Apocalyptic Visions Super Boxset (93 page)

The roads and buildings were old, almost medieval. Puddles of collected rainwater gathered in the cracked and potholed pavement from the afternoon’s rain. The sun was sinking below the horizon behind her, but only a few of the streetlights managed to flicker on, the rest shattered or burnt out. Piles of trash lined the alleyways between buildings and sent up waves of stink every time Sarah passed one.

The back roads of Ostrava weren’t the best place for a Western woman to be walking alone, but she wasn’t an abductor’s average target. The local sex trade had a better chance of pulling Bryce out of his chair in their secure facility back in Chicago than they did of nabbing her in the back streets of the city.

Of course, it didn’t help that she was also looking for the leader of one of the largest criminal organizations in the country. Imrich Evzen’s group controlled more than ninety percent of the sex-trafficking trade that came in and out of the Czech Republic’s borders, and because of that, he’d made quite a bit of money, which allowed him to acquire quite a large following of brutes and thugs that he could pay to do whatever he wanted to. But first, she had to find out where he was staying, and Bryce’s intelligence stated that his right-hand man, Havel Bohdan, liked to frequent the brothel at the end of the road.

The girls standing outside wore nothing more than thin pieces of cloth to cover the small patches of flesh that would later be revealed once money changed hands. Sarah noticed the pockmarks along the veins of their arms. Most of the girls here were drugged and then, after forced into addiction, controlled with the very substance that was killing them.

“Bryce, do I have any casualty restrictions on this mission?”

“Only civilians, per the norm.”

“Good.”

The brothel was on the corner of a block of V-shaped land that sat between two roads that joined together in front of the building. It looked like an old, abandoned hotel that was now fashioned into a place where the fantasies of pleasure were stolen from the bodies and minds of women who didn’t want to be there in the first place. She looked down both sides of the building and saw only one exit that came out from a basement on the left side. Other than that, there were no fire escapes or other entrances or exits that her target could escape through. Thank you, lazy safety inspector.

The two guards at the door gave her a smile as they looked her up and down. They were the stereotypical Eastern European thugs: big, dumb, and convinced they were much more handsome than what they were. Sarah reached for the door handle, and the brute on the left blocked her, then said something to his partner, and the two men chuckled.

“Did you get that?” Sarah asked.

“Yup,” Bryce answered.

A pause followed. “What’d he say, Bryce?” Another pause. “Bryce,” Sarah said, her tone threatening as the two men looked at her as if she was crazy, talking to herself.

“He said the whores go around back.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Sarah snatched the left thug’s hand and twisted the wrist with a hard snap that triggered an equally large pop that brought the man to his knees and the gleam of a tear to his eye. The second guard grabbed hold of Sarah’s hair, attempting to pull her off his partner. She grabbed his arm, straightened it so that his bicep was pointed toward the sky, and then shoved the palm of her hand into the back of his elbow, which triggered another loud pop and broke the man’s grip. With both men on their knees, she brought her heel across the side of the left thug’s face, sending his skull cracking into the edge of the stone staircase, and shoved the other man tumbling down the stairs, giving her enough momentum to run after him and shove the sole of her boot into his face, knocking him backward and unconscious against the puddled road.

The girls outside screamed and immediately sprinted in whatever direction took them away from Sarah. She pulled both pistols from underneath her jacket and opened the door. The man at the front desk immediately pulled a shotgun from under the counter, and before the barrel of the gun revealed itself, she sent two .45 bullets into his heart, killing him instantly. Everyone in the lounge area froze or tried ducking behind whatever cover they could find.

“If this place isn’t cleared out in the next ten seconds, I’m going to shoot anyone with a penis,” Sarah said. “Yeah, I’m looking at you, Frodo,” she added, gesturing to a shorter, portly man with hair sticking out from his shirt collar. The crowd was either paralyzed or couldn’t understand Sarah’s English, but either way, no one moved. She pointed the pistol into the ceiling and fired, sending a rain of dust and plaster over her and propelling the room into a frenzy, with everyone running out the front door.

