“Okay, so we get out of the cell, but then what?”
“Like I said, I have a plan,”
One of the deputies bellowed, as he approached the cell. It was Fred.
“Hey Szabo!”
Szabo stood up while grimacing.
“That’s Special Agent Szabo, fat boy, I’m a federal agent, and when I get out of here I’m going to see that your ass does hard time.”
Fred laughed.
“You’re not gettin’ out of here, except in a body bag. Good news gents, the games are back on for tonight, and not just for two of you. The Warden says it’ll be last man standing. We’re gonna keep at it until you’re all dead, all but one of course, but if I was the winner I wouldn’t go making any long range plans, ya know what I mean?”
Fred made the pistol shape with his hand and placed it against his temple.
“Bang!” he said, before walking away laughing to himself.
Szabo turned to look at him.
“This plan of yours, I hope it’s a good one.”
***
Chief Dent was finally keeping his promise to take Traci out for dinner and a movie.
They had just left the restaurant and were on their way to the theater when they heard the news on the radio. The body that had been discovered earlier had now been positively identified as Dave Callaway.
Dent slammed a hand onto the dashboard.
“God damn it, I told them not to release the results of the autopsy. I wanted to prepare Sarah for the news.”
He then checked his phone for the third time.
“What’s wrong?” Traci said.
“Ryan, he’s supposed to check-in by text every half hour. He’s now six minutes late.”
Traci took out her phone.
“Jessica’s not answering either,”
The chief made a sharp U-turn and mashed the pedal.
“There goes the movie,”
Traci placed a hand on his arm,
“Hurry, Jack.”
***
As Rob Stevens gazed down upon Jessica’s naked form, he loosened his belt and began unzipping his fly, from outside came the sound of a car skidding to a halt and Stevens jumped off the bed and went downstairs to see who was there.
He opened the door to find Sarah Callaway charging at him with a gun in her hand, as her tears threatened to blind her.
She screamed, “You killed my brother!” as she raised her arm to fire.
Stevens was quicker though, and shot her just under her left eye, and Sarah was dead before she hit the ground. He walked over and gazed down at her, but then jerked his head up, as headlights approached along the winding driveway.
***
After finding Ryan bleeding in his cruiser, the chief radioed for an ambulance and back-up.
As he and Traci were donning their vests, they watched with alarm as Sarah Callaway appeared and made a reckless turn into the driveway, to race towards the house.
They jumped back into the chief’s car and followed just seconds behind, even as a shot rang out in the night. As they made the final turn and their headlights illuminated the home, they saw the body of Sarah Callaway lying by the stairs.
***
Jessica had fought the effects of the drug and stumbled downstairs while holding onto the banister with both hands, in the pocket of her robe was a gun.
While halfway down, she heard Sarah Callaway’s anguished cry, and the shot that followed. As she made it to the doorway, she gazed outside and saw Traci and the chief getting out of their vehicle.
“It’s Rob,” Jessica said. “He’s here!”
An instant later, the trunk of Sarah Callaway’s car popped open and Stevens shot Dent twice in the chest. Traci returned fire, but missed, and Stevens fired again, hitting Traci in the right leg, and she fell to the ground as her gun tumbled away.
Stevens walked over and took aim at her face, and that’s when Jessica fired. The bullet struck him in the back of his left shoulder and passed clean through while spinning him around. He sent Jessica an astonished look and then sprinted towards his car, to drive off in a squeal of tires.
Jessica once more succumbed to the drug and slid to the floor of the porch, as Traci crawled over to Jack.
“He’s not breathing! Jessica! Help me!”
Jessica stumbled over and examined Jack.
“The bullets didn’t penetrate his vest,” Traci said. “Why isn’t he breathing?”
“The impact must have caused trauma to his heart,” Jessica told her, as she began CPR. When Jack didn’t respond, she pointed towards the house. “In the closet under the stairs you’ll find a red case with a drawing of a heart on it. Bring it to me.”
Traci ran inside as fast as her damaged leg would allow and returned with the case.
“What is that?”
“An emergency defibrillator,”
Jessica had removed both the vest and Dent’s shirt while Traci was in the house. She ripped open the case, powered it on, applied the electrode pads onto Dent, and the machine spoke.
“Running Diagnostic”
“Shock Advised”
“Stay clear of the patient”
“Press the flashing button to administer shock”
Jessica depressed a button on the defibrillator and Dent twitched, but a check of his pulse still found no heartbeat.
“Oooohh Jack nooo,” Traci moaned.
“Stay clear,” Jessica said, and shocked him again, and this time when she checked, he had a pulse. “He’s back, he’s back,”
A squad car raced onto the property with an ambulance following behind.
As Dent was being loaded aboard the ambulance, Traci spoke to the other cop. A man named Wilson. With Dent out of commission, Wilson was in charge. Wilson was a seventeen-year veteran of the force, although he was only thirty-eight-years-old.
“How’s Ryan?” Traci said.
“He’s gonna make it; he’s already on his way to the hospital, but damn girl, look at you, that’s a nasty leg wound you got there.”
