SEAL Hard

by J. M. Madden

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jack’s eyes flicked open, his senses on alert. Something had woken him but he wasn’t sure what. Andrea lay naked beside him, golden lashes resting on her cheeks. The room had dimmed; had they actually slept all day?

  Rolling from the bed he dragged on his dirty clothes from the night before. He had no idea where his bag was and he wasn’t traipsing out in his boxers to look for it. Once he had his pants fastened he took up his Sig. He’d set it on the dresser this morning when Andrea had sidetracked him with the shower, and he’d fallen asleep before he could retrieve it. That in itself was very telling. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d gone to bed without a gun within reach.

  For just a second he looked back at her, curled up in the bed. She was a glorious woman, and he was proud of her. The entire situation had been fucked, but she’d kept a cool head all the way through.

  Padding from the bedroom on bare feet, he paused at the doorway to listen to the house. He thought he heard the clatter of keys on a keyboard. Mike probably. Shifting the gun to his waistband Jack walked out.

  Goose usually greeted him by now.

  His feet slowed…

  “Mike?”

  The clattering of the keys stopped, but Mike didn’t respond. Jack drew his weapon and debated going back to the bedroom. He didn’t have his cell phone on him and he had no idea who was in the office. They had never gotten a solid number of how many terrorists were in the cell. Had they missed one? And how had one of them known to come here?

  Jack hesitated, not wanting to leave Andrea unprotected. That hesitation worked to the intruder’s advantage. A figure in black lunged from Mike’s office, firing a semi-automatic directly at Jack. He dove for the floor, landing hard on his right shoulder behind the couch. This was not good cover!

  Feet pounded thorough the house and Jack had a feeling he was losing the intruder. Pushing to his feet he chased the sound, ducking behind a doorjamb as two more bullets were fired at him. Then the intruder was off again, through the back patio door, pulling a huge shelf down behind them to block Jack. He cursed as he threw the thing out of his way, but by the time he got through the door the figure in black was gone. In seconds he heard a car squealing away.

  Fuck!

  Then he heard a quiet whine. Reaching for the light switch near the door he flicked them on. Goose lay in the grass outside the door, tongue lolling as he tried to stand. It was obvious he’d been drugged with something, the poor dog was staggering. Jack picked him up and carried him into the house.

  Andrea stood in the living room entrance, little Beretta clutched in her hands in a perfect shooter stance. She’d dragged on a t-shirt but it looked to be inside out. “They’re gone,” he told her, carrying Goose to the couch and laying him down.

  “Where’s Mike?”

  Jack looked in the office and found him there. It looked like he’d been working when the intruder had snuck in and slammed him on the head with something. There was a pool of blood spreading through the carpet. “Get me something to stop this,” he told Andrea.

  She took off running, setting her pistol on the coffee table as she darted for the kitchen. She returned in a minute with several dish towels. She pressed one to Mike’s head and he groaned.

  Jack paged through his phone and called Silas. “We were just attacked at Mike’s. He’s down. We need a squad.”

  “Calling now. What did they get?”

  “I don’t know,” Jack admitted, glancing around. “He was on the computer. I can see the surveillance recordings up from Andrea’s coffee shop.”

  “I’ll see what I can find out from my end. I’ll have a response team there as soon as possible.”

  Jack hung up.

  Mike blinked up at them and he raised a hand to his head, but Jack caught it and pulled it down. “Don’t touch it, old man.”

  “Who are you calling old?” Mike’s voice came out slow, and slurred. “I’m not old. I’m vintage.”

  Jack chuckled, his gaze connecting with Andrea’s. “Okay, Vintage Mike. That’s your new handle.”

  They tried to keep Mike conscious until the squad got there, but he was kind of fading in and out.

  “What do you think they were after,” Andrea asked.

  Jack looked at the frame frozen on the screen. Mustafa’s image was on the screen. That was the day he’d met with the Navy informant.

