Karma

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My leg still bothered me a bit, but not enough to stop me from keeping in shape. The dry Arizona climate helped. I didn't run, but I did jog. Down through the valley, up past old man Thompson's place to the hill top. Rest on a big flat rock and admire mother nature for a bit, then come back down.

Thompson was a hoot. In his teens his dad built the house, with a huge bomb shelter underneath. A hidden bomb shelter. He had outside accesses under two different big fake rocks down the hill from the house if he had to get out in a hurry. Another access was hidden behind the vanity in the downstairs three quarter bath, and another under the fake sump pit in the garage. People just never bothered to ask why a house at the top of a hill needed a sump pump.

I shook my head when he showed it to me. He had enough food and water to hole up for months in there. I asked him if he ever watched girls shower through the two way vanity mirror, he just grinned.

I kept in touch with most of the old team, using them if the occasion arose. I also kept an eye on Mary. Okay, I obsessed on Mary. She just didn't know it.

Her new place was wired with several dozen mics, and ONE video camera in the living room ceiling looking back toward the kitchenette. If she got serious about anyone, man or woman, they were checked out to hell and back, quite often by agencies that have no name.

If they were dirty in any way, it came to light in a public way. Usually cops or FBI were called with anonymous tips if they were really bad. Three of them just disappeared, what two of them did with little kids didn't justify wasting oxygen on any of them.

A few of her relationships flourished for a while. But almost to a T, they wanted to turn Mary into a girlie girl instead of accepting her like she was. I made sure that she received all sorts of special offers for gym memberships, firing ranges, and beta testing on various new weapons.

We would often go shooting when we were in service, and it was a toss-up on any given day who was the better shot. I let her win once in a while, and I have a suspicion she did the same.

I knew something was up when old man Thompson was killed in an accident, and Spider bought his old place across the valley from me. I never did know his actual name. His 'girlfriend' was going nuts remodeling, but it appeared she hadn't done anything with the downstairs half bath yet.

I spotted two guys tailing me a week ago, either really sloppy or they wanted me to know they were there. Typical soldier wanna bees, looking the type but would probably piss their pants if it came to anything 'real'. I double checked my preparations just in case.

A few days later it came to a head. I came back from my run, to see Harry, Mary, and the two rent a soldiers standing outside my door. The mini's making an obvious bulge under their bad sports jackets.

I stopped and looked at Harry, Mary averted her eyes when I looked at her, the two goons just glared. "Hey Harry."

"Brad." Harry said nodding.

I glanced at the two idiots again, "So this is it huh?" Mary looked away.

Harry shrugged, "You pissed in Ian's Wheaties a few too many times."

More like I fucked up his attempts to get to Mary too many times. A number of the assholes I got out of her life were friends of his. I had my suspicions he was going to set it up so he could rush in and 'save' her from them.

"I didn't want it to be nasty," he continued. "Give a man some respect the way he goes out."

"I appreciate that." I looked over my shoulder at the valley, a plan coming together. "You know, if I was to take another run up the valley, I'd get to that big rock at the top around sunset. Would be kinda nice to just sit there and watch the sun set one last time."

Harry looked at me a moment, then nodded slowly.

I held up my almost empty bottle of water, "Fresh bottle?' I asked shaking it.

He nodded, then pointed to stooge number one and then me.

He followed me in the house. I grabbed a bottle from the fridge, then reached for my fanny pack on my waist.

"Hold it right there," pulling his mini from under his jacket.

"Just throwing away the trash." I held the crumpled wrappers to him. "You want to toss them in the bin?"

He waved the mini toward the bin. I shrugged and stepped to it, tossing them in and grabbing two from the stack on the counter, slipping them in my fanny pack and zipping it up.

We came back out, Harry was still standing there. Mary had moved away from him a bit and was watery eyed. I grinned inwardly, there was hope she wasn't an eager, or maybe even willing, participant in this.

I stepped to Harry with my hand out. He clasped it and I pulled him in for a man hug patting him on the back. "You let her come to any harm, and I'll haunt you for all eternity," I whispered in his ear.

Harry was wide eyed as I pulled back. "You bring Gertrude, or do I have a week to see if these numb nuts can figure out what end the bullet comes out of?"

