Sam already had his own passport because he traveled with Noah occasionally on Foundation business as a young ambassador. Like any self-respecting once-upon-a-time juvenile delinquent, he knew how to forge a permission letter from a guardian. However, getting a rush visitor visa to the United States was more complicated. When he couldn’t find any free alternatives, he bit the bullet and paid two bitcoins (about thirty-five hundred U.S. dollars) to someone on the dark web who got him the visa in three hours.
Sam’s only hitch was getting a flight at short notice.
“Easy shmeasy,” said Walrus. “My dad’s an NYPD cop. He’ll help us.”
Walrus scanned a letter written by his father on NYPD letterhead, then carefully matched fonts as he composed a letter from the department. Within half an hour, Walrus sent the following to Sam.
Dear Mr. Sam Xi: You are requested to make an appearance in New York as an expert witness in a highly sensitive and secretive investigation. Please make arrangements to come ASAP.
Yours truly.
Willie Mays Potter
New York Police Department, Badge Number 74309A
Direct Line: (997) 428- 3920
The ticket seller at Cathay International was skeptical of the letter Sam held, so she made a telephone call. When Officer Willie Mays Potter answered the phone and verified the letter, she sold a First Class ticket to the underage Sam right away. The seller had no way of knowing the phone number was a VOIP number that Walrus set up to go to a local actor who was happy to make fifty bucks.
Sam was on his way and fifteen hours later, Walrus and his cop father picked Sam up at JFK. Walrus’ unsuspecting dad remarked how little red tape Sam had to go through to come on such short notice.
The young Chinese teen from Hong Kong and the young black teen from Williamston got along even better in person than they did online. Walrus’ bedroom was now littered with left-over Chinese and American junk food: dried squid, beef jerky, deep-fried shrimp chips and potato chips.
When Sam got the call from JJ, his first instinct was fear that he had been caught. But when he found out JJ’s intention, he and Walrus dove into the task furiously. Walrus was only thirteen but he had been hacking into his father’s NYPD account since he was eleven. What a joke their so-called firewall was. To do what Sam wanted was a little more challenging so he used a facial recognition algorithm to check on the identities of the Samaritan, the gorilla, and Elizabeth Watson.
After Sam relayed the information to JJ, Sam and Walrus did more research. The more they researched, the more concerned they got.
These were very bad people JJ and Noah had hooked up with, and they needed to be warned as soon as possible. Actually, more than just a warning, they needed help and checked the IP address from JJ’s final messages. Walrus and Sam boarded the subway to Manhattan to Times Square, where they would walk to The Seventh Hotel.
One thing about the crazy habits of teenagers. Even if they were in the same room, they often still communicated with their wireless devices. When JJ contacted Sam, Walrus was lying at the other end of the bed, texting with Sam on his cell.
Chapter 34
“That was easy,” said Kenny to Queenie and Byron as they stood outside the boardroom door.
Byron shook his head. “Shut up, rookie. Deception can only be hidden for a short time. There’s something about Noah that I don’t trust.”
Queenie nodded. “I got it covered. As soon as we get the okay, we’re going to sign the deal and say we’re going to Fortini’s around the corner to celebrate. However, before we get there, Noah, Abby and Olivia will be shot to death. I’ll take a bullet, too, but it’ll just be in the arm. I’ve got my story down to tell the cops. You guys take off and disappear. I’ll be in touch.”
Before Byron or Kenny could respond, they heard a huge blow-up coming through the boardroom door. It was muffled but every word was understandable.
Noah snarled, “You are the most spoiled, self-serving bitch I’ve ever met.”
“Don’t talk about my best friend that way,” snapped Abby.
“If the shoe fits, wear it,” was Noah’s comeback.
Olivia threw in a jibe. “Oh, I thought you helped people out of the goodness of your heart. Well, excuse me for living.”
“Listen, Olivia, at least I don’t play games with people’s heads the way you did with me.”
“I never said ‘yes’ to you, Noah. Can I help it if you don’t understand English?”
