by John Moralee
“No,” Cade said. “Don’t hurt her. What do you want to know?”
“Davis Lando. He was sent to come after me – but who sent him?”
Cade wouldn’t tell Macy the truth, so he decided to tell a big lie that would hopefully be believable. “He was sent by the War Dogs.” The War Dogs were a notorious biker gang. They were also bitter rivals to the White Pride. “They hired him to infiltrate the White Pride. He was supposed to locate The Ranch so they could raid it. He was also supposed to kill you.”
“I knew it!” Macy said. “I’m going to kill them all.”
He stormed out of the shed, leaving Cade alive – for the moment.
But he knew that wouldn’t last long once Macy realised he had been lying.
*
Cade was left alone for about fifteen minutes before he heard someone opening the door. He expected it to be Macy – but it was a younger man with dirty-blond hair. He sneaked inside carrying a canvas bag. He was sweating and breathing heavily, but not due to exertion. There was fear in his eyes.
“You’re a cop, right?” the man whispered.
“Uh-huh.”
“Do you know who I am?”
“Yes,” Cade said. He recognised him. “You’re Clinton Bush.”
“I saw you and that woman arrive,” he said. “I knew something was wrong, so I listened to Mace having a conversation with his number two guy. They were talking about that guy Ray. They know his real name now, which means they’ll soon figure out why he was really here. Because of the colonel. And then I overheard them talking about killing my cousin for talking to the police. Is that true?”
“Yes,” Cade said. “I saw him shot.”
“No! Lee was a good guy. He sold weed but he never hurt nobody. They didn’t have to do that. They could have ...” He shook his head, tears running down his face. “I’m in deep trouble when Mace finds out I always suspected Ray had been sent by Jessica’s father to take her way from me. I didn’t dare tell Mace the truth at the time because I knew he’d get mad at me. He would’ve killed me. And Jessica. Mace is a complete psycho. I had to watch him torture that guy for like hours and hours, but he didn’t talk, which only made Mace madder. I had to watch him blow the guy’s head off. I’ll testify to everything if you can help me get into Witness Protection. Can you do that?”
“Yes,” Cade said. “I’ll do what I can, I promise.”
“What about Jessica? Can she come with me? I want her with me. We have to be together. Can you make sure that happens?”
Not a chance, Cade thought. But he didn’t say that. In a twisted way Clinton loved Jessica, but he was too dumb or too selfish to realise his love for her had ruined her life.
“Of course you can be together,” Cade lied. “As long as you help me.”
Clinton looked relieved at his answer. He grinned like a kid with an ice cream. “I never meant for any of this to happen. I wish Colonel Ryker could’ve just left us alone, then we’d all be happy now.”
Yeah, right.
“You said you could help me,” Cade reminded him. “How?”
“I’ve got some tools and stuff,” Clinton said. He opened the bag and pulled out a pair of bolt cutters. He freed Cade with them, telling him he’d also brought him some of his spare clothes – which he encouraged Cade to put on quickly. Cade wasted no time dressing in some grey overalls, a pair of tight-fitting running shoes and a baseball cap. Clinton was sneaking a look out of the door when Cade stopped to pick up his shield and slipped it into a pocket. Having it back made him feel better, like he was in control of his fate again.
“Do you have a cell phone?” Cade asked his rescuer.
“No – only Mace carries one in the compound. It’s one of his rules.”
“What about a gun?”
“No – just the guards have them. That’s another one of his rules. No guns unless you’re on guard duty.”
Cade cursed inwardly. A gun would have made things a lot easier. “Okay – so how exactly are we going to get out?”
“You can’t go out the main gate – because they always check the trucks before letting them through. But I’ve been thinking you could get out through the fence. There’s a sort of blind spot on the south-east between two of the buildings. The guards can’t see it until they do a pass. There’s some wire cutters in the bag you can use to make a hole. I’ll keep watch and signal when you can do it. Cut through the fence and run into the woods. Head south as fast as you can go. You’ll get to a road in about ten minutes. There’s a Wendy’s there. You can make a call for backup and come back to rescue us.”
