Redemption Lost

by Cindy M. Hogan

  She nodded and then helped Christy for the next half-hour to create the bombs for the electrical panels. Christy’s job was to rig the fire alarms in all buildings to go off simultaneously and then meet Tammy behind the infirmary in one hour. Carrie should be on her way to the infirmary any minute. They changed into the black clothes.

  “Now, listen,” Christy said. “If anything goes wrong, if I can’t get somewhere fast enough, you have to promise me that you will take Bridget with you and get out. You leave me if it comes to that.” She handed Tammy a piece of paper. “Memorize this, then destroy it. As soon as you get out, call this number. That’s a friend of mine. Tell him—” she hesitated. She’d never revealed her true name while on a mission. She drew a deep breath. “Tell him Christy sent you. He’ll take you away from this place, and you two can give him the info he needs to take this place down.”

  “Nothing is going to happen.”

  “Promise me.” Christy insisted, grabbing her arm. She wouldn’t be able to stand it if her leg kept these two girls from getting their freedom.

  “Fine. I promise.”

  “Good. Now, let’s get going.”

  * * *

  MARYBETH

  They spent the next little while firming up the plan and sending it to the director for his approval. The second the approval came in, they set things in motion to make it happen. Watching the team get everything done was insanely fascinating. Just as she was starting to believe she was dead weight for the group, Jeremy gave her the job of repacking the go bags.

  Ace went to work on the fake bombs and helped Halluis get tags on all the guards’ phones. Once those things were taken care of, Ace set upon the listening devices in setting up control so that everyone was patched to everyone. Jeremy doctored a photo that showed the bomb underneath the cabinet in the kitchen. They had planned on Halluis being a second lookout with Marybeth, but in the end, Quan needed him for something else. Marybeth could tell it was torture for him not to be going with the team on this particular op.

  Everything was put into place before ten that night, ready for the next day. For once, no one would be able to complain about not getting the rest they needed to implement the plan perfectly. They all went to work in the morning like normal: Marybeth to the Alvarez home, Ace standing guard with Alvarez, and Jeremy watching over Miller. Jeremy took the first step in the plan the moment the senator arrived at the door to his office. Marybeth and Ace heard it all through their ear buds.

  “Morning, Senator.”

  “Good morning to you, Henry.”

  “Sir, I was hoping to have a word with you.” The creak of a door let them know Jeremy was taking the senator into his office.

  “Of course. What is it?”

  Marybeth imagined Jeremy stepping into the room and shutting the door, before taking his post next to it. “I just finished my bomb training. It’s a night class, you see, but the graduation is in the middle of the day, Monday.”

  “They didn’t plan that well, did they?” Senator Miller said.

  “No. They didn’t.” There was a moment’s pause. “Well,” Jeremy continued. “I was top of my class, and I’d really like to be there.”

  “It’s Monday, you say?” The senator put a finger to his lips.

  “Yes.”

  “Yes. Go and bask in the glory of your hard work.” Marybeth could imagine the senator smiling at Jeremy.

  “Would you like me to find a replacement?”

  “No. I’ll let the service know. They’ll take care of it.” The senator’s phone rang, effectively ending the conversation.

  Now they would wait until three o’clock when step two took them on a fast track through the plan.

  Marybeth left the Alvarez house early and parked her car near Senator Miller’s car, where she’d have a direct line of sight. With a hat, sunglasses, and a book situated, she waited. Right before three, Senator Miller appeared and headed toward his car, Jeremy a couple car lengths behind. Marybeth watched carefully from under her hat. Miller went to open his door, while simultaneously pulling out his phone. He froze, hand still on the door handle. He had to be seeing the picture with the bomb in it. He looked around the parking lot, his face bloodless. Then he looked at his phone again.

  “I’ve sent the text,” Ace said. The threat they’d composed was flashing on Miller’s phone right now: I know what you’re doing with those girls. First your family is going to pay for your crimes, and then I’m going to slowly get rid of everyone you love until you are a broken, lonely man.

