Noble Intentions: Season Two (Episodes 6-10) (27 page)

Jack looked into the field and saw Bear hunched over. Bear gave him a signal to let him know that the area around Jack was all-clear. He and Pierre walked under a set of stairs leading to the roof.

“I’m going up there,” Pierre said.

Jack signaled to Bear and then said, “Go. Bear’s got you covered.”

Pierre slipped out of sight and made his way to the roof. Jack heard a burst of fire and the thud of a body hitting the rooftop. Pierre had found the sixth guard.

A door opened. Jack pressed into the wall. Heard multiple footsteps, soft and slow. Saw a gun barrel appear and a man followed. He heard a gunshot and the lead man dropped. Jack looked across the field and saw Bear stand, ditch his rifle and start approaching. Jack spun to his right and took out the next man. Bear fired and the third dropped.

Jack waited for Bear. By this time, the men inside knew that they were under attack. They’d taken out fifteen men during the initial attack. Clarissa estimated twenty-two at the house, plus Boris. Jack knew that there might also be men from Atlanta. He counted on running into them. Hoped to run into them. He had a little unfinished business to take care of with them.

Pierre came back down the stairs. “Rooftop is clear. I checked the other side of the house and there is no one out there. Same for behind the house, although we should probably watch it. I can take that.”

Jack didn’t want them to split up, but having someone behind the house to catch anyone who fled was a good idea. He found himself wishing they could have brought the detective along rather than leaving him to take care of Mandy. They could have rented a hotel room and stashed her there.

“OK,” Jack said. “Once you see one of us inside, you come in.”

Pierre nodded and disappeared around the corner of the house.

Jack pulled open the door and stuck the barrel of his MP5 through the opening. Didn’t see anyone. He heard voices, though. Panicked and desperate voices. They stepped into the long narrow hallway. There was a door on each side. Another further down the hall. Bear kicked in the one on the right. Empty. Then he kicked in the one on the left. Also empty. They moved to the third door. Before they attempted to open it, two men appeared at the end of the hallway. One fired. Bear let out grunt and then opened fire, sending three separate three-round bursts down the hall, striking one man with three bullets and the second with six. Both men collapsed.

“Are you injured?” Jack said.

Bear took a moment to respond. “Just a knick.”

“Can you continue?”

“Yeah.”

They continued down the hall. Reached the end. Jack lifted his night vision goggles. The house seemed empty. It should after taking out seventeen of it’s inhabitants.

Jack crouched low and scanned the open area of the middle of the house. The front door was open. He heard cars starting and pulling out.

“Dammit,” Jack said. “Let’s find Clarissa now.”

“What about that last room?”

“Go check it. I’ll cover you from the end of the hall.”

They both returned to the dark hallway. Jack waited at the end and kept an eye on the open living room and dining room. He heard the back door open. Aimed his gun. Pierre stepped in. They signaled to each other and Pierre moved to the corner of the room where he could see Jack and keep an eye on the front door and the second hallway that was out of Jack’s view.

“Jack,” Bear said. “It’s a basement.”

“OK. Check it out.”

“There’s someone down there.”

“Kill them.”

“They are calling for help.”

Jasmine.

“Go clear the house with Pierre,” Jack said.

He passed Bear in the hall and ran down the stairs. Spun around and saw Jasmine laying there. He moved toward her. Knelt down by her side to check for a pulse. She was alive and barely conscious.

“Hello, Jack,” a voice said from behind him in a thick Russian accent. “Had a feeling that was you. Or, well she did. She said that Jack was here and that he was going to kill us all.”

Jack said nothing. He slowly stood up and looked over his shoulder. He recognized the man he had seen a day before walking his dog. It was Chernov.

“So of course,” Chernov continued, “I knocked her out. No way some has-been agent is taking us down.”

“Seventeen dead, so far.”

Chernov laughed. “Going to be eighteen soon then. Overall, that is. Now turn around slowly, weapon out. Hold it by the barrel.”

Jack did as told and turned to face Chernov.

“Toss it,” Chernov said, gesturing toward the MP5.

Jack knelt down and set the weapon on the floor and then pushed it toward Chernov.

“Stupid American.” Chernov kept his gun aimed at Jack. Pulled out a cigarette and lit it. “Let me ask you something, Jack Noble. When you killed my brother, did you give him an honorable death, or did you sneak up behind him like the pussy that you are?”

