Special Agent Rebecca Rogers gets kidnapped by Special Agent Kenneth Aida's old nemesis.
The Ick Files II
part 1
Special Agent Kenneth Aida walked into Alexandria General Hospital that early afternoon and entered room 413, pushing a wheelchair in front of him. His partner, Special Agent Rebecca Rogers, sat up in her hospital bed, brushed red hair behind her ears, and smiled at him.
“Where have you been, partner?” she asked him. “I haven’t seen you since the day I woke up from my surgery. And that was almost a week ago.”
“I know. I just wanted to make sure you got the undisturbed rest you needed while you healed.”
“Well, I’m all better now. The docs say I can go home.”
“So I heard. Your chariot awaits, ma’dam.” He gestured to the wheelchair.
Rogers chuckled and got up from bed. “Let me get dressed first. This hospital gown lets in an awful draft.”
She walked to the restroom. When she came out, she had her black skirt suit on. Then she walked over to Aida and sat down in the wheelchair.
“What? No kiss?” Aida said, disappointed.
“Kiss?” Rogers asked, confused. “Why would I kiss you?”
Aida’s eyes widened in surprise. “HUH? Well, the other day, you kissed me.”
Rogers blinked. “I did?”
“Yeah. And, oh, what a kiss it was! And you didn’t just kiss me like that once. And you even said you’d dance for me, too.”
“I did WHAT?!”
“You mean…you won’t dance for me, Becky?”
“Hell no, I won’t! And don’t call me Becky!”
Aida looked at her in confusion. “I…I don’t get it…The other day…”
“The other day I was doped up on pain killers, Aida. Don’t believe everything I said or did.”
Aida fought back the urge to cry. He didn’t believe that. True, she probably had been doped up and probably didn’t realize all that she was saying or doing that day. But that kiss…. He was certain the feelings behind it were true . She just probably didn’t realize she had them or didn’t want to admit to them. And he was determined to get her to acknowledge them and act on them without the help of drugs. Because her kiss had awakened in him feelings for her akin to what he had sensed in her kiss. He’d arranged for the doctors to keep her longer than a couple of days, and then stayed away from her was so that he could think – think about those feelings and what they meant. He wanted so much to kiss her as she had him and to tell her – tell her how much he cared for her, and how much he wanted their partnership to span more than just work…To tell that he needed her. That he loved her. Oh, God, how he loved her! And he had been ready to tell her all of that, too, when he picked her up from the hospital. But now, she didn’t even remember the kiss. Nor did she remember that she’d said he could call her “Becky”. So, he determined to do whatever he had to to get her to realize her feelings for him so that he could tell her how he felt.
“Yeah, sure, whatever, Rebecca,” Aida just said. “Let’s go, then.”
Rogers heard how laden with disappointment his tone was, and a pang of…guilt?…shot through her. “Why do I feel guilty all of a sudden?” she thought. “And what is this other feeling I have?” She shook the feelings off. “Let’s go home, Kenneth,” she said, almost sadly.
“Well, at least she remembers to call me Kenneth,” Aida thought. “And that we’re still partners.”
Aida wheeled her from her hospital room, took her through the dischargement process, and wheeled her out of the hospital. He helped her into his red Mustang convertible, then climbed in behind the wheel. With a turn of the key, the engine roared to life. He put the car in gear, and stepped on the gas. The car took off, out of the parking lot and down the road, on the way back to Washington, D.C.
A security guard at the hospital watched them leave, then pulled out a cell phone. He dialed a number.
“Sir,” he said to the man who answered. “Aida and his partner have left the hospital and are on their way back to D.C.”
“Good,” came the reply. “Follow them. In the meantime, I’ll have a surprise waiting for them. Wait for orders before you act, though, Malcolm. Just follow and watch.”
The bikini-clad blonde girl at the bar looked out at the club. “Angela!” she called. “Phone!”
The black-haired, bikini-clad waitress taking orders at a table looked over at the bar. “Coming!” she called back. She finished taking orders and walked to the bar. She took the phone. “Yes? This is Angela. Oh! Yes, sir? Uh-huh. Right. I understand.” She hung up. “Jenny,” she said to the blonde girl. “cover for me. I’ve got to go.”
Angela then grabbed a coat from behind the bar and slipped it on, then left the club.
Aida took his eyes from the road and looked over at his partner. She just sat there, staring at the passing scenery.
“Are you all right, Rebecca?” he asked, concerned.
“I’m fine, Kenneth,” Rogers replied sullenly.
“Are you sure? You haven’t said a word since we left the hospital. Not even to make a crack about my driving.”
“I’m okay. I’m just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Oh, a lot of things. Mainly about how much things have changed in such a short period of time.”
“Really? How so?”
“Well, for one, I almost died. That tends to put a lot of things in perspective.”
“I imagine it does. What else?”
“Well, the biggest change is you. I’ve never had a partner before. Not by choice, like with you. With me, it was because no one wanted to be my partner. They didn’t think I was fun enough, I guess. I was always more concerned with doing my job than socializing with them. I guess they thought I was a stuck-up snob or something, and didn’t want to have anything to do with me. So I ended up working alone. I had no friends, and no partner. And then I got the call that I was to be partnered with you on the stolen nuclear warheads case. And now, here I am. Your permanent partner.”
“Having a partner’s quite a change for me, too, Rebecca. But I wouldn’t want anyone else. And I don’t think you’re a snob. I think you’re a beautiful woman who knows how important her job is and is dedicated to doing it right. That’s what makes you a good agent. And it’s one of the things I love about you.”
Her head turned sharply to look at him after that last sentence, but he was looking at the road as if he’d said nothing at all.
It was early evening when they arrived back in D.C. Aida pulled up to an apartment building. He got out of the car and walked around to open the door for Rogers. He walked her inside and up to her room on the third floor.
“Home sweet home,” he said as she draged her key from her pocket and unlocked her door and opened it.
“Yeah. Thanks for everything, Kenneth.”
“You’re welcome, Rebecca. And if you need me for anything – anything at all – just come to my place. My number and address are in the phone book. You don’t even have to call. You’re welcome to just drop by. It’s not even that far, actually. Just a couple of blocks over.”
“Thanks. I’ll remember that.” She walked inside her apartment. “Good night, Kenneth,” she said, and gave him a small smile.
Rogers leaned against her door and listened to Aida leave. She couldn’t stop thinking about him and about all that he’d said that day. She thought about what he’d said at the hospital and the sad tone to his voice when she’d said she didn’t remember the kiss or the promise of a dance. She rememered the guilt she felt then. And she especially thought about what he told her in the car: that he didn’t want anyone else for a partner and that her dedication to her job was just one of the things he loved about her. Not just liked. Loved.
“Is it possible…” she thought. “Is it possible that he…that he’s fallen for me?” She remembered the warm smile he’d given her, and a similar smile formed on her lips. “And I for him? I…I think maybe…” Then a memory flashed in her mind. The memory of a long, passionate kiss in a hospital room…
She ran to her phone book, flipped a few pages, found the address, ran back to her door, opened it, and ran out.
Aida just sat in his Mustang for a while, parked in front of his apartment building. Finally, he got out and went inside. He walked up to his second floor apartment. He was putting his key in the lock when a woman called out to him.
He turned. “Angela!” he said as the strip club waitress walked out of the shadows and up to him.
“Kenneth,” she said. “Welcome home.”
