Angels Carry Guns

For the first time today she truly felt a calm descend around her and she smiled. The all too familiar voice was watching over her now.

"It's good to hear your voice, Andy."

"You too, sweet cheeks. I've got visual and sound being piped into one of the ops rooms, and I will watch and feed you intel on what's happening at the Sheriff's office; more so when our friends get there. I'm sending you Angels 229 and 813 and, before you go all nuclear on me, that order comes from upstairs. They are your back up: use them, don't use them, but they will be close by if needed."

Before Savannah could vent her feelings a low whistle came down the line.

"Wow, Savannah didn't you luck in! Martin Holdsworth, the prince of the Stock Exchange and Brandon and Associates' highest paid employee, reputed to be worth more than the owners of the company he worked for. Quit suddenly when his wife died; he up and took his little nest egg and his daughter and went native. Brandons went belly up not long after he left. Shoes that were too big to fill, apparently."

She knew of the collapse of Brandons. Its fall sent shock waves so deep in the Stock Exchange that the President himself got in on the act and had to hold a meeting with most of the major players in an attempt to stabilize the market once again.

Yet Savannah saw the man, not his worth; she watched him putting his own mourning process to one side whilst hovering over the daughter who still grieved for her mother. Not to mention the times he sat her down and talked to her about her own folks, whenever she came across a personal letter or a picture that would leave her on her own brink of despair that she never got to say goodbye to her own parents.

That's the man she knew; that's the man that had her heart. What he had in the bank was irrelevant to her. He had won her heart by being Martin Holdsworth, a steady rock she could hold onto when her own grief almost overwhelmed her.

Andy quickly overrode the other voice. "Savannah, your back up will arrive at the Marriott on Church Street in a little less than five hours. I've had their numbers fed into the cell that Wilson will give you for the duration of this operation."

"Thank you, Andy."

"I suggest you rest. Sandy will be there in about three hours twenty and, from the report I've just got from her Commanding Officer, she's so pissed right now about being pulled out of a mission briefing that she might do anything."

Since Andy was on board, Savannah knew she could relax - if only a little. His suggestion that she rest wasn't easy to accept, yet she knew he was right. It had been a long night and morning, and her body was running on adrenaline alone. With eyes closed and her mind at ease the clock quietly ticked away the time.

She heard a vehicle approach a while later and instantly rose from her bed to look out of the open window. The familiar van made its way past the barn and came to a stop next to her own car. Savannah made it downstairs by the time Wilson had got out of the van.

"I heard you retired; almost believed it until I got the call earlier."

His sideways grin made her smile. Wilson was cute in a nerd sort of way, the steel rim glasses not hiding the deep blue eyes. His penchant for Hawaiian shirts hid the toned body really well, but the short sleeves gave away the muscles in his arms. People like Wilson simply drove around the country at legal speeds, and remained as invisible as possible whilst hiding the armory they looked after in the backs of the vans.

Wilson spotted the dot in the sky heading towards the farmhouse. "We have guests?"

She followed his line of sight and watched for a moment as the dot steadily turned into a Blackhawk. Wilson closed the doors to his van and once again moved alongside Savannah. They watched the helicopter hover just short of the barn for a moment while the pilot chose a landing spot.

The Blackhawk had barely touched down before a figure jumped out of the open door and squatted down while the helicopter lifted off and headed back the way it came. By the time it had passed the barn the figure was standing, watching both the people by the van.

"Now that looks like one SERIOUSLY pissed-off lady!" Wilson grinned. "Do you think you can take her, or am I going to have to shoot her?"

Sandy walked directly up to Savannah. Wilson knew better than to move.

"I figured as much - too many holes in your past not to be something like this. Where are my brother and niece?"

A knife slid out of the bottom of her sleeve. Sandy caught it and for now held it loosely. She turned to the man in the very loud Hawaiian shirt.

"You have a good fifty to sixty pounds on me but, if you move again towards that van, or pull that gun out of its shoulder rig," Sandy warned, using her knife to point towards his pants before finishing her statement, "I'm going to cut them off your body and listen to you sing soprano for the rest of your life."

