Mia's Journey: An Erotic Thriller (28 page)

“There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed

to the advantage of others.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Chapter 77

Daddy loved deer season. Not because he liked to hunt, he’d given that up years ago. But because he loved walking through the woods, enjoying the stillness of nature.

He drove a mile out of his way and parked off the road, and hiked in. He was twelve hours ahead of helicopter arrival. He was careful walking through the woods. He looked like any other hunter.

His licenses were up to date, he had on hunter orange. He was legal in every sense of the word if he came across a game warden. He carried a 700 Remington 30.06 which would be considered an excellent deer rifle.

It could also be considered an excellent sniper rifle as well. In fact, the military version of this same rifle was used as one.

The only thing unusual was he also carried a Barrett 50 caliber with a magazine of ten armor piercing shells and a ghillie suit. While none of the items are illegal or would call attention to themselves alone, the combination would make an attentive game warden curious.

A ghellie suit, typically, is a net or cloth garment covered in loose strips of burlap, cloth or twine, sometimes made to look like leaves and twigs, and optionally augmented with scraps of foliage from the area.

Snipers, hunters and nature photographers, wear ghillie suits to blend into their surroundings and conceal themselves from enemies or targets. The suit gives the wearer’s outline a three-dimensional breakup, rather than a linear one.

When manufactured correctly, the suits will move in the wind in the same way as surrounding foliage and are almost impossible to detect with the naked eye.

Daddy hiked all around the South Pasture. Keeping well back from the tree line. Once he found a high vantage point, he scanned the entire area with binoculars. He paid particular interest to any locations which would lend themselves to counter surveillance. If there were any watchers, he wanted to be the one watching them.

Next, he looked for any positions which would lend itself to being a sniper’s position. He made a mental note of where the positions were, then set out to examine each one.

He came up to each one from the rear, and downwind. None looked occupied, or had the appearance of a hasty departure. He sat in the last one, discarding the hunter orange vest and hat, put on his ghellie suit, and studied the surrounding country.

He was looking for, and trying to feel, anything out of place. A movement which didn’t belong in the world of trees and animals. A flash of sunlight on a scope, a sound which didn’t fit the surroundings.

Finally, he probed the area with his mind, trying to pick up any hostile vibrations. Violence carried its own energy, and he knew the feeling well. He detected no threat, no movement which was out of place, or anything out of the ordinary.

He checked the direction of the wind and calculated the likely path of the helicopter on approach and take off. Lastly, he calculated where the sun would be at seven p.m. or nineteen hundred hours, military time. This last bit gave him an advantage as the spot he had chosen for the ambush would put the sun at his back, and in the eyes of the pilot.

He made his way quietly and carefully through the woods to his chosen spot and settled in for a long wait. It was still eight hours before the expected arrival of the helicopter.

Since he had no spotter, he set everything up. One rifle on each side of him. Extra ammo of the correct size, loaded in spare magazines and within arms reach. He dug a depression into the ground, then used tree branches, cut at the “Y” intersection of one and stuck them into the ground to steady the barrels of each.

Once everything was prepared, he settled in for the long wait. Waiting quietly, silently, motionless for hours was an acquired skill. Many people he knew fell asleep. To remain alert and focused was far harder than most expected.

With four hours to go, he became hyper alert. This would probably be when an inexperienced, or lazy counter surveillance team would move into position. He wanted to be able to detect them long before they detected him.

There, he spotted it. The sun glinted off a glass scope. They moved into position exactly where he thought they would, the best position for counter surveillance and to watch the incoming helicopter, but not the best for an ambush.

He watched them through his rifle scope. There were two of them, also to be expected. One on the gun, the other to work out targets. Since they would be in contact with the home team, he had to wait until the best time to take them out.

Since this was more of a surgical execution, he chose the 700 Remington and slid it into position. Then he started watching their world through the Remington’s scope.

Daddy glanced at his watch on the underside of his wrist. Fifteen minutes to show time. He stilled himself, then made a conscious effort to control his breathing as he had been taught so many years ago.

With five minutes to go, he sighted carefully, inhaled, exhaled half a breath and gently squeezed the trigger. His shot was down, but took out the spotter in the throat.

The sniper looked up from his rifle then, sensing his partner down, which gave Daddy just the opening he was looking for. He swung the rifle over in a gentle arc, and drilled a high-velocity bullet right through his forehead.

