by Mark Nolan
“See anything on the roof?” Easton said.
“Just the wire and the flywheel that Zhukov used to gain entrance to the hospital. I need my dog Cody with me to find his trail. Can the Secret Service send their K9 Units to help with the search?”
“Yes our uniformed division is on the way with two K9 handlers and their dogs.”
Jake’s phone vibrated, and he answered the call.
“We’re here with Cody,” Terrell said.
“Take him to the roof. I’ll meet you there.”
Agent Greene had worked her way up several flights of stairs and was getting closer to the rooftop level. She passed by an oval metal door panel marked “Maintenance Access,” and she stopped to take a look. The panel door was about two feet wide and five feet high. When she pulled on the handle, the door didn’t budge. She took out her key ring and tried a universal passkey in hopes it might fit. As she wondered what to do next, she saw a thread hanging from the bottom of the panel door.
It might have been there for a long time. Torn from the clothing of the last maintenance person to enter the panel. But it was her only lead so far, and she reported it on the radio. “I found an access door in the stairwell. It looks like it might have been used recently.”
Jake cut in and said, “Greene don’t use the radio. The target is listening. Talk on phones only.”
Greene didn’t get a chance to reply because the door flew open and hit her forehead, then slammed the side of her head against the concrete wall next to the door. She was knocked unconscious.
Zhukov had been on the other side of the door, and he’d heard the conversation on his radio earpiece. Now he climbed through the panel door and searched Greene to find her radio unit and turn it off. He picked up Greene and carried her through the panel opening into the access area, closed the door behind him and turned the lock bar into place.
Jake had heard the intel from Greene but then her radio had gone quiet. He knew that Zhukov was listening to the radio, but now he spoke into the mic anyway because he wanted to put the man under more pressure. “Greene, report. Did you open the panel?”
There was only a quiet static in his earpiece.
Jake asked Easton, “Can you access the plans of the hospital building and find out which floor that access panel is on?”
“Affirmative, I’ll go to Greene’s stairwell now and find it.”
Easton went down the stairs. A moment later an elevator door opened and Terrell stepped out, followed by Cody and Sarah. Cody ran toward Jake and when he reached his Alpha he stood on his hind legs and put his paws on Jake’s shoulders and licked his face.
“Alright Cody. Down boy. Good dog. Now get to work.”
Cody began sniffing around the rooftop.
Terrell said, “Sarah got into my car and demanded to change Cody’s bandage on the drive over here. She had a power of attorney form that you’d signed.”
“Yeah, I signed it.”
“Once we arrived, I put a leash on Cody but he wouldn’t obey me—so I let Sarah bring him to you.”
Sarah said, “Long time no see, Jake.”
“Thank you for changing Cody’s bandage, but I thought you were going to check into a hotel.”
“You suggested that, and I disagreed. My motto has always been that well-behaved women seldom make history.”
“Then I guess you’ll probably make all kinds of history. But it’s highly irregular for you to be here. Stay out of the way and do whatever the Secret Service tells you to do.”
Before Sarah could reply, Jake walked a few steps away to see where Cody was. He saw Cody sniffing the cable and wheel equipment.
Terrell approached Jake and spoke to him in a low voice. “I brought Sarah along against my better judgment. Cody obeys her for some reason.”
Jake knew that if their roles were reversed and Jake had brought Alicia to a crime scene, Terrell would have gone ballistic over how Jake had put his wife in danger. “It’s all good. She’s the best at what she does. Gifted in fact. I’m sure Cody needed a fresh bandage, and he seems to have bonded with her. She can take care of herself in a fight too. She knows martial arts and isn’t too bad handling a pistol. But she should probably leave now and go wait in your car.”
“You can try telling her that. She’s a hard-headed woman. Want me to handcuff her and have the Secret Service take her into protective custody?”
Jake shook his head. “If you or I get injured, we’ve got a whole hospital full of doctors to help us. But what if Cody gets hurt, who will help him?”
