by Black, Chuck
“Can’t you try and talk to Sydney? See if she’s thinking about turning you in?”
“Yeah, I’m going to try, but last night she wouldn’t talk to me or even look at me. She’s really upset, Ben … and confused. I thought I’d better give you a heads-up before I tried again though. I think we need to get you out of here until we get a better idea of what’s going down. We’d better think about implementing plan B at the alternate location.”
Ben nodded. “Give me ten minutes to get my notes and hard drives.”
“Sure.” Drew watched the black liquid in the coffee maker dribble into the glass pot. He waited until there was enough for a cup and then robbed the pot of its strong contents.
Twenty minutes later, Drew dropped Ben off at a hotel a few miles from the lab.
“What about the exchange?” Ben asked. “We still need that electron microscope.”
“It all depends on Sydney. I don’t dare hit the pit or touch that account until I know where she’s at. Meanwhile, you keep working on Waseem’s equation.”
“You know it. What else would I do?”
Drew smiled. Of course that’s what he would do … that’s all he would do until he got it.
Drew didn’t dare contact Sydney directly. Her cell phone would be monitored by the Feds. There was only one way of getting a message to her without blowing his cover—he would have to find her and follow her. On a Sunday morning, there was only one place where she would be.
Church.
Drew couldn’t remember the church, but he remembered the pastor’s name—Pastor Worthington. He searched and found him at New Life Church, just north of the Kennedy Expressway. It looked like a large church, which was both good and bad. It would be difficult to ID Sydney in such a large crowd, but it would also be easier for him to blend in if the Feds were looking for him by watching her. Sydney went to a ten o’clock service—he knew that because she had invited him before. The timing was good—he still had thirty minutes to recon the area.
DREW ARRIVED AT NEW LIFE Church at 9:40. He drove through the parking lot for a few minutes, scanning and watching for both invaders and federal agents. He spotted a dozen light invaders, which made sense to him. Very few of the churchgoing people would willingly be influenced by dark invaders, but with such a high concentration of people, the light invader force would make sure of their protection. He wondered what a football stadium filled with thirty thousand people would look like in the invader realm.
Drew parked, and in the thick of hundreds of cars he started walking toward the church. It was a massive building with one huge section that Drew guessed was the sanctuary. The rest of the building sprawled out over fifty thousand square feet. He figured thousands of people would be attending each service in a church of this size, and he was once again amazed at the folly of so many gullible people. They were all looking for answers, and he was the only one who had them.
He walked past two light invaders who were talking and watching each person who went by. Drew ignored them and entered the lobby, hoping to disappear into the throng of people inside, but he was greeted near the door by an older couple with broad smiles and warm handshakes.
“Welcome to New Life Church. Are you attending for the first time?” the older gentleman asked as he grasped Drew’s hand a little too long.
“Ah … no.” Better to avoid any sort of newcomers’ attention.
“Well, thank you for worshiping with us today,” the man said with a twinkle in his eye. He then turned to the couple coming up behind Drew.
Drew scanned the area looking for any stakeouts. He hadn’t been in a church since his grandmother’s funeral in South Carolina. That one seemed so cold and stuffy. New Life was different. Despite it being a church and way too large, there was a warmth and friendliness here that he had never felt before. They even had a coffee shop. Drew ordered up a cappuccino and tried to pay, but the pretty young teenage girl held up a hand.
“No need to pay. Donations only.” She smiled and pointed to an oak box at the end of the counter.
“Thanks.” Drew dropped a five into the box, then found a corner table to sit at and continue scanning. He forced his senses into high gear so he could cover as many people as possible. The large foyer could easily hold eight hundred people, although Drew figured there were a little more than half that at the moment. He hadn’t seen Sydney yet, but he did lay eyes on one man who looked suspicious. There was an air about him that Drew recognized—the air of a man who knew how to handle himself and a weapon. The man was scanning just as Drew was. When he turned to the right, Drew saw the subtle bulge off his right hip, indicating he was carrying. Drew was about to abandon his cappuccino and make a break for the door, but he was afraid it would be too obvious now.
