Deadly Intent: An Action Thriller (Adrian Hell Series Book 4) (16 page)

We both frown and look at the TV. We’d left the video playing, and the camera had obviously been left recording after Clara had gone. On screen is a man sitting cross-legged on the floor. He’s Middle Eastern, with a long black beard and a turban. He also has an eye patch over his left eye. He’s hugging his knees as he stares at the camera. I must admit, looking at him makes me a little uncomfortable. The look on his face… it’s like he can actually see me.

“Adrian… I am Hamaad El-Zurak. I control the Armageddon Initiative.”

Jesus. The man himself.

“I have heard much about you. I need you to understand that you cannot stop what we have started. We will change the world, and I promise you will not be alive to witness it.”

He stares at the camera for a moment—it’s like he’s staring through the screen, right at me. I don’t know what it is about him. He doesn’t scare me or anything, he’s just… I don’t know—un-nerving.

I’ll find him and put a bullet between his eyes, just to be on the safe side.

I turn the DVD off and remove it from the player. I slide it back into its cover, and then walk over to the door to retrieve my bag. I bring it inside, resting it on the floor in front of the TV. I open it up, throw the DVD inside, and take out my other Beretta, and my custom holster. I stand, strapping the holster in place at my back, and then slide the guns inside it.

“They’re mighty fine-lookin’ weapons,” says Raynor, approvingly.

“They do the job,” I reply, shrugging.

I grab the burner phone from inside the bag and dial Josh’s number from memory.

“I need your help,” I say as he answers. “It’s Tori, she’s been—”

“Adrian, where are you?” he says, cutting me off. The panic evident in his voice.

“What? I’m back in Texas, why?”

“Shit. Adrian, you need to run. Now!”

I feel my eyes go wide. I’ve never heard fear in Josh’s voice before.

“Why?” I ask.

“They’re coming for you. For all of us. Just run—I’ll call you.”

The line goes dead. I look at Raynor.

“What was that all about?” he asks.

“I don’t know… but Josh was spooked, and he said we should run right now.”

He shifts uncomfortably on the spot. “So... where are we going?”

I sling my bag over my shoulder, trying to remain calm and casual, despite everything that’s happened. I need Raynor to trust me, and he won’t do that if I don’t look like I’m in complete control of the situation.

“Across the street,” I say with a smile.

21.

08:31 CDT

I walk out of my bar and cross the street, with Sheriff Raynor close behind me.

“I think your friend may have meant for us to run a bit farther than this,” he says.

“Aren’t you the least bit curious as to who we’re supposed to run away from?” I ask.

“Not particularly.”

“Ah, John, you have much to learn. If you wanna win the game, you first have to establish who’s playing.”

“That’s surprisingly philosophical, Adrian,” he says with a chuckle.

“Don’t let the fact I used to be a ruthless sociopath, who charged people money to commit murder on their behalf, fool you. I’m actually quite intelligent.”

“Uh-huh…”

I knock on the door of The Fire Pit, quickly attracting the attention of the owner, who opens up for us. He’s in his early sixties and wearing casual clothes with an apron over the top.

“Mister Adrian!” he says, smiling. “We’ve not turned on the grill yet!”

I push past him without a word. I feel bad, because he’s a nice guy and always treats Tori and I well when we eat here, but I’m in a hurry. Raynor follows and shuts the door behind us.

“I’m sorry,” I say. “This is an emergency. Can we go upstairs?”

“Mister Adrian, I… what is going on?”

Raynor steps forward and takes over, using his authority to speed things along.

“Pardon the intrusion,” he says, professionally. “But this is Sheriff’s Department business, and we could really use your help.”

He pauses for a moment, looking at us both. I see the excitement building in his eyes. He probably watches Cops or something…

“Sure thing, just head through to the back and up the stairs.”

“Thanks,” I say. “And whatever happens outside in the next few minutes, just act normal and remember—we’re not here, okay?”

He nods enthusiastically, and I catch Raynor’s bemused look.

We head upstairs and position ourselves in the room at the front of the building, overlooking the street and directly facing my bar. It’s a storage room of some kind—lots of big wooden crates scattered everywhere. We stand either side of one of the windows, peering cautiously down below.

“So what now?” asks Raynor.

“Well, Josh seemed pretty keen for us to get outta there, so I’m guessing whoever’s coming is close. Once they see we’re not there, they’ll figure we got tipped off and cleared out as quickly and as far as possible. So we can stay here and get a good look at who we’re dealing with.”

