“That’s right, Angela said. “It takes a little longer for them to arrive because they need to assemble and prepare their equipment. They should roll up in front of the building in about twenty minutes.”
Alex grimaced and then looked over at the other roof again. “That’s a long time. I hope they can wait that long. Can I borrow your scope?”
Angela handed Alex her spotting scope, and he looked through it, adjusting the focus until he could see just Melina and his father standing together on the roof. Alex zoomed in further on Melina’s face. Clearly upset, she was having difficulty holding her father back. There was something about the look on Melina’s face that made Alex feel sad, angry… and helpless.
Alex pulled the scope away from his face and looked at Angela. “We have to help them. They may not be able to wait twenty minutes.”
“What do you suggest?” Angela asked.
Alex thought for a moment. Then he spied the LREDs lying against the wall.
“What about those things?” he said, pointing to the LREDs.
“Those are not sniper rifles,” Angela said. “They shoot non-lethal electrostatic rounds.”
“I don’t care what they shoot,” Alex said. “Will they reach the other roof?”
“Their range is a hundred yards,” Angela said. “Your father and the others are less than fifty yards from us, so they will easily reach the other roof.”
“All right,” Alex said as he walked over and grabbed an LRED. “Show me how to fire this thing.”
Angela put her hand on Alex’s chest to stop him. “It’s not that simple. There are three men over there. We know two of them have guns, and I would bet the third one does, as well. If we start shooting, they are liable to start shooting too. We don’t want to be the catalyst. The police are on their way. They will be able to contain the situation.”
“Okay,” Alex said as he stepped back and looked over at the other roof again. He sighed as he thought about what they were going through.
“What if we just point the guns at the bad guys and be ready to shoot them if necessary,” Travis said, walking up to them.
Alex and Angela looked at each other.
“Now that’s a good idea,” Angela said. “But I want you two to be the ones holding the LREDs. I will use my scope to monitor the situation and give the firing order. Nobody will fire unless I say so.”
Angela turned to Travis. “Are you going to be okay holding this weapon and maybe having to shoot it?”
Travis gave her a look that said she had just asked the stupidest question possible. “Uh, yeah,” he said.
“All right,” Angela said, picking up an LRED, “I’m going to give you a quick tutorial. As I said before, it shoots a non-lethal round. It has already been loaded, so don’t worry about that. There is a sensor here on the barrel that detects a human heat signature. It is aligned with the optical sight on the top. The sensor beeps when it is on target. Just make sure you have it aimed at the right human. The round is self-guided, and it will strike whatever the LRED has targeted. It fires like a regular gun, but you have to pull the trigger and hold it for two seconds for it to fire. Any questions?”
It was quiet as two blank faces stared back at her.
She held up the LRED and pushed some buttons on the stock to turn it on and arm it, and then she held the gun in a shooting position for a moment before handing it to Alex. She did the same with the other LRED and handed it to Travis. His eyes widened as he reached out both his hands to grab it.
“There are two men over there on that roof that we know have guns. We are going to target them. Alex, I want you rest the barrel of your LRED right here on the edge of the roof and point it at the man on the extreme left. Travis, you rest your barrel over here and aim it at the man on the far right. They are standing well away from everyone else, so you should not have any trouble getting the LRED sensor to target just them. Remember not to fire unless I say to. We are just covering them until the police get here. We don’t want to start something unless we have to.”
Alex and Travis knelt down and rested the barrels of their LREDs on the wall. As they looked through their sights, the LRED sensors let out a few intermittent beeps as the sensors were aligned on the gunmen, and then there was a steady stream of beeps as the sensors locked in.
Angela stood next to the boys and pulled out her spotting scope again. She held it up and pointed it back across the street to the other roof, setting the focus so that she could see all of the people at once. Nobody said a word and there was an eerie calm as they all focused on the other roof.
Off in the distance, there was the sound of sirens.
………………………….
“What do you mean, ‘She’s not in a coma?’” Evan said.
William could sense that Evan was getting a little too mad to be standing next to, so he discretely stepped backward.
“Do you know what my background is?” William asked Evan. “What I studied in school, I mean.”
Evan looked confused at the non sequitur. “I don’t know … jerkineering.”
“Funny,” William smiled. “No, I have a Ph.D. in Chemistry. And long before I became head of the tools group and before you even started at the agency, I worked in the chemistry department of the group. For my first assignment at the agency, I developed the formula for the nerve compound in the FCAN. It is the same formula used today in all of the agency FCANs.”
“Congratulations,” Evan sneered. “So you are not a complete moron. What does this have to do with Laura?”
William began to walk back and forth in front of Evan, looking around aimlessly as he continued.
“Over the years, when I have had a little extra time, I have experimented with the formula. You know, as a hobby. The agency has always been happy with the formula, but I thought that maybe I could improve on it. Make it work a little faster or perhaps in a lower dose so the canisters could be made smaller. I just wasn’t satisfied with perfection.”