  He and Andrea looked at each other at the same time. “Was he trying to delete those recordings? That’s stupid. Surely he knows it’s kept off site…”

  Jack didn’t know, but they needed to figure it out.

  * * *

  Mike was taken away in the ambulance and the critical response team arrived. Jack tasked one of the many assistants with finding Goose an all-night emergency vet. Mike doted on that animal and they needed to be sure he was cared for. Jack could tell that Goose had been drugged but had he been poisoned or given something toxic?

  The assistant looked like he wanted to argue but Mr. Woods shook his head at the man. Close-lipped, the assistant hoisted Goose into his arms and disappeared.

  Jack walked Woods through the house, showing him every step of the attack. As they were talking a patrol car pulled up and an officer stepped out. Woods went down to meet the man, smiling like a politician. A few words were exchanged and the cop made a call on his radio. Within just a couple of minutes the car pulled away.

  They were so close to being able to tie everything up with this op. If they could figure out the identity of the tall guy who met Mustafa in Andrea’s shop, they would be set.

  They ended up back in the office. There was a tech dusting for prints on the keyboard, but Jack seriously doubted he would have been that careless. “I’m pretty sure he had gloves on.”

  Woods nodded. “Just a formality.”

  He glanced at Andrea. She had gotten dressed since he’d walked through with Woods, and now stood against the far wall, just watching, a frown crinkling her brows. “What?”

  “What if he was after something else?”

  “Like what?”

  She shook her head, at a loss. “I don’t know. What hospital are the kids at? And are they under guard?”

  He waved Woods over and repeated Andrea’s questions.

  “They took them to the Children’s Hospital, King’s Daughters. There’s a team at the hospital but not on the individual kids.”

  Andrea frowned. “We know there’s another person involved, the person Mustafa made the handoff with. What if the kids saw or heard something or someone they weren’t supposed to?”

  “You think he’s trying to get rid of proof?”

  She gave a shrug and held her hands out, looking around pointedly.

  The men looked at each other for a moment, then went into motion. Woods pressed a couple of buttons on his phone and held it to his ear. Jack turned her around. “Get your shoes on and anything else you need.”

  Andrea scrambled, but was back at the door at the same time he was. Leaving through the kitchen Jack punched the button for the overhead garage door to open. “Get in,” he growled.

  Woods moved toward the black SUV he’d arrived in. “I can’t reach the team.”

  Jack floored the truck out of the garage, swinging to make a turn in front of Woods’ SUV. It hesitated a little because it hadn’t run for a few days, but then it revved like it was supposed to and they powered down the street.

  “Get on the interstate,” Andrea said, and he nodded.

  They raced through the evening traffic. Full night had fallen and the traffic had thinned, which was good. Though he’d never been there Jack knew that the hospital was a couple of exits away. He glanced at Andrea. “You okay?”

  She flashed him a grin, but it looked a little forced. “Fine. This is only the third high speed race I’ve been in in two days. Just don’t crash like the last one, I’m still sore.”

  Jack laughed and reached over to squeeze her thigh with his hand, then put both hands back on
the wheel. “We won’t crash.”

  They got to the hospital in an incredibly quick time, the black response SUV screeching to a stop. Woods jogged in front of them. “Rooms 213, 728 and 734. We’ll take seventh floor.” He pointed at an assistant. “You take second floor.”

  Flashing badges as they ran to the bank of elevators, they waited impatiently for one to open up.

  “I’ll take the stairs to the second floor,” the young assistant said, disappearing through a door to the right.

  The elevator opened and they climbed on.

  “We may be overreacting,” Woods murmured. His normally slicked back brown hair was a little mussed, but he looked ready to fight.

  “Do you want to explain to the Navy SEAL dads coming home why their children were left unprotected?” Andrea snapped.

  Woods looked less than enthused at the prospect, but he didn’t say anything more as they stepped off the elevator. Jack led the way to the rooms, waving away the nurse that tried to waylay them at the nurse’s station.

  “I’ll take care of them,” Woods said, pausing to talk to her.

