He turned to the door as O’Neal walked in leading Wayne. They were followed by six other men all fully armed. He reached behind him and turned off the screen. There was an observation room and those there would be watching the … prisoners, for want of a better word.
“Ah, Carter! Nice of you to join us. You know Amanda here, don’t you?”
Wayne held Jack’s gaze for several moments before shifting his glance to the woman standing next to him. To Jack’s disappointment, his expression didn’t change.
“Miss Hutchins.” He acknowledged her presence with a nod.
Amanda didn’t reply, but he did not expect her to.
“Have a seat, Carter,” Jack said, pointing to one of the seats in the office.
“I’d rather not.”
Jack nodded. “I hope you enjoyed the time spent with your family.”
Wayne gave him a hard stare. “Cut the crap, Chance, and get to the goddamn point.”
“Fine. Now where the hell is the microchip?” Jack asked, all pretense of niceness gone.
“You really think I’m just going to hand it over to you?”
“Yeah. Actually, I do,” Jack said with a brief laugh.
“You must have more faith in me than I have in myself then,” Wayne said.
“Oh, I have faith in you, Carter.” Jack turned to O’Neal and gave him a signal. The other man turned smartly and exited the room.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t just hand over the microchip to you.”
“That’s too fucking bad,” Chance said with a small smile. Just then, O’Neal returned, this time with both Kendra and Emily. He picked up the weapon that had been lying on the table next to him. Taking off the safety, he walked towards the females, then he grabbed Kendra’s arm roughly and placed the barrel of the gun on her temple.
“What are you doing?” Emily cried, jerking towards him in anger. She was restrained by two hefty men.
Ignoring her, Jack turned his gaze towards Wayne and saw both the man’s hands fold into fists. Good. This was not a game and it was time Carter realized that fact.
**
Wayne knew that his options were limited. He wanted nothing better than to release a volley of bullets into Jack Chance’s skull. When he’d walked in and seen his engineer in the man’s arms, he had felt the bitter taste of gall rise in his throat. The feeling of betrayal was practically tangible. But this took it to a whole new level.
Seeing the bastard holding a weapon to his daughter’s head, Wayne almost lost it. He could not look at Emily. He could not bear to see the perfect blend of fear and hatred in her eyes once again. He could not handle it. As it was, he had drawn upon his years of training to remain calm. He clenched his fists and went still. He had no idea if the gun was loaded, but it was safe to assume it was. What he didn’t know was if Chance would actually go ahead and pull the trigger.
“You really are a bastard, you know that?” Emily was seething.
“This is unnecessary, Chance. Why the hell would you terrify a child in this way?” Wayne said.
“I don’t want to, Carter. I’m not a monster. However, if it will get me what I want, I will not hesitate to pull the damn trigger,” Jack said with a shrug.
“You could have gotten your men to search me. Obviously, the chip is on me.”
“Right,” Jack said with a snort. “I’m not going to give you the opportunity to get your hands on a firearm. Hell no.”
“You are a damn coward, Jack Chance,” Emily said slowly. “I’ve always known that about you.”
“Carter, shut your woman up or I’ll do it myself.”
“You miserable asshole! How can you do this to a child?” Emily was mad as hell.
“Funny, you didn’t think so all those years ago?” Jack said softly.
Wayne stiffened. What the hell was the man talking about, almost as though he and Emily had some kind of history. That would be ridiculous, right? Definitely ridiculous. He glanced at Emily. She had gone deathly pale. That was strange.
“What the hell is he talking about?” Wayne asked, focusing his gaze on Emily. He could feel his heart pounding, which was strange. If there was one person he trusted with his life, it was Emily. Even when she’d hated him, she had never done anything to hurt him.
“He is delusional,” she said tightlipped.
Jack laughed, and this time Wayne saw something of the mischievous, fun-loving dude he’d known years ago.
Okay, there was definitely something there. Whatever it was, he would get to the bottom of it later. At that exact moment, he needed to focus on not getting his daughter shot. The thought of that far outweighed everything else and was making him nervous.
Wayne steadied his breathing. He could feel his heart pounding in his chest. He knew that he could not afford to let his emotions run high. He needed to be calm and alert. He took in his surroundings. He was outnumbered seven to two and though he knew that he and Emily could take them, there was the matter of their firearms and a defenseless little girl. There was no way he could take them on without placing Kendra’s life in danger.
He met his daughter’s gaze and saw the fear in them. He also saw the courage. She was not trembling or crying like most fourteen year olds would have been doing. Instead, she stood with her head and shoulders held high. Wayne felt his chest expand with pride. She was shaping up to be one hell of a woman and he was not going to let any greedy bastard snatch her future away from her.
“What the hell are you waiting for? Hand over the microchip, Carter, or I’m going to blow her brains out. Don’t think I won’t pull the trigger, Carter,” Jack said. “I will.”
“Yeah? But how do I know you’re not just bluffing?” Wayne knew he was skirting on the edge, but they both knew that if Jack went ahead and pulled that trigger, then the game was over. He would have to shoot Wayne as well.
