The Double

by Susan Gregersen

  “Ting! Ting! Ting!” Kay looked around. The sound was coming from a spoon tapped on the side of a glass. The unfriendly woman was tapping on the glass to get everyone’s attention. She had a smile on her face, but it didn’t seem to reach her eyes.

  Kay saw Agent Smith hold his phone up and she realized he was taking a picture of the woman. He punched a few buttons on it, then raised it to his ear. He snapped the phone down and spoke into a small microphone on his collar and, looking grim, began moving forward with Agent Jones at his side. They headed toward Kay and were intercepted by the agents that had accompanied the strange woman.

  In one quick moment the room went from peaceful and pleasant to a room full of panicking people and gunshots. The unknown woman stood with a smile on her face while the phony secret service men subdued the crowd and ushered the real secret service men out the door.

  Kay had been intent on watching Agents Smith and Jones, and had started toward them when her arms were grabbed. She was nearly yanked off her feet and dragged along by two men. They hurried her from the room and tossed her to the floor.

  Virginia was already there, sitting on the floor with her arms around her legs, wide-eyed and scared. Kay pulled herself over next to Virginia. Two other women were tossed in there with them and they huddled near Kay and Virginia.

  Kay heard more gunshots, then they ceased. Minutes ticked by as her heart thudded loudly in her chest. She crawled to the door and reached up to the knob. Easing the door open a crack she saw a man with a rifle standing just outside the door, back to her.

  Beyond him the room was in shambles, chairs tipped over and food and drinks spilled everywhere, but the room was empty other than the man guarding them. Kay looked around for something to clunk him over the head with. Virginia saw her and figured out what she was thinking, and she shook her head no.

  Just then the guard turned and saw Kay peeking through the door. He kicked the door hard and knocked her over. The door was shoved open and he rushed in and reached for her arm. Kay pulled away and scurried back to the other women and sat in front of them.

  He scowled at them and snarled in a foreign language. They couldn‘t understand the words but they could feel the man‘s dislike for them in the tone of his voice. He left the room, turning out the light as he went. When he shut the door the only light came through the crack under the door.

  The women were in a small room full of shelves and cabinets. Dishes and wine glasses and cutlery were stored there. Kay had noticed a flashlight in a bracket at the end of the shelves near the door. She slipped over and ran her hand up the wall until she found it. Pulling it free she rejoined the other women quickly.

  Facing away from the door she shielded the flashlight to hide the beam of light and clicked it on and off briefly to make sure it worked. It did. It was bigger than she would have liked and she couldn‘t figure out how to conceal it. None of the women had pockets or bulky clothing.

  Kay spotted several aprons hanging on a hook. She lifted one down and yanked the tie string off the waist of the apron. Pulling up her pant leg she placed the flashlight against her lower leg and ran the string around her leg and the flashlight a couple times, then tied it snugly, but not tight enough to stop her blood from circulating. She yanked the string off the other side of the apron and added it to the first one to help hold the flashlight in place. Then she hung the tie-less apron back on the hook.

  She had just sat back down when the door flew open. The guard looked them over and mumbled some curses, then yanked the door shut again.

  Moments later they heard commotion in the dining room again. This time there was no yelling or firing of guns, just urgent conversation. Then they heard a cry of anger and a rush of voices followed by a sudden silence. When a voice began speaking he was speaking in English and the one-sided nature of the conversation implied it was a phone call.

  “Get your military back or we will kill the women. No! Do not attempt to rescue them or they will die now!” he shouted. The women cringed and huddled closer together. One woman wiped tears from her cheek. “When I look out the window they better be gone. No, I’m not that stupid. If I was standing at the window right now you would have one of your snipers shoot me. Do not insult my intelligence.”

  The call seemed to have ended. The man was speaking a foreign language again and the others answered him.

  “They are talking about making a video,” one of the women whispered to the others.

  “You understand what they’re saying? What language are they speaking?” Kay whispered back.

  “Only bits of it. I don’t know it well. They’re speaking Farsi,” she replied.

  “Who are you?” Kay asked.

  She looked at the floor for a moment, then said quietly, “My husband is prime minister of Israel. I’m here against his wishes, but I talked him into it.”

  “And you?” Kay asked the fourth woman.

  “My Father is prime minister of England,” she said, still wiping tears.

  “Mrs. First Lady, it is you they want to speak on a video,” the Israeli woman said. She leaned toward the door and listened for a few minutes. “They’re arguing over demands but I can’t figure out what they want. They are talking too fast and too many are talking at one time.”

  “Me? If they’re from the middle east, why not you?” Kay wondered.

  The door burst open and three men stood in the doorway. The leader seemed angry that it was dark, and the guard jumped over and flipped the light switch. Everyone flinched from the brightness.

  The leader walked into the room and yelled at the women, indicating they should stand. He looked carefully at each of them. When he stopped in front of the Vice President’s wife he started yelling. Her face was stricken with fear. The other men seemed to be explaining something to him.

