by James Hunt
The doors had no windows, so Jim couldn’t see what was inside. He tested the handle on the first few doors he passed, each of them locked. He kept stealing glances at the elevator behind him, making sure that nobody was following him. The hallway ended and took a hard left, and Jim jogged to the end.
He could see this hallway led to another sharp left, and he realized the underground prison was a big rectangle. In total, there must have been forty rooms down below.
But in order for Jim to rescue whoever was down here, he needed to find a way to open doors. Jim jogged down the hallways, checking doors, figuring there had to be some type of control room down here where everything was operated. Judging from the fact that the elevator’s power was still on when the rest of the house had gone dark, Jim figured it was self-sustaining.
Most of the doors were locked, and when Jim pressed his ear against the cold steel, he heard muffled voices on the other side. The few doors that opened were empty.
He considered shooting at the locks on the doors, but he only had fourteen rounds in the magazine of the pistol he’d stolen from Cutters, not enough to let everyone out. But he might be able to find the control room if that door was locked.
The first three locks shot were empty, holding cells, but then Jim heard several pairs of boots marching against the tile of the hallways. It sounded like they were coming from all directions, and Jim realized he was being surrounded.
Trapped, Jim shot the lock to the next door he was going to try. The guards fired in response to his gunshots, and he ducked inside before their bullets could strike him.
Jim slammed the door shut once he was inside. It was another empty bedroom. Jim locked and barricaded the door with as many pieces of furniture as he could move. But he knew it wouldn’t hold, not for long.
The security team gathered on the other side of the door, and Jim struggled to think of his next move. The room had no windows, no other exits; it was about the size of a hotel room with a bed and a bathroom. But as Jim stumbled around the room, he felt the cool rush of air coming from a vent above him.
The lower level of the house was still being powered. It was the only reason the elevators worked, which meant there must be some type of control room down here.
The door buckled, and Jim reached for the vent, ripping it open. His shoulders barely fit through the duct’s opening, but there was no other option. Slowly and painfully, Jim wiggled his way through the duct, passing over other rooms.
Some were filled; others were empty. But the ones with people in them had their attention glued to the doors. They heard the commotion outside, and some of them believed a rescue had finally come. If they had known it was only Jim in the ventilation system, they might have tempered their expectations.
Eventually, Jim stumbled over the control room. He saw the monitors and then managed to push open the vent and dropped headfirst into the small space. It was about half the size of the other rooms, with only a single chair.
Jim looked at the monitors and saw that each screen was one of the rooms. He saw the men, women, and children that Cutters had taken from their families. Everyone looked like they were unharmed, though they were now alarmed at the commotion beneath the ground. He also saw the security team break through the door. They found the vent and immediately rushed out of the room. It wouldn’t be long before they found him here.
But on one of the screens, Jim paused to take a second glance. The room was just like the others, but on the coffee table, Jim saw a young boy hunched over a chessboard, playing a game by himself.
The quality of the video wasn’t great, but Jim recognized the young boy. It was like looking at Nate reincarnate.
“He’s alive,” Jim said, whispering to himself.
Bill Fayette had been wrong.
The security team gathered outside the control room’s door, and Jim realized he was now trapped. His final hope rested with Kerry and whatever kind of call she would be able to make to the police. But with the power out, Jim wasn’t sure she would even be able to make the call.
Trapped in that room with evil men pounding down his door, Jim couldn’t help but remember this exact same scenario all those years ago when he was with Nate, the night he saved Jim’s life.
Their foster father had been beating against the door, just like those men in the hallway. He was ravenous, mad, and drunker than Jim had ever seen him. That night Jim saw the look a man held when he wanted to kill. And in all of the situations he’d escaped since that night, Jim would now meet his end already buried beneath the ground.
And as Jim thought of his old friend, he also thought of Kerry upstairs, facing whatever type of danger she was in the middle of, he grew even more depressed at the thought of both of them dying alone. Because at least when his foster father had been beating down the door, Jim still had Nate with him. The simple fact that there was somebody else with him when he was nearing his end made all the difference.
Jim stared up at the ceiling, wondering where his partner was inside. And then his thoughts traveled beyond the house to his parents, and then he thought of Jen. He thought of this morning and how happy he had been when he had woken up beside her.
His father had taught him to always cherish the little moments in life. He always told him to never be afraid of pausing for a moment and taking it in. Because you never knew when those moments would end.
And now Jim feared that he was nearing his end. He wished that he had taken more pauses in his life. He should’ve appreciated the little things more.
The door opened a crack, and Jim snapped out of his daydreams. He kept his pistol aimed at the narrow opening. It was still too small for any of them to fit or for Jim to shoot anybody with accuracy. Even though the odds were stacked against him, his survival instinct was kicking in.
Jim glanced around the control room, searching for anything that he could use as a distraction. He noticed a separate control panel from where the security monitors were. He stared at it, trying to figure out what it was for, and then remembered how the power had gone out upstairs.
