Live Bait

by David Archer

  The guy nodded. “About damn time,” he said. “Who’s this guy?” He pointed at Sam.

  “My bodyguard,” Reese said. “Give me any trouble and he’ll shove that cane up your ass.”

  The guy chuckled, then shrugged. “I’m Mitch Hendricks, I’ve been waiting here for the last two hours. You could’ve at least let us know when you were going to be here, couldn’t you? Come on, the car’s right outside.” He turned and led the way through the milling crowd to an exit. “What the hell is going on, anyway? Heinrich went to a lot of trouble and expense to grab this girl, but now he just wants us to hand her off to you instead of holding her like we were told. What’s up with the change in plans?”

  “Something bigger came up,” Reese said as they walked toward the exits. “So, you work for Heinrich, then?”

  “Hell, no,” he said. “Me and my boys are independents, highest bidder, but my mother is Heinrich’s sister. Although, to be honest, I really wish I had never taken this job on, but you know how it is. Wave enough money under your nose, you’ll do just about anything.” He lowered his voice and whispered conspiratorially. “This girl, I don’t like getting involved in kidnappings. Heinrich insisted I grab her myself, and it turned out to be a little harder than I had expected. Had to kill a rent-a-cop just to get the job done.”

  Reese nodded while Sam stayed quiet and followed. He made a mental note to do everything possible to take Hendricks into custody. The security officer’s family needed to know that the man who killed him was brought to justice.

  Reese nodded, as if sympathizing. “I know what you mean,” he said. “You were lucky, though, you were in the background. I’m the one Heinrich put out there to have his head on the chopping block. Damn feds are all over me, and if I don’t produce this girl, my ass is grass. Does she know she’s about to be released?”

  “Of course not,” Mitch said. “She’s locked up in a little room, all by herself. We don’t talk to her, not at all. We give her food three times a day, and other than that, we just stay away from her. We put a TV in her room with cable, so she watches that all the time, when she isn’t crying or begging us to let her go.”

  Mitch led them out the door and toward the parking area, where he pointed at an older Chevy. He pressed a button on the key fob and the horn honked, then he opened the driver’s door and got behind the wheel. Sam got into the back seat, so that Reese could take the shotgun spot, and Mitch put the car in gear.

  EIGHT

  Indie had demanded the keys to the Expedition, and neither Denny nor Darren had wanted to argue with her. They were sitting just inside the rental area, with Rob Feinstein and his van full of mercenaries right behind them. “I’m gonna let one or two cars get between us,” Indie said as they merged onto the road behind the Chevy. “We don’t want their driver to pay too much attention to us.”

  Denny nodded. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said. “Just don’t lose them. We know where Sheldon is, but we don’t have an exact address.”

  “I won’t,” Indie said with a smile. “Besides, Sam’s phone will give me its exact GPS coordinates. I won’t have any trouble finding him when we get there.” She slowed a bit to let a couple of vehicles come around her, then resumed her speed. The Chevy was still in plain sight, and the intervening vehicles were keeping up with it.

  In the back seat, where he was sitting with Wendy and Harvey, Darren leaned forward. “That guy that was holding the sign,” he said. “He was ex-military, I’d bet on it. If this goes south on us, he’s probably got a whole team waiting wherever the girl is.”

  “I certainly would,” Denny said. “That’s why Sam wants Rob’s people to deploy as soon as we get there. He’s expecting trouble, for some reason, but I don’t know why.” He glanced at Indie. “Anything you want to share, love?”

  She grimaced. “You guys know about Beauregard, right?”

  “Yeah,” Denny said. “That’s your mum, right? Her little pet ghost or something?”

  “Yeah, well, that’s all sort of up for debate. The trouble is, Beauregard—and this is one of those things that stays off the record, Wendy—Beauregard has a tendency to predict things, and he’s always been right. This morning, he told my mother to call and tell me that Sam will get the girl back safely, but that he’s going to have to kill some people and it’s going to make someone angry enough to come after him for revenge.”

