But Cobalt showed no sign of quitting.
Once again he lunged at her, and once again, Alyssa shuffled back out of his reach.
But this was the time she made a mistake. At the last minute, she heard muffled noises from behind Moira’s gag, but it was too late. She shuffled back right into Moira’s chair. The chair fell over, and Moira landed on the ground with a thud.
Alyssa didn’t fall but for a precious second she was off balance. Her attention was focused on not falling.
Cobalt’s big, meaty hand grabbed her leather jacket.
His other hand grabbed her wrist.
With a guttural shout of triumph he threw her to the ground. Alyssa’s whole field of vision became a whirling blur until she felt her back hit the hard concrete floor. All the air exploded out of her lungs in a long cough and retch. She couldn’t fight because her body wouldn’t do anything but suck in air.
This was even worse than the fight at Zack’s apartment. This time, Cobalt rolled her onto her front and climbed onto her back. Each of his knees held one of her hands in place, which inflicted a fair amount of pain as well as keeping her arms immobilized.
The arm wrapped around her throat and Alyssa had nothing she could do. She couldn’t move her arms. Cobalt’s great weight held her torso pinned in place. She couldn’t even get to him with her feet to kick.
God, please help. Please.
Nothing changed. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t move. She wanted to scream, but there was no air.
The door to the room banged open. Alyssa heard it, even though Cobalt held her face to the floor.
To her everlasting amazement, she heard the voice of Matt Barr.
Matt Barr? What the…
“Alyssa! No! Get off her!”
She heard racing footfalls. She felt Cobalt’s arm release her throat, and she couldn’t do much more than gag and retch as her lungs sucked in air.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Cobalt draw a pistol from his waistband.
The sound of it going off was so loud it hurt her ears and left her unable to hear anything but a painful, persistent ring. A spent shell casing bounced to the floor in front of her, though the gunshot had deafened her to the sound of metal on concrete. Her trained eyes recognized the brass from a .45.
She could lift her head high enough to see Matt’s hands clutch his thigh as he collapsed forward. His momentum carried him until he tumbled to rest near Moira.
Cobalt’s arm went back around her neck. After the brief reprieve, she was being strangled again. She’d barely had time to suck in a breath or two and now she was back exactly where she’d been.
Her vision began to narrow down into a tunnel.
She felt herself losing consciousness.
I hope you’re real.
And then an ugly black prison-issue shoe swept through her peripheral vision on its way to Cobalt’s head.
The weight on her back was suddenly gone as the man rolled off her.
Alyssa twisted to the side, looking at Cobalt’s unconscious form.
Her hearing had come back enough from the gunshot to hear Moira speak.
“The only fighting lesson you ever gave me. If a fight goes to the ground, whoever happens to be nearby can kick you in the head.”
CHAPTER 20
Zack reclined in the passenger seat of Alyssa’s rented Mercedes. He held a smartphone in one hand, flicking through Internet links.
For a while, he’d just sat in the car bored but as the wait dragged on, he’d become curious. Just who was this mystery woman who showed up at his home and said she knew Moira in prison?
The first moment he had put FCI Rocky into an Internet search, his jaw dropped open.
Every link went to a story about the famous assassin Alyssa Chambers. And every image was an unmistakable picture of the woman who had left him in the car.
Now, he browsed through various sensationalist conspiracy theories about her. Alyssa Chambers was hired by the Mafia to kill Rich West before he could crack down on organized crime. Alyssa Chambers was a Russian agent sent to kill the only Presidential candidate who had the kind of courageous foreign policy to stop them. The myths about her past were unbelievable in the extreme, but it wasn’t hard to find the court records of her actual trial, before she cut the plea deal.
Suddenly, the fight at his apartment made a lot more sense. Now, the way she casually donned night vision goggles and set off to break into a building was completely understandable.
He had been sitting in a car blabbing about his crush on Moira with one of the most infamous criminals in a generation. He was stunned and humiliated at the fool he had made of himself.
He was so wrapped up in his reading about his newfound partner that he never noticed the men in dark suits who surrounded the vehicle. When one of them tapped on his window, barely bending over, stern expression on his face, holding a badge in one hand, Zack was so caught by surprise that he let out a yelp and jumped in his seat.
Once he calmed down, he timidly rolled down the window. His vehicle was surrounded by men carrying weapons, standing stiffly at attention, scanning the night for possible threats. Some were clad in tactical garb like fatigues and helmets. Others wore suits. The one talking to him was among the latter group.
“Sir, can you step out of your vehicle?”
The man held out an ID card and shield that identified him as a Special Agent of the United States Secret Service.
Nervously, Zack did as he was told. Running fingers through his dark hair and hitching up his dirty jeans, the young man felt his heart race. Having just figured out that he was consorting with a major criminal who was supposed to be in prison, he didn’t find it surprising at all that he had come to the attention of law enforcement.
The agents pushed him against the car and frisked him very thoroughly and very quickly. They took his wallet and his smartphone.
“Sir, why are you parked here at this hour of night?”
The question came from the same agent who invited him out of his car.
Zack didn’t even feel any impulse to keep anything back. He answered without hesitation.
