Okay but try not to murd.., p.18
Okay, But Try Not to Murder Anyone 8, page 18
“Dhitri’s got us covered, he’s on his way to the airport now,” Mary said.
“With a different chopper, I hope,” Laura said with an arched eyebrow.
“Me, too.” Mary chuckled, but Laura shot daggers at her, so she held her hands up. “It’s a different chopper, don’t worry. And he’s taking us right to the jet, then we’re right back in the air to Chicago.”
“In and out,” Laura sighed as she stood up, too.
“We’ve got a beach to get to, anyway,” Sloan said as she dragged herself to her feet.
The team worked quickly together to pack everything up, and within half an hour, we were ready to go. We shouldered our bags and headed out into the snow. It was early, early morning at this point, and I had to fight through the exhaustion. I just had to remind myself that we’d be on a private jet soon, and I could get a decent sleep once we were wheels up.
Everything until then was an exhausted blur. We trudged through the snow until we returned to the small airport nearby. Dhitri and his co-pilot were waiting for us, and they helped us load into the helicopter. There was some hesitance from the team, but we didn’t really have much choice, so we strapped ourselves in and hoped for the best.
Luckily, there were no issues with the chopper this time around. We landed back at the main airport with no issue, and our private jet was already waiting for us. Monica, Jessica, and the pilot James helped us load up the jet. I knew that we ran through the usual safety procedures and whatever else, but I was barely conscious. Once we were back in the air to Chicago, Laura, Sloan, and I grabbed a quick shower to get rid of that smoky smell clinging to us, and then the exhaustion finally won. The women and I dragged ourselves back to the bedroom, and Sammy to his own, and we slept like we’d been awake for weeks, which was what it felt like.
We were so tired, we didn’t wake up until we hit the east coast of America, and we were still groggy for the last few hours it took to reach Chicago. Even the landing was hazy. I’d slept hard and long, but by the time the wheels touched down, and we were unloading our luggage from the hold, I felt more like a person.
As we tossed the last bag on the tarmac, Laura’s phone rang.
“Oh, that’s the Director,” she said, and she stepped away to take the call.
“I hope he doesn’t want us to go back to HQ right now,” Mary groaned as she leaned against the van that Sammy had just pulled around.
“Why not?” Sloan asked brightly, and it was clear she’d recovered from her fire damage back in Nepal. “We just had a good long nap. There’s still some daylight left here. We could get a couple hours of work in.”
“Or,” Mary countered. “We could rest up and leave for the Caribbean tomorrow.”
“Don’t worry, the Director decided for us,” Laura said as she rejoined us. “He agrees with you, Mary. He says well done in Nepal, but the BMG meeting is getting closer. Go home, rest up, back at it first thing in the morning.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Mary muttered as she pulled the passenger side door of the Blackwing open.
“Okay, great,” I said. “Sammy, is it cool if we shove everything in the van for now? Then the ladies and I can all fit in the Blackwing.”
“Yeah, I need to stop at HQ anyway, let’s do it,” Sammy said.
We shoved all the bags in the back of the van, waved goodbye to Sammy as he drove off, and then made our way to the Blackwing, which was parked safely around the corner. The women and I piled into the SUV, and I drove us back to the condo.
“Home sweet home,” Mary said with a contented sigh as we pushed through the door.
“At least we get one night here,” Laura said.
“Might as well make the most of it,” I said. “Netflix marathon?”
“Hell yeah, my vote is for The Office,” Mary giggled as she ran to the plush couch and threw herself onto it.
“Works for me,” I said.
Ten minutes later, we were all in our pjs and cuddled up on the couch. It was crazy to think we were in Nepal on a life-threatening mission less than eighteen hours ago, but we were all safe and happy now.
After the third episode of The Office, Elaine made her way into the kitchen. I heard every cupboard door bang close, and the fridge doors opened and closed at least four times. Then I heard Elaine’s frustrated sigh, so I hopped up and joined her in the kitchen.
