“Gladly. I intend to do much more than that, but I mean a plan about this guy, the shooter and what the police are working on.”
She sat up and covered her chest with the sheet. Zak fingered the sheet down until she was sitting topless. “I like it better this way.”
She leaned over and removed the sheet from his thigh and rear. “And I like it better that way.”
He whipped the sheet off both of them, grabbed her and pulled her down onto the mattress again. So much for talking about a plan. Time to execute something important, something he didn’t have to think about first.
Amy heated up some soup and made a small salad.
“You hear from your building owner yet, Amy?” Zak asked.
“No. I don’t think they’ll be in until tomorrow, but it’s odd. I mean, aren’t they contacted when something like this happens? Wouldn’t they have precautions? I just feel like I have no guidance.
“Maybe call security?” he asked.
Zak overheard Amy’s conversation with the guys at the front desk. None of them had been contacted further by the police, but they’d been pestered by news media, and several camera crews had been rushed out from the lobby after sneaking to talk to residents going and coming.
“So can’t you guys get them to leave? Do they have the right to just barge in here? This is private property.”
She listened further.
“Well, give the police a call, then. I think the safety of the residents is primary. And what about the owners? Any word from them?”
She shrugged, indicating to Zak the owners hadn’t made contact yet.
“Who are these people?” Zak asked after she’d hung up.
“I thought they were local people, but I guess not. Overseas investors, I’m thinking. The MegaOne Group is a California corporation, but that doesn’t mean all the owners live here.”
“So what else did the guards have to say? Is there some protocol in place now, with all this going on? They have to have an emergency plan. It’s law.”
“I guess it depends on what you call an emergency.”
“So how would someone sneak into the building if they wanted to?” Zak could see the suggestion was unsettling to her. “Where could you go that’s safe, Amy?”
“I have no idea. My place would be safe.”
“What if they knew where you lived?”
“How would he—you’re not really thinking he’d come here, are you?”
“Well, let’s think about it. You’re living in the middle of several blocks of people who work, live and play all around you. Lots of strangers. Lots of places to hide.”
“But he’d have to know what apartment I lived in. That’s not posted anywhere.”
“Who would know?”
“The guards. They wouldn’t let anyone who didn’t live here—”
Zak tilted his head to the left. “The guards? How effective do you think they’d be against terrorists? Tell me honestly, do they look like they have any military training, Amy? Honestly?”
“Well, no.”
“Exactly. So what do you think?”
“It’s a big assumption. You assume he’d go to the trouble to find me, where I live. I just don’t think the world works that way. Maybe in the movies. But in real life? Do you honestly think he’d be stupid enough to come back here, knowing I could recognize him?”
“We’re not talking about fantasyland, Amy. This is the real world. So humor me, where would you go if you couldn’t come here?”
“There’s a theater. A public kitchen. Some conference rooms.”
“Okay, the kitchen would have knives and things. Good. A conference room?”
Zak shook his head. “No. You ever try to beat someone up with a wastebasket or a phone?”
“I’m not trying to beat someone up. Besides, I’ll have you here.”
“You own a gun?”
“Fuck no.”
Zak was actually sorry she didn’t.
“Illegal in San Francisco.”
“Which is why the shooting happened here, my guess.”
“Did you bring one, Zak?”
“No. I left all that behind. Not sure that was so smart.”
Amy took their dishes to the sink. She turned around. “I guess the gym on the ninth floor, just below us, would be safe. He’d need a key card to get in.” She showed him the ring with her two key cards on it. “I keep one here at all times, the other one goes with me everywhere.”
“So he’d steal one.”
“The gym has some places to hide, maybe. Some hand weights and equipment, maybe. Ropes. What do you think?”
Zak stood up and gave her a hug. “That’s my girl.”
The security desk called and asked Amy to come down to pick up a form the owners had faxed into the guard station and wanted her to fill out. At about the same time, Zak got a call on his cell from San Diego. He began updating his liaison on the situation and confirming he arrived safely as Amy grabbed her card and held her finger up.
“Wait, I’ll go with you,” said Zak as he cradled the phone.
“No. We have no reception in the elevators. I’ll be right back.”
Amy was out the door before he had time to protest. He finished his call and sat back. He knew he’d just screwed up letting her leave.
Chapter 14
Amy hadn’t even bothered to put her shoes on. She was running down the hallway in the flip-flops she kept by the front door. She almost turned around to go back to the apartment, but changed her mind as the elevator doors opened.
She flipped the key card back and forth in her palm. The conversation with Zak was troubling, but she knew why he wanted to have it. His brief time in the military made him wary of all sorts of dangerous situations. That was a good thing. One couldn’t be too careful, she thought.
Zak’s being present had a levitating mood on her spirit. She was sure he was as into her as she was into him. This morning and early afternoon had opened up a new phase in their relationship, something she wanted to explore fully. Sure, the passion and the fire was still there, but now there was something else. Something—
She heard noises on the other side of the doors leading to the guard station in the lobby. Just as she opened the door, she heard a scream. A woman was jammed in the glass doorway of the building, halfway inside, halfway outside. She’d dropped her purse and her eyes were wide as she looked in panic at Amy’s face. She screamed again.
