Angel and the Assassin (33 page)

Kael pushed the door open and approached the body. A thin stream of moonlight managed to filter through the grime on the window, but Kael‟s eyes were so attuned to light and shadow that it was enough to assist him in the way a floodlight would assist an ordinary person.

Angel leaned against the wall, his chin on his chest. From the position of his arms, it was plain he was secured from behind. Kael gently took his shoulders. He was freezing cold and completely still. Behind him a heavy iron ring was hammered into the wall, probably to tie up a bull, it was so strong. Police-grade steel handcuffs secured Angel to the ring.

Taking a breath to steady himself, Kael lifted Angel‟s chin and tugged off the hood. A long sighing breath from Angel‟s pale lips sent relief reverberating through Kael‟s body. “Angel,” he whispered.

Angel‟s eyes opened, unfocused for a moment; then the boy looked directly at him. “Sir.” His voice was faint. “I‟m so cold.”

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“Are you hurt?” Kael asked.

“Not really hurt, just a bit knocked around. I don‟t know where they brought me.”

“It‟s a farm in the Bosnian hill country.”

The harsh bark of a dog cracked the air. “Dragana,” Kael whispered. A foot ground on the stones outside the shed. Kael slipped the hood back over Angel‟s head, and when the boy protested, he hissed, “Shut up; don‟t move. Be a good slave.”

Silently, he stepped back and dropped to the floor behind a rotting wooden fence separating the cow stalls. A short, barrel-chested man in a greasy sheepskin jacket shoved open the door and approached Angel. He kicked at Angel‟s foot and, when he got no reaction, checked to ensure he was still tethered to the wall.

Satisfied, he turned to leave.

Without a sound, Kael stood up, raised his gun, centered it at the man‟s heart, and fired. The silencer muffled the sound, and the man dropped heavily to the floor.

Quickly Kael stepped out of hiding, fired another bullet into the man‟s skull, and went through his pockets for the key. “How convenient.”

Again he tugged the hood from Angel‟s head and unlocked the handcuffs.

Angel fell into his arms. Kael stood and lifted him up, cradling him against his chest. Outside the gusting wind muffled any twigs he stepped on or stones he kicked as he ran unheeding toward the woods, looking out for Dragana.

Hidden among the trees, Kael watched the farmyard, still cradling Angel to his chest. The man who had come to check on Angel had been gone from the house for more than five minutes. When he did not return, someone would come looking for him. Where the hell was the woman? Kael watched intently for any signs of a person moving through the darkness. His excellent hearing blocked out the gusting wind to focus only on extraordinary sounds.

Christ!

Across the farmyard two men walked with Dragana between them. The bright moonlight reflected off the barrel of the gun one man held at her head. Words flew back and forth between them. They headed toward the cowshed and would find in a minute that Angel was gone and one of their own was dead.

“Angel, look at me. Look at me.” Angel met his eyes. They were more focused now. If he had stayed asleep much longer in the cold, he may have died. “How many men are there?”

“Five, I think, but I was hooded the whole time. I never saw any faces. But I heard five different-sounding voices. I couldn‟t understand what they said, but I‟m sure there‟s five.”

The pride Kael felt at Angel‟s deductive abilities made him smile despite the circumstances. This boy could be so good if he was trained right.

I shot one, there are two there, so that means only two more should be in the
house.

17Dropping Angel‟s legs, Kael set him on his feet and steadied him. “You have to remain here, hidden. I have to go and get Dragana.”

Angel looked up into his eyes. “Sir, don‟t get hurt.”

Kael grinned. “I‟m indestructible. Do you know how to use a gun?”

“No, Sir.”

Kael took out his GLOCK 19 compact and released the safety catch. Carefully he positioned it in Angel‟s hand. “Stay here and use this only if you need to, but if you do, don‟t hesitate. Aim carefully. If anything happens to me, run that way, straight through the woods.” He turned Angel and pointed in the direction of the jeep. “Conran is waiting with a car.”

“Yes, Sir.” Angel threw his arms around Kael‟s waist, hugging him more tightly than he ever had before. “Sir, don‟t do anything stupid. I know what you‟re like when you‟re pissed off.” Angel looked up at him, his big eyes full of wisdom.

