Blinding Fear

by Roland, Bruce

  Their driver saw the 50,000 pound truck at almost the same moment. He yanked the steering wheel hard to the left and stomped on the brakes. His actions were far too late to avoid a collision but they did prevent the classic “T-bone” crash that could be so lethally catastrophic. Instead of impacting the limo between its doors, the heavily reinforced front of the truck smashed into the right front quarter panel, sending the 6,000 pound limo into a violent, counter-clockwise spin. In spite of the gargantuan crash, none of the nearly two-inch thick bullet proof windows even cracked. Inside, Claire felt her seatbelt cinch her tightly into the seat while simultaneously hearing multiple, sharp bangs, which she knew had to be the many airbags instantly inflating. She felt her head bounce off one then the limo stopped spinning. She saw the front, rear seat and side-curtain airbags deflating and felt the seatbelt relax. From the instant she first saw the truck, to the moment the limo stopped spinning, no more than five or six seconds could have elapsed. Everyone inside was too shocked to move except for the driver who shouted, “Stay here!!” He grabbed the handle of his door, slammed it open with a heavily muscled shoulder and leaped out. After slamming the door closed, he whipped out a very large, semi-automatic handgun from beneath his suit coat and spun in every direction, looking for new threats. For a moment she thought their driver was overreacting but then she saw the driver of the dump truck scramble out of the cab and jump to the street. He briefly looked into the limo’s interior. His face was acne-scarred; his hair long, dirty and unkempt; his nose must have been broken at least three or four times. She guessed he was trying to assess the physical condition of the passengers but when he saw that everyone looked well, his expression turned to anger. Their eyes locked. Claire experienced the same fear she had when first seeing Ludlow in the hospital. The man smiled malevolently, revealing uneven, cavity-ravaged teeth. He tried to open her door but found it was locked. Suddenly his head jerked up and she saw him looking at the limo driver who was screaming something while pointing the gun at him over the hood of the limo. The man looked at Claire again, then turned and sprinted out of view.

  She slumped back into her seat, emotionally spent, her ears still ringing from the airbag explosions.

  “Claire!! Are you okay?!” she heard Herc ask loudly.

  She could only nod slightly.

  “Kay! How about you?”

  He rotated and tilted his head a few times. “I think I’m okay.”

  They stayed inside for several more minutes as they watched their driver do several more sweeps of the accident scene and then look into the cab of the gravel truck. Shortly afterward, he began what was sure to be a lengthy conversation with several Colorado Springs police officers who had arrived on scene within minutes.

  “I’d have to guess that Agent Ludlow just tried to take us out of the game,” Herc said to Claire and Kay. “If we’d not been in this limo, with Mr. Bryant at the wheel, it would’ve been ‘turn out the lights, the party’s over’!”

  Chapter 32

  For nearly two hours, Herc, Claire, Kay and their limo driver were subjected to a barrage of questions from the police. Most of them centered around the driver of the gravel truck and his actions. From what the police had said, the truck disappeared from a high-rise building construction site less than an hour prior to the incident.

  No more than 20 seconds after the truck driver fled the scene of the crash, witnesses saw him jump into another vehicle—operated by someone else—which sped away at high speed. Although they’d gotten the license plate number, it had also turned out to be stolen.

  Their limo driver spent substantial time showing his concealed-carry permit, handgun registration, firearm certifications as well as chauffeur and body guard licenses. He’d also explained in great detail, why he’d brandished his gun at the truck driver.

  Eventually, the police were forced to call off the on-scene investigation, even though it was obvious the “accident” was no such thing. Claire could clearly see they suspected she, Herc and Kay knew more of the “backstory” behind the incident than they were willing to reveal. And they were right. Moments before they got out of the limo, the three had agreed that telling the police too much would be counter-productive—if not downright dangerous—for them and many others. Official statements and depositions would have to be taken, reviewed and reviewed again. CSI teams would be called in. Detectives and assorted other investigators and higher-ups would demand total honesty. All of which would take days, if not weeks to accomplish and eventually open history’s largest can of worms.

