Kill Zone: A Lucy Guardino FBI Thriller

by CJ Lyons

  Party? Nick closed the door behind him as Esther hobbled down the hall, past the front parlor, and into the dining room.

  “Be sure to lock that, now,” she called over her shoulder. “Bad times out there tonight.”

  “What?” He glanced up the steps. No lights on upstairs that he could see. “Did Andre make it back yet?”

  The front parlor was dark, the thick drapes pulled tight—first time he’d ever been here and seen the drapes pulled shut like that, no lights on. Esther had enough sight remaining that having lights on helped her navigate more easily.

  “Andre sent me to get you,” he said as he followed her.

  He walked down the hall and turned into the windowless dining room sandwiched between the parlor and the kitchen at the rear of the house. Esther’s hospital bed was against the kitchen wall. The heavy oak pocket doors to both the front room and the kitchen were both shut. The antique table that usually featured a lace runner and pair of silver candlesticks had been pulled out from the far wall and transformed into mission control.

  Five women, all in their sixties and seventies, sat around the table, each with their own laptop. Several also had cell phones and were busy texting. Two others had earphones on and were listening intently to broadcasts from their computers.

  “Got another fire. The old shoe store on Bennett,” one of the ladies with earphones reported. “And looters at the East Liberty Target.”

  Fingers typed furiously.

  “Fifth’s blocked as well,” said another into her computer. A woman’s face was on it. They were Skyping, Nick realized. “Sister Agnes, did you copy? Looks like Frankstown is your only open route.”

  “I’m on it,” the woman on the computer screen said.

  Nick turned to Esther. “What’s going on?”

  “Tweeting and texting. Someone’s got to let folks know where the latest trouble is.”

  “Trouble? You mean the Rippers?” Andre had said he was worried about the Rippers threatening Esther, but glancing at the map on one of the computers there were red highlights over most of the city. Except Homewood. That was funny. Usually Homewood was known as one of the most dangerous areas of the city. Strange for so much to be happening around it. “And the nun?”

  “Nuns. Sister Agnes and Sister Patrice. They’ve got the van out, picking up folks and bringing them back to Holy Trinity for safekeeping. So far we’ve been spared but we don’t know how long that will last.”

  “We’re their eyes and ears,” one of the other ladies said. “Margot, there’s another bomb threat. This one at the Federal Building.”

  “Esther, Andre asked me to take you somewhere safe.” Then the lady’s words registered: another bomb threat?

  “Nick.” Esther reached over, finding his arm, trailing her fingers down to pat his hand. “Nowhere's safe in this city. Not tonight.”

  Tires squealed in the distance. At least Nick thought it was the distance. The row house’s thick walls and doors muffled the street sounds. It wasn’t until gunfire crashed through the upstairs, the sound of glass breaking and wood splintering echoing through the house, that he realized they were right outside.

  He tried to cover Esther’s body with his own, but she pushed him off. “I am not about to die a coward. Not at the hands of a bunch of no good drug dealers.”

  A second salvo of bullets drowned out the rest of her words.

  <><><>

  Hey guys, anyone else having trouble with 911 tonight? My dog’s been gone three days now, could use some help #Pgh911Fail

  #Pgh911Fail @joepizza hear your pain man, cops don’t care jack ‘bout working men trapped by their fascist curfew

  @Steelerluver: broke down on parkway west no help from cops no help from 911 WTF do we pay taxes for? #Pgh911Fail

  F*&in cops won’t answer damn phone neighbor parked in front of my house, moved MY parking chair can you believe that sh%$??? What’s this city coming to? #Pgh911Fail

  @Proudgranny report of shooting Penn Circle East anyone confirm? Stay safe out there #Pgh911Fail

  Chapter 26

  Lucy saw Zapata enter the garage with his men. Raziq was with him. She raised her shotgun almost without thinking. Zapata was unarmed, but God, she’d never wanted to kill anyone more in her life. All she could smell was the stench of innocent blood; all she could see were the bodies of slaughtered civilians piled high at the 911 Center.

