Dead Lawyers Don't Lie: A Gripping Thriller (Jake Wolfe Book 1)

by Mark Nolan

  Zhukov parked several blocks away from the hospital and then walked in the shadows toward his objective. On the way, he dodged two Secret Service foot patrols. When he reached the back alley of a building across the street, he quietly climbed the fire escape to a parking area. He walked past rows of cars to the other side, and he studied the hospital across from him through a pair of night vision binoculars.

  There were Secret Service agents stationed in front of the building, and others looking out various windows on several floors. No doubt many more were patrolling the halls and stairwells inside. They were good, he had to admit. He wondered if they had an agent on the roof. Surely they would, but that might be the least protected area of the building. He would have to climb higher and take a look.

  The lock on the stairwell was no match for his lock picking skills, and he was soon going up the stairs two at a time. The door at the roof level was also locked but he opened it just as quickly as the previous one. On the rooftop he was nearly level with the roof of the hospital across the street, just a floor or two above. The buildings had both been built during the same time period and were of similar height and construction.

  Zhukov saw one person on the hospital roof across the street, looking around with binoculars. He or she was mostly studying the street below, with occasional looks at the windows across from the floor where Katherine was staying.

  He stood perfectly still and studied the person through his night vision binoculars. He saw that it was a man wearing a suit and an earbud communication device in his ear. He watched the agent and noticed that not once did the man look up at the roof across from and above him. That seemed odd. The Secret Service was very thorough and methodical. Maybe they had someone patrolling this roof, so the agent wasn’t concerned with it.

  Zhukov slowly crept along the edge of the roof, staying in shadows and searching the area around him with his night vision gear. Yes, he saw movement at the Southeast corner. Someone was walking in his direction. He hid behind a large heating and air conditioning vent and waited for the person to pass by.

  When the agent appeared next to the vent, Zhukov threw an expert punch to the throat and then a blow to the head that knocked the agent to the ground. The woman never knew what had hit her, and she lay unconscious, gasping for breath through her bruised windpipe. She would survive but would only be able to eat soft foods through a straw for a week or two.

  Zhukov used plastic zip ties to bind the agent’s hands and feet, and then he put a piece of duct tape across her mouth. He took off her earpiece and wrist microphone and placed the earpiece in his own ear. Now he could hear what was being said on the radio. It would help him to locate Katherine Anderson while evading her protectors.

  Listening to the talk on the earpiece didn’t give him any indication that his presence had been discovered yet. He looked through the binoculars and studied the windows of the room where Katherine was supposed to be staying. But he knew that she had probably been moved, and that room would now be a trap.

  There was no way the woman was going to stand in front of a window and present herself to be shot. He considered shooting the window anyway, just to send a message to Congressman Anderson. However, that might not be enough of a message, and then he’d have to flee the scene immediately. No, this situation called for a “boots on the ground” visit to the hospital building.

  He opened his backpack and took out a weapon he’d brought with him. The device was broken down in pieces, and he methodically put it all back together. Once assembled, the weapon looked similar to the one that he’d used to kill Max Vidallen in his hot tub. This particular crossbow had an even longer range. He loaded a bolt into the weapon and aimed it at the Secret Service agent on the roof across the street. The man was standing in front of a large air conditioning unit and holding his microphone up to his mouth as he looked through binoculars toward Zhukov’s location.

  Zhukov heard the man’s voice on the earpiece, trying to contact the other agent who was unconscious. He took careful aim with the crossbow and just as the man spotted him, he fired. The man tried to move out of the way but it was too late, and the bolt flew too fast. The small, slender bolt pierced the agent’s shoulder and slammed him into the housing of the air conditioning unit. It stuck into the sheet metal cover and held there, pinning the man like a butterfly in an insect collection. The drug in the arrowhead sent the man into shock, and he could no longer talk or move his arms or draw his pistol. Seconds later he was rendered unconscious, and he would stay asleep for hours.

  Zhukov did not feel the need to kill any of these brave and dedicated agents if it was not necessary. He only needed them to be quiet, not cry out or fire a weapon. He fitted another bolt into the crossbow. This one had a grappling hook on the end instead of an arrowhead, and it was connected to a lightweight but incredibly strong synthetic wire.

  He fired the bolt across to the other building’s roof, and it caught on a metal joist. He secured his end of the wire to a steel pipe. With that done, he attached a wheel device to the wire and stood on the edge of the roof in the shadows of the air vent. He looked down and didn’t see anyone looking up at him. The crossbow was so quiet it had not attracted any attention.

  It was now or never, time to go for a thrill ride. Stepping off the roof into midair, Zhukov held tight onto the grips of the wheel device and flew across the street hanging from the wire, the way the Soviet Spetsnaz Special Forces troops had taught him to. When he landed on the roof of the other building, he dropped the wheel device and walked over to the agent who was pinned to the air conditioning unit. He took the man’s radio and ear plug, and his badge and credentials. Even though he and the agent didn’t look much alike, the ID might help him bluff or distract someone. Now it was time to go hunting for his prey, Katherine Anderson.

  “I’m coming for you, my darling,” Zhukov said. He went through a door into a stairwell leading down into the hospital.

