First Family kam-4

by David Baldacci

  When they came out a few seconds later, Carlos, watching on the monitor, cursed. The president and the First Lady were pulling off their oxygen masks with attached small cylinder tanks that Jane had carried under her coat. They had been given to them by Agent Waters acting on the tip from King after he'd discovered the extra nitrogen gas cylinders in Quarry's basement and deduced what they might be used for.

  Foster and his men ran to the First Couple and escorted them so rapidly back to the chopper that neither the man nor the woman's feet seemed to touch the ground.

  "Are you all right, Mr. President?" asked Foster anxiously after they were safely inside the chopper. "We'll need to get you and the First Lady checked out medically."

  "I'm fine. We're fine." He eyed Chuck Waters. "Good call. We put the masks on as soon as the gas started coming in."

  "That was Sean King's doing, sir, not mine. But even then, I didn't think the gas would be in that house. We thought it was all clear."

  "Well, I'll have to thank Mr. King." He glanced at his wife. "Again."

  A pale Foster added, "If I suspected for a second that the place was booby-trapped like that, sir, I never would have let you go in."

  Cox slipped the gun from his waistband and handed it back to Foster. "Well, I really didn't give you a choice, did I? Whoever put that thing together was extremely clever. From the sophistication of the plot, it seems that a well-funded terrorist organization was behind this. And my stupid antics really put you between a rock and a hard place, Larry. I'm sorry."

  Foster's face reddened. It was rare for a president to apologize to anyone, much less a Secret Service agent.

  "Apology accepted, Mr. President." The two men shook hands.

  As the door to the chopper slammed shut, the president said, "We need to get back to D.C. pronto."

  "I couldn't agree more, Mr. President," said a relieved Foster.

  "And your niece?" said Waters.

  "After what just happened, there seems little hope of her still being alive. If their goal was to kill me, they obviously never intended to release her."

  Jane Cox let out a sob and covered her face. The president put a supportive arm around her. "But we must continue to do everything we can." He looked around the interior of the chopper. "We must not give up hope. But we must also prepare for the worst. Those bastards tried to kill me and my wife today, but they failed. America will never give in to evil like this. Never. They can keep trying to get to me, but I will never let them win. Not on my watch."

  Every agent on the chopper looked at Dan Cox with immense pride, forgetting that a few minutes ago he'd been a raging madman with a gun pressed to his temple, more worried about being reelected than getting his niece back. He had bravely walked into what turned out to be a trap in order to save his niece. And now, having barely escaped death, he was being supportive of his wife and rallying the troops. That was some serious street cred that U.S. presidents typically never earned.

  Before they lifted off it was decided that, under the circumstances, the Coxes should not travel on the same chopper together. Jane was shuttled off to the second chopper with six agents and a couple of HRT members, while the bulk of the firepower and Agent Chuck Waters stayed with the president. Two agents remained behind to deal with the local police and Tippi Quarry's body.

  CHAPTER 83

  QUARRY THREW DOWN the SAT phone and with a scream of rage he raced back inside the mine.

  Watching from their cover position Sean said, "He doesn't look very happy."

  "I think he just found out the man isn't dead."

  "What are you two talking about?" asked an attentive Gabriel. "What man?"

  "Gabriel, how well do you know the interior of the mine?"

  Michelle broke in. "Sean, no!"

  "Michelle, we can't go in there blind."

  "He's just a kid."

  "There may be another kid in there too."

  Gabriel spoke up. "I'll go. I know the place real well. I want to go in there. I can talk to Mr. Sam."

  Sean said, "He wants to go."

  Michelle looked at Sean and then at Gabriel's pleading face.

  "Michelle, we don't have much time. You saw Quarry tear in there."

  They scrambled over some more rocks and sprinted to the mine entrance. The door was not a problem because Quarry had not bothered to shut it.

  They raced inside, guns and flashlights out.

  Within a few moments they disappeared into the darkness. "Daryl!" screamed Quarry. "Daryl!"

  His son appeared from out of the darkness. "What is it?"

  Quarry could barely speak. He could barely think.

  He clamped a big hand on his son's shoulder. "Carlos called. It didn't work. They got out."

