by Roland Smith
She walked around the side of the truck to the second car … and her daughter.
A Voice from the Grave
“Here comes your mom,” I said.
“I see her,” Angela said.
“She doesn’t look too happy.” Actually she looked furious. She was walking quickly toward us with her gun out.
“I imagine not. She just rode half the night in the back of a semi-truck after kidnapping the president’s daughter. Now she’s in the middle of a graveyard, and we’re here.”
“That’d be enough to tick anybody off,” I said. “But I’m glad to see her anyway. It means we may not die today.”
Malak yanked the door open. She looked even angrier close-up.
“Get out of the car!”
I knew it was an act, but it still scared me. T3 seemed nice in comparison. We got out.
She pointed. “Walk over to that bench and sit down.”
There was a stone bench about a hundred feet away surrounded by tombstones. We walked over to it and sat down with our backs to the truck. She came up behind us and quickly cut our flex-cuffs … well, Angela’s cuffs. Mine were already off. She squatted in front of us so the people at the truck couldn’t see her. Only then did she give us a small worried smile.
“I can’t say that I’m happy to see you here, but I am happy to see that you’re both alive.”
Tears ran down Angela’s cheeks.
“You need to get all of that out of your system right now,” Malak said. “When we get in that boat, you need to stop thinking of me as your mother. If anyone suspects our true relationship, we will all be dead. Now tell me what happened, quickly, from the time you left the White House until you got here. We have very little time.”
Angela gave her a quick and pretty concise summary of what had happened, skipping a few points, like Croc sniffing out their whereabouts in the crab truck and his and Boone’s ability to vanish into thin air, or teleport, or whatever they did.
When she finished, Malak looked at me. “So your dad followed you from D.C.?”
“Yeah. He’s not wrapped too tight. But it kind of worked out for us in the end.”
“And they don’t know about this John Masters guy?”
“I don’t think so,” Angela answered. “They thought Boone put the tracking device on their car.”
“Do you have any idea where Boone and Masters are?”
“I’m here,” Boone said to our right.
“Don’t look!” Malak warned us.
Angela and I stared straight ahead.
“I’m not impressed with your idea of protecting my daughter,” Malak said, staring at us.
“We can discuss that at another time,” Boone said.
“I assume your team is here?”
“No,” Boone said. “Just me.”
A look of anger and disappointment crossed Malak’s face. Of course she didn’t know about Boone’s special talents.
“Are you armed?” Malak asked.
“Nope.”
“That’s just perfect.”
“Who were you talking to on the phone?” Boone said.
“How long have you been here?”
“I got here before you arrived.”
“How did you know—”
“There’s no time to explain,” Boone said, cutting her off. “Who were you talking to?”
“The same man I talked to in Virginia. He’s on an island waiting for us. The cell is controlled by five people. He’s just one of them.”
“So if we get him, we still have four more to go,” Boone said.
“Three,” Malak said. “I’m one of the five now.”
“That’s good to hear,” Boone said. “We need to keep you in that five so we can take the rest of them down.”
“How?”
“The Mossad is going to do a raid on the island led by the rogue agents Eben and Ziv. They’re going to rescue Bethany Culpepper and return her to the president. The guy waiting for you on the island is going to be wounded. But not too badly. You’re going to save him by shooting Eben and Ziv. They’ll have their vests on. Shoot them in the chest. No head shots. After they’re “dead,” you’re going to get away to fight another day.”
“There’s a woman here named Ariel. She’ll be setting up a parameter with three pros. They’re not going to be easy to take out.”
“I suspect the Navy SEAL team posing as Israeli Mossad will be up to the challenge,” Boone said.
“What about intel from the island?” Malak said. “The team will need to know what they’re up against. I have a phone now, but I can’t risk using it. They might be tracking outgoing data.”
“No worries,” Boone said. “Q will be providing intel for us.”
“I will?”