Then Amy noticed that at her side was a man, the same man she’d seen in the doors yesterday, wearing the same green khaki clothes, although his appearance had changed. But there was no mistaking the murderous stare he fixed on Amy as he held something up to the woman’s neck. A wide ribbon of dark red blood was trailing down her neck, over the man’s hand, onto her shirt, and spilling onto the floor. Her legs were pumping back and forth, slipping in the red goo as she struggled to stand up.
The lone security guard was on the phone before the man dropped the woman on the floor with a loud thud, ran over to him and yanked the phone from the guard with his bloody hands. Another man rattled the glass doors and began to shout.
Amy turned and ran. Luckily, the elevator was still at the bottom floor and as she pushed the button, she noted the stairs and swore under her breath, instead wishing she’d made that choice. As the doors closed, she gasped in relief.
She tried to text Zak, but her lack of cell reception made that impossible. The elevator stopped on the fifth floor, with a couple wanting to get inside.
“Call 911. There’s a break-in down at the security office,” she shouted to the older couple who jumped at her words.
As the elevator headed to her floor, she heard the security alarm system sound, asking residents to evacuate the building. It took forever for the elevator to make it to the tenth, and she ran down the hall to her door, pounding against it.
“Zak!” she shouted. No one answered. She inserted her card and stormed into the room. Zak wasn’t anywhere. His
duffel bag still sat at the foot of the bed. Dishes were still in the sink. She called out for him several more times, even going out onto the deck. Adrenaline was pumping through her so fast, she thought her heart would burst.
Out on the balcony, she dialed him. The line was busy.
She continued to call but knew the rapid busy signal was probably generated from multiple people trying to call out. At the kitchen she stopped. The hook that hosted her key cards was now empty. She had one. That meant Zak had the other. He’d taken the card and gone after her.
“Fuck!” she screamed. Outside she heard a siren. She dialed 911 and got another busy signal.
All of a sudden she remembered their conversation this afternoon. Opening the door, she glanced down the empty passageway with the door to the exit stairs four doors down. Several residents were beginning to come out of their rooms. She carefully closed her door, leaving her flip-flops in the hall. She didn’t want them slowing her down or making slapping noises while she ran.
Barefoot, she slipped past a cluster of residents waiting for the elevator. She quietly opened the heavy metal door to the stairwell getting the attention of a couple other residents who began to follow her. She quietly ran down the metal grids until she got to the entrance of Floor 9. The doorway was closed, but unlocked. She could hear other residents heading down the stairs from below and someone running up, pushing past other people moving opposite.
She poked her head over the railing, hoping perhaps it was Zak, and came face to face with the shooter, staring up at her from two landings below. Immediately she ran through the Floor Nine entrance, nearly toppling as she banged against the walls. She passed utility and equipment room signs, as well as a unisex bathroom, until she found the glass doors of the gym. Quickly scanning her key card, she went inside the cool studio dotted with weight equipment and matting. As the glass closed behind her she heard the stairwell door burst open, followed by footsteps.
Amy chose to run into the men’s rest room, thinking he’d not expect that. She stood on the black seat of the toilet, trying to keep the metal stall opening from swinging back and forth, and held her breath. She was gripping the key card so tight it nearly cut into her palm, so she quickly inserted it inside her bra.
Listening for every sound, she heard someone swipe the key card and walk inside the gym. Their deliberate steps were calm, unhurried.
“I have captured you. It is of no use to run,” the man shouted. She could hear him chatter prayers while he searched. “Your days of living a filthy life in a filthy country are over forever. It is no use holding out for a chance at what you call redemption. This is your fate.”
Amy heard chanting as the man began to sing a prayer, repeating a stanza several times over and over again. That’s when she realized he wasn’t going to come after her, but was going to do something else instead.
She tried to recall what the news reports had said. The first shooter had with him several small explosive devices which had been undetonated, indicating he’d been stopped before they could achieve their original goals.
She looked at the metal walls of the lavatory stall and hoped it could save something of her—enough so she might survive a blast. She put her head below her outstretched arms, resting her chin on her knees as she attempted to squat and balance on the flange of the toilet, and held her breath.
She thought about her dad and mentally told him he was right, telling him she was sorry she hadn’t listened. She thought about Zak, his kisses, the way he’d loved her body for hours throughout the middle of the day.
If there ever was a perfect time to die, let it be on a day like today. A beautiful day, full of love. Loving someone who loves me back completely.
She felt the hot tears form at the tops of her cheeks at the injustice of it all, knowing Zak would do what he could to avenge her. She prayed that he didn’t wind up being too bitter and angry, that he keep working for the good and decent people of the world.
She took one last, long breath and then heard the sound of a key card on glass, the doors pushed open, and a struggle on the mats in the other room. Something metal hit the ground. Someone grunted.
