Safehouse Alpha
Table of Contents
About Safehouse Alpha
Praise for Mark Posey’s Thrillers
Credible Threat – Episode Five Safehouse Alpha
About the Author
Other books by Mark Posey
Copyright Information
About Safehouse Alpha
One family’s life is changed beyond anything they could ever imagine.
A major foreign power has been funneling key intelligence personnel into the United States for nearly a year, hiding them as embassy and consulate staffers, students, and plain immigrants. In response, the FBI activates its Domestic Sleeper program.
Scattered across the country as architects, cab drivers, and other innocuous roles, failsafe agents in the Domestic Sleeper program are unaware of their status as dormant FBI agents until they’re triggered by a post-hypnotic codeword. Their programming drives them to a pre-arranged checkpoint to receive the instructions necessary to combat a Credible Threat.
In this episode: The Pratchett family seek sanctuary and medical attention.
Credible Threat: Safehouse Alpha is the next episode in the Credible Threat thriller serial from Mark Posey.
Other episodes in the Credible Threat series:
Episode One: Brush Contact
Episode Two: Alias
Episode Three: Compromised
Episode Four: Sleeper
Episode Five: Safehouse Alpha
Episode Six: Dissemination
Episode Seven: Tradecraft
Episode Eight: Burned
Episode Nine: Safehouse Beta
Episode Ten: Blowback
Episode Eleven: Naked
Episode Twelve: Blown
Episode Thirteen: Exfiltration
A Thriller Serial Episode
Praise for Mark Posey’s Thrillers
What a fun roller-coaster of a story!
It continues to amaze me how this writer can give us so much in a short story
Oh, you want THIS short story!
Credible Threat – Episode Five
Safehouse Alpha
“Operation: Facelift. Acknowledge.”
Aaron was about to rant at Gloria again when he heard Marie take a deep breath from beside him. “Acknowledged.”
Her sleepy sounding reply pulled his gaze to her as a bullet sparked off what was left of the driver’s side mirror.
“Oh, holy shit,” Aaron muttered as he swerved the van.
It took a few moments to shake off the initial awakening. He knew that from experience. But he knew immediately when she was fully out of it.
“Alexis, Tyler, take your sister!” Marie thrust the baby toward the back seat.
The kids grabbed her and cradled her between them where they huddled on the seat.
Marie stared into the back seat for a moment. “Get a grip, both of you. You don’t do us any favors by panicking. I’ll take care of it. Everything’s going to be fine.”
She turned to face forward again and snatched one of the assault rifles off the floor. She checked the load in the magazine and then speared Aaron with her gaze. “Get us behind them!”
He had to yell over the wind noise from the shot-out back window. “They have a shooter in the back!”
She slammed the magazine back into place and flipped the switch for single shot. “Not for long. Get me back there.”
Aaron swerved the van to the side, just as he’d been doing since this portion of the chase started, then immediately hit the brakes.
The Sprinter shot past them. He pinned the accelerator, quickly closing the gap.
Marie rolled down her window. “Keep it steady!”
She threaded herself out the passenger window, perched her backside on the sill and brought the rifle to bear, just as the rear doors of the Sprinter were thrown open.
Aaron instinctively swerved the van as the shooter in the back of the Sprinter brought his carbine up.
“Hold this fucking thing steady!” Marie roared from outside.
Aaron did.
It seemed like an eternity. Both vehicles flying down the freeway. Both the shooter and Marie with their assault rifles pointed at their targets.
It really is true what they say about everything seeming to go in slow motion.
Aaron heard the shot. Saw Marie jerk a little with the recoil. Saw the red spot appear in the center of the other shooter’s forehead. Saw the shooter tumble into the back of the Sprinter even as his rifle went off.
A three-shot burst. One bullet sparked off the corner of the Astro van’s hood. One slammed through the windshield, straight through to the driver’s door window, shattering it.
That saved Aaron’s life.
