Laura 02 The God Code (27 page)

Ernest wants to reply, but cannot. He is stunned that a man such as Victor sees the world in such a way. Silence falls upon the men, each occupied with their own thoughts. After a few minutes, William finally speaks. “I think I’ve made a mistake in going along with the plans.”

“You think?” Ernest answers, but Victor holds up his hand, stopping Ernest from venting his anger any more, then asks, “Where is the President?”

“He is being held at an abandoned house I own, not far from here.”

Victor gives William the fountain pen, and then brings him some paper from the desk before replying. “Write down the address, including the layout of the place and exactly where the President will be held and how many guards there are.”

William does as asked, while explaining the layout and possible guard positions as he draws, then gives directions on how to reach the house. When he is done, Victor takes the paper from him, gives it a quick glance over, and then hands it to Ernest.

“So, now what are we going to do with you?” Victor taps his chin as he speaks.

“He can come with us, help us find the President,” Ernest replies.

“Nope, not going to work, even if he wants to help, there are people under him that are just as dedicated as he is, but not as smart. They would rather kill him than allow him to help us. We will need to stay with our disguises.”

“Victor is right. There are many of my men in the building as security, and they will kill you on sight if I am seen trying to leave with you,” William comments sadly.

“Well, I guess we will have to trust him. You know you are going to prison right?” Victor looks at William as he speaks.

“I will not stop you, but I am not going to prison.” William has a determined look in his eyes as he replies.

“Well then, call your secretary and inform her that muscles over there is staying to discuss important matters and that she needs to escort us out, then also inform her that you are not to be disturbed. Where you go when we leave is entirely your problem.” Victor pulls William up and pushes him to his desk as he speaks.

“Thank you,” is all William says before dialing his secretary and doing as he is asked. Victor and Ernest right their robes, then leave the President’s office, where Dora greets them and leads them to the President’s elevator. She opens the doors with her access card and rides the elevator down with them. At the ground floor, she takes them to the security desk, where she signs them out, and then returns to her office via the elevator. Victor and Ernest make their way as fast as they can to the exit of the building, just as the phone on the security desk rings. Both turn their backs to the guard as he answers the phone, and head for the exit.

“Fathers, stop!” The voice makes them freeze in their tracks, but neither turn around to face the voice.

Ernest has Gerhard’s gun, but that will not help them much as they are in the White House, staffed by many armed Secret Service agents. Heavy boot footsteps on the tile floor approach them from behind, yet both men still do not turn around. Victor and Ernest quickly look at each other, and then Victor whispers, “The only way out will be to take hostages. Take a girl, men are afraid to get a girl killed.”

“Okay,” Ernest replies, and then scans the people around him for the nearest female to grab.

“I am so glad I caught you before you left.” The voice behind them startles them, but neither men show any indication of it. Slowly Victor turns, now recognizing the voice. Keith is standing right behind them, his face filled with happiness.

“How can we help?”

“No, it is I who want to help you. It is my daughter, the hospital just called a few minutes ago. Her fever is gone and she is recovering very fast, they say it is a miracle. She will be able to come home tonight. Thank you so much Father.” Keith grabs and shakes Victor’s hand as he speaks.

“I am glad my son, maybe you can help us. We need a ride to our hotel. Can you arrange a taxi for us please?” Victor is still holding Keith’s hand as he replies.

“Taxi, no way, I will take you myself. Come, my vehicle is just outside.”

Victor and Ernest follow Keith outside to his truck, the same one they came in. Keith personally drives them to their hotel where he dropped off their luggage earlier.

“Your hotel is only a block from here, we will be there shortly,” he comments as he pulls out of the White House grounds.

“Thank you my son.” This time Ernest replies, getting into the rhythm. Victor thinks of taking the man’s truck, but he does not want to raise any more suspicion by having more agents not reporting in. He allows Keith to drive them to their hotel and escort them to their rooms, where they wish him and his family well, congratulating him on his daughter’s recovery. As soon as Keith leaves, they order a taxi and quickly take off their robes, changing into normal clothes that are packed between the spare robes in their suitcases. They asked the cab driver over the phone to meet them at their hotel room, saying they have luggage, but in reality, they did not want to stand in the street and be noticed.