The house had gone into lockdown just as Cutters said it would, but if everybody was sealed inside when the power was off, then there needed to be a way for them to turn everything back on after the crisis was over. He needed a backup system.
And Jim happened to be within arm’s reach of those controls.
The door opened a little bit farther as Jim holstered the weapon and stared down at the console to try to figure out how to turn everything back on. It looked like a more complicated version of a breaker switch with added knobs and dials. Unsure of what dials and switches controlled what, Jim flipped every switch and turned every dial.
Finished, Jim aimed his pistol at the door, his back to the monitors as the guards on the other side began the process of removing the door. He had done what he could, now all that was left was to wait and see if he had done enough to help Kerry.
“C’mon, partner.” Jim studied the monitors, gun gripped in his hand.
The shots echoed throughout the mansion, bullets chasing Kerry as she evaded capture from the security team inside the house. She counted at least three but assumed there were more on the way now that the home had gone into lockdown.
The first thing Kerry tried when she got into a room was to check the windows, but the glass was bulletproof and shatterproof, so there was no other way outside. Unable to get outside, she couldn’t find the fuse box to turn the power back on, and no power meant no phone call.
Kerry hurried through the house, running out of bullets, and she knew it was only a matter of time before the guards caught and killed her. She eventually found herself in the middle of a hallway somewhere on the northside of the house, trapped on either side by two of the guards.
Kerry ducked into the nearest room and slammed the door shut behind her. She retreated into the bedroom as the guards gathered outside the door.
The realization that she was trapped came over Kerry in a massive wave. The
y were going to fail. They’re going to die here, and Cutters was going to get away once again.
Kerry checked the number of bullets that remained in her magazine. She had three shots left, which meant she had enough bullets for each of the men on the other side of the door with only one opportunity to miss.
Kerry had only fired her service weapon a handful of times throughout her career. She had plenty of practice at the range, but taking a life was no easy matter. And these men might have worked for an evil man, but Kerry always operated under the premise that law and order superseded all else, and it wasn’t her job to murder criminals. It was her job to arrest them.
Heart pounding, Kerry shut her eyes as she braced for her final stand. The guards at the door had nearly busted it down, and she aimed the pistol at the door, her finger on the trigger.
“This is Detective Kerry Martin,” she said with authority. “If you open fire on me, I will shoot! Put the guns down. You are all under arrest—”
The lights in the room kicked back on, and for a moment, everything stopped. Kerry heard the audible confusion from the other side of the door.
Capitalizing on the moment, Kerry rushed forward, removing the barricades before the security guards heard her presence. Barricades clear, she positioned herself by the door and then ripped it open.
The element of surprise worked, and Kerry managed to put one slug in the chest of the first guard and then winged the second.
The first man had been armored with Kevlar, but the gunshot knocked the wind out of him and bought Kerry enough time to sprint down the opposite side of the hallway and back to the office where she had found the phone before the power had gone out.
Kerry immediately dialed 9-1-1, relaying the address to the operator, who informed her that officers would be arriving soon. But just to make sure that the operator understood just how important and dire their circumstances were, she fired off her last gunshot to help speed things along. She just hoped the bullet wasn’t wasted.
Lieutenant Mullocks waited anxiously by the police scanner, wondering when she would hear anything about Jim and Kerry. From her viewpoint on the street, it was impossible to know what was going on.
“Why is it taking so long?” Nate asked.
The man had been fidgety the entire time, and it was starting to wear on Mullocks’ nerves. But she reminded herself of Nate’s loss and did her best to keep him calm.
“Something like this doesn’t have a normal playbook,” Mullocks said. “But Jim and Kerry will do everything they can to bring this guy down. Me too.”
Nate muttered something beneath his breath and then looked out the side window.
Despite Mullocks’ assurances, she was worried herself. A lot of time had passed, and she knew the longer this operation took, the more it would favor Cutters. But she still had her trump card if she needed it.
Their original plan would mitigate some of the trouble they had found themselves in, but Mullocks was prepared to go all-in if need be. Though she hoped she wouldn’t have to go nuclear.
“I already told your friends the boy’s dead.” Bill Fayette had remained silent up until now. He was resigned to accept his fate, but he wanted to give one last dig into Nate before it was all over.
“Shut up!” Mullocks said.
Fayette shrugged. “I’m just saying. Cutters always wins.”
“He won’t this time,” Mullocks said.
Fayette laughed. “You really think those two cops are going to bring him down? You’re delusional, lady.”
Mullocks looked to Nate, who was trembling. “Don’t listen to him.”
“Maybe he’s right,” Nate said, his voice quivering. “Maybe this is all just a lost cause.”
“It’s not,” Mullocks said. “You’ll see—”
“All units, shots fired, shots fired.” Dispatch crackled over the radio, and everyone in the car perked up. “All units, please respond to 203 Maple Drive.”
“Son of a bitch,” Fayette said.
“They did it,” Nate said.
“It’s not over yet.” Mullocks started the car and shifted into drive, darting down the street toward Cutter’s house.
