I Am The Storm (The Dominion Series book 2 )

CHAPTER ONE

The rain came down in sheets, obscuring us from their view.

No one would see or hear us.

Not before it was too late.

For them.

Navigating the fence was easy.

Long ago it might have been electrified, but today it wasn’t. Jonah cut the mesh and I held it back as our five-man team entered the factory compound.

The crumbling buildings and roads covered an area of more than two square miles. In times gone by, this would have been a loud, busy place. Now it was empty and abandoned.

The hard wind echoed in the empty buildings, creating a hollow, haunting cry. while the incessant deluge hammered on the tin roof of the lower building and dripped loudly from crumbling gutters onto broken concrete floors. All the buildings—but one—were dark and foreboding, their cavernous empty hallways dark as hollow eye sockets in a skull.

We hugged the shadows, moving stealthily from doorway to doorway. Sly took point, followed by Jonah, two more of Ebony’s crew and I made up the rear.

The lit building was up ahead to the right. Our destination was within its walls.

We had a date with some very bad people.

We shouldn’t be here.

With my father on our tail, we should lie low, but we figured life was short and we had a job to do. Our quest was never more real than now. The escalating violence between the fanatics on both fundamental sides cost more and more innocent people their lives and their livelihoods. Fundamental Christians targeted innocent Muslims and fanatical Muslims returned the favour. Like in every war, the greatest damage was collateral. Innocent people died. Not the zealots.

We couldn’t go after the Christian kingpins now we were in their crosshairs, so we turned our attention to the soldiers. More accurately, to the recruiters.

Ebony fed us with information on new endeavours the ever-creative recruiters were fabricating to gather as many lost souls as possible and turn them into killing machines.

We’d noticed a clear increase in recruitment over the past month. They needed new meat to sacrifice to the cause. The recruitment efforts were becoming more brazen and had moved from individual enrolment to mass events. The dark web was full of them. And that led us here, to an abandoned factory on this miserable night in the pouring rain.

Sly held up his hand and we dropped into a crouching position. There was movement up ahead.

It was too early for the would-be recruits. They had been told to come at midnight, now—two hours earlier—only the recruiters and their thugs were in the compound. You could debate whether the recruits were innocents, but maybe we weren’t too late to save some of them.

I could always hope.

We crouched in the shadow of a heavily damaged building. Bullet holes showed its most recent use as target practice. The windows and doors were broken, glass shards littered the floor and made it difficult for us to avoid cuts as we knelt on the debris.

Three shadows passed ten metres from us. They made no attempt to conceal themselves, secure in the knowledge that no one knew what they were up to. No one who shouldn’t be there.

Jonah glanced my way and looked mildly disappointed when I shook my head. Not yet, my big friend. Patience.

Two minutes after the men disappeared into the dark, we moved into the shadows behind the lit building. Sly took out a small camera on an extension and slipped it through a break in the windowpane. He scrutinised the image on the hand-held and shook his head. No one there. We continued along the side of the massive factory hall and slipped through a dark recess into the building where a few camping lights set out a path in the dark. Sly sent his companions onwards to circle the entrance while Jonah and I pushed further into the bowels of the ruins, following the trail of lights.

Seven people stood in the centre of the cleared area. One woman and six men. Heated words echoed in the empty space as the Asian woman and the man we identified as the leader argued over who would approach the recruits. The rest stood by silently, waiting for an outcome. Finally, the woman threw up her hands and stomped off back through the hall to the exit, followed by her adversary’s derogatory laughter.

My phone vibrated in my pocket, the agreed sign everyone was in position. We’d decided earlier to get in and out as quickly and quietly as possible. We would terminate the recruiters with minimal bloodshed and take their bodies with us to dispose of at a different location. The recruits had to come here and find an empty building without a sign of a struggle. One thing we did not want, was to make martyrs of the bad guys and push the recruits further into the Establishment’s arms. We figured the would-be soldiers would leave in disappointment, hopefully disillusioned. The woman leaving didn’t help. We would have to catch up with her later if she was still on the premises.

No loose ends.

The group dispersed, three moving to the opposite side of the clearing, one coming our way and the other two fanning out to the sides. I saw Jonah slink away after the man on the left, Sly tiger-crawled to where the guy on the right stood lighting a cigarette. That left me to take the one approaching, the would-be leader.

He was a tall man, rough looking, thin in a wiry manner. His cheekbones were pronounced with the skin stretched over what in this light looked almost like skeletal features. His frame was sinewy, but the manner in which he walked belied the first impression of a weak man. He wouldn’t be a push over.

He passed where I was hugged the shadows, completely unaware of my presence, his attention on his phone.

