Sweet Dreams (40 page)

Isis reached down to her leg and pulled out two throwing knives. With silent speed, she threw one and then the second one before the first reached its target. The first one buried it-374 AARON

self into the neck of a thin lanky man and blood gurgled from his mouth as he fell face first into the stack of poker chips in front of him. The second guard's eyes widened when he saw the blood and then before he could scream, Isis's blade caught him in his open mouth slicing into the back of his neck and wedging into the top of his spine.

She smiled and crept up to the two bodies. They pulled them upright and shoved some sticks in their jackets to keep them in a sitting position.

Isis retrieved her knives, wiping them clean on the shirt of one of the dead men and pulled her ball cap low over her forehead. Mark looked down at the man who sat holding a full house. He thought it was his lucky day, too bad, his luck just changed. Grabbing a radio from off of the table, he shoved it in his pocket.
We might need this later.

"I think we have a basement," Jamison sounded in their earpiece. "Weston just went into a room and disappeared. I think they made a basement, it isn't on any of my blueprints though,"

"Where is it?" Mark asked, he didn't have to push any buttons because the ear pieces picked up their voices as well as transmitted sound to them after it filtered out the background noise.

"Southwest of you and down the hall, I'll send it on your
Palms
."

Mark opened up his watch cover and looked at the map readout that lit up in blue. It had a red dot where Jamison thought the basement was and a map of their current location.

"Okay. We're on our way,"

Mark took out a pair of sunglasses and slipped them on his

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head. He could see thermal or night vision through them, and through wood and most metals. He looked over at Isis, who had hers on already.

The door looked clear, and in a silent motion, they were inside. The place went dark as Big B cut the main power, and you could hear voices coming from everywhere as the place came alive.

Mark and Isis hunched down and moved through the building unnoticed in the dark. Guards and gunmen ran past them as they hugged the wall and made their way through the main level.

Holding cells lined the walls with large wooden and metal doors. Coming to the only one that was closed, Mark looked through his glasses and zoomed in on the door. He could barely make out a prisoner inside, it looked like a green and red glow that moved and shimmered like heat off a hot roadway.

"Jamison, can you see in this cell?" Mark whispered.

"No, too much in the way, you're on your own."

Mark signaled for Isis to cover him. She gave a thumbsup, and then they crashed through the door. A startled guard jumped up and open fired on them. Mark shot him with his air pistol, then heard a popping sound as the guard's heart turned into mush from the inside. He fell to the ground and twitched for a moment, and then was still.

Sam screamed and started crying running into the corner of the room where she crouched like a beaten dog. Mark took off his glasses and took her in his arms. "Its okay, baby, it's daddy, I'm here, it's okay hun..." She looked up at him in the dark, and as soon as she saw his eyes, she hugged him and 376 AARON

sobbed into his chest.

"I'm here, baby, it's all okay." Mark tried to hold himself together as his little girl shook in his arms. He hugged her tight, and whispered in her ear, "We're going home after I go get mommy, okay? This nice lady will take you to a safe place. Okay?"

Mark handed her to Isis, who nodded and took off going out the same way they had come in. "We got Samantha, and I'm coming out." Isis said.

Mark could hear Isis in his earpiece as she made her way out the back door and across the loading docks. Then an explosion rocked the building from one of Big B's bombs. Mark could hear his radio go off with cursing and yelling in Russian.

"Sam's okay. Now go get your wife." Big B said in a deep voice with not a hint of humor in it.

Then, before Mark knew what was going on, he blacked out. After a brief moment of darkness, he could see K standing in a small office with a man holding a gun to her head. He stood, yelling at the man to put the gun down, and then he fired and hit the man in the hand, sending the gun flying. Then, before he could react, the scruffy-bearded man pulled out a knife with his other hand and stuck it into the side of K's neck.

