The Law Of Three argi-4

by M. R. Sellars

  “I won’t debate it with you, either,” I told her gently. “I deliberately antagonized him, and I just might have made the wrong choice.”

  “Stop second guessing yourself, Rowan,” Ben instructed. “Albright’s wrong. That’s all there is to it. End of story.”

  “That remains to be seen.”

  “Ain’t no remains to be nothin’,” he spat. “She’s wrong, so drop it.”

  Across the room, the bell on the telephone sprang to life, jangling out an angry-sounding demand to be answered. We all froze, staring at one another with shared trepidation. I started to move toward the kitchenette just as the ringer belted out its noise for the third time.

  Behind me, Mandalay’s cell phone began to chirp. By the time I brought my fingers to rest on the handset in the kitchen, Ben’s phone had added itself to the fray, forming a discordant trio of chaotic tunes.

  CHAPTER 28:

  My stomach was starting to churn as I lifted the receiver and placed it against the side of my head. Bouncing around inside my skull was a desperate fear that I was about to become wholly responsible for Eldon Porter taking the life of a young woman who was associated with me by only tenuous threads at best. The concept of guilt by association was abhorrent enough, but this was virtually a case of guilt by future association.

  It didn’t matter how much reassurance I was given by Ben and Constance; the fact remained, in my mind I would hold myself accountable. I would experience a threefold return for my actions; there was no doubt. It was a foregone conclusion. And, I knew that if nothing else, it would be self-imposed. If it came to that, the payback would be harsh, and worst of all, inescapable.

  My brain tabbed through the possible greetings, both appropriate and not-several of which I desperately wanted to snarl. I wanted to scream each of them at Porter in unending succession, backed with every thread of anger I could muster; anger was something I had in abundance right now.

  However, at the same time the fire raged inside me, I was fully aware that even a single one of the phrases might possibly seal Star’s fate the moment it was uttered. I simply didn’t know what would push him over into the red zone, and I didn’t want to find out. I forced myself to draw in a deep breath and search once again for center.

  I don’t know how long I actually stood there with the handset to my ear, staring off into space, completely mute. What I do know is that the pause was long enough for my choice of greetings to become inconsequential. As a fleeting moment of calm passed before me, I reached out for it and made a desperate grab.

  My shoulders involuntarily relaxed as the person on the other end of the line spoke.

  “Hello?” A confused, feminine voice flowed into my ear. “Anyone there? Rowan? Felicity?”

  “Yeah, Cally,” I answered with a slow sigh. “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, Cally,” I told her. “Listen…”

  “Do you have the TV on?” She began her excited query before I could finish. “They’ve got someone trapped in a warehouse. It’s on all the stations. Is that him?”

  “Calm down, Cally,” I told her. “I know. We’ve been watching. And yes, it’s him. So, listen…”

  “I knew it!” she exclaimed, barreling over me once again. “I could feel it. I told everyone here that it had to be him.”

  “Cally…” I started again.

  She didn’t allow me to get more than a single word in. “He’s got a hostage. Do they know who it is? What are they going to do?”

  “CALLY!” I stated her name with a closely guarded firmness. “Slow down. Now be quiet and listen to me.”

  She fell silent for a fleeting moment and then spoke again in a meek tone that carried with it an overtone of worry, “Rowan, what’s wrong?”

  “Rowan, that was the field office,” Mandalay’s voice came at me.

  I looked at her, and she gave a curt nod to the phone in my hand. “Porter is on Sullivan’s cell, and he’s trying to get through on this line right now.”

  “Rowan? Rowan? What’s wrong?” Cally’s voice insisted in my ear.

  I nodded back to Mandalay and then spoke quickly into the phone. “Cally, listen, I have to go.”

  “Rowan,” her voice took on a desperate whine. “What’s wrong? Oh Gods! He doesn’t have Felicity, does he? He called her today…”

  “CALLY!” I barked again, all at once struggling with impatience at the situation and sympathy for her turmoil. “Listen to me. He DOES NOT have Felicity. She’s okay, but I have to go. I’ll explain later.”

