Dead Six (30 page)

I studied the picture of the young woman. Miss Del Toro was twenty-five years old, fresh out of college. She was beautiful, with dark hair, bright eyes, and a very pretty face. Maybe it was just me, but she didn’t look like a traitor. I was probably being naïve, I thought, but something about this whole thing didn’t sit right.

Of course, very little of what was passed down from Gordon Willis sat right with me. I tossed the BOLO on my bed and sat. As I did so, I noticed the strange key that I’d found in Adar’s safe, still sitting where I’d left it.

I reached over and picked up the ancient-looking trinket and examined it again. Turning the knob on the base caused dozens of tiny pins to pop out of nearly invisible recesses in the object’s shaft. I twisted the knob the other way, and the tiny pins smoothly disappeared.

Sarah and I hadn’t really gotten any sleep, and I was tired. I was off for the rest of the day and decided then that I was going to take a nap. Before I could lie down, there was a soft knock on my door. The door opened and Sarah stepped into my room, quietly closing the door behind her.

“Hey, you,” she said, smiling widely when she saw me. I felt a smile appear on my own face as I stood. She met me in the middle of my room, stepping into my arms and kissing me.

In some subtle way, Sarah was a different person to me now. At first, she was just some chick I thought was hot. Then we talked a bit, and then we slept together. But now we’d been in combat together, bled together, buried a friend together. We were more than friends and lovers now. We were
comrades.

“Hey yourself,” I said, not letting go of her. “What’s going on?”

“What’s that in your hand?” she asked, indicating the strange trinket I was holding.

I held it up. “I don’t really know, but watch this.” I twisted the knob again, causing the pins and teeth to reappear. Another twist of the knob retracted them.

“Wow,” Sarah said, taking it from my hand to examine it. “Where’d you get this? It’s pretty.”

Suddenly, I felt uncomfortable. “I found it the other night,” I said, sitting back down on my bed. “It was in a safe in Adar’s house.”

Sarah looked down at the trinket, apparently not bothered by where I’d gotten it. “Why didn’t you report it?”

I shrugged. “Hunter didn’t ask about it, so I figured they weren’t looking for it anyway. It’s just some doodad I found. I’ve collected a bunch of crap since I’ve been here, you know. Besides, I forgot about it. That was kind of a bad night.”

The expression on Sarah’s face changed subtly. “Yeah, it was,” she said. All at once I felt butterflies in my stomach. Something was bothering her. “We need to talk about that,” she said.

I sighed, lowering my eyes. “Okay.” I patted the bed next to me so Sarah would sit down. “So let’s talk.”

“You hurt me,” she said, crossing her legs as she sat down. “I came in here trying to help you. You screamed at me, swore at me, and told me to get out.” Sarah’s voice was perfectly calm as she spoke. I felt like curling up into a ball.

“I was drunk,” I said after a moment. Sarah’s eyes flashed. I raised my hands in surrender before she got too upset. “I’m not using that as an excuse,” I said quickly. “I’m really not. It’s just a fact. I had a bad night. Seeing that girl . . . it just . . . I was still in shock. I couldn’t handle it. It doesn’t matter, though. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you. Like you said, you were trying to help me, and I pushed you away. I’m sorry. I’m not just saying I’m sorry, either, I really mean it. I . . . I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Well, you did,” she said coldly, fidgeting with the key in her hands. I started to say something, but she interrupted me. “But you know what? It’s okay. I mean, it’s not okay, but it’s okay.”

I gave her a sidelong glance, not really sure what to say. Sarah laughed, lightening the mood in the room just a little bit. “Have I mentioned I’m crazy?” she asked.

“I gathered,” I said, allowing myself a half smile.

“I’m also confused.” Sarah exhaled heavily and continued fiddling with the key, trying to think of what to say. “After the other night, I think I got it,” she said. “I mean . . . Jesus Christ, I killed a guy, and I cried my eyes out. You go out and do that every day, and they just expect you to keep on doing it and not break down. You broke down, didn’t you?”

I looked down at the floor, lowering my head just a little. “When I saw that girl, I . . .”

“I know,” Sarah said quietly. “I know. It really bothers you when men hurt women, doesn’t it?”

I was surprised by the question. “I guess. I mean . . .”

