~Chapter 12~

~Chapter 12~

Back where he parked the van, Josh reloaded the clips for his Desert Eagles as he gave last-minute instructions to Nathan.
“I’m going to get Lexy to the airport and get us a flight to Oregon. I’ll call Wraith in route and get him to pick us up. I want you to go back and get Scarlet, and then follow us.”
Nathan nodded, “What about Matt?”
“He’ll be safe where he is, and Lexy can call him either on the plane or when we get to my place. They are now gunning for both me and Lexy, so she’ll be safer with me, and he’ll be safer without either of us.”
Nathan left his S29 in the back of the van.
“I’m out of ammo for it, and besides, I don’t think I’ll need it for one cocky Brit assassin.”
Josh handed Lexy a helmet and donned one himself. Climbing onto the Ninja 3, he motioned Lexy to get on behind him.
“Be careful, this guy isn’t one of the best just because of good looks and charm.”
Nathan nodded and started off at a run for the house.
“I hear yah!”


Scarlet stood before Carl Mash, her lithe body held in a casual defensive pose. She watched the foreign assassin as he pulled himself off the ground.
“Who are you?”
Scarlet gave him her best glamour-girl smile, “You can call me Scarlet, born an’ bred in the USA.”
Carl was standing now; he looked over her and nodded.
“Yes, I noticed the poor craftsmanship.”
“Ever seen a British car? Now there’s crappy craftsmanship, yet it does the job.”
“You have a big mouth, even for an American.”
“You have a big head, even for a Brit.”
Carl nodded his acknowledgement at her jab, then, taking a quick step forward, launched a high kick aimed at Scarlet’s head.
Scarlet ducked and attempted a classic drop-kick. She grazed Mash’s ankle, causing him to slightly loose balance. He quickly recovered, though, and threw a lightning-punch at his opponent. Scarlet blocked it with her forearm and threw her own punch, connecting with the European’s jaw.
Mash took a step or two back, wiped blood from his mouth, and nodded at her in respect for her skills. Then he went into action.
Stepping forward, he launched a series of kicks and strikes that Scarlet barely could keep track of, let alone defend against. She blocked most of the assault, but received two sequential kicks to her right side, a jab to the stomach, and another strike across the jaw.
Now it was Scarlet’s turn to take a step back, but Mash pressed his advantage and landed numerous more gut-strikes and a few blows to the side of the head. He finished with the same drop-kick Scarlet had used on him just a moment ago.
Scarlet fell hard to the floor, her head cracking painfully on the tile.
Her head felt like it was on fire. She spit blood out of her mouth and blew some out of her nose, but could barely raise herself from the floor.
The Brit was good. He had managed that whole assault flawlessly, and had made every strike count. And all the hits received had inflicted the maximum damage possible.
As Scarlet lay trying to recover from Carl’s attack, the European walked calmly over to the foot of the stairs and retrieved his P226 from where he had dropped it. He walked over to Scarlet, who had rolled over on her back and was looking up at him. Her eyes were filled with rage and agony, but she was not defeated.
Mash leveled the pistol at Scarlet’s forehead.
“What is it you American’s say? Ah yes, “Yippie-Kai-Aye, motherfu…”
His quote was cut off as Nathan collided with the assassin and brought him to the floor. The pistol went off and placed a bullet hole in the ceiling before Mash was forced to drop it.
“How about “God Bless Texas”?”
Carl threw Nathan off him and rolled to his feet, ready for anything.
He wasn’t ready for Nathan to be waiting for him with his leaden right-hook. Carl took it full on the jaw and went down again.
Carl came up again, this time taking a step back as he did, and then lashing out with a left round-house kick.
Unable to step back, Nathan took the brunt of the blow on his forearm, then jumped and kicked with both legs. He connected neatly with Carl’s breastbone, and Carl hit the ground winded.
Carl turned over onto his stomach and seemed to be crawling away from Nathan. Nathan took a step to follow him, but Carl suddenly spun around and snapped a shot off with the P226.
The bullet grazed Nathan’s shoulder, and a second left a bloody groove in his bicep.
Before Carl could get another shot off, the gun was struck from his hand by Scarlet and her bow staff. There was a sharp crack as the staff connected with the back of the Brit’s hand, and both Scarlet and Carl knew she had effectively shattered the bones in his hand.
Carl rolled over backwards and came up on his feet. He lashed a kick at Nathan, catching him in the stomach, and deflected a strike from Scarlet’s bow staff with his forearm.
As Carl took a hurried step back, Nathan motioned Scarlet to toss him the bow staff. She threw it and he caught it deftly with his right hand and spun it around his body and brought it crashing into Carl’s side. He then whipped it around and brought the other end to connect with the European’s head, stunning him. Three more lightning-fast strikes to the knees and other side of the head brought Carl to his knees.
Nathan walked over with the same casual indifference Mash had earlier and retrieved the assassin’s P226 pistol. Walking back over, he placed the barrel to the man’s head and smiled.
“Yippie-Kai-Aye…”
The rest of the quote was drowned out by the report of the gun.
Carl Mash was dead.