“You’ve got a point there, but she’s not a LEO.”
“I’m not a law enforcement officer either, same with Cody,” Jake said. He pulled out his phone and tapped the display. “Let me get the okay from Easton.”
Sarah overheard their quiet words. She watched Cody move back and forth across the area, sniffing out every scent. It was nice to feel appreciated by Jake regarding her work with animals. Few people ever seemed to notice or care, but apparently he thought she was talented and gifted. He believed in her, and that meant a lot.
Sarah saw Jake finish talking on the phone, and walk toward the next area of the roof where Cody was searching. Their eyes met as he was passing by her, and she got the impression that he could understand her deepest feelings.
Jake stopped in front of her. “I requested permission for you to be at the hospital in case Cody needs your care. I got a tentative okay, but you have to stay back at a safe distance.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” Sarah said. She stood up straight and tall in defiance, but she also felt her face getting warm for some reason.
Jake stepped closer. “Sure I can, I just did. But you don’t have to follow my advice, even if it might save your life. Think about it, though. Why am I telling you this? Because I’m a controlling type of person? No, it’s because I don’t want anything to happen to you Sarah.”
“Don’t worry, I can take care of myself.”
“You’re not trained for this. Maybe you don’t understand what’s about to happen. I’m going to find this assassin and try to take him into custody. But the odds are that he’s not going to surrender.”
“When you put the handcuffs on him, I’ll be nearby to make sure Cody is okay.” Sarah then noticed that Jake didn’t have any handcuffs on his belt. He was carrying some kind of scary looking submachine gun.
“He’s a trained killer, Sarah. Here to kill Katherine and anybody who gets in his way. He hates me, so I’m going to challenge him to a fight and draw him out into the open.”
“Why you? I don’t understand your role in this. Your military service is over and you’re a photojournalist now.”
“I’m sorry but that’s classified, I can’t tell you. Promise me you’ll be very careful around here. Stay back and keep your head down. There could be gunfire at any moment.”
“Violence is never the answer to anything.”
“I disagree. Sometimes violence is the only answer. This is one of those times.”
“What will you do if he wants to fight to the death?”
“Then I’ll fight him until he’s dead. He threatened the lives of my family and friends. I have no mercy for anyone who does that. I’ll never back down, and I’ll never quit until the threat is gone.”
Sarah looked into Jake’s eyes and saw something she’d never seen before. She thought it might be the ancient dark look of the warrior. Passed down through history and generations of fighters. Those eyes sought justice, battle, and blood. And they would not be denied. She got the feeling that this man had probably done bad things, maybe terribly violent things, but only for the greater good and to protect the innocent from the predators.
Before Sarah could reply, Jake turned his back on her and called out a command to Cody. They both walked toward the edge of the roof.
Sarah watched Jake walk purposefully while carrying the automatic weapon. He was wearing a black Kevlar vest and a gun belt that held a pistol in a holste
r and several extra mag pouches. There was some kind of large sheath knife strapped horizontally across the back of his waist. He moved with the deliberate grace and stealth of an animal on the hunt.
This was a different and far more dangerous side of Jake’s personality than what Sarah had seen so far. It was more than a little bit frightening. She was glad that Jake was on the right side of the law.
She began to think that maybe she should go downstairs and wait in the police vehicle. But as she observed Cody, working to search the area even though he was injured, she decided to remain close in case he needed her.
Jake and Cody stopped in front of the wheel and cable that Zhukov had used to fly between buildings. Jake gave Cody a command. Cody sniffed the handle grips on the flywheel again, and he growled and showed his teeth.
“Where’s the target, Cody?” Jake said. He spoke in a low voice he’d used many times in bloody battlefields far from home. “Seek Cody. Seek, seek, seek.”
Chapter 114
Cody sniffed the scent trail and followed it to a stairwell. Jake opened the door, and Cody took off down the stairs. Jake and Terrell were right behind him. Sarah waited a minute and then quietly followed.
