The Job

by Jove Belle

  “I’ll try.”

  *

  Tor kissed Sera again. The impulse grew inside her when Sera said she’d try, and after that, she couldn’t hold it back. She rose onto her toes and kissed Sera softly. And, despite her hesitation about talking, Sera didn’t hold back when Tor’s lips touched her. She kissed her with all the hunger, anger, and tenderness of a lifetime.

  Then she abruptly pulled away. She held her cell phone between them, her chest heaving slightly. “Phone call. Now.”

  “Right.” Tor picked up another set of scissors and pointed to where Bart was working to free the others. “I’ll be over there.”

  “Thanks.”

  Tor hesitated. The urgency of the situation was strangely muted by her need to make sure things would be okay between her and Sera. “Beth again?”

  Beth, that was another piece of the Sera puzzle. She’d identified herself as FBI. If Sera was part of this group of bank robbers, why was she also calling FBI agents? As a general rule, the two didn’t mix.

  “No, I need to call my boss.” Sera paused, her mouth open slightly as if she had more to say. Finally she shook her head gently. “My other boss. If he’s even my boss anymore.” The last part she muttered more to herself than to Tor.

  Tor nodded like she understood, though really none of this made sense. As long as she knew Sera would talk to her when it was over—and she believed they would make it through this alive—the rest of her questions could wait. So she did what Sera asked, clipping plastic zip ties with Bart until the rest of the group was free. It took only a few minutes, less time than Sera probably thought it would. Tor didn’t know if she should wait until Sera finished her phone call, or if she should return to her and let her know she was done.

  Her instinct to be near Sera, subdued over the years but never fully smothered, won out in the end. She made her way slowly back to the section of shelving where she’d left Sera.

  Sera was still on the phone when Tor reached her.

  “John, I don’t know what’s going on. He’s gone off the deep end.”

  Sera smiled and placed her finger over her mouth, indicating Tor should remain quiet.

  “I met him this morning as scheduled, yes. Next thing I know, he’s holding me at gunpoint and ranting about blowing up that building earlier today.”

  A pause.

  “He has the building wired with explosives and we’re surrounded by cops. There’s no easy way out.”

  Another pause.

  “I tried to get the detonator from him. He shot two people in response. I’m telling you, he’s nuts.”

  Whoever Sera was talking to, she was trying hard to garner support. Tor couldn’t decide if that was bad or good. Clearly this John person also knew Marcus, and that wasn’t the best character endorsement, given the circumstances.

  “No, John, he wants to kill me. He won’t listen to me. I’m not sure he’ll listen to you.”

  Another pause.

  “I’ll try. I’m not a munitions expert. I don’t even know where he put them, let alone how to disarm them.”

  Tor placed her hand softly on Sera’s arm. This was the woman she remembered, one who fought for others, who did the right thing no matter the cost. She had no doubt Sera would find the bombs and disarm them. Or die trying. A chill gripped her chest at the thought.

  “I understand. Thank you, sir.”

  Sera ended the call and set the phone on the shelf. She placed her hand over Tor’s and squeezed. The small touch said so much more than either had ever managed with words. It was Sera’s promise, she knew, that everything would be okay, that eventually this would be over and then they could talk.

  “Okay?” Sera asked.

  Tor laughed. “As I can be.”

  “Everyone cut loose?”

  “For all the good it does us, yes.” Tor didn’t want to be negative, not when Sera was working so hard to appear positive and not show how much pain she was in. The words slipped out before she could stop them, and once they were out, she didn’t want to take them back. The situation sucked. No amount of being positive would change that.

  “Yeah, we are kind of stuck for the moment, aren’t we?”

  In the dim light, Sera looked tired, her face drawn and pinched, a haunted expression in her eyes. It was all so far beyond Tor. She couldn’t ease Sera’s burden, and the realization made her so very sad she almost cried with grief.

  “You can’t tell me what’s going on, can you?”

  Sera shook her head. “No, sorry.”

  “Who is John?” Tor asked anyway.

  “My boss.”

  “Isn’t Beth your boss?”

  “No…it’s complicated.” Sera shook her head.

  “Can John help us?”

  Sera’s laugh was short and brittle. “No.”

  Tor didn’t expect that answer. Sera seemed as though she wanted to hurry. Phone calls took time. “Then why call him?”

  Sera looked at her for a long moment, then sighed. “I think maybe he set me up.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Sera shrugged but didn’t answer.

  “You can’t tell me what he said?” Tor tried a different angle.

  “He told me to kill Marcus and disarm the explosives,” Sera said impassively.

  “You have a boss who issues kill orders?” Tor felt light-headed. Who worked in that kind of environment? People who robbed banks for a living, obviously. And what did Sera mean when she said she thought he’d set her up? The more Sera told her, the less she understood. That she might never know the full story was making her crazy.

  Sera withdrew her hand from Tor’s and nodded tightly. “When it’s necessary, yes.” She paused for a moment. “I’m not sure he means it, though.”

  “Why do you say that?”

  Sera pushed a hand through her hair. It was odd, Sera without bright-pink highlights, but this style suited her. It was short in the back, with long bangs that fell into her eyes in a way that would have been very sexy in any other situation.

