An Unlikely Hero (1) (44 page)

Honey frowned at Mansur when he reentered the room, wiping sweat from his face with the shoulder of his faded shirt. She didn’t know how brothers could be so different; one docile and easily manipulated, the other an out of control narcissistic maniac who demanded loyalty from everyone. If she were a better person, maybe her feelings toward Mansur would be more sympathetic, more understanding of the shadow he was forced to stand in next to his brother. The fact remained she just didn’t like him. His body odor offended her. His eating habits disgusted her and his broken English grated against her nerves. His long bouts of silence since she’d known him made her uneasy, as if he might be keeping notes on her movements. Then there were those sidelong glances of interest he’d used, exploring her body like fingers of twisted behavior. She shivered even though when she looked at the thermostat on the wall it read ninety degrees.

“Ugh!” She stormed over to the bald computer hostage. “Why is it so hot? I turned the thermostat down twice!”

“There’s a systems failure. I can’t fix it from here,” he said rapidly as if by doing so he’d not suffer her rage.

Honey looked around the room at the hostages. Perspiration glistened on their faces and wet spots appeared under their arm pits. Some of the men still wore their suit coats, but a few had wisely removed theirs shortly after the takeover. The woman with asthma struggled with every breath. The smell of fear filled the room and a hint of urine released from someone too afraid to ask for a restroom break now made close quarters even more unbearable. She glanced at the Haskin brothers, sitting quietly on the floor under the windows, watching her every move. Their legs were outstretched but her hard glare made them pull them up.

“Where did you take them?” Honey demanded of Mansur. “We watched for you on the computer.”

Mansur ignored her question by turning to his brother. “The men on the loading dock are alive and waiting. I turned the prisoners over to them.” His eyes went to the hostages at the table then the two Libyans standing guard. “They were enjoying themselves when I left,” he smiled.

“And the containers?” Essid ask anxiously.

“Secured.” Mansur took a step near his brother. Essid was the youngest son of his father. Spoiled and given every advantage, Essid had always taunted his sisters while growing up in Libya. Mansur, the oldest, had been a part of the spoiling until he saw Essid as a teen brutalize one of his sisters and eventually caused her death. She had been a sweet, pretty girl of fifteen when Essid caught her talking to one of his friends. He accused her of a sexual relationship with a man. Although she denied, begged and pleaded, their father threw up his hands in disgust as Essid took her into the desert and left her. Mansur, upon hearing of the incident, went after them, only to find her stoned and ripped apart by wild dogs. “When will we set the charges, brother?”

“It is done. The American military guards outside are experts and knew how to,” he paused trying to think of something funny, “get the biggest bang for my buck!” Essid burst out laughing then fanned his left hand in the air as if batting away a fly. The laughing stopped as did the expression on his face. “Did you tell the others to watch for the American captain?”

Mansur nodded humbly. “Of course.”

Essid embraced his brother for a moment then released him. “You are my only friend, Mansur. I love you!” he proclaimed warmly.

“And I you, my brother.”

“The heat in here feels like our desert, does it not!” he smiled.

Mansur took a step back from his brother and patted his shoulder. “Soon we will return.”

“Indeed! With victory and pride running in our veins. Americans are such fools. All this time they trust those of us that walk among them.”

Honey sighed in boredom. “Blah. Blah. Blah. Let’s go. I’m tired of waiting. Someone is bound to start poking around soon!”

Essid smiled over at her. “It is a good thing you are not an American, Honey.”

Honey shifted her weight to one hip and ran her tongue across her lips. “It’s a good thing you’re good between the sheets or I would have killed you a long time ago.”

Essid laughed happily. “We are a perfect pair, Honey Lynch.”

There were two exits, one at the end of each corridor on every floor. Stairs led all the way to the roof for the maintenance people to periodically make needed adjustments to any environmental systems. A narrow catwalk between building AA and BB stretched across the fifteen foot expanse. It existed only for those people traveling between sites to eliminate wasted time completing necessary repairs. Some Global Navigation analysts suggested productivity increased by twenty three percent in that one department alone. The Wall Street Business Journal wrote that with such time saving ideas, leaving more money for research and development set a precedent for any large corporation trying to manage their bottom line.

Due to the expansive roof surface, the helicopter pad had been located there. The second building known only as BB, contained the plant which actually produced the life-saving isotopes. Located at the far end of the building, an elevator hidden among a garden of flowers and a gurgling fountain waited for VIPs that arrived by way of helicopter. Guests, clients and Global Navigation big wigs would take the elevator down to a lobby similar to the one in building AA where Essid’s men had taken up positions earlier.

Director Benjamin Clark directed the pilot to make use of the helicopter pad as light faded across the foothills of the Sierras. He already knew the schematics of Global Navigation downloaded to his Enigma phone before he even left Sacramento. The ex-Special Forces, all friends of Chase, on board with Ben, carried the plans in their head, memorized before takeoff. Their rescue mission involved retrieving the scientists and Russian representatives before Essid could harm them. Hostages in other areas would be reached as time permitted. Buildings could be replaced but Russian delegates offering natural resources to reduce the suffering of thousands could not. Ben cringed at the thought of just one death. The American scientists were some of the best in the world. They’d been recruited from Los Alamos, Oakridge, NASA, Missouri University of Science and Technology and MIT. Those were the only ones he knew of without more research. Truthfully, Ben didn’t care where they came from. He just didn’t want them dead.

