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Now we’re back to offer our weekly free Thriller excerpt:
Carnival of Mayhem (Gray Spear Society)
by Alex Siegel
And here, for your reading pleasure, is our free excerpt:
Aaron shook his head as he watched Smythe sneak over to the window. Smythe pulled aside a flower print curtain, peeked through the crack at the darkness outside, and then sat back down in his chair.
Marina’s voice came through a bud in Aaron’s ear. “Smythe, was that you again?”
Smythe turned on his microphone. “Yes.” Like Aaron, he wore a radio headset suitable for combat.
“Stop it. You’re acting like a school girl waiting for her date to show up.”
“I don’t like being bait,” Smythe said. “This sucks.”
“Are you afraid?” she asked. “I thought you were a tough guy, a veteran warrior who battled terrorists in the mountains of Afghanistan.”
“One thing you learn fighting terrorists is that it’s a really bad idea to make yourself a target.”
“If I ask Aaron to give you a tender hug, will that comfort you?”
Smythe’s face turned red, but instead of answering her, he turned off his microphone. Aaron smiled.
He was doing a better job of hiding it, but Aaron was nervous also. Both he and Smythe were the bait in this trap. They wore blue business suits like regular FBI agents, but underneath they wore soft, flexible body armor which trapped heat and sweat. To stay comfortable, they had turned off the furnace in the house.
The house was small. From his location in the main room, Aaron could see into the kitchen and the single bedroom. There wasn’t much else. The cheap furniture was made of varnished wood and fabric. Apparently, the owner liked pink and blue flowers because they covered the wallpaper, curtains, and upholstery.
Aaron went into the kitchen to get a snack. He poked through cupboards that were mostly empty. He found high fiber cereal, cans of soup, tuna fish, a bag of rice, and dry spaghetti. Finally, he spotted a can of mandarin oranges.
“Do you know where the can opener is?” he called out.
“In the drawer by the fridge,” Smythe replied.
Aaron quickly found the opener.
The owner of the home was an old lady. She had been told the FBI needed her house for a “top secret” operation, and an overly generous cash payoff had closed the deal. Now she was staying in the best room in a nearby hotel. Aaron expected she was telling all her friends about it, which was fine.
As he ate his oranges, he listened to the eerie quiet. Everything inside the house that might make noise was turned off, and cold weather had silenced the insects outside. If a mouse farted, he would hear it.
After he was done eating, he went back to his chair, which had several guns stuffed between the thick cushions. He checked to make sure all of them were in the right place. He didn’t want to grope for his weapons in an emergency.
Smythe frowned at him. “I still have a problem with this ‘working for God’ thing. I just don’t believe it.”
“I know,” Aaron said. “I had trouble with it for a while, too.” He spat at the wooden floor, and his yellow saliva immediately bubbled into foam. Within seconds there was a clean hole. “Until the evidence convinced me.”
Smythe stared at the hole. “There is a scientific explanation for everything.”
“Why is God not scientific? Is there a physical law that forbids His existence? Just because it’s fashionable for scientists to ignore God doesn’t mean they should.”
“Sounds like you don’t like scientists.”
“That’s not true,” Aaron said, “but nobody is smart enough to understand everything. The human brain just isn’t that big. Mine sure isn’t, so I have a very simple philosophy these days. I follow Ethel’s orders, I try not to get killed, and I don’t ask questions that have no answer.”
“In other words,” Smythe said, “you’re intentionally ignorant.”
“I focus on doing what I’m good at. Nothing wrong with that.”
Smythe sighed.
“And one other thing,” Aaron said. “Your kind of science pertains to the natural world. We’re unnatural monsters. Different rules apply to us.”
“I can’t believe that. The whole point of physics is that it’s the same for everybody.”
“It’s the same for almost everybody.”
Aaron leaned his head back and tried to relax. The long hours had passed very slowly with only brief conversations to break up the monotony. They had to be ready to fight at all times. Even trips to the bathroom were hurried.