Again, I felt the vibration in my pocket. I counted to ten, the determined amount of time before we all sprang into action at once. On ten, I moved up behind him, my garrotte taunt between my hands. A muffled sound caused him to stop and turn his head towards the right. I saw his body tense and quickly slid the thin piano wire over his head and pulled back. His body fell back onto me, unbalanced by the suddenness of the attack, his hands pulling at the thin wire that cut off his oxygen. I pulled harder as he scrambled to get his footing and, in a reflex, tried to grab me. I sidestepped, holding on to the handles and pulled even harder. The gurgling sound he made resonated in the quite building and seemed like a shout. In reality it was a whisper as the life ebbed out of him.

He stopped struggling and I gave another hard yank on the garrotte, breaking his neck with the sudden change in direction. He was dead.

I pulled the corpse out of the path of lights into the darkness.

To both sides of me I heard the soft sounds of something heavy being dragged over the concrete floor.

Three vibrations indicated my companions inside had taken care of their targets. Four additional answering vibrations filled the quota. Only the woman left.

We waited in absolute silence. Straining our ears to hear any sound. Nothing.

I picked up the body, threw him over my shoulder and started down the building, avoiding the lights, but following that general direction out into the open air of the night. Jonah joined me and I could only just make out Sly in the dark distance, we were making our way to the vehicles the recruiters had arrived in. The others were already there.

The bodies were unceremoniously dumped in the back of the cars.

There was no sign of the woman. We assumed she had left.

I felt relived. There was still some part of me that was reluctant to harm a woman, even if she was the enemy.

Sly and the others each took a car and left the compound. Jonah and I made our way back to the hole in the fence. Our own vehicles were located two blocks from the fence and needed to be retrieved.

‘That went well,’ Jonah commented.

I nodded. It had been a quick mission. One that the Establishment would feel. They lost six of their recruiters and a large number of would-be recruits in one sweep. It would be a blow. We had no doubt they would know who was responsible. It was too much of a coincidence after my father’s visit.

Jonah crawled through the fence and stood upright making room for me to struggle through the small opening. Bending my knees, I ducked my head and held the wire to the side.

A sharp pain in the centre of my back and a second in my side pushed the breath out of me as I stumbled through the fence and fell at Jonah’s feet. He was already pushing back through the mesh to confront a man brandishing the bloody knife I’d felt. Jonah rushed him—oblivious of the weapon—and tackled him to the ground. They rolled in the slick mud, both trying to get the upper hand. Jonah held onto the attacker’s wrists, twisting viciously in an attempt to dislodge the knife. But the man was strong and pushed back.

I struggled to my feet, blood gushing from the deep wounds the hunting knife had inflicted.

I was almost upright when another figure brandishing a machete came out of the dark behind the fighters.

The Asian woman we had seen earlier raised the big weapon above her head, aiming for the big man’s neck as he struggled with her companion. I dove back through the hole, rolled on the ground and jumped up behind her. With one hand on her neck and the other on her head, I quickly snapped her neck.

Her companion wasn’t faring any better. Jonah let go of his wrist and chopped into the upper arm holding the knife. A loud crack announced another broken bone. Jonah caught the knife before it hit the ground and in one fluid movement brought it up in between the man’s ribs, effectively stopping his heart.

We looked around, all senses attuned to any sounds of more unexpected company, both breathing heavily.

I was badly shaken. My hearts beat rapidly and out of sync, pushing massive amounts of adrenaline through my veins.

We scanned the area, our backs to each other in defence.

‘No one,’ Jonah whispered.

‘Let’s get out of here.’

‘Hell, yeah.’

We shuffled towards the hole in the fence, one stood guard while the other slipped through. I figured we were far enough away from where the recruits would be, so we left the bodies. We made our way to the vehicles and drove off into the darkness.

My pulses were still raging.

I berated myself.

Our complacency almost got us killed.

CHAPTER TWO

‘So how did they find you?’ I asked Jonah.

He glanced at me, his eyes dark and unfathomable. ‘Not important,’ he declared and went back to unpacking his duffel bag.

‘It is actually,’ I countered. ‘We need to know, so we can avoid making the same mistake again’

He stood up straight and gave me his best intimidating stare. Under normal circumstances, it would unnerve even the strongest of men. Me, I was used to it. It didn’t have any more effect on me than mild amusement. After all our months together, surely he didn’t think it still worked?

‘Where did they grab you?’ I tried a different avenue.

His stare continued. I returned it with a smile.

‘You’re not going to give up on this, are you?’ he asked. I shook my head.

‘At the beach,’ he answered sullenly, turning back to his bag.

I waited. There were loads of questions I could have asked, but he knew them already. It was a waiting game now.

He finally finished unpacking and moved to the living room of his new apartment. I followed and walked to the kitchen, taking the groceries we’d picked up on the way here.