  I could hear her crying my name as I dropped the handset back into the cradle.

  I shot a quick glance over to Felicity, and she gave me an understanding nod. “Aye, I’ll call her on my cell.”

  The telephone on the wall had pipped out a half ring the moment it hit the base and was already jangling its first full measure as my wife spoke. I closed my eyes and dropped my chin to my chest, drawing in a cleansing breath and forcing myself to blow it out slowly through my mouth.

  “Rowan…” Mandalay appealed as the phone gave a second full ring.

  I opened my eyes and looked up, giving her a shallow nod of acknowledgement as our eyes met. I could literally feel Eldon Porter on the other end of the phone even though I had not yet answered it; even the sound of the ring was different, angry and more urgent. This time it was the real thing, and I knew I had no choice but to play this out on his terms even though I had no idea what they were.

  My hand had never left the telephone, so I slipped it back out of the base in one smooth motion. As the mouthpiece came near my lips, I spoke in the calmest voice I could evoke, “Hello, Eldon.”

  “You haven’t won, Gant, you know that, don’t you?” He spat the question tersely.

  I could hear rustling noises coming over the phone as he apparently moved about within the confines of the building. I could only imagine what it was like-dark, cold, and no visible escape. Even for someone as insane as he, desperation had to be oozing from every pore.

  I didn’t feel sorry for him in the least, but I did fear the dangerous edge the panic would bring forth.

  He was breathing hard, huffing shallow breaths out, and wheezing them back in at an alarming rate. The situation had the potential to turn sour in a heartbeat.

  “I know, Eldon,” I told him. “You’re right, I haven’t won.”

  “Don’t patronize me, Gant!” he screamed. “Your sorcerers’ tricks won’t work this time! You just got lucky, that’s all!”

  “Okay, okay,” I said as a shiver traced itself up my spine. “Let’s work this out, Eldon.”

  I carefully covered the mouthpiece with my free hand and looked at Constance. “He’s really edgy,” I said. “Nothing like he was earlier. He’s losing control really fast.”

  She twisted her cell phone away from her mouth. “I know. They’ve got it patched in, and I’m listening. Look, Rowan, we’re working on something…”

  “What?”

  “Just keep him talking,” she instructed. “You’re doing fine.”

  “Who were you talking to?!” Porter demanded in my ear.

  I stiffened, feeling as though I had just been caught in the middle of some heinous act. I pulled my hand away from the mouthpiece and spoke. “I wasn’t talking to anyone.”

  “When I called! I couldn’t get through! You had to be talking to somebody!”

  I relaxed but not much. “That was just someone calling to check on me, Eldon.”

  “One of your minions, I’m sure,” he retorted.

  “You’re right, Eldon.” I agreed with him out of desperation.

  “Damn you, Gant!” he shouted. “I told you not to patronize me!”

  “Calm down, Eldon, we need to…”

  “Stop telling me to calm down! Do you hear me?! Stop it, stop it, stop it!”

  I pulled the handset away from my ear as he screamed. His voice buzzed in the earpiece, achieving a state of frant
ic distortion as he repeated the order.

  I watched Constance as she glanced to the side and gave a nod. I could hear Ben whispering around the corner of the doorway and assumed that he was conferring with her. About what, I didn’t know, but I didn’t have time to speculate. She had told me they were working on something, so I had to trust them.

  I tried to adopt a generic voice. “Okay, Eldon, I’m not trying to be patronizing to you. I’m sorry if that is how it sounded.”

  “What is wrong with you, Gant?” he demanded.

  “I’m not sure I understand.”

  “There’s something wrong with you,” he replied. “There’s something wrong with you!”

  “Tell me what you mean, Eldon,” I pressed.

  “You aren’t the same,” he answered me, his voice shaking with yet unreleased anger. “You… You aren’t the same as when I talked to you before.”

  “I’m the same, Eldon,” I told him.

