Fiction logo

H&K: Path of Knowledge

Book 1 of the H&K Series: Chapter 5

By Shawn David KelleyPublished 2 years ago 9 min read
Like

Chapter 5

Hank had found the car keys were for a green 1965 Mustang parked not far away. After inspecting it, he found a couple of duffel bags full of weapons, clothes, and equipment he would need. He found a set of earbud transceivers and two radios with spec ops tactical throat mics. A small plastic container held two pounds of C4 and four detonators. There was an M4 carbine with twenty-one thirty-round magazines and ten magazines for the H&K. Hank smiled when he saw the batch of baby’s breath flowers the garrote wrapped around it. Baby’s breath was Sarasin’s favorite flower.

Hank made a quick stop at his home to retrieve a few items he had hidden in a pneumatically sealed container in the attic of the garage. He collected a Savage 270 caliber rifle with a high-powered night vision scope, a Mossberg 500 twelve-gauge shotgun, a Taurus .380 caliber with +P ammunition, and a small five-shot Rossi .38 caliber revolver. Hank had changed into a fresh set of clothes, baggy cargo pants, a brown T-shirt, and a cargo jacket. The jacket hid the shoulder rig holding the silenced H&K .45 and extra magazines. Hank placed the Rossi .38 revolver in an ankle holster on the inside of his left ankle and the Taurus .380 in an ankle hostler on the inside of his right ankle. The Tanto blade was also attached to the shoulder rig. He wove the garrote in between the leather layers of his belt.

Hank drove to the storage on Knight’s Road in Bensalem, a suburb of Philadelphia. Hank found the extra-large storage unit with a padlock on it, storage unit 120. One of the keys on the key ring opened the roll-up door. A foot inside the storage unit, another wall stood with a door. On the right side of the door, a keypad protruded from the wall. Hank punched in the date he had first met Sarasin, 12-13-89. The locking mechanism detached, and the door opened. Why had Sarasin used that as the code after so long?

Inside the storage unit, Hank found a secure internet connection with a laptop. A 65-inch monitor hung from the wall. Hank turned on the laptop. While waiting for the computer to boot up, he looked around the storage unit at all the weapons, explosives, and clothing. The storage unit was a secure drop site for Sarasin. Hank knew she had placed it here so that if one day he needed its contents, it was there for him. The laptop login screen came up, and the user ID was Angel of Death with 12-13-89 as the password. Hank shook his head. As soon as the laptop’s operating system came up, Hank found two additional security measures. Sarasin’s hometown with her school mascot was the first. The second was tricky and rather odd as Hank thought about it. The system gave Hank two hints to input the code. HINT: child name and last day. The code was Adam030292. Several times Hank had asked Sarasin what her ideal name for a child would be if they ever had one. Sarasin had finally broken down and told him she liked the name, Adam. The last day may mean the last day they had seen each other, but it was incorrect. Hank had then typed the night he had gone to her apartment in Berlin. The encoded laptop finally revealed its secrets. It was the correct code. She had known he had been at her apartment and said nothing to him.

Sarasin’s unit was in Philadelphia due to a connection with the district attorney and an Iranian businessman who was known for trafficking weapons and sex slaves. The Iranian had links to assassinations as well. The information named CIA agent Samuel Billings as a contact with the Iranian businessman. The unit was still trying to find out the man’s real name but kept coming up with an alias, Manny Vasquez. Hank froze as he reread CIA agent Samuel Billings as a contact with the Iranian businessman. No wonder Hank had been told to stand down. His handler was involved, but how deep was the question? Then he remembered that there had been a soldier in a unit David Wright had told him about, Manny Vasquez, who had caught his girlfriend with his best friend. Hank added that information to the file.

The table the laptop was sitting on began to vibrate and buzz. Hank looked around and then under the table before he found a cell phone attached to the underside of the table.

“Hello,” Hank answered the phone.

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you right off that Billings was a suspected double agent,” Sarasin told Hank. “You asked why I am in Philadelphia. This is why. The supposed Iranian businessman is actually Baquer Zarrab, and we believe Billings is brokering a deal to bring Sudanese and Palestinian terrorists into the US under Canadian passports. We have received unconfirmed intelligence reports that there is a terrorist training camp somewhere in Pennsylvania. Your friend Officer Bob Roy is a liaison for the Philadelphia PD for the East Coast Anti-Terrorism Task Force. We believe Billings has targeted Officer Roy through his wife to discredit him with the task force. If we get any more information, I will let you know.”

“Thanks, Adaline. By the way, I read an alias of the Iranian businessman was Manny Vasquez. I remember Wright telling me about a soldier he knew by that name who had caught his girlfriend in bed with his best friend. Do you think Wright could be involved?” Hank asked.