The man continued turning, and Drew hesitated. Then he saw a name tag on his left lapel with the word Security below the man’s name. Drew waited, taking the risk to let the man’s gaze pass through him. It did, and he didn’t even hesitate.
Drew breathed a sigh of relief. He looked past the man, then froze once more. Sydney was on the far side of the room in a mix of three girls and four guys … and was staring right at him. He felt stupid. With all his powers of observation, he had been scoped by Sydney first. She was smiling and laughing with the others, but Drew could tell something was wrong. She broke eye contact with him and started chatting with the girl next to her. Then she started to dig in her purse as if she were looking for something and finally shook her head in disgust. She spoke briefly to the girl next to her, and the girl nodded and handed her phone to Sydney. Sydney dialed on the phone, and a few seconds later Drew’s phone vibrated, indicating he had received a text. Sydney put the phone to her ear and began talking and laughing as if she were having a great conversation with a friend.
Drew scanned the room again but came up empty. The text could only be from Sydney or Ben. If it was Sydney, Drew would be impressed. He pulled the phone from his pocket just enough to see the screen.
agnts near not sfe
Drew spun away from the table in the opposite direction and cautiously slipped through a group of people coming in through the side door. He glanced over his shoulder, and that’s when he saw him. Thirty feet behind and a little off to the side was a short, balding man with the same air about him as the security guard, but he was not security. He was searching the crowd and hadn’t yet made Drew. He saw the man speak into his sleeve and knew there had to be other FBI agents nearby.
Just ahead, a dark-haired younger man was entering from outside and Drew could see FBI written all over his face. Drew ducked into a bathroom to his left and went to a sink to pretend to wash his hands. There weren’t any dark invaders in the church, but if they knew the Feds were onto Drew, they wouldn’t be far away. Drew waited fourteen seconds, the time he calculated it would take for the younger agent to pass by the bathroom door. No one entered the bathroom, so he went back to the door, cracked it open, and saw the agent walk past.
Drew didn’t wait—he slipped out and continued to the side door, away from the two agents inside. Once outside, he dashed between parked cars to find his beater Grand Prix and exited the parking lot. His heart was pounding hard, and he was sweating profusely. That was too close, but it did tell him one thing: Sydney had not ratted him out. Despite such a close call, Drew was elated. It meant more than just the possible continuation of their mission—it meant that Sydney was still with him.
He wasn’t sure which made him happier.
Twenty-five minutes later he was back with Ben at the hotel.
“They know you’re here—in Chicago!” Ben paused in his pacing. “We can’t stay here. We have to leave now!”
Drew leaned up against the desk. “I know, but we don’t know what Sydney has told them, if anything. By the way she was acting and the text she sent me, I think she’s still with us.”
“But she’s hot— Ah … you know what I mean.”
Drew stifled a laugh. “Yeah, there’ll be no c
ontacting her in any way, that’s for sure, and there is no longer any reason to stay in Chicago.” The words dragged Drew’s heart into the mire. “But if we can wait until tomorrow night, we can rent a truck and load up most of the equipment, and I can make one more day of trading on the exchange. We’re going to need money to start someplace new, and I am on the verge of a couple of huge payouts.”
Ben sat down on the bed. Both men thought long about the risk involved and the time lost if they jumped ship without any prep.
“It’s your call, Drew. If you think it’s worth the risk, then I’m game. I would hate to start over again.”
Drew nodded. “We’ll rent a truck first thing in the morning; then you start packing. I’ll hit the exchange, try to get out early, and help you with the last few larger pieces of equipment.”
“Okay.” Ben nodded.