Cade considered Clinton’s plan to be flawed. He would never make it to the Wendy’s if someone realised he was missing. And even if he did, he could never leave his partner behind.
“It won’t work,” he told Clinton. “But I do have a better idea.”
*
Cade’s escape plan was risky but simple. He would sneak into the house and rescue Gail and Jessica while Clinton remained outside sabotaging every vehicle apart from one, which they would use to escape in. Cade would meet Clinton at an exit around the back of the main house. Then they would drive the hell out of there. After agreeing on the details, they split up.
Keeping the baseball cap low over his eyes, Cade openly walked across the compound, keeping his pace normal, praying nobody would take any notice of him. He was dressed just like one of others and hoped nobody would wonder what he was doing. He was carrying the canvas bag with the tools inside it, acting like he was busy going somewhere with a purpose.
Clinton had told him that the front entrance was the only way into the building because all of the other exits were kept locked from the inside. It was not guarded, but he still felt nervous as he approached it. He was walking up to the door when he heard voices coming from inside, getting louder, but he had no time to change his direction because the men were already coming outside. He saw Macy among them and John Deere. There were four more with them. Macy was giving orders.
“Find out why Kyle and Ken haven’t called yet,” Macy told one of the men, handing him his cell phone. “I’m going to see that cop again. He lied to me and I’m going to make him pay.”
Cade stepped aside to let them pass, nodding in deference. “Sir!” he said. He was blessed by a miracle – the men barely acknowledged his existence. They walked on.
Macy was heading for the shed. It would only give him a minute or two before the alarm was raised.
Cade remembered to breath as he continued up the steps and into the entrance hall.
It was like entering the Nazi Party’s HQ. Ahead there was a grand staircase leading up to a balcony adorned with Nazi flags. A massive painting of Adolf Hitler hung at the top of the stairs, with a banner over it reading WHITE PRIDE. There were swastikas every way he looked – painted on the old, faded wallpaper that had belonged to one of the previous residents.
Clinton had described the basic layout of the building to Cade. The White Pride used most of the downstairs rooms like a fraternity house. Cade could hear hate-filled music blasting to his left. He could also hear men talking and laughing on his right. He avoided both directions. He hurried up the stairs, away from the noise.
Clinton had told him the upper west wing was used by the men as sleeping quarters. It was also where Macy had his office and kept the guns locked up. That room would be guarded by a man with a gun. The east wing was for the girls. It was also guarded – to prevent the girls misbehaving – but the guard didn’t have a gun. That was where the girls were kept when they were not working in the meth labs. According to Clinton Jessica would be in the third room right now, resting after her eight-hour shift. Clinton believed Cade’s partner would be kept in one of other rooms in the east wing, so Cade turned that way when he reached Hitler’s picture. He climbed the rest of the stairs cautiously, slipping a lug wrench out of his sleeve. It wasn’t much of a weapon – but he hoped he could use it to subdue the guard.
The guard was
sitting at the entrance to the east wing. He was an ugly skinhead wearing a grimy white T-shirt and jeans, listening to an iPod. His eyes registered no interest in Cade until he was getting close. Then he frowned. “Hey – who the -”
That was all he said before the lug wrench struck his head with a sound like a hammer striking a coconut. It knocked him sideways. As he started to fall off the chair, Cade grabbed him and kept him upright. He felt his wide neck for a pulse. He was still breathing – but out for the count. Good. Cade found some keys on him. And a knife. He hurried down the hall to the third room.
There were six girls sleeping there. He hardly recognised Jessica as one of them because she looked nothing like the happy girl in the photograph the colonel had showed him. This Jessica was a half-dead tweaker. She was too thin and too pale and aged ten years. He went over to her and shook her awake.
“Who are you?” she said dully. He saw the track marks on her skinny arms.
