Chapter 42

  Jesse was about to step into the shower when his cell phone rang. He didn't recognize the local number.

  "Hello."

  "Mr. Taylor?" the caller asked.

  "Yes, this is Taylor. Who am I speaking with?"

  "This is Captain Gorvin. I just received a call from a Sargent, Laska, from a town just up the river. He took an emergency call from a young man who said that he had witnessed two murders and that the killer was coming after him and his girlfriend. He said the killer was driving a dark-colored Mercedes Van. I have a chopper warming up. Are you and Mr. Jackson interested in going for a ride?"

  "Have a car pick us up in five minutes," Jesse responded quickly.

  Jesse called Ken and informed him of the development. Four minutes later, they were waiting outside the front entrance of the Intercontinental Hotel when a Police cruiser pulled up. They were driven across the Vltava River to a waiting chopper that had set down in an open area of Letna Park. The cruiser pulled up behind several other police vehicles with lights flashing. They ran with their heads lowered toward the Bell 412, that was painted in the blue and gray colors of the Prague police. Once inside, they were given headsets and a place to sit. Jesse was surprised by the size of the chopper. Besides Captain Gorvin, ten swat team members were in full body armor, all carrying the new CZ 805 BREN A1 assault rifle.

  Gorvin gave the thumbs-up sign to the pilot, and the chopper was airborne seconds later. At just under six miles, the flight was very short. On the way, Gorvin informed Jesse that the area in question was remote and wooded and that the city of Roztoky was on the opposite side of the river from where the alleged killings took place. With no bridge access to the opposite shore, a police patrol car from Roztoky would take a long time to get to the scene; however, a police patrol boat had been dispatched.

  *****

  Ivan was slow to recover, and Alexey dove for the Beretta and yelled, “Run Annika!”

  The approaching storm clouds had brought the night much quicker. The sun was almost down, and the trees and undergrowth were masked in almost complete darkness. Ivan was still rocked by the pain in his shoulder, but he couldn’t let the young Czech get his gun. He knew the girl wouldn’t get far on her bad leg and concentrated on the boy. He was about to attack the boy when he was hit squarely on his bad arm by the bitch; she had found a fallen tree branch that was the perfect club length. Annika knew what their fate would be if she did nothing. Pain shot through Ivan’s entire body, and he rolled to one side, withering in agony. He was about to get up when he was hit again on his bad arm and then in his face.

  "Aahhh, you fucking bitch!" Ivan screamed.

  For Ivan, playtime was over. He reached for the knife in his boot and pulled it out. Then he heard the telltale thump of the chopper blades cutting through the air. It was coming up the river, and he knew instantly that he was fucked.

  *****

  Alexey was searching for the gun when he heard Ivan cry out in pain. He looked and saw the killer was on his back, and Annika was on her feet and making her way up the hill. Then he saw the knife in the killer's hand, and his heart sank. Alexey couldn't see it, but Ivan's face was contorted in a rage of pure evil. He wanted blood lust. He wanted to look into their faces as he shoved the knife deep into their bowels and slowly ripped them open! Nothing less would do. If only he had the time.

  *****

  The Bell 412 was soon joined by a much smaller MBB Bo 105, and both choppers headed up the river side by side with their spotlights lighting up both sides of the river. As they approached the ravine, the smaller chopper continued searching along the river, and the larger Bell searched the road that led off into the trees and up the ravine. Almost immediately, the Bell’s spotlight found the silver Toyota on the gravel road. On the edge of the bright light, Captain Gorvan spotted the motorbike and pointed it out to the man controlling the spotlight.

  “Over there…work the light up the hill,” Gorvan shouted into his lip mic and pointed in the direction of the motorbike.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  The man acknowledged with a nod, then pointed the spotlight on the motorbike.

  “PG1, this is PG4; we spotted a silver sedan and a motorbike just off the river leading into the ravine. We’ll drop off several men here. Work your way up the ravine from the river to the top of the hill.”

  “Copy that PG4.”

  “Set it down on the road just behind the sedan Nikola,” Gorvan ordered.

  The pilot acknowledged and set the chopper down softly.

  “Sargent, take six men with you. Leave one at the sedan and the rest, work up the hill, and keep your ranks close. We’ll try and spot them from the air.”

  “Copy that.”

