“They’re leaving,” Frank said, sitting up in his seat to get a better view. “They’re headed back to town.”
Patton followed Frank’s gaze. When he saw the vehicles leave, he started the engine, but only turned on his fog lamps. He slowly backed away from the edge of the drop and took a few minutes to carefully get the truck turned around and back down the hill. Twenty harried minutes later, they were in Patton’s large, graveled parking area. He backed the truck up to what seemed an empty spot beside a large storage shed, but when they got to the back of the truck, Patton pulled a large rectangle of some type of fabric. It was partly covered in dirt and had grass and weeds woven into it. It turned out to be a camouflage cover for a secret storage bin. Patton pulled out his keys and opened a large metal container. Inside was a large plastic bin that looked like a large cargo carrier.
Patton started pumping a jack that was built into the metal container. After a few minutes, one end of the trunk was sticking up towards them. Patton grabbed the bin’s handle and pulled it up and out, then gestured for Frank to grab the other end. It was surprisingly light, but still the thing was too bulky for one person to get into the back of Patton’s truck. Patton slammed the tailgate closed and they both got back into the truck. Instead of turning right onto the highway, which would have taken them into town, he turned left to go the long way around the lake to their warehouse and offices. And that was where they remained the rest of the night. They would take the day to catch up on sleep and make a plan to find Jennifer.
Anton, the head security guard at City Hall, looked at the picture and nodded.
“Yeah, that’s him,” he said matter-of-factly. “My guy opened the door to ask him what he wanted and he just busted in right by him.”
Brian White dropped the picture back onto his desk and sat back. White wasn’t surprised at Larsen’s brazenness. He was upset that the man they’d been trying to find for nearly twenty-four hours had basically been in their clutches and had gotten away.
“Patton Larsen was here, in this building, and you didn’t think to call me?”
“Why would I have, Sir?” replied Anton, the no-nonsense former Marine. “I wasn’t informed that we were looking for him so how could I have known to detain him?”
White was annoyed with is subordinate, but he was right. It had been a quiet order that had been given only to a very few. It was an oversight on his part to not include City Hall security personnel, but there was nothing he could do about that now. Anton was one of his most trusted employees. He wasn’t going to fire him over something that wasn’t really his fault.
“Okay. Let me know if you hear or see anything,” White said.
“Will do, Mr. White,” he said, did an informal sort of about face and walked out of the room.
The security chief drummed his fingers on his desk in frustration. A plastics manufacturer and an accountant had outsmarted them. They had to find them before they could get away and start causing trouble.
The two troublemakers waited for the cover of darkness before they departed the warehouse. During the day, a couple of city vehicles pulled into the parking lot. They drove around, but no one made a serious attempt to enter the locked building. The warehouse had proven to be a perfect hideout—for now, anyway. When night finally came, they loaded up and headed into town. Patton figured that Asher’s security agents knew which vehicle they were in, so they switched from Patton’s truck to one of their unmarked work trucks.
Patton took side streets once they got into town and looked for tails. After a half hour of his cautious driving, Patton was satisfied that no one was following him. He continued to weave through residential streets.
Patton parked two blocks away from City Hall and handed Frank an iPad.
“What’s this for?” Frank asked. Patton loved Frank, but he realized his friend was out of his depth.
“I’m going to tap into their security system and relay it to this,” he said, pointing at the iPad. “I’m going to need you to stay here and watch my back. Also, one of us needs to stay with the truck in case we need to get out of here in a hurry.”
Frank nodded and reluctantly took the device.
“What do I do? I mean, how will I know you’ve gotten in?”
Patton held up his cell phone.
“I’ll text you. Trust me, Frank. I’ve done this stuff for years.”
Patton exited the truck and quickly disappeared into the night. It was a three-minute walk to the city building from where they’d parked, but it took Patton ten minutes. He was in enemy territory now. He couldn’t take any chances. Patton finally reached the building and searched around for his entry point. Most of the building was complete but there was still a lot of finishing work to be done. On the south side of the building there was a large air conditioning unit that wasn’t yet in operation. The workers had merely set the AC unit in front of where it would hook up to the building’s high tech ventilation system.
Patton looked around one last time and then pulled the AC unit away from the opening. He had to hunch as he walked, but he quickly made it to the end of the large duct. In front of him was a large, metal intake grate, which he simply kicked open. The room he found himself in was mostly dark. Patton had no idea if the building had a round-the-clock security detail—there were probably two or three guards at the most. He would deal with that problem if it cropped up, but first things first—he had to find the surveillance equipment.
Patton made his way to the main floor with no incident. If he was going to be surprised by security, this was the place. He crouched and quickly moved through the doorway that led into the lobby. It was a big, open space, open all the way to the top of the building. In the front of the lobby was an elevated desk where visitors got information and signed in. Sparse furnishings were spaced throughout the rest of the space.