He wondered if Marina was as tired and bored as he was. She was sitting in a metal storage shed in the back yard. Her job was to watch a bank of video monitors fed by surveillance cameras placed all around the house. Light amplification in the cameras made starlight seem as bright as sunshine, so night was no problem. Thermal and motion sensors provided another layer of security. It would be impossible for anybody to set foot on the property undetected.
“What if the Eternals never show up?” Smythe said. “Are we going to stay up all night?”
“Have some faith,” Aaron said. “The address of this house is the worst kept secret in the history of the FBI. We damn near posted our location on the internet. If the Eternals are looking for Santorini, they’ll come here.”
Smythe sighed deeply.
Aaron considered going out to visit Marina. She had a tiny electric heater in her shed, but it wasn’t enough. A nice hug and a kiss would warm her up, but if the Eternals were watching from the perimeter and saw him go to the shed, it would wreck the operation. She was the ace in the hole.
“You mentioned you were a Chicago cop,” Smythe said.
“Nine years of proud service,” Aaron said.
“Why did you quit?”
“I was fired.”
Smythe raised his eyebrows.
“I fingered another cop for bribery,” Aaron said. “Some senior officers felt I should’ve handled the situation less publicly. Cops are supposed to protect each other. Eventually, they found an excuse for getting rid of me.”
“Is that the whole story?”
Aaron scratched the stubble on his chin. “You could say I helped them find an excuse. The department had its rules, and I had mine.”
“You were dirty?”
“No, I was more interested in justice than proper procedure. They called me a renegade and a thug. Mr. Bodycount. Maybe they were right. Doesn’t matter. In the end, being a cop was just training for this job.”
The radio in Aaron’s ear crackled. “A car just parked on the street,” Marina said. “It approached with the headlights off.”
Aaron turned on his microphone. “Can you read the license plate?”
“Yes, and I’m texting it to Edward right now. Two men are stepping out. Big guys in dark sweat suits. They have assault rifles.”
“Huh? Wise told us the Eternals don’t like guns.”
“That’s right,” she said. “Maybe these guys aren’t Eternals. They look Italian.”
“Fuck.” Aaron rolled his eyes. “Of course Santorini has other enemies. He’s a snitch, after all, and we told the world exactly where to find him.”
Smythe sneered but had the good sense to keep quiet.
“They are trying to peek through the windows,” Marina said.
All the blinds and window curtains in the house were closed, so the attackers wouldn’t see anything. Aaron furrowed his brow as he considered his options, but he really only had one.
“Call Ethel,” he said. “Tell her I’m using deadly force. If she doesn’t like that, then she has about ten seconds to give me a better idea.”
“Calling now.”
He reached between the cushions and took out a Glock 30 pistol with a large suppressor. The .45 caliber cartridges packed enough punch to knock a man down, even if he were wearing a vest. The suppressor wouldn’t make the gun silent, but it would keep the neighbors from hearing any shots.
Smythe took out a Beretta 93R, which could fire three round bursts. He clicked off the safety.
“We’re going to kill these guys?”
“Better them than us,” Aaron said. “Those assault rifles aren’t housewarming gifts.”
“Just don’t accidently shoot me.”
“I should tell you the same, rookie. Pick your spot.”
Aaron went to a corner of the room and crouched behind a reclining chair. From this location, he had a clean shot at the front and back doors. Smythe pushed the couch around and kneeled behind it to achieve a similar result. They could also cover each other’s backs.
“I talked to Ethel,” Marina said through the radio. “You’re authorized to protect yourself.”
“That’s nice,” Aaron said.
“And Edward ran the license plate through his computer. These men are mobsters. We don’t need them alive for questioning.”
“Also nice. Where are they?”
“Coming around to the back of the house,” she said. “You’d better kill them quick. The neighbors will hear the assault rifles.”
“They’ll be dead before they fire a shot.”
“Hey,” Smythe said. “I’ll bet you a beer I get the first kill.”
