Truth Be Told (closed)

[zydrate]

"Damnit...that's just it, they almost got to you!" She had said in a hushed whisper as she pushed him back to the nearest wall... hopefully hard enough to get his attention, "Let the agency take care of this. You have a wife in there that needs you right now."

She knew it was like talking to a wall so Nicole took a step back, "Let me deal with them, OK? You just take your wife away from all this."

Nicole knew he wouldn't listen because once he had something in mind, he went for it. That's what made him so damn good at his job.

 

[BeachBum25]

"You need to take care of her. Take her somewhere. Don't let me know where it is. Let her get better. Leave me a code for where you are on my secure email, but don't leave it there until you are sure that both of you are safe. Let her know that this is my last mission. I am getting out for her."

He turned and walked out. He was immediately on his cell phone to every source he had. He was going to find out who did that to Jessica, and they would die..... painfully. Then, he would retire somewhere far away with his wife.

 

[zydrate]

Nicole watched Paul walk off. She only shook her head and sighed.

Damnit, she hated being out on sick leave. Lately she seemed to get stuck with a lot of mundane jobs...like baby-sitting... let alone baby-sitting his wife again.

She started to make a few calls of her own as she tried to find someplace to take his wife and keep her safe.

****
It wasn't until a few days later that Nicole and Jessica were in a car, driving to the main airport in Albuquerque. From there, she would get her to a safe house in Mexico City.

Jessica had hardly spoken to Nicole during their time together. She had assured Nicole it wasn't her..it was just the fact that Paul had left her..he hadn't even said goodbye or anything. Nicole had explained that it was like this sometimes. Frankly, Nicole was tired of the other woman's sulking and just ignored. She needed to get her out of the country fast!

 

[BeachBum25]

Crozier called in every favor that was owed to him, and that was quite a few. He had decided to empty his favor account. As far as he was concerned, this was going to be his last mission..... live or die.

Intel started to come in that led him to believe that the hit had been ordered from somewhere in the Middle East. At first, the information was vague, but he put pressure on the people... "you owe me, and I am calling in the debt. Get me good information... or else."

He finally found out that it had originated with a warlord from Iraq who was now, temporarily, living in Dubai. He had a ton of money, and was willing to spend it to get power in Iraq. He held a grudge against Crozier, because somehow he found out that Crozier had eliminated his brother when he had tried to attain all the power in Iraq.

After finding out who was on the team that was responsible for Jessica getting shot, he hunted them down, and eliminated them... very painfully.... one at a time... extracting information from each of them before putting them out of their misery.

Once that was completed, it was time to head to Dubai. He had some contacts there, and those contacts were not fans of the warlord. They would hide him and provide him with resources necessary to finish the job.

 

[zydrate]

"New Shipment direct from Mexico City!"

That was the headline of the email Nicole had sent to Paul after she and Jessica arrived in Mexico City. Instead of the usual safe house that was assigned by the agency, Nicole took a detour to a small village just outside the city and checked them both into a local hotel.

She knew they would be there a while and of course, she wouldn't stay in one place for long. Instead, Nicole had decided that in a few days, if she still hadn't heard from Paul, she would move Jessica to a different place.

And she would keep doing that, of course, not staying in Mexico..perhaps next she would go to the Bahamas...and then after that, Alaska... all until one of two things happened... Paul would get back to her or, she would hear about his death...

 

[BeachBum25]

He had to make sure that the plans were perfect. He had to do this right, and there were many layers to work through.

His resources provided him with information on the security around the warlord. Crozier started to make plans. He also started to recruit resources from around the world. He had the best resources money could buy, and he was planning on using them to make sure his wife was safe.

 

[zydrate]

There was little to no Intel on what Paul was up to. He hadn't answered his messages nor acknowledged anything Nicole had sent. The grapevine had been her best bet to find out what was going on.

What ever he was up to...well, it was going to be big.

Jessica was getting better day by day. Her wound was healing nicely, she was moving around without the crutches, so that made it easier to move when they had to. She even seemed to open up more to Nicole, and that was a good thing....? Sure, it was good. It meant Jessica was starting to trust Nicole.

They had moved on from Mexico City onto to Wellington NZ... Nicole had tried to stay in places where the weather was pretty decent during their stay...just in case they needed to get moving for any reason.

One evening, Nicole was looking at the local paper when a sound caught her attention. Her gun. She always had her gun on her and so she readied it and remained quiet as possible. Someone was in the house. Jessica had gone to bed earlier and Nicole had checked on her.

 

[BeachBum25]

He had decided that he was going to take out the entire group associated with the warlord. It was going to be big, and it was going to be amazing. It would be on the news around the world. He would be sorry for who he fucked with and for who his goons shot.

