any doors or windows been opened. In
addition, every single shade was drawn, so as to reveal nothing of
what was going on inside. At first, it had seemed like an
aberration, but as the night wore on and still there was no
evidence of the house being anything but empty, Kelton began to
secretly wonder if Jessica had already been transferred somewhere
else.

He looked at his watch, saw it was 3:58 AM.
Two more minutes until he found out for sure if the house was
occupied.

Kelton visualized the floor plan one final
time, then took a deep breath and started to sneak across the grass
area that separated the small grove of trees from the house. He
arrived at the corner of the house, double-checked to make sure
that no cameras had been added recently—there hadn’t—then started
creeping towards the door to the east entrance.

At the door, he dropped to a knee, pulled a
pencil-sized flashlight and a set of lock-picking tools from his
fanny pack, turned on the light, stuck it in his mouth, aimed it at
the lock. There was a moment of relief when he saw that the
deadbolt was indeed a Grazer model 2215, just as Walter’s
information had predicted, but he shoved the sentiment aside and
went to work with his tools.

Fifteen seconds later, he disengaged the
deadbolt, but didn’t yet open the door. This part of the house was
isolated from the rest, but Kelton believed in being careful, so he
swapped out the flashlight and lock-picking tools for a retractable
dentist’s mirror. He lengthened the handle, opened the door a
crack, slid the mirror in, and peeked around.

There were no lights on in this part of the
house, but it was bright enough inside for Kelton to see that the
immediate area was empty. He opened the door just enough to slip
by, entered the house, and softly shut the door behind him.

Kelton stopped just inside the doorway,
making sure that his entry hadn’t been noticed. He could hear the
low sounds of people talking, but after a few seconds, he was
certain it was coming from a television, even though the glow of it
wasn’t visible from his location. Other than the sounds from the
TV, the house was silent.

Kelton had committed the blueprints to
memory and was reasonably certain he could reach Jessica without
making himself visible to the man watching television, assuming the
TV was located in the living room.

It was dark inside the house, but not pitch
black. Kelton made his way through the hallway carefully, his
silenced .40 caliber SigPro in front of his chest and his head on a
swivel. The black balaclava he wore over his head impeded his
peripheral vision a bit, but not enough to be a hindrance.

He was near the end of the hallway, and
still couldn’t see the glow of the television, so he ventured a
peek around the corner using the dentist’s mirror.

Nothing but a big, empty, dark room with a
large dining table in the center and chairs surrounding it. The
light was brighter however, as the glow from the still-unseen
television leaked in from a nearby room.

Kelton turned the corner and snuck through
the room, careful to watch his step in the unfamiliar house. At the
end of the room was another hallway, this one branching both ways.
Jessica’s room was the second door on the right, just in front of
the bathroom. To the left was the living room, where the sound of
the television was coming from.

Kelton again used the mirror to scope out
the arrangements.

The living room was set-up perpendicular to
the hall, with the seating in the center, allowing whoever was
watching the television to see the entire length of the house with
a mere glance to their right. The room held a couch and a large
chair, but neither was occupied.

Kelton could think of no legitimate reason
for the TV to be on if nobody was watching it and made a mental
note to be extra wary, lest someone be out and about somewhere else
in the house.

Despite the discomfort in the back of his
mind, Kelton didn’t want to spend any more time in the house than
necessary. He immediately started moving towards Jessica’s door,
his steps masked by the carpet in this part of the house.

After reaching his destination without
complications, he glanced around one final time, then put the
SigPro into its holster, unlocked Jessica’s door and pushed it
open.

He slipped inside the room, careful not to
shut the door completely behind him; it could only be opened from
the outside.

Kelton was surprised to see that a reading
light was on. Instead of sleeping, Jessica was sitting on the edge
of the bed, staring at him over the top of a paperback
book--DARWIN’S BLADE by an author named Dan Simmons. Her brows were
raised and her eyes were wide but she remained silent, curiously
unfazed at having a stranger enter her supposedly secure room at
four in the morning.

Kelton put his finger to his lips.

Jessica nodded.

Whispering, Kelton said, “Get dressed. Long
pants and long sleeves if you have them. Sturdy shoes. Quickly but
quietly.”

Jessica set the book on the bed, walked over
to the closet, slipped on an ill-fitting pair of jeans and an
oversized black sweatshirt then put on socks and tennis shoes.

Kelton watched her every move, unable to
take his eyes off her.

Even though he’d seen her picture in
Walter’s information packet, it hadn’t done her justice. Her face
had a slightly exotic look to it, as if she came from a mixed
background, and despite the cut above her nose and bruised cheek,
she was beautiful; gorgeous even. Her green-tinted eyes were
fiercely intelligent, her body lithe and strong, her wiry muscles
long and clearly defined. Not at all what he imagined an esteemed
biologist to look like. Not that he was complaining.

She walked over to him after she was
dressed.

“Ready?” Kelton said.

Jessica nodded.

“Follow my every move,” Kelton said. “If
there’s trouble, just stay behind me. I’ll take care of it. And be
as quiet as possible.”

“Okay.”

Kelton used the mirror to peek out the door,
looking both ways as if he was preparing to cross a busy street. He
pulled the SigPro out, turned to her and flicked his head towards
the door.

They exited the room, Kelton leading her
back out the same way he’d entered.

Everything was going better than he could
have hoped. Even though the television still bothered him slightly,
it appeared that there was nobody on watch. A sliver of
satisfaction wormed into his skull as he realized they were about
to get out of the house without alarming anyone.

Then he heard a toilet flush, the sound
coming from the bathroom located opposite the hall from Jessica’s
room.