“You speak of the formula as if it were a work of art,” Evan scoffed.
William stopped and smiled at the thought, and then continued. “Then, late last year the agency purchased a far more accurate spectrometer, and I was able to make a key breakthrough in the gas partition coefficient of the formula. I wasn’t trying to do this, but this breakthrough would allow a nerve compound to be made that would last for a month instead of just hours. I tested it on mice, cats, and a few larger animals, but I would not be sure it truly worked until I tested it on a human.”
“Human!” Evan said. “You’re talking about Laura.”
“The night Laura showed up at work seemed an ideal time to try it out. I had one of the specially modified large animal test cans in my office. They have an electronic timer on them so that you can get out of the room that contains the test animal before they go off. Anyway, I set the timer on the FCAN for thirty minutes and had one of my men go into the parking structure and shove it under the driver’s seat of her car where no one would find it. I also had him loosen a brake line a little on her car so that when she crashed it would look like an accident. It worked perfectly. Her accident looked real. Since Laura didn’t wake up afterward, the doctors just assumed that there had been a head trauma.”
Evan stood motionless and looked to the side, deep in thought. Everything that he knew about Laura’s accident was wrong, even her being in a coma.
“But you said that the formula would last a month,” Evan said, looking back at William. “She has been in the hospital for six months.”
“That’s right,” William said. “The formula does work for about a month. Around that time, it starts to wear off, and she starts to get more sensation and starts to move around more. She looks to everyone as though she is starting to come out of the coma. At that point, I just have someone disguised as a doctor walk into Laura’s room to inject her with another dose of the raw nerve compound.”
“So your plan is to keep injecting her with this nerve
compound forever?” Evan yelled.
“That was the plan in the beginning,” William said as he stopped pacing and turned to Evan. “Inject her for a year or two until the agency just gave up on her and turned over her files to her boss. That would be me.”
“They wouldn’t give up on her,” Melina cried.
“You’re right. They might not. So I have a new plan. You see I wasn’t satisfied with the new nerve formula, so I kept experimenting with the new methodology that I had discovered. Then, a few days ago, I made another breakthrough. I created a formula that I calculate will extend the duration of the nerve compound from one month to several hundred years.”
“Why didn’t you try that one out on yourself?” Evan said.
“Funny, Evan,” William said. “But I was, of course, worried about accidental exposure. I even left detailed instructions for an antidote to the formula in my lab notebook, just in case.”
“You are not going to inject her with that new formula,” Evan said. He stepped forward to where he was face-to-face with William.
“Evan, I already have,” William said, followed by an exaggerated grin. “I had her injected with the new formula this afternoon right after you left. It had been about a month since the last injection and she was getting a little too ‘alert’.”
Evan had heard enough.
In one lightning fast motion, he stepped back on one foot and thrust his other foot forward with a side kick that connected with William’s midsection, causing him to double forward. Without stopping, Evan reached down, grabbed William by the neck, and forced him to the front so that he became a shield between himself and the two gunmen. William struggled in vain as Evan reached into William’s jacket and found his gun in its holster. Evan quickly pulled it out and pointed it at William’s head. Melina and David inched backward toward the wall at the edge of the building as the two gunmen raised their weapons at Evan and William.
“If either one of you even twitches, I will blow his head off,” Evan said through clenched teeth as he looked alternately at both gunmen.
Nobody moved. It was quiet as everyone took a deep breath and assessed the situation. Melina had never seen her dad quite this angry.
The silence was pierced by a loud high-pitched hissing noise, followed closely by two even louder thunderclap pops. It sounded as if giant balloons had exploded on the roof. With that, the two gunmen fell to the floor of the roof and began writhing wildly. Mixed in with the sound of the gunmen’s legs involuntarily scraping in the gravel of the roof was the distinct sound of crackling static.
Evan smiled. He looked at the wires hanging out of the gunmen’s bodies, and he knew that they had been hit by an LRED. Still holding William, Evan picked him up in the air and threw him to the ground.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t shoot you now,” Evan said as he raised the gun toward William.
“Daddy, no!” Melina yelled from behind William.
Evan lowered the gun as William composed himself and got to his hands and knees with his head down, looking at the roof. In the quiet of the moment, everyone became aware that there was the sound of sirens. Many of them.
David leaned over the retaining wall and looked down the street. “Holy cow! I think the whole Dallas Police Department is coming down the street!”
As Evan looked over at David, William grabbed one of the gunman’s weapons, sprang to his feet, and lunged toward Melina. He grabbed her by the neck and dragged her the few feet remaining to the edge of the roof, holding her in front of him with his gun pointed at her just as Evan had done to him.
Evan looked back at William and raised his weapon. “Now you know that I can hit a fly at this distance. Let go of her right now or I will kill you.”
“Now, you wouldn’t want to do that,” William said. “This gun might accidentally go off in the direction of your daughter. So why don’t you back away and lay down the gun.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Evan said as he pointed the gun at William’s head. “Are you okay Melina?”