“What’s up, babe?” I asked as Elaine continued to trawl through the pantry.
“I’m having some cravings,” she said and turned to me with a pout. “But we don’t have any of them.”
“What are you after?” I asked as I grabbed the keys from the table. “I’ll go grab it for you.”
“No, you don’t have to do that,” Elaine said with a shake of her head.
“I want to,” I said and smiled at her reassuringly. “What are you and my baby craving?”
“Ice cream,” Elaine replied automatically, and then she grinned. “And pickles. Don’t ask, I can’t explain it.”
“Ice cream and pickles it is,” I laughed, and I gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “I’ll run to the corner shop, I won’t be long.”
I quickly changed into jeans, slipped out of the condo, and made my way down to the street outside. I breathed in the warm spring air as I walked, and I was immensely grateful we weren’t on the top of a frigid mountain anymore. There was a small shop a couple blocks away, so I stuck my hands in my pockets and headed in that direction.
After a couple of minutes, I suddenly felt my Spidey-Sense go off. I glanced behind me, but I didn’t see anything suspicious. Still, I slowed my steps as the corner shop came into view, and then I took a seat on a bench outside the shop and observed my surroundings for a few minutes. When nothing happened, I figured it was best to just grab what Elaine needed quickly and head back to the condo.
I entered the small corner shop where there was a young Middle Eastern man behind the counter. He greeted me idly before he turned back to his phone. I was the only customer in the shop, so I quickly grabbed some cookie dough ice cream and a jar of pickles and headed to the counter to pay, but as I reached the counter, the door to the shop opened.
I turned to see a masked man enter the shop and raise a gun, and he aimed it directly at me.
Chapter 13
The guy behind the counter screamed and ducked down, but I turned to face the masked assailant.
“Can I help you?” I asked casually.
After what I’d just faced in Nepal, and Morocco before that, some dude in a ski mask with a pistol didn’t scare me anymore.
“I know who you are, Patterson,” the masked gunman growled.
So, this wasn’t just a random robbery.
“Yeah, I’m pretty popular, that doesn’t surprise me.” I shrugged and reached for my wallet.
“Stop!” the gunman barked.
“Relax, I’m unarmed,” I said, but obviously the dude didn’t believe me, because he squeezed off a shot in my direction.
The bullet soared over my head and shattered a few liquor bottles on the wall behind me, and the store clerk screamed in terror as glass and booze rained down over him.
“Do what I say, and no one gets hurt,” the gunman growled as he waved his gun at me.
“Snooze,” I said with an eye roll. “I take it you’re a bounty hunter? After the bounty on my head?”
“I...” the gunman hesitated.
This dude obviously wasn’t very good at his job, or he was just starting out or something. Either way, I could tell he would be easy to fuck with. See, Bannister didn’t think. That was the problem with big bounties like mine, even the most amateur of hunters came out of the woodworks. I was actually a little bit insulted that this dude thought he could take me out.
“I’ll double the bounty if you fuck off right now and leave me alone,” I said.
The gunman lowered his gun while he considered my offer, and that was all the opening I needed.
“Psych!” I shouted as I raised my hand and shot an energy ball at the bounty hunter.
The masked man’s eyes widened in shock, but he dove out of the way at the last second and ended up tackling a chip display into the ground. He’d obviously never seen any sort of powers before, but to his credit, he recovered quickly. Another bullet went soaring past me, and I sighed as I realized I’d have to take care of this idiot.
“The bounty says dead or alive!” the gunman screamed as he scrambled to hide behind a shelf. “I was being nice trying to take you alive, but fuck that! You’re some kind of fucking freak, you know that! You need to be put down!”
Another bullet came flying toward me, but this dude was a really bad shot, so I didn’t even have to duck. The store clerk was still freaking out, but I was over this bounty shit. I just wanted to take care of this guy, whether that meant killing him or apprehending him, and then get back to my girlfriends at home. Elaine had cravings, and this guy didn’t even care.
