The First Horseman (Spy Thriller-Area 51)

Chapter 7

7

We travelled in silence for almost half an hour. I looked out the side window as the SUV slowed, turning down a side road. At that moment there in the early hours of the morning I would try to probe for the tiniest shred of information if I could.

"You know so much about me... Surely you know why Mr. Ashcroft wants me killed?"

"Hah, I'm not playing that game Louie... Or is it Michael now? I won't answer your questions. I will say this though, your friend the German Doctor - Von-Kleist, he died well. I didn't expect it from such an old man, but he looked in my eyes without shock or fear as I laid him to rest. In fact, I think he wanted to die."

"So, what now? Torture me to find out Ashcroft's son's whereabouts?"

"...Something like that, yes!" His eyes widened with excitement and his Cheshire grin exposed his perfectly straight white teeth. I saw a sick satisfaction remain on his face as his mind wandered to my immanent torment. It was clear he was filled with twisted anticipation. The digital clock on the SUV's dash read 5am. I wondered where Stephen would be at this hour. I hoped not off course. He was it now, the exposure of the truth behind the Disciples of Cain was in his hands.

The Horseman backed the SUV inside an old open abandoned wood barn. "Well Louie this is as good a spot as any isn't it? If someone were to come here and find us, I could kill them, and no one would hear for miles." Somewhere outside Amarillo Texas in the heat of a summer morning two of Area 51's Horseman were going to have more than a casual conversation. He locked eyes with me through the clear barrier again as he continued. "We are no fools you and me. I know right now that the training you endured is telling your brilliant mind to concoct ways to kill me and take my heart-attack gun. Tell me I'm wrong Michael." His light blue eyes were piercing in the early morning's fading darkness. I stared into them with hate in the rear-view mirror, and I suddenly remembered that we'd met in the past.

We had met so many years ago at my first posting in Afghanistan. He was a little younger than me. He was also careless and arrogant. I'd remembered him being notoriously hated by some of his fellow soldiers. He had been dishonorably discharged after he'd shot an innocent civilian for target practice deep in the desert. There wasn't enough to completely prove him guilty in the end. He had claimed it was an accident and that the civilian seemed to be planting an improvised explosive in our path. I strived to remember his name, but I couldn't, and his Horsemen designation was a miss for me as well. Until he spoke again.

"I won't be killing you Michael. That would be a sweet release that you don't deserve. Mr. Ashcroft has promised me some wonderful rewards if I bring you back to be refreshed. Hell, if you could have just seen the truth in all of this, they wouldn't have had to manipulate your mind in the first place. I can't believe you don't understand that what Ashcroft says is the truth. I'll tell you what, as a courtesy between two Horsemen, I'll let you ask one question before I drug the shit out of you."

"What do you know of the other Horsemen?"

"More than you. I know you killed The Horseman with the designation of Sorrow and made a shit show of Millennium Park quite nicely. You were the prized jewel of Ashcroft's Horsemen project you know that? You make me sick. Acting holier than thou through the tests. If you had of just accepted the truth!

"And what is the truth then?"

"One truth is that this world cannot sustain the increasing population, you know it, and I know it. If you would accept that then perhaps self-preservation would find you. Once Ashcroft and The Disciples of Cain bring about the new age, those who remain will live to serve. It will happen whether you like it or not Michael, and, you're going to help us gain that control."