No Way to Die

by M. D. Grayson

  “Fuck you,” I said. “You’re a chickenshit, you know that, right?”

  He laughed. “I can understand why you might think so,” he said. “Of course, as for me, I don’t see it that way. Not at all. You see, Mr. Logan, I tend to evaluate people—myself included—based on one thing. And that is simply, are they winners? Do they come out on top? And that,” he smiled, “that’s something I am very good at.”

  “You don’t care about who you hurt to get there, do you?” I asked.

  “Let me think. Uh . . .”He pretended to think about it, and then laughed. “No,” he said. “I don’t. I’m a winner, Mr. Logan. I do what needs to be done in order to win. This is a concept that a sanctimoniously moral person such as yourself might not understand. But then again, you’re no winner, are you? Look at yourself. Look around you,” he said, sweeping his arm. “You are shortly going to die in a beat-up old barn full of fifty-year-old horse shit and moldy hay in the middle of an abandoned farm, on the edge of a hillbilly town in a rainy, backwoods part of your country. Where’s the accomplishment in that? Where’s the glory? Where’s the greater good?” He paused. “Not there, is it? What’s more—what’s particularly tragic—there’ll be no one around you, no loved one to comfort you in your final moments.”

  It was silent for a second, and then Toni tried to mumble something, but it didn’t quite come out.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “What’s that, my dear?”

  I could see her trying to concentrate. She was barely able to lift her head. She tried to focus her eyes, but she was having trouble. Didn’t stop her. “I’m here, motherfucker,” she said. “He’s not alone.”

  I looked at Marlowe. He stared at Toni. He wasn’t going to crumble in front of us, not by a long shot. But our confidence in the face of what appeared to be long odds seemed to surprise him—especially that part of it came from Toni.

  “And you’re not out of here yet, Gordie,” I added. May as well play for time and keep messing with the guy. Maybe Doc or the FBI would come to our rescue if we gave them enough time.

  Marlowe turned back to look at me.He was back to his old self. “You two are cut from the same bolt of cloth, aren’t you?” he said. He shrugged. “No matter. Rest assured, I will soon be leaving this shithole,”he said, looking around and then smiling broadly. “Very shortly, I will take the Starfire Protocol—and the key you’ve been kind enough to provide. I will fly away in my shiny G-IV, which is now sitting at an airport only minutes away. I will be waited on hand and foot by two gorgeous flight attendants who will cater to my every need. When I land, I’ll turn the Starfire Protocol over to a waiting buyer and pocket thirty million dollars. Then, back on the airplane and on to my villa. So which outcome should I choose? Yours or mine?” He paused for a moment as he pretended to weigh the two options in his upturned hands. Then he laughed. “Think I’ll take mine.”

  He looked at his watch. “Oh my,” he said. “On that note, I’m afraid that it’s time to bring our little adventure to a close.” He looked up. “I do have a flight to catch, you know?” He turned to one of the gunmen.

  “Mr. Chambers,” he said. “You may proceed.”

  I hoped he wasn’t about to shoot us. I also hoped that if he was about to shoot us, Doc was somewhere nearby so that he could shoot the guy first. I’d not seen even a hint of his presence, and I’d been looking. Then again, Doc was a pretty sneaky guy. No telling where he was. Didn’t matter now. Our plan had called for me to stall Marlowe as much as I could to create as much time for Doc as possible. I’d done my part. Now, it was up to Doc.

  As it turned out, Marlowe didn’t mean to shoot us. Instead, Chambers picked up a small blowtorch that I had somehow not noticed. He lit it, and a bright blue flame sprung to life with a low whoosh sound. He looked at Marlowe.

  Marlowe nodded. “Go ahead,” he said. “Start at the far end.” He pointed to the opposite end of the barn.

  Chambers walked down the center hallway to a bale of hay stacked against one of the stalls at the far end of the barn. About this time, I noticed that they’d placed a hay bale in front of all the other stalls as well. Chambers used the torch to light the hay bale on fire. Then, he made his way back to us, lighting each bale in turn. By the time he reached us, the flames from the first bale had already spread to the surrounding stall rails and to the walls of the barn behind it.

  Smoke began to fill the top of the barn as the flames on the far wall worked their way up the dry barn wood toward the roof.