“I will have the team look into it, but I have a feeling you may be onto something.”

“Thanks, Adaline. I’m going to be doing some checking on my end as well. Be safe.”

“Still like what you see?” Sarasin asked as she terminated the call. She had started saying it at the end of every call they had to tell him she was safe but had a sexual undertone to it. Then it became a habit whenever they parted. Hank smiled and immediately felt guilty when the image of Katharine flashed before his mind’s eye. He felt as if he was somehow cheating on her in his thoughts.

Hank locked up the storage unit and proceeded back to Tess and Bob’s to find them lounging by the pool. Hank changed into shorts and a T-shirt to join them. Hank took a seat on an empty lounger next to Bob.

Hank watched as Tess floated in the pool on the blowup raft, her arms across her chest, intently staring off into space. Bob sat next to him glaring at his light beer, his fist clenching the bottle in a death grip. Hank watched as Tess’s anger flared as her arms fell to the sides of the raft. Tess’s fingernails dug into the soft rubber.

“Tess, are you alright?” Hank called out to Tess.

Snapping out of his inward anger, Bob looked up. Tess released the raft but continued clenching her fists so tight. Her fingernails dug into her palms. Anger and frustration burned in her eyes. She turned to the two men, glaring at them.

“Where were you? How could you let him do this to me, to us?” Tess angrily demanded of Bob. “And you, you call yourself family, but you let that bastard do this as well. You were here when he was. You saw him doing things. Why didn’t you do something or say something? Some observant cop you are, Bob, and an alert soldier you must have been, Hank. What about Tristan and Shannon? How far will that bastard go? I’m certain he sent those men to set fire to our home as a warning.”

“Babe, if I had known, I would have beaten the hell out of him,” Bob replied as he wrapped a towel around her. Hank remained silent and out of the way. Her eyes focused on Bob; depression had started to set in on top of the frustration, overtaking her. Fear and worry for her children were beginning to overwhelm her.

“I’m sorry, Bob, that was unfair of me. I didn’t mean it. It’s just so much to deal with,” Tess said to Bob as she crushed herself against him. “Hank, forgive me. I don’t know what I was thinking or saying.”

“Why don’t you both go inside and have something to eat?”

Hank told them rather than asking them. Bob nodded, taking his wife inside. Katharine came around the side of the house just as Bob and Tess entered the house.

“What happened?” she asked, concerned.

“Tess is trying to make sense of everything and why. She’s concentrating on what that bastard did and in return is questioning why no one was there to stop him, but rightly so,” Hank fumed. “I saw things, just like she said, but I didn’t want to cause any issues. I thought he was just hitting on her as he did to every female he met.”

“How can we help now?” Katharine asked.

“Putting that bastard in a shallow grave would be the best answer,” Hank growled.

It had been years since Katharine had heard such venom uttered from her usually calm, collected, ordinary husband. As far as she knew, he was the least aggressive person she knew, just an ordinary quiet man. He was the one who would walk away from a fight even after being hit. He had changed so much since she had first met him and loved him all the more for it. He had followed her to her birth city just to be near her, he once told her while in a drunken stupor. He had told her several stories of how aggressive he had been and had alluded to having hurt, if not killed, someone while in the army. But that all changed, he had told her, because of her. He didn’t remember saying anything to her. Katharine had asked him about it the next day after his drunken stupor but hadn’t since. He was now a devout pacifist, and the only gun he owned was one she had bought for him for their first anniversary. Even when she suggested going to the gun range for sports shooting, he would decline. So, it was Bob who would take her. She knew that Hank had seen and done some dark things while in the army, but she never pressed the issue after that one drunken night. He had once said he didn’t need to fire a weapon to know that he could still do it. There was fear in his eyes as he said it, and Katharine took it to mean that it would bring back bad memories if he were to fire a weapon. He hadn’t been diagnosed with PTSD, but she was sure it had something to do with his attitude when it came to weapons of any type and his reluctance to react to violence or aggressive people.

“Whose green Mustang is that at the end of the drive?” Katharine asked, changing the subject.

“It’s a corporate vehicle, on loan from the regional manager for the week as a bonus for my last job,” Hank told her.

AdventureMysterySeries
Like

About the Creator

Shawn David Kelley

Prior Service, saw the Berlin Wall dismantled and the aftermath of the Gulf War/ Desert Storm/ Desert Shield. He has drawn upon his unique views of life and science fiction to bring together an alternate reality of excitement.

Reader insights

Be the first to share your insights about this piece.

How does it work?

Add your insights

Comments

There are no comments for this story

Be the first to respond and start the conversation.

Sign in to comment

    Find us on social media

    Miscellaneous links

    • Explore
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms of Use
    • Support

    © 2024 Creatd, Inc. All Rights Reserved.