He showed her his shield. “I’m a cop sent by your father. My name’s Cade Lambert. They captured me and my partner, but I got loose with the help of your boyfriend. We’re planning an escape. You want to get out of here, Jessica?”
“Yes,” she said. “I hate it here. They’ve been keeping me a prisoner. I just want to go home, but they won’t let anyone leave. Not alive.”
“Okay – listen to me. I have a plan to get you out – but you have to do what I say right now. Get dressed. I’ll be back in less than a minute. Don’t make any noise.”
“Okay,” she said. “But what about the others? We can’t leave them behind. They’re my friends. They want to leave, too.”
Cade looked at the sleeping forms. Some of the girls looked to be in a worse state than Jessica. He didn’t want to leave any innocent people behind, but it had not been part of his plan to rescue so many people. They had been turned into slaves. What if they didn’t want to escape? What if they freaked out and tried warning their captors?
“Can you trust them to keep quiet, Jessica?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “Please help them, too.”
“Okay – wake them and tell them to get dressed. But don’t go anywhere until I come back. I have to find my partner.”
Cade hated leaving Jessica and the others, but he had to find Gail, too. He continued the search – but she wasn’t in any of the remaining rooms. He went back to Jessica. All of the girls looked scared, but they had got dressed.
“How are we going to escape?” Jessica asked him. It was a good question.
“There’s an exit at the back of the building. Your boyfriend’s going to be there with a vehicle. We’ll all jump in the back and drive out of the gate before they can stop us.”
“No!” one of the girls said. “They’ll see us and kill us!”
“Stacy’s right!” another said.
“It’ll work,” Cade said. “Just get ready to go down the stairs fast when I come back.”
“Come back?” Jessica said.
“I’m not leaving without my partner.”
*
The second guard was not sitting down listening to an iPod like the first one. He was vigilantly standing outside the door to Macy’s office with a 9mm in a holster. His hand touch his gun when he saw Cade, but he didn’t draw it.
Cade started walking towards him carrying the canvas bag. “Mace wants me to check on the woman.” He made sure the man saw his free hand were empty. “Which room’s she in?”
“That one,” the guard said.
He pointed at a closed door.
Cade smiled. “Thanks.”
The door wasn’t locked. Cade opened it. He saw a bed but no other furniture. Gail was naked and handcuffed to the wrought-iron bed head. She looked alarmed until she realised he wasn’t one of the White Pride. Cade held up his hand for her to stay quiet, then he turned around and stepped back out into the hallway. He made himself look confused. “Man, I think she’s killed herself.”
“What?” said the guard. He left his post to look for himself.
As soon as he was in range, Cade stepped forward and punched him in the throat. He hit him again hard, knocking him to his knees. Then Cade put him in a choke hold. He was unconscious in seconds. Moving quickly, Cade stripped him of his gun and radio, then went back into the bedroom. He used the bolt cutters to free his partner while he told her what was going on.
“Did they hurt you?” he asked.
“No,” she said. Gail stripped the dead men of his clothes and put them on.
Just then there was a distant explosion.
Cade swore. He had hoped for more time. There was no chance of a stealthy escape now.
“What was that?” Gail said.
“I left a little surprise for Macy. A booby trap. That was two cans of gasoline being lit by a cigarette stuck to a door. When the door opened, the cigarette touched the gasoline and -”
“Boom,” she finished. “I hope it killed him.”
The radio crackled with manic voices. “... explosion … on fire … Mace is dead ...”
“Change of plans,” he said. “We’d better get some weapons. Clinton says Macy stored them in a locked cabinet in his office. Come on!”
They found the cabinet easily enough: it wasn’t hidden. Cade broke into it, pleased to see it contained an entire arsenal of AK-47s, shotguns, handguns and even some grenades. Cade chose two Glocks and an AK-47. Gail opted for a shotgun and a couple of 9mms, which she stuck in the waist of the dead man’s jeans. The weapons were already fully loaded, but Cade decided to take some extra ammo and some grenades. He stuffed his pockets and filled the canvas bag with more. The bag weighed as much as a couple of dumbbells when he slung the strap over his shoulder and hurried towards the exit.