  After the chopper was set down, the units were deployed in precise order. Jesse found himself very impressed by the professionalism of the Czech Swat Team. There was no doubt in his mind that if the killer was out there, these men would find him.

  Back in the air, both choppers were now blanketing the hill and ravine in a crisscrossing grid search. The powerful spotlights penetrated the darkness, lighting up the hillside in a blinding bright light.

  “Over there, someone’s coming down the hill fast.” One of the Swat Team Members shouted.

  *****

  Ivan cursed the fuckin Czechs for outwitting him. They must have called the police after all. Ivan only had a few minutes to kill them and make his escape. The girl would be easy. He might even have time to have a little fun with her before he killed her. But first, he had to take care of the boy in front of him. He wouldn’t have the luxury of watching him die slowly, though. Time was not on his side.

  *****

  Alexey also heard the choppers coming. Then he saw the spotlights coming up the river, cutting a swath through the night, and he had to make a quick decision. He knew that help had arrived, but he had to get to an opening for them to spot him. If he followed Annika and tried to protect her, they would probably both be killed by the madman. He decided to go for help and hoped that Annika could hide from him until the police arrived.

  “Find what I told you to look for, Annika. I’ll go for help!” Alexey yelled out as loud as he could and turned to head down the hill, hoping that the killer would follow him and not Annika.

  Ivan was on his feet again, and he went after the boy with the knife in his good hand. The boy slowed down about a third of the way down the hill. Something was wrong, and his survival instincts told him to be cautious, but his rage overruled his instincts. He was going to cut him down. Then he saw the boy look back with what appeared to be a smile on his lips, although it was too dark to tell. A few seconds later, he knew why. Alexey had been waiting for him, and he released a dead tree branch just at the right moment. A stiff tree branch sprang forward, caught him flush across the mouth, and knocked him backward and onto the ground. He landed on his bad hip, and it opened up his wound. The branch's main limb was bad enough, but the secondary branches off of it did a lot of damage as well.

  "Ahaa…you fucking little bastard, after I kill you, I'm going to cut your heart out and feed it to the fish!" Ivan screamed.

  That wasn’t going to happen. Alexey was already twenty yards down the hill and moving fast. Ivan could taste blood in his mouth, and his hand went to his face, where he found that his lip was busted open as well as his nose, and something was running into one of his eyes; more blood from a large gash above it. Ivan put a finger into his mouth and found that one of his front teeth was loose. Then he heard the chopper getting closer and saw the spotlight moving up the hill toward him. This was not working out the way he had planned. Now his rage wouldn’t be satisfied until he found the bitch.

  *****

  The temperature was dropping fast, and fog was starting to lift off the river and up its banks. Annika shivered uncontrollably despite the perspiration dripping off her forehead in the cool night air. Just twenty feet inside the cave entrance, she froze in her tracks. The darkness inside was absolute. She sensed an eerie foreboding creeping into her veins. Something on the cave floor was wet and slippery, and the pungent smell made her nauseous. Fear gripped her entire body, and she was unable to move. Finally, she turned, and the ambient light coming from the cave entrance made the total darkness around her seem less terrifying. She headed for it like a sailor being drawn by a sirens call. Annika had always been afraid of the dark. She had to choose between fearing the unknown on the inside or the monster waiting for her on the outside.

  *****

  Ivan’s chance at killing the boy had slipped from his hands. His lust for killing would not stop until he found the girl. The thought of the two young lovers having sex on the blanket increased his hatred for the bitch all the more. When he first entered the boys’ prison camp, he was the bitch. He was passed around, traded for, and sold by all the older boys. But as he got older, it was his turn.

  While In prison, Ivan never felt the soft kiss or tender embrace of a young girl. He had been robbed of that experience. However, he quickly learned and enjoyed the tender embrace of a knife. He loved the way it entered the soft flesh. Then, he would watch with delight as the blood flowed from the wounds as it drained the life out of his victim. He could see the horror in their eyes as the light flickered in them and was then finally extinguished in that beautiful moment when their spirit left their body. Ivan didn’t live for love. He lived to kill. And when it was all over, he often thought of the moment when his mother was pleading for him to stop the knife from entering her over and over again and was saddened by the fact that he could only kill her once. As the floodlight from the chopper started to get closer, Ivan ran to find the girl and have his knife embrace her.