Render - a Shadowboxer thriller chapter five
RENDER – CHAPTER FIVE
Brill sat in the passenger seat, hands on his lap under the
seatbelt. Bulldog drove with one hand, the other across his leg with his weapon
aimed at Brill.
It wouldn’t have bothered him, except that Bulldog did
indeed hate driving and he kept his finger on the trigger.
“Screw you, you sack of shit!” Bulldog screamed at another
driver.
“He can’t hear you,” Brill said.
“Oh he knows,” Bulldog snapped. “You do know, don’t you, you
son of a bitch!”
Brill had the feeling he wanted to lay on the horn, but didn’t
dare take the weapon off him.
Not that he could blame the man.
The seat between them was still slick with blood from the
driver. Bulldog had jerked him out of the driver’s seat and made Brill fold the
body into the back of the SUV. It got his black suit dark with blood, and Brill
almost had a shot at grabbing the knife again.
Bulldog stopped him and left the blade buried in the dead
man’s head.
He followed Brill to the front passenger seat and finagled
his hands under the belt instead of leaning across him again.
The gun never wavered.
“How far?”
“Too far by fucking much,” Bulldog muttered.
His eyes studied the road around them, cars whizzing around
the black SUV, like flies around a corpse.
“There!” Bulldog shouted in triumph.
He cranked the wheel and slammed on the brakes to hang a
right turn.
The back end got away from him and began to slide, as horns
blared and tires squealed.
Bulldog fought the giant vehicle under control and
straightened out on a long narrow road that cut across a field toward an area
of forest.
Brill let out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.
“You really suck at driving.”
Bulldog snorted out a laugh.
“Fucking drop me in the middle of a war zone and I’m aces.
Put me behind the wheel and I’m a wreck.”
He took a hand off the wheel and tried to wipe sweat off his
brow. The truck meandered toward a ditch on one side of the road. Bulldog
almost planted it on the other side with his overcorrection.
“Use both hands,” said Brill. “Better control.”
“Fuck that,” said Bulldog. “I’m not taking any chances with
you.”
Brill held three fingers up against his leg and tapped them
until the man driving looked at them.
“I won’t try anything in the car,” he said. “Scout’s honor.”
Bulldog laughed.
“You weren’t a fucking boy scout.”
“And you were?”
“I’m from New York City. We don’t drive and the only scouts
in my neighborhood were lookouts for drug dealers.”
“I was a boy scout,” said Brill. “Half a year in elementary
school. Guess that wasn’t in the file.”
Bulldog pulled the pistol back and rested it on his lap. He clicked
the safety on and moved the other hand up to the wheel.
Brill could see the tension in his shoulders melt down as he
relaxed a little.
Maybe he couldn’t control the big truck better with two
hands, but it felt like he could and that helped.
“It’s not far,” said Bulldog.
“What else was in the file?”
“Enough. I should have fucking known not to lean over you
like that.”
“You only did it once. Lesson learned.”
“They teach you that?”
Brill shrugged.
“That. A few more besides.”
“I told them transporting you was a three man job. They
listened on the grab. We even had a three man back up team on the road in case
you pulled a rabbit.”
“Smart.”
“You think? We got you good enough,” he glanced across the seat
toward the man. “That because you were in the afterglow of some sex shit.”
“Something like that,” Brill said. “I usually get a feeling
when I’m being watched.”
“Satellite uplink,” Bulldog pointed toward the sky and
grabbed the wheel again fast. “Technology is fucking amazing.”
Brill nodded.
“I thought I was off grid enough.”
“You would have been,” said Bulldog. “Someone saw your
picture in a magazine.”
Brill glanced at him.
“Background shit, but it triggered and the search got
started. It’s hard as hell to hide now. Gonna get harder to hide in the future.
No use fighting it.”
Brill filed that intel away. Glory must have snapped him
without him knowing, and it made it’s way back to the US.
That’s where they were, he knew. Somewhere in the south. He
could tell by the pine trees, and the land. The road markers back on the
highway weren’t helpful.
He never memorized highways on rural maps, but he put that
on a mental to do list.
The road reached the edge of the pine forest, and Brill saw
a fence set back from the trees by ten yards, wide enough for a HumVee track if
the ruts in the ground were any indication.
They drove through the trees for five hundred meters to a
clearing with a second fence.
A guard shack stood to one side, with an armed MP waiting
next to a fold down gate.
Bulldog pulled up to the man with an M-16 rifle held ready.
“You son of a bitch,” the guard grinned. “What the Hell are
you doing back here?”
“Delivery,” Bulldog nodded to Brill.
“Yeah,” the guard bent down and glanced over. “We’ve been
expecting him. Where’s the driver?”
“Killed him.”
“No shit? You or him?”
“Him,” said Bulldog. “I had no reason.”
The guard nodded and couldn’t help keep the impressed look
off his face.
“I’ll call ahead and get someone to clean the truck, get you
a new one. Unless you’re staying?”
“Hell no,” said Bulldog. “I’ve got another assignment. Can
you get me a driver?”
“You want to kill another one?”
“You know I hate fucking driving.”
The guard nodded and waved them through as he lifted the
barrier.
Bulldog drove another mile down a winding road.
Brill could see paths in the woods and the large compound
where the road ended.
He counted a dozen buildings, a shooting range, a helipad
and small narrow runway next to a giant warehouse. He wondered why they didn’t
land the plane there, but kept his mouth closed.
Bulldog pulled to a halt in front of the largest building.
He killed the engine and grabbed the pistol again.
“Welcome to Hell,” he said. “Get out.”
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SHADOWBOXER
SERIES
ASSET – a Brill
Winger Thriller
OPERATIVE – a Brill
Winger Thriller
SIDEWAYS – a Brill
Winger Thriller
CHOKEPOINT – a Brill
Winger Thriller
DECREED - a Brill
Winger Thriller
IN THE DARK – a Brill
Winger Thriller
TRUE
NATURE
DEEP
STATE
DISAVOWED
CREDIBLE
THREAT
Webb of Lies – An action
thriller
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