  “Who are you?” he bellowed at her.

  “Virginia Anderson, wife of Vice President Jeffrey Anderson,” she said in a shaky voice.

  The leader erupted in rage and an argument ensued among the men. The Israeli woman whispered, “you are not who they were supposed to get. I can’t figure out who they were after, but you’re not the one, and they are discussing killing you. He is also threatening to kill them and their families when this is over.”

  This news brought a fresh batch of tears to Virginia’s face. The leader looked at the group of women in disgust, then stalked out of the room. The others followed and the guard pulled the door shut, leaving the light on this time.

  Kay looked around the room, taking in the shelves, cabinets, and drawers. She opened a cabinet near her and looked inside. Pans. She wondered if a couple of them could stand behind the door with pans and smack the terrorists in the head and knock them out. Then they could make a break for it.

  If it was just the guard who came back in, they could probably take him out. If it was all three of them it would never work. She closed the cabinet and looked in some of the others. She raised up on her knees and peered into drawers. Most had utensils for cooking, but one had cutlery, including steak knives.

  She wrapped her fingers around a few of them and lifted them out of the drawer. Sinking back to the floor she handed one to each of the other women. Lifting her pant leg she slid the knife, point down, into her sock. Now she had a flashlight on one leg and a knife on the other. Two of the women did the same with their knives, but the Israeli woman pointed at her bare feet in the sandals she wore.

  Kay looked over the woman’s clothing and was trying to think of another place to hide the knife without risking injury to the woman. Before she could think of something she heard the men returning. She grabbed the knife and threw it behind the door. When the door opened, the knife was out of sight.

  “Come,” the leader ordered, grabbing her arm and yanking her to her feet. He motioned for the other women to follow. They crossed the dining room and walked down a hallway, then turned into a small lounge. A video camera on a tripod stood at one side of the room. A man they had not seen bef
ore was doing something with the buttons on the camera.

  Kay was made to stand against the plain white wall at the other side of the small room. The other women were shoved to the floor by her feet.

  “You will read a statement to your husband and America,” the leader said, shoving a piece of paper into her hands.

  She looked at it and saw scribbled writing on it. Her brow furrowed as she tried to make sense of the writing. She picked out the words ‘great satan’ and ‘evil’, and the word ‘must’ was written in large letters in several places, and underlined.

  “I can’t read this,” Kay began. He erupted in furor and knocked her to the floor. She threw her hands up to protect herself and yelled, “wait, wait! I’m not refusing! I can’t understand what it says!”

  He stared at her for a long moment, his bushy eyebrows making him look even more sinister. “You don’t have to understand it. Just read it.”

  “I can’t read it if I can’t make out the words,” she insisted. He grabbed the paper from her and peered at the writing, then crumpled it and threw it to the floor.

  “You do not need the paper. I will tell you what to say,” he said, kicking her in the side. “Get up.”

  Kay stood shakily. “Okay.”

  “You will tell America and your husband, the President,” he spat on the “P”, “that they are the evil that has spread it’s poison and polluted the world. Tell them that they are to pull out all of their people, civilian and military, immediately from the peaceful countries of Afghanistan and the middle east; all the lands of Allah.”

  “If we don’t hear from our brothers that this is beginning to happen by the end of today, we will kill these women, one every hour. Then we will kill you!” he said.

  “No!” Kay said in shock and horror. He grabbed her shoulder with one hand and pulled a gun from his waist with the other and shoved the barrel in front of her face. “I mean,” Kay gulped, “that I can’t say all that, um… unless I have a moment to think and put my thoughts in order.”

  He glared at her, then said, “You have one minute.” He shoved the gun back in his belt and stepped over to talk to the video camera man.

  Kay closed her eyes and tried to think of a way out of this. They must escape! The faces of her husband and children drifted into focus in her mind. She thought about never seeing them again, and the pain was so strong her legs almost buckled under her.

  “Madeline,” a voice whispered by her feet. “I don’t want to die!” It was Virginia. Kay looked down into the woman’s scared and pleading eyes and her anger flared. They weren’t going to die. They’d get out of this.

  “You are ready?” the leader asked as he returned to stand by her. “You speak now for the camera,” he ordered. He pulled the gun from his belt again as though to force words to come from her mouth.

  ‘Now or never,’ were the words that rose without warning from somewhere inside of Kay. She had dragged her kids to Tae Kwon Do for years, sitting quietly on the sidelines watching them learn and practice. She’d never attempted to try any of it herself. But she’d done it in her mind a hundred times at their classes.

  Her foot flew up and made contact with the man’s hand that held the gun, then her hands grabbed his shoulder and neck, and snapped. The man slid to the floor. The camera man’s mouth was hanging open. He shook himself out of his daze and came toward her.

