Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Honeybun

by Red Rose Publishing

  She held the pad in front of her face to take the brunt of Brick’s coffee spray and then grinned at the look on the Senator’s face.

  It was priceless.

  Clovis clapped his uncle on the shoulder. “She paints nudes, old dog.”

  Brushing at the coffee on her jeans she slanted the three men a look. “I would never have guessed that three worldly men such as yourselves would be such prudes.”

  Brick turned red and laughed at the same time, shaking his head. “A nude portrait. That wouldn’t cause a ruckus up on Capitol Hill would it?”

  Alfric brought them back to the subject at hand. “What did you find out about my team, Brick?”

  His uncle shook his large, bushy red head. “Not much. They’re really holding tight on this one. Emmett wouldn’t give me anything.”

  Emmett Clark. Alfric’s boss.

  Alfric shook his head. “That doesn’t surprise me.”

  “Wilkie’s been avoiding my calls. I’ve left several messages.”

  “What about Jacobs and Parks?”

  “They said there’s been some fear that Raia will close up ops and go into hiding or at least return to France. So the organization is standing down until he feels safe again.”

  Alfric swore. “That’s just stupid!”

  Brick’s face told them he couldn’t agree more.

  “Especially since they’re trying to kill us,” Pleasance added with a shiver.

  Brick looked at Alfric. “Alf, get the young lady a sweater…can’t you see she’s cold.”

  Alfric opened his mouth to argue but then just decided it was easier to comply and retrieved the sweater he’d draped over her earlier.

  Pleasance looked up at him and smiled as he laid it over her shoulders again. “Thanks.” They shared a grin and then Alfric looked back at his uncle, his hands rubbing her shoulders absently. “Well, someone on my team had to have told Raia where I live.”

  Clovis pulled a chair away from the table and turned it around so he could sit on it backward, his thick forearms resting on the back of it. “Which means either somebody was tortured pretty good…or somebody’s working with Raia.”

  Alfric looked down at the ground, keeping his expression blank. Neither of those two options was palatable. He looked at Brick. “You say Wilkie hasn’t responded?”

  “Not yet.” Alfric’s dark blue eyes latched onto Brick’s face and the older man swore. “I’ll see what I can do about finding him.”

  Alfric nodded, sighing. He’d considered Wilkie a friend. He really hoped he hadn’t suffered too much before he died.

  Brick stood up and extended a thick-fingered hand to Pleasance. “It was a pleasure meeting you, miss. You make sure to take good care of this boy here, huh?” He clapped Alfric on the shoulder.

  Pleasance smiled. “I’ll do my best sir, but if he’s afraid of nudity, I’m not sure what I can do with him.”

  They howled.

  Grinning, Pleasance picked up her pencil and prepared to return to work.

  Brick looked down at her drawing and frowned, reaching to turn it so he could see it better. “Now why would you be drawing a picture of the John Hancock Center?”

  Alfric bent to look. Tall, black, with exterior crossing supports, two antennas sticking up from the top. Shit! It was the Hancock Center. “Are you sure, Pleasance?”

  She blinked at him. “This is how I remember it…”

  “Holy crap!” Clovis said as they all leapt up. “Brick, we’re taking your copter.”

  The Senator nodded. “Sure. But I’m coming too.”

  Clovis shook his head, heading for the door. “Oh no, you’re not. You’re not getting within ten miles of this mess.”

  Brick slapped him on the back, hot on his heels out the door. “I’m already in the thick of it, boy. I couldn’t get ten miles away now if you blew me out of a canon.”

  “Don’t tempt me, old dog,” Clovis responded. But he sounded resigned.

  Alfric grabbed Pleasance’s drawing.

  She made a grab for it. “But I’m not done.”

  He grabbed her hand. “It’s done enough. We need to get to Chicago. Now!”

  He pulled her out of the room, in Clovis’s wake. “There are offices, shops, and almost fifty floors of condominiums in this building.”