Cody went down several flights of stairs and stopped. Jake opened a door and Cody began to sniff along a hallway. Two Secret Service agents were in the hall. They had photos of Jake on their phones and they were expecting him.
They ended up at another stairwell and went down the steps. Jake called Easton on his phone. “We’re heading down the stairwell Greene was searching. My dog is following the target’s scent trail.”
“I’m in the same stairwell right now, climbing up toward you,” Easton said. “Greene isn’t answering her phone.”
Cody arrived at the ninth floor and he stopped in front of an oval metal panel door in the wall. A sign on the door said “Maintenance Access.” Jake stood off to the side of the door and he tried the handle but it was locked.
Jake held his assault rifle with both hands as he prepared to use it as a blunt instrument. He raised it up above his head and then slammed the butt end of it down against the door handle.
A shot rang out from the other side of the door, and a hole appeared in the metal. A bullet ricocheted down the stairwell, pinging off several concrete walls.
Jake spoke into his wrist microphone. “This is Jake Wolfe reporting shots fired. Ninth floor stairwell. The target is in the maintenance access area.”
He wanted Zhukov to hear him on the radio, to make the man sweat. He hit the door handle with his rifle again, and this time the thin metal door banged open. He stood out of the way and waited for a bullet that never came.
They heard quiet footsteps. Someone was approaching them on the stairs. Terrell held his weapon up and ready to fire. Then he lowered it and said, “Sarah, you’re pushing your luck.”
“I was keeping a distance between us. I didn’t know you were going to stop here.”
Jake shook his head when he saw that Sarah had followed them. He didn’t approve but it gave him an idea. “Do you have a compact or a mirror of some kind?”
“Yes, I’ve got one here in my bag,” Sarah said. She dug into the bag and tossed him a medical mirror on an aluminum stick. It was similar to the kind that dentists used but the mirror was somewhat larger.
Terrell stood off to the side, and pointed his pistol at the open panel door. Jake turned to say “Cover me,” but Terrell was already doing it. Jake pulled on the telescoping handle to lengthen it. He held it out away from him in his left hand, and used it to look through the open doorway. In the access area, he could see machines and air ducts that went off in all directions. The ducts looked like large, square aluminum pipes. There was also a scaffolding walkway leading away from the panel, with wooden planks about two feet wide.
Jake saw Greene lying unconscious on the walkway and then he saw Zhukov about to go around a corner behind a metal duct. As Zhukov turned he fired an expert shot that blew the small mirror out of Jake’s hand. The bullet ricocheted down the stairwell like the one before.
“Nice shot, at least it wasn’t a hand grenade,” Jake said. “Hopefully, that ricochet won’t hit Easton. I’m going in after this guy. Greene is lying down on the other side of this door. She appears to be unconscious but alive. We need to call a nurse to take her to the ER.”
“I’ll carry Greene to the next floor and hand her off to a nurse,” Terrell said.
“Roger that. Find out where this access area leads to. You can try to catch the target by surprise wherever he comes out.
“Affirmative.”
“Sarah you’re in charge of Cody. Go meet up with Beth Cushman on Katherine Anderson’s floor so Cody can patrol the hallways. Cody’s nose can pick up Zhukov’s scent before anybody else sees him coming.”
Cody barked twice in protest and used his teeth to pull on the bottom of Jake’s pant leg near his ankle.
Jake shook his head. “Cody you need to head the enemy off at the pass and block his progress. I’ll follow Zhukov and keep the pressure on him. Terrell and I will trap him in a crossfire. I’m in command, and that’s an order.”
Sarah didn’t look happy about this turn of events. “You’re just sending me to Anderson’s floor because it’s the most highly protected area of the building.”
“It’s also the most dangerous area because that’s where the killer is going,” Jake said. “But I don’t have time to argue with you Sarah. As much as I do enjoy our fights, you have to follow orders. Otherwise I’ll call for a Secret Service dog handler to take Cody to Anderson’s room and another agent to escort you to a safe place to wait it out. Take your choice.”
