Wrong Time
Book 2 of the “Wrong” Series
By
Mitchel Grace
Other Titles by this Author
Wrong Place
Wrong Life
Wrong Regrets
Strange Visions: The Beginning
Strange Visions: Yesterday’s Sins
Strange Visions: False Endings
Coming Soon
Strange Visions: The Calm
Wrong Time
By Mitchel Grace
Published by Mitchel Grace
Copyright 2013 Mitchel Grace
License Notes
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the author and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
I would like to thank God and my family. I also want to thank any and all readers out there. For anyone else, you know who you are.
If you like my books, I hope you will recommend them to your friends. Visit my Facebook page at www.facebook.com/Mitchel.Grace.Author.
Chapter 1
The group stood there staring at the computer screen in disbelief.
“What time does it start?” Sam asked in a panic.
“It starts at twelve,” Nathan said.
“It’s already seven. There’s no way that we could make it there in time, but maybe we can still warn them,” Zane said.
“It’s worth a try at least,” Nathan said.
Jason took out his cell phone and made a call to the CIA headquarters.
“Hello,” Campbell answered.
“This is Jason, and we’ve recovered the device, but there’s a huge problem.”
“What is it?”
“There’s going to be a terrorist attack in Dallas in a few hours.”
“What? Where in Dallas, exactly?”
“Think about it. What will be the most crowded place this afternoon in Dallas?”
“Oh, God! I’ll get on it right now.”
“Thank you,” Jason said and hung up the phone.
They all sat there in awkward silence. No one could believe the reality they were being faced with. Finally, Nathan spoke.
“Well, this sucks. There has to be something that we can do to help.”
“I know what you mean. I just don’t feel right sitting here and doing nothing when all of those people are in danger,” Sam said.
“Unfortunately, I don’t have a choice but to sit here,” Lee said.
“I think that Dan, Jason, and I need to go back to Washington and see if there’s anything we can do there,” Zane said.
“I’ll go with you,” Sam said.
“What? You’re just leaving?” Michael asked in surprise.
“I can’t sit here and do nothing. I have to go do something or at least plan to do something useful right now.”
Surprisingly, Nathan didn’t have a sad or worried expression on his face. Michael was very puzzled by this. He only asked about her leaving on Nathan’s behalf. He thought that Nathan would be absolutely crushed by the prospect of Sam leaving him behind.
“So what time are we leaving?” Nathan asked.
“What?” Sam asked.
“Wherever you go, I’ll go.”
“I don’t know how Washington is going to feel about a civilian just walking into our main office.”
“Honestly, I don’t really care. I’m going.”
Sam only nodded. The truth was that she hoped Nathan would come with her, but she didn’t want to make him feel as if he had to. If he had wanted to stay there and help his friend recover and then go back to a normal life, she would have been sad, but she would have understood.
“So can you guys take care of Lee while I’m gone?” Nathan asked while motioning to Michael, Jess, and Trish.
Michael and Jess gave him a nod. Trish, however, looked a little bit lost. She didn’t know where her place was in all this. She couldn’t go with them because she obviously wasn’t the CIA type. In fact, she was working against them just a few days ago. She also wasn’t that close to Lee. Where do I stand in all of this, and where should I go from here, Trish wondered. Jess grabbed her shoulder, and it was just as if she could read Trish’s mind.
“Don’t worry. You’ve got a place with us here,” Jess said to her newest friend.
Trish nodded. It was decided where everyone would go.
“Do you mind if I borrow your laptop for the plane?” Sam asked Lee.
“No, not at all. Just bring it back to me in one piece.”
“All right, guys. I’ll see you soon,” Nathan said as he and Sam walked out of the hospital room.
* * * * *
Back in Washington, John Campbell was in the middle of a frantic phone call.
“Look, I’m telling you that you have to cancel!” John exclaimed.
“We’re not going to cancel just because of some document that you think you’ve found. We pay our security for a reason. We’ll inform them of a potential threat and increase the security for the event. There’s nothing else that can be done,” the man on the other end of the phone said.
“I am telling you that if you don’t cancel that game a lot of people, including yourself, are going to die!”
“Look, I don’t know who you think you are exactly, but I don’t tell you how to run your business, and you’re not about to tell me how to run mine. We’ll take all the precautions that are necessary, but this conversation is officially over.”
“Hello? Hello? Damn it!”
* * * * *
Nathan and the others had just boarded the plane on their way to Washington and were getting ready for takeoff.
“I can’t wait to get in the air, so I can look through the rest of this flash drive,” Sam said.
“If we’re going to find more of the same bad news like we found earlier, I don’t know if I want to know what’s on that thing,” Nathan said.