“I’ll ride along with Jack. What about the APB on Stevens?”
Wilson shook his head.
“We’re putting up roadblocks now, but Stevens is probably already out of the area. We got nothing. It looks like he’s gotten away.”
Jessica grabbed Traci by the arm and guided her towards the ambulance.
“Enough talk, go get yourself treated,”
“I will. Officer Wilson here will take care of you, and Jessica, thank you, thank you for saving Jack, and me, a moment more and Stevens would have killed me.”
“It was my pleasure,” Jessica said, as she gazed over at the body of Sarah Callaway. “I only wish I could have saved that poor girl too.”
***
Szabo stared at him.
“You call that a plan? It’s suicide.”
“So is a game of non-stop Russian roulette, at least this way there’s a chance for those that remain behind.”
“You’ve got a point there,” Szabo said. “But what if they get both of us before we destroy the electrical panel?”
“Then we’ve simply died a few minutes ahead of schedule, but if one of us succeeds, then the corridor will go black and they won’t dare shoot, for fear of hitting each other. That’s when we make our break through the mess hall, along with the men left here in the cells. The guards will have to divide their forces to capture all of us, and with luck, we might get a chance to breakout.”
“Yeah, but what if there’s no luck?”
He shrugged.
“It’s a chance, Szabo, and once they strap us in those chairs and lock the door, we’ve no chance at all.”
Szabo offered his hand.
“I’m in. I’ll snatch Amos’ gun, while you go for one of the other guards.”
The man with the freckles mumbled something.
“What was that, Gary?” he said.
“I said what makes you two so sure that he’ll choose both of you to tak
e down first?”
“Hate, the guard Amos hates both of us, me because I killed his friend, Dooley, and Szabo because he’s trying to stop them.”
“I want to go.”
“What?”
“I said I want to go first. I can’t take any more of this, and plan or no plan they’re going to kill every one of us. I just want to get it over with.”
The sound came of approaching feet and they knew the time had come.
Gary rushed to the bars and talked to the deputies.
“Take me! I don’t care who else you take but take me down now. I can’t stand the waiting anymore.”
The deputy named Amos, the one Joe thought of as Fred, turned and spoke to Barney.
“Ain’t this some shit?”
Joe hopped off his cot and walked over.
“Take me too, I’ll give you a show, I promise.”
He grabbed Joe by the shoulders and turned him around.
“What the hell are you doing?”
“Take care of your wife.”
“What?”
“Take care of your wife when you see her,” Joe said, he then thrust his hands behind his back and offered the deputies his wrists.
As the deputies led Gary and Joe away, Szabo came to stand beside him.
“What the hell just happened?”
“He’s going to sacrifice himself.”
“Do you think he can take out the electrical panel?”
He gripped the bars with both hands.
“Just be ready,”
CHAPTER 18
Joe trembled as Fred took off his cuffs, as they stood outside the death room. To his left, the stainless steel kitchen counters gleamed in stark contrast to the darkness in the hearts of the men around him.
After taking a deep breath, he pushed past Barney and sprinted into the kitchen.
“Hey!” Fred bellowed behind him. “God damn it! Don’t make me chase you down.”
Joe ran to the cabinets on the other side of the room and began a frantic search.
There’s got to be some here somewhere, there’s got to be.
He nearly yell with joy when he found what he was looking for, and then dropped down on his hands and knees and maneuvered around the counters and preparation tables until he reached the appliances and crawled behind them.
“What did you do?” Fred said. “Did you grab a knife from one of the drawers? A knife ain’t gonna help you, and when I find you I’m gonna kick your ass before I strap you in the chair.”
Someone whistled, and Fred looked over to find Barney pointing at the wall where the stoves were, as Fred craned his neck, he could see a foot sticking out. He walked over and stared down at Joe, who was lying on the floor, but a second later, he wrinkled his nose, as the odor of the gas reached him.
“What the hell?” Fred mumbled, as he saw the wooden match in Joe’s hand, in Joe’s other hand was the gas line he’d freed from the industrial oven.
Joe smiled up at Fred. “Yabba Dabba Doo,”
And then he lit the match.
***
When the explosion occurred, it took out not only the electrical panel, but demolished nearly half of the prison. The gas line of the oven was fed from the same source as the water heaters and the furnaces. It was also connected to the gas heaters in the guard towers, which on this chilly April night had all been running.
In all, sixteen separate explosions occurred almost simultaneously and not only disabled the locks on every cell in the prison, but the blast from the underground pipeline collapsed the east wing. With bribes, the use of sub-standard construction materials and the refusal to build in redundant systems, Warden Grayson had saved millions when the prison was constructed.
Tonight, he was about to regret every penny of it.
***
Inside the Warden’s house, the chandelier over the desk tinkled as the very ground shook beneath them.
Both Grayson and Maynard ran to the window and took in the carnage. The light from a massive fire could be seen on the east side and every guard tower in view was smoldering at its summit, as the bodies of the dead guards continued to burn. Meanwhile, a steady stream of prisoners had begun escaping their confinement, through what could only be a hole in the prison walls.
