Black Pawn (Michael Cailen Book 1) (29 page)

In the morning, Michael and Jessica left for Gomez's in a
stolen Honda Accord.  Martin and Josh stayed behind in the motel.

They arrived in an upper-middle class neighborhood.  The
homes were large and tastefully designed with generous amounts of land between
them.  Gomez's house was blue with white trim and had a large, elegant front
porch and a two-car garage.  The lawn was perfectly manicured, much like the
rest of the street.  They parked on the street one house away.

Michael scanned the surrounding homes as they walked to the
front door.  He took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

The door opened and they were face to face with Alonso Gomez
holding an adorable little boy who couldn't have been much older than two.  A
little shorter than Jessica, with a stocky build, Gomez had jet black hair and
tanned skin.  The small boy in his arms had the same coloring and stared at
Michael and Jessica with big brown eyes and an endearing smile.

“Can I help you?” Gomez asked as he did a double take of
Jessica's battered face.

“She was in a car accident,”  Michael responded to the look
on Gomez's face.  “Are you Alonso Gomez?”

Gomez glanced back and forth between them trying to make an
assessment of them.  “Who are you?”

“I'd like to talk to you about Edward Morgan.”

Gomez started to shut the door. “I'm sorry, I can't discuss
the case, you'll have to speak with my attorney.”

Michael stopped the door from closing.  “I'm not here to
talk about a case.”

Gomez stood there silent, staring at Michael.  He held the
door tight against Michael's arm but didn't try to push it closed.

“You suspected he's dirty.”  Michael took an educated
guess.  “You're right.”

“What do you want?”

“To talk.”

Gomez seemed to think about it for a long time.  “I have my
son, I can't leave.  You'll have to come in.”

Gomez conducted them towards the back of the house and set
his son down in a playroom next to the kitchen.  The house was bright and
spacious, elegantly decorated with family photos almost everywhere they
looked.  Their little boy was undoubtedly the Gomezes pride and joy.

“How old is he?” Jessica asked as she watched the little boy
playing with a toy firetruck.

“Eighteen months.  His name is Eddie,” he answered, turning
to look at his son.

She smiled.  “He's adorable.”

“Thank you.” He looked back at his unexpected guests. 
“Well?”

“You're fighting to get your job back.” Michael surmised.

“How do you know about that?  Who are you?”

“My name is Michael Cailen.  Up until four years ago, I
worked black ops for a special branch of the military.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“Four years ago you were tracking down the location of a
large heroin production facility in Yunnan, China.”

Gomez's eyes lit up.  No one outside his department in the
CIA would've known that.

“You were on the verge of locating it when you were ordered
to terminate your investigation.  You didn't listen.  You sent a man to talk to
some villagers who might know the whereabouts of the facility.  When he got
there, they were all gone.  Does any of this ring a bell?”  He asked knowing
the answer since it was written all over Gomez's face.  He couldn't hide his
intrigue.

“It may.”

“Someone hired a group of mercenaries to kill everyone in
the village.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I was there.”  Michael went on to relate the events
including his subsequent exodus.  He told Gomez about the CIA assassin who was
waiting for him when he got home and about what happened to his friend in the
CIA, Charlie, who he asked for help.

Gomez invited them to sit at the table while Michael
continued to relate everything he had learned about Edward Morgan and Vlad
Milovich.  He couldn't believe what he was hearing, but other things started to
make so much sense now.  Things that happened at the CIA that never sat right
with him and now he knew why.

“Do you have any proof?”  Gomez asked after a period of
stunned silence.

“Some.  And I have a witness inside who may be willing to
testify in exchange for protection.”

“A witness?”

“Yes.  He's the one that fabricated the intel and mission
for the CIA operative sent to kill me four years ago.  And he's been involved
in just about everything that Morgan has done.  Now Milovich is going to him
directly.  He wants out, but they've threatened his daughter.  He's scared.”

“So what proof do you have so far?”

Michael turned to Jessica and she started unpacking the
laptop.

Rick sat at his desk with his head in his hands and Alonso
Gomez's address in front of him.  He tried calling Michael many times the night
before and early that morning, but only got his voicemail.  He knew Michael
must have ditched the phone.

He wanted to save Gomez.  He attempted to call a few times,
but hung up before he even finished dialing.  He was a coward and he knew it. 
He wanted to kill himself and end his misery, but he didn't even have the
courage to do that.