With the swarm of bodies scrambling to put their clothes back on, she made her way up the stairs, guns first, in search of Havel. A few fat, shirtless men clutching their pants in their arms rushed out of the rooms and hurried past her, their jelly-like bodies jiggling in fear.

Sarah scrunched her nose at the mixed smells of sweat, semen, and booze. “God, it’s worse in here than the alleyways.” She passed a few open doors, through which she saw a mixture of girls. Some were huddled up in balls in the corner with no clothes and others were passed out on a mattress with nothing more than a sheet covering them, but all of them were slaves. And with each room she passed, searching for Havel, the hot, iron pit of anger boiled over in her stomach.

Unless Havel was in the basement, which she knew wasn’t the case, he was still perched in one of the rooms on the top floor. The rest of the building had been cleared out as she made her way up the stairs, one level at a time. She stepped lightly; the cornered animal hiding in one of the rooms most likely had a gun on him—and a hostage, if the girl hadn’t made a dash for it once the shooting started.

Doors lined both sides of the hall, so she moved to her left, checking the room across from her before she cleared the one next to her. She made her way methodically down the hall, and the light squeak of springs grew louder the farther she went. Finally she came across the unpleasant view of a walrus of a man thrusting into the drugged-up girl underneath him. Sarah aimed for the man’s left butt cheek and pulled the trigger.

The wail that followed the bullet piercing the flabby white flesh that was his posterior equaled the thunderous smack as he fell from the bed and onto the floor. The woman immediately pulled up the sheet to cover herself, and Sarah motioned with the tip of her smoking pistol to the door. The woman hurried past her and disappeared down the hallway.

“So, Havel, how’s your day going?” Sarah asked.

Havel kept his hand glued to the bullet wound as he wallowed in his own blood on the floor. “You fucking shot me in the ass!”

“Yes, I literally tore you a new one. Now unless you want me to give you a matching hole for the other cheek, I suggest you tell me exactly what I want to hear. Where is Emrich?”

“I don’t know where he is!”

Sarah aimed for the other cheek and fired. Havel jerked, screamed, and howled, now using both hands to staunch the bleeding on his ass. “I DON’T KNOW WHERE HE IS!”

“You’re either telling the truth, or you just really like getting shot in the ass. Emrich just got hired for a job. What is it?”

“I-it’s something to do in Germany. We sent a big group of our guys that handle our top-level enforcement and security for Emrich. They’re all ex-Russian military.”

“Where in Germany?”

“I don’t know.”

Sarah raised her pistol again, and Havel flopped on the floor, screaming. “It had something to do with the G7 Summit! That’s all I know! I swear!”

Sarah stepped around Havel’s bloody ass prints and squatted next to him. His fat trembled and quivered the closer Sarah brought the barrel of her pistol to the side of his head. “I could kill you, and no one would care. No one would find out it was me. I’d get away scot-free then go home and sleep like a baby.” She placed her finger on the trigger, and Havel closed his eyes and started crying. “But then all your prison buddies wouldn’t be able to enjoy the new holes I just made for them.” She patted the side of his face and walked out. Just before she left the doorframe, she turned back around and pointed at him. “Don’t drop the soap. No. Damn. Too late. I didn’t think of it till now when I was telling you the prison bit. Dammit. Oh, well.” She disappeared from the room then popped her head back in one last time. “But, really, don’t drop the soap. Your ass will be like a rape buffet in its current condition.”

***

Up for nearly thirty-six hours, Bryce was running on nothing but sheer adrenaline. He’d passed the fatigued states of exhausted and tired and was onto his fourth or fifth wind. It had gotten to the point now that he couldn’t stop moving. If he did, he’d collapse into a pile of dreamless sleep wherever he stopped.

Schematics of the Schloss Elmau were pulled up on his computer screen. The massive, five-story estate was a retreat resort reserved for the wealthy looking for a time to relax in the countryside. The place would no doubt be locked down tight with the gathering of the world leaders, and with the two-day summit kicking off tomorrow, Sarah didn’t have time to come back for another refuel and briefing, so everything was being done on the road.

“You should see this thing, Bryce. It’s like I’m driving around in a toy car. There is absolutely nothing digital. It’s insane!”

