CH52
Neither Kate nor Rick doubted at any time that what they felt pressed against their backs weren't weapons and that they most likely were equipped with silencers. They also had no uncertainties that these men would do exactly what they threatened to do.
They were escorted outside and found two more men waiting for them by a panel van with someone else in the driver's seat. The van's side door was open, and the men behind them used zip ties to secure their hands behind their backs. Rick and Kate were shoved inside and sat on the metal floor with three men pointing their silenced weapons at them. The front seats were occupied with two more men, one of which was armed. They assumed the driver probably was as well.
She knew they could free themselves and take all five of them with no problem and looked at Rick who simply, with a tiny movement of his eyes, told her no. Kate in turned glared at him. "Why the hell not!" was what her eyes were saying. He gave her a tiny, almost missed smile. "Play along" was written all over that look.
The ride turned out to be a long one and they both were getting tired of sitting on the metal floor in an uncomfortable position. The back windows of the van were blacked out so there was nothing to see and from their positions they couldn't see out the front very well. Plus one of the armed men was blocking the view. It didn't seem to Kate that they were traveling very fast and from the way the driver was cursing, it was a two-lane road and he was trapped behind someone driving too slow.
There were a number of turns at a slow speed until they finally stopped and the side door slid back. Three of the men got out then dragged Kate and Rick out of the van.
A quick look around told them that they were at an airport. It was a small airport that had a number of one engine planes lined up wingtip to wingtip down a grass field next to the single tarmac landing strip. There was also a long row of hangars on one side. "Is that a Fokker DR. I?" Rick questioned as he saw at least 6 WWI fighter planes lined up wingtip to wingtip.
He was yanked into an empty hangar along with Kate right behind him. "Sit down and shut-up." Two of the men shoved them down onto the concrete floor. One of the men walked away with a cell phone at his ear. Another man grabbed a chair and sat not far away watching them closely. Two moved to the now closed hangar door as one of them stepped outside through the side door in the hangar. The other two went into a small office, used the local landline phone, then came back out to talk with the guy who had the cell phone.
"We can take them," Kate barely whispered to Rick who was sitting close by her. "We wait. They haven't killed us meaning someone is coming who wants something," he whispered back scarcely making a sound.
Kate however wanted to take them and then wait for whomever. "There's a signal." She finally caught up to Rick's thinking. "CIA?" she whispered. "Airpark means he will fly in. We wait," he replied almost silently.
"Where are we?" Kate asked so softly that she could scarcely hear her own voice. "South tip of Florida. The Red Baron plane makes it likely the Ocean Reef Club Airport. A little north of the highway to Key West." Rick loved to read and he was full of trivial information that came in handy from time to time.
Kate sighed and leaned up against Rick to rest while trying not to fall asleep on him. It felt like hours. "I'm thirsty and need to pee," she commented softly. "A little water?" Rick asked looking at the guy who was still sitting in his rickety-looking metal chair. "Shut-up," was the response he got. "Come on, one little cup of water," he tried again. The thug got up and slammed the butt of his gun into the side of Rick's face which forced his entire body down onto the floor. "HEY ASSHOLE!" Kate exclaimed only to have him place the business end of his weapon against her forehead. "I said shut-up," he growled, pushing his gun harder against her forehead.
"Leave them alone! They need to be able to talk," one of the other men yelled. "FINE!" He moved the gun away from her head and fired a round at her knee that only just grazed her leg which started to bleed some. Even with the silencer the sound inside the hangar was still a bit loud. "She can still talk with a round in her leg," he hollered. "And you get to make sure she doesn't bleed to death before she talks," the same guy shouted back. "Yeah, yeah," he grumbled and went back to sit in his chair.
"You alright?" Rick asked Kate as he rolled over and sat up, not trying to be quiet any longer. "It stings a bit but I'm fine. It's nothing compared to what I'm going to do to him," she said, glaring at the man who shot her.
"I thought I told you two to shut-up." He pointed his weapon at them. "Pain can be a great motivator. Especially the pain of having your knee cap shot off. Now shut the fuck up!" he yelled at them.