“Sleight of hand,” Boone said. “I’ve seen how you can conceal a phone in your hand to snap photos. This time you’re going to use video. You’ll need to get interior room shots, doors, approaches to the house. It’d be nice to get a shot of where Ariel sets up her team. Just think about what kind of information you would need if you were going to storm the island with an assault team. Make sure you don’t get caught doing it. And you won’t have much time. As soon as they get you in the house, or whatever they have out there, they’re going to lock you and Angela in a room. As soon as you’re alone, upload the video to John. We’ll be along not too long after we get the video. If you can’t manage to get the shots, we’ll still be along, but not quite as efficiently.”
“You’re forgetting something,” I said.
“What’s that?”
“I don’t have a phone.”
“Angela’s phone is under the bench right next to your feet. I’ve programmed John’s number into it.”
“It takes a long time to upload video,” I said. “And there’s a size limit.”
“It will upload instantly,” Boone said. “And there’s no size limit on Angela’s phone. X-Ray has messed with it.”
“Ariel’s coming,” Malak said.
She was halfway between us and the bench, moving quickly.
I picked up Angela’s phone. Croc had been messing with it too. It was covered in dog drool.
The Hunt
Before we got into the boat, Ariel wanted to put flex-cuffs back on us, which would have killed the video idea. I’m pretty good, but I didn’t think I could manage a camera phone with my hands cinched behind my back.
“Once the cuffs were off, the girl told me some interesting things,” Malak said. “And I don’t think she was lying.”
“Such as?” Ariel asked.
Malak answered her question with another question. “What can they do to us? They’re children.”
There were a lot of things Angela could do now that her hands were free, but the question had its desired effect. Ariel climbed into the boat and shut up about it.
The boat was made out of aluminum and it was good-sized. The enclosed cabin was long enough to hold the stretcher. Malak gave the coordinates to one of the men. She told Ariel to take the bow and put the other two men on the starboard and port sides. Malak, Angela, and I sat in the stern. This allowed me to practice with the phone without anyone seeing, and for Angela and her mom to talk quietly without anyone hearing. I tried not to listen, but it was kind of hard not to. We were sitting three feet away from each other.
“So what’s going to happen?” Angela asked.
“Violence,” Malak said. “Boone’s team is going to move in and surgically take out Ariel’s team. Then they’ll storm the house. You and Q will be locked in a room and won’t hear much. The SEAL team will probably use silenced weapons.”
“That’s not what I meant,” Angela said. “What I want to know is what’s going to happen to you?”
“Oh,” Malak said, a little startled. “I’ll be fine. Since Ariel won’t be around to defend herself, I’ll put the blame for the raid on her. I suspect that whoever gave her the order will do the same. They should have never taken you without taking Boone. You
and Q obviously didn’t put the tracking device on their SUV. They had the president’s daughter in hand and one of the five had the bright idea to break protocol and kidnap you. It was a stupid mistake. The ghost cell has not survived all of these years by making mistakes. I might be able to cause some dissension among the four. Maybe I can get them to take out one of their own.”
“And then there were three,” Angela said.
Malak smiled. “I hope it gets to, And Then There Were None.”
“You mean one,” Angela said.
“Definitely,” Malak said. “Remember the Agatha Christie novels we read together when you were young.”
“I remember,” Angela said. “I remember all of the books we read together.”
“I thought this was going to be over today,” Malak said. “I can see now that was wishful thinking. But I am closer to being done with this than I was a few days ago.”
“What are you going to do when it’s finally over?”
“I try not to think about that too much. Thoughts like that are dangerous for me. I suppose I could move back to San Francisco. I’ve always loved the city. I’d have to change my identity of course. I think I’d like to become a librarian.”
“You’re kidding.”
“No joke. I love books, and believe it or not, I like helping people.”
“That’s hard to picture,” Angela said. “I mean, the librarian part.”
It was impossible for me to picture too. Malak didn’t look like any of the librarians I’d ever known.
