“You're insane!”
Margo threw her arms around his neck and clung to him while trembling from her ordeal and possibly to the life she’d claimed. Jackson held her against him and attempted to comfort her. He reluctantly pulled back and took a second to assess her for any injuries. He appeared relieved that she hadn’t been hurt, despite her traumatized nerves. Margo suddenly met his gaze with a look of horror.
“Indy!”
“It's okay,” Jackson announced with a reassuring smile. “Harlan has her, and Flynn is getting Liz back.”
Margo appeared relieved while clutching her head, allowing her body to sag. She then looked back into Jackson’s eyes. Without warning, she kissed him passionately and aggressively. Jackson appeared surprised but immediately returned the kiss. Flynn’s voice crackling in Jackson’s ear interrupted their kiss. Jackson pulled away and touched his earpiece.
“Yeah, Flynn,” Jackson announced without awaiting his question. “I have Margo. She’s, uh, safe.”
“The lounge is empty,” came Flynn’s voice through Jackson’s earpiece. “Liz is gone. Meet me at the watchtower.”
“Be there in three,” Jackson announced then looked at Margo’s concerned expression.
“Something happened,” Margo gasped softly.
“Just a setback,” Jackson replied then pulled her to her feet. “Improvising is the air we breathe.”
Jackson hurried Margo along the wall toward the watchtower, keeping her low and out of sight.
Chapter Thirty-eight
The watchtower was highly visible with the tied, hooded man dangling from the upper window on the second story. Jackson and Margo hurried along the wall and stopped near the tower doorway while remaining mostly hidden. Flynn suddenly appeared alongside them, startling Margo. Jackson didn’t even flinch at his commander’s sudden and mysterious presence.
“We have to find Liz,” Flynn announced firmly.
Margo suddenly stared past them and held back her startled gasp. “Found her,” she whispered and gave a slight nod across the courtyard.
Both men followed her gaze across the courtyard. Hugo stood behind Liz, his arm securely around her neck and a gun aimed at her temple. Tears streaked her face when she saw Flynn. Jackson and Flynn both aimed their assault rifles at the man holding Flynn’s girlfriend captive.
“Flynn,” she cried out softly.
Hugo gave her arm a firm jolt and dug the barrel of the gun into her temple. Liz gasped with alarm and remained still against her captor.
“Disarm the bomb, or I'll kill this woman!” Hugo cried out with anger.
Flynn stared at Liz with a look of concern on his usually tough face. As his finger flexed on the rifle trigger, his hardened look returned on cue. Jackson backed Margo against the watchtower wall, keeping her securely behind him while keeping his assault rifle trained on Hugo.
“Harlan,” Flynn called out to nowhere in particular. “Disarm the bomb!”
There was no response. Flynn kept his eyes locked on Hugo holding the woman with the tear streaked face. Jackson uncertainly looked around, seeming surprised that they hadn’t heard a response from Harlan. Flynn remained tough, but he twitched from the silence as well. It was unusual for anyone from Flynn’s team not to respond when called.
“Harlan!” Flynn bellowed out with anger, the stress clearly getting the better of him.
Hugo stared back at Flynn with an air of arrogance on his face. “Something wrong, Stryker? Lose a man?” He then tapped his ear earpiece with his left hand while keeping Liz secured with his elbow to her shoulder. “Miles, bring Flynn’s little girl.” He awaited a response, but none came at his command either. Hugo’s arrogant look faded. “Miles?”
Flynn and Hugo both looked slightly foolish awaiting response from their mysteriously absent men.
“Do you mean this girl?” Harlan suddenly called out from nearby.
Harlan appeared from the watchtower with Indy behind him. Flynn cast a quick, sideways glance at his daughter, appeared relieved to see her, and attempted to hide his smile.
“Are you okay, honey?” Flynn asked her, again focusing his attention on Hugo holding Liz across the courtyard. He didn’t dare take his eyes or rifle off the man holding his girlfriend.
“I'm well, thank you,” Harlan replied while grinning.
