Free The God Complex: A Thriller by Murray McDonald

for an explanation.
    He shrugged . “Women.” And taking a key, he left Cash bewildered as to what had just transpired.

***
    Gray watched the drone’s feed as long as it was on station, which seemed to be oblivious to the scenes below, staying above the devastation long after the first news choppers had arrived. Gray marveled at how brazen his client was and how well connected he was to have access to an armed drone and a satellite-killing missile. Delivering that capability over a war zone was one thing, delivering it over California was in an entirely different league. A feeling of dread came over him. How could he have been so naïve? These were the missions that required ultimate and total deniability. These were the missions that secretive government agencies used poor patsies to deliver. His head spun around, suddenly everything was a potential enemy.
    “Green?” he said into the radio.
    “Yes ?” came the reply. His team was still okay. “Where are you?”
    “ETA , with you, three minutes!”
    “Make it two, I’ve got a strange feeling ,” he said ominously, hearing a change in engine revs over the radio as a result.
    Gray turned his attention to the Sureno s’ gang house, a hundred yards down the street. They were the ultimate patsies in the mission.
    His burner cell buzzed with a text message – the only connection with the client: ‘ Take out the Surenos house.’ He looked around again; it was as though they knew exactly where he was and what he was thinking. He leaned out of the car window and looked into the morning sky. The drone had left the hillside. He clicked on the link to its feed. It wasn’t active but it was still up there. There was no reason the feed would no longer be available, unless…
    “Green ! Abort! Abort!”
    They were watching him.
    He looked around. A young mother was pushing a baby in its pram. No one else was on the street. He started his engine. A muzzle flash lit up the Surenos’ window. By the time he engaged ‘Drive’, the flashes had engulfed the house. Not a sound emanated from it. He checked his rear view mirror. Two young men turned the corner behind him. He accelerated, screeching to a halt as the young woman tried desperately to protect her pram from his onrushing car.
    T he two men were still a hundred yards away. He turned to check on the young mother. She stood looking directly into his car, the barrel of a gun pointed expertly at him.
    “Shit!” was all he managed as the bullet tore through the windshield.
    “Target down ,” she said into her mic.
    A minivan with blacked out windows sped down the street, pausing to pick up the two men before collecting the woman and her prop pram. The DIS Team Leader, Steve, jumped out and poured a box of files carefully onto the passenger seat next to the still warm corpse of Gray. The box had been couriered to him fifteen minutes earlier, strict instructions made it clear that the files were not to be read nor any fingerprints or DNA deposited onto them.
    Another stop at the end of the street retrieved two further DIS operatives from the Surenos house. Within twenty seconds of Gray’s death, his body was alone on an empty street with enough incriminating evidence to bring down a government.

MISSION LOG – EXTRACT 5-1
     
     
    Deep Space Mission – Last Hope
    Log entry 1 – Mission Commander
     
    The last window of opportunity has passed. We are the last hope for our people. While they live their lives as though the future was certain, they know nothing of the devastation that faces us. We are the last of five missions that have been sent to save our way of life. We are the last hope . The window of opportunity for any further attempts has closed behind us.
     
    We have studied in detail each of the mission logs from those that ventured before us. All end as they near their entry to the planet’s orbit. The belief is that it is simply a communication issue. However, each of the subsequent missions has carried