“You’re supposed to blend in.”

“Do you know how many Mercedes I’ve seen on the road? I could have gone with the cover of a dashing baroness on her way to meet suitors for my large estate, but no. You gave me the car that screams ‘I just escaped from the brothel.’”

“To be fair, you did just escape from a brothel.”

“I think you’re missing the point that you gave me a shit car.”

Bryce compressed the file and sent it to Sarah’s phone. “You should have the schematics and security layouts on your mobile now.”

“Any updates on New Frontier?”

“I ran the known employees of the company against our criminal databases, but there weren’t any matches. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

“Whatever it is, they mean to start some conflict. I think they know that Emrich’s men will get caught, and the fact that they’re Russian will cause some stir in the international community. Especially with Russia being suspended from the summit.”

“So they’re trying to start World War Three? I don’t think that would be good for business.”

“Well, if you come up with anything, let me know. I’ve got a long night of tramping through the woods ahead of me. Get some rest.”

“Will do.”

The connection link went down, and Bryce took off his headpiece. He could feel the weight of sleep keeping him glued to his chair. He tried pushing himself up using the armrests, but he collapsed back into his seat. He felt a palm on his shoulder, and when he looked up, Mack was standing right above him.

“Go home, Bryce.”

“Sarah will be in Schloss Elmau in a few hours. I need to watch the satellite feeds to guide her in.”

“I’ll have Johnny cover for you.” Mack gave him another quick pat on the shoulder and headed back to his office.

“Thank you, sir.” Bryce didn’t like leaving Sarah in someone else’s hands, but he’d reached the point where he’d do more harm than good. She’d still be in good hands with Johnny, although he wasn’t sure how well he’d handle her mission commentary.

***

The forest around Schloss Elmau stretched for miles. The green trees protruded into the cloudless blue sky with the outlining of the mountains in the background. The tree density offered enough cover for Sarah to maneuver through the forest fairly easily, albeit slowly. It would have been a nice hike if she didn’t have to crawl the entire six miles on her hands and knees, avoiding the Special Forces patrols hiding every hundred yards in various locations.

“Three hundred yards to your left,” Johnny said. “Two patrols heading parallel to your location.”

Sarah brought the small scope up to her eye and managed to see the flashes of camouflage making their way through the thick German trees of the forest. “How much farther?”

“You’re less than a half mile away.”

“Any other targets on radar?”

“Negative.”

It was only the first day of the summit. Emrich’s men still had through tomorrow to make whatever move they had planned—although with the amount of resources that she was using just to get to the building, she had no idea how these Russians were supposed to get into the place.

“Stop!” Johnny said.

Sarah froze. Nothing but her eyes moved. She remained quiet, looking, listening for whatever Johnny had seen from his eye in the sky. Her breathing softened, and she looked like nothing more than a clump of earth on the forest floor. But Sarah didn’t have to wait for Johnny to tell her what was happening when the sound of gunfire echoed through the trees. Sarah jumped from her cover and immediately started sprinting toward the compound.

“Okay, we have a lot of activity coming from the north. My screen is lighting up,” Johnny said.

“How many?”

“Christ, uh, a lot!”

Her boots dug into the black soil, kicking up leaves, sticks, and dirt as she sprinted toward the political compound, which was no doubt being locked down at that very moment. From the brief Bryce had given her, she knew there were choppers ready and waiting to evacuate all the leaders if it came to an attack. “Are the Russians in the compound?”

“No, they’re pinned down in the north forest, but the leader evacuation has already started.”

The field between the forest and the compound came into view, and she broke through the front line. She pulled her pistol and exchanged the .45 magazine for one filled with rubber bullets. She wasn’t here to kill Secret Service men.

“Whoa, something’s happening with the network in the building. Someone’s trying to hack their way into the summit’s servers,” Johnny said.

Sarah was in full sprint now, arms and legs pumping her forward, shots of adrenaline coursing through her with every gunshot in the distance. “The attack’s a diversion. Can you pinpoint the location of the hack?”

“Eastern corridors of the building, second floor,” Johnny answered.