She gave Angela a wistful smile. “Sometimes at night when I’m trying to sleep, I imagine myself walking down an endless aisle of books, running my fingers along the spines, pausing once in a while to pull a book off the shelf to see what’s beneath the cover. I know it’s kind of an odd fantasy for an infamous international terrorist.”
“You’re not a terrorist,” Angela said.
“Actually, I am a terrorist,” Malak said sadly. “I have done some very terrible things. Things that I deeply regret, but I had little choice if I wanted to stay in the hunt.” She looked off across the water for a moment, and bit her lower lip just like Angela did sometimes. When she looked back, there were tears in her eyes. “It’s been all about the hunt,” she said softly. “It’s why I went off the grid. It’s why I stepped into Anmar’s shoes. It’s why I lied to your father. It’s why I lied to you.”
“You didn’t lie,” Angela insisted.
“Yes I did. Letting your loved ones think that you are dead is a lie. I broke your father’s heart. I broke your heart. All for the hunt.”
“Someone had to do it,” Angela said.
“But I volunteered,” Malak said. “You and your father didn’t. I brought you both into this. Now I need to get you out of it.”
“We all need to get out of this,” Angela said. “Including you.”
“That may not be possible. There are a lot of people looking for me and they aren’t going to stop just because I decide to stop hunting. If we’re lucky enough to take the ghost cell down, there will be more people looking for me. We won’t get all of them. There will be some that are too deeply buried for us to dig out. It will only take one of them to kill the librarian in the stacks. If they find out you’re my daughter, they’ll come after you too. They’ll come after your father as well. These people are vindictive and they have long memories. It’s a deadly game I’m playing. And to be truthful, I’m not sure how to end it.”
“I think it can be worked out,” Angela said.
“We’ll see. I hope you’re right. But first we have to get through this day.”
“Boone’s plan seems pretty good,” Angela said.
“Boone’s plan is absolutely brilliant, but don’t tell him I said that. I’m still ticked off at him for leaving you and Q alone on the highway.” Malak stood up. “I better check on Bethany.”
“Is she okay?” I asked, thinking it might be all right for me to butt in now. “She’s been unconscious for a long time.”
“She’s as conscious as you are,” Malak said. “She woke up at the rest area. She’s doing something called deep yoga breathing to make everyone think that she’s out. That girl has more grit than her dad, and that’s saying something. The point of this exercise is to video the president’s daughter, striking terror into everyone’s hearts. We’re not going to give them that chance.”
She went into the cabin.
“What do you think?” Angela asked.
“I think your mom’s pretty cool. I think she’s right about your and her situation being complicated. I think I’m going to be able to get the video Boone needs, but I don’t think it was necessary.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think Boone and Croc are already on the island and know exactly what the setup is there.”
“If he’s already there, why doesn’t he just shoot the video and send it to John?”
“Because he doesn’t want to turn his cell phone on. It’s being tracked. How can he explain traveling over open water at the speed of light? Remember when he turned his cell phone off in D.C.?”
Angela nodded.
“I thought he did it because he wanted to be off the grid, but that wasn’t it. He turned his cell off so he wouldn’t have to explain how his signal went from point A to point B in a millisecond.”
“Who do you think Tyrone Boone really is?”
“A better question might be what is Tyrone Boone? And the answer is, I don’t know. I’m just glad he’s on our side.”
Malak came back a few minutes later and sat down next to us. “We’ll be there in about five minutes. I just got a call from the man on the island. This is how it’s going to go down. We’ll carry Bethany up to the house on the stretcher and put her in the room to the right. You two will be going into the room to the left. Ariel and her team will exit the house and set up their perimeter outside. When everyone is gone, the man will make his appearance.”
“He doesn’t want anyone to see what he looks like except you,” Angela said.