“Come on, you’re not going to win this,” I said in a bored voice, and I walked toward his lame hiding place slowly. “Can we just get this over with? If you leave now, you might be able to avoid the police.”
The gunman scampered away from me, farther into the store, but I just kept following him, with my hands raised and ready to attack at a moment’s notice. I followed him until we’d almost done a full circle around the shop.
Suddenly, the gunman darted behind the counter and grabbed the store clerk. He wrapped his arm around the dude’s neck and dragged him to his feet as he pushed the barrel of his gun into his temple.
“One more step, and I shoot,” the gunman sneered.
“Wow, never heard that one before,” I drawled, and I held my hands up at my side, like I was surrendering. “Fine, take me, not that guy. He didn’t do anything.”
The gunman eyed me suspiciously, but I just shrugged.
“Hey, you want me, you’re going to have to come get me,” I continued.
“Mmm,” the gunman grunted, and he kept the store clerk in between us like a human shield as he slowly approached me from behind the counter.
“That’s it,” I encouraged. “One foot in front of the other.”
Once they were close, the gunman shoved the store clerk to the side and aimed the gun at me, but I was ready for him. I charged up my fist with kinetic energy and delivered a swift uppercut to the gunman’s masked jaw. I felt his teeth smash into each other as he grunted in pain, but I spared this dude no mercy. As he stumbled forward, I grabbed a fistful of fabric in each hand and threw him at the ground. His pistol went flying from his hand, and I kicked him over and over and over again until he stopped moving. Then I kicked him a couple more times for good measure.
Once I’d gotten all my frustration out at being interrupted, I stepped back and wiped the sweat off my face, and I turned to see the store clerk gaping at me with his smashed phone in his hand.
“Sorry about the mess, bud,” I said as I stepped over the unconscious bounty hunter and stood in front of the counter. Then I pulled my wallet out and pushed the pickles and ice cream further across the counter. “Just these for me, please.”
The store clerk still looked like a deer caught in headlights, but he stood up. He stared at the inert body on his shop floor for a second before he stepped over it and took his place behind the counter, and he looked at the pickles and ice cream and pushed them back over the counter at me.
“It’s okay, you can have them,” he said in a hollow voice.
“Oh, thanks, I appreciate that.” I smiled, stuffed my wallet back in my pocket, and picked up the pickles and ice cream. Then I turned and nodded at the gun on the ground. “You should probably pick that up.”
The store clerk hesitated for a moment, but then he dashed forward and grabbed the gun before he returned to the counter.
“I, uhh…” The store clerk stared at the body again.
“Keep it aimed at him, in case he wakes up,” I said as I nodded at the body, and the clerk instantly trained the gun at the body with an unsteady hand. “Good. Now, call the cops. Tell them someone tried to rob you, but you subdued them.”
“But, um, I, uhhh…”
“You got this,” I said, and I raised the jar of pickles in a cheers gesture at the clerk. “Thanks again for the free stuff.”
I turned and headed for the door as the clerk called 911. Once I was in the street, I pulled out my own phone and texted Sammy a quick rundown of what happened, so he could be on the lookout for any police chatter about the incident. Sammy replied instantly that he was on it and was sending more security to the condo, and I thanked him before I slipped my phone in my pocket and headed back home.
By the time I arrived, everyone was sleeping except Elaine, so I decided not to bother them with the drama from the store run. Instead, I sat with Elaine on the couch while she devoured the whole ice cream container and half of the pickles. Then we joined the others in bed and slept peacefully.
The next morning, we all showered and headed back to HQ, and Sammy was already waiting for us in the control room. I’d texted him before we’d left the condo so he knew not to mention the attempted assassination last night. We just had too much stuff going on, I didn’t want the women to worry about that right now. Luckily, we had plenty to prepare for the upcoming journey, so we were too busy for anything extra anyway.
“The Director wants us to head down to the islands later today,” Sammy said once we’d all greeted each other. “That gives us almost two full days of prep before the initial arrival meeting on Bannister’s island.”
