When Shadows Call

by Ernest Dempsey

  His lifeless eyes didn’t see Adriana turn the corner at the end of the hall and disappear into the stairwell.

  The gunmen only caught a glimpse as she vanished. The next instant, they took off in pursuit. One ran straight ahead to follow her. The other rushed back into the opposite stairwell to cut her off on the ground floor.

  Adriana flew down the stairs. She took them two and three at a time, nearly losing her balance on several occasions. Once, she almost slipped and fell on her back when her boot caught the edge of a step.

  Her free hand on the railing was the only thing that kept her from a crippling injury, or at least one that would slow her down enough to allow her pursuers to catch up.

  She reached the bottom of the stairs and burst through the door into the lobby. Two men were dead on the carpet near the main entrance. There was no sign of the concierge, though she had a bad feeling as to his fate.

  Adriana turned to her right and took off toward the rear entrance just as the door to the stairs across the lobby banged open.

  The gunman saw her just as she reached the door and raised his weapon to fire. He squeezed the trigger the second his partner emerged from the stairwell. The bullet plowed into the man’s back and dropped him to the floor where he writhed in agony.

  The shooter tried to correct his aim, but the door closed and she was gone.

  Adriana pumped her legs. Adrenaline coursed through her as the flight instinct kicked into full gear. She hit the button on her car, and the lights flashed from the end of the aisle.

  Police sirens were bearing down on the location. She heard a helicopter’s deep, throaty rotors chopping through the air somewhere over London. Henry was right about the cavalry showing up. From the sounds of it, most of London’s police force was on its way.

  She jumped in the sedan, revved the engine to life, and wheeled it out onto the street. Blue lights flashed off the walls of the buildings behind her as squad cars arrived on the scene. They turned into the hotel car park and disappeared in her rearview mirror a second before she turned off the street and onto another. A quick look at the clock told her there wasn’t much time left.

  Adriana thought of the timer on the laptop. Last she’d checked it, only twenty-five minutes or so remained. She hadn’t kept track of time while trying to make her escape, but it was easy to assume it took five minutes. The reality was it took less than that, but better to figure on less time than more. Thousands of lives were at stake.

  She stepped on the gas, and the Jaguar roared louder. Up ahead, a red light had traffic halted. She spun the wheel to the right, guiding her vehicle into oncoming traffic.

  Cars honked their horns. The other drivers desperately steered clear while she played a dangerous game of chicken. At the intersection, more cars were going through. She timed it perfectly, accelerating through the light and narrowly avoiding a black taxicab by inches, mostly due to the other driver seeing her and slamming on his brakes.

  Adriana yanked the wheel back to the left and into the open lane. She was ten minutes away from the warehouses she’d seen on the map. Luckily, she knew a shortcut from her younger years spent in the city. The normal route would easily take twenty minutes, which would have catastrophic consequences.

  She swerved around a cab and back into the lane, narrowly missing a delivery truck. Just before the next light, she cut the wheel to the right and shot across the lane in front of another vehicle and onto a side street. The sedan bumped its way down the alley. The driver’s side mirror nearly clipped a dumpster, only missing it by a couple of inches.

  At the end of the side street, Adriana spun the wheel and hammered down on the gas again.

  The street was mostly empty in front of her now that she was off the main thoroughfare. This same road would be full at rush hour the next morning, but at this time of day she had it mostly to herself.

  A quick glance at the clock on the dashboard didn’t help her heightened anxiety, and her foot pressed the gas pedal into the floor as far as it would go. The buildings whirred by outside the windows.

  This was going to be close.

  14

  London

  Adriana slammed on the brakes and slid the car sideways into a parking spot. The wheels kicked up dust and gravel from the lot just outside the old foundry. In front of the main building was the truck she’d seen at the docks in Felixstowe. This had to be it.

  From the looks of it, the place had been a steel mill in its former life. A for sale sign hanging on the chain-link fence around the perimeter hinted at the future—it’d probably be turned into some kind of trendy, upscale housing community when it was demolished and reborn.

  She flung the door open and sprang out. She gave no thought to leaving the engine running. Right now, her issue wasn’t the government’s car getting stolen. It was saving Londoners from a massive tragedy.

  Adriana sprinted across the lot to a metal door that was hanging open. She stopped short of it and looked around to make sure no one was watching, maybe a sniper positioned to guard the entrance from afar. There was no sign of trouble, at least not as far as she could tell.

  She cracked the door open a few inches farther and peeked inside. There were four men standing around a laptop. It was too far away for her to be able to see what was on the screen, but she figured it was some kind of connection to the launch sequence.

  Where was the missile? She hurriedly scanned the entire warehouse space and saw nothing.

  Of course she didn’t see it. They couldn’t launch it from inside a building.

  That meant it was outside somewhere. She leaned forward, desperately trying to find any clue as to where the launch platform might be.

  She found what she was looking for a second later. Huge cords ran from the laptop station to the outer wall fifty feet away from the men. That had to be it. If she could get to the launcher and disable it, she could deal with Asad’s men afterward.