  “No problem, Indie,” Wendy said. “Sam already explained about Beauregard, we know not to mention him.”

  Darren let out a low whistle. “No wonder he’s taking precautions,” he said. “Don’t worry, Indie, we’ve all got his back. We’re not going to let anything happen to Sam.”

  “Sam’s no fool,” Denny said. “He says we’re supposed to get into position as quickly as we can and to be ready for anything. When he comes out with the girl, the number one priority is to keep her safe and alive. The rest of us have already added keeping Sam safe into the mix, as well.”

  “Do you think there’s any chance he can find a way to do this without anybody getting killed?” Indie asked.

  “No way to tell, love,” Denny said. “If the bastards inside start shooting, it’s going to be very difficult to avoid that possibility.”

  Darren nodded. “If I’m right about that guy,” he said, “then the rest of his people are probably ex-military, as well. If anything sets them off, it’s going to be a firefight. Let’s just hope our guys are better than his guys.”

  “You guys really know how to make a gal feel confident, you know that? I’m just worried, because whoever is behind this could be a lot more dangerous than anyone Sam has ever dealt with before.”

  “Just stay on them,” Denny said. “As long as we know where they’ve gone, we can be there to help protect him.”

  “Then, what I’m going to do is cruise past wherever they turn off,” Indie said. “I don’t want them to notice us at all, if possible. Once we see where they’ve stopped, I can circle the area to give you a better chance to look things over. Sam’s phone will tell me that.”

  Denny nodded his head. “That’ll be perfect,” he said. “We want to park some distance away from whatever house or building they go to, anyway, so that we can approach from an unexpected direction. This is the kind of situation where surprise is the most important factor.”

  They rode in silence for a few minutes, and then Indie glanced at Denny. She turned her eyes back to the road. “Does it get to you, when you know you’re going into a situation like this? Does the adrenaline start pumping?”

  Denny grinned. “If it didn’t,” he said, “I’d be dead. Anybody who goes into a potential firefight and says his heart isn’t racing, he’s a bloody liar.”

  Indie swallowed hard. “My heart is definitely racing,” she said. “I can tell you I’m just about scared to death. Sam, he always comes off like he’s so tough, but inside…”

  Denny watched her for a few seconds. “What about inside?”

  She made a nervous smile and shrugged. “Sam hates to kill anybody,” she said. “It tears him up, I’ve seen it several times. Even when there is no other choice, he agonizes about it for days.”

  “We’re going to take care of him,” Darren said from the back seat. “Indie, don’t let it worry you. I know that Sam is a little softhearted sometimes, but he’s also strong enough to know what has to be done. He’ll get through it, don’t worry.”

  They drove in silence for a while, and Indie continued to let traffic move in between them and the Chevy sedan. The ride took about an hour and a half, and then they saw the Chevy leave the interstate highway just south of Kankakee and start down a two lane blacktop. She deliberately passed the exit and went to the next one, only four miles further, then looked at the screen on her phone. The blip showed Sam about four miles to the east, and she pushed the big Expedition up to eighty. Ten minutes later, they were only a mile behind the Chevy, and she dropped her speed down to just over sixty-five. When the sedan appeared, it was far eno
ugh ahead that they were unlikely to be noticed in the driver’s rearview mirror.

  “We’re getting close,” Indie said. “That last little town was Donovan. Sheldon should be coming up within the next five miles or so.”

  “All right, then keep that car in sight, but let’s keep hanging back a bit. We don’t want to get so close that they notice.”

  Indie nodded. “Don’t worry,” she said, “I’m being pretty careful about that.”

  The little town of Sheldon had once been important to the farming industry throughout that part of Illinois, and the railroad tracks and silos that had once been part of the country’s grain distribution network were still in place. In its heyday, the town had been moderately famous for some connections to the Chicago mob, and there was an old building not too far outside it that was rumored to have an entrance to a tunnel that led all the way into that city. According to those few who had been down inside it, the tunnel was wide enough that cars were once driven through it, but no one really knew if that was true.