  The senator punched something in his phone. He was most certainly calling his personal guard. He swore and then punched in something else. Again, he swore, his eyes darted about right as Jeremy passed by. Marybeth could hear everything through her com.

  “Have a good night at your family party,” Jeremy said as he passed. Marybeth adjusted her earbud so that it wouldn’t be so loud. It was like watching a movie at a drive-in.

  “Wait! Henry.” Miller reached out for Jeremy.

  “Sir?” Jeremy turned, confusion on his face.

  “That class you took.” His eyes darted right and left.

  “Yes?”

  “It taught you about dismantling, right?” The senator looked hopeful.

  “Of course.”

  “I have a job for you. It requires your complete discretion.”

  “Okay.” Jeremy’s brow furrowed. He was a great actor.

  Senator Miller’s eyes wandered up and down Jeremy. “Hold on.” He grabbed his phone and pushed some more buttons and put it up to his ear, but once again, she knew Ace would take care of that call. He took care of the next call too.

  “Sir?”

  Miller stared down at his phone and then looked at Jeremy again. “Top of your class?”

  “Yes.”

  “Like I said, this job requires complete confidentiality.” He put his phone in his pocket.

  “You have that, sir, every day and every minute.” His body went erect as if he was already standing guard again.

  “So you’re free right now?”

  Marybeth couldn’t believe how calm the senator was. He’d seen a picture of a bomb in his house and received a threatening text, and he still kept his voice even, calm.

  Jeremy nodded.

  “Get in.” The senator sat in his car.

  “In your car?”

  “Yes.”

  “I can take my car. That’s no problem.” He turned to go. “I’ll follow you.”

  “I need to explain things to you while we drive. Don’t worry. You’ll have a way back.”

  Jeremy stood still. This wasn’t part of the plan. He was supposed to take his own car. Marybeth was sure Jeremy was going through the plan to see if it would be okay for him to drive with the senator.

  “You’ll be receiving $500 for your time, plus a $200 bonus for completing the task.”

  Jeremy nodded and shifted his go bag on his shoulder. He must have decided he had all he needed in his go bag because he got in the car and buckled himself in.

  The senator peeled out of his parking spot and took off toward the gate. He spoke quickly, but clearly. “There’s a bomb in my house this very moment. Someone is threatening my family. I need you to go in and disarm the bomb.”

  “You should call the bomb squad.” Marybeth’s heart pounded. Why would he suggest that? He continued. “They could get there before we could.” No, she thought. Don’t convince him. This is our only lead. What if he does call the bomb squad? She started her car and drove slowly toward the exit, making sure Miller didn’t see her car.

  The senator swiped his keycard at the guard shack and the lever lifted, allowing them to leave the lot. “If I call the bomb squad, then everybody knows. I need discretion on this. No one finds out.” They pulled onto the main road. “All the news stations would be airing it live.”

  “When is it supposed to detonate?” Jeremy asked.

  “I have no clue.” How could he not know? The clues were al
l there in the picture. Had he looked at it at all?

  “Hold on. How do you know there’s a bomb in your home?”

  There was a pause, and Marybeth, just a few cars behind them now, could see Miller handing his phone to Jeremy.

  “When you got this text there was an hour and ten minutes on the timer.” Jeremy had chosen that time because it would give the senator enough time to get home if he hurried and give Jeremy five minutes or less to disarm the bomb.

  “According to the timestamp you got this text ten minutes ago. How far of a drive is it to your home?”

  “One hour from the parking lot.” Senator Miller’s voice was firm, determined, but he wiped sweat from his brow.

  “I’ll only need five minutes to disarm the bomb—as long as there are no booby traps.”

  “I got it.” Miller growled the words. “I’ll get us there on time.”

  “Okay.”

  Miller must have snatched the phone from Jeremy, because he muttered, “I’ll just get everybody out of the house.” But Ace didn’t let his call go through. Jeremy had to save his family, not Miller himself. Marybeth could see him shake his phone. “Why won’t my phone work?”

