…
When Stacy woke, a deep afternoon shadow lay across the clear-cut and she felt cold. She sat up and saw a banana slug making its way across the toe of her boot. She heard the crack of a twig and looked over to see Leif walking toward her.
“I was just coming over to wake you up,” Leif said. “Did you sleep well?”
She touched the bandage on her face. The deep-bone soreness lanced into her skull as she pressed on it. She stretched her neck and shoulders and realized that, aside from her face, she felt wonderful. “Actually, yes. I slept very well.”
“That’s good.”
Leif had the bleary look of someone who had been awake too long.
“Did you get some sleep?” she asked him.
“No, I just rested.”
“Will you be okay tonight?”
“Sure, a caffeine pill and I’ll be alert enough.”
“Okay,” Stacy said, “but just let me know if you’re feeling tired, okay? We have to support each other.”
She lifted the slug off her boot, tossed it into the bushes, wiped her hand on her thigh, and stood up. She felt where wetness from the ground had soaked into the seat of her pants. She stretched her arms out and then walked back toward the gunship. Leif followed. As they approached the gunship, she noticed Jeffrey still fast asleep.
“Do you think we should wake him?”
“Yeah, I suppose.” Leif walked up the ramp and kicked the sole of Jeffrey’s boot.
“Rise and shine, Pop.”
“Nice,” Stacy said.
Jeffrey rolled to one side, sat up, and pressed on the small of his back groaning.
“You should have slept in the ferns,” Stacy said, “The deck can’t be good on your back.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jeffrey said. “Did you find a path to the road?”
CHAPTER 17
Jeffrey pushed the last bite of his MRE into his mouth, swallowed, and then washed the chalky texture down with water. He stood, shoved the bags back into the gunship with his foot, and stepped off the ramp. He nodded to Leif, who pressed the switch. The ramp hissed up and sealed. Stacy and Leif led Jeffrey to the deer trail, and Jeffrey peered into the darkening forest.
“You couldn’t find a wider trail?”
“We found a trail that went to the road,” Stacy said. “We’re lucky it didn’t wander into the wilderness.”
“How can you fit down that?” Jeffrey asked.
Leif pushed aside a branch and walked down the trail. Stacy followed. Jeffrey cursed under his breath and then leaned under a bramble. It caught the back of his shirt. He pulled at it and the bramble bent toward him and pricked his back. He grabbed the bramble with his hand, pricked a finger, and pulled it off, only to catch it on his shirt sleeve.
“Son of a,” Jeffrey said and grasped the bramble between his thumb and middle finger and plucked it off. He turned and walked down the deer trail, catching on more brambles and branches every few feet.
When Jeffrey emerged from the forest, out onto the empty space of the highway, he found Stacy and Leif at the side of the road, sitting on a fallen log. Stacy ran her fingers over a fern, which grew out of the log. When they saw Jeffrey, they stood.
“We thought you were lost,” Leif said, and smiled.
“Funny.” Jeffrey walked past them, down the road. A car came around the bend. He turned, walked backwards, and stuck out his thumb. The car flashed by and curved around the next corner.
“No one’s going to stop if you scowl at them like that,” Stacy said, catching up with him.
As each car came around the corner, Jeffrey held out his thumb and did his best to look friendly, but none slowed. Among the broad bases of the trees, darkness came on early. Above them, the strip of sky between the trees still shone dim blue, but the cars now ran with their headlights on.
As they walked, they approached a green, reflective sign with a white ‘17’ on it.
“This must be 17 miles from Bremerton,” Jeffrey said. “There’s our mark on the way back.”
More cars passed, and Jeffrey stuck his thumb out to each, but still none stopped. The sky through the trees shifted from blue, to dark blue, to black. No moon shone and, as stars materialized in the dark strip of sky, the road and forest around them vanished into blackness. The next car had blazing high beams, and Jeffrey squinted as he looked at them. Only Stacy held out her thumb, and the car blurred past and down the road, disappearing around the corner.
Leif shook his head in the darkness. “This could be a long night.”
