by S. J. Braden
As much as everything ached from days of sitting in a hard chair and her recent chair gymnastics, she didn’t want to waste any time and she took off in the direction the footsteps came from when she heard them coming until she reached the elevator and pushed the call button. As she waited she wanted to be moving and she looked around for the emergency stairway she knew would be somewhere. It wasn’t anywhere close though and she was stiff and sore from a week of sitting in a chair so she waited, watching as the elevator crept closer to her one floor at a time. When the button chimed she jumped. It sounded so loud, even louder than the heartbeat thrumming in her ears. She flew into the open doors and pushed the 1 button repeatedly until the doors closed. She sank to the floor with the downward motion of the elevator. When the indicator at the top of the elevator car light showed the fifth floor she pulled herself up again and was ready to run when the doors opened painfully slow. Directly ahead of her was a reception desk with a uniformed guard sitting in the chair behind it.
The barefooted Colleen darted out of the elevator, behind the desk and sunk to the floor again, crawling under the protruding work surface. The startled guard jumped up from his seat, reached for his gun in the holster and pulled it, pointing at her, before he took in her disheveled appearance. He realized she wasn’t a threat, she was frightened and hiding. He also recognized her.
“Please call the police! I’ve been kidnapped and held upstairs in the restaurant for almost a week. Please hurry!”
“Yes, ma’am. It’s okay, I’ve got you now, I’ll make the call,” he said as he dialed a phone number.
Colleen consciously worked to slow her rapid breathing and still her shaking hand and knocking knees and didn’t realize he dialed many more numbers than 9 1 1.
Chapter 40
At six a.m. Monday morning, Rodney Maden Jr. received the most bizarre text message of his life. It was from an unknown number and said: Attached are the reservations you need for you, your mother, your wife and your children to leave the city. You can leave quietly, never return and live, or you can go out with a bang. If you should need them, there are passports for all of you in the glove compartment of your vehicle. Bon Voyage. Attached were the e-tickets and itinerary for a flight to Belize.
“What the fuck is this? This must be some kind of joke or spam.”
“What is it?” asked Xyloh, Rodney’s wife of ten years as Rodney’s phone rang.
“Hello,” Rodney growled into the phone.
“Rodney, I got the weirdest freaking email. Did you send it as a joke?” asked Vince, Rodney’s brother-in-law.
“Oh Christ, is yours about an all expense paid flight to Belize?”
“No but close. Panama City and not Florida, the one where I need a passport. And not just me, your sister and the girls too.”
“Yeah, mine’s for Xyloh, the kids and mama. I better call Bill. Hold on I’ll conference him in.”
“Little brother, did you get a strange email this morning?”
“Hell if I know, I’m still asleep.”
“You’re on a conference call with Vince and me. Get your lazy ass up and see, it’s important.”
“Alright alright, what’s got you so riled up first thing in the morning? I thought today was the day you were going to take over the world. I mean the city.”
“Vince and I got emails. Persuasive pleas to leave town with our families. We need to know if you got one.”
“Woohoo, I did. So are we all moving to Santiago, or are we going to see what kind of bang there’s going to be?”
“Did you say San Diego? How come he gets to stay in the States?” asked Vince.
“Santiago, not San Diego, nitwit.”
“Where the hell is Santiago?”
“Chile, so big brother, are we going or staying?”
“If anyone goes to Chile it’s just you and yours. My tickets are to Belize, Vince’s are to Panama City.”
“If Vince baby is staying in Panama City, why was he so upset if I was staying in the states?”
“Panama City Panama not Florida. Sheesh. Well I hate to fold up with the first threat that comes our way. But if they really already paid for all these plane fares, I guess they’re serious. I suppose each man has to decide for himself and his family what he’s going to do. I don’t know about you guys, but maybe it’s time we make a stand if we want to take over dad’s business. Or we can fold up, take the money and live out life somewhere else at somebody else's expense. My departure is tomorrow, how about you guys?”
“Yeah same here.”
“Here too.”
“So we have a little time to think about it. I think I’ll talk to Xyloh and Mom. I’ll let you know what we decide.”
“I’ll do the same. I have a feeling your sister ain’t gonna be happy about this at all. Do they have spas and malls in Panama City?”
“How the hell should we know? Since it’s just me with no wife and kids, I’ll do whatever you guys decide. In the meantime, I’ll check the interwebs and see what kind of food they have in Chile beside chili.”
“Oh God, kill me now,” Rodney Jr. muttered as he disconnected the call. At least we don’t all have to go to the same place. Maybe distance between these two idiots would be nice.
Xyloh was getting the kids ready for school, so Rodney called his mother first.
“Hey Ma”
“Good morning RJ, what’s up? You never call this early. Are the kids okay?”
