by M. Z. Kelly
He nodded but didn’t respond.
“I’m going to hang around, make sure Joe’s okay,” I said. “Why don’t you try to get some rest.”
“I doubt that’s going to happen. We have an inauguration in...” He glanced at the clock on the wall. “...less than eight hours.”
I sighed. “Let me know if anything breaks. I’ll catch up with you in a few hours.”
After Waters left, I got a bite to eat in the hospital’s cafeteria. I then found a waiting area with comfortable recliners, where I took a seat and dosed off. A few minutes later, my phone chimed. I saw that it was a FaceTime call from Natalie.
“Mo and me got us some big news,” Natalie said, after I answered and saw her and Mo on the screen. Her pretty features tightened. “Where are you, by the way?”
“At the hospital. Joe was shot but he’s going to be okay.”
“She’s in DC,” Mo said to Natalie.
My friends went on for a minute, pumping me for information about Joe and asking about Lindsay. I was then forced to hear their theories about where Caine might be hiding out.
“Maybe we’ll catch a break,” I said, after listening for a couple minutes. I then purposely changed the subject. “How’s Bernie?”
“Better than ever,” Mo said. “Otto’s new guy, Grover, has one of them Sheepadoodles. I think Bernie’s in love.”
“A what?”
“It’s a cross between a sheepdog and a poodle.”
“I caught ‘em doin’ the Snoopy Whoopie earlier today,” Natalie said. “Bernie might end up a doggy daddy again.”
“That’s the last thing I need,” I said. “So what’s your big news?”
“It’s better that we show you,” Natalie said.
I watched as she and Mo moved through the house. They stopped in the kitchen, where I FaceTimed a hello to Otto and asked about his new guy.
“Grover is the head chef at Moulon’s,” Otto said. “I’ve asked him to come by for dinner when you get back.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” I said, before Natalie moved on.
In a moment, they stopped in our atrium. Natalie turned her phone back in her direction and sounded like an announcer for a sporting event. “Ladies and gents, we’re here to check on the progress of the Fabulous Flying Fuddy Duddies.”
She turned her phone, and I saw that our former landlord, and my friends’ aunt and uncle were dressed in cheerleader outfits, holding pompoms. I laughed, thinking they looked like they could be cheerleaders at a convalescent home.
“Who you calling Fuddy Duddies?” Nana demanded of Natalie. She then looked at her phone and said to me, “I heard part of your earlier call, saying you’re in the hospital. You look like you were in an accident.”
I realized my hair was a mess and ran a hand through it. “I’m fine. What’s with the outfits?”
Mo’s Uncle Fred and Natalie’s Aunt Mattie appeared on my screen next to Nana.
“We’re gonna be the Wallbangers cheerleaders,” Fred told me. “You wanna see me do the splits?”
“Not really,” I said.
Despite what I said, Fred insisted on demonstrating his “skills”. He ended up on the floor, writhing in pain. It took my friends and Nana a couple minutes to get him back on his feet. When they were working on Fred, the screen had been turned, and I saw that Natalie’s aunt was now slumped in a chair.
“What’s the matter with Mattie?” I asked Natalie when she had her phone again.
“It’s just her narcolepsy kicking in. I hope she doesn’t fall asleep at our roller derby match.”
“I’m gonna bring a stun gun and shoot her if she dozes off,” Nana offered.
She and Fred went on for a couple minutes, telling me about their plans for the match, including them calling out the Tarzana Outlaws as, in their words, “a bunch of pussies.”
After Natalie and Mo mercifully left the room, Mo said to me, “I hope you make it back in time for the big event.”
“We’ll see how things go,” I said, wondering if I would survive tomorrow’s inauguration.
Natalie must have seen my concern. “You gonna be okay, Kate?”
I sighed. “I think so. It’s just...” Maybe it was exhaustion or stress, but I realized my eyes were misting over. I took a breath. “...things are pretty much up in the air here.”
“We heard that Caine nutjob might have another nuclear weapon,” Mo said.
Natalie went on, calling the terrorist a big load of cack, a skank, and a haggis maggot.
I was exhausted and said, “I’m going to catch a couple hours’ sleep.”
“Before you go,” Mo said. “I heard something ‘bout Daniel.”
I perked up. “What’s that?”
“I went by the downtown shelter this morning. One of the guys there said he saw him getting in a car with an older guy a couple days ago. I wonder if Caine might have him too.”
My spirits sank. “I hope not. I’ll talk to you both tomorrow.”
After ending the call, I tried to sleep, but my thoughts kept going to Daniel. I couldn’t help but think that if Caine had him, he might murder both him and Lindsay. I finally drifted off to a restless sleep, until I heard a man’s voice.
“Let’s go, Buttercup.”
I looked up, seeing that Joe was standing in front of me, his arm in a bandage.
“You can’t leave,” I said. “You just had surgery. You need to rest.”
He used his good arm and helped me out of my chair. “No time for that. We’ve got to stop a terrorist.”
FORTY-THREE
“I killed my own father.”
