“Let me go!” she screamed.
Jason opened the door, and between the two men, they somehow managed to get her outside the cell. Lee took the knife away from her and put it in his pocket.
“Why would you stop me? I thought that you were my friend,” Trish said.
“I stopped you because I am your friend. If you had killed him, where would you be? In a jail cell. Is that what David would have wanted?” Lee asked.
“What does it matter? David can’t want anything because he’s dead!”
Her own words stung. “He’s dead.” She knew that David was gone, but hearing it out loud made it all too real. She had to leave. She walked away from Lee and Jason. She wanted to go back home.
“I’m going to take her home,” Lee said to Jason.
“I think that would probably be for the best. Is there anything I can do to help?” Jason asked.
“Just don’t ever let her in there again,” Lee said and chased after Trish.
“Wait! Where are you going?” Lee called to her.
“Just leave me alone.”
Lee followed her all of the way up to the roof.
“What are we doing here? You’re not thinking of doing something crazy like jumping, are you?”
“No! I’m not stupid. I just need some time to clear my head.”
“All right.”
Lee sat on the roof with her in silence until she stood and started to walk away. After Lee talked to Campbell and explained that he and Trish needed to go home today, they left. Much of the afternoon consisted of Trish locking herself in her room, but Lee never left the house. He knew that Trish didn’t need to be completely alone anytime soon.
That same morning, Campbell called Jess into his office shortly after she arrived at work.
“I need you to go on a little field trip with Mr. Jones today,” Campbell said.
“Where are we going?” Jess asked.
“We have a prison a few miles from here where a certain prisoner has refused to break. I want you and Burt to go reason with her, and if that doesn’t work, try to buy the information from her.”
“Buy the information?”
“Yes, offer her protection from Markus and a large sum of cash for his location. I’m willing to go up to 250,000 dollars for that man’s location.”
“All right. I’ll see what we can do.”
After she exited the room, she found Burt. The two of them drove to the prison. When they arrived, they were escorted to Chloe’s cell. As the door opened, Jess saw Chloe. The sight of the young woman was beyond shocking. Jess hadn’t known that a human being could look so bad and still be alive. The strange part about all of this was that Chloe was smiling.
“So have you two come here to have your fun with me, too?” Chloe asked.
“No. I’ve come here to make you an offer,” Jess said.
“What kind of offer?”
“We’re willing to offer you a new identity and fifty thousand dollars for the location of Markus Boyd,” Burt said.
“No amount of money will be enough for me to give up the location of Markus.”
“I’m authorized to go up to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,” Burt said.
“Like I said, there is no amount of money.”
“If there’s no amount of money, then what can we offer you? Is there anything in the world that could make you give up Markus?” Jess asked.
Chloe thought for a second.
“Yes. I want the money, but I also want the half-eared guard who put me through hell to pay for what he’s done.”
“In what way? What did you have in mind?” Burt asked.
“I want five minutes alone and unchained with him.”
“What are you going to do to him?” Jess asked.
“I won’t kill him, but I’ll make him wish that he was dead,” Chloe said in a cryptic sort of way.
“Let me make a phone call,” Burt said as he exited the cell.
Burt called Campbell and informed him of the prisoner’s request.
“Make sure she doesn’t have any type of weapon on her, and do it,” Campbell said.
“But, sir, this woman is a psychopath. She may kill the guard if we leave her alone with him,” Burt said.
“Listen, I want Markus found, and if one of our guards can’t hold out for five minutes in a cell with a small woman who has already been beaten senseless, then God help the future of that prison.”
“We can comply with your request, but you’re going to have to tell us everything,” Burt said as he walked back into the cell.
“Okay. There are four locations where he could be. The first is in Moscow, and the second is in Beijing. After those two places, you might want to try searching Paris and London. I will warn you, though; the security at all those locations is top notch. If you go to any of them, you’re not leaving there alive,” Chloe said.
“Thank you. We’ll have your money, some guards, and a plane ready for you to go anywhere you would like to go this afternoon,” Burt said.
“What about the other part of our deal?”
“We’ll locate the guard and give you five minutes before you leave this afternoon. You have my word,” Burt said.
Burt and Jess left the cell.
“Are you sure it was a good idea to agree to those terms? She’ll probably kill that guard, you know,” Jess said.
“Maybe we can get away with not giving her that part of the deal. What is she really going to do? She’s a prisoner,” Burt said.
Upon informing the guards of the deal that had been made, a man stepped forward.
“That woman bit my ear off yesterday, and I want those five minutes alone in the cell just as much as she does,” the man said.
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Jess said.
“I really don’t care what you think is a good idea. I’m going into that cell.”
Fine, it’s your funeral, Jess thought.
“We’ll leave the transport and decisions on how to move forward to you, gentlemen,” Burt said.
He and Jess exited the prison building. Jess felt good that they had some new information, but she couldn’t help but feel that they had just given someone a death sentence.