His instinctive duck meant the third bullet only gazed his scalp rather than burying itself in the center of his forehead. Still, he felt the impact and his barely contained panic nearly burst from its confines.
Tyler screamed when Aaron’s window shattered.
“Marie!” Aaron shouted.
“One sec...”
He heard one more shot and saw the Sprinter’s left rear tire blow out.
“Marie! I’m hit!”
“Daddy!” Alexis screeched.
“It’s okay, Lexi!”
Marie hurriedly threaded herself back into the cab. “Where?”
Aaron punched the gas and blasted the Astro van past the Sprinter while the driver struggled with the now out-of-control vehicle.
“Where? Where are you hit?”
He turned his head so she could see the blood pouring down that side of his face.
“It’s just a graze.” Marie reached for the wound and he pulled away. He flicked his gaze to the rearview mirror and saw the Sprinter skew sideways and begin to tumble into a violent, life-ending, multiple rollover.
Aaron took his foot off the accelerator and let the Astro van slow to a more normal speed. “Still there, Gloria?”
“You betcha. Everything alright?”
“All clear. Proceeding to Safehouse Alpha.”
“Roger that. See you there.”
“Daddy!”
Aaron cranked his head around to look over his shoulder. Alexis looked panicked beyond belief, now it was all over. “Lexi, I told you, I’m fine.”
Her face fell and she pointed at her brother. “Ty’s bleeding.”
Aaron craned his neck further around. “Ty?!?
“Alexis, keep a hold of your sister.” Marie ripped her seatbelt off and extended herself through the gap between the front seats. Tyler cried out again then Marie righted herself in her seat, both hands bloody.
She looked at Aaron and held her hands up. “He’s hit in the back of the thigh, four or five inches below his hip. It’s bleeding pretty bad.”
“Gloria?”
“I’m here.”
“The Doc still at Safehouse Alpha?”
“He is. Safe and sound.”
“Tell him we’re coming in hot.”
“Roger that. Meet you there.”
Aaron pinned the accelerator as they shot up the off ramp, took a right turn at the top of the ramp and rocketed toward Safehouse Alpha with as much speed as he could get out of the old Astro van.
Please let Ty be alright.
•
Safehouse Alpha was in the green belt on the way to Napa. Situated well back from a narrow, graveled-over dirt road that was really not much more than a trail winding its way through the countryside in the middle of nowhere.
A wooden horse fence snaked its way around the perimeter of the property. An electronic gate with a passkey scanner sat at the end of the long driveway. To the unobservant or uninitiated, the two-story ranch house looked like any old Napa estate. To its residents and the people who visited them, though, Safeho
use Alpha was a virtual fortress with well-hidden security cameras that covered every inch of the property. Silent motion sensor alarms, bullet-proof glass, triple-reinforced doors and an escape tunnel that emerged at the back of the property were only some of its security features.
Tyler moaned in the back seat, as he had the entire journey. Aaron hated that their escape had caused him pain. His foot had started to ache, wanting to pin the gas pedal to the floor , but he dared not go that fast on this little, backwoods trail.
He was worried about Alexis, too. She’d remained curled in her almost-fetal position and hadn’t uttered a word. He’d tried getting her to talk. So had Marie. But so far, nothing.
He turned into the driveway and stopped at the gate. From the glove compartment, Aaron extracted a magnetic card with no markings. He reached through the window and slapped the card against the reader. The gate trundled open, in no hurry to accommodate anyone in a rush.
Aaron shot the van along the driveway, careful to stay on the tire tracks in the grass. He’d been warned what lay to either side. At the time, he wasn’t sure whether “Ma and Pa”, the kindly old couple who lived in the house and kept up appearances, were joking when they told him about the booby traps and everything that lay to the side of the driveway. At the moment, he preferred not to find out.
After what felt like an hours-long drive that was, in reality, only about fifteen minutes, Aaron halted the van by the entry door at the side of the house. All of them had been motionless for the last fifteen minutes. When he finally jammed the gearshift into park, it was a relief to know he could get out and move.
