Deadly Interpretations

by Andie Alexander

  I touched the end of the two-by-four, feeling some holes. So it had nails in it on just one end? Weird, for sure. But I didn’t have time to check and didn’t want to cut myself on the nail ends. I hoped the nails were still there on the other side, to really hurt someone.

  Nice healthy thoughts, I figured, in this situation. I had to remember them to tell Dr. White if I ever saw him again. He’d have a field day with those thoughts and might even be able to write a book about how I could have such nice ideas about killing people intending to kill me first. No one in his right mind could fault me for that. However, I doubted Dr. White was in his right mind.

  I ran back to the building and peeked around the edge toward the back of the eastern wall. No one—well—at least no one alive, was in my general vicinity. Natasha was still out there in the woods, but I highly doubted her dead body would care where I was or what I was up to. The bugs covering her face might, but I decided that wasn’t my problem.

  I headed to the back of the building, and peeked around the western edge. No one was in sight. I lifted the heavy two-by-four in my arms and ran to a tree in the woods separating McJenson’s and the kidnapping house. I stepped through the forested area, dodging tree stumps and vines, dead bodies, and bugs the best I could. I just hoped I could get back to the house in time to save Brian.

  When I got to the other side of the line of trees, I saw many guards hunting around the house, certain they’d try to find me in the woods. Brian was still screaming, saying he didn’t know where I was. Good Brian. I had to thank him for that, even though he wouldn’t know exactly where I was. For all he knew, I’d taken off, never to return again. But I was the one who was going to rescue him. I almost laughed, thinking about rescuing the huge medical student who had a crush on me. I’d really be his hero after this, if I were successful. I guess I’d have to break his heart because he wasn’t what I was looking for, even with all his money. My heart was still with Jim, hoping he was alive.

  I stood still, waiting for the guards to come to me. If I ran toward the house, they’d surely see me and gang up on me, even though the darkness should hide me.

  I backed up a few trees and waited. One guard headed toward me, while I watched from behind a tree. When he got close enough, I pulled back my two by four and whacked him across the head. He went down with a woof and a thud. I moved over a tree, and waited for another one. Playing slow-pitch softball when I was in high school seemed to be helpful in a time like this. I never knew when previous skills would come in handy.

  “Konstantin. Where did you go?” Another guard was speaking in Russian. I was so glad I knew various languages, because they couldn’t hide anything from me if they spoke one that I knew.

  The man headed toward the trees and I waited. He walked up to the guard lying on the ground and kicked his body. “This isn’t time to lay down on the—”

  I pulled my board back as far as it would go and hit him on the back of his head with a crack, creating a huge thud as soon as he fell on top of Konstantin. Two down and at least eight to go. I moved away and assessed my path back to Brian.

  There were no other guards on the closest side of the house, so I ran closer and hid in the shadows on the eastern side. I crouched down and peeked around the back of the house. One guard was standing against the brick wall, smoking a cigarette. His friend was gone. That was just nasty that he could smoke a cigarette and I couldn’t. It was if he was rubbing it in my face and laughing at me. Either that, or I was becoming delusional—definitely the latter.

  I heard screaming from the basement, and I was sure they were torturing Brian again. He bawled for his father, yelled out my name, and then went silent.

  I waited until he screamed again for a diversion, then charged the smoking guard and hit his head while he tried to defend himself. It was Georgi, and I took out all my frustration on him. He fell to the ground, but pulled me down with him and grabbed my two-by-four. I wrestled with him and stood up. He stood in front of me. When I lunged for the board, he managed to swing it and give me a glancing blow to the back of my head. The pain was excruciating, but I managed to stay on my feet. He pulled back his arms and tried to hit me again, but I ducked.

  As much as my head hurt, I had to do this for Brian, Jim—if he was alive, Scotty and for Jonquil, the poor little thing with the girlie flower first name. I wrestled the board from Georgi and hit him over the head so hard that I heard the thing snap as he went down.

