THE PRICE SHE'LL PAY: For the secret she never knew she had...

by Cara Charles

  Patty Birch was bleeding from her shoulder. Her temple was bleeding as head wounds do. She’d been unconscious for a few minutes, awakening in a sticky puddle of her own blood outside the hidden bedroom. Patty tried to get to her knees. Her blood pressure was not keeping up. She put her head down on the pretty blue carpet, resting there like Down Dog but only on her knees. Her head had stopped swimming.

  Patty crawled to, then rifled through the dead perps pockets, and found a photo of Joseph. ‘They were after Joseph, the President’s valet?’

  Patty took their guns and clips, tucking them into her waistband and her bra.

  She crawled into the bedroom to look for bandage material in the bathroom. She had to stop the bleeding. She felt cold and sweaty. Patty had thought about calling in, but didn’t want to be a burden to the system in chaos. She pulled down two hand towels, padding her wound front and back, and wrapped it around her arm pit with her belt as tightly as she could. Patty screamed in pain.

  “Son of a Bitch!!” Patty did her pain management breathing. The pain backed off.

  Patty felt the back of the shoulder of her down jacket. There was a hole, a through and through. She was backing off from her adrenalin high. She felt blood ooze down her back collecting on her waistband. Patty put a clean washcloth to her temple and tied it in place with Joseph’s bathrobe belt. She kept her jacket on for warmth, fighting against shock. She pressured her shoulder hard against the wall and shoved the heel of her hand into the wound.

  “Bastards!” Patty tried to stand. Her vision swam and faded. No go. She slumped back down with her good shoulder, using the wall as support.

  “That was dumb.”

  She kicked her feet like swimming, to bring her pressure back. Blood drops on the floor were increasing. She put more pressure on her wound for two minutes hoping it would clot by then.

  Patty screamed, tightening the belt on her injured shoulder. She thought for sure someone would show up. Something was wrong. Patty grabbed the cup on the sink. She turned the bathtub faucet on to a trickle and drank as much water as she could, to replace the blood volume to keep her pressure up. Patty listened for footsteps.

  ‘Where the hell was everyone?’ Impatient now, Patty called in. “Chief?’

  “BIRCH? Where the hell are you?”

  “Second floor, near photographs on the wall, Joseph Jefferson’s hidden bedroom, under the Residence’s stairwell. Took out two of the four guys. Two remain. They are after Joseph.”

  “What the hell for?” Chief asked.

  “Got his photo off a dead one. Can’t continue the pursuit, Chief.”

  “Why? Are you hit? Patty?”

  She didn’t answer him, wanting to get out her report first, “Chief! Listen, damn it! Where the hell is everyone? Back up should be able to find them.”

  She felt herself sliding out again, he seemed so far away. She kicked her legs faster.

  “Patty? Stay with me Patty. Help is coming.” Chief looked out the window. Tourists were still unconscious on the sidewalks. “Jesus. Patty? Take care of your wounds. I’m calling the EMS.”

  “Grazed the temple and a through and through to the shoulder, bleeding controlled for now… I’m in a second floor bedroom behind the residence stairwell. Someone’s coming…”

  Patty thought she heard someone coming back. Her vision was clear, her senses heightened, even though she felt cold. ‘Feeling cold was not good.’

  Quickly, she crawled out of the bathroom, using her one good hand, on her knees, shut the door to hide her blood trail and hid behind Joseph’s bed and the wall.

  She saw feet in black running shoes squat beside the bodies, come into the room then turn to leave.

  “FREEZE! SECRET SERVICE.” That was the last of her energy.

  “PATTY?” Black tennis shoes said.

  “Al? I was going to shoot you. How’d you get in here?”

  “Tunnel. You’re hit! Jesus. Macho Patty! Were you going to tell me?”

  “EMS had better hurry,” she said as she passed out.

  Al checked Patty’s pulse. It was weakening. He picked her feet up and propped them on the bed, covered her with a blanket for her shock, and ran out of the room.

  Bob Eldridge, another agent who’d also come in from the tunnel when he saw everyone go down on the sidewalk, met Al. He saw the blood, and Patty’s feet propped up on the bed. He knelt beside her, checked her vitals and applied more pressure to her wounds.

