by David Archer
“Okay, she's alive, I see that,” he said. “Since you're holding the bargaining chips, why don't we discuss this job you have for me? Mind telling me more about what it is?”
Chandler smiled, and then slowly and somewhat painfully settled himself onto a chair. “It's actually pretty simple,” he said. “Basically, I need you as my personal right-hand man. Natasha will be the premier, the figurehead world ruler. I'll be sitting safely in the background, somewhere, calling the shots. When I need specific information about someone or something, you'll be the guy I turn to. With these two computer geniuses, and your own abilities as an investigator, I figure you can do just about anything I might need done along that line. In addition, the only one who will know your position will be Natasha. That way, if I need to send a message to her that can't risk going to any normal channels, I can send it to you and she'll know that it's genuine.” Chandler smiled again, a shark toothed smile that made Sam nervous. “Of course, the job comes with more rewards than just your lives. You'll have wealth, power, beautiful homes in different parts of the world – you will live a life that will be the envy of millions, and all you’ve got to do is accept it.”
Sam turned to Natasha. “Should have known I couldn't trust you,” he said. “Soon as Ken said you were a former Soviet agent, I should have simply known you'd stab me in the back if you got the chance. Just out of curiosity, who else did you stab in the back? Who is supposed to get your job? Was it Sandra?”
Natasha smiled. “No, and I was surprised, myself. The woman's name was Milligan, and she was actually a pretty sharp operator. She's a British woman, a low-level staffer in the British Embassy in DC. She had been compiling information on new technologies that could solve world problems for years, and that's how Chandler stumbled across her. Don't worry about her; he's already called and let her know that she's been demoted. Like everyone else, he knows where her bodies are buried, so she's not going to raise any fuss.”
“I'm sure she won't,” Sam said. He turned back to Chandler. “Well, looks like you're holding all the cards. I wish I could think of a way out of this mess, but it seems you've outsmarted me.”
Chandler laughed aloud. “Oh, Sam, don't feel bad,” he said. “I've outsmarted more people than you can imagine. When you left me alone with Natasha down in that basement, I knew then that Shamash hadn't abandoned me or failed me. I knew that I could turn her, that I could get her to betray you. Do you know why? Do you know why I was so certain of that?”
Sam said nothing, but nodded his head. Chandler cocked his head to one side and stared at him. “Really, you think you know?” Chandler asked Sam, who nodded again. “Then, please,” Chandler said with a smile, “please enlighten me. Tell me what you think the answer would be.”
Sam looked at him for another moment, then said, “It's because of another prophecy. The one about Sam-per-shard. You figured, if that prophecy refers to me the way it seems to, then as long as I was there, I'd be winning. Once I left, though, then that prophetic influence that you felt surrounds me would be gone, and so you could use your old charm and powers of persuasion, the way you always have. Am I right?”
Chandler was still smiling, but his eyes were wide in surprise. “Actually, you're dead on the money. That was exactly it. Once you left, whatever power you had over me was removed, so she began to listen to what I had to say.” He leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially. “Just between you and me, she was pretty easy to turn.”
Ken was still standing just inside the doorway, and Natasha had returned to her chair. Gary and Indie had come into the room far enough to stand beside the table where their computers were set up, and their two guards were standing just a few feet away from them, with their guns still aimed loosely in their direction. Chandler had seated himself in one of the easy chairs in the sitting room, and Sam had moved to place himself directly in front of the madman.
“Natasha,” Sam said, “you were easy to turn against me? Is that true?”
Natasha smiled at Sam's back. “But of course I was,” she said. “After all, wasn't that our agreement, Sam?”
Chandler's smile faltered, and his eyes went wide. He moved suddenly to bring his gun to bear on Natasha, trying to lean around Sam to do so, but that's when he noticed that the two guards suddenly had their own pistols pointed directly at him. Sam leaned forward and snatched the gun from his grasp, spinning it deftly to point right back between his eyes.
“But this is impossible!” Chandler shouted. “I beat you, I had beaten you!”