Patton made his way to his left. Above him was a short set of stairs that led up to some offices. This was the area from where the security guard had approached him the day before. As Patton approached the stairs, he heard radio static. He quickly ducked behind the large desk and waited for the security guard to approach. To Patton’s relief, the guard walked quickly through the lobby and down the stairs he’d just ascended. Patton charged up the steps and ducked into the first enclosed room he could find. He peered out again slowly. Straight ahead of him was a long hallway with several doors on both sides.
Patton bolted down the hallway when he saw the way was clear. He reached a door that was secured with an electronic keypad. A placard told him it was the security office. He investigated the keypad and found it to be a relatively cheap model. He figured there was no alarm attached to it so he smashed the digital monitor with a small hammer and pried the face off.
Patton heard footsteps and breathing behind him. He heard the static crackle of a portable two-way radio. He turned but saw no one, but figured someone was on their way towards the security office. Patton kicked the keypad debris out of sight and dove to his left into a small alcove. He crouched and waited.
The sound of footsteps got closer, and eventually, the guard who’d earlier walked by Patton was standing in front of him. The guard went to type in the code, but paused when he saw there were no buttons. Without warning, Patton exploded out of his crouch and struck the security guard’s jaw with a palm punch. The big man dropped like a wet towel and Patton’s momentum carried him up and almost over the now unconscious man. Patton pulled himself up and returned to his work at the control panel.
With a jerk he pried it open with his tool, revealing a small green motherboard. He pried at the board and pulled a series of wires off of its back. Patton stripped the wires with his teeth. He removed an electronic device, about the size of a cell phone, out of his cargo pocket. He hooked the device to the bare wires with the device’s gator clamps. The screen lit up and it beeped. Patton entered a code and he heard the door click. Patton
and one of his Delta Force comrades designed the device because unit members were often slowed down by these types of locks. Rather than fiddling with random-number generators, which could take minutes to find the right codes, they used an electric surge, which burned out the wires and rendered the locks useless.
Before entering the office, Patton pulled two sets of flex cuffs from his pack. With the smaller set he bound the security guard’s wrists. With the larger set, he bound the guard’s feet. He then pulled out a rectangular object. It was like duct tape, but was much stronger. He pulled off the plastic backing and covered the guard’s mouth. Patton then retrieved the guard’s radio and entered the security office.
Frank was nervous. It had been almost an hour since Patton left. There was no sign of him, no text—nothing on the iPad. Two police cars had trolled by, causing Frank to hunch down in his seat. The big man sighed. Since returning from California, he had made it a point to be around other people as much as possible. It was moments of solitude like this that forced him to think of her. Think of her cold body rotting in the ground … he shook himself out of that thought. It was just too sad and disturbing.
Frank’s parents had been good, God-fearing people who took their kids to church every Sunday. His father served as a deacon in their Baptist congregation for a time. His mother and older sisters had sung in the choir. But church and thoughts of God had never grown on Frank. Once he left for college, he left his parents’ religion behind. Shontae had tried to get him to go a few times, and he’d reluctantly gone a few times early on in their marriage, but as he began to climb the company ladder, he worked on Sundays, partly because he wanted an excuse not to go to church.
Now that she was gone, though, he couldn’t help but generate a faith that maybe there was something out there. He didn’t want to imagine his wife lying there in that cold and dark grave.
His phone buzzed. It was a text from Patton.
“Turn on iPad. Unlock code 5549. Open ‘Cyberlink’ program.”
Frank activated the iPad and found the app. The program window opened with the obligatory “Loading” bar. When the program finished loading, the screen broke into eight panels, each showing images from one of the many surveillance cameras on the premises.
He hit reply on the text and typed, “It’s running. How’d you do that?”
After a moment the reply “Don’t worry about that and watch my ass. ;)” came. Frank smiled and set down the phone.
“Bastard,” he thought out loud, shaking his head. He picked up the iPad and scanned all eight panels. For now, Patton was home free.
Luckily for Patton, the man he’d knocked unconscious was tasked to man the surveillance room. Patton half expected some flunky rent-a-cop to be sitting in here asleep, his feet up on the desk. Instead, he found the room empty. He sat at the desk He activated the computer and scanned files. Under the “Archive” file folder, he found an icon with the date of his wife’s appearance under it. He double-clicked it and waited for it to open. Luckily for him, the system was digital and it stored files hour by hour. He clicked through the cameras and found the one he thought was closest to Jennifer’s office and clicked “Play.”
He watched then fast-forwarded frame by frame. After a few moments he saw a glimpse of her and his heart seemed to skip a beat. In one frame she was looking up, not right at the camera, but to where he could clearly see her face. Tears stung at his eyes and his breaths began to get shallower. He wiped at his eyes and tried to regain his focus. Skimming through the hour logs, he clicked on 3 P.M. and clicked “Play”. Forwarding through it again, he saw her walk in and out of her office a few times. Not satisfied that this was the correct file, he clicked on the 4 P.M. time file. Just past halfway through the video, he saw her walk into her office and then walk back out with her attaché case and her purse. It hadn’t been time for her to sign out and go home so he was confused that she was carrying all of her things.