Paul made sure that the people he was using were beyond reproach. They were the most trustworthy people he knew in the business. The intel he was getting had Paul feeling very optimistic. The warlord never left the building. This was perfect.

The explosives were planted carefully. They were placed where they would take out the floors of the building occupied by the warlord and his followers. It was going to be a hell of an explosion. It was a shame he was going to miss it. There was no way he could be in country when the explosives were detonated. He boarded a plane, knowing that the mission would be accomplished before he landed.

 

[zydrate]

At small café in Rio De Janeiro, Nicole was dressed like one of the locals…she had dyed her red hair to black and sipped on a cup of coffee. She had recently been in contact with Paul and told him to meet her there.

He was already late and that worried Nicole, but she was careful not to show it.

So, she continued to wait….and then when she was going to give up, he took a seat across from her. Nicole spoke first, “That was a hell of a show you put on.” She said, and looked at him but it wasn’t for an answer, “I take it you’re out now…”

The waitress brought Nicole a refill on her drink and Nicole thanked her in Porteguese… her dialect was perfect.

“I also take it you think you’re going to just walk away, aren’t you?” Nicole sighed and shook her head, “You know I can’t let that happen, right? That’s how it works, Paul.”

The tone in Nicole’s voice changed, as did her demeanor. Yeah, this wasn’t how someone just left the agency. It was all a set up…a set up two years in the making and Nicole had been a key player... she hated to have to do it this way but when he couldn’t stop talking about his wife, she knew something had to be done. So, she brought the suggestion up to the higher ups and had gotten the OK to start and push things forward.

First thing was first… his wife.

“Don’t worry, your wife is safe.” With a nod, four other men showed up and Nicole gave Paul a nod, “You know what’s next Paul… don’t make a scene. Your wife’s safety depends on it.” She stood up and the men helped Paul up, “Let’s go.” She walked toward some SUVs parked near the side of the building.

 

[BeachBum25]

As soon as he sat down, Crozier knew something was up. He could see it in Nicole's eyes. She didn't make eye contact with him. She was looking at something, or someone... probably several someones, behind him.

"Really Nicole? You orchestrated this, didn't you?"

The only thing that kept Paul from putting up a fight was the mention of his wife. He felt confident he would be able to maneuver away from them, including Nicole, but he had no idea where his wife was, or what would happen to her.

As the walked to the SUV, he told all of them, in a voice that he was certain Nicole could hear, "you will all pay for this. Trust me. You have no idea who you are fucking with. You let her lead you into something that will cost you dearly."

He got into the SUV without resisting, and sat there stonefaced.

 

[zydrate]

As they got in, she heard him say that she was the one who arranged all this, "Moi?!" Nicole exclaimed in a mockingly shocked tone. "No, no...I had nothing to do with this. It's orders...you know how that goes Crozier. It's part of the job, you should know that by now." The vehicle started off for the warehouse near the docks.

Deep down, Nicole knew how he felt, but this was their life working for the agency and the dangers associated with it. No one got out alive, he knew that.

They were heading to a warehouse by the docks. It was abandoned so no one would bother them there. As for his wife, she would be eliminated shortly after him. Nicole had orders for Jessica to watch as they executed her husband right in front of her. But really, it would be more fun seeing Paul watch as they finished his wife off in front of him...

"Trust me, it could have been easier to just kill you in the beginning but well...this whole elaborate set up was so that you could take care of some other 'problems' on your own for us."

 

[BeachBum25]

Crozier listened to Nicole talk. He hoped that her talking would provide him with info that he could use. There was no doubt in his mind he would have been able to get away from them if he knew where his wife was being held. He had to be patient.

"You are full of shit Nicole. You had everything to do with this. In fact, it is probably all your plan and you provided the plan to the suits. You know you couldn't have taken me out without having an angle. That is why you were willing to help find my wife."

He hoped that by taking shots at her that she would reveal more about her plan, and about where his wife was being held.

 

[zydrate]

“Think what you want Paul, I don’t have to explain shit to you,” she shrugged and grabbed her weapon from the middle compartment of the SUV. “I know how you work, you were the one who trained me, remember?” She shook her head and sighed, “All those times having to sit and listen to you talk about your wife were the hardest…the hardest for me because you could have just left the bitch and none of this would have happened...maybe.”

“Anyway, my patience has ruin thin, Paul. You can try to keep up taunts or just shut up and wait to die.”

They rode in silence for the next 25 minutes and Nicole could feel the anger emanating from him, but that wasn’t her problem right now. Once they reached the warehouse, Nicole had the other guys usher him out, making sure he was in plain sight all that time and didn’t try anything stupid. She led him to a plastic sheet which was laying on the ground and pushed Paul to the middle of it, “Don’t think I’m a total bitch, Paul, I did bring someone to say goodbye to you.”