Aaron leapt out of the driver’s door. The knife wound on his left leg screamed in protest and the wound in his scalp throbbed. He mentally waved the pain off and yanked the side door open.
Tyler lay on the van seat on his right side, his legs pulled up so his knees almost touched his chest. The left leg of his pants was soaked with blood. A small pool of it had trickled onto the seat.
Aaron ignore it all. He reached in and scooped Tyler up.
His son cried out in pain, and he ignored that, too. He charged for the door.
Ma and Pa came through the door and met them halfway, smiling like any set of grandparents would.
“Tyler! Aaron! We’re so glad you’re here!” Ma kissed them both on the cheek.
Tyler balked but was in too much discomfort for anything else.
Pa stopped in front of them and lay a hand on Aaron’s shoulder. He looked from Tyler’s thigh to the blood caked on the side of Aaron’s head. “Doc’s inside,” he said under his breath.
Aaron nodded and continued past them and into the house.
The inside of the house smelled like fresh-baked cinnamon buns. It looked like a typical grandparent’s house. The worn kitchen table and chairs where many meals had been shared, the comfortable couch and armchairs in a living room littered with nick-nacks and nostalgic, framed photographs; and the accumulated clutter associated with many years in the same location.
A man Aaron presumed to be the doctor stood in the kitchen, on the threshold of the living room, sipping from a coffee cup. Aaron could tell the second the doctor spied the blood from Tyler’s wound. His face tightened up and he hurriedly set his coffee cup on the kitchen table and stepped forward.
“I’ve a makeshift treatment room in the basement.” The doctor’s snooty British accent belied his American appearance, especially his Guns ‘n’ Roses t-shirt.
Aaron threaded his way through the kitchen to the basement door and descended two steps at a time, despite his injured leg barking at the strain. The doctor was right behind him.
The basement didn’t smell like cinnamon buns. The scent was a combination of antiseptic and mustiness. The lighting was stark and bright around the examination table in the far corner. The area was rife with trays of medical equipment, bottles and vials of medicine, and shelves of supplies and bandages.
“Now then, young Tyler,” the doctor said as they approached the exam table, “can you get your pants off yourself or shall we cut them off?”
Tyler’s eyes grew wide as Aaron set him on his feet beside the table. “I can get them off.”
“Very good. See to that, will you? Then we’ll have a quick poke around and see what we’ve got.”
While Ty fiddled with the fastenings of his jeans, the doctor turned to Aaron and stuck out his hand. “Doctor Richards. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Agent Pratchett.”
Ty’s head snapped around. “Agent Pratchett?”
Aaron glowered at the doctor and his offered hand. “Just fix him up, doc. We’ll get to the pleasantries later.”
Richards glanced at the side of Aaron’s head. “Looks to me like you could use some attention yourself, Pratchett.”
“It’s nothing, doc. Just a graze.” Aaron stepped to the side and put a hand on Tyler’s shoulder. “You need a hand?”
Tyler shook his head with a grimace as he threaded his jeans past his hips and the wound on the back of his left thigh. “I’ve got it, dad.”
“You be okay here for a minute? I should help your mom get the girls inside.”
Tyler paused in his struggles and caught his father’s gaze. “She really is my mom, right?”
Aaron frowned. “Of course she is. Who else would she be?”
Tyler shrugged. “Dunno. She’s...not acting like herself.”
Aaron pursed his lips. “Don’t worry about that for right now. Let’s get you fixed up and we can talk about it after.”
Relief showed on Tyler’s face. “Deal.”
“Take good care of him, doc.” Aaron turned on his heel and hurried for the stairs.
Out in the yard, Marie had barely managed to coax Alexis out of the van. Ma had the baby in her arms and Pa was leaning over Emma, making faces and goo-goo noises. As Aaron approached, he straightened up and cleared his throat.
“How was the drive out, son?”
“It was fine, Pa. Nothing like a middle-of-the-night drive in the country.”