  Chapter 109

  Doctor Brook walked down the hospital hallway toward Katherine Anderson’s room with a purposeful stride. It was time to do the biopsy test. A biopsy was a routine procedure that was performed every day in the hospital, but this time it had a lot of personal meaning and worry attached.

  The hospital psychiatrist was waiting outside the door in the hallway, just in case Katherine needed some counseling. Dr. Brook nodded at the psychiatrist and opened the door.

  Inside the room, Katherine saw the serious look on Dr. Brook’s face, and she felt afraid.

  Dr. Brook applied a local anesthetic and once it was working she was ready to use the long needle. She opened the wrapper of a sleeping mask for Katherine to wear. If a patient saw such a big needle going into her breast, she might have an emotional reaction.

  “Please wear this sleeping mask and keep your eyes closed,” Dr. Brook said. “This will go much easier for you if you don’t look.”

  “No, I don’t really need that,” Katherine said.

  “Kat please, I have to insist.”

  “Alright, you’re the doctor.” Katherine put on the soft mask and closed her eyes.

  A nurse held an ultrasound wand over Katherine’s breast. She would help guide Dr. Brook when she punctured the needle through Katherine’s skin and into the lump or “mass” that they could see on the ultrasound.

  Dr. Brook opened the sterile covering and removed the needle. She took a deep breath and let it out, then carefully inserted the sharp point of the needle through Katherine’s skin. She watched the image of the needle on the ultrasound display as she slowly pressed it onward through the breast toward the mass.

  Once Dr. Brook had successfully guided the needle into the right spot, she began to slowly extract a sample of the breast tissue. She flicked a glance at Katherine’s face and noted that she still had the mask covering her eyes. After drawing the sample, she slowly withdrew the needle and gave the syringe to the nurse. “Rush this sample to the lab, stat. Ask them to make it a top priority.”

&nb
sp; “Yes Doctor Brook.” The nurse hurried out of the room.

  Dr. Brook placed a bandage over the spot where the needle had gone through Katherine’s skin. “You can open your eyes now Kat.”

  Katherine removed the sleep mask, opened her eyes and looked around. She hadn’t seen the frightening needle, and she had to admit to herself that she had not really wanted to. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes, the procedure went well. Now we just wait for the lab results and hope that everything turns out fine.”

  Katherine looked at the ultrasound screen. “While you have that thing on, can we use it to see my baby?”

  “Yes of course.” Dr. Brook gently placed the ultrasound wand onto Katherine’s stomach. “Your baby has come through all of this in good shape. She’s doing quite well as you can see.”

  “She? You can tell it’s a girl?” Katherine looked at the screen with wide eyes.

  Dr. Brook’s face reddened for a moment in embarrassment. According to hospital policy, she was not supposed to tell parents the gender of their baby unless they asked her to. “Yes it’s a girl. I’m supposed to ask your permission before I tell you that. I hope you don’t mind my slip of the tongue.”

  “No it's okay. At first I wanted it to be a surprise, but my curiosity just kept growing along with my baby.” Katherine smiled as she looked at the ultrasound screen. “Hello baby Rachel. Mommy loves you sweetie.”

  Dr. Rachel Brook felt a lump in her throat, and she made an effort to keep her composure. She knew there was a chance the baby might have to go through cancer treatments along with her mother. She felt like her heart was being squeezed under a weight.

  Katherine gazed with love at the image on the ultrasound screen. After all of these years of trying, she was finally going to have a child. “I want to send Daniel a picture and tell him that we’re going to have a daughter.”

  Katherine had tears in her eyes, but she was smiling as she took a picture of the ultrasound screen with her phone and sent it to her husband’s phone.

  Dr. Brook removed the ultrasound device from Katherine’s belly. The imaging had been recorded as a video. She set it to replay again and again so Katherine could watch it. She patted Katherine’s arm and went out into the hallway to check on other patients. She was thankful that the test had gone well, but they still had to wait for the lab results. That news might be good, or it might be devastating.

  In a stairwell near the roof of the hospital, Zhukov’s phone vibrated with a text message from his computer hacker Elena.

  Target located. She sent a text to her husband. I traced her phone GPS to the Hospital’s 7th floor. Room 710.

  Zhukov smiled. “I’ve found you, Katherine.”

  Chapter 110

  Easton drove the Suburban toward the hospital at high speed with the lights flashing from under the front grill. Jake didn’t say anything as the vehicle traveled the streets of San Francisco. His mind was focused on killing Ivan Zhukov. They arrived quickly at their destination and turned onto the street where the hospital was located.

  Greene asked Jake, “Now that we’re here, what’s your plan?”

  “To improvise.”

  “That’s it?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Great plan.”

  “The plan is we go into the hospital, search for Zhukov, and if we find him we kill him,” Jake said.

  “We don’t try to capture him?”

  “No.”

  “Are you allowing your personal feelings to cloud your judgment?”

  “Not at all, everything is crystal clear. You heard the President give me a secret order to terminate Zhukov. That’s exactly what I plan to do.”

  The SUV pulled up in front of the hospital and it was quickly surrounded by armed Secret Service agents. Easton showed his credentials. “Agent McKay was going to call and inform you about our arrival.”