  “Sometimes I have to turn my phone off and back on to get texts and calls. It’s like they get stuck or something and turning off the phone resets it.” The senator wove between cars and attempted to manipulate the phone at the same time. He came close to hitting two cars. Marybeth breathed a sigh of relief as Jeremy spoke.

  “I can do that for you.” If this plan was to work, Jeremy and the senator needed to arrive at his house alive.

  She assumed Jeremy did turn it off and on.

  “If you unlock it, I’ll get your wife on the phone.”

  The senator unlocked the phone. “Her name is Aurora.” Jeremy scrolled through and pushed the number. Of course, none of his calls went through.

  “Sorry. The phone still won’t send the calls.”

  Frantic, Miller said, “Well, try your phone, for Mary’s sake.”

  Jeremy pulled out his phone. He said, “No bars. No service. There must be some kind of a disruption in the service right now. I’ll keep checking.”

  “My entire family will be in that kitchen with that bomb.” He swore at his phone. “Why aren’t you working?” So he was finally starting to crack.

  “Calm down. We’ll make it. I’ll get your family safe.”

  Marybeth’s heart raced and her stomach soured. “He seriously sounds stressed.” She said to herself.

  How anybody could go on missions like this on a daily basis, she had no idea. She was quite glad that she didn’t. Regret for tricking Miller hit her full on in the chest. She clicked over to talk to Halluis and Ace. “I don’t know. Ace, this is awful. Should we really do this to him?”

  “Keep your eye on the ball, Marybeth. Remember, he is a bad dude. He trafficks girls. This will help us catch them. It’s not real.”

  “It feels real.”

  “Good. Then it’s working.”

  Marybeth was hardly able to keep up. Her heart raced every time she was forced to make a dangerous move. The senator was a menace to society in that car. She lost sight of him several times, but was always somehow able to catch up. She was Jeremy’s backup, and she refused to let him out of her sight. She had her air conditioning on high and still felt hot. Right as it appeared they would arrive at his home with an extra ten minutes in their pockets, they hit a traffic jam.

  Miller swore. “Check the phone, man.”

  Jeremy must have done as Miller asked because he said, “Still nothing.”

  Miller pounded his hand on the horn several times. He then pulled out into the emergency lane.

  “Sir. If there are any cops around, they’ll pull you over for this, and we’ll never make it to your house.”

  “It’s an emergency lane. I have an emergency.”

  “But if the police are following us, they will most certainly pursue us to your home and people are going to find out about the bomb.”

  “I have some pull with the police in this area. I’ll be able to soften the blow. It’s those people listening in on the scanners that I worry about.”

  “Okay.”

  The accident had most likely only happened minutes before, because no emergency vehicles were on site. It was a delicate situation for Marybeth. Jeremy and the senator had to be way out in front of her in order for her not to be seen in that lane. At the same time, she couldn’t wait too long to enter it or it would be blocked by emergency vehicles. And it wouldn’t be good if she got picked up for using the emergency lane unlawfully, but did she really have a choice?

  Yes, she knew where the senator lived. She had his address, but she couldn’t risk being trapped in this traffic for hours. She needed to be there for Jeremy if things went sideways. So she pulled out into the emergency lane and tore down it, saying a prayer that she would make it without getting caught by either the cops or Miller. Apparently, she’d made the right choice, because she soon heard Jeremy say,

  “That’s a pretty bad accident. I hate to admit it, but you probably did the right thing speeding through on the emergency lane. Had any emergency vehicles come, we would’ve been here a long time and your home would be gone.” She knew Jeremy said those things for her benefit. If she was still in traffic, he wanted her to know she should take the emergency lane.

  “Who cares about my home?! My children are in the kitchen. My wife is too, and much of my family. It’s my son’s birthday party.” True fear laced his words now.

  As she pulled out in front of the accident, feeling guilty for not stopping to help, she heard the sirens peel. The emergency vehicles were not far off. She had barely made it.

  “Hurry, Henry,” Miller’s voice said.