Scientists were easy pickings and terrorists had begun their systematic hunt for them on a global scale in recent months. Rather than kidnap them to use their brain power, several Ph.D.’s in molecular energy research had recently disappeared in Germany, only to be found several days later with severed heads outside a remote mountain lodge. The media had been fed a ridiculous story about depression and some kind of gay relationship since both men were single. However, when the female petroleum engineer from Canada disappeared with her family while sailing off the coast of Newfoundland a month ago, counter intelligence agencies across the globe began to take notice of the potential problem. Their boat had been found adrift when she’d not returned to her station in the North Sea two weeks later. It was thought best not to alarm the world’s brain bank just yet. In the meantime, governments across the globe committed themselves to keeping an eye on facilities and terrorist groups bent on sending the world back to the Stone Age.

Now that he knew Carter was in place, life appeared to be a little less worrisome. Just as the silent helicopter landed a call came from Captain Hunter, who had secured a phone from the dead hired gun. The captain, Vernon and Mrs. Scott were on their way to the third floor to rendezvous with Carter. After inquiring about Mrs. Scott’s welfare, he insisted the captain get her out of harm’s way immediately. He didn’t want any dead civilians on top of the prospect of losing scientists and a Russian delegation. His thoughts flashed to Mrs. Scott’s family so suddenly that he placed his hand over his eyes to remove the image. His brow wrinkled in distaste and irritation, knowing their situation had not been a priority. That had proved to be a mistake. Hopefully the Haskin boys would survive this chain of events.

Captain Hunter felt Sam hug his neck when he came through the third floor door. She whispered something that made him smile wickedly and nod ever so slightly as if agreeing to something privately held only between the two of them. His eyes went to Trucker Joe next and extended his hand.

“We meet again,” he said whole heartedly. He felt Tessa and Vernon slip in behind him. “You remember…”

“I remember her.” Joe raised his double chin at her a little cautiously. “Sorry I was rude to you the other day, Melanie.”

“Melanie?” she said bewildered. Why did that name keep coming up and sticking to her? “How…”

“Oh! Carter here told me you were one of the top agents.” He patted Carter on the back not noticing the ex-astronaut squeezed his eyes shut while wrinkling his nose as a little boy might do trying to sneak into his mother’s cookie jar without being caught.

“I see,” Tessa said shifting her eyes to the former astronaut whose career she’d followed for as long as she could remember. All the stories of womanizing, goof off stunts and lack of discipline that the press loved to write about had never been embraced by her loyalty. Although amused by Carter’s exaggerated sense of humor, Tessa now realized perhaps her ardent defense of his brilliance and competence wasn’t the only thing that led to his dismissal at NASA. “Yes, well apology accepted.”

“I am relieved to see you!” Zoric came up alongside of Tessa and nearly reached out to touch her, then seemed to think better of it as his eyes mockingly went to the captain. “I see Chase took good care of you.”

“He nearly drowned me.”

“Ah!” Zoric displayed a yellow grin. “But you are alive.”

Tessa took a step closer to him and whispered. “Mr. Crawley?”

He shook his head. “Not good. He needs a hospital. They separated us. He is a brave man.”

Dread gripped her heart, knowing her old neighbor might not fare as well as she had in the end. All the complaining and moaning about covenants of the gated community, the gruff hellos, the constant questions, all sounded endearing to her now. Remembering how he’d collected newspaper articles and pictures of the children playing sports made her long to pat his arm and promise to bake him a batch of her chocolate chip cookies.

Vernon didn’t wait to be introduced but disappeared into an office to check the status of his Global Warming virus on one of the computers. He returned within minutes. “I’ve opened a heat sensor scan of the fifth floor to be sure where everyone is located. It’ll boot in two minutes. Had to make sure the other systems remained asleep until we get up there. Secured fifth level door, boss so…” Vernon’s eyes shifted from Tessa to Chase.

The look passing between the two men was not lost.

Captain Hunter nodded an acceptance and reached for Tessa, pulling her aside. “This is where we part ways for a bit, Tessa.”

“Why? I need to go with you, to help Mr. Crawley.”

Sam came up next to Chase, shifting her weapon to the other shoulder as she looked down at the blond housewife who’d been the beginning of this mission. “There’s nothing you can do. You’ll get us killed,” she snapped. Sam sniffed as she jerked her head up in contempt and eyed Tessa harshly. “The captain can’t be worried about you when he goes in for those hostages. None of us can.”

Her blue eyes lifted to Chase and softened even though he glared sternly at her. “Do I stay here?” The tide of resistance ebbed from her voice as she meekly clasped her hands over her elbows as her arms folded across her midriff.

“No. Vernon sealed the fifth floor door so even if they see you, and I can’t imagine they can since they are spread pretty thin now, they won’t be able to reach you. Go all the way to the sixth floor. Once there enter the corridor. You’ll see another exit at the end on your left that indicates another staircase to the roof. Get up there as fast as you can. The director will be waiting with some of my men.”

Again that little girl nod that said
I’m terrified, but I’ll do it for you
. Chase reached out and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s just about over.”