  Fortunately, the delay wasn’t enough to affect their mid-afternoon appointment with Margery Whalen.

  At 2:55 their second armored Town Car pulled up in front of a modest, two-story home. It was in a housing development northwest of the city, well into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and situated on a very quiet cul-de-sac. A well-worn, 10 year-old Honda Accord was parked in the short driveway.

  Claire, Herc and Kay made no move to open a door. Given the dramatic events of the past three hours, they knew they should wait for their driver to scrutinize the street for any more threats. They watched as he walked up a short, but steep flight of steps to the front door and knock. After a few seconds a heavyset, middle-aged woman opened it and talked to the driver. Her clothes were disheveled and mismatched; her already-plump face, further distorted by what Claire had to assume was crying. They saw the driver gesturing toward the limo. Then, they disappeared into the house. After several minutes he returned to the limo and opened their doors one at a time. As each of them stepped out, the driver repeated his immediate-threat scan of the neighborhood. As he did, Claire had to admit a 100% tip for DeAngelo Bryant would be far less than he deserved.

  A short while later they seated themselves around a battered dining room table, while the driver stood guard near the front door. Claire noticed some odd looking, small dark stains on the table top, along with a larger one on the hardwood floor. She tried not to think too much about their cause.

  After Claire briefly introduced Herc and Kay, she could see the older woman was probably in full-blown depression. She knew she must tread carefully. The two men had agreed to let Claire take the lead in the interview. It was much more likely that Margery would open up to another woman.

  “Can we please just get this over with,” Margery whispered hoarsely. “I’ve got nothing but bad memories from this place. What’d you want?” Claire smelled liquor on her breath.

  “As I mentioned over the phone,” Claire calmly said, “we’re trying to pull together the pieces of what we believe is a huge government conspiracy. I want to do a big article in the Sentinel. From what little we’ve uncovered so far, your husband may have inadvertently stumbled across it and paid with his life.”

  “And just what would I know? We’d been separated for more than three months. The only thing he cared about at all was that damned telescope!”

  With every word Claire could see her become increasingly agitated; no doubt fueled in part by the alcohol.

  “I may as well’ve been living in a cave someplace for all the attention he paid me! He spent over six grand on the stinking thing!”

  Suddenly, Claire noticed Herc looking at her, subtly signaling with his eyes that he wanted to speak. She barely nodded.

  “May we see the telescope, Mrs. Whalen?” Herc gently asked.

  “Be my guest. It’s in the back yard.” As the other three got up and moved toward the back of the house she called after them. “You’d better get a good look while you can. It’s not going to be there much longer! I’m gonna sell it to pay for his funeral. Kind’ve ironic, don’t you think?” She snorted derisively, then suddenly yelled sharply, “Tell you what! I’ve changed my mind about sticking around. I’m outta here! You all can do whatever you want. Just pull the door closed when you leave. I can’t take any more of being here!”

  They turned to watch in astonishment as Margery walked rapidly past Bryant and out the front door, slamming it closed
behind her. A moment later they heard the Honda’s tired motor sputter to life and the car back down the driveway.

  “What’ll we do?” Claire asked.

  “Exactly what we planned,” Herc responded. “But I’ve got another idea, too.”

  Claire, Herc and Kay walked out into the weed-infested back yard. There were no houses behind them. They had nearly a 180 degree view of the Rockies to the west, with the sun sinking toward them. Many pine trees dotted the yard and those of the neighbors. Well away from the house, perched on a broad concrete pedestal, they saw a large plastic tarpaulin covering what they assumed was the telescope. It looked to be at least 6 feet tall. Herc quickly walked over and pulled off its protective cover. He whistled. “Whoa! This is a beaut! It’s a 12-inch Orion Skyquest truss reflector. One of the things that’s neat about these is you don’t have to pay for a literal tube. All you’ve got are the light-gathering mirrors, lenses and other electronics at either end supported by truss rods between them. Makes the whole thing a little bit cheaper and lighter. What’s wild about this set up, though, are all the other bells and whistles he’s got! It’s a GoTo telescope with GPS!”