Both women heard Wilson say, "I think I'm in love."

"Don't sweat it, hillbilly, you're not my type. It was clear to see all the way over here that you ain't packing enough to keep me interested."

"Dammit, Savannah, this little lady is giving me a hard-on."

Savannah went to take a step towards Sandy, who in turn held her knife even tighter. It still didn't stop Sandy taking a half-pace back, adjusting her stance as she did.

"Look, Sandy, we don't have time for this! Surely the fact I could reach out and pull you out of a briefing room and get you here as quickly as I did, and the fact that you're still breathing, means something?"

"Don't care: I will ask you once more. Where are my brother and niece?"

A cell phone went off in the back of the van. Both Wilson and Savannah looked at each other. Wilson just shrugged his shoulders since it was going to be Savannah's call from here on in.

"I need to answer that - it's going to be important."

Sandy just stared right back and shook her head.

"Not going to happen."

Red dots appeared on both Wilson's and Savannah's chests. They danced for a moment and then disappeared. Sandy watched them dance; she knew why they did and, when they disappeared, she also knew where they were now.

"I'm sorry, Sandy, truly I am, but I don't have time to play nice. Two rifles are now pointed at your back, and the two Angels holding those rifles will kill you if you move."

Savannah walked to the back of the van and retrieved the cell phone. As she answered the phone she waved Angels Patti and Tina in from the side of the barn.

"Good to see you remember how to answer a Goddamn phone! What took you so long?"

"I love you too, Andy; what have you got?"

"Well... Oh, before I forget, your back-up should arrive a little early; they will probably swing by your place before they head to the Marriott."

She smiled as she watched the two women move either side of Sandy, rifles strapped to their backs, and both holding handguns aimed at her head.

"You should also find this interesting. We downloaded all the names of the people who once worked for Brandon and Associates and, just for laughs, we added spouses and children and cousins and nephews and nieces of said employees. It seems the Highway Patrol pulled over a Jeffery Sanderson for speeding - they let him go with a caution since he was only a mile or two over the limit. He was twenty miles from your location, heading back to the city."

With the link they had into Brandon and Associates' personnel data, they found that Jeffery Sanderson was a cousin of one of the board members. When Brandons went belly-up and the money dried up, the need to send his favorite cousin to private school was no longer a priority. Faced with being dropped from a life of luxury in a private and very exclusive college that catered for the rich and lazy, life in the real world became just a little harsh for Jeffery.

Andy went looking and found rap sheets for minor offences. He now had a thread and, Andy being Andy, he just kept pulling on that thread. It yielded a very deep-seated resentment aimed at one person: the man who he felt had taken away his life of being pandered to by the minions. Jeffery Sanderson had already done a year in jail, which added to his resentment of a certain Mr. Martin Holdsworth for having had the audacity to leave Brandons and then, by extension, taking his own life of privilege away.

Savannah watched as Wilson took the knife off Sandy, who just stood and watched all those around her.

"I will download everything we have to the tablet Wilson has for you, but you know I don't like coincidences, and the fact that he was over three hundred miles in the wrong direction from home is a big one."

Andy paused. Savannah quickly picked up on the hesitation, and was about to ask him what was wrong when he spoke.

"Use it if you have to, and I suggest you do, but I got a hold of the doctor's report from the hospital. I'm going to add that to the download; something tells me Sandy is going to want to see her brother, so it may be best that she's prepared for what she's going to see."

The download would take a few minutes, so she used the time to watch Sandy more closely. It was clear she was planning something by the way she continued to watch where everyone was standing. Although both Angels were out of reach, Wilson was in the process of patting her down so they didn't have any more surprises.

She noticed Sandy move her right foot a couple of inches back and redistribute her weight onto the ball of her foot.

"Stand down, Sandy. He will kill you first and regret it later. I know we have to talk, but I have too much to do at the moment, so how about you get changed out of that uniform and into some of the casual clothes I know you keep here? I will explain everything when you come back down, I promise."

Wilson stepped back out of Sandy's reach before looking towards Savannah. "Don't sweat it, girl, she was only going to give me a hug, weren't you?"

