by Ryan Garner
“Quite…” he said in a low, angry voice. “You should have thought about the consequences of your actions before you chose to betray me. If you had, then maybe you would not be in this position.” Karina’s face was beginning to turn purple and tears were streaming down her face as her mouth hung open trying to bring air into her lungs. She squirmed trying to get away, but it was a futile attempt.
“You know, there was a time when I actually considered bringing you into my plan, but I quickly realized you were far too weak to do what needed to be done. You’re nothing more than an idealistic whore…one that deserves to be cast aside once her usefulness has been exhausted.” Karina’s vision was growing blurry as unconsciousness pulled itself over her.
“Speak to me again and I’ll let those animals have you regardless of whether you would make a useful tool later or not.” As he snarled at her he abruptly released his grip around her neck. Karina immediately crumpled to the floor and fell over onto her side coughing and gasping for breath. After a few seconds the color slowly began to return to her face, but the tears were still rolling down her cheeks. Darren looked down on her for a brief moment, a look of contempt and hatred on his face. He then turned and walked away.
“Is your man ready?” Kamil asked as Darren approached the large work bench that was littered with tools, gun and weapon parts, maps and other paperwork, along with a pair of laptops where two of the Chechens stood working.
“Yes.” Darren responded. “By this point his shift at Shearon Harris has already begun.”
“And the computer virus?”
“Nathan delivered it to him last night.” Darren responded making a nodding gesture over towards the college student who was still sitting in the corner with his head buried in the laptop.
“Are you certain it will work?” Kamil asked.
“But, of course my dear friend…” Darren stated with a smooth and arrogant confidence. “…the SCADA network is very simple once you become cognizant of its inner workings and how the power grid is actually laid out.” Kamil looked at him unimpressed for the moment.
“Updates to the Eastern Interconnection’s security systems have been neglected for years due to budgetary cuts and bureaucratic paperwork delays. Even though some of our preliminary exploratory incursions were discovered they have done little to change their safety protocols. Once the cascade begins, nothing will be able to stop it. Complicate matters further with a meltdown and their system will be thrown into total chaos.”
“Excellent…” Kamil responded with a satisfied grin.
Karina could barely hear what the group was talking about, but she was able to catch a few words here and there. From what she could understand Darren and his group of thugs were planning something involving the Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant in Wake County. She knew this could not be good in any way. Terrorists seizing control of that place would be a catastrophe, but Karina had no idea what she could do about it. She quietly pulled against her restraints twisting the handcuffs against the metal support beam that secured her. The effort did little except to send shooting pain up both her arms as the steel shackles dug into her soft skin. She let out an exasperated sigh of defeat; what was she to do?
….
John was sitting on his couch scanning through the TV channels when Samantha emerged from the bathroom by way of his bedroom door. He was momentarily taken aback. Even with the bruise on her face and the signs of abuse on her body Samantha remained quite attractive, especially now that she was cleaned up. A second more obvious reason for her appeal was that she was only wearing a towel that barely covered her body. John recalled that she had left her backpack in the living room so maybe she had come to retrieve that. No. That wasn’t it. Samantha slowly walked over to him and sat down beside him on the couch. He tensed up immediately. What was she doing?
“I just wanted to thank you for helping me.” she said giving him a soft smile. John relaxed slightly. Maybe it wasn’t what he thought it was. “Nobody’s ever done anything like that for me before.” She added.
“It was nothing.” John responded. “I just wish I could do more.” Samantha smirked knowingly at his choice in words.
“I can never repay you for all that you’ve helped me with.”
“Like I said, it was nothing…” John was beginning to relax further now. “You know, you remind me of my friend Karina, the one I told you about. You two would have a lot to talk about; she had it pretty rough early on in her life as well. In fact…”
His words were cut off in mid-sentence and before he knew what was happening Samantha was on his lap straddling his body with her legs and kissing him. Cupping her hands around his face she pressed her lips against his. He was so surprised that he momentarily did not know how to react. Samantha was already beginning to remove the towel wrapped around her body when he finally gained the presence of mind to speak.
“Wait…wait! What are you doing?” he asked.
“Thanking you.” Samantha responded as she began to kiss down John’s neck.
He grabbed Samantha’s hands and forced her body away from him. Her legs were still intertwined around his waist which made the task decidedly more difficult.
“Samantha, Stop it!”
Samantha had a shocked look on her face. A man had never told her to stop before. Her facial expression quickly changed to one of humiliation and dejection; she relaxed her arms and John let go of her wrists.
“I’m…I’m sorry…” she said casting her gaze downward. “I just thought…” Samantha slid off John’s lap now trying to cover her body with the towel. “I thought you might like…” She wasn’t able to finish a sentence; her confidence and demeanor were completely shattered. She quickly grabbed her backpack and stood up.
“Just let me get dressed and I’ll go.” She said.
“Wait…” John said quickly standing and grabbing her gently by the hand. Samantha spun around and John could see that there were tears in her eyes.