“Beer?” Aaron said. “Too cheap. The winner gets to pick the booze.”
“Fine.”
Aaron settled into a solid firing stance. He had a clear view of the back door in the tiny kitchen. He aimed at head height and sighted down the barrel.
“A few more seconds,” Marina said. “Here they come.”
The back door burst open and two men rushed through. Aaron fired at their faces. He pulled the trigger as fast as he could until the targets went down.
He jumped up and ran over to verify that both men were dead. One glance confirmed it beyond any doubt. Blood and chunks of brain tissue had painted the back wall of the kitchen to create a grotesque form of abstract art. Aaron closed the door in case a neighbor got curious.
“Not only merely dead, but really most sincerely dead,” Smythe said. “Who won the bet?”
Aaron bent down for a closer look. Smythe was using lighter rounds than Aaron, which meant the bullet holes were slightly smaller.
“Hard to tell,” Aaron said. “We both placed some good head shots.”
Smythe nodded. “Let’s call it a tie for now.”
“That’s fair.”
A pool of blood was spreading across the floor, oozing into the cracks, and staining Aaron’s shoes. He quickly searched the mobsters for wallets and found none. Then he backed out of the kitchen.
“No identification,” he said.
“Do you want to check the car?” Smythe said.
“Too risky and a waste of time. We don’t care about these guys.”
“The Eternals will see the car. It might spook them.”
Aaron shrugged. “What can we do?”
“Not much, I guess.”
They sat on their chairs and reloaded their guns.
Aaron’s heart rate returned to normal. As the adrenaline left his system, he suddenly felt very tired. The worst part of a mission was the lack of regular sleep. He hated the nagging exhaustion which weighed down his body and clouded his mind.
“Is this what you do every day?” Smythe asked.
“Not really. We see serious action just a few times a year, if that much.”
“Why?”
“God’s enemies usually keep a low profile,” Aaron said. “Maybe they’re afraid of Him. We actually spend most of our time training and practicing. How do you think I got these big muscles? Ethel works us hard every day. We’re also constantly developing new contacts and sources of information. Preparation is the key to our success.”
Marina’s voice came through the radio. “Movement on the west side! I see…”
Her voice cut out, and Aaron heard a painfully loud buzzing noise instead.
He tore off his headset. “Shit!”
Smythe did the same. “I think the signal is jammed.”
Aaron opened his cell phone and found he had no bars. “The enemy must be using a wide spectrum jammer.”
“Like the one you used on me?”
“Exactly.” There was a phone on a table. Aaron picked it up and heard nothing. “The line is cut, too. Get ready for a fight.”
He grabbed the rest of his guns and stuffed them in his pants, but he kept the Glock 30 in his hand. It was the best weapon he had available. The assault rifles lying on the floor in the kitchen were too noisy to be useful, and besides, he didn’t like picking up weapons. If they were poorly maintained, they could jam or misfire.
He was worried about Marina, who was alone out there. She could lock her storage shed from the inside, and if anybody tried to break in, she had some nasty surprises waiting for them. She was also wearing body armor. But despite the precautions, he couldn’t convince himself she was safe.
Smythe finished arming himself. “We’re blind without Marina. We need to get out of this trap. Let’s take the fight to the enemy.”
“I’m sure that’s what they’re waiting for,” Aaron said. “They’ll cut us down as soon as we step outside. Let’s think about this for a second. We need a distraction so we can escape and find cover safely.”
Smythe nodded and looked around. He pointed to the single bedroom. “There is a window in there. We’ll leave that way.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s farthest away from the kitchen.”
“So?” Aaron leaned his head.
Smythe went into the kitchen and ransacked the drawers until he found aluminum foil. He wadded up a big ball, stuffed it into a microwave oven, and turned the oven on. The metal immediately began to emit blue sparks. He turned on all the gas burners on the stove without lighting them. Invisible natural gas gushed out.
He ran out of the kitchen. “Let’s move.”