“You have nothing to prove. Do not take risks.”

“Thank you, Yoda.”

An old plough and a tractor stood in the yard. Kael ran silently toward the plough, using it for cover, and then the tractor, which stood closest to the cowshed.

Inside, voices were raised as they discovered the dead man and their hostage gone.

Through the broken window, Kael aimed his GLOCK 26.

The man with the gun on Dragana screamed something at her and struck her hard with the side of his pistol, making a sickening crack as the gun made contact with her head. She stumbled to the ground, and he kicked her in the side, continuing to shout. The other man came to stand over her and aimed his gun, ready to shoot.

Kael made the split-second decision to take out the second man first and felled him with one bullet to the head. The other man showed his lack of training by how slowly he turned and the surprised look on his face. When he fell, he landed on top of Dragana, accidentally discharging his own gun.

The woman let out a strained cry. Kael entered quickly and dragged the man off her. “Are you injured?”

“My foot, just a graze, I think. There are two men more in the house, and they have a fucking great big Alsatian dog.”

He helped her up. “The gunshot will bring the others out. Angel is waiting in the woods. We have to hurry. Did they take your gun?”

“Yes, I‟m sorry. The dog alerted them there was someone outside the window. I couldn‟t run fast enough.” Dragana took a step, and her foot collapsed under her, causing her to stumble to her knees. Kael pulled out his flashlight and shone it on the foot. It was more than a graze. The metatarsal bones were shattered where the bullet had pierced them. Adrenaline masked the pain to some degree, but she was beginning to go into shock. “Try to stand up; I‟ll carry you.”

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“That could be harder than you think. I weigh thirteen stone, but I am planning to join Slimming World if we get out of this alive.” Pain made her voice weak, while fear brought out her sense of humor.

“I‟m a big fucker; I can do it.”

Not wanting his gun too far out of reach, Kael stuffed it into the pocket of his leather jacket rather than his shoulder holster. He pulled Dragana to her feet, but she was no more than five feet three inches and could barely reach up to put her arm around his neck.

“I think I‟m going to have to do the fireman‟s lift.” He positioned her and began to lift just as the Alsatian bounded into the shed, barking. The dog had been trained to corner people, but not attack until ordered. Kael managed to hang on to Dragana, but both were pinned to the wall. His hand was in his pocket on his gun when the other two men entered the cowshed with weapons drawn.

One man shouted at the dog, which lay down quietly.

Even in the darkness, Kael recognized one of the men as having been the man sitting with his target in Edinburgh. A flashlight shone in their faces, blinding them. Kael‟s eyes adjusted almost instantly, but Dragana was still blinded. “He says he saw you in Scotland,” Dragana interpreted.

“Do they speak English?”

“Maybe a little but I don‟t think much.”

The taller of the two men, the one who had been in Edinburgh, came closer and stuck his gun in Kael‟s chest, speaking loudly. “He says sit on the floor.”

Kael slid down, taking Dragana with him, attempting to ease her pain. Again the man spoke, his voice raised, the words unintelligible, but somewhere amid the harsh consonants he heard the word
Angel
. “They are asking where the boy is.”

“Like I‟m going to tell them,” Kael said. They were sitting on the damp dirt floor with two men leaning over them, but all the time Kael scanned the cowshed looking for a means of escape or a distraction so he could pull out his gun. Any minute the men would search him for weapons. He hated giving up his gun. He‟d rather give up his cock.

The two men began talking to each other without taking their eyes off them.

“They are deciding what to do next. The tall one wants to try to negotiate using us; the other wants to kill us now.”

When a face appeared in the window, ghostly pale in the moonlight, Kael watched it for a split second, his heart thudding suddenly in fear.

Get back to the fucking woods and do as you’re told. You’re supposed to obey
me.

Angel leveled the gun, his hand completely steady, and fired twice in very quick succession. Both men fell to the ground. The dog leaped up and began barking loudly at the gunshots. Kael had his gun out in an instant and fired a bullet into its midsection just as it leaped on him.