  Since then, however, the little town had gone downhill. A long-empty Dairy Queen restaurant stood on its north border, its only grocery store had been closed for years, and—aside from a few junk shops—the only businesses still open were a gas station, a liquor store and the bank.

  The interesting thing about the town was that parts of it seemed to be built within the remnants of a forest. Some of the houses and buildings on its south side were surrounded by trees, with dense foliage that made it almost impossible to see one house from another.

  The Chevy sedan turned left onto a side street in that section, but then immediately turned into a driveway of the house on the corner. Indie cruised past the turnoff as if uninterested, but then turned left on the second street after that one. She took the first left she came to then, and circled back around until they could see the Chevy still parked at the same house. The narrow street she had stopped on was surrounded by trees and devoid of houses. Rob pulled up behind her and parked the van, then walked up alone and leaned against Indie’s door.

  “This is interesting,” he said. “The trees are thick enough to cover our approach, but they make it impossible for us to know what’s in there, as well. I think our best move at the moment is to let Sam do his thing, but I’m taking the squad as close to that house as we can get. If things get hairy, I want us to be close by.”

  “All right,” Denny said. “Darren and I…”

  “I’d like you guys to stay here with Mrs. Prichard,” Rob said. “My boys can handle this.”

  Denny started to argue, but Darren laid a hand on his shoulder. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch,” Darren said. “This is the part Rob gets paid for, remember?”

  “Exactly,” Rob said, grinning at Darren.

  “Well, we’re going with you,” Wendy said. “Sam said we could.”

  “I know,” Rob said. “You just stay back in the woods until I give you the word that it’s all clear. Understood?”

  “Understood,” Harvey said before Wendy could say anything else. He climbed out of the vehicle and put his camera to his shoulder while Wendy jumped out and brushed off her clothing. When she was ready to go, he handed her a wireless microphone and aimed the camera at Rob.

  Rob nodded. He turned and went back to the van, and Harvey kept the camera rolling as his entire squad came out the back of the vehicle and melted into the trees. Indie watched in her side mirror, breathing a quiet prayer for the safety of all of them.

  * * * * *

  “Here we are,” Mitch said as he shut off the car. “Let’s go get her, and then you guys can take this car and leave. We’ll bag her, so she can’t see any of our faces. You leave that bag on until you get far enough away she won’t know where she’s at and can’t find her way back.”

  “No problem,” Reese said. “I don’t even want her to see my face.”

  Mitch got out of the car and Reese and Sam did likewise. They walked up to the steps that led to the front porch, and then Mitch knocked “shave-and-a-haircut” on the door.

  A curtain on the window in the door lifted slightly, and Mitch gave whoever looked out the thumbs up. The door opened a moment later, and Sam saw that the guy who opened it was holding a machine pistol.

  “You took long enough,” he said to Mitch. “Let’s get this over with, I’m sick of this job.”

  “Yeah, you and me both, Bobby,” Mitch said. “Kinda worked out for us, though, since we’re still getting paid the same money. She awake?”

  The guy who let the men in pointed at another man. “Ask him,” he said. “He’s the one who’s been feeding her today.”

  Mitch didn’t ask anything. “Bag her,” he said, “and bring her on out. As soon as they leave with her, we need to pack up and get the hell out of here.”

  The man he addressed nodded, then picked up a black cloth bag and started toward a door in the back wall of the room. He paused before he entered and raised a bandanna that was around his neck so that it covered the lower part of his face, like a wild west outlaw. When that was in place, he opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind him.

  Sam glanced around the room and noticed that everyone there—almost a dozen men in total—was looking closely at him. He leaned on his cane and tried to look unconcerned, but Bobby, the man who had let the men in, looked at Sam and then he and another man started whispering together.

  The door opened and the cowboy came out, holding the arm of a small girl. The bag was over her head, so Sam couldn’t be certain that it was Amber, but she was definitely the right size and build. The guy walked her over toward where he and Reese were standing, but then Bobby spoke up.

