by Matthew Rief
I was certain she was going to make the call even without my prompt, but she still looked shocked, and I wanted to wake her into reality. Whatever was about to happen, I was certain that at least one person would be needing a stretcher to get out of there. And a few would most likely need body bags.
I turned on my heels, ran right past the elevators, and shouldered my way into the stairwell. The last thing I wanted was to risk getting trapped in an iron cage, and it was only four flights up. I hit the concrete steps three at a time, flying up and around each corner and reaching the top floor in a blur. My heart was pounding, but I did my best to keep myself calm and composed as I grabbed my Sig and pushed open the heavy door.
The long hallway was empty aside from a maid’s cart about halfway down near the elevator. The maid stepped out from a propped open door, holding a stack of white towels. Room 404 was just a short ways down on the right-hand side. When I reached it, I quietly slid the card key into its slot, then slid it back out. A red light illuminated, followed by a muffled beep. I knew that whoever was inside had probably heard it, so I quickly tried a second time. Same result.
Frustrated, I threw the card aside and stepped back. It was a solid oak door, probably two inches thick, with a brass deadbolt. It was going to hurt, but I didn’t care. I dug my left foot into the ground, leaned back, and drove my right heel into the door just beside the handle. The front kick splintered the frame, causing the door to whirl open and slam into the doorstop.
I stormed into the room and spotted a couple in their sixties standing on the far side of the bed. The man was heavyset and much smaller than me. But he stood between me and his wife and stared me down like a wild animal regardless.
“Just passing through,” I said calmly as I strode right past them and pulled open the sliding glass door.
From this high up, the balcony had an incredible 180-degree view of the ocean. I briefly spotted Ange’s Cessna tied off at the end of the dock, but she was nowhere in sight. I knew it would only be a matter of seconds before she arrived.
I grabbed hold of the metal railing and climbed over. The pool area was directly below me, and just over forty feet down. A fall from there would mean broken legs at best and a shattered skull at worst.
I needed both of my hands free to make it, so I holstered my Sig and bent down. I listened for a moment but heard no sounds coming from the room below. I took in a deep breath, shifted my hands to grip the concrete edge, and dropped my body down. Using my momentum, I held on tight and swung under to room 304’s balcony.
The moment my soles hit the deck, I snatched my Sig and took aim through the glass. I spotted four guys in the room. Two were seated, tied up, and gagged. The other two stood over them, holding bloody rags and knives.
As soon as I landed, one of the standing guys spotted me. His eyes bulged and he reached for something on the bed that was out of my line of sight. Just as his arm extended and his mouth opened to yell something, I fired two 9mm hollow-points straight at him. The rounds shattered the glass and exploded into his chest, causing his body to flail and collapse out of sight. Shifting my aim, I put a round in the other thug’s head just as he was about to pounce on me with his bloody kitchen knife. He collapsed at my feet, his body sprawled out over the shards of glass.
I scanned every inch of the room, listening and waiting for more bad guys to barge in. Seeing that the room was clear, I stepped inside. Rashad was sitting right beside the glass near the nightstand. His face was covered in sweat and blood, his mouth duct-taped. He was shirtless and had a cut across his chest. His hands were cuffed behind his back and the steel links were drilled into the floor with large industrial screws. He made soft groaning noises as I looked him over for a second. Grabbing the edge of the tape, I ripped it free from his face with one quick pull.
He moaned and struggled to speak as I turned around and stepped toward Charles, who was seated between the foot of the bed and the television stand. He looked battered as well but still had his shirt on and had only a fraction of the amount of blood oozing from his body as Rashad. He was a lifer, a career agent who’d spent years in training and in the field. They must have realized early on that Rashad was the one to go after for info.
Charles’s mouth was also duct taped, and his hands were cuffed and bolted to the ground. I ripped the tape free, and words shot out from him rapid-fire.
