Chapter 69

  Mr. Smith quickly looked in the direction that Kim was focused on and saw the rifle barrel. His mind told him to move or to just shoot the woman; however, his body didn’t respond. Harris was screaming at him; however, it didn’t really matter at that moment. He knew that he was screwed.

  *****

  Once he was compromised, Ken had no choice, and he gently squeezed the trigger. Smith didn’t see the muzzle flash or feel the impact of the 5.56 x 45 mm NATO round as it passed through his brain and blew out the back of his head a millisecond later. He died instantly. But Mr. Smith was wrong about one thing. His reservation was for today, and Ken had just punched his ticket on the express train to hell.

  Rakov was in his element. He wanted to see the bullet spray the bitch’s brains out. But when the gun report sounded, it was Smith’s head that exploded in a cloud of blood and brain matter, not the woman’s. At first, he was confused; although it didn’t take him long to figure out what happened. Given the direction of the spray pattern, he figured that someone had shot Smith from the upper balcony. Then the bitch started to scream, “There’s another one over there!” and she was pointing at him.

  Seconds later, a man dressed in black came running down the staircase with an assault rifle in his hands, and his self-survival mechanism instantly kicked in. Ivan cursed himself. Like an overconfident amateur, he had propped his assault rifle against the lower staircase railing a few feet away. He could have easily killed Harris with his own gun that he had relieved him of, but he had to pull it first from his waistband, and he was more concerned with the man that was coming down the staircase and a new development. The bitch had picked up Smith’s handgun and was pointing it directly at him. To make matters worse, Harris had rolled up on his legs and was trying to pull him down.

  “Fucking bitch” Ivan muttered to himself.

  He pulled himself off of Harris and kicked him in the side just as Kim pulled the trigger.

  *****

  The Russian was only a few feet away from Kim, and she was determined to kill him. She wasn’t an expert shot by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, she hated guns. But as she pointed the gun at the man who had terrorized her, she couldn’t hold the gun steady.

  *****

  The bitch had missed him by some miraculous act of the gods, and he knew that his luck was about to run out if he chose to stick around and fight. He felt that he had only one option left, and that was a hasty strategic retreat. He headed down the lower staircase.

  Ivan grabbed his assault rifle off the railing on his way down the stairs, not bothering to turn and shoot. As his foot hit the second tread, another slug from the Smith’s automatic just missed his hand and sent splinters of wood spraying up into his face and neck. Rakov let out a curse in Russian and raised his weapon to kill the bitch when the man dressed in black rounder the corner. He stepped in front of the woman and opened up on him. Ivan dove down the stairs just in time as the staircase railing started to disintegrate. He tumbled down the stairs as debris rained down from above. Just before Rakov descended the stairs, he saw two dark figures enter the hallway and knew the man hadn’t come alone. When his feet hit the bottom of the stairs, he was out the lower level door seconds later and didn’t bother looking back.

  *****

  When they heard the gunshot, Jesse and Chuah had just entered the living room. Ken shouted out that one bogy was down and that he didn’t have a shot at the second man. Both men then ran through the large, dimly lit living room, and Jesse almost stumbled over a body lying on the floor. As he stopped to look down, he heard another gunshot go off, followed closely by the sound of someone moaning. He noticed another man lying just a few feet away in a dark corner. Both men appeared to be dead. Then he heard the moaning again, coming from the man in the darkened corner. These men were not his immediate concern, and he turned and entered the darkened hallway just as a man sped by the east end twenty-five feet away. They rushed down the hallway, and after taking several steps, Jesse heard Ken’s assault rifle open up on full auto. When the firing stopped, Ken yelled into his lip mic that one of the men had escaped to the lower level. Seconds later, Jesse and Chuah entered the large foyer and spotted Shawn on the floor and a woman at his side. Shawn looked nothing like the man he once knew. He was bound and bleeding, but he was alive. He fought the urge to go to his friend. However, he still had work to do, and he held back.

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  After the shooting stopped, Kim dropped the handgun and rushed to Shawn’s side. She virtually fell on top of him and began hugging and kissing him even though it hurt her mouth to do so. Her tears of sorrow had now turned to tears of joy.

  “Are you all right?” Shawn asked.

