Hunters, Matt Rogers [pdf ebook reader .txt] 📗

last forever. And it doesn’t matter what they say about you. I’m sure it’ll make headlines, an incident this public. What’s the media going to say? You were a patriot before you sided with the “bad hombres” to kill American troops. That’s what they’ll say.’

Slater didn’t look up. His insides gnawed at him. He slammed a fresh magazine into the HK45CT, hard enough to bruise his fingers.

He said, ‘I know who I am.’

Alonzo said, ‘And those close to you know the truth. That’s all that matters. Out there, everyone can hate you. It’s who you are behind closed doors, away from all the attention. That’s the key.’

Slater said, ‘You think they’ll go public with it?’

‘If they think it’ll get to you. If it’ll make you flustered, make you make mistakes, flush you out.’

Slater said, ‘It doesn’t matter anyway. I think I’m done with this concept of countries. No country is all good or all bad.’

Alonzo said, ‘That’s right.’

‘You knew this,’ Slater said. ‘You’re a smarter man than I am. You knew it and you still worked for the secret world.’

‘You think they’d let me out?’

‘I got out. King got out.’

‘With my help. And I might be smarter than you two, but I’m not tougher. You two got out by the skin of your teeth, and you went on a ballistic rampage to do it. I can’t even shoot a damn gun straight.’

Slater said, ‘Then maybe this is full circle. Maybe all this crazy shit had to happen so you ended up with us.’

Alonzo went to respond, then deemed it better not to. All he did was give a slow nod.

Slater met the man’s gaze. ‘You should have told us how you really felt. We would have gone to hell and back to get you out, bring you with us. Like I’m doing now.’

Alonzo’s smile was sad. ‘I knew I didn’t have the spine to survive alongside you four. I met you and King in New York, remember, when the city went dark. I saw who you were at your core. Surrounded by madness, you were both so still. Calm as ice. Despite what people might think, that’s rare even amongst trained killers. And now … well, now I guess I don’t have a choice. If we make it out, I’ll find out whether I have the spine or not.’

‘Want to know our secret?’ Slater said.

‘Sure.’

‘We feel the same way you do. Courage isn’t an absence of fear. The next time you think you have no spine, take the leap anyway. It’ll be painful, but you’ll figure it out. Then on the other side you’ll be a little better. A little more experienced. That’s how you end up as foolish as us.’

‘Not foolish,’ Alonzo said, shaking his head. ‘Far from it. You’re the bravest man I’ve met.’

The back door smashed in.

Armour-clad silhouettes stormed through the entry point they’d created with a battering ram.

Slater was on them before they could take in their surroundings. The troops hadn’t expected resistance right away, and he took advantage of it. He threw himself into their midst, crashing an elbow into a throat, pivoting and jabbing the barrel of the HK45CT into the next.

He wasn’t sure when it happened, but at some point he pulled the trigger. He realised his life hung by a thread, and decided to survive.

That was it.

The next thing he knew, he’d emptied his clip with surgical precision.

A hit team of four SF operatives lay dead at his feet.

This time, he felt all the turbulence of killing.

He thought he’d been immune to the emotions, but these men were American soldiers. They’d been given the orders to break down a certain door and kill whatever was on the other side. They’d been fed bad intel, and they’d paid with their lives. Was that their fault?

Slater didn’t know.

He wasn’t going to hang around to figure it out.

All he knew was that if he hadn’t acted, he and Alonzo would be dead.

His own life wasn’t important. Alonzo’s was. The man was a real hero. He’d stayed in a job and a life he hated without a word of complaint, so others could do what he himself couldn’t.

True selflessness.

Slater met Alonzo’s terrified gaze and said, ‘Now it’s full circle.’

He grabbed a few plastic packages off the shelves, then hustled the man out of the back room, deeper into the department store.

87

The mansion was eerily quiet.

King said, ‘Use your normal phone, then. Start dialling.’

‘What do I say?’ Torres asked.

King pushed the gun harder into Torres’ forehead and knelt down so he could look the man directly in the eyes. ‘You figure that out.’

‘If I tell him I want to visit, he’ll be suspicious. Even if I tell him it’s something we’d better discuss in private, he won’t believe me. For the last year I’ve only spoken to him over the phone. Smuggling you in with me will be close to impossible.’

‘I can handle it myself. You just tell me how to get past his security.’

‘You don’t. He has triple the security measures I do. And he makes it so they’re airtight, so there’s no leverage anyone can hold over any of his team. They’re as bulletproof as it gets. Look, you’re the tactician here. I need you to plan this. I can’t even fucking think straight…’

He trailed off as he realised the extent of his sorry state. Urine-soaked Versace robe, face stained with blood and saliva, cheeks drained of colour. He was a wreck.

King knelt quietly beside him, keeping the gun steady against Torres’ head.

He couldn’t think either.

Time was running out.

Then Torres’ eyes brightened. He said, ‘Those girls.’

‘What?’

‘When I freed you from that military base. Those two women you were with. Are they still around?’

King pressed the barrel harder into his skin. ‘What’s it to you?’

‘No, no,’ Torres stammered, eyes wide. ‘Not that. You think I’d insult you at a time like this? Listen, César is a ladies man. Do you know what I’m saying? And it’d be perhaps the only believable reason I’d call him