  “You know where we’re going,” Jack growled.

  The first room they checked was 728. Inside there were two occupied beds, but both kids, a boy and a girl, looked up smiling, in spite of the time. There were several family members inside and one woman stepped forward. She held out her hands to them. Her blonde hair was mussed and her eyes red, but her grip was firm.

  “You’re the ones who saved my kids,” she said firmly. “Heath described you perfectly,” she said, looking up into Jack’s face without flinching. “I’m Sandra Johnson. Thank you so much. And my husband thanks you. Are you with the Navy?”

  “Homeland Security, now. And I was on Team Four for longer than I care to remember,” Jack told her.

  She nodded as if that explained everything, then she turned to Andrea. “Are you with Homeland as well?”

  Andrea shook her head. “No, just helping out. The kids are okay?”

  “Yes. Heath just had a flesh wound, but Emily will have to have surgery in the morning to repair her arm.” Her smile dimmed for a moment. “But we have some of the best doctors in the country here and I know she’ll be fine.”

  Andrea nodded, reaching out to squeeze her hands. “She will be.”

  “Have you had anyone here to check on you from the Navy?”

  Sandra frowned. “There was a guy that came and said he was from the Navy, but he wasn’t in uniform. Said he was a liaison of some type but I didn’t get his name. I don’t know,” she said slowly. “Something about him bugged me and I asked him to leave.”

  “Can you describe him?” Andrea asked her.

  “Tall, brown hair and blue eyes. Had on a black sweatshirt. Maybe that’s what bothered me,” she said, her face lightening. “He looked too casual.”

  “Okay, thanks Sandra. If you see him again call this number.” Jack produced a business card from his wallet and handed it to her.

  With a final wave at the kids, they left the room and headed down the hallway. The door to 734 was closed. Andrea tapped lightly, then pushed it open. He didn’t like her being in the front…

  Jack glanced over her head and into the room. The man from the video looked up at them, his eyes widening with recognition. He smiled for a second like he was going to play off their meeting, then he lunged. Before Jack could move her out of the way the guy slammed into Andrea hard, shoving her into Jack. Jack did everything he could to keep their feet, but he was off balance. They went down hard, but at least he was able to cushion Andrea. The tall man leapt over them both and took off down the hallway.

  “Call Silas,” he ordered as he pushed to his feet and took off after him. “Woods!”

  Woods looked up and read the situation in an instant couldn’t move soon enough to stop the fleeing man. He reached but the other guy spun away.

  The shifty little fucker was quick. It took every ounce of power Jack had to even keep sight of him as he disappeared down the stairwell. Jack slammed through the door and took a bare second to confirm he was going down and not up, then he was plunging down levels. His knee was on fire and every jolt sent fresh hell through his body. He wasn’t going to stop though. This fucker was a traitor to the Navy and the country, and he need to be taken out.

  A door slammed on the next level. Jack paused at the door but he heard footsteps continue to run down the steps below him. Fucker had tried to trick him.

  They got to the bottom floor and Jack pounded through the door. People looked at him, startled. This looked like the emergency department waiting room.

  “Homeland Security.” Jack flashed his badge. “A guy just ran through here. Where’d he go?”

  Several hands pointed to the right and Jack took off running again. The automatic doors to the outside were slow and he almost shot them out, but they peeled back. He jumped around a couple carrying a child between them, and continued on. There was a flash of movement to the right and he headed in that direction.

  Jack thought he heard the sound of running feet behind him but he barely spared a glance. His quarry was in front of him and there was no way he was getting away.

  Jack rounded a corner and ducked just as a round went off near his head, striking the brick. He scrambled back behind the corner and peered out, gun up. Another shot headed in his direction but he got a lock on the body and his surroundings; it was clear. Jack leaned out enough to fire at the traitor, but then he kept firing. One shot hit, then a second, and the tall man went down. His gun went flying.

