Kim Baldwin - The Gemini Deception

The beams above their heads were damp with moisture, and large dark stains marred the concrete floor, both contributing to the rank, stale air. A few broken pallets lay beside a small half-wall of concrete to Jack’s left, and stacks of metal barrels were bunched in groups around the perimeter, but the center of the room was empty. The EMERGENCY EXIT sign above a heavy door at the far end of the room illuminated it.

The second man from the sedan walked over to the most foreboding feature of the room, the massive industrial furnace that dominated one wall. He turned on the burner and opened the heavy steel door. “Should be nice and toasty in a few minutes.”

TQ’s three henchmen had clearly all been here before; separately, or together, they had used this building for similar purposes. Their expressions and demeanor indicated this was just another day at the office for them.

Wagner looked terrified. “What’s going on? Why are we here?”

One of TQ’s men laughed and turned to Jack. “Tell her. It’s your show, after all.”

Jack looked at Kennedy. “It would appear my new boss likes to haze her newcomers.”

Kennedy simply nodded once.

Wagner stepped forward. “What does that mean?”

“It means Silent Death here is new, and this is her first test,” one of the men said. He looked at the furnace and back to Jack, then crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re on.” He smiled as if anxious to see her perform.

Bill took the pistol from his shoulder holster and handed it to Jack. He stood to her right, facing Wagner and Kennedy, while TQ’s two other goons stood to her left.

Jack stared at Kennedy. “Showtime.”

Bill patted her on the back. “Damn right, and no worries about the contractor. She’s all words. Take her out, and you never have to worry about her or her people coming after you.”

*

Shield stared intently at the dark-haired woman with the scar, trying to anticipate her intentions as she checked the pistol her associate had given her. Was she reading her right? Was this mysterious stranger trying to help them? She seemed to be their only possible way out of this situation.

“This is crazy,” Wagner said with a trembling voice from her right. “Kennedy hasn’t done anything.” She went to step in front of Shield, but Shield quickly pulled her back behind her as the woman raised the weapon and pointed it at them. They were only ten feet apart.

Shield could feel Wagner’s trembling hand on her back, and her rapid breathing from behind filled her ears.

The woman aimed the gun not at her, but over her shoulder, at Wagner. Her gaze, though, was fixed on Shield. She had expressive eyes—and they conveyed a clear, pleading message to play along. When Shield stared unflinchingly back with understanding, the woman gave the slightest, subtlest nod.

“I told you, they don’t care,” Shield said over her shoulder to Wagner. “Look at them. It’s obvious they don’t have a mind of their own. They’re too stupid to know right from wrong or to realize what my organization will do to them.”

The woman facing them lowered her gun. “You know, before I met one of you fucked-up contractors I used to care about these threats.” She stepped forward until she was only two feet away. “But now,” she continued, as she lifted the gun to Shield’s forehead, “not so much.”

“Do it,” one of the men said, and his friends laughed. “Maybe you can get them both with one shot.”

“No!” Wagner screamed from behind her.

The woman’s intense green eyes looked from the gun, to Shield, and back to the gun. “By any means necessary,” she muttered, repeating the EOO motto.

That was enough for Shield. She grabbed the weapon. Although outnumbered, it was her only desperate chance.

She got off three quick shots, firing next to the woman’s head, and got two of the men—one in the head and the other in the stomach. She missed the third one as he ran for cover behind a stack of barrels near the stairwell. “Let’s go.” She grabbed Wagner by the wrist.

The woman who’d helped them was bent over, covering her head. She was in obvious pain from the loud gun reports so close to her ear.

Shield put her free hand on the woman’s back. “Can you hear me? We have to run.”

“Leave me.”

Shield released Wagner. “Don’t move,” she told her. Then she turned back to the woman and put an arm around her waist. “We never leave one of our own behind,” Shield said, not knowing if she could hear or if she was indeed one of theirs.

But the woman tried to pull away. “Leave me,” she said again.

Shield couldn’t understand what was going on with her and didn’t have time for riddles.

“Watch out!” Wagner yelled, and pushed her forward. A second or two later, a shot rang out from the direction of the stairwell, followed by a muffled chink as it tore a bit of concrete from the floor near them. Wagner screamed again.

Shield pulled Wagner behind her and fired back. Once. Twice.

Wagner poked her on the shoulder and pointed to the emergency exit.

“Use me to get out,” the dark-haired woman whispered. “Threaten to kill me.”

“I can’t do that.”

The woman punched Shield in the face. “Fucking do it.”

Shield aimed at the overhead bulb and shot out the light. “Move and I’ll shoot you in the head,” she said loudly.

With the woman in a headlock and Wagner behind her, Shield kept the gun pointed in the direction of the stairwell as she shimmied the three of them over to the emergency exit.

Wagner pushed the door open and held it.

Shield turned her body to let the woman she had hold of through it first, but as they crossed the threshold, the woman struggled to get away.

“What is your problem?” Shield said as she tried to get the woman to stay put. “Why are you—” She heard the shot before she felt it.

Chapter Thirty-one

“Kennedy!” Ryden screamed, and shut the door. There were thirty feet from the bottom of another stairwell, and the vague reddish glow from the exit sign provided her enough light to see Kennedy, motionless, facedown on the floor. “Oh, my God. Kennedy!” Ryden fell to her knees. “Can you hear me?” She wiped the hair from Kennedy’s face. “Kennedy, please don’t—”

The woman in black bent over and grabbed the gun from Kennedy’s hand.

“Are you crazy?” She turned to the stranger with tears in her eyes. “She was trying to get us out and—”

“I told her to leave me.”

The woman looked down at Kennedy’s back, where a dark hole had appeared in her brown leather jacket. “Give her a moment. She’s winded, that’s all.” She flipped Kennedy over, onto her back, then slapped her.

“Don’t you touch her.” Ryden pushed the stranger away. “What are you doing?”

“She’s wearing a vest,” the woman replied, and went to stand with her ear to the door.

No sooner had the words left her mouth than Kennedy’s eyes fluttered open.

“Oh, thank God.” She caressed Kennedy’s face.

“Are you all right?” Kennedy asked her.

“You’re the one who got hit.” She couldn’t believe Kennedy was worried about her well-being after being shot at.

“I’m fine. He got me on the vest.”

“I told you,” the woman said.

Ryden glared at the stranger, trying to contain her anger. “She could have died because of you.”

“Last time I checked, it was because of you she almost died,” the woman replied.

“Are you in pain?” Kennedy asked Ryden.

“Why would I—”

“You’re bleeding.” Kennedy touched her left arm, at the shoulder.

She looked down and discovered a growing splotch of red on the sleeve of her hoodie.