~Chapter 11~

~Chapter 11~

Nathan and Josh split up and each skirted a side of the mansion, meeting up on either side of the front door. The door was guarded only by one merc, the New Yorker called Twitch. Nathan trained his S29 on the unsuspecting mercenary, but at a signal from Josh he didn’t open fire.
Josh drew his Sais and jumped up lightly on stone wall that enclosed the stairs, just behind the merc. Then he jumped and, landing just behind the doomed individual, drove the blades of both Sais into Twitch’s neck. Twitch fell without a sound, spurting his lifeblood all over the steps.
Nathan came out, keeping his S29 trained on the door.
Josh wiped his Sais on Twitch’s jacket and sheathed them. Drawing his Desert Eagles, he nodded to Nathan.
Nathan kicked in the door.
Inside stood three of the mercs Nathan hoped they wouldn’t meet, especially all at once.
Grenade was a demolitions expert who was currently located somewhere in Maryland, although Nathan didn’t know where. Basher was an ex-professional prizefighter from Chicago who was as good with a gun as he was his fists. And Voodoo used to be a bouncer in some club in New Orleans, until he killed the manager and seven patrons over a salary dispute.
Grenade adopted a high-pitched cartoon voice and hefted a AR-15 that was fitted out for more grenade launching than firing.
“Hey, what’cha doin’?
Nathan and Josh dived for the sides as Grenade squeezed the trigger. The entryway was rocked by the explosion of the merc’s concussion grenade.
Nathan was on his feet in a second and strafed the area Grenade was standing. The mercenary was already moving, but he managed to clip his calf muscle. It was a flesh wound, but enough to bring the man stumbling to the ground, where Josh promptly shot him in the head.
After dispatching Grenade, Josh turned to look for Basher, and found him. The ex-prizefighter kicked a pistol from Josh’s right-hand and tried to shoot him with his own small P.22 pistol.
Josh managed to dodge and took a step and-a-half backwards. Thinking Josh was retreating; Basher took a step forward and walked right into Josh’s killer right-hook. Stunned, the merc went down at Josh’s feet.
Meanwhile, Nathan had been forced to take on the hulking figure known as Voodoo. A sweeping punch from the New Orleans native knocked the S29 from his grip, and another knocked him to the ground.
Nathan managed to get to one knee before the big black man picked him up and threw him across the floor and into the wall. This time he made it to his feet and was ready for the next assault.
Ducking the first two round-houses, Nathan ducked in and landed four lighting-fast boxing jabs into the merc’s stomach. The punches just seemed to agitate the man, and he back-handed Nathan into the wall again.
Nathan watched the huge figure come towards him and an idea came to his head. He remained on the ground until Voodoo was right over him, then, levering himself up with his hands, he drove his boot heel into the merc’s nose.
There was a sickening crunch of bone and cartilage. Voodoo looked surprised at first, but then his eyes rolled up into his head and he fell backwards; dead.
Nathan retrieved his assault rifle just in time to decapitate one merc with a stream of bullets, while laying two others low.
Josh was leaning over Basher, who was still stunned, but conscious.
“Where is my security team?”
He held the tip of a Sai to the man’s throat as incentive to answer.
Basher swallowed hard, “They are holed up in the office and the two big rooms in the back.”
“The dance hall and game room?”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Have you found the girl yet?”
Basher spit a tooth onto the floor.
“You mean the President’s daughter? Nah, our orders were to either kill you or capture her. We haven’t done either yet or we wouldn’t still be here. What are you going to do with me?”
Josh smiled coldly, “Put you to sleep.”
Nathan grinned as Josh knocked the merc out cold with the pommel of his Sai.
“Yeah, we’ll put you to sleep. Like a dog.”
Josh rose and collected his Desert Eagle from where it fell when Basher disarmed him.
“Let’s flash these clowns and check the upstairs.”
Nathan nodded and pulled a flash-grenade from the belt he had taken from the van. He tossed it through the doorway to the library and turned away to avoid getting stunned.
After the initial effects of the grenade had passed, Josh and Nathan headed up the stairs. Nathan knelt on the stairs and peered over the top step.
One merc stood outside the door to Matt’s personal library. Nathan adjusted the M68 scope to get the range, but before he could take the shot the merc noticed him and started jabbering frantically into his radio.
“Damn,” Nathan exclaimed, and promptly dropped the man where he stood.
Josh and Nathan ascended the stairs the rest of the way and peered up and down the hallway.
Josh motioned to their right, “Down there are guest rooms, the laundry, a storage room, servant’s quarters, and a breakfast kitchen. Lexy’s room is to the left, first door.”
Nathan nodded and looked back down the stairs.
“Roger that, I’ll cover you while you get the girl.”
Josh peered around the corner to the left, pistols at the ready.
“Hallway left is clear.”
Nathan checked the other direction.
“One merc at the far end of the hallway.”
Josh nodded, “He’s mine.”
Then, with one smooth step, Josh stepped into the hallway and, almost without aiming, dropped the man down the hall.
Nathan covered the stairs and the side of the hallway the man had been standing in while Josh opened the door to Lexy’s room and stepped inside.
“Lexy, you here?”
Holstering one pistols and taking a two-handed grip on the other, Josh proceeded to check under the bed and in the bathroom, softly calling Lexy’s name as he searched.
When he reached the walk-in closet and opened the door, he had to duck to avoid being hit by a flying shoe.
“Lexy!?”
“Josh!”
Lexy, dressed in tight jeans and a loose blue T-shirt, jumped him wrapped him in a hug.
“They came in from the front door, shooting and everything. I don’t know what happened to the other agents; I hid as soon as those men started firing.”
Josh disengaged her hug and patted her reassuringly on the shoulder.
“It’s Okay now. Nathan is just outside the room keeping an eye out, and Scarlet is somewhere around here reducing their numbers. Now get some tennis shoes or something on, we have to go now.”
Lexy nodded and rushed back into the closet.
Nathan’s voice sounded from the hallway.
“Josh, we have to go now. We have hostiles from down the hallway. Seems they were checking out the guest and storage rooms and got alerted by the sentry I shot.”
Nathan let off a few bursts with the S29, and then Josh heard angry cursing.
“What’s the matter Nathan?”
“I’m out of ammo, gotta switch clips.”
A few mechanical clicks, the sound of something clattering to the floor, and Nathan was keeping the mercs at bay with short bursts from the S29.
“Okay, I’m almost ready.”
Lexy emerged from the closet wearing a pear of pink sneakers. She hurried over to her desk and began stuffing things into her designer purse.
Josh didn’t pay attention at first to what she was doing.
“Where is Gwyn?”
Lexy threw some makeup and lipstick into her purse.
“She went off shopping, she won’t be back until late tonight.”
“Good, you can call her when we get out of here and tell her not to come back here.”
Josh finally became aware of what Lexy was doing. He grabbed her arm and pulled her to the door.
“We don’t have time, lets’ go!”
Josh poked his head out the door and checked on the mercs Nathan had pinned down.
“Lexy, stay behind me and Nathan.”
As they made their way down stairs Lexy greeted Nathan.
“Hey, Wolv.”
Nathan acknowledged her presence with a nod.
“Heya, Hon. Good to see you alive.”
“Good to be alive.”
Josh pulled Lexy down the stairs, “Come on you two.”
At the bottom of the steps the three of them came to an abrupt stop. Standing before them, P226 X-5 Tactical pistol in hand, stood Carl Mash.
Kaki slacks replaced by navy-blue canvas pants, and polo shirt exchanged for black under-armor, the European assassin looked like a blonde James Bond.
“You are a hard man to find, Mr. Taske.”
Josh trained his Desert Eagle on the man, his other hand keeping Lexy behind his back. Although he was coiled tighter than a spring, he kept his voice remarkably calm, his tone matching Carl’s.
“Mr. Mash, I heard you were looking for me.”
“And it seems I found you.”
“So it seems.”
Carl examined his P226 with a mild interest.
“I have a deal for you, Mr. Taske. Hand yourself over to me and I won’t kill the girl or your friend, Mr. Wolv.”
Josh pretended to think it over, “Nathan, you think I should give myself up to keep you alive?”
Nathan chambered a fresh round and shrugged.
“Your call, Sharky. Personally I don’t think my sorry ass is worth saving. But still, someone might see something in me I don’t. Besides, I still haven’t completed my goal of tasting every kind of liquor on the planet.”
Josh smiled apologetically at Carl.
“Sorry, he hasn’t tried all his liquors yet and I promised I’d go with him. So, maybe some other time?”
Carl laughed, “You Americans think you are so funny. You use bad jokes and sarcasm to hide your fear and delay the inevitable.”
Nathan cocked a smile, “Hey, it’s worked so far. We kicked your butt in the Revolutionary War, if I aint mistaken.”
Carl grimaced, “That was a mistake made by my ancestors. Regrettable, but unalterable now.”
Josh nodded understandingly, “I see your point, and I’m sorry. Tell me, Mr. Mash, have you ever been beat by a pureblooded American woman?”
The European looked confused, “What do you mean?”
“I think he means me.”
Scarlet had snuck in from the hallway and now struck the assassin across the back of the head with the bow staff she had taken off Apollos.
Dazed, Carl fell to one knee as Scarlet motioned Josh, Lexy and Nathan out the front door.
“Get going you three, I can handle this one.”