“Will this serve to convince you?” Jack pointed the gun at one of his guards and fired. The man went down, shaking uncontrollably before he finally went still.
Wayne was standing a few feet from the man and he could tell from where he was that he was no longer breathing. There was a clean hole where his heart should be. Wayne’s eyes immediately went to Kendra’s and he read terror in her eyes. She was trembling in fear.
Don’t worry baby, I’ll get you out of here. Stay strong. He tried to communicate to her with his eyes. She must have understood what he was trying to say and after a moment, she nodded and seemed to stand straighter. He could still see that she was scared, but the terror of a few minutes ago had faded. Next he swung his gaze to Emily. She looked mad as hell. She needed to calm down or she would do something that would put them all in danger. She gazed into his eyes for a moment then shut hers. After a few seconds, she opened them and he could see that the storm had passed or was at least banked for the moment.
Satisfied for that moment, he focused his attention on Jack.
“Okay, I’m convinced,” he said as casually as he could. “But what guarantee do I have that you will let us go if I hand over the microchip?”
“The same guarantee I have that you will give me the chip if I let your family go,” Jack countered.
They were at an impasse. He glanced at the clock on the wall and saw that it was already noon. It was time to take action. They would have to make their move in daylight. That didn’t bother him so much since he knew the guys were already in position. Besides, they were below ground, so if the lights went out, the entire place would be placed in darkness.
Wayne folded his hands over his chest, which placed the wrist device close to his mouth. He bowed his head, further bringing it closer so that it was activated by his voice.
“Fine. I will give you the chip,” he said, defeat in his voice. He felt the slight vibration, which indicated that the device was active.
“That’s a wise choice, man. A really wise choice,” Jack said with a wide smile.
“Daddy, no!”
Wayne shut his eyes at his daughter’
s voice. No one had called him Daddy in seven long years. It felt so good to hear.
“I have no choice, sweetheart,” he said, opening his eyes.
“You can’t give him the microchip. Please, don’t give it to him. He’s going to hurt so many people.” For the first time since she walked into that room, Wayne saw tears well up in Kendra’s eyes and spill down her face.
Emily reached for the girl and wrapped her arms around her. Kendra buried her head in her mother’s chest. She was almost as tall as Emily.
“Listen to your father, child,” Jack snapped.
Wayne wanted to growl at him. How dare he think of raising his voice at his kid? Not for the first time, he felt terrible that she had to go through all she’d experienced. Good fathers did everything in their power to keep their children safe from harm’s way. But what had he done? He had exposed her to scum like Jack Chance.
“I have one request,” Wayne said.
“Ask,” Jack said.
“Let the child and her mother go, even if it’s just out of this room.”
Jack shrugged. “Sure. I can do that.” With a nod, O’Neal walked Kendra and Emily out of the room.
“Now, the chip, Carter,” Jack said in a voice that reeked with menace.
Wayne’s hand went to his belt buckle.
“Keep your hands were I can see them,” Jack said, pointing the gun at Wayne.
Very slowly, Wayne raised both hands up above his head and waited.
“Now hand over the microchip.”
Wayne sighed loudly. “I understand your apprehension, Chance. If I were in your shoes, I would be very nervous right now, however, you need to make up your mind about what you want.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Jack asked.
“Do you want my hands were you can see them or do you want the microchip?”
Jack stared at him without expression. “Ha ha, how cute. Now quit acting smart and get the damn thing.”
With exaggerated moves, Wayne brought his hand slowly to his waist once more and touched the belt buckle. He felt around the metal head until his finger touched a tiny knob. As soon as he depressed the knob, something slid onto his fingers.
“Is this what you’re searching for?” Wayne held up the tiny square piece of plastic.
“Go get the chip, Amanda,” Jack ordered.
Amanda walked towards him slowly. He could see her reluctance with every step she took. Wayne did not bother about how long she took. From here on out, they had very little time to execute their plan. When she got to where he was standing, she stopped right in front of him. Wayne looked at her, but she wouldn’t meet his gaze. He wanted to ask her just one question. Why?
Why had she betrayed him? Why did she team up with a psycho to unleash destruction on their country? She didn’t look like the sort of person to do something like that. Hell, the fact that she even felt bad about her betrayal—as evidenced in her inability to look him in the eye—showed that she still had a conscience.
Wayne held out the microchip to Amanda. When she stretched out her hand to receive it, he held it back just a little out of her reach and waited. She tried reaching for it again and he repeated the action. She lifted her gaze to his and he read the regret and silent apology in hers. Yep. She felt guilty for her part in all of this. He decided to keep that fact in mind. It might prove useful somewhere along the line. With a barely-there smile, he dropped the microchip into her waiting hands.
Chapter Twenty-three
Tuesday, 3:00 p.m., the Pentagon
General Carter got back from the meeting at the Oval Office seething. He wanted so badly to wring the neck of Timothy Weaver. The damn vice president was the worst thing to happen to the United States. He was ignorant, egotistical and a goddamn ass kisser. Of course, what he had described in a nutshell was a politician and that was what Weaver was, a politician.