  The whole altercation didn’t make that much noise, but enough to alert whoever was in the basement torturing Brian.

  “There she is,” the man yelled in Russian.

  After dropping the two-by-four to lighten my load, I ran for all I was worth to the trees behind the house to the north, hiding behind a thick tree trunk as I faced it. I peeked out, hoping my breathing and my booming heart wouldn’t give me away. Many guards surrounded the house, and I saw one kneeling beside Georgi, then look toward where I was hiding. I turned my gaze back toward the tree, hoping that whoever was torturing Brian had left him alone.

  My head throbbed, so I sank to my knees. I needed time off from this beating-up-guards job and could only hope someone would get there soon.

  I held onto the tree trunk, but felt so light-headed. I touched the back of my head, but thankfully, it was too dark to see if there was blood on my fingertips. Even so, I knew it was there. I looked up into the sky, and one lone star winked at me from the distance, as if Jim was watching out for me from the heavens. I had to concentrate on something, because I knew the guards were headed my way, and I couldn’t run anymore. I was done.

  Sirens sounded in the distance, which meant help was on its way, or there was a house fire some place close by, which might get more attention than a kidnapping. In this part of the woods, who knew what was important.

  One guard began yelling something in Russian. I could hear him get closer and yell it again. “Evacuate! We’ve been found. Cite diplomatic immunity if you’re found.”

  Nice of them to think ahead. They’d just saved themselves thousands of dollars in lawyer’s fees with that comment. It didn’t seem fair to me, though. They could get away with murder, literally, but had diplomatic immunity so they wouldn’t be charged. The law had to change, and if it were up to me, I’d put them all on house arrest, duct taped to the walls, until they proved to me that they were worthy. Even then, I’d kick them all out of the country and have a hit man hunt them down overseas.

  The more I thought about it, I really was mean, and I didn’t think it was only the nicotine. Jim had said something profound. People were inherently good and I had to believe it. I missed him so much—his touch, his laugh, his kiss. I wished that stupid phone hadn’t gone dead, because Kent could’ve told me the truth about Jim.

  Cars pulled into the driveway, stopping with loud screeches from their brakes. I glanced out from my hideaway behind the tree. People got out of the cars and guns blazed. Two ambulances pulled up, making me laugh to myself. They’d need a lot more than that, just for all the guards I’d hit with my two-by-four.

  The shootout lasted a long time, with people screaming for it to stop. At one point, I heard someone running toward my crop of trees. I turned toward the north, away from the house with my back to the tree as I sat, my heart racing. I heard a shot pierce the silence and the man went down right beside me. I looked out. His eyes were still opened and his hand clutched his chest. I didn’t know the man, but had certainly hoped it was one of the bad guys.

  I looked up and saw the gunfight had stopped. The outside lights to the house turned on. A man dressed in dark clothing walked away from the house. “Harley? Where are you?”

  I’d know that voice anywhere—it was Kent. Another man joined him and I got to my feet. They were talking between themselves, saying something about my necklace and the GPS still in it. But that necklace was gone.

  I stepped over the body beside me and made my way out of the small set of trees that had been my fortress. “Kent?�
�

  “Harley!”

  He and the other man ran toward me, and I suddenly felt light-headed. I kept my eyes on them, forcing myself to take one step after another toward them. When I saw who the other person was, I smiled, feeling the warm tears fill my eyes, finally able to cry. I wanted to break down all the walls, and wanted to let this person into my life.

  They ran to me and Kent grabbed my arm as I stumbled.

  I tried to focus on them. “Jim! You’re alive. Doctors are so hot.” I felt myself fall, total darkness encompassing me.

  Chapter 38

  I opened my eyes to a very white ceiling. Someone in the room was talking, so I looked down toward my feet and saw many flowers filling the room. Most of them were roses, but some mixed flowers sat among them. I must either be in a flower shop or a cemetery.

