Wanted (36 page)

They raised M16s and ran, firing short bursts for cover. Tanya ignored the bullets that whipped past her and ricocheted off the dirt, stinging her. She fired once, dropping the man on the left, then worked in another round. Another man approached, the last one she figured, from the north. He had been trying to flank her but had come running when the bullets started flying. Another burst blazed in from the man closing on her from the front, one round tearing through her hair and yanking a few strands out as it passed.

Calmly, as though she had all the time in the world, Tanya dropped the crosshairs on him and waited for the perfect moment. He twisted and jerked back and forth, but she realized his hips did not move as much. She lowered the rifle a few inches and fired, less than 100 yards between the two of them. He grunted and collapsed, falling forward and skidding through the sand. He scrambled to try and pull himself into the ravine, but his legs would not work.

Tanya spun quickly as she brought another bullet into play. She made it in time to see the man from the north starting to raise his gun. She fired blindly, the bullet whipping past him and making him flinch and send his own burst off to the side. Her hands moved smoothly and surely, even though her heart was hammering with fear and anger. She had to beat him! She had to win!

He recovered and stopped, bringing his gun up just as she saw him through her scope, and pulled the trigger. The burst went high into the air while he teetered backwards and fell, his chest punched through by the sniper round.

Tanya chambered in her final round and waited, breathing heavily. It was quiet for a long moment. Eerily quiet. She heard someone call out, begging for help. Somebody else started shifting in the dirt, wheezing for breath. She dared to believe that it might be over then. It had not gone down as she expected, but Carl had warned her that battle plans never did. She took a deep breath and let it out, reloading her rifle before rising up and carefully approaching the final merc she had shot.

He was dead, his eyes staring into the hazy night sky. His gun was already a few feet away from him. She reached down to remove his pistol and tucked it in her pants. Next, she removed his canteen, staring around suspiciously before laying her rifle down and taking the cap off to take a long drink. It was cool, having recently been filled in the campground, and she drank deeply before she dropped it on the dead man’s chest and reclaimed her rifle.

She heard a gasp and looked sharply towards the source. People had started to gather, the campground’s people. She saw Jessie fight her way through a few of them, yanking her hand away from Harold as he tried to restrain her, and she ran hell bent across the uneven desert to fling herself at Tanya and crush her in an embrace.

They fell to the ground, the gymnast born down by the slightly larger woman’s tackle. It felt good, she had to admit, even if she knew it was insanely stupid to let them be so vulnerable. Jessie just sobbed and clung to her, trying to talk but not making sense with her words.

“
Jessie, stop,” Tanya repeated for the fifth or sixth time. Finally she got through to the woman and managed to extricate herself. “They’re not done yet,” she explained when Jessie looked at her.

Jessie turned to look, not understanding. Tanya picked up her dropped rifle, again, and moved off to check on the other soldiers. They were done in, mostly. The one that had managed to crawl into the dried out wash had bled out by the time she reached him. She took his weapons, slinging his rifle over her shoulder with her M24 and holding the pistol in her hand. Jessie watched her, then turned and grabbed the dropped rifle from the soldier that lay near where she had first tackled Tanya.

The man behind the cactus was staring at Tanya as she approached. He was clutching his throat, but she realized when she raised her pistol to point at him that he was already gone. She tapped his cheek none too gently with her boot and nodded with grim satisfaction at how easily it flopped over and lay still. She gathered his weapons as well, then turned and walked towards the campground where the crowd of onlookers awaited. Jessie hurried up and met her on her way. She tried to talk but Tanya’s determined pace made her fall silent. Tanya went straight for the man that tried to hide beneath a trailer.

She knelt down, pistol held out threateningly, and saw him staring back at her. He was clutching his side, just below his ribs and off center. She saw there was a lot of blood. “Liver,” she said flatly. “Maybe the spleen.”

He stared at her, fear in his eyes. She reached in and yanked, dragging the full grown man out from beneath the trailer with a strength that made Jessie gasp behind her to see. She knelt down and raised the man up, leaning him against the trailer. She backed up a step and stared at him.

After a long moment, during which her prisoner could only bleed and stare anywhere but at her, she spoke. “He was the only father who ever really taught me anything,” she said softly. Jessie sniffed and shifted her feet. “He told me…told me about doing what needed to be done. Told me I didn’t really know what it was like to kill a man. Not up close, not like this. He said it’s different when you can see the fear in their eyes. Smell the sour stomach on their breath.”

She bent over and stuck her fingers in the hole in his side, making him gasp in agony. She pulled them out and looked at them. They were dark with the man’s blood. She brought them to her nose and inhaled, taking in the scent of spilled blood, then she dropped her hand and raised her pistol.

“
I loved him you son of a bitch,” she hissed. “You took him and hurt him and killed him. I’m going to kill every one of you.”

“
Tanya, don’t!” Jessie said, stepping up behind her. “I hate them too… hate them all, but he wasn’t the one. Don’t do this Tanya, don’t be-“

Tanya’s hammer clicked on the empty chamber. She stared at the gun. The man jerked and stared up at her, tears running down his face. A fresh odor joined that of the blood, an odor also caused by intense fear.

“
Do you have a daughter?” she asked him, reaching down to pull the slide back and work a bullet into firing position. He shook his head desperately, his lips parting to plead.