She kissed him deeply. As she held the kiss, her hand slipped inside her coat pocket and wrapped around a knife handle.
Rogers ran back into her apartment building and slammed the door shut. She leaned back against it and cried heavily. “I should have known better,” she said to herself. “He doesn’t love me. He still loves HER.”
A knocking sounded at her door.
“Rebecca!” Aida called. “Let me in, please! I need to talk to you!”
“Go away, you hypocrite!”
“Rebecca, please! Listen to me! I told you before, Angela’s just a friend!”
“Friends don’t kiss each other like that!”
“She kissed ME! It didn’t mean anything! I don’t care for Angela like I do you! I love YOU!”
Rogers gasped. Slowly, she turned around and opened the door. “What did you say?” she asked.
“I…That I love you, Rebecca. I have ever since you made your first smartaleck remark about my driving. You’re the only woman for me, Rebecca.”
Rogers was crying again. Slowly, she smiled. “Oh, Kenneth. I…I love you, too.” Then she threw her arms around him and kissed him – just as she had at the hospital.
Aida’s arms went around her and he lifted her off the floor. As they kissed, he walked her inside the apartment and shut the door behind them.
Rogers awoke in bed. Aida lay beside her, sleeping deeply and peacefully. She smiled at him and gently kissed him, then crawled out of bed. She threw a housecoat on over her naked body and walked towards the kitchen for a glass of water. Before she could get there, there was a small knock at her door. She answered it, and was immediately knocked over the head. She passed out into the arms of a man waiting beside her door. Another man reached around and taped a note to the side of the door facing the room. Then they shut the door and left, carrying Rogers with them.
Aida awoke in the morning. The first thing he noticed was that Rogers wasn’t in bed. Thinking she was up and fixing breakfast, he climbed out of bed and slipped his pants on. He was on his way to the kitchen when he noticed a note taped to the door. A sense of dread filled him. He took the note down and read it.
“Special Agent Kenneth Aida,” the note said. “If you wish to see your partner again, you will do as I say. I will contact you shortly with orders. Your esteemed adversary, Martin Cordonza.”
“Oh, Becky…” Aida said.
He growled and crumpled the note.
To be continued…
part 2
Pain. Sharp. Stabbing. Throbbing. Like someone playing the drumbs for a heavy metal rock song inside her head. If only she had some aspirin, she thought as she groggily woke up.
“Owwww, my head,” she murmurred. “Kenneth, you got anything for a migraine?”
“Sorry, Becky, but Kenneth’s not here. And the pain you feel in your head isn’t because of an ordinary migraine.”
“W…what?” She recognized that voice. She focused on it through the pain in her head. By doing that, she was able to realize her situation, as well. She stood against a wall with her hands tied above her head to a pipe in the basement of a building. Before her stood a pretty young lady with long black hair. “Angela??? What’s going on?”
“What does it look like, Becky? You’re a Special Agent. Figure it out.”
“It looks to me like you’re a double-crossing little bitch!” Rogers said.
“Tch, tch,”Angela said. “Such language, Becky. Double-crossing is such a crude term. And for your information, my relationship with Kenneth was all contrived from the start. I only single-crossed him.”
“What the hell are you talking about? And don’t call me Becky! No one but Kenneth is allowed to call me that!”
Angela shrugged. “Fine. What would you prefer I call you? Rebecca? Or Agent Rogers?”
“Rebecca’s fine. Now explain yourself.”
“Okay, then, Rebecca. I’m on Martin Cordonza’s payroll. He has some plan or something for revenge against Kenneth. Mr. Cordonza paid me to get close to Kenneth until I received further instructions. Instructions which came yesterday.”
“Instructions?”
“Yes. He told me the two of you were on your way back to D.C. He ordered me to meet Kenneth, then kill him. But you ruined that. So he developed a new plan, and ordered your kidnapping. The thugs under my command knocked you unconcious and brought you here. Hence, your headache.”
“I see. And why does this Cordonza person want revenge against Kenneth?”
Angela shrugged. “I don’t know. I just do what I’m paid to do, no questions asked. Now, I’m afraid I must go. Toodles, Becky!”
Angela walked off, leaving Rogers tied to the pipe.
“DON’T CALL ME BECKY, YOU BITCH!” Rogers yelled after her.
She struggled with her bindings, but couldn’t budge them. “GAH!” she said in frustration. She leaned back against the wall. Quietly, she cried. “Oh, Kenneth…” she said softly. “Please. Please help me.”
Angela walked into an office. A man in a dark grey suit sat at the desk. A middle-aged man with dark hair, and dark eyes. He looked up from the laptop as she entered.
“Yes, my dear?”
“Mr. Cordonza, sir. She’s awake.”
“Good. And Aida should be awake by now and have found the note. Wait a couple of hours, Angela, then give him his first set of orders.”
“Yes, sir.”
She bowed and left the office.
Cordonza laughed. “Oh, Agent Aida. We’re going to have lots of fun! I promise you that. And then…. And then I’ll make you pay! Oh, yes, you will pay! Ahhh, sweet, sweet revenge. HAHAHAHAHA!”
Aida sat on the unmade bed in Rogers’s apartment. He just stared straight ahead.
“Oh, Becky,” he muttered. “I’m so sorry. It’s my fight. I didn’t want you involved. I didn’t want you to get caught up in this mess. If Cordonza hurts you, I swear I’ll kill him!”
To be continued…
part 3
Special Agent Rebecca Rogers, clad only in a housecoat, stood against a basement wall with her hands tied to a pipe above her head. For at least the thousandth time she struggled futilely to free herself.
“I’ve got to get out of here,” she said aloud, to keep herself company. “If only Kenneth were here…”
A door opened somewhere in the dark room, and she ceased her struggles and stopped talking. An overhead light turned on, and she closed her eyes against the sudden brightness. Slowly, she opened her eyes again, allowing them to adjust to the light. When she could see, she found a man standing before her.
She gasped. “Who…who are you?” she asked the handsome, dark-haired, middle-aged man in the dark grey business suit.
“My name is Martin Cordonza,” he said, and bowed. “I am honored to have such a lovely hostage. I can see why Agent Aida fell for you, Agent Rogers.”
Her eyes widened in surprise. “What??? How did you…”
He chuckled. “How did I know? That’s easy. I have ways. I have people.”
“People like Angela.”
“Yes, that’s right. Angela is one of my…employees.”
“Whom you hired to get close to Kenneth so that she could kill him when you finally gave her the order to.”
“Yes, I did do that. But I think this plan is turning out much better.”
“And what plan is that?”
“To have some fun with him, and to eventually make him suffer before I finally kill him. To make him suffer like I suffered…”
He got a teary, far-away look in his eyes.
“What happened?” Rogers asked. “What caused this burning desire for revenge against Kenneth?”
Cordonza snapped out of his sad reverie. “That is no concern of yours, Agent Rogers. All you should be concerned about is what is going to happen to you.”
“And what is going to happen to me?”
He smiled. The smile wasn’t very pleasant. “That is for me to know and you to find out, Rebecca dear.”
He caressed her cheek, smiled wickedly at her, and left.
The room went dark.
A door closed.
“Oh, Kenneth,” she said softly into the dark. “Please, please help me!”
Special Agent Kenneth Aida paced up and down in Rogers’s apartment.