  “So you see,” Marlowe said, raising his voice to be heard over the crackling sound of the dry wood burning. “An old barn accidentally catches fire and burns down. I'm told that old barns such as these—and the extremely flammable rubbish inside them—tends to burn very hot, indeed. Unlikely, there will be any trace of the three of you left. But even if there is,” he shrugged, “who cares? I’ll be airborne by then.” He looked at us. “Good-bye, Mr. Logan. Sorry things worked out the way they did.” He started to walk away,but then turned back. He laughed. “For you, anyway,” he added.

  He turned and grabbed the Starfire box with the USB key in it. “Oh, one other thing,” he said. “No sense us taking up valuable cargo space carrying two of the Starfire Protocol boxes back with us, particularly since there’s only the one key. As a memento of our meeting, I’ve decided to leave this other one with you, sort of a going-away present, if you will.”

  Perfect. Just in case we didn’t burn to death, he planned to blow us up, too. Good thing he didn’t know about the detonator switch. Then again, if the flames got to the explosives before we did, it might not matter.

  “So long, then Mr. Logan. It's been fun,” Marlowe said. He left the barn with his men, and they closed the door behind them. I heard them swing a padlock bolt into position followed by the loud click as the padlock was locked.

  I looked back at the fire. It was spreading quickly. The dry, untreated wood burst into flames as the fire spread toward the front of the barn. In what seemed like just a few seconds, the entire back third of the barn was engulfed. The heat was beginning to get out of hand. A few seconds later, the entire back wall of the barn collapsed with a loud roar.

  We needed to get out of the barn, and we needed to do it in the next couple of minutes, otherwise things were going to get pretty damn hot.

  Chapter 24

  I FELT THE intense heat on my face as the flames steadily worked their way toward us. Seated as we were on the floor, the air was still pretty clear, but not far above us, smoke filled the barn. The roar of the flames and collapsing woodwork was deafening. I strained against the nylon zip-tie handcuffs until they cut into my wrists, but there was no breaking them. I wanted to call out to Doc for help, but I figured this would be futile—if he was there, he’d have shown up by now.

  I double-checked to make sure that no flames were close to reaching the Starfire Protocol box/bomb. If that were about to happen, I may as well sit back and relax during my last few moments on Earth. Fortunately, the box was directly across from us and in no immediate danger of being consumed by the flames. I figured we had a minute or two before things got totally out of hand.

  “Toni!” I yelled. She raised her head and was trying to look around, confused and still mostly out of it.

  “Toni!” I yelled again, “Toni, look at me!”

  She turned in my direction and tried to focus.

  “We’ve got to get out of here!” I said.

  “Fire?” she said, dazed.

  “Fire!” I agreed, nodding my head vigorously. “Big fire! Can you get your hands free?”

  She looked at me like she didn’t understand what I’d said.

  “Toni!” I said. “Focus! Wake up!”

  I could see this time that my words had registered.

  “Can you get your hands free?” I asked her again.

  She tried to move her arms but was unable. She looked back over her shoulder.

  “They’re tied up,” she said. She tried to move a
gain. “I can’t move them.”

  “Let me get it,” a voice said.

  I turned and saw the best sight of my life—Doc coming toward us in a crouch. He was wearing black camos. He wore a boonie hat pulled down low. Underneath, his face was painted with zigzag black and green streaks. He already had his knife out. To a bad guy, he’d have looked like the most terrifying creature you could imagine. To me, he looked like a guardian angel. He’d have done Cochise proud.

  “Jesus,” I said. “Thank God!”

  “Hey, boss,” he said. “Lean forward.” I did, and he cut through the nylon zip-tie that held my hands together with a quick flick of his wrist. “I’ve been in here for almost an hour, now,” he said. “I’ve been hiding in that stall over there behind the table. I didn’t want to come out until I saw them drive away. They just left. Now lean back.” I did, and he cut my ankle ties.

  “Get the girls,” I said, flexing my hands, trying to get the blood flowing into them. “We’ve got to get the hell out of here before this old barn collapses.”

  “I got that covered,” he said as he leaned over to free Toni. “Every one of these stalls has a door for a horse to go in and out. I made sure that one,” he pointed to the stall next to us, “is unlocked from the outside. That’s how I got in earlier.”

