Vengeance in Blood (Book 2): Tribulations (27 page)

“Don’t know, but I’ve got some theories,” he said.

“Is that what the hundred thoughts blaring in your mind are about?” Besseta asked.

“Some,” Kenneth admitted. “The rest are trying to outthink them.”

“Well—” Besseta stopped as Kenneth almost pulled her off her feet.

“Taxi!” Kenneth shouted, stepping out in the road. A taxi stopped, and Kenneth opened the door, letting them get in first. When he climbed in, he pulled out his wallet and handed the driver a hundred as he said, “We’re just sightseeing; just drive us along.”

“Sure thing, pal,” the driver said, taking the money, then pulled out in traffic.

Besseta looked up at him. “I know I’m little, but quit tossing me around like a rag doll.”

“Sorry, but someone stepped out in front of us several blocks down.” With his hands in his lap, Kenneth pointed at the window.

Cutting her eyes, Besseta saw two men on the sidewalk looking at them with one on a cellphone as they passed by. “How in the hell did you know? They had to be like four blocks away.”

“They were out of place,” he said, digging stuff out of the pack. He ripped items out of their packages open and put them in his pockets. Then Kenneth pulled out a map of Boston and looked it over. He leaned up to the glass. “Can you take us to this museum?” he asked the driver.

“Hey, bud, you pay, I’ll take you to the pyramids,” the driver laughed. Kenneth passed him another hundred. “Have you there in ten minutes,” the driver said, stomping on the gas.

Closing the backpack, Kenneth sat back, looking at the glass between them and the driver. “Shit, it’s Homeland,” Kenneth mumbled. Seeing Besseta look up at him out of the corner of his eye, Kenneth nodded toward the glass separating them from the driver. “Look at the reflection in the glass behind us. Three cars back, a black SUV with two men up front and one in the back. Six cars back, blue car with two men in it,” Kenneth told her.

“What the hell,” Besseta mumbled and grabbed Kenneth’s hand.

“How fast can you run now?” Kenneth asked.

Besseta looked outside at the clear blue sky and bright sunlight. “Not far without feeding several times or fast enough to get out of Boston carrying you.”

“Without me,” Kenneth corrected. Besseta squeezed his hand
hard
, making him wince.

“I’m not leaving you,” she growled in a low voice.

Kenneth looked down at her. “I can get out; this is my game now. It would be easier alone, but I can get us out.”

Sighing, Besseta said, “Tiffany wouldn’t make it as far as I could.”

“Okay, now I want your promise to listen to me,” Kenneth said as the driver took a sharp turn. Kenneth laughed, seeing neither of the cars following them make it. “You stay behind me and follow my lead.”

“I’m the one that can’t get hurt, remember?” Besseta snapped.

“If it was night, I would let you take the lead in a second, but it’s not. Now, are you going to let me lead?” he asked, hearing horns behind them. Looking in the reflection, Kenneth saw another SUV pull out into traffic from a side street. “Shit, they’re converging.”

“Baby, I’ll follow you anywhere,” Besseta told him, wishing Kenneth’s mind would quiet down some.

Nodding, Kenneth pulled the pack up his arm. “That means stay behind me close enough to touch my back. If something happens, follow my lead,” he said and turned to Tiffany. “You up for this?”

“Shit yeah,” she said with a weak smile. “Just get me home to Jack and Jill.”

“Consider it done,” Kenneth said as the driver stopped. Kenneth opened the door with the two hot on his heels. Walking in the museum, Kenneth handed the cashier a hundred. “Keep the change for the fine work.” He smiled, leading the two through the turnstiles.

The girls moved up behind Kenneth as he slowed his pace and stopped at a display with a map of the museum. Studying for a minute, Kenneth walked off at a leisurely pace. “Tell me if either of you hear someone demand entrance using a badge,” Kenneth said in a low voice, walking along.

“Vampire,” Besseta mumbled, and Kenneth slowed his walk. “I smell one off to our right,” she whispered.

“They used the east entrance,” Kenneth said, returning to a steady walk among the displays. When he walked past the displays into a corridor that said Employees Only, the girls hesitated for a second then moved up close to him.