Natasha stood and stepped up beside Sam, to look down at Chandler. “You know, Chandler, when Harry Winslow told me he was sending a civilian private investigator to Jerusalem to put a stop to your plans, well, I'll be honest, I thought the old man had finally lost his mind.” She looked at Sam appraisingly, then turned her eyes back to Chandler. “The more I worked with him, though, the more respect I had for the natural intelligence of this man. While Kenneth and I were thinking like spies, like secret agents, like any of those other cliché words you might want to think of, Sam Prichard was thinking like an investigator. He was looking at all you have accomplished, not the way we would, thinking in terms of international incidents, or the potential for war – he looked at it as a series of crimes, and while we were trying to spot the opportunity to avoid political disaster, he was looking for any flaw in your plan, something he could exploit to turn it against you, and when we knew we had the chance to get you within our grasp, he saw one that was too good to turn down.”
Chandler was staring at her, and his mouth had fallen open. “You,” he said. “While I was trying to turn you against him, he was using you against me.”
Natasha smiled and nodded. “Oh, indeed he did. While he and I were waiting for you to flush out of that building, he hit me with his proposition. He asked me point blank if I thought I could handle you alone, and that's when I had to tell him about my — shall we say — specialty. Then he proposed that I torture you only far enough to get you to the point of desperation, while he left me alone with you so that you would try to turn me. He suggested that I demand the number one position, that you'd be willing to trade that for your life, and it was his idea that I make you call Miss Milligan on my own phone, so that I would have not only evidence that she really was your planned puppet, but since he'd also suggested I have all of the activity on my phone traced, that call led our agents straight to her. She was in custody, with a complete news blackout on it, before you and I came up the elevator. And incidentally, she has squealed her little brains out, giving up everyone she knew that was involved in your plans.” She smiled again, then stepped closer and leaned down to kiss Chandler on the cheek. “And, just so you know, it was also Sam's idea for me to demand that you give me access to your dead man's stash, so that if anything happened to you, I could keep control over the rest of your cronies. I'm delighted to be able to tell you that my phone was on full bug status as you gave me the access codes for it all, and homeland security now has complete copies of it. So, all of those high-powered politicians from around the world that you've been protecting and manipulating all this time? Well, let's just say that they're all likely to rue the day they ever even heard of you. Chandler, you bragged a few moments ago that you outsmarted so many people. Well, it just delights me to be able to tell you that Sam Prichard outsmarted you.”
Chandler was staring at Sam. “You — you really are the bright one, aren't you? You really are Sam-per-shard.”
Sam shrugged. “I don't know about that,” he said. “When Natasha called me to tell me you had died, well, that was our signal that you had taken the bait. I knew that by the time I got to Rome, you'd already have gotten word to your people here, so when John Spencer was so anxious to be helpful, I suspected he must be one of yours. I'll grant you, I fell for the wild goose chase, I actually thought that, to keep me from suspecting, they really did have a man hunt going on for people who might have had access to the pope, so I went down to the police statio
n expecting to really interrogate someone who may or may not have been one of yours. When I realized that it was just a decoy game to get me away from Indie and Gary, well, then I could only pray that Natasha had things under control.” He looked over at his wife, smiled, and then looked back at Chandler. “I'm happy to say that, unlike yours, my God answers prayers.”
Three minutes later, the room was filled with agents from the CIA and a couple of other alphabet soup groups Sam had never heard of before. Chandler was taken into custody, and Kenneth Long was delighted when he was informed that, by order of the President of the United States, he was to escort Chandler to a special holding facility that was set up specifically to house arrestees who were charged with high treason. Along with that order came a presidential pardon, one that had been hastily arranged and signed at the insistence of an extremely irate Harry Winslow, and another order reinstating Long as a special agent of the United States.
Ken came to Sam before he left with his prisoner and their escort, and shook his hand. “Sam,” he said, “I gotta tell you that I thought you were nuts when we first met. And I'll even be honest enough to tell you that I still thought you were nuts as we were headed for DC together. But, buddy, if I ever have to go into another situation like this, I'm going to come drag your ass out of retirement. Just out of curiosity, though, when was it you were going to get around to telling me about this little plan you and Natasha came up with?”