Pa’s glance roamed over the Astro van, noting the bullet holes, the shattered windows, and the damage to the front corner. “I see commuting is as hazardous as ever.”
“You can say that again.”
Pa’s gaze continued to roam and quickly fell on Alexis studying her feet, huddled in place against the seats, hands stuffed into her pockets. “Lexi? Your grandma just pulled a fresh batch of those cinnamon buns you like so much out of the oven. Why don’t we head into the kitchen, and you can tear into one or two of them?”
Alexis’ panic-filled eyes flitted from Pa to Aaron. “Daddy? What’s going on? Why is everyone shooting at us? What did we do? Where are we? Who are these people? How do they know our names?” Her questions flew with barely a pause between them and her hands gesticulated wildly.
Pa took a step closer to her and squatted down. “Who are we? Why, we’re your grandma and grandpa, of course.”
Alexis pursed her lips and stuffed her hands back into her pockets.
“How ‘bout we talk about it over a cinnamon bun? You do like cinnamon buns, right?”
Alexis shrugged and nodded at the same time. “I guess.”
Pa smiled and straightened up. “Great. Now c’mon. Let’s go inside—just one big, happy family.” He held his hand out to her.
Alexis glanced from his hand to Aaron, who nodded. Reluctantly, she took Pa’s hand and they stepped toward the kitchen. Pa gathered Ma into his other arm, as she cooed down at Emma.
Aaron and Marie brought up the rear, Marie cradling the two assault rifles that had rattled at her feet for the last half hour.
When they were all inside and Aaron had shut and locked the door behind them, Ma slipped past them into the kitchen to retrieve Alexis’ promised cinnamon bun. She turned back toward Marie and indicated Emma. “There’s a crib upstairs. I’ll get her put down in a minute.”
Pa turned, his gaze on Marie and the odd-looking carbines she carried. “Where’d you get t
hose?”
“The team that attacked our house,” Aaron answered.
Pa frowned and held out a hand to Marie. “May I?”
She handed over one of the assault rifles.
Pa peered closely at it. Dropped the magazine out. Racked the slide to pop out the chambered cartridge and slid it back into the magazine. He set the magazine on the kitchen counter and shouldered the assault rifle, sighting down the barrel through the angular device mounted to the top. He turned it over and peered at it again. Then he sighed, very heavily. “I was afraid of that.”
“Afraid of what?” Aaron and Marie said simultaneously.
Pa took a deep breath. “This is a T91. That means—" Pa’s head jerked up and his gaze jumped to the living room window in the front of the house.
Headlights shone far down the driveway.
“Someone’s here!” Pa snatched the magazine off the counter, slammed it into the T91 and racked the slide. He let a pointed gaze rest on Aaron and Marie. “We aren’t expecting anyone.”
Marie hefted the other T91.
Aaron yanked the Beretta out of the holster on his hip.
“Whoever it is, they’re in for a rude welcome,” Aaron said.
“Ain’t that the truth.” Marie stepped to the side of the exterior kitchen door and pressed herself to the wall, peering down the driveway.
Aaron and Pa took up positions at the wall on the other side of the door.
As the vehicle grew slowly closer, the three of them shifted their stances against the wall, ensuring they wouldn’t be seen.
The car pulled up behind the Astro, within the bright circle made by the yard lights. Aaron eased his gaze to the edge of the window and sagged in relief. He’d recognize that Mustang anywhere, especially with the bullet holes in the hood and the windshield. “Shit. It’s just Gloria.”
Marie straightened. “Gloria?” She scowled, dropped the T91 to her side, and turned toward the kitchen. “I’m going to get a fucking cinnamon bun.”
Pa glanced at Aaron pointedly and headed out to greet Gloria.
After a hug and a kiss on the cheek, the two of them started back toward the house, Pa’s arm around Gloria. Aaron stepped aside as they neared the doorway. “We got cinnamon buns. Lexi’s in there chowing down on them like she always does. If you want one, we’d better hurry up and get inside,” Pa said.