  “Drop your weapons,” she shouted. She and Haddad were outnumbered and probably outflanked, but it was worth a shot. “Give us Raziq.”

  Before the men could respond, Fatima and the baby crossed into the line of fire.

  Shit, shit, shit. She lowered her gun. The others still had her in their sights but obviously they wanted Fatima alive. She backed away.

  “Fatima,” the man in the mask, Stone, shouted, shoving Lucy aside as he scrambled to his feet. “No. Don’t go.”

  Haddad slid the heavy wooden door shut, blocking their view. The men on the other side opened fire. Lucy threw the bolt to latch the door. Then she turned her Remington on Stone. “Give me the gun.”

  “Damn it. Why did she go with them?” Stone asked, ignoring her demand, but not resisting when Lucy yanked the Mac-10 from him.

  “We’ve got company,” Haddad shouted. An SUV had appeared at the far end of the alley, down the hill. “Let’s go.” He grabbed the door of Zapata’s Escalade. “The keys are in the ignition.”

  “No,” Lucy said. “We need to track them. Leave your phone.”

  She used the Mac-10 to shoot the tires of the SUV facing away from the Escalade. Making Zapata’s choice of getaway vehicles easy. When she turned back, Haddad had his phone out and was slipping it under the cargo mat at the rear of the Escalade. He slammed the hatch down.

  Together with Stone they ran up the alley away from the approaching SUV. Shots flew above them but they were out of range of the machine pistols. Angry curses followed as the men were blocked by the other SUVs near the garage. Once they were a few blocks up the alley and out of sight of the men following, they climbed onto a trash bin and jumped over a privacy fence into someone’s back yard. Stone stumbled a bit on the climb over the fence, but otherwise kept up with them.

  Lucy wasn’t sure about Andre Stone. He’d been trying to help Fatima and the baby escape, yet he’d almost shot them when they ran to Raziq. Haddad said Stone blamed Raziq for his injuries. Maybe Stone had been using Fatima and the baby to lure Raziq into the open where he could kill him? Had this been some kind of elaborate trap, using the Rippers and Zapata to spring it?

  No. Zapata obviously was the leader. Why was Stone there, then? What was his role in all this?

  Her head hurt just thinking about it. She had a nice goose egg on the side of her scalp, but the bleeding had stopped. Unfortunately after each adrenalin surge faded, she found more bruises and aches to catalogue. What was really painful, though, was finding Raziq and his family only to lose them again.

  Waving the others back, she used the house as cover to observe the activity on Ruby Avenue. The house appeared to be empty—an old yellow brick single-family home with newspapers covering the windows and a convenient collection of overgrown rhododendron surrounding the front porch that they could use for concealment.

  Lucy motioned the two men forward. They sat behind the bushes. Cars and SUVs raced past them coming from Kujo’s two blocks south: the Rippers out hunting.

  Lucy watched through her monocular. “No sign of Fatima or Raziq in any of them. Hopefully that means they’re in the Escalade.” She radioed Taylor to track Haddad’s cell.

  “No problem,” he replied. “Give me five and we’ll be live. I see you found Stone. Or at least his phone. Is he in custody?”

  She pulled away from the others, retreating to the shadows of the backyard, and lowered the volume on the radio. Stone didn’t act like he’d heard, but who could tell for sure? Not with that mask hiding his face from her. She clicked the mic, reminding Taylor this was an open channel. “Not quite.
Did you learn anything more?”

  “Won’t tell you how, but got his discharge summary from the VA. They list Post Traumatic Stress and Traumatic Brain Injury due to Concussive Force as part of his diagnoses qualifying him for disability. Plus third degree burns over 34% of his body and whole bunch of surgeries.”

  Lucy didn’t want to know what firewalls Taylor had breached to get that info. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah. I’ve been looking at footage from the 911 Center. The bomb used was pretty small as far as destructive capacity. We’re not talking Oklahoma City here.”

  “Explains why they added the gasoline vapors to the mix.”

  “The fire ball definitely magnified the damage. Point is, Stone could be your guy. None of the bombs he built as a kid were very big—more fire and noise than actual blowing things up.”

