Two days after the meet-and-greet, we get a call from Cunningham himself.I take that call and set it all up. While we doubt Cunningham would remember Eddie’s voice in particular, we take no chances.
Not when we’re this close.
The private meeting can’t happen for two weeks, because he’s already booked plane tickets to visit his grandkids and doesn’t want to disappoint them.
I hope they enjoy their last visit with their grandfather.
However, that gives us two weeks to finalize our arrangements, now that we have a meeting time and place with the colonel. We’re using a short-term vacation rental house and he’s arriving alone because I told him there were others who also wanted to meet with him, but because of how their PACs were set up, they wanted discretion and anonymity.
We won’t be there long.
Just long enough to drug and move him.
And we’re going to set it up to look like he met a lover at the house. The rental isn’t traceable to any of us, and it was rented online through a booking app, using a fake name and ID to secure it.
A fake name and ID through which we set up false trails to easily lead back to Cunningham.
After so many years spent dreaming about this date, two weeks feels like an eternity to me. I know Eddie must be enduring even more emotional turmoil considering what he suffered at the hands of that monster.
Our final preparations speed along at a breakneck pace. We practice over and over again. Not just our plan, but different contingencies. We map alternate routes. We time different routes over several times of day.
We fuck like horny high schoolers every night, like it’s our last night on Earth, because we know there will soon be a night that it just might be.
There’s a sweet irony knowing the money I’ve been paid by my government to hunt others will be used to permanently remove this rabid apex predator from the jungle once and for all, and it’s a culling that’s long overdue.
I’ve waited a long time for this moment. Before Eddie, I never understood how much the former colonel deserved to die.
Savoring it will have to wait until we’ve successfully completed our mission.
One thing I didn’t expect was having someone like Eddie at my side when I finally avenged Pete and Tommy and Carter. I don’t even mean romantically or sexually.
I mean someone with similar training and skillsets as I possess. Someone I don’t have to second-guess their every step, because they’re as careful and exacting as I am. Someone who I know I don’t have to watch over their shoulder while we take our revenge.
This will be glorious.
We’re three days from the meeting with Cunningham when I receive a text from Carter, who’s been silent ever since the night of the ball.
Need to talk. Call me, Sig.
Followed by what I suspect is a burner phone number.
No way will Carter rat us out. Especially considering what I know he endured.
I wonder if this is him trying to talk us out of our plan in a misguided attempt to keep us safe. Right now, Eddie’s out scouting our kill locations again. We have four potentials, because we wanted contingencies. We need to make sure there are no surprises once we make our move.
This means I’m alone and able to speak freely.
On a burner phone of my own, I call Carter using the Signal app after tapping into a VPN. “What’s up, little bro?”
“When is this going down?”
“When is what going down?”
“You fucking know what I mean.”
I hesitate. I don’t like communicating this way so close to our operation. The app’s not nearly as secure as people think it is, which is why I usually use several layers of safeguards. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You mean you don’t want me involved.”