"He's first," Kate stated plainly for the three of them to hear.
Kate was slumped against Rick when the guy with the cell phone got a call. "ONE HOUR!" he hollered after hanging up and went to talk to one of the men who promptly left taking another guy with him.
"Any guesses?" she softly whispered. "CIA, and the guys in the tower are about to die," he surmised. "BABE!?" She didn't like the idea of someone dying when they could prevent it.
"You take these three and I'll take the two that just left. Pray that CIA doesn't need another all clear signal before he lands," Rick said and cut his zip tie just as Kate did. He pointed a finger at the asshole in the chair who started smiling.
Rick disappeared in a swirling cloud as Kate stood up. "You're tired, really tired, and need a nap," she told the asshole as she took his weapon and field-stripped it, keeping a small piece before giving it back to him.
"HEY!" a new voice yelled causing her to duck behind the guy in the chair who took a round in his shoulder. She followed that up by pointing a finger at each of the two remaining men. She soon had three tired, sleeping men as she field-stripped all of the weapons they had on them. Suddenly the side door opened causing Kate to point a finger only to lower it as Rick stepped in and closed the door.
"They're taking a nap in another section of Namibia. We need that cell phone," he pointed out as they both began looking for it. He found it holding it up. "Now we strip these three and give them a new home," he told Kate and started cutting the clothes off of the closest one to him.
It only took minutes until Rick and Kate were alone again. "How did they know we were there or going to be there?" she questioned. "Who did you talk to while you were at the Coast Guard base?" he asked. "Just Rear Admiral Korn and Gina. Though the place was filled with people working there," she replied.
"So the Admiral is dirty, Gina is dirty, or the place is bugged like the assistant director of the FBI's New York field office," he suggested. "Meaning they took a chance and sent a team to the wedding in the hope of getting us?" she queried. "Maybe they're desperate. They missed you at your parents' apartment. They missed all of us at our house.
We're burning their heroin both here in the States and in Turkey which is costing them millions. Losing their processing building in Turkey will slow them down," Rick posited.
Rick and Kate were both standing at the side door while watching outside for any new arrivals. Plane, car, truck, tank, RV, they didn't know what to expect. "If this is the CIA guy I wouldn't put it past him to have a military fighter escort for his jet, car, RV, or whatever it is he shows up in." Rick was guessing this guy was their guy. Get him and the mission was officially complete. They just had to clean up the mess; the men they had dropped off all over, and Bracken still needed to be interrogated and dealt with.
"What do we do with your ex-wife?" Kate asked. It caught Rick a little off guard. Just how had she known he was thinking ahead of things to be resolved after they got this guy? Rick wiped the shocked look off his face. "Part of me wants to know what the hell she is doing here, while part of me just wants her to go away and stay gone." He really was conflicted.
Kate did her best to wipe the smirk off her face because she had understood what Rick was thinking. "Speaking of your ex-wife…I'll be right back." She kissed his cheek and was gone in a swirl of clouds, only to return a moment later with Alexis in her arms.
She put Alexis down. "Go outside and keep watch. We're expecting the number one bad guy and he may be bringing some of his friends," Kate told her.
"Meow!" On it Mom and Dad.
They watched Alexis bound away to look the place over. "When we were in Turkey she walked right into the warehouse where they were unloading the truck. Scared the absolute hell out of me. I thought for sure she was going to get herself killed which would kill me." Kate explained after seeing the look on Rick's face. "And?" he asked. "Alexis said she was a cat. Who's afraid of a house cat?" she replied. "I hear a 'but' in this story," Rick said warily. She smiled as she looked up at him. "She was walking around armed killers with my heart. She had a point but that didn't erase my fears for her safety."
That earned Kate a soul-searching kiss from Rick. "You're going to make a terrific mother," he said fervently seeing the look of 'What was that for?' on her face. Their thoughts were interrupted when the cell phone they had taken off of one of the men started to ring. "We don't answer and he doesn't show," he pointed out. "If there is a code that we don't know, he won't show," she added. Still it got Rick to answer the call and place it so both of them could hear. Except all they heard was silence on the other end. "Clear," he told whomever and noticed that the call had ended. "Guess now we wait," he offered and pocketed the phone.