Stepping out into the hall, he encountered a scrawny man running towards him. The man stopped when he saw the AK aimed at him. He put up his hands. “Whoa! Don’t shoot me!”
It was tempting, but Cade wanted information. “How many people are downstairs right now?”
“Five,” the man blurted out, too frightened for it to be a lie.
“Where are they?”
“They’re all in the same room. It’s the one on the right at the bottom of the stairs.”
“Right from the stairs or the entrance?”
“The stairs.”
“Armed?”
“Uh - no,” he said.
That time he was lying.
Cade stepped closer. “Tell the truth or I’ll shoot you. How many are armed?”
“Wicks has a gun, but the others don’t, I swear.”
“What does Wicks look like?”
“He’s big with a scar on his neck.”
“How many men are outside?”
“There are eight men on guard duty and about another ten or so at the meth labs. Plus Mace and his bodyguards. That’s like about twenty guys.”
“How many of them have guns?”
“I don’t know.”
There was no time to tie the man up – so Gail stepped forward and knocked him out with the butt of a gun. They hurried back to the girls. They all looked terrified.
“Okay. We go – now.”
Cade went ahead of the girls down the stairs. He got to the bottom before signalling for everyone to make their way down. Then he approached the door where the music was coming from. He could see five men in the room, lounging around a table covered with drugs. None appeared to have heard the explosion because of the music. One matched the description of Wicks.
Stepping inside, Cade trained his AK-47 on Wicks. “Nobody move. You – hands up slowly.”
The man didn’t listen. He went for the gun inside his jacket.
Cade shot him. He died instantly. Cade kept his gun on the rest. The other men glared like they wanted to kill him, but they didn’t move. He made them put their hands on their heads and get on their knees facing a wall. With Gail covering him, Cade knocked them out one by one.
Jessica was looking out of a window. “Hurry
! They’re coming!”
Looking outside, Cade could see the shed was on fire and men were running around, waving guns. Some were heading towards the building.
“Okay – everyone go with my partner to the rear exit,” Cade said. “I’ll join you in a minute.”
He went back into the hall to the main entrance. There he waited for a man to appear outside running towards the entrance. Cade fired. He cut the man down and started shooting at others, feeling the kick of the AK as it sprayed bullets. He killed or two more before they could start shooting back. He hid behind the door as bullets flew past him. He reloaded the AK and unleashed a second spray. When that ran out, he fired off a few shots with his handgun, picking targets. He winged a man diving behind some crates. Heavy retaliatory fire forced him to give up his position and retreat. Someone threw a grenade through a window – exploding just behind him as he raced through the rooms to the back of the building, where Gail was in the kitchen with the girls. She had unlocked the exit door, but she didn’t look happy with what she saw outside.
“There’s no truck!” Gail told him.
Cade opened the door and looked out around the sides of the building. There was no one there. And no truck.
He looked at the fence about twenty feet away. Maybe he could get the girls to it? No – it wasn’t a viable escape route. They needed that vehicle – but where was Clinton?
He could hear an engine starting. Now he saw a truck driving towards him. The driver was Clinton. He was driving between the outbuildings at great speed.
“He’s coming,” Cade said. “Everyone get ready.”
Jessica and the other girls huddled in the doorway, waiting for the truck to arrive.
Clinton grinned when he saw Jessica – but it was the last thing he did. At that moment someone opened fire on the truck with a full clip from an AK. Clinton was riddled with bullets that half-tore off his head. Jessica screamed. The truck veered straight into the building and burst into flames. A hot wave of air nearly knocked Cade off his feet. Smoke stung his eyes. When he blinked away tears, he could see John Deere thirty yards away taking up a position to cover the rear exit. He was aiming -