Wings of Steele - Flight of Freedom (Book2)

by Burger, Jeffrey

  Lisa's hand was on her 9mm Glock sitting on the counter, hidden from the men by the back splash and taller breakfast counter, “Nina in the office!” She produced the 9mm in a practiced combat grip, as Nina scrambled past. “Get the FUCK out!” She screamed, bringing the sights up to bear on the two men. Simultaneously there was glass breaking in one of the bedrooms behind her and the skinny glass panel next to the front door.

  Nina screamed from the end of the hallway, “LISA..!”

  The men in the kitchen area took the opportunity to rush her in the moment of distraction. She backpedaled down the hallway snapping off two quick shots missing them both as they stumbled over the persistent Gus, piling up on the floor. The dog yelped as he ended up on the bottom of the pile, biting someone on the leg hard enough to elicit a yell from its owner. He squirmed out from underneath, dancing away as the men untangled themselves. “Gus COME! C'mon baby...”

  “Behind you..!” screamed Nina.

  Lisa tried to spin but he'd come out of the bedroom on the left and bear-hugged her from behind, breaking the two-handed grip she had on her pistol. He was strong and she couldn't turn or push back as he lifted her off her feet. The men in the kitchen were upright again, joined by another man coming from the foyer at the front door, Gus between them and her, backing down the corridor, barking with total abandon, spitting foam and slinging drool. The man in the gray tracksuit was swearing in Russian, a pistol with a silencer in his hand. Squeezing her so tight her vision was narrowing; the man behind her whispered in her ear, “Pretty girl, we have good fun, dah?” Time seemed to slow down and her reactions seemed to speed up. She flung her head back, missed his nose but caught him in the side of his jaw clacking his teeth together. He squeezed harder, threatening to break her ribs, “Nyet, play nice bitch...”

  Still gripping her Glock, she spread her dangling feet and fired several rounds at the floor below her, shattered tile and bullet fragments splashing like explosive shrapnel, shredding his shoes and blowing through his feet. He hollered, staggered, loosening his grip and toppled over backwards, taking her with him. She could hear and feel the solid thwack of his head hitting the tile floor behind her, his grip going immediately slack. Lying on top of him, she fired between her feet at the men, who stunned into momentary inaction, had to throw themselves in different directions to avoid the hail of bullets flying down the hallway at them. She rolled off her human cushion and scrambled toward the office at the end of the hallway screaming for Gus to follow. Just short of the doorway, Mr. Sleepy grabbed her by the ankle, “Nyet, you stay...” Looking over her shoulder, she reached back with the Glock and fired, hitting him in the face, his body going limp and his head hitting the floor with a sickening hollow splat. The magnitude of gore caught her by surprise and she wanted to wretch but the quick realization that this was not over, put her back in motion again. Two rounds hit the door above her with a solid thwunk as she scrambled through the opening, pulled by Nina who slammed it closed, locking the deadbolt. Lisa whirled around to confirm Gus had made it in; he sat in a corner, huffing, exhausted. “All dogs go to heaven...” she said looking down at the Glock in her hand, the slide locked back, magazine empty.

  “Hello Lisa Steele, command code accepted...” said the distinctly female voice.

  Nina looked at Lisa vacantly, like a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming truck, “what?”

  A mechanism inside the red brick wall at the back of the office clanked, the bricks in the back wall showing an uneven toothy edge on two sides as about a three foot wide section of the wall moved evenly inward, carrying the framed painting hung on it, along with it for the ride. The darkened opening grew deeper as the section of the wall disappeared inside. In a brief moment, lights winked on inside, the brick wall sliding back on tracks, the floor molding and crown molding in the office unmoved, part of the door frame. The floor and ceiling in the next room were at the levels of the office's moldings, the rails for the heavy door imbedded in them.

  Outside in the hallway, the men kicked violently on the door. “Everything OK girls, just want to talk, you open door, dah?”

