“I know exactly what it was,” Jeffery said and smiled.
Just then, another shot could be heard, but this one was much closer to them. Suddenly, the prison doors opened. Sam started to step outside, but Nathan put a hand in front of her and pulled her back to him.
“Smart choice, Nathan. Then again, you always were good at protecting Samantha. All of these men were put in here by you two. If one of them recognized you, they would surely rip you to shreds,” Jeffery said as he stepped out of his prison.
“Nathan, what are you doing? We have to go after these people,” Sam said.
“Look, we had to give up our weapons at the front, and there are a lot of bad people out there. I’m not saying we shouldn’t pursue Jeffery and possibly Brad if he had anything to do with this, but I really think that we should at least wait until this area clears out some,” Nathan said while pulling Sam to a blind spot where people wouldn’t see them from the door.
“Fine, but we have to do something soon.”
The two of them waited for a couple of minutes until it sounded as if the area had cleared out, and then they stepped out of their cell. Every single cell was empty.
“I would say that Jason’s hunch about Brad being a traitor was probably spot-on,” Sam said.
The two of them quickly made their way through the prison until they were at the entrance. Nathan started to push the door open, but Sam grabbed his hand.
“Wait! We don’t know what or who is out there,” Sam said.
The two of them listened intently. They could hear what sounded like trucks pulling into the facility and several men cheering.
“We don’t stand a chance if we step out of this prison,” Nathan said.
Sam knew he was right, but she didn’t want to acknowledge that they were just going to have to let the scum who had imprisoned them go.
“Okay. I came through for you, and now I need you to come through on your end of the deal,” Chloe said.
“What is it that you need to get done anyway?” Brad asked.
“I need these targets dead soon,” Chloe said while handing him a file that had all of her target’s names and descriptions in it.
Brad began going through the names on the list and naming them aloud.
“Let’s see, Lee Higgins, Samantha Fisher . . .” Brad said before someone interrupted him.
“Did you say Samantha Fisher?” Jeffery asked.
“Yeah, I did, but why?”
“Well, you aren’t going to believe this, but the woman you passed when you were leaving my cell was Samantha Fisher. Nathan Grey’s name doesn’t happen to be on there too, does it?”
“As a matter of fact, it is.”
“The guy that was with her is Nathan. Two of your targets are right here inside of this prison.”
“All right, let’s go take care of business then,” Chloe said while tapping Brad on the shoulder.
Brad turned toward two of the soldiers who Chloe had brought with her and motioned for them to come to him.
“These two people are inside the prison, and we need them dead. Can you help us out?” Brad asked while showing them the pictures of Nathan and Sam.
“We’re on it,” one of the men said.
“All right, this should be interesting,” Brad said as he pulled his gun from his side and smiled.
Footsteps could be heard coming toward the front door where Nathan and Sam were standing.
“We need to move,” Sam said as she grabbed Nathan by the hand and led him back into the inner portion of the prison.
As they were running, Sam was thinking desperately of anywhere that they could hide or anything that she could use as a weapon. The two of them ran into the closest cell they could find and were both as quiet as possible. Sam edged her way around to take a peek at their pursuers. Brad was one of them. There were also two soldiers in full body armor and a woman she didn’t recognize.
“There are four in total. Two of them are in full body armor,” Sam whispered to Nathan.
Nathan thought for a second. He had to come up with something quick, or they were both going to end up dead. A plan came to him. It wasn’t exactly a good plan, but it was all that he had at the moment. He had to go with it.
“Slam this cell door when I tell you to,” Nathan whispered.
“Wait. Why?”
“Please, just trust me on this.”
As one of the armored guards came up to the cell, Nathan jumped out and slammed his head into the wall.
“Now!” Nathan yelled.
Sam slid the door shut with as much force as she could muster. Nathan had positioned the man so that his head was slightly inside the cell while the rest of his body was outside the cell. When Sam slid the door closed, it closed directly on the soldier’s neck, effectively crushing his windpipe.
“That was genius, but now what do we do?” Sam asked.
“Now you have a gun,” Nathan said as he picked up the man’s weapon and handed it to her.
The loud slam alerted the other three people pursuing them, but at least now they had a chance to fight back. Sam opened the door back up and peeked out of it. A bullet hit the wall just a few inches away from where her eyes were peering out.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Sam said.
Nathan thought for a minute. He had an idea, but it was going to be extremely risky.
“Maybe it will be,” Nathan said and dragged the soldier who had just met his end inside.
“What are you doing?” Sam asked.
“You’ll see,” Nathan said as he stripped the man of all of his body armor.
Nathan put all the armor on. Sam still looked a little confused, though.
“Okay. Now what?” Sam asked.
“Now I’ll act as a distraction while you pick off our friends out there.”
“No. You’re not going out there, even with body armor on.”
“Look, that’s exactly what I’m about to do, and I hope that you’re going to cover me when I do it,” Nathan said as he turned and ran out of the cell.
