Above From Below: Part 5

Red skies appeared slowly over the Texas horizon as the morning suns brought new life to the area. The roads weren't as saturated as they were to the north, and 1970, black, Challenger sped through the desolate part of the state as it headed to the area Nico was killed. Rick's weary eyes were heavy from driving straight through. He'd only made one stop near any form of civilization.

The stop was across the state, along the gulf. As Colonel Masters and Senator Hood summised, Rick was special. He was a ghost. And where there was one ghost, there were more. Rick pulled into a small town on the East side of the state to meet up with some old running buddies. Even as the drone monitoring the path Rick Steele had driven flew overhead, the faces of the three men meeting in the middle of the deserted stretch of highway wouldn't bring back any hits.

He hadn't seen Salvador in a decade. He had a new crew of guys working with him, and his traveling companion was a grim looking fellow. But Rick had recognized the tattoo on his arm. It was a mark that he knew well. Anybody who wore it was one of them.

He pulled the Challenger around, backing it up to the rear of the Explorer that Salvador arrived in, making it easier to load things into Rick's trunk.

"What are you hunting?" inquired Salvador.

Rick shrugged. He didn't know yet. There were players that had silenced at least two people, one of them, his brother. Now that there was a clue, he intended to find out why, and he'd deal with those responsible for taking Nico out.

Jesus, thought Salvador.

"Don't worry, Sal. None of this will ever come back to you," promised Rick.

Salvador, or Sal as his friends knew him, wasn't worried about the package being traceable to him. He was worried about what Rick was getting himself into. After hearing the story about the Army Major spilling the intel she had on Nico's death, Sal imagined the clearances and rank involved with taking out two United States citizens on U.S. soil. While Rick had gone on to work with the police after their lives were scrubbed and reset, Sal had taken a different direction with his life.

"You realize who you're running up against?" he questioned Rick. "Very few people legally can have a job like that sanctioned, and if it is, they're not going to hesitate to keep you quiet."

"He was still a kid, and they killed him. This isn't some despot or dictator taking the podium and his microphone blows his head off. This is someone in the University, someone taking an internship, and the professor over the program. It has more to do with the program than it does with them doing anything wrong," explained Rick.

It wasn't like he hadn't done the jobs himself. To become what he was, what Salvador was, they'd both done some heinous things that had come down from the top of of the mountain. But killing college students wasn't something that Rick would have ever entertained.

"Alright, ole buddy, you're all set to start world war three," sighed Salvador. "You've got one Browning fifty, one M4, two P90s, two crates of Mark4 grenades, one case of Dragon's Breath, one automatic shotgun, one saw, identification, passports, and cash."

Rick cleaned out his share of the Gulf Coast storage supplies. It was something he and members of his old team were keeping aside, for a rainy day. As he covered the cache' of weapons and supplies they loaded in is car, he promised Sal he'd see him again.

"That's what you say now, but after this," Sal admitted, voicing his doubts.

Rick knew Sal was right. He was heading right into the hornets nest, and things were starting to feel alll to familiar. In his old life, he'd have called it the killing zone.

"I'll call you if I need help," promised Rick, getting into his car and leaving, rocks and debris kicking into the air behind him.

That was hours ago, and now he was closer to the observatory. He pulled into Midland, the closest town. Rick needed some sleep, and he wasn't going to check out the observatory looking like a burnt out cop. No, he'd recon the observatory, and then he'd find his way inside.