by L. T. Ryan
“I hope you’re right.”
“I do, too.”
Isa stopped and stared up at a fuzzy screen. She had her hands on her hips and her head tipped back. Her long, loose hair hung past her waist. She rose up on the tips of her toes. Reached up toward the screen. Pressed a button on the bottom of the frame.
The channel changed.
The fuzz remained the same.
She did it again, and again. Each time, she lowered back down and took a step back so she could take in the entire screen.
“Isa, what are—”
She waved Clive off while reaching up and changing the channel again. This time, the screen morphed.
“Oh, Jesus.” Clive staggered forward, mouth open, hand fishing through his pocket for his cell phone. He pulled it out, swiped through his contacts, pressed Sadie’s number.
Nothing happened.
“There’s no cell signal in here,” Ines said. She, too, had her eyes glued to the screen. “I’m gonna head outside.” She jogged to the door.
“Stop!” Clive froze, his head turning between the monitor and the door. “Don’t go out there.” He pointed at Eddie. “We need to lock the facility down, now.”
“That’s them,” Isa said. “That’s Noble and Sadie.”
“Everyone, pick a screen and start changing channels.”
Clive started on the TV next to Isa, flipping through channels until he had the same feed. The angle remained the same.
“I didn’t think there was any surveillance footage there?” Isa said.
“They might’ve hacked into someone’s security footage.” He pressed the button again and another feed piped in. “Isa, keep yours where it is, everyone else, keep cycling through. We’ve got different feeds.”
Ines hurried past him and began working on the next screen. “Who is doing this?”
“I’m not worried about that now. We need to get all angles in place, and we need a way to get in touch with Sadie.”
In all, there were ten different camera angles of the little town. Perhaps whoever had tapped in had gotten lucky, and hadn’t been following Sadie, Noble, and Bear. Perhaps they didn’t even know the trio was there.
But why, then, would they have taken over this building? These people were pros. The attack at the hospital was evidence of that. Which meant if they wanted everyone inside the building dead, they’d be dead already. Was this a display of power? A we’ll show you what we can do, kind of thing?
Isa joined him and began pointing out the movements of their makeshift team. “Logan entered the apartment. Sadie and Noble are waiting. He’s quite aware, isn’t he?”
“That’s how he’s survived so long,” said Ines, who had joined them and stood shoulder to shoulder with Clive. “I thought for sure he had snuffed me out.”
“What do you think won him over?”
“Can’t say anything did. I think he knew he had to get out of town. He tried to leave me. I wouldn’t have it. In that moment, it was easier to appease me by letting me tag along than leave me behind. The picture had been painted; his world had been jostled. It was easy, actually.”
“Fortunately for us,” Clive said. “It also means it’ll be bloody impossible for someone to get the drop on him again.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” Ines said. “He’s rusty. No doubt. He’s been on the run for months, but part of that time he cozied up in this little village. I’d bet money he lost some of his edge here.”
“I think we’re gonna find out.” Isa had turned to face the other direction. The rest shifted to take in the feed.
“They’ve got company,” Clive said.
Chapter 28
The door shifted a few inches in the breeze. No other movement could be detected from within. Had it been a setup all along? He glanced at Sadie to judge her reaction. Fake or legit? She had always been hard to read, and that was the case today.
Why go to these lengths if the plan was to kill Jack and Bear? They could’ve done that at the hotel, in the hospital. Instead, they invested time and money and effort into bringing them God-knows-where to work this case because they could reach Clarissa in a way no one else on Clive’s team could. Not even Sadie. Clarissa would trust Jack and Bear and nobody else.
“I don’t like this.” Sadie hiked up her pantleg and retrieved a smaller pistol. She checked the chamber. “Sorry, Jack, this is my backup, and Bear’s got the other one.”
“All that odds in my favor stuff is overrated.”
She smiled, but it was forced. How could it be otherwise right now? “So, what’s the layout of this place? You spent time there, right? Once you are in, where do you go?”
Jack imagined entering the apartment after one of his late nights at the bar while Clarissa was off doing whatever she did instead of working. “Stairs on the right, two small couches on the left, perpendicular. Small television under the stairs. Narrow opening leading to the kitchen. Old stovetop. Small fridge. No oven. Microwave. Knife block. Bathroom.”
“Back door?”
“No.”
“Upstairs?”
“Pretty basic. The stairs open up to a loft type area. No doors other than for a small closet and a wet bath.”
“Toilet, shower, and sink all in one?”
“Pretty much all they could fit in the space.”
“Any way out?”
“Window to a roof. About an eight-foot drop.”
“The roof part of her place?”
“No. Neighbor’s.”
“Could someone get in that way?”
Jack had never tried, but it seemed possible. “Guess so.”
“Shit.”
They fell silent, letting their ears observe as much as their eyes.
“One of us has to go in,” Jack said.
“We wait here,” she said. “Bear would make a noise, call out if something happened.”
“Bear’s in there. He’s not himself. Someone could get the drop on him, take him out, we’d never hear a peep. He could have two guys on top of him right now, choking him out.”
“Stand down, Noble.”