Jack shrugged. “Who the hell are you talking about?”

“His name was Aleksander Chernov. He was Dorofeyev’s bodyguard.”

Jack nodded. “I didn’t kill him. He fell off a boat. Screamed like a child, though.”

Chernov took a step forward and stopped in front of Jack’s gun. Picked it up and aimed it at Jack’s head. Said, “Tell me, before I kill you, how will it feel to be taken out by your own weapon?”

Jack smiled.

Chernov smiled back. He knelt down, letting the barrel of the gun in his hand rest on the floor while he reached for Jack’s. He took his eyes off of Jack. It wasn’t long, barely a second or two. But that was long enough.

Jack reached behind him and retrieved his Glock from his waistband. He whipped his arm around.

Chernov looked up, at first bewildered, and then recognition flashed across his face when he saw the gun in Jack’s hand. He lifted the MP5 from the floor and jerked it up. Pulled the trigger. Nothing happened.

“I set the safety,” Jack said. He fired a single shot. It hit Chernov dead center in his forehead. His body twitched back and then fell forward. Jack reached over and pulled the MP5 from the dead Russian’s grasp.

“What’s happening? What’s going on?” Jasmine said.

Jack looked over his shoulder and then spun around on his knees. “Jack’s here, Jazz. It’s OK now.”

“I told you,” she paused and took a deep breath and pushed herself off the floor, “Don’t call me Jazz.” She smiled at him and held out her arms.

Jack freed her from her shackles and helped her off the floor. He said, “I don’t know how safe it is up there yet. You feel strong enough to hold a weapon?”

She nodded. “Think so.” Then she wiped the sweat and blood from her brow and her face and took the Glock from Jack’s outstretched hand.

“Follow me.”

16

Clarissa tensed at the first knock on the office door. Was it Jack or Bear or Pierre? She looked around the office. One way in. One way out. She pulled her gun to her chest and stood behind the door. “Who is it?”

“Bear.”

She grabbed the handle and turned it slowly. She pulled it open a crack and peered through. Saw Bear’s massive figure looming in the hallway. Pierre stood next to him.

She pulled the door open and ushered the two men into the room. After they passed, she stuck her head through the doorway and checked the hallway. Empty. She shut the door and flipped the lock.

“Where’s Jack?” she asked.

“We found a basement,” Bear said. “He went to clear it. Betting that’s where his partner was being kept. He should be here in a minute.”

“You left him alone? What if there was someone down there or getting ready to check?”

“He told me to clear the house with Pierre.”

“Did you?”

“Yeah.”

“How many people did you take out?”

“Bout a dozen-and-a-half.”

“There’s more than that.”

“Well they ain’t in the house.”

Clarissa shook her head and reached back with one hand, grabbing a fistful of hair. She looked over at Pierre and lifted an eyebrow, looking for any input he might have.

Pierre said nothing.

She double checked the door. Made sure it was locked. She paced the space between the desk and the door. She wanted to leave the room. Find Jack. That would be a mistake and she knew it. Don’t deviate from the plan unless something catastrophic happens. So far, nothing had.

“That him?” Bear asked as he pointed to the man bound on the floor behind the desk.

“Yeah,” Clarissa said. “Boris Melikov.”

The Russian moaned and rolled slightly, side to side. He looked up and his eyes widened when he saw Bear reach down and grab him by his shirt.

Bear hoisted Boris into the air and yelled at him. “You like kidnapping little girls?”

Boris shook his head.

Bear slapped the man across the face, open handed, then back handed.

Boris’s head snapped to the right and then to the left. He shut his eyes tight and then opened them. He lazily stared at Bear before his head fell to the side. Eyelids fluttered and then remained shut.

“What did you do to him?” Bear said. He dropped Boris to the ground.

Clarissa shrugged. “He’ll be alright.” She paused. “In time.”

“Bastard’s lucky he’s out of it right now.”

“What now?” Pierre asked.

“We wait for Jack,” Bear said.

Pierre moved to the corner of the room and stared out the window. He lightly tapped the barrel of his MP5 against the glass. His trained eyes scanned the parking lot. Left to right, right to left. Front to back, back to front.

Bear took a seat behind the desk and opened each desk drawer, inspecting the contents.