Just as he finished speaking, the corner up ahead began to glow. Then high beams blasted out. The car slowed down as it went by, the same low sedan which had just passed them. It turned a half-turn across the highway, and its reverse lights came on. It backed up, finished the turn, and pulled in behind them. The high beams flicked down, and the door swung open. A man stepped out. Jeffrey held his hand over the glare of the headlights trying to clarify him, but he remained only a dark shape.
“You folks break down or something?”
“No,” Stacy said, smiling, “we went for a walk today, which got longer than we thought.”
The man motioned to his car. “Jump in if you want a ride,” and he got back in the car. The passenger-side door clicked and swung open.
Stacy and Leif climbed into the back seat of the car, and Jeffrey settled into the front. The man, elderly, with glasses and a thin black tie, turned to Jeffrey. “You their dad?”
“His,” Jeffrey said, pointing to Leif.
“You folks from the area?”
“No,” Jeffrey said, “just visiting.”
The man looked at Jeffrey, searching his face for a moment.
“Thank you for the ride,” Stacy said, and the man nodded and smiled at her. Then Stacy proceeded to ask the man more questions. At first Jeffrey felt an irritation at her unending questions, but then he realized what she was doing. She kept him talking about himself to the degree that, during the entire ride to Bremerton, she had prevented him from asking any questions of them.
He drove them to downtown Bremerton. When he dropped them off, he motioned Stacy over to his window. He took her hand in both of his and smiled.
“You’re a wonderful young lady.”
“It was a real pleasure meeting you,” she said. He let her hand go, and she waved as he drove away.
Jeffrey said, “Let’s get going.” He looked around at the downtown area. Many people milled along the shopfronts. The warmth of the day had been compressed out by a damp cold, and the beginnings of fog hung around the sodium streetlamps. Jeffrey stopped a middle-aged woman and asked her for directions to Marine Drive.
She gave his camouflage, cut-off shorts a look and then pointed toward the next intersection. “That street is Sixth. You take that to Adele. Turn right on Adele, and it will turn into Marine.”
“Thanks.” Jeffrey gave her his best smile.
She grimaced back at him and walked away.
They made their way out of downtown and into a residential area. Jeffrey felt they were taking far too long to reach their target, and he found himself regretting not just dropping the gunship on Freisman’s lawn and pulling him out. However, he needed any advantage he could gain, and it was not time to be so bold. If it went well, Freisman would simply disappear and not be immediately connected to them. Hopefully their pursuers were still sweeping the South Pacific.
In an hour-and-a-half of walking, they found themselves on Marine Drive passing large multistory homes with gated driveways. The black asphalt of the drives, lined with elaborate landscaping, wound up to each home. Despite the cold, a few crickets chirped at a slow tempo from the bushes. Long stretches of lawn and trees separated each of the estates, and it took some time until Jeffrey saw number 16547. Walking up to the gate’s call button, Jeffrey saw the name ‘Freisman’ on an iron plaque. Jeffrey pointed to a hedge, and Stacy and Leif followed him into the shadows.
Jeffrey said, “Now we just hav
e to figure out how to get in there without setting off the alarms I’m sure he has. If we can cut power, perhaps we can disable the system.”
“That won’t work,” Leif said, “if the system is sat-phone enabled with a battery backup. The only way to get around that type of system is to not set it off.”
“What if we get up on the roof and rip out an attic vent and drop in that way?” Stacy asked.
“And wake up the entire neighborhood?” Jeffrey said. “No, what we want is a dark entry-point. From there we’ll need to disable a door or window system and–” he stopped talking as an expensive sedan rolled up the street and slowed.
“What are the odds?” Jeffrey said, as he turned and walked, still in the shadow of the hedge, toward the car.
“What are you doing?” Leif whispered out to him, but Jeffrey motioned for him to be quiet and reached into his pocket, gripping his pistol. The car turned, and the gate jerked to life, rolling open. Jeffrey crouched over and ran up to the car as it crossed the sidewalk. He kicked the passenger door, cried out, and fell onto the trunk as the car jerked to a halt. A middle-aged man wearing a black suit jumped out, anger on his face. He brushed his hand over his thin hair as he came around the back of the car. A slight belly protruded from his unbuttoned suit coat.
“What the hell is going on?”
“You ran over my foot you son of a bitch,” Jeffrey said.
“What the hell?” A touch of doubt entered his voice as he asked, “Are you hurt?”