Sam grinned. “When I knew whether or not it worked. You don't think I would've admitted to it if it failed, do you?”
The two men wished each other the best, and Ken told Sam not to be surprised if he showed up at the Prichard house one day soon. He was making plans to visit his daughter, and said he just didn't think he could handle coming to Denver and not seeing the best friend he'd ever known.
Sam was surprised when little Gary walked up to him, reared back and punched him right in the face. He was still staring at the kid when Gary said, “I don't know if you just thought this was funny or what, but coming face to face with that man, after you had told me he was dead, just damn near gave me a heart attack! And if you had all this all set up, why in the world did you even need me here?”
“First off, bringing you wasn't my idea, it was Harry's. And we did need you, it was your genius that managed to tap the phones that led us to John Spencer, so you did good, kid. As for you coming face-to-face with Chandler, well, let's just say I wasn't expecting that one either. When I saw him here, and you and Indie were nowhere in sight, my own heart just about failed. I'm sorry you got scared, but I think you can safely say you earned any gray hairs you got out of it.”
Indie wrapped her arms around Gary in a hug, and smiled at Sam. “Just so you know, Sam, when those people came bursting in with their guns in their hands, Gary jumped in front of me. He was willing to give his life to try to save me. I think you can go a little easier on him, don't you?”
Sam looked at Gary, and smiled. “Go easier on him? I think I'm going to demand that he gets a medal!”
The debriefing lasted only a few days, and then Sam and Indie were able to go back home. George and the limousine picked them up at the airport, and drove them to Sam's mother's house, so they could collect their daughter. Of course, that meant also collecting all of the new toys, stuffed animals, and video games her grandmothers had bought for her. George happily loaded it all into the car's huge trunk, and then he drove the family home.
It took a few days for things to settle down, and then Sam started rehearsing with the band again. Like many of the things he'd been through in his life, Sam expressed his feelings by writing them into a song. The song he wrote after this adventure got him a standing ovation when it debuted at their next concert. (Click Here To Listen)
Free Man
I look around my country and my tears began to fall
For the freedoms that we all once knew, Lord, we've almost lost them all
But deep within my heart I swear, I'll never be a slave,
Before this free man wears their chains, they'll put me in my grave,
Our fathers came here long ago to escape from tyranny,
And they built a mighty nation with a plan to keep it free,
But I watch our Constitution being trampled on the ground,
Behind the noise in the voices, there's a call to make a choice, can't you hear that trumpet sound?
Chorus
So I'll stand to defend my country,
And I'll stand up for the truth,
And I'll stand as a shield to freedom,
And I'll never back down, I'll never turn and run,
I want my country back, I'm a free man!
Each night before I close my eyes, I get down on my knees,
And ask God to bless this nation and to help us keep it free,
But as long as those in power leave the law out of their plans,
And put themselves above it, they'll destroy this once great land,
For the sake of all that we hold dear, it's time to make a stand!
Chorus
So I'll stand to defend my country,
And I'll stand up for the truth,
And I'll stand as a shield to freedom,
You can't chain a free man, freedom's in his heart,
I want my country back, I'm a free man!
So I'll stand to defend your country,
And I'll stand up for the truth,
And I'll stand as a shield to freedom,
And I'll never back down, I'll never turn and run,
I want my freedoms back, I'm a free man!
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About the Author
David Archer was born and raised in Bakersfield, California. He is a fiction author and novelist, writing in the mysteries and thrillers genre. His approach to writing is to hit deep, keep you entertained, and leave you wanting MORE with every turn of the page. He writes mysteries, thrillers, and suspense novels, all of which are primed to get your heart pumping.
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Table of Contents
The Kill List
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Drifter: Part I
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
Drifter: Part II
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
Drifter: Part III
Prologue
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Series - Books 5-8