“What are you looking for?” Clarissa asked.

“Jack needs those documents. Figured I’d get them ready for him so we can get out of here a.s.a.p.”

Clarissa pointed to a stack of papers on the desk. “They’re right there.”

“OK. I’m going to double check whatever else Boris has in here. Maybe we’ll luck out and find something one of you spooks can use.”

Boris moaned on the floor. He rolled to the side again, eventually making it to his back.

Clarissa stood over him. She almost felt bad for the man. He had a rough road ahead. Several agencies were going to want to talk to him. Once they used him up and got every bit of intel they could from him, they’d shove him in a cell three hundred feet underground.

The room fell silent. Clarissa watched Boris. Bear read through papers at the desk. Pierre watched a motionless parking lot. All three reacted to the door crashing in. Their reactions were too late, though.

“Freeze, police,” a man barked. He stepped into the room carrying a semi-automatic weapon similar to the one’s wielded by Bear and Pierre. He had dark pants and a dark shirt on. He wore a Kevlar helmet on his head. A bullet proof vest covered his chest and back.

Clarissa looked back at the man in disbelief. He aimed his gun directly at her. “Officer, we’re—”

“Shut up,” the cop said. “Everyone drop your weapons. Try anything and the woman dies.”

Bear sat with his hands on the desk. He pushed back in his chair and stood up slowly. He held his hands up in the air and stepped out from behind the desk. Pierre placed his Glock and MP5 on the desk and stepped a few feet away. Clarissa dropped her pistol on the ground and lifted her hands in the air.

“Move to the corner.” He gestured with his head while keeping his weapon trained on Clarissa. Once the three were huddled together in the corner of the room, the cop said, “Come on in.”

A single Russian man with shoulder length blond hair entered the room. He wore black pants and a black jacket. He pulled out a knife and cut the duct tape from Boris’s wrists, knees and ankles. “Let me help you, Boris.”

Boris took his time getting to his hands and knees and then used his desk to lift himself from the ground. He wiped blood away from his eyes and face with his palms. He stepped forward and stood in front of Bear. “Tell him to move.”

“You heard him,” the cop said.

Bear stood still.

“Move.” The cop fired a round into the ceiling above the group. A cloud of plaster descended on the room.

Bear still didn’t move.

The cop pulled a blackjack from his utility belt. He stepped forward and slammed the thick rubber club into Bear’s midsection. The large man bent over. Not much, but enough for Boris to lean in and grab Clarissa.

“Leave her,” Pierre said.

The cop swung his blackjack at Pierre, catching the Frenchman on the side.

Pierre groaned and stumbled back a few feet. He wrapped his arms around his midsection.

Boris forced Clarissa to sit on the edge of the desk. He paced in front of her. He said, “You betrayed me, Anastasiya? Why? How much did these men pay you?”

Clarissa smiled and didn’t answer.

Boris said, “I will not ask again.”

She still didn’t answer.

Boris turned his head, looked at the cop and then at Bear. Smiled at the big man. Then he backhanded Clarissa across the face.

“Bastard,” Bear said through gritted teeth.

The impact of the blow snapped Clarissa’s head to the side and turned her body a few inches. She took a few moments to compose herself. “I’m not Anastasiya. She’s in a cell in Langley, Virginia. Giving up all your secrets.”

Boris backed up. “What? Who are you?”

Clarissa straightened up and said, “Screw you.”

Boris pushed his man to the side and grabbed her pistol off the floor. He stood back a few feet and aimed it at Clarissa. He said, “Tell me what the hell is going on here.”

17

Jack reached the top of the stairs and stepped into the hallway. Jasmine was close behind. He saw Kenneth Quioness only half a second before the man drove his large fist into Jack’s stomach. There was no time to prepare for the blow. Jack’s momentum carried his head and chest forward. The force of Kenneth’s blow drove Jack’s midsection backward. Jack found himself crumpled over and forced his hands to his face to soften the blow he knew would come from Kenneth’s knee.

Kenneth stepped forward. Grabbed the back of Jack’s head. He drove his knee upward. The blow could have been severe and enough to put Jack on the ground for a minute or two. However, his hands and wrists absorbed the impact and the knee only served to drive the back of Jack’s wrists into his forehead. He fell over anyway, and lay on the ground like a helpless invalid.