Chapter 3

Characters introduced in chapters 3 and 4:

Frank

Intel man, former Green Beret, 5’-9” tall, 250 pounds, 64 years old, gray hair and eyes

Jerry

Plumber, 5’-8” tall, 175 pounds, 45 years old, auburn hair, blue eyes

Tommy

Jerry’s assistant, 5’-9” tall, 165 pounds, 30 years old, brown hair, gray eyes

Phillip

New security chief, 6’-1” tall, 155 pounds, 42 years old blond hair, blue eyes

On returning to the living room, I got out the 10 gauge double barreled shotgun from the gun cabinet. I removed the regular twenty-eight inch barrels and replaced them with a pair of custom made fifteen inch barrels. I then locked the action to a specially made mount. That mount is disguised as a large piece of metal art work. It’s very solid and quite heavy, and reposes in my living room across from the front door.

After checking that the electrical firing mechanism in the mount made good contact with the triggers and that it was functioning properly, I then checked the alignment to be sure both barrels were pointed at the middle of the front door opening and centered about four feet above the floor, before loading it with three and a half inch magnum loads of double ought buckshot. Anyone who opened or came through the front door was going to get a very nasty surprise.

All of the lights in the house were turned out except for the one in the dining room. I had moved our dirty dinner dishes from the kitchen to the dining room table to make it look used, before going out the back door and locking it securely. Then going around the side of the house, I took up a position in the trees where I could watch the front of the house and the road coming in at the same time. I assumed a comfortable position there and waited.

It was shortly before 8:30 when I saw the dark colored van approaching. Its headlights were off and only the side or running lights gave it away. It stopped well before it reached the entrance to my front yard. Turning on my electronic hunter’s ears, I listened to what was said.

“Stay here,” Van man told the driver. “We’ll go in on foot and check things out. Then we’ll go in the house and see if that damn girl is in there. I’ll send one of the men back to get you when we’re done.” The three of them got out of the van and headed down the road to my place on foot. They moved like a herd of cows, and I could hear every step they took and also their grumbling.

I waited until they had entered the yard before moving silently up behind the van. The driver had his window open and was relaxing while smoking a cigarette. As I moved along the driver’s side of the van, I already had the silenced pistol in my hand and had turned off the ears.

As I moved closer to the driver’s door, I could see him in the mirror, or rather his cigarette. He appeared to be very relaxed and was obviously not paying a lot of attention to his surroundings. Bringing the pistol up, I moved forward silently in a crouch, to came up in front of the door and fired two shots into his head through the open window.

The only sound was the sliding of the .22 caliber pistol’s action as the gun reloaded. I checked the driver and put a third round just behind his left ear to be sure. To keep the van from being moved, I removed the keys from the ignition but left him behind the wheel.

The night vision goggles were a real blessing returning to the area in front of the house through the trees. Of course, I had learned to move silently a long time ago, and made no noise getting there. On nearing the house, I could see ‘lard ass’ standing in front of the porch. The other two were just returning from both sides of the house. I turned on my ears again.

“Nothing on this side of the house,” said one of the men, quietly.

“There’s a light in the dining room,” said the other, also quietly, “and I could see food on the table, but no one was there.”

“They couldn’t have heard us coming,” ‘lard ass’ whispered. “We didn’t make any noise or have any lights on. They have to be in there somewhere!” He sounded really disturbed.

“All right,” he finally said after several seconds of silence, “you two go in there and search the place. I’ll keep watch out here in case anyone should try to escape.”

“How are we going to see in there? We didn’t bring any flashlights,” the one asked.

“Turn on the room lights, stupid,” ‘lard ass’ said in disgust. The two started up the steps to the house very cautiously after pulling out pistols. When nothing happened, they crossed the porch and stopped at the front door and just stood there.

“What are you waiting for?” ‘lard ass’ demanded shortly in a more normal voice.

“Nothing,” said one of the pair. The other one hit the front door with his foot and it swung open, completing the firing circuit. The first one caught the full load from the right barrel of the ten gauge in his chest and stomach, and dropped like a sack of shit. One second later the left barrel fired and caught the second man just as he was starting to move.

I could see ‘lard ass’ jump at the first shot and fall to the side just after the second shot. The two on the porch were toast. The two ounces of double ought buckshot that each of them took at close range will definitely do that. After a number of seconds and no more shots, ‘lard ass’ got cautiously up from the ground. He called to the two on the porch, but there was no answer. He went up the steps in a crouch and oozed onto the porch floor. He crawled across to the two bodies and shook both of them for a few seconds, but there were no replies.