~Chapter 10~

~Chapter 10~

~June 24th, 2014: 2 Days After Bombings
That morning, after a bagel, orange juice, a thousand push-ups and another thousand sit-ups, Josh accompanied Nathan, Scarlet, and the President to the Whitehouse. He left Agent Callaway in charge of the Estate’s security, and brought Al Bono along to handle the President’s security detail while Josh gave Matt an update on the information brought by Scarlet and Nathan.
After they spent around an hour reviewing the events going as far back as the attempt on Lexy’s life by Trissex and the new information brought by Scarlet, Josh cleared his throat and addressed Scarlet and the President.
“As we know, the car bombing and the firebombing were only the first attempts. Carl Mash and Pyros Lite will try another attack, and they will do something soon. Nathan has some information that might clue us in on what they might be planning.”
Nathan nodded and, as the saying goes, took the stage.
“Uh, yeah. Last night as I was visiting a few bars…”
Scarlet cut in, “A few?”
“Shuttup, Red. As I was saying, I was visiting a few bars last night and while I was in one of them I noticed a major increase in the mercenary crowd. I counted at least fifteen high-class guns-for-hire and at least thirty lower-class. Now I don’t know why they’re all here, but I saw guys from as far out as Chicago and as close to home as the Maryland area.”
Matt looked questioningly at Josh.
“You think they might be a part of the next attempt?”
Scarlet answered for Josh.
“You don’t understand; among the more high-ranking mercs you rarely can get two or three together in one place without them trying to kill each other. Fifteen all together and not fighting among themselves says they are here on a common goal and are being paid by the same employer.”
Matt acknowledged the information, “And since these Mash and Pyros characters are the guys at large right now we can assume they are the employers.”
“That’s right. Now before I came to join you here Wraith’s current information said they were the only ones in Washington DC and the adjacent states that had the backing and power of the Board.”
Matt motioned her to slow down.
“So, I know that the Board is the head of the syndicate started and led by Josh’s family, but who is Wraith?”
Nathan answered Matt’s inquiry.
“Wraith is basically a walking supercomputer who remembers everything he has ever seen or heard. He is a genius at hacking, infiltration, and information brokering. He is also one of our best friends, and one of your best allies right now.”
Scarlet confirmed Nathan’s summary.
“Before I came here I was helping Wraith gather information on the Board after he got wind of a new plot to assassinate Josh by Josh’s uncle, Regent Taske.”
Nathan threw Josh a look, “Hey, did I ever tell yah I just love your folks?”
Josh glared at Nathan before turning back to the President.
“If we can’t trust Wraith then there is no one we can trust. Now I strongly suggest that we evac you and Lexy to Camp David or some other secure area until we can get this all sorted out.”
Matt shook his head, “No, we will not evacuate. That is just giving them ground and allowing them to plan more attempts. We need to stick it through and end this.”
Scarlet’s tone was somber as she voiced her argument.
“Sir, we have no idea what their next move is, or even how long this will go on. Josh is the target; if you leave then they won’t be able to get to him by killing you.”
“No, they brought me into this when that assassin tried to kill my daughter.”
Scarlet and Josh looked to Nathan to voice an opinion. After a moment of fruitless thinking, Nathan presented his case.
“Hey, longer this goes on the longer I stay at your house.”
He threw an apologetic look at Josh.
Josh grimaced slightly, and then looked to Matt.
“Then at least send Lexy away. At least protect her from whatever their next attack is.”
Matt sat back and thought a minute.
“Fine. We will move Lexy to a safe house, then we will scramble the entire Secret Service and police enforcers to round up those mercenaries that have been gathering.”
Al Bono had rushed in just as Matt finished his sentence.
“Sir, it’s too late for that! The mansion is under attack!”
Matt and Josh jumped to their feet, Matt was dumbstruck.
“My God, Lexy!”
Josh stared imploringly at the President.
“Sir, this counts as an attempt against your life. Protocol says that you need to board Air Force One and get to safety as soon as possible. Me, Nathan and Scarlet will go with what members of you security detail you can spare and get Lexy out of there.”
Scarlet rose and added her gaze to Josh’s.
“It would be the wise thing to do, Mr. President.”
Matt nodded a numb consent.
“Fine, get her out of their and get her to safety.”
Josh turned and snapped instructions to Agent Bono as he rushed out the door.
“Get the President to his plane and send some agents to the Estate armed for combat.”
Bono saluted, “Yes, Sir!”
As Nathan left the room just after Scarlet, he threw Bono a cautionary look.
“And don’t let the beer get warm.”

