Kindred Intentions (10 page)

The other man snorted again, but did as he was
told without further complaint.

She examined her visor with curiosity. She had
never seen one so close, still less worn one. She would learn something new
today,
something else
new. Provided that she survived to put into
practice these precious lessons in the field. But what would her field be after
this day? Her life had come to another breaking point, and again she was unable
to figure out where that would lead her. Only that this time she didn’t care.

A noise attracted her gaze to Yasir, who was
shouldering a precision rifle.

“Good,” Mike said, moving his attention from
the other man to her. “Let’s get ready.”

Sitting on the floor under one of the front
windows of the lodge, in the dark, Amelia had started stroking her new gun with
slow gestures. She hadn’t let it go since it had been assigned to her. She
clung to it, as she could draw some strength from it, as if just that contact
sufficed to keep her safe. It was just an illusion, like the quietness. Her
infrared visor was lying on her leg, and the sleeves of her sweater were rolled
up. With the passing of time she’d started feeling hot, and sweating.

Mike was beside her with his legs crossed,
checking the real-time footage coming from the infrared cameras installed
outdoors on his tablet, whose display was the only source of illumination in
the room. In silence, she was observing his facial features, whilst her nail
was fiddling with the safety of her weapon. Lit from below by that diffused
glare, he seemed pale. She could see his eyes moving fast, and then focusing in
one spot. After that, he ran his finger on the touch screen and repeated the
ritual. His gun, visor, and mobile phone were beside him on the parquet,
together with two spare magazines. It seemed as if he didn’t need any
reassurance. Amelia wondered what was going on in his head. Was he
concentrating on the strategy? Or from time to time did he let himself be
distracted by the dread? Perhaps he knew no fear, or maybe he’d learnt so well
to keep it at bay that now he didn’t know how to find it again.

It was odd that she tried to enter the mind of
a man like him. What he was, what she thought he was, would have been contrary
to her most unshakable resolutions up until a few weeks earlier. Inconceivable.

How things changed. In a few weeks, in an
hour, in a second.

On the opposite side of the lodge, in the
secret room, which wasn’t secret anymore, Yasir replicated his friend’s
gestures, with the only difference that he was keeping a rifle beside him.

“Won’t they see us in here?” The absence of a
perceivable reaction from Mike made Amelia think that he hadn’t heard her at
first. Or he was ignoring her. He had become so fickle, after their
quarrel
,
that she didn’t know how to behave with him. But she didn’t intend keeping
quiet. She couldn’t. “I mean, they’ll see the heat of our bodies, well, I
suppose that they have some thermal detection devices, too.” Now she was
blabbering and the fact that nobody replied to her made her feel inadequate.
She started stroking her weapon even harder.

His gaze rose. “I’ve turned on the heating.”

“Hm?” This explained the increase in room
temperature, but didn’t clarify how that would help them hide.

“There’s a circuit in the floor where hot
water flows, but some pipes run also in a few spots on the walls, heating
them.” He tapped the wall at his left. “Like under the windows and in more
zones of the house. The temperature exceeds body temperature; by staying here
we’re practically invisible.”

“Ah … astute.” What a banal remark. “This … hm
…
occultation
system will consume a lot of energy.” The idea of not
being a target relaxed the muscles of her hand and made her stop her continuous
motion. “I doubt this place is connected to the electricity network.”

“I have an electrical generator in the
basement, which is acoustically insulated, with enough fuel to give us energy
and heating for days.” Mike paused; he was almost laughing. “Enough until the
moment they find a way to cut our electricity, then whatever happens it will be
very fast anyway.”

Amelia’s muscles tensed again. She looked at
him. He had returned to his tablet and didn’t seem to give off any real worry.
She had to trust him. He knew what he was doing. She decided it was so. It was
better than thinking the opposite. “But this way, the entire house will light
up like a Christmas tree. Why make it easier for them?”

“They will find us anyway sooner or later. Our
purpose is to make them come closer and put an end to this story once and for
all.”

She gaped. He wanted the confrontation, but
they were only three against who knew how many. No, there had to be more than
this. “Would you please tell me about our plan?”

“You just have to do what I say and shut up,”
he said, icy, persisting in his indifference. “This is your part in the plan.”

Amelia raised her gun, but before she could
complete her movement, Mike grabbed his own gun and aimed at her. They both
found themselves at gunpoint. “I could shoot you at any moment,” she said. “As
soon as you have your back to me.”

“That’s the difference between you and me.” He
kept holding his gun firmly against her, but the rest of him was relaxed. “You
would never do that, while I would. And I wouldn’t need to take you by
surprise.” He lowered his weapon and returned to what he’d been doing, ignoring
Amelia’s menaces.

She gave up and laid again her armed hand on
her thigh. She would never shoot him. She was feeling stupid, and hurt, but
that wasn’t enough to transform her into a murderer. “I’ve understood who you
really are,” she murmured.

He cast a cautious glance at her. “I don’t
think so.”

“It is so.” She rolled her eyes, making fun of
him, even though she wasn’t sure he could see her well in the face. “I’m …
almost certain.”

He let out an amused half-grunt. “As you
wish.” And then he turned again to the damned tablet.

But she wanted to continue the conversation.
She didn’t know for how long she would have a gun in her hand, nor if she would
survive afterwards. She wanted to understand anyway. “The only thing I can’t
comprehend is what you were doing in Goldberg’s waiting room.”

“The same as you, more or less.”

“No …” Amelia gestured, stirring the air with
her weapon. “This is bullshit. You lied to me then and you’re still lying to
me. You weren’t there for a job interview, or for infiltrating the firm on
behalf of some intelligence agency. But it looked like you really had an
appointment.”