  “Is this coming from ATF?” She couldn’t believe they were already on scene and not helping out elsewhere in the city.

  “No. As soon as the fire was out, everyone was deployed elsewhere—except a squad of police cadets left to secure the scene.”

  “Then where did you get footage from?”

  He chuckled. “TV news copters. Plus cell video from the cadets. They were so excited about being able to help. Rookies.”

  Like he wasn’t still a rookie himself. Lucy looked up. She remembered helicopters overhead as they drove through Point Breeze, but although she could see the lights of a few in the distance, there were none nearby. No news worth covering here on Ruby Avenue, they thought. How wrong they were.

  “Let me know as soon as that cell moves,” she told Taylor. Gunfire sounded. Maybe a few blocks away. “How fast can Jenna get here?”

  “She’s there already. Been making a wide loop of the area. Says most of the Rippers left their HQ, just a few left behind to guard it. Hasn’t seen Zapata or Raziq.”

  How the hell was Jenna driving around Ruby Avenue without the Rippers spotting her? True, the Tahoe’s windows were tinted and Lucy hadn’t seen a working street lamp since they arrived, but still, it was a big risk. “Have her drive to the corner of Ruby and Felicia. We’re at the yellow brick house on the corner.”

  “Will do.”

  She returned to the bushes where she’d left the others. “He’ll radio when he has anything. In the meantime, our ride is coming.”

  “What if Zapata doesn’t use the Escalade? We should have stayed and kept eyes on him,” Haddad told her.

  With both the Rippers and Zapata’s men after them? She understood his frustration, but she’d made the right call.

  A car turned down the side street, heading towards them, slowly, passengers on both sides holding large flashlights, scanning the area.

  They all flattened on the ground. When it was safe again, Haddad sat up and turned to Stone. “Why were you there with Fatima? Do you know where they were headed?”

  Stone said nothing at first. The faint moonlight reflected from his eyes; the rest of his face was hidden by the fabric of his mask. It was very unsettling. Two eyes alive in the shadows of his hoodie.

  Then he nodded. “I’ll tell you everything. But first you have to make sure my Grams is safe.”

  Jenna slid up beside them in the Tahoe, her lights off. They hopped in, Lucy in the back with Stone, Haddad up front.

  “Where to?” Jenna asked.

  Stone answered before Lucy could say anything. “Turn left on Ruby, head over the hill, down three blocks. That’s my Gram’s house.”

  <><><>

  “People are dying.” Jenna had said. “They need my help.”

  Jenna acted like Morgan didn’t understand what that meant, like she didn’t care.

  Of course, she didn’t. Why should she? What had “people” ever done for her?

  Besides, she was a sociopath. She didn’t have to care. She couldn’t.

  It was like having a permanent excuse to get out of gym class.

  Or a crutch. Morgan didn’t like that. Yes, she could get away with murder—but if she did, she wanted it to be because she was smarter, cleverer, because she deserved to, not because some part of her brain was wired wrong.

  Or wired right. Her father said they were the superior beings. Predators. Of course they had to hunt. It was their nature, being higher on the food chain, the next link in human evolution.

  Look how he ended up. Self-destructing in a most spectacular way. All because he couldn’t deny his primal impulses, his blood lust. Now he was caged in a six by eight cell, like a zoo specimen.

  That was Morgan’s idea of hell. She’d kill herself before she ever let that happen. Only question was: who would she take with her?

  No, no, no! She screamed, the shrill noise echoing through the empty house. She wanted to hit something, someone. But she restrained herself. She was better than that. Better than her father.

  She hoped.

  No. She was.

  Well… at least she wanted to be. Nick was right. She was smart enough, strong enough to go another route than the one her father had chosen—but she needed to learn so much more if she was going to succeed.

  There was nothing Morgan hated more than failure.

  She grabbed her laptop, pulled up the spyware on Jenna and Nick’s phones. Jenna was on Ruby Avenue, driving down the same street where Nick was stationary. That was strange. What were they both doing on Ruby Avenue, this time of night?

