John: The Senior Killer Read Online Free Page B

her loose
fitting slacks. Steve did know that Brad was packing his favorite
hand gun in the small of his back. Steve had witnessed Brad at the
target range and god help the person who drew down on him. A cool
guy under pressure would be hard to find, much less match him under
any circumstances be it guns or hand to hand combat. Killing the
bad guys came easy for him and the only thing he said one time
after a covert raid deep in the jungle of South America was he was
not sad he killed the leader, but rather he had the utmost respect
for his leadership.
    Sandy gave them a bark as
they loaded into Steve’s car. Rocky sat in the front with Steve and
Brad and Sujin in the back. Brad made Rocky wear his seat belt and
he sat facing Steve on the drive to the airport. Steve thought
about reaching out and petting him, but when took his hand off the
wheel, Rocky raised his head up and looked him in the eye saying
put your hands back on the wheel with his eyes.
    At the airport gale force
winds were blowing from the southwest. The pilot was a little
nervous as was the co-pilot. Mike Henshaw, a key member of the
team, was talking to the pilot telling him this was a normal fall
day and not to worry as the wind would make the takeoff shorter.
Brad caught the tail end of the conversation walking into the
flight center. The pilot gave off a feeble forced laugh and turned
back to the guy behind the counter for the latest weather report to
Sacramento, as if he didn’t already know. Mike moved towards Brad
and with his usual big grin turned towards Steve and shook his
hand. Greetings out of the way the pilot said to board and they
would take off in a few minutes.
    Umbrellas were not much use
in the winds so they hurried to the hanger where the Gulf Stream
waited. It was the latest model loaned to them by NASA. The
president and congress had approved an increase in NASA’s budget
for space and this special branch of the government took advantage
whenever they could.
    Everyone buckled in,
including Rocky, waiting for a bumpy ride to California. Brad
realized if the pilot hadn’t been a little nervous, he wasn’t a
good pilot. Brad was sitting with Mike and they were quietly
discussing the case. Mike was a carefree kind of guy, but when it
came to business he was totally focused. Mike lived down in Port
Orford tucked in a valley east of town. Steve was aware of where he
lived but had never been there. He wasn’t married, but had a
longtime girlfriend with a couple of kids acting like old hippies
back in the sixties living off the land. Today, however, he was
dressed much like Brad and clean cut looking. Steve knew he was
close to forty five, but looked years younger and moved like a cat.
He was one of the lucky ones escaping on the helicopter from the
bungled Afghanistan job. Brad used him for digging out information
where cops or other guys like the FBI failed to elicit facts.
Walking up to a total stranger he had them going in two seconds and
after a few minutes they were spilling their guts to him about
whatever he wanted to know. Brad called it uncanny and why or how
it worked was Mike’s secret personality. Some might say he could
sell ice to an Eskimo. Mike said it was his honest eyes and a long
nose that made the difference.
    Meanwhile Sujin sat with
Rocky studying her laptop. She had brought up a long list of
cosmetic suppliers. Start at the source and work from there to the
buyers of quantity. She would provide Mike the list and he would
follow the trail. Next she researched suppliers of disguise and
prop companies. She knew many film companies had their own props
and clothing, but in today’s world it was easy to order from an
outlet except in special make up characters. Also she would have
Mike check the film companies for inventory loss or items missing
lately. She had no idea if they even kept track of what went out
and what came back from a take on a particular days
shooting.
    She would take on the film
companies employment