Outside Josh commandeered the large white van he used as his team’s mobile base and portable armory. He drove while Nathan and Scarlet armed themselves with weapons from the back.
As Scarlet slammed home a clip into a HK MP7A1 she shouted up to Josh.
“We have a plan!?”
Josh ran three consecutive red lights and shouted back to her.
“Yeah, you and Nathan cover me while I and get Lexy out.”
Scarlet threw Nathan a reserved look.
“Wow, what a plan.”
Josh pulled a key from his pocket and tossed it to Scarlet.
“That goes to the gun cabinet by the back door.”
Scarlet opened the cabinet and both Nathan and her looked over its contents in awe.
Nathan let out a low whistle, “Damn Josh, what’re these?”
Scarlet pulled out a strange looking assault rifle with two clips and optic sight.
Josh grinned and looked at into the rearview mirror at the two in the back.
“Me and Wraith designed them a while back. They are kind of a cross between the AR-15, Masada, MP5SF, and the SSG 300. We only made four, three are in the cabinet and the fourth is back home. They are equipped with two fifty-round clips, two bayonets, a four-inch blade in front and a six-inch in the back. It’s got single shot and full-auto features, and an M68 optic scope.”
Nathan took one out and selected four extra clips from the bottom of the cabinet.
“What’s this thing shoot?”
“7.62mm rounds, same as the Ak-47.”
“What do you call this bad boy?
Josh shrugged, “I call it the “Wraith-Gun”, but Wraith insists that it is the “ST S29”.”
“Nice.”
Scarlet chambered a round and hefted the S29 in one hand. She cast a dangerous grin in Nathan’s direction that he readily matched.
“I feel a helluva lot better about our chances.”

Josh pulled the van up in front of his small house next to Scarlet’s Corvette and his Ninja 3. The three soldiers piled out and had a quick planning meeting before moving out.
Josh armed his Desert Eagles and took their safeties off, then loosened his Sais in their sheathes.
“Scarlet, you go through a back window and secure the kitchen and performance hall. Me and Nathan will go around and go through the front door. Lexy is probably hiding in her bedroom, so we’ll make our way there.”
Nathan chambered a round in his ST S29.
“You wanna meet in the entry hall?”
Josh nodded, “That’s the plan, move out people.”

Scarlet used the butt of her assault rifle to break in a kitchen window and threw a flash-grenade into the hole. She ducked, counted to ten, and after breaking the rest of the glass, climbed through the window.
On the floor of the kitchen lay three mercs, one Scarlet recognized as the Chicago-based explosive expert called “Det”.
Scarlet jumped off the stainless-steel counter she stood on and, giving each mercenary an extra rap on the head to keep them down, made her way to the door that entered the performance hall.
Inside the hall were four more mercs, watching the doors going into the dining room and music room, but not the kitchen. Scarlet guessed that they expected the three she had just neutralized to have the kitchen covered.
Before climbing the fence and beginning her infiltration of the Estate, Scarlet had gotten a few things from the trunk of her ‘Vette. Among other things she selected from her car’s arsenal was a small CO2 gun that fired small tranquilizer darts. Careful not to attract attention, Scarlet drew the dart gun from the under-arm holster and carefully loaded four darts. She waited a moment or two until the mercs had drifted closer together, and then drew a bead on the first one.
Phuutt-Phuutt-Phuutt-Phuutt
One by one the mercs fell in a heap on the performance hall floor.
Scarlet holstered the dart gun and stepped smoothly into the room.
She smiled down at the inert forms of the mercenaries, “Oooh, girl’s got bite, I like!”
“Girl’s gonna get bit.”
Scarlet spun around to face two more mercs coming out of the door just next to the one she had exited. The two where obviously twins, one man, one woman. Both had crystal-blue eyes, platinum-white hair, and were extraordinarily thin and athletic. Scarlet recognized them as Pallas and Apollos, twins from Florida, her home state.
The woman, Pallas, reached behind her head and drew a short katana-like sword.
“It is the one called Scarlet, brother.”
Apollos flicked open a collapsible metal bow staff.
“Yes sister, the European warned us of her. She is threat…”
Pallas finished her twin’s statement; “…Threats must be eliminated.”
The two assassin’s started to spread out and circle Scarlet, their final declaration uttered in unison.
“She must die.”
Scarlet shook her head in silent amusement and took a combat knife with a foot-long blade out of a boot-sheath. She slung the ST S29 across her shoulder and adopted a deceptively defensive posture. This was going to be fun.