“Not a problem, Dad,” Melina said.
William looked over the edge of the building and saw a sea of police vehicles pulling up to the front.
“Get back!” William said as he turned back to Evan. “Get back away from me.”
The sight of the massive police presence had suddenly made William agitated. Evan worried that in his nervous state William might just accidentally shoot Melina. He had to think of something fast.
Then it came to him.
Evan bent down on one knee and appeared to tie one of his shoes.
“What are you doing?” William said in a panicked voice.
“Nothing to worry about,” Evan said, still looking down. “Just tying one of my shoes.”
Evan stood up and took off his jacket, leaving it in a heap at his feet. Then he started walking backwards slowly.
“Melina,” Evan said, looking her in the eye, “Let me know if the pizza guy shows up.”
Then, Evan subtlety pointed to each of his exposed wrists. He was not wearing the watch any more.
Melina smiled. She knew what that meant.
She positioned herself as best she as could into a fighting stance and waited. Nobody said a word as the wail of sirens continued to dominate the sound in the background. Evan continued to back up and was now twenty feet away from William and Melina. He crossed his arms and stood there staring at William.
“Did someone here order a pepperoni pizza?” a loud voice boomed from underneath Evan’s crumpled jacket on the floor of the roof.
William jumped nervously and looked around for where the sound was coming from, momentarily loosening his grip on Melina. That was the moment she needed. She leaned forward and sent an elbow backward connecting with William’s forehead. Stunned, he let go of Melina. She stepped away from him and then turned around and leaped toward him delivering a side kick to his midsection that caused him to bend over and drop his gun. William reached to pick it up, but Melina bent down, grabbed the gun and tossed it aside. Then she stood up right in front of William.
“This is for my mom!” she said as she jumped in the air and delivered a roundhouse kick that landed on the side of William’s head.
William crumpled to the ground next to the edge of the wall, groaning in pain.
Evan walked over to Melina and stood in front of her.
“Melina, I am so proud of you,” he said as he looked in her eyes. “I always knew you would make a great agent.”
Then he took her in his arms and gave her the biggest hug he had ever given her. A tear ran down his cheek as he rested it on the top of her head.
“That was the most awesome display of karate I have ever seen!” David said as he ran up to the two of them.
“Actually, that was krav maga,” Evan said without looking up.
“Oh… I’m sorry,” David said. “That was the most awesome-”
David stopped and focused his eyes beyond Evan and Melina across the roof.
“Uh, I think I just saw someone move in the shadows behind you,” David whispered.
“Angela, you can come out now,” Evan said, again without looking up. “My daughter has the situation under control.”
Evan stopped hugging Melina and turned around as Angela stepped from the shadows, lowered her weapon and walked toward him followed by seven Dallas SWAT team members. She put her gun back in its holster as she approached and stood in front of Evan.
They shared a smile as Evan held out his hand. “Thank you, Angela.”
Angela took his hand and drew him toward her in a hug. “Any time, Evan.”
………………………….
Melina sat in the SWAT van with her feet dangling out the back door. It was parked in front of the building, but it was behind the police line, so she had some privacy from the herd of news organizations that had descended on the scene. Evan and Angela were helping the police search the building and gather clues they could use to help them unlock
the secrets of William’s enterprise. Travis was in front of the SWAT van asking a poor SWAT team member question after question about his equipment. Melina looked out at the sea of red and blue flashing lights from dozens of Dallas Police squad cars parked in front of the building on the street. All was in chaos around her, but she was at peace.
“Hey Melina!” Travis said as he ran around the corner of the van. “Look who I found.”
Travis ran away and disappeared back behind the van. Melina gave him a curious look as she got up and started to follow him around the corner. She stopped in her tracks when she came face to face with Alex, their faces just inches apart.
“Hey,” she said as she moved her face back only slightly from his.
“Hey,” he said nervously, his face frozen in place. “I need to explain-”
“I know what happened,” Melina said. Then she grabbed him around the neck and drew him toward her, her face buried in his chest. Alex put his arms around her shoulders and gently squeezed her, his chin resting on the top of her head. They stood there in silence amid the chaos and the noise, slowly swaying as if they were being blown by the breeze.
They had held each other like that for several minutes before Melina moved her head to look up at Alex. He moved his head too, and they found themselves face to face, their lips almost touching. Neither of them knew what to say, but they remained frozen their lips still close. Melina closed her eyes and tilted her head a little, and Alex moved his head downward. When their lips met, he grabbed her around the waist. They pressed their lips harder together and held each other in a tight embrace as they kissed.
“Melina!” a voice called out.
Melina and Alex quickly unlocked their embrace and stepped away from each other.
“Melina!” Angela said as she walked up to them. “There you are. Hello Alex.”
Alex nodded in return.
“Angela, what is the matter?” Melina asked.
“It’s starting to get a little crazy around here, so your father wants me to get you out of here immediately. I have your brother in the car. We are going to stay at an agency safe house tonight.”
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