“I can tell,” she said. “Even when you were dragging Asra Elnadi along, you were very careful with her. You probably didn’t even bruise her arm.”

“I would’ve shot her if she ran,” I said levelly. “Just like I was ordered to.”

“I know,” Sarah said. “It would’ve bothered you for a long time, though, wouldn’t it?” I nodded my head slightly. “I read your file. I know about your mom. That had to have been awful.”

I had just been a teenager when she’d been robbed and murdered by some random meth-heads. “It was, but it’s been a really long time.”

“I didn’t get you at first, you know,” she said. “I mean, you’re cute and everything, but I didn’t think you’d be good for much more than a roll in the hay.”

“You think I’m cute?” I interjected, trying to deadpan.

“Shut up,” Sarah said, grinning and giving me a little shove. “I’m serious. I didn’t think we’d . . . you know . . .”

“Yeah,” I said. “This is kind of intense, isn’t it?”

Sarah nodded. “But I get it now. I know you guys are under a lot of pressure out there. I mean, oh my God, look at how many people we’ve lost already!”

“Sarah—”

“I’m not finished. That doesn’t change what happened. I came here to help you. You yelled at me and made me feel like a piece of shit.” Sarah’s cool words hurt me like I was being stabbed. “And I need to know where we stand, right now. Because if this is how you are . . . I’m sorry, I mean, I know what you’re going through now, but if this is how you are, I’m not going to be a part of it. I spent three years in a bad relationship, and I’m not going through it again.”

I was quiet for a few moments as I tried to figure out what to say. The thought of driving her away terrified me. The thought of trying to build a relationship with her, in the middle of war, also terrified me. I wasn’t sure which scared me more. Sarah gave me a hard look, swallowed, and spoke again. “Mike, if you want me in your life . . .”

“I want you in my life,” I said awkwardly. “You’re just . . . you’re amazing. I can’t even tell you. I—”

Sarah gently placed a finger over my lips, silencing me. “It’s okay. I just needed to hear you say that. Thank you.”

We sat together, quietly looking into each other’s eyes for a long time. Butterflies danced around in my stomach, and I couldn’t think of anything else to say. Right then I knew that I was falling in love with her. It was an amazing feeling, and it scared the hell out of me. I didn’t even know if either of us was going to make it out of Zubara alive.

As I looked into her eyes, I asked myself, is it worth the risk? I realized that I’d already made my decision, even before I asked the question. This woman had seen me at my best and at my worst, and she still wanted to be with me. What kind of fool passes that up?

I took the silvery trinket from Sarah’s hand, opened the chain, and gently hung it around her neck. She’d said it was pretty.

“Are you giving me this thing? Too cheap to buy me a real present?” She laughed.

“I found this thing that night,” I said awkwardly. “So . . . I’m giving it to you, as a promise of a fresh start.”

Sarah crinkled her brow at me. “That is so cheesy, but really sweet too. So yes, I accept your token of apology.” She laughed again. “Oh, I almost forgot. You’re off for the next three days at least.”

“The next three days? Are you serious?”

“I talked to Hunter for you. I convinced him you and your chalk need a break. So you don’t have anything to do for the next three days but lounge around the fort and relax.”

“What about you?”

“I have a briefing I have to be at in . . .” Sarah glanced at her watch. She wore it upside down, so that the face was on the underside of her right wrist. “Four hours. I don’t have anything to do until then.”

“I can think of something,” I said coyly, knowing I sounded more dorky than suave.

“Oh really?” Sarah said, sounding coy herself, as she moved in to kiss me again. “Sounds interesting . . .”

Some time later, Sarah and I lay together in my bed. She was asleep in my arms. Her hair smelled like strawberries. She was a quiet sleeper.

I don’t know how long I lay there, holding her in my arms, thinking about things, before I feel asleep. What chance did Sarah and I have in this place? What else could I do? Could we get out somehow? Even if I could find a way to escape Zubara, would I be able to convince Sarah to go with me and leave everyone else behind?

Chapter 11:
For the Good of
the People

LORENZO

April 20

I punished the bag until my knuckles bled.

It was an eighty-pound leather punching bag that I’d found used in a local market. Some duct tape, and it was good as new. I’d hung it up in the corner of the garage and was using it for some stress release. I worked out religiously every morning, but this was different. I’d already been striking the bag furiously for half an hour, and stinging sweat was leaking into my eyes.