“Cool.” I nodded. “It gives us some time to get used to the climate, too.”
“My favorite part,” Sloan said with a wide grin.
“I’ve split us up into teams again,” Sammy said as he pushed his notebook into the center of the desk. “Just to get us ready faster.”
“Me and Sammy on tech duty, as usual,” Mary said as she read through the list. “Elaine and Laura are on weapons and gear duty. Then Sloan and Jonah are on… training duty?”
“Yeah, I figured since you two will be the ones on the island, you should spend some time maybe training with the shapeshifting,” Sammy explained. “Or facial recognition. There’s going to be a lot of BMG members there, you need to be prepared.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” I said.
“Here’s everything we know so far.” Sammy handed me a flash drive and then a laptop. “It’s a good chunk of information, so you might want to get started.”
“Sounds good,” I said as I took the laptop and flash drive and then looked around at the rest of the team. “Everyone good with their assignments?”
“Yup.” Elaine nodded.
“All good,” Laura agreed. “Sammy, what time is the jet booked for?”
“Four o’clock,” Sammy replied instantly.
“Great, that gives us about nine hours,” Laura said as she clapped her hands together. “Let’s get to it.”
We dispersed into our mini teams, and Sloan and I headed for our favorite conference room and got to work. Sammy was right, they had a decent amount of details on the crowd we’d be seeing at the private party. So, with the help of a fresh brewed pot of coffee and day-old doughnuts from the kitchenette, Sloan and I spent hours poring over every piece of information we had. Bannister had a lot of high-rollers at this party, and we were likely to run into most of them during our time at the island, so we studied faces and memorized details about the attendees of the party until our eyes crossed from exhaustion.
And then we studied some more.
If everything went according to plan, this was it. This was the team’s big takedown. Bannister and the BMG were our white whale. It was hard to imagine a mission that didn’t involve the sleazy criminal, but my kinetic energy crackled with excitement at the thought of finally taking him down.
Eventually, Sloan and I took a break to grab lunch from the PX. We stopped in to check if the others wanted some, too, but the control room was empty, so I figured everyone was off doing their part to prepare for the mission. Sloan and I worked right through lunch and ate our Chinese food with one hand while we scrolled through our research with the other hand. Once we went through every face at least three times, we moved on to the map.
Sammy must’ve been bored when he was putting together these maps, because he fashioned the one of the island like a treasure map, and the big X marked the spot of Bannister’s residence. Of course, Bannister had a huge, lavish mansion right on the waterfront of his private island. He also had a few other rich person amenities, like a gigantic pool and a golf course. From the looks of it, the rest of the island was empty, except for the mansion, which was on the west coast of the island. The middle of the island was densely populated with trees and other local flora and fauna, and then on the east side was another private beach.
There was a second map that was labeled ‘PROJECTED SETUP FOR BMG MEETING.” It was another map of the island, but this time Sammy added computer generated additions. There were thirty guests invited to the party, and we knew Bannister wasn’t generous enough to open his mansion up to them. Instead, we projected that he’d built some temporary cabins for everyone. Sammy had mapped out where he expected them to be, and he’d created a little miniature village on the beach outside of Bannister’s mansion. Even though it was just a prediction, it made sense, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Bannister’s actual setup was pretty similar. Once we were in the area, we could scope it out better. Of course, drones over the private island were out of the question since they would most likely be shot down instantly.
But we had something better than a drone. We had a Sloan.
“Sammy did a great job with that,” Sloan said as she eyed the projected map. “He’s pretty good with that computer stuff, huh?”
“Yeah, not bad,” I chuckled. “But when we get to the islands...”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll fly over and check it out,” Sloan said with a nod. “Compare Sammy’s predictions to reality.”
“You up for that?” I asked as I eyed the gorgeous Native American woman. “Nepal was pretty intense. I don’t want you to push yourself for the sake of the team. No one would fault you if you needed more rest.”