“Yeah, I got a question. I’ve been offered to move to Belize with the family and you. What do you say? You think that would be fun?”
“Fun? Are you out of your mind? Why would I want to move to Belize?”
“Calm down Ma, I said it was an offer. I was just asking if you are interested, that’s all.”
“Well the answer is no. I’m not interested. My friends and family and my life are all here. I’ve never lived anywhere but Memphis. I’m too old to do something reckless like that. What did Xyloh say about it? You said the family, what about Valerie and Bill?”
“Um, actually Vince and Bill got offers to go somewhere else.”
“You boys go ahead and go. I’m staying here.”
“Yes Ma, I heard you loud and clear.”
When Rodney hung up the phone his wife, Xyloh was standing behind him, her foot doing a rapid tapping, her arms crossed and the glare was unmistakable. She was perturbed at the very least.
“Are you crazy? I’m not leaving and we are not taking our children off to some third world country!”
“Yes ma’am. Mom’s not going. We aren’t going. I suppose Vince and Bill have to decide what’s right for them.”
“I’m still mad that you even had to scare me with talk like that. Just when you are finally taking over the business? You want to leave it all? Are you that weak? The first sign of trouble and you’re gonna flee the country? I never knew you were that spineless.”
“Xyloh! Stop it! All I did was ask Mom what she wanted to do. She said no, you said no, I said okay. That’s not spineless or weak to give you ladies an option. I’m thrilled you don’t want to go. I’m headed to the club, I’ll see you tonight. I’ll call Vince and Bill on the way and let them know we aren’t going.”
Rodney never called his younger brother or brother-in-law. Three blocks from his house, his car exploded.
Chapter 41
Court finally received an email. It was nothing but a series of numbers.
“What the hell is this?”
“Let me see!” Tommy said as he jumped up to gaze over Court’s shoulder.
00110011 00110101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110011 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110001 00110100 00101110 00110010 00110100 00111001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01001110 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 00111000 00111001 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 0111001
0 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101001 01100110 01110100 01111001 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110101 00110101 00101110 00110000 00111000 00110110 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01010111 01100101 01110011 01110100 00001101 00001010 00110011 00110101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00111001 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110101 00110001 00101110 00110000 00110011 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01001110 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 00111001 00110000 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110001 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 00100000 00110101 00110011 00101110 00111001 00111000 00110111 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01010111 01100101 01110011 01110100 00001101 00001010 00110011 00110101 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00111001 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110100 00101110 00110010 00110010 00110011 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01001110 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 00111000 00111001 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110101 00110000 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110101 00110011 00101110 00110000 00110011 00110100 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01010111 01100101 01110011 01110100 00001101 00001010 00110011 00110101 00100000 01000100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00111000 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110011 00110111 00101110 00110011 00110001 00110110 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01001110 01101111 01110010 01110100 01101000 00100000 01100010 01111001 00100000 00111001 00110000 00100000 01100100 01100101 01100111 01110010 01100101 01100101 01110011 00100000 00110001 00100000 01101101 01101001 01101110 01110101 01110100 01100101 00100000 00110011 00110000 00101110 00111001 00111000 00110011 00100000 01110011 01100101 01100011 01101111 01101110 01100100 01110011 00100000 01010111 01100101 01110011 01110100
“Well it’s some kind of code. What’s that computer code that’s all zeros and ones?” Tommy asked to no one in particular.
“Binary,” answered Isabel. “Open a new window, Google binary to text converter. Then copy the email into the converter. It will translate it.”
Court followed the instructions.
“Here’s the conversion,” Court said as he turned his screen around where everyone could see.
35 degrees 3 minutes 14.249 seconds North by 89 degrees fifty minutes 55.086 seconds West
35 degrees 9 minutes 51.03 seconds North by 90 degrees 1 minute 53.987 seconds West
35 degrees 9 minutes 4.223 seconds North by 89 degrees 50 minutes 53.034 seconds West
35 Degrees 8 minutes 37.316 seconds North by 90 degrees 1 minute 30.983 seconds West
“It’s four sets of coordinates. Holy mother of God, did he really set four bombs at once?”
“I’m keying the coordinates into my GPS,” Pierce said and then relayed the addresses to Court.
“Apparently he wants to piss off everyone on the planet. This is a retirement home, a VA hospital, an orphanage and the humane society animal shelter. He might as well have placed them in a church, cathedral, temple and mosque.”
“Yep, the dark stuff will hit the proverbial oscillating device when the press gets this.”
“Radio Silence!” they all heard Tommy exclaim into his cell phone.
Court stood up from his computer desk and started toward the garage door. Tommy asked, “And where do you think you’re going?”
“You can’t tell me with four bombs out there you are going to try to sit on me and not let me help?”
“I can tell you that, and I will. Besides, I have information from the interrogation.”