Now he grabbed the big Barrett .50 and pulled it into position. He checked the ammo, tapped the magazine once on the butt stock, and slapped it into the slot. He pulled back the bolt of the rifle, chambering a round and left the safety on. He was locked and loaded.

The helicopter was an Army surplus “Huey” made famous in the Vietnam War and still in wide circulation. It was a good, utilitarian chopper, expertly designed to do what it did well, which was infiltrations and extractions. It came in low and fast. Daddy watched it come in and prepare to land.

Daddy knew helicopters were at their most venerable when landing, and taking off. He couldn’t wait for it to land and discharge its cargo of troops. He had to take it out while it was still in midair. While it was still five hundred feet up, and descending, he took careful aim, and put two quick shots into the pilot side windscreen. The helicopter made a flop as the copilot instantly took over the control and Daddy put two more armor piercing shells into the copilot.

The helicopter went into a death spiral with no one at the controls. Daddy saw his opportunity and quickly took out the tail rotor as well, watching pieces of metal fragment on impact of the bullets.

He lowered his weapon and watched what could only be described as a death ballet. The helicopter with no one alive at the control and the tail rotor blown to pieces, went into a slow motion dive.

He saw one tropper with the presence of mind to jump out of the stricken aircraft, but it was still two hundred feet off the ground and doubted he survived the fall.

With the laziness of a slow motion train wreck, the Huey’s long blades impacted with the top branches, shearing them off, then crashed into the trees, sending a huge fireball of orange and black flames upward as the aviation fuel ignited.

It was a perfectly executed ambush of a lone warrior against a superior and overwhelming force. Daddy felt no exaltation of a job well done. He did bow his head and wish the dead a speedy journey to the afterlife.

“There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.”

Ernest Hemingway

Chapter 78

Daddy studied the crash site through his scope, then through the binoculars, and saw no movement.

He knew he wouldn’t have much time before the team at the Prescott Estate rushed over. He left the Barrett .50 caliber where it was and walked down the hill, careful to keep out of sight. At the edge of the landing zone, he stopped and gave the area another sweep through his glasses.

He saw one team member who had jumped from the wreckage whose body was roughly the same size as he was and whose equipment was still intact.

He hustled over to him, and checked his neck for a pulse. None. He picked him up in firemans carry and brought him back to the edge of the landing zone and reentered the tree-line.

He walked back to the crash site and picked up weapons and various materials and brought them back. He even found a sound suppressor for the pistol. He saw a severed arm from someone and brought that back too. He could hear sirens off in the distance coming closer and knew it was time to disappear. The first responders would be here soon.

Interesting that the Black Snake boys left at the estate didn’t even bother to go see what happened to their teammates. They either thought he might be up on his rifle ready to pick them off if they did, or they were circling their wagons back at the ranch.

Both of which were reasonable calls in their position. Whatever their reasoning, they now knew no reinforcements would be coming.

He dragged the corpse and gear up the side of the mountain and found a place to work. He stripped the corpse, then his own clothes, and put the corpse’s clothes on.

He smeared blood all over his face and neck, added the helmet and goggles and fixed other parts of the gear around his body. He now looked like a certified member of the Black Snake team. As long as no one noticed his age, he should be okay. The helmet and goggles should help with that.

Two members of the Black Snake team, and William Prescott stood on the porch watching a black, greasy, smoke plume rise above the trees. Moments before they had seen the chopper come in for a landing and while still five hundred feet off the ground, spiral out of control and crash. The resulting explosion had shook the windows in the manor.

A fireball of orange and black flame had swept over the trees as the jet fuel blew. Since the wind was blowing away from them, they didn’t hear the shots from the .50 caliber.

The two surviving members talked quietly among themselves. If either felt the loss, they didn’t show it.

“Sir, this is now a combat situation and we have to get you inside,” said the highest ranking squad leader.

“What do you mean a ‘combat situation’?”

“We have to assume that aircraft was taken down intentionally.”

“What is your next step?”

“We need to get you to a safe room inside the house.”

“What about your teammates, aren’t you going to see if they need help?”

“If we did sir, and if it was enemy action, he would pick us off as soon as we arrived.”

“So you’re just going to let them die?”

“No one would have survived that crash, sir. If you prefer we can go and examine the crash site. Of course, that means you’ll be unprotected here.”

That wasn’t the situation Prescott was envisioning.

“Of course, I’ll do whatever you say.”

One man stayed on the porch in a defensive position scanning the tree line, the other led Prescott inside. Both men went into the study. The commando checked the window, then pulled drapes across it, shutting out the view from outside as well as the sunlight.