“I had no idea who she was. She showed up at my apartment looking for a friend of mine. I only came along because I wanted to see my friend, not because I was helping her with anything. Whatever she did, I wasn’t involved.”
The agents traded glances among each other.
“Sir, this area is restricted under the authority of Executive Order 15342. I can’t allow you to remain here unaccompanied. You’ll have to come with us.”
“I didn’t do anything! I had no idea who she was!”
“I don’t care. Mr. Ravenberg, please place your hands behind your back. I’m going to handcuff you.
The young man’s voice rose as he said, “Am I being detained? What am I under arrest for? What is this?”
The Federal Agents just shoved his arms into place, cuffed him, and threw him in the back seat of their black SUV.
***
When Alyssa got the strength to look up at her savior, the girl smiled down at her. “Your friend there untied me after he got shot and fell down next to me. Sorry it took me so long to get to you.”
Alyssa let her head fall back down to the floor. She was still catching her breath. Across the room, she heard Matt groan in pain.
He lay in a pool of blood on the floor clutching his thigh.
Next to him, there was a wooden chair tipped over on its side. A collection of ropes were looped around it and hanging over it. A piece of duct tape flapped off the back, half-stuck there.
Alyssa struggled to lift herself up on her elbows, but it took all the strength she had left. She groaned.
Beside her lay Cobalt — huge, bald, menacing.
Into this scene of chaos came Tom Wheeler, Counselor to the President, with a phalanx of Secret Service agents at his heels.
When he recognized Moira, he pointed to her. Several of the Secret Service agents with him
pulled her away from everyone else and surrounded her.
As soon as they did, Wheeler asked, “Moira LeBlanc?”
Her only reply was to say, “I’m fine! Help Alyssa!”
“Are you Moira LeBlanc?” Wheeler repeated.
“Yes, but I don’t need help. Help Alyssa! The woman in black, help her! She almost got choked to death.”
A wracking cough that was half retch interrupted and then came words that were part gasp and part whisper. “I’m fine, Moira.”
“You don’t sound fine,” Moira replied.
She finally succeeded in getting to her knees and nodded at Matt.
“Matt got shot. Could someone please help him?”
Next, she moved her head in the direction of Cobalt and coughed out, “And this guy needs handcuffs. Or a Taser, if you’re carrying one.”
As Federal Agents knelt next to both Cobalt and Matt, she crawled over to the latter. She collapsed next to him. A Secret Service agent pulled Matt’s hands away from his thigh so he could examine the wound. Alyssa held his hand.
She whispered, “I know it hurts, Matt. Stay awake though. Almost ninety percent of people who get shot by handguns live, but you can’t let yourself drift away into shock.”
Wheeler waved at several of the other agents, summoning them over to him. He said, “Let’s get the girl secured.”
Then he pointed at Cobalt and added, “Get that guy out of here.”
Moira asked, “Excuse me? Get the girl secured? Who are you, anyway?”
The Secret Service agents clustered around her so tight it was hard to see her.
Since Moira wasn’t getting an answer right away, Alyssa watched the Agents lift him into a fireman’s carry and carry him out the door. Her eyes followed them. Those eyes grew wider when the door opened and she saw an army of fit-looking men in dark suits lining the hall.
“Wheeler?” she asked. “Are you sure you brought enough men?”
“The Secret Service is taking over this whole building,” he offered by way of explanation. “All those clothes I gave you have electronic tags sewed into them. We’ve been following you since you left my plane. Once it became clear you had found the right place, we came down like a hammer. We’ve got people out front holding back all the employees who want to come in to work. We’ve got guys on every floor… This is federal property at the moment.”
As an afterthought he added, “We’ve got a mile wide perimeter around this place. We found some punk kid in a parked Mercedes blabbering about you, Chambers.”
She coughed, then replied, “That’s Zack Ravenberg. He’s with me. He wants to talk to Ms. LeBlanc here.”
At once Moira perked up. “Zack’s here? How? Why? Where is he?”
Alyssa said, “I tracked him down from all your emails back and forth with him that you let me see when we were stealing that video. He told me you would be trying to hack this place again if you had escaped from prison. We came here looking for clues about where you might be.”
Moira said, “Let’s go see him.”
Wheeler shook his head and said, “Not yet. If he checks out, we’ll put you two together later on. But not yet.”
“Why not?” the girl asked. “I don’t get why we’re surrounded by all these cops anyway.”
Alyssa shrugged and said to Wheeler, “It does seem like a pretty massive show of force just for her.”
Wheeler gave her a grin and said, “Well, not just for her.”
Moira asked, “What’s going on here? Why did those men kidnap me out of FCI Rocky? Why have they been holding me prisoner here? Who are you and why are you making such a big deal over me? Can somebody tell me why all of this is happening to me?”
Wheeler looked at her and said, “Soon, Ms. LeBlanc. Very soon. You’ll have every answer you want. Probably more than you want.”
The girl shook her head. “The only person I trust here is Alyssa. The rest of you might as well be with the people who’ve been holding me here, for all I know. I don’t know what you want with me, but you won’t get it.”
“I hired Alyssa to find you,” Wheeler replied.