"Hillbilly, you have no idea what I plan for you, but you will real soon."

Patti slipped off her rifle and handed it to Wilson as she and Sandy headed into the house, her gun still in her hand. Wilson watched both disappear into the house before he joined Savannah at the open doors to his van.

"Now that is one feisty lady. Do you think Patti is going to be OK in there on her own with her?"

"I hope so. I just need this download before I can talk to Sandy. The last thing I need is for her to go rogue on us and shit all over her career in the process. I'm sanctioned - she isn't if she goes it alone."

Wilson nodded his head; a moment later she noticed him wander into the house and she smiled. The tablet blinked once and then opened a file. She was still sitting on the bumper of the van when all three came back out of the house.

"This fucking pervert watched me get changed, and made the lame excuse of looking for more hidden weapons. I'm going to enjoy killing him."

Even Patti grinned when she watched Wilson go a little red around the neck. She walked past them both, retrieved her rifle from where Wilson had left it in the back of the van, and put it back into the car both the girls came in. Her Colt was holstered, so she obviously felt safe around Sandy. Wilson, on the other hand...

*******

Savannah sat Sandy down on one of the porch seats, and told her what had happened the evening before - how she came home to find that Martin wasn't back from picking up Tessa at school, and that an hour later the Sheriff came by and told her that he was in hospital. It was at the hospital the Sheriff told her that an eye-witness had seen a car crash into Martin's, forcing it off the road.

Two masked men got out and pulled a screaming Tessa from the car while another man fought with Martin. Once they had got Tessa into a second car another man joined the first. Martin was outnumbered and the beating was merciless. It was obvious from the eye-witness that one of the masked men had taken the beating too far because the second man was screaming at him to stop and eventually had to pull him off.

Sandy sat and listened to everything. It was also one of the hardest things Savannah did when she handed Sandy her tablet and watched her read the hospital report of Martin's injuries. At first her jaw tightened, her hands gripping the tablet so hard Savannah actually thought she would break it. Then a tear rolled down her cheek. Sandy wiped it away as she handed the tablet back to Savannah.

Savannah could tell by the emotion in her eyes that parts of her own brain had started to shut down. She knew why, and felt her pain. Both simply sat on the porch for a moment, each coming to terms with their own thoughts.

"My brother spoke often of you; he loves you, you know. You called your backups Angels? I met one once; when I asked if you are all Angels she said our number makes us individuals. Hers was 133."

"Bethany. She's now married and expecting her second baby."

Sandy nodded. "I want to go and see my brother. Is that going to be a problem?"

"Not at all. I had you brought here because I know the unit you work with. I can't have you go rogue on me, Sandy. Join me and my people, or I will have you sent back to base and put under house arrest until I'm done. You can get even with me later if that happens, but I'm not going to let Martin wake up to find his sister is in jail."

It was clear to Savannah that Sandy was considering her deal. The look in her eyes and the tightening of her jaw left her in little doubt that Sandy wanted revenge. She would want it even more when she saw the condition in which they left Martin by the roadside. Savannah's phone went off, and she pulled it out of her pocket so she could read the text.

"Six of our cousins have just turned up at the Sheriff's office."

Time was quickly running out, and she also needed to get Wilson on his way. With six FBI agents now camped out at the Sheriff's office it wouldn't take them long to seal off any access to Martin, even from family members, if they thought it would give them an edge in all this.

"Come with me: you need to get kitted out."

As they approached Wilson's van he opened both back doors, and the array of firearms inside made Sandy speechless. He handed Sandy a vest and told her to take what she was comfortable with. Savannah grabbed a vest and set about pulling firepower off shelves while Sandy stood still with the vest in her hands.

Wilson went around to the side door and started pulling ammunition and clips out of boxes, as well as a cleaning kit. He sat them down next to Savannah as Sandy suddenly came to her senses and started selecting hardware. When she was done, Wilson once again came around the side of the van, this time with ammunition and a cleaning kit for Sandy. He grinned when he also handed back her knife.