“It’s nothing personal.” He said. Samantha’s confused look lingered on her face. “It’s not that I wouldn’t want to…It’s just that with all you’ve been through…” She still appeared baffled, but John immediately noticed that she was now clinging to his hand with her own.
John sighed, “You’ve been used by enough men. I’m not about to be the next one to take advantage of you.” Samantha stared at him. The idea of a man caring about her welfare was a completely alien concept to her. Just then, there was a knock at the door. John let out a weary sigh.
“Hold on…just wait here for a second.” he said as he turned and walked over to the door. Samantha wrapped the towel back around her body as he did this.
Opening the door John was shocked to see Chris, still in uniform standing at the entrance to his apartment.
“Hey…” he said, “…what are you doing here?” John asked in a slightly suspicious tone.
“We need to talk, may I come in?”
“I’m kind of in the middle of something.” John replied.
“It’s important, it’s about Karina.” John’s eyebrows immediately lifted and he moved away from the door to allow entry. Chris walked in and was immediately surprised to see a half-naked Samantha standing in the living room. Her sexual attraction was not lost on him either; Chris felt slightly guilty thinking about this young girl in such a manner. Samantha stood still for a brief moment before finally speaking.
“I should probably get dressed.” she said cracking a half smile at both men trying to relieve some of the tension in the room before hurrying into the bedroom to put on the clothes she had stored in her bag.
Chris snapped his head over to look at John and silently mouthed the words, “You and her?!?!”
John immediately shook his head, “No!!” he said, a little louder than he intended, before adding, “It’s…It’s…It’s a really long story, I’ll explain it later. What’s going on?” he then asked.
“Well, you mean besides the city going straight
to hell?”
“I gathered that from the news. What happened to Karina?”
“Obviously you haven’t heard. She’s been kidnapped.”
“What?!” John shouted. “Who kidnapped her? Where is she?” His voice grew more insistent.
“A guy named Darren Siegal took her. Wilmington thinks he’s somehow involved with some of these terrorist attacks. They sent an SEU team out to get both of them, but his house was rigged with explosives and the explosion took out half the officers that were there. Now we don’t know where they are.”
“Shit…” John ran his hands through his short brown hair and took a few steps away from Chris walking further into his living room. This couldn’t be happening, not now.
“Things in the city are spiraling out of control.” Chris said. “With the combination of the riots and the attacks, Wilmington has lost control. Supposedly the National Guard will be deploying shortly along with the NGP, but no one’s going to be looking for Karina for quite a while.” Chris spoke in a grim tone as Samantha walked back into the room. She was fully clothed now in tight jeans and a snug fitting, low cut red tank top, her still wet hair was slicked back.
“I have to go after her.” John said before looking over at Samantha. “Your client, do you know how often he stays at his hotel room?” Samantha gave John another confused look, but responded none the less.
“I’m not sure, I mean he always had his stuff there, but it never seemed like he was planning on staying there any longer than he had to.”
“Do you know if anyone besides Darren ever met him there?” John asked.
“Darren? The Darren that kidnapped Karina?” Chris suddenly chimed in.
“Yes…Darren is Karina’s boyfriend…or was depending on how you look at things. Anyway, he’s somehow involved with a client of hers.” Chris’s eyes shot over to Samantha. She was visibly shamed by John’s comment even though she knew he meant no disrespect.
“No…” she responded, “I never saw anyone visit him there. I never even saw the guy you’re talking about.”
“If they’re both tied into these terrorist attacks, I doubt they’ll be going back to his hotel room…they’ll probably meet at a different staging area.” Chris said.
“I agree.” John responded.
“Do you know anywhere else he might be right now?” Chris asked Samantha.
She shook her head, “No, he never told me anything. The only time I ever even heard him mention a specific location was that street corner I told John about.”
“Street Corner?” Chris asked.
“Burnt Mill and Randall Parkway.” John responded looking over at Samantha for confirmation. She shook her head in agreement.
“Wait, Burnt Mill?” Chris said.
“Yes.”
“There was a suspicious person call that went out in that area shortly before the riots started…something about some Arabic and white males milling about in that location.” John gave Chris a surprised look. For such a random call out of hundreds he was impressed that Chris would be able to recall it.
“The only reason why I remember is because I heard the communicator got in trouble for her use of the wording, “Suspicious Arabic male…” over the dispatch channel.”
John rolled his eyes, “Makes sense…” he mumbled under his breath.
“My client is Arabic.” Samantha said causing both John and Chris to look at her with surprise etched across both their faces. John stood silently considering his options for a moment; it was a long shot, but it was the only chance he had. With Wilmington falling into complete chaos Chris was right, no one would be out looking for Karina anytime soon and by the time they did it would probably be too late.