She fell to the floor as Mark screamed and he shot the attacker in the head shattering the man's right eye socket. The light above the office came on as the generators kicked in, and Mark saw K lying on the floor with a pool of blood, it drained from her neck like a garden hose that had been left on. Mark held his head in his hands and tried to focus. These visions had come to him before, and now it came at him like a

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dream that he could not control. He was still in the cell where Sam had been held. His blackout was over but his head felt like it was in a vice. He stood up, put on his glasses, and turned them to
thermal
mode.

He had tried to control his visions, and with help from Solomon, he could at least tell when it was a dream and when it was real. "Use it; don't let it use you!" he would say. Mark knew that the vision would be his wife's future if he did not step in and change it. Looking at his watch, he could see that the door to the basement was down the next hallway parallel to where he now stood.

"Sam's out and safe, Mark, you go on ahead. I'm going to secure the General." Isis's voice was like a breath of fresh air, and Mark sighed with relief when he knew Sam was safe. A second explosion shook the building as it tore through the outer wall, causing havoc as the guards rushed out into the courtyard. The plan was working; everyone was running around in panic, confusion and terror, not knowing who or what was going on.

Mark rounded the corner and took off in a dead run toward the stairwell. A big, dark man jumped him as he passed an empty room. Mark hit the ground, and his rifle went flying down the hallway, across glass and metal that was strewn all over the floor.

He rolled over just in time to see the big, dark-skinned Russian stomping down with his heel. Grabbing his boot, Mark twisted it and kicked his other leg, tripping the man. He fell with a thunderous crash and jumped to his feet with unbelievable speed for a man of his size. Mark met him and jumped up with fury filling his mind 378 AARON

and eyes. He hit the man square in the jaw, which did not seem to faze him at all. Then, with a swift blow, Mark hit him in the throat with everything he had. He felt the big man's windpipe crush. The giant of a man fell to his knees gasping for breath. Mark reached down, pulled the .45 from his holster, and fired point blank at the big Russian's head. As he fired, he could hear a woman's screams...

________________________________________

"YOU SEE, K...MAY I call you K?" Geoff chuckled at himself. "I find that you have no idea who your husband is or what he does,"

K looked at him with distain, and said nothing.

"He had to be the hero; he just had to put his nose where it didn't belong, and now he must pay."

"You're crazy; my husband didn't do anything to you."

The tall man who called himself Geoff jumped to his feet in a rage. "You have no idea what he has done to me. He killed my brothers; my three brothers are dead because of him!" His face turned red, and with a quick swing of his hand, he smacked K across the room. "He killed my only family, and now I will kill his!"

Just then, the lights flickered and went out. K could hear yelling and gun shots from the floors above them. She tried to crawl to the doorway, but Geoff grabbed her foot and dragged her toward him. He breathed heavy on her neck, as he sniffed her hair hungrily. K hit him with her hands, but it only made him laugh.

"You know," Geoff whispered, "Sam will scream and cry when I carve her up; then I will tell her that her mommy is

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dead!"

K screamed and kicked up with her knee as hard as she could. She could tell by his reaction that she'd hit her target. She pushed with all her strength and scrambled for the door. Everything was dark; she could only see shadows and a little light coming from the top of the stairs. She squirmed as she felt a hand grab hers.

"It's okay. It's me, the cop," she heard a voice whisper near her. She could feel a strong arm come around her and pull her around a crate. "Stay here no matter what."

Before she could say anything or do anything, he was gone. She could hear Geoff yelling and cursing as her rescuer struggled with her attacker. Glass broke, and, as a fist hit someone in the chest, she could hear grunting; then a single gunshot rang out in the dark.

K shook in fear, hoping that the cop had fired and not Geoff.
"God, please help me. I need a miracle. I don't want
to die, please...please!"

"Get up, you fat cow! You have
no
worries
now; I won't hurt you...much!" Geoff had found her and loomed in the dark like the devil filled with hate and rage that billowed from his eyes and mouth like a thick fog.

Then a gunshot sounded just a few yards up the stairs, and K screamed out. Her hair was pulled almost out of her head as Geoff dragged her back into his office. He pulled her to her feet just as the lights flickered and came back on.

"Put the gun down, Tripp!"