  "Shit! We're screwed!"

  "Oxygen masks," Quarry muttered.

  Daryl looked angrily at his father. "What we gonna do now, old man?"

  Quarry turned and raced down the passageway. Daryl lumbered after him. Quarry unlocked the door to Willa's room and threw it open.

  One glimpse of his enraged face and Diane Wohl started stumbling backward. "No, please. Don't. Please!" she was shrieking.

  Willa looked confused. "What's going on?"

  "Don't kill us!" screamed Diane.

  Willa jumped up and started to back away. Quarry and Daryl moved forward.

  Quarry was breathing hard. "They're alive. They're alive! Dammit!"

  "Who's alive?" cried out Willa.

  Quarry knocked the table aside, threw the chairs across the room. Willa raced to Diane, who was back as far as she could go in the corner.

  They both screamed as Quarry grabbed them and started pulling them toward the door. "Come on!" He yelled, "Daryl!"

  Daryl grabbed Willa and lifted her off the floor.

  "Please, Mr. Sam, please." Willa was crying so hard she could barely speak.

  Diane had let herself go limp and Quarry ended up dragging the woman across the floor. When they got out to the passageway, he stopped and listened.

  Diane was still screaming and he said, "Shut up, woman. Now!" She didn't.

  He slipped a pistol from his belt and placed it against her temple.

  "Now," he said very firmly.

  Diane fell silent.

  Willa was in Daryl's arms. When Quarry looked up he found her staring at him. And his gun.

  "Did you hear that, Daryl?" said Quarry.

  "Hear what?"

  "That."

  It was the sound of footsteps pinging off the mine walls.

  "It's the police," Quarry said. "They're here. Probably a whole damn army."

  Daryl looked stonily at his father. "So what you wanta do now?"

  "I wanta fight. Take as many of them with us as we can."

  "Then I'll go get us something to fight with."

  Daryl handed Willa off to Quarry. Right before his son hustled off down a side shaft, Quarry grabbed his arm and said, "Bring the switch."

  Daryl smiled maliciously. "We gonna take 'em down, Daddy."

  "Just bring it. But give it to me."

  "You still giving the orders, huh? We ain't never getting out of here alive. Gonna be like old Kurt. Nothing but bones."

  "What is he talking about?" cried Willa.

  "Just go!" Quarry snapped at his son.

  "I'll go, all right. And then I'll be back. But my way, old man. Just this one time. This one last time. My way."

  "Daryl-"

  But his son had already vanished into the dark.

  More footsteps headed their way.

  "Who's there?" roared Quarry. "I got hostages!"

  "Mr. Sam," cried out a voice.

  "Gabriel!" said a stunned Quarry.

  Michelle had not been quick enough to stop Gabriel from yelling out to Quarry. Now she put a hand over his mouth and shook her head.

  "Gabriel!" yelled Quarry. "What you doing up here?" Silence. "Who's you with?"

  Quarry knew there was no way the boy could have gotten up here on hi
s own. They had him. They had escaped the little house. Tippi was dead. And they had Gabriel. And now they thought they had Sam Quarry. Well, they had thought wrong. His rage swelled. All those years. All that work. For nothing.

  "Who is it?" Willa said in a quavering voice, her arms around Quarry's thick neck.

  "Hush up now."

  "It's that boy you talked about. Gabriel."

  "Yeah, it is. But somebody's with him."

  Quarry nudged Diane with his foot. "Get up, quick."

  Diane rose to her feet and with Quarry gripping her arm they fast-walked down the passageway and turned a corner.

  "Please let us go," wailed Diane. "Please."

  "Shut up, woman or I swear…"

  Willa said, "Don't hurt her, she's just scared."

  "We're all scared. They never shoulda brought Gabriel up here."

  "Mr. Quarry!"

  They all froze at the sound of this new voice.

  "Mr. Quarry. My name is Sean King. I'm here with my partner, Michelle Maxwell. Can you hear me?"

  Quarry remained quiet and stuck his gun into Diane's side to make her do the same.

  "Can you hear me? We were hired to find Willa Dutton. That's all. We're not the police. We're private investigators. If you have Willa, please just let her go and we'll leave."