Sarah crossed her arms. “You know Cody won’t obey that handler. And why should I take orders from you? Who put you in charge?”
“The president put me in charge.”
“What authority does the president of the hospital have to make anyone follow your orders?”
“Not the hospital president. The President of the United States.”
“Yeah right, in your dreams.”
“This isn’t a debate. Terrell can you let Easton know my orders concerning Sarah and Cody?” If she doesn’t follow orders she’s to be detained in Secret Service custody.”
“Good to go, and if she’s detained, how am I going to get Cody to obey me?” Terrell said.
“Jake nodded and he turned to Cody. “Cody you are to follow Terrell’s commands, just like you would mine. That’s an order. Do you understand? ”
Cody barked once. Jake turned and went through the panel door.
“Has he lost his mind, or overdosed on testosterone?” Sarah said.
Terrell noted the interplay of emotions between Jake and Sarah. He shook his head at Jake’s ever-changing love life. “That’s our boy Jake. He does this kind of thing. Nobody understands why. Not even him.”
Terrell took out his phone and called Beth. She was in the hallway in front of Katherine’s room along with a group of Secret Service agents. Beth answered and Terrell said, “Are there any large heating and air conditioning vents in the hallway ceiling near Katherine’s room?”
“Let me look. Yes, there’s a big square one in the ceiling, about halfway down the hall.”
“The shooter might be planning to approach your location via an air duct, and drop in on you through one of the larger vents like that one.”
“Understood. I’ll talk to the agents.”
Easton reached Terrell’s position then. He was breathing deeply from jogging up and down various flights of stairs, but looking like he could climb many more. He held up his phone to show a blueprint of the hospital building. “I found this on the Secret Service database. You wouldn’t believe all of the data we have.”
He pointed his high tech phone at the wall and projected the blueprint onto it like a movie projector in a theater. By moving his finger over the phone’s screen, he could zoom in or out, and drag and move the image around on the wall. A document marked
“Access Areas” showed the layout of various access areas, panels, machines, and the ducting system.
Easton said, “It’s a maze, but we know where he wants to end up. We could go to Anderson’s floor and send one person up into the main duct that runs above the ceiling. The Secret Service will also move Katherine to a different room.”
Terrell nodded. “Good idea. Jake ordered Sarah to take Cody down to Katherine Anderson’s floor so the dog can offer added protection.”
Easton sent a quick text message to Agent McKay. “McKay said she’ll allow it.”
Terrell pointed at the access door. “Greene is on the other side of that access panel. She’s unconscious and needs medical attention. I’ll handle it.”
“Roger that.”
Sarah asked Easton, “Who’s in charge of this situation. Who are you working for? Who is… McKay?”
Easton gave Sarah a look as if he was not in the mood to be questioned by a civilian. “I’m a Special Agent in the US Secret Service. McKay is my boss and she works closely with the President in the White House. The President put Jake Wolfe in command of a special operation tonight to capture a terrorist. Anyone who does not cooperate, can and will be arrested for interfering with a federal investigation.”
Sarah stared at Easton in surprise. Easton tapped his phone and then held the display screen so Sarah could see it. The phone had a feature similar to FaceTime or Skype, but it was an encrypted government software program.
Sarah looked at the phone display and saw a woman in a dark business suit, sitting at a desk. On the wall behind her was the blue presidential seal. Next to the seal was an American flag. The woman spoke to Sarah in a commanding tone of voice.
“Sarah Chance, this is Secret Service Agent Shannon McKay at the White House in Washington D.C. You have no business being there, but it’s an unusual situation and you’ve been ordered by Jake Wolfe to escort his military dog to Katherine Anderson’s room. Are you willing and able to carry out these orders or should Agent Easton handcuff you now and have you detained for your own safety? You have five seconds to make your decision or Easton will make it for you.”
