Phoenix

by Alex Lukeman

  "That's where the dentist has his office. She's still there, according to this. The receptionist said she left an hour and a half ago."

  "You want to go look for her?" Ronnie said.

  "Yep."

  "Let's go," Ronnie said. "We'll take the Hummer."

  "I'll tell Harker," Nick said.

  "You go ahead, Nick," Stephanie said. "I'll let Elizabeth know."

  Outside headquarters, they piled into Ronnie's black Hummer. The car was like Nick's Suburban on steroids. Ronnie's car guru had turned the vehicle into a civilian tank. Armored, bulletproofed and carrying enough weapons in a compartment in the back to start a small war, the Hummer was almost unstoppable. It was also fast, courtesy of a turbocharged engine capable of putting out seven hundred horsepower. Ronnie climbed in behind the wheel.

  "Where to, Kemo Sabe?"

  "The dentist."

  Nick gave him the address. It took them less than an hour to reach the building. They drove into the underground garage.

  "Go along the rows." Nick pointed. "Let's see if her car is here."

  They spotted Selena's Mercedes and Ronnie pulled to a stop. Nick got out, walked over to the car, and tried the driver's door. It was unlocked. Selena would never have left it that way. He stepped back and saw Selena's key on the ground. He bent down to pick it up and glanced under the car. One of her shoes lay on the concrete floor. Her purse lay next to it. He reached under the car and pulled out the purse and the key. Selena's phone was inside the purse.

  He stood up. "Someone grabbed her."

  "Any surveillance cameras down here?" Lamont said. "Maybe they caught it."

  Nick looked. "There's one by the elevator. Ronnie, park the Hummer. Call Harker and let her know what's happening. Lamont, let's go talk to security."

  They took the elevator to the ground floor. A security counter was positioned where the guard could see the elevators and the front entrance. The man on duty looked to be about sixty years old. He was reading a magazine and looked up as they approached. A bank of monitors to the side of the counter showed images from cameras positioned in the front and back of the building, the lobby, and the garage.

  "Excuse me," Nick said.

  "Something I can help you with?"

  The guard's name tag said Henry. His voice was edged with suspicion. People tended to get like that when they saw the scar on Lamont's face.

  "Have you been on duty the last few hours?"

  "Who's asking?"

  Nick sighed. He took out his wallet and showed the guard his badge.

  "I never heard of that outfit," the guard said.

  "You have now," Nick said. "Trust me, you don't want to hear more about it. Now, were you on duty or not?"

  "Yeah, I was here."

  "You have cameras in the garage. You keep an eye on everything?"

  "That's what the monitors are for."

  Lamont made a movement. Nick put his hand on his arm.

  "That's not what I asked you. Do you watch the monitors?"

  "Of course I do. That's what they hire me for."

  "You see anything happen in the garage about two hours ago, Henry?"

  "No."

  "Have you been here the whole time?"

  "Yeah, except when I had to use the toilet. I ate something last night that didn't sit so good."

  "So you weren't here all the time."

  "Except for maybe ten minutes."

  "You have recordings from the cameras?"

  "If they're working right, yeah. They record over themselves every twenty-four hours."

  "I need to see the recordings from the garage. Say, from noon to one o'clock. Can you put that up on the monitor?"

  "I don't know," Henry said. "You guys need a warrant for that."

  "Henry," Lamont said.

  His voice was quiet, full of menace.

  "What?"

  "Put the recording up on the monitor, or you're going to find yourself in so much shit you won't believe it."

  "You'd better do what he says," Nick said. "I can't always control him. It was the war, you know?"

  Lamont scowled at the guard. It was what Nick called Lamont's boogyman look. Anyone seeing that look knew he was in trouble.

  "Put the recording up," Nick said. "We'll watch it and leave. Then you can go back to reading your magazine."

  The guard looked from Nick to Lamont and back again. He registered the shoulder holster under Nick's jacket. Lamont cracked his knuckles.