Flynn glared at Harlan and smirked. “Stop the counter on the bomb.”
Harlan casually pressed a button on the remote control in his hand. The glowing counter on the man’s chest high above them shut off.
“Now--the remote, if you don't mind,” Hugo announced as he pressed the barrel into Liz’s temple in order to make her gasp for dramatic effect.
“Liz first,” Flynn demanded.
Hugo stared past Flynn. His expression suddenly dropped. Flynn cast a glance alongside him to see Harlan casually twirling the remote control out of apparent boredom. All eyes were suddenly on Harlan. Margo let out a slight gasp at his carelessness with the remote device. Harlan looked at Flynn with question then eyed the detonation device he twirled in his hand. He held the remote still and grinned with embarrassment.
“Oh, yeah, right,” Harlan announced and held back his soft chuckle. “Sorry. My mind was somewhere else.”
Hugo forced Liz across the courtyard toward the watchtower and closer to them. He forced her to stop almost halfway to them, which placed her fifty feet away.
“The remote,” Hugo again demanded.
Flynn glanced at Harlan and indicated the remote. Harlan casually handed it to him. Flynn approached Hugo and Liz with the remote control, paused several feet away, and placed the device on the ground.
“I get the girl, you get the remote,” Flynn announced.
Hugo released Liz and gave her a slight shove toward Flynn to throw her off balance. She caught her balance and hurried to Flynn. He pulled her into his arms and hurried her back to the watchtower and safety. Hugo picked up the remote control and grinned his pleasure.
“Kill them all,” Hugo called out as he hurried across the courtyard to safety.
Hugo’s men were suddenly seen perched on the walls behind him and opened fire. Flynn, Liz, and Indy dove to one side of the watchtower doorway, while Jackson and Margo leaped to the other side for shelter from the flying gunfire. Flynn fired back at the guards then looked at Harlan, who remained casually standing outside the door, despite the barrage of bullets. He wore a strange, twisted grin on his face. Flynn saw the look on Harlan’s face from only a few feet away and appeared alarmed.
“Ah, hell no!” Flynn cried out.
Harlan held back his chuckle while grinning slyly and produced a second remote control. “On my mark…” His finger was firm against the button.
Liz suddenly screamed and leaped past Flynn for Harlan and the detonation device he held. The enemy fire ceased as if on command to the running woman. A foot suddenly struck Liz in the face, nearly tossing her through the air before she roughly hit the ground. Indy recovered from her fast, hard kick, straightened, and looked at Harlan several feet from her.
“You're right,” Indy announced while cleverly raising her brow. “The coyote is evil.”
Hugo started screaming for his men to resume firing. The men perched on the walls again aimed their weapons. Harlan appeared pleased with himself.
“Mark,” he announced and pressed the remote control button.
Liz screamed with horror and looked to the dangling man in the tower. The remaining compound exploded systematically on both sides, rocking the ground beneath their feet. Guards were violently projected from the structure from the force of the explosion as the wall disintegrated beneath them. Hugo attempted to run for safety, although it was suddenly unclear where he would find any. Jackson appeared from alongside the watchtower and fired his assault rifle at the fleeing man, discharging a single round. Hugo fell to the ground while clutching his bleeding leg. Harlan frowned his disapproval, looked back at Jackson, and shook his head.
“You
r aim sucks.”
Jackson lowered his assault rifle and sneered at Harlan. “Some of us believe in taking prisoners,” he announced. “Just because you don’t understand the concept--”
“I took a live prisoner once,” Harlan casually remarked.
Jackson allowed the assault rifle to fall into the crook of his arm and glared demandingly. “Oh, really? Exactly when was that?” he questioned.
Harlan grinned and proudly pointed up to the bound and dangling hooded man. Jackson eyed the dangling man then glared at Harlan.
“Yeah, and you’re lucky. Flynn would have killed you if you shot our VIP prisoner,” Jackson remarked.
“He's hardly a VIP prisoner,” Harlan replied as he removed his Bowie knife from his boot.