“I don’t have time to waste on chatting with
you now,
detective
.” He tapped the display again and refocused on it.
“Ah, no, right: you’re just a simple officer.” He smiled under his breath.

“Goldberg had locked himself inside his panic
room,” Amelia continued, overlooking his attempt to diminish her. “Do you think
he did it before or after the beginning of the shooting?”

Mike’s eyes snapped towards her.

“Goldberg wasn’t the target, you were.” She
pointed at him with the gun. “I’m just the loser who found herself in the wrong
place at the wrong time.” She spread her arms, laughing at herself. “And I
still am.”

“I can see three of them here.” Yasir drew
their attention, interrupting their conversation. “Now that you’re so close, your
shielding is useless, isn’t it?”

Mike started looking for something on the
tablet screen. Amelia approached him. Now she could understand what the Middle
Eastern man had meant before. You couldn’t see entire silhouettes, but just a
set of bright fragments. However, if they were observed together, their sum
came together to outline a human figure. They really were like ghosts.

“Where are the others?” he said, letting a
sudden nervousness show. That tone caused her a faint anguish. Yeah, where were
the others?

“They’re studying the building. They can see
it all lit up and they’re confused, the bastards.” Yasir seemed to be having
fun, but that useless mocking of the men out there sounded all but carefree.

“The other two, where the fuck are the other
two?” Mike exclaimed, in a frustrated tone, which attenuated the other man’s
enthusiasm in a moment.

“I can’t see them anymore … what …” Yasir
hesitated. “Fuck, here they are, they’re on the back. I’m afraid …”

Red writing started blinking on Mike’s tablet:
‘Power Supply Failure’. “They’ve just cut the wires.” Strangely that awareness
seemed to calm him down.

However the cameras were still broadcasting.
The wireless network had to be supplied by something else. Perhaps batteries.

“One moment, I see two more on the back,” the
Middle Eastern man continued.

Seven versus three. They couldn’t make it.
Amelia felt her throat narrowing in anguish. Maybe those two were so accustomed
to risking their lives that they had accepted the eventuality of death a long
time since, and nothing unsettled them now, but that didn’t apply to her.

“They’re starting to be too many.” That one of
Mike’s had been a simple observation. “I’d really like to know if the others
are all within the perimeter.” He laid his tablet on the floor, then he put his
visor on his head, but not on his eyes. He inserted the two magazines in his
pockets and grabbed his gun. Passing in front of her, he leapt under the window
on the other side of the door.

“If the heating doesn’t work, will they see
us?” Amelia asked, struggling to contain her terror.

“The water will take a while to cool down.”
Mike lowered his visor onto his eyes and reached out to the end of the shutter
with his fingers. “It’s a moist night, but warm, without wind, we still have
time.”

What was he doing?

He opened the shutter and pushed it. The
impact on the wall made her start. He repeated the operation with the other
shutter. Then he rose as much as necessary to see through the pane. Yasir was
doing the same on the window in the adjacent room. “Do you see someone?” the
former asked.

“Hm.” Yasir shook his head. “Nothing. They’ve
scattered. Anyway there weren’t more than two over there, so there could still
be more too far … Fuck!” He bent down. A gunshot sounded and the glass in front
of him blew apart.

Mike copied his friend and hit the floor. “Are
you all right?”

“I hadn’t seen him, fuck!” Yasir took out his
visor and shouldered his rifle. He rose, watching through the gun sight, and
shot. Another gunshot from outside and he crouched down, as a bullet hit the
wood-covered wall, causing a dull sound. “Son of a bitch! It’s right in front
of us.”

“Is he alone?”

“I don’t know!”

“I’ll cover you.” Mike opened his window wide.
He rose and started shooting.

The other man stood up, aimed his rifle
without hurry, and shot only once. “Gotcha.” They both bent down as one.

“One less.” Mike shifted his visor on his brow
and turned to her. “Now they know we are on the front.” He seized his tablet
again and checked it. “And in fact, they’re moving to the back; they want to
surprise us from behind.” He raised his gaze again, a sly smile on his face.
“But they think we are two, and instead we’re three.” Keeping low, with his
tablet on his left hand and his gun on the right, he started crossing the room,
towards the bedroom.

“Where are you going?” Amelia exclaimed,
barely restraining herself from following him.

“Open your window.” Mike was squatting against
the wall beside the door. “And keep ready to shoot covering fire, when Yasir
tells you so.”

“But won’t they see you there?” She was more
worried about his safety than her own tactical role.

“Another hot spot,” the dark silhouette
replied. “I said: open the fucking window.”

With reluctance Amelia laid down her weapon
and went down on her knees. She grabbed the edges of the shutters and opened
them wide. The window frames, which were left ajar, partially followed the
movement of the former. She completed the opening with a couple of shoves.

“Forget what you’ve learnt in the police. No
prisoners here. If you shoot someone, you must kill them.”

There was no need to say that. Amelia took the
gun again, but remained kneeling.

“And aim at their head, they’re wearing bulletproof
vests.”

“Understood …” she said in a low voice, while
putting on her infrared visor.

Several seconds of silence followed. The humid
air from outside, pregnant with the smell of leaves and wet soil, spread inside
the lodge. It started to be less hot and, although the fresh sensation was
pleasant, Amelia knew it wasn’t good news. The men out there could be waiting
until they were able to detect them and finish them up. Or they could set fire
to the entire house and have them die like mice.

“There are two of them approaching here,” Yasir
said. “Keep ready to shoot on my command.”

“We’re about to get a visit here, too,” Mike’s
voice replied in the darkness.