“Dammit, it’s good to see you, Logan,” he said. “These assholes jumped me as soon as I came through the door.” He shook his head back and forth. “Either I’m getting old or the job here’s making me soft.”
“I’m sorry, Logan,” Rashad said, struggling to get the words out. “I should have left… I—”
“Never mind that,” I said waving a hand. “I need to get you guys free.”
I scanned the room, looking for the drill they’d used to pin them down. I figured that the hotel’s maintenance room would have a crowbar in case I couldn’t find it.
“Logan! You have to go,” Charles said. “There are more coming. It’s a trap. We overheard them.”
Before his words had died off, I heard footsteps coming from just outside in the hallway. I listened carefully, held up my Sig, and stepped silently toward the door. I kept my body against the wall to the right and leaned over, taking a quick glance through the peephole. It was Jane Verona, a police officer I recognized from Charles’s department in Key West.
She made a fist, pounded on the door, and said, “Open up! Police!”
She gripped her standard-issue Beretta with two hands and aimed at the door.
“Jane, it’s okay!” Charles yelled, recognizing her voice. “Logan’s here and he took them out.”
She kept her weapon raised and listened intently.
“I’m here, Jane,” I said calmly. “I’m opening the door.”
I slid off the metal chain, twisted open the deadbolt, and turned the handle. She looked me over with a focused gaze, then holstered her weapon. She was a beautiful Latina, was about five and a half feet tall and tough as nails. She was wearing her full police uniform.
I stepped toward her and ushered her inside.
“Come on,” I said. “Charles says there are more coming.”
Suddenly, far down the hall to my right, I spotted movement. I snapped my head to the right and saw three thugs moving toward us, with their weapons raised. With no time to waste, I grabbed Jane by her right arm and yanked her into the room just as the thugs let loose a hailstorm of bullets. The rounds struck the wall and door frame beside us as I forced her inside. I’d pulled her so hard that she flew a few steps and braced herself against the bed before swinging around.
The thugs continued to fire, letting off a relentless barrage of gunfire that shook the quiet hotel to life. I dropped to the floor near the door and took aim around the corner of the frame. Unable to get a shot off, I took a breath, then spun to my left, throwing my body into the nearby bathroom and contorting myself awkwardly to get a shot off. The lead guy popped into view and I sent a round into his leg. I could hear it shatter his shin as it swept his leg out from under him. He wailed and flipped forward, landing hard on the carpet.
The two other guys stepped back but continued firing. Wood splintered around me as bullets tore through the frame and drywall. I rolled back out of the bathroom and took cover on the right side. I listened as the gunfire stopped and realized that the two guys were reloading.
“Cover me,” I said, glancing at Jane who’d moved in closely behind me.
I popped to my feet, rolled out into the hallway, and raised my Sig. Before I could fire, a series of gunshots tore into each of the thugs from behind, and they collapsed, their bodies slamming hard onto the floor. Ange was standing right behind them in the middle of the hall, her Glock raised and her eyes narrowed. She’d made her move just as they were reloading as well.
She lowered her weapon and stepped toward us. The first guy, whose lower leg I’d disfigured, was grunting and reaching for his weapon on the
floor beside him. Ange put him out of his misery just as Jane stepped out beside me.
“We need to get them out of here,” I said, motioning toward the room. There was no time to thank Ange for her backup. “I’ll look for a—”
My voice was cut off by a sudden, powerful explosion. In a millisecond, a blast wave slammed into my entire body and tackled me to the ground. The sound was so loud that my ears screamed and rang violently. The force from the explosion knocked the air from my lungs, making it difficult to breathe as my entire body screamed in pain.
I forced my body to roll over and opened my eyes. My vision was blurred, but I peered as best I could toward the direction of the blast. Room 304 had been transformed into a pile of rubble, with pieces of furniture scattered all over the place. Smoke billowed out of the deformed door frame and wall, making it impossible to see more than a few feet into the room.