He hated waiting. He preferred action. But he couldn’t do anything. Not with his partner’s life on the line. Sure, he knew Cordonza had her. But he didn’t know where. The man could have her hidden anywhere. So Aida had to wait for Cordonza’s orders, and hope to find his way to her. And having decided on that course of action, he had called the agency and told them that Rogers was still too weak to return to duty, and he was going to look after her while she recuperated. Then he started waiting.
Finally, his patience was rewarded.
A knock sounded at the door.
Aida halted his pacing mid-step and ran to the door and threw it open. He gaped in shock at the woman standing on the doorstep.
“Angela?” he said. “What are you doing here?”
The black-haired girl reached into a pocket of the business suit she wore. “I have your first set of orders, Kenneth,” she said. She pulled out an envelope and handed it to him.
Aida blinked in confusion. “What? My orders? What are you talking about?” Then it hit him. “You mean, you work for Cordonza?”
“Yes.”
He frowned. “For how long?”
“Since before you and I met,” she said.
“You mean…”
“Yes. Our whole relationship was staged. I was hired to get close to you. I can’t say it wasn’t fun, but business is business. And speaking of which, you’d better open your note and get started. Becky’s life depends on you, you know.”
She turned and walked off.
Aida stared after her, still in shock. Finally, something she’d said registered in his tormented mind.
“Don’t call her Becky!” he belatedly called after Angela.
Then he remembered the note in his hand. He looked down at the plain white envelope.
“Let’s see what Cordonza wants me to do, Becky,” he said.
He closed the apartment door, took a seat on the sofa in the living room, and opened the envelope.
He read the note.
His eyes widened.
“He wants me to do WHAT???” he yelled.
To be continued…
part 4
“NO WAY!”
Special Agent Kenneth Aida’s cry echoed in the apartment, making the glass of the windows rattle. As he sat on the couch, he crumpled the note in his hand. The note contained his first set of orders from Cordonza: dress in drag, go to the Watergate Hotel, French kiss the doorman, then proceed to the service desk and retrieve an envelope marked “Smith”, in which he would find his next set of orders.
“ABSOLUTELY NOT! Hell will freeze over before I even consider doing that!”
Aida walked up to the front doors of the Watergate Hotel. He felt very, very foolish wearing Rogers’s red cocktail dress. And strange thoughts ran through his mind. Was his pantyline was showing? Had he really heard a seam rip when he put the dress on? Did his hose have a run in them? How on Earth could women stand to wear high heels? And did he have on the right color lipstick?
Passersby noticed him, and snickered and pointed. He paid them no mind. He just wanted to get the thing over with and get his next orders. He hoped that by playing along, he could make his way to wherever Cordonza had his partner and lover, Special Agent Rebecca Rogers, hidden.
“I hope you know, Becky,” Aida said under his breath as he opened the doors of the hotel, “that I wouldn’t do this for anyone else.”
The doorman approached Aida with a frown on his face. Aida steeled himself, threw his arms around the doorman, and French kissed him. The doorman’s eyes widened with surprise, then he pushed Aida away.
“SIR!” the doorman said with astonishment.
“S…sorry,” Aida said, his face turning bright red.
Then he hurried away as fast as he could. He tried to compose himself as he made his way to the service desk.
The man behind the service desk had seen the whole thing, and tried not to laugh in Aida’s face when the agent got there and asked for an envelope for “Smith”.
“Yes, sir,” the man said while trying not to laugh. “I have one…right here.” He reached beneath the counter and pulled out a white envelope addressed, simply, “Smith”. “Here you go, sir,” the man said.
“Thank you,” Aida said, and he took the envelope.
Then he headed for the nearest back door, to slip out as quietly and as unnoticeably as possible so he could go home and change into some more…appropriate…attire.
From a rooftop, a man with binoculars stood watching Aida’s…spectacular…entrance into the Watergate Hotel. As he watched, he pulled out a cell phone and made a call.
“Mr. Cordonza, sir,” he said. “Agent Aida has followed his first set of orders. It’s quite an entertaining show.”
“Good,” Cordonza said from the other end. “Thank you, Malcolm. Keep an eye on him. Let me know when he’s completed phase two.”
Agent Rogers continued to struggle in vain with the ropes tying her hands to the pipe above her head. She stopped when she heard a door open. Knowing what would come next, she closed her eyes so she wouldn’t be blinded.
When she opened her eyes, she saw a black-haired girl in a buisness suit standing before her.
“Angela,” Rogers said simply.
“Kenneth must really love you,” the girl said. “Do you know what he just did?”
“No. How could I? I’ve been held captive down here for who knows how long.”
“Well, I’ll tell you. He followed his first set of orders to a tee.”
“So?” Rogers said with a shrug.
“So, his orders were to dress in drag and French kiss the doorman of the Watergate Hotel before picking up his next orders.”
“And Kenneth actually did that?” Rogers said, slightly stunned.
“Yes. He dressed up in a red cocktail dress with matching pumps.”
“He did?” Then she thought of something. “Wait a minute. Red cocktail dress? And matching pumps? He better not have worn MY dress and shoes!”
“Could be. I found him at your apartment when I delivered the orders.”
“Ohhh! If he messes up my dress, I’ll kill him!”
Angela gave her a wry smile. “Well, I just thought I’d let you know that. Ta ta, Becky.”
Angela walked off.
As the light went out, Rogers called after her, “DON’T CALL ME BECKY!”
After the door closed, Rogers returned to working at her bindings.
“Kenneth, if you mess up my dress, you’ll be in SO much trouble!” she said as she worked.
Aide returned to his apartment. After a quick shower, and a LONG time with at the sink with a toothbrush and mouthwash, he clothed himself in a tailored brown business suit. Then he went to the living room, where he sat down on his sofa. He looked at the envelope in his hand and contemplated what he might find in the note inside.
Slowly, he opened the envelope.
To be continued…
, part 5
The door to the basement opened, and Special Agent Rebecca Rogers stopped her fruitless struggle with the ropes tying her hands to a pipe over her head. She closed her eyes against the sudden light she knew would be coming when whoever entered the basement flicked the light switch.
When she opened her eyes, a handsome, middle-aged, dark-haired man in a dark grey business suit stood before her.
“Mr. Cordonza,” she said simply.
“Agent Rogers,” he said. “And how are you doing?”
“Oh, just fine and dandy, thank you,” she said with obvious sarcasm. Then she switched tones. “HOW DO YOU THINK I’M DOING?! I’m tied up in a dark basement. My arms are cramping. My hands have gone numb. My feet hurt. I haven’t eaten in I don’t know how long. And there’s no way for me to relieve myself sanitarily if and when I need to. Other than that, I’m fine.”
“I see. Well, Rebecca dear, I’ll send someone down to take care of a couple of those things for you shortly.”
“Jee, thanks a lot.”
“Now, how about taking care of something for me?”
“Like what?”
In response, he smiled lustfully. His hands went to the sash tying her housecoat together and started undoing it.
Rogers’s eyes widened in fear. Her mouth opened to scream, but Cordonza silenced her by putting his mouth over hers.
Special Agent Kenneth Aida sat on his sofa, staring at the note in his hand in wide-eyed, open-mouthed stupefication.
“HE CAN’T BE SERIOUS!” he cried out. He read the note again. “‘Skinny dip in the Reflecting Pool, where you’ll find another envelope, sealed in a plastic bag.’” He crumpled the note and tossed it across the room. “HA!!!YEAH, RIGHT!! NOT IN A MILLION YEARS, CORDONZA!!!”