  Quarry still said nothing.

  "Mr. Quarry?"

  "I hear you," he called out. "And you'll just walk away if I give her to you? Why do I think there's an army of police waiting right outside?"

  "There's no one outside."

  "Yeah, you got no reason to lie to me, do you?" Quarry pulled Diane farther down the passage.

  "We just want Willa, that's all."

  "We all want a lot of things, but we don't always get what we want."

  Sean's next words froze the older man.

  "We've been to your house. We saw the room. Gabriel showed us. We know what happened with your daughter. We know all about it. And if you let Willa go we'll do everything we can to help the truth come out."

  "Why you wanta do that?" he cried out.

  "It was wrong what happened, Mr. Quarry. We know that and we want to help you. But we need Willa safe first."

  "Ain't no help left for me. Ain't nothing left for me. You know what I tried to do. It didn't work. They'll be coming for me now."

  "We can still help."

  Sean had reduced the volume of his voice so that Quarry would not know that they were on the move, that they were growing closer.

  "You don't want to hurt a little girl," Sean said. "I know you don't. If you had, you would've already done it."

  Quarry thought quickly. "Where's Gabriel? I want to talk to him."

  Michelle nodded at the little boy.

  "Mr. Sam, it's me."

  "What you doing up here?"

  "Coming to help you. Don't want to see you get hurt, Mr. Sam."

  "I appreciate that, Gabriel. But them folks with you, listen up, Gabriel and his ma had nothing to do with this. It's all me."

  "We found the letter you left," said Sean. "We know. They're not in trouble."

  Gabriel said, "Mr. Sam. I don't want anybody to get hurt. You or that girl. Would you let her go and then me and you can get on back home? Maybe we can go in the plane, like you promised."

  Quarry slowly shook his head. "Yeah, that'd be real good, son. But I don't really see that happening."

  "Why not?"

  "Rules, Gabriel, rules. Thing is, they don't apply to everybody. Some folks break all the rules and…" His voice trailed off.

  Sean said, "Mr. Quarry, will you please let Willa go? And Diane Wohl too? You have her too, right? You don't want to hurt them. I know you don't. You're not that sort of a man."

  They were close now. Sean and Michelle could feel it. They motioned to Gabriel to get behind them.

  "Mr. Quarry!"

  Quarry felt Willa clinch his neck tightly. As he looked at her, he suddenly thought he saw another little girl there whom he'd loved with everything he had and that he'd left to perish in a house of his own making. The fellow was right. Quarry was not that sort of man. At least he didn't want to be.

  "All right. All right. I'll let 'em go."

  He set Willa down and knelt in front of her so they were eye to eye. "Look here, Willa, I'm sorry for all that I done. If I could take it back, I would, but I can't. See, I lost me my little girl 'cause of what some folks did. And it just ate at me, made me something I never wanted to be. Can you understand that?"

  She slowly nodded. "I guess so," she said in a tiny voice. "Yes."

  "When you love someone you got to be prepared to hate too. And sometimes the hate just wins out. But you listen to me, Willa. You might have a real good reason to hate somebody, but you still got to let that hate go. 'Cause if you don't it'll just tear you apart your whole life. And even worse than that, it won't leave no room for any love to get back in."

  Before she could say anything he spun her around to face away from him. He called out, "She's coming toward you. Just her. Walk, Willa. Just walk toward their voices."

  "This way, Willa," called out Michelle.

  Willa looked back once at Quarry.

  "Just go, Willa. Go on. No looking back." He knew when she found out about her mother that the grief would change her entire life. She would hate Quarry and she should. He just hoped the little girl had listened to his words and wouldn't let that hate ruin her life. Like it had his.

  She hurried down the passageway.

  Quarry called out, "How'd you find me out? Was it the writing on the woman's arms? The Koasati stuff?"

  Sean hesitated before answering. "Yes."

  Quarry shook his head. "Shit," he said quietly.

  "Now Diane Wohl," called out Sean when Willa reached them safely.

  Quarry glanced over at the woman and nodded. "Go on."

  "You won't shoot me in the back?" she said, her voice quivering.