It took a few minutes but Kate thought she spotted something and pointed. It was a personal jet and it was a big one, too. It was coming in for a landing. They stood there and watched. "It's not slowing down," Rick pointed out. "There must be a visual signal to go with the phone call," she guessed but she didn't know what to do about it.
Then she watched Rick disappear in a swirl of clouds. "Oh god, what is he up to?" Kate looked out at the jet when he suddenly showed up right in front of it, pointed, then was gone only to find him standing next to her again. Kate was all set to ask what he had done and berate him for just how stupid he had been! Only she noticed she no longer heard the jet's engines running.
"You shut down his engines." She was impressed. "He has a mechanical failure that will require hours to fix. Let's see him take off with no power." He grinned at her.
Kate was still contemplating hitting him for taking the risk but if this worked and their CIA guy was on-board, it was worth the risk. They both watched the jet coast down the runway until it finally stopped. It left both of them wondering what was being talked about inside the jet. A whole lot of cursing came to mind.
"Now what?" Kate asked since she had an idea, but it had its own dangers. "I'm thinking we wait. No one gets off that plane without us seeing them. Teleporting on-board has its risks," Rick suggested which kind of shot down what she was thinking of doing.
"We wait too long and he'll have half the National Guard out here and even we can't do anything about that." She was exaggerating, or at least she hoped she was. "Then let's smoke him out. He already has an engine problem." Rick smiled and disappeared in a swirl of clouds.
She looked at the plane and saw Rick arrive directly under the tail of the jet. He pointed at each engine then reappeared next to her. Kate was all set to ask what he did, when both engines caught fire and smoke started billowing. "Get ready, he's likely to have armed guards on-board with him," he warned as they both waited and watched.
Suddenly there was a big whoosh of what looked like a large white cloud that enveloped each engine putting out the fire, though it still smoked some. "Fire extinguisher. I really need to read up on airplanes more." Rick hung his head.
"Who can he really call? I mean he's dealing in drugs and this isn't Manhattan, taking Montgomery out of the picture at least for now," she remarked, knowing they would have to deal with the dirty cops at some point. "True, but the people at his work likely don't know that. He could be calling in CIA operatives that aren't involved in his drug trade. It depends on where he is in the CIA hierarchy," he said.
"We need them out of that plane before help arrives or we may miss our chance." Kate started looking around the empty hangar. "Maybe a fire on the inside?" she questioned and was gone in a swirl of clouds, only to appear next to the front landing gear where she pointed a finger up at the plane then was back beside Rick once more.
"It's a nice, expensive, modern jet with electronics for aviation instruments," she said smiling, as Rick chuckled and kissed Kate on the cheek. They kept watching but saw nothing.
"MEOW!" WE HAVE COMPANY! Alexis had shown up catching them both off guard, having been so intent on watching the plane.
The company turned out to be an airport security SUV that was driving towards the jet blocking the end of their runway. "Great! Another complication," Rick moaned and vanished in a cloudy twist. Kate watched him appear just behind the SUV, point a finger at it, and then disappear again.
The SUV coasted to a stop well short of the jet with the single guard getting out and talking on his radio. "He's likely calling in reinforcements," Kate mentioned, which was still not good news. "We don't need more innocent people involved in this mess," she complained and was gone in a swirl of clouds.
Rick kept watching, expecting Kate to show up and remove the security guy from harm, but he never saw her. Instead he watched the security guard walk to the jet while still holding onto his portable radio. She returned about the same time as he reached the jet. "The guys in the control tower are now sleeping this off. He can talk all he likes but no one is listening or watching," she informed him which made Rick start smiling. At least they weren't just reacting to events that were happening but trying to prevent some of them.
Meanwhile the security guard had reached the plane and was using his baton to knock on the jet's door. He did it once more before it opened. When the door opened they watched in disbelief as the security guard fell to the tarmac and never moved again. "They shot him babe! They just shot him." Kate's blood was boiling. All those people did was kill.