Savannah sent both Angels to the hospital as backup, smiling to herself as she did so. Andy was going to go all "I told you so" when he found out how much she planned to use them, even though she had protested so much in the beginning.

*******

The swelling distorted so much of Martin's face; tubes in both his nose and mouth, and the drips going into his arms, made him look so strange. This wasn't the Martin she loved, and Savannah knew that, as hard as it was on her, it would be even harder on the woman who stood next to her.

"Martin. I know you can hear me, big brother. I love you so much, and I plan to make everything all right. You have to believe that; hang onto it and please get well. For all our sakes you HAVE to fight with us on this. Come back to us all, PLEASE, Martin."

The emotion in Sandy's voice was also felt by Savannah, and she mirrored the promise his sister gave to her man. A coldness enveloped her heart, and the time for talking was over, for now at least. The room darkened slightly as a man stood in the doorway, his hand going to his pocket, and the badge identified him.

"Special Agent Donald Prendergast. And you ladies are?"

As Sandy told the agent their names, Patti wandered past the door and "accidentally" bumped into his partner standing in the middle of the hallway. Donald quickly took in the scene and turned back to the ladies in the room.

"So that would mean you're his sister and you're his partner?"

Savannah smiled back at him.

"Just for the moment I am. I feel him weakening by the day, and soon I will be moving up from partner to wife."

The agent gave his sympathies to both women, and told them that the FBI were already investigating the incident and would have Martin's daughter back in no time. Both women echoed his statement with the words "amen to that," only for much more different reasons. Patti slowly moved off and sat further down the corridor. With a magazine on her lap, she seemed to be giving a really good impression of someone who had found an interesting article to read.

The Sheriff turned up and smiled at Sandy. He even came in and hugged her before telling her they were doing everything they could to find Tessa. The words "no stone unturned" were dropped into the conversation as well, before Special Agent Prendergast asked them both where they were when Martin was being beaten and Tessa was kidnapped.

Sandy gave the standard answer for her: she was filing reports on base, and had sixteen witnesses other than the base commander, who she sat with for part of the day while she took shorthand notes of all the letters he wanted done before her shift ended. Savannah was actually shopping, and gave names of two of the people she spoke to that day. The fact that she shopped in the mall made the agent smile; all he really had to do was to send one of his people to get the security footage to confirm it.

Once Donald was happy he let them both leave. Both women leaned over Martin and gently kissed him, whispered their own little messages of getting better soon, and left. Patti waited for them both to pass her, finished the article she was faking reading, and left five minutes later.

Savannah's cell beeped once and the text message read. "He believes you both, although they have the house phone tapped and your cell just in case." She smiled; Andy always seemed to surprise her by somehow remaining one step ahead of her when it came to needing intel. She had little doubt they were somehow in the hospital system watching everything, leaving her feeling that Martin was in the safest place possible for more reasons than it just being a hospital.

Both got into their car, Savannah watching the Angels' car pass them in the car park and head off to the Marriott. They would come back when she needed them. The black sedan that followed them out of the car park and back to the house didn't go unnoticed by either woman. Savannah flipped a switch under the dash and a green light came on. Leaning slightly to one side, she asked Sandy to pull her cell out of her pocket, press three and then send.

Once Sandy heard it ringing she put the cell on speaker, it ringing once more before it was answered. "I won't insult you by telling you you're being tailed. Do you want me to turn the Angels around?"

"No; let them rest up. Do you have anything else on Jeffery Sanderson?"

"Just got it. The dumb ass is driving a rental. As soon as we had the registration we switched the tracker on. I will send you his location in a moment."

"Andy, I want all this going public. No one touches Tessa or Martin ever again without knowing the consequences."

The pause was longer. They could both hear him sigh down the phone.

"OK. Let me clear it with upstairs and then, if it's authorized, I will drop Mandy Fulton a heads up. Both of you rest for now and, when I have something, I will use this cell. Keep using your own to keep our cousins happy."

The line went dead and Savannah turned onto the dust road to the house. The sedan passed them and pulled over down the road. As they entered the house Savannah was already telling Sandy what she had planned for Jeffery Sanderson and his friends.