Presidential Cleaning: A Psychological Suspense Novel (7 page)

Back then, when we were just agents working under the commands of the president, waiting was a game we played quite often. Being in charge of taking out men who were dangerous either in their actions or in the way they thought, meant that a lot of planning and of course, a lot of waiting needed to be done. So, there I was, reliving a past that I thought I left behind a long, long time ago. Waiting. And then, just as I was about to let go to scratch an itch that had presented itself upon the nape of my neck, the sounds I needed to hear filled my ears. The itch was forgotten and my mind was focused on the only thing that mattered.

‘Eyes open, black SUV approaching’ Jone’s voice toned through the radio. He’d been keeping watch at a point down the road, to alert us of when it was time to react.

‘Copy that,’ I replied. My eyes followed the vehicle. My nose smelled the smell. My hands pulled the rope, sending the spike strip to do its job. Slowly but surely, the vehicle slowed as with each meter the driver drove, more and more air seeped out of the tires. Soon enough, they came to a stop, evident by the screeching of tires and the trail of smoke left behind. I got to my feet, grabbed my gun which I’d placed beside me on the ground and sped through the bushes- dodging trees and jumping over piles of twigs. Adam, Iron, and Tony waited further up the road to take care of the men.

Upon arriving, I noticed that two men laid flat on the ground. Another two were perched over their seats in the vehicle. And then my eyes landed on the person who caused this all, Derrick Shaw. With his hands carefully secured around his back by a set of handcuffs and his legs unable to break free from the same restraint, he fought hard to untangle himself from Adam’s grasp.

‘What the fuck is this supposed to be?’ he barked as I approached him. His face had more scars than a soldier who’d found himself in the midst of a crisis. His hair was slicked back but not from some fancy hair moisturizer- from the filth that had undoubtedly been building in it for years on end. The cell he was being held at wasn’t a place where showers were able to be taken at one’s leisure. Everything was planned; scheduled. The men held in Block 8, didn’t have the luxury of tending to the most human needs.

‘Harry sent us,’ I said flatly.

His dark eyes lit up and his brown and yellow teeth revealed themselves. A smile bigger than any smile I’d ever seen before swept across his entire face. He felt safe.

‘Nah. Y’all have gots to be kidding me. I know Harry bad, but he ain’t that bad. Now tell me, who really sent you lovely folk here?’ The smile hadn’t yet left his face. Even though he insisted on questioning the authenticity of what we said, he truly believed it to be true. He believed in Harry.

I didn’t answer. Instead, I made my way closer to him, gesturing to Adam to allow me to take over. Between the links of the handcuffs I inserted my hand, rolled it around as tightly as I could and yanked his frail body to the side of the road. Adam, Iron and Tony moved back, maintaining their silence.

‘Y’all ain’t so friendly, nah?’ He smiled again, cringing as the pain from the handcuff being squeezed even more tightly against his hand, travelled through him.

No one replied.

‘Come on, y’all. You know how long it’s been since I’ve had people on my side. People who truly understand the way the world works and shit. We’re gonna do great things together. I can just see it already. Like that one over there,’ he pointed to Iron. ‘Just look at him. Looking all pissed off and shit. Who did you something? ’ Iron’s eyes said enough for him to change his target. ‘What about you?’ He nodded in Adam’s direction. ‘Sorry for head butting you, by the way. But I’m thinking we’ll get along just fine. You seem like the forgiving kind. All the other ones here, they look kinda
mean,
but not you, you look like the kinda guy I would kick it with.’

Adam smiled but behind that smile I could see all the awful things that he wanted to do to Derrick Shaw.

‘Oh, for crying out loud, just shut the fuck up already.’ I’d had enough. All this talking combined with the stench of his breath and his awfully unattractive teeth was getting to me. Each time the wind blew his breath in my direction, I felt my nostrils tense.

***

We waited for what seemed like minutes, for Jones to come to our rescue. Derrick Shaw was shoved into the back of the truck, like the true piece of junk he was. Adam took the front seat and Iron, Tony and I settled ourselves in the back.

‘All good,’ Jones turned around to meet my gaze.

I nodded. Though the others seemed oblivious to the fury in his eyes, I could tell that he was itching to get his hands on Derrick Shaw, and dying to get his hands on Harry.