“How much do I have to read into ‘You are the one I want to live with for the rest of my life’?” yelled Noah.
“Shut up. Shut up. Are you going to sign the damned contract or not?” shrieked Olivia.
“Of course. My word is good. Can you print it out?” bellowed Noah.
“Of course I can. I’m not a technological klutz like you. It’ll just take two minutes,” spat out Olivia.
There was silence, or at least nothing they could hear through the door, which wasn’t surprising. The hum of a printer was not in the decibel league of the argument of flared tempers of ex-lovers.
Byron grinned at Queenie. “Maybe they’ll just kill themselves.”
The three waited patiently.
Queenie kept checking her cell phone every ten seconds or so, getting more agitated as time went on. “Why aren’t they out yet? It doesn’t take that long to print something.”
“It takes almost a minute for that printer to warm up,” said Kenny. “They’ll be done in another minute.”
“I can’t wait that long.” Queenie tried to open the door. While the handle moved, the door didn’t budge. She shouted, “Olivia, Abby, Noah! Open the door. It’s stuck.”
There was no response.
“Damn! Get it open, Kenny.”
Kenny grabbed an axe from the fire hose cabinet and started hacking away at the door.
In the brief time JJ had been in New York, he discovered traveling by foot was the quickest way to get around Manhattan so he ran from The Seventh Hotel to the Vector Building. At 7:30 p.m., the front building doors were locked. He banged on the glass doors to get the security guard’s attention, but the attendant ignored him.
Finally fed up, JJ kicked the door beside the revolving doors, smashing it open with one deft punt. The guard whipped out his gun and fired at the pesky intruder, but JJ was prepared. He had spotted two large potted trees in the lobby and dove to hide behind one of them.
The guard called for backup and, moments later, JJ had two guns trained on him. Realizing that going through the front door was not going to work, JJ looked for a means to escape.
He knocked over the first planter and, as the guards opened fire, JJ rolled rapidly to hide behind the other planter. He picked it up and hurled it at the shooters. As they pumped tree and planter full of bullets, JJ dashed to the exit, leapt upwards, arms outstretched like Superman. The bullets whizzed harmlessly under his body as his hands forcibly broke through the revolving doors. His momentum carried him through and he dropped to the ground outside.
Perpetrator no longer a threat, the security guards left him alone.
Standing on the sidewalk, JJ took a breath as he gazed up to the floor of Skyscape studios.
“Omigod!” he yelled. Noah was standing on the window ledge of the twelfth floor.
JJ punched in Noah’s cell phone number. This time, it connected. “Is that really you I see up there?”
“Guilty as charged,” replied Noah. “I’m gonna jump.”
“You’re crazy!”
“I’m all ears if you’ve got any other ideas.”
Kenny broke down the boardroom door in less than a dozen swings of the axe, discovering that Noah, Olivia and Abby had barricaded the door with chairs and the boardroom table. As they shoved the office furniture out of the way, a sickening feeling knotted their stomachs.
Queenie’s nostrils flared. “We’ve been had but how could they have figured it out?”
“Doesn’t matter,” replied Byron. “Keep focused. G
rab Olivia and Abby. Threaten to kill them and Noah will break.”
Kenny spotted Noah standing outside on the window ledge. He pointed, “Over there!”
“Get him,” yelled Queenie.
As the trio rushed to the window, Noah turned around, gave a little smile, twinkled his fingers ‘goodbye,’ then jumped into the air.
“No!” screamed Queenie.
Arriving at the open window, they saw Noah somersaulting in the air as he accelerated the twelve stories to the ground.
Queenie freaked. If he’s dead, I got nothing.
Then, another incredible sight. From two hundred feet away, JJ was streaking down the street in the direction where Noah would land.
“What’s he doing?” said Queenie.
“Haven’t a clue,” said Kenny, eyes full of consternation.
JJ suddenly leapt onto the hood of a car and took a step onto the roof of a passing SUV, launching himself in the air. It was a variation of the move Noah used in the Shanghai airport.