I forced myself to breathe, forced my body to move despite its protests to stay put. Ange was on one knee, but she looked up and gave me the okay signal. She’d been about thirty feet away from me when the bomb went off and hadn’t received as much damage, but she’d still been shaken up. Jane was on the ground beside me and wasn’t moving. She’d been standing between me and the hotel room, and it was clear that she was in bad shape.
Crawling my way toward her, I grabbed under her shoulders and pulled her away from the smoke. Ange came over and helped me, then rolled her onto her back. She was still breathing but was banged up pretty bad.
Willing away the delirium, I rose to my feet and turned toward the room. The smoke had cleared enough for me to see Charles lying flat on the ground.
“Go check on them,” Ange said. “I’ve got her.”
I stumbled inside, navigating around scattered wreckage, and dropped down beside Charles. His eyes were shut and blood dripped out from his mouth. A few wood fragments had dug deep into his chest, causing serious damage. He’d need medical attention fast if he was going to have the slightest chance of making it.
Turning around, I saw the source of the blast. There was a black crater that had blown a hole straight through to the room below right beside what remained of Rashad’s body. I looked in horror at the young FBI agent. He’d been just a few feet away from the blast and had been instantly blown to pieces. Anger swelled within me as I gazed upon him, then looked back at Charles.
Ange came in with towels and washcloths from the maid’s cart. We did our best to provide first aid and stop Charles’s bleeding. Jane regained consciousness but was unable to stand. Within minutes, a handful of police and paramedics were on scene. They loaded Jane and Charles onto stretchers, then rolled them out onto the elevator. The entire confrontation, starting from the moment the bomb went off, was a blur of activity. I was dizzy and my body ached from the blow.
I sat on the floor in the hallway with my back up against the wall. Ange knelt down beside me with an ice pack and a bottle of water. We were both overcome by a whirlwind of thoughts and emotions. Rashad was dead and Charles’s fate was up in the air. We’d come to save them, and they’d both been taken down anyway. Hell, it was only by chance that anyone had managed to survive the explosion. If we’d been in the room, there would two more stretchers needed, and maybe a few more body bags.
I looked hard into Ange’s eyes and told her that she was right. Carson had crossed the line for the last time. I had no desire to see her in jail. No, it was clear that the system she lived in had been corrupted to a point where that wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. We needed to take her down and we needed to do it our way.
NINETEEN
After what felt like an eternity, I glanced at my dive watch and saw that we had less than an hour before our meeting with Frank and his colleague. We’d spent over an hour and a half at the hotel, dealing with questions and receiving on-site medical attention. They’d insisted that we both go to the hospital to get checked for internal injuries, and we were both eager to see how Charles was doing.
I apologized to the receptionist for scaring her on the way out. She was still pretty shaken up from everything, and I didn’t blame her. It wasn’t every day that she got threatened, had her workplace shot up, and had an entire room get blown to pieces. Jack had his blue Jeep Wrangler parked out front waiting for us. Ange had assured me she could fly, but I figured that it wasn’t the best idea given what we’d just been through.
Atticus barked from the backseat, then jumped onto the pavement and ran over to us. I knelt down and he licked my face, acting as if he hadn’t seen me in a year.
“It’s good to see you too, boy,” I said, scratching behind his ears.
We hopped into Jack’s Wrangler and gave him a rundown on everything that had happened since we’d last seen him while he drove us over to the hospital. We started with telling him all about Rashad and the information he’d given us. It was hard to believe that it had been just the previous day that we’d caught him snooping on us near Salty Pete’s. We told him about our meeting with Scott, our decision to stop the oil spill, and finally the incident at the Slice of Paradise Motel.
“This is heavy, bro,” Jack said. “Even for you. We need to get the Navy and Coast Guard involved in this.”
