The lab occupied the third floor of a graffitied brick building with a heavy, street level outer door requiring a security code. That door opened onto a small, windowless marbled relic of a lobby with an art deco style elevator on one wall and a reinforced metal door to the stairway on the other. Colleen’s preferred access to the building was to enter the private garage below street level and take the elevator up to her lab. The only other access was a fire escape up the back of the building, but it had been secured since the break in, and the escape stairs now had an alarm installed on all four floors.
As the limo approached the building, Colleen asked Kyle to circle the block and observe the building for a few minutes. After the second pass, Colleen made her decision. "Let’s use the street entrance… less places to hide than in the garage." she said in a hushed voice.
Their plan was to keep the lab’s two security doors bolted and handle negotiations via the monitors and cameras. If Winston showed and had Sam with him, they would demand Sam be put in the waiting cab and returned to Jack’s condo before they began the inoculations. Even then, only a single banger would be allowed to get through both security doors at a time.
The plan was long on bravado and short on everything else. Kyle had a stun gun and some mace for protection; Colleen had an old .38 revolver Jack had given her before he left, but there were only five shots in the cylinder. She hoped they wouldn’t need them.
Kyle checked the time on his phone and nervously looked around in all directions. There was no one on the street. "Well, we better get a move on, if they’re coming they’ll be here in 20 minutes."
Colleen made a quick status call to Karen and checked the street one last time before making their move to the building’s door.
The lobby was quiet; the building’s other tenants, mostly legal and medical offices, had already gone home for the day. They took the elevator up and set the floor lock, keeping it available and away from the lobby. Inside the lab, the vigil began, and time passed slowly as Kyle checked the wall clock in the monitor room repeatedly. After an hour passed and it became clear Winston was not taking the bait, Kyle got even more anxious, pacing the floor and whistling nervously.
"Of course the downside is Winston now probably knows we’re here in the lab, which means he can wait us out," Kyle said, breaking the tense silence. "If we’re going to be here a while, we might as well check out our defenses. We’ve got eyes and ears in the cab, so I’m sending it to check out the garage. Now let's check out our security up here." Kyle said, giving a reassuring wink to Colleen that belied the growing knot in his gut.
Colleen wasn't fooled; she had already realized their status had evolved from in-control to voluntary prisoners. They needed another plan, and her worried look made Kyle even more jumpy. He put his arm around her and jostled her, just like his older brother used to do to him when Kyle was growing up. "It'll be okay, you'll see." He said. "You want to help?"
Colleen nodded.
Kyle and Colleen made sure all of the perimeter camera feeds were working and the fire escape door was barred from the inside. Then he assessed the waiting room, looking out into the hall toward the elevator. "Any way we can stop the elevator from coming up to the lab?" he asked.
"I don’t think so," Colleen said. "I can change the keypad code remotely, but once I change it, the new code has to be manually entered at the keypad in the lobby. After that, anyone who knows the code can come up."
"What about the capacity, any way to restrict the load to just one person?"
"I’ve never tried. I think people just obey the posted maximum. I’ve never thought about it before…" Colleen’s pensive expression soon turned to a smile, "but maybe we could make them think we can!"
Kyle watched as Colleen pressed a button on the panel that rang a loud bell in the elevator.
"I had this put in to scare the kids that play in there. Can you use that?"
Hmmm, let me think about it." Kyle said. "We need a way to keep the lab from being stormed."
"Stormed?" Colleen’s eyes got wide as she looked back at Kyle demanding an explanation for his poor choice of words.
"Uh, sorry, just thinking worst case" Kyle said backpeddling fast. "I'm not saying it’s gonna happen! Wait a minute." Kyle said as an idea came to him. "Isn’t there an emergency button in there?"
"Sure is" Colleen said, "That’s why I was trying to scare the kids, they’d push it and disable the elev-" Colleen stopped short as she realized what she’d said.
"That’s it!" Kyle said leaping to his feet. "It isn’t perfect but it would catch them by surprise, and maybe even confine them for a while!"
Kyle pulled some tools from the clutter drawer in the kitchen and began work connecting the wire from the bell to the emergency shutoff switch. Then he defaced the screws on the cover panel so it couldn't be removed. Rewiring the shutoff switch would allow them to stop the elevator between floors by pushing the button in the lab. It was crude, but if they got lucky and everyone piled in the elevator at once, perhaps they would be able to trap them long enough to escape.
While Kyle worked on the elevator, Colleen stood watch on the monitors for any sign of life. The monitor room was quiet, and it was late. At this time of night Colleen couldn’t even hear the usual traffic noises outside. Colleen called Karen for the last time and suspended their updates until morning. She fought to stay awake while watching the mind numbing nothingness play out on the monitors. There was no action at all on the street, the lobby, or in the garage, and her eyelids were getting so heavy….
Colleen awoke to the sound of her phone ringing.
