Blue Moon II ~ This is Reality (10 page)

First things first. Omega patted the waiter down. Pulled out a thin wallet from his jeans pocket. He opened it and yanked out the server’s driver’s license. He glanced at it once and recited the man’s address to him before tucking the card into his messenger bag. “Who am I?”

“O… ome-”

He slapped the man again like the simple bastard he was. “Who am I?”

“I don’t know,” the waiter cried. “I promise, I don’t know. Please.” His legs gave out and Omega let him fall.

Omega recited the man’s address again and glared down at him. Speaking in a hushed, deadly tone, “It’s good you don’t know. Because if you did, I’d be the last thing you ever knew.” He dropped and gripped the waiter around his throat before he could blink. He tightened the hold and the man struggled for only a few seconds before his body went limp. Omega stepped back and let the server’s upper body fall to the floor. He was sweating. Thick drops running down his temple into his hairline. Dead men don’t perspire. He’d put him to sleep. His panicked breaths now a calm whisper.

He left the bathroom. The café was still empty. The manager nowhere in sight. For all he knew, his server had taken a fifteen-minute break.

Omega stepped out onto the busy sidewalk. He moved down the block and listened for following footsteps. He heard none. Tomorrow Backhander would be in a coffee shop waiting on a train to arrive into the Union Station. He’d have the Beastmasters doing their jobs. Before they knew what happened. Omega would have his target and be gone.

Chapter Nine

Pierce

“We proceed as scheduled,” Call informed.

Pierce turned to look at Hawk. He looked like he wanted to disagree but he kept his mouth closed. There was a pecking order and Call was his Commander.

Shot stood beside Call, his mouth set in a firm line. His eyes were on Fox but Fox wasn’t meeting his gaze.

What the fuck is going on?

“Call. We’ve always adhered to Hawk’s visions. I think it’s wise to err on this side of caution. We’ll have men in the field that are not military trained,” Shot spoke.

“We may not be military trained, but that doesn’t mean were fucking pussies either, DeLucca.” One of Pierce’s DEA agents chimed in angrily with several of his men agreeing.

“Agent McKenzie. Take your seat!” Pierce snapped. “This is not the time for dick measuring, and Shot is not questioning your manhood. We’ve never had casualties and we're not about to start on our last mission. You’ve all witnessed with your own eyes what Lieutenant Aramis can do. It wouldn’t be sensible to ignore him.”

“I didn’t know you were Hawk’s biggest fan now.” McKenzie sneered at him. “Maybe you should keep the SEAL out of your sleeping quarters so your judgment stays impartial.”

Fucker
. “Agent McKenzie you are dismissed,” Pierce commanded. He looked to his own enforcers. “Seize him.”

The three men moved in on McKenzie without another word, flanking him on both sides and securing both of his thick arms.

“What the fuck is this?” McKenzie yelled trying to yank free of the three men that could give Mr. Olympia a run for his money.

Pierce stepped closer to his now prior teammate. “I can’t work with an Agent that doesn’t trust my judgment, nor should you want to. So you are relieved of your duties with this task force. You’ll be taken to a location to be debriefed and given orders regarding your new position when deemed appropriate.” Pierce stood directly in front of the red-faced Agent and looked up at him. He whispered only for him, “Who I have in my quarters is none of your fucking business. You failed to mention how many nights
you
knocked on my door, asshole. Now get the fuck out of my headquarters.” Pierce turned and walked back to the front of the room as Agent McKenzie was dragged off.

The room was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Everyone knew what had just happened to McKenzie. His jealously had basically tanked his career. They all knew that a remote location meant he’d be placed in a solitary unit and questioned repeatedly until superiors were comfortable that the Agent could still be trusted and wasn’t considered a risk to Backhander’s identity. Call’s face didn’t reveal anything as Pierce nodded for the man to continue.

“Everyone has their assignments and duties. You have a description of what to stay alert for. You have your new secure points. If anything looks suspicious. Abort. Don’t question your instincts. Kill communication and abort. Rendezvous at your safe location for forty-eight hours and then return to headquarters.” Call looked around the room. “Any questions?”

No one spoke.

“See everyone at 0800.” Call dismissed everyone, then he and Shot left together.

Hawk got up and left. Everyone was staring at him as if he’d singlehandedly made this mission way more complicated than it needed to be. Pierce felt for him. His perception was a gift and a curse.

Pierce spoke to a few of his guys on the way out. Tomorrow the Beastmasters would be in place. Lucky and Toad on the train platform. Viper and Call would be in the command center around the block. Viper would use the station’s security cameras for monitoring. Shot would provide cover from the rooftop of the station. Hawk would be on the rooftop of the far eastern end of the National Postal Museum. He would usually be positioned farther away but he wanted to be able to get to Pierce quickly. No one questioned that. Instead of Pierce being two blocks over at the Starbucks, Fox was to bring Mrs. Valenzo inside Union station for a drink in the Sakura Japanese restaurant. Shade would be at the bar watching over Pierce.