When the cab driver arrives, they ask him to take the car around and meet them at the rear entrance. Victor and Ernest use the service stairs to make their way down and out of the building, where they find the confused taxi driver in the back parking of the hotel waiting for them. Ernest gives the driver the address that William gave them, and then sits back in the seat before whispering to Victor, “So, what’s the plan?”

“Rescue the President,” Victor replies matter of fact.

“Make it up as we go I presume?”

“Exactly.”

Ernest closes his eyes and imagines Shayna and his kids. He is playing with them on the beach. He really misses them. Beside him, Victor also closes his eyes and thinks of Laura.

After the gruesome death of his last girlfriend, he thought he would never love a woman again. He had had a few women in his life, but none had ever touched him like Laura. Making him feel human again, not just a trained killing machine. A tear forms in Victor’s left eye as he thinks of Arabel, his previous girlfriend, and how she died.

“Do you have family?” Ernest’s voice next to him rips Victor from his thoughts.

“No.”

“Girlfriend?”

“You ask too many questions.”

Ernest immediately understands. He had seen it in troops before. Men who lost someone close to them due to a criminal activity. Some crash and kill themselves or become criminals, others take out their hate by signing up for military or police service. Those who sign up for police service due to a loss of a loved one, almost always try to make up for not being able to save their loved ones by trying to save others from what happened to them. Those who sign up for military service are normally trying to rid the world of evil.

From the devotion he has seen Victor has to his work and the loneliness in his eyes, his girlfriend’s death must have been unnatural, maybe a mugging gone wrong.

“How did she die?” Ernest chances.

Victor looks out of the side window of the car, then replies.

“It is not the time for a conversation like this.”

Ernest waits a minute for Victor, in case he changes his mind and wants to talk.

When Victor does not respond, Ernest continues. “When you are ready to talk, I will be there for you.” There is a few minutes silence before Victor replies. “Thanks, I will remember your offer.”

The rest of the trip goes by in silence, as each man occupies himself with his own thoughts.

***

Laura rolls over as she peacefully sleeps in the soft bed, unaware of the killer standing over her. Andrea looks Laura up and down, admiring her slender figure and long flowing red hair. Andrea looks at her own body. She is built stronger and more athletic than Laura, and men fall over their feet to talk to her. She has a larger bust than Laura, and can kill without remorse, so what is it about this girl that Victor would choose her above Andrea? If Victor had not fallen for her, Andrea would have done anything for him. Now that he has betrayed his company and her, he will die, as will this girl.

Andrea slowly takes out her pistol, checks that the silencer is still screwed in tightly and that a round is chambered, even though she knows one is. Leaning carefully forward Andrea brings the barrel to Laura’s head, just as Laura smiles. Laura’s smile infuriates Andrea, for she thinks that the only reason Laura is smiling is because she is dreaming of Victor.

“Well, this will be your last dream of him, let’s see how you dream with a hole in your head,” Andrea whispers, then slowly pulls the trigger. Just as she has the trigger half pulled, she stops. Carefully she releases the trigger, and then brings the pistol back, before holstering it.

Andrea stands for a few seconds thinking, deciding on what to do, and then takes out a double edged knife clipped behind her back. Andrea is filled with hatred for Laura and Victor, and seeing Laura smiling in her sleep is poison to Andrea. How dare Victor refuse Andrea? No man has the right to turn her down when she wants him, she has the perfect body, and she works hard to keep it that way. He has no respect for the effort it takes her to keep in shape, while this bitch is naturally slim. Andrea decides to make a personal statement for Victor to find. A sadistic smile spreads on her face as she lifts the knife, aiming for Laura’s heart, the blade glittering in the light coming in from the window next to the bed.