Since they were already the closest people to Cutters’ house, they were first on the scene. But when Mullocks pulled up to the gate, she knew her cruiser wasn’t strong enough to break through the steel.
“Aren’t we going inside?” Nate asked.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” Mullocks said as she turned around and saw a SWAT team approaching.
“I’m coming in there,” Nate said defiantly.
“Listen to me,” Mullocks said. “Justice will be done. But right now, your place is here. I’ll let you see him, but not until after Cutters is in handcuffs. Got it?”
Nate said nothing, and Mullocks left him to sulk as she prepared to infiltrate the house with the SWAT team.
The floor was littered with shell casings. Jim counted twelve, and he only had one bullet left, nestled in the chamber. Of course, the security guards on the other side of the door had no idea how much ammunition Jim had left, and he wanted to keep it that way.
So long as the guys on the other side of that door thought there was a chance of them catching a bullet, they wouldn’t try very hard to break open the door. And now that the power was back on, they had other things to worry about. If not for the security cameras that Jim could see working on the property, he wouldn’t have known the police had arrived outside the gates. They were knocking on the doors, and it was only a matter of time before they made it through the gates.
But that still gave Cutters plenty of time to escape somewhere out the back. Jim was sure that the bastard had some type of escape route planned for just such an occasion. The moment the police had burst through the gate after the SWAT team had arrived, Jim heard the security team scurry away.
He watched them retreat to the elevator and quickly returned to the first floor. It seemed that they weren’t eager to go down with the ship.
With the security team gone, Jim looked back to the control panels, so he could release everyone inside. He disengaged the locks and watched as people slowly approached their door. It wasn’t until Jim started shouting in the hallway for everybody to get out and run that the doors flung open.
Jim immediately spied Nate’s son in the crowd and made sure to grab hold of him. He yelped when Jim grabbed his arm, but Jim hushed him. “I’m a friend of your dads,” Jim said, showing Tim his badge. “I’m going to take you to him, okay?”
Tim was either too tired or too disoriented from the chaos to really fathom what Jim had told him. But he took Jim’s hand willingly, and then Jim led the people to the elevator. They weren’t able to get everybody up on their first try, so Jim sent the elevator down a second time, choosing to stay with Nate’s son as everybody was herded through the hallways of the estate.
“Keep moving,” Jim said, waving them forward. “Just make sure you do what the officers tell you to do when you see them.”
Jim could already hear some of the officers entering the building, identifying themselves with the Seattle Police Department. But what he couldn’t see in the chaos was his partner, Kerry. Half expecting to stumble upon her, face down on the floor and covered in blood. But when he heard somebody yell his name, he recognized Kerry’s voice immediately.
Jim spun around and found his partner making a beeline toward him. Her hair was ragged, and her eyes were wide from the dose of adrenaline she was still feeding off, but at first glance, she looked uninjured.
“You okay?” Kerry asked.
Jim nodded. “You?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” Kerry answered. And then she looked to the boy in Jim’s arms, stunned. “Is that—”
“This is Tim,” Jim said.
Kerry smiled. “It’s very nice to meet you, Tim. Your dad is going to be ecstatic.” She looked at Jim and noticed the other people Cutters had held against their will. “Is this everyone?”
“There a
re more downstairs,” Jim said.
“You think they’ll testify against Cutters?” Kerry asked.
“I hope so,” Jim answered. “Has anyone seen him?”
“I haven’t heard anything about it,” Kerry said.
Jim figured as much, but with the number of people they recovered, Jim still considered this a win, especially now that he’d found Nate’s son.
“I wish we knew where he was going,” Kerry said.
“He could be anywhere,” Jim said. “With all of these resources—"
Kerry perked up when Jim paused. “What?”
“Do you remember what Cutters said when we were at the Marina?” Jim asked.
Kerry shook her head.
“He said that if he ever lost it all, he always knew he could rebuild right there,” Jim said.
Kerry tilted her head to the side. “No. We know about that place. He wouldn’t be that stupid.”
“But he might be that arrogant,” Jim said.
Mullocks moved through the crowd, shouting Jim and Kerry’s names. “Are you two all right?”
Jim didn’t think he’d ever seen the lieutenant this worried and relieved at the same time. “We’re fine. And look who we found.” Jim gestured down to Tim, who was still by his side.
Mullocks smiled brightly. “Well, your dad is going to be so glad to see you.” She laughed, and he smiled in return.
“Can you take him to Nate?” Jim asked.
“Sure,” Mullocks answered, taking Tim’s hand. “What are you two going to do?”
“We think we might know where Cutters is headed, but we’ll need to move fast,” Jim answered. “Can you get another unit to back us up?” Jim and Kerry were already retreating down the hall as Jim asked the question.
“Where am I sending them?” Mullocks asked.
“The marina from earlier,” Jim answered.
Mullocks signaled a thumbs up, and then Jim and Kerry rushed out to the cruiser.
Once they were on the road, Kerry confirmed with local airspace that there had been not takeoffs on their radar in the area, so that meant Cutters hadn’t taken a helicopter to escape.
