15
I KNOW HIM!
TEDDY
Early the next morning, he and Sydney worked out in the small gym, then decided to brave it out by leaving the building to run the Rescue Team course through the woods.
Next up? Target practice. With their eye and ear protection in place, they walked to the outdoor range, took their positions at two different stations. And that’s when Sydney came alive.
When she’d finished shredding the paper target from a stationery position, they moved to the tactical area. On his command, she homed in on her target—thirty yards away—and zig-zagged her way toward the stationery dummy, firing round after round.
Sydney Austin did not miss.
Whichever weapon she held became an extension of her. Two hours later, she was glistening with perspiration, smiling big, and done.
“That was fantastic,” she said. “Love how you push me. I need that in a trainer.”
He was happy to be that person for her.
She removed the ear protection. “I need to get up on that rooftop before Monday.”
“I got you.”
“Perfect.” She kissed him. “I’m gonna shower off. Meet you in the conference room.”
She headed toward the building, vanishing inside.
In the conference room, he jumped online to check out the private chat groups on the Dark Web. The first group had over twenty new postings, their anti-American comments so vile he had to leave the room and shake off the immense hatred. He refilled his water bottle in the break room, then returned to drill down into another anti-democracy chat, also spewing their heinous thoughts and ideas.
He had no issues with people having differences of opinion, but the level of contempt blew him away. His grandmother had been married to the head of the Sicilian Mafia, so power and coercion were no strangers to him, but he tried to live his life with Elsa’s guiding words.
Lead with love.
Except that he was a cold-blooded killer. The irony of the situation was not lost on him.
As he scrolled through the comments and photos posted in a newer chat group, adrenaline powered through him. The Haqazzii terrorist had posted two pics of Slash, dressed in her paint fatigues, in Tucker Town.
The caption read:
Here One Minute, Gone the Next
Teddy blurted, “Son of a bitch, he had a bodycam.”
There was a pic of Slash on the ground after she’d been shot.
The caption read:
BANG BANG the Bitch is Dead. One Down. Who’s Next?
Did they see us? Did they see us bring the body to the crematorium?
Teddy screen-shot the posts with the pics, jumped over to ALPHA.net, and reposted with an email to the team before sending them a text.
Check portal
Fury had him shoving out of his chair. He left the conference room, started pacing the hallway. Agitation pounded through him. He wanted to put his fist through the cinderblock. He wanted to rip their limbs off and shove their bodies through a brick wall.
A seething anger filled his dark soul. The one that believed in vengeance. The same one that would fight evil with his own brand of evil.