‘To the woods behind the hardware store, you said?’ He asked, turning the vehicle around and keeping his eyes on the road. We drove past the bodies that were stretched across the entire street.

‘You got it,’ Tony replied.

‘Yup,’ I confirmed.

I reached inside my jacket pocket. My shaking fingers took grasp of the cell phone and pulled it out. The annoying music chimed in as the phone turned on and a message popped up on the screen. Harry Peterman’s telephone number. I held my breath as the phone rang, willing him to pick up. Finally, the ringing stopped and heavy breathing tuned through.

‘
Now
. We have him,’ I said, hanging up before he had time to reply.

Again, I set my phone to the off position. The streets were lonely, as expected of an early Sunday afternoon. Outside of a few cars that rolled past, there was nothing to be seen. No people walking. No bikes whizzing by. Just the trees swaying from side to side and the clouds blocking out any heat from the sun. I closed my eyes, envisioning how things would go. My fingers unintentionally crossed themselves, prompting me to believe in luck; to give luck-or perhaps God- credit for such a smooth takedown. However, there was still a great deal of work to be done. With a character like Harry, there was no telling just how much difficulty we’d face in getting Lila back. We didn’t have a plan for what to do if he’d showed up solo or sent one of his goons to carry out a one sided exchange. ‘Think positive Joe. Everything is going to go as planned,’ I told myself.

‘Huh,’ Iron turned to face me.

‘Nothing,’ I said, pointing to my head, ‘just going a little bit crazy, I guess.’

His facial expression- as usual- didn’t change from its ordinarily disinterested but stern look. ‘Hmm,’ he managed before turning back to observe the nothingness that was happening on the outside.

‘Can somebody get that idiot to shut up?’ Tony turned around, looking from me to Iron.

‘I could think of a couple of ways, but you’d have to pull over for the majority of them to be possible.’ Jones replied laconically.

  ‘Why don’t you just blast the music?’ I added, finding numerous ways in which such an action would be beneficial to me, but knowing this wasn’t something that would be agreed to- and rightfully so.

‘Because we’re not trying to get the president to hear us from the slaughter house,’ he smiled.

‘Eh. You might have a point,’ I noted, settling for the slight volume that Jones added.

I hummed, tuning out the dark thoughts that entered my mind.

‘Seems like you’re in a good mood,’ Adam’s eyes met mine.

Rather than divulging just how much the situation scared the life out of me- of how I wanted to use Derrick Shaw’s head to pound a hole into Harry’s head- I settled with a, ‘yeah, relatively good,’ and continued to hum to the tune of the song.

‘Dude,’ Adam’s voice came louder this time. ‘We love this song.’

Everyone including Iron laughed.

‘No, Adam.
You
love this song.’ I reached in front of me and patted him on the shoulder.

‘What do you mean? We used to jam out to this all the time. Don’t you remember?’ Everyone continued to laugh. ‘I can’t believe you all have memory loss. Remember that time when…’

‘Adam,’ I held back a chuckle, ‘
you
are the only one who has ever liked this song. The only reason we listened to it all the time is because you never stopped playing or singing it.’

‘Look who’s talking. You’re sitting over there humming like a teenager who can’t get a Bieber song out of her head.’

More laughter ensued only to be brought to a halt by the bumping of the vehicle. We’d finally reached our location and Jones sped through the most open- but yet, still bushy- part of the woods, flattening the grass and everything in his way as he rolled through. Speed was a necessity here as it was imperative that we drew as little attention to ourselves as possible. Though the streets in this part of town were rarely frequented whether morning, noon or night, weekday or weekend, we needed to get out of sight quickly. A few more bumps later and Jones stepped on the brakes.

‘Finally,’ Adam let out a loud sigh, jumping out of the vehicle and placing a cigarette between his teeth.

‘Really,’ Jones rolled his eyes. ‘You’ve really got to light up, now.’

‘Oh, come on man, don’t be a sourpuss.’ His voice muffled from the difficulty it took to spit the words through his teeth while flicking the lighter and sucking in.

Jones rolled his eyes again, then reached over to the passenger seat and slammed Adam’s door shut. ‘This man and his priorities. I never quite understand him.’

I didn’t quite find Adam smoking to be as much of a big deal as Jones did. However, the fact that he was just as hyped up about this meeting, as I was- and possibly hyped up with more vengeance, I understood how he could be as irritable as he seemed to be.