Jeffrey stood, grabbed the man by the forearm, and pulled him close. He pressed the muzzle of the Colt 1911 into the man’s stomach.
“Give me your wallet,” Jeffrey said.
The anger in the man’s eyes widened to fear. “You’re mugging me?”
Jeffrey yanked on his arm. “If you want to live, you’ll do what I say when I say it.”
The man reached into his back pocket and took out his wallet.
“Take out your driver’s license,” Jeffrey said.
“I don’t understand. Just take the money, please.”
Jeffrey pressed the gun into the man’s ribs. “The license.”
The man whimpered a bit and his fingers scattered through his wallet spilling cards on the ground.
“Damn it,” Jeffrey said.
“Oh, God,” the man said, dropping more cards. He did not find what he was looking for and then saw it on the ground. He bent down and picked up his driver’s license and handed it to Jeffrey. Jeffrey took it and looked at the name.
“Good,” Jeffrey said. “Now pick up the rest of that crap and get in the back seat of the car.” Roger Freisman scrambled on the ground picking up cards while Jeffrey motioned for Stacy and Leif to join him. He scanned the street for the glow of headlights, his heart pounding in his chest.
He pointed at Leif. “You get in the back seat with him.” He opened the back door and pushed Freisman in and then reached down and flicked the child restraint lock on and slammed the door. Leif and Stacy ran to the far side of the car. They pulled open the car doors and each sat down, Leif in the back and Stacy in front. Jeffrey looked down and saw a credit card on the ground and picked it up. Then he squeezed into the driver’s seat. He pressed a switch, moving the seat to gain leg room. Throwing the car into reverse, he backed out into the street and stopped the car with a jolt, letting momentum slam his door shut. Then he threw the car into drive. “Roger, how do I close the gate?”
“Oh, God,” Freisman said. “Oh, God, this can’t be happening.”
“The gate, Roger, NOW!”
“I… uh… the center button there.” He pointed to the rear view mirror. Jeffrey pressed the center button, and the gate rolled closed. Jeffrey then drove the car down the street at the speed limit.
“Oh, that worked great!” Stacy said, her bright tone strange in contrast to Freisman’s panting. “But what if it hadn’t been him?”
Jeffrey winked at Stacy and then held up his hand for quiet. “Do you have the phone?”
Leif took the Australian trucker’s sat-phone from his pocket and pressed it into Jeffrey’s hand.
Freisman asked, “What are you going to do with me?”
Jeffrey looked into the rearview mirror at him. “Worry about your wife and daughter. The more you cooperate, the less pain they’ll feel.” Jeffrey tapped on the phone and then pressed the end-call button. He lifted the phone to his ear and waited.
“Yes, it’s me,” he said into the dead phone. He paused. After a moment, he said, “Yes, we have him. Do you have the wife and daughter secured?”
He paused again and looked at Freisman in the mirror. The flash of fear in Freisman’s eyes told Jeffrey that his gamble had paid off. Freisman’s wife and daughter were home tonight.
“Good, that was perfectly timed,” Jeffrey said into the phone. “Remember that nothing happens to the daughter until I say so.” He paused again and then shook his head, saying, “No, no, no, not unless I say, dammit. You leave that girl alone, you got me?”
One more pause.
“Keep it that way.” Jeffrey pressed the end-call button again and handed the phone to Leif, saying, “Those guys are sick in the head.”
Freisman asked, his voice catching, “What do you want from me?”
“Right now,” Jeffrey said, “I want silence.”
CHAPTER 18
Jeffrey turned the car down the forest highway and looked into the rearview mirror at Freisman. Dark shadows lay across Freisman’s face, but Jeffrey could see enough to know that something was wrong. The fear in Freisman’s eyes had diminished and been replaced by a searching look of curiosity.
Freisman leaned forward. “I can’t place it, but I know you don’t I?”
“No.”
“No. I never forget a face.” He leaned back into the seat, and more confidence blended into his voice. “We’ve met some time before. Is that what this is about? I’ve done you some wrong?” Freisman looked over to Leif. “I don’t think that’s possible. I’m a very fair man. At least I’d like to think so.”
“Shut him up,” Jeffrey said to Leif.
“Be quiet,” Leif said.