  "Yeah, okay, give me a minute," Henry said.

  The guard turned to the console in front of the monitors and entered commands.

  "You want the garage inside or outside?"

  "Inside first," Nick said. "Then the outside."

  A moment later, the recording began to play on one of the monitors. A timestamp on the bottom began reading off minutes and seconds.

  "This is the camera by the elevator," Henry said.

  The view was a fisheye picture looking out over rows of parked cars. The video was grainy, mediocre in quality, but Nick could see Selena's car down one of the rows to the left. Nothing happened for a few minutes, then a couple came out of the elevator and walked to a car, got in and drove away.

  "Speed it up a little," Nick said.

  The recording shifted to double time. Another person exited the elevator, walking down a row to his car, the movements jerky with the speeded up tape. At twenty minutes after noon, Selena came out of the elevator.

  "That's her," Lamont said.

  "Stop," Nick said. "Go back to regular speed."

  They watched Selena start for her car. Nick saw her reach into her bag for her keys and turn toward the door of the Mercedes. A large man appeared from between the cars and grabbed her from behind. He clamped a hand over her face A van pulled up next to them while Selena struggled. Then she went limp. The man picked her up, opened the door of the van, and tossed her inside. He got in and closed the door. The van drove away.

  "Damn," Henry said.

  "Yeah. Roll it back and freeze it on the back of that van."

  "You can see part of the license plate," Lamont said.

  Nick copied down the digits.

  "Let's see the camera in the front of the garage. It might've caught a better picture of the plate."

  Henry entered the commands. He moved the recording forward to match the time of the abduction. Thirty seconds later, the van emerged from the garage. This time they could make out the entire plate. They could see a chisel faced man behind the wheel for a second or two before the van turned off into traffic.

  "I need those recordings," Nick said.

  "I'm supposed to keep them."

  "Henry," Lamont said.

  "Yeah, yeah, okay. We have to go down to the garage."

  Fifteen minutes later they had the cassettes in hand. Lamont filled Ronnie in while Nick called Harker.

  "Give me those numbers again," Elizabeth said. "I'll have Stephanie run a check on them. We'll find her, Nick."

  "Yes, we will," Nick said.

  And the bastards who grabbed her.

  CHAPTER 24

  President Zhang looked at the two men sitting across from him and drummed his fingers on the table. Minister Deng looked angry. General Liu sat back in his chair, his hands clasped across his stomach, watching from under heavy eyelids.

  "You are certain it was sabotage, Minister?" Zhang said.

  "There is no doubt. Someone hacked into the computers on the dam and caused the collapse. We are at war."

  "Yes, but with whom?"

  "I received a call this morning from General Vysotsky, the director of Russia's foreign intelligence service," Deng said.

  "Ah."

  "It is unusual for someone of Vysotsky's rank and position to go outside of the normal diplomatic channels. He wanted to assure me that the Federation was not behind the attack."

  "You think he was telling the truth?" asked General Liu.

  Deng shrugged. "I think he fears war."

/>   "What evidence did he offer to exonerate Moscow?" Zhang asked.

  "He knew how the dam had been sabotaged. He claimed the incident in the China Sea with the American destroyer was caused by the same kind of computer attack. He also claimed the crash of the Russian plane and the deaths of so many high-ranking Federation officers was an additional example."

  "Do you believe him?"

  "Why should I believe him? It is possible the Americans and the Russians are in alliance against us. These incidents may be an attempt to deceive us. A damaged naval vessel? A few high-ranking officers? These are nothing, compared to what we have lost. Orlov may have decided to purge a few problems. What better way than a plane crash? No one can point a finger at him."

  Zhang took a sip from a glass of water.

  "Perhaps you are right. If so, we are faced with a difficult situation."

  "We must be careful. It is not wise to pull a tooth from the Tiger's mouth," Liu said.

  "Ancient advice will not provide a solution," Deng said. "It has to be either the Americans or the Russians, or both of them. We must retaliate."