Amy jumped off the toilet, picking up a wooden plunger she found sitting on the granite-tiled floor next to a waste basket. As she rounded the corner she saw Zak wrestling with the shooter as they rolled over the mats in a life and death struggle. Running up to the clutch of arms and legs, teeth and blood from bites and scratches, she raised the plunger and with all her might forced it down on the shaved head of the shooter, breaking the wooden stick in splinters.
Zak looked up at her stunned, his eyes round with fear. He grabbed the sharp stump end in her hands, and stabbed the shooter in the chest, forcing the wood through a crunching of ribs and bone. Blood spurted up like a fountain, covering them all. Zak pointed to the corner.
“IED.”
The little metal tube was still rolling until it hit the outer wall, near a large plate glass window. In slow motion, Amy felt the tug on her arm as Zak pulled her through the glass doors and began running down the hall. A second or two later, a huge explosion blew out the glass doors, sending large shattered plate glass like a wave over the whole floor.
Zak tackled her, covering her completely and they slid to the furthest corner away from the gym doors just as another larger explosion sent a fireball that ignited the carpet and the walls and caused the metal light fixtures to melt and drop like candy syrup.
As things began to pop, explode and drop all around them like a mechanical rain, she listened for signs of life coming from the body shielding her. Smoke in the air made her cough. Sprinklers began hissing and attempting to shoot water in uneven sprays over everything. She was lying on her stomach and something was beneath her, pressing against her abdomen. And then it moved. One of Zak’s arms was slowly trying to move to the side as another arm held her forehead from pressing into the floor. She felt his warm breath in her ear and heard the delicious sound of his voice, “Are you okay, baby?”
“Yes. How about you?”
He groaned and said through parched lips, “I think I broke a couple of ribs, but I’ll live.”
She started to lift herself up onto her elbows, as Zak sat up, pulling her with him. “Does that hurt, sweetheart? Can you sit?”
Turning her body, Amy saw his roughed up face, including a couple of head wounds. His blue eyes sparkled back at her, dancing in the light of the small fires surrounding them. She gingerly kissed his cut lips as water streamed down his face.
“Amy, I think this is what you’d call explosive chemistry,” his voice husky.
She laughed, hugging him until he seized up again, knees coming up to his chest when she squeezed too hard.
“Sorry. Sorry, Zak. I forgot.”
“Sure you did, kid. You’ve always been the one to get me into trouble. Look at this place. You think they’ll fire you?”
She laughed again. “Ask me if I care.”
“Anything hurt?”
“My head,” she reached behind and felt a knot Zak found as well.” Her hands were covered in cuts, and she was beginning to show signs of bruising. Zak helped her up to standing position.
Another light fixture crashed to the ground, and she started. She could hear sirens and the blare of large rescue vehicles and possibly fire trucks sounding a long ways down below. Wind whipped through the hallway tunnel, blowing fabric, and pieces of miniblinds that bundled up looking like metallic bunches of grapes.
Zak had a trickle of blood falling down below his ear. His lips were cut and chapped, and he squinted. A large purple welt was forming on the right side of his forehead.
“The shooter?” she asked.
“Oh, they’ll find bits and pieces of him all over this floor, probably scrape some of him off the side of the building too when the window washers come.” Zak coughed. “We should get out of here. Can you walk?”
She tried a step, her arms around his waist. “I’m good.”
&nbs
p; “Let’s get out of Dodge,” he whispered, leading her toward the stairwell entrance. He pushed her behind him as they walked past the nonexistent doors to the gym and found the windows had completely blown out, the force of the blast overturning equipment. The mirror-covered walls covered in blood spray looked like a contemporary painting. Several rags of clothing remnants soaked in deep red puddles against the walls. There was a large crater blasted in the center of the room with splinters of flooring scattered everywhere like toothpicks.
Opening the stairwell door, they could hear heavy boots running up the steps, carrying equipment. “Anybody up there injured?”
“We’re fine. Not sure about anyone else, but I think your shooter has become one with the source,” Zak barked.
Chapter 15
The oyster bar at the Ferry Plaza he had on good authority was a good place to have a special occasion. His new LPO for SEAL Team 3, Kyle Lansdowne, had told Zak all about it, told him to say his goodbyes and then get his butt back to San Diego for the workup.
“You don’t want to start out on this team as a slacker. We don’t really get time off, so while it’s nice to get all cozy with the girlfriend and get her head on straight, we’ve got a mission to work up for.”
“Roger that, sir.”
“We can’t always come home. Most of us miss holidays, anniversaries, kid’s birthdays, and even our kid’s births on a regular basis. That’s just the way it is. Don’t cry over it.”
“I get you, sir.”
“But damn, I gotta say for a little tadpole, a newbie frog, you sure handled yourself well, sailor. Way to get that little punk to give it up and not take any more people with him.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Mighty proud. And your lady, I hear tell she held up quite well. You got a keeper there, son.”
“I think so too, sir.”
“So what the fuck you waiting around for? Ask the girl to marry you, and get her little ass down to San Diego where you can keep an eye on her.”
“I intend to, sir.”
True Blue SEALs: Zak (True Navy Blue #1) Page 8