  Adriana heard something crunch close by. A shiver shot through her skin. She spun around just in time to see a masked gunman approaching with a gun pointed at her.

  The man motioned to her weapon with his. “Drop it,” he said.

  She sighed. How could she have been so careless?

  She put one hand up and started to bend down to place her gun on the ground. She kept a keen eye on his face, watching him watching her.

  “Check in, Patrol One.” A man’s voice came through the radio on his shoulder and distracted him for the one second Adriana needed.

  He flinched at the sudden noise. The gun in his hand twitched to the side just enough to be misaligned with his target. Adriana fired her weapon three times. Despite being muffled by the suppressor on her gun, the gunfire sounded like a cannon in the dead silent night.

  The gunman’s chest sucked in the bullets, and he stumbled back in shock. One of the rounds must have hit his heart because he fell over on his side, squeezed his trigger once, and stopped moving.

  The one shot he managed pinged off the warehouse wall and disappeared into the night.

  Adriana knew the men inside would have heard the ruckus in the parking lot. She didn’t need to look through the door again. They’d be hurrying to find out what happened.

  She stuffed her weapon in her belt and grabbed the gunman’s HK, then darted around the corner and out of sight.

  Six seconds later, three more henchmen appeared in the doorway. They kicked it fully open and one of them stepped through, sweeping his gun around in both directions to make sure the area was clear.

  Then he noticed his comrade lying on the ground with blood oozing out of his chest and the corner of his mouth. The other two men exited the building. One checked to the left and the other to the right. The guy who went left crept to the corner and hesitated.

  He looked back at the other two who were busily examining the dead body at their feet.

  His hesitation cost him.

  Adriana had been lurking just around the other side of the building, waiting for
her prey to step into her trap. She grabbed the barrel of his weapon and jerked him forward while twisting the muzzle away from her body.

  His trigger finger twitched, but it was too late. The gun had been pulled away from him, and so all he gripped was air. His momentum carried him straight into her arms. He put up an elbow to block a potential punch, but none came. Instead, she drove her knee into his groin.

  He lurched forward, doubling over at the hips in agony. Her movement was swift and lethal. She stepped around behind him, wrapped her hands around his head, and snapped it to the side. The neck popped, and the man instantly dropped to the ground.

  She didn’t wait for the others to come looking for him. Adriana poked her head around the corner and saw one of the men still examining the dead man and the other moving along the wall toward the far corner.

  Adriana stepped out from cover and took aim. She eliminated the closer target first, placing one shot in the side of his head. He slumped over on top of the man he was checking. The other one heard the shot and spun around to defend himself. His reaction was too slow. Adriana squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times instead of pulling it once and letting it go full auto. She knew the weapon in her hands. It had the tendency to ride up with each successive shot. Firing one at a time kept it accurate and allowed her to put all three bullets into the gunman’s chest.

  He fired his weapon harmlessly in the air as he collapsed on the gravel. After he writhed for several seconds, his body stopped moving.

  She turned her attention to the door and stayed on her toes as she approached. A foot from the door frame, she slowed down and pressed her shoulder into the wall. She held the gun shoulder high and waited for a second before she spun around and shoved the barrel through the opening.

  The man who stayed behind to watch the launch equipment was gone. Adriana started to cross the threshold. A hand reached out and snatched the weapon then jerked her forward. Her grip was too strong on the gun, and she felt herself pulled inside. He raised his weapon to end the struggle immediately, but Adriana rolled on the ground as he fired.

  The shot missed, sailing just over her back as she tumbled to the ground. He adjusted for her sudden movement but couldn’t get the weapon aimed fast enough. She kicked a leg up in mid-roll and drove her heel into his chin. His head rocked back and he staggered for a moment, stunned. She scrambled to her feet a second before he recovered and tried to throw a right hook at his nose.

  He grabbed her wrist with one hand and raised his weapon with the other, once more attempting to end the fight with one shot. He tensed his finger just as Adriana smacked his wrist with her free elbow. The pistol fired off to her right. It struck the brick wall and ricocheted around the room before it vanished into the ether.

  Adriana kicked her knee out, aiming for his groin, but the gunman saw it coming and dropped his fist down, striking her thigh with brutal force. The blow sent a dull pain through her leg. He twisted his other hand around to take another shot. Adriana used his momentum to her advantage and snatched the barrel, wrenched it to the side, and reversed the direction the gun was aimed. The shooter’s trigger finger snapped at a gruesome angle. He howled at the sudden pain and jerked his hand back out of pure instinct.

  She lined up the sights with his forehead and took a step back.

  He reeled into the corner, grasping the crooked finger in his good hand. He said something in Arabic, but with his mouth covered by a black scarf it made the words difficult to understand.

  “Shut it down,” she ordered.

  His eyes narrowed. She could tell he was smiling under the scarf.

  There was no time to waste.

  She aimed the weapon at the top of his foot and fired.

  The boot exploded into a bloody, black mess of leather, shoelaces, and bone.

  He screamed at the top of his lungs and doubled over, grasping at the wound.