“Die bitch,” Andrea whispers as she brings the knife down, aiming for Laura’s heart. Suddenly her cell phone in her pants pockets starts to vibrate, set to silent mode. Andrea immediately freezes, the knife coming to stop just in time, touching Laura’s chest at her heart. For a moment Andrea stands motionless, deciding if she is going to answer the phone first or kill Laura first. Suddenly Laura turns in her sleep and the knife cuts Laura’s shirt two inches before Andrea can pull it away. Andrea lifts the knife away from Laura, but holds it in position to cut Laura’s throat if she wakes up, and then pulls out her phone. Andrea looks at the number shown on the phone. It is Phil. What the hell does he want now? Shaking her head, Andrea walks a few feet away from Laura, and then angrily answers the phone in a whisper.

“What?”

“Laura did not leave the pictures with the computer. She must have it on her or have it hidden somewhere. Do not kill her unless you find the data.”

“Phil, I do not have time to go searching for data.”

“Then leave her, we will get her when she continues her search again tomorrow.”

“As you wish, but the price just went up.”

Andrea looks at Laura with jealousy in her eyes as she starts to put the phone away, then slowly walks forward and brings the knife up to Laura’s throat, deciding if she is going to follow Phil’s wishes or not. Finally she lifts the knife up and cuts a lock of Laura’s hair for satisfaction, and then walks out of the room to return to Phil’s room to hide.

***

Victor lets the taxi driver pass the address, asking the driver to drop him and Ernest off a block farther down the road by giving an excuse that they have to see another friend first. Walking back to the address, they find it to be an old wooden house with a broken porch and bleached walls. A picket fence surrounds the yard, missing its gate. The grass has not been cut in years, and all the windows are broken. Feeling the hood of the Chevrolet Impala standing in the driveway, Ernest gives a nod to Victor that the engine is still warm. Victor indicates to Ernest to go around to the back, while he will enter from the front. As soon as Ernest disappears around the house, Victor slowly goes up the porch and tries the front door, it is unlocked.

Turning the old wooden knob as gently as he can, he opens the door and sneaks inside. Victor finds himself in the living room. There is no furniture in the house and cobwebs are in almost every corner. The floor is dusty, and Victor can make out several footprints and drag marks on the floor where presumably the President was dragged in. They most probably already left, as there are no guards to be seen anywhere and only one vehicle in the driveway. The question is, whose car is it? Victor suddenly stops; he heard a shuffle in the next room. Listening for a few seconds and hearing no more sounds, he quickly tiptoes to the wall then presses himself against it, while at the same time Ernest is making his way in the back door, coming into the kitchen. A hallway leads from the kitchen with four doors opening into the hallway on the sides, all closed. The hallway ends in another door that is also closed. Carefully Ernest moves into the hallway, stopping at the first two doors. A sound down the hallway makes him turn, facing the door at the end. The doorknob is slowly being turned, and then the door opens just a fraction. Aiming for where someone’s chest will be, Ernest stands ready to fire, yet no one emerges.

20 seconds go by without a sound. Ernest is about to move forward, when he hears a cough in the room to his right. Great, an attacker from the front and someone to his right. Slowly the door at the end of the hallway starts to open more. If Ernest had not seen the knob being turned earlier, he would have thought it was the wind. The door is now a foot open, but still no one emerges. Suddenly he sees someone peaking around the bottom of the door.

Ernest’s heart skips a beat and he quickly changes his aim and squeezes the trigger gently, then relaxes as he recognizes Victor looking right at him. Ernest points to the door to his right as Victor slowly enters the hallway. Victor responds by pointing to the door near him. They signal to each other that each will storm their rooms on the count of three; Ernest holds up his hand, showing one finger, two fingers, then both men kick their doors in.

Ernest enters the room, taking in the surroundings in a split second. A door to the left, an old dresser, foot end of a bed to the right, feet moving. Quickly Ernest turns into the room to the right and sees a man jump out of bed, going for a gun on a night stand next to the bed. Ernest shoots him in the shoulder and then in the leg. As the man falls back onto the bed, Ernest is immediately next to him and hits him with the back of his pistol on the head, knocking him out. Just as Ernest moves forward to search the man, someone speaks behind him.