“Exactly,” Malak said, looking at me. “The point is that you might not have a lot of time to get the video Boone needs. I’ll have Ariel’s team take the stretcher, and we’ll follow behind, which should give you a chance to get some shots. But even though they’re in front, you’ll need to be careful. The man will be watching us closely as we approach the house.”
“He won’t see the camera,” I said.
The boat started to slow. Fifty feet in front of us was a long dock.
“The actual raid will happen very quickly,” Malak said. “By quickly I mean it will be over within a minute or two. Bethany is the president’s daughter. They’ll treat her as if the threat is still active, even if the bad guys are all dead. Their immediate priority will be to get her off the island to a secure location. With some luck, I’ll be gone before she leaves.” She looked at Angela and hesitated. “What I’m saying is this is it. I love you. Stay away from the doors and windows when the shooting starts. I’ll be in touch when I think it’s safe. Tell Boone thanks, but I’m still mad at him.”
We were ten feet from the dock.
“I hope the hunt ends soon,” Angela said.
“I do too,” Malak said.
The House
“Tie up with the bow facing the bay,” Malak said. “We may have to get out of here quickly.”
The man on the bridge swung the boat around and eased it into the dock next to a second boat that was smaller than ours, but looked a lot faster.
Ariel and another man jumped to the dock and fixed the lines fore and aft to cleats. It was a nice dock. It looked like it was made out of solid teak or some other expensive wood.
Ariel pointed at a couple of her men and told them to take the stretcher.
“Negative,” Malak said. “I want one person on each corner.”
“It’s not that heavy,” Ariel said.
“That’s not the point,” Malak snapped. “I don’t want her jostl
ed. I don’t want her awake until we have her inside.” She looked at each terrorist in turn. “Do you understand?”
They all nodded, but it was pretty clear they didn’t like Malak ordering them around.
“What about the kids?” Ariel asked.
“I can handle two kids,” Malak said. “We’ll be right behind you. Let’s go.”
We waited in the boat until they had the stretcher out and had started up the dock.
“Let’s go,” Malak said to us, waving her gun for the benefit of anyone who might be watching. I was shoulder to shoulder with Angela. Malak was two steps behind us. I started the camera rolling, moving it to the left and right, but mostly focusing the tiny lens on the house. The house was a two-story log A-frame set back into the trees about fifty feet from the dock. A set of steep stairs led up to a porch that ran the length of the house. It looked like the front door was wide open. I figured the guy would be upstairs looking out the window but standing back a ways so nobody could see him. Malak hadn’t mentioned it, but I also figured that he had binoculars or a spotting scope. I would have in his place. This meant he could see us like we were standing a foot away from him.
A magic trick is all about diversion. You get them to look at your left hand so they don’t see what you’re doing with your right hand. How was I going to keep this guy’s attention off my right hand, where I had the phone? Simple. I started picking my nose with my left hand. It’s a perfect diversion. People have two fundamental reactions to nose picking. They are either so grossed out they can’t look at you at all, or they are kind of fascinated by the process and can’t take their eyes off of it, especially if they think you can’t see them. If they’re nose-picking lookers I guarantee they’re not watching the hand that isn’t digging. And I had a lot to dig because of the bloody nose Ariel had given me.
Apparently Angela was not a looker. She glanced at me once, saw my busy index finger, and didn’t look at me again all the way into the house.
The house was magnificent. It looked like they’d knocked down an entire old-growth forest to build it. Inside, it was nicely furnished and it smelled like pine. Stuffed animal heads were sticking out of the log walls. Polar bear, moose, lion, wildebeest, rhino, and several animals I didn’t recognize. On the floor were zebra-skin and tiger-skin rugs. Directly across from the front door was a wide staircase leading up to an open balcony running all the way around the top of the A. There were rooms on the front side of the house and on the back side. I figured the guy that was watching us was in one of the upstairs rooms in the front. I also figured that he didn’t own this place and probably had no connection to it whatsoever. No one would kidnap the president’s daughter and take her to his own house.