Mary snorted grinning and Harry laughed. He put a hand up when stooge number two was acting like he was going to start stomping up. "You better get going Brad. I wouldn't want you to miss that sunset."

I started to step away when Harry said, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

I turned back to see him holding a little clip-on mic. "Really?"

"Ian."

I sighed and stepped back to him to let him clip it on, Ian wanted to hear me die. That wasn't going to happen.

I started down the valley at a slow jog with a bit of an exaggerated limp, no sense in giving them any hint at my true physical condition. I wasn't going to win any sprint, but I had endurance. As soon as I was partially obscured by some bushes I reached into my pack and pulled out the earwig. It was listening to the bug I planted on Harry during our hug, the one that was between the snack bars.

"... gonna let him just walk away!" it was one of the two stooges.

"Relax, there's nothing out there but the one house, and Spider is camped out there. He has nowhere to go and he knows it."

"Harry..." I heard Mary croak.

Harry sighed, "You know it has to be this way. Brad knows I'll take a clean shot, do it quick. If I didn't do it, Ian would just send some other numb nuts that can't shoot worth a damn, or worse yet take a few pot shots before finishing him off."

I started huffing like I was a bit out of breath. "You know Harry, I've never done this twice in one day. I might just keel over and save you the bullet."

I could hear the goons laughing. "Out of shape old fart!"

I could hear the tears in Mary's voice. "Harry."

"It's what he wanted. A man has a right to face death in his own way."

Or avoid it. Ian always did overlook the simple things. I was the planner of the group, always made certain to have plans within plans within plans. Made me smile.

I was getting close to the turn, still huffing, almost hyper-ventilating, but I had to make it sound good.

"Mary, I left something for you."

"WHAT!" I heard in my ear.

"In about a week or so you'll get an email. It has everything I've collected over the last few years on Ian. The password is Caroline's favorite color." I heard a bad female noise.

There was always the chance I wouldn't make it out of this. I huffed a bit more, "Mary, I've never said it, but I love you. I have since that day I saw you and Caroline coming out of the shower." Now Mary was crying.

"And Harry, how did the Air Force know when and where to launch that rocket that took out Caroline?"

Mary's crying stopped, and I would bet Harry was being stared at if not glared at. I had went all the way back to the beginning, back to the raid that ended Caroline's life. It was all very circumstantial, but a soldier never believes in coincidences. Ian had given away Caroline's position to take her out of Mary's life. His ego assumed she'd come running to him instead of Harry.

I made some grunting noises, then I put my thumb over the mic hole effectively muting it. While all hell was breaking loose up there, I rolled it in my t-shirt, then proceeded to dodge uphill a few yards to move the fake rock covering old man Thompson's escape hatch.

I did my best to cover my tracks dragging my t-shirt, then tossed the mic as far into the bushes as I could. I slipped down the pipe and pulled the cover shut behind me dogging the catches. Even if they found it, it would take more than their muscle to open it.

I stumbled along in the dark with my hand on the wall for a bit until I found a switch. I flicked it on long enough to get my bearings under the mid-way hatch, then shut it off and made my way to the end of the tunnel.

Once inside I turned the lights on and hit the switch. A little rumble told me that no one was going to be using the far hatch I came in through, as it was now filled with rock.

I took inventory of my situation. If Harry thought I was dead, keeled over. He wouldn't be in any great hurry to check, but he would check. I powered up old man Thompson's various equipment and checked the pantry.

Not gourmet by any means, but at least I had convinced old man Thompson to upgrade his old Vietnam era MRE's to something a bit more modern. I started going through the upstairs camera feeds while heating up my Pasta Alfredo. A few of the pinhole cameras had been painted over, but I had the critical ones.

It was rather comical to see Spider and his buddies all riled up. Harry was yelling at them on the radio to go find my body. Seems that Spider was more interested in banging the girl than he was on keeping an eye on me during my jog. Didn't need to crouch behind those bushes after all. My leg would have appreciated knowing that ahead of time. Surprise, surprise, he was just as arrogant as Ian.

I watched them dash out the side door pulling their pants up with pistols in the air. It would be Karma if one of them shot themselves.

