The Arena: The Awakening (1) (17 page)

Based on how she was trained, Laura suddenly clicked in to re-checking her surroundings. They know all about her, what she does and how capable she is, so it could be possible that she was now being targeted by whoever these guys were. It was deadly silent where she was. So much so, the only thing she could hear was her own breathing. After a few minutes of re-assessment, she was happy that she was on her own and carried on looking down her 'scope.

She had calculated in her head that the flight time of her bullet from where she was would be about two seconds. It was a minor detail but she needed to know these things to make sure she picked the exact moment to take her shot. She lay there, quiet and still, for another thirty minutes, but there was still no sign of Scott in the house. The beefed up security were showing themselves every couple of minutes in the windows. She felt like they were taunting her. The situation had started to make her re-think her plan. She had been there for hours now with still no confirmation Scott was actually in the house. Knowing that she needed to hide the light from its screen, under a small cover, she got out her cell phone and texted Taylor. It was short and brief.

It just said “Where is Scott right now?”

Awaiting the reply, she carried on as if she was going through with her plan and focused down her 'scope. After a few minutes, she got a reply message.

It said “Don’t know! He checked into a small hotel just north of Denville this morning but he’s done nothing since. He’s not used his credit cards or his cell phone. He might not be there. If we could get his cell phone to receive a message or a call, we would know for sure.”

Laura knew she needed to put in a distraction at the house that would cause them to contact Scott. She scoped the rear of the house until she found a possibility. Attached to the premises was a propane tank. That would do the trick, however it suddenly dawned on her that her bullets weren’t made of metal so there would be no spark to set it off. Instead, she just waited until one of the armed guys came into full view in one of the windows. He may have been covered in body armour but his face wasn't. There was a brief moral dilemma that quickly passed through her mind. She was about to kill someone not on her list. She dismissed this quite quickly as she knew that this guy wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. Even though he probably didn’t know anything about her, or her story.

Laura set her breathing. The guy in the window was leaning on something as if he was taking in a view. It was almost like he was putting himself on offer. She gently squeezed the trigger of the rifle and within seconds, it was done. She scored a clean shot through the window and hit her target square in the centre of the face. He dropped out of view and she could see that inside the house had almost instantly turned to chaos as the others were running around all over the place. She didn’t stop to take it all in. She had done what she needed to do, so she gathered up her gear and made her way through the undergrowth back to where she had left her car.

It didn’t take her too long to get there and once in the driver’s seat, she sent a text to Taylor with the word “incoming” before firing up the engine and leaving the area.

As she drove along the Boulevard out of the estate, she was being passed by ambulances and police cars that were heading to where she just came from. It didn’t seem to bother her too much and soon she was heading north awaiting a message from Taylor.

It didn’t take too long to come through. He confirmed that Scott was in the hotel and, after hacking their CCTV, he passed her the details of his car which was parked in the parking lot.

It was only a matter of ten miles to the hotel from where she was so it didn’t take too long to get there. She knew that she needed to lead him into a false sense of security, so her plan wasn’t to confront him in his hotel room.

She parked up a couple of blocks away and retrieved some items from her rifle case before heading towards the hotel, walking through the undergrowth to the parking lot. Using the details Taylor had sent her, she found his car pretty quickly. It was actually a beautiful car. A brand new Mercedes sitting there all shiny and sparkling under the moonlight. She approached the car from the rear of the lot and, after making sure that no one was present or watching her, she attached one of her tracking units to the inside of the rear wheel arch. After rechecking her surroundings, she lay down and pulled herself underneath the car. From the pocket on her trousers, she pulled out what looked like two giant band aids that had small computer chips attached at one end. She opened them and attached them to the gas tank of the car. They were obviously not band aids but thick strips of C3 explosive.

Her job was done for the time being. It was now time to get a hot drink somewhere and wait. When she made her way back to the car, she could see in the distance that there was a glow from street lights as if a town was fully open. It only took a couple of minutes driving to find that it was a series of fast food joints that, thankfully, were open. As she sipped a warm cup of fresh brewed coffee, she started to think what might be going through Scott’s mind at the moment. She knew he was arrogant, so he was more than likely feeling quite smug about it all at the moment. Whatever smile he had on his face was soon to be short lived as trying to get the better of Laura wasn’t something she took lightly.

Before too long, the sun had started to come up. Laura got back in her car and headed over towards Morristown. If Scott was going to go anywhere this morning it would be to safe surroundings, so his office would be a good bet. As she entered the town, she drove past the shopping centre where his office was and carried on a short distance out of the town until she could find somewhere to park up out of the way. She walked into the town square and figured that, if Scott came straight to his office from the hotel, he would come through the set of lights opposite to where she was currently standing. To the left was the shopping centre and to the right was a small row of shops, one of which was a coffee shop. Laura checked the control box and saw that his car still hadn’t moved. This would be a good time to grab a hot sandwich and a coffee and just take a minute before her plan came to fruition.

She found a bench to sit on in the park as she ate her sandwich. She watched the town slowly get busier as the 'normal' people started to show up for work and go about their daily lives. She was enjoying watching it all but it was short-lived as the control box in her pocket started to beep. She grabbed it quickly and could see that he was on the move. She knew that the travelling time was around thirty minutes so she had time to do what she needed. She took out her cell phone and accessed her emails. The draft message she had written up for Taylor now needed to be sent and within moments it was on its way to him.