Two hours after his outburst, Aida stood beside the Reflecting Pool and stared at the still water and the reflection of the Washington Monument. “The things I do for love and justice,” he muttered after a few minutes. Then he started unbuttoning the jacket of his tailored brown business suit.
When Rogers came to, she found herself in total darkness again. She was still tied as before, and her housecoat was tied as if nothing had happened. But she knew better.
“Cordonza,” she said venomously, “I swear, when I get free, I’ll kill you for that.”
She struggled against the ropes again. After a while, she heard the door open again. She closed her eyes against the light. When she opened them again, a man stood before her. He looked just like a mobster from a movie. He had a sandwich in one hand, and an empty paint can in another.
“What do you want?” Rogers asked.
“I brought youse some presents,” he said.
Rogers tried not to laugh at his obviously affected accent.
The man sat the paint can on the ground beneath her. He looked at the sandwich like he didn’t quite know what to do with it. He looked around, and found a crate nearby. He placed the sandwich on it.
An idea popped into Rogers’s head. “I appreciate the gifts,” she said sweetly. “But it’s kinda hard for me to eat with my hands tied. And I really gotta go, too, and I can’t squat when I’m tied like this. Would you be kind enough to untie me?”
“Ah don’ know…” the man said. “Mr. Cordonza might not like it…”
“Pleeease??” she said, and batted her eyes at him. “It’s not like I can go anywhere.”
“Ohhh, okay,” he said.
He reached up and untied her hands.
Rogers lowered her arms, and rubbed her wrists for a minute. Then she continued her ruse for a moment and started to squat on the can. Suddenly, she straightened up and landed a sharp uppercut punch to the man’s jaw. As he staggered back, she followed her punch with a kick to the jaw and a kick to the groin. The man fell to the ground. While he was out of it, she managed to pick him up and tie him up in her prior position. Then she left the basement, turning out the light and shutting the door behind her. Then she began her search for the exit.
A totally unclothed Aida surfaced in the Reflecting Pool. He had a plastic sandwich bag in his hand. In the bag was a white envelope. Aida wiped water from his face. When his vision cleared, he found a couple of policemen standing at the edge of the pool in front of him. They didn’t look too happy.
“Have a nice swim?” asked one policeman sarcastically.
“When you finally get dressed,” said the other policeman, “would you kindly come with us, sir?”
“Oh, great,” Aida muttered under his breath as he climbed out of the Reflecting Pool.
Aida marched up the stairs of his apartment, muttering to himself and wiping his hands on his pants. “Stupid cops,” he said. “This ink’ll never come off. And where do they get off charging a federal agent a fine for…”
He stopped speaking when he reached the top of the stairs and saw a redheaded woman in a housecoat sitting outside his door.
“BECKY!” he cried out in shock and joy.
She turned to look at him, and smiled. She stood up as he hurried to her.
“Oh, Kenneth,” she said as he hugged her tight and kissed her.
“Are you all right, Becky?” Aida asked her as he unlocked his apartment door.
“I…I’m all right, I guess.”
“You guess?” he said. “What do you mean?”
“Well…”
He opened the apartment door. “Come on in, Becky, and tell me what happened.”
She nodded and followed him inside. She sat down on the sofa, and he sat next to her. She turned to face him. As she looked at him, tears fell down her cheek.
“Kenneth,” she said through her tears. “I…Cordonza…He…He had me tied up in a basement. And then he… He raped me.”
“He WHAT?!”
Rogers’s tears came heavier, and Aida held her tight to comfort her. “Don’t worry, Becky,” he said softly as she cried into his shoulder. “That bastard will pay. I swear it.”
To be continued…
part 6
Special Agent Rebecca Rogers cried herself to sleep in the arms of her partner and lover, Special Agent Kenneth Aida, who then gently picked her up and carried her to the bedroom. He laid her down on the bed, kissed her gently, whispered “I love you, Becky”, and then sat vigil on the bed beside her.
Within an hour, Aida had dozed off and had lain down beside Rogers. A sudden, faint noise startled him awake. He jumped up, drawing his gun and bumping his head on the overhead shelves in the process.
“OW!” he cried out, and rubbed his head.
Rogers stirred and woke up. She looked over at Aida, and smiled. “Is that a gun in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?” she said, modifying the old joke to fit the situation.
“Cute,” Aida said, smiling in return. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” He stopped smiling and became serious. “But this is no time to be joking, Becky.”
“What’s wrong?” she asked, picking up on his somber mood and sitting up carefully.
“I heard something. Like someone trying to get in the front door.”
She frowned slightly. “You got a spare gun?”
“Under the pillow.”
“You actually sleep with a gun under your pillow?” she asked as she stuck her hand beneath the pillow and felt the metal of the gun.
He blushed slightly. “Yeah, well, you can never be too careful.”
“Uh-huh.” She pulled out the gun, checked the safety, and stood up. “Well, shall we go check it out?”
“Let me go first. You can slip on a pair of my pants and a shirt, and then follow. I’m sure you’d rather be wearing something besides that housecoat.”
She looked down at the fuzzy pink housecoat she wore. “You got a point. Okay. You go first. I’ll be right behind you.”
Aida nodded and moved to the bedroom door. While Rogers gathered a shirt and a pair of pants from the dresser and removed her housecoat, Aida opened the door slightly, peered out, and raised his gun. He took a deep breath, then threw the door open and ran out.
A man with dirty blonde hair and a navy blue business suit twisted the handle to Aida’s apartment door, and found it locked. Frowning, he turned the handle hard, and put his shoulder to the door and pushed. That not working, he put his whole body into it, throwing his shoulder into the door, trying to bust it down. On the third attempt, the door gave way. The man pulled a gun from inside his jacket and entered the apartment.
He looked around, and didn’t find anyone. But then the door to the bedroom opened, and a man with dark hair came running out with a gun drawn. At the sight of the blonde man, the dark-haired man halted in midstep and trained his gun on him.
“You!” Aida said, only slightly surprised. “Well, considering the way you left the agency so suddenly last year, I should have expected to find you working for Cordonza, too, Malcolm.”
“Hello, Kenneth,” Malcolm said, training his gun on Aida. “And good-bye, Kenneth.”
Three shots rang out.
Why three, you say? Well, Rogers had finished dressing and had come to the bedroom door with her gun ready just as Malcolm was about to fire.
The bullet from Malcolm’s gun just missed Aida, only grazing his cheek before lodging in the wall beside the doorframe.
Aida’s bullet and Rogers’s bullet each hit their target. Aida’s struck Malcolm in the chest, and Rogers’s struck him right in the center of the forehead.
Malcolm was dead before he hit the floor.
Aida turned to Rogers. “Good shot!” he said, impressed.
“Thanks,” Rogers said. “Not bad for not having been at the practice range in about a week or so, huh?”
“Not bad at all.”
“So, who was that guy?”
“Oh, just someone I used to work with before he just up and left the agency one day last year. He used to work as a hitman.”
“Oh. And Cordonza recruited him to go after you?”
“That’s my guess.”
“Kenneth, tell me something. And be honest. What did you do that caused Cordonza to have such a grudge against you? He said something to me about making you suffer like he’d suffered. What was he talking about?”