The girl padded around a bit, not bothering with clothes. She wasn't bad looking, but an obvious set of fake tits didn't help. I heard her take a shower, but didn't peep. She looked a bit better afterwards, but not much.

The little rings in her pussy lips weren't bad, but the clit ring standing straight out was more than I really needed to see. She looked like one of those dolls you pull the string, but the ring was in her clit instead of the middle of her back.

A couple hours later the guys came back all pissed. They hadn't found my body in the fading light, but they didn't find the access hatch either. They were too stupid to take flashlights. If they were as non-talented as I remembered, they probably walked all over it eliminating any signs of it being there.

I warmed up some Teriyaki Rice for supper and sat back enjoying the show. They were on cell phones instead of radios so I couldn't hear both sides, but it became apparent that Ian was not pleased. All he had was what sounded like me keeling over, but no body to proclaim I was dead.

I listened for three more days, and I shook my head at her pussy rings. She had a large one that went through all of them to hold her pussy open and tug on her clit as she got fucked hard and deep.

But this operation was coming to a close, and they said they were going to kill the girl and dump her body on the way out. Her only error was seeing their faces. If I knew Ian, the crew wouldn't live much longer after that. I decided to step up everybody's time table.

After a night of drinking and party fucking, the house was quiet.

I slipped the suppressor on the 9mm and went to the garage entrance. Slowly lifting the sump pit, I saw no sign of life. I snickered, knowing soon there would really be no signs of life.

The two numb nuts were easy, they were passed out in the game room. One shot apiece between the eyes. The fat asshole was passed out in bed, he got the same. That left Spider and the girl.

I stepped slowly into the room, reaching under the pillow and tossing his gun on the floor. On her side of the bed I lightly tapped her shoulder. She came awake with a start, and I had to put my hand over her mouth.

"I'm not here to hurt you. Understand?" She nodded under my grip. I slowly let my hand come off her mouth, she didn't look like she was going to scream, but she did glance at Spider once.

"He's going to have problems of his own in a few minutes." She grinned. I put my finger to my lips, she nodded again. "Get dressed and take the Camaro. There's some cash and the clean title in the glove box. Get as far away from here as you can. Understand?"

She slipped out of bed, sliding her jeans on as she slipped her feet into her sandals. She had her bra and top in hand, then stopped and kissed my cheek before dashing up the stairs with sides of tit appearing and disappearing as she went. She didn't look too bad from the back side, but that big ring still in her pussy rings made for quite the keyhole.

As soon as I heard the car pull out I pulled a chair to the end of the bed and flipped on the light on the night stand.

I had to tap his foot with the suppressor to get him to wake up. It took a bit for the scene to get through his alcohol fuzzed brain. The look on his face when he realized I was sitting at the end of the bed alive was priceless. The realization I had a weapon in my hand was almost as good.

"What the hell you think you're going to get away with?" he asked as his hand slowly slid toward the pillow.

"It's not there."

His hand dashed under, but he slumped when he gripped nothing. He pulled himself up to a sitting position.

"Now Spider, just what do you think I should do with you? I mean here you were all ready to put a bullet in me."

"Hey man, it was just business."

"And the girl?" he glanced over just now realizing she was gone. "I mean picking up some girl for some entertainment, knowing you were just going to kill her and dump the body just because she saw your butt ugly face. That's just cold man."

He started to bring his legs together like he thought he had a chance to jump me.

"Spread 'em," as I tapped his ankle.

"What?" playing dumb. Then again he might not have been playing.

I put a round into the mattress between his thighs. He jumped, spread his legs... and pissed the bed.

I shook my head but didn't take my eyes off him. "Really spider? Here I thought I was going to have some fun torturing you. But I don't even get close to starting to have fun and you already pissed the bed like a little kid."

He growled and started to roll forward. I shot him in the balls.

He howled and howled as his hands covered his crotch. Just as the pain was settling in I put a bullet between his eyes. What a pathetic excuse for breathing.

I went to the garage, tripped the switch on the sump pump, hopped in the pickup, and rolled on down the hill away from my past life. Just as I hit the valley there was a loud boom behind me. I wasn't positive the explosives old man Thompson had were going to go off due to their age, but that old UDT man sure knew his stuff. Even from five miles away it was impressive. There might not be enough of Spider and his friends left to even know they were ever there.