* * * * *
The next morning, Nathan and Sam were both lying in bed in a completely bored state. They hadn’t received any new orders yet, and there was absolutely nothing to do.
“So if we’re going to just lie here all day, we might as well get to know each other a little better. Is there anything that you’ve always wanted to know about me? Nothing is off limits,” Nathan said.
“Okay. The first time that we met, you were staring at me. What were you thinking in that moment?” Sam asked.
“I thought that you were beautiful, and I had no idea how I was going to beat you out for the job. You were stunning, and you seemed to be so confident. I didn’t know how I was going to compete with that. Then when I saw that you were staring back at me, I felt like an idiot.”
“Well, I thought you were cute in a strange kind of way, so you shouldn’t have felt odd when you saw that I was looking back at you.”
“That’s a relief. It’s my turn for a question. Who was your first love?” Nathan asked.
Sam didn’t say anything, and the smile that was on her face suddenly left.
“What’s wrong? You don’t have to answer that. That’s normally a sore subject with most people. I shouldn’t have asked,” Nathan said while trying to quickly back away from the subject that had obviously ruined their morning.
“It’s okay, Nathan. I never really had time for this sort of thing in my life before. You’re the first person I’ve ever loved. That probably sounds pretty pathetic.”
The truth was that Sam felt a little insecure about how inexperienced she was when it came to anything to do with social interaction, and she hadn’t really wanted to bring up this subject.
“Hey, that’s nothing to be ashamed of. I’m gla
d I’m your first experience with a relationship, and I hope that I’ll be your last,” Nathan said.
“What about you? Who was your first love?”
“I have been in love with the thought of being in love with a lot of women, but I think that you’re the first person who I’ve actually loved every part of,” Nathan said as he wrapped his arms around her.
His answer was a little cheesy, and it didn’t exactly answer her question, but Sam decided to take the answer. How often were they going to get to have the perfect morning together without any interruptions, after all? She was satisfied with just lying there curled up in each other’s arms.
* * * * *
Campbell was waiting as patiently as he possibly could in his office for Burt and Jess to return with good news, but his patience was starting to run out. He was so close to knowing the location of the man who was responsible for the deaths of thousands of lives and for the relocation of his own family. He decided that he would meet them downstairs. He walked in fast paced steps to the elevator and went down to the ground floor. He stepped out of the elevator and then made his way to the door. Once he was outside, he sat down on a bench near the entrance and waited for their arrival. Suddenly, he heard a deafening boom from above him, and the earth shook. He looked up to see a fireball a few floors up. He counted the floors.
“That’s our floor,” he said to himself.
Just then, Jess and Burt came running up.
“What happened?” Jess asked.
“I have no idea, but I think it’s safe to say that Markus’s reach extends a little further than our own,” Campbell said.
Chapter 11
Jason had just finished questioning the prisoner upstairs and was exiting the cell when he heard a large explosion and felt the building shake. He was in a panic. There was no one on this floor other than himself, the prisoner, two guards, and a janitor. If they were being attacked, there wouldn’t be much of a chance that they would be able to defend themselves up there. Jason quickly pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and called Campbell.
“Sir, what’s going on?” Jason asked.
“There appears to have been an explosion on our floor. I’m glad that you’re okay. Where are you?” Campbell asked.
“I’m two floors above our floor with the prisoner.”
“Okay. See if you can make your way down the south stairwell. If the stairwell is on fire, then go to the roof, and we’ll try to get a chopper up there to evacuate you.”
Jason hung up the phone and started walking toward the stairwell but stopped before he reached it. The man who was back in the cell may have been a prisoner, but did he deserve to burn to death? That was a question that Jason didn’t feel he was qualified to answer, so he motioned for the guards to walk back with him to the cell where they opened the prison door and retrieved the man. The janitor followed close behind them, and when they started walking back to the stairwell, Jason heard a click, followed by two shots. The guards who were with Jason fell to the floor in a lifeless heap. Jason turned to see his attacker. He was a middle aged janitor, who had previously looked harmless. This man cleans our floor. I see him all the time, Jason thought to himself.
“If you don’t want to die then start walking,” the janitor said as he escorted Jason to the holding room that had previously housed their own prisoner.
He shut the door and locked Jason inside. The man walked over to his cleaning cart and pulled out a janitor’s outfit. The other man quickly dressed himself, and the two of them began to walk away. Before they were completely out of the room, the man who Jason had thought was a simple janitor turned and threw the key to Jason’s prison on the floor in plain view. It was as if he wanted Jason to have to see his only glimmer of hope just feet away as he burned to death. Great, I just went from the possibility of dying at gunpoint to the probability of dying by burning to death. How unlucky could I be, Jason wondered.
Jess, Burt, and Campbell were waiting outside for the fire department to arrive, but unfortunately, they were taking their own sweet time. As they waited, two cleaning people ran outside. Burt recognized one of them, and the other one looked slightly familiar, but his hat was pulled down low. He wouldn’t meet Burt’s eyes, so he couldn’t place him.