“Jesus, what kind of people live around here?” he said to no one in particular. Then he moved back to the steps and back down to the ground in front of the house. Apparently, he’d had enough, for he turned toward the road, prepared to leave. Stepping out of the trees, I blocked his way.

“Going somewhere?” I asked. You could see him jump at the sound of my voice, since he couldn’t see me very well in the dark.

“Who the hell are you?” he demanded, in a panic.

“I’m your worst nightmare,” I told him. “I’m a retired professional hit man, and I don’t like visitors or being disturbed.”

“We were only looking for someone,” he said, in excuse.

“You were looking in the wrong place,” I told him, just before I put two bullets in him from my regular 9 mm pistol. He went down and lay there for a few seconds before I put another round from the silenced .22 pistol in his head.

Now, I had a problem. I had to clean up this mess and get rid of the bodies. SHIT! This had never been necessary with the Agency, but definitely it was here.

“Oh well, you may as well get on with it,” I told myself. Returning to the van, I put the driver in the back and drove it into the yard to parked by the ‘lard ass’ and got him in the back also. Talk about your dead weight, he definitely was.

Going through their pockets, I collected their wallets, keys, money and cell phones plus anything else that they had on them. Everything went into one of the evidence bag that I normally carry.

Returning to the house through the back door, I returned to the living room to disconnect and remove the ten gauge.

First rule: NEVER go through your own ambush zone until you’re sure it’s safe again.

While I knew both barrels had fired and the gun was empty, I didn’t live through seventeen years in the Agency by being careless, and I wasn’t exactly in a rush tonight.

Going out on the porch I collected the wallets, money, and cell phones from the two there. They were both a mess. The bag, with all of their stuff in it, went in the living room to look at later along with their pistols.

I moved the van so the back doors opened on to the porch steps and loaded the two from the porch into the back of the van. They were a real mess. I moved the van and parked it away from the house.

On returning to the house, I got the hose out, turned on the porch light, and washed the blood and gore off the front porch and the steps, before going in to looked at my front door. What a mess! Not only was it broken from being kicked in, but there were a number of holes in it from the buckshot. All of this was uncalled for, as I had left the door unlocked. If they had tried the door knob first, it would have opened. Just damn!

Now I would have to replace it and see if it could be repaired. It was a good thing that I had three of them, as this was the second one to be damaged.

It was by now after 9:30. I called Ed figuring he would still be up, but his phone rang several times before he answered.

“Ed, this is Bill. Can I get some help? I need a ride back from where I’m going. Can you give me a lift?” I asked him.

“Where the hell are you going and why can’t you drive back in whatever you go in?” Ed demanded.

“It’s a little complicated and probably best that we don’t discuss it over the phone,” I told him.

“All right, I’ll come out there, but this is going to cost you at least a six pack,” Ed told me.

After talking to Ed, I took the bags of wallets and stuff into my computer room. Using forceps to open the wallets and remove the ID cards and other items, I then made copies of them on my FAX / copy machine / printer / scanner. Everything went back in the wallets the same way that I had found them.

There was money, and I counted out over a thousand dollars from the four of them. Five hundred dollars was aside for Ed, and I put the rest in an envelope for Ashley. I checked their cell phones and downloaded the stored information to my computer in a new folder for each of them.

I sat the cell phones aside and went out to the van to checked the glove box and removed the paperwork there. I made copies of the registration, and credit card receipts for gas and maintenance for further study. All the paperwork went back to the glove box, and I made sure my fingerprints weren’t on any of the material. I also still had the gloves on. I moved their pistols to the gun cabinet to take to the vault later.

Shortly, Ed arrived. As soon as he got a look at the front door and the wet porch, he asked, “What the hell have you been up to, Bill?” I took him over to the van and turned on the cargo light in the back.

“God damn!” was all Ed said for a while.

“They came looking for Ashley,” I told him.

“They deserve what they got then!” Ed said.

“I need to get rid of them and the van,” I told him, as I replaced their wallets, cell phones, and other things, as I wasn’t planning on any more walnut trees.

“I know just the place,” Ed told me. “It’s up on the north side of the city, near all the rich bastards and big houses. It’s also far enough away from here to throw anyone looking for them off the track,” Ed added.

“OK,” I said, “I’ll drive the van. You follow me, and I’ll come back with you.”

I changed out of my working clothes and put on some jeans and a dark colored shirt but retained the gloves. I also took one pistol and my trusty shotgun. On the way back out of the house, I tossed Ed the roll of cash that I had set aside for him.