He hurried into the bedroom, and Aaron followed close behind. They pulled a mattress off the bed and knelt underneath.
“The neighbors will hear the explosion,” Aaron said. “They’ll call the fire department.”
“We’ll still have a few minutes to work,” Smythe said. “The blast will blind and confuse the enemy, giving us the tactical advantage for a short time.”
“We need to capture some of the Eternals alive for interrogation. That’s why we’re here.”
“I understand.”
Aaron didn’t like Smythe assuming a leadership role, but that argument would have to wait until after the fight.
After a couple of minutes, Aaron started to smell the gas, and the odor reminded him of rotten eggs. Then a roaring noise filled his world. The shockwave from the explosion slammed into the mattress and pushed him to the floor.
He and Smythe threw off the mattress as soon as they were able. Fire was everywhere in the other rooms, but it hadn’t reached the bedroom. The nearest window was completely blown out. Aaron jumped through and ran into the chilly night air.
The first priority was finding cover. The fire provided plenty of light, and he quickly spotted a dense clump of bushes ten yards away. He dove into the middle of the clump and slid to a stop in the dirt. Smythe followed him in. They bumped heads in the cramped space as they tried to sit up.
Aaron peeked between the leaves to assess the situation. The house was located in a semi-rural neighborhood, so there was plenty of open space around. Large, old trees dominated the landscape. The Eternals were probably hiding up in the branches because they provided a great location for surveillance.
“We have to check the trees,” Aaron whispered.
Smythe nodded. “Sneaking up on a guy in a tree is almost impossible. He sees you a long time before you see him.”
“Marina is watching the surveillance video. If we could get to the shed, she could tell us exactly where the enemy is.”
“We’ll have to go around the house. We’ll be seen.”
“Not if we take the long way. Follow me.”
Aaron sprinted directly away from the house. He kept going for two hundred yards before turning. Smythe’s heavy footsteps stayed close behind him. Aaron made a huge circle that looped through the yards of a dozen other homes before he headed back.
He spotted the shed straight ahead. Made of rusty, corrugated steel, it wasn’t quite big enough to store a car. He stopped in the shadow of a tree before he got too close.
“Do you see anybody?” he whispered.
Smythe was breathing hard. “No, but wait. Let me catch my breath. You’re in much better shape than me.”
Aaron looked up. Fall had come but the trees still held many leaves. Yellow, red, and brown had replaced the lush greens of summer. He searched for any sign of the enemy. The combination of the flickering fire and a light breeze made all the leaves appear to dance in the night.
“The neighbors must’ve called the fire department by now,” he said. “The Eternals will run when they hear the sirens, and we’ll go home empty-handed.”
“Better than going home dead.” Smythe shrugged.
Aaron didn’t like that response. “I’m going to run to the shed now.”
Smythe raised his Beretta. “I’ll cover you.”
“Are you a good shot?”
“I could perform surgery with this gun. Go.”
Aaron dashed forward. He realized he was entrusting his life to a man with questionable loyalties. From the way he talked, it was clear Smythe still didn’t consider himself a Spear.
Aaron put those doubts out of his mind as he approached the shed. He kept to the shadows, but the front door of the shed was fully exposed. He took a deep breath and ran the last several yards.
The door was open, which surprised him. He had assumed Marina would lock herself inside. He couldn’t just stand in the light, so he went in.
The interior was a jumble of flickering, disorienting shadows. While his eyes were still adjusting, he saw a dark shape moving around. He wasn’t alone.
Aaron raised his gun. “Freeze,” he said quietly, “or I’ll drop you where you stand.”
“Go ahead and shoot,” a deep masculine voice replied. “Death is my ultimate reward.”
Aaron couldn’t leave this guy behind to cause mischief. Capturing him alive would be time consuming, dangerous, and noisy. This shed was a lousy place for a fight. In the meantime, Smythe or Marina might desperately need Aaron’s help. He had only one choice.