17In the silence that followed, Angel walked into the shed and stood utterly still, looking down at the men he had shot. One of them began to move, cursing with pain as he tried to rise. In one step Kael stood over him, pressed his gun to the back of the man‟s head, and fired. The man slumped to the ground, unmoving, and he repeated the action on the other.

Kael looked at Angel. “Good boy.”

“Sir, I feel faint.”

Kael caught Angel as he wavered on his feet. “It‟s all right, sweetheart. The first kill is always the hardest.”

“No, Sir. I think it‟s because I‟m hungry. Those guys didn‟t give me anything to eat.”

Kael‟s laughter rang to the low rafters. Dragana began a low chuckle, but she was bleeding freely from her foot and in increasing pain. Taking Angel‟s face in his hands, Kael looked into his eyes. “We have to walk a mile to the jeep. I‟ll carry Dragana, but you‟ll have to walk. Can you manage?”

“Yes, Sir,” Angel said.

“Good lad; let‟s go.”

The jeep stood waiting with the lights and engine off. About five hundred yards away, Angel stopped. “Sir, Mr. Conran‟s not in the jeep.”

Struggling under Dragana‟s weight, Kael stopped to focus. Even he had trouble seeing something in the dark and through fairly dense woods from that distance. “Are you sure?” The boy did not answer at once. “Angel, what do you see?”

“Sir, he‟s across the road and in the woods on the other side.”

“If he‟s taking a whiz when we need him to drive, I‟ll cut his dick off,” Kael said through his teeth.

“Sir, there‟s two men with him, and they‟ve got guns. One of them‟s got one of those big machine gun-type thingies. It‟s really cool.”

Dragana must have passed out. She was not even trying to help support her own weight; she was slumped on Kael‟s shoulder, and he was beginning to hurt.

“Are you sure? How can you see them? I can‟t see them.”

“I have difficulty in bright light, but in the dark, I‟m like a bat.”

“You certainly are.” Kael was very impressed. “Can you drive?”

“Not legally, Sir. I don‟t have a license, but I wrecked two of Sven‟s cars, which made him hate me even more, and the day you came I damaged his BMW.”

“Could you drive that jeep?”

“Yes, Sir, I think I could.”

“This is what we are going to do. Very quietly we are going to get Dragana into the jeep. You are going to start driving as fast as you can. Keep your head down because those guys will fire on you. Don‟t stop until you‟ve driven for at least fifteen 178

minutes, then double back. They‟ll be so busy firing at the jeep they won‟t see me going round behind them to get Conran. Follow my orders exactly.”

“Yes, Sir.”

* * *

In spite of the freezing wind, sweat ran down Conran‟s face and back. He had not seen the men come upon him until they dragged him out of the jeep and into the woods. Their English was very hard to understand, but they seemed to understand him, and they did not believe him when he tried to explain that he was a tourist who had got lost.

Neither he nor the men saw Saunders come out of the woods across the road.

They knew nothing of his presence until the jeep began to drive away at breakneck speed. By the time they aimed their guns and fired, the jeep was too far away to hit.

Saunders had left him all alone, and he would never see his wife and children again. He doubted his body would ever be found. If he‟d had a gun in his hand at that moment and Kael Saunders in front of him, he‟d shoot him in the chest and walk away with no remorse whatever for getting him into this and then abandoning him. He‟d gone out of his way to help the man get his teenage boy back, and this is what he got for his trouble. He‟d had a spotless career, and it would end without fanfare in a dark wood in a foreign country.

The man to his right crumpled to the ground, and a split second later the second man fell. “You didn‟t think I‟d leave you to die, did you, Stephen?”

Conran whirled around to see Saunders silhouetted against the bright moon, larger than life, just as he always was. Conran wanted to drop to his knees and kiss his feet. As enraged as he had been just two minutes ago, he now felt the most overwhelming love and gratitude toward the man. “That‟s precisely what I thought.”

“Who would I torment if I didn‟t have you?”

Saunders opened his arms, and Conran threw himself at his chest, wrapping both arms around him. Saunders kissed the top of his head, and he was unutterably grateful. “Thank you, thank you, Sir.”