Redemption (The Alliance Series Book 1) (7 page)

              He was assigned a retrieval of an agent in Cambodia. Apparently, the agent partook of a local concoction that was supposed to make him a member of their tribe but instead the local medicine man put the equivalent of a spiritual roofie in it.

              The agent was half in half out of the spirit realm and totally incapable of completing his mission.

              Not a bad one as those things go, he was fine to be brought back and cleansed.

              Once agent Simmons got on site, he claimed the medicine man had done something worse and gotten into the field agents mind and those of the tribe. Simmons claimed the tribe turned on him and attacked along with the operative. Simmons claimed he killed every man woman and child in that village because he had to, that the contamination was too much, and they were too far-gone.

              The only problem was the dogs and cats.

              The photos that accompanied the report showed piles of bodies, twenty to twenty five dead villagers. It also showed about five dog corpses and ten local cats.

              The problem is that cats and dogs are immune to mental attacks. They can be trained; they can be created to kill. But natural dogs and cats have an immunity to mind magic. If someone powerful enough does get to them, it wears off in hours and is only good for sending messages or relaying information. Reptiles have less immunity. Witches and other bad guys frequently use them as familiars. Snakes are great for infiltrating hard to get to areas and sneaking around. They also make good assassins. A bite from an adder kills the same as a bullet to the head.

              Why did Simmons kill the animals?

              I’ll tell you why, cause he’s nuts, with a capital N.

              "So, they sent their sick little attack dog to come get the big bad wizards?" I asked.

              "John, you know I prefer to think of myself as a shark." Simmons said.

              "You can walk away now Simmons. Go tell your masters I got away, I escaped your little ambush. Tell them that they can’t have me. I have something to do."

              "John I always loved how you think you’re special. You think that just because you are tight with the Lt. Col. everyone is going to look away when you do something that should land your ass in trouble. He has always protected you, allowed you your freedom when you no longer could handle being on active duty. Even set you up with good assignments, allowing you to kill like a good puppet."              "You're not going to get out of this, no. I am going to take you and Nathan, were going to get in this Humvee and go back. The mind docs are going to see if there is anything salvageable in there and if not I am going to see to it that you don't cause any more problems again, ever." Simmons almost seemed to burst with energy.

              I thought about sending a few thousand volts at him. I really wanted to, but I knew it would be a waste of time.

              Simmons is a Disruptor grade wizard.

              That means he has the ability to disrupt any magic or magic made energy.              

My magic attacks were all really cool, but they were still magical in nature. When I summon power and use it to form lightning it is a creation of magic. The lightning acts like electricity but the magic I used to call forth the lightning is so intertwined with the attacks I use they are not natural. Simmons is easily capable of unraveling the magic I use to cause so much damage and effectively neutralize my offense. It’s really annoying. I would love nothing more than to watch as he squirmed under a few thousand volts. They wouldn't do much against him. Simmons also rendered Nathans magic harmless. His shields and dampening fields would fizzle out if Simmons concentrated on them.

              It's what made him so good at his job. All the agents he went after were usually wizards or used magic as their primary weapon of choice. Simmons could eat it up and take away their biggest weapons.

              Then he liked to get close and finish them off with a knife. Like I said, he’s nuts.             

              I personally think he liked to look in their eyes as they died. I think he was searching for something.

              "Your too late, you know. A big ole stinky centaur already tried that this morning, I sent him to breakfast with the locals. I haven’t heard much from him, I guess he ordered the big man breakfast platter." I said.

              "It comes with two orders of bacon strips." Nathan added offhandedly.

              "Shut up, the both of you idiots!" Yelled Simmons, he was fuming.

              "Now, now, Simmons don’t get your blood pressure up. You wouldn't want to have a blood vessel burst or anything. That would be terrible." I said.

"That’s enough! Don’t just stand there like a bunch of rentacops, cuff these assholes so we can get out of this god-forsaken place." Simmons ordered his men, motioning for his unit to take us into custody.

              Like good soldiers, they went to follow his orders, but I had another idea in mind.

              I raised my hand palm down and spread my fingers out so that each of my five fingers pointed at one of the soldiers and released a fraction of the energy I had gathered while I chatted with Simmons.

              It wasn't much really, about 1200 volts, maybe .02 amps.

              I mean a vacuum cleaner runs on twelve amps.

              It wasn't enough to kill them, I had enough dead bodies on my hands, and I just wanted them incapacitated for a few moments so I could deal with Simmons. Simmons could ensure I wouldn’t be able to harm him with my magic. He might even have stopped me from zapping one or two of his men, but he wasn’t able to stop me from hitting them all. I don’t think he even tried.

              All five men dropped to the ground and twitched a couple of times. I figured I had about a minute.

              "Really, you tazed them?" Nathan asked, looking at me with disdain, as if I had done something very uncouth.

              "Yeah well, I had to think of something. You were just standing there." I answered.

              "You think a little electricity is going to scare me John?" Simmons asked with a sneer. "I can take anything you or Nathan throw at me, you both know this." He added.