  Jim and another man stood at the foot of my bed, both dressed in white jackets, looking like real doctors and reading over some clipboard.

  Jim glanced up, did a double take, and smiled. “You’re awake.”

  “Seems so,” I whispered. My mouth was so dry and my head just hurt. I lifted my hand to my head, but it only made it worse.

  Jim walked to my side and lowered my hand to my side. “Don’t move much. You have a concussion and a cut on the back of your head.” He gave me a glass of water with a straw in it and I sucked down some water.

  “So I’ll live?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “—only to Die Another Day?”

  “Movie titles,” he muttered, shaking his head. “I guess you’re really awake then.”

  Not understanding what he was saying, I had to change the subject. “I guess Brian was right about the concussion before I was hit in the head again.”

  Jim smiled. “Yes, he was right.”

  “Is he okay?”

  “They tried to beat information from him and he’s in the hospital, too. He’ll be fine. He even asked about you because you saved his life.”

  “I’m not surprised he thinks that. He’s in love with me.”

  “I’ll be back later,” the other man said.

  “No problem.” Jim turned back to me. “Brian’s in love with you? What are you going to do about it?”

  “Nothing. He’s not my type, but you already know that.”

  Jim grinned and touched my hair. “Good. At least you don’t have amnesia.”

  I looked into his compassionate face. Yep, he was still hot, especially in that white coat. “What about you? Did they try to kill you?” I asked.

  “Sami tried right after you left work, but Kent and I fought him off. Daniel and the other Panamanian guards were following you, by their own choice. They saw you trying to get out of the house, but you were carried away.”

  “They couldn’t find me because someone took off my necklace with the GPS. Why did they follow me?”

  He put his hand on my wrist and took my pulse, glancing at his watch. “Well, we found your necklace near Boris’ house. They were following you because Daniel wants to ask you out.”

  I was confused. “Daniel? The guard who kidnapped us?”

  One of his eyebrows rose and he began to grin. “Interesting response. Your pulse didn’t even change when I mentioned that. So you’re not interested in Daniel?”

  “No way. Are you insane? He’s a kidnapper with a criminal’s name. What happened next?”

  “Daniel called me. We all followed the car part of the way, but we lost the car about a half hour from where you were located. I was helping to search, going door-to-door, when the call came in from the police officer.”

  “I tried to get them all. I had a big board—”

  “We know. You knocked out quite a few guards. I’d never want to go up against you wielding a two-by-four. Did you know there was a nail in that thing?”

  “I hoped there was but wasn’t sure.” I lowered my gaze. “I had a mission, and I had to do it.”

  “Brian? Was he your mission?”

  I looked right into his baby blues. “Not only him, even though he was screaming out in pain. I had other people to take care of and had to avenge some deaths.”

  “Do you mean Scotty and Jonquil?”

  “Yes. Are they okay?”

  He nodded. “Everyone’s okay. We’ve taken the commune apart, under the guise of psychological counseling. Jonquil and Scotty are being cared after by an elderly woman, until Squirt and Ray can get a place to live and learn to function in society. Scotty wants to stay with Squirt, because it’s more stable with him than being worried for his life.”

  “I understand.” I’d miss him, but he was right. My life was far from stable, and now I was sure I’d have to hide out.

  “We also found Natasha’s body. She was having an affair with a guard named Georgi.”

  “Georgi? He’s the one who hit me more than once and I hit him back. Is he still alive?”

  Jim began to laugh. “Yes, and you really hit him, too.”

  I closed my eyes, because of the throbbing all over my head. As I opened my eyes, I realized I really was alive. I wasn’t just dreaming.

  “Georgi’s fine and in jail singing like a blue jay,” he said.

  “Did you stop the bombs?” I asked.

  He leaned down. “Some of them, I think. What cities were to be hit? Do you remember what you might have been told?”