Aida was silent for a minute. “Well, Becky,” he said finally. “When I first started at the agency, one of my first cases was to investigate an illegal operation that Cordonza was running. During one of the raids, Cordonza’s wife and infant child were present, and they got caught in the crossfire. They, uh, ended up dying. And so, because it was a raid I was in charge of, Cordonza’s blamed me ever since. We’ve had confrontations from time to time since then. But he’s been waiting for a way to make it very personal to me. And that’s you.”
Rogers blinked a few times, taking it in. “I see,” she said. A glint showed in her green eyes. “Well, he’s made it personal, all right. Now, we need to take the fight back home to him.”
Aida smiled big. “God, I love you, Becky.”
She returned his smile. “Let’s go. When this is over, I’ll give you that dance you’ve been wanting.”
Aida’s smile got bigger. “ALL RIGHT!”
To be continued…
part 7
Special Agents Kenneth Aida and Rebecca Rogers were just about to leave Aida’s apartment when a cell phone rang.
Aida and Rogers looked at each other.
“It’s not mine,” they said simultaneously.
They looked down at the dead body of the blonde, would-be hitman on the floor.
The cell phone rang again.
Aida knelt beside the dead man and went through his pockets. He found the ringing cell phone, stood up, and answered it.
“Malcolm,” said the caller before Aida could say anything.
“Sorry, Cordonza,” Aida said into the phone. “Malcolm is indisposed…permanently. He should have known better than to try a point-blank assassination. He always said he was a better shot at distance than up close. That’s why he always worked as a sniper.”
“Ah, hello, Aida,” Cordonza said. “Yes, I know Malcolm wasn’t that good of a shot up close, but he was a good employee and I hate losing him. But it’s his own fault he’s dead. He didn’t follow orders. All I told him was to get the girl. I did NOT order him to kill you. I want that pleasure for myself, Aida.”
“I know you do, Cordonza. And soon, you’ll have a chance to try. This is endgame, Cordonza, and one of us isn’t going to walk away alive. And I’m going to do all I can to make sure that it’ll be YOU who doesn’t walk away. I owe it to Becky for what you did to her, you son of a bitch.”
Aida hung up and turned to Rogers.
“Let’s go, Becky.”
Rogers nodded. “Right.” She turned to the door, then back to Aida. “Uh…go where, Kenneth?”
Aida pocketed the cell phone. “After Cordonza, of course. But first, I thought we’d swing by your apartment and let you change into some of your own clothes before we go to a Chinese restaurant for a planning session.”
“Sounds good. I could really go for some Kung Pao. Or maybe some General Tso’s Chicken.”
Aida smiled. “Okay, then. Lead on.”
Rogers led the way from the apartment and downstairs to Aida’s red Mustang convertible. Once Aida was behind the wheel, they took off. No sooner had they turned the corner than the police pulled up to the apartment, answering a call from one of Aida’s neighbors about a possible domestic disturbance involving gunfire.
When Aida and Rogers approached her apartment door, they found it standing ajar.
“I could have sworn I closed the door and locked it when I left,” Aida said.
“Oh, that reminds me…” Rogers said.
“Yeah?”
“How’re my cocktail dress and shoes? You didn’t mess them up, did you?”
“How did you…”
“Angela told me.”
“Oh. Well, don’t worry. They’re fine.”
“They’d better be. They cost me quite a bit.”
“They are, Becky. I swear.”
“Good. But I’m still going to check them myself later.”
“Suit yourself.” Aida drew his gun and checked the saftey. “Now, wait here while I check out your apartment. If I’m not back in five minutes, come in after me.”
“All right. Five minutes.” She looked him in the eyes. “Be careful, Kenneth.”
Aida smiled at her. “I will.”
He gave her a quick kiss, then readied his gun and entered the apartment.
The living room was clear. So he checked the kitchen. It too was clear. He checked the bathroom next, and found it clear. The closet was clean, too. That left the bedroom. Carefully, he opened the door and peered inside the dark room. He couldn’t see anything, so he took a couple of steps inside and flipped the light switch.
The sudden light revealed a black-haired gir; sitting seductively on the bed in her underwear. Aida stared in shock.
“Hello, Kenneth,” she said.
For a minute, Aida’s mouth moved, but no sound came forth. “What the hell are you doing here, Angela?” he finally managed to get out.
“Waiting for you.” She stood up and walked slowly towards him. “I just can’t seem to get you and all our fun times out of my mind. I miss you, Kenneth. And I knew you’d come back here eventually.”
“Why didn’t you just go to my apartment?”
“Because I knew it’d be more dangerous there. They know where you live. Your partner’s home isn’t so well known.”
“Yeah, I suppose. But…”
Angela cut him off by kissing him passionately.
Aida pushed her away. “No, Angela. We’re through, remember? I love someone else. And besides, you work for Cordonza.”
“That doesn’t change how I feel about you, Kenneth.” She pushed him onto the bed and he fell on his back. She climbed up, sitting atop him. “Let me show you, just like old times.”
She leaned down and gave him a long, passionate kiss. While she kissed him, her hand carefully slid beneath the mattress.
Suddenly, she broke the kiss and sat up. She held a knife above Aida’s chest. Aida lay there, staring at Angela and the knife, frozen by shock.
“Good-bye, Kenneth,” she said.
Angela raised the knife for the killing blow.
A gunshot rang out.
Angela jerked slightly and her eyes widened. She dropped the knife, then fell…on top of Aida.
Aida looked at the bloody gunshot wound in Angela’s back. He came to his senses, then. He pushed Angela off him to the other side of the bed and stood up. He looked to the bedroom door, where he found Rogers standing with her gun still pointing towards the bed. Her skin was pale and her eyes were wide with fear.
Aida walked over to her, and took the gun from her hand. “Becky,” he said softly.
Rogers blinked and looked at him. “Kenneth…” she said. She threw her arms around him and cried. “Oh, God, Kenneth! If I’d waited any longer, she would have…you would have…”
“Shhh,” Aida said softly, hugging her. “It’s all right, Becky. I’m all right. You came at just the right time. Thank you.”
He held her until she calmed down. Then he kissed her and let her go.
“Get dressed,” he told her. “We still have a date with a Chinese restaurant tonight, and a date later with Cordonza.”
She wiped tears from her face and smiled. “Right.”
She grabbed a green skirt suit from her closet. Then she slipped out of the shirt and pants she’d borrowed from Aida and put her own clothes on.
When she was ready, they left her apartment.
To be continued…
part 8
A cell phone rang.
Two men sitting in a black Mercedes looked at each other. The one behind the wheel answered the call.
“Yeah?” he said.
“Joey, Johnnie,” said the man on the other end.
“Oh, Mr. Cordonza, sir,” Joey said. “What can Johnnie and me do fer ya?”
“Keep an I out for a black-haired man and a redheaded woman in a red Mustang convertible.”
Special Agent Kenneth Aida and his partner and lover, Special Agent Rebecca Rogers, drove down the road, heading into Arlington.
“So, where are we going, Kenneth?” Rogers asked. “There are plenty of Chinese restaurants in D.C. We could have gone to any of them.”
“There’s a Chinese restaurant in Arlington that I’m really fond of. I think you’ll like it, too.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
He took his eyes from the road long enough to look over and smile at her. She returned the smile.
A black Mercedes with tinted windows sped up behind them and started tailgating them.
Aida saw them in the rearview mirror when he looked back at the road, and he frowned.
“Look at that,” he muttered to Rogers. “Hey!” he called out at the reflection. “Quit riding my bumper, you dumbasses!”
The Mercedes bumped into them.