Patton browsed through more files. He checked his watch. It was almost 2 A.M. He texted Frank to get an update on what was going on outside.
Frank was nearly asleep when he felt his phone vibrate. It was another text from Patton.
“How are we looking?”
Frank hit “Reply” and texted “Fine. All clear.”
Awake now, Frank lifted the iPad onto his lap and started to scan it again. After a half hour he began to nod off again. He was beginning to feel like his role in all of this was pointless. Suddenly, he heard an engine roar and then saw the blur of a large, dark vehicle pass by on his left. The Chevrolet SUV, possibly the one that they’d seen earlier at Patton’s house, was now turning left. It made the turn and then zoomed down the street. Frank turned back to the iPad and watched as the vehicle came into one of the panels. He double tapped it and it zoomed in. Four men, who all looked to be armed, were jumping out of the SUV and running towards the front of the building.
Frank fumbled with his phone and then finally was able to text “Trouble! Four armed men coming through front.”
CHAPTER
27
It had been a long and frustrating and fruitless night. Somehow Larsen and Frank Norton hid from Asher’s people for nearly thirty-six hours. They were nowhere to be found. Larsen must have been tipped off that they were looking for him. Otherwise, how the hell would he have been able to evade them for this long?
Brian White, usually a calm and able leader, was about to blow his lid with frustration. He and his small team had been out on the prowl until about midnight, but he’d given up and sent them packing. All of the roads out of town were being watched so it wasn’t likely they’d try to escape through the mountains—not without Larsen’s wife, anyway.
Then around one in the morning they got a call—someone had broken into City Hall. When the call was relayed to White, he jumped out of bed and sent a mass text to his team. Less than ten minutes later they were assembled and were speeding towards City Hall. While en route, White assembled another team to back them up. He didn’t think they would need more than his four-man team to take the plastics manufacturer-turned farmer down, but, you can never be too careful. Anton, White’s most experience man, was riding behind the driver. The former Marine had kicked down many doors during his military service and he advised his boss that they should go in fast and hard.
“Shoot first and ask questions later,” the grim-faced former Marine said.
The security chief nodded approvingly. Now, as they were within seconds of the city building, the butterflies were surging in his gut.
His phone was ringing.
“What now!” he said, rolling his eyes. It was Governor Asher. White figured he’d been called and informed of the break in. He was probably in bed with some skank. Now all the sudden he wanted to feel like he was part of the action.
“Yeah,” he said, not trying to hide his annoyance at the intrusion.
“White?”
“Yes?”
He could hear the Governor clearing the sleep out of his throat. “Is it Larsen?” Asher asked.
White wanted to respond with something sarcastic, but he kept his cool. “Yes. I can’t imagine it being anyone else.”
“How many men do you have going in?”
The security chief rolled his eyes again and thought, ‘why the hell doesn’t this guy just go back to his little whore and let me do my job?’ Instead he said, “Two teams. Eight men in all.”
“Good. Let me know if you need anything,” the Governor said with his usual false bravado. Asher hung up before White could respond.
White looked back at Anton who gave him a knowing grimace. The two had been having an ongoing “bitch session” about their boss. The SUV came to a halt. White took a deep breath, unbuckled his seatbelt, and charged out of the vehicle.
Patton heard his phone jingle and he checked it. When he read the text message from Frank he spun in the chair and bol
ted to the door. Just past the unconscious security guard’s head was an emergency exit door. The team sent for Patton didn’t make their presence a secret. He could hear them open the glass doors and charge into the lobby. He heard one of them yell, “Spread out! You upstairs! You downstairs! You right! Me left!” The voice sounded like it had military command. Maybe this was going to get hairier than he’d bargained for.
From his vantage point, in a side hall, perpendicular to the main hallway leading to the security office, Patton could see the edges of a military tactical light flickering along the walls and heading his way. His captured radio crackled.
“Anton, got a break-in in the security office!” came the voice, both over the radio and echoing down the hallway.
Patton knew he had to make his move now or he would be trapped in a corner against four men with rifles when all he had was a handgun. A tall figure came into view and he pounced. Instead of delivering a punch, Patton decided he needed to use more force. As the person approached, he’d retrieved his hammer and pry tool. Luckily, the man reached the door with his back slightly turned towards Patton. Patton sprung from his crouch and delivered a wicked, cracking blow to the figure’s head. His prey was now unconscious and unable put up a fight. Now, however, Patton had to carry nearly two hundred pounds of dead weight.
He frantically pulled out his cell phone and speed dialed Frank. After three rings Frank finally answered.
“Need you out front! Hostage in tow!”
Frank, who’d been half asleep when the call came in, was only able to give an awkward acknowledgement. He tossed the phone and the iPad and jumped over to the driver’s seat. He cranked the engine, and with screeching tires, he pulled away from the curb. He rounded the first corner too fast and hit the curb on the passenger side. He blew out a nervous breath of air and tried to focus. As he approached the front of City Hall, he could see Patton struggling under a body, carrying it towards the curb as fast as he could.
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