  Lisa got to her feet, her knees weak, unplugged the comm-tablet on the desk, tucking it under her arm and turning toward the back wall motioning Nina inside, “Hurry up, I don't know how long that door will hold.” She motioned Gus in, “C'mon baby, hurry up...” he stood with a whimper, favoring a back leg, limping in ahead of her. Clearing the doorway, she palmed the emergency button, sending the door forward. Dropping the empty Glock on the small back counter, she pulled a loaded 1911 .45acp off the back wall, flipping the safety off and in a two-handed combat grip, kept it trained on the office door as the safe room door opening narrowed. It finally fitted flush, locking closed with a clank. Lisa took a deep breath, relocked the safety and laid the .45 on the counter near the Glock. Feeling the air system kick on, a cool wash of fresh air circulating into the six foot by fifteen foot safe room she finally felt relieved. The adrenalin dump over, her arms and legs suddenly felt rubbery and heavy.

  Nina stared around at the stores of various types of firearms, ammunition, water, dried foods, canned foods, blankets, a little worktable, a small flat-screen TV, a laptop... almost everything one could need in an emergency. “I've worked for your brother for over three years... I can't believe I didn't know this was here...”

  Lisa nodded, not really listening, flipping on the flat screen to watch the security cameras and plugging in the comm-tablet to the satellite cable. The flat screen TV winked on, the security camera videos showing as two rows of four squares on its screen, the comm-tablet coming to life as well.

  Nina looked down at her hands and realized she was shaking, “Lisa, what j-j-j-just happened...?”

  Lisa pulled two bottles of water out of a case on the floor, handing one to Nina, “They wanted to kidnap us...” It suddenly dawned on her; she'd understood every word that they had said.

  Nina fought to control the shakes, drinking deep. “Why?”

  “I don't know... but something tells me they might know...” she motioned to the security camera videos on the flat screen. The house was swarming with men... in black. Inside and out. And except for the lifeless body on the floor outside the door of the office, there were no signs of the intruders who had tried to grab the girls.

  “FBI?”

  Lisa shook her head, “I don't think so...” The security cameras outside showed three black SUVs parked in the driveway and on the lawn. Another camera showed they'd somehow gotten the office door open and they were looking around the office, probably trying to figure out how the girls had gotten out. Without Phil Cooper's cell phone, she only had the land line in the safe room which shared service with the rest of the house. If it was bugged like Phil Cooper said it was, those men out there would know right away she was still in the house... somewhere. She decided to wait them out in the safe room, see what they would do next. Maybe after everyone left they could sneak out and she could grab Phil Cooper's secure cell phone. She knew right where she left it, on the counter next to where her Glock had been sitting.

  They watched the security monitors albeit somewhat detached, like watching a cop or crime show on TV. The government agents, at least that's what Lisa assumed them to be, worked quickly, photographing and collecting evidence, removing the body, cleaning up the blood, searching the entire house... and then they were gone.

  After eating a half a dozen power bars between them and drinking a couple of bottles of water each, they finally felt like the shakes had left them, though they still felt drained. Poor Gus had curled up next to them on the floor, his body pressed against them as they sat on the sleeping pads. Occasionally he would raise his head, cocking it sideways to listen before settling back down again. “They've been gone almost an hour,” said Lisa, looking at the time on the video monitors.

  “Think they'll come back?”

  Lisa looked down at her hands and the dried blood on her arms and legs, “I don't know what to th
ink...” she stood up, gritting her teeth and groaning “but we've got to go out and take a look, I need Phil's phone... and I need to wash, I feel disgusting.”

  “Oh, Lisa, look at your ribs...”

  “I don't have to look, I can feel them, I think that fucker cracked a couple... I get sharp pains every time I inhale.” She moved over to the back counter and picked up her empty Glock, dropping the magazine into her hand and reloading it from a box of ammunition off a shelf above the counter. Popping the loaded magazine back in, she cycled a round into the chamber. “OK, let's go,” she palmed the button on the wall and the safe room door clanked, quietly making its way slowly back. “But no talking, OK? We need to be super quiet, they may have bugged the whole house...” she took two small tactical flashlights off the counter and handed one to Nina, whispering, “Don't turn anything on, and keep the flashlight beam away from the windows.”