As Lindsay waited in the room where Astrid had taken her, anticipating her death, her mind reeled. She was remembering the conversation she’d had with her sister over a year earlier.
“What you did was save my life,” Kate had said. She remembered her sister reaching over, taking her hand, and asking, “Do you want to talk about him? Your father?”
“I think he was mentally ill. He had these strange shifts in his personality. One minute he was trying to be nice and caring, the next minute he could go crazy over the smallest thing. It was bizarre.”
“I can only imagine. What was it like for your…? For our mother?”
“She got the worst of it. I remember, as a little girl, hearing someone crying in the bedroom a lot. I was too young at the time to realize he was abusing her. When I got older, I told him I knew what was happening. I stood up to him and suffered for it.”
“Did he physically abuse you?”
“Until I got old enough to show him I wasn’t going to take it anymore. I moved out when I was eighteen. I think that’s when things got even worse for Mom. Then he found out about you from something she had on her computer. That’s when things got really bad. He physically assaulted her and put her in the convalescent hospital.”
“Did he tell you that?”
“He denied it, of course, but I knew what happened. After that, I realized I had to find a way to stop him from hurting you. I even moved back in with him for a few months, but he became more and more obsessed with finding you. I made a decision that I was going to kill him, if that’s what it took to save your life. I never thought it would actually come to that, but, as we both know...”
“You did what you had to, Lindsay.”
Lindsay remembered telling her, “Just so you know…the second shot. When he was down in the street after the first shot, I shot him a second time.”
“You don’t have to…”
“He was going to shoot me.” She’d brushed the tears from her cheeks. “I had no other choice.”
Despite that conversation, Lindsay had never been able to justify murdering her own father, even after coming to terms with the fact that he’d sexually abused her when she was a child. She knew he was mentally ill and remembered a conversation she had with him just before she left home.
“The world that you know is going to end,” her father had said. “Y
ou must be prepared.”
“What do you mean?” she’d asked.
Her father was a big man, with silver hair, and a winning smile that hid his dark side. “Those in power will be eliminated. The people will rise up and form a new government.”
“It sounds like you’re talking about a revolution.”
His voice became strident, angry. “I’m talking about a new way of life. One that allows for the freedoms that we’ve been denied.”
After that, she’d made an excuse not to continue the discussion. She knew her father’s moods, and, if she said or did the wrong thing, he would physically abuse her.
Lindsay got up and walked over to the corner of the room, pushing the memories into the recesses of her mind. Kendra was asleep on the floor. She walked over to a mirror in the corner of the room and paused to take stock of herself. It might be the last time she would see her own reflection.
She was tall, a younger, slightly slimmer version of her sister, with long dark hair and green eyes. There was something in her cheekbones that reminded her of her mother, but, thankfully, nothing that resembled the father she had killed.
She folded her arms, her head slumping, as she again tried to come to terms with what she’d done. Maybe there was punishment in the afterlife. And, no matter how you tried to frame it, killing your own father was a mortal sin.
The door opened, and she saw the man who had taken her enter. Kendra sat up as he said to her, “You need to go with Astrid. We’ll talk in a few minutes.”
He was carrying a couple cans of soda, and, after Kendra left, he took a seat at the table.
“Please, join me,” he said to her, smiling.
Lindsay hesitantly walked over and took a seat across from him. “Why...why am I here?”
“Because I made a promise to someone a long time ago.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’ll explain in a moment.” He pushed a soda across the table. “Drink up.”
Lindsay took the soda can but didn’t open it. “Astrid said you’re going to kill me.”
“Really?” He chuckled. “I’m afraid she can be a bit overly dramatic. I have no intention of harming you. If you do as you’re told, I believe you will live a long and healthy life.” He took a sip of his soda. “My name is Nathan Caine. I’m an old friend of your father’s. You might not remember me, but I was with him in Brazil years ago, when you were just a girl.”
Something about him suddenly did seem familiar, but what he’d done to her boyfriend entered her thoughts. “Why did you kill Derek?”
“Ah, the boyfriend. I do apologize for that, but I didn’t want any extraneous complications. And, if relationships are anything, they’re quite extraneous.”
Lindsay exhaled, her eyes watering as she thought about Derek.
Caine reached over and took her hand. “There, there. You mustn’t dwell on the past.”
Lindsay pulled her hand away and folded her arms. “What’s going to happen to me?”
“We’re going to be taking a little trip shortly. We’ll be in DC, but I’m afraid we won’t have time for sightseeing.” He smiled. “In fact, the day could be quite explosive.”
Lindsay started to ask him what he meant but thought better of it. She was obviously dealing with a madman, and, no matter what she said, it wouldn’t make any difference.
Caine went on. “A moment ago, I told you I made a promise years ago. The fact is that promise was made to a man named Harlan Ryland, your father, and someone who shall remain nameless, for now.”
“What kind of promise?”
“That our government would be abolished, and there would be a new world order. That promise is about to come to fruition.”
“My father said something about that once.”
“Yes. He was on the periphery of the movement. Unfortunately, he’s not here because you killed him.” He tried taking her hand again, but she pulled it back. He went on. “No matter. It’s all water under the bridge.” He stood. “Let’s go. We have a busy day ahead of us.”