  “Who’s this?”

  “Patty Birch, UC tour division. She said we’ve got two more intruders in the building.”

  “You were gonna leave her?”

  “Yes… Now that you’re here.”

  “The hell. You were leaving her. Go on, John Wayne. I’ll take care of her. I know where the crash cart is,” and he ran off to get it.

  Al ran off to find the two intruders.

  Shanti saw Joseph slide into the bushes. Shanti could smell them. One showed himself. There was Joseph, unconscious in the arms of an ape of a man, Mr. Knife who relished smiling at her.

  Mr. Chatty was also smiling at her.

  Gregor and his team, in their white van were slowly cruising by the gate behind them.

  Big Mr. Knife took his eye off her to watch it for a split second.

  Shanti knew their backup was behind her.

  “Who are you? His granddaughter?”

  “Yes. What do you want with him? He’s just an old man.”

  “He’s important to our employer. You are so beautiful. Movie star beautiful.”

  “What value could an aged valet have?”

  His phone vibrated. “He’s worth a million dollars, when we bring him in.”

  “Let me go with him. He has a heart condition. I’ll get you out.”

  “Well, hurry then. Or else we’ll all be dead in another 30 seconds.”

  Shanti noticed some downed agents were waking up. The dogs would be next. They’d come after her first, following her fresh scent from the office.

  “OK. Get him in the car.”

  As Big Mr. Knife threw Joseph over his left shoulder, Mr. Chatty turned to help him.

  In the split second Mr. Chatty took his eye off of her, Shanti shot Mr. Chatty in the head, his brains splattering all over Big Mr. Knife and Joseph.

  Big Mr. Knife had his body covered with Joseph’s. Getting a kill shot off would be impossible.

  Shanti aimed high between Joseph’s dangling legs and shattered his right femur.

  Big Mr. Knife was screaming, falling, dumping Joseph forward, but trying to raise his gun.

  With Joseph and Big Mr. Knife’s body falling forward, Shanti took quick aim at the crown of Big Mr. Knife’s head and got off the kill shot, exploding his head outwards symmetrically.

  Shanti rolled on her back and fired continuously at the van. It sped away.

  Shanti rushed over to Joseph and dragged him away. She had to get out of the grounds.

  Terror struck Shanti as she ran to her car. An agent sat up. He laid back down. No energy, yet.

  She backed up on the lawn next to Joseph. Shanti lifted Joseph up in the foot well by his belt. She ran around to the driver’s side. Kneeling on her seat, she pulled Joe up into the seat by his belt again. She strapped him in.

  ‘If they could get to her here, they could get her anywhere.’

  Shanti drove to the rear service gate barely squeezing by the tractor.

  She ran to the gate’s code pad. ‘Six, seven, seven, one, four, zero, seven, zero,’ Joe had said.

  Shanti punched in the code, drove out quickly, ran back to the gate to secure the White House.

  A flash of reddish-brown was coming from the security office.

  ‘The dogs.’

  The Malinois were running for her, out of their minds barking.

  “Easy boys, Easy. Easy. It’s OK. It’s OK.”

  Sweet talk wasn’t going to calm them or stop them. They’d rip her to shreds. The smaller one dove for the gate opening. She had
to close the gate on his head. He was yelping and snarling at the same time. The other dog jumped on top of his buddy, doing his duty, barking out of his mind with determination.

  She balled up her fist, got it under his lower jaw, and punched upwards hard, snapping his jaw shut. She got him to bite his tongue.

  He yelped but pushed hard against the gate, determined to chew her arm off as he snapped for it.

  She reached through the gate quickly to punch his bottom jaw up on his tongue again. His buddy lifted his head out of the gate opening, now as she pushed with all her might just enough to let the gate latch as they grabbed her sleeve and her clothes, through the bars. He got her jacket, pulling it through the bars.

  She was pinned against the bars as the other dog grabbed at her ankles. She got out of her jacket and ripped her pant leg out of his teeth, how she didn’t know, then ran to her car. They went berserk jumping at the gate as she drove off.

  Shanti looked in her rearview mirror just in time to see the dogs running the fence line after her. Now they were running back to the security office.