Raynor strokes his chin with his left hand, and then scratches his right shoulder. “Is this what your old life used to be like?” he asks.

I shake my head. “Nah, back then people used to run away from
me
.”

09:10 CDT

We’ve been waiting over half an hour. I’m getting impatient, because every second I stand here is a second less I have to find Clara and rescue Tori. And time’s running out.

“Maybe they got tipped off and aren’t coming?” offers Raynor.

“Not likely, the way Josh was acting,” I reply.

I hear vehicles coming from both directions. It’s been like a ghost town since I got back, so the engines are quite loud.

“Head’s up,” I say, peeking out.

Five large, black, SUVs screech to a halt at all angles in front of my bar. Men in black suits pile out of them, guns drawn—there must be nearly thirty guys in total. A line of them form a loose perimeter around the street, facing away from the bar. Four gather around the door, running through basic entry tactics, before tearing down the police tape and storming inside, quickly followed by the rest.

“Jesus…” mutters Raynor as we look on. “These boys ain’t kiddin’ around.”

“No, they’re not…” I say, quietly distracted.

I must admit, I’m concerned. This is a large-scale government operation, no doubt about it. Overkill to bring in just one guy—even if it
is
me. And this only leaves me with more questions. Who are they? How did they know to come here looking for me? Are they the same people that our mysterious general works for? Why is everyone so intent on stopping me taking out a terrorist? Surely doing that is a good thing…

They’ve been inside just a couple of minutes, but they’re starting to re-appear on the street already. They look casually up and down, but they’re coming to the conclusion I predicted—I must be long gone. I mean, what sane guy wouldn’t be?

I look over at Raynor, who’s sitting on an unopened box staring at the floor. The look on his face says it all.

“Trying to get a handle on things?” I ask him.

“Adrian, what the hell are you mixed up in?” he asks me in response.

“John, if I knew, I’d tell you. Look, they don’t know you’re with me. Wait ’til they’ve gone and go back to being the local sheriff. If they come back around askin’ questions, just be honest.”

“What’s happening here… whatever all
this
is,” he points outside, “there’s no going back to normal, Adrian. If what you’ve been dragged into is big enough to warrant
that
kind of response from the government, you’re gonna need all the help you can get. Plus, your bad guys have Tori, and she’s one of our own. It’s my duty as sheriff to help get her back.”

I sigh and look at him. His jaw muscles are tense, and his lips form a thin line of determination on his face. I’ve known him long enough to know when he’s made his mind up about something, so I’m not going to insult him by trying to talk him out of it.

“You know what you’re signing up for, right?” I ask him after a moment. “I mean, you’ve seen the FBI’s file on me... I’m not stopping until I have Tori, some answers, and the body of a dead terrorist. I’m just concerned you might question my methods along the way… This isn’t the time for disagreeing with me.”

Raynor stands and walks over to me, stopping inches from me. He cuts an imposing figure; I’ll give him that. He takes off his hat and rests it on a box next to me. Then he unpins his sheriff’s badge and places it beside that.

“From what I know of you, Adrian—even before I read your file—I can imagine, when it comes down to it, you’re not one I’d enjoy disagreeing with. Let’s go get your girl back.”

He turns and walks out, picking up his hat, but leaving his badge. I follow him downstairs and thank the owner for his hospitality and discretion. We walk out and cross the street. I pause for a moment in the doorway of my bar. I stand there and take one last look inside before I leave. Every memory I have of this place involves Tori. There’s a part of me… a small part of me—a
normal
part of me—that wants to just sit down and rock back and forth, angry and upset and confused and heartbroken. That normal part of me wants to let somebody else fight the bad guys, so I can just stay at home and wait for them to return with the woman I love, unharmed.

But I’m not normal. And a much larger part of me is simply standing on the edge of a cliff, looking out into an abyss filled with violent and deadly intent, holding a gun in each hand and preparing to jump.

Clara fucking Fox has risen from the dead, and she brought my Inner Satan with her. I can’t remember the last time I was this pissed.

God help whoever’s behind this. Because Death himself is coming for them. And his name is Adrian Hell.

09:50 CDT

“Josh, it’s me,” I say. “Can you talk?”

We’re riding in the rental car that GlobaTech provided for me. Raynor’s insisted on driving, despite having his right arm in a sling, and I have Josh on speaker.

“Yeah, I’ve got a few minutes,” he replies, still sounding flustered. “You manage to get away?”