From another SUV, someone dragged out Jessica, whose hands were bound in front of her and a hood over her head. They dragged her closer and yanked the hood off of her and that’s when she finally was able to see Paul in front of her and Jessica tried to get out of their gasp.

“So Paul, I’ll give you one last request. Who goes first? You or your wife?”

 

[BeachBum25]

Yes, he had trained her, but Nicole didn't always listen to what she was instructed to do. One of the things she was told was that a detainee should never be left unrestrained. Nicole was so confident in having the numbers advantage that she had never made sure that her goons cuffed or ziptied him. He remained silent during the remainder of the trip. All the time trying to formulate a plan in his head of how to get out of this situation.

Crozier was more surprised that he remained unrestrained once they emerged from the SUV. When he saw the plastic on the floor, he knew what it was for. He remembered using the plastic in his early years... before he carried out hits from longer distances and didn't have to worry about cleaning up any mess.

As he moved onto the plastic, he took notice of the location of every one of the members of the goon squad and where they had their weapons holstered. He saw which ones had shoulder holsters...... which ones carried on their right hip.... which ones carried on their left hip, and then there was the moron who had it in the back of his waistband. There were also two who were carrying AR 15s under their jackets.

He saw his wife emerge from the other SUV. He wasn't surprised by this tactic. They wanted him to not just know, but see, that they were both going to die. He feigned stepping closer to his wife, but what he was really doing was stepping closer to one of the men with an AR 15. They guy didn't move... didin't even keep the distance between them.... big mistake. Crozier had his Glock before anyone knew what happened. He was the first one to go down and Paul went for his AR 15... ripping the strap over the dead guys head.

 

[zydrate]

All hell broke loose!

Nicole, for her part, kept a cool head and silently cursed that she was working with complete idiots. Quickly ducking behind one of the SUVs, she readied her weapon, calling out, "You're so fucking dead Crozier!!" She yelled as she took a chance and fired a few shots blindly toward his direction.

The other agents, for their part, were holding their own but Nicole knew that they were good as dead because even she had to admit that Paul was good...

There was no time to go over mistakes in her head, what she needed was to get out of this...no more following order from upstairs, she should have done this on her own in the first place... Suddenly, the shots stopped and that could either be good or bad...

 

[BeachBum25]

He was able to make quick work of the men Nicole had used. What was she thinking bringing such amateurs after him? Then, he started to look for Jessica. He wasn't sure if she had been hit in the action. He was concerned that Nicole would have made Jessica her first target.

"What next Nicole?" he shouted. "Your team is gone. That was a lame group you brought. I taught you better than that. Always have too many resources.... and good ones at that."

He was trying to get her talking. He wasn't sure where she was. He figured that if Jessica was still alive, she was with Nicole. However, he was afraid that Nicole had been caught in the middle. He laid on the ground and looked under the SUV. He could see Jessica's body laying on the ground. She wasn't moving.

"You are going to die bitch.... and it will be very fucking painful." he shouted to Nicole.

 

[zydrate]

'Yeah, you also told me to be quiet in situations like this..' Nicole thought as she moved behind the sound of Paul's voice. Sure, she found out afterward that she had been working with idiots, but hey, live and learn, that was the name of the game.

She risked a peak over one of the parked SUVs and saw him tend to his wife. FUCK! Nicole knew she should have killed her first in front of Paul. That would have been fun...

Taking that chance he was preoccupied, Nicole walked up behind Paul but stayed a few feet from him, letting the sound of her gun cocking to get his attention, "You should know better than to threaten me Paul.."

During all this, Jessica slowly started to wake up. The last thing she remembered was seeing Paul surrounded by men and standing on plastic and then everything went crazy from there. She had tried to help by grabbing and biting at one of the men that had held her but she was quickly stopped with a hard blow to the side of the head and had blacked out. Now though... she was waking up and heard the talk between Paul and Nicole.

It was a standoff both Nicole and Paul had their guns pointed at each other. Jessica opened one eye and saw a gun near her...one of the agents guns and she slowly reached for it... so this was why Paul had taught her to shoot and handle guns.

The next thing happened so fast that Jessica didn't have time to think as she blindly fired at Nicole and then another few shots sounded but she had looked away, keeping her eyes closed. The next thing a pair of hands grabbed her and Jessica couldn't help but scream until she heard Paul's voice telling her it was OK and she couldn't help but wrap her arms around him and hold him close. That's when she saw Nicole's body on the ground, two shots to the head and one to the shoulder...

Jessica pulled away from Paul and looked at him, before hugging him again.

