This story is based on two gay men. You must be above the legal age of 18 (or as stipulated by your country/state) to read this story. If this story is illegal in your area, PLEASE DO NOT READ IT. This story is a work of ficition. Any similarity of the characters to any person is clearly a coincidence. All other usual disclaimers apply.
Send your feedback or critisim to mikeinstudio9344(at)yahoo(dot)com o follow me @ http://www.gayauthors.org/forums/user/12573-michael9344/ The Game
Chapter 10 - The Call
"McCall! McCall!"
The scream froze McCall in his tracks, barely out of the door.
"What the...?" He turned back as the door autolocked behind him.
Damn! He bolted around the side and vaulted straight through the security-screened dining-room windows, boots first, ripping the guts from the steel mesh and setting off the alarm system.
"Jake!" He yelled, landing upright in a half tangle of ripped netting and mangled metal.
Jake skidded into the dining room from the hallway, his eyes wild. McCall heard Jake's wounded cry through the shrikering alarm. "Somebody was here. He grabbed me, put a knife to my throat, but I slammed my elbow into his solar plexus and he dropped the knife when I screamed your name." He panted, his face white and terrified. "I think he escaped through the manhole. I heard sounds coming from the laundry."
McCall knew he had to recon the house, search for evidence; but he found himself holding Jake a nanosecond later. "You okay, Jake?" he asked gruffly, feeling the thumping of Jake's heart against his chest as he smoothed Jake's hair with the soothing touch reserved for the gentling of wild animals. For a man who had long ago accepted that he'd always be a loner, holding this man in his arms felt so damn right...
Jake nodded against his chest. "You did this to me. You came here and my quiet, safe life blew up in my face."
One of life's grimmer ironies - he'd come to save Jake, but he'd merely landed him in greater danger.
"I'll make it right again," McCall murmured against Jake's ear. "I'm going to make life better for you and Danny. I swear it."
The slight shaking against McCall's body worried him, until he realized it was laughter, dry and edged with the hysteria of released fear. "You know, McCall, you should try to get that God complex of yours under control. You can't fix my life, anyone else's. You're only human."
McCall looked at Jake with wry humor. "Believe me, I know I'm not God... sometimes I wonder if I rank as human." The moment shattered with his words; he could feel Jake's withdrawal. "I'll check the house. If someone got in here, they have to have been an expert."
One quick recon of the house confirmed it. With Jake's security system and his on top, this had to be the work of a pro. Hell, yeah. Through the roof and into manhole - and back out again the same way - and all without setting off the intircate alarm system he'd put in place for Jake's protection.
'How?' He'd covered the whole perimeter, every contingency planned for. How the hell did they disable no less than three sets of four-way systems with him in the house?
Suspicion confirmed. This had to be the work of an expert sneak thief - or a Nighthawk who had intimate knowledge of the system he'd set up.
Why would an expert who'd done such an elaborate work to take Jake run at first sign of trouble? Why not give him a shot and take him?
'Danny. They were after Danny.'
McCall didn't waste time with the expletives. "Arm yourself. Lock this window, and everything else. Go at it while I'm still in the perimeter. And stay away from the windows." He vaulted back through the window and bolted for his high-tech, full throttle motorbike. He punched in a number in his cell phone as he ran. "Break-in at the suubjects house - attempted abduction. Professional job - suspect rouge is in the perimeter. Target's son safe at another location. Will locate suspect and follow to be sure he's not after the boy. I'm moving the entire team in ASAP - two to subjects house, ywo to where the boy is."
"Roger that, Flipper." Ghost replied tersely. "We'll leave Austraila tonight, as soon as we get clearnace and call in the full team and equipment. We'll be in the vicinity by 0800."
McCall disconected, locked his semiautomatic and shoved on night googles as he ran, checking the roof. Oh, yeah. One busted tile. Clumsy - too clumsy for an expert - yet he'd disabled twe high-tech security systems without alert, and got away while he was right here. This was no pro who'd needed to escape in a tearing hurry, who risked it all so that he wouldn't be seen. Which was fair enough - but something inside the story rankled. Was this some kind of crazy setup that made sense only to the prepetrator? Did he bolt because his pimary target was Danny and not Jake - or was the specailzed Glock he'd have to kill McCall with would confirm his identity as a Nighthawk?
A fadiing set of taillights on the southern road toward the maninland car ferry gave him the probable target. Checking the opposite direction in case of red herrings, he saw only dark empitiness. Flashing a high-beam flashlight he kept in his jacket at all times, he saw nothing hiding in the shrubs lining the road, no glint of light on metal, chrome or even plastic. So he had no choice but to go for the obvious.
He threw himself onto the Ducati and revved it up.
"Give me a helmet! You're taking me to my son."
McCall started. Jake was already on behind him, snatching the helmet from his hands. "We can't risk it. Go inside!"
"Don't waste time. He must be after Danny. I'm not waiting here for more of his men to get me - and you can't bring my son back on your own. Even you can't pull off miracles. You need help." Jake pulled on the helmet and moved against him, into riding position. "I don't care who you work for anymore - you can get me to Danny fast, and that's all I want."
McCall tamped down his impatience. He understood Jake, but he'd blow this case wide open if only he could see the face of the person in that car. "They went the oposite direction of the Richard's house. Danny's safe for now, Jake..."
"What knid of spy are you, McCall?" Jake yelled, crushing his ribs in his tight grip. "You think he disabled a security system and broke in alone, in silence? If they were smart, they took two cars, one for distraction while the other takes Danny!"
"Yeah, they probably did, and if they're smart, they'll follw us there. 'Think' Jake! If someone is waiting in a secondary car, we could lead them straight to Danny, and they could out number us ten to one. Danny's safe without us there."
