Walkthrough
Chapter Nine
Special Agent Smith toed a bloody clod of clay in the middle of the forest service road. No telling what carried off the mortal remains that left the stain. Fifty feet away, a smoky fire roared in the center of the property. He looked ahead at the half dozen trucks parked in the ditches on both sides of the road. Then he looked back at nearly the same number of trucks parked behind him and shook his head.
“Excuse me, sir. This is an active crime scene,” said a young, uniformed officer barely old enough to shave.
“Yeah, and you people parked on half of it. My name is Special Agent Smith, NSA,” said Wade, holding up his credentials.
“Um, sheriff’s over by the house, careful this place is rigged to blow,” said the officer, standing to the side.
Wade took out a small wheel book and pencil writing down the officer’s name, their conversation, and made a note of the time before walking out into the yard.
“Hold up partner, you’re in the middle of my crime scene,” said the large man in the cowboy hat.
“Sheriff McElroy? Special Agent Smith, Deputy Director Hayes has asked me to assess the situation and coordinate the REACT team. So, actually you and about a dozen, fucking patrol trucks are in the middle of my crime scene,” said Wade, making notes of the conversation the time and drawing a thumbnail sketch of the barn, the hole in the yard, and the burning house. “What are those men doing, sheriff?” said Wade, pointing with the gnawed end of his pencil at the five patrolmen aimlessly standing around.
“We’re waiting on the bomb squad. I lost two men in that house fire.”
“You did?” asked Wade, scratching furiously on his notepad.
“Incendiaries, the whole goddamned place is a booby trap.”
“If you knew, the place was rigged.”
“Now back the fuck up! I just watched two of my men die.”
“That’s the point, sheriff. You’ve got nine cars and seven fuckers with their thumbs up their asses, mucking about in something way over their hillbilly heads. There are only two people on this hill that knows what’s going on here and one of them is blown across three fucking counties. I want you to tell your bomb squad to stand the fuck down. Finding the bombs by setting them off is not only deadly, it’s a great way to destroy evidence. I’ve got federal agents, specialists, in route. Now, I want you to gather up your little brood and shoo them out of my crime scene.”
Wade stepped away, punching the buttons on his satellite phone. As he waited, he watched the sheriff in the distance, explaining the situation to his men.
“Charlie’s dead,” said Wade in a whisper the moment Aldo answered the phone. “The comm center is on fire… No, the sheriff didn’t mention the bitch… No, fuck that, Aldo. Aldo, get James and get your asses out here ASAP... Dipshit there’s mortal remains smoking on top of the fucking safe. Do you really want Hector Rivera doing a live broadcast called ‘Opening the Mystery Safe from Ghost Mountain’?”
“We’re about to go,” said the sheriff.
Startled, Wade jumped, dropping his SAT-phone. Trying to play off his embarrassment, he slowly picked it up, hanging up on Aldo, and went back to his notes.
“Sorry about that, like I said, we’re about to go, but I want to know who put the NSA on the case?”
“You did, sheriff. Didn’t you think reporting a domestic terrorist would set off a few alarm bells?”
“Oh that, yeah well, when I ran Charlie Briggs’ name it came back as killed in action ten years ago. I knew that was wrong, so I, he-he, told those pencil pushers…”
Wade looked up from his pencil and notebook.
“Well, anyway, I told them I had a domestic terrorist on my hands, and they magically found Mr. Briggs. Not much of a record, just his enlistment date and his chain of command, a Major Whatcom, and a Lieutenant Dan Dearborn. I was told this Dearborn feller was the one that was killed. It was a paperwork mix up.”
“That’s good police work, sheriff. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take some measurements and photos before I lose the light.”
“And the dogs?”
“I’m sure they’ll be fine for one night, sheriff. If not, I will shoot them myself.”
Sheriff McElroy held up his hands and backed away from the angry man with the pencil.
Wade waited until the last truck repeatedly pulled up and back, until it could turn on the narrow road, tearing out sizeable chunks of the bank as it went. Then he ran to the barn.
“Kiko! Kiko! Den, yellow, wa, den, yellow, wa… Yellow San? Yellow San? Come here! Come here now!”
Wade waited, but heard nothing. He walked around the barn, studying the ground in the twilight as he went. The deputies had stomped dozens of tracks around the barn.
“No point in looking here.”
Out back, Wade tripped a secret lever and the hinges of the hidden entrance protested loudly as it swung open. He took out a small flashlight and carefully examined the inside. Nothing looked out of place, but he took photos anyway. The sheriff’s men had been afraid to enter here. If there were any clues, this was his only chance to find them.
“Kiko? Yellow San?” said Wade, stepping carefully not to disturb any of Charlie’s booby traps.