As she put her coffee cup and sandwich wrapper in the trash can next to her, she looked around the town one last time. It wasn’t as busy as she thought it would be at that time in the morning, but her thoughts were interrupted by a sound that seemed familiar to Laura. It was a car of all things. As she looked towards the shopping centre, she could see that it was Hank arriving for work in their Challenger. She only caught his side profile but it was enough! It was an unexpected, but good, feeling as it confirmed to her that he was alright and that Scott hadn’t done, or arranged, anything to harm or hinder him.

Laura walked across the street and stood just back a little from the traffic lights that Scott would be approaching. She looked at her control box and time seemed to be standing still as it took an age before Scott’s car came into the town centre area. As she figured, he was coming the way she had predicted and, before long, she could see on her screen that he had almost come into view. She stepped forward and looked down the road. She could see his car, so she paused for a second and pressed the button for the crosswalk. There were a couple of people also waiting to cross but that didn’t seem to bother her. His car stopped at the line and she crossed the street with the others that were waiting. As she crossed, she looked straight at Scott’s car. It was him driving.

Time slowed down for him as he caught her in slow motion walking past and staring directly at him. Laura could see that any self-righteousness he had been feeling drained almost instantly out of his face and was replaced with a look of realisation that he was in deep trouble.

Laura just carried on walking out of his view as he sat there, dumbfounded, at the lights. His stare was only broken once the car behind him beeped its horn for him to move as the lights had changed to green. In a panic, he roared away from the lights as if trying desperately to get to the safety of his office, but it was a futile thing to do. He couldn’t see her any more. Blending into a small crowd of people, Laura never let him out of her sight and, just as he reached the entry point to his building's parking lot, she pressed the button in her hand.

Considering she never had cause to use them in the field, Laura was quite impressed at how effective those explosives actually were. By the time Scott’s car came back down, it was on its roof and a complete fireball. She knew the job was done so she didn’t hang around too long to savour the carnage she had created. She just casually walked off in the direction of her car, quietly content that another liar was out of the picture.

Chapter 27

Onwards and Upwards

Taylor had received Laura’s email and worked frantically for a few hours arranging everything that she had asked for. She wanted a private jet to collect her from a municipal airport in the Poconos with a flight plan for Reykjavik Airport in Iceland. Once there, the pilot would then submit a flight plan to Inverness Airport in Scotland. This all had to be without customs checks. It cost two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the customs waiver but it was done. She could get her equipment into whatever country she needed. Once in Inverness, he had arranged for a rental vehicle, to her specifications and requirements. A luxury hotel was booked in Fort William, where she would be living for the foreseeable future. It was a lot for him to arrange short notice, but he saw it as more of a challenge than anything.

Laura was back at the mall when she received a return message from Taylor. She had had her hair done and was now lying on a massage table being pampered by three beauty therapists doing her nails, make-up and of course, having a relaxing massage. She opened her cell phone the first chance she got and the message from Taylor was short and sweet.

It said “Plane booked 3pm today. Hotel booked and car will be waiting at airport. Good luck.”

She smiled to herself as she enjoyed the rest of the pampering and, before long, she was getting into the new outfit she bought on the way into the mall. It was a slim-fitting short black dress, killer black heels, a matching handbag and a large brimmed hat. If anything, she really looked the part. As she left the boutique, she walked past several other stores in the mall but came across a store selling large screen televisions. She stopped in her tracks as there, on the big screens for all to see, was the news of the blowing-up of Scott’s car in Morristown. She stared at the TV, looking at the headlines flying across the bottom of the screen. What she wasn’t expecting was for a picture of her to appear on the screen showing her as wanted in connection with the explosion! It wasn’t the best picture of her, to be fair, as it was a side-on view taken from a poor quality surveillance camera. It still made her think, though. Would they risk putting a proper picture up of her, or was this just to show the public that they were looking for someone in connection with the death of a corrupt member of law enforcement? Either way, she didn’t really care. She was going to be out of the country for quite a while and things would die down before she returned. After all she had Taylor as her eyes and ears here, and anything she needed to know he would tell her, as and when needed.

Laura carried on as normal and went and had lunch at a nice restaurant in the Mall. All dressed up the way she was, it must have thrown the waitress when she ordered her steak. Time seemed to fly by as, before she knew it, she was on her way up north to meet the plane booked by Taylor. As she drove through the Delaware Water Gap, she took in the scenery around her and wondered what it was like where she was going. Given what she knew from Taylor’s research, she would be going into the middle of nowhere to find her next subject. It was almost like a mini-adventure but with a serious point at the end.

After about an hour and a half, Laura pulled into the airport. She had been given instructions from Taylor to drive her car around the perimeter road and pull into the large hangar at the end of the complex. As she pulled in, she could see a private jet sitting waiting on the tarmac outside. Its door was open and a flight attendant stood at the bottom of the plane's steps, as if waiting to usher her on board. Pulling her car into the hangar she was greeted by a staff member who, once he had introduced himself, signalled for another worker to come and take her bags to the waiting airplane.

The formalities were short and sweet as, within a couple of minutes, she was walking across the tarmac towards the plane. The sun was shining and Laura really did look like the chic executive, with the designer clothes and large sunglasses protecting her from the glare. As she got on board and sat in the oversized luxury leather chair, one of the stewardesses handed her a glass of champagne. As she sipped from the glass, the plane started to move. As it trundled along the runway, she did think to herself that this could be the last time she’ll enjoy being in such luxury, as this part of her overall plan could all go wrong from here on in.