              I looked at Simmons, a wide grin showing on my face.

              "That’s why I brought my little friend." I said.

              I raised my other hand and fired my .357 dead center of Simmons chest. He may be able to disrupt magic, but let see his psycho ass disrupt that.

              All he could do was fly about five feet onto one of the hoods of the Humvees. He rolled off the truck and fell to the ground clutching his chest and bringing his knees up in a fetal position, while making groaning noises.

              I continued smiling. I figured they were still making field agents wear their ballistics armor. I was right. It was surprising to realize how much I enjoyed doing that.

              The round wouldn't kill him, but it would hurt like hell, if I was lucky, I might have cracked a rib or broken a clavicle.

              Broken clavicles are extremely painful. Everything from turning your head to raising your arm involves some movement of the clavicle. It would make my day to see Simmons in a sling. It's the little things, you know?

              "You were saying, Simmons?" I asked as Nathan and I ran through the still immobilized soldiers and into one of the Humvees, this time I drove and Nathan went to work disrupting the G.P.S. tracking device that was standard issue on every company vehicle. That would keep the helicopter from quickly finding us by locking on to our location.

              We quickly got to the Neon and transferred our equipment, putting it in the Humvee, we then went around the crater, driving through the underbrush and over a few small trees that were outside the shoulder, and left Simmons, the five soldiers and the trusty Neon in our rearview mirror.

Chapter 7

We drove away from the goon squad, picking up speed.

              Even though Nathan had disabled the tracking system there was still the matter of the Super Cobra out there. When Simmons failed to report in on time or when the soldiers woke up and reported that we got away we would have the same problem of a death machine flying overhead intent on stopping us.

              I looked out of the window and saw a highway sign, the ones that were red white and blue and told you what interstate you were on and what direction you were going.

              I had slept most of the way so I wasn't sure how much distance we had covered or how long we had been driving before the run in with Simmons.

              The sign said I-70 East. I figured we were somewhere in Colorado, seeing as how we were surrounded by northern pines and rolling mountains instead of the open flat deserts of arid California.

              "Where are we?" I asked Nathan.

              "We're about 150 miles outside of Grand Junction." Nathan said.

              "Damn, I was asleep for what? nine hours?" I asked.

              "Yeah, you were sleeping like a baby. It was cute; I think I even saw you sucking on your thumb at one point." Nathan chided.

              "Bite me Geronimo." I retorted.

              "We have to get off the main road if we expect to not get blown to kingdom come when that chopper finds us." I said.

              "Got any ideas?" Nathan asked.

              "Yeah, I think I may know someone around here who can help." I answered.

              Nathan sat there for a minute; I could tell he was thinking, trying to figure out who I was talking about. A slow smile crept over his face and he said. "The Bear?"

              "Yup." I replied. "He has a cabin out in the woods, just outside of the Grand Mesa National Forest. We can take the back roads, stay off the radar and get there in a few hours, if we’re lucky."

              Nathan just grunted. He didn't have to say it but I knew what he was thinking. When we needed things to go smoothly was usually the time everything went to hell.

"You did a couple missions with Simmons; didn't you say he was extremely even tempered?" Nathan asked, changing subjects.

              "He always kept his shit together, if that’s what you mean. Why?" I asked.

              "Well, I noticed he started getting short with his men and us, right after you told him about the Centaurs attempted assassination." Nathan said.

              "You noticed that to, huh?” I asked. "What do you bet hearing there is another player trying to get at his prize pissed the G-man off?" I added.

              "Have any ideas who might have ordered a hit on us?" Nathan asked.

              "Not yet, I’m betting we may have another chance to get to ask some questions though. I don’t think a little fall is going to keep Stinky out of the hunt forever." I said.

              "Centaurs are a persistent bunch." Nathan said.

              "It's also odd. Centaurs are a herd species. They usually never operate alone. Something just does not feel right about this. Someone with a lot of weight to throw around would have had to put him on us. They don't like to be ordered around." I speculated.

              "He may have a debt to pay or maybe he had just been offered a really good price for you." Nathan added.

              I thought for a few minutes, trying to make sense of it.

              "It just doesn’t add up." I said, looking out the window, as we got deeper and deeper into the thick Colorado forests.

              It was early spring and the days were still warm. The sun shone low in the sky. The early morning air was crisp as it came in through the open windows. The smell of the trees was thick and fresh. If green had a scent, it would have been encompassed here. I looked up and saw eagles circling lazily in the sky. Searching for prey that would never know they were there until they the last moment as they gave their lives so that others could grow. I watched the few clouds drift on the breeze. The sun would soon heat the clouds and break them up, leaving the sky a vast expanse of the purest blue.

              "So, we have a professional hitman on our ass. A psychotic agent hunter and about ten trained soldiers specializing in retrieval or removal all trying to be the first to either bring us in for professional help or make sure we never get brought in." Nathan stated.

              "Not to mention one pissed off Major I left back at Frisco." I said, bringing myself away from the scenery.

              Nathan smiled and said, "You do have a way with people."

              We were going to see the bear.