~Chapter 9~

~Chapter 9~

“Damn American! Cursed Yank! You drunk son of a…!”
Pyros sat on the couch of the hotel room he was sharing with Carl Mash with a smug smile on his face. True, his plane trick hadn’t had the desired effect, but nether had Carl’s car bomb idea. Besides, Pyros loved to see the temperamental European fly off like he was now. He had let Carl curse and swear for about two minutes straight now, he had even learned a few new words, but he decided it was time to cut the angry Brit off.
“Hey, Carl, shut it will you? Your stupid car bomb didn’t do the job either.”
Carl whirled on the American, “But now the target will be suspicious! He will be more careful!”
Pyros shook his head and sat up.
“You don’t know this guy, he’s careful to start out with. I’d be surprised if either of us killed him on the first try.”
Carl slumped down on a recliner next to the TV.
“Then what do we do?”
Pyros thought a moment, “Do we want to try another stealth tactic? Plant another bomb or something?”
Carl rubbed his temple and shook his head.
“No, if what you say is true, then we would have to be geniuses to get something by him. What about a direct assault?”
Pyros thought a moment, “Just the two of us would be suicide, especially if he has been joined by Nathan Wolv.”
“Who is this Nathan?”
“Nathan grew up with the target. They joined the Marines together and left together. He is a skilled fighter, excellent assassin, and a fairly good pilot. He is also behind Josh Taske all the way and would die to protect him.”
Carl nodded, “Ah, loyal and a soldier. He sounds like the kind of man you want on your side.”
“I could call in some favors. I know some people who know other people who might be for hire.”
Carl grimaced, “American mercenaries?”
Pyros nodded, “Yeah, but consider this; most of them probably won’t survive a fight with either Taske or Wolv.”
Carl smiled slightly, “I guess when you put it that way it is acceptable.”
“Good I’ll make the calls then.”
As Pyros made his way to the phone he couldn’t help thinking; “Damn, I’m starting to sound like a friggin’ diplomat.”


~June 23rd, 2014: 1 Day After Bombings
Security at the Gold Estate ramped up the next day. Near midmorning the security team at the gate went on full alert when a bright red ’69 Corvette powered up to the street outside the gate and parked against the curb.
A red-haired woman dressed in black jeans, white shirt, and black jacket got out of the driver’s seat and approached the guards at the gate.
She stopped just outside the gate and eyed the security detail before approaching Agent John Callaway.
“I need to see Josh Taske.”
Callaway looked her over and sized her up.
“Name?”
The woman smiled sweetly and took a gliding step forward. Her voice was smooth and enticing, with a hint of a threat just below the surface.
“You, sir, don’t need my name. Just let me see Mr. Taske.”
Callaway shook his head, “I can’t do that, ma’am.”
She just looked around at the six other agents watching the two of them and smiled even sweeter.
“Oh, I don’t want to give you any trouble, but it would be better for all of us if you just let me see him. Or at least ask him to come out here to see me.”
Callaway almost laughed, “Ma’am, are you trying to threaten us? Because if you are…”
With a flick of her red hair the woman moved so fast none of the agents present saw that she had moved until it was too late. The next thing anyone knew she was behind Callaway holding his own combat knife to his throat while she held the arm gripping his SMG twisted behind his back.
She whispered in his ear, and her voice was ice hard.
“If I wanted to threaten you, you would know it. That was me asking nicely, this is me being not so nice. You don’t want me to get mean, now would you? Good. Now I am a friend, both of you and of Taske. But I can’t help either of you if you won’t even let me talk to him. Understand?”
Callaway nodded, “I can radio him to come outside, but until he authorizes you to be here you cannot go inside.”
She smiled again, her voice soft again.
“Isn’t that what I asked earlier?”
She released Callaway and gave him back his knife.
Nodding to her with the understanding of one warrior to another, Callaway radioed Josh to inform him of his visitor.

Josh came outside a moment later and surprised all the agents by greeting the woman with a hug.
“Scarlet, glad you came back. You hear to help this time?”
Scarlet winked at Callaway and addressed Josh.
“You mean those files I gave you on our assassin friends wasn’t helping? But yes, I’ve come to help.”
Josh turned to the surrounding agents.
“This is Scarlet, she is an old friend of mine and our newest ally. She has full clearance to go anywhere on the grounds. Understood?”
The agents nodded, and Callaway stepped up to shake Scarlet’s hand.
“That was some move, Ma’am. Good to have you on the team.”
Scarlet grinned at him, “You liked that? I had just made it up a moment before.”
Josh addressed Callaway, “Could you take Scarlet’s car and park it with mine and Nathan’s bikes?”
Callaway nodded and Scarlet surrendered her keys to him.
“You better not even scratch it; otherwise I’ll have to kill you.”
Callaway nodded in somber agreement.
“Don’t worry, Ma’am, I am an admirer of classic cars myself and will treat it like I would one of my own children.”
Scarlet smiled up at Josh, “Finally, another man who understands good taste.”

“Heya, Red, when you get here?”
Scarlet threw Nathan a withering look.
“Josh, when did you drag this clod out of the closet?”
Josh rolled his eyes and left the two in the performance hall to get beers for them all.
Nathan grinned at his red-headed antagonist.
“Hey, I can still kick your butt in a fair fight.”
Scarlet gave Nathan a sarcastic smile.
“Hon, I fear you like I fear a dust bunny.”
Nathan bared his teeth at her, “Careful, Red, this dust bunny bites.”
Scarlet sat down across from him and feigned surprise.
“Oh dear, am I in danger of rabies?”
“Only if you manage to bite your lip.”
Josh walked in at set a vodka in front of Scarlet and handed Nathan a tequila.
“Stop it you two. What do you have for us, Scarlet?”
Scarlet popped the lid off her bottle and took a drink before replying.
“As you probably have already guessed, the bombings the other day were the work of Carl Mash and Firelighter. Mash was responsible for the car bombing. Firelighter took off from Ronald Regan National airport yesterday in a modified PAC Cresco.”
Nathan sat forward with interest.
“Isn’t the Cresco mainly used for crop dusting?”
Scarlet confirmed his statement with a nod.
“Yes, but this one Pyros has outfitted to drop flammable materials onto a target from the sky. He recently installed an igniter on the plane so he can unleash a jet of fire instead of just combustible material.”
Josh threw a look at Nathan, “That answers a few questions about the fire bombing.”
Nathan sat back and took a drink, “Hell yeah.”
Scarlet moved on with her report.
“As I said, the car bomb was set up by Mash. Hew actually built the bomb into the car’s engine so the only way you could detect it would be to disassemble the entire engine.”
Nathan shook his head sadly, “Damn Brit, Rosas never had a chance.”
Josh looked questioningly at Scarlet, “Why two attacks?”
Scarlet laughed slightly, “Heh, turns out Carl and Pyros don’t get along. They set up their own attacks in order to be able to claim the kill and not have to share credit.”
Nathan did laugh, “Ha! Pyros never did like to share.”
“It seems though that after this failure the two have agreed to work together, although neither I nor Wraith knows what their next move is.”
Josh rose, “I have to get back to the Security Bunker. Scarlet, you can ask Agent Callaway to show you to my place where you can crash for as long as you want.”
Nathan grimaced, “His TV service sucks though, stick to radio.”
Scarlet nodded to Josh and got to her feet, “Thanks.”
Nathan rose as well and stretched his arms over his head and yawned.
“I think I’ll go visit the local nightlife, find a bar or something.”
Josh looked at both his old friends. They had stuck with him through most of his life, and he owned them everything.
“We will meet with the President tomorrow to update him on the situation. And Nathan…”
Nathan looked up at Josh from his half-empty bottle of tequila.
“Don’t get to drunk, OK?”
Nathan grinned, “Roger that, Sharky!”

