***
“Who’s going to stop me?” Avery looked down at Kayci with a smirk. “I am going to get away with this, and the sad part is you could’ve been with us. You didn’t have to be outside looking in.”
“What are you talking about? I knew nothing about this until I was kidnapped by the goons from Majestic.”
“We arranged that because of what you did.”
“What I did? I didn’t do anything.”
Avery rolled his eyes. “Don’t play me for stupid. Nathan told me everything. He told me how you seduced him to get the plan and threatened to turn everyone in.”
“You’re wrong, Avery. I was never given the choice.”
He looked at her, squinted, and turned his head slightly. “But you were running.”
“I only tried to run after they tried to kill me.”
Avery looked at her and turned a smile. “Wow, you are good. I almost believed you for a second there.” He laughed. “Nathan was right when he said you were good.”
“Avery, I’m telling you. Nathan never came to me with anything.”
“Sure, and this suit came off the rack too.” He pulled his cuffs straight, turned away from her, and came face-to-face with Jordan.
***
“Get your hands up.” Jordan pointed the gun at Avery’s chest. He felt his nerves ball up into a wad.
Avery smiled and nodded. “Well,” he looked back at Kayci, “it seems like your protégé got the hang of things pretty quickly.”
“Get your hands up, or I swear to God I’ll kill you.” Jordan’s hand was shaking, too much for a clean shot. He brought up his second hand to steady the first.
“There you go, fella,” Avery said condescendingly. “Two hands on the gun and get that stance right. You want to make an off-set triangle with your arms and feet. Don’t lock your elbows, keep them loose but strong. You want to push the shot out.”
“Don’t temp me. I don’t want to kill you.” He struggled to steady the gun.
“No, son, it’s not that you don’t want to kill me, it’s that you can’t. You’re not a killer.”
“You want to find out, keep reaching for your gun.” Jordan took a breath, clenched his jaw, and sucked in his abdominals, which steadied the gun.
Avery’s smile faded slightly, but he forced a cocky expression on his face. Jordan watched his hands.
“Well, if I stand right here, you won’t shoot me because the bullets will pass right through me and into her. That there is a Smith and Wesson M&P .9mm pistol, and I happen to know that’s what Majestic Security issues their team. Which also means it’s loaded with full metal jacket ball ammo. That means right through me and into her.” He looked back at Kayci.
“Don’t be so sure,” Jordan said. “Maybe I switched them out for hollow points.”
Avery laughed. “You can’t fool me, kid. You’re not that good. I see right through that weak mind of yours. Now hand over the gun and the bank key. You can’t shoot me. You can’t win here. This is my game, and I control my game.”
“You’ve lost control.”
Avery smiled. “No, I don’t lose control. You’re going to put the gun down and hand me the key.”
Kayci chimed in, “Jordan, don’t listen to him. He’s trying to get into your head.”
“The Jedi mind trick,” Jordan quipped. “These aren’t the droids you’re looking for.”
“Son, this is not a movie.” Avery slid his hand closer to his gun. “This is real life, this is a real situation. Your mind is not what you think it is. You’re not seeing things as they really are. You’re a pawn, a dupe. You’re not strong enough to play in the big leagues.”
“Jordan, don’t listen to him. Pretend—”
Avery cut her of forcefully. “Shut up, Dewitt!” He moved his hand still closer to his gun. “Now, my good man, hand over the key and drop your weapon. You can’t win here. You’re too weak. I own you. I’m master of this game. Don’t listen to her. She’s playing you. She’s using you. Did you think a beautiful girl like that could be interested in you? C’mon, kid, women like that don’t go for regular guys like you. Look at her, look at those eyes, look at that figure. She’s way out of your league. You’re not rich. You don’t drive a Porsche or live in a mansion. That’s what women like her need.”
“Jordan, do not listen to him.”
“Both of you shut the hell up!” Jordan could feel his mind swelling. It was losing grip on the situation. The gun felt small, his head felt big. He could not grasp the trigger. His hands were betraying him. He tried to concentrate on the physical world but couldn’t.
