Nick's Mission, Part 5 (Recovery)

They talk out all the angles in the van on the way over. Val has trouble walking, even with the steroid shot and a pain pill; they agree she'll have to stand by on perimeter security. After some discussion, they decide Marko might have had the drop under surveillance, so the opposition may have his face, maybe more if they have a good source of info inside the Company. That means Ave is the only one the bad guys might not have identified, so he's got to make the actual approach.

"My contact will be sitting on the park bench near the statue in the center of the park," Val explains as they unload the van and prep their gear. "I told her to be ready to run if anyone approaches her without a folded newspaper in their right hand. There's four different exits from the park, and the ground cover is pretty good everywhere except the central plaza."

Aden hands her a rifle case, and motions toward a nearby parking garage. "You ought to be able to see everything from there," he says, slipping a pistol into the back of his belt and slinging a Chinese Jianshe 9mm submachine gun under his jacket. "Ave, you got another radio for Val?"

"Of course." Ave roots around in his bags, produces the radio, passes it to Val, and then hauls out a sawed-off shotgun. The handle's had a hole bored through it, and a length of cord passes thru, creating an ad hoc sling.

"How many damn guns did you bring?" Val grunts, turning to study the front of the garage, looking for her spot.

"Everything I could rustle up on short notice." Ave shrugs, smiling. "I believe in being prepared."

"You should see his expense bills on these jobs," Aden murmurs, and scans the park. It's dark, and the park lights are a random mix of working and defunct; there are plenty of shadows inside the walls, and a lot of places to hide. Good and bad for us, Aden knows. He and Ave begin to stroll casually down the street and along the park wall, heading for the side entrance on the North side. A glance back over his shoulder shows Val hopping back into the van and driving it up into the garage, and Ave and Aden linger to allow her time to get in position.

They talk back and forth, bullshitting about nothing at all useful, giving anyone who might be watching the general feel of two old friends enjoying a brisk night walk. Ave pulls his coat tight, holding it closed with his left hand while clutching the folded newspaper in his right. Aden's hands are in his jacket pockets, the SMG bouncing against his side as he walks. The breeze picks up slightly, and there's a rustling of dead leaves and scattered plastic bags; Aden catches a snatch of laughter from inside the park, some young kids, maybe hanging out, maybe paid look-outs. He's scanned the front and this side of the park, and neither have any obvious watchers, no parked dark cars with people inside, no nearby windows or doors with line of sight and suspiciously open blinds.

They hear the radio click; Val's voice comes through loud and clear. "In position. Contact is in place, no tails yet. Some teenagers grab-assing in the Northeast corner, by your entrance. Look like skater punks. Four of them, three boys and a girl. An elderly couple on a bench to the Southwest, definitely civilians. One lone male walking a weiner dog near the center, South side, by the back gate."

Ave and Aden look at each other, and start into the park through the rusted and bent wrought iron gate. There are large clumps of trees on both sides of the curving path which leads back; from where they are, they can't see anybody, and Aden's pretty confident no one will be able to see him, either. "Breaking left," he says, dropping back a few paces from Ave, stepping suddenly off the path and into the brush, ducking low and slipping thru the shadows. Ave doesn't stop walking; he moves slowly and comfortably along the pathway toward the statue which becomes visible as he rounds the corner.

"Sight on you and number two," Val confirms. "Nothing else- wait." There's a pause, and Aden freezes in place, staying as still as possible. A few seconds pass as Ave stops on the path and bends down, making a show of untying his shoelace and shaking out a non-existent rock. The dog walker comes into view, a slightly portly gentleman talking animatedly to someone on his cell phone, the harsh consonants of Ukrainian snapping in the air. His tiny brown Dachsund is barking and whining as it tests the limits of its leash. "One, you have a lurker about ten meters to ten-o'clock. Has night scope and headset. Kneeling by the porta-potty."