Later that night, sometime around nine o-clock, found Nathan at the back of a local bar. He was on his third Miller, figuring that he could drink more of the generic beer than he could of his normal hard liquor.
This was actually his second stop tonight. He had been kicked out of the first bar he visited because of a spat he had with a biker over who got to sit under the TV. Now he didn’t even care, as long as the pretty brunette waitress kept throwing glances his way and bringing him beers.
Her name was Ella Slader, she was twenty-four and single. She had a cat named Dog and had a condo about an hour and a half from the Gold Estate. She drove a bright blue Eclipse and loved the new “CSI: Portland” crime show. And that was just what Nathan had found out so far. Given time, who knows where the night could go.
But a thought nagged at the back of his mind; did he want the night to go anywhere? Girls like Ella were a dime a dozen, and it was easy to get them to invite you to their place for the night. Nathan was tired of one-night stands and failed relationships; he wanted something more serious, more permanent.
Which brought him to the one woman who had stayed on his mind for the last few years since leaving the Marine Corps. Yeah, sure she was kind of temperamental and he rarely even saw her anymore, but he couldn’t get her out of his mind, or his heart.
If anyone asked him what was the perfect kind of woman, as long as he wasn’t anywhere close to being sober, she was the example he would give. But he doubted he had a chance with her, she was too high-class for him. Scarlet was the only woman to ever really talked to him, and that was just to fight and argue. So what hope did he really have?
Nathan’s thoughts were interrupted by a noticeable change in the bar’s patrons. He recognized quite a few faces in the crowd and didn’t like who he was seeing.
All were hired guns and mercenaries. Basher and Det from the Chicago area, Twitch from the New York area. There was the ex-Seal called Grenade from Maryland, and the twins Pallas and Apollos from Florida. There was even a big black merc from New Orleans Nathan recognized as an assassin called Voodoo. It was a mercenary get together and Nathan guessed it wasn’t just a reunion of the school of Hard Knocks alumni. This was big, and Josh would want to know about it.
The only problem was that Nathan had had run-ins with a few of these people, and most had wanted to kill him. So he kept his face hidden until the next time Ella came by. When she did he pulled her close and whispered quickly into her ear.
“Okay, Darlin, you need to make yourself scarce. There’s a bunch of toughs that have been finding there way in here and if I’m reading the tides correctly than a nasty situation is about to get worse. Got it?”
The girl nodded and made her way to the bar and, at a nod from Nathan ducked behind it and out of sight.
Nathan picked up his Miller and took on a drunken slump to his walk. Keeping his head down, he stumbled towards the door. Halfway there he tripped suddenly and swerved into a big biker dressed all in leather and with an “I Shot Santa” tattoo on his forearm. Nathan’s beer went all down the man’s front.
Nathan grinned up at the man, “Thorry pal, ‘ah couldn’t thee yah ‘cauth of all thah peoples. Yah mind movin yah fat ath out of mah way tho I can leave?”
The biker, who Nathan had mentally dubbed “Santa”, answered with a swinging right hook to Nathan’s head. Nathan ducked it and Santa’s fist connected with the back of Voodoo’s head.

A passerby outside the bar watched through the windows as the bar’s patrons tried their best to beat everyone else to a pulp. A man wearing ragged blue jeans and a ratty black leather coat came crashing through the big window and fell with a shower of glass to the sidewalk.
Nathan stood up and dusted glass off his coat. He limped over to the Honda street bike he had borrowed from Josh and climbed on. Throwing a glance through the bar’s shattered window at the war raging inside, he released an impish grin.
“Well, that went well.”
Gunning the Honda’s engine, he took off down the street in the general direction of the Gold Estate.

Scarlet had an invitation to have dinner with Matt Gold and Lexy. Josh had been invited but he had turned it down. He was in no mood for social events, even one as small as a dinner with two of his old friends. Nathan had taken off earlier that evening to go bar-hopping, so after turning Estate security over the John Callaway, Josh had retired to his small house in back of the Estate’s property.
Now Josh stood in the shower, cold water running over his tired and aching body. He had taken the bandages off the gunshot wounds and now the water caused them to sting.
Everything hurt. The gunshot wounds, a few old knife wounds, some bruises he had received sparring with Agent Callaway a few weeks earlier, the old gunshot wound from Africa, everything.
Josh had long ago accepted his life was going to be full of pain. He didn’t like it, but he had accepted it. And every once in a while he had days like this, where he had overworked himself to the point he couldn’t feel it if someone tried to shoot him in the back.
It wasn’t all physical pain; there was the emotional pain as well. Lost loves, betrayals, lost friends, ghosts of mistakes he had made, they all haunted him.
He looked at his hands. He might have been imagining it, but he thought he could still see his wife’s blood staining them. Did it matter if the blood was imagined or real? It had been there; he had felt the cool wetness of her blood and had watched the life leave her eyes. That was a ghost he might never shake.