  “I knew you were going to ask me that. There were seven.” I looked up at the ceiling and started counting off on my fingers. “Uh, New York in Central Park, Metropolitan Washington, D.C., Minneapolis, Kansas City, Houston, Los Angeles…” I looked down at my hands. That was six. But where else?

  He’d been writing the whole time. “I’m surprised you remembered all of that with your concussion. Do you remember the seventh?”

  “No, but they were to go into the biggest malls in the area and bomb people, then there was a nuclear bomb being sent to the White House on Friday at noon from a submarine in the Atlantic. The Russians were going to blame it all on the Chinese, then while helping America rebuild, were going to sabotage the nuclear power plants and walk in. After that, they were going to take some smaller countries being protected by the U.S. and work with the Arabic countries to bomb China with their own nuclear weapons and codes. Sami was getting the codes, because Ali was trying to sell all the information to the Chinese.”

  Jim was writing. “I’ll be right back. Think of that other city.” He ran out of the room. What was going on?

  I lay there thinking about what city it could be. I remember lining them all up on a map of the United States in my mind, with New York, D.C., and Los Angeles on the two coasts, then the rest making almost a straight line down the center of the map, visualizing the area for each of them. I was glad I had a photographic memory, which helped when learning new languages. I had to concentrate. Minneapolis, Kansas City and Houston. But that last one. Hmmm…it was to the west of the straight line, right in the center.

  That’s when it all hit me. “Denver! Jim. It’s Denver. Wednesday at noon.”

  “I can hear you,” he said from the door. “Don’t wake the other patients.”

  “For the one in Central Park, it’ll be at the place where they play chess and checkers. All the Chinese gangs are responsible for planting the bombs. They’re going to sacrifice some of their own to throw off suspicion.”

  “Got it.” He walked away again, and I hoped he was calling it in. I also hoped it wasn’t Wednesday yet.

  He returned with a grin on his face. “I have some good news and some bad news.”

  “Give me the bad news first.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Pessimist?”

  “Yep.”

  “We didn’t get Boris or Mr. Wing yet, and you get to spend one more day in here. But we need to get you out after that for security purposes and you’ll have to heal elsewhere. Georgi really socked you one, and I’m surprised you could even function after that.”

  “That’s all the bad news?”

  “P
retty much. We have the rest of the bad guys in custody, but they wouldn’t tell us anything. Boris’ men are citing diplomatic immunity. ”

  Cheap lawyer fees, I said in my mind.

  Jim continued. “Anatoli’s okay, and he’s telling us a lot more.”

  “Good. He was in Vermont. They wanted to kill him.”

  “They couldn’t. We had him at our offices, being protected, once we realized he wasn’t near you.” He paused. “We’re in contact with the various governments to find out what’s going on. As soon as we find the ring leaders, we’ll handle them, and might accidentally turn them over dead, citing an uprising by their own guards or something.”

  “Boris was in league with one of the top men,” I said. “Russia’s director of defense. They stole the Chinese car to make everything look like the Chinese had done bad things.”

  “Ali’s body?”

  “Probably.”

  Jim opened his cell phone and made a call. “Kent, the director of defense in Russia is in on it.” He winked at me with a grin then listened. “Yes, I’ll tell her. Thanks.” He hung up the phone and stared at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You saved millions of lives. They got the gangs in most of the cities, and just in time, because all shopping centers were on high alert after you told Kent what was happening when you were kidnapped. All the bombs are being defused right now and the public will never know any of it. They knew exactly what to do as soon as all of the city names and locations were described.”

  “That was quick. What time is it?”

  “It’ll ten o’clock in the morning.”

  “What day is it?”

  He watched me for a moment. “Wednesday. We had to wait for you to wake up to tell us what had happened. You sleep a lot, and even our medicines didn’t help wake you up long enough to tell us much. You knew there were seven cities where the bombs were going to go off and the nuclear one headed for the White House. However, you never remembered Denver any time you woke up. I’ve spent every moment here that I could, trying to get you to wake up enough to be coherent to tell us more.”