Aden doesn't answer, just drops lower and begins moving forward slowly, creeping along a few inches at a time. He passes between some trees, and has a clear view of Ave again, who has stood back up and is now walking again. The contact is right there on the bench, a young woman, dark hoodie pulled all the way up and tightened around her face. A few strands of dye-black hair stick out, and he can just make out her chin protruding from the hood. Her hands are jammed into her pockets, and a padded laptop travel bag is over her shoulder. Her left foot is tapping about a million miles an hour, the only thing betraying her palpable fear.

The opposition spotter is just ahead of Aden, back to the woods. He's kneeling behind the cover of the porta-potty, wearing a dark brown hunter's jacket, binoculars and a radio headset. Aden checks, no back-up in sight for the man. Maybe they're really new at surveillance, or maybe the man is a deliberate decoy. Either way, he has to go as soon as things start happening.

"Making the approach," Ave says quietly, his voice calm and relaxed. Inside Aden, the monster is stirring; he scans the opposite side of the woods, looking for any other people, any sign of other possible targets. The teens in the back of the park laugh again, the sound of skateboard wheels dragging on concrete. They come into view along to Aden's right side, the four young people joking and laughing as they begin skating their boards along the right-hand curb of the path. Tht puts them directly in the line of fire if something goes wrong.

Ave walks forward to the bench, the newspaper displayed subtly. "Excuse me, miss," he says, pointing to the bench next to the contact. "You speak any English?"

"What do you want?" the girl demands, her voice tight, the sound carrying over Ave's mike. Aden is wrestling with the monster as he listens; the kids are in the way, but in order to move them, he'll have to move into the open and tip their hand. The old Aden wouldn't have hesitated; collateral damage would have been acceptable a year ago. But now, suddenly, he knows he has to get them out of the way, that he won't be able to look Tommy in the eye if he doesn't try.

"I'm a little lost," Ave says, sitting down beside the girl. "I was supposed to meet a friend here."

The girl looks down at the paper, and then back up to Ave. Aden can't see her face, but he's pretty sure it's rightfully suspicious. Aden counts off the range to the lurker by the toilets; fifteen feet. He reaches down and slides a folding knife from his pocket, flips the blade open. He takes a deep breath and begins to move forward again, getting as close to the lurker as he can. "I was supposed to meet somebody here, too," the girl says. She looks up toward the teenagers, watching them play. "I guess I am lost also."

The way she says it tells Aden English isn't her first language. He's now halved the distance to the lurker, who is chatting excitedly over the headset to someone. The radio crackles into life in his ear. "One, what are you doing?" Val's voice is strained; she's trying to figure out why he's moving early when they haven't even been able to convince the contact of their bona-fides.

The lurker's senses are good, even if his reflexes are slow. He picks up the sound of Aden's earpiece, and spins to see what's going on behind his back. Aden rushes him, covering the last seven feet before the man can react fully. Aden's left hand thrusts forward into the target's throat, striking his larynx and temporarily **** him. Aden's right hand plunges the blade deep into the target's chest, sliding the tip through the man's ribs and into his heart. Hot blood spurts out around the edge of the blade, Aden grabbing the man's lapels and pushing him down to the ground behind the toilets, out of line of sight. His hand now clasped over the dying man's mouth and nose, Aden leans his entire weight onto the knife, driving it deeper, finishing the man. He's straddling the body in an almost intimate way. "We don't have much time, they'll want to know why their spotter went off the radio," Aden mutters into the radio, quickly wiping his hand and the blade on the dead man's coat.

"Then you shouldn't have fucking killed him yet," Val barks, angry. He can hear the implied insult in her tone; he doesn't wait, rising to his feet and circling behind the toilets at speed, angling back toward the path. He figures they have less than half a minute before the opposition moves, and the teens are still in the potential fire lane.

Ave picks up the pace. "I'm very sorry, miss, but we don't have much time to play here. The bad guys are on the move, and we need to get you out of here right now." He reaches toward her to take her sleeve, but the girl yanks back, the hood falling back from her face to show her eyes wide with fear. This time the radio doesn't pick up what she says, but Aden can tell it's not good.