  He finished cutting Toni’s bindings and moved to cut Holly free. While he was doing this, I crawled low across the floor and grabbed the Starfire box. I had a thought of using it as evidence against Marlowe. This wouldn’t be possible if it blew up in the barn fire.

  “Ready?” he asked when I returned.

  “Yeah, let’s go. You carry Holly; I’ll get Toni.”

  Doc leaned forward, picked Holly up, and flipped her over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing at all. Toni was bigger than Holly, and I wasn’t as strong as Doc, so it wasn’t going to be as easy for me. I reached down for her, and she put her arms around my neck. I scooped her up. Turns out she was much lighter than I expected.

  I looked into her face. Her blue eyes were open, and she was looking right at me. “You okay?” I asked.

  She nodded.

  “Good. Let’s get out of here, shall we?”I tried to crouch low to avoid the smoke, but she was too heavy for me—I couldn’t carry her crouched over. She was heavy enough that in my weakened state, I needed to stand up and lean back to carry her. Unfortunately, this was going to put us into the bottom of the smoke layer. Fortunately, the distance was short—maybe thirty feet or so. “Close your eyes, and hold your breath,” I said to her as we started to go. We both took deep breaths. I squinted and followed Doc.

  It seemed like we were charging into the gates of hell itself. The heat was intense as we moved to the next stall entry. The sound of the whooshing flames and crackling, burning wood was overwhelming. The smoke stung my eyes as I strained to keep up with Doc. But seconds after we turned into the next stall, Doc crashed through the paddock door, and we burst outside. Toni and I both exhaled, and then we took a deep gasping breath of cool, sweet air.

  “Keep moving—don’t stop,” Doc ordered. “Let’s clear the barn before it falls down on us.”

  I kept my feet moving and followed him.

  “Over here by this building,” Doc said. He carefully set Holly down and propped her up against the wall.

  Whether from the blow to the head, or from the smoke, or both, I was starting to feel a little woozy. I staggered and almost dropped Toni. I did drop the Starfire box, which I’d had tucked under my arm. When I could, I sat down, leaning against the wall, still holding Toni in my arms. I gasped for breath, trying to clear my head.

  A minute later, when I was able to breathe more or less normally, I looked down at her. She still had her eyes closed. “You all right?” I asked.

  She nodded without opening her eyes.

  I looked up at Doc. “Jesus, Doc,” I said. “You were inside the whole time?”

  He smiled. “Yeah, pretty tricky, huh? I figured if that’s where they were keeping the girls, that’s where the action was going to be. Then when they set up that table and brought in the computer dude, I knew for sure.”

  “Good thing you were there,” I said. “That was a close one.” I looked at the barn. Smoke was billowing from all openings. The front end was not in flames yet, but most of the barn—two-thirds, anyway—was engulfed.

  “Better call the Bullpen,” I said, suddenly thinking about Marlowe. “Let the FBI know that Marlowe’s on his way to the airport.”

  He nodded, pulled out his phone, and made the call.

  Just as Doc was hanging up a minute later, I saw a black SUV suddenly emerge from behind the trees on Campbell Road—the little side road on the property’s northern boundary.

  “Doc,” I said, “look.”

  He looked at the vehicle. “It’s Marlowe’s SUV,” he said quickly. “He must have driven out the main entry, up March Road, and then east on Campbell Road.” He was less than one hundred yards away. The SUV’s rear window rolled down, and I was able to clearly see Marlowe sitting in the back seat, watching the barn. He was staring intently at the barn; we were pretty well screened, sitting as we were against the building across the way. I don’t think he saw us.

  Ten seconds later, we heard the steady wop-wop-wop of a helicopter, approaching from the south. I turned and spotted it about the same time that it turned to make a beeline toward us.

  “What the hell?” I asked. I started to wonder if Jennifer had decided to call in the air force after all. This would have gone against her promise to me, but right about now, I wouldn’t have minded.

  Thirty seconds later, the helicopter roared directly overhead and continued toward Marlowe’s car. Suddenly, it hit me.

  “That’s Marlowe’s helicopter!” I said. “He’s going to have that thing land in the field there and pick him up!” I said. “He might not be going to Skagit Regional at all. That bastard could still get away!”