  Claire and Kay looked at each other, mutually puzzled. “All right. We give up. What’s all that mean?” Kay asked.

  “On the telescope’s computer, besides storing photos, you can digitally record exactly what you’ve been looking at one night—let’s say Saturn. Then one night or one month of nights later, you can go back and tell the computer that you want to look at Saturn. You press one little button and it will automatically rotate and elevate the instrument to precisely where Saturn is at that second! The GPS compensates for the Earth’s rotation on its axis and around the sun, as well as Saturn’s orbit. It’s a backyard astronomer’s dream!”

  Claire could only laugh. “And just how do you know all this?”

  “Because I’ve got one of my own. It’s at my cabin in Nevada. Whenever I spend some time there I do some stargazing of my own. Every now and then I’ve tried to find my own........” Suddenly he stopped and stared at the other two with a look of intense focus, then turned to closely examine the computerized drive system. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it earlier!”

  “What?!” Claire and Kay asked simultaneously.

  “The last things that Frank Whalen looked at are probably still recorded on the hard drive—the images themselves as well as their celestial coordinates and the dates he took them. All I’ve got to do to find out what he was observing is turn it on, press the “Show Last Coordinates” button and we’ll know exactly where in the night sky he was looking! It means we’ll be able to verify what he saw and where it was in the night sky! We can take those coordinates to another astronomer and he could confirm whatever is out there—assuming its a comet.....and where it’s headed!”

  “And when, I’ll bet,” Claire added. “This is one of those things that we hoped Ludlow had missed. He thought he was erasing Whalen’s knowledge of the comet—and where it was—by killing him. What he didn’t know was that the knowledge was recorded here!”

  “But who can we take the coordinates to?” Kay asked. “If what Halpren said was true—that Whalen got a letter telling him to back off or else—then chances are the rest of the astronomical community is scared to.......”

  “What about you, Herc?” Claire asked. “You say you’ve got the same basic setup at your cabin. Could we simply take them to your place and plug them into your computerized telescope?”

  “Why don’t we just do it right here when the sun goes down?” Kay added.

  “Quite frankly, given what happened at the airport,” Herc replied, “I’d like to quickly get out of here. Who knows what other nasty surprises Ludlow has in store for us. Claire, as I call out the coordinates, would you mind writing them down for me?”

  “No problem,” she responded.

  He turned back to the telescope and pressed the power button on the main hard drive, then the “Show Last Coordinates” button. A moment later, on the LCD screen, they could all see the numbers that precisely “pointed” to a tiny piece of the night sky. Next to them was the date Whalen had completed the work. Herc repeated them out loud. He then pressed the button repeatedly until it stopped showing any previous coordinates. As he spoke, Claire quickly jotted down all the information in a small notepad she carried in her purse. As she finished transcribing the final numbers she leaned over slightly to put the pen back in her purse. Oddly, she heard a loud ‘snap’ inches above her head and then glass breaking behind them in the house. “What was.....!”

  “Everybody down! Get down!” Bryant roared from inside the house. He sprinted out the back door toward them, hunched over, his gun in hand. She was stunned that a man so big could move so fast.

  Claire, Herc and Kay flattened themselves into the weeds and started crawling back toward the house, now knowing they were under assault by an unseen sniper. Bryant swung his gun from side to side, desperately trying to see where the shots were coming from. Claire heard a dull “thunk” as another round impacted the dirt no more than inch from her head. She screamed.

  “Run! Now!” Bryant bellowed. “You’ve got to get out of here! Get up! Don’t crawl!”

  As one, they leaped to their feet and sprinted for the back door. In quick succession one bullet smashed through the sliding glass door barely missing Herc, while another imbedded itself in the blood stain on the hardwood floor. Claire couldn’t understand why she didn’t hear any gunshots; then realized whoever was shooting at them was probably half a mile away in the hills with a silenced rifle.