Pierce thought of going to the surveillance area but choose against it. They’d checked and rechecked the plan. He didn’t need to over-think it. They’d all determined that the first phase should proceed. Hawk couldn’t confirm if this darkness was going to attack now, in the future, or during the last phase. All they could do was shake up their moves and try not to be predictable.

Hawk

Hawk looked at the green neon numbers on the clock next to the small bed. It was just a little after two in the morning. Headquarters was quiet for the most part. Everyone doing whatever it was they did before a mission. Spoke to their families or prayed to their God.

He waited patiently for another vision, but there was nothing. He’d never asked for a vision, never wanted to see more, but this was different. They were so close to the end. Hawk felt his happy ending was within reach and now something was coming to take it all away. The Beastmasters were a force to be reckoned with, but so was the darkness. He closed his eyes and calmed his breathing.

His thoughts went to the small village in Brazil where he lay dying in a woman’s – witch’s – hut from an infection.
The presence of the U.S. government in the country had sparked a national revolt. He’d gotten separated from his team when they were ambushed by rebel insurgents. He stumbled into a village that was being destroyed by a handful of men in the name of a religion Hawk didn’t understand. He took them out, stalked around the small village killing each one swiftly and efficiently as if he were the plague. He was crouched behind a hut, his head fuzzy and his vision blurred from the infected gunshot wound in his side. He could hear the screams of a young woman. The curses in her native tongue.

Hawk ducked beneath the cloth and stayed low to the ground. The man was too busy tearing at the girl’s clothes, his gun on the ground beside him, to hear Hawk’s not too quiet footsteps. With his severely impaired vision, he didn’t trust his ability to fire his weapon and hit his target. He stood at the man’s feet. When he’d turned and noticed Hawk, Hawk dropped down and put his left forearm on the back of the fucker’s neck and his right palm under his chin, snapping his neck in one swift jerk. He heard the man’s body drop along with his own.

He didn’t remember much else until he awoke on the floor of the girl’s hut, five days later. His wound was packed with a heavy sap-like substance and was covered with large leaves. Plants and herbs burned around him, and an old woman sat in a corner chanting in a combined language of broken Portuguese and the Pomba Gira spirits. 

“Respiração,” she whispered repeatedly in his ear.

He didn’t speak much Portuguese but he knew the word ‘breath’. She was telling him to ‘breathe in the herbs’. Hawk stayed in that village recovering for three months undetected and most likely presumed dead. He fought against the sight and perception, but she told him it would save his life next time... ‘Encontre o seu amante’
.

And find his lover.

The small knock on his door pulled him back to the present. The nervous breathing on the other side told him exactly who it was. He didn’t answer and instead waited for Pierce to crack the door open and stick his head inside.

“Come in, Pierce.”

“Are you okay, Dane?” Pierce closed the door and pressed his back to it, looking uncertain.

“Come here.” Hawk pulled back the covers revealing his body in only a pair of black briefs, inviting Pierce to join him. Pierce ducked his head and quickly slid in beside him. He felt so good cradled in his arms. His flannel pants and tank top rubbed against Hawk's mostly naked body.

“Don’t worry about me. Keep your head clear for the mission,” Hawk told him in the dim light of his quarters.

“I’m not afraid,” Pierce said calmly.

“A man without fear is a beast,” Hawk said against the side of Pierce’s temple. “You show them who’s boss out there tomorrow. I’ll be watching you.”

Chapter Ten

Shot

Everything was moving according to schedule. Systems had been scrambled so their feeds couldn’t be hacked. Monitors were watched for the last twenty-four hours for anything out of the ordinary and especially for a man in black. But so far… nothing. Call and Backhander both agreed to proceed.

“I have visual,” Hawk informed over their earpieces. The train was still five hundred yards out.

The train finally pulled into the station and Shot was able to see Fox through the window sitting beside Mrs. Valenzo, no doubt charming her skirt off. The layover was long enough not to sit on the train and wait it out. As soon as Fox stood, Shot’s heart rate picked up. He looked beautiful. Dark slacks and a pale gray cashmere sweater. His black blazer hung over his arm and he looked like he could be an important figure here in Washington.

As the announcements blared over the speaker, Shot caught the end of Fox’s alert.

“Something’s wrong. I have a tail.” Fox was standing in front of Mrs. Valenzo, her dark hair swishing back and forth as she looked from one end of the long car to the other. Fox showed her his badge. She stood like she wanted to flee but he pushed her back down. The train's doors still hadn’t opened. Someone else was controlling them.

“Get to the end of the train, Fox,” Call instructed. “Toad and Shade get to the platform.”

Fox was up and moving with Mrs. Valenzo in tow.

Shot watched him move, only lost sight of him for a few seconds before he appeared behind another tinted window. People were standing, wondering what the problem was. They blocked all angles of visibility.