“Do you believe that?” Aida said to Rogers. “They hit my car!”
The Mercedes bumped into them again, harder.
“HEY!!” Aida called. “These guys are serious!”
Aida sped up.
The Mercedes sped up, too. The tinted window on the passenger’s side rolled down, and a man with a rifle leaned out.
“Oh, SHIT!” Aida said.
He floored it.
The Mercedes sped up and followed. The man with the rifle fired.
“AHHH!” Rogers suddenly called out.
Aida looked over at her, just in time to see her head hit the dashboard with a very audible CLUNK. He also saw a widening spot of blood on her back. Less than a second later, she was upright in the seat again. Her head hung down, and her eyes were closed.
“Becky?” Aida asked, frightened. He pulled off to the side of the road. The Mercedes went on past them. Aida made a mental note of the license plate. He also thought it seemed familiar. He turned his attention back to Rogers. “Becky!” he called. She didn’t answer. And she didn’t move. “Oh, God, no. Not again! BECKY! BECKYYYY!!!”
Still no answer, or movement.
Then he remembered where he’d seen the license plate. It had been a few years. But he’d never forget that day. “Cordonza,” Aida said venomously.
He pulled the Mustang back onto the road and floored it.
Aida parked the Mustang in the Fire Lane of the nearest Arlington hospital. He jumped out, ran around to Rogers’s door, and carefully got her out. He rushed through the Emergency doors with Rogers cradled gently in his arms. He hurried up to the reception desk.
“Miss,” he told the duty nurse. “My name is Special Agent Kenneth Aida.” He adjusted Rogers slightly so he could reach his ID and show it to the nurse. “This lady is my partner, Special Agent Rebecca Rogers. She needs medical attention, now! She’s been shot in the back. She also hit her head on the dashboard of my car rather hard, and has been unconscious ever since.”
“How long ago was that?” the nurse asked.
“About ten minutes. I’m not really sure.”
“All right, Agent. I’ll get someone down immediately.” She made a quick call on her phone. “They’re on their way, Agent,” she told Aida after she hung up.
“Thank you.”
A couple of minutes later, hospital workers wheeled a gurney up. They took Rogers from Aida and wheeled her away. Aida started to follow, but the duty nurse called him back, waving a clipboard at him. Aida sighed and walked over. He took the clipboard and sat down.
A few hours that seemed an eternity later, a doctor walked into the waiting room.
“Agent Aida?” he asked.
Aida stood up, and the doctor walked over to him.
“How is she?” Aida asked.
“I…I’m sorry, Agent,” the doctor said.
Aida’s eyes widened. “What?! No! She can’t be dead! She can’t! Tell me she’s not dead!”
“She’s not dead, Agent Aida. She made it through surgery just fine.”
Aida sighed. “Thank God. Then what are you sorry about?”
“She made it through surgery. Unfortunately, she’s in a coma.”
“WHAT??”
“The blow to her head knocked her into a coma.”
“I want to see her.”
“I’m afraid you can’t see her right now…”
Aida growled and grabbed the doctor by his collar. He glared viciously at the doctor and gritted his teeth. The doctor’s eyes widened in fear, and his complexion turned white. “I…want…to…see…her. NOW!” Aida said.
Aida entered room 314. Rogers lay in a hospital bed with various machines hooked up to her. Tears welled up in Aida’s eyes as he walked up to her bed. He took her hand and squeezed it gently. There was no responding squeeze. He lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, then laid her hand gently back down on the bed.
“Damn you, Cordonza,” Aida said. “Damn you to Hell, you son of a bitch.”
Aida leaned over and kissed Rogers’s cheek. A few tears landed on her cheek. “I love you, Becky,” he whispered in her ear.
Then he stood up and stalked out of the hospital room.
To be continued…
part 9
“I…want…to…see…her. NOW!” Special Agent Kenneth Aida told the doctor whom he held by the collar.
“Uh…yes, sir. Room 314.”
Aida let go of the doctor, and the doctor chuckled as he watched the agent rush out of the hospital waiting room.
The doctor walked out of the waiting room, checked both directions of the hallway to make sure no one was watching, then ducked into a nearby cleaning closet. There, he stripped off his doctor’s scrubs, revealing the janitor’s uniform he wore. He stashed the scrubs in an empty box on the top shelf. Then he opened the closet door, being careful not to be seen, and slipped out with a mop bucket. Then he made his way down to the area of room 314.
As he mopped the hallway, Aida came stalking out of room 314 with a look of grief-stricken anger plastered on his face. The janitor smiled and wheeled the mop bucket into an empty room. He shut the door. Then he pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number.
“Mr. Cordonza, it’s Ethan,” the janitor said when his call was answered.
“Yes, Ethan?” Cordonza said in reply.
“Aida’s on his way out of the hospital. He looks pretty pissed. I think he’s ready to confront you now.”
“Good. How did you manange it?”
“Well, sir, I played my role as janitor outside the O.R. that they had taken Aida’s partner into. When the surgery was finished and they took her away, I overheard the operating doctor tell them the room to take her to. Then I followed the doctor as he rehearsed his lines to tell Aida. When I had the chance, I knocked the doctor out, stashed him in an empty stairwell, and took his place. You should have seen Aida’s face when the first thing I told him was ‘I’m sorry, sir’. The look on his face when he thought she’d died was priceless. And the anger he felt when I told him he couldn’t see her…He actually grabbed me. I thought he was going to choke me.”
“She’s not dead?”
“No, sir. The doctors managed to save her. However, she is in a coma.”
“Well, at least Aida’s still suffering and he’s ready to come for me. And I’m ready for him. Good job, Ethan.”
Aida parked his red Mustang convertible outside his apartment building. He sat behind the wheel for a few minutes. He thought about his partner – and lover – Special Agent Rebecca Rogers. She had been right beside him in the car, happy, anticipating dinner with him at a Chinese restaurant. Then that black Mercedes had come up behind them. Aida kept wondering if there had been anything that he could have done to prevent what had happened next; if there had been any way for Rogers not to have gotten shot. But he couldn’t think of any. Slowly, he opened the car door and got out.
As Aida reached the second floor and headed for his apartment, he found police tape across his open apartment door.
“What the hell?” he muttered as he stood staring at the yellow “POLICE LINE DO NOT CROSS” tape crisscrossing his door.
He tore the tape down and stalked inside his apartment.
A police inspector – a blonde, middle-aged man - walked out of Aida’s bedroom just then, writing something down on a notepad. He looked up and saw Aida standing in the middle of the living room. “Who are you?” he asked Aida. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? I’m Special Agent Kenneth Aida. I live here.” Aida crossed is arms over his chest. “Now, let me ask you: Who are you? And what are you doing in my apartment?”
“I’m Inspector Danforth. I’ve been wondering where you were, Mr. Aida. A dead man was found in your apartment earlier. If you’ll come with me, I have some questions I’d like to ask you.”
Aida sighed. “Great,” he muttered to himself under his breath. “Just great.” Aloud, he said, “All right, Inspector. But can we make it quick? I’m pretty busy at the moment.”
“As long as you cooperate and answer our questions, Mr. Aida, we’ll be done in no time.”
“Uh-huh. All right, then. Let’s go and get this over with.”
Inspector Danforth escorted Aida from the apartment.