“Jesus!” Maynard exclaimed.
Grayson gave him a shove.
“Don’t just stand there you idiot, call the town and get the fire department here.”
Maynard began laughing.
“What’s so damn funny?”
“Hell, Taylor, the town ain’t had a fire department for years now.”
“Son of a bitch!”
Maynard looked up.
“Hey, how come we haven’t lost power over here?”
“The house is on a different system than the prison.”
“So we’re safe here?”
“Yeah.”
“How many guards here?”
“There’s just one right now, but if anyone comes near, he’ll shoot them on sight, and anyway, the fence will keep them out.”
***
Both he and Szabo were knocked off their feet by the blast. As he stood, he reached down and offered Szabo a hand, then, he pushed against the bars and watched as they slid aside.
They emerged into the main area along with the men from the other cell and found chaos. Amidst the semidarkness of the emergency lights, the inmates were running about wildly, and the few unlucky guards that had been within reach were being beaten to death.
They followed the breeze that was mixed with smoke from the fire, and along with scores of other inmates, emerged outside through a hole in the wall of the east wing.
Szabo started towards the fences with the other men, but he gripped his arm and pulled him back.
“What are you doing?” Szabo asked.
“Not that way, this way,” he said, and pointed towards the warden’s house.
Szabo nodded in agreement, and took off at a run.
When they reached the gate, they pulled on it together and found that the electronic locks were holding tight.
The front door opened and a man in a guard uniform began shooting at them, but a moment after it started, the shooting stopped, as the man had a butcher knife plunged deep into his back. Standing over the man was the girl named Lyla.
Lyla reached a hand back inside and the huge gate began opening. As soon as they cleared it, she hit the switch again, and the gate once again locked shut.
When they reached her, Lyla took him by the hands and stared into his eyes.
“You’re here to kill them, yes?”
“Yes, and to get free, who are you?”
The woman that Grayson called Lyla, held her head high.
“My name is Elsa Karsten and I am from Dinslaken, Germany, My father is named Albert and my mother is named Petra. They thought that I would forget who I am, but I never forgot.”
“Where’s the warden?”
Elsa pointed down a corridor.
“Down there, with that other pig, the judge,”
“Find somewhere to hide Elsa.”
Elsa kissed him on the cheek, before running upstairs,
He strode down the corridor with the fallen guard’s Beretta in his hand, beside him, Szabo held a .32 he freed from the guard’s ankle holster.
They could hear them talking as they approached the double doors of the study and, without breaking stride, he kicked the doors open.
“Ah-ah!” Szabo warned, as the warden turned and reached towards his desk drawer for a weapon.
While Szabo handled the warden, he walked over to the judge and pressed the gun over his heart. “It’s time to keep my promise, Judge,” he said, and pulled the trigger, and thus, killed him quickly.
“Shit!” The warden cried out.
“Phone, now!” Szabo said.
Grayson fumbled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over.
As Szabo dialed, the warden looked back and forth at them.
&
nbsp; “Just what the hell did you two blow up?”
“Your life, you piece of shit,” Szabo said, and then he shot the warden between the eyes. Afterwards, he removed the warden’s weapon from the desk drawer and tossed it atop his body.
When his call was answered, he smiled.
“Baker! It’s Szabo, come get me out of this hellhole, and oh yeah, you might want to bring the national guard with you.”
***
At the house, Jessica sat on the sofa with the dog on her lap.
Sarah Callaway’s body had been taken away amid the tears of her late brother’s colleagues, all of whom burned with vengeance over the loss.
She assured them that she would be safe if left unguarded, and wished them success as they continued to search for Rob Stevens.
She and the dog had both fully recovered from the effects of the drug, and now she sat thinking about Stevens.
He would run. He would run, but someday he would return and in the meantime, she and her husband would always have to keep looking over their shoulders.
Where would he run?
Where would he hide?
In a flash of intuition, she knew where she would find him, but to get there, she needed information.
“Hello?” Carly said in a sleepy voice.
“I’m sorry to wake you honey, but I need to know some things, and I need to know them as soon as possible.”
It was only forty minutes after she hung up, that the text came in. While she was waiting for it, she had come up with a plan of action and, after a visit to the basement tool room, and the quick modification of a device, she had what she needed.
After dressing, she armed herself, and then ventured out into the night, confident that her instincts were right and that soon she would have her revenge on Rob Stevens.
CHAPTER 19
Chief Jack Dent stared into the mirror before buttoning his shirt as he touched the twin bruises on his chest, bruises acquired when Rob Stevens shot him.
If not for the bulletproof vest he would have died, and in truth, came very near dying anyway due to the trauma of the .45 slugs impact.
Only the expertise of Jessica White’s medical skill saved him, and now, thankfully, he gets to live on.
“What are you going to do with your new lease on life, Jacky boy?” He mumbled to the man in the mirror.
The TAKEN! Series - Books 1-4 (Taken! Box Set) Page 42
