Kip rose and headed for the door. He heard jack call out for one of the whores. “Where’s Nadia?” Kip smiled as he left the building. He knew jack was in his element here and would be fine for a couple hours at least.
Kip approached the gate with his rifle slung across his back and his hands raised. “I’m American!” He said.
Annie sat in the first row of the makeshift concert arena and watch Stabbs and Lock and several Marines set up the stage. Sparks sat next to her and Lydell sat on the other side. The sun was dropping and the outdoor halogen spotlights had just kicked on.
Sparks watched as Corporal Dale approached. His perfectly pressed uniform and high polished boots stood out among the rest of the Marines that were present.
Dale stepped behind and walked sideways between the rows of chairs until he sat down directly behind Annie. Sparks watched him all the way, noting that it was odd that he chose a seat in the second row when there were so many in the first.
Sparks had spent enough time with the NYPD to know that something was wrong here. He turned in his seat and gave Dale a nod, and noticed Dale’s gaze was fixated on the back of Annie’s head. He ignored Sparks nod.
Dickhead, Sparks thought.
Then a commotion broke out to the right of the stage. Uniformed Marines were surrounding someone and holding him back from the stage. Sparks leapt to his feet and limped in that direction. Annie started to follow. But then he remembered his sole purpose of being there was to protect Annie, so he turned back around.
Just as he did, he saw Corporal Dale pull his holstered weapon free and aim it at the back of her head. Sparks dove for the Corporal as the shot rang out, distracting everyone in the area, including the excited marines at stage right.
Sparks fell over the chairs that made up the front row and Dale staggered back in horror at what he had just done. Then, regaining his composure, he raised his weapon again and aimed it at Annie, who screamed.
Stabbs and Lock leapt from the stage toward her, but she was too far away for them to reach her in time. Then Lydell swung his arm upward and knocked Dale’s nine millimeter toward the sky, where another round cracked from the barrel. Dale knocked Lydell in the mouth with the butt of his pistol and took aim again at Annie, who stood frozen just as Stabbs and Lock reached her. But it was too late. Dale had the weapon leveled at her face.
Then another crack filled the twilight sky and Dale’s head exploded into a fountain of blood and brain matter. His body collapsed onto the chairs in the second row.
Stabbs and Lock reached Annie at the same time and tackled her to the ground, falling on top of her. When they all looked up they saw Kip walking combat style toward them with his rifle pointed at Corporal Dale’s dead body.
Soon the entire stage area was crawling with Marines. Kip was disarmed and frisked. Corpsmen were called and checked everyone out. Sparks, amazingly, was found to be breathing and more than a little pissed off.
When he was loaded on the stretcher all he could say was, “Shot twice in one week! Fuck me!”
Kip was finally released when he explained satisfactorily what had happened. A platoon was sent to pick up Jack and return him to the base and check out the basement of the Serena Hotel.
The Camp commander was on site. He recognized Kip from his in country days. Kip tried to explain again everything that happened. The camp commander filled Kip in on a few missing pieces, too.
“I never heard from Corporal Dale about your missing band member.” He told Kip.
“And, there is no base rule about not having females in your rooms here. I suspect the Corporal made that up to try to keep Annie away from you. I don’t think he relished the idea of making the assassination attempt a public one. You threw a wrench in the works. What happened in front of the stage was a last resort.”
Kip laid in bed with Annie that night, explaining all that he had learned about who was trying to kill her. She could not believe it any more than the camp commander could at first. But Kip had pictures of the dead bodies, and Jack to back up the story. Sparks verified that one of the men was indeed Deputy Reynolds from the NYPD. The other man could not be identified. The doctor was notorious and a wanted terrorist. Kip would get credit for taking him out.
“But, Kip, I don’t even have that notebook anymore,” Annie told him. “I pitched that thing after I finished the book.”
“They didn’t know that, Annie,” Kip said. “They said they had to be sure the information did not get out. Not being able to find the notebook, they turned their sights on you.”
Annie shivered at the thought of it. A government conspiracy to have her killed.
“But Kip, there is no proof. Not without identifying the body in the basement of the hotel.”