In a large workout room, a handsome, dark-haired, middle-aged man in a dark grey business suit stood in the middle of the mat that covered the entire floor. He held a katana in his hand, the blade pointed to floor in a position of rest. With his other hand, the man wiped sweat from his brow. A wooden dummy covered with nicks stood a few feet away from him.
The man then took a deep breath, took a few quick steps towards the dummy, and swung the sword. The dummy’s head rolled to the floor.
“Soon, Agent Aida,” Cordonza said with an evil grin, “I will do the same to you.” Then he laughed.
To be continued…
part 10
“Now, Mr. Aida,” said the middle-aged blonde man in the bad tan suit who paced back and forth in front of a lone table. “Would you please to tell me why there was a dead body in your apartment? And why bullets from two different guns were found in the body?”
Special Agent Kenneth Aida sat at the table. He was in a police interrogation room. There were no widows, and only one door – closed, locked, and guarded from the outside. Aida and the blonde man were the only ones in the room. A tape recorder – running - sat in the middle of the table.
“Ummm…” Aida said. “I’m afraid that’s a bit of a long story, Inspector Danforth.”
“I have all the time in the world,” Danforth said as he stopped his pacing, leaned over the table towards Aida and slammed his hands down on the table. “Though I believe you said something about having some important business to attend to. Correct? And I’m sure you’d like to get back to that business. So why don’t you tell me an abreviated version so you can do that?”
“Well, Inspector, I would, but I’m afraid the majority of the story is classified.”
Danforth frowned and leaned back away from the table. “Well, you are a federal agent. So I can see why it might be classified. But murder is our jurisdiction, you know.” He leaned back over, putting his face right in Aida’s face, and grabbed his collar. “NOW, SPILL IT!”
Aida wasn’t moved. “It’s not really murder, Inspector,” he said calmly. “It’s more of a case of self-defense.”
Danforth straightened up and crossed his arms over his chest. “Explain.”
“I’ll tell you what I can that won’t be considered classified. The corpse was a hired assassin trying to kill my partner and me. We both shot him before he could kill us.”
Danforth nodded slightly. “Ah, I see. And your partner is a woman, right?”
“Yes. Special Agent Rebecca Rogers.”
“That explains the fuzzy pink housecoat found on your bedroom floor...I suppose. And, where is Agent Rogers? I’d like to question her, also.”
Aida’s face took on a sad expression. “She’s in a hospital in Arlington. In a coma.”
“Oh…” the inspector said. “I’m sorry. How did it happen?”
“More hitmen, sent by the same person who sent the guy you found in my apartment, shot her while she was in my car. The blow to her head when her head hit my dashboard caused the coma.”
“And who is this person who hired these hitmen?”
“An old adversary of mine.”
“And does this adversary have a name?”
“Yes. But that’s classified.”
Inspector Danforth nodded. “Yes…I guess it would be. And the important business you said you had?”
Aida gave him a long, hard look. “What do you think?”
Danforth nodded again. “I understand. I’d feel the same way, Agent Aida.” The inspector looked at Aida for a moment, contemplating. “Well, I guess you can go for now. I may want to question you later, seeing as how the details you gave me were skimpy at best. Good luck with your ‘business’, Agent.”
Aida gave Danforth a quick, suspicious glance, then stood up. “Thank you, Inspector,” he said.
Danforth opened the door. “No, thank you, Agent Aida, for cooperating.”
Aida gave the inspector a curt nod, then walked down the hallway. Danforth watched him for a minute, then walked off down the hallway in the opposite direction.
Inspector Danforth stood outside the police station, in the back. He glanced around, making sure no one was nearby. Then he took out a cell phone and made a call.
“Mr. Cordonza, sir,” he said when the person he called answered. “I just had some fun with Agent Aida. He’s on his way now to see you.”
Aida parked his red Mustang convertible outside a remote storage unit, climbed out, and opened the big metal fold-up door. He switched on the overhead light.
In the middle of the storage unit sat a lone, long wooden chest of black walnut. Aida knelt down, unlocked it, and lifted the lid back. Inside lay a half-dozen military-issue guns, ammunition, and a sheathed katana sword. Engraved on the inside of the lid was a Special Forces insignia.
“I never thought I’d use these again,”Aida said softly. “But this is a special case. This is war. And Martin Cordonza is the enemy.”
He picked out a couple of guns, grabbed some ammo, and the katana. Then he closed the lid and locked the chest.
“Cordonza, you’re a dead man,” Aida said as he placed the weapons in the car, then closed up the storage unit.
Aida climbed back in the driver’s seat and drove off.
To be continued…
part 11
It was midnight when Special Agent Kenneth Aida parked his red Mustang convertible across the street from a big mansion in Georgetown, making sure that the street lights weren’t close enough to illuminate his car.
“I hope this is the right address,” Aida said. “For the amount of money that I paid Jackson for this information, it had better be. Or I’m going to be VERY mad and Jackson is going to be VERY sorry.”
Aida checked for any spectators, then climbed out of his car and reached into the back seat. He pulled out a couple of military issue guns – one a high-powered rifle, the other a machine gun - which he hooked to his belt, one on each side. Then he took a sheathed katana from the back seat and hooked it to his belt as well. Finally, he grabbed a black trenchcoat from the back seat and put it on.
“I feel like a cross between Neo in The Matrix and Conner and Duncan MacLeod in Highlander,” he muttered. “Only I’m not a computer hacker or an Immortal. Though being immortal might be nice…. No. It wouldn’t be fair to Becky to have her grow old while I stay young, and to not be able to have children either. Guess I’ll just have to do my best not to get myself killed instead.”
Aida crossed the street and approached the wrought iron gate at the end of the mansion’s long curving driveway. He peeked through the bars and scanned the area for guards. He didn’t see any. So he grabbed the gate and prepared to climb over the top. But as his weight suddenly pressed against the gate, the gate swung open silently.
“Huh?” Aida said as he hung on the open gate. “The gate’s not locked? That’s strange.” He shrugged. “Oh, well. Easier for me.”
Aida dropped down from the gate and skulked along the dark driveway towards the mansion. He stopped a few feet away from the house and looked around. Still no sign of guards. He had an odd feeling, like something wasn’t right, but shrugged it off. He made a circuit of the house, checking all the windows, looking for a particular one. Finally, he found it
In a dark bedroom, a dark-haired, middle-aged man slept in his bed. He didn’t know what it was, but something caused him to wake up. His eyes focused on the window – a window that had been closed when he went to bed, but was now open. Movement from the corner of his eye caught his attention. He turned to look.
A man in a black coat stood at the foot of his bed. He held a gun pointed at him. The gun’s laser sight was on, and the man knew that the red dot of the laser sight was on his forehead.
“Agent Aida,” the man said calmly.
“Hello, Cordonza,” Aida said. “Long time no see.”
“You’re late, Aida. I was expecting you to turn up earlier today.”
“Sorry. I wanted to make a memorable entrance.”
“Well, it was dramatic, I’ll give it that.”
“Good. Now, I have some payment to extract from you, Cordonza, because of what you put Becky and me through. So, do you have any last words before I pull the trigger?”
“Just one.”
“And that is?”
Cordonza’s eyes looked to the closed closet doors behind Aida. “NOW!” he called.
The closet doors burst open, and two armed men jumped out and took up positions beside Aida, placing gun barrels to either side of his head.
Cordonza sat up in bed, revealing that he had gone to bed dressed in a dark grey business suit. He smiled inimically at Aida. “I suggest you lower your weapon, Agent Aida,” he said.