  “It’s a trick! You’re trying to trick me again!” His voice jumped a notch in volume as he fired the accusation at me. “I told you it won’t work, Gant. It won’t work, Satan! Do you hear me?! It won’t work!”

  The calm insanity I had always associated with him was gone. He was now coming across as someone with one foot tenuously planted in reality but ravaged by unimaginable delusions. He was escalating beyond anything I had imagined, and I was rapidly losing faith in my ability to contain this.

  My mind raced as I tried to formulate a response that wouldn’t push him any further than I had already managed. Agreeing with him definitely wasn’t the way to go. Trying to stick to the middle of the road wasn’t any better. It seemed the only thing that had kept him on an even keel thus far was when he felt like he had pushed my buttons. He was at his calmest when he had my ire raised.

  I swallowed hard and started to open the stopcock on the mental valve that was presently holding back my anger. I figured I would start small. Let some of it creep into my voice and see what his reaction was. On the chance that it worked, I would take it a little further. If he wanted me to let loose on him, I would be more than happy to oblige.

  I glanced up and saw that Constance was looking off to the side and nodding vigorously as she motioned to me. I could hear her saying something into her phone, but I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Ben was apparently still just around the corner, because his urgent voice hit my unblocked ear. His words were much easier to understand.

  In a quiet voice, he was telling someone, “He looks okay, so go now.”

  Before I could put my hastily formed plan into motion, Porter began to scream into the phone, forcing me to pull the handset away yet again.

  “TELL THEM TO STOP, GANT!” His distorted voice arced several inches from the earpiece as I held the phone away from my head. “YOU BASTARD, I KNOW THEY ARE MOVING! TELL THEM TO STOP, OR I’LL KILL HER NOW!”

  “No! Eldon! Listen to me!” I blurted.

  Constance was shaking her head and waving. I could hear the frenzy in Ben’s tone as he asked, “Did they catch that?!”

  She didn’t respond quickly enough for him.

  “Mandalay!” his voice jumped. “Did they hear that?!”

  “I don’t know!” she shot back with her own thread of panic. “I lost the signal!”

  “Abort!” Ben immediately bellowed, presumably into his phone. “He made you! Abort!”

  Throughout the tangle of frenzied voices, I could still hear Eldon screaming at me, as well as my own pleas for him to listen.

  The next sound to reach my ears came from the handset in the form of an agonized scream drilling its way deeply through my inner ear. It was high-pitched and definitely female. The tortured sound was followed by a sharp, thudding noise and then a second pained wail.

  “Oh Gods!” I stammered as I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. I balled my free hand into a fist and began thumping it against my forehead in a vain attempt to push the imagined horror out of my head. “Dear Mother Goddess, no!”

  The floodgates opened, and my anger spewed forth. My skin grew hot, and my ears began to ring as my blood pressure set a new benchmark for the term hypertension. I brought the handset against my head and shouted, “PORTER!”

  There was nothing at the other end. Just a random repetition of hollow clicks that indicated the call had been disconnected.

  I swung the handset out and hammered it downward into the base then vented my anger at the first person to enter my sights.

  “What the hell was going on?!” I screamed at Mandalay. “Did you know what they were doing?!”

  “Calm down!” she shouted back.

  “Calm down?” I demanded as I stepped toward her. “Screw you! Don’t tell me to calm down!”

  An immense column of Native American filled the space between Mandalay and me as Ben quickly hooked himself around the corner. He planted one large hand against my chest and pushed, thrusting me rearward at an angle until I was backed against the countertop. “Goddammit, Rowan! Settle down!”

  I heard Felicity yelp, “Ben!”

  “You knew!” I roared, incredulity underscoring my anger. “Dammit you knew what they were doing, and you fucking got her killed, Ben! What the hell were you people thinking?!”

  “Rowan, you don’t know that he killed her.” Constance projected her voice over mine as she wedged herself around Ben and into the kitchenette.

  “You were listening in!” I spat as I struggled against my friend. “What the hell did it sound like to you?!”

  “Dammit, Row,” Ben appealed, his voice a deep boom. “Don’t make me cuff you.”

