Love and Betrayal

Chapter twelve

    Dani walked down the winding streets filled with rotten garbage. When the wind blew she lifted her face towards it and closed her eyes trying to center herself. She was shaken to her core after what had happened in the training arena. It had been a long time since she’d gone into that state. The last time was when she went after the JTF soldiers who’d gone rogue and attacked Kajika and herself. They joined the True Sons. When Dani hunted them all down, she’d come face to face with Colonel Ridegway. He must have known who she was because he’d stepped out of the way so Dani could have her revenge. “ Colonel, what are you doing? You're just going to let some division agent have Murphy?” his second in command demanded. Ridgeway had held up his hand to silence his subordinate. “ When the Reaper comes for her mark, you don’t get in her way or you end up dead!” he’d said. Murphy had been the one to throw the repulsion grenade. He died very slowly and very painfully. Dani stayed out for days. She blended in with the dark at night, helped civilians. She brought them food, water, components; anything they needed. Those people who didn’t have homes and were living on the streets, she sent to the stronghold.

Dani was almost ready to head back when screaming alerted her to the fact that she wasn’t alone. “ You didn’t have to do that! We aren’t infected!” a woman yelled. A man laughed. “ We’ll be the judge of that, now on your f*****g knees. Maybe we won’t cleanse the kid.” he said. Dani looked around and found a building with a good vantage point. She climbed up and pulled her sniper rifle from her back, setting it up. She put a device in her ear that allowed her to hear the conversations far down below and made sure to sync it to her phone so she could record it. She watched through her scope and listened. The man with the flamethrower lowered it and pulled a communicator from his pocket. Dani hit record on her phone. “ Tank,” he said, answering it. The walkie crackled a bit and then a woman’s voice. “ Tank, I’ve heard word that there is a new agent in the city. Lau says this agent is very dangerous. We can not let Keener find out that we are giving Lau intelligence on him and the others. I want you to find this agent and end her!” she said. The man, Tank, looked at his buddies. “ We’re on it Conley. She won’t get away from us.” he said and put the device away. A dark smile slipped onto Dani's face. She now knew who the mole was and she was going to make Vivian Conley pay. She smiled as she lined up her scope. Tank was standing directly in front of the other guy and lifting up the flamethrower again, aiming it at the woman and her kid. Dani inhaled. When she exhaled, she gently squeezed the trigger. The echo of her bullet leaving the barrel, split through the night. The large 50 caliber tore through both Tank’s and his buddy’s head. Satisfaction filled Dani when both bodies crumpled to the ground. The woman looked up at the building Dani was in and waved. Dani nodded her head even thought the woman couldn't see her, stopped the recording, shouldered her sniper and headed back to the stronghold.

Kajika, Keener, Dragov and Theo were in the debriefing room when Dani returned. She walked in, her sniper rifle still over her shoulder, her hair messy from the wind and dropped her phone on the middle of the table. Theo whirled around when she burst through the door. “ Holy s**t!” he said. Dani frowned at Theo and lay the huge longarm down beside one of the chairs. It was so big, it equaled the length of both her arms. “ Are you okay?” Javier asked her, frowning. The grave look on her face told all of them things definitely weren’t okay. “ I know who’s betraying you.” She said. The room was dead quiet at her words. “ Is that why you’ve been gone for days? You were hunting for information?” Keener asked, his anger evident. Dani levelled eyes on him, her face serious. “ I was atoning and I stumbled across a couple of cleaners. Someone radioed them and told them I was here. Said I was to be taken care of.” She told them. She pushed play on the recording with a grim expression. Dragov looked down at the giant long arm on the table as they listened to the recording. “ The hunters became the hunted I’m guessing.” He said with a smirk. Dani looked at him, “ One shot two kills.” She said deadpan. “ That gun fires 50 caliber bullets, they would have taken the heads clean off!” Parnell exclaimed. Dani didn’t even crack a smile. “ Okay so Conley's the traitor.” Keener asked more calmly this time. Dani nodded. Theo shook his head, Dragov cursed under his breath. Keener and Kajika were quiet. Kajika was pissed, his eyes speaking volumes. “ What the hell are we going to do? We can’t go head to head with the cleaners, there’s too many of them!” Parnell said. “ Don’t worry about the cleaners, Kajika and I will take care of them.” Keener said. “ what about  Conley?” Dragov asked, his arms crossed in front of his massive chest. “ Her time is up and the Reaper is coming to collect,” Dani said ominously.