JJ’s upward momentum countered Noah’s hurtling downward force.
Just as crazy as JJ and Noah were a couple of kids who had snagged a fruit cart and were pushing it furiously in JJ and Noah’s direction.
With a thud, JJ and Noah landed on top of the cart, smashing it and sending fruit flying everywhere. Apples, oranges and strawberries were not great pillows but they were enough to cushion Noah and JJ from injury.
As Noah and JJ tried to extricate themselves from the gooey fruit mash that covered them, a familiar voice called, “Hey, Noah, how ya doin’?”
Noah looked up to see Sam grinning. Beside him stood a tall lanky black teen.
“What the hell are you doing here?” asked Noah. “I thought we left you in a hospital.”
“I heal fast and um, where is the ‘Thank you for saving my sorry butt again’?” said the cocky teen. He put his arm around Walrus. “And you can thank my buddy, Walrus, too.”
An angry fruit vendor charged up to them. “You stole my cart. I’m going to have you arrested.”
“Hey, we just saved these turkeys’ lives,” glowered Sam.
“Gobble gobble. That’s four hundred bucks of fruit and a thousand bucks for the cart you wrecked.”
Noah took out his wallet and peeled off fifteen hundred bucks. “Take this.” He nodded at JJ. “You don’t want to get this ninja mad.”
The vendor took a scared look at JJ, then ran off, money clutched in his hand.
Noah turned back to Sam, was about to open his mouth, then stopped. “There’s no point in asking, is there?”
Sam grinned, “Nope.”
JJ folded his arms over his chest. “I want to know how you got here.”
“Easy,” said Sam. “When you contacted us, I traced you back to the eighth floor of The Seventh Hotel. You weren’t in your room but I saw some nice Russian girls. One of them told me she unlocked your cell and gave me your number. Not too hard to track from there.”
Noah pointed upward to the top floor. Two indistinct figures were standing on the ledge around the corner from where Noah had jumped. “That’s Olivia and Abby.”
“So why the heck are we chit chatting? Let’s go save them,” hollered Sam.
Kenny scanned the window ledges. “No sign of Abby or Olivia.”
“They’re not in the studio, either,” said Byron, who conducted a futile search of the big recording room.
Queenie glanced upward. “There!” she pointed. “Some of the tiles aren’t seated properly.”
They stood on office chairs and started poking the ceiling tiles, pushing the lightweight panels out of their slots.
“This is pointless. Too flimsy,” concluded Queenie.
Ears perked as they heard faint shouts of, “Jump! Jump!
They rushed back to the open window. They couldn’t figure out what was happening. They heard voices but saw only pedestrians looking up toward the Vector’s roof.
Kenny’s head jolted as he realized, “They must be around the corner.”
The three dashed out of the boardroom and into the corner office where they saw their prey, Abby and Olivia, standing outside on the window ledge.
Freaked, Abby and Olivia stared down twelve stories to the ground. Noah had sent them there so they could sneak back into a different room of Skyscape while he stayed as a decoy. A few months earlier, the three of them jumped fifty-four stories from Chin’s penthouse hideout into a swimming pool so Noah figured if they did it once, they could do it again but, as Robert Burns said so many years ago, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry…”
In the original plan, they were supposed to get back into the building via a different route. Now, it appeared they might have to jump like Noah had. They saw JJ catch Noah and land on the fruit cart, but it struck them that the odds of Noah’s bizarre stunt working again were zero.
There was a tap on the window behind them. They turned to see Queenie and Kenny looking out at them.
Queenie opened the window. Concern filled her voice. “Are you crazy? What are you doing out there? Do you want to get killed?”
Abby looked at Olivia. Please. Queenie didn’t seem to be the monster Noah had described.
They climbed into the corner office doubtfully.
Chapter 35
A deeply concerned Queenie secured Olivia and Abby’s hands, making sure they were safe as she helped them from the ledge into the office. Any leverage she would have on Noah would vanish if the girls were dead.