  “I’ve seen you somewhere before,” he said to Sam. “I can’t quite remember where, but I have.”

  Reese glanced at Sam, then turned back to the man who had spoken. “Him? I think you’ve got him mixed up with somebody else. This is my cousin, Jim. He’s new in this game, you wouldn’t have met him before.”

  The guy shook his head. “No, I never forget a face. I’ve definitely seen you before, and there’s something about that cane that’s familiar, too.”

  The man he’d been whispering with suddenly looked at Sam and his eyes went wide. “Holy crap,” he said. “That’s Sam Prichard!”

  Sam looked at him, trying to keep his face passive, but he felt the heat rising as his blood pressure suddenly shot upward. Damn television, he thought. I knew having our own news crew was going to end up being a bad idea!

  Bobby broke into a grin and started nodding. “Hell, yes, it most certainly is,” he said. “That’s where I know you from, CNN. You were all over the TV just a few weeks ago, something about professional assassins and the Internet awards situation.”

  “Shit,” Mitch said. He turned and looked at Sam and cursed again. “Sam Prichard? Dammit, it sure is. Son of a bitch, Reese, what the hell are you doing to us? Sam Prichard is some kind of federal agent, don’t you know that?”

  Every one of the men picked up a weapon, and suddenly they were all pointed at Sam and Reese. Sam stood there trying to remain calm and desperately trying to think of what to say to get them all out of the situation alive.

  “Okay, you got me,” he said. “Yeah, I’m Sam Prichard. On the other hand, I’m not really a federal agent, I’m a special investigator for a private security company. We were hired to find that girl and bring her back, and that’s what this is all about, right? Mr. Reese, here, we tracked him down and made it clear that if we didn’t get her back alive and safe, he was looking at spending the rest of his life in a federal maximum prison cell. He made a deal with the guy who hired you to give him something he wants even more than this girl in exchange. My only purpose here is to pick her up and take her back to her father. The rest of you don’t matter to me at all, so you’ve got nothing to worry about from me.”

  For a moment, Sam thought it was working. Some of the men lowered their weapons, and they were all looking from one to the other, trying to
decide what to do. Sam raised a hand and motioned for the cowboy to bring the girl to him, and the guy started walking again.

  “No, screw this,” Mitch said, drawing a pistol from his belt. “He’s Sam Prichard, there’s no way in hell he’s going to let us walk. Dammit, Reese, you are such an idiot. Now we got no choice but to kill all of you, and the girl, too.”

  * * * * *

  Rob and his men stepped into the wooded area beside the road, moving slowly and quietly toward the house where the old Chevy had stopped. According to Reese, the house they went to would be the location of Mr. McCabe’s daughter. In any other circumstances, Rob would have preferred to make this assault at night, rather than in the middle of the afternoon, but there wasn’t time to wait. From what Sam had told him privately, it was highly likely that something was about to go wrong inside that house, and Rob wasn’t going to take a chance on anything happening to Sam Prichard on his watch.

  “Vincent?” Rob whispered. Johnny Vincent was the best sniper in the squad, and the .50 caliber rifle in his hand had been specially made for him. “Get yourself in position. Once we start moving, anybody who points a gun at one of our people gets taken out.”

  “Yes, sir,” Vincent said. A moment later, he had vanished into the trees.

  “All right, let’s move,” Rob said. Quietly, far more quietly than a man of his size could be expected to move, he merged with the brush and led his men toward the house. They reached it without incident and managed to get up beside it without being seen.

  Carefully, Rob inched his way to a window and peeked inside. He was looking through the thin curtain, but he was able to make out Sam standing on the far side of the room, right next to Evan Reese.

  Unfortunately, he also saw that there were several other men in the room, and they all had weapons pointed at Sam.

  “Vincent?” Rob said into his comm unit. “Do you have a shot?”

  “I have a shot, sir,” came the response.