John moved past Samantha and into his bedroom. He walked over to his closet and opened the sliding door. Digging around for a few seconds he removed a level 3A bullet resistant vest; an old one Wilmington had issued to him when he had first become an officer; it was worn yes, but he was sure it would still do its job well. He then pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and knelt down to a small floor safe hidden inside the closet. Unlocking it, he removed a Smith and Wesson 4566 along with several fully loaded magazines. The stainless steel .45 caliber handgun had been the first weapon Wilmington had issued to him when he was sworn in as an officer years ago. It was shortly before the department had gone over to the more modern M&P45. After the transition the city had allowed their officers to purchase their old firearms in order to generate revenue. Given the circumstances and the likely outcome of events it seemed fitting for him to choose this weapon instead of the Glock 22 he had been carrying. There was a certain nostalgic value to the firearm so he wouldn’t mind if it proved to be the last weapon he ever carried. He even still remembered its serial number; the department had made him memorize it while he was in the police academy, TDU3715.
He moved across his room and placed the vest, handgun, and spare magazines down on his bed. Returning to his closet he reached in towards the side opposite from the safe. After moving some hanging clothes out of the way he recovered a large black rifle bag. He brought that over to the bed and placed it down next to his vest and handgun. He then went back to his closet one final time and fished through his clothes for a few more seconds until he found a black military style carrier vest. It was already equipped with six fully loaded AR-15 rifle magazines along with a few extra empty pouches for handgun magazines. He walked back to his bed and dropped the vest next to his rifle bag.
“John…what are you doing?” Samantha asked as she stood in his bedroom doorway. It was more than obvious she was concerned.
He took a deep breath before responding, “The only thing I can do…I’m going after her.”
“Are you crazy?” she asked. “You’ll get yourself killed.”
“Riots are popping up everywhere in that section of the city and you’re planning on going out there?” Chris added joining Samantha in the doorway. “That whole area is going to be a tangled mess of violence and chaos.”
“And Karina is trapped in the middle of all that.” John stated as he unzipped the rifle bag revealing a Stag Arms Model 15, a virtual clone of the Colt AR-15. He picked it up and grasped the extended charging handle with his thumb and index finger, pulling it back and checking for an empty chamber. As he let the bolt fly home with a loud clank the sound of rolling thunder caused his apartment to vibrate; a storm was coming.
“You don’t even know if she’s still alive.” Samantha pleaded drawing a disdainful glance from John. She visibly recoiled at his chastising look. Truth be told, Samantha secretly wished someone cared about her as much as John obviously cared about Karina. Sadly, she was sure that would never happen.
“She’s still alive.” He said. “I know she is…she has to be.”
Chris moved in past Samantha and walked over to John. “And what are you going to do if you find her, Darren, and his group of terrorist buddies? Fight them all by yourself?”
“If need be…” John answered before pausing briefly and then continuing in a more earnest tone, “There was a time when I couldn’t see anything past my job; I wasn’t anything, but a police officer.” John said as he looked at a still uniformed Chris standing before him. “She helped me see past that and showed me there was something more to me than just a uniform. I can’t stand idly by and let something happen to her knowing full well I could have done something.” John had a steely look of determination in his eyes as he finished his statement.
“If the riots are further towards Burnt Mill then they are headed away from this side of town.” John said looking over Chris’s shoulder and at Samantha who was still standing in his bedroom door. “You should be safe here until all this is over.” Samantha was speechless and merely shook her head in agreement. The only man who had ever showed her so much kindness was now leaving and it was very likely he would die trying to save his friend; and there was nothing she could do about it. Samantha felt utterly heartbroken.
“Chris, ke
ep an eye on her until…”
“Oh no…” Chris said interrupting John. “You don’t think I’m letting you go at this alone do you?”
“I can’t ask you to go with me. You know what will happen if they find out you’re helping me.”
“I don’t care.” Chris said. “I don’t feel like I’m helping anyone anymore doing what I’ve been doing at Wilmington…I haven’t for a while now and I’m tired of it. This department and city have become more concerned with appeasing the masses and a bunch of spineless politicians than in protecting people who can’t help themselves. At least this way I know what I’m doing and why.” John nodded his head in an appreciative response.
“Alright then…” John said as he placed a fully loaded magazine into his rifle’s magazine well. “Let’s get ready.”
CHAPTER 24
The thudding blades of the Black Hawk Helicopter echoed through the night air of the shipyard as the prehistoric looking mechanical beast slowly descended onto the makeshift concrete landing pad. Using a dozen or more yellow strobing LED disk “flares” a circular pattern had been laid out on the ground to assist the pilots onto the helipad. The entire area was surrounded by large mobile light towers that turned night into day. Several more Black Hawks and four cargo helicopters, two Boeing CH-47 Chinooks and two Sikorsky HH-53 “Super Jolly Green Giants” sat quietly in the northeasterly corner of the large concrete slab that had originally been used for placement of storage containers until the NGP seized the shipyard a few hours earlier and cleared it of all unnecessary personnel and equipment. Now the massive coastal dockyard had been turned into a National Governing Police command center.