Chapter 6

"This is bad. There's only one way in and out of the property unless you want to scale a cliff face." Sasha said she wondered if it was a bad guy theme that they all had to have Cliffside properties. They had printed off the information on the iphone and laid it all out on the table.

"Weather forecast says there is a bad storm rolling in, so we couldn't scale it even if we wanted to. But the storm will give us cover to take on the compound." Danny said, though they all were thinking the same thing. This mission was suicide as they didn't have enough man power or weaponry to start a small war.

Wolf looked up from the map to his sister. She didn't seemed concerned by the problem at hand. It made him pissed that she could be so nonchalant about this given her freedom was on the line.

"Why are you looking at me?" Daniela asked him.

"You're our resident expert. How you escape if the complex if it were under attack?" He asked her.

"I'm sorry, but I feel you all don't understand who I am. I am a facilitator of business agreements not a Bond Villain." She told them, she lied of course as she knew her answer could incriminate her.

"You got us this far." Sasha said, pushing her to take an active role in planning the rescue of Tom Chandler.

"She has." Wolf said as he got an idea on how to proceed forward. It was a crazy plan but it could work. The others were in sync with him as they turned their eyes to Daniela expecting her to clue in.

"What? Why are you looking at me like that again?" she demanded.

Hours later,

"This is incredibly stupid." Daniela told Wolf, as he drove them through rough terrain towards the compound.

"It's all we got." He told her.

"I'm sorry, but your idea is that 'we' as in me talk to the guards get us through the gates to the property. Talk to some old guy and buy your friend back." Daniela told him, she knew she'd end up with a bullet in her head if this wasn't played right. It was insane to go through the front door, and talk to the old man until the storm was severe enough for the others on the VBSS teams to take over the compound.

"It worked for me." Wolf told her, reminding her of their first reunion.

"I ended up in a black site. Do you even know what they do to people in there?" Daniela asked him.

"You survived." Wolf said keeping his eyes on the road.

"Because that's what I'm good at. I survived a shitty childhood, an even worse marriage. You are blessed; you had the perfect life, a mother who loved you, stepfather who saw you as something more than a pawn in his game. You got be normal, I on the other hand had to be smart, cunning and able to take a beating and still get off the floor; wipe the blood off my face and then dress it in make up and pretend it never happened." Daniela said looking out the window as she didn't need him reading her nor did she care for his judgement.

"You could have walked away." Wolf said, Daniela scoffed at him.

"You didn't know our father, there was no walking away, nowhere to hide." She told him.

"He left me alone." Wolf pointed out, it was something he never understood as a kid or an adult.

"Because you were weak, sickly child. Worthless to him." Daniela pointed out, it was true. He'd been born smaller than Daniela, he'd been jaundiced and weak. Something that had permeated through his life. Weakness; he'd fought against as he pushed himself to his limits physically and mentally to prove he was strong and healthy.

He shook the thoughts away as they came up to the only gate into the compound. It had high wire fences with barb wire, the gate was a boom gate with a guard house and four guards armed with FN P90s.

"We're here." Daniela announced, Wolf pulled the car to a stop and Daniela rolled down the window as a guard came to her side of the door.

"Hi!" She said cheerfully to the man outside her door.

"Are you lost?" He asked in a thick Irish accent.

"Oh no, I'm here to talk to your employer, Otis Ramsey." Daniela told him with a smile.

"He doesn't do visitors." The man told her, Daniela gave a playful pout before donning a somewhat businesslike manner.

"Listen, I don't care. You tell him that I know he has Tom Chandler and that all I want is 5 minutes of his time. Surely he can spare that for a beautiful woman." Daniela said as she held out a few hundred pounds to him.

The man snatched the cash and pointed at her. "I'll call the house but that's all I promise." He told her.

"Of course." Daniela said, she watched as the man disappeared into the guard house. A few minutes later, the boom gate was lifted and the guard came back.

"He'll see you, drive on up to the house. Leave any weapons in the car. You will be searched." He told her.

"Thank you." Daniela told him, she rolled up her window and a few minutes later they were at the door of a large run down Manor. It looked like it had been left for a long time to fall to pieces, and its inhabitants didn't seem to care. They hopped out of the car. Wolf looked around at the set up, counting the guards as he was patted down for weapons. His mobile phone was tossed back inside the car.

He silently cursed as they needed it to send up a flare for all clear in the Manor. He looked to Daniela who gave him a smug look of 'I told you so'. She smiled warmly at the guard who felt her up just a little too intimately. He wondered what would ruffle her as she seemed unflappable. He thought of what she had said in the car. How she accepted her actions as her act of survival. Her moral ambiguity meant she had more freedom than him, but he wasn't envious.

"Follow me." The guard told them, they did as they were told as they walked into the large manor. Daniela pulled her jacket collar up to cover her neck from cold bite in the air. It might be summer but with the storm rolling in from the sea the temperature had dropped significantly.