  “Don’t worry about me. I’m fine, but I’m worried about you. You look terrible.”

  “Thanks. I feel terrible. Where’s Kasem? Did they kill him?”

  “I don’t know, baby. I haven’t seen him. Maybe these men know. Who are they anyway; they don’t look like the police?”

  Shawn glanced at the men and their gear and said, “I don’t know, but I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough.”

  Ken wanted to go after Rakov and voiced his displeasure when Jesse ordered him to stand down. Jesse's main concern at the moment was the residents of the home. He gave Ken and Chuah orders to secure the rest of the house and to search the other bodies for ID's. Ken wasn't happy but was a good soldier and immediately obeyed his superior's orders. Jesse bent down and searched Mr. Smith's lifeless body for any identification. He found none. Jesse was about to turn his attention to Shawn when his sat-phone vibrated. He took the call and walked out of earshot. The call was from Reston, and they wanted to know the outcome at Shawn's home. He filled them in on the developments and asked about the man who escaped. They had acquired a new satellite link on Shawn's home, and Jesse was told that a lone figure was heading toward the opposite side of the peninsula. He was also informed about the approaching storm and that they would lose their thermo imaging capabilities very soon.

  As Kim continued to fuss over Shawn, he finally looked closer at the men who saved their lives. He watched as all three men spoke in soft tones. However, he couldn’t make out what they were saying. He had no idea who these men were; nevertheless, he knew one thing. They weren’t the Thai police. They looked like hired assassins. The conversation soon ended, and the big black man and the much smaller Thai headed toward the living room. When the two men left, the last man took out what looked like a cell phone, turned his back on them, and walked to the far end of the foyer. He could hear the man speaking in low tones, yet not loud enough for him to make out any words. The conversation was short, and then the man turned and faced them once again.

  The man was much older than the other two men and was obviously the leader. He was dressed from head to toe in black tactical clothing, and although he couldn’t see it, Shawn could tell the man had on a tactical vest. He wore a black baseball-style hat, tight to his brow, with no logo. His hair appeared to be light and graying at the temples. Shawn guessed his weight to be just over two hundred pounds, but it was hard to tell with all the equipment he carried. His clean shaving face was painted in camo paint, and it was hard to fully make out his features. The man didn’t say anything as he approached them, but there was something very familiar about the man. Without saying a word, he bent down and pulled out a tactical folding knife and quickly cut Kim’s hand restraints, then started to work on Shawn.

  As soon as Shawn’s hands and feet were cut free, Chuah returned with two hot washcloths and a hand towel and gave them to Kim. She thanked him and helped Shawn sit up as Jesse stood and stepped back a few paces while Kim wiped the blood from Shawn’s swollen face.

  Irritated with all the fuss, he finally said, “That’s enough, honey. I’m fine now. Why don’t you go and clean yourself up? I need to talk with these men.”

  Kim shook her head, took Shawn’s hand, and said, “No, I’m not leaving you.”

  “Please do this for me.”

  Kim reluctantly nodded her head and squeezed his hand, and then she kissed him tenderly.

  Shawn slowly stood up and walked up to the man and finally got a good look at his face. He hadn’t said a word and stood quietly with a thin smile. As he got closer, the thin smile turned into a broad smile.

  “I don’t know who you are, but I want to thank you for saving us,” Shawn said as he extended his hand.

  “I’m just returning a long overdue favor,” Jesse said as he took his hand with a firm grip.

  At first, the strange answer the man gave him didn’t register. Then, he started to connect the dots. That face, those eyes, that voice. Suddenly, a rush of joy filled him, and he forgot his pain.

  “Oh my God…is that you, Jesse?” Shawn said with excitement in his voice.

  Jesse nodded and said, “Yeah, it’s me, bro. I heard that you were looking for me.”

  Shawn rushed forward, and despite the pain in his body, he embraced his old friend, “Man, I thought you were dead,” he said with a cracked voice.

  *****

  Kim hadn’t left the foyer yet, and she watched with quiet reserve as the two men hugged each other. She didn’t know who the man was and was surprised when the two men embraced. She had never seen Shawn cry before, but now she saw tears streaming down his face as if the rusted floodgates were finally pried open.