Fighting a surge of panic, Kelton considered
trying to turn the corner into the next room before the bathroom
door opened but instinctively knew they wouldn’t make it. Instead,
he spun towards the door, raised the SigPro to a firing position
and stepped in front of Jessica.

The bathroom door opened. A tall, wiry man
wearing only boxers and a T-shirt came walking out into the
hall.

The man was in the middle of a half-awake
yawn when he realized he wasn’t alone. He froze.

For the second time in the last 90 seconds,
Kelton put his finger in front of his lips and shook his head,
slowly, from side to side.

The man shifted his eyes to the gun for a
moment before returning to lock gazes with Kelton. He nodded as
though he was going to comply with Kelton’s request for silence,
then yelled, “INTRUDER!!!”

Kelton thought about shooting him but
quickly realized it would do far more harm than good in the long
run. Instead he spun around, grabbed Jessica by the arm, and said,
“Come on.”

The house filled with the sounds of people
shouting and banging around as Kelton took off down the hall, cut a
quick left at the dining room, and raced towards the back door,
hoping for Jessica’s sake that she would be able to keep up with
him.

He threw the back door open and ran out of
the house, his shoulders tensing in anticipation of rounds being
fired into his back as he crossed the 35 feet of lawn separating
the house from the dense wilderness beyond.

Kelton hit the tree-line without incident
and slammed through the bushes, not caring how much noise he made.
He continued pushing forward for another fifteen seconds before he
came to an abrupt stop. He turned around quickly and was pleasantly
surprised to see Jessica just a few yards back. She wasn’t even
breathing hard.

Turning his attention to the ground, Kelton
shifted a couple of branches and picked up a daypack he’d concealed
on the way in. He opened the backpack and pulled out a handheld
monocular with night-vision capabilities, then turned towards
Jessica and handed her the backpack.

“Can you see all right?”

She nodded.

“There’s a small clearing about two hundred
yards away, straight ahead. Pick a good hiding spot behind some of
the bushes near the outskirts and wait for me. I’ll be there in a
couple of minutes.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go see if anyone decided to
follow us outside.”

“And if they did?”

“Then I’ll try and change their mind,”
Kelton said.

“How? By shooting them?”

“Only as a last resort.”

“What do I do if you don’t show up?”

“Don’t worry,” Kelton said. “I’ll be there.
Now go.”

Jessica’s gaze lingered for a moment before
she took off. Kelton watched her go, impressed to see that she was
picking her way along carefully and making very little noise.

He circled back towards the house once she’d
disappeared from view.

Kelton carefully picked his way through the
dense trees, his progress made easier by the light provided by the
recently illuminated house. He was just shy of 50 yards away when
he heard voices. He ducked behind a tree, knelt down, and used the
monocular to get a better look.

Two men were standing near the back door of
the house. One was the man that had come out of the bathroom; he
was still wearing only his boxers and a white T-shirt.

The pant-less man was pointing at the tree
line where Kelton and Jessica had entered, a good twenty yards to
the right of where Kelton was currently positioned.

“They went in right there,” he said to his
partner, a short, heavy-set man with wild eyes dressed in a
windbreaker with FBI stenciled on the front.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go
after them.”

“We will,” the pant-less man replied. “As
soon as Michael brings the rest of my clothes out.”

The heavy-set man looked at his partner and
barked out a short laugh. “Yeah, I guess some pants would
help.”

“You think?”

A few seconds later, another man came out to
join them. He wasn’t carrying an extra set of clothes, leading
Kelton to presume it wasn’t Michael.

The third man was an older, more
distinguished looking fellow than the other two. The way he held
himself, combined with the tone of his voice suggested that he was
the one in charge. “Where do you guys think you’re going?” he
said.

“We’re going after them,” the pant-less man
replied.

“Like hell you are,” the older man said.

“What, you just want us to let him go?” said
the heavy-set man.

“That’s exactly right.”

“Screw that,” the pant-less man said. “They
couldn’t have gotten very far.” He turned towards the back door and
yelled, “Hurry your ass up, Michael. We’re wasting valuable
time.”

“You aren’t going anywhere,” the older man
said. “This is my operation; you’re just here for security. And you
will stand the fuck down, do you understand me?”

The pant-less man looked at him without even
bothering to disguise his disgust. “Yeah, I understand.”

The heavy-set man shook his head. “I can’t
believe we’re just gonna let them waltz on outta here.”

“They’re not going anywhere,” the older man
said. “I’ve already called in the situation. The sky will be full
of choppers in twenty minutes and every road out of the area will
be blocked within half an hour. There’s no way they’ll make it out
of the valley. Now let’s go back inside. It’s cold as hell out
here.”

Kelton made it back to the clearing five
minutes after he and Jessica had split up. He saw her squatting
near the ground behind a small bush and headed towards her.

Jessica spotted him and stood up. “How’d it
go?”

“They turned around on their own,” he said.
“I didn’t even have to make my presence known.”

“So we’re in the clear?”

“Not quite,” Kelton said. “They’ve already
called in the situation, which means we don’t have long before
we’re going to have choppers looking for us from the skies and
soldiers behind us, tracking our path from the safe house.”

“Then how the hell are we going to get out
of here?”

“By moving very quickly,” Kelton said.
“Let’s go.”

CHAPTER SIX

They had been moving non-stop for nearly ten
minutes before they took a break. So far, Kelton hadn’t heard the
sound of choppers, or anything else to indicate they had company,
but he knew they wouldn’t be alone for much longer.

“How are you doing?” Kelton asked. He was
down on one knee, digging in his daypack.

“Fine,” Jessica said. “Just catching my
breath.”

Kelton grabbed a bottle of water and a
nutrition bar and handed them to her.

She tore open the wrapper with her teeth,
took a huge bite, and started to chew.