They walked through the manor, Wolf counted their steps overlaying it with the mental map he had of the house. He tried to think of where Tom would be held. He and the others believed it was downstairs as the manor back in the 1800s had been owned by the local magistrate. So there were cells to hold criminals. It made the most sense as Tom would not be easy to subdue and keep in a locked room with an accessible window.

They reached double doors and the guard knocked on the door. A gruff voice called for them to enter. The guard opened the door. Daniela walked before Wolf as she strolled into the room like she owned it. Wolf kept back pretending to be her subordinate.

"They said you were beautiful. They weren't lying." An old man said standing behind the desk in the room. It was a large room which was barren of TLC. It was clean but the wallpaper was peeling from the walls, books looked to be going mouldy on the book shelves. The desk looked to be on its last legs.

"Daniela Reyes" Daniela said introducing herself as she came to him and held out her hand. He looked at it but didn't attempt to shake it as he leaned heavily on his cane.

"Otis Ramsey, though I don't know how you knew I had Chandler or why you're here but I'm curious and old enough to want to throw caution to the wind. Tell me what your business with Chandler is." He said eyeing Daniela carefully. She lifted her chin in slight defiance but then it weakened into what Wolf perceived to be grief.

"Tom Chandler killed the love of my life, he destroyed my future and I have spent the last 3 years trying to track him down, so that I could make him pay. To make him feel what I feel." Daniela said, Wolf could've sworn it was true by how she spoke and the emotions that played on her face.

"He took my grandsons from me, my daughter killed herself. The grief too much for her. So, I know exactly how you feel." Otis said empathetically as they both shared a perceived loss. His was real while hers was not. He moved to a wing chair by a chess set on a small table and gave a sigh of a man with tired old joints.

"It took me a while to get to here. I was hoping you would allow me to reimburse you for what you paid the auction house. I'd like to buy him from you." Daniela told him.

"I'm sorry but he's not for sale." Otis told her, Daniela licked her lips and looked immensely distressed.

"Please, I've come so far." Daniela begged in an upset manner, Otis gave her a kind smile but shook his head.

"It's not happening but you have my condolences. I also promise you, he's paying for his sins." He told her.

"Can I see him?" she asked him, her tone imploring him.

"Now that, I'd be happy to arrange. Billings, get the boy up." He told the guard, the guard spoke into a radio but kept his post.

"Thank you." She said.

"I do warn you, he's a little ripe on the nose." He told her, Daniela gave a nod as pretended to nervous as she strolled around the room as if prepping herself to see a man who betrayed her. Wolf tried to edge closer to the guard but he was too big to go unnoticed and the Guard was switched on. Their plan was not working. He was supposed to subdue the guard and take his weapon but he couldn't get close and Daniela had gone off script.

They waited and the door to the room opened, Daniela turned at the sight of Tom Chandler. The key to her freedom, he looked nothing like his pictures. He was filthy, his clothes well worn, his hair and facial hair had grown in. He was deathly pale with sunken eyes and gaunt features. He looked at her but his eyes were dead.

He was lean in a sickly manner and he shuffled his feet as he was bound in chains. The guards escorting him pushed him into a chair beside the chess set. Tom sagged in relief but looked to the floor.

"Nostos." Otis said, clarifying why Tom didn't match the Navy portraits. "His punishment, it's highly addictive and toxic." He told her.

"I didn't know it had come this far." Daniela said as Giorgio had a large export business on selling the in lotus seeds. Somehow the virus had infected Lotus plants and they produced seeds that could be crushed up and steeped in hot water. One could drink it as a tea or distil it into a stronger hit to take intravenously.

In Greece, it was touted to be the 'Nectar of the Gods' their gift to mortals to remind them of what it was like to be alive, to live in one's memories. She didn't try it as she knew from past experience drugs took her to dark places in her mind.

"Oh it's everywhere, it's highly addictive and tears down the human body but the addicts beg for more. Just like Tommy here. I used it to break him down, he's nothing but a mere shadow of the man he once was. He's nearly dead, but alive enough to know that there is no escape and that he deserves this. Don't you?" he asked Tom, the man remained silent staring blankly at the floor, tears rolled down his face.

Daniela felt moved by the man's tears as she felt his pain. Otis was a facsimile of her father. Dark, twisted feelings bloomed in her. She turned away and as planned she was in front of the guard. She looked at him reading his blank expression, without hesitation she kicked him in the balls. Then pulled his weapon and fired it at the guards by Tom's side. She turned and shot the guard she had just attacked in the head. She pulled his side arm and held out the MP40 to Wolf as she stalked over to Otis.

She pulled the trigger and shot him in the head. No monologues, no last words. He didn't deserve them. The old man slumped in his chair dead. His brains splattered against the seat.

"This wasn't the plan." Wolf told her.

"The others will be coming now." She said casually as she searched the guards for keys. She shouldered their rifles and pilfered their pockets until she found what she needed. She moved to Tom. He didn't look at her, he hadn't even flinched in the gun fire. His mind was so totally wasted by the drugs.

"Thomas William Chandler." She stated in a firm tone, she uncuffed the chains and when they clanged to the floor did he finally look at her. "Take this gun and try not to shoot me in the back." She said as she gave him a rifle. He pushed it to the floor.