I shake my head instinctively, even though I know he can’t see me. “Nope. I hid upstairs in the building across the street to see who was coming for me.”

There’s a moment’s silence on the line. I’m guessing Josh is questioning my sanity, although that’s a debate that’s raged on for years between us, and he knows damn well I don’t think like normal people.

“And?” he asks eventually.

“And… there was a thirty-strong team of armed, suited-up G-men who searched my bar and left again in a hurry.”

“Shit.”

“That’s what I said. There’s something else, too, that I couldn’t tell you earlier.”

“More good news?”

“Clara’s kidnapped Tori.”

I let my words hang in the air and, after more silence on the line, I hear banging and swearing. I can picture Josh hitting everything around him in a fit of rage. He’s a passionate guy—an emotional guy… He may well be my conscience and Guardian Angel, but he still has his own battles to deal with, and sometimes things get to him as they do to us all.

“That fucking bitch!” he yells. “That absolute slag! I’m gonna kill her, Adrian—I swear I’m gonna kill her myself. I’m gonna pull out her spine and knock her head off with it! I’m gonna…”

“Josh…”

He pauses, breathing heavily. “What?”

“Calm down and get in line—the bitch is mine.”

He takes some deep breaths. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. I appreciate the sentiment. And you know I love it when you get mad and swear—you sound so British…”

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Raynor shake his head and let slip a half smile.

“Adrian, this whole situation is messed up…” says Josh.

“What have you got, Josh?” I ask, sensing he has more news since the last time we spoke.

“We’re in deep, deep shit. Like, ‘up to our necks’ deep. Those guys who came after you were NSA.”

“Great—another acronym joining the party. What do
those
guys want?”

“I have no idea, but they’ve raided GlobaTech. They stormed our head office earlier today. They seized control of everything. Not just the systems and information relating to this whole Armageddon Initiative, Yalafi Hussein thing… everything. They closed us down, seized our assets, put an indefinite hold on all operations and research, and ordered every operative we have overseas back to the U.S. straight away.”

“What? How? On who’s authority? Does anyone even
have
that kind of authority?”

“According to the suited stiff who was in charge when they barged through the front door, their orders were signed off by President Cunningham himself.”

“I don’t understand…”

“You and me both. Luckily, I was able to get off-site before they could take any of my stuff, and Clark is still in New York, so the only two copies of the data from Hussein’s laptop weren’t taken by the NSA.”

“Well, that’s something. Have you spoken to Clark yet? Do you guys have anything new?”

“No, nothing yet. I got the message about the NSA raid to him and he’s gone dark. We’re meeting up at a safe house as soon as we can.”

“I’ve got John Raynor, our local sheriff, with me, so we’ll join you. I’m gonna need your help getting Tori back.”

“Good, I’ll text you the location. Memorize it, then ditch your phone. I’m doing the same. We’ll just meet you there. If anyone’s not arrived in twenty-four hours, we’ll assume the worst and carry on without them.”

“Sounds fair. Where’s Schultz?”

“Ryan went along with the NSA to try to straighten everything out with them and find out what the hell’s going on.”

“I don’t like this, Josh. Any of it.”

“Me and you both, Boss.”

“Okay, text me the address, and I’ll see you tomorrow. Watch your back, Josh. I mean it. No risks.”

“Understood. You too.”

He hangs up, and I look at Raynor.

“So, how does it feel to be wanted by the NSA with no idea why?”

He keeps looking at the road, focusing on the light traffic as we hit a nice cruise down the Interstate.

“Pretty shitty, if I’m honest,” he replies.

I smile.

A text message comes through on the phone. I quickly read it, memorize the address, and then take the SIM card out of the phone, snap it in half, and throw everything out the window.

“We need to head for Jonesboro, Arkansas,” I announce.

Raynor whistles. “That’s easily a thirteen hour drive,” he says.

“Keep to the speed limit,” I say to him. “Stay off the main roads where we can when passing through any major cities. We don’t want to draw any attention to ourselves.”

“Smart.”

“We need to swap cars, too. We’re driving around in a GlobaTech asset, so we have to assume they know where it is. We have to go completely dark until we’re sitting in a room with Josh and Bob Clark.”

I sit back in my seat and close my eyes. I last twenty seconds before I need to open them again. Every time I so much as blink, I see in my mind everything that’s happening come rushing toward me at once. I can’t focus on it yet. I just have to hope that by the time we hit Arkansas, I’ll have figured it all out, and determined who I need to kill to end this.