DREW AND BEN SPENT the night in the hotel room and were awake by the time the Monday morning sun hit the Chicago skyline. By nine o’clock, they were at the lab, and Ben began dismantling and loading. Drew decided to abandon his apartment just in case and instead bought a new set of trading clothes at a department store before he hit the exchange. He knew it was dangerous—extremely dangerous—but he had over sixty-five thousand in his account and was on the verge of turning that into two hundred thousand today. It would get Ben close to the minimum he needed to finish the LASOK project.
Drew entered the pit and scanned for an hour. It caused him to miss one of his promising trades, so he abandoned caution and began trading like a man who had no tomorrow. He felt the economic heartbeat of the pit and let the endless sea of numbers massage his intuition. By two o’clock he was at one hundred eighty thousand dollars. Twenty minutes before the exchange closed, Drew took the biggest risk he had ever taken, and it paid off.
He sold his stock in feeder cattle at 167 and finished with an account balance of $234,000. It would be enough to set up a lab and purchase all the remaining equipment in some small, remote city away from the masses and the invaders. Now Drew faced the problem of cashing out that amount of money without drawing attention or raising flags. He withdrew just under ten thousand and decided to figure out later how to either transfer or withdraw the money over an extended period of time.
By four thirty, Drew was on his way back to the lab. He hoped that Ben had not been discovered and was relieved when he saw him in the back of the building, struggling to haul some electronic test equipment up the ramp and into the truck. There was a sense of relief that they had made it this far through the day without either of them being discovered.
Or killed.
Forty minutes later, Drew closed the back door to the truck, and Ben locked up the building. All was set.
They met at the door of the truck, and each of them took a deep breath.
“We made it, Ben.” Drew smiled.
“I’ll feel better when we are hundreds of miles away from Chicago.” Apparently Ben couldn’t smile quite yet.
It was getting to be dusk, and they planned on driving until midnight to put some distance between them and the threat.
“I’ll drive the truck. You follow behind in the Grand Prix,” Drew said.
Ben nodded. “Sounds—”
Drew’s phone rang, and they both froze.
“Don’t answer it, Drew … You know what it means.”
Drew pulled the phone out of his pocket. It had never rung before. It was his emergency phone. He stared at it, hating what it might mean and hating what might happen if he didn’t answer. Sydney’s number stared back at him on the display. He shook his head and clicked the answer button as Ben threw back his head and turned away.
“Yeah.” Drew heard one faint, unintelligible whisper, and then the phone went dead.
He pulled the phone away from his head … five bars. Ben turned around and came back.
“Something’s wrong.”
Just then a text came through: ray trble drags here.
Drew looked up at Ben. “I have to go.” His heart quickened with each passing second.
“I know. It could be a trap, Drew.”
“Yep … but if it’s not—” He didn’t need to finish. Drew gave Ben the ten thousand dollars and the keys to the truck. “You know where to go and what to do.” Drew locked hands with Ben and gave him a hug.
“Yeah.” Ben backed away and hung his head. “Drew, you be careful. I can’t do this without you.”
“I will. I’ll rejoin you by tomorrow.”
Ben looked at him like he didn’t believe him. He nodded and climbed up into the truck. Drew ran to his car, cranked up the engine, and slammed it into drive. He set his direction toward Emmanuel Church.
It would be the longest fifteen-minute drive of his life.
28
INTO THE DRAGON
By the time Drew pulled onto the street in front of Emmanuel Church, he knew the situation was bad. Lights of police cars and an ambulance flashed everywhere. Drew parked his car as close as he dared and hurried toward the scene. He spotted Wallace speaking to two other light invaders, one was bleeding from his left shoulder. They listened gravely as they received their orders, then flew in opposite directions. Wallace turned to look at Drew, his gaze full of fierce anger.
Anger … at Drew. But why?
Drew didn’t take time to scan for Feds. An ambulance meant someone was down, and based on Sydney’s text, he shuddered to think that it might be her. He got to within thirty feet before a policeman stopped him.
“Back away, sir,” the young officer commanded.
