Chapter 8

<Gavin Forrester>

I turn over the file in my hands as I slip into the front seat of the Jeep. I put the key in the ignition and bury the file deep inside the glove box. My mind is still racing from my recent conversation with Ainsley. I'm not sure if it was a good choice on my part to trust her but for now, I have a source who's feeding me information so I'll use that to my advantage.

I put on a pair of sunglasses and back out of the park. I drive through town until a deli comes into view. I park and get quickly out of the car. I walk through the front doors of the restaurant and take my place in line.

"Next," The guy working behind the counter hollers and I move up.

"Five turkey clubs." I mutter and slide a folded twenty across the counter to him.

"Coming right up, sir." The guy smiles and then shouts the order to the cook.

~~~~~

I walk through the front door and set the sandwiches on the hallway table while I shove the file deeply into my sweatshirt. Once the file is hidden, I take a few steps down the hallway until the living room comes into view.

"I brought lunch." I shout and everyone comes rushing to the kitchen.

"You've been gone forever. Are you okay?" Victoria says with a chuckle as she opens up the bag and sets up the sandwiches.

"Yeah, I just needed some air." I smile and take a seat at the table.

"It's been two hours. Are you sure there isn't more to the story?" Victoria gives me a sly look and punches my arm playfully.

"There's the man of the hour." Blaze smirks and takes the seat next to me.

"Sorry I was gone so long; being shut up in this house for three months was really getting to me." I look down at the sandwich in front of me with a calm and collected expression.

They'll never know what really went down...

I take a bite of my sandwich but I can still feel everyone's eyes on me. I finish chewing and look at each of them individually.

"Is there a problem?" I wipe my mouth with a napkin and watch them all shake off their expressions.

"Nothing, you just didn't seem that happy when the news announced that your case was deemed cold." Blaze's voice trails off as he begins to eat his food.

"Talon is still out there and whether I'm free or not, he'll still be out there terrorizing the world and there's nothing I can do about it." I snap and go back to eating my food.

Victoria gives me a stunned look and turns away, her eyes traveling down to her untouched sandwich as she bites her lip.

"We have to do something about him." She whispers and tucks a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I'm sorry but I don't think there's anything for us to do. We don't know where he's hiding and we sure as hell don't know what he's planning." I tap my fingertips on the table and stare angrily at the side of Victoria's head.

"We have to do something. We can't let him walk around and be free while we're pent up in the house, constantly worrying about when we'll be caught." Victoria mutters and picks off a piece of her sandwich, popping it in her mouth as she contemplates the situation.

"I hate to break it to you but he's the one who's spent decades under the radar, completely avoiding the cops and anyone who could take his business down. To him, being on the run is just another day in the office. He's not worried and he knows we'll never find him. It's best if we just leave him alone; searching for him will only put us in more danger." I grit my teeth as I let the lie tumble effortlessly from my lips.

He's already onto us but they don't need to know that...

"Gavin, if you knew something about him, you'd tell me, right?" Victoria looks at me, her brown eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"Of course, I don't try to keep secrets from you." I say coolly but my heart plummets at the fact that I have to lie to her.

"Let's just leave the topic alone." Victoria sighs and gestures for us all to go back to eating.

~~~~~

It's almost midnight and Victoria is lying next to me, deep in sleep. I, on the other hand, can't close my eyes. Every time I do, I think about Talon out there in the world, continuing on with his business as if the last few months have had no effect on him; it makes me sick to my stomach.

I sit up carefully so I won't wake Victoria and then I grab a t-shirt that I threw on the floor earlier. I slip it over my head and get out of the bed. I tuck the covers around Victoria and then walk over to my duffle bag where I'd buried the file after lunch. I silently dig through my bag until I feel the worn paper of Talon's secret file. I clutch onto it tightly and pull it noiselessly from the messy pile of clothes.

Victoria stirs in the bed but she doesn't wake up. She turns over on her side and grabs the pillow from my side of the bed, holding it in her arms as she continues to sleep. I smile to myself as I grab my laptop, a pencil and some loose leaf to take notes on. I walk out of the bedroom and close the door behind me.

My steps echo in the hallway as I inch towards the living room. The house is eerily silent and calm; it's making me uneasy. I slip into the pair of flip-flops I'd left by the door before grabbing the keys and opening the front door. The steep stairs creak beneath me as I walk as quietly as I can towards the Jeep.