  "I don't shoot people in the back. But I might shoot 'em in the front if they give me reason to." He pushed her forward. "Go!"

  She raced down the mineshaft, but turned back to yell, "You bastard!"

  But it was drowned out by another scream coming their way. It was like the cry of Johnny Reb during the Civil War right before they attacked.

  "Look out!" yelled Michelle a second later.

  "Daryl!" cried out Quarry, who'd recognized the source of the first scream. "No, boy! NO! Gabriel's here."

  Daryl was hurtling down a shaft with an MP5 in one hand firing away.

  "Get down!" said Michelle. She pushed Willa behind her and fired back.

  Sean ducked down as a wall of bullets sailed over his head.

  Caught in the middle, Diane Wohl took multiple MP5 rounds to the torso, nearly cutting her in half. As she fell, the woman looked back toward Quarry, her mouth half open, her eyes wide and wild. And accusing. She sank to the hard floor awash in her own blood. This mine would be her tomb.

  "Sons of bitches!" roared Daryl, who'd dropped his empty clip and shoved in a fresh one, scattering shots all over; bullets ricocheted off walls, the ceilings, and the rock floor. It was like they were trapped in a lethal pinball machine.

  Quarry jumped forward. "Daryl, stop! Stop! Gabriel…"

  If Daryl heard him he wasn't listening to his daddy anymore. This was apparently what he had meant by "his way."

  He dropped the overheated MP5 and pulled out twin nickel-plated semiautomatic pistols and walked forward, sending walls of fire ahead of him. When they were empty he slapped fresh mags in and blasted away. When the triggers clicked empty he pulled a shotgun from a long leather holster strapped to his back, racked the weapon, and opened fire anew. The big-bore weapon blew large chunks of rock off the walls and sent lethal shards spinning off.

  A few moments later Michelle leapt up as Daryl was reloading the ten-gauge and nailed him with a round at chest height.

  "Shit!" she exclaimed as he merely staggered back after his armor absorbed most of the imp
act. "When am I gonna learn to aim for the damn head."

  Sean opened fire too, trying to keep Daryl pinned down. But the man seemed unafraid of dying. He reloaded and fired off blast after blast from the ten-gauge, laughing and cursing as he did so. At one point he screamed out, "Is this what needs doing, Daddy? Huh? Your boy's right here for you, Daddy."

  Realizing that they simply couldn't match the firepower arrayed against them, Michelle screamed, "Gabriel, Willa, run!" She pointed behind her. "That way!"

  Gabriel grabbed Willa's hand "Come on!"

  They ran off.

  "Shit!" Sean grunted in pain a few seconds later.

  Michelle looked up from where she was reloading, and saw him hunched over holding his arm where one of the rock tailings had ripped across it.

  "I'm okay," he said, grimacing.

  They couldn't see him in the darkness but Daryl was now holding something far more terrifying than even an MP5 at close quarters. He had a small box with a toggle switch.

  "Hey, you Feds, let's all go see Jesus," cackled Daryl.

  "Don't!" Quarry collided with his son right as he flipped the switch. Daryl went down hard. Quarry's momentum carried him past his son and he rolled into and then over a pile of fallen rock.

  There was a moment of silence and then the first charge went off. The force of the nearby explosion roared down the constricted tunnel like a runaway train, pushing suffocating smoke and jet-propelled debris ahead of it.

  Daryl stood just in time to take the full brunt of it. A large flying rock severed his head completely from his shoulders. Quarry was mostly shielded from the blast by the pile of stone he'd landed behind. He rose moments later on shaking legs hacking up mine dirt.

  Quarry barely glanced at what was left of his son and then hurried down the shaft. He found Sean and Michelle where they'd been blown down the tunnel and helped them up. "Run!" he exclaimed. "Next one's gonna go only about ten feet from here."

  They ran as hard as they could. When the next blast detonated, the ceiling of the mine collapsed right behind them. The concussive force knocked them all off their feet again. Michelle tried to get up, but she screamed out in pain and grabbed her ankle. Quarry bent down and with his great strength picked the tall woman off the floor and slung her over his shoulder all in one motion. An instant later a huge chunk of rock struck right where she'd been lying.