"What if they followed Donna and Ken eariler, right to the house?" Jake shouted fiercely.
Damn, Jake was smart. "I'll cover it. I'll move my people in to secure the Richards house and they'll call the the local cops to help. Trust me, I'll make sure he's safe."
"Fine." Jake growled, the wounded father lion wanting to protect his cub. "But you can't guarantee he's not already in that car. I'm coming with you. Just go!" Jake snapped, wrapping his arms around him, molding his legs to McCall's butt and thighs. Snuggling against him as he'd done in the kitchen, when he'd had his eager hands on his hafl naked body...
'Stuff it in a sock, McCall. Danny could be in that car!'
McCall took off after the dissapperaing car, knowing he had to go this way first. But if Danny wasn't in it, he somehow had to get back to the Richards' house or send backup, stat. As McCall revved the engine harder, he yelled. "Can you grab the left handlebar? I need to ensure backup is following orders."
Jake's chest met his back as he streched, making small cirles of frustration until he gripped it. "I can't hold it for long" Jake cried.
McCall hit the button on the two-way in his jacket pocket, pulled out the attached earpiece and shoved it in his ear to receive. "Nighthawks in Project Falcon, this is Commander One calling for immediate assistance. Wildman and Braveheart to 34 Post Road ASAP with all protective measures, including police. Target's son is to be protected at all costs. Child's name is Danny. If approach necessary, tell him Brendan sent you. Panther and Heidi, head to subject's house to secure and collect evidence. Subject is with me, tailing suspect heading south on the road to car ferry."
Within seconds all operatives responded in the affirmative, and the directional device proved that each operative was in his or her proper place. None of the four of them could be the rouge, then... they couldn't have gone so far in five minutes.
McCall couldn't vouch for Jake's house remaining unmolested; but right now, Danny was all that mattered - and finding the bastard who could terrorize an innocent man but didn't dare face him.
But McCall wasn't so focused that he couldn't still feel Jake's arms holding him, Jake's body curving into his back, butt and thighs like a lover's urgent caress - the starving-man-on-fire caress Jake had given him minutes before - and it shoveled testosterone on adrenaline like a raw fuel tossed on an exploding fire.
McCall took the handle bar again and kicked up the accelerator to one-forty, letting it scream over the winding back road. Loving the speed, and the feel of Jake holding him so close, McCall could hardly breathe.
He leaned far out, angling his knees to compensate for bends like a motorcycle racer, but without padding, his jeans tore and his knees ripped and bled before the third bend. Didn't matter; he had Jake safe, and they would catch up to this jerk. Close, closer - while the car before them screeched and swerved in the darkness and the night wind roared in his ears and froze his face.
McCall's heart thundered and his eyes burned, but for once it wasn't the trill of the chase, or fulfilling objectives given by headquaters. This time he was totally involved and he'd make the roadkill of himself before he's top now. Good people were dying because of his filth, and Jake and Danny Silver derserved to have a happy life - hell, they derserved a life, a life free of the man who only wanted revenge, and an heir for an illegal empire.
They roared through the back roads towards the township. "Ferry's a few miles ahead." Jake yelled in his ear.
The only straight stretch of road came ahead. McCall blasted the guts out of the engine, came up behind the car and screeched around it until they rode alongside the back door of the sedan.
"Use this." McCall yelled, passing the flashlight to Jake.
The car careened toward them, he swerved. Jake screamed, losing balance; the flashlight flew out of his hand and smached on the road. He had to fall back. He'd take the risk with his life but never with Jake's. Unlike him, Jake worth something.
He tailgated the car, awaiting a chance.
A minute later, the twinkling lights of the car ferry terminal came into view, at the end of the gently descending road. The ferry was waiting on the north side of the water.
He had to try again. Revving the bike until the engine whined in protest, he flew south, ready to pass the turbo sedan.
"We'll have five seconds to do this." He shouted. "Check the car out as fact as you can." With that he roared around, revving the Ducati so that they pass the car before the driver could smach into them again.
Though they were going one-forty, it felt as if they were inching up beside the car. Combined with the weaving McCall had to do to avoid the bashing attack of the big hard sedan, it felt surreal, as if he'd gone into another world, a movie set in slow-motion. But finially they drew level with the car. "Look fast."
"I can't see him!" Jake screamed.
There was only one 'him' Jake was interested in, and may Anson shoot him later for it, McCall didn't bother to look at the driver. "One occupant only, and Danny won't be in the trunk. Falcone wouldn't stand for such treatment of his son."
He felt Jake's body sag against his in relief. "I want to go to him. Please I want to know that my son is safe."
A week ago, his answer would be a clear-cut no way. A week ago, he'd been a Nighthawk through and through, first and last, one hundred percent focused on Iding the perp in the car.
Now he felt torn. This renegade had taken Nighthawks lives and stolen their mermories. He or she was aiding Falcone in his quest for domination of the illegal-arms world, but all McCall could see in his vision was a thin, sweet little face, with a smile like the sun and hands that rembled when he was scared...
'There are operatives there in place, ready to protect Danny...'
Wildman and Braveheart were the best operatives but they were big and dark and intense. Danny didn't know them, and he was so easily intimidated.
"Let's go!" As the car almost smached into them again, McCall turned the bike and roared toward the Richards' house with only the briefest glance at the driver - a tall, blond - female?
Angel? He couldn't confirm ID. But he had a description for Anson, and right now, he had two living subjects for protection.
Racing through the night on an amazing machine he wouldn't have dreamed of touching as a kid, with the man of his dreams, the career that had been everything to him a few months ago didn't amount to a hill of beans. Nothing seemed to mean anyhthing compared to the man clinging to him now, and the little kid they raced to find.