The men immediately started firing at Nathan. As quickly as she could, Sam turned and looked around the corner. She fired a shot into the neck of the armored man first. It was the only area of the man’s body that didn’t seem to be completely covered by the armor. She then turned her gaze toward Brad. She fired two shots into his chest. After seeing what was happening, Chloe turned and began firing at Sam. Sam ducked back into the cell just as the shots met her former location. Nathan had been hit two times in his chest, and the force of the impact took his breath away. As quickly as he could, he rolled into a nearby cell where he tried to catch his breath. Sam stood in her cell and tried to regain her composure. When her breathing slowed and she felt a calm run through her mind, she acted. She sprung from her cell and aimed straight at her attacker. Then she fired. She hit her target directly in the shoulder.
“Drop it!” Sam called out to the wounded woman lying on the floor.
Chloe complied and dropped her gun.
“Are you okay, Nathan?” Sam screamed out to him.
“I’m all right, or at least I think that I am,” Nathan called back to her.
“Okay. Do you have a radio to communicate with the people outside?” Sam asked Chloe.
“Yes, but why?” Chloe asked.
“I want you to tell them to go on without you and Brad. Tell them that you have other transportation coming.”
Chloe did as she was told, and soon enough, all of the trucks and soldiers were gone from outside.
“What are you going to do with me?” Chloe asked.
“First, we’re going to take you to a hospital, and then you’re going to answer a lot of questions for us,” Nathan said while walking out of a cell.
Chapter 5
Earlier that morning, Jason and the others had finished sorting through all the files, and everyone was exhausted.
“I think that we should get some sleep and come back this afternoon,” Ja
son said.
“Okay, but where do we sleep?” Michael asked.
“You can all stay with me until the agency works out a place for you to stay.”
They then drove with Jason to his house. Upon arriving, one simple truth became apparent.
“It’s a little small. It’s only a two bedroom place, so I don’t know how sleeping arrangements will work, but you can all decide amongst yourselves where to sleep,” Jason said as he walked into his bedroom.
Lee immediately flopped down on the couch.
“Oh, don’t tell me that I’m going to have to sleep on the floor again!” Michael exclaimed.
Trish knew that something was growing between Michael and Jess, and she didn’t want to get in the way of that, so she did the only thing that she could think to do.
“No, you and Jess can take the bed. I’ll take the floor,” Trish said.
Michael looked extremely surprised, but it was Jess’s desperate expression that was the most comical. She shot Trish a rare angry look. Michael, on the other hand, had broken into a full blown smile. Well, that was certainly a turn around. I went from sleeping on the floor to in the bed with Jess, Michael thought and then walked into the bedroom. Jess followed him very hesitantly. She didn’t quite trust Michael. Sure, they were good friends, but they had never slept in the same bed before. She was a little worried about what Michael might try when they were alone in the bedroom. Trish found a spot close to the couch, grabbed a small blanket that was lying over the back of the couch, and sat down.
“Oh, come on. I’m not going to let you sleep on the floor. You can have the couch,” Lee said.
“No, you’re still sick,” Trish said.
“Look, you’re either going to take the couch or we’re both going to be sleeping side by side on the floor.”
Trish appreciated the offer, but the truth was that he didn’t have to trade places with her. As tired as she was, she could have slept anywhere.
“You aren’t all that bad, you know,” Trish said as she flopped down on the couch.
“You must be losing your ability to read people,” Lee joked.
“Well, I don’t know what it is, but you seem a little different since we were imprisoned.”
“There’s something about thinking you’re going to die that kind of changes you.”
“How so?”
“It puts things into perspective. You think back over your whole life and see how much time you’ve wasted. I don’t want to waste any more of my time.”
“I can relate to that. Sometimes I wonder if I’ve actually done any good in my life at all.”
“You bought everyone some time back at the prison. If you didn’t have good in you, you would have just stuck to your kidnapping story and gone back to your old job. Thank you for sticking with us, by the way. If you hadn’t bought us that time, I doubt we would even be here right now,” Lee said.
“You’re welcome, and thanks for trying to make me feel better. Anyway, you know all about my past, so I just have to ask. What do you regret so much? Do tech guys really have such troubled pasts?” Trish asked while laughing.
“I don’t really have a troubled past. I just want to find someone to spend my life with. I’ve spent my entire life surrounded by people who make me feel somehow different, or even broken in some way. I want to find someone who’s like me so neither of us has to feel that way ever again.”
The living room was silent for a moment as Trish searched for the words to say to such an unexpected and deep thing from Lee.
“Can I give you some advice?” Trish asked.
“Yeah, sure.”
“Don’t search for someone who is the same as you. You should search for someone who can accept everything about you.”
“I really don’t think that the majority of women are going to be very accepting of me. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t exactly click with most women.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. You have a lot more good qualities than you know.”
“Really?”