Aden yanks the radio earpiece from his ear and quick-steps out onto the path, heading for the kids. He doesn't know Ukranian, so he settles for emergency communications. As he approaches, he opens his coat, flashing the gun at them; they get the point and break into a run toward the back of the park. Spinning in place, he can see Ave and the girl arguing, and then two men break from the woods on the opposite side of the park. The front one is brandishing a Czech knock-off of a Kalishnikov, the back guy has a stainless steel revolver. Ave sees them at the same time, and wastes no time in grabbing the contact's hair, yanking her down onto the concrete by the bench, clearing out of the line of fire. Val's first round strikes Kalishnikov center of mass in the right side; there's an explosion of blood and tissue out the left side, the body starting to fall even as the sound of the shot booms across the woodline.

Pistol spins and drops prone to minimize his target profile, scuttling backwards as best he can toward the trees again. Aden lopes forward into view, drops to one knee, and swings the Jiangshe into position, laying down suppressive fire as Ave drags the contact to her feet and shoves her toward the exit. A second loud boom from the sniper rifle, but the target isn't the prone gunman, it's someone else. Ave and the contact sprint past him, and, to their left, back along the rear of the park, three more figures are moving through the trees. There's a stuttering flash of muzzle blast, the snap and ping of rounds passing within a few inches of Aden's head. He drops back, switching fire to that end of the park; the clip empties and he yells "reloading," drops down with a quick snap of his wrist to eject, another clip slamming into the weapon. He's done this drill so many times it's second nature. The monster hears Ave firing now, covering him to reload and retreat. He's not sure if they've hit any of the other guys, but they haven't hit any of his people, so he considers that a win. Another two loud shots from Val, and Ave and Aden are bailing out back through the gate, sprinting along as fast as they can drag the girl. She's gasping for breath, terrified; they drag her toward the parking garage, the sound of autofire behind them. Ave grunts, stumbles, falls to his knees, then struggles up, pausing long enough to fire back. Aden reaches the garage entrance, slings the girl through, and charges back to grab Ave by the shoulder. One of the shooters peeks out too far, and Val takes his head off; that convinces the rest of them to get back, and Ave and Aden rush in behind the girl.

"You okay?" Aden barks at Ave as they run up the ramp toward the shooting position where Val is waiting by the van.

Ave nods, checking behind them. "Vest caught it."

"Let me go!" the girl screams, trying to pull away from them.

Aden slams her against a support pylon, pulls her face to look at him. "We are on your side. Valentina sent us in to get you."

Her eyes widen at the name. "She is okay?"

Aden nods, then pulls her into motion again. The three of them run up the last ramp, turning the corner to see Val has the back of the van open, tossing the sniper rifle in. As soon as she sees Val, the girl yells joyously, running forward to her and throwing her arms around the limping gunwoman.

The monster screams in his ears, and Aden spins in place, dropping to his knees and firing instantly at a figure stepping out from behind a nearby parked car. A heavy-set bearded older man falls to the ground, two rounds in his chest. Val pulls her contact down and away, pushing her into the car; Aden doesn't catch what she says, but the girl listens obediently. Val tosses Ave the keys as Aden rushes over to the downed man. When he gets there, he can see the man trying to catch his breath, rolling to reach for the pistol he's dropped. The monster crows in glee; the pistol ends up in Aden's hand. He doesn't give the man a chance to say anything. If either Val or Ave have anything to say about the execution, they aren't saying it now. He jumps into the back of the van, and Ave spins out getting the vehicle down the ramp as fast as possible. The girl is practically cuddled up in Val's lap, tears of joy streaming down her face, chattering in Polish, something about thinking Val was dead. Val holds her tight, kissing her cheek, stroking her short black hair, wiping running mascara from the girl's cheeks. Neither Ave nor Aden feels much like asking questions; they're pretty quiet all the way to the airport. A half-hour later, the four of them are bundled into a small Cessna four-seater, the cabin quiet as they wing their way out of Ukranian airspace. It's only when they have reached the ground safely that they say their mutual goodbyes, Val taking the contact with her as Ave and Aden break down the gear, destroying any evidence they can find and separating to head for home. On the civilian passenger flight home from Paris, he finally has the time to call his girl.