I tooled along, and four hours east I pulled into a nice small town, but still big enough to have a wrong side of town. I grabbed my pack and tossed the keys on the seat, knowing that by this time tomorrow the truck would be in a million pieces and scattered to hell and back.

A half hour of walk and bus ride combined across town brought me to a small house. Punching the code, I entered and looked around. Brad just became Brian.

Mary didn't get home until the following day, and sorry to say I was glad she looked like shit. It confirmed she wasn't in favor of what happened. She took a long shower, and it sounded like she was crying.

She came back into the living room in her fuzzy pajamas and bunny slippers with a gallon of chocolate mint. It was nasty stuff to me, but it was her comfort food. She binge watched chick flicks, I had to turn the sound off, for the rest of the day while she inhaled three tubs of ice cream. At least she ran out of chocolate mint and switched to chocolate chip for the last one.

Three days later she grumbled to herself and put her sweats on and did her morning run. I smiled when she didn't let him in the door. Two days after Ian had made his appearance to console her, I sent her the email. She stared at her inbox for two more days before opening it.

When she read the part about Caroline being sold out she wailed. She threw things, almost trashing her own apartment. She got totally shit faced. I was almost ready to call the paramedics. But she cleaned herself up the next morning and finished reading. It was two more days before she went on her run... and somebody in a black track suit and mask rummaged through her apartment. I rang the doorbell remotely and played a FedEx delivery announcement through the speaker. They left out the back window without doing much.

When she returned I sent an email as she was getting out of the shower. I had a feeling Ian was having her watched. 'Do you want to know more?'

Mary reached for the keyboard half a dozen times. 'Yes', and hit send.

I was dancing for joy, and would have been turning cartwheels if I was still able.

'I will contact you in a few days.'

Her eyes bugged out and her fingers flew, 'BRAD?'

',-p'

Mary wailed collapsing on the desk, then to the floor. She managed to get standing and just stared at the screen smiling. I almost sent another email reminding her she was about out of ice cream, but that could have been a bit weird.

Time to dig in. I had access to a lot of security cameras and such in her neighborhood and surrounding area. Now it was time to go deep. I hacked every camera I could find, including every city and traffic camera. By the next day I had a plan. I flew to Tempe to finalize my plan. The one area of town that didn't have squat for cameras now got mine. Tapped into the city network, but secure and encrypted. MINE!

I had also been keeping an eye on Mary, or more appropriately, the people following her. She spotted one of them on foot, but not the other two in cars. I tagged every one of them with a heavy dose of IR paint so the drones would spot them easily, cars and bodies. It wasn't the healthiest for them, but neither was a round between the eyes if they hurt her.

I was pleased to see Mary had checked and repacked her big go bag. She had an inkling something was up.

I sent a text this time.

'Still a go?'

'Yes!'

'Go to The Crossroads, south circle seating. Sit under the maple tree. Leave your phone behind.'

Mary tossed her phone on the counter, grabbed her go bag and was out the door before the phone was done skidding across the counter. I waited until the goon stormed in and picked up the phone before I sent the scramble code. He screamed as the phone melted in his hands. The battery exploded about the time he dropped it.

I followed Mary through traffic on the cameras, dumb and dumber were just a few cars behind her. She either didn't see them, or knew I would take care of her. Pulling into the first open space she found and not bothering with the meter. Bag over her shoulder on a determined walk.

Each car let a man out to follow, I grinned as she glanced in the store windows. Good girl, using the reflections to check her tail. She grinned and shook her head. Probably thinking the same thing I was. Stupid amateurs!

She sat where I told her to, and I waited for the other two idiots to park and join them so everybody was on foot. They were as subtle as sledge hammers. Mary's head was on a swivel.

I pinged the phone taped to the underside of the bench. Mary looked around, then felt under the bench coming out with the phone grinning.

'Parking garage to the east, second floor, black Jeep with a Cowboys decal. Get in the back seat on the floor, lock the doors, and pull the blanket over you. Dump this phone in the trash.'