  “Nothing. I shouldn’t talk about it, really.”

  “Sera, we could die. I deserve to know what you’re thinking.”

  Sera looked at her, her expression unreadable. Finally, she said, “He may be the one who sent Marcus here in the first place. It’s impossible to know for sure right now.”

  That made no sense. Why would he send someone to blow up the bank and then tell Sera to stop him? “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither do I. But that’s not important. Right now we need to focus on getting out of this alive.”

  “Will you do it?” Tor was horrified to hear the answer but had to know. “Kill him, I mean.”

  “If I have to, yes.”

  Tor had no words to respond, just the visual of a blank, white sheet where her thoughts used to be. The edges tinted scarlet, then the color crept inward until the whole surface turned bloodred. She opened her mouth to respond but just couldn’t force anything to come out.

  Sera stared at her for a long, painful moment, then picked up her phone and walked away.

  *

  Sera rested her head against the wall. It was hard and cool and smooth, solid reassurance in the middle of a rapidly shifting day. She needed just a moment to collect herself, to convince herself that her ribs didn’t hurt that bad.

  “It’s brown.”

  “What?” Sera had walked away because she had no idea what else to say to Tor. She’d already revealed too much, proving once again that she had no control when Tor was around. She hadn’t expected her to follow.

  “Your hair. It was red, with white-blond streaks the last time I saw you.” Tor touched the ends of Sera’s bangs.

  Sera shrugged. It’d been years since she’d colored her hair. After she entered the FBI academy she’d suppressed all expressions of her individuality because that’s what was necessary to succeed. When she went undercover, the last thing she wanted was to be identified as the girl with the freaky hair. “A
lot of things have changed since the last time you saw me.”

  Tor dropped her hand and turned until her back was flush with the wall. She sagged against it, looking as beaten by the day as Sera felt.

  “I know. I just—”

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped.”

  When she looked into Tor’s eyes it was so easy to forget about why things had fallen apart all those years ago. The years had slipped away until they were eighteen and seeing each other in class for the first time. She wanted so badly to hold on to that feeling, to forget about everything they’d been through together, to forget about the situation they were in now, but she couldn’t. The years had passed and they were women now, not naive girls who believed life would go exactly the way they wanted. The building was rigged with explosives, and sooner or later, Marcus would grow tired of waiting. When that happened, he would push the button on the detonator. No amount of love could prevent that.

  “It’s been a rough day.” Tor smiled sadly.

  “It has.” Sera thought about the man who’d tried to save them all by hiding the detonator. He’d traded his life for Tor’s, and the knowledge that he would still be alive if she hadn’t lost her temper in the first place filled her with shame and regret. “I’m sorry about your friend.”

  Tor swallowed hard and tears threatened at the corners of her eyes. “I think he gave up a while ago and was happy to find a clean exit.”

  “He’s a hero.”

  Tor nodded. “I hope I get a chance to tell his wife that.”

  “I have to figure out where the bombs are.” Sera had received minimal training on munitions. She’d never intended it to be her field of expertise and so didn’t pursue further training. She regretted that decision.

  “You said he blew up another building this morning. Was that the Hancock building?”

  Sera searched Tor’s face for traces of the emotional impact of what she was asking. Her expression was blank, and that scared Sera more than if she’d been crying hysterically. At least that she’d have understood. This obvious attempt to cover something deeper confused her. Since everything she knew had already been reported on the news, she didn’t see any reason not to respond.

  “Yes, there was a financial institution there. Beckford, I think.”

  Tor’s face retained that carefully blank expression, but a single tear rolled down her cheek, followed by another and another until she finally sobbed and clutched at Sera’s shoulders. The pressure in her chest was immediate, sharp, and almost brought her to her knees. She pushed through it, breathing steady and short, until she was able to ease her arms around Tor and hold her.

  “Shh, it’s okay.” Sera said words she didn’t believe but hoped they’d comfort Tor anyway.

  Tor quieted quicker than Sera expected, the flood of tears over as quickly as they started.

  “Do you know anything else about it?”

  “Just what’s been on the radio. And that Marcus claims responsibility. I believe him.”

  Tor nodded and opened her mouth to say something more, then turned her face away from Sera instead. Finally she simply said, “Okay.”

  “Okay.” Sera mirrored the statement. Maybe if they said it enough, it would become true. She held Tor for a moment longer. She didn’t know when Marcus’s countdown to Armageddon would hit zero, and she wanted to make sure the only explosion that happened when he pushed the button was his temper. First, she needed to get out of this room. Before she could do that, she needed to check in with Beth. The phone call with John had been awkward and had used too much battery life. She couldn’t be sure from his response if he knew about Marcus’s plan or if her cover had truly been blown beyond Marcus. “I need to make one more phone call. Then we’ll see about getting out of here.”

  “Okay.”

  She’d hoped Tor would step away, but she stayed next to Sera. In fact, she stood so close, the back of her hand touched the side of Sera’s leg. She didn’t have it in her to tell Tor to go away. Their mini-fight from earlier had taken all the antagonism out of her. Now she just wanted to curl up with Tor and pretend none of this was happening. Instead, she dialed Beth’s number.

