by Rick Murcer
Chloe smiled at Manny, then turned back in Wanger’s direction. “Especially from an ugly bastard like yourself, don’t ya know.”
“Well, hail, hail, the gang’s all here. And my looks are of no consequence to any of you. The bullets did what they did,” said Wanger, trying to sound unaffected by Chloe’s remark.
Wanger scanned his left, then came back to the right, making sure there were no more visitors to this dance, the nightmare smile returning. “If you don’t like the deal, like I said, we all die. And you’ll be responsible for killing three innocents, plus whoever else is still here. You must decide. I have places to be, or not.”
“How do we know you don’t have other devices that would blow this place?” asked Manny.
“You don’t. Just like you don’t know that I’ll not kill Corner’s family by setting off the other bomb in that room where they are, no matter what happens here.
“Just like you aren’t totally sure I have a device in place that would blow this place to Kingdom Come. You really don’t know anything. God forbid, you’ll have to trust me.
“I suspect that pisses you off more than it scares you. Nevertheless, agents, that’s the deal. And while you’re taking thirty seconds to make that decision, I want all of your weapons, backup weapons, and cell phones on the floor. Kick them in my direction. I’m using caution, in the event you think you want to gamble on any of those situations.”
“What about—” started Josh, his face filled with contempt.
“Enough,” snarled Wanger, transferring his face into something from the Walking Dead. “Now. I’m done talking. No more explanations or conversation. Just do it.”
Sophie bent over first, placing her weapon and phone on the floor and then slid them over to Wanger’s feet, her hand running along her ankle. Slowly, like a mesmerizing domino trick, the rest of them followed suit.
“Good. That’s using your heads.”
Reaching into his back pocket, he pulled out a yellow sheet of paper. He tilted his head toward Josh.
“This paper gives you directions on where you will locate another document that shows you the address of the house where your wife and children are resting comfortably. There are also instructions on how to defuse the device underneath that sofa. Make sure you take care to do it exactly as I’ve written. Or . . . well, you’ll be in my boat.
“I must reach the area where the instructions on how to defuse the bomb are located and make sure you have access to them. That process needs my special touch to work and give you access to those instructions. As you might guess, I’ve done it this way just in case you think you can pull off some heroic act right now. Your children might appreciate seeing their father again.”
There was a wisp of emotion as Wanger’s voice softened, some of his humanity still intact. Then it escaped into the recesses of his diseased mind.
“Now, all of you, on the floor, face down, facing each other in a circle. Once you do that, our little get-together will almost be over.”
Manny had been forced into some unpleasant situations in his life, but nothing like this one. He wasn’t at all sure that Wanger wouldn’t still kill them, one way or another. In fact, if he were him, he’d get rid of them all, knowing he’d still be the subject of an international manhunt. Yet, what choice did they have? He was sure the others felt the same and had drawn the same conclusions.
Josh led the way, followed by Belle and Braxton. Manny moved to go next, then Sophie stepped past him, her hand brushing his. It was more than a brush as she placed something between his fingers.
Never missing a beat, he got down on the floor beside Sophie, both in the direction of Wanger’s deformed face.
A moment later, Chloe and Barb were down, the circle formed as Wanger had demanded.
“Good. Remember. Two hours. If you leave that position before then, you’ll kill Corner’s family. Goodbye, agents.”
Manny waited for footsteps moving away from them, but there were none. All he heard, at first, was Wanger’s breathing. He thought he detected an air of relief in that breathing. Then he was sure of it. A moment later, he heard the subtle clank of gun touching gun.
That could only mean one thing.
No loose ends.
The man wasn’t a man of his word after all. He was going to execute them.
Manny lifted his head, tapping Sophie as he did. Wanger’s arrogance in believing that, no matter what he said, they would do what they were told, gave them a window.
As Wanger bent for one of the Glocks, his attention away from them, his left hand was clearly visible, loosely holding the detonation device.