“Here!” I said, as I tossed it to him.

“What’s this for?” he asked

“Good deeds,” I told him. “Those others don’t need it anymore.”

We drove up to the north side of the city, being careful not to exceed the speed limit or appear suspicious. I pulled into the place by the big lake that Ed recommended. I left the van there and retraced my way up the tire tracks on the gravel parking lot. Ed had stopped a good distance down the road and waited for me. We headed back to my side of town.

“There’s $500 in that roll you gave me!” he said, when we were back on the main road.

“That’s right,” I answered.

“What about the girl? Doesn’t she need some of it?” he asked.

“I kept some for her,” I told him.

“If those guys were that well fixed, they were working for someone big,” Ed observed.

“Yes, that’s what I figured from the start. Someone with big money is behind this. Whatever the THIS is,” I told him. We rode the rest of the way in silence, each with his own thoughts.

When we got back to the house it was 1:00 AM. I was bushed, but I still needed to get Ashley out of the vault and to collect the artillery that I had placed earlier.

“Go with me,” I asked Ed. “I need to collect my backups and get Ashley out of my vault.” I got a big hand lantern out of the house, and we walked my previous route from the vault in reverse, collecting the weapons.

“What were you figuring on taking on,” Ed asked, “a platoon?” He had a pistol in each hand and one in his belt plus several magazine carriers.

“You can never be too prepared,” I told him, as I picked up the last pistol and magazines. I had the Uzi slung over my shoulder, and I also had the two pistols that I had carried. We finally got to the wood shop and I turned on the lights.

“You never showed me this!” Ed said, amazed. “I didn’t know you did any woodwork. I may have to come visit more often. Especially since you have that nice twenty inch planer over there and that eight inch jointer.”

“You do woodwork?” I asked, curious.

“I putter a little,” Ed answered with a grin.

We put the weapons on a large work table and I turned on the intercom. After a few seconds for it to warm up, I very quietly said, “Ashley, Sweetie, I’m back. Are you awake?” It took a while, but Ashley’s voice came back with tears in it.

“Oh Bill, I was so worried. I didn’t hear anything and didn’t know what was going on. Can I open up now?” she asked.

“Do you remember what I told you?” I asked.

“Yes,” she answered and fell silent.

“The Cobra is dead,” I told her and then added, “I have Ed out here with me. Don’t be surprised when you see him.

“You can unbolt the door and I’ll open it with the handle,” I also told her. A few minutes later, I had the door open and Ashley rushed into my arms. I held her as tightly as her injured back allowed and kissed her. God, I thought she would lick my tonsils she was so passionate. She shook and trembled for a while as I held her.

After a while, Ed cleared his throat. He had been looking through the vault doorway and had been really surprised by what he saw.

“It looks like you’re prepared for World War III, Bill!” he said in awe. Ashley jumped in my arms at the sound of his voice.

“Easy,” I told her, “it’s just Ed. He gave me a hand getting rid of our visitors. They’ll never bother anyone again,” I told her.

“I’m so glad you’re back,” she whispered.

“Where did you get all of this?” Ed asked from just inside the door.

“The Agency didn’t check what we brought back. They figured we needed it to do our work. I collected all of it over seventeen years,” I told him. Then added, “Let’s get this hardware put up. I’ll clean it and unload the magazines tomorrow.”

“That sounds good to me,” Ed said. “Besides you owe me a six pack and I think we should drain several before we retire.”

We unloaded and cleared all of the weapons on the work table. Then I took the weapons into the ready table in the vault and sat them in the racks there, also the magazines. I checked that everything was turned off, then closed and locked the vault. I ran the wall back in place and put the special handle away.

Putting an arm around Ashley’s waist and picking up the lantern with my other hand, we headed back to the house. Back in the kitchen, I got out some beer and pretzels, and we sat down and had one or so, even Ashley.

“You know, Bill, I never did know who you worked for, and now that I’ve seen that vault, I don’t want to know. It would probably be too dangerous,” Ed remarked.

“The people I worked for weren’t as open and visible as the Army,” I told him.

“Yes, I can believe that,” Ed answered. Ashley just had a confused look on her face at our conversation.

“Someday, I may tell you who I worked for,” I told her, “after you’ve been here a while.”

“I guess I should be getting back home,” Ed said, after the third beer.

“Ed, it’s nearly three o’clock in the morning,” I told him. “Why don’t you crash here. I have plenty of bedrooms, and you can help me sort through all the information I got from that bunch tomorrow. Well, today actually. You know what I mean. I really did get a lot of stuff from them and could use some help going through it.”