“Thank God you two are okay. What were you doing? Why did Noah jump?”
Olivia was completely frazzled and bewildered. “I don’t know what’s going on. Noah told us to fight and the next thing I know, Abby and I are standing on the ledge.”
As Queenie nodded sympathetically, she realized Noah must have found out what was going on. That meant it was time to end the charade. She steepled her fingers and pointed them at Olivia. “I suggest you get Noah back here.”
“Why? There’s no point. I don’t know what’s happened but obviously the deal is dead.” Olivia’s jaw slackened. “I hate to think he was so petty, but it seems like it’s because of me. His male ego can’t take that we broke up.”
“Call him, Olivia. Get him back up here.”
Olivia’s shoulders slumped as her voice wavered, “I told you. There is no point.”
Queenie spoke deliberately and softly. “He’ll come. Tell him if he doesn’t, I will kill you and Abby. If he wants to see you breathing again, he must deposit one hundred fifty million dollars into the account number I give him. Afterward, I’ll chloroform you, then put you in a special location he’ll never find. Assuming there is no problem with the funds or their transfer, I’ll text Noah your location.”
Olivia and Abby coughed sharp gasps of horrified surprise. They could not believe they had so misjudged Queenie. “Why?” was the only word Abby could utter.
Queenie sneered. “Money, of course. That, and the fact that Noah killed my business partner and brother King, my loser brother Duke, and just about killed my father Chin Chee Fok. A hundred and fifty million is getting you off cheap.”
Queenie’s statement was pounding in Olivia’s ears. It just couldn’t be. “Chin died. I saw it myself.”
“We saw him burning like a candle,” muttered Abby as she stared at Queenie.
“My father is a survivor. And don’t bother looking for similarities. I’ve had enough plastic surgery to destroy any resemblance. Now please let him know I’m waiting.”
“There’s no guarantee you won’t kill us,” stated Olivia. “I want a guarantee.”
“Who said anything about killing you?” Queenie handed her cell phone to Kenny, then turned back to Olivia and Abby. “Smile for the camera.”
JJ, Noah, Sam and Walrus craned their necks to watch Olivia and Abby re-enter Skyscape’s offices.
“Uh, oh. That is so not good,” uttered Sam, stating the blatantly obvious.
Noah’s cell phone vibrated.
When he noticed a video was attached, he positioned the phone so all could see.
Faces paled and lips clenched as the video showed Queenie twirling one of her sharpened crane’s beaks. With Kenny holding Olivia’s arms behind her back to prevent movement, Queenie ran the pecker down Olivia’s cheek lightly. The camera zoomed in, filling the screen with a thin red line of blood seeping out.
There was also a text message. Come up now. Be prepared to wire transfer $150,000,000. Or you can come later to collect the bodies.
Noah clenched his teeth. “We don’t capitulate to threats for ransom.”
“But it’s Olivia and Abby,” cried Sam. “You gotta pay. It’s only money.”
“Sam, there is no guarantee they won’t kill them even if we pay. And, if word got out that we gave in this time, everyone with a pocketknife would grab one of us and demand payment… But I am going to do something.”
JJ corrected Noah, “We are going to do something.”
Sam and Walrus chimed in, “Us, too. Let’s charge in and get them.”
Ah, the impetuousness of youth. Before Noah chewed them out, JJ said quietly, “Good intentions, bad idea. We’d be lucky to get past the front guards. They have serious firepower and accurate shots but…”
“Would this help?” asked Walrus.
All eyes turned to see the black teen grinning as he exposed a Glock stuffed into his jeans and hidden under his shirt. “Helps to have a dad with the NYPD.”
“And I brought some of my toys with me,” added JJ, showing martial arts stars and a couple of daggers he brought from the hotel.
“I guess we’re in business.” Noah composed a message on his phone.
Please don’t hurt them. I am on my way.
The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series: Books 1-3 (plus special bonuses) Page 53