Manny rose up enough to lift Sophie’s second backup weapon and fired, hitting Wanger’s wrist.
He howled in shocked agony, blood flying. The device he was holding skittered across the carpet, some ten feet away. Despite his injury, Wanger recovered quickly. He scrambled after the device.
Rising to her knees, Sophie threw the star. It buried deep into Wanger’s knee, dropping him two feet from the glowing red button encased in plastic, a second scream of pain echoing through the casino.
“No. No. No.”
By then, Braxton, Josh, Barb, and Chloe had gotten up and were rushing him.
Wanger rolled over on his side, one of the Glocks still in his right hand. He fired wildly. He didn’t have a chance to shoot again before Braxton was on top of him, wrestling the gun away. Then he put him under with a right hand to the face.
Manny rose up and headed for Wanger, already thinking about what they were going to do about Josh’s family, when Chloe yelled.
“Manny!”
He turned to see Sophie lying on the floor, blood pouring from the wound on her head.
CHAPTER-56
Funny how things work out. Manny couldn’t help but think that for the one hundredth time.
Not just in everyday life, but even when the extraordinary enters a person’s life, like it does for all of us from time to time. That extraordinary event could be a good circumstance. In fact, he guessed it was mostly good for the masses.
But not always. Wanger losing his family and getting shot in the face had occurred in such an unfortunate way. Yet, Wanger’s reaction, his grief, his rage, had led to more deaths than Manny could know. Who, other than Wanger, knew for sure how many people had died so he could get here, to this place?
He wouldn’t be hurting anyone else, however. Not from prison, then maybe death row. He was so distraught at his failure that he was on suicide watch, his life’s work an abject failure in terms of ruining the casino and killing hundreds in the process. Not complete justice for what he’d done and tried to do. The system worked, and Wanger would never see the outside again.
Manny changed his position and leaned with more of his weight against the SUV, his mind alive with more emotion than he usually allowed.
Compartmentalization was a good thing, mostly.
“You ready?” said Chloe, touching his arm.
“Yep.”
“Before we do this, did you hear from Josh again?”
“I did.”
Josh.
His boss and his friend had endured a most horrible hour just two days prior, only to find out there hadn’t been a need for that kind of heart-breaking concern. Not all of it at least.
Wanger had screwed up, more than once it seemed. The photo he’d received of Josh’s family had a date and place stamp showing where it had been sent from, something that Josh had noticed.
It had taken less than thirty minutes for Josh and the agency’s bomb squad to get to the house on the south side, based on that information and Alex’s tech help.
Another thirty minutes for the K-9 bomb sniffer, Buster, to be led into the front door and, as trained, checked out the area his handler had shown him.
Nothing. There had been no bomb at all. Only a gut-wrenching threat that Wanger had gambled would work. And, when playing on emotions like those, it had worked.
If the psycho
hadn’t thought he needed to kill the agents on that casino floor, he’d be in the wind now. Bad judgment for a man who had made a habit of making sound, cautious decisions.
He also wondered if, just maybe, Wanger had not actually put a bomb in that house because of Charlie and Josh and Connie, and what they represented. Maybe somewhere deep down, Wanger hadn’t really wanted another man enduring what he had.
Maybe.
This case, and Wanger’s thirst for revenge, had led to this moment. To standing in front of this hospital—the last place he’d seen Sophie.
Good God, why did this have to be so hard? Why did everything they did as a team lead to things like this?
He remembered a wisdom he’d heard once or twice about asking questions about which one already knew the answer.
“Let’s go.” He reached for Chloe’s hand, and they began the trek across the hot parking lot.
As they reached the front, the automatic door opened.
There, rolling through the exit to the outside, being pushed by Alex in a wheelchair, sat Sophie Lee, the white bandage much smaller than this morning.
“I gotta get shot more often, Williams. This being waited on hand and foot works for me,” she said, smiling.
“I think I can do without you being shot again, even if it was only a graze,” said Manny.