“Not a chance.” He sprinted toward the apartment, leaving Sadie to call out to him to stop. Her words didn’t slow him, but the bicycle that came whipping around the corner did when it slammed into Jack and knocked him off his feet.
The impact knocked the wind out of him. His palms, right cheek, chin, burned from grating across coarse asphalt and gravel. He got to a knee and turned his head.
“Jack!”
He caught sight of her running toward him in his peripheral. Her body disappeared, blocked out by the large fist careening toward his face. He closed his eyes, leaned back, felt the wind off the thick knuckles that breezed past his nose.
The man lost his balance and stumbled toward Noble. Jack dipped his right shoulder low, exploded forward, catching the guy on his knee. The man’s leg buckled, bending awkwardly, snapping. The man screamed, reached down. Jack grabbed the man’s wrist, yanked hard. His shredded knee unable to keep him balanced, the guy toppled over. His head hit the ground with a thud. A pool of crimson spread out on the sidewalk.
Sadie stopped in front of them. She aimed her pistol at his head.
“Don’t worry about him,” Noble said. “Get inside and find Bear.”
Her jacket flapped behind her as she jumped over the limp body of Jack’s assailant and trudged up the slope to the front door. She burst past the threshold, pistol out.
Jack pulled his trapped leg from under the unconscious man and pulled himself to his feet. His lower leg hurt like hell. Sprained, likely. Broken, possibly. He didn’t care. It wasn’t enough to keep him grounded.
He stopped at the door for a moment as memories of the last time he stood there flooded his mind. He watched her, knowing she was pretending to be asleep. He told her where he’d be for part of the next day. She didn’t show. She didn’t come because they both knew he wasn’t coming back.
He shed the guilt and hi
s jacket and went to the stairs.
“Jack,” Sadie called out.
“Coming up. Did you clear the kitchen?”
“Yeah, it’s good.”
“Bear up there?”
“Come see this.”
He reached the top of the stairs and saw the window shattered. Shards littered the floor, glinting in the afternoon sun. He followed the trail and saw a lump of a man stretched out.
“Gotta be kidding me.” He dropped to a knee next to Bear. “Come on, big man.” He turned to Sadie. “Where? Tell me it’s not fatal.”
She pulled Bear’s hair back and revealed the wound to his forehead. Jack grimaced, bit down hard, forced himself to witness a sight he had prepared for long ago but never imagined he’d see.
“Who dropped the Sear’s Tower on my head?” Bear’s eyes fluttered open. He squinted against the knifing sun.
“Miracle,” Sadie said as she pointed up at the wall. “Grazed him.”
Jack patted Bear’s leg and stood. He inspected the apple-size hole in the wall. For a moment, he felt as though he should crouch, but the realization he had been a sitting duck for the past twenty minutes set in.
“How did they miss?” he wondered aloud.
“I bent down at the last minute. Guess the way I did it put me in the perfect position.” Bear reached up and patted his wound. It looked bad, and needed attention, but wouldn’t end his life. Not now.
“They knew?” Jack said to Sadie.
She looked toward the window, angling her head, as though she were imagining the bullet’s trajectory, coming up with a theory on where it was fired from.
“They might’ve been waiting,” she said. “First person who came in, take them out, get whatever data they could.”
“Only problem was us,” Noble said. “They didn’t count on someone being in the way.”
“Literally.” She pointed at the cuts on his face. He winced, having forgotten about the accident. And the man. “Shit, the guy outside.”
Sadie was already on her feet. “I’ll go. You get Bear downstairs.”
Jack didn’t object and waited until she left the room. “Just hang there for a second.” He pulled the dresser away from the wall and felt around until he found what he was looking for. The small handhold allowed him to pull out the seamless cutout section of wall, the contents of which might help him should he manage to break away from Sadie.
A couple bundles of cash and a Glock were the first items he retrieved. Another pass netted a spare magazine with fourteen or fifteen rounds present. He peered inside to see what he was missing.
It took a few moments for the shock of finding nothing else to dissipate. He had left a passport there. He had told Clarissa to keep it safe for him. No matter what, he could return and get it. But she had taken it with her.
She had also taken the spare license plate Beck had made for her.
“Good girl, Clarissa.” He had his lead, now he had to find a way to track it.
“About done over there?” Bear said.
Jack reached down, hefted him off the floor and guided him down the stairs. Outside, they found Sadie shaking her head, phone pressed to her ear.
“Are you kidding me?” She glanced around, spotted the duo, held up a finger. “We’ve got no way out? Two pistols—”
“Three.” Jack waved the Glock around.
“Three pistols, a half-working man, and a sarcastic asshole. You think I like those odds?”
Jack recoiled in jest. “I know I do.”
Sadie tucked her phone into her pocket and pulled out a headset. She threaded it through her clothing and wrapped the earpiece in place. “OK, I’m good. Walk me through it.” She waved Jack down and covered the microphone. “We’re gonna have to do something with him.”
“Bear?”
“Who the hell else am I talking about?”
Jack shrugged and decided now wasn’t the best time to test her patience.
“There’s a team here. You took that one out.” She pointed to the guy on the ground. “At least four more are here.”
“How do we know this?”