“Do you know where Colleen is?”
“Well, no. But —”
“But nothing. What if she’s in one of these locations?”
“Really Court. Be reasonable here. None of these locations would be a good place to hold someone against their will. Besides, you know the rules. You can’t be involved in this. There are plenty of people here to fight this battle now. It’s not just you anymore. We are making progress. Let’s go get some iced tea and have a talk, I have good intel to share with you. All of you, let’s go to the kitchen.”
After pouring iced tea for everyone, Court joined his friends and Isabel at the table. He was contemplating heading out the back door, but found he was sufficiently curious to the intel Tommy alluded to. Disarming bombs hadn’t gotten him any closer to Colleen, maybe the new information would.
“Talk fast compadre before I change my mind and leave.”
“Remember Isabel and I picked up Terry Williams yesterday before the mall and airport incidents? Well, back at the office they did some more digging on him while they let him sweat in an interrogation room for a while. They discovered that one of his block mates in prison was a Memphis native named Yancey Anderson.”
“Yeah? Okay, so two Memphis dudes, one who was a one time firebug out of anger, were in a cell block together. What’s so special about that?”
Isabel stood up and as she glared at Court Frankie noticed her back was so straight that coupled with the red hair glowing from the sunlight piercing through the window, she resembled a match. Ready to strike. When she spoke, her voice was low, steady, and resonated with a calm fierceness. “Yancey Anderson was doing time for constructing bombs. These days he’s suspected of working for some of the families running casinos in Vegas as a gun for hire. Except he uses fire and not actual guns. There hasn’t been enough evidence or witnesses willing to testify to pick him up again.”
“Okay, so can we pick him up now? At least just for questioning? Do you think he’s involved in this? Is it possible he’s The Artist?”
“We are hoping Terry Miller will give him up. In the meantime, we are looking for him. His twin brother still lives in Memphis and we have him and his duplex under surveillance. The most interesting fact uncovered so far is that prior to his first arrest, his employer was Rodney “The Snake” Maden.”
“Good afternoon, I’m Sheffield Davis filling in tonight for Ron Strong. Our weekend recap focuses on the explosion at the International Music Festival and the discovery of bombs at a local area mall and the Memphis International Airport. Today’s news continues to focus on explosions and bombs as the son of the newly convicted Rodney Maden, Rodney Maden Jr. died this morning when his car exploded just blocks from his East Memphis home. But first, we have breaking news. ATF, FBI, Memphis and Shelby County police are presently investigating bomb threats in four separate locations. The Phillip Lemons Children’s Home, the Shady Lawn Retirement Village, the Memphis Shelby County Animal Rescue Complex and the VA hospital were evacuated about two hours ago. Special explosives units are searching the locations now. These bomb threats as well as the explosion at the International Music Festival that killed 7 people injured 237 people, are all believed to be part of the kidnapping case of a U.S. Attorney. Colleen McAllister. We have reporters on the scene and will bring you new information as it’s available.”
Chapter 42
Frankie was returning to the kitchen from a bathroom break and passed through the living room where the television was on and turned down low. But he heard the news anchorman say Rodney Maden and Jr. and reached for the cable box remote to rewind to the beginning of the news, paused it and said, “Hey guys come listen to this! Oh sorry, Isabel too, you were included in that, I meant y’all, not guys. Hurry.”
When they were all in the living room, Frankie hit play and they watched the entire newscast waiting for an
y more information. There was no more information about the current potential bombs and the only other news was a bunch of gang bangers filling up the emergency rooms from taking or smoking some apparent bad drugs. Tests were still pending. As the thirty-minute news program was ending, Tommy’s phone rang.
“Dumas”
“Dumas, I’m agent Morrelli. We just finished interrogating Terry Miller. He confessed to hiring a Yancey Anderson to construct the bombs targeting the gang members. It turns out they were in the same cell block at the penitentiary.”
“Well that stops the little bombs from spreading our resources, but it doesn’t find Colleen.”
“Yeah, I have more news. We finally tracked down the hacker that got into the records database at the U.S. Attorney’s office. It was none other than Yancey’s twin brother Winston. Get this, they were living in a duplex and neither knew what the other was doing. You believe that shit?”
“No. Not really, but stranger things have happened. What is it they say, truth is stranger than fiction? I believe that. So if they weren’t working for the same folks, who was Winston working for? Or was he working on his own?”
“We can’t find any reason why he would be working on his own. We believe someone must have hired him too. They just picked ‘em up, I’ll let you know what we get after we interrogate them. We’re still digging.”
“Thanks. I’m having a hard time keeping Court here. Hell, I’m having a hard time staying here myself. Any news yet from the bomb teams?”
“Nope, nothing yet. You guys hang tight. We’ll find her and we’ll get these guys.”