His cell phone rang and he answered it without thinking. 
Not realizing it was nine o'clock already, he was startled when he heard
Milovich on the other end.

“Do you have what I want?”

Rick tried to swallow, but his mouth was so dry he
couldn't.  “Cailen hasn't used his phone since yesterday afternoon.  I'm sure
he ditched it.  I don't know where he is.”  There was eerie silence for what
felt like an eternity.  Rick was sweating profusely and his whole body felt
weak.

“And Gomez?”  Milovich finally broke the disturbing silence.

“Uh, yes.  I have his address.”  Rick stared down at it.  He
was about to kill someone he knew, someone he worked with.  He had even been to
his house one summer for a barbecue.

“Give it to me!”  Milovich was getting impatient.

Rick closed his eyes and rattled off the address.  When he
finished, the phone went dead.  He sat there for a few seconds, not moving. 
Barely even breathing.  Then, as if possessed, he threw his phone across the
room.  He stood and with one giant swoop pushed everything that was on his desk
onto the floor.  Only the computer was spared.  He let out a growl of anger and
frustration as everything went flying.  He stood over the debris huffing.  He
leaned forward on the desk, trying to regain his composure.  He closed his eyes
and hung his head, hating himself for what he had done.

Jessica showed Gomez everything on the flash drive as well
as the encrypted email Alex had sent her.  It was a lot to absorb.  After she
was done, he had more questions than answers.  He was lost in thought trying to
process everything he had just learned.

“Is it enough to stop him?” Michael intruded on his
thoughts.

Gomez leaned forward, putting his hands together.  “It's
enough to prompt an investigation, but not to arrest him.  Perhaps with the
testimony of your witness it might be enough.”

“Unless we can take Morgan down, you can forget about the
witness.  He's terrified and he's a coward.  He'll only do it if he feels
safe.”

“I'm afraid that if I bring in what you have right now, they
may not even take the investigation seriously.  It may look like I'm just
trying to get revenge for being fired.  They might do a halfhearted
investigation just to say they did.”  He looked at them. 

“I'm sorry.”

“What if I got more proof?”  Michael asked.

“Like what?”

“Like those mission files.”

“How do you expect to do that?”

“I'd rather not say.”

Gomez gave him a look. 

“I would have to see what else you manage to scrounge up. 
If we can gather enough evidence that definitively points to Morgan, it should
be enough to have him taken into custody while they verify the information. 
Your witness would be protected in the meantime.”

“Guess I'll be back with more evidence,” Michael grinned. 
The doorbell rang as he finished his sentence.

“Two visitors in one day.  What are the odds?” Gomez
remarked as he got up to answer the door.

“Wait.”  Michael grabbed his arm.  “You're not expecting
anyone?”

“No.  Should I?”

“Stay here.”  Michael quietly worked his way to a front
window and looked to see who was standing at the door, careful not to be seen. 
Gomez hadn't listened and was standing just behind him also looking out the
window.  At the door stood a man wearing a button-up shirt and a pair of khakis
holding a bouquet of flowers.

Michael turned to him.  “Where's your wife?”

“At work.  Why?”

“Call her and tell her to leave now and go to someplace safe
and wait there until you contact her.  She is not to come home.”

“Why?”

“We're about to have company.”

“It's just someone delivering flowers.”

“Look at that van outside.”

Gomez did.  It was a white unmarked van and there was
someone in the driver's seat.

“Does it take two people to deliver flowers?”

Gomez rushed to the kitchen and frantically dialed his wife.

“Be right there!” Michael yelled out to the man at the
door.  He walked back to the kitchen where Jessica was now anxiously wondering
what was happening.  “Pack everything up.”

She wasted no time doing so.  Gomez hung up the phone and
looked back at Michael.  He looked scared.

“You got a car in the garage?” Michael asked.

“Yes.”

“Take your son.  Go and wait in it for me.  Don't start it
or open the garage door, just get in, buckle up and wait.”

Gomez scooped up his son and they hurried into the garage. 
A silver BMW M5 sat in the stall furthest from the door.

When they reached the car, Gomez began strapping his son
into his car seat.  Jessica opened the front passenger's side door and was
about to get in when she changed her mind.  She shut the door again.  “Let me
have the keys,” she said.

“Yeah, fine.  I'm going to stay in back with Eddie.”  Gomez
handed her the keys.

Jessica sat in the driver's seat, pleasantly surprised that it
was a standard transmission.  She always bought manual transmission cars. 
Automatics were boring to her.  She loved having the control that a stick shift
offered.