  Kay grabbed the gun from where it landed on a stand with a vase of flowers and brought it down on top of the man’s head, and he, too, slid to the floor. “Come on, come on, come on!” she called urgently, pulling on Virginia’s arms.

  The women scrambled to their feet and followed her down the hallway. They found the stairwell and raced down the steps. Finding themselves in the basement they ran back up one flight. An alarm sounded as they pushed open an emergency door and raced across the lawn toward the bushes at the outer perimeter.

  Yelling and gunshots came from above them, and moments later the gunfire was returned from the bushes. Kay figured the men on the roof were terrorists, and hoped that the shooting coming from the bushes was the good guys.

  Suddenly Virginia let out a yelp and started limping. Kay dragged her along and the other women held onto her and helped. Men appeared from both sides and headed toward them. They were wearing suits and sunglasses, and Kay realized they were their secret service men.

  Two of them grabbed Virginia and lifted her and ran for safety. Agents Smith and Jones appeared on each side of Kay and took her arms and raced with her. Agent Jones got a funny look on his face but didn’t let go of Kay. They rolled behind the stone wall in front of the bushes.

  “Agent down,” Agent Smith spoke into the microphone on his collar, and out of nowhere two medics appeared and pulled Agent Jones arm up. Blood was soaking his shirt and jacket from his armpit to his waist. He wore a bullet proof vest but a bullet had entered under his arm and tore through his chest. It was clear he was bleeding out. The medics gave a slight shake of their head to Agent Smith.

  Agent Jones looked at Kay and tried to speak. She leaned her face near his and he whispered weakly, “My name… really… is Jack Jones.” He slumped on the ground. One of the medics gently closed Agent Jones’ eyes.

  Wiping angrily at the tears on her face Kay spotted Agent Jones’ sunglasses on the ground nearby. Picking them up she put them on his face, then kissed his forehead. Agent Smith grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet. “We’ve got to go!”

  They ran toward the helicopter as several more secret service men and police fired at the terrorists, trying to give them cover. Agent Smith tossed her into the helicopter and pulled himself in. It rose and turned, heading away from the resort.

  There were thuds and plinks as bullets hit the helicopter. Once there was a flash of light and Kay thought the helicopter was going to crash, but it just shuddered and kept flying.

  “Smith,” said James from the pilot seat. Agent Smith leaned into the cockpit area and saw that James had been hit in the neck by a bullet. He was dying, but had given everything he had to hang on long enough to get the helicopter out of there.

  Kay sensed something from the look on Agent Smith’s face and she leaned over and looked. Agent Smith turned to the others on board and asked, “anyone fly choppers?” They shook their heads.

  “Well, someone’s got to,” said Kay, sliding into the other seat. “James, show me what to do.”

  James struggled to sit forward and look through the windshield. Agent Smith held his shoulders so he wouldn’t have to use up his energy. James scanned the countryside, then pointed at a small rocky clearing above a canyon. He moved the controls and the helicopter headed toward it.

  Kay watched everything he did, trying to memorize which controls made the helicopter do what. James kept blacking out but got the helicopter over the clearing and began the descent. 50’…40’…30...James’ head slumped and the helicopter dropped to the ground before Kay had time to think.

  A roaring filled her head when she opened her eyes. The helicopter was on it’s side and James and Agent Smith were on top of her. James was dead, but as she watched, Agent Smith was breathing, although his eyes were closed. She pulled herself out from under them. The world spun sideways, then back upright.

  Looking into the back of the helicopter she saw a ball of worms. It became arms and legs trying to untangle, then separated into individual people. There should have been voices, she thought, but all she heard was a roar.

  A man leaned toward her and pointed toward the opening and reached for her arm. She pulled back and pointed to Agent Smith. He shook his head and pointed at her. She wasn’t leaving without Agent Smith. She turned and put her arms around him and pulled him to a sitting position.

  Agent Smith winced but didn’t open his eyes. Kay tried to lift him, and finally the man who was trying to get her to leave reached over the seat and helped her pull Agent Smith out. They dragged him to the opening, then the man jumped down and slid Agent Smith over his shoulder and
carried him to where the others had gathered on the grass at the edge of the clearing.

  He had just set Agent Smith on the ground when the helicopter exploded. Everyone jumped and huddled together. The sound made Agent Smith open his eyes and he laid there staring at it in wonder. Kay sat next to him, and he pulled himself to a sitting position. They leaned against each other.

  One of the men was the medic who had come along to care for Virginia on the way to the hospital, and he inventoried the injuries. There were some broken bones and concussions, but mostly bruises and shock. There wasn’t much he could do to make them more comfortable.

  They started discussing what to do. “We need to make some kind of shelter for the injured,” one of the men said. A cold wind was whistling down the canyon, and despite the sunshine they all shivered.

  A new sound was followed by a streak of gray in the sky. They jumped, then watched as it turned and came back. It was a military fighter jet. They cringed and huddled together as it passed over lower than it had before.