“Please. There’s no time to talk. He’s crazy and he’s going to kill you all. You need to get out of here.”
“Keep talking.” Emily knew she was telling the truth. She had seen the maniac and she’d known without a shadow of doubt that unless they found a way to escape, they were all going to die. Nevertheless, she did not completely trust the woman. So she kept her hand on the trigger of the gun while the other hand had the woman’s arm twisted behind her back in a firm grip.
“There’s another exit. I’ll tell you how you can find it, but you need to tie me up here and make it look like you overpowered me.”
Emily snorted. “Yeah, let’s make it look like I didn’t just disarm you without even trying.”
“Do you want to get out or not?” Amanda snapped.
Emily considered her carefully. The real question was if she could trust her. Well, it didn’t seem like she had much of a choice. She had to get her daughter to safety. The thought of leaving without Wayne made her heart clench, but she knew the guys were around. They had told her the plan they had and she trusted them.
She took a deep breath and let it out in a sigh.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked at last.
“Because he used me. I had no idea it would go this way. I thought he just wanted to make some money, you know…sell to the highest bidder. I even set up an auction. A little industrial espionage is one thing, but taking the lives of so many innocent people…” she shook her head. “I can’t save everyone, but I can save you.”
Emily let her go then. Amanda took a step back and turned to face Emily. She saw the tears in the other woman’s eyes and knew that she felt a deep remorse for the part she’d played. Emily wanted to feel sorry for her, but she never should have betrayed Wayne in the first place.
“Let’s do this.”
A few minutes later, Amanda was sitting on the floor with her hands tied behind her back. Kendra was waiting by the door. Emily turned to walk away then paused.
“Why don’t you come with us?” she asked.
Amanda smiled. A sad smile that did not reach her eyes.
“I wish I could.”
Emily met her eyes for a brief second and she understood.
“You love him.”
Amanda nodded.
“Okay.” She hesitated. “Thanks.” With a brisk nod, she hurried to her daughter.
She gripped the gun, loving the feel of the cold metal in her hands. It represented her ability to protect her daughter.
Before opening the door, she spoke into Kendra’s device, which was now on her arm.
“Rusty, can you read me?”
“Roger.”
“We are about to step out now. We’re heading towards three o’clock. Do we have a clear route?”
“What’s the destination?” he asked.
She told him about the second exit.
“One sec.”
She caught herself tapping her foot as she waited and stopped. It was not a good sign. It meant that she was nervous and impatient, which she knew she was. The fact that she had Kendra there with her made her scared.
Yeah, she could admit it; she was afraid.
She gripped the gun tightly until her knuckles began to ache. She could not afford to be anything order than calm and focused. Both their lives depended on that.
“Okay, you have the first route clear, but just around the corner are two guards. You can take them, but you’ll need to disarm first.”
“Thanks, Russ.”
She glanced at the time. Their ten minutes was almost up. They had just about two minutes left before guards would be sent to check what the hell was going on with the prisoners. It was time to move.
She pulled open the door and glanced both ways. The hallway was clear. Next she grabbed Kendra’s hand and drew her out.
“Stay close to me,” she said to her daughter.
“You’re holding me so tightly; I don’t have much of a choice,” Kendra said smartly.
“Don’t you dare smart mouth me, young lady,” Emily said as they hurried down the hall.
They moved quickly but quietly until they came to a corner. According to what Rusty had said, there were supposed to be two security guards around that corner.
She could feel her heart beating, but she was not bothered by it. It was always that way when she was on a mission, the good part was that before long it would fade and the only thing that would remain would be the intense focus she needed to stay several steps ahead.
She motioned with her hands for Kendra to be quiet, then she peeped around the corner. Sure enough, there were two guards there, armed with pistols. She needed to leverage the element of surprise so that she could disarm them before they could shoot. She passed the firearm to Kendra.
“Do you know how to use this?” she whispered.
Kendra nodded.
“If it becomes necessary, I want you to shoot then keep going. Don’t look back, okay?”
The young girl opened her mouth to protest, shaking her head at the same time, but Emily placed a hand on her mouth.
“Don’t argue. Please.”
Without waiting for a response she straightened her shoulders then used the blade to slash through the front of her tee shirt so that her cleavage was on display. She returned the blade back to the hairband and placed it on her head, then stepped out. One of the guards spotted her.
“Hey, you there! What are you doing here?” he asked. The other one spun around to face her.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I don’t know where I am. Could you gentlemen help me?” She blinked and pushed out her chest so that a generous portion of her cleavage was on display thanks to the slash in her shirt then watched as their attention zoomed in on that region of her body.
Inwardly she cringed. There was nothing she hated more than playing the weak damsel in distress. But it was a diversion technique that worked so well.
“Sure, we can help,” the second guard said with a sly smile.
“Oh, thank you so much,” Emily said with a sigh. She sidled up to them and shrugged her shoulders so that one end of the shirt slid down her shoulder. Their eyes lit up with lust.