Harlan approached the rope tied to the side of the building, suspending the man, and sliced through it. The hooded prisoner fell several feet to the ground, landing roughly near them. Liz scrambled to her feet near Indy and ran to the fallen, groaning man. Liz removed the hood to reveal her brother, Kale, who had been bound and gagged. She stared at her brother with shock and dismay. Flynn and Jackson were stunned to see Kale rather than their prized prisoner, Santiago. Flynn glared his annoyance at the group of people surrounding him.
“Anyone want to tell me what's going on?” Flynn demanded with hostility.
“Harlan's crazy,” Liz cried out while helping Kale into a sitting position. She pointed demandingly at Harlan. “He tried to kill me and my brother!”
Flynn casually folded his arms across his broad chest and looked around with little emotion. “Anyone other than Liz want to tell me what's going on?”
“Liz is the coyote, Dad,” Indy informed him.
Flynn looked back at Indy while appearing bewildered and baffled by the comment. “The coyote? I thought that was just some delusion manifested from Harlan’s head trauma.”
“No,” Indy replied and sighed softly. “It goes much deeper than that.”
All eyes were now on Harlan.
“I remember everything that happened the night of the compound explosion,” Harlan announced. “I ran back inside to manually detonate the bomb…”
Chapter Thirty-nine
Six weeks earlier, at the compound…Harlan continued up the stairs in more of a hurry now. As he reached the top of the stairs, more men were heard thumping along the hallway. Harlan appeared annoyed by the continual setback. He darted into a nearby bedroom. As three guards appeared, one paused by the partially open bedroom door now swaying slightly. The guard hesitated, raised his assault rifle, and pushed the door open. Harlan backed across the darkened bedroom and lowered himself alongside the bed. The bedroom door slowly opened. A guard looked around the dark room. Harlan remained still, silent, and practically invisible. The guard turned and left the room. Harlan slowly straightened and listened to the sound of running feet in the hallway, becoming faint the further they got down the hall. Harlan relaxed and was about to head for the door when he looked at the framed photo on the nightstand. He picked up the picture and stared at the photo of Liz with a look of surprise that quickly turned to horror.
“Liz?” he suddenly gasped. As he stared at the framed picture of Flynn’s beloved girlfriend, Harlan's expression turned to anger. “Son-of-a-bitch! She set us up!”
†
All eyes were on Liz as she clung to her brother while glaring at Harlan with loathe. Flynn folded his arms across his chest and raised a threatening brow. His unpredictable look was enough to frighten her. There was no mercy and certainly no love in his cold, harsh eyes.
“Would you care to confess?” Flynn asked in an oddly calm manner, although his chilling tone was unsettling. “You wouldn’t want me to ask twice, now would you?”
Liz looked at the demanding eyes staring at her from every corner. Harlan’s twisted smirk was enough to make her squirm closer to her bound brother. She looked back at Flynn and shuttered slightly.
“Santiago sent me to seduce you,” Liz reluctantly informed Flynn. “He wanted me to find out what you knew about his operations. When the mortician died, Santiago secured our cover as his family taking over the funeral home business to place us in your circle.”
“Why do I get a funny feeling Mr. Masters didn’t die of natural causes?” Jackson suddenly announced.
Liz didn’t respond and appeared ready to halt her confession entirely. Harlan crouched before Liz and her brother, smiled almost sweetly, and then rapidly pressed several buttons on the bomb vest panel. The counter continued counting down from five minutes, where it had left off. Liz gasped with horror and looked into Harlan’s eyes directly across from her. He maintained his sweet smile.
“This state-of-the-art, hand tailored, bad boy bomb vest is my own design,” Harlan informed her with pleasure. “I call it ‘the imploder’. It’ll only take out things within a few feet surrounding it.”
Harlan grabbed her wrist, startling her, and skillfully zip tied her hand to the vest. She gasped and pulled against the plastic tie tethering her to the vest bomb. Liz instinctively met Harlan’s sly, almost mocking gaze.
“You’ll want to spill your guts, before ‘the imploder’ does it for you,” he announced then casually straightened.
