Counter-Strike (A Mitch Kearns Combat Tracker Novel Book 2) (6 page)

Chapter 10

Mitch drove through the pitch-black forest
until they reached the highway then followed the road to Munich. Jessica Yin
had been flagged through Dev’s facial recognition program as having just passed
over the Austrian border twenty minutes earlier in her stolen Land Rover.

“The route she’s on will take her right to
the airport. She must have passed on whatever intel she obtained from Bob and
is planning to disappear again,” he said, clutching the wheel tightly with both
hands, his mind focused on more than the white lines on the freeway.

Dev retrieved a small black case from her
shoulder bag and flipped open the lid. Inside was a syringe which was
pre-loaded with a single vial of yellow fluid. The entire device was stout,
with a blunt needle on the end that resembled an epi-pen. She lifted it out and
shook the needle, examining the fluid container to make sure it hadn’t been
affected by the cold or the cabin pressure in the plane on their flight over.

“So how’s that shit work again?” said
Mitch, who’d snuck a glance at her.

“You don’t know about the joys of sodium pentothal?
I thought you went through interrogation training at SERE school?”

“In my day, that consisted of just getting
slapped around a lot and hosed down with ice water while hanging upside down in
your cell. No drugs were used.”

“Ah, American interrogators always like
such corporal punishment when extracting information from subjects when a few
CCs of something like this stuff will really save you from getting bruised
knuckles.”

“I’d like to pretend I didn’t hear that latter
comment and focus on remembering that you have a sweet side to you.”

She smirked and put the syringe back in
its case. “This setup was designed for sticking a subject in a crowded place.
It goes right through the jacket or jeans so there’s no need to restrain the
person first. We call it
stab-and-go.
Then you wait about thirty seconds
until the subject gets woozy and you sweep in and grab ’em.”

“I prefer just waiting outside in the
parking lot and sucker-punching the bastard. That way you can see the
oh-shit
look in their eyes when they fall backwards while they realize their destiny caught
up with them.” He cleared his throat and looked at the syringe case again. “But
that’ll work just as well if it ensures getting my hands on this woman.”

Dev pulled up the image of Jessica Yin on
her cellphone and studied the features again. “Our facial recognition program
surreptitiously inserts itself into local security cameras around the world
depending on the nation and how far we want to risk reaching out. It only
functions for a few minutes at a time so we don’t leave behind a digital trail
and it’s provided the location of where Yin disembarked from her SUV near the
airport. The rest is up to us. I’m sending her photo to your phone in case we
get separated.”

“Her face is already seared into my head
but thanks.” He looked at Dev and then up at the overhead sign on the highway
for the airport. “Your software program sounds like the realm of the darknet to
me. You sure you want to dip into those waters with a high-profile company like
yours?”

“Aww, are you looking out for me again? That’s
sweet.”

“Come on, Dev, you know what I’m talking
about. That’s not something a legit business wants to get tied up with however good
your end intentions are.”

“My father had access to some of the
finest minds in cyber-security and created this program strictly for internal
use and only for cases deemed critical. It’s not something I ever use except on
rare occasions like this.” She paused and looked out at a 747 angled skyward in
its ascent. “To stay alive in the world of counter-espionage that goes with the
K & R industry, we’ve had to expand our capabilities beyond what I’m
comfortable with at times. Another reason why I don’t always see eye-to-eye
with my board of directors.”

Mitch slowed the vehicle as he neared the
first terminal, his eyes trolling along the pedestrians milling along the
baggage area.

“So we’ve got a name, a face, and a
location but how the hell are we supposed to locate her amidst this jumble?” he
said.

“Well, she is Chinese so that helps,
right?” said Dev with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

Mitch drove to the next terminal and
continued his visual stalk of the passengers who were checking their bags and
entering the building. Habitually, he found himself glancing down at people’s
footwear and their gait patterns, reminding himself that he wasn’t in the backcountry.
His blood pressure would be lower if he were, as he couldn’t stand the
nauseating effects that large crowds had upon him.