  Woods came up behind him, panting, but he had a weapon out as well. Peering back around the corner, Jack saw that the man hadn’t moved. Jack headed toward him at a slow jog, weapon ready. He needn’t have worried, the guy wasn’t moving. The round from the Sig had shattered his right leg, and the second had taken out a large chunk of his shoulder. “Better get EMS here before he bleeds out,” Jack told Woods.

  Jack kicked the traitor’s weapon away and began going through his pockets, looking for identification. Nothing. Of course he wouldn’t make it easy. Then he found a set of car keys. He stuffed them in his pocket for later, moving back as hospital workers ran around the corner of the building. Two were pushing a gurney.

  Jack moved back to let them work. Hopefully they’d salvage his ass because he had questions, lots of questions. A bunch of them would have questions for this man.

  Andrea appeared and slid her arm through his. “Logan is okay. That was the little boy in the room. He said the man came in and started asking him questions about what had happened and he didn’t really remember, but the man started to get mad.”

  Jack shook his head. “Asshole. Woods!”

  Woods came out of the crowd. He still looked a little wide-eyed at everything. He stepped forward, trying to smooth his hand down the front of his suit jacket. Jack shook his head. Silas needed to stop hiring desk jockeys. Although he couldn’t really bitch. Woods had been prepared to be his backup. “I’m going to go find this guy’s car and go through it. You want to document what I find?”

  Woods nodded his head.

  “Then you need to get people on those kids and at least a couple of people on this guy to make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

  “Agreed,” Woods murmured, digging in his pocket for his phone.

  Andrea gave him an odd look. “Are you picking on him?” she whispered.

  Jack held thumb and forefinger out. “Maybe a little.”

  They watched the medical personnel work on the traitor for about ten minutes while they waited for someone to come sit on him, then they headed to the parking lot. Jack held the key fob up in the air, watching for blinking lights or the sound of a horn. They walked most of the length of the parking lot before they found an SUV exactly like Woods’.

  “Isn’t this interesting,” Jack said. “Looks like a government vehicle. Get the plate, Woods, and call it in. See who it’s assigned to.”

  Woods circled the truck to do
as suggested, and Jack unlocked the vehicle. As soon as it was open he started looking for ID. He found it in the center console.

  “Samuel Watkins, forty-four. Roanoke, Virginia.”

  Jack flipped through his wallet, pulling out little scraps of paper, then a Navy ID. Sam Watkins. He handed it to Woods. “See if you can figure out where the fucker came from. I know for a fact I’ve seen his face somewhere, just can’t place him.”

  Woods walked away from the car with the phone to his ear.

  Jack went through everything in the car. There was a briefcase on the back floorboard, locked with a code. Jack withdrew a knife from his boot and wedged the latches of the case open.

  “Andrea, look at this.”

  Inside the case were surveillance pictures of the kids, as well as a second stack of unfamiliar pictures. The two stacks were paper clipped separately, and there was a distinctive 1 and 2 on the stacks.

  “This looks like they targeted more kids,” she breathed, leafing through the pictures. Then he handed her two more stacks. “Is there a stack for each east coast team?”

  “That’s what it looks like to me,” he told her grimly.

  His phone rang and he took a minute to answer it. “We’re in the southwest corner of the parking lot. Look for a car just like yours,” he laughed, before hanging up.

  Silas arrived a couple of minutes later. Jack started handing him evidence. “Mr. Samuel Watkins, here, has a stack of targets for each SEAL Team.”

  Silas looked down at the papers in his hands, and his expression darkened. “They’ve been planning this for a long time,” he said quietly.

  “Yes,” Jack agreed, “but I think it’s happenstance that Team Ten was targeted first. I have a feeling it wouldn’t have mattered which team was deployed; they had contingencies for each of them.”

  Jack continued to go through the case and he found a list of names. He scanned a few but didn’t recognize any of them.

  Then he held up a cd marked ‘prototypes’. And another marked ‘armory personnel’. “I think this guy made himself a collateral package,” Jack murmured.