“C’mon, kid,” Avery said, “you’re not a killer. You don’t belong here. Give me the gun and I let you walk away. You don’t need this aggravation.”
Jordan wanted to close his eyes. He was feeling tired. He was about to drop the gun when everything became clear. He started to smile. Then he laughed.
“What’s funny?” Avery asked.
“Hey, Avery,” Kayci spoke from behind him, but he did not turn away from Jordan. “Remember when I said that cocky attitude was going to get you killed someday? I think someday is today.”
Avery reached for his gun, and Jordan shot him. Avery’s face contorted. A gape of shock shaped his mouth, widened his eyes. “How could…” He dropped to his knees and then fell on his face.
“Today is indeed that day.” Jordan let out a gasp. His entire body wracked with waves of emotion. He nearly sank to his knees but sucked it up. He slid the gun into his pocket and went over to Kayci.
“You had no choice,” Kayci said as he began untying the ropes.
“I know”
“He would have killed you”
“I know”
“So you did switch the ammo?”
“No,” Jordan replied. “I just hoped I’d miss you.”
Jordan nodded to the wall behind Kayci, and there was a bullet mark just inches from where her head was.
Kayci stood up, shaking off the ropes that clung to her ankles. “You okay?”
“Yeah, but this is twice now. You’re supposed to be the tough spy, not me.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.” She turned to face him.
Jordan winced at her face. “Damn, you’re a mess.”
“Flesh wounds” She bent and took hold of Avery’s Glock pistol and the extra clip from the opposite side of his holster. Then she took his wallet and the silver NSA identification card from the clip on his belt loop. On his keychain was a USB stick. She took that, the second key. “Now we have two of the three keys. Let’s go.”
They took off down the hallway, retracing Jordan’s steps. As they headed to the last hall that would lead to the door, they heard the door shut.
“Hold it,” Kayci said. “This way”
They headed to the right, deeper into the shadows and through a small door with the words Maintenance Access emblazoned across in yellow faded letters.
Without explanation or option, the tunnel ended. It was as if a wall had been built out of brick right in the path.
“What the… this is not supposed to be here,” Kayci hissed.
“We’re trapped,” Jordan added.
“Nathan will lock on. We need to get out of here.”
“C’mon, we can beat them out.” Jordan started back to the door.
“We don’t have time.”
“They won’t hurry down to the bathroom, but they will hurry back. If we move fast, we can beat them to the backdoor.”
They reached the end of the tunnel and Jordan slowly eased open the small metal locker-like door. He stepped out. No one was around, and they moved into the main tunnel.
“It’s clear. Let’s go.” Jordan looked back to make sure Kayci was following, and they started running. About three steps into the hall, they heardloud cursing in the distance, followed by hurried footsteps.
They didn’t make it to the door before the shots rang out in chorus behind them.
“Cover,” Kay
ci yelled, and they dove to the right, behind the maze of thick pipes. Shots pinged off the cast iron cylinders and ricocheted past them.
Kayci reached out and returned fire, a few shots, enough to force Nathan and Kara to seek cover. Jordan took the queue and went for the door, squeezing off a few more shots while Kayci ducked out the door under his cover.
Jordan slipped outside with a glance back and saw glass exploding just near his head.
The darkness swarmed around them as they ran into the night. Only one of every ten parking lot lights was on, but they quickly appreciated that lack of light for cover. They ran for a full block before Jordan realized it was raining and cold. They got to the Explorer and jumped inside.
Jordan fished for the keys in his pocket. He guided them smoothly into the ignition. The engine sprang to life, and he slapped the shifter, smashed the gas, and cut the wheel.
The black Ford lurched forward, and the rear wheels broke loose on the soaked asphalt. Jordan had always been an exceptional driver, as he had surely driven more miles than most people have. With graceful precision, Jordan righted the Explorer and tore up the street toward the highway.