“As you wish.” Aaron pulled the trigger and put a .45 caliber slug into the enemy’s brain. The suppressor made the shot sound like a soft thump instead of a loud bang.
He checked the video surveillance monitors and found all twenty displays turned off. The power cord for the entire system had been cut with a sharp knife. Marina sabotaged it, he thought. She didn’t want the enemy using it.
He checked the shed for clues. Marina had taken her body armor and weapons, which was an encouraging sign. He found words written on the wall in face paint, and they read, “Black truck on street. See you there.” He smiled.
He ran back outside, and the bright fire dazzled his eyes. The entire house was engulfed in flames now.
Aaron heard quick footsteps to his right. He reflexively dove to the ground and rolled. He looked back to see another Eternal standing with a dagger. He was a large man wearing a cloak, hood, gloves, and boots, leaving no skin exposed. All his clothes were black. The dagger’s blade had a milky, wet gleam. Poison?Aaron wondered.
The Eternal fell on Aaron with the clear intention of stabbing him. Aaron grabbed his wrist and twisted so that the blade pointed up instead of down. The move was automatic, the result of countless hours of training. The Eternal landed on the dagger, grunted, and rolled over. The blade was buried in his abdomen up to the hilt, and blood trickled from the wound.
Aaron scrambled to his feet in case the enemy had the strength for a second attack, but it quickly became clear the fight was over. The Eternal was making choking noises, and all his limbs trembled violently. He expired several seconds later.
Definitely poison, Aaron thought.
“Nice move.”
Aaron spun around and saw Smythe approaching. “Thanks,” Aaron said.
“But I thought you wanted to take live prisoners.”
“I do, but they’re not cooperating. Marina is investigating a black truck parked on the street. Let’s go.”
Aaron heard distant sirens. No! Not yet! He ran towards the street.
He spotted the truck which was the size of a small moving van. It was already pulling away. His heart skipped a beat when he saw that Marina was standing on the rear bumper and clinging to the back of the truck. She wore gray and black camouflage fatigues.
Aaron would not let the woman he loved be taken away. He shot at the tires on one side of the truck, flattening them, but the truck didn’t stop.
“Jump off!” he yelled to Marina.
She shook her head.
A fire engine sped around a corner. The truck tried to swerve out of the way, but the flat tires made hard turns impossible, and it crashed into a ditch. The truck rolled onto its side.
“Marina!” Aaron yelled as he sprinted forward.
He found her lying in the weeds about twenty yards away from the accident. She was unconscious but still breathing. Blood oozed from a cut on her forehead.
Smythe knelt beside her. “I’ll take care of her. You worry about the enemy.”
Aaron reluctantly left her in Smythe’s care. Aaron ran over to the cab of the truck and looked through the cracked front windshield. Two men were inside, still held in place by their seatbelts.
For the first time Aaron saw the pale faces of the enemy. Their hair was cut short in a distinctly military style. One had a scar on his cheek. Wearing heavy, black robes, they reminded Aaron of medieval monks. They were young, no older than twenty-five, but there was no fear in their eyes.
Aaron drew his gun and aimed through the windshield. “Nobody move!”
One man reached into his robes and took out a hand grenade. He pulled the pin and held the grenade in the air like a trophy. Both Eternals watched it with calm expressions.
“No!” Aaron ran back and hid behind a tree.
The explosion sent shrapnel in all directions. He heard it whizzing past and striking the foliage all around as if it were raining. The truck was destroyed. Burning gasoline poured out and the flames reached high into the air.
A police car came up the road with its lights flashing and siren wailing.
“Smythe!” Aaron yelled. “Pick up Marina and follow me!”
Smythe lifted Marina with both arms and ran over. Aaron led him away from the road and into the murky shadows under the trees. They crouched down.
“How is she?” Aaron said.
“I hardly had time for an examination,” Smythe said, “but nothing looked broken. Maybe a concussion. We should get her to a hospital just to be safe.”
“That’s one piece of good news.” Aaron sighed. “Otherwise, the night has been a fucking disaster.”