Night falls fast at the foot of Ghost Mountain, where evil spirits haunted every shadow in the pitch-black 200-year-old barn. Wade investigated Kiko’s room. She had placed her meager possessions beside her carefully folded, filthy bedding. The wear marks, phantom scars, from the chain around her neck pointed to a hole where once a padeye had held it fast. No padeye, no chain, and no Kiko. An icy wind blew the secret barn-door closed causing it to make a loud blood-curdling screech. Wade jumped up, bashing his head on the low log ceiling, before quickly leaving the barn, not bothering to step so softly on the way out.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck, of course she wouldn’t stick around. That fucking slut just killed Charlie and hauled ass. She’ll turn up. I mean, just how many naked Asian girls are running around the hills of West Virginia with a logging chain around their neck?” said Wade, yelling at the night in a fit of anger echoed by the yelping dogs.
“Calm the fuck down man, this is Charlie’s place, damn it! One misstep here and it’ll be your fucking last,” he said to himself. Wade took a few deep breaths as the surrounding darkness deepened. The whole of Appalachia disappeared, only revealing itself within the swath of Wade’s small flashlight, except, of course, for the hellish glow of the crackling, amber coals from the slowly burning home. A pop and a groan erupted as part of the floor collapsed. He carefully stepped up to investigate, only to illuminate a laughing charred skull before it, too, slipped into the dark below, causing Wade to jump with fright.
“Fuck! God damn it! Fuck Charlie! That dumb fucker got what he fucking deserved. Now where the hell are Aldo and James?” said Wade, yelling while fishing out his SAT-phone.
Kiko touched the only piece of clothing on her naked body with the same reverence as a nun clutching her rosary, a black velvet choker that I put over the scars around her neck. My hearing has returned, but she hasn’t spoken a word.
She smelled of herbal soap and delousing shampoo as I tediously combed eggs from her hair. It’s a slow process, but I believe it helps build trust. Her continual nodding makes me feel that at least she approves of what I’m doing.
“All done.”
She didn’t reply, but she tightly wrapped her arms around me. I had to pull her off just so I could use the bathroom. My new pet immediately fell to her knees and opened her mouth wide.
“I need to pee,” I said. She grabbed my legs and held me in place. “Kiko, I…”
She continued to tug on my pants leg. Every time I tried to object or move, she bounced on her knees, opening her mouth like a hungry bird. What the hell. I unzipped my jeans, and she licked her lips. I tried not to look, but I didn’t want to piss on the floor. I finally let go and watched it collect in her mouth. The loud splattering and her quiet gulping became a musical refrain to accompany the relief of my release. At no time did her eyes leave mine and not once did she register even the slightest look of disgust.
When it was over, I tried to explain that this was the last time she would ever drink someone’s piss. She just as promptly ignored me, clamping her warm, wet mouth around my cock as she quickly stripped off my pants without breaking her hold on my rapidly stiffening dick. Soon, I was naked from the waist down. She massaged my legs while she deep throated my erection. Oh god, it feels so good.
Once she had finished my front, she spit out my cock, and crawled between my legs, pushing them apart. My throbbing dick missed her immediately, but her attention to my testicles more than made up for her absence. Her hands resumed their duties as my masseuse, starting by rubbing my Achilles tendon and working up to my calves.
I gripped the sink for dear life as her powerful hands and boney fingers attacked the knots in my muscles. Once she worked her way up to my backside, her tongue drifted up to massage my asshole as her hands kneaded my ass cheeks. I’ve never imagined an experience like this. I folded myself double and stood on my toes to give her as much access as possible.
Then she mischievously slowed down, drawing out my pleasure, getting me closer to relax than climax. Her hands returned to my cock, covered in cold cream. She sopped my cock and balls with the cream as her hot tongue invaded my body in ways I could not imagine.
I had become intoxicated with pleasure. I looked between my legs in time to watch a thick gob of cum ooze out of the tip of my swollen dick. Losing my balance, I swayed until she anchored me by grabbing my hard-on and gripping it tight. Then she milked it hard enough to pluck it from my body.
I whimpered somewhere between incredible pleasure and impossible pain. In my mind, I could see her grinning as she held my fate in her fingers. Her attack came in a furious burst and in two or three swift yanks I was cumming as hard as I had ever cum in my life. In a magic trick that I still haven’t figured out, her mouth and her fingers swapped places, because when I returned to my senses she was sucking my emptied cock with two fingers up my asshole.
“That’s, that’s good, (gulp) you can stop now.”
Okay, maybe mom’s blowjob won’t be the one that I measure every other blowjob by. Kiko led me to the bed and tucked me in. Then she grabbed a soda from the mini-fridge and sat in front of the TV… the shopping network. I fell asleep listening to some overweight pitchman yammer on and on about cultured-opal, pendant earrings.