San Diego was nice. The town had a distinctive Mexican vibe, and it was more laid-back than San Francisco or L.A. The few people we’d met up to now seemed friendly. More open. Jonah had definitely already made an impact on the ladies in the apartment complex. With his big frame, powerful aura, and the mischievous glint in his eyes, he was undoubtably already the topic of pool-side conversations.

We thought it prudent to move him to a new location after the debacle in San Francisco. We weren’t sure whether his previous address had been compromised, but we couldn’t take the risk. There were too many people hunting him. I had to stay put in the Golden Gate City, my job at the mosque wasn’t done yet. San Diego was Ebony’s suggestion. Far enough from Frisco and on the beach somewhere.

I wanted to know how my brother Michael found my partner.

Jonah poured two mugs of coffee from the ever-present coffeemaker and handed me one. We made ourselves comfortable in the lounge chairs and sipped the black gold.

‘I was surfing,’ Jonah finally divulged. ‘At twilight. The beach always emptied around six and I figured I would be inconspicuous then.’

I looked at him in surprise, my eyebrows raised. Inconspicuous? How in hell did he think he could ever be anything close to low-key? He wasn’t built for it.

‘Let’s face it Jonah,’ I answered him. ‘You will stand out wherever you are.’

He smiled and cocked his head. ‘You know what I mean.’

I did, but a bit of banter lightened the mood.

‘Anyway,’ he continued. ‘They were waiting for me when I walked back over the beach. Two of them approached me from the side, one in front and another came up behind me. They boxed me in.’

‘Did you recognise them at all?’

‘No. Never seen them before. Though I did pinpoint them as your people.’ There was a slight reproach in his tone. I let it go—for now.

‘They made it clear they would take me, voluntarily or not. There were still a few people around and I didn’t want anyone to get hurt, so I complied, and they took me to a van in the parking lot. They made me get in the back, and that was where I saw Michael.’ The hatred was back in his hard glare. Well, I had the same sentiment for my sibling. No discussion there.

‘I was about to wipe the smile off his face when everything went black.’

I thought about it for a few minutes. Michael must have known where to look. It couldn’t have been a chance encounter. That would be too much of a coincidence. There was more. There had to be.

‘How did he know where to find you?’ I asked in general, not expecting an answer.

‘How the hell would I know?’ Jonah avoided my gaze. ‘Maybe it was just a case of being in the right place at the right time.’

I cocked my head and observed my partner. The question had been a rhetorical one, no more than me thinking out loud. Why had he taken it so personally?

‘I don’t believe in coincidence,’ I continued, eager to find out what he was hiding.

He glared at me. My answering smile didn’t help to improve his mood.

‘What are you implying?’ He spat out the words. ‘That it was my fault?’

‘I’m not implying anything.’

I continued to observe his fidgeting. He stood up and walked back to the kitchen to replenish his coffee. He stayed there, his back to the kitchen counter. The big man felt my eyes on him and looked up. There was a mixture of anger and self-reproach in his features. I waited him out.

‘I just went surfing,’ he finally broke the silence.

‘How often did you do that?’

‘Few times a week. Always in the evening and on quiet beaches.’

‘Was there a pattern? To your visits?’

He shook his head and took another sip.

‘Was there anything different that day?’

‘No. Nothing. Look Gabe, I’ve been racking my brain trying to find out how they found me. I have no idea.’

I nodded. Aggravating him further wouldn’t get answers. We would have to approach the conundrum in a different manner.

‘Okay,’ I said in a more conciliatory tone. ‘Let’s back-track and see if we can find any clues.’

He moved back to the living room and sat down opposite me.

‘We have to assume they were staking out the beach,’ I began. Jonah nodded.

‘There are loads of beaches. Was there anything special about this one that made you go there?’

‘Just the peace and quiet. The waves are okay, not as good as in other places. But it’s almost deserted. I thought that would be safe.’

‘You’d think. Right?’

I peered into my coffee cup. Nope. No answers there either. There was something nagging at the back of my mind.

‘I know we can’t hide your size, but I thought with all the changes, it would be difficult to recognise you,’ I mused.

He nodded as well.

‘Yeah. My own mother wouldn’t recognise me clean-shaven with this blond hair,’ he laughed.

‘Not to mention with the tats gone,’ I added.

The atmosphere in the room changed immediately. I looked up at him. His brow was creased, the eyes hooded. What had I said? I rewound the last thirty seconds. The tatts. Could that be what had such an impact?

The nagging voice slowly made its way to my consciousness to form the question I didn’t really want to ask. ‘When you surf,’ I asked. ‘You wear the wetsuit, right?’ The wetsuit covered the tattoos.'