While he was scanning through the throngs
of people, he saw a dark-skinned man walk across the footpath in front of his
SUV. He walked with a sense of purpose, his left arm moving more fluidly than
his right, which seemed velcroed to his side. In Mitch’s experience that meant
he was concealing something under his jacket. The man was wearing jeans and a
casual gray suitcoat. The pants had faint soil stains on the knees. It was the
boots that stood out though—the black jungle survival type with the miniscule
side vents that allowed for water drainage. Mitch had a well-worn pair himself
from his days of working in joint special ops assignments with Colombian Special
Forces and they all had the same unique tread pattern.

He watched the man beeline for the main
entrance, pausing slightly and canting his head away as two policemen walked
by.

“I don’t see Yin but there’s someone else
who might be worth following.” He abruptly pulled over, squeezing between two
taxis, and then hopped out of the vehicle. Dev hurried to catch up as they
entered the terminal and angled to the right, with Mitch scanning past the
bobbing heads for the slender figure who was deftly weaving through the
frenetic horde. He reminded himself that his HK pistol might have to be quickly
ditched in a trash bin if he drew the attention of security. It wasn’t like his
past life a few months ago where he carried the weight of the FBI and could
pursue a potential threat without recourse.
Blades or hand-to-hand are the
new rules of engagement, it seems.

“Who are you after?” said Dev, trotting to
stay beside him.

“Eleven o’clock. Lanky dude with dark skin
who moves like a wolf.”

“What about him?” she said after
pinpointing the figure.

“Not sure but something doesn’t add up and
in my book intuition is a big part of tracking someone. I think he’s our
Charlie Brown—the guy whose tracks I saw at the estate.”

An elevator door opened to the left,
sending a wave of people into the human river that Mitch and Dev were wading
through. He had to pause and make his way through the tangle. When it had
cleared, the mysterious man was gone.

Mitch kept pivoting and studying the entrances
and escalators. “Dammit.” He turned and grabbed Dev’s arm. “You head upstairs
and see if you can locate him from there. I’ll stay down here and keep pushing
ahead.”

Just after they split up, with Dev
ascending on the escalator, Mitch looked to his left—straight into the face of
Jessica Yin.

Chapter 11

A hulking figure who seemed to be
accompanying Yin peeled off to her right and melted into the crowd. Mitch
watched him for a second, not certain if he was actually with the woman, but
made sure he had gained some distance before getting closer to Yin. The woman
glanced down at her phone long enough for Mitch to file into the flow of people
behind her as they headed down a walkway leading to international flights. He
could see the security checkpoint ahead and knew he had to reach her before
then.

Mitch’s heart raced when he realized Dev
had the tranquilizer.
Looks like we’ll have to go old-school, which is
usually the best way anyhow.

He reached in his pocket and quickly
texted Dev that he had spotted Yin near a chapel and a coffee kiosk. He
replaced his phone with a small fixed blade, inverting it and keeping it
concealed against his wrist and jacket. He quietly pushed his way through the
crowd and moved in alongside Yin, slicing the tip of his blade through the thin
fabric of her nylon jacket until it pressed against her ribs.

“Ms. Yin, please accompany me to the right
unless you want your innards spilled onto the floor.”

She slowed her gait as he pressed the tip into
her yielding flesh. “If I have to ask again, that pretty little sweater of
yours is gonna be permanently stained red.”

Yin followed him to the side, the two
walking in unison as Mitch kept an eye on her hands while glancing up at the
security guards in the distance. He angled her off to a small chapel situated
next to the food court.

Shoving her inside, he saw that there was
a young man kneeling at the altar. The man turned abruptly and looked at Mitch,
who was scowling. “We could use some time alone. My wife has a terminal illness
and needs comforting.”

The man hastily withdrew, closing the
narrow double-doors behind him. Mitch sensed Jessica trying to pivot to lessen
the pressure on the blade so she could strike at him. He slammed her head into
the wall and repositioned the knife near her carotid.

“We’re overdue on a chat about Bob
Schueller and since I’m pressed for time and have no compunction about spilling
blood in a chapel, you better begin talking before I start slicing.”

Her lip was bleeding and she began crying.
“Please, mister, why are you doing this? Just take my purse and leave me
alone.” He told her to move her hands up high on the wall and stand still.

Mitch twisted the tip into her neck,
causing a rivulet of blood to run down her collarbone. She winced and then
stopped sobbing, her voice deepening. “You fuck, you’ll pay for that.”