“Give me an entry point.”

“Side door straight ahead, one guard, six staff.”

Gunshots grew louder, and the ground next to her puffed up in a combination of dirt and grass. Sarah looked to her left, and three men, their ties flying behind them, were in pursuit. Her legs shifted into another gear, picked up speed, and changed her trajectory from the side door Johnny had recommended to the window right next to it.

Sarah lowered her shoulder, and the window shattered as she barreled inside through a rain of glass and broken wood. The staff screamed, and with her shoulder still stinging from the hit, she rolled to her right and swept her leg under the guard’s feet, knocking him to the ground. She punched his jaw, jolting him into a daze, and pulled the tie off his neck. She used it to wrap his right wrist and ankle together and took his pistol. The cowering kitchen crew huddled by the cabinets during the ordeal, and Sarah watched one of them slowly drop the knife he held in his hand. “Smart move.”

“Sarah, a group of three combatants just broke into the north entrance. The German chancellor’s pinned down.”

“On it.” With the guard still flopping on the ground, Sarah rushed into the hallway and followed the sound of the gunshots from inside. Every once in a while, someone would rush past her, and if they had a gun, she took them out with a rubber bullet. One of them she caught right in the forehead.

“What’s German for ‘good afternoon’?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Why?”

“’Cause I want something cool to say when I rescue the chancellor.”

“Does Bryce really look these things up for you?”

“Ugh, never mind. The moment’s passed.”

Sarah peeked around the wall’s edge at the end of the hallway and saw the backs of the Russian mercenaries. The hallway around them had been redecorated in their efforts to either capture or kill the German chancellor, who was pinned down at the far end under the protection of the two servicemen guarding her.

With the amount of chaos that had befallen the compound, the chancellor’s men were just as likely to shoot at Sarah as they were the Russians. She snatched the second pistol out of her holster, reloaded both magazines, took a deep breath, and sprinted down the hallway.

The Russians had sought cover behind a pillar and an open doorway. One of them was behind the pillar and two of them crouched in the doorway. As expected, the German secret service shot at her, which alerted the Russians to her presence, which then made the Russians shoot at her. This is why people don’t try and do nice things anymore.

Bullets exploded past Sarah as she ducked behind another pillar fifty feet behind the Russians. They were barking at each other in their thick, watery-mouthed dialect, and the group split its fire between Sarah and the Germans.

The impact of the compressions against the backside of the pillar vibrated through the concrete and into her body. The AK-47 clips they used were thirty capacity. With each bullet that sent the rippled shockwaves through her body, she counted.

Bullets twenty-nine and thirty hit almost simultaneously, and before the Russian had a chance to reload, she spun around and fired two into the Kevlar on his chest, knocking him backward, and another one into the center of his forehead.

The two Russians at the doorway immediately turned their attention toward Sarah, who sprinted into the room, slamming the end of the first AK-47 pointed at her into the doorframe, where it unleashed a flurry of bullets into the hallway. She landed her fist squarely in the man’s throat, ceasing both the gunshots and his breathing.

Sarah swung the now-incapacitated Russian in front of her just as his partner squeezed the trigger, sending fifteen rounds into the back of his comrade, a few which Sarah was sure penetrated the Kevlar he was wearing, as his body grew heavy with motionlessness. She shoved the Russian’s corpse into the second assailant, and before he could push his partner’s lifeless body away, she put a bullet through his neck. He clutched the wound, his fingers trying to stop the squirts of blood but proving unsuccessful. She looked back down the hallway and saw that both the German chancellor and her security detail were gone. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and took a minute to catch her breath. “You’re welcome!”

“Sarah, the hack on the second floor is almost done. Whatever they’re trying to steal, they’re getting it,” Johnny said.

“You think the chancellor didn’t stick around to say thank you because of the whole WWII thing? I mean, c’mon, you need to let that go.”

“Hurry, Sarah!”

The gunshots outside had started to die down as Sarah rushed up the staircase. “Which room?”

“Second door on the left,” Johnny said.