  Then Adriana kicked him in the face and brandished the gun again, demanding his attention.

  She grabbed him by the back of the head and jerked down the scarf. All he could do was whimper.

  “I know that you’re ready to be a martyr for your cause, whatever that means. But here’s the thing. I’m not going to kill you. In fact, I’m going to make sure I do whatever it takes to keep you alive. Because the rest of your life is going to be a living hell by the time I’m done with you if you don’t do what I say. I’m going to do to your other foot exactly what I did to that one.” She pointed at the mangled wound. “Then I’m going to blow off your knees, your elbows, and eventually I may work on your fingers. Do you have any idea how miserable life will be without all those things? You’ll be in constant agony, perpetually maimed, and will wish you were dead. Oh, and I’ll make certain you’re in a place where you won’t be able to take the easy way out. So, tell me how to shut down the missile.”

  He shook his head. The guy almost looked like he was about to cry. “It requires an access code. I don’t have it. I’m just supposed to guard it.”

  She sighed. Why couldn’t things be easy, just one time?

  “Who has the code?”

  “Asad. Camir Asad.”

  She grunted. “Asad is dead. Who else has the code?”

  He shook his head. “No one. Only Asad could shut it down.”

  She was running out of time. “I guess I have no use for you then.”

  He started shaking his head in protest. “No, please. Wait.” He put out one hand as if begging for mercy.

  Adriana had none left. These men were about to murder tens of thousands of innocent people.

  The muzzle flashed. The round bored through his forehead and out the back.

  “Sorry. I don’t have time to wait.”

  She turned and hurried over to the computer station. The countdown was on the screen just as it had been on Asad’s laptop in the hotel. There were still five minutes left.

  A quick assessment of the equipment did her no good. She had no idea what she was looking at, other than the fact that it was a computer with lots of cables and wires running out of it.

  Then an idea popped into her head.

  She fished her phone out of her pants and quickly found the name she needed. It only rang three times before the man on the other end answered.

  “What do you want now?” Raymond asked.

  “A-Tak, listen to me.”

  “Oh, so you like the name now?”

  “Shut up. I’m standing next to a computer that’s about to fire a rocket at the Arsenal game. It’s got enough firepower to wipe out several city blocks. I need to know how to shut it down.”

  “What?”

  “There’s a computer hooked up to the launch mechanism. This missile is going to kill a lot of people if you don’t help me shut it down. I need to know what to do.”

  “I…I don’t know what to tell you. I’d need to be there to see it.”

  She didn’t hesitate. Her finger pressed the camera app on the phone and she aimed the device at the computer station. The countdown reached the four-minute mark.

  “Oh,” he said through the speaker. “Whatever you do, don’t hit the escape button.”

  “Why not?” she asked. That was precisely what she’d thought needed to be done.

  “Because they may have built in a trigger that will launch the rocket when that button is pressed.”

  “Okay, so what do I do?”

  “This is going to sound like you’re talking to the cable guy, but did you try unplugging the launcher from the power source and the computer?”

  She shook her head. “No. I didn’t know if that would set it off.”

  “It might. From the looks of that screen, though, I wouldn’t touch the computer.”

  “I thought you were an expert at this stuff. Don’t you have some kind of workaround or something?”

  “Without being there, I don’t have any way of telling what will happen if I start messing with it.”

  Adriana sighed. Close to three minutes remaining.


  “Okay, I’m going to check the launcher. If you’re anywhere close to that soccer stadium, I’d get away as fast as possible.”

  She didn’t wait for his response before tapping the red button on the screen to end the call. She absently shoved the device in her pocket and sprinted across the room, following the cables all the way to the wall where they ran up the side and out through a broken window.

  She peered through the glass. Just beyond the walls, in what passed for a courtyard, was a light brown trailer on wheels. A missile was fitted atop it, angled to the night sky.

  The clock had to be under three minutes now. What could she do? If she unplugged the launcher, that might cause the thing to go off anyway. Adriana wished she knew more about these kinds of weapons, but it just wasn’t her forte.

  Adriana followed the cables into the base of the launch platform. She didn’t know what any of them did. Some were to deliver power. Others were for communications with the computer guidance system. She figured the weapon had its own intelligence programming as well, but where that was located she had no idea.

  There were a few switches and buttons, a couple of lights, and two knobs. None of it made any sense.

  She glanced at her watch. There couldn’t be much time left.

  Adriana grunted in frustration. It was the first time in her life she wished she’d learned more about rocket science.

  “Think, Adriana. Think.”

  She remembered building model rockets with her dad when she was a kid. Those small-scale missiles were vastly different than the high-tech weapon before her now. From what she understood, though, the propulsion system was probably the same. It would be a solid rocket fuel motor. That meant puncturing a hole in the thing might not disable it entirely and would still allow it to pose a threat to the city. While the guidance system inside would direct the weapon where to go, maybe she could disable it so the thing couldn’t fly. She read a warning panel on the side that said, “Verify shipping restraints are active before moving.”

  Shipping restraints?