  Hot tears were beginning to roll down my cheeks, a product of both anger and despair. I glared back at my friend, fighting the urge to scream at him again.

  “Rowan, please…” Felicity’s voice came from behind him in an anguished appeal.

  “Did you even know where he was in the building?” I asked, my voice even but hard.

  “Every indication was that you had his attention, Rowan,” Constance explained. “We were just trying to get a couple of men into the building so we could pinpoint him.”

  “Yeah,” I shot back. “Well look what it got you. Just what the hell were you doing calling the shots anyway, Ben?”

  “Rowan,” Ben said. “Like Mandalay said, it looked like you had his attention.”

  “What?” I didn’t want to believe what I was hearing. “You used me?”

  “Dammit, Row,” Ben lamented. “It wasn’t my choice.”

  “You were our barometer, Rowan,” Mandalay said. “The SAIC made the decision not to go on voice analysis alone. Ben and I were gauging your reaction visually and feeding the information to the scene.”

  “I can’t believe you did that,” I said, swinging my disbelieving gaze between them. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “We couldn’t be sure that you wouldn’t accidentally tip him off,” she explained. “Besides, you were already on the line with him when the decision was made. I’m sorry.”

  “It was how it had to be done, white man,” Ben told me, his voice apologetic.

  “Well, how it had to be done sucks.”

  He continued to hold me against the cabinets, my torso bending back over the edge of the countertop. We simply stared at one another, neither of us quite sure what to say next.

  A few steps across the room, the apartment phone began to ring.

  An electronic chirp issued a half step behind it, and Constance immediately flipped her cell phone open. She tilted her head and pulled her hair back with her free hand as she tucked the device to her ear. “Mandalay.”

  The bell jangled again.

  “It’s him,” Constance stated as she looked at me then cocked her head toward the phone on the wall. “He never actually shut the phone off, and they tagged him as soon as he dialed. They want you to go ahead and talk to him again.”

  Ben looked me over and apparently decided that it still wasn’t safe to leave me unrestrained. He twisted at the
waist, keeping one hand firm against my chest while reaching past Felicity with the other and snatching the phone out of the cradle.

  He held the handset in front of my face, and I took it from him wordlessly.

  There was no way to put my rage in check, so I skipped the initial phase of my plan and went straight for voicing my disdain.

  “What do you want now you sorry bastard,” I snarled.

  “Don’t let that happen again!” Porter demanded.

  “Go screw yourself, Porter,” I fired back.

  Silence interrupted the flow of the short exchange as he fell mute. I listened carefully, searching for any ambient sound I could identify-any indication that Millicent Sullivan was still alive.

  “I see you’re back to your old self,” Porter finally spoke, his voice suddenly far calmer than it had been ten minutes ago. Apparently, my idea was correct.

  “So glad that you’re pleased,” I chided. “So you must not have killed her.”

  “What makes you think that?”

  “Simple, Eldon,” I explained. “You wouldn’t have called back if you had. If you kill her, you no longer have a hold on me.”

  “So you have decided to admit that you need her soul?”

  My fear ebbed, but the dip was shallow. I harbored no illusion that he hadn’t at least done something to her that was too horrid to consider.

  My tone remained sharp. “Yeah, sure, whatever, Eldon. Now, let me talk to her.”

  “I’d love to put her on, Gant, but she seems to have passed out.”

  “What did you do to her, you sick fuck?”

  “And thine eye shall not pity; but life shall go for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”

  CHAPTER 29:

  The quote from Deuteronomy was a verbal harbinger of things unimaginable. Unfortunately, I knew how literally Porter interpreted the Bible. I shuddered with the fear that he had in fact made one of the aforementioned choices and that it was more than just a recitation of chapter and verse.

  My mouth began to water as my stomach convulsed, working into a knot, and then slowly unraveling. The acrid bitterness of bile singed the back of my tongue, and I swallowed hard to force it back down. The breadth of his cruelty should have been no surprise to me by now, but this was getting to be more than I could take.