“Yes, and you can trust me. I can read people, remember? Just keep being you, and good things are going to happen for you really soon.”
“I hope you’re right,” Lee said and laid his head back.
Where did that come from, Trish wondered. Lee was an okay guy, but six months ago she wouldn’t have had a clue of how to give relationship advice and would have cared to give the advice even less. These guys are making me soft, she thought as she turned over and drifted off.
In Michael and Jess’s room, there was total silence. Neither of them knew what to say, but Michael knew that he needed to say something soon.
“So this is a little more awkward than I imagined it would be,” Michael said.
“Look, this doesn’t have to be awkward. You just stay on your side of the bed, and I’ll stay on mine,” Jess said.
Michael was confused. The two of them had a moment back at the hospital, and he thought that things would just come naturally like they did with Nathan and Sam, but so far, it seemed like that spark back at the hospital had only made things awkward between the two of them.
“You don’t need to worry. I’m dead tired, and it’s not like I would try anything anyway.”
“Well, good.”
Silence enveloped the room again, and when Michael felt as if he couldn’t stand it anymore, he spoke.
“I don’t want things to be weird between us. I have always liked you, and I still like you, so nothing has really changed. I’m still your friend, no matter what changes or doesn’t change. There’s nothing for you to worry about right now. I would never try anything, and it kind of offends me that you think I would.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. This situation is just a little weird for me.”
“I understand,” Michael said while turning to face her.
Jess then reached out and took his hand. There was clearly a spark between the two of them, but Jess still wasn’t sure what to do with it, and Michael was just satisfied holding the hand of the girl he had loved for so long. There, with their hands on an imaginary midline, the two of them slept hand in hand.
* * * * *
Early that afternoon in Houston, Nathan and Sam were sitting next to Chloe, who was handcuffed to a hospital bed.
“Okay. First of all, where did the crew who broke all of your friends out of the prison come from, and where are they going?” Nathan asked.
“Why would I tell you anything?” Chloe asked.
“We can make life rather difficult for you in the future if you don’t tell us what we want to hear. Let’s try another question. Where has Markus Boyd gone to?” Sam asked.
“Okay. If I didn’t answer your last question, then you can certainly bet that I’m never going to answer this one. Anything you guys could ever do to me, Markus could do tenfold. I won’t betray a man who holds my life in his hands, and you two should really rethink what you’re doing. If I were you, I would be running as far away from this situation as possible because I can promise you one thing. None of you are getting out of this alive if you keep pursuing him.”
Sam motioned for Nathan to walk out of the room with her.
“It’s not going to do any good for us to talk to her here. We need to get her to Washington as soon as possible. The guys there will get anything that we could ever need out of her,” Sam said.
“How exactly will they do that?” Nathan asked.
Nathan really didn’t like the tone of voice that Sam took. He thought that Chloe may be tortured if they brought her back to Washington, and despite the fact that she probably deserved it, Nathan didn’t find it acceptable. He had seen the results of torture, and he wasn’t going to be a part of it, directly or indirectly.
“Sometimes they offer a new life for information. You know, cash and a new identity.”
“And at other times?”
“They use means that I personally don’t like to ask questions about.”
“You see,
that’s what I was afraid of. I can’t be a part of that, and I don’t see how you can.”
“You won’t be a part of it, and hopefully, it won’t even come to that.”
“Let me talk to her alone,” Nathan said and walked back into the room and sat down.
“Look, I’m going to be real honest with you. We’re going to take you to Washington where they’ll probably offer you some cash and a new life,” Nathan said.
“There’s no such thing as a new life for me. If I flipped on Markus, he would find me just like he’ll find you,” Chloe said.
“After you decline their offer for a new life, they’re going to try to get the information out of you through more barbaric means. I want to avoid that, so just give us something. If it’s possible, I would really like to spare you that pain.”
“What is this? Are you playing good cop with me or something?”
“No. I’ve seen the effects of torture, and I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m asking you, if not for me, then for yourself. Give us something so I don’t have to be a part of something so inhumane.”
Chloe searched his eyes. There was no sign that he was lying. He didn’t even have the eyes of a battle hardened soldier. He looked more like some sympathetic civilian. Either this guy is the best actor I have ever seen, or he’s actually telling me the truth, Chloe thought.
“I won’t tell you where Markus is. That’s just too much of a risk for me. I can tell you that those guys came from Atlanta, and that’s where they’re going back to.”
“Thank you,” Nathan said and got up to go tell Sam what he had just found out.
When he walked into the hall, he found that Sam was just getting off the phone with someone.
“What’s going on?” Nathan asked.
“I was just arranging transport for Chloe,” Sam said.
Nathan explained what he had learned from talking to Chloe.
“I need to call Campbell back and tell him about this. Zane should probably know that the Atlanta facility is going to be doubly hard to take over, too,” Sam said as she pulled her phone out of her pocket.
“Hello,” Campbell said.
Sam then explained the whole situation to him.
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