Eddie seemed to know something was wrong and wasn't happy. 
Gomez tried to distract him with toys.

Michael waited a few minutes, giving Jessica and Gomez time
to settle in.  Then he walked quietly up to the front door.  He jiggled the
chain on the door but kept it attached.  He unlocked the deadbolt and when he
turned the door handle to open the door, the delivery man tried to force the
door open only to be stopped by the chain.  He looked up at the chain and then
his eyes focused on what was behind it, a gun pointed at his head.  It was the
last thing he saw.

As soon as the shot rang out and the man fell down dead, the
driver of the van jumped out with a machine gun in hand, soon joined by another
man from the back of the van, also armed with a machine gun.

Michael dropped to the floor as bullets shattered the front
windows.   He crawled towards the garage door and waited until he could hear
them in the house.

Jessica and Gomez heard the shooting and were so relieved to
see Michael come through the door.  He saw Jessica in the driver's seat and
didn't understand what she was thinking.  He ordered her to scoot over.

“No, I drive.  You shoot,”  she said firmly.  “I'm not doing
this again.”

With no time to argue, he got in the passenger's seat. 
“Start the car and go.  Don't wait for the door to open; we don't have time.” 
Michael kept his eye on the door to the house.

The men inside heard the garage door begin opening and the
car start, followed by the crash of the car driving through the garage door
before it was halfway up.  They ran back out the front door and fired on them
as they drove away.  Most of the bullets hit the trunk, but one shattered the
back window.  Gomez shielded Eddie with his body so what little glass made it
inside ended up on him instead of Eddie.  Scared, Eddie began screaming and
crying.  Gomez tried to comfort him, but it did little good.

The two assassins piled back in the van and took off in
chase of the BMW.

Even though Jessica was speeding down the side streets, the
van started to gain on them.

“You'd better step on it, Jess!  They're catching up!” 
Michael urged.

“We're in a residential area.  I don't want to kill anyone!”

The van got close enough for someone inside to start
shooting at them.  Michael returned fire through the blown out back window.  He
landed a few shots in the van's windshield but didn't manage to hit anyone
inside.

“You're gonna kill us if you don't step on it!”  Michael
shouted.  “You should have let me drive.”

That did it for Jessica.  She dropped gear and stomped on
the gas, pulling away quickly.  As they approached an intersection she dropped
it to second and held the clutch as she flicked the wheel to the left and
simultaneously pulled the handbrake.  She let out the clutch and hit the gas as
they slid into a turn. They were now heading in a different direction.

Michael looked at her in shock.  “Where the hell did you
learn to drive like that?!”

“Playstation,” she replied seriously.

Michael and Gomez looked at each other with a mix of
disbelief and nervous fear.  Neither knew how they felt about that.

The van couldn't maneuver the same way and had to slow down
significantly to follow them.  A few more turns like that and they could lose
them.  But as luck would have it, traffic started to get heavier.  Jessica had
to reduce her speed as she weaved through cars on the road.  She passed so
close to some Michael was sure they were going to hit but they didn't.  She
drove like a pro and Michael couldn't help but be impressed.  The van was
closing the gap again though.  Jessica swore loudly and Michael turned his
attention back to the road.

“What is it?” he asked.

“We're about to have more company.”

Michael scanned the road ahead of them and saw what Jessica
was talking about.  Up ahead was a police cruiser that they were about to pass by
driving on the wrong side of the road.

“Can't be avoided,” Michael consoled her.

She raced past the police cruiser.  His lights came on and
he accelerated after her a second later.  He narrowly missed being creamed by
the van pursuing them as it rushed past.  The van started firing on them
again.  Michael returned fire through the back window.  A few more bullets went
through the windshield, but he didn't think he hit anyone.  He decided to try a
different tactic.  He rolled down his window.

“What are you doing?” Jessica shouted.

“I'm going to try to take out their tires.”  Michael leaned
out of the window and tried to aim at the van's front tires.  Just as he fired,
the car swerved and the bullet flew into the pavement instead.  He tried a few
more times, but the car kept moving from side to side.

“Hold it steady!” he yelled.

“It's kinda hard to do that when I'm trying not to crash
into things!” she shouted back a little annoyed.

The van started firing again and Michael retreated back
inside.  They now had two police cars and the van behind them.

“We have to lose them before they get a chopper in the air,”
Jessica warned.