Aida sighed and dropped his rifle to the floor.
“Good boy,” Cordonza said as he got up from the bed. He turned to the two men. “Bring him with me.”
Cordonza walked from the bedroom. The two men roughly escorted Aida out behind him.
Aida and Cordonza stood facing each other in the middle of a mat covering the entire floor of a large workout room. The two armed men still stood guard over Aida.
“Leave us,” Cordonza said to the two men.
“Yes, sir,” said the man on Aida’s right.
The two guards left the room.
“Now then, Agent Aida,” Cordonza said, “I assume you didn’t come here with only the rifle.”
“You assume correctly,” Aida said.
“Well, then, drop all the guns you have on you. This is a workout room, not a shooting range. The two of us will settle our scores in a more dignified manner.”
“How’s that?”
In answer, Cordonza walked to a far wall and removed a katana from the rack hanging there. Then he turned to face Aida.
“Oh, I see,” Aida said. “Very well, then.” Aida pulled the machine gun from under his trenchcoat and tossed it aside. Then he pulled his katana out. The blade gleamed in the overhead light of the workout room. He held the sword at the ready before him. “Bring it on!”
Cordonza smiled. “As you wish.”
Cordonza readied his sword and ran towards Aida.
“For Becky,” Aida said softly. Then he ran to meet Cordonza.
Sparks flew and steel rang as the swords met. Cordonza and Aida traded blow after blow, each man deftly blocking the other’s attack with ease. Eventually, their swords crossed and locked. The two men glared at each other over the blades.
“You’re pretty good,” Cordonza said.
“You’re not bad yourself.”
“Where’d you learn to fight?”
“I was in the Special Forces. I can’t say more. It’s still highly classified. How about you?”
“I spent some time in Saigon, Cambodia, and that whole area during the war. I managed to pick up some stuff while I was there.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Good. And here’s something else I picked up while I was there!”
Cordonza pulled his sword free and kicked Aida in the chest, sending him stumbling back. Cordonza followed up with a spin kick to Aida’s head, knocking him into a wall. Aida slid down the wall and ended up sitting on the floor. He groaned and held his head.
Cordonza walked over and kicked Aida’s sword away. Then he stood over Aida, laughing, and pointed his sword at Aida’s chest.
Aida stared at the sword, his eyes wide with fear…and disappointment. “I’m sorry, Becky,” he said in his mind. “I failed you. I hope you’ll remember that I love you.”
In a hospital room, a young redheaded woman lay in bed, unmoving, because she was in a coma. Suddenly, she started tossing in bed, and groaning.
She was Special Agent Rebecca Rogers, Aida’s partner and lover.
She tossed because she dreamed. She dreamed she was standing in what seemed to be a workout room, and was watching Aida and Cordonza fighting with swords. And it seemed so real, as if she were really there. She watched in fascination. She had no idea Aida was such a good fighter. Suddenly, Cordonza pulled away and kicked Aida. She watched in fear as Aida was kicked into the wall, and then as Cordonza kicked Aida’s sword away and stood over him with his sword pointed at the agent’s chest.
“KENNETH!” she cried out in her dream. And aloud.
She suddenly sat up in bed, wide-awake. “KENNETH!” she cried out again, and started crying.
Nurses, startled by her sudden awakening and screaming, ran in to her hospital room.
Aida’s head suddenly turned to the side. He could have sworn he’d heard his name being yelled fearfully by a woman.
“Becky?” he said. “Becky, is that you?”
“Ummm…she’s not here, Aida,” Cordonza said. “Man, I must have hit you really hard. Well, no matter. You’ll be cured of that soon enough, because you’ll be dead and won’t be hearing or seeing anything ever again. Oh, and don’t worry about Agent Rogers. I promise I’ll take good care of her after she wakes up from her coma.”
Aida’s head turned sharply back to Cordonza. He glared at him, and a growl formed in his throat. He didn’t like the tone with which Cordonza had said “good care” one bit.
“Like hell you will!” Aida yelled.
Aida jumped up and kicked Cordonza’s sword hand. The sword went flying across the room. Then Aida pelted Cordonza with combinations of punches and kicks that sent Cordonza staggering backwards. Aida made sure he left no opening for Cordonza to fight back.
Cordonza was backed against the far wall. Aida raised a fist.
“For Becky,” Aida said.
Aida delivered a sharp punch to Cordonza’s throat, shattering the Adam’s apple. Cordonza promptly started choking and dropped to his knees.
“So long, Cordonza,” Aida said.
Aida turned and walked off, leaving Cordonza gasping for air on the mat. Aida retrieved his sword and guns, and left the room as Cordonza gasped one final time.
Aida was driving home in his red Mustang convertible when he decided to call the hospital to check on his partner. He pulled out his cell phone and started dialing, when he remembered he’d turned it off. He mentally slapped his forehead and switched the phone back one. Instantly, it started ringing. He answered it.
“Special Agent Kenneth Aida,” he said.
“Agent Aida, this is Nurse Willliams at Georgetown Memorial Hospital. Your partner is awake if you’d…”
He hung up on the nurse and floored the accelerator.
One of the two men who had guarded Aida walked into the workout room. He saw Cordonza’s body lying on the floor.
“Uh-oh,” he muttered. “The boss isn’t gonna like this.” He reached into a pocket and pulled out a cell phone. He dialed a number. “Sir,” he said to the man who answered. “Cordonza’s dead. Aida killed him.”
“I see,” said the man on the other end of the phone. “Thank you, Miles. Don’t do anything for now. I’ll be in touch.”
Aida rushed into room 314 and screeched to a halt as he saw his partner sitting up in bed. He sighed with relief.
“Becky!” he said as he walked to her bedside.
“Kenneth!” Special Agent Rebecca Rogers said. “You’re all right! Thank God!”
His eyes narrowed in confusion. “Uh…yeah, I’m all right. How about you?”
“I’m fine, now that I know you’re all right. I had the strangest dream.”
“Oh? How so?”
“It seemed so real, so life-like. I dreamed I stood in some workout room and was watching you and Cordonza fighting with swords. I saw him kick you into a wall and stand over you with his sword pointed at you. I cried out to you. And that’s when I woke up.”
He blinked a few times. “That’s so weird, Becky. He and I did fight. And it happened just like you described. And I thought I heard you call my name, too.”
Rogers’s eyes widened. “Whoa… So, what happened next?”
“Well, after getting some inspiration, I managed to finally kill Cordonza.”
“That’s great! So, this whole mess is over now?”
Aida took her hand. “Yeah. It’s over. Now, why don’t you get some rest, Becky? I’ll stay here, right by your side. And when you’re finally able to go home, we’ll get that Chinese dinner I promised you.”
She smiled. “Okay. And after dinner, you’ll get that dance I promised you.”
Aida smiled. “Deal.”
Rogers laid back down, and Aida gave her a gentle kiss. “Sleep well,” he said gently. “I love you.”
She smiled. “I love you, too.”
Aida sat down beside her and she dozed off. He smiled as he watched her sleep.
Secrets Lurking in Pinecrest is a romantic mystery with a series of puzzling events.
Mike Armstrong, a ruggedly handsome Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer, returns home to Pinecrest to work at the Ranger Station.
Mary Howard is the dil
Book 3 continues the Commander and the Chief's adventures in political intrigue, superstition, old feuds, and the search of Nikola Tesla's missing papers in this Close Encounter of the Weird Kind.