“I’ve got Clive and Isa on the phone. They’ve got eyes on the area.”
“There’s no CCTV here.”
“Someone found a workaround and fed it to them. They hacked the entire facility and broadcast this, I guess.”
Jack took a moment to digest this. “They took over Clive’s command center to show them what was happening here? This makes no sense. How many damn parties are involved in this?”
Sadie held up a finger. New information coming in. “OK. OK. We’ll get in place.” She lifted an eyebrow. “Ready to roll, partner?”
Chapter 29
Bear remained behind with Sadie’s back up piece. The .380 barely fit in his hand. Somehow, he managed to thread his index finger through the trigger guard. If he so much as sneezed, someone was getting a surprise.
Sadie and Jack did their best to blend in as they followed Isa’s directions. Neither she nor Clive had told them where they were going, or why. For all Jack knew, this was the plan to separate him and Bear.
That made no sense, though, and he reminded himself that they’d already be dead if that was the plan. Instead, he continued developing a strategy to reach out to the one person who could aide him on his quest to locate Clarissa.
He needed a phone. And some distance from Sadie. The thought crossed his mind he could neutralize her and take her cell. His desperation hadn’t reached that point, yet.
“We’re almost there,” she said.
“Where?”
“There’s an older lady who looked after Clarissa. Ring a bell?”
He nodded. He remembered Mrs. Calabase well. The dinners, wine, bread. So much bread. The best bread he had ever had in his life. His mouth watered thinking of the smell. If he had to choose between unlimited wine and that bread, he’d choose the bread.
“She might’ve helped Clarissa. And these guys might know that.”
Jack didn’t have to hear the rest. He broke into a run toward the small shop the older woman maintained. Twenty feet away, he heard her cries for help.
He didn’t recognize the short guy across the street. Didn’t figure out he was a spotter until it was too late. The guy was already on the phone. Jack didn’t hesitate to shoot the guy.
The bullet hit true, and the man dropped where he stood, his arms and legs twitching as the final electric currents ran through his body.
The door to Calabase’s shop flung open and another short, stocky man stepped out. He barked orders in German, none of which Noble understood. The guy squared up, ready for a fight. Jack figured there were more inside. He adjusted his sights, squeezed off another round, hit the guy dead center.
Noble stepped over the lifeless body and entered the store. It was dim, dank. Heavy dust-filled curtains covered the windows. Rows upon rows of used and new clothing hung from racks jammed together, creating a maze with more dead ends than a Moroccan bazaar.
He made his way to the corner and waited a beat. When nothing stirred, he eased his head over the rack, scanned the room. Empty. Had they left through the back? He lowered a touch and kept his hip to the wall as he moved toward the rear of the store.
The old woman’s scream cut through the silence. The sickening thud of a fist smashing against her face came next. Jack’s jaw clenched. His pace quickened. He used the clutter to keep his cover, hoping Sadie would soon burst through. She’d draw the attention, sunlight flooding in behind her, drawing every eye toward her. It would give him the cover he needed to rise and take out the next assailant.
It didn’t happen, and he began to worry that something had happened to her or Bear. He couldn’t think about that. He had to find Mrs. Calabase before they beat her to death.
“I told you, I don’t know anything about that girl,” the old woman said in Italian. She choked on her sob, then pleaded before another thud. Her groan told Jack she’d had enough. Any more damage and sh
e was going to check out.
“Forget this,” he muttered.
He rose and hurried to the back of the store he knew all too well from the dozens of times Clarissa had dragged him in here to try on another sundress. Did she look good? Yeah. Could he have told her that in her apartment? Yeah.
But those boring times had led him to explore the nooks and crannies, and he knew the storeroom area as well as, if not better than the retail section.
He used the barrel of the Glock to push the swinging door open. Pale yellow light spread out in front of him. The bulb hummed, threatening to dim to darkness at any moment.
Mrs. Calabase’s soft whimpers reached his ears, as did the low murmur of two distinct male voices.
Jack closed his eyes for a moment, picturing the layout of the storeroom. Where was the best place to tie someone up for interrogation? There were two options. Right was easy. Left hard. And that’s the route he chose.
He crept through the storeroom, avoiding the boxes and packaging strewn about. They’d visited the Calabases’ home on a few occasions before her husband passed away. It had been pristine. But even before becoming widowed, the woman’s store was a mess. Part of the reason Jack wandered through was to straighten up a bit.
A shotgun-blast of popping emanated from under his shoe. He looked down at the deflated packaging bubble. Damn thing must’ve been four inches thick.
A man said something in German. They’d likely come at Jack from both directions.
Jack stepped back, draped his arms across the rack behind him and gripped the bar. With both feet, he kicked the ten-foot-tall shelving unit in front of him. It toppled forward in slow motion, items careening to the ground starting from the top shelf on down. This had a domino effect when the shelving hit the next row, which also tipped over.
Mrs. Calabase mustered the energy to scream.
The front door crashed open. Sadie called out for Jack.
One of the men yelled in German. Jack looked toward the hall leading to the front of the store. The guy was there. He would take Sadie by surprise. Jack had the guy dead to rights, but firing would reveal his location to the other guy.