I get in the front seat and put the key in the ignition. I try to think about where I want to go but no place comes to mind. I decide to drive into town and see what places to do work at are still open at midnight.

I put the car in drive and take off down the wooded road. I drive for a few minutes and then I see the lights of the town and the sounds of a party. I park in the most inconspicuous place I can find and get out with all of my supplies safely in my arms. I walk to a nearby coffee shop where a particularly bored looking employee is examining her fingernails as if there's nothing more interesting to do. I walk through the door and straight up to the counter where I order a large black coffee from said employee. The person hands me a steaming paper cup and I hand them a few dollars in exchange.

I walk to the back of the coffee shop and pull out a chair from the very last table in the place. I sit down and set all of my supplies in front of me. I take a sip of my coffee and open up the file, my eyes absorbing the first few lines of information as I grab a piece of paper and my pencil. The first page states the location which is only about an hour away from where I'm staying. How ironic...

I flip a few pages until I find Ainsley's description of the building. Apparently, it used to be a crack house where some drug-lord friend of Talon's ran his smuggling ring. Now it's been converted into Talon's murder for hire headquarters. I take the pictures of the building out of the file so I can look at them more closely.

The paint of the building is off-white and peeling in most places, revealing a run-down red brick building that must've been built at least fifty years ago. There are no windows on the front half of the building and the only entrance is a dented metal door. This whole building just doesn't scream Talon to me. It's seems to out of character. Why would he go from a posh New York office building to some crack house in the middle of nowhere?

I continue to examine the pictures, scrutinizing every detail. The back of the building has a few windows, a fire escape and more peeling paint. There's a ramp which leads to a back door. This is most likely where the crack shipments would leave the building and be loaded up to be smuggled out of the country. The next few pictures show the inside of the building. The first floor is spacious and empty, with only a raised and railed platform running the length of the wall. This was most likely where the masters would oversee the crack production. Part of the room is also taken up by a water heater and a few other appliances.

The second floor in the next picture is where Talon seems to be storing his weapons. The gun cases are hung on the wall and he has containers of other weapons of destruction strewn on the floor. The second floor is windowless and has the same gray, concrete floors as the first floor. It also has a low ceiling with pipes crisscrossing all over it. One of the final pictures in the file was of the third floor which I have now deemed the observatory. It's where all of Talon's tracking equipment is stored. The room is a wall of computers and Radar technology which he can use to locate any person in the world. If nothing else, I guess I can say Talon is dedicated to his despicable craft.

I flip through the file and discover Ainsley's promised building plan. It's detailed with notes on where traps and security cameras are located. On the first floor there is only security cameras right above the front and back entrances. There is also a keypad entry system complete with a fingerprint scanner just like at Talon's old office. The second floor has security cameras in all four corners of the room and a trip alarm system if anyone tries to go near the weapons. The third floor, or observatory, has password-protected computers that erase data after a few failed password attempts, along with a few security cameras. The third floor also has a few windows, including the fire escape, which are rigged with alarms. Basically, Talon took every necessary precaution to Gavin-proof his new headquarters.

I continue to write a condensed version of the file on my loose leaf as I flip to the next page where a security guard schedule is located. Each set of security guards patrol every floor for an hour and then they switch floors which leaves a few minutes in between shifts where some of the floors are vacant. The schedule also indicates that at any given time there could be up to six guards on one level; these odds are not ideal considering I'm only one person.

I continue browsing through the file until my hand hurts and I've run out of loose leaf with which to write down notes and my plan of attack. I hold my tired head up in my hands as I try to wrap my mind around everything I've learned tonight.

"It's too much to take-in in one night." I look up and see Ainsley sitting in front of me.

"Where'd you come from?" I ask as politely as I can at almost four o'clock in the morning.

"I couldn't sleep either; I needed some coffee and a quiet place to think." Ainsley takes a sip of the drink in her hand before directing her gaze at me. "Did you read the whole file?"

I nod solemnly and sit up straight.

"What do you think? Can we infiltrate it?" She says excitedly and then waits for my response.

"It'd take some work but I think it can be done." I mutter, rubbing my eyes. "I think we need to figure out what we're going to take from the place and then how we're going to take it out. It'd be a shame if all of the information we could use against him went up in flames."

"True, we need to stake out the place and decide the best way to approach the problem." Ainsley taps her chin thoughtfully.

"I also don't think we can do this alone. We need some back-up; do you have any colleagues who would be willing to help us?"