“
That’s too bad,” Tanya said, pulling the trigger with a far more satisfying conclusion for her.

Tanya turned away as the merc’s body twitched and slumped over. She looked at Jessie and the others, then down at the blood on her fingers. “I get it now, Carl,” she whispered. “I can do it. I will do it.”

“
Tanya… we could have asked him things. Found out where-“

“
I know who they are. I know where they are. They’re my father’s men. They’ve always been there, in the background, protecting, watching, waiting.” Tanya looked Jessie in the eyes, her own dry again and her feeling confident that they would never be anything else. “I’m going to kill them all. Then I’m going to kill him, too.”

“
Oh sweety, I know it hurts… I’m hurting too. But-“

“
Ain’t no buts,” Tanya cut her off.

Jessie nodded, looking hurt at the abruptness. “Tanya, we can-“

“
Not this time,” Tanya interrupted again. “He set us free, don’t waste his gift. Stay here, these people got a thing for you. Or don’t, whatever.”

Jessie looked shocked for a moment, her lips open in amazement. She recovered quickly, before Tanya could turn away. “Knock that shit off right now young lady,” she ordered. “You can’t do this on your own. You’re a great shot and maybe you’re a cold-hearted bitch, but you’ve got a lot to learn yet. You got flanked in the field and then you dry fired your pistol. Amateur mistakes like that’ll get you killed.”

Tanya stared at her, jaw set and eyes hard. She wanted to deny what Jessie said but she just couldn’t do it. Those
were
stupid amateur mistakes. Plus there was…well, there was the overwhelming thought of doing it on her own. All alone.

“
Please,” Jessie said softly. “You and me… we’re all we got left now.”

Tanya nodded her head briefly. “You can come with me. I guess I could use a spotter and you know the ropes. You stay off the shit though, and you don’t screw up and get us killed.”

Jessie stared at her, eyes brimming with moisture again. She nodded and looked at the others, who were just watching silently. They were stunned by the happenings of the last 36 hours.

“
You should go,” Aggie said at last. “We don’t need no more trouble around here. I’m sorry Miss Banks, but we just can’t.”

“
You… you… ah! You stupid cunt!” Jessie snarled, turning on her. She stared for a long minute, then turned away from her in a huff.

She reached down to grab the rifles dropped by the other mercs, as well as their spare ammunition. She shared it with Tanya wordlessly then turned to stare at the campground and them one final time. “Come on Tanya, let’s go. I’ll drive.”

Tanya nodded and walked off, heading towards the two remaining hummers. Jessie ran off to the nearby clubhouse and came back with the jacket Shelby had worn when she died. Carl’s jacket. She hugged it tight to herself and climbed in to the driver’s seat before producing keys she had taken from one of the dead soldiers. “Now what, honey?” the actress turned spotter asked quietly after the engine had roared to life.

“
Mexicali,” she said. “They’ve got offices there. That’s where we’ll start.”

“
You think they took him there?” Jessie asked softly.

“
Carl? I… I don’t know,” Tanya stuttered a bit, having not considered that. She wasn’t sure she could handle seeing his body, even after being certain a few minutes ago that nothing would ever make her feel again.

“
I meant your brother,” Jessie said.

“
Oh… maybe. He’s happy,” she said, shrugging. “He’ll go back to being who he is.”

“
I thought they wanted you both dead… insurance money?”

Tanya shook her head. “Dustin’s not important. They want me. They want what’s in me. Carl and I talked and he figured it out, but he wouldn’t tell me. I figured it out too. This shit that’s in me, they want it. They want the data from all this time. I’m their alpha model. The prototype.”

“
Tanya, what are you talking about?” Jessie asked, staring at her in open confusion.

“
It’s about money, it’s always about money,” she muttered. “There’s not enough money in failed athletes and car accident victims. This shit, these chips… they’re all about military. My father had the chance to win father of the year award and help me out. Instead, he found his first human test subject without needing to go through all the paperwork.”

“
Tanya, I’m sure that…”

“
No, you’re not,” Tanya said. “It sounds like a conspiracy because it is. You don’t know my father,” she paused and stared out the window. “I guess neither did I.”

Tanya turned and saw Jessie staring at her, her eyes soft and round and miserable looking. Tanya forced a tight lipped smile and said, “I know, you don’t need to say it, let’s just go okay?”

Jessie offered a sad smile and then reached over to take Tanya’s hand and squeeze it. She let go and took the wheel in both hands. They pulled out of the parking lot leaving Needles behind them in the blood soaked dust.

###

About the Author

Jason Halstead works by day as an IT Manager, developer, and database administrator. In his spare time Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and two children, writing, and competitive powerlifting.

He enjoys reading and responding to fan mail as well, so if you liked any of his other books, don't be shy! Find him on the web at
http://www.booksbyjason.com
, email him at: [email protected], or hook up with him on Twitter: @booksbyjason.

Other books by Jason Halstead

Voidhawk

Voidhawk – The Elder Race
(Voidhawk, book 2)

Voidhawk – Redemption
(Voidhawk, book 3)

Voidhawk – The White Lady (Voidhawk, book 4 – pending)

Wanted

Ice Princess
(Wanted, book 2)