 

[BeachBum25]

He carried Jessica to one of the bullet riddled SUVs and off they went. He didn't know where they would go; there was no way that they could stay under the radar. The higher-ups would pull out all of the stops.

He would need some help. he had used up a lot of the debts that were owed to him. He would probably have to ask a few favors and go into debt to those who had just paid their debts to him. It would be worth it.

 

[zydrate]

In the SUV, things were quiet and tense. Jessica didn’t like it.

She bit her lip before looking over at Paul, her voice was quiet, “It’s not over is it?”

Where they were going, she wasn’t sure. They were in Rio and she had no contacts and she wasn’t sure about Paul. He seemed preoccupied, that was for sure. And who was to blame him? She had to think. She had to help her husband get out of this. For some reason, she felt like this was all her fault…

“OK… Nicole talked about a bank account she had set aside…” she said, breaking the silence, “I only know because she started to talk a lot in the end. She also talked about a safe house in the Cayman…” So what if she talked about all this, what good would it do them? "I'm sorry, I'm just--lost, I guess."

 

[BeachBum25]

"We are on our own. I have a few contacts that will, perhaps, give us some aid, but I will owe them. I called in all of my favors in an effort to pay people back for what was done to you."

He then drove for a long time without saying anything. After finding a mobile phone store, he purchased a burner phone, and drove to a secluded roadside rest stop. He made several phone calls in an effort to elicit some help.

From the first call he made it was evident that his help would need to come from overseas. All of his local contacts were afraid. Little did they know, it was him they should be afraid of.

After one particularly productive phone call, he turned to Jessica, "we are going to be driving for a while. We are going to need to dump this SUV and get another car. I have a credit card that nobody knows about, so, they won't be able to trace it. We will rent something economical, so, we won't have to stop much. We will get some food when we get the car. Once we get to our destination, we will be getting on a plane and going away."

 

[zydrate]

Jessica watched Paul work. There wasn't much else for her to do except wait for him to do what he thought best for them both.

As they drove, Jessica fell asleep only to wake up when the car stopped at what she assumed was the next leg in their...trip and that was the flight. Where were they going? She wasn't sure...Jessica hadn't said much to Paul, only because she figured he was dealing with what he had to.

She was sure there was still a lot to do and deep down she couldn't help but feel this was all her fault...the way things turned out. But she pushed that thought aside...no, this wasn't anyone's fault. It was what happened and now, they had to deal with it the best they could. And that meant Jessica needed to help out Paul as much as she could.

 

[BeachBum25]

The private jet was waiting for them. It was fueled and ready to go. Once they were airborne, he decided it was okay to tell her where they were going.

"Jessica, I am not sure what is going on, but we had to leave. We are going to Dubai for a while until I can figure all of this out. One of my contacts has a place on Palm Island. we will be safe there.... for a while"

Paul sat back and wondered what was next. He had no idea. He wasn't convinced that it would be possible for him to survive this. His current plan, which he would not share with Jessica, was to leave her in Dubai, and go after those who had ordered his death. A mission which he knew was suicidal.

 

[zydrate]

Jessica had a feeling her husband wasn't telling her the whole story....or perhaps she was only feeling that way because of how much she'd felt so betrayed lately. She only nodded and didn't question him. He had mentioned Dubai, a place she had never been before...that would be interesting, she thought.

It bothered her that she had been watched all this time by the people Paul had worked for. She had thought she hid pretty well but that wasn't the case. That was all in the past though...she could kick herself for not dealing with Paul's occupation before instead of running away then perhaps they wouldn't be in the mess they were in.

"You're not telling me everything..." she said. It wasn't a question or a need for more because she knew he only wanted to keep her safe. Standing from her seat she walked over to Paul and sat on his lap, wrapped her arms around him and rested her head on his shoulder, "...it's going to be OK..." she told him in a whisper.

 

[BeachBum25]

He placed his hands on her hips. He had no idea what was going to happen between them. All he wanted to do was make sure that nothing happened to her.

The flight was uneventful, but long. After Jessica put her head down in him, he relaxed. Actually, he relaxed enough to fall asleep. It was a good thing that he did. Paul didn't want to have to deal with the effects of jet lag when they landed. He was going to have to meet with some people, and make plans for keeping Jessica alive and make sure she was taken care of should something happen to him.

 

[zydrate]

Paul had left Jessica in a luxurious hotel room. She had no idea what was going to happen next but she had a feeling that each minute spent with him was precious. After her nap, Jessica took a hot shower and ordered room service. She fell asleep watching some 80s movie...and Paul still hadn't returned.

The next morning, she woke up to a pair of arms wrapped around her, holding her close. She smiled and turned to drape her arm over Paul's chest as he slept. She closed her eyes again and fell back asleep...