“Nice driving,” Kayci huffed while catching her breath. She reached for the seatbelt.
“It’s one thing I do well even under extreme pressure.” Jordan glanced up to the rearview mirror and saw headlights reaching through the dark toward them. “They’re on us.”
Kayci turned sideways in the passenger seat and looked behind them. “Drive like hell.” She reached into the back of her pants and retrieved the pistol.
“I’m driving. Problem is they’re in a faster vehicle. I wish I’d had a knife. I would have popped the tires when I came in.”
“Then they would have never left.”
“Good point.”
“We need to get off-road.”
As the words started coming out of her mouth, Jordan was already thinking it. He pushed the Explorer up to top speed and hit Route Eighty-One South.
“They’re closing on us.” Kayci watched behind. “Nathan is a determined bastard. He hates to lose. We need to find some dirt, fast.”
“I’m on it”
“They’re going to be on us in a matter of seconds on the open road.”
“I’m on it”
“Get on it faster”
“Damn, you’re bossy”
“I’m desperate”
“That’s not an attractive quality.”
Jordan glanced up in the rearview mirror and saw the sedan was closing fast. He slowed quickly and pulled right off the highway, across the shoulder, and down a steep embankment. “Hold on”
Kayci reached for the handhold above her head on the A-pillar. “Ya think?”
The SUV sucked down into a short trench. Then he careened up over a hill and into some woods. There was no trail, so Jordan clicked the 4x4 button on the dash and just gassed it. They smashed into the smaller trees, knocking them down.
The Explorer slammed over some rocks. Jordan could hear some serious undercarriage damage going on. He just hoped the skid-plates protected the transmission enough to keep the fluid inside the case.
He cut the wheel hard and turned up another small hill and then busted out of the wood line, and into open pasture that quickly turned into a cornfield. The loud thumping of corn stalks slapping off the front of the vehicle filled the air. The interior of the SUV stopped shaking violently, and they shot out of the field and onto a dirt road, corn stalks flying in the air behind them.
Kayci looked back. “We lost them for now.”
“I would think so. No car is taking that trip. But they’ll double back at the next exit, so we have to keep moving.”
“How did you know about that getaway?”
“I didn’t. I was heading to the next exit, but we would not have made it before they caught up.”
“Good call”
“What now?”
“Good question”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jordan put the money on the counter and collected the bags of food. The little diner was convenient, and that was the most important part. If the food turned out to be any good, that would be a bonus.
Outside, the sky was hanging low with moisture. It was as dark as any night had ever been. There was no sign of the moon punching through the clouds. The tall highway lights that illuminated the diner parking lot cast rings in a halo of moisture.
Jordan handed Kayci the bags through the window of the SUV and walked around to the driver side. As he put his fingers on the door handle, a feeling hit him. He spun around and looked toward the row of cars near the edge of the lot. He wondered if someone was in one of them, but he could not see inside any vehicles.
“What’s wrong?” Kayci asked.
He didn’t turn around to respond, not because he didn’t want to, but because he couldn’t. He was drawn to the cars.
“Jordan, what’s wrong?” Kayci said it loudly.
Her voice broke him from his trance. “Something’s weird.”
Kayci tilted her head. “You’re just figuring that out now?”
“No, I mean…I don’t know. I had a feeling in my head. It’s probably nothing.”
“Get in the truck now.” Kayci had some panic in her voice. “Get in and drive. We need to get away from people. Go now!”
Jordan didn’t know what she meant, but the intensity in her voice drove him. He climbed into the SUV and slammed the still running vehicle into drive. Pressing the accelerator too hard for the loose gravel of the diner parking lot, he broke the rear tires loose and threw rooster tails of mud and rock into the air.
“What’s going on?”
“You felt something. It had to be Nathan. He probably tried to lock onto your frequency.”
“I thought of a man, wire-rimmed glasses, and blonde hair.”
“It’s probably meaningless, symbolic, nothing more.”