  "We do not have the proof we need," Zhang said. "Would you unleash our missiles against them without certainty of their guilt?"

  Liu said, "It is difficult to retaliate against a hidden enemy."

  "Please, General, stop with the proverbs. We must assume all are against us," Deng said. "Our forces are in position to invade the Federation. If we attack first, they will be defeated."

  "That way leads to madness," Liu said. "The Americans and the Russians have enough missiles to turn our country into a wasteland. Is this what you want, Deng?"

  Deng pounded his fist on the table. "What I want is to regain face for our nation. What I want is vengeance for the hundreds of thousands killed by the collapse of the dam. What I want is to make the enemy pay. Is that clear enough for you?"

  Liu stood, his face angry.

  "You imply that I do not want justice for our people or our nation. You insult me."

  "Comrades," Zhang said, "calm yourselves. Minister Deng meant no disrespect, General. Is that not so, Deng?"

  The three men ruled China together, but there was no doubt about who had the most power. By leaving out the title of Minister when he addressed Deng, Zhang showed his displeasure.

  Deng paused to control his emotions. He gave a slight, grudging bow toward Liu.

  "Please excuse me, General. I was overwhelmed by anger against our enemies."

  Liu nodded, then sat down. "As am I, Minister. It is forgotten."

  "Good," Zhang said. "Before we take action, we must know with certainty who is responsible."

  "So far I have not found the source of the transmission which corrupted our computers," Deng said. "We know it is somewhere in the Arctic. We will find it, sooner or later. When we do, we will know who has attacked us in this cowardly manner."

  "Sometimes I long for the old days," Liu said, "before all this technology began to get in the way of honest war. When we knew who the enemy was and could attack him on the battlefield. Now..."

  He shrugged and left the thought unfinished.

  "Minister Deng," Zhang said. "Focus all your resources on finding out where the transmission came from. Someone, somewhere, knows who is behind this. Use your informants, your agents. Leave no avenue unexplored. Once we determine who did this, then is the time for vengeance."

  "We will destroy them," Liu said.

  "Yes," Zhang said, "we will."

  CHAPTER 25

  Selena was confused. She lay on her side, on a stained, foul mattress on the floor. The mattress smelled of unwashed bodies and dried urine. A cockroach crawled across the corner and scuttled away across the floor. She felt sick to her stomach, dizzy.

  She remembered the attack.

  Chloroform. He used chloroform.

  She worked herself into a sitting position, fighting the nausea. The room spun for a moment, then steadied. Afternoon light came through a window caked with grime, set high up on the wall. Overhead was a dull skylight, the panes laced with wire. She was in a room about forty feet square. The floor was dark wood. Holes and oil stains showed where machinery had once been fastened down. The walls were dark brick and crumbling mortar. There was a metal door in the wall opposite the window. There was nothing else in the room except an empty bucket.

  How considerate. They left me a toilet.

  Her legs were unbound. Her hands were bound in front of her with a zip tie, palm to palm.

  That's your first mistake, buddy.

  Nick and the others would be looking for her, but there was no way they could know where she was. She had to get out of here, but first she had to get rid of the zip tie.

  The tie was the kind you could buy in any hardware store, heavy-duty, black, probably rated at a hundred and seventy-five pounds. It would've been harder to break free from the kind the police used, but this was a run-of-the-mill civilian version.

  She stood up and waited for another spell of dizziness to pass. She looked down at her stomach and thought it was a good thing she wasn't farther along. She lifted her bound hands over her head, tensed her muscles and brought her hands down in front of her, fast. At the same time she pulled her shoulder blades back toward her spine. The zip tie popped off her hands.

  Her shoes were gone. She walked silently to the door, leaned her ear against it, and listened. She heard nothing except a faint, faraway sound that might have been a horn.

  Where was she? She looked up at the skylight in the ceiling.

  A factory, she thought, an old factory or warehouse.