Kenneth walked to a door that read Not for Public Use, Employees Only. Opening the door like he belonged there, Kenneth led them into a long hallway. Tiffany looked around, not liking the white walls of the long hall. Looking ahead, she saw the hall ended in a T intersection. When they were just about to the end of the hallway, four men rounded the corner from the left, blocking the hall. Kenneth didn’t slow as the two men on the outside raised large flashlights and the two in the middle lifted pistols.

“Freeze,” one of the men with a pistol said. The two men on the outside turned on the flashlights, and Kenneth’s face felt like it was burning. Behind him, Kenneth heard two moans and thumps on the floor. Stopping a few feet from the two men holding pistols, Kenneth smiled, letting the backpack slide off his arm and hit the floor, distracting the gunmen for a second.

His right foot shot out, kicking the man on the right at the wrist. Hearing the bone snap as the pistol fell out of his hand, Kenneth changed targets. Lunging to his left, Kenneth brought his left hand down just behind the wrist, striking the radial nerve and making the man’s hand go numb and release the pistol.

Swinging his arm around, Kenneth flipped his hand up, exposing the end of a screwdriver he then buried into the man’s skull and shoved him back into the flashlight holder beside him. Spinning around, Kenneth lashed out with his foot, reengaging the man on the right. Kenneth’s foot hit above the knee, and he used his weight to push the knee sideways until he heard it pop, making the man fall into the flashlight holder beside him. Bringing the screwdriver around, Kenneth buried it into the man’s temple. Shaking the screwdriver to destroy as much brain matter as he could, Kenneth glanced around and quickly determined which of the two left was the greatest threat.

Kenneth yanked the screwdriver out as the man in front of him dropped his flashlight and reached inside his jacket. Kenneth grabbed his wrist, pushing it into the man’s chest as he brought the screwdriver around and shoved it into the man’s brain.

Yanking the screwdriver out as he spun around, Kenneth saw the last flashlight holder pulling a pistol out from under his jacket. Seeing the two women start to move, the man hesitated his grab for his gun, aiming the light at the girls. Closing the distance, Kenneth grabbed the man’s wrist with his left hand before the man could pull out the pistol. Raising the man’s arm, Kenneth brought his right hand up in an uppercut, hearing a snap as he struck the man’s elbow.

The man yelled, dropping the flashlight as his left hand came out of a pocket holding a knife. With the screwdriver still in his right hand, Kenneth brought it down, pushing him away. Letting the man’s broken arm go with his left hand, Kenneth twisted, reaching over and grabbing the man’s left wrist.

Kenneth rotated the man’s arm as he rolled his hand around the wrist, making him bend over. Kenneth raised is right elbow then brought it down and heard the man’s arm snap. With the tip of the screwdriver pointing in the wrong direction, Kenneth lashed out with is right foot, kicking the man in the chin.

As the man straightened up from the kick, Kenneth spun around, extending his right arm. When his spin completed, the tip of the screwdriver buried in the back of the man’s skull. Letting the screwdriver go, Kenneth let the body drop as he moved over to Besseta, who was using the wall to stand up.

“You okay?” he asked, helping her up.

Shaking her head to clear the weakness away, she said, “I think so.” As Kenneth helped Tiffany up, Besseta noted, “That was some flashlight.”

Kenneth spun around. “Feed. We have to move,” he said, moving to the first one he killed. Taking off the man’s jacket, Kenneth unclipped the shoulder holster from the man’s belt and pulled it off. Going through the jacket, Kenneth tossed a small notebook on the ground then emptied the pants pockets and found a spring-assisted knife, which he put into his pocket. Putting the man’s smartphone down, Kenneth looked up to see the girls moving over.

Ripping the man’s shirt off, Kenneth unfastened the bulletproof vest and tossed it to the ground with the notebook. He moved to the next gun holder as Besseta knelt by one of the flashlight holders. Kenneth pulled out the pistol and magazines then emptied the pockets. Unclipping the radio on the man’s belt, Kenneth pulled out the earpiece, laid the radio down, and finished emptying the man’s pockets, throwing everything into the pile.