“I know.”  Michael tried to think.

JOSH AND
Martin were quietly watching TV when the
local news cut in.

We interrupt this program to bring you breaking news on
reports of a dramatic shootout and car chase through downtown.  Reports are
coming in of a silver BMW and white cargo van racing through downtown traffic,
exchanging gunfire.  They are being pursued by police, who are urging people to
stay off the streets.

Josh and Martin looked at each other in horror.

“I'll call you from the road.”  Josh ran out of the motel
room and jumped in the truck.

Martin looked back at the TV.  It couldn't be Michael, could
it?  He was just going to talk to Gomez.  What could have happened?

Martin listened to the rest of the broadcast for news on
where the chase was taking place and when it ended, he searched other local
channels for any other reports.

Josh picked up a prepaid cell and called the motel.  Martin
told him the general whereabouts of the chase and Josh headed in that
direction.  His gut told him it was Michael and though he didn't know if he'd
be able to do anything or if he'd even be able to find them, he couldn't sit
back and do nothing.

“THE HIGHWAY,”
  Gomez suggested from the backseat. 
“We might be able to put some distance between us and them.”

Gomez directed her towards the highway and in a couple
minutes they were speeding up the on ramp.  She laid on the horn as she closed
in on some cars.  A couple pulled out of the way. but she was forced to squeak
through between the cement barrier and the last car that wouldn't move.   The
car did decide to move out of the van's way though when the assassins opened
fire on it.

The chase picked up a few more police cars along the way,
five in all.  She saw one on the highway ahead of her and put the pedal to the
metal, knowing more would come and they'd try to box her in.  She passed the
cop and kept accelerating.  With the BMW now going over a hundred and twenty
miles an hour, the van was lagging behind.

“We're losing them.”  Michael watched out the back window.

“I'm surprised I haven't seen a chopper yet,”  Jessica said.

The remark prompted Michael and Gomez to check the sky.  It
was clear, but wouldn't be for much longer.  Traffic thinned and soon they were
the only ones on the highway.

“This isn't good,”  Jessica verbalized what everyone else
was thinking.

They all saw it at the same time.  A road block ahead.  A
few police cars were parked across the highway.  With a cement barrier on both
sides there wasn't any way around them.  They intentionally left an opening in
the middle big enough for a car to go through where they placed spike strips.

Michael cursed loudly in distress.  He looked behind them and
could see the van way off in the distance.

“Don't worry.  I got it,”  Jessica assured him.

“Got what?  We're sunk once we hit those spike strips!”

“I'm not going that way.  There's a gap on the left between
the wall and the cruiser.”

Michael looked at the gap.  “It's not big enough.”

“I know.  I'm gonna have to push through.”

“At this speed, you'll kill us.”

“I know what I'm doing.”

Michael quickly buckled his seat belt hoping she did know
what she was doing.  The situation looked bleak.

Reducing her speed, Jessica approached the road block as if
she was going through the opening they left in the middle.  She wanted them to
think she was going to go for it.  At the last second, she veered to the left
and slammed on the brakes.  She dropped her speed down to about thirty five
miles an hour and then accelerated into the back corner of the police car and
pushed through.  The front end and side of the BMW was a mess, but they were
through the road block.

The cops hadn't expected that and weren't prepared.  When
the van tried to do the same thing, however, they were able to get the drop on
them and threw a second set of spike strips under the van.

Michael watched the sparks flying from the wheels of the van
after it lost its tires.  One of the police cars broke away from the road block
and started after them, followed by the other cruisers that were also in
pursuit.

“We have to lose them now or it will never happen,” Michael
stated anxiously.

Jessica had gunned it as soon as they were past the
roadblock.  She kept accelerating as they approached an off ramp.  She didn't
slow even as she drove down the ramp until she was nearly at the end.  She hit
the brakes and did another sliding turn, stopping the car under the highway.

She kept it in gear and waited.  Cars slowly drove by as
their occupants gaped at the shot up and partially demolished car parked on the
side of the road.   About twenty seconds later, they heard sirens pass
overhead.

Michael jumped from the car and stepped into the street
pointing his gun at a black Ford Taurus that was passing.  He ordered the
driver out and called for Jessica and Gomez to get in.  Terrified, Eddie
clutched his father in a death grip as they changed cars.  After relieving the
driver of his cell phone, they drove away as a helicopter flew by overhead.  A
second later and they would not have gotten away.