“But don’t you see that if we know before these types of attacks are about to happen, we may be able to prevent them?”
“I hope that you’re right, but why would these people even do something like this?”
“I think the answer to that question will probably be on this,” Sam said while motioning to the flash drive.
Soon the plane was in the air, and the passengers got the okay to use electronic devices. Sam inserted the flash drive and began looking through all the files.
“Oh my God! Look at all of this,” Sam said.
There on the screen were past business transactions.
“They sold long range missile plans to North Korea just last year, and these are transactions for actual hits on U.S. agents,” Sam said.
The list didn’t seem to discriminate. They had done jobs for everyone from the U.S. to extremist groups. These people had even been involved in paid terrorism on many different occasions.
“I think that I’m starting to understand these people now,” Nathan said.
Sam looked at him with confusion in her eyes. How could Nathan, or anyone for that matter, understand why these madmen would do some of the things that they had done?
“If you play both sides of the coin, you stand to gain maximum profits. They aren’t motivated by nationality or loyalty but by money and power,
” Nathan explained.
“I can kind of see that, but I wouldn’t say I can understand it.”
“Well, I didn’t mean that I agreed with it. They’re really walking a fine line, though. I wonder what all of their buyers would do if they knew that they were being double-crossed.”
“I think that maybe we should consider finding out,” Sam said with a smile.
* * * * *
It was 11:45 in Dallas, and the security teams were talking amongst themselves.
“Get this! The owner says that there’s supposed to be an attack today and that we should be on high alert,” one of the men said.
“What an idiot! Say, what time does this place go up anyway?” the other man asked.
“The bomb goes off at twelve. As a team, we’re all going to make our exit through the tunnel at 11:50.”
“I would hate to be the guy who was late for that one,” the other man said while laughing.
* * * * *
Nathan and Sam were exiting the plane when they saw it on the television monitors in the airport.
“Stop. Here it is,” Nathan said.
It was 11:57, and the two football teams were preparing to kickoff.
“Why in the world wouldn’t they cancel this game?” Zane asked while looking up at the monitor.
“It’s Dallas and Washington. I think that it would take an act of God for this game to be canceled,” Nathan said.
“Yeah, well, I just hope that those people don’t actually meet God soon,” Jason said.
The kicker sat his tee up, and then he kicked the ball into the air.
“Nothing happened,” Nathan said in surprise.
“Maybe Campbell was able to stop it,” Jason said.
As the returner caught the ball, a bright light engulfed the screen, and then there was nothing.
“Oh my God!” Sam said.
“There were roughly one hundred thousand people in that stadium,” Nathan said in disbelief.
“Come on. Let’s go. We have a lot of work to do,” Sam said with a face that was full of determined rage.
* * * * *
Back in Lee’s hospital room, the four friends were in absolute disbelief at the images they were seeing on the screen. It was the worst attack in American history. There, on the screen, a news report was showing what used to be a stadium but now only looked like an inferno.
“It’s like hell on earth,” Jess said in shock.
“I can’t believe I was actually a part of that,” Trish said.
“You weren’t. You helped us try to prevent it.”
“No, in a small way, I was. I helped the company that made this happen. I am responsible, and I can’t escape that.”
She knew that even if she wasn’t a direct part of the operation that had led to the deaths of so many thousands of people, she was definitely an indirect part of it. In that moment, she saw the fire on television, and she could feel all the people there burning. The weight of all of their souls was just too much for her to bear. She broke down and collapsed to the floor. There the almost always composed Trish sobbed like a child.
“I don’t know exactly how you feel, and I don’t think that this was your fault, but I can tell you one thing. If you feel responsible for this, then you should spend every waking moment doing whatever you can to make up for it,” Michael said.
Trish hadn’t expected something so smart and true to come out of Michael’s mouth. She was still in turmoil on the inside, but she knew that she had to collect herself and do what was right.
“You’re right. I’m going to meet Sam and Nathan in Washington and tell the CIA everything I know. Then I’m going to offer my services to them,” Trish said.
“You know, if you wait until Lee is better, I’ll go with you and do the same thing,” Michael said.
“I don’t know what I have to offer, but I’ll go with you, too,” Jess said.
Trish was relieved to hear that she wouldn’t have to go at this alone. She was also confused as to how she had found such decent people when she had never done anything to deserve them.
“Thank you . . . both of you,” Trish said.
* * * * *
While sitting at his desk, Campbell received a phone call.
“Hello,” he said.
“You know that you and everyone you love are going to die very soon, right?” an irate Markus said.
“No. The way I look at it is that I have you on the defensive, Markus.”