  The helicopter landed near the SUV, and with its rotors still turning, Marlowe and three other men ran to it. One of the pilots had already jumped out and opened the door, so by the time Marlowe and his crew reached the helicopter, all they had to do was hop onboard. The pilot followed and locked the door. Thirty seconds after it landed, the helicopter was airborne again. Marlowe was going to get away.

  But, oddly, instead of turning north and exiting the area, the helicopter turned south, back toward us. It slowly moved closer, the pilot evidently wanting to make certain he didn’t fly right into the superheated air above the burning barn. When he was maybe sixty yards away, he stopped and started a hover—perhaps fifty feet or so off the ground. The noise from the burning barn combined with the noise from the helicopter was deafening.

  “Doc, look,” I shouted.“The pilot’s that bald-headed fucker.”

  “Yeah. I can see. Man of many talents.”

  Mr. Baldie pivoted the helicopter ninety degrees to the west. Through the side window, we could clearly see Marlowe, watching the barn.

  “He doesn't see us,” Doc yelled. “He's back to admire his handiwork. He wants to make sure the barn burns down. With you guys in it.”

  “I think it’s more than that,” I said. “He’s gotsomething in his hand there, see? He left the Starfire bomb with us on purpose. He said he was going to clean up the loose ends. He’s probably come back to set off the bomb.” I looked over at the Starfire Protocol box. It was sitting on the ground ten feet away, where I’d dropped it. “Good thing the detonator switch is turned off.”

  “It isn’t,” Doc said.

  “Yeah it is,” I said. “I checked.”

  “Yeah, but while those guys were beatin’ on you, I turned it back on,” he said.

  I looked at him and my blood ran cold. “Shit, Doc,” I said, starting to push Toni aside so that I could get up and get to the box. I needed to switch the detonator off—right now! “Marlowe’s got a phone in his hand! He’s going to make the call and—”

  At that instant, the helicopter
exploded in a huge ball of flames, blanketing us in searing heat. I instinctively leaned forward and shielded Toni.After the initial heat blast had passed, I looked up, confused, and saw the machineburning, falling from the sky. One of the rotor blades flung itself from the machine and spun in a wild arc through the air before planting itself into the ground. A split second later, the helicopter followed it and hit the ground with an enormous explosion. A huge mushroom cloud billowed skyward for a moment before quickly dying out, causing me to lean forward and shield Toni again.Clouds of smoke poured from the smoldering wreck. The explosion caused every bird in a quarter-mile radius to instantly take flight at the same moment and flee in all directions.

  “Fuck me,” I said from the ground, looking at the wreck. “What the hell?”

  I turned to Doc at the exact time he jumped up and pointed at the helicopter. He gave a loud primal scream toward the burning wreckage, before yelling a string of Apache words in its direction. I think, roughly translated, he said, “And the horse you rode in on!”

  I turned and looked from Doc back to the wreck of the helicopter. The only thing visible in the flames was a lump maybe six feet tall, burning with a fierce intensity. Any semblance of an aircraft was already gone. “What?” I stuttered. “How?”

  Doc turned back to me. “Bastard did exactly what you said he would, dude.”

  I looked at him, not following.

  “I was sitting right behind the rail where the PC table was for more than an hour, just watching,” he explained. “I coulda taken out the whole bunch any time. But I didn’t need to. After you started talking all that smack to Marlowe and pissing him off, they stopped paying any attention to the Starfire box. They weren’t even looking in my direction—they were all focused on you. Then that dude whacked you on the head with the sap. While they were tying you up, I reached between the rails and swapped boxes. Apache been sneaking into places and messing with shit for ten thousand years. This was pretty simple. Marlowe had the key in the real device, right? That’s how he was keeping them straight. I didn’t know if he was going to take one of ’em or both of ’em, but I knew he would at least take the real one with the key, so while they weren’t looking, I swapped ’em. I took the key from the real device and plugged it into the bomb so he’d think it was the real one. Then, because I’m a mean SOB, I turned the detonator on. Marlowe did the rest all by himself. Fucker deliberately tried to kill us but vaporized himself instead.” He turned back to the helicopter and yelled at the top of his voice, “Hooah, motherfucker!”