Before they knew what was happening, Emily flattened her palms and used the edge to strike them at the side of their neck. They went down without a sound. She squatted down to feel their pulse. They were still breathing but were out cold. She needed to get Kendra so they could get the hell out of there. Just then, she heard the loud sound of a gunshot.
Emily sprang into action. She jumped to her feet, but before she could take a step, Kendra came around the corner and ran towards her.
“Run, Mom. They’re after us,” she said.
Emily grabbed the gun from her and pushed her forward as they ran.
“How many?” she asked.
“They were four, but I took one down then ran.” She gasped as she spoke.
From what Rusty had said, the tunnel went on for another fifty meters, but there was a sharp turn to their left. She needed to get them there before…she did not complete the thought as a bullet wheezed past her. She could see the sharp turn, she just needed to get them there.
Her heart thumping, she picked up speed and grabbed Kendra’s hand. They had just turned the corner when they heard several gunshots. The only way out was to crawl through another tunnel. Emily knew that there was no way they would make it because once they were in that tunnel, they were like sitting ducks. They had just a minute more before their pursuers caught up with them.
“You have to go up, Kendra.”
“I don’t want to go without you, Mom,” Kendra said with tears running down her face.
“I’ll be okay. Go.”
Just then, they heard movement in the tunnel and froze. Emily felt her heart leap to her mouth. Was this how it was all going to end? She moved towards the wall and pulled Kendra behind her, then grabbed her firearm with both hands. She was not going down without a fight.
“Emily,
it’s me,” a voice said just before the Drew jumped out of the tunnel.
Emily sighed in relief, but there was no time to spare.
“Quick, Kendra, up!” she ordered and shoved the girl up the tunnel.
“Two to three, eh,” Drew said with a drawl. “I almost feel sorry for them. They’re outnumbered.”
Emily flashed a smile and then it was time. As the guards rounded the corner, she increased pressure on the trigger, feeling the heavy thump as she released the bullets. She took out two of the guards while Drew handled the third. It only took a few seconds and then everywhere was silent.
“Let’s go.” She said.
Drew stood aside. “You go on and take Kendra to safety. I need to go get Wayne.”
“And Ace?”
“He’s coming in through the main entrance.”
Emily nodded. “See you later, Sailor.” And she climbed up the tunnel.
No matter what happened, her primary assignment was to ensure that Kendra was safe. Once she got her to safety, she would come back for Wayne. If it wasn’t too late. She pushed that thought out of her mind. Wayne was resourceful. If anyone could come out of this, it was him. Besides, the guys were on ground. It was dangerous and the odds were stacked against them, but that was exactly the sort of mission that the Silver Shield people loved. They would be okay.
With that thought, she crept out the tunnel into the sunlight. She was slightly taken aback to find that it was bright outside. She moved to the side of the warehouse, keeping to the shadows and scanned the perimeter for any sign of Kendra and when she did not see her, she began to panic.
She heard the sound of a small helpless kitten. That made her pause. What was a kitten doing out there? The sound came again. It was coming from one of the other warehouses. She turned her gaze towards where the sound was coming from and spotted her daughter. She was hiding between two warehouses. Keeping to the shadows, Emily hurried there. When she caught up with Kendra, she dragged her into her arms and hugged her tightly.
“I was so scared,” the girl said when Emily stepped back.
“I told you I’d be okay,” Emily said, running her hands Kendra’s head. “Now we need to get out of here.”
“Don’t we need to wait till it’s dark?” Kendra asked.
Emily beamed with pride. She really would make one hell of a special operator.
“Ordinarily, yes. But we would need a place to hide out. I think our best bet is to get to a highway.”
“Wow, but everywhere is so exposed,” Kendra said, looking around her.
The girl was right, but Emily knew they didn’t have any other choice. They couldn’t hang around the warehouses or they would be caught. Taking a deep breath, she expelled it in a whoosh.
“Alright, kiddo, let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
4:00 p.m., the Pentagon
“What the hell is going on?” General James asked as he strode into the meeting room.
“What’s this emergency meeting about?” Admiral Hanson asked at the same time.
“We got a video call from Jack Chance,” Derek said, hurrying into the room.
The only person missing was the vice president. Once they were all seated, Derek turned on the large screen. Jack Chance came on.
“Gentlemen, I have given you enough time to think about my proposition. So what’s it going to be?” he said, going straight to business.
“Our position remains the same. We do not negotiate with terrorists,” General Dakota said for them.
“Ah, I thought you might say that,” he said with a shrug. “I have here the weapon, CID Six Thousand, just like I told you the last time I called. Want to know what’s different this time around?” He went on without waiting for an answer, “I have the microchip.”
“Not possible,” General Carter said, speaking for the first time since he got called from his office for the emergency meeting.
“You don’t have to believe me, General. I have your son right here. Maybe you will believe him.”
The camera shifted to show Wayne Carter. He was surrounded by four masked men and each of them had a gun pointed at his head. General Carter felt his throat constrict at the image on the screen.
“Carter, tell them that you gave me the microchip,” they heard Jack’s voice say.