The girl looked suspiciously at Wheeler, then at Alyssa.
She asked, “Is that true?”
Alyssa felt hot embarrassment flushing her cheeks. The raw trust coming from Moira made her feel guilty about all of her suspicions of the girl since she disappeared from FCI Rocky.
“His name’s Tom Wheeler, Moira. He’s an old… well, an old friend of mine.”
She said it with hesitation. She still wasn’t sure what all this was about, or what Wheeler was up to, or how he’d found her.
Now Moira eyed Alyssa suspiciously, sending a spike of guilt through her stomach.
The girl asked, “What’s going on?”
And then, there was a small shuffling noise outside the door. Looking out, Alyssa saw the whole battalion of Agents in the hall standing stiffly at attention. The ones in the room with her joined them.
And then he walked in.
Alyssa had been raised in privilege, and she recognized the work of a top-notch tailor at once. In fact, the charcoal gray pinstripe suit looked like the work of H & H Stevens, her father’s preferred tailor in Washington D.C.
A diamond tie tack commanded attention right in the center of his bold electric blue heavy silk tie.
The shoes were polished to a mirror shine, the creases of his pants looked like the edge of a sword, and an Hermes watch poked out from underneath his French cuff.
Alyssa had worked for him, at several removes, two years ago. He was taller than his campaign commercials made him out to be.
The President of the United States.
At once, Alyssa regretted her sweat-matted hair plastered to her forehead and her dirty tactical clothes. She wouldn’t have thought she had the strength, but seeing him, she leapt to her feet. Matt tried to do likewise but winced in pain when he tried to put weight on his injured leg. Alyssa helped him stand, and the Secret Service medic took his other side, letting him lean.
The President said, “At ease, son.”
But he spared Matt only that brief second before he walked over to Moira.
The bare concrete basement storage room seemed to be illuminated somehow by his presence. Maybe it was the expensive clothing in a dingy environment. Maybe it was the way the Secret Service agents focused on him.
As he came nearer and nearer, Moira’s mouth hung open and she stared at him, not even conscious of how she looked. She tried to back up a step or two.
The President walked right up to the young woman. The professionally plastic smile of a politician disappeared from his face, and a soft, gentle, warm expression took its place.
To Alyssa’s everlasting amazement, a tear leaked out of the President’s eye as he stared at Moira for a moment.
“Moira LeBlanc,” he said. “I’m delighted to finally meet you.”
The girl obviously recognized him from television. Her mouth moved several times before she could finally push any words out of it.
“Wh… wh… why would you want to meet me?”
His smile grew broader, and he was unashamedly letting the tears roll down his cheeks now.
“I’m your father.”
CHAPTER 21
Seconds of silence passed.
Finally Moira said, “My what? I’ve never even met my father. He left before I was born. What are you talking about?”
“I’m so sorry, child. I’m so sorry. If I could have that choice back, I’d give my life for it. I’m sorry I didn’t stay with your mother.”
Moira couldn’t speak. She just opened and closed her mouth like a fish.
“Your mother was a wonderful woman. I imagine she still is, but I haven’t seen her for about eighteen years. She was so kind and so good.
“And I treated her so horribly. She was a wonderful woman, and I was a terrible, terrible man. Not a man, a boy. Cowardly. Dishonorable. Selfish.
“I deserved for her to tell t
he press every detail of our… time together. A thousand times over I deserved that. But she never gave me away. I left her without saying a word, and she never paid me back. I rose higher and higher in politics and still she never made noise. She never went to the media. She never went to my opponents. Even after she had a daughter, and I was doing nothing to support you and her, she still kept my secrets. It’s fair to say you were born with secrets, Moira.
“It’s your mother I think of when I think of becoming a better man. Moira, I owe you a lifetime of love. I owe you protection, and provision, and … and fatherhood. I don’t have any idea how to make it right. But on my word, I will start, and I will see it through.”
The young girl stammered. And then she sobbed and collapsed against him. She pressed her face against that five-figure hand-tailored suit and bawled into it.
Alyssa felt Matt’s arm pull her closer, even as he still leaned against the medic.
She heard him whispering, but it wasn’t her to whom he was speaking.
“Thank you God. You put the lonely in families. You’re a father to the fatherless.”
Alyssa sucked in a breath. It was the verse Matt had quoted her at their last visit in prison. It was the verse she had looked up after he left.
Suddenly, she knew the answer to the question she had been asking incessantly: was her release from prison a miracle?
A father to the fatherless.
Her own father. The betrayal. The lifetime of lies.
A father to the fatherless.
Alyssa felt her knees weaken. She clutched Matt tighter, leaning against him. Something like a suppressed cry slipped out of her.
No. No, God would never waste a miracle to help a politician cover up an adulterous affair.
But He would certainly use one to give a lonely girl a father.
“A second chance,” she whispered. “Thank you. Thank you. It’s a miracle.”
***
The President and Moira walked out of the room, with a multitude of Secret Service agents falling in around and behind them. Wheeler stayed with Alyssa and Matt. A few Federal Agents came in the door after the President left, bringing Mike Vincent with them.
Born with Secrets: A Political Thriller Page 15