Freisman’s voice now had the tone of a negotiation. “If I don’t?” He paused. When Leif did nothing, he said, “Not a thing. Am I right?”
Stacy looked at Jeffrey with a flick of her eyes and then looked away. In the mirror Jeffrey could see Freisman looking at Leif. Then Freisman turned and looked at Jeffrey.
“If I can just figure out how I know you,” Freisman said. He took a handkerchief from his breast pocket and wiped it across his forehead. “You don’t want to say?”
“You’ve never met me before this moment,” Jeffrey said. “Now stop talking.”
Freisman looked at Jeffrey in the mirror for a moment longer and then said, “I’m a good judge of what people say. What you just told me may be the truth, but there’s no other group with my wife and daughter. Am I right? It’s just you three isn’t it?”
Stacy turned to look at Freisman, and Jeffrey saw the expression on her face shift, for just a moment, to ‘how did he know that?’
Freisman smiled at Stacy. “I thought so. You almost had me.” The smile faded from his face, and his expression became flat, businesslike. “I suppose my butt’s still in a sling here, but I’m guessing that you aren’t planning on hurting me.” He looked to Jeffrey for a reaction. Jeffrey gave him nothing.
Freisman continued, “What is it that you want? Money?”
Leif said, “You need to be quiet now.”
“I think we need to start negotiating right now,” Freisman said. “Let’s end this as quickly as possible.”
Jeffrey yanked the car to the right. Stacy, Leif, and Freisman—all caught by surprise at the sudden movement—snatched at the car’s interior to brace themselves through the turn. The car shot up a gravel road a few hundred yards. Jeffrey slammed on the brakes, and the car slid sideways in the gravel. A cloud of dust, glowing red with the brake lights, drifted past
the windows. Jeffrey put the car in park, shoved his door open, and got out. He yanked open Freisman’s door, grabbed his arm, and pulled him out of the car. Freisman looked up at Jeffrey, confident.
“Look,” Freisman said, “we don’t need to do this intimidation act. We’re rational men, and I’m sure we–”
Jeffrey slammed his fist into Freisman’s ribcage. Freisman’s face twisted in pain. Jeffrey hit him again and felt Freisman’s side give in as a rib broke. He drove a left hook into the opposite side of Freisman’s chest and then grabbed him by the back of his skull and slammed him face-first into the rear window, cracking the glass. Jeffrey pushed down on Freisman’s head, and the crack spidered up the widow. Freisman made a trilling sound of pain and fear as he fought to push himself away from the car.
“You thought I wouldn’t hurt you. If you were wrong there, the next question is, is your daughter safe?” He gripped Freisman by his hair and pulled him up, bending his head back. Jeffrey stared down at him, “When I say ‘shut up’, you shut the fuck up. Do I make myself clear?”
He released his grip on Freisman’s hair. Freisman fell to his hands and knees on the gravel, wheezing.
Jeffrey brushed bits of Freisman’s hair off the palm of his hand and then kicked Freisman’s side where the rib had broken. Freisman yelped like a dog and fell to his side. He lay for a moment wheezing.
“It hurts…” Freisman said, his voice quiet and pleading. “Oh God, it hurts so bad.”
With one hand, Jeffrey grabbed Freisman under the armpit and pulled him to his feet. He shoved Freisman’s head down and pushed him into the car. Freisman gave a sharp scream as he folded into the car. Jeffrey kicked Freisman’s feet in and slammed the door. He got in the front seat, the car sinking under his weight, and pulled the door closed. He looked at Stacy and tried to mask the regret he felt at hurting the man. Had he gone too far? She dipped her chin in a nod.
She’s still with me.
Jeffrey felt something let go in his chest. He drew a breath and exhaled.
Freisman wheezed in the back seat, his head on Leif’s shoulder. Jeffrey pushed the mirror so he could no longer see him. Every so often Freisman let out a quiet, “Oh God,” and went back to his shallow breathing. Jeffrey put the car in gear, spun the steering wheel, and crushed the accelerator under his boot. The car’s rear end whipped around, and he flipped the steering wheel. The car straightened and accelerated back down the road, fishtailing. Jeffrey pulled back out on the highway and drove away at the speed limit.
Hammerhead Page 14