Liz appeared terrified and immediately started sweating. Kale stared at the counter on his chest and muffled a panic-filled cry for mercy. She immediately looked at Jackson.
“Yes, Santiago had the mortician killed so we could move into the funeral home,” she quickly announced. She then looked at Flynn and attempted to plead with her eyes. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, just stop the counter.”
Flynn made a face and shrugged without uncrossing his arms. He maintained his broad stance while staring down at her. “I don’t know, I think this will speed up the interrogation process.”
“You must have been disappointed to learn Flynn wasn’t much of a pillow talker,” Harlan remarked.
She glanced at Harlan and appeared unsettled by his gaze. Her eyes shifted between him and the bomb attached to her brother. “Yeah, I found that out the hard way,” she replied then fidgeted. “I had to improvise. Getting him to move me into his house was the perfect solution.”
“Bitch,” Margo muttered.
Jackson gave Margo a slight nudge to silence her, not wanting to interrupt story hour with Liz.
“You're doing fine, Liz,” Harlan hissed softly, his devious smirk sending fear through her. “Please, continue.”
She tensed while staring at the bomb then looked at those surrounding her. “Flynn let his location slip during one of our calls. I knew where he was going, so I warned Santiago here at the compound,” Liz announced then hesitated and stared at Harlan. “From what Flynn had told me about you, I knew where you'd plant the explosives and told Santiago. He knew how to block your remote control signal. His men were waiting for your unit to show up that night.”
“And the nurse?” Harlan demanded.
Liz tensed and drew a deep, shaken breath. “She was hired to silence you before you remembered anything from that night,” she informed him. “When Flynn said you’d spoken my name before slipping into the coma, I knew you saw something that would link me to the compound and Santiago.”
“And those men last night?” Indy suddenly asked.
“A last attempt to get rid of Harlan,” Liz replied and again looked at the counter on the bomb. It was at three minutes and rapidly counting down.
Indy felt something nagging at her. “Did you try to poison Harlan with the turkey potpie?”
There was an odd hesitation, although the countdown may have been the reason. “Yes,” she replied then gave Harlan a puzzled look. “How did you know it was poisoned?”
“You don't live as long as I have doing what I do without knowing the faint smell of poisons,” he replied. “I guess my defense mechanisms took over despite my condition.”
Flynn inhaled deeply while staring at Liz and Kale. His hand tensed on the gun’s grip, carefully hidden w
ithin his arms across his chest. There was a tense moment of complete silence and several glances were cast at the intimidating man. Indy wondered if her father intended to shoot Liz or just leave her with Kale to implode together. She considered how she’d feel about it if he allowed her to die. She wasn’t sure she liked herself after she realized her answer. Flynn finally looked at Harlan.
“You’ve had your fun,” Flynn announced and forced a deep sigh. “Stop the counter.”
Harlan again crouched alongside Kale and pressed several numbers onto the pad. The counter rapidly counted down from two minutes.
“Uh, oh,” Harlan gasped softly and quickly straightened.
All eyes were suddenly on him and then the numbers counting down.
“Everyone should probably take cover,” Harlan announced and took a few steps away from the tied couple.
Everyone screamed, ran several feet from the bomb, and dove to the ground, taking cover. Flynn dove on top of Indy, while Jackson tackled Margo to the ground. Liz screamed while fighting and clawing at the zip tie joining her to the vest. The counter reached zero across the entire line. Liz screamed and shielded her face.
Harlan stood three feet away and grinned. “Meep meep.”
Flynn rolled off Indy, who groaned in agony from the weight of her father shielding her with his massive body. She could barely turn over. Jackson was quick to jump off Margo, who seemed particularly dazed from her rough tackle. All four looked at the evil smirk on Harlan’s face. Liz stared at him while gasping and clutching her chest. Kale looked as though he’d nearly passed out. As the others slowly moved to their feet, Harlan chuckled with humor.
“You’re insane!” Liz screeched while bouncing on her backside in an unsuccessful attempt to jump to her feet.
Unconditional Page 18