  Gus peeked out, going first, moving tentatively about, sniffing and inspecting, stopping at the desk in the office, looking underneath. He pointed, front paw curled up, tail straight, nose indicating. Gritting her teeth, Lisa got on her hands and knees to see what he had spotted. Her eyes widened as the beam of the flashlight hit it and she motioned to Nina who crouched next to her. Nina reached out to touch the black dime-sized object stuck to the bottom of the desk but Lisa stayed her hand, shaking her head no.

  The hallway was scrubbed clean, smelling of bleach and pine cleaner. The blood, broken tiles and splintered fragments were all gone. The broken windows were professionally boarded up, the furniture righted and set back in place; the lights turned off, the doors and windows secure and locked. It was almost creepy. Gus had made his rounds of the house, pointing at several more bug devices, all of which they left undisturbed. But the deck is where he really wanted to go, dancing at the glass door, because well, he really had to go. Lisa unlatched and slid the door open as quietly as she could, letting him out into the darkness, motioning Nina to follow. Fearing any sounds being detected in the house, they showered, toweled dry and changed their clothes on the deck, in the darkness.

  Nina was sitting on a lounger tying her tennis shoes, “I can't believe they took all of the cell phones...”

  Lisa was toweling her hair, “I can't believe they took our IDs and credit cards...”

  “So what do we do now?”

  “Well I'm pretty sure for every bug we can see, there's probably another one we don't... so I don't think we can stay in the house. They're not interested in hearing us talk, they're trying to figure out where we went and they want to know when we come back.”

  “The way you say that, it doesn't sound good... so where are we supposed to go?”

  “It's not. And we can't go anywhere, they have us boxed. The sucky thing is that none of this is really about us...”

  Nina stood up, her hands on her hips, “It's about your brother, isn't it?”

  Lisa nodded, “Yeah... they want us to get to him.”

  “Son-of-a-bitch. Somehow I knew this was all his fault. He's always been a pain in the ass...”

  Lisa chuckled, “You have no idea...” she said with a wave, “you didn't have to grow up with him.”

  Expecting to have to hole-up for a while, they quietly gathered a few comfort items and sealed themselves back into the safe room. Lisa knew they didn't have any other options, so she logged onto the comm-tablet. A screen for InterGal News Network flashed momentarily, replaced by the UFW logo and an ID for the Freedom, a wire frame picture of the ship's silhouette next to it. “Please be there, please be there...”

  “I thought you said we couldn't use the internet...”

  “We're not.”

  “Then what are you doing...?”

  “Calling Jack.”

  Nina cocked her head in curiosity, looking at the comm-table, “Is that a ship?” she asked pointing at the figure on the screen.

  “Uh huh,” nodded Lisa.

  Nina's eyes grew, “That doesn't look like a ship that floats on water...”

  CHAPTER SIX

  FREEDOM, LONGREACH: HOMESICK

  There was nothing left to do but to try and track the survivors of the Pirate Cruiser. The destroyers had done a good job of diversion, and jumped out of the system with a couple minor dings before they could be overtaken by the Freedom's fighters. Whether the cruiser had simply succumbed to its damages, its engine cores compromised or whether it had been rigged before it was abandoned, the results were the same, its total destruction denied the task force of the inspection they'd wanted of the jump equipment.

  The gate to the Longreach system had been the closest, but when they passed through to the other side and launched patrols, there was nothing in sensor range. The trail had gone cold. There was a very real possibility that the destroyers utilizing their jump capabilities, had doubled back to meet the fleeing survivors and effected a rescue.

  The tunnel traverse from Klinghoffer to Longreach was almost twenty-four hours, giving plenty of time for maintenance, sleep and brainstorming meetings. The other possibility that had been discussed was that the cruiser jumping in was a poorly timed attempt at an ambush. Had the destroyers and cruiser all appeared at once and not in such an energy deficit condition as the cruiser was, the fight could have turned out much differently. It was hypothesized that the cruiser had over-extended its jump distance to meet with the destroyers and in doing so, completely depleted its energy reserves. The UFWs luck was that they'd hit the cruiser so quickly, it had literally zero chance of recouping any of its energy stores, it was virtually defenseless. And that, they had decided, was the Achilles heel of the jump systems. Only time would bear out that theory as a realistic deduction, or a misguided assumption.