  Pleasance bit her lip, fighting off panic. The death toll would be astronomical.

  Chapter Twelve

  The copter landed in the middle of a large patch of tulips in front of the historic Water Tower building. Four men poured out of the noisy bird and ran toward the nearby John Hancock building. Sirens could just barely be heard over the whirring sound of the chopper’s rotors. They had called the Chicago PD en route and warned them of the possible terrorist threat.

  Alfric had to pry Pleasance’s hands from the restraining belt and drag her out. Even in the low light of the area, Alfric could see that she looked slightly gray around the gills. He knew she was nearly comatose with fear when Clancy licked her face and she barely even jerked. Her knees wobbled a bit as her feet hit the ground. Alfric kept an arm around her shoulders until she found her sea legs.

  The scent of crushed flowers filled the air and the chopper’s rotors made the warmish, spring air swirl around their heads. They ducked to avoid the rotors and started off in the direction Brick, Clovis, and the two Special Forces guards had gone. As Alfric and Pleasance neared the well-known black building, they could see hundreds of people scurrying around the area, held back by barriers and a large number of city cops.

  Fire trucks clogged the streets in all directions, their lights flashing a warning to curious onlookers that something big was going on at the Hancock Center.

  Some of the people milling around in the street were crying or talking excitedly. A few of them were in lounging clothes and looked like they were ready for a night at home. Others were dressed in their glittery best, obviously heading out for a night on the town.

  Alfric ran up to Brick and turned to Pleasance. “You stay here with Brick where I know you’ll be safe. Keep Clancy with you.”

  She frowned but gave him a slight nod.

  He didn’t notice. He was already running toward the tall, black building. As he disappeared inside, Pleasance rubbed her forehead. The headache which had been a slight promise of pain in the copter had arrived in all its throbbing, temple splitting horror as they arrived at the base of the famous building and Pleasance realized she’d had a hand in the chaos and terror she was seeing all around her.

  That, combined with the fact that she hadn’t slept in more than thirty-six hours, was enough to make her stumble. Stars burst behind her eyes, her breath died in her chest, and she felt her knees buckling.

  Somebody, she thought it might have been Brick, caught her before she hit the ground. Lights danced inside her head and outside, flashing a visual SOS in her brain as she felt strong hands lowering her gently to the ground and a deep voice screaming orders over her prone body as if he was used to being obeyed.

  She forced herself to stay conscious and, after a few touch and go seconds, she was finally able to open her eyes without feeling as if she would fall back into the black vortex of unconsciousness that was waiting to take her down. When her vision slid into focus, she was looking into a worried pair of faded blue eyes staring at her from only a couple of feet away.

  Someone had thrown a blanket over her and something huge, warm, and fuzzy was sprawled nearby, a soft rumbling sound filled her awareness.

  Clancy. Snoring.

  “Are you okay, pretty lady?” Brick grabbed one of her hands and grimaced. She felt the temperature difference between her hand and his and knew she probably felt like a corpse. Her teeth clanked together as shock kicked in.

  Pleasance tried to sit up. “I’m fine. I need to go help Alfric.”

  Brick pushed her gently back down. “The best way to help my nephew is to just stay right where you are.” He looked up as somebody stuck a Styrofoam cup in front of him.
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  Brick reached under her shoulders and helped her sit up. Then he took the cup and held it under her nose. The warm smell of chocolate wafted toward her. Pleasance’s stomach roiled but she took the cup.

  “Drink up now, young lady. We need to get you back on your feet before Alf comes back out. The last thing he needs right now is to see the woman he loves flat on her back looking as if someone painted her with fireplace ashes.”

  Pleasance jerked in surprise and she almost dropped the cup of hot chocolate. She felt the black void tugging at her again and had to bite her lip to keep it at bay. “What…what did you say?”

  Brick frowned. He patted her on the shoulder. “Just drink your cocoa, Pleasance. We’ll work the rest of this out as soon as we take care of this current problem.” