BRAINRUSH 02 - The Enemy of My Enemy by Richard Bard Read Free Book Online Page A

he repeated.
    Soon enough, Americans would no longer need diapers.

 
     
     
    Chapter 12

     
    Redondo Beach, California
     
    J ake had never been inside the Redondo Beach Elks Lodge. Neither had any of his friends. That’s why he chose it as their default rally point.
    The lodge’s Exalted Ruler had befriended Jake ten years ago when they met in the West Los Angeles VA hospital. They’d bonded over what they jokingly referred to as chemo-cocktail hour. They’d sat next to each other every day while they received their daily dose of intravenous chemicals that would help them in their battles against cancer, knowing that each toxic drop would also send their bodies into nauseous convulsions so severe that death might have been welcome. They had kept in touch ever since, and his friend had been more than happy to allow Jake to use the lodge’s private back room. Though the aging one-story building was located on a main thoroughfare next to the popular Redondo Beach Pier, no one would think to look for them there. At least that’s what Jake hoped.
    He paced beside the long conference table in the center of the room, while Tony, Becker, and Papa sat at one end with several pistols and assault rifles spread out before them. The three were engrossed in cleaning the weapons and reloading spare magazines.
    The midmorning sunlight peeked through the slits in the vertical blinds, laying a pattern of thin stripes across an assortment of half-empty soda cans and water bottles that littered the table. Two pizza boxes lay open as the table’s centerpiece. A lone wedge of Hawaiian-style was all that remained of their overnight meal.
    Francesca was curled in a leather lounge chair in a corner of the room, a throw pillow held tightly against her chest. She flinched as Tony rammed home a magazine in one of the MP5 assault rifles.   
    Marshall hunched over his laptop at the other end of the table. His fingers danced on the keyboard while Lacey sat beside him. The glum look on her face was not an act.
    Jake pulled up behind Marshall. “How much longer?” he asked.
    “Almost there. This phone has three layers of encryption. Three!” The phone was linked to the laptop through the USB port. Marshall had worked through the night trying to access the phone’s memory.
    “Stick with it, buddy,” Jake said. Frustration was getting the better of him. Becker had retrieved the phone from his pursuer’s body. It was the only clue they’d found in their rushed search of the three men who had attacked Jake last night. None of them had ID. Marshall had traced the van and found it was a rental under a phony name.
    Jake had obviously been wrong when he assumed the terrorist in the Pitts was a lone fanatic. Someone was after him. That meant his friends were at risk as well. Hopefully the phone would provide the clue they needed to determine the extent of the threat.
    He peeked through a slit in the blinds to check the parking lot again. A slight movement behind the tinted windows of a customized pickup confirmed that Snake was alert and still on watch. Jake wondered how long he would have to live like this, with armed guards watching his back.
    “I’m telling you, mate,” Becker said to the group. “We need to make tracks for the safe house while we still can.” He holstered the pistol he’d just cleaned and started snapping 9mm slugs into an empty magazine. “This cave was fine for the night, but it’s time to move on. Staying put is just going to get us killed.”
    Here we go again, thought Jake. The group had been arguing the point for most of the night. He remembered the fear they’d all shared when they returned home from Venice. Jake had explained that Battista and his followers at the Afghan mountain stronghold had been killed in the huge explosion. But Battista’s last three implant subjects had departed the facility the day before, headed for America. They knew all about Jake—where he lived, who his friends were, and they