  They had arrived then. She could hear the heavy breathing of the senator and Jeremy said, with no loss of breath. “I suggest that you don’t go in all hysterical. Tell everyone that you have a surprise outside and ask them to hurry out. While they’re exiting, you point out where the cupboard is with the bomb.”

  “What if your timing is off? If we have less time than we thought?”

  “We’ll have to risk that.” She could hear the senator do as Jeremy suggested. Inviting people to leave to go see what was out front. She pulled up and parked along the street. The estate was surrounded by a wrought iron fence with all sorts of trees and shrubbery lining it.

  She heard the commotion of everyone leaving the room.

  “Hurry now,” Senator Miller urged. “Don’t worry, Aurora, the food can wait.” The senator was quite the actor. It didn’t take long before she saw everybody spilling out onto the front lawn. Jeremy said, “I found it. Three minutes.”

  “Oh, no. You said you needed five minutes.”

  “Shhh! I need to concentrate.” Even knowing the bomb wasn’t real, Marybeth’s stomach clenched.

  “Everyone is out. Maybe we should get out too.” Marybeth could imagine the senator pacing the room, wringing his hands.

  “And the press?” Jeremy said. “They’ll have a field day with this.”

  Marybeth figured he had the bomb open and was manipulating wires. According to her clock, the timer would be down to two and a half minutes.

  “You can go,” Jeremy said.

  “No.”

  “I can’t guarantee your safety, Senator, and you need to assure your family and guests are far away from the house.”

  “Yes. Maybe I should push them back.”

  “If this thing blows, they need to be as far away from the house as possible.”

  He must have left, because Jeremy said, “He’s gone. I’m going to pretend to work until the count gets to ten seconds. I want him to be very thankful.”

  “That will do it,” Marybeth said.

  The senator had come out and had moved his family all the way back so that she had to slide down in her seat so she wouldn’t be seen. He kept yelling at them to keep their eyes up to the sky as if something spec
tacular was about to happen. She was sure he planned to tell them that whoever was supposed to do the fireworks or the flyby or the balloon climb had to have dropped the ball.

  “Bomb at ten seconds. Disaster averted.” He chuckled. “Going to retrieve the senator.” A few seconds later, he said, “I’m on the porch.” She peeked out the window to see the senator’s ample body hurrying down the long driveway to join Jeremy. He embraced Jeremy and then embraced him again and laughed. “I owe you my life—my family’s life. Thank you. And why aren’t you one of my personal guard?”

  They laughed. “I hope you’re ready for a lot of personal time with me. You will be a part of my personal, private guard team, won’t you?”

  The bond of trust was now forged.

  Jeremy cut out.

  Marybeth’s heart seized even though she could see Jeremy on the porch with the senator.

  “Jeremy? You there?” She pulled out her ear buds and inspected them. Perhaps they stopped working. It seemed unlikely.

  “Ace. You there?” No answer.

  Marybeth saw Jeremy put his finger to his ear. She made the assumption that he couldn’t hear either.

  The senator waved everyone toward him.

  Marybeth called Ace’s phone. “Ace, we’ve lost our ears.”

  “Yeah. All sorts of things are going haywire here at Division. They’re planning a full electronic shutdown. The shutdown will include our phones. You’ll have to use your burner phone.” She grabbed her go bag and pulled out her extra phone. “I’m letting Jeremy know now through text. Be prepared to lose all communication.”

  She watched as Senator Miller and his guest moved into the house in a wave, carrying Jeremy with them.

  She snagged Jeremy and Ace’s phone numbers from the phone Jeremy had given her from Division and put them into her new phone. She sent a text to them with a note telling them it was her so they’d have her burner phone number. And true to what Ace said, her phone went dark.

  Immediately, she got a group text saying Division D.C. was dark. Her burner phone rang, and she picked up—it was Jeremy, but he wasn’t talking, only letting her listen in on the garbled sounds of the party. Jeremy was talking the senator. It was hard to hear, but at least she had some idea what was going on inside that house and that Jeremy was safe.