Defeating Áglǽca

Chapter Eleven

Meanwhile…

Romero walked over to where his friend and boss, Dalton Sloane, stood alone, lost in thought. The two of them had been friends for longer than he had been with Billy and Romero knew that Dalton trusted him with everything, or so he believed.

Romero was the first to speak up saying, "I am sorry to interrupt, My Friend, but Reese, along with Mr. Carter, has just landed. He is being escorted inside as we speak."

Sloane responded, "Very good. Let's go and greet them, shall we? Where is Sophia?"

"She met with her father as he got out of the helicopter," Romero replied as they began to walk toward the main room of the warehouse. "If you do not mind me asking, what do you plan on doing with your friend, the Scottish CIA agent?"

"As I told you before," he answered. "Collins is not my friend and he never was. I only made him believe we were in order to do what was expected of me by my family and their friends. Do not worry about him. I have a plan for him. Now, I want you to take a few of the men to find and kill the other agents, who came here with him. They are the only ones who are a threat to us. Once they're dead, the CIA will have nothing to go on to come after me."

Romero nodded and smiled as he responded, "Do not worry. They will be dead by tonight."

As the two of them walked into the main room, Romero, as well as five other men walked out of the warehouse to do their latest task, while Sloane walked over to greet the new arrivals.

Sophia's father, Reese Fedorov, was the first to speak as he Sloane walked in saying, "Ah Áglǽca! It is a pleasure to see you again as always!"

Sloane answered, "And it is a pleasure to see you again as well, Sir. Thank you for escorting Mr. Carter all the way here for me."

"Mr. Carter, may I introduce you to Áglǽca," Fedorov replied. "Áglǽca, this is Jackson Carter and two of his bodyguards."

"I must say, Áglǽca, that I am not pleased that the negotiations with our men failed," Carter said as the two of them shook hands. "I did not plan on coming here to India."

Dalton responded, "I realize that, Mr. Carter and I beg your pardon. I did not plan on the interruption from our party crashers the other day. Rest assured, they are being taken care of as we speak. I have one of them here already. Shall we take care of our business?"

Carter answered, "The sooner the better. I have the money you have asked for. Now, where is the bomb?"

Áglǽca nodded to two of his men, who stood guard of something covered by a blanket. As he did so, they turned around and pulled away the blanket to reveal a large bomb, known as an MK 94, used for aerial delivery of any toxic chemical agent among the selected targets. Carter slowly walked over to the large device in order to exam it, while Sloane walked over to stand by Sophia and her father.

After a few minutes, Sloane asked, "Do you like what you see?"

"It certainly looks impressive," Carter replied. "But how do I know that it really works? The agent you have selected to use in this thing, I mean? I do not trust you and will not complete our deal until I know for sure that this chemical will give me my desired effect."

"I had a feeling you would be asking me that," Sloane answered as he smiled. "Which is why I have kept a little of the liquid out to test on my prisoner. He will make a fine example."

"Let's get this over with then," Carter responded.

Áglǽca ordered two more of his men to bring Billy out into the main room. After a few more minutes, they were dragging him out between them with his wrists in the old rusted shackles that were hanging from the ceiling in his prison and threw him roughly down to the ground at Dalton's feet. Billy slowly raised his head and glared at his old friend, but quickly pushed his anger aside once again brought forward his usual persona.

He was the first to speak saying, "I see that you brought some more friends to the party. How nice of you to invite me, but I am afraid I am not exactly in the partying mood."

Dalton replied, "Still putting on a brave face. We'll just have to see if you keep it on after what we're about to do. If your friends were here, we would make them the examples instead and force you to watch, but I'll be happy to settle with you. They'll be dead soon enough as I said before."

Billy answered, "Don't count on it!"

"Rip his shirt off and hold him tightly against the crate there," Sloane ordered his men once again.

"May I do the honors, Darling?" Sophia asked as the men shoved Billy against the crate with his bare back now exposed once his shirt had been torn off.

"Of course," he responded as he handed her a sealed vial containing a liquid substance. "Be careful not to let it splash on your own skin or my men's. It will be extremely painful."

Sophia loomed over Billy and slowly poured the liquid across his entire back. No matter how much he didn't want to look weak in front of them, he couldn't help but scream as the chemical was emptied out. His skin felt like it was on fire and as soon as Sophia finished and the guards let go of him, he collapsed to the ground and writhed in agony.

Áglǽca leaned down over Billy as he whispered, "This chemical is lewisite. Within a few hours, your back will begin to blister severely and your respiratory system will eventually begin to shut down."

Carter finally spoke up after watching enough and said, "I am impressed, Áglǽca. You have a deal. Thanks to you, at noon on Monday, the immigration offices inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in Washington D.C. will soon see their mistake of allowing scum like him and you into our country."

"I want you to carefully pack the bomb inside the crate and load it into the helicopter," Sloane called out to the men guarding the bomb. "Your men are welcome to help them if they wish, Mr. Carter. I cannot say this has been a pleasure, meeting with you, I mean. However, with the right amount of payment, perhaps we can do business again in the future."

"If I am successful, Áglǽca," he responded. "Otherwise, I hope to never see you again for any other reasons."

Sloane replied, "The feeling is mutual."

As the men conversed, Billy continued to struggle, but he focused on their conversation and slowly lifted his head to watch as the men worked to load the bomb inside the crate. As they walked out, Dalton ordered the guards, who held him against the crate, to drag him back to his cell. Once they arrived, they threw him inside and barred the door again, leaving him alone on the filthy ground to suffer the pain spreading across his back.

Outside the warehouse…

Casey had been sitting on the edge of the cliff for almost an hour now waiting for something to happen. So far, watching the men stand guard was boring and wished that Rick had been the one Michael had assigned to remain there instead.

However, the doors to the warehouse opened and men walked out carrying a large crate toward the helicopter Jackson Carter had arrived in, followed by Carter, Áglǽca, and two others he didn't recognize. The older man had come in with Carter, but the woman walking beside Sloane was obviously there from before.

As the helicopter was started, Casey quickly pulled out his cell phone, called Michael, and said as he answered, "Michael, Carter and his men are leaving with a large crate, which I am assuming is the bomb. I can go down there and stop them, but…"

Michael interrupted, "No, you can't, Malick. As I said before, we can't risk you getting caught too. Let the helicopter go. I'll call it into Higgins and let them deal with it. Just wait there and continue keeping an eye out. We'll be there as soon as we can with help. Is Sloane leaving with Carter?"

"No, it looks like he just came out to say goodbye," Casey responded. "The old man, who came with him, is staying too. There's also a woman; probably Sloane's girlfriend. You better call the team and tell them to hurry up and get here, Michael. We have no idea how much longer Sloane's planning on staying here, or how much longer Billy's got."

"Will do," he replied. "Be careful, Casey."

Casey answered as he hung up, "You know me."