Wayne looked directly into the camera, his gaze unflinching as he confirmed what the other man had said. Jack Chance really did have the microchip.
When the camera swung back to Jack, General Carter knew that they had a real problem on their hands. With the chip in his possession, there was no telling what he would do or where he would release the weapon.
“What do you want?” Admiral Hanson asked in a level voice.
“I’ve already told you what I want,” Jack said. “But if you need some added motivation, I’ll be glad to provide you with one because I am a generous man.”
He turned to the computer and pressed a few keys. They could not see what he was pressing from that distance, but General Carter was sure that the analysts were already zooming in on the image so that they could figure out letters or numbers they were.
“I know you are wondering exactly what it is I just did,” Jack said, turning to face the camera once more. “You all know what CID is capable of doing. Well, I have a few dozen other drones like CID and each of those is controlled by the mother drone, the one created by Wayne Carter himself. With the microchip, I can not only control where CID goes and the level of damage created by that one single machine, but I can also control the other drones as well.”
General Carter’s blood ran cold. One CID was dangerous. Hell, it could clear out the room they were seated in, killing every single one of them. But a few dozen other drones like CID? Those could wipe out a small town.
This was even worse than he thought.
“I have programmed these drones to go to the location for the World Convention on Autonomous Weapons. At an undisclosed time, CID will be activated and once activated, they will head for D.C. No one in that building will live to tell the story.”
There was total silence in the room after the man spoke. Everyone stared at the screen in horror. It was ironic in a way. The people met to talk about lethal autonomous weapons and were about to be wiped out by one.
“If my demands are not met before midnight today, then I have no choice but to let CID do her thing. I will not be taking any phone calls; neither am I open to further communication unless it’s to tell me where I to pick up my gold bouillons. Good day, gentlemen.” Then the screen went blank.
Twelve midnight. That meant they only had eight hours to put everything together or they would have a catastrophe on their hands.
“We don’t have any time to lose,” General James said. “We need to smoke that rat out of his hideout, wherever that is.”
“If we do that, we might lose General Carter’s family,” Derek pointed out.
“I don’t know if we have any other alternative,” General Carter pointed out.
Several sets of eyes swung to him.
“But General…” Derek began, but his voice trailed off as the general lifted his hands for silence.
“No matter what we do, he has already initiated the sequence. What we need right now is how we can deactivate the sequence and for now, only Wayne can do that.”
“So what do we do?” General Dakota asked.
General Carter tapped his fingers absently on the table as he considered the question. The odds looked like they were stacked against Wayne. But with Emily Silver added to the equation, the odds immediately tilted, this time in Wayne’s favor. He had absolute faith in those two. If anyone could do this, it was Wayne and Emily.
“We wait.”
Back in his office, General Carter went through the documents on his computer with a frown. Everything made perfect sense and that was the problem. It was too perfect. He shuffled the information, trying to sift what was real and what was not, but something was still missin
g. He leaned back against his chair.
The traitor was supposed to be someone in the White House. The intelligence he had just gone through fit the description of one person, perfectly. Too perfectly. His gut told him that something was not right. There was a missing piece in the puzzle. There were several people who got unrestricted access to classified intelligence and this person was one of them. It would be so easy to nail him, except for one problem. He could not possibly have been working alone. Some of the information available to the person was so high up the intelligence ladder that it didn’t even leave the Pentagon.
At that moment, it hit him. The missing piece of the puzzle. He leaned forward and went through the documents once more, this time with his newfound revelation and he knew that he’d hit pay dirt. He shook his head with a disbelieving laugh. Although now that he thought of it, he should have seen it coming. It was the only thing that made sense.
He laughed again. How had he not seen this? It was so damn obvious that he should have realized from the beginning. Now that he knew, there could only be one result.
He pulled up one document, then placed his hands on the table and brought the tips of his fingers together to form a steeple. His application for early retirement had come through, and just in time. He would have been retiring in a few years anyway, but he knew it was time.
He leaned back against the chair once more and waited. No matter the outcome, he would be leaving service one way or another. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be in a coffin.
Taking a deep breath, he pulled open one of the drawers. There was a round device there. He ran a finger around the edges until he felt the tiny knob, then he pressed it. There was a slight vibration then nothing else. He cleared his throat slightly. After a brief pause, the sound of a throat being cleared came through the device. Although it was not very original, it was the sign that they had both agreed upon.
“It’s time,” he said simply into the device.
“Roger.”
Very slowly, he pushed the drawer shut. He got up from his seat and walked to the window. It was already dark outside. But his thoughts were inside and they did not need the sunlight. He was looking forward to his retirement. If he survived the day. He was damn proud of all he had achieved, all the ribbons on his uniform. He had served his country well. But he had not learned how to balance his passion for the army with his passion for his family. So he had alienated his kids. Of the three children he had, the only one who still spoke to him was Wayne, and that was under duress. The other two had cut off all relations with him and with each other. It was damn heartbreaking. If he came out from this, he would spend the rest of his life trying to reconcile them back together.
Silver Shield Security Box Set Page 122