  Men were struggling to their feet, shaking off their headaches, wondering what had happened.

  Shanti was looking for Trevor’s SUV.

  Traffic was jammed, coming toward the White House.

  People were out of their cars assisting those down on the sidewalks.

  Shanti and Joseph left the White House.

  Gunfire erupted down the street.

  Trevor, Kate, and team had taken out Gregor and his van and retrieved the PEMP.

  Trevor caught up with her Green Prius as it turned away from the main road to the White House and followed.

  Kate texted a status report to Dez.

  Now they followed Shanti at a four-car length distance.

  Shanti had noticed them. She touched her brakes three times.

  Trevor responded turning off his lights, twice.

  “Dear? They survived the knockdown at the Nest, no injuries. They’re on their way to sanctuary. We’re going south on surface streets, as directed. You’ve got to get the other PEMP back. It’s got to be in the laundry truck. All bogies were taken out.”

  “Copy that. Stay with them. Any sign of the others?”

  “She took out two on the lawn. I thought we’d have to intervene but she’s a pro. Agents were waking up when we left.”

  “Good. Sam, Iain, and his buddies just arrived. Sid will be here soon. Keep me informed, do whatever is necessary. I hope letting them travel by ground is a smart thing. Dear, out.”

  Hours later, Joseph woke up. He watched his true love maneuver in traffic. He’d dreamed about her for fifty years and here she was. He stroked her cheek.

  Shanti smiled, and kissed his palm.

  Joseph was taking in every inch of her face.

  ‘Feels so good to be happy, I’m in love again for the last time in my life.’ “Here we are. Just like it was yesterday,” Joseph said to her beautiful profile.

  “I’m so thankful you’re OK,” Shanti told him. Shanti leaned over, and pulled him in, and kissed him hard. She was happy and light, even though they were on the run and being hunted.

  “I’m never going to lose you again,” Joseph took her hand in his.

  “As long as we both shall live, Joseph Roosevelt Jefferson. We will never be parted.” ‘Even if we’re together for just a day, it will still be perfect and precious.’

  ‘Had he heard her?’ His happy heart had made him young again.

  Shanti turned on the radio. “The Shadow of Your Smile” was fitting.

  ‘Home.’ She had always ached for the Thica trees, the vast Savannah, the migrations of her beloved animals, her three girls, and their laughter, her first husband, her parents, their old friends. All long dead. Marino’s face popped into her head. Their fifty years of archeological work was the most exciting in her recent life. Her stories that surrounded the ruined places they explored, hearing him re-tell her stories to colleagues, the kindness of Rommel, and the life they’d had as lovers, was well remembered. If she returned home, the legend could return with her. In another part of Africa, she could teach in a village school. She could lead a simple life somewhere, but where? Where was there a peaceful village anywhere in Africa, anymore?

  Someday, she would find peace and happiness again.

  In Friday Harbor, Sam ran into Dez’s shop. Iain, Dave, Deedee, and Mac exited Eamon’s Sheriff SUV. “Doctor Richards? My sister?”

  “Upstairs Sam.”

  Sam took the stairs two at a time. “El? Where are you?”

  “Sammie?” Elise burst out of her door and ran into her his arms.

  “Ellie. I’m here honey. I’m here.”

  Downstairs, they’d heard her wailing.

  Eamon took their bags to the landing, then checked the monitor in Dez’s office. Sam was holding her. Buddy had his head in her lap. He texted Dez to say he’d watch them.

  Dez agreed.

  In the kitchen, Dez hugged Iain, and shook hands with Dave and Mac.

  “Hello, I’m Desiree. Welcome.”

  They all said in unison, “Our pleasure, Ma’am. Something smells good.”

  “I’ve made you a little lunch. First let’s feed the puppies.”

  Dez prepared dog food with gravy over it for Deedee and set Buddy’s aside.

  Deedee looked up at Dez, and wagged her tail. Desiree petted her, “Yes, you’re a good girl.”

  In the wee hours of that morning, and still unable to sleep, she’d checked on Elise who had taken a tranquilizer. Sam was sleeping on a cot in her room, Buddy thumped his tail from Elise’s bed. Dez smiled at him and they left the room.