Scarlet was escorted into the Estate’s formal dining room by Agent Al Bono. She was stunningly dressed in a black floor-length dress that set her red hair on fire. A purple sash was wrapped around her waist, concealing a thin black belt with an assassin’s pistol and set of throwing knives. Due to her obvious connection with Josh, and possible having a little to do with her incident with Agent Callaway earlier that day, the Servicemen at the door didn’t bother to check her for weapons.
Lexy met her at the door dressed in a sky-blue dress that went to her knees. It gave her an almost innocent appearance, which Scarlet envied.
Exchanging the expected formal greetings and introductions, the two women then made their way to the head of the long dining table where Matt Gold stood waiting.
When they reached him he bowed to Scarlet and greeted her.
“Miss Scarlet, it is and honor that you have agreed to have dinner with us. Is Josh going to be joining us?”
Scarlet shook her head regretfully, “I am sorry to say that the esteemed Mr. Taske is not going to be attending tonight. He did not give a reason, but I believe he has had a stressful day and wishes to contemplate recent events while he rests.”
Scarlet winked at Lexy and noted that the girl seemed rather disappointed at her news.
“How was that for “formal talkin’”, as Nathan would call it.”
Lexy smiled back, “That was great, where did you learn to speak like that?”
The three sat and Scarlet shrugged nonchalantly.
“Oh, I picked it up here and there.”
As the cooking staff began to serve up the meal, starting with fresh green salad, Scarlet looked around the big dining room.
“Big place you’ve got here. Is it just to two of you?”
Matt nodded, his voice sounding sad.
“Yes, Lexy’s mother, my dear Moira, died giving birth.”
Scarlet truly felt sorry for them.
“I’m sorry, I know what it is like to loose a parent. You loved her a lot?”
Matt smiled and looked lovingly at his daughter.
“Yes, but I love my little girl as well. God took away the meaning of my life to give me a reason.”
Lexy blushed, and Matt threw a knowing glance at Scarlet.
“I might want my wife back, sometimes more than others, but if God wanted to trade me I can’t think of a better exchange.”
Scarlet grinned at Lexy, “You’re lucky to have a father who loves you so much.”
Lexy cast her adoring blue eyes on her father.
“I know.”
The three ate in silence for a few minutes, then Lexy looked up from her salad at Scarlet.
“So, how do you know Josh?”
Scarlet could tell that, given the opportunity, Lexy would talk about Josh for hours. She thought a moment before answering, there was a lot about Josh that she did not feel was for her to talk about without him present.
“Well, I’ve known him since high school.”
Matt looked confused, “What school did you go to?”
Scarlet cocked her head and grinned at him, “The School of Hard Knocks.”
Matt smiled and nodded knowingly.
“I didn’t think he went to an official school. What was your childhood like?”
Scarlet thought a moment, “How much do you know about Nathan’s childhood?”
Lexy laughed, “He told me about some of it.”
“Well, we had similar childhoods. Orphans, grew up on the street and learned to fend for ourselves. Except I grew up in Florida and wasn’t raised by a half-blind Labrador.”
Lexy looked at her in amazement, “He really was raised by a Labrador named Kay? I thought he made all that up!”
Scarlet shook her head, “Nope. Nathan has never gotten along with people; most people aren’t nice to him. But him and Kay were closer than anything. It drove him mad when Kay was shot in New York.”
“Did he really kill the guy who shot Kay?”
Scarlet nodded, “You have to know, Nathan grew up around violence and killing. He’s gotten tamer over the years, but mainly because of Josh. Besides Kay, I think Josh is the best thing that ever happened to him.”
Lexy thought a moment, “Why does he drink so much? And act all tough and everything? I can see he really is as tough as he acts, but underneath he really is a good man.”
Scarlet, finished with her salad, sat back in her chair.
“Nathan has been through more bar fights, knife-fights, fist-fights, gun-fights, and gang-wars that anyone I know except maybe Josh. Because of that he has a lot of wounds that haven’t healed all the way. That and when he was in the Marines in Africa, he received a nasty head-wound. He’s had raging headaches ever since. He uses the alcohol to drown the pain from all his wounds, and I think there is a lot of other pain he bears that he doesn’t tell anyone about.”
Matt pondered what she said, “I didn’t know about any of that. I thought he just drank too much.”
Scarlet laughed hollowly, “Oh, he does drink too much. It’s become a habit that he doesn’t bother shaking. Not to say his drinking makes him a bad person or anything, he is naturally temperamental.”
A plate with a perfectly cooked steak was set before her, and before digging into it she winked at Lexy and gave her a secretive smile.
“Don’t tell Nathan I complimented him though, if he knew he might think I like him or something.”

After finishing with his painful reverie, Josh shut off the shower and toweled off. He re-bandaged the wounds he received from Trissex and pulled on a pair of jeans and a belt. He hung his Buck combat knife on the belt and, with his hair still damp and messy, made his way to his kitchenette. There Nathan waited for him.
“We got a problem, mate.”
And with that Nathan laid out what he had seen at the bar.

~Chapter 8~

~Chapter 8~

“Hey, Sharky, your phones off again.”
Josh was in the Security Bunker when Nathan burst through the door and shoved his blue razor phone up to Josh’s ear.
Callaway’s voice came through, urgent and slightly panicked.
“The car we found outside the perimeter fence, it was a bomb. We didn’t find anything at first, but when we started it up to move it through the gate it detonated. WE think whoever left it actually integrated the bomb into the car’s engine so we wouldn’t detect it unless we literally took the car apart.”
Josh sat back, stunned.
“Was anyone hurt?”
Callaway paused and swallowed hard.
“Most of us were packed up and leaving when it blew. We lost four of our agents and one local police officer. And, Sir..?”
Callaway’s voice cracked, “Agent Rosas was standing almost right next to the car when the bombe detonated.”
It took Josh a moment to take that in.
“Is he still alive?”
“Sir, there wasn’t enough left of him for anything to be alive.”