  Jenna had said something about lives needing saving. She'd sounded rushed and excited—and had the nerve to hang up on Morgan. Something must be happening, something big that Morgan missed while she was dealing with Nick.

  She opened up a new tab with Pittsburgh Police radio calls streaming live, another one linked to a local news channel. Flipped back and forth between them, enjoying the hyper-stimulation as she pieced together what was happening.

  The entire city was under attack, police stations bombed, snipers, fires at hockey games, civilians killed, helicopters down. Mesmerized by the chaos, she surfed from site to site watching jerky cell phone videos of the destruction, reading Tweets, listening to news anchors all breathy and thrilled at being the center of the nation’s attention as they pronounced it “the night Pittsburgh died.”

  Morgan grabbed her laptop and car keys. No way in hell was she going to miss out on the fun.

  Chapter 27

  “I told you,” Esther said as soon as the shooting slowed enough for them to hear anything. “Nowhere is safe tonight.”

  “Who is that out there?” Nick asked. His voice sounded abnormally loud and a bit more panicked than he would have liked. He took a deep breath. “Why are they shooting at us?”

  The women around the table looked at him as if he were daft. Or particularly slow. All he felt was shock.

  “This is Ruby Avenue,” one of the women said. “Home of the Rippers.”

  “They don’t need no reason,” chimed in another.

  “Call 911,” Nick said.

  The women laughed. “911 don’t work here best of times.”

  “Won’t do no good,” Esther said. “Not tonight.”

  “Maybe someone from the church?” Nick suggested. “You could text or Skype the nuns, ask them.”

  “I’m not bringing the Sisters into a middle of a gunfight.”

  She had a point. “Just see if they can help.” He grabbed his own cell phone and dialed Lucy.

  “Are the Rippers behind this crime wave y’all are charting?” Nick asked, gesturing to the map on the laptop and the never-ending stream of police calls coming from Esther’s headphones.

  “Them and some Spanish, best we can tell,” Esther said. “Blew up the 911 Center, shooting at police stations, trying to blow up bridges and tunnels.”

  “All hell broke loose,” one of her friends said solemnly.

  “But why here? What do they want from you?”

  Loud knocking at the front door echoed down the hall. Nick was glad for the sturdy construction of the row house and the fact that since it was the middle unit
, it only had windows front and back. The dining room was probably the safest place in the house.

  The knocking repeated. “Sorry ‘bout all the fuss, Miss Esther,” a man called. He sounded like he was fighting off laughter. “But we needs you to come with us.”

  “Ain’t going nowhere with you Mathias Maddoc! You just try and make me.”

  “Esther, don’t agitate them,” Nick said.

  “It’s my house. I’ll agitate whomever I please,” she snapped.

  “Want me to shoot them, Esther?”

  Nick spun around. The quiet lady in the corner had fished a large revolver out of her bag. He grabbed it from her, ignoring her arched eyebrow in rebuke.

  “No one is shooting anyone.” He turned to Esther. “Why do they want you?”

  “Probably something to do with Andre. He used to run with the Rippers when he was young.”

  “Yes, but—” Nick trailed off, not wanting to let Esther know the Rippers already had Andre. Which answered his own question. Damn, he was getting thick. They wanted her as leverage to force Andre to kill that man.

  Maddoc pounded on the door. “Just come out and talk, will ya? I promise, Miss Esther, nothing’s going to happen to you.”

  “Like I’m going to listen to you after you shot out my upstairs!”

  Nick handed his phone to the woman he’d taken the gun off of. “Keep dialing that number. If someone answers, tell them Nick needs help and bring it to me, okay?”

  She smiled and nodded.

  “Is there another way out?”

  “Just the backdoor. But just because they’re Rippers don’t mean they’re stupid. They’ll be watching it,” one of the other women answered.

  “And we’re not leaving Esther.”

  “How about the basement? It’s got to be more defensible than here.” The women looked at each other and nodded. “Why don’t you ladies help Esther down to the basement and I’ll try to buy us some time.”