Moving over to the man Besseta was feeding on, Kenneth took the pistol and magazines and tossed them in the pile then emptied the pockets in the same way. Moving over to the next one, Kenneth repeated the process and found a set of keys. Keeping them, Kenneth put the rest in the pile.

With the four stripped of useful gear, Kenneth grabbed one of the pistols and shoved it in his belt at the small of his back and started putting everything into the backpack. “You guys almost ready?” he asked.

Tiffany pulled away from the man she was feeding on and looked at the screwdriver sticking out the back of the head. “Where the hell did you get a screwdriver?”

“From the drugstore?” Kenneth said, fighting to zip up the stuffed backpack.

Finished feeding, Besseta moved over and looked at the flashlight beside her. “I’ve never felt anything like that before,” she with some awe.

“Gave my face a sunburn,” Kenneth said, reaching over to the radio, and clipped it to his belt while putting the ear bud in. He listened for a second then keyed the radio. “Unit six here,” he said. The two turned to him, shocked.

“Had trouble with maintenance staff not opening the corridor. Waiting at junction,” Kenneth said with authority. “Haven’t seen the targets, sir. Will advise if situation changes.”

Getting up, Kenneth walked over, picked up the smartphone, flipped through the screens, and found a program running. “Let’s go,” he said, heading down the left corridor.

The two ran after him and fell in behind him as Kenneth shook his head. “Shit, give me your phones,” he said.

“I can break mine,” Besseta said, digging in her coat.

Kenneth looked over his shoulder. “I said give, not break.”

Huffing, Besseta pulled it out and handed it over. “We have never used the damn things. How did they trace them?”

“They scanned them in the restaurant and cloned them,” Kenneth said, taking her and Tiffany’s phones.

“You’re sure?” Tiffany asked.

Kenneth held up the phone. “Says captured two hours and seven minutes ago,” he said, and they saw a map with three blinking lights on the screen. “Follow and act like you belong,” he said as he turned the smartphone off.

Opening the door, they found themselves on a small side street. Not stopping to look around, Kenneth strolled out and grabbed his cellphone, walking out into the stopped traffic waiting on the traffic light. Strolling past the back of a pickup truck, Kenneth put the phones in the bed.

Keeping close, the girls held their heads high and followed Kenneth to the sidewalk. Pulling out the keys, Kenneth hit the unlock button and heard a chirp behind him. Turning around, he saw a black SUV with its lights on. Hitting the button again, the lights flashed as the SUV chirped.

“Get in,” Kenneth said, walking to the SUV. The girls walked around, climbing in as Kenneth shut the door and started the SUV. Dropping his hand, Kenneth keyed the radio on his belt. “Negative, sir, we don’t have a visual on suspects. There was a side entrance we couldn’t cover from the hallway, and tracking shows suspects moving.”

Looking behind him, Kenneth forced his way into the stream of traffic, getting a few honks. When he was in the line of traffic, he quickly keyed the radio again. “Copy, move to perimeter.”

At the first intersection, Kenneth turned away from the museum and hit the gas, weaving through traffic to create distance. “Holy shit, you kicked their ass!” Tiffany shouted behind him.

“Where are we going?” Besseta asked, staring at Kenneth. The hundreds of thoughts she had heard were now thousands roaring in his mind.

Glancing at the rearview mirror, Kenneth turned on a larger road and said, “Have to dump this ride.”

“Okay, then what?” she asked.

Holding up his hand for quiet, Kenneth reached down and keyed the radio. “Rodger, unit six moving to blocking position on Pine Street.” When he was certain he didn’t need to talk, he glanced over at Besseta. “We have to find a spot for me to think for a second.”

“Besseta, did you see him kick their asses like little bitches?” Tiffany yelled from the back. “Shit, that was worth getting hit with that weird flashlight.”

Besseta leaned forward and saw Kenneth’s face was indeed red with a sunburn. Kenneth pushed the backpack over. “Get the sunscreen out, and you and Tiffany coat up. It’s in the side pocket. Don’t open the main compartment because I barely got it closed.”

Pulling out the bottle, Besseta started smearing it on as Tiffany leaned over the seat, holding out her hands. Besseta squirted a glob for herself, and she started rubbing it over her body.