"Half of the company wants to take him out but none of them have the balls to do it. I, however, know of a few guys who aren't part of the agency that would do anything for a bit of cash." Ainsley takes a swig of her drink as she continues to think.

"Only problem is, we don't have any cash." I point out with brutal honesty.

"I work for Talon Tenebris, how many times do you think I've wired money to people without him knowing?" Ainsley says in a slightly offended tone.

"Did Carter teach you those skills?" I ask with a sly grin.

"Nope, that little brainless wuss didn't even know how to order groceries over the internet. How could you possibly think he'd be able to figure out how to wire money to people?" Ainsley punches my shoulder and chuckles.

"I'm not going to deny the brainless part."

"I have a question for you, Mr. Assassin." Ainsley smirks and waits for my response.

"Go for it, she-demon." I lean back in my chair and return her smirk.

"Why didn't you just shoot the little bastard while you had the chance? Why'd you let Carter leave with his life?" Ainsley crosses her arms and gives me a confident look.

"I didn't want to do any more damage than I was already going to do. I may be trained to kill but I only take lives when necessary and if I'd killed him, I would never have been able to justify it to myself or anyone else. He'd done nothing in that moment that made him worth my bullet. He was an ass but not one that was worth killing." I state simply and watch as Ainsley's gaze shifts a bit.

"I never knew that a person who worked for Talon could still have a soul left."

"Keeping my soul and my identity was I choice I knew I needed to make because if I lost myself along the way, I knew I'd become one of Talon's robots and that was the last thing I wanted to do. I think holding onto myself is what made me his most successful operative because I wasn't afraid to stand up to him and I made him my equal instead of looking up to him like he was some sort of king. I knew what I was getting into was bad and I wasn't afraid to make it known to Talon that I was just in it for the money; not to worship him. My opposition made him fear me and it kept me safe from the deeper horrors that Talon wanted to impose upon his operatives." I take a sip of my now cold coffee as I finish my monologue.

"It's better to be feared than to be loved, I guess." Ainsley traces the lid of her cup with her finger as she tries to think of how to continue on with the conversation.

"What else should I know about the new Talon?" I ask to fill the silence.

"He doesn't live in that building." She says, pointing to the picture of the run-down crack house in front of me. "He has a mansion another hour away from that which is heavily guarded. He has traps in place at every turn and enough security guards to take out the whole northern hemisphere. They say he knows you're coming even before the thought enters your head. I would've given you a file with information on the house but he won't even let me in there. The only thing I know is that it's huge and guarded; what exactly goes on in that house is still a mystery."

"It sounds like our best bet is taking out the work building first. What does he have stored there besides weapons?"

"Behind the appliances on the first floor is his filing room. He brought his victim files with him along with some other top-secret files which would incriminate him if they were found. The computers also have data stored on them about his victims, the location of his crack cocaine and the movements of the cops. That's how he knew when they were getting close and when I needed to send them in the opposite direction." Ainsley bites her lip as she concentrates on telling me everything she remembers.

"He's back to dealing again?"

"When the murder business is slow, he deals crack so he can make even and not owe anything to anyone." Ainsley mutters as if it's the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sounds like Talon." I agree as Ainsley nods her head slowly.

"The incriminating files gives detailed lists of people who Talon stole money from, whom he killed for, how he killed the people and a record of every crime he's committed since his business started."

"Talon's always been one to keep detailed records. He likes to remember things and to have things to hold over people's heads." I state with a sigh.

"It also lists his reasons so he can..."

"Have his crimes justified." We both say at the same time.

"Those files are our bargaining chips if we get them. All of our crimes can be forgiven if we turn Talon in." Ainsley lets out an easy breath as thoughts of taking Talon down enter her brain.

"We have to show him we mean business and that means taking down that building. We have to weaken him and make him fear us because the more he fears us, the more he'll tell and the stronger our case will be. We can't turn in anything until we have every bit of information possible because we only get one shot; screwing it up would mean the end of us, literally." I mutter seriously, an edge laced in my tone.

"Then we can't screw-up. Meet me in front of the jewelry store at noon. I'll bring the car and the camera. You bring yourself and a notebook. We'll do a stake out and gather as much info as we can so we can plan our attack accordingly." Ainsley stands up and holds out her hand.

"I'll see you then." I shake her hand vigorously.

She chuckles a little and then lets go of my hand. I watch her turn and walk out the door. What the hell have I got myself into?