"Hello?" she said not even trying to mask the sleep in her voice.
"Colleen, it’s Jack. Sorry to wake you. Any news about Sam?"
"Oh, hi Jack. Um" she yawned into the phone, sorry, late night last night. Nothing yet… Kyle came up with a great plan but they didn’t fall for it. You were right though; using the cab was a great way to negotiate. They still may come around. The City Boyz have him. I hope we’re ready for them, we’re kind of sitting ducks here in the lab though."
"The lab? Why are you at the lab?"
"Long story…when you get back I’ll tell you all about it." Colleen said through another yawn. "How was Tom’s wake?" Colleen asked as she got up and searched the kitchen for coffee.
"Not good. Everyone looked at me like I was responsible."
"Really?" Colleen said as she fumbled with the coffee maker, almost dropping the phone. "I hope you told them that we were almost killed too!" Colleen began to get worked up. "Who do those people think they are?"
"I was going there, but I decided I just couldn’t. I walked in and became a spectacle. There were people there who had lost a husband and a father and a friend, and their everyday lives are about as far from life and death situations as you could get I couldn’t exactly expect them to fawn all over me for not dying…I just have to get through the funeral tomorrow and I’ll be back to help.
"I’m sorry for the preachy attitude Colleen, I really am, but I didn’t realize I had so much guilt to work through until I got out here and faced his friends and family. I just have to do this for Delores and Tom."
"You’re right, Jack, of course, I’m sorry. We’re all under a lot of stress," Colleen said trying to calm down. "But hurry back, this thing with Sam may get ugly. I mean, Kyle really handled the situation masterfully, and he’s trying to put on a brave face, but we have no idea what Winston will do."
Colleen hesitated, then added "I was really proud of Kyle; he can really think on his feet. I really thought he would get Sam released."
"Have you called the police?" Jack asked.
"No, not yet. Kyle thinks that would get Sam killed for sure."
Colleen was just about to elaborate when she caught a glimpse of the monitor and saw a car pulling up to the street entrance. It was almost seven in the morning and just getting light, but the streets were just coming to life.
"Jack, we may have company�
�" Colleen said in a hushed voice.
"You want me to call the police?" Jack responded.
"Hold off for now. I’ll call you back when I have more answers."
"Colleen, wait!" Jack shouted, but Colleen was gone. "Damn! She did it again," he muttered to himself.
"Kyle?" Colleen shouted down the hall. Come take a look at this!" Colleen called out, as she stood glued to the monitors.
"What’s up?" Kyle said rubbing his eyes as he stumbled up the hall and into a chair by the monitors.
"What do you think?" Colleen glanced at him and then nodded to the screen.
"Well I’ll be damned…you think they’re here to trade?"
"I don’t know." Colleen said straining to identify anyone familiar in the car. "I don’t see Sam or Winston. Could be an advance team I suppose, scouting out our defenses."
Six young men got out and stood by their car talking and joking with each other. After a few minutes, one of them crossed the street and took up a position at the corner while another moved to the lobby door and checked the lock.
"Time to make the call, I guess" Kyle said as he pulled his phone from his pocket.
"The police?" Colleen asked.
"No, Winston." Kyle said as he dialed Sam’s number. "He needs to be reminded what a failure would do to his reputation."
‘¿Si?" said the voice on the other end of the call.
"Put Winston on the phone" Kyle said as forcefully as he could.
"¿Quien es?"
"El hombre que posee lo que él quiere comprar." Kyle said, struggling to make his Spanish sound forceful.
"Momento."
Kyle put it on speaker while he waited for Winston.
"¿Diga?" Winston said, making the word into a question.
"You didn’t take me up on my offer Winston." Kyle said.
"So?"
"So now it’s going to cost you more."
"Hey, this guys a comedian!" Winston said with a chuckle to someone standing nearby.
"Then why is it I'm not laughing?" Kyle said with steel in his voice.
"More riddles amigo?"
"No, you’re too stupid to handle riddles Winston. I see, with you, I need to get right to the point. You have twenty minutes to deliver Sam to the lab or I drop Plan B on you."
"Plan B?" Winston laughed again. "Whatchu got now Mr. Science guy, some kinda X-Ray gun or sunthin’?"
"No, bring Sam unhurt to me or I put the word out to the South Side Knights you’ve got nothing but cowards on your team… and you need to decide fast. They just got here for our meeting."
Again, Colleen looked at Kyle with wide questioning eyes. Kyle shrugged his shoulders and tapped on the laptop in front of him to draw her attention to the gang colors worn by the bangers outside. According to the Internet page Kyle had pulled up, black and beige were South Side Knights colors not City Boyz. That meant the group outside was not here to storm the lab. But Kyle realized he could use their presence as leverage.
‘What’s it worth to you to avoid an all out war on South Ridgeway?" Kyle asked. "You give up Sam unhurt and I’ll keep quiet. You keep playing games, and the next funeral you go to… well, let's just say you won’t be dressing yourself."