“That’s a damn pretty face to carve up.”

“Schueller’s yesterday’s news. What you
really want to know is what I obtained from a frumpy old fuck like him,” she
said with a crooked smile while letting out a laugh.

He felt his phone vibrating and knew that
Dev was probably trying to contact him. “I’d like to know both, actually.” He
struck Yin on the back of the head with the steel pommel of his knife. As she
slid to the floor, the chapel doors opened and in walked Yin’s bodyguard Edward,
his face red with rage as he rushed towards Mitch.

Yin used the distraction to shift away
from Mitch, delivering a leg sweep against his calf. Mitch lost his balance and
fell backwards but used the momentum to ball up and roll to the side away from
Yin’s next kick. He sprang up with his blade just in time to sidestep the
massive brawler whose hands were nearly upon his neck. Mitch sliced the man
across the right quadricep which caused his leg to buckle. The surly brute grunted
and grabbed his leaking appendage. Yin started to bolt for the door but Mitch seized
her coat and yanked her back.

While Mitch tried to halt Yin’s escape
without mortally wounding her, she spun with a vicious scream while delivering
a right hook at Mitch’s face. He bobbed enough to miss the full blow but her
knuckles grazed his cheek then slid off his ear. He parried the next punch and
sent the toes of his boot into the side of her knee. Mitch began a downward
slash with his blade, aiming at her deltoid but felt a sharp blow in his back
as the injured man managed a weak punch to his kidneys.

Dev rushed inside, quickly closing the
door and running towards the hulking figure who was swinging at Mitch. Dev
drove her boot into his chest, slamming him into some pews which folded under
his weight like bowling pins. Edward came up with a large folding knife, the
steel glinting in the fluorescent lighting. Dev dodged his feeble thrust, doing
a disarm by grabbing the hand and violently turning the wrist back on itself.
She heard the popping of ligaments as the knife fell to the floor. She had
removed her own fixed blade from its appendix sheath and drove the pommel into
the man’s temple twice until he slumped to the floor.

While Mitch regained his hold on Yin, she
deftly removed a wooden spike from her bun and drove it into Mitch’s forearm.
His leather jacket lessened the impact but he still felt the slight sting of
the tip pierce his skin. The surprise move was enough to cause his grip to
loosen on Yin’s jacket and she slid back, limp-trotting for the door, gliding into
the crowd. Mitch glanced back at Dev and the unconscious figure on the ground
then yanked open the handle and headed into the throng of people.

He could see the unsteady gait of Yin
ahead as she tried to weave amongst the crowd. She looked back at him then
increased her stride, heading towards the escalators that led to a tram.
Several police officers were making their way to the left, heading towards the
chapel. He hoped that Dev had fled by now and he stopped by a magazine stand, lowering
his ball cap slightly as the officers rushed past.

When he looked up, Yin was gone. He paused
and scanned the escalator, spying the dark-skinned man from earlier heading up
then disappearing into the crowd. Mitch glanced to his right and left near the
food vendors for any signs of Yin. He searched for a limping pattern then for
her short crop of black hair. As he reached the escalator, he stepped off to the
side beside a square-shaped recess lined with potted plants and some benches.
Yin was sitting down, her head leaning against a small palm tree whose branches
obscured the area. He moved towards her slowly and saw two round puncture
wounds in the side of her head above the ear. There were no exit wounds, making
him conclude they were .22 caliber rounds. He sat down beside Yin, examining
the wounds again. Neat and clean with no mess. Probably a suppressed pistol at
close range with an expanding bullet. Mitch rummaged through her pockets,
trying to avoid drawing any attention to his actions as the crowd surged onto
the escalator. He found her ticket, which indicated she was flying to Kuala
Lumpur, then removed her cellphone and tucked it in his pocket.

An elderly couple came into the sheltered
grove and sat down across from Mitch. The woman was holding onto a cane as her portly
husband helped her to the bench. Mitch just lowered his head and got up slowly,
looking into Yin’s glassy eyes. As he pushed his way through the crowd, Mitch
heard a scream come from the old woman followed by her pointing in his
direction. He saw several police officers leaning over the second floor
railing, their eyes scanning the throngs of people in his vicinity.