“You should be safe here, sir,” said the squad leader.

“You actually don’t think he’d be coming at us on the estate, do you?”

“Like it or not, we are on the defensive, sir. We are on our own. Black Snake headquarters has been sent word, and I assume, another chopper will be coming. However, that could take a while to get here. In the meantime, our best option is to hunker down here and wait for reinforcements to arrive.”

Except the Black Snake team members were wrong. There was a survivor. One stumbled up to the gate, bloody, uniform torn and smoking. He buzzed the gate, then slumped against it.

From the study, they could look at the surveillance cameras mounted outside the gate. They saw a wounded soldier in Black Snake uniform. He rang the buzzer again, then collapsed, blood streaming from several wounds. The squad leader keyed his mic.

“Unit two-unit one- there appears to be a surviving team member at the gate. Please check it out and proceed with caution.”

“Copy that.”

They could follow the Unit Two’s progress up to the gate. He took no chances. He opened the gate and checked the mercenary’s pulse at his neck, then dragged him inside the compound and shut the gate. Once inside, he brought him over to a defensible position, out of view of the security cameras and checked his wounds. Several minutes passed.

“Unit two-unit one, report.”

“Unit one-unit two, he didn’t survive his wounds.”

“Copy that. Return to base.”

“Copy.”

Unit Two, using the same exaggerated care, made his way back to the house. He walked into the house, and knocked on the study door. Unit One, opened it, and stood aside.

“Report.”

“You’re dead,” Daddy said, and shot the remaining Black Snake member in the head, blowing blood and brains out the back of his head and all over the study. William Prescott looked on in horror.

Turning to Prescott, Daddy took off his helmet and goggles and said, “Now it’s just you and me.”

“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.”

Niccolo Machiavelli

Chapter 79

William Prescott recovered his composure quickly, and walked around to stand behind his desk.

“We meet at last,” Prescott said.

“It appears we do.”

Both men stood looking at each other. They were approximately the same age. Certainly, of the same generation which gave them a background in common.

“You do realize, of course, that you’ll never get out of here alive, right?”

“I bet you thought I’d never get in here, either. You seem to have a flair for underestimating your opponent,” said Daddy.

“So what do I call you?”

“You can call me ‘Daddy’ if you want, or ‘hey you’ also works.”

Prescott snorted in derision. “A man of many names.”

“Since, according to you, I’m not going to live that long. What do you care?”

“I don’t, truthfully.”

“Excellent. Now that we’ve got all the fake pleasantries out of the way, what do you say we get down to business?”

“What do you want?”

Daddy fished a paper out of his pocket. “I want you to call this number right here, and set up a general life insurance trust with Mia as the irrevocable trustee.”

“You want me to set the little whore up for life, is that it?”

“This is your first and only warning. Do not disrespect her again,” Daddy said calmly. He held out a piece of paper to Prescott.

“You realize, of course, it will do you no good. If the trust was set up by coercion, I’ll be able to get all the money back.”

“Really? Is that the way it works? Dial the number. Set it up and hand the phone to me.”

“In what amount?”

“Fifty million, five hundred and forty-three thousand.”

Prescott almost choked. “I haven’t got that kind of…”

“Oh yes, you do. It’s in this account right here,” Daddy handed Prescott a bank statement from another pocket.

Prescott glared at Daddy with hate in his eyes. “It will bankrupt me.”

“You’re right, it will. Well, I am leaving you twenty dollars to keep the account open. Which if you look at it from my point of view is pretty generous of me. Make the call or die painfully.”

Prescott dialed the numbers. A man answered the phone with precise English with a slight Germanic accent. Prescott watched Daddy the whole time. He told the banker the account number to withdraw the funds from, then handed the phone to Daddy.

“Satisfied?”

“Almost.”

Daddy listened silently while the banker on the other end confirmed the deposit.

“Excellent, Jorge. Now please…” Daddy turned away from Prescott, walked to the other side of the room out of earshot and continued, “… split the account into three different trusts of equal amounts using Swiss Annuities. The beneficiaries of each account are the following…”

With his business concluded, Daddy walked back to the desk.

“I need you to do one more thing and I’ll be leaving. Have your personal jet fueled up and ready to travel. Call now.”

“You’ve got to be joking me. You really think you’ll make it out of here?”

“That’s my problem. Your problem is the amount of hurt I’ll put on you if you don’t do as I ask this minute.”

Prescott picked up the phone, told them to fuel the jet and have it ready for immediate takeoff.