“That’s what Scott said, but it’s too risky,” I said. “If Carson or Wake gets even a hint that big guns are coming after their operation, they’ll speed up the process and unleash their plan early. The only way this has a happy ending is if the entire thing is taken down right under their noses.”
“And you two have a plan to do this, I hope?”
“A rough plan for now,” I said. “But that’s why we’re meeting with Frank later. Hopefully, his friend can help us find a way to stop the rig.”
Jack turned his head and eyed us skeptically through his sunglasses.
“And does this guy know exactly what his expertise is being used for?” he asked.
“We’ll just have to play this one as it comes, Jack.”
I was anxious to get to the hospital. I felt responsible for Charles, knowing that if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t be in this situation. If we’d just helped the two women when their boat crashed and then gone about our lives like ordinary citizens, none of this would’ve happened. But I knew deep down that this crap wasn’t going to solve itself. That these were bad guys with a very bad plan, and if something wasn’t done soon, we were going to have a major catastrophe on our hands.
By the time we made it across the island to the hospital, we didn’t have much time before our meeting with Frank. The good thing is that Florida Keys Community College is located just across the street from the Lower Keys Medical Center, and it would take less than a minute to walk from one to the other.
Atticus found some shade under a few palm trees to the right of the entrance and plopped down while the three of us headed inside. The transition from the warm, humid air to the cooled air inside the hospital felt good. We headed straight back to intensive care and found Dr. Patel talking to assistants at the counter.
Doc explained that Charles was awake, but he was incredibly disoriented and required heavy medication to ease his pain. He said that he’d need to undergo surgery, but they were still going to run a few more tests before they decided on anything. Jane had suffered a concussion as well as blast lung, but he assured us that she should be fine after a few days of rest.
“If he needs surgery,” Ange said, “then why wouldn’t you do it?”
Doc paused a moment, then led us over to a quiet corner in the small waiting area.
“It’s a very difficult surgery,” he said quietly. He paused a moment as if struggling for the right words. “The chances of him making it are incredibly slim and… and he’s so weak already that we’re not even sure we can begin an operation like that.”
My heart sank in my chest. I knew that it was bad, but I was hoping that he’d at least have a chance. Charles had become one of my closest friends in the Keys, and he was the man I trusted most in law enforcement. The news hi
t me hard and I felt dizzy.
Without really asking for our permission, he led us both into a nearby empty room and performed a series of checks on both of us.
“Miss Fox,” he said. “Well, soon to be Mrs. Dodge, you appear to be just fine. Aside from the temporary hearing loss, but that should go away in a day or so. But you, Logan, show signs of a potential concussion. I recommend taking it easy for the next few days.”
Ange and I exchanged glances. Taking it easy would have to wait, unfortunately. As much as I didn’t like the idea of putting my mental health in the backseat, we had business to take care of.
After the quick checkup, Doc brought us over to where they were keeping Charles. I looked him over through the glass. He lay on a hospital bed in the room right next door to the still unconscious Charlotte. Much of his body was wrapped up in a white cast, and his head was trained forward, eyes closed. He looked like hell, but he was alive. It angered me to see him like that. Angered me to think of Carson and how despicable she was.
“He wants to see you, Logan,” Doc said gravely. “He asked for you as soon as he came to.”
I looked over at Doc. He was a smart, focused, serious man. But for the first time, I sensed a tinge of solemn emotion in his voice. He was an experienced medical professional. He’d been treating injuries and sicknesses for most of his adult life. But it was easy to see that what was happening didn’t sit right with him. From the two women, to the attack in the hospital, to someone trying to blow Charles to bits. He was mad as hell under that white lab coat, but he kept it together well.
“Thanks, Doc,” I said, placing a hand on his shoulder.
I walked inside and Doc shut the door behind me. Charles didn’t move his head, but his eyes scanned over to see who it was. I walked over, placed a hand on the bed, and sat down beside him. He was hooked up to a vital signs monitor that beeped rhythmically. Thin rubber tubes connected into his forearms.