"Meow!" This has to stop Dad!
They watched as two armed men came out of the plane. One of them searched the security guard and came up with car keys while the other swept the area. They were followed by three more men, one looking like he might be the pilot while one was armed. They all quickly walked to the SUV and got inside. "Wait...wait," Rick whispered then he bent down to Alexis. "Tiger please." Alexis almost instantly shifted to a Bengal tiger as all of the men bailed out of the car that was dead thanks to Rick and started walking. "We'll use the SUV as cover," Rick told Kate. "And …NOW!"
The three of them were gone in a swirl of clouds and arrived at the front bumper of the SUV. They pointed fingers and watched all 5 of the men relax, lowering any weapons that they had. "Divide and conquer," he said and took hold of one of the guards and was gone. "Keep watch Alexis." And Kate did the same with another of the guards.
He was soon back for the other guard while Kate came back and waited for him. "CIA and pilot?" she questioned. "Maybe, but which one is which?" he countered. She was momentarily perplexed since she meant where did we take them. He meant which one was CIA.
"You think they switched clothes? They're about the same height and weight," Kate commented. "You take yours someplace while I take mine someplace. We'll strip them and give the clothes to B5. If they didn't switch only their DNA should be on the corresponding clothes," Rick said. He and his guy were gone followed by Kate and her guy. Rick was soon back to pick up Alexis who was back in cat form.
They met up in their bedroom and downloaded what they had scanned onto B5's panel. "Okay B5. Have our two supposed civilians changed clothes with each other?" Rick asked the first million dollar question. "Correct," B5 responded. "YES!" he pumped his fist while Kate just smiled at him. "Now which one is which? Did our CIA guy fly himself in or did he have a pilot?" They still had a problem. "Show us a rundown of their clothes, please, B5."
"See what I see?" he asked turning to look at Kate. She had to admit that she didn't see a thing and shook her head. "Maybe this will help. B5, please show the cost breakdown of each piece of clothing," he asked her. Only when B5 was finished did Kate whistle. "But this really doesn't help us," she pointed out. "It does if you look at the shoe size," he responded. "They don't match!" She finally caught on. "Meaning our CIA guy is still wearing his expensive shoes," she announced. "We got him!" She started dancing and Rick joined her.
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It was 5 days later and Kate had arranged for a company to come out and box up whatever was not damaged in her parents apartment save for the furniture which wasn't going to be shipped to Greece anyway.
Rick had interrogated Bracken who was very helpful while he watched Rick drink water. Bracken hadn't had anything to drink for a number of days. That and he never took his eyes off the heroin cigarette that was in Rick's other hand. Rick had even brought a bottle of sunscreen and sunburn cream that he had shown Bracken.
He had left all of it behind while he went to both of Bracken's residences and found incriminating evidence right where Bracken said it was. With some of this information Rick had Bracken's money that was located in an offshore account. Now he and Kate just needed to figure out what to do with it that would help counter all of the pain these people had put everyone through.
Rick also made two more of his devices and left them at the locations of two warehouses he got from Bracken.
Kate meanwhile was picking up all of the men they had dropped off. They were all in very bad shape. Sunburnt and dehydrated in the extreme as well as naked. She left all of them along with information that would keep them in prison for life in the office of the new assistant director of the FBI New York field office.
According to the listening device in the office that B5 had continued to monitor, the assistant director was extremely surprised. He demanded to know how all those naked men had gotten into his office past all of the building's security measures.
Kate even found a place for Meredith who was also sunburnt, a little dehydrated, and thanks to Kate, was now naked. She left Meredith in the same hotel room that she took her from. However she left her naked in the tub that was filled with sand. Burying her in the tub actually under all of that sand.
The only people that Rick and Kate didn't have enough information on that would convict them were the three dirty cops. It didn't however stop Kate from putting the fear of god into them. Plus a screaming wife when he got home likely carried a lot of weight. Maybe Montgomery would turn over a new leaf now that he wasn't under anyone's thumb. As for the other two, …