  “Yes we’re expecting you,” one of the agents said.

  Their IDs were verified, and a mirror on a pole was passed under the vehicle to check for any kind of explosive device. The Secret Service cleared Easton to drive into the garage. Before he did, Jake and Greene got out of the vehicle. They were both wearing black windbreakers that said “Federal Agent” on the back. Jake showed the letter from the president to the Secret Service agent in charge.

  The agent read the letter and then stared at Jake in surprise. This was the same guy they’d all been trying to capture just a short while ago. Now here he was with this rare document from the president. The man used his phone to take a picture of the letter and of Jake, and he sent the pics to all of the other agents in and around the hospital.

  Jake borrowed an agent’s night vision binoculars and studied the top of the hospital building, near the roof. “Who do you have manning the rooftops?”

  “We have agents on five different rooftops. One on the hospital roof, and one on each of the four buildings closest to the hospital.”

  “Check in with them by radio, and send backup to the hospital roof and stairwells, hurry,” Jake said.

  Greene stared at the top of the hospital building. “What’s going on?”

  Jake handed her the binoculars. “Take a close look at the rooftop.”

  Greene studied the building for a moment. “What am I looking for?”

  “There’s a long, thin shadow on the wall of the hospital. Right near the top.”

  “Okay I see it. Why is that important?”

  “I think the shadow is from a wire or cable that’s running from this building to the one across the street.”

  Greene lowered the binoculars and stared at Jake. “A wire, from roof to roof?”

  Jake nodded. “If my guess is correct, the perimeter has already been breached by the enemy.”

  “How did you know to look for that?”

  “Because after a quick look around, I thought that’s the way I’d attempt to go in. You have to think like a killer if you want to stop one.”

  The agent said, “There’s no answer from our agent on the hospital roof, or the one on that building across the street.”

  “I suggest you double the guard on Katherine Anderson’s floor.”

  The agent barked orders into his fist microphone.Jake turned and started running toward the parking garage. Greene ran after him.

  In the garage, they found Easton and the SUV. Jake explained the situation as they all strapped on flak vests, shoulder holsters and belt holsters. Then picked up MP5 assault weapons and extra ammo.

  Jake said, “There are two stairwells, so we need four people. Two of us will take an elevator to the top and then work our way down. Two will start at the bottom and work their way up.”

  “You two take the elevator, I’ll call another agent and we’ll work our way up,” Greene said. She tapped her phone and made a call.

  “Let’s do this,” Jake said.

  Jake got into an elevator and started riding it to the top floor. Easton ran to another elevator at the other end of the garage. Greene called the Secret Service contact on her radio and briefly relayed the plan. An agent appeared almost immediately, running toward her. They both headed for the chosen stairwells. Greene double checked her pistol and went through the door.

  It was cold in the concrete stairwell, but Greene felt a nervous sweat began to form on her skin as she climbed the steps. She kept her eyes looking upward and held the barrel of her pistol pointed there. Now she wished she’d grabbed one of the MP5 assault rifles. The only sound she could hear was that of her feet stepping on the stairs. The noise seemed incredibly loud to her, and she heard it echoing up the hollow chamber. This was going to be a long and stressful climb.

  On one hand, Greene hoped she would meet up with the killer and take him out. That would make her the hero. On the other hand, she hoped that he was in another area of the building so somebody else would have to deal with him. She had never shot or killed anybody. And she certainly didn’t want to die tonight. Her heart was beating very fast as she
continued climbing, step-by-step.

  Jake’s elevator reached the roof. When the door opened he was crouched on one knee in the corner with his pistol aimed high. A Secret Service agent was standing there waiting for the elevator. His eyebrows went up when he saw Jake pointing his pistol at him. He recognized his face from the photo that had been sent to his phone, and he nodded at him in a cool and professional manner.

  The agent was carrying an unconscious man over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. The man had something sticking out of him that looked like a crossbow bolt.

  “You were right,” the agent said. “Someone came over from the roof across the street, using a wheel and cable setup. I searched the rooftop but I didn’t find anyone.”

  “Can you give me this man’s radio?” Jake said.

  “His radio is missing, but take mine. I’ll get another one when I’m downstairs,”

  “If his radio is missing, that means Zhukov has it.”

  “Yeah and I called in a situation report before I realized that. I’m sure Zhukov heard me too.”

  The agent stepped into the elevator and pressed the button for the hospital floor where the ER was located. His eyes met Jake’s and he nodded, then the doors closed and he was gone.

  “I need Cody here if we want to have any hope of finding this guy,” Jake said to himself. “Hurry up and get here Terrell.”

  Jake thought about his orders to draw Zhukov’s fire. He spoke into the radio, taunting him. “Ivan Zhukov if you can hear me, this is Jake Wolfe. I’m here in the hospital and I challenge you to a fight. Man to man. Come out of hiding unless you’re afraid to face me, you coward.”

  Chapter 111

  One minute Sarah had been looking out of her apartment window, watching Beth’s car go on a high-speed chase. The next minute she’d seen a car burst into flames. Was it Beth’s car?