Mark...it couldn't be. Nevertheless, here he stood, looking better than any Rambo movie she'd ever been forced to watch. His dark suit and body armor made him look like a 380 AARON

ninja on steroids. For a brief moment, K felt relief wash over her.
He came for me...He came for me!

No more words passed between them as Geoff pointed the gun at Mark and squeezed the trigger. His hand flew back in a jerking motion as Mark fired, sending a bullet into Tripp's hand, taking two fingers off as the gun went flipping through the air and landed on the floor. The sound filled the underground room and was much louder then K ever thought it would be. Like thunder, shaking her body to the core, she could feel it in her chest and the twitch as Geoff's hand flew back.

A second shot rang out, hitting Geoff in the other shoulder. As he fell back, K dropped to her knees, just as the third bullet pierced Geoff between the eyes. His head fell in like a watermelon and the back of it exploded into a mess of hair and bone. His body fell back and landed on Kirk's body, which was lying on the floor facedown in a pool of blood. K sobbed as Mark rushed to her side. He held her in his arms, kissing her on the back of her neck and whispered in her ear, "I'm here, everything is okay,--I'm here!"

________________________________________

MARK'S EARPIECE SOUNDED AS Jamison asked if everything was okay. "Yes, K is secure, and we're on our way out."

"Any news on Detective Weston?"

"He's dead," Mark said.

"Copy that, get out of there, and report back to base. We've got your back."

"On my way,"

Mark helped K up and started to kiss her all over her face.

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She smiled and laughed through her tears. "What took you so long?"

"Traffic,"

He held her hand and led her through the smoke-filled building and out the back door. He told her that Sam was okay and waiting back at the hut a mile or so away. She looked up at him and hugged him with tears in her eyes.

Just as they cleared the hill above the parking lot, there was an explosion behind them that made both of them jump. The whole building went up in a fiery mass of concrete and metal. After a few smaller explosions that filled the night sky with thick, black smoke, it subsided and burned. The back half of the building was gone, and only part of the front was still left standing.

Everyone checked in, and Isis informed them that the general had escaped. He took off in a helicopter that was hidden in the woods south of the building. No one seemed to care at the time; Mark and his family were hugging each other. Sam looked up at Big B, went over to him, and touched his hand. She climbed in his lap and hugged him. "Did you help save me?"

"You bet I did, sweetie, but your Dad did most of the work."

"Oh... you like horseees?"

Big B laughed and smiled. "I sure do,"

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Chapter Twenty-Eight

JUST AS MARK AND K RAN DOW THE DARK TUNNEL,

Kirk opened his eyes and felt the dead weight of a body on top of him. Rolling over, he grabbed his chest in pain and felt something warm...blood. Just an inch higher, and the bullet would have gone through his heart.

He was lightheaded but coherent enough to know that he had to get out of there. The bomb he had set would be going off at any moment.

The woman was gone, and he hoped she was okay. He could tell Geoff was dead and not coming back any time soon. Getting to his feet, he staggered down the hall and into the main lobby. The guards and a few men in business suits were all scrambling for cover. He could see flames coming from the outside of the building from a tank of fuel that had exploded. Finding a side door, he rushed outside and ran into the trees just as the building burst into flames. He smiled and grit-384 AARON

ted his teeth as a series of explosions went off. He always liked blowing stuff up.

"Well, Geoff, you sure turned out to be a piece of work. Oh, well.
No worries."

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A FEW WEEKS WENT by, and everything began to get back to normal. Well, normal was different for the Appleton family now. K was involved in a self-defense class and learning how to shoot under Mark's careful eye.

Samantha went on as if nothing ever happened. That made K happy, knowing that her child wouldn't be scarred for life. Mark sat in the main conference room and thought about everything that had happened. Tripp Maddock, or Geoff, had three brothers who worked for him and the general. They had planned to blow up three supermarkets and two schools. The plan was to blame it on the WJA. Mark threw a wrench in their plans when he killed Geoff's brothers in the cabin a year earlier.