Garton Carole - Kill Or Be Killed

DEADLY COMPANY

Norman Daniels was not aggressive enough for The Companys liking. Daniels came up with one excuse after another why he couldnt kill Carole Garton. He asked The Company for more time. In response, The Company e-mailed Daniels a series of threatening messages. One message said, If you dont do what youre told, you or your son could end up either hurt or dead.

That was the final incentive as far as Norman Daniels was concerned. He already half believed he was a dead man no matter what he did. But the safety of his son concerned him greatly. It was this threat that finally forced his decision.

Norman Daniels agreed to act then. He was afraid of killing Carole Garton. She was someone he liked and also feared, because The Company had told him what a crack shot she was during her Irish Republican Army days. But as much as he feared her, he feared The Company even more. He screwed up his courage and decided May 16, 1998, would be the day he would kill hercome hell or high water.

Other Pinnacle Books by Robert Scott:

SAVAGE
ROPE BURNS
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON
DANGEROUS ATTRACTION
MARRIED TO MURDER

KILL OR BE KILLED

ROBERT SCOTT

PINNACLE BOOKS
Kensington Publishing Corp.
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Many people helped in the preparation of this book. I would particularly like to thank Vicki Holman, Virginia Griffiths, Collin Colebank, Shannon Colebank and Marty Federici. Id also like to thank Laron Johnson, Detective Steve Grashoff and Deputy District Attorney Greg Gaul. Finally, thanks go out to my terrific literary agent Damaris Rowland and wonderful editor at Pinnacle Books, Michaela Hamilton.

Chapter 1

The Package

Cottonwood, California, April 28, 1998Midnight

Darkness covered the hills over the sleeping northern California town of two thousand souls as the clock struck midnight. Winding Cottonwood Creek ran silently through the dense trees as a pair of headlights swept along Gas Point Road and swung into a driveway near a mobile home. It was mainly a rural area with long distances between houses, and the locale was deserted at this hour. The driver dimmed the lights of his SUV, cut the engine and stepped into a yard. He carried a large, orange-colored, 11 x 14 manila envelope in his hand as he walked toward the mobile home on the wooded property. Underneath his jacket, protected from the cool air and preying eyes, his right arm displayed an Irish Republican Army (IRA) tattoo. The tattoo portrayed an American flag and an Irish flag, with ONE BUT NOT THE SAME written beneath the banners. The tattooed man who stepped out of the shadows and into a pool of light in front of the mobile home was twenty-seven-year-old Todd Jesse Garton.

Slowly another man stepped into the circle of light and faced him. Even though the mans face was boyish-looking for a twenty-eight-year-old, his jaw was now set with grim determination, reflecting the seriousness of the moment. The boyish-looking man was Norman Daniels III and occupant of the mobile home.

The two men were not strangers. In fact, they had been on an assassination mission together. It had taken them across state lines up into Oregon with a vehicle filled with weapons, a huge cache of ammunition, disguises and silencers. As Garton handed the package to Daniels, Norman looked down at the lettering on its cover. Two strips of clear plastic tape revealed letters spelled out in block form. The letters read, NEWBIE RECRUIT, PATRIOT RECRUITER. Daniels knew that he was the newbie recruit and that Garton was Patriot. It was a code name given to him by a shadowy organization of hired killers. The organization seemed to be filled with ex-CIA operatives, former military Black Ops specialists and just plain soldiers of fortune. Daniels had gathered all this information by listening to Gartons stories about his dangerous exploits on behalf of the organization.

Daniels turned the package over and noticed a wax seal that appeared to bear the head of a ram. But his eyes deceived him. In fact, it was an impression from Gartons Navy SEAL pin. The wax displayed the headpiece of a diving bubble, the insignia of the SEALs. It was an emblem steeped in stealth, covert operations and quick death.

Just as Daniels began to place his thumb under the wax seal, Garton spoke up and said, Hold on. Wait a second! I warn you, before you open that, if you open it, you are going to have to do what it tells you in that package. Or you will end up dead.

Daniels responded, Well, I already opened the seal, so it looks like Im going to have to go through with this.

Garton grunted and said, Okay.

As Daniels looked at the contents of the package, he immediately noticed a small pager. It had instructions and an 800 number to call on how to make the pager operational. There were also instructions made of labeling tape, the same kind of labeling tape used on the front of the package. These instructions advised Daniels that he must give his recruiter the pager number. In other words, Todd Garton.

Also in the package were several news articles related to the turmoil in Northern Ireland. They spoke of the Irish Republican Army and Sinn Fein, their political affiliate. One of the articles dealt with an IRA leader who had died recently and showed a picture of people mourning at his funeral. Another photo was of a crowded Belfast street in Northern Ireland. One of the articles discussed an anonymous female who dealt with IRA political prisoners. Another was about an unknown female who planted a bomb at a British bookstore. Daniels vaguely wondered if the women in the articles might be Todds wife, Carole Garton. Todd had told him previously that Carole had been an IRA operative in Ireland when she was a teenager. Hed indicated that shed helped plant bombs and even gun down British soldiers. He said she was a crack marksman.

The most potent material in the package were three photographs. The first photograph portrayed Carole Garton, a woman that Norman Daniels knew well, wearing a completely black outfit and dark sunglasses. She was looking back over her shoulder at the photographer. It was hard to read the expression on her face.

The second photo was of Carole Garton at a waterfall near a bridge and rocky cliff area along a stream. There were dense woods in the photo. Strangely enough, the scene looked like an area east of Cottonwood, where Norman Daniels and Todd Garton had gone rappelling in years past. As a matter of fact, the photo itself looked familiar. Daniels was sure hed seen it in Gartons home. Maybe in a photo album. He asked Garton about this, but Garton replied, Ive never seen this photograph before.

The third photograph was the most potent of all. It portrayed Carole Garton, Todd Garton and an anonymous male on a stage. There was sound equipment in the background and a large audio speaker. Todd was sitting on the stage up against a wall. The unknown male was standing with his arms crossed. Carole was front and center. She wore a hat and sunglasses and held one arm aloft with her head tilted to the side. She seemed to be posing for the camera. The most unusual thing about the photo was that both Todd and the unknown males heads were x-ed out with a marking pen, but Caroles head had a large circle drawn around it in yellowish green ink. Daniels knew from previous instructions that his target to kill was whoever had his or her head circled in a photograph. He was not to do it with a rifle from ambush. He was to kill his target up close and personal with a pistol.