“Why do we have to get away from people?”
“Because the more people around, the more energy, and the more energy, the easier it is for him to find us. I know that sounds counterintuitive, but that’s the way it works in the vague world.”
In just a few miles, he turned off the pavement and into a state forest entrance. “There’s a Ranger station up here. We can regroup there and eat. It should be isolated enough.”
The road twisted off to the left and into a row of massive hemlock trees. The green giants reached up to the sky and disappeared. In the thick of the evergreens, a small single-story cabin came into view on the left. Jordan eased the SUV up the short but steep gravel drive to the foot of the cabin steps. He killed the headlights and the ignition and then exhaled a long breath.
They sat in silence. The sag of adrenaline withdrawal hit hard. Jordan couldn’t think clearly, or really, at all. His mind was as tired as his body, perhaps more.
Finally, Kayci broke the silence with crinkling paper. “What’d you get us?” She started rooting through the bags.
“Greasy stuff,” Jordan offered.
“Good… I’d hate to die without one last greasy American dinner.”
They ate diner burgers, thick, seasoned fries, pickles, and coleslaw. They also had matching bottles of cola to wash the food down.
“No orange?” Kayci asked as she twisted the cap on her drink.
“Actually, I wanted something different.” Jordan wiped the last bit of food from his mouth and crumpled his napkin. “Besides, man cannot live on orange alone. Maybe it’s time I branched out.” Jordan swallowed some cola. “How do more people help him? I know you said it’s counterintuitive, but it’s more than that.”
“The more people there are the more that are broadcasting. Since most people are not psychic, what happens is what we call push. Imagine a pyramid. The levels of broadcasts vary. The lower levels, a psychic can’t read them from any distance. So that person has to be right in front of them. That’s why some roadside psychics need to touch your hand. But you and I, we bro
adcast at a high frequency and with great power, so in a crowd of people, our energy gets pushed to the top of the pyramid. Like oil on water, we rise to the top. If there are ten people in a crowd, we are pushed up to a certain level on the plane. If there are ten thousand people in the crowd, we are elevated so that anyone can see us like a beacon. If you are at a baseball game, you will appear so high on the frequency plane any great psychic in the world can pick you off the plane from anywhere on the planet. In a sense, we become the antenna for the crowd. Psychics can always find other psychics in the crowd. Just like people can find like-frequencies in the crowd. That whole “saw you across a smoky room story concept” is based on fact of frequency.”
“This is wild stuff.”
“No, it’s really not. It’s all quite rational. It’s just beyond the scope of the human condition. Everyone has it in them, Jordan. People like us, we’re just better at it. It’s just like any other God-given gift. You’re not a freak, you’re gifted. Extremely gifted, and you’re just learning how to use it. You’ve lived a quiet, isolated life. That kept you off the radar. Intuitively, you knew it.”
“But I did that to protect the strangers from death.”
“You did it to protect yourself.”
“Maybe so” He could sense her sadness all of a sudden. “Why are you so sad?”
She looked at him, then let her head fall back into the headrest of the seat. “It’s nothing.”
“I don’t think it’s nothing.” He looked outside into the darkness. “It’s this cabin.”
Kayci took a breath and let it out slowly. “My father took me fishing when I was a kid and we stayed at a cabin just like this. It’s was one of the last memories I have of him. I was fourteen when my father died. He was murdered by my neighbor.”
The statement took Jordan by the heart and snapped a hitch in his breath.
She continued. “They had a stupid argument, a fight over two feet of grass.” Kayci looked over as a false smile touched one side of her face. “The neighbor insisted his property line was two feet onto ours. Ridiculous, I know. Even now, it sounds too absurd to believe. It was going on for over a year. One day it got physical. The neighbor pulled a knife and cut my father, stabbed him in the arm and side. My father hit him with a yard rake, and the cops came. It was ugly. The neighbor got arrested, did three months in jail.”
Savior Frequency (Frequency Series Book 1) Page 13