“But I still don’t understand why I’m here. What do you want with me?”
Caine smiled and took a phone from his pocket. “Let’s give your sister a call before we leave. I think it will explain everything.”
FORTY-FOUR
Inauguration day was dawning by the time Joe and I met up with Stan Waters and Jack Logan in a restaurant a block from the Capitol. After Waters lectured Joe about resting, something that fell on deaf ears, we got an update on the efforts to find Caine and his bomb.
“Our teams have scoured every building and residence within a mile radius of the capitol building and came up empty,” Waters said. “No sign of radiation, Caine, or anything out of the ordinary.”
“Last night’s events in the subway are playing havoc with the public,” Logan added. “The press is warning people to stay away from the inauguration for their own safety.”
“Is it working?” I asked.
“Last I heard, they’re still expecting thousands of people, and Tatum won’t even consider an alternate location for the proceedings.”
“I think we’ve got it wrong,” Joe said, giving voice to the concerns he’d already shared with me. “If Caine does have a bomb, my bet is on it being brought into the city, either in the air or on land.”
Waters spoke up again. “As I’ve mentioned before, the airspace is closed, and there are checkpoints at every road leading into Washington. The city is as close to being a closed, armed fortress as we can get.”
“So how do we spend our morning?” I asked.
“We double back, recheck everything, including what we’ve already rechecked. Then, we say our prayers and wait.”
Logan hailed a nearby waitress. “If I’m waiting for Armageddon, I’m gonna need something stronger than coffee.”
After we finished breakfast, and Logan fortified himself with Scotch, we headed back into the heart of the city, where we spent the better part of the morning going back over sites that had already been cleared. It was late morning when we finally caught a break.
“Just got a call from one of our teams over near Lincoln Park,” Waters said. “They think they found something. Let’s roll.”
Lincoln Park was less than a mile from the capitol. There were a couple of churches adjacent to the park, one that was of interest to the NEST teams.
“There’s a basement in the First Congregational Church,” one of the team members told us after we arrived. “One of the RERT teams got a hit showing there’s been some radiological activity there.”
“Can we go into the basement?” Waters asked.
“Yes, but you’ll need protection. We’ll get you the necessary equipment.”
While Waters and Logan suited up, Joe and I spent our time talking to the church minister and his assistants. They claimed the basement had been sealed off for years, and they hadn’t seen any suspicious activity.
We went out to the street, where I expressed my frustration to Joe. “Maybe Caine got spooked and moved his operations.”
“That might be the case.” The weather had turned colder, and he pulled his jacket around him. “Maybe we should split up, canvass the nearby businesses.”
I glanced up the street, seeing it was nearly deserted. I checked the time on my phone. We had less than an hour before the inauguration was to begin. I looked back at Joe. “I guess there aren’t any other options.” I moved closer to him, tugging on his coat. His features were pinched, and I knew he was in pain. “You okay?”
“Never better. See you in a few.”
I knew he was lying, but there was no way I could change his mind.
We moved down the street in opposite directions. I spent a couple minutes asking the proprietor of a nearby donut shop if they’d seen anything suspicious but getting nothing worthwhile back. I was leaving the establishment when my phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number and thought about not answering it, but changed my mind.
My
heart nearly exploded in my chest when I heard my sister’s voice. “Kate. It’s me, Lindsay.”
My voice was shrill with excitement. “Where are you?”
Lindsay’s voice was hesitant. “I’m not sure. There’s something...”
When she stopped talking in mid-sentence, I said, “Are you okay?”
A man’s voice, one that I thought I’d heard a few days earlier, responded. “Your sister is fine. She’ll stay that way, if you cooperate.”
I sighed, realizing it was Caine. “What do you want?”
“As I mentioned before, this is a dialogue.”
“What does that mean?”
“The bomb will detonate at noon. The Capitol will be vaporized. Make sure you’re at least a mile from the blast zone.”
“Why? Why are you doing this?”
“I’m fulfilling a promise. You need to cooperate, or Lindsay dies.”
I had no idea what he meant by a promise. “Please don’t do this.”
“Do you want your sister to live?”
“Of course.” I sighed, realizing he held all the cards. “Tell me what you want.”
“I want safe passage.”
FORTY-FIVE
Lindsay tugged at the shackles on her wrist and ankles, ultimately realizing that it was useless to resist. She’d been chained to a wall after they’d arrived at a warehouse and gone underground. She hadn’t seen Kendra since coming here and thought maybe she’d been left behind at the other place they’d been held captive.
The room was small, with overhead lights and a workbench. Lindsay had the impression they were locked in a bank vault as she listened to Caine talking to a man who, she assumed, was Kendra’s father.
“How much longer?” Caine demanded.
Kendra’s father looked up from the device he’d been working on. “Less than an hour. I’m finishing installing the chemical charges and the timer.”
“Noon. The detonation must occur precisely at noon. I don’t want any problems.”
The man backed away from the workbench and mopped his brow. “It will all happen as you want, providing my daughter is safe.”