  Dez worried about Sid too, waiting out the storm in Oregon, she went back to bed to stare at the ceiling.

  An hour later, giving up on sleep, she’d gone downstairs and prepped a big meal for her men, knowing this introduction of homemade food aromas as a first impression with sated nourishment to follow, was always a very good way to build rapport and loyalty.

  PART THREE

  “It is better to err on the side of daring than on the side of caution.”

  – Alvin Toffler

  CHAPTER ONE -- THERE WILL BE BLOOD

  DAVE stepped toward Dez offering his hand. “Hello ma’am, I’m Dave.”

  ‘Good,’ she thought .”Pleasure Dave. I’m Desiree.” She watched them reveal themselves through their choices. ‘Mac is attracted to the food.’

  “Dr. Desiree Richards? Dave Birmingham and Dr. James MacDonald,” Iain said, watching her shroud her analysis with her warm maternal smile.

  “Thank you Iain,” Dez said. ‘Dave’s sensitive, easily engaged. I sense he needs to heal.’ Dez shook every man’s hand, welcoming them looking into their eyes.

  Iain knew if they passed her subtle tests, they’d be invited to join METAPHOR.

  “Pleasure’s mine Ma’am,” Dave said, looking into her eyes for warmth and acceptance.

  ‘Dave is functioning well, bound by mission, honor and duty, aware yet protective of his own vulnerability. And Mac, the consummate big brother, a bit weak on impulse control, a rogue, says the twinkle in his eye. Give him the right reasons and he’ll see assignments as his true duty but now he’s anxious to kick ass. Excellent, but I expect to battle with him in the future.’

  “Doctor, a pleasure.”

  Mac sensed her powerful personality piece him out, “The pleasure is mine. Please carry these to the table James,” Dez filled serving dishes for the men.

  They gathered at the table. Dossiers at their places. Mac pulled out a chair for Dez.

  “Thank you. Please serve yourselves the salad and then, we’ll begin.”

  “Gentlemen? Our A One Priority mission is protection of Elise Andersen. Catching Mavra Kimirov will be a bonus. Glance over their dossiers.”

  Eamon texted her, ‘Sam has looked at the album. Pacing now.’

  ‘Let Sam catch up, shout if you need me.’ Dez texted back.

  Dav
e, Iain, and Mac read the reports. Dez filled their plates and passed them around, serving Dave first.

  “Dave,” she said handing him his plate, smiling at him as he smiled back. He waited for the rest.

  Desiree filled their plates. She had little appetite and picked at her food.

  Mac kept his head buried in her report. Iain also waited, knowing the drill.

  Deedee lay by the fire. Buddy wagging his tail, joined Deedee.

  “Please eat. I know you’re hungry.” Desiree said, watching Mac.

  “Thank you Ma’am.” Mac wolfed his food concentrating on the dossiers. “Oh my gosh! Delicious, Dr. Richards.” Mac stared at her as an epiphany sorted itself. Now he was looking at Desiree with newfound respect. “The Doctor Richards? I know a great deal about your work, Doctor. Truly, remarkable science.”

  “Thank you, but I’m not proud of it. Let’s salvage what life Elise has left. I hope to give her a new purpose after she has healed from this regrettable tragedy.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” ‘A new purpose?’ Mac thought.

  Dez watched Mac’s reaction. She caught Iain’s eye and smiled at Iain and nodded. He understood her. She wanted to retire and pass the baton.

  The men enjoyed the lunch. The rich warm food was going to magnify their fatigue.

  “My God! This is exquisitely delicious,” Mac said.

  “Why thank you Mac. I think that’s the kindest compliment I’ve ever had.”

  “Truly, ma’am. I’ve never had better,” Dave said with sincerity that would break your heart.

  Dez smiled at him.

  He read her, smiled back, and shyly returned to his report.

  “I told you she’d be good to us,” Iain said.

  “Well, it’s time to meet our gal. I hope you still feel this way after you hear about our mission.”

  “No worries ma’am,” Dave said re-assuring her.

  Dave stopped eating. He had no appetite. Dave finished reading and looked at her nearly full plate and back into Desiree’s eyes.

  ‘Yes, me too. This situation is horrible,’ her sad smile told him.