I imagined that the bag was Big Eddie. If I could get my hands on whoever he was, I was going to absolutely destroy him. The nerve, the
audacity
, to threaten me, to force me into this . . . I was going to make him pay. I’d worked for him for years, doing his bidding, stealing things, killing people, robbery, extortion, you name it. I had been his lapdog, and I didn’t even know if he was real. Disgusted with what I’d become, I had eventually walked away, naively thinking that I could be safe from his machinations. But somehow he’d figured out who I really was, and that had given him leverage. With a shout, I stepped back and side kicked the bag so hard that a jolt of electricity traveled up the bones of my leg.

I switched my mental picture, and now the bag was the Dead Six operatives. My life was growing complicated, and I didn’t like that one bit. My elbows left skin on the bag as I nearly bent it in half with the impacts. Nobody knew a thing. Reaper’s electronic digging couldn’t find them. Hosani hadn’t called me back. None of the urchins, scumbags, villains, and criminals I’d contacted had a clue who they were. They were ghosts.

They’d slip up eventually. Everyone did, and then I would take them. But what if I couldn’t find them before Eddie’s deadline? Or even worse, what if their operation finished, and they just went home? And the worst possible scenario: Adar’s box had already been shipped back to the US and was sitting in some CIA warehouse where they had no clue what they even had.

If that was the case, then I would just have to proceed without it. And that meant my odds of success went from slim to near zero. If the pace of the killings tapered off, then I was going to have to assume the worst, and then I would have to do my worst. I’d have to stick Jill out in the open and see what happened.

Here I was, perfectly willing to take an innocent woman and basically sentence her to death. What kind of monster was I?

You’re soft. Weak.
I slammed the bag again and again, breath coming in ragged gasps. Even a couple of years ago, I would have handed her off in a heartbeat. The problem was that she wasn’t just a number in an equation now. She’d been living here for a couple of days. She was a decent, kind, trusting person. She was the sort of person that I had avoided all of these years, because they were exactly the type that I didn’t want to hurt. I hung out with evil for a reason. She was just a scared girl who only wanted to go home.

With that bleak thought, the last of my energy evaporated, as even I have my limits, and I just hugged the bag close to stop the swaying. Every muscle in my body was on fire, and sweat drizzled down my face and onto the bag, but the leather was cool under my skin.

“Anybody ever tell you that you’re kind of intense?”

I hadn’t heard her enter over the rhythmic pounding in my ears. Jill was standing at the base of the stairs into the apartment, watching me. I pushed away from the bag. “Yeah, I get that once in a while. . . . What’re you doing up so early?”

“Couldn’t sleep,” she said with a shrug. The bruised discoloration around her eye had subsided and she was looking better. “I’ve got a lot on my mind. You know.”

I walked around the front of the van. “Understandable. But if you’ve come to talk about it, you’ve really got the wrong guy,” I said as I picked up my shirt. My torso and limbs were crisscrossed with scars from bullets, knives, burns, and shrapnel, and most of them had not been stitched up by actual medical professionals, either. It always made me a little self-conscious.

“If I wanted somebody in touch with their emotional side, I’d talk to Carl,” she replied sarcastically. “Wow. You know, you’re pretty ripped for an old guy. . . .”

“I’m not
that
old.” Well, I had been in junior high the year Jill had been born.

“Easy there. I was just trying to make a joke. Seriously, though, you’re going out looking for Dead Six again today, aren’t you?”

“That’s the plan,” I answered as I pulled the shirt over my head. It was instantly drenched with sweat. My muscles ached. “I’m going to check out Al Khor today.” It was the safest, and therefore most boring, part of town. It was also the most modernized section and was where the Americans and Europeans tended to live. There was a possibility that someone over there had seen our shooters.

She was regarding me strangely. “Take me with you.”

I stopped. “Why?”

“I’ve been cooped up in here for days. I’m bored.”

As a professional liar, I’m a master of knowing when I was being lied to. I just waited. She rolled her eyes. “Fine. It’s just something I have to do. I have to feel like I’m doing
something.
This might just be business for you, but this is personal to me. These people killed my friends, and they tried to kill me. Then they burned them. They were good men, and they deserved better. I have to do this.”