“They want to know the destination,” Prescott said, with his hand over the mouthpiece.

“Tell them the destination is unknown at the moment, but will be revealed on takeoff.”

Prescott went back to the phone and relayed the instructions. Once he was finished, Prescott spread both hands wide on his desk, leaning forward in his best ‘King of the Kingdom’ stance.

“Now that you’ve gotten what you want, why don’t you take your whore and…”

Quicker than Prescott could react, Daddy took out two belt knives, one in each hand, concealed on his back belt, and drove them through both of Prescott’s hands spread on the desk. The force of the blow drove the blade of the knives through his hands and sank the blade tips at least an inch into the top of the hardwood desk. Prescott screamed in surprise and pain.

“I warned you not to disrespect her.”

Prescott tried to free his hands, but the knives only bit deeper. Daddy spun the intercom towards himself, and pushed the button for “whole house.”

“Mia? Please, come to the study.”

Mia was just finishing changing her blood-soaked clothes when she heard an explosion off in the distance. It had taken several minutes for her hands to stop shaking enough for them to work the buttons on her shirt. Mia looked at herself in the mirror, taking a deep calming breath. She couldn’t believe all that had just happened.

It was necessary,
she told herself,
he would have killed the baby.

Just then the house intercom came alive. She hurried from the room. She couldn’t wait to tell William Prescott about his first born.

Daddy heard the tentative knock on the door a few minutes later. He got behind the door so he wouldn’t be a target and had a view through the door jamb when it opened.

“Baby Doll, it’s me Daddy. Open the door just enough to squeeze through and come in.”

Mia squeezed through as instructed, closed the door, and stood looking at Daddy.

“Is it really you?”

“It’s really me.”

Mia looked over at Prescott, writhed in pain, both hands nailed to the desk.

“Daddy!” She screamed and flew into his arms. “I knew you’d come. They told me you were dead. I didn’t believe them.” She grabbed onto his neck and jumped into his arms wrapping her legs around his stomach.

“Listen to me, we don’t have much time.”

“Okay Daddy, anything you want,” she said, she couldn’t stop touching his face.

“First, is the baby okay?”

“Yes, Daddy. I protected her. Jeffery wanted to kill her. I killed him instead. He’s upstairs dead on the floor. Daddy, we’re going to have a baby girl.”

“You do, what you got to do in this life. I can’t say I’m going to miss him much.

“Listen to me now. You’re going to leave here. I have everything set up for you to have the baby in Switzerland. They have the best clinics available. Everything is taken care of. You simply call this number here right before you get on the plane. When you arrive, they will take care of everything.”

“What about you? You’re coming aren’t you?”

“I’m going to be there as soon as I can.”

“Can you handle another girl?”

“A little girl. I always wanted a daughter. I want you to name the baby Mia Lynn. Can you do that for me?”

“Of course, Daddy. But we’ll do it together, won’t we?”

“I hope so, but I don’t know how this is going to end. But I know how it is going to end for you and the baby. That’s enough. Now, I want you to leave right now. You don’t even need any clothes. Just go to the airport and get on a plane. Call me at the airport before you board, then call me again when you land.”

“Daddy? Do you remember the time you told me that marriage and divorce were nothing more than a state of mind, and I could decide which one anytime I wanted?”

“Yes.”

“Do you really believe that?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Then I want to get married again, right now. Will you marry me, Daddy?”

“Of course, I will.”

“We don’t have rings.”

“We’ll manage,” said Daddy smiling.

“So how do we do it?”

“We make a commitment to each other.”

“I want to take your name, Daddy. I’m no longer a Prescott.”

Daddy smiled at Mia, loving her. “Then you shall,” he said simply.

“Then I am now Mia Cobalt.”

Daddy kissed her. “And now I have kissed the bride. It’s official.”

“Do I have to go now, Daddy?”

“Baby Doll listen to me. You’re about to go on a long journey. I’ve been preparing you for this journey since we met, and now you’re ready. This is the journey you were meant to take. Now this is very important. I will ALWAYS be with you. I will always be standing right by your side. And I will be with you, and protect you forever.”

“But Daddy…”

“Go Baby Doll…fly like the wind. You don’t have much time.”

“I love you, Daddy.”

“I love you too.”

Mia spun on her heel, and was gone.

Ten minutes after Mia left, Daddy heard sirens in the distance growing closer, then tires squealing to a stop on the black top. He could hear voices and a whistle outside the window.

“Go! Go! Go!”

The SWAT team arrived.