In the wee hours of the morning, DC Metro gave a civilian CH53 permission to enter its airspace on a heading of 285, to West Virginia.
James sat in the left-hand seat, but he wasn’t happy about it. He knew everything had a price and for the shit that they had done over the years; the price was going to be his life. He glanced over at Aldo, fast asleep. He didn’t need Aldo, anyway. James could fly to Charlie’s place blindfolded and under the new moon. It was very much like doing just that.
In his dreams Wade saw the dead policemen walk out of the fire. Their charred flesh had cracked and dried flat to their yellowed bones. The patrol hats were ringed with flames. Their brass badges smoldered, welded to their chests, and flaming hands rested on the glowing pistols strapped to their sides.
“Could I see your license and registration, sir?” said the first police corpse.
“Um, sorry, officer,” said Wade, patting his pockets. “I don’t have any identification… I’m a member of Special Warfare, uh, we, we don’t carry id.”
“You look a little old to play soldier,” said the second corpse.
“I’m in the private sector now, uh, black ops, all uh, top secret, need to know stuff.”
“What I need is for you to step out of the car, sir,” said the first police corpse.
Wade knew to step out of the car would be to step into the world of the dead. As God had taken others alive into Heaven, he would have the honor of being sent into Hell alive.
“Um, sorry officer, I’d rather not.”
“Step out of the car, sir.”
“No! No! I won’t step out of this car and you can’t make me!” said Wade in a panic.
The corpse policemen stepped to the front of the car, pulled out their guns and began firing without stopping.
—bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam—
It wasn’t the first time that Wade has awakened screaming. Once he had calmed down, he saw the heavy-lift helicopter in the light of dawn slowly nosing around the trees of the West Virginia Mountains. Its large rotor sounded like gunfire.
—bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam—
Wade collected himself and uttered a flame of profanity that amounted to… it’s about time. He walked over to the burnt-out house, leading the helicopter as he went. The fire was over, but the heat remained. Ashes powdered the remnants of guns and electronics. The fire had scrubbed clean any clues to who had owned such equipment and how it was used.
Wade jumped from the foundation to the still hot safe. It was the size of a bathroom shower cabinet. The master of this fiery realm stood in its toxic atmosphere and waited for the slowly descending cable with the lifting sling and safety harness. He fastened the sling to the lifting eyes of the heavy safe. As he worked, he saw a pile of disjointed bones from the two dead officers.
“Fuck you!” he said, flipping off the dead. “That’s what you get!” Then he waved to James and slowly he ascended to the chopper.
Wade remotely detonated the barn as they left the scene with the safe, landing in a clearing 25 miles away, deep in the undeveloped woods.
“Hear anything about the girl?” said Wade.
“Nothing yet,” said Aldo.
“Yeah, the fucker’s been sleeping the whole damned trip,” said James.
“It doesn’t matter, if she is alive she’s eating frogs and drinking creek water,” said Wade.
“You know, the major’s kid showed up at my house and took Nita out for the weekend,” said James.
“Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
“It didn’t seem like a big thing.”
“So, how did he get your woman to go out with him?”
“He knew the words, man. What am I going to do? I can’t stop her after that.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait just a fucking minute. You mean you’re telling me that little shit shows up out of the blue in the middle of fucking Maryland, takes your woman, fucks her, and you didn’t think it was that big of a deal?”
“Fucking don’t look at me! I didn’t give him the words. His bitch mom is a Honey-Ko of the general’s. Ask him.”
“That’s just it. The general is overdue from a summit meeting. It’s not in the press because the administration doesn’t know how well it will play with China. I got a call two days ago to put a plan and a team together to go find our old boss.”
“What the hell does that got to do with Todd fucking Nita?”
“Nothing, but the missing general is odd. The boy showing up at your house with the trigger phrase is odd. A girl that’s been living in a hog pen for ten years, kills Charlie, of all people, is odd. All three odd things happening at once is fucking suspicious as hell.”
“Figure it out later Wade. Let’s get the safe unloaded and go. My kid’s online this evening,” said Aldo.
“Oh really? So how is Amy?”
Aldo swallowed hard and looked down at his shoes. She is fine, Wade. Let’s just, just get the safe unloaded and get the fuck out of here.
“Okay Newland, let’s try again. What was his name?”
“Special Agent Smith”
“Did you get his first name?”
“No sheriff.”
“Well, I didn’t get it either.”
“Do you think he got killed in the blast?”
“I can’t imagine anyone living through that, but I can’t find a body or body parts. Bruce is bringing in some cadaver dogs. So, until some other federal fat cat shows up, this is again our crime scene. Have Lester from the garage impound Agent Smith’s rental car… after we check it for prints,” said Sheriff McElroy, looking out at the barn’s debris field.