“Hey, you work on our floor, Sully. Have you seen Jason? Is he okay?” Burt asked.
The man only gave him a sad look and shook his head while still moving away from the building. After seeing what had just happened, Jess put a hand on Burt’s shoulder, as if to try to provide some type of support for him after he had just heard the worst possible news. Jess looked up at the inferno above them and had to look away. She took her hand off of Burt’s shoulder and turned her body completely away from the sight. Tears began to collect in her eyes.
“Hey, what are you doing?” Campbell asked in a panic.
As Jess turned back around to see what was going on, she saw Burt running toward the building. He didn’t buy the story that Jason was gone. Campbell had just talked to him on the phone a minute before the cleaning people came out. He was going to save his friend. As he made his way into the building and started running up the stairs, he began to have doubts about his decision. The doubts were understandable, however, when you considered the fact that with every set of stairs he climbed, the intense heat grew hotter and hotter. When he got to the floor that the explosion had occurred on, it became clear that this part of the stairwell was not going to last much longer. He hurried past the blaze and walked up the next two flights of stairs. Then he stepped onto the floor where Jason had called them from. The first thing that he saw was Jason’s face staring out from behind glass. Why is he in there, and what is he staring at, Burt wondered. Burt traced the source of his gaze and found a set of keys lying on the floor. He picked them up, hurried to the door of Jason’s cell, and unlocked it. As soon as he opened the door, Jason met him with the biggest hug he had ever felt and the only one that he had ever received from Jason.
“Boy, am I glad to see you! I thought that I was done for,” Jason said.
“There isn’t much left of the stairwell. If we don’t hurry, we’ll both be done for soon,” Burt said.
As they ran through the smoky stairwell, Burt asked him a question.
“Who locked you in there?”
“The janitor who is normally working on our floor at night.”
“Sully? He always seemed like such a nice old man,” Burt said.
“Well, whoever he is, I can guarantee you that he isn’t very nice.”
As the two men finally exited the building, fire fighters were running past them. When they stepped out into the daylight and were finally able to breathe fresh air, the two friends found a place far away from the building to sit down. There was no talking. Both of the men were tired, and their lungs had been too filled with smoke for either of them to make a sound that didn’t revolve around a choking cough.
After Jason and Burt caught their breath, Jason told Campbell about what occurred as best he could.
“Sully might have done all this? That’s hard to believe. He was always such a nice man,” Campbell said in surprise.
He turned and made a phone call. He had to get the word out about Sully and their escaped prisoner. Jess, meanwhile, called Michael. She knew that if he heard about what happened at their office, he would be worried sick. Jason called Sam. No matter what was going on back in Memphis, it was time for her and Nathan to come back to Washington.
* * * * *
Early that afternoon, a guard entered Chloe’s cell and removed her hand cuffs. Then he walked out of the room.
“Are you sure that you want to do this, Will?” he asked the angry guard standing outside the cell.
“Yes. I’m going to show this woman that she messed with the wrong person,” Will said as he stepped into the cell.
Chloe stood and faced him. Her body was weak. She had been beaten, she was dehydrated, and she was starving, but strength wouldn’t be necessary against a bu
ffoon like Will. As she stepped within striking distance of him, she noticed the most obvious thing. Why do they always leave the most vital places wide open, she thought and smiled. She faked high and then kicked the man hard in the groin. As he went down to his knees holding his groin, Chloe delivered a hard blow to his throat. Once the man hit the ground clutching his throat, Chloe jumped onto his chest and placed her thumbs squarely in his eyes. She pressed as hard as she possibly could. The guards ran into the prison and pulled her off of Will, but it was too late. The damage had already been done. He would be lucky if he could ever have children, and he would lose his sight in one eye and only regain limited sight in the other one.
“You’re just lucky that I decided not to kill you!” Chloe shouted as they escorted her out of the cell.
Will just lay there, powerless and in pain. For the first time in his life, he knew what it was like to be embarrassed and to be in more pain than his body could handle. The guards escorted Chloe to an area where she was able to shower and put on a fresh set of clothes. Afterward, they gave her a meal and some water. Finally, she was escorted out of the prison and to a car where they began to drive to the airport.
* * * * *
Jason was on the way to drop Jess off at her new home when Jess suddenly received a phone call.
“Hello,” Jess said.
“Can you meet our prisoner at the airport? I believe her name is Chloe,” Campbell said.
“Sure, but why do I need to meet her?”
“We’ve lost the only prisoner that we had other than her. Suddenly, she seems a little too valuable for us to just let her go. See if you can get her to cooperate with us further, and regardless of whether you can or not, try to squeeze some more information out of her.”
“All right. I’ll see what I can do.”
Campbell then proceeded to tell her how to find Chloe’s private flight. Once she hung up the phone, she turned to Jason.
“We need to make a quick detour,” Jess said.
Chloe had just gotten out of the car next to a small runway, and she was about to get onto the plane when a car suddenly pulled up. The woman she had made a deal with the day before got out.
Wrong Time Page 10