Sarah inched her way to the door, keeping tight against the wall. The edges of plaster scraped against her back. She squatted down to the floor, both hands gripping the handles of her pistols, and immediately spun into the room, but the only gunshots that echoed were the ones still lingering outside beyond the walls of the building.

“Sarah?” Johnny asked.

The room was filled with nothing more than a few servers that stretched from the floor all the way to the ceiling. No windows, no other doors, no other way for whoever was inside to get out. Sarah took a few steps inside, the end of her gun scanning the room, checking every nook and cranny, air vent, desk, and table, but found nothing. “No one’s here.”

“That’s not possible. The download just finished.”

“Well then, the building has a poltergeist. Great movie, by the way.”

“The servers are still there, correct?”

“Yup,” Sarah answered, slapping the plastic side of the server’s case. “They’re really warm, too.”

“Check for the connections in the back. Does anything look like it’s not plugged in?”

Sarah checked the backs and fronts of the three servers inside, scanning them up and down until she had checked every piece of wire that was coming in and out of them. “All accounted for.” Shouts from down the hall snapped her attention back to the door. “Um, Johnny?”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Those servers are hardwired into their own network. They don’t exist on a wireless system. It’s self-secure.”

The shouts of “clear” grew louder as Sarah poked her head into the hallway and saw a unit of soldiers heading toward her, busting down doors along the way. Six soldiers total, armed with body armor and AR-15s. “Johnny!”

“What? Oh, shit.”

“I need an exit. Now.” The thump of boots and the crashing of doors thundered closer to the servers and Sarah. She positioned herself behind the door, giving her the best strategic position. “Johnny?” Her voice came out in a whisper.

“Got it! A room two doors down on your right. There’s a staircase that spirals down to the first floor.”

The next crash of a door down the hallway triggered Sarah into a sprint as the soldiers behind her opened fire, and she caught a bullet in the back of her Kevlar on the run. She slammed into the door, rolling forward with a sting of pain in her upper back. “Ow.” She pushed herself off the floor and leapt down the stairs two at a time. By the time the soldiers started firing down the staircase, she was already halfway down.

“Better double time it,” Johnny said. “The soldiers just radioed your exit strategy.”

“Where are the rest of the Russians?”

“Either retreating into the woods or dead. There’s another unit heading your direction. They’ll be on top of you in ninety seconds.”

“The field clear?”

“For now.”

Sarah busted the door open, and the hot German sun beat down on her face as she squinted into the light. She sprinted toward the tree line. Once she crossed that threshold, she’d have enough cover to make it back to her transport. Halfway into her sprint across the well-kept grass, the unit heading to intercept her turned the corner of the house and piled into an armored truck speeding her way.

“You didn’t tell me they had a fucking truck!” Sarah said, trying to find another gear, but the bruise on her back triggered a spasm of pain with every step forward. The engine roared in unison with the gunfire, and the first tree she passed upon entering the forest received the bulk of the bullets before two more managed to strike the back of her Kevlar. She skidded face first into the dirt and branches, dirtying her face with cuts and soil. With the instincts of an animal being hunted, she wildly pushed herself off the ground, kicking up the soil and sticks behind her as she made her way through the thicket of trees and brush.

“They’re sending another unit to follow you in,” Johnny said. “Get out of there now, Sarah.”

Sarah’s muscles whined with infantile distress with every step. Years of training, endurance, building pain tolerance, all of it was in full effect. The heightened sense of awareness that accompanied the adrenaline fuel coursing through her veins was focused to a knifepoint.

“Air support heading your way. Let’s move, Sarah.”

The whirl of helicopter blades thumped overhead through the sporadic gunfire behind her. Whatever they thought she’d done, it must have been bad. “Johnny, start running an analytic scan of everything you can about the summit and the information they stored on the servers.”

“I already told you, it can’t be accessed from an outside network. You have to be there in order to pull any information of—”

The vibration of a .223 round rippled past her ear, momentarily relieving her of Johnny’s excuses and whatever he was going to say next. “Dammit, Johnny, use your imagination.” Sarah broke through the leaves of a small bush, and she could feel the wind of the choppers overhead. She immediately changed her trajectory from her escape vehicle and started north, toward the mountains and higher ground.