‘Damn,’ Jones looked at me again, ‘I really could reach into that trunk and just fuck that Shaw dude up. Break his legs and arms so he can’t kick around like a freaking cracked out dog. How did he manage in a cell so long?’

‘Willpower,’ I answered.

‘Willpower my ass. He seems just about as weak as they come.’

Derrick Shaw wasn’t weak. He’d gotten a whiff of freedom and he wanted to revel in it sooner than he was allowed to. He thought we were on his side; that we were meant to protect him. He thought that we worked for Harry Peterman. And because of this, I could understand where he didn’t understand why being locked in a trunk was a part of the plan.

‘Alright guys. It’s time to set up.’

Jones, Iron disappeared into the bushes while Adam took to a broken down building where he could get a great view of our position from above. Tony stayed by my side. Harry arriving to see me by myself would have led him to be suspicious. Sure, one other person wasn’t plenty, but it would work fine to shadow any doubt that I had other tricks up my sleeves.

‘I think we should duct tape his mouth shut,’ Tony said out of the blue.

‘Huh?’

‘His mouth. Duct tape it. If he starts blabbing on and asking where the other guys are when Harry Peterman gets here then we’ll find ourselves in a bit of a pickle.’

‘Damn. Why did I not think of that?’ My mind was in a million and one places at the same time. I should have known how to shut out all the voices by now, but it wasn’t easy.

‘ I understand that you’ve got too much on your mind. But you’ve got to buck up. We haven’t got room for error here.’

‘Alright, you get the tape from the glove compartment and I’ll hold him still.’

I popped open the trunk and made my way over to Derrick Shaw who sprung up like a flower receiving water for the first time in years.

‘What the fuck is this? You’re not really taking me to Harry are you?’ The smile he had worn earlier was no longer there.

‘We’re waiting for Harry,’ I assured him. ‘Just sit still. Keep your mouth shut and wait.’

‘If this is some kind of joke, Harry will get you for it. He’ll crucify the living crap out of each and every one of you.’

‘Just shut up already,’ I commanded.

Tony came shortly after, fiddling with the end of the tape before reeling off a lengthy piece and cutting it free from the roll with a knife he had attached to his keychain.

‘What the fuck!’ Derrick Shaw exclaimed as I wrapped my arms around his shoulder and struggled to hold him steady.

Tony was quick to wrap the duct tape around his mouth, deadening Shaw’s words. He then opted for a bigger piece, positioning the end of the tape on his cheek and moved the roll around his entire head, securing it in the front. Finally, the ramblings and muffled speech stopped. I let go off Derrick, stepped away from the trunk and slammed it shut. The only thing left to be heard was his struggling to kick the trunk free. I’d always wondered why people did this. There was no escaping and even if he were to escape, where would he run to? Of course, adrenaline and a lack of clear thinking didn’t allow for logic.

I made my way over to the driver’s seat and Tony took the passenger seat.

‘Close the door and put the heat on,’ Tony said, rubbing his hands together.

Though not the chilliest of days in DC, the weather surely wasn’t accommodating. I did as I was asked.

‘I don’t see why we do this to ourselves. I mean, who chooses to live in the cold anyways?’

‘Us,’ Tony laughed.

‘Well, you know what? After all this is done, I’m moving my ass to Florida. I hate this weather.’

‘You’ll say the same thing about the sun. People always love what they can’t have and hate what they have.’

‘But there’s always the beach to cool off. Here, it’s not like I can jump into a pool of fire.’

‘No. But that’s what heaters are. Plus, you should be used to this weather by now. Remember during training when they had us camping out when the temperature was in the teens. Man, those were the days. Couldn’t start a fire because it would bring attention to us and blow our hiding spot.’

‘You think you could still do that?’

‘If I had to, but I’d rather not. Life is a lot more chilled now. This stock market shit is just the bomb. You should really get into it. Iron and I could definitely use a guy like you.’

‘Nah,’ I smiled at the gesture. ‘That life isn’t for me anymore. I’m getting comfortable with normalcy.’

‘Normalcy doesn’t involve stealing from the president to free your wife. Guys like us, we’ll never have normal. We’re fighters. We were designed to fight, to take what we want and not give a fuck about anyone else.’