  Somehow they all made it into the house safely. Claire paused to catch her breath. “Don’t stop!” Bryant yelled. “Get to the car!”

  They raced out the front door, down the steps, yanked open the limo’s doors and literally threw themselves into the bulletproof safe haven. Seconds later, Bryant piled in after them. He straightened up in the driver’s seat and brought the engine to life with a roar, then floored the accelerator and careened down the street away from the killing zone.

  Chapter 33

  “You’ve got to get out of town!” Bryant declared as he expertly guided the speeding Town Car through the streets of Colorado Springs. “Whoever’s after you isn’t going to stop now! We’ve been lucky so far.”

  “They must’ve had the house staked out the entire time we’ve been here,” Kay said. “When that truck failed to kill us, someone must have told the sniper we were on our way again. For all we know they’ve got somebody else already waiting for us at the airport.”

  “I doubt it,” Bryant said. “Whoever these people are, they probably assumed one of those attempted hits would get the job done. Right now, whoever’s running the show is trying to figure out Plan C on the fly. Ours is this: I’ll drive as fast as I can right up to your jet. Once we get there, stay in the car while I get your luggage transferred and open the cabin door. Don’t get out of the limo until I tell you to, then stay low getting into the plane. I’ll provide you as much cover as possible.”

  “Before we get there we need to consider another....shall we say..... complication,” Kay said. “Mr. Bryant has almost certainly become a new threat in the eyes of our friend from the FBI.”

  “Oh, my God! You’re right!” Claire replied.

  Bryant glanced quickly at Kayode, a look of alarm on his face. “FBI? Hold on a sec! My job is to get you safely from point A to B. I protect you from any threats as best I can, so long as you’re not criminals on the run on something! From all I can tell, that’s what I’ve been doing. That’s fine. But the FBI.... chasing you! Sorry, that’s a whole new ball game!”

  “No, no. It’s not like that,” Herc protested. “It’s just that we....I.....uh...” He stopped and looked at Claire and Kay for help in deciding what to tell Bryant.

  Suddenly, Bryant swung the car into a deserted gas station and brought it to a screeching stop. “End of the line until I get the full story!” he snapped as he threw the car into pa
rk, then turned to stare at each of them.

  His three passengers looked at each other in confusion. Finally, Claire said, “Look guys, he’s already involved, whether he knows it or not! We might as well lay it all out.”

  “Okay,” Herc replied.

  Kay agreed.

  For the next 10 minutes—as best they could given the many unknowns—the three took turns detailing the intricate story, their suspicions and fears.

  When they finished, Bryant shook his head in dismay. “Man, you people are in it up to your necks! And now you got me about buried too! If half of what you say is true, this Ludlow character will come gunning for me after he takes all of you out! But......I can see you’re trying to do the right thing.”

  Kay seized the opportunity. “Mr. Bryant, I think it’s safe to say we’re going to need somebody with your skill sets for the foreseeable future. Would you be interested in working for me?”

  Bryant was taken aback. “I don’t know.......”

  “I’ll match whatever your present compensation package is plus 25 percent. Of course, you’ll also be helping us do something that’s really important.”

  The others could see Bryant mulling over the offer. “That’s really generous, Mr. Seok, but after what you’ve just told me, money doesn’t seem to mean as much to me as it used to. Yesterday, I’d’ve bargained you up to 35 percent. Today, helping you do something important is worth a whole lot more. Okay. I’m in. When do I start?”

  “You already have. But before we talk anymore, I need you to get us to the airport before Ludlow and his hired guns beat us there—if they haven’t already!”

  Bryant answered by throwing the gear selector to “D” and burning rubber getting out of the gas station. “I’ve got one problem,” he said as he wove in and out of traffic with the ease of a veteran Indy Car driver. “Assuming you want me to go on the plane, what’s on my back is all the belongings I’ve got. No toothbrush either.”