  ■ ■ ■

  Worn, showered and relaxed, Jack Steele lay across his bed face down, his chin hanging off one side, his feet hanging off the other. He wasn't asleep, but it wouldn't take much for that to happen. The gentle hum and soft mechanical life heartbeat of the ship in motion might do it.

  He could smell her before he could hear her, the perfume she wore filling his nostrils. He drew it in deep and it warmed his senses. Alité had a collection of amazing scents; each seemed to be more heady than the next. But this one was new, it set his senses abuzz. He could feel the light stroke across the calves of his legs as the wisps of her sheer silken nightgown passed across his skin when she reached across him with her leg. She straddled him, pulling off his towel to sit on his bare buns. She was bare too, except for the open chemise which she flared out like a cape, lowering her naked body down against his. It was then that he noticed her body was oiled, smelling of sweet jasmine. His mind instantly flashed back to the vines of white flowers that ran along one side of his deck at home and for a moment he was there, the surf in the background the warm sun beating down on his body... But it was the heat of her body, and just that fast, he was back. She slid herself up and down his muscled back, her feet hooked around the backs of his knees for leverage, hands kneading his neck and shoulders, the rest of her body rubbing out the tension in his tall frame, riding him like he was a human surfboard. Her long auburn hair spread over him, covering his head and neck, locking in the smell of her perfume, her face next to his, her warm breath in his ear. She sighed, bringing him goose bumps through her heat.

  “You are an evil woman, Princess Steele,” he breathed.

  “You have no idea...” she hissed, her tongue reaching into his ear, “maybe you should punish me for my evil ways...”

  He laughed, bouncing her up and down on his back, “I must look the accused in the eyes to pass sentence...” he replied, getting back in character. In response, she lifted herself enough to allow him to roll over and face her. “Hmm,” he began, tossing her hair back over her shoulders, “purple eyes... truly an evil harpie if I've ever seen one.” Sitting almost upright, her hands kneading his chest muscles, she slid her body slowly down until they connected, watching his eyes roll up in his head, shuddering herself. He grabbed her hair pull
ing her lower as she rocked her hips slowly, “you are an evil witch...” he growled.

  She lowered her body down against his, sliding up and down slowly, their faces only inches apart, she whispered, “Bury your sword within my body, do with me what you will, I beg your Lordship's forgiveness for my transgressions...” their mouths locking together. Time, space and all other matters ceased to exist in their world, they were everything there is, or was. The past and the future were irrelevant, there was only now.

  In the adjoining room of the Captain's suite, young Colton Steele stirred in his bassinet, on the verge of waking, fidgeting. Fritz lay at the foot of the baby's bed, unmoved. The Ancient sitting in the neighboring chair reading in the dark, closed the parchment book in his lap and reached over to stroke the boy's hair, “Sleep young Steele,” he whispered, “mommy and daddy need this time.” In a moment, calmed by the touch, Colton was again sound asleep.

  ■ ■ ■

  The comm chimed for a second time and Jack fought through the fog of sleep to determine what the sound was, and if it was real or not. The third chime was the charm and he recognized it for what it was. He gently untangled himself from the extra limbs that weren't his and kicked free of the sheets so he could reach his earpiece on the nightstand. Clipping it on, he answered as quietly as he could, “Steele...”

  “Sorry to disturb you Captain, but you have a secure message coming in...”

  He ran his fingers through his hair, “Thank you Stacell, I'll take it in my ready room.”

  “Yes sir, I'll send a stand-by message; that should give you a couple minutes.”

  “Thank you Stacell,” he ended the comm connection.

  “You have to get up already?”

  Jack turned to see Alité looking at him from her pillow in the darkness, her voice soft and sleepy. “Sorry Princess, secure call, I'll be back in a little while... you go back to sleep, OK?” He reached over and stroked her hair.