  She sniffed the air but all she could smell was dust and decay, the smells of an empty building.

  The door had a knob on the inside. It was locked. Anyone coming through the door would see the empty mattress as soon as they entered the room. It meant she'd have only one, quick chance to disable whoever it was. She thought back to the garage. The man who'd grabbed her had been big, strong. Like a gorilla. She would have a chance for one blow, no more. She'd have to kill him. The thought didn't bother her. The more she thought about what had happened, the angrier she got. Anger was good. It gave her strength.

  Selena was a ninth degree belt in Kuk Sul Won, the fierce martial art of Korea. She remembered something her teacher had once said.

  "To pluck a star from the sky, one must remember that even monkeys fall from trees."

  It had taken her a few days to understand the meaning. Plucking a star from the sky was something impossible to do. The monkey was the most skilled animal in the world at climbing and living in trees. To say that it could still fall in spite of its ability was a reminder not to become overconfident. Taking it further, the implication was that even the impossible could be done with the proper attitude.

  Selena smiled to herself. Kuk Sa Nim Park had grunted his approval when she told him what she thought he'd meant.

  The door had no window. Someone coming to the room would not know she wasn't on the mattress until he opened the door. Selena positioned herself to the side, where the door would open away from her. Whoever came through was going to get the surprise of his life.

  She had no idea how long it would be until someone came for her. As soon as she heard someone coming, she'd move into Gul Gok Ja Se, the crouching stance, prepared to strike.

  Sooner or later, someone would open that door. It would be the last thing he ever did.

  CHAPTER 26

  Nick and the others sat in a cafeteria near the parking garage where Selena had been taken, waiting for Stephanie to call. Nick's foot beat a steady rhythm on the floor.

  "We'll find her," Ronnie said. "She'll be okay. They don't want her dead, or they wouldn't have taken her."

  "What I can't figure out is why? Why grab her like that?"

  "They probably want information," Lamont said.

  "Then we need to find her before they start questioning her. They're not going to ask nicely."

  "I wonder what's taking Steph so lon
g to get back to us?"

  Nick's phone rang.

  "Speak of the devil. Yeah, Steph."

  "The van's stolen."

  "That figures," Nick said.

  "I started looking through the CCTV cameras near the garage to see if I could pick it up. I got lucky and tracked it to the old warehouse district near the river. That's what took me so long before calling you back. After that I lost it. There aren't any cameras down there, just a bunch of empty buildings. It's popular with the homeless and the druggies. The cops don't go in there at night."

  "Sounds wonderful."

  "Best guess is that Selena is in one of those abandoned buildings. Maybe you can spot the van. It was heading southwest, toward the river."

  "Where was the last place you saw it?"

  Stephanie gave him the cross streets where the camera had caught the van passing.

  "Go get her," Stephanie said. "I'm tracking you."

  She disconnected.

  "Let's go," Nick said.

  He tossed some bills on the table to cover the check. Outside, they climbed into Ronnie's Hummer.

  "Head toward the river," Nick said.

  He plugged the street crossing into a GPS on the dash. Ronnie wove through traffic, blasting his horn when someone was slow to move out of the way. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at the GPS coordinates.

  A bar and a laundromat took up two corners of the intersection. The bar was a single story brick building with blacked out windows. A flickering neon sign advertised Budweiser. The door had a small, diamond shaped window of reinforced glass. Motorcycles were parked in front of the bar, chrome gleaming in the afternoon sun. Three bikers wearing leather vests stood outside, smoking. On the opposite corner was a Salvation Army shelter and a pawn shop.

  The laundromat was closed, the windows boarded up. Two ragged men sat on the sidewalk in front, leaning against the wall and passing a brown paper bag back and forth between them. The bikers in front of the bar watched the Hummer.

  "Nice neighborhood," Lamont said.

  "There's the camera."

  Ronnie pointed at a CCTV camera mounted on a light pole.