Damn. It was hard maintaining a calm disposition around that man.
He walked into his office, barely acknowledging the greetings that were thrown at him. He did not give a damn what the asshole had to say about it, he was done sitting quietly. It was time to get to action.
“Get me Derek Copeland on the phone,” he said to his assistant as he walked past her into the inner room that served as his office.
He sat down behind his table and leaned back on his chair. He closed his eyes as he tried to push aside the memory of the meeting. What a travesty. He couldn’t believe that both the vice president as well as the national security adviser refused to see the situation as a real threat to security. They wouldn’t call off the convention either. He understood that it would send a terribly negative message to the world. He got that. But the decision to storm the warehouse in Kansas was bullshit in his opinion. It placed too many lives at risk.
The phone of his table beeped and he lifted the receiver to his ears. “Yes?”
“Mr. Copeland is on line two, Sir.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”
He shook his head at her perky voice. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing to be perky about.
“Copeland, I need everything you have on the traitor.”
“Is there something specific you are searching for, Sir?”
“We know that he is involved in all this in some way, but we don’t have any concrete evidence linking him to any of it. When the shit hits the fan, if we don’t have everything lined up nicely, he will walk and we can’t have that now, can we?”
“No. That would be bad.”
“Right. Let me know what you have before the end of the day.”
Ending the call, General Carter made another phone call, this time on his private line.
“It’s time to move,” he said when the call was picked up. “This is going to be dangerous, but you’ve gone into worse situations. If anyone can make it out of there, it’s you. So go in and do your thing.”
“Roger that,” the voice at the other end said.
“Don’t disappoint me.”
“Hooah!”
After that call, the general sat back and ran his strategy through his mind. He had set things in motion and it wouldn’t be long before he began to see the ripple effects. When the shit hit the fan, it was really going to fly.
**
“Okay, Emily, all systems are a go. We’ve disrupted the feed.”
“What did you do?”
“We recorded the last ten minutes and are playing it on a loop.”
Emily nodded at that. That way it would take whoever was watching them several minutes before they discovered that something was amiss.
“How much time to I have?”
She was speaking with Rusty using Kendra’s watch. Apparently, it was also a communication device. It wasn’t until Rusty had spoken out of it that she realized what it was.
“We figure about ten, twenty minutes before someone notices that something is off with the feed,” Rusty replied.
“I can work with that,” she said. “Kendra, do you have a firm grip on the hairband?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay.” she had her back to the girl and once she felt around a bit, it wasn’t too hard to grab hold of the hairband. “Now we pull on three. One, two, three…” They both pulled until it stretched. “Now let go.”
Emily ran her finger through one edge and felt sharp pain as it cut through her skin. Okay, so it was sharp. Next she angled her body so that she was able to touch the ropes on Kendra’s wrist. Then carefully, so as not to hurt her, she began to slowly slice through the ropes until they eventually gave way.
“I’m free. Let me cut you loose,” Kendra said, taking the blade from Emily. She made short work of the binds and before long they were both free.
“We need to figure out how to get out of here,” Emily muttered. One the way back she had noted what looked like an elevator. It was the way they had come in, but she knew that it would be heavily guarded. There had to be another way out.
“Male or female?” Emily asked, already looking for a good place to hide. She motioned for Kendra to sit down.
“Female. Civilian.”
Great. That meant she wouldn’t be a threat. They could disarm her in no time, if she was armed. She scanned round and decided that she could stand behind the door for the element of surprise. She turned back to Kendra and paused. The girl sat with her back to the wall and her hands behind her like they were still bound. Emily gave her a thumbs up sign. It looked like she had the makings of a special operator.
Just then her ears picked up the sound of footsteps. With brisk strides, her feet covered the distance to the door and she stood at a position that would put her behind the door when it opened. She had barely gotten there when the footsteps paused in front of the door. The door was hesitantly pushed open.
Very quickly, before the person knew what was happening to her, Emily had dragged her inside, shut the door and spun her around with her hand twisted behind her back at a very uncomfortable angle. In just a few seconds she had disarmed the woman. She tucked the gun into the waist of her pants and then placed a hand over her neck, directly on her windpipe.
The woman made short, ugly gasps as she struggled for air.
“If you make a sound, it will be the last you’ll ever utter.”
The woman nodded frantically as tears streamed down her eyes.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Emily snapped.
She opened her mouth, but no sound emerged. Her eyes were already beginning to roll back in her head.
Emily decreased the pressure on her neck and the woman gulped in air.
“I-I’m…” She gulped. “My name is Amanda Hutchins and I came here to help you escape.”
Right. “How do we know we can trust you?”
“I used to work for Wayne—” Her voice went hoarse as Emily whipped out the gun she’d earlier tucked into the waist of her pants.
“So you’re the bitch who sold him out,” Emily said as she placed the muzzle of the gun directly against the skin of her temple. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t pull this trigger.”
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