“Have you seen what happened in Dallas? That is the kind of power I hold, and I’m going to take that power overseas where I’ll pour all my resources into destroying everything about your country, your organization, and your little world that I possibly can.”
“So you admit that you had a direct hand in what happened today?”
“John, I admit that some associates of mine gave me money to get a job done, and I got it done. I used to get jobs like that done for you, but I suppose those days are over.”
“I just have to ask you. How did you get it done? How did you get a bomb past the security?”
“That security company was a dummy company. We were the security.”
“Well just know, Markus, that what happened today will be your own undoing. I’ll use every single resource within my power to hunt you down and anyone else who has helped you. Then I’ll have all of you brought to justice.”
“Do you really think I fear you, John? I have people inside the CIA who are working for me. Look at the person next to you, and ask yourself if you feel safe. When you turn on your television, do you feel like you’re in a position of power? Because if I were you, I would be thinking about what hole I was going to hide myself in for the rest of my life. Be ready because the wrath that you saw today in Dallas is nothing compared to the wrath that I’m going to rain down upon you in the coming weeks,” Markus said and hung up the phone.
Campbell sighed and felt a bit helpless. With what he had just seen on television, he truly did feel powerless, but if there was any chance of stopping this madman, he knew that he had to take it. He walked out of his office and gathered everyone around him.
“Listen up, people. We are at war, and there are going to be a lot of casualties over the next few weeks, but if you stick with me, I promise that the people responsible for the crimes committed today will burn for them.”
* * * * *
Back in New York, Markus was getting onto his private jet to leave the country when he received a phone call.
“Hello,” he said.
“I found at least one of them. He’s at the local hospital in Tampa,” a woman said.
“Excellent, Chloe. I want him, and anyone else who may be with him, dead. No one crosses us without paying a price.”
“He’s as good as dead, sir,” Chloe said and hung up the phone.
Markus sat down in his chair and smiled. He took comfort in knowing that at least one of the people responsible for his little secret getting out would soon be dead.
Chapter 2
Nathan and the others arrived at the CIA office in Washington and were walking inside as Mr. Campbell was finishing his speech. Jason was particularly surprised by the passion that Campbell spoke with. Just a few days before, John Campbell had refused to lift a finger to help them, and today he seemed to be the most motivated person in the room. Good for him, but we really could have used some of this enthusiasm before, Jason thought.
“Jason, I’m glad that everyone is okay. I’m sorry that it took so long for me to get you guys some help. Things were much more complicated than you may ever know,” Campbell said.
“It’s okay. We’re doing something about this now,” Jason said.
“Great! I recognize almost all of you, but who is this?” Campbell asked while looking at Nathan.
“This is Nathan Grey. He’s helped me out a lot over the last few days,” Sam said.
“He isn’t CIA, though? And you brought him here?”
“I want to offer my servic
es to help in whatever way I can, and considering what happened today, I would think that you guys could use all the help you can get,” Nathan said.
“Let me talk to you four over here,” Campbell said while motioning to everyone but Nathan.
The four of them and Campbell walked a few steps to the right and began discussing the potential problem that was Nathan.
“Look, I cannot have anyone who isn’t a CIA agent seeing classified documents,” Campbell said.
“Well, it’s a little too late for that. He helped me find and unlock the flash drive. It had a ton of what I can only assume is classified information on it.”
“Okay. I’m not saying that we just kick him to the curb, but doesn’t this seem more like a case where he should be put into protective custody, considering the fact that he’s only a civilian and has no special skills?”
“He does have skills. He has participated in several firefights and has also helped me plan different ops.”
“I can vouch for him, too,” Zane said after seeing the desperation in Sam’s eyes.
“Me, too,” Dan said.
“Hey, he helped everyone rescue me, so I’m not going to disagree,” Jason said.
“All right, maybe we can get him into a training program, and in a year or so you’ll have a new trainee,” Campbell said to Sam.
Nathan had much better hearing than most people, and he had been listening to their conversation, which had been growing increasingly louder. With Campbell’s statement, he finally decided to speak.
“I don’t think that you or I have time for training. I’ve been able to observe two agents, a handler, and the best supply man in the business who, I am convinced, would be a pretty good agent himself. I also have connections to a crazy former sniper who would do anything for me, a hacker, and a woman who has actually worked for our enemy. I think that given our desperate situation and the fact that I’m surrounded by such great people, a little hands-on training would be better than going to some boot camp. Give me a chance, and you won’t regret it.”
Campbell looked a little disgusted. Everyone was against him on this issue, and quite frankly, he had other things to worry about that were ten times more important than this.
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