"Leave me." Tom told her.

"Not an option. My freedom is tied to your recovery. I didn't rot in 4 years of hell for your melodrama. So pull your shit together and stand up." She told him.

The guards were coming and they had no escape as Vulture and cobra were still half an hour away from the property as they had to egress on foot.

"Daniela, what the hell were you thinking?" Wolf told her as he secured the door for the moment and tried to figure out what the hell they would do.

"I improvised." Daniela told Wolf.

"Really? Great, now what?" Wolf asked her

"I don't know, ok?! This was your shitty plan and you didn't even think that maybe- hey, I might shoot someone?" Daniela demanded.

"I was hoping you'd wait for the signal." Wolf argued.

"I forgot the signal." Daniela lied she looked around the the room and moved to the window that faced the front of the property. She and Wolf peeked out the window as soldiers ran across the grounds and into the Manor. It wouldn't be long until they broke down the door and captured them.

But luckily the men weren't trained in strategy as they'd left the car outside, it was parked 10 meters from the window.

"We'll break the window and make a run for the car." Wolf told her.

"Works for me but what about him?" Daniela asked jutting a thumb at Tom.

"Sir," Wolf said.

"Just go." Tom ordered.

"You ungrateful-" Daniela started but Wolf cut her off.

"It's not an option Sir. And we need to go, now." he pulled Tom out of the chair, Daniela picked up the chair he'd been in and moved to the window.

Wolf readied his weapon and gave a nod. She tossed the chair through the window. He jumped out of the window first and laid down cover fire. Daniela turned to Tom and pulled him by the arm but he just stood there completely shell shocked.

She inwardly cursed and decided it was best to leave him to die. He wasn't worth her life. She raced out into the firefight helping Wolf, as the guards ran up towards them cutting them down. She couldn't remember the last time someone shot at her. But she was glad for her instinct to fight.

"Daniela, behind you." Wolf said, she barely had time to move when he pushed her to the ground. Wolf dropped to the ground beside her. His eyes wide as he gasped for air, blood plumed across his shirt.

She cursed as she picked up his rifle and fired at the guards. She wondered where they were coming from. How could there be so many. They needed to get out. She paused in shooting and tried to pull Wolf to the car but he was too heavy.

She looked to Tom who stood in the distance. "Help me!" she shouted at him, he stared at her for a moment or longer, who knew as her attention was at shooting guards and trying unsuccessfully to drag Wolf to the car. Bullets bit into skin as they grazed her, anger boiled in her . She lifted the gun ready to shoot Tom for being a useless piece of shit except he was at her side. They pulled Wolf's body into the back seat of the SUV.

Daniela jumped into the driver's seat ignoring the sound of bullets thudding into the shell of the car. She didn't bother looking for the keys and just hotwired it. The engine roared to life as the driver's side window exploded in. Daniel picked up the side arm from where Wolf had wedged a gun earlier and shot the guard trying to pull her out. She released the hand brake and stamped her foot on the accelerator . The car tore gravel as the wheels spun the car picked up speed. She wined every time a stray bullet thudded into the car.

But they were nearly free. She spared a look back at Wolf, he wasn't looking good and Tom seemed in his own world but at least he was functional now given he was trying to stem the bleeding. Wolf coughed up blood and growled in pain.

She winced as she turned her attention to driving and pulling the mobile phone Giorgio had given her out of the glove box. She gritted her teeth as the car slammed into a guard as she broke through the boom gate at an angle exiting the compound. Wolf shouted in pain from the jerky movements of the car.

She dialled the number for Sasha's burner phone and tried to keep to the road. The storm was settling in now, as fat drops of water pelted down from the sky.

"Cooper," Sasha answered straight away.

"Change of plans. Wolf is injured badly, we've left the compound." Daniela shouted into the phone, she cursed in her native tongue as she nearly drove off the road.

"Where are you?" Sasha asked.

"Less than a kilometre from the guard station of the compound; on the one road in and out. There are cars following us. Now would be an excellent time for your ship to shoot rockets or something." Daniela informed her. The rain fell down in sharp sheets clouding the road in front of her. She could barely see a foot in front of the car.

"We're heading your way. Stay on the line." Sasha told her.

"Great," Daniela said sarcastically, she listened to Sasha talking to Azima over the line.

"Did you find Tom?" Sasha asked her.

"Yes, but not worth much if we're killed." Daniela told her, just as she finished saying so the first car in the line chasing them exploded into a fire ball and proceeded to take out the other two cars in pursuit.

"Holy shit!" Daniela said as the rear view mirror was just a vision of fire and carnage. But it was fading into the rain quickly as distance was put between them.

"Are you ok?" Sasha asked.

"Yes, what the fuck was that?" Daniela asked.

"You're welcome; a helo is coming our way. I'm sending you GPS coordinates. We'll rendezvous with you there." Sasha told her. Daniela hung up on her and changed to the phone's map system and saw the location. It looked to a cricket field and luckily wasn't too far away.