  Beth picked up on the first ring, sounding slightly out of breath. “Sera, thank God. You’re still alive.”

  “I am. I need a game plan here. Tell me where you guys are. What are your plans to breach?”

  “We’re still working on that. Listen, this is bigger than we originally thought. Reports are coming in from around the country. Similar bombings took place at eight a.m. in several cities. And we’re now learning that major banking institutions have been taken over in each of those cities as well.”

  “I just spoke with John. He acted as though he knew nothing about it. Maybe he was trying to cover the trail. There’s no way Marcus is plugged in deep enough to be the local point of contact on a nationwide attack.” Sera spoke with confidence she didn’t really feel. She’d underestimated Marcus. Who was she to say he couldn’t be the local point person on this operation, taking orders directly from the LFA.

  “We have a team en route to pick up John now. We searched Marcus’s house earlier. The team found blueprints and schematics. We know where the bombs are located.”

  “Do you know why he’s waiting to detonate it?”

  “IT is still going through his computer, but it looks like they’re scheduled to go off at noon.”

  The only watch Sera had was the one on her phone, but she knew they had to be getting close. “What time is it now?”

  “Fifteen after eleven.”

  “So I need to get the detonator from Marcus. I can do that.” Sera wasn’t sure exactly how she would make that happen, but the vague outlines of a plan were forming in her mind.

  “It’s not that simple. According to the plans, the bombs have timers as well. We believe Marcus is just a fail-safe. He’s there to keep us out and to detonate if the timers fail for any reason.”

  What Beth was saying meant that Marcus intended this to be a suicide mission, so why had he gathered two bags full of cash? Not that she’d seen the actual money. It was, however, a pretty safe assumption, given the amount of time that team had spent in the vault. They’d brought their bags back fuller than when they’d gone in, whereas the other team had brought their bags back empty.

  “Jesus. But that doesn’t explain what he was doing in the vault. Why load up two bags of money if you don’t plan to make it out alive?”

  “Appearances, maybe? Perhaps the other men don’t realize his plans. I’ll see what else I can find out.”

  “That makes Marcus even more dangerous.” A guy who wanted to live through the day was very different from one who expected to die.

  “On the upside, according to the bomb tech, the devices are pretty straightforward. Cut the green wire leading from the power supply and they’ll be deactivated.”

  “Devices? How many bombs are there?” She knew Marcus had made a production of saying he needed two buttons, but that didn’t mean a lot. Multiple charges could be activated at the same time with one trigger.

  “Three that we know of. One next to the fire risers, one next to the furnace, and one near the elevator. Two of them are near major support columns for the building. Either one could bring the structure down. The third, by the elevator, isn’t big enough to do any real damage to the rest of the structure, but it’ll definitely destroy the elevator shaft.”

  “Have you evacuated the building?”

  “Yes. The only people left are the ones in there with you.”

  “Okay, so first priority is getting them out safely. Any thoughts?”

  The longer this conversation dragged on, the more desperate Sera felt. She’d hoped to hear they had a rescue plan in place and were poised to storm the building. The odds of that happening at this point were very slim. If she found the bombs, they would talk her through disarming them, but they weren’t going to risk further loss of life by infiltrating the building. They didn’t want t
o trigger an early detonation.

  “At this point, we have a team staged near the main entrance and another ready to enter the parking facility in the basement, if needed.”

  “But no one is coming in.”

  “We’re still working on a plan.” Beth’s normally perfunctory tone was underlain with regret, apology. “I’m sorry.”

  Sera turned to Tor. She didn’t have time for Beth’s sympathies. She needed a plan. “How do we get to the parking area?”

  “The elevator in the middle of the lobby.”

  “The one wired with explosives?” Fucking perfect.

  “Yes.”

  Sera bit back the urge to curse. “Can you help with a distraction? Draw his attention to you and away from the elevators?”

  “I’ll bring his helicopter overhead and call him.”

  The noise of the helicopter would distract all of them. Those things weren’t quiet.

  “Good. Watch the elevator. I’ll send them out that way.” It was a risky plan with a low chance for success, but it was better than staying put. If they made a break for the elevator, they had a chance to survive. If they did nothing, they’d all die in forty-five minutes.

  “Got it.” Beth hesitated. “And good luck, Sera.”

  Sera disconnected the call without responding. She didn’t need luck. She needed a fucking miracle.

  *

  Fourteen Years Earlier

  Tor snuggled deeper into her comforter and nudged Sera in the shoulder. The alarm had been going off for five minutes. “Alarm.” Her voice was muffled by the blanket, but Sera finally rolled over and slapped the top of the clock. It was the third time she’d activated the snooze function, and if she didn’t get moving soon, she’d miss her morning class. “Are you going to class today?” Tor asked.

  Sophomore year was so much better than freshman year. The biggest perk for Tor was the off-campus housing. She’d begged her daddy, and he’d finally given in and paid for an apartment close enough to make it to campus via bus in less than twenty minutes. That convenience was made even better when Sera agreed to move in with her. She got to wake up next to her every day. It was totally clichéd, but she couldn’t think of anything better.