Drew leaned around him to see Reverend Ray lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood. Two EMTs were working on him, and Ray’s wife, Nicole, was kneeling beside him in painful anguish. Drew couldn’t see Ray’s face, so he didn’t know if he was dead or alive.
“No!” Drew pushed, but the policeman pushed back.
“Sir, you need to back away or I’ll have to restrain you.”
“Ray!”
Just then, the EMT near Ray’s head leaned to the left to get supplies from his bag next to him. Ray turned his head toward Drew and reached out his hand toward him.
“Look,” Drew said to the policeman. “He’s asking for me.”
The policeman turned his head to look at Ray, and Drew was past him in an instant.
“Hey!” the policeman called, but nothing was going to stop him.
Drew ran to Ray and grabbed his hand. Nicole looked desperate. There was a commotion between the EMTs and the policeman.
“I want him here!” Ray sputtered.
The policeman hesitated and then backed away while the EMTs continued to work. The left side of Ray’s abdomen was dark red, and the EMTs were working fast.
“Ray … what happened?”
Ray pulled him close so that only Drew could hear. “The Dragons took Shana and Micah, Drew. They want you—” He grimaced. “They said if they see the police coming, they’ll kill them.”
Drew clenched his teeth. Blood coursed through his veins and his muscles tightened. He had caused this.
Drew looked for Sydney but couldn’t see her. “Where’s Sydney?”
The EMTs were getting ready to lift Ray onto the stretcher.
“Out of the way,” one of them ordered.
“They took her too,” Nicole said, her voice choked.
“They caught her texting you. They know she’s yours,” Ray wheezed.
“One, two, three!” The EMTs lifted Ray onto the stretcher, and he winced.
They raised the stretcher until it locked in the up position, then wheeled it toward the ambulance. Drew would have followed, but a policeman stopped him.
Ray’s voice came to Drew over the chaos. “You have to find them, Guardian. You have to save them!”
Nicole grabbed Drew’s arm. She seemed torn between wanting to be with Ray and her desperation to find her children. “Find them, Drew … Whatever has happened, you find them!” It was more than a plea.
She turned to enter
the ambulance just as Drew felt four strong hands on him all at once. A second later he was facedown with his cheek pressed hard into the asphalt. His senses peaked, and the anger that boiled in his blood accentuated everything. The doors of the ambulance closed.
“God and His mighty angels go with you,” he heard Ray’s faint voice call out.
“FBI. You’re coming with us, Drew Carter.”
Drew glanced at the nearest police car. He heard a police captain radioing for a SWAT team and more chatter about the abduction. Drew felt the cold steel of handcuffs tighten around his wrists. The two agents lifted him to his feet and yanked him away from the scene, toward an unmarked car farther down the block.
Drew began racing through his options, but in handcuffs, there weren’t many.
“We’ve been looking for you for a long time, Mr. Carter,” the older, balding agent said.
“I have to help, or the Dragons will kill them!”
“Hey!” a policeman called out from behind them. It was the captain.
The agents stopped as the captain caught up with him. “Why are you taking him in? What did he do?”
“He’s wanted in connection with the Drayle University shooting in Kansas,” the younger agent replied.
The balding agent scowled. “It’s federal business, Captain. You’ve got your own mess to deal with, and if you can’t take care of it, we’ll be back.”
The captain eyed the agent, then looked at Drew. “The reverend’s a good man. I heard him call you Guardian. Is that true?”
“Captain, I have to help Ray’s family. You know I can.”
“Time to go,” the balding agent said.
“Wait.” The captain barked out the order. “This man has helped a lot of people in this part of the city and aided us in putting a bunch of gangbangers behind bars. You sure you got the right man?”
“You do your job and we’ll do ours.” With that, the agent spun Drew back around and pushed him toward the car. Drew glanced over his shoulder and saw the captain mouth a few words that didn’t look very polite, then turn and jog back to his squad car. Drew’s frustration was more than he could bear.