"You’re a big man on the phone, cobarde. What’s it worth to you for me not to pop a round in your ass?"
"Well, see that’s why I wanted you to hurry over here and drop off Sam." Kyle said sarcastically. "I’m meeting the South Side Knights in twenty minutes, and you won’t have enough time to rub me out before I talk to them. See, they’ve heard about how you’re going after your own boys over there." Kyle paused to let his leverage sink in. "I figure hearing the mighty City Boyz didn’t have the guts to fight will be real interesting to them. Hell, it may even give them the idea South Ridgeway is up for grabs!"
"Sólo un tonto comienza algo que no puede controlar" Winston shot back.
Colleen looked at Kyle for a translation.
Kyle scribbled, "Only a fool sets in motion what he cannot control" on a pad and spun it around toward Colleen.
"Well now, Winston my friend," Kyle said as he tried to think of a reply. "It seems you are a businessman and a philosopher! Just remember that your words apply to your actions as well. You are the one holding Sam against his will. Just let him go and this will end. You still have the power to control it at this point… use your head, don’t be one of the fools you talked about."
No one spoke for an uncomfortable amount of time and Kyle’s last words hung in the silence, becoming harsher as time passed. Kyle was just about to propose a concession when Winston spoke.
"Here’s my offer mi amigo… we’ll bring Sam out front. If you can take him, you can have him!"
"No, mi compañero, bring him into the lobby and leave him there where it is safe off the street. There are many South Side Knights roaming outside remember? I will give you the code to use when you get here. If you are here before my meeting, you’ll get to control your own destiny!"
Kyle ended the call and turned to Colleen. I’m hoping I didn’t make things worse, but I think they are on the way over."
_____________________
Jack fell back into the pillows, and listened to the waves crash on the beach just steps away from his beachhouse. It was still early, but then again he always woke up early on the first night back from the eastern timezones. As he lay awake thinking over his conversation with Colleen, the phone rang.
"Hello?"
"Jack? It’s John Morales, I hope I didn’t call too early… I heard you were coming home last night."
"Yeah, …we did a thing for Tom…"
"I heard. I’m really sorry Jack, if there’s anything I can do…"
"I appreciate it John. Are you coming to the service tomorrow?
"Sure thing, it’s already on my calendar. Actually, Jack, I was calling to see if we could meet today."
"Um, I’m not sure John, I just got back in town and I’ve got a lot on my plate… and calls to return, lots of calls to return" Jack said thinking of the 99 messages flashing in his machine.
"Mostly from me I’m afraid, I couldn’t reach you on your cell, but I’ve got something that will interest you, something related to those workshops we cooked up."
"Oh? Like what?"
"Like somebody that’s been trying to hack your data…"
"What?" Jack said as he sat bolt upright in bed.
"Who?"
"Somebody named Downs… you know 'em?"
Chapter 30 West Coast Revelation
Jack made a breakfast date with John at a restaurant near the university and jumped in the shower. He didn’t hear Colleen calling back to tell him things were dicey, but not so bad as to warrant calling the police. When he played her message back he thought he could hear relief in her voice, but he couldn’t be sure if its source was an improving situation at the lab, or the fact that she could slide by and leave a message without talking to him.
He was doing it again, Jack thought. Imagining trouble in his newest relationship at the first opportunity had already begun. He had seen the signs too many times, and was an expert at spotting them by now.
Stage One: The courtship. His favorite and most acclaimed role. Stage Two: The affair. This stage usually lasted as long as either party could tolerate complete immersion in the other. Stage Three: Decay. This stage began as soon as they were separated for more than a day, and was marked by an insignificant comment that could be interpreted wrong and blown out of proportion.
Try as he might, Jack couldn’t rid his thoughts of why Colleen had yet to ask about his meeting with the Senator. After all, she knew how important it was. He tried to tell himself she was consumed with getting Sam back and racked with guilt for putting him in that position, but he kept turning over other motives in his mind. From the time he saw his first James Bond movie, he’d wanted to be someone mysterious and alluring to women. Now he hadn’t just dreamed up a life of danger in one of his books, he’d actually lived it! And still,
he couldn’t figure out how to make it work for him.
He tried again to reach her on the way to meet John, but got her machine. "Just checking in" he said as causally as he could. "Can’t wait to see you tomorrow… Call me if I can help…."
Jack ended the call still fretting over Colleen’s situation and wondering what was happening at the lab. He tried to push out of his mind the worst-case scenario that had elbowed its way in. "If she’s in danger, she would call," he reassured himself as he tried to rationalize failing to reach her.
The café was packed and Jack had a hard time finding John, who had grabbed the only available table in the back next to the busy women’s restroom door. John stood and waved both arms to attract Jack’s attention, then held up one finger and mouthed the words "coffee, no cream" and sat back down quickly.
The Premise Page 35