“Are you joking!?”
Josh had just told Lucy Vale the news about Rosas. She now stood before him in the performance hall, a look of fear and panic gleaming in her eyes.
She ran her hands through her hair and looked away a moment before glancing back at Josh. It was obvious she was trying hard not to loose it.
“This had better be one damn sick joke, or I’ll…”
“It’s not a joke. Agent Rosas is dead.”
Vale almost fell into a chair.
“Oh my god… oh my…”
And, unexplainably, she burst into tears.
Josh was shocked to say the least. He had worked with Lucy Vale in the Marines, they had both seen comrades shot down next to them, and she had never reacted like this. For once Josh didn’t know what to do.
So he let her cry uncontrollably for a few moments before trying to help her on her feet.
“I’m sorry; I know he was a close friend.”
Lucy started crying harder. She was almost wailing at this point. Tears streamed down her face and she was shaking.
Josh tried again, “Lucy, we have a job to do, we don’t have time to mourn at thing moment.”
He tried to put his arm around her shoulders, but she knocked his hand away.
“You don’t get it, do you!?”
She looked up into his face, pain and rage filling her red-rimmed eyes.
“You can’t understand; he is gone!”
Josh was taken aback by the vehemence in her voice.
“What don’t I understand?”
Lucy Vale almost screamed her next sentence.
“Ralph Rosas and I were engaged!!!”

Josh didn’t have time to react to Vale’s exclamation, because at that moment almost every fire alarm in the building went off at once. Josh left Lucy in the performance hall and ran at top speed to the Security Bunker.
When he got there, Nathan and the rest of his team where staring in horror at the security screens.
The screens showed the whole outside of the mansion was on fire.

Pyros loved his job. Known and feared throughout the criminal underworld as a cunning and ruthless arsonist, he didn’t care who or what he burned; he just wanted to see it burn.
In truth, Pyros wasn’t all that clever. He stole most of his ideas from other arsonists, and then made sure there was no one around who could lay claim to the idea. He had actually only ever had two original ideas.
One of those ideas was the “Fire Bomber”, Pyros’ Cresco crop-duster. He had bought the craft in New Zealand during a job and had the bright idea of lining the inside of the cargo containers with an industrial-grade fire retardant. This done, he could now “dust” a target with a flammable substance and get away without getting caught. Originally relying on an unstable substance like nitroglycerin to ignite his concoctions, he had recently installed an igniter that would allow him to rain down liquid fire on his victims.
The second idea he had was his “Fireball Cocktail”. A mixture of different chemicals including but not limited to dimethyl ether and diethel ether peroxide, his “Cocktail” was extremely flammable, would burn for a long time unchecked, and was extremely hard to extinguish.
And Pyros had just dropped his entire cargo on the Gold Estate.

It took seven hours and all the available fire trucks the city’s fire departments had to put out the fire. They found out quickly that water was ineffective, Pyros’ cocktail burned like a grease fire and the firefighters needed to foam the building before they could get it all extinguished.
Josh and Nathan helped out with the firefighting as much as they could while Agents Al Bono and Allen Jones escorted Lexy, Gwyn, and a few other s to the Whitehouse to join the President. Josh figured that, after the car bomb, it would take a while for anyone to set up another attack, and it would be safe for Lexy and the others for the moment.
Lucy Vale wouldn’t move from her chair in the performance hall. She sat, rocking back and forth and sobbing. She barely responded to either Josh or Bono, and Josh feared that they had lost her for all intents and purposes.
Not that he didn’t understand what she was going through. In fact, he still had nights where he couldn’t sleep and sat up all night feeling exactly as he knew she felt right then. So he left her to mourn and made do with the resources he had at his disposal to get the fire put out and the Estate’s grounds secured.

It was two tired and dirty men who tread wearily into Matt Gold’s office nearly nine hours since the firebombing. Both Josh and Nathan smelled of smoke and firefighting foam.
Nathan dropped onto one of the couches in the center of the room, and for once Matt didn’t mind the ex-Marine’s presence.
Matt turned to Josh, “You look like you tried walking through Hell.”
Nathan looked up from the couch.
“Ah feel like ah did, got any beer?”
Matt shook his head, “I’m sorry, but not on me.”
Josh sat down on the other couch, tired and sore, but not beaten by a long shot.
“I think the hit on your estate was carried out by a man called Pyros Lite. He is a professional arsonist who is known in crime circles as “Firelighter”.”
Nathan grinned at Matt, “Guess where he got that name from.”
Josh threw Nathan a warning look and carried on with his report.
“The Estate is intact and no one was injured. The fire actually never made it past the outside wall of the building.”
Matt nodded, “That is good.”
“But you might want to get new siding, the old stuff in kinda singed.”
Nathan smiled up at Matt, but the President ignored him.
“And what of the car bombing?”
Josh shrugged, “I haven’t had much time to look that over. It’s obvious I was the target and it was very well carried out. The only thing the bomber missed out on was the fact that you reassigned me from your personal security detail to that of your daughter’s. Otherwise he might have gotten me.”
Nathan had his eyes closed by now.
“Nah, you to damn hard to kill, Sharky. You’d have brushed off the glass and scrap metal and gone off to kick the ass of the jerk who set the bomb in the first place.”
Josh slapped Nathan on the shoulder and started out of the room.
“Come on, we have some more investigating to do.”
Nathan muttered something unintelligible and pulled himself off the couch.
Matt called Josh back just as he was about to leave the room.
“What about Agent Vale?”
Josh came to stand behind the couch Nathan had just left.
“She is extremely broken up over the death of Agent Rosas. It seems they were due to be married, and it was stressful enough with planning a wedding and her job here, so Rosas’ death was too much for her. I gave her leave and sent her to a counselor I know who can help her.”
Matt nodded and dismissed the two soldiers.
“Thank you for all your hard work, gentlemen, but I’m afraid your are not done yet. Find out about that car bombing and the firebombing and report back.”
“Yes, Sir.”
Josh and Nathan both saluted and left the room.
As Nathan walked out Matt could hear the ex-Marine’s final exclamation.
“Damn investigation, damn assassins, and damn the President who neglected to put a mini-bar in the Oval Office!”