“Hey, it was a little more than a graze. I think I’m going to have a scar. That’s kind of cool. Even Dough Boy said so.”
“I did. And don’t call me Dough Boy. It still won’t be as cool as this robotic hand, but hey, no one’s perfect,” said Alex, wearing a wide grin.
“You got me there. But I’ll take it.”
Once outside, she rose from the chair and gave Chloe a hug, then Manny. “Did everyone get home okay?” she asked.
“Yes. Barb left this morning. Braxton last night. Belle took her new BAU to New York, even though it still looks like Wanger had a hand in that. He’s not talking about it though. She took off as soon as she was sure you were good to go.”
Sophie lowered her head. “What about Josh?”
He ran his hand through his hair. “Let’s just say it’s going to get complicated. Connie told him about her affair. He’s trying to get his mind around that. He blames himself.”
“Yeah, been there,” said Sophie.
“He’s worried about the effect of all this on the boys to boot. He’s at home for now. They’ve already set up counseling sessions for all of them, to deal with what happened at home and the trip here.”
“You told him we’re here for him, right?”
“I did, and he knows. Especially after your nine texts and voicemails.”
“Good. And it was only seven.” Sophie smiled, but tears moistened her eyes. “Did you tell him about . . . you know?”
“About the last, most incredible gift Dean left you? The one that shocked us all?”
The tears made a slow trek down her cheeks. “Yeah. That. That the doctors here found out about me. That I’m knocked up?”
“Pregnant,” said Chloe, hugging her again. “You’re pregnant.”
“Okay. Yeah that. That I’m with child?”
“I did. He said to say he’d call and congratulate you in a couple of days. He also said it was about time, because your damn clock was ticking.”
She laughed, wiping away tears. “I’m not that old.”
“Yeah, you Asians never look that old,” said Alex.
“Bite me. We’re just hot longer than you white boys.”
Alex bowed to her. “True, and I can’t wait to see you as a mother. You’ll be wonderful.”
She tilted her head, then reached up to kiss Alex. “Thank you. I’ll make Dean proud. I almost can’t wait. But, c’mon. That’s enough of this emotional crap for the day. I’m hungry again. Let’s get some Chick-fil-A and then get the hell out of town. I love the heat, but this is messing with the curls in my hair.”
“You don’t have curls in your hair,” said Manny.
“I rest my case. And I’m driving.”
With that, the new members of the ACTU climbed into the SUV and headed for the airport.
Manny thought it the best feeling he’d had in weeks. There was no place like home.
***
Josh Corner stared at the file, his family problems on hold as much as possible. If possible.
He ran his finger along the last line of the second group of reports Belle had pulled for him and frowned.
The first background had been clean, as he suspected. Sophie Lee hadn’t been involved in anything other than the normal everyday life of an agent. He even smiled to himself at the idea of her becoming a mom. She thought this job was tough.
He stared at the report again, making sure he wasn’t wrong.
He wasn’t. There was no question about what he’d seen and where it had come from.
He wouldn’t have believed it. Yet, his cynicism had grown in leaps and bounds over the last few years. No matter how unlikely the tip he’d received, he had to check it out. It played true.
Manny Williams, his Manny Williams, had twenty million dollars in an offshore bank account, compliments of God’s Hand. That seemed impossible. Manny Williams? He should just call him. But that was not how things were done in his new position.
He reached for his phone. “You were right. Now what?”
Fifteen seconds later, he hung up and dialed another number.
“Arrest him and bring him in.”
Josh Corner threw his phone on the desk and left the room.
Thank you for reading Cajun Fire. I hope that you enjoyed the crew’s new adventure into the world of domestic terrorism. It took a little longer to get this one out mostly because of the amount of research involved. And the fact that I was spending some vacation time away!
Thank you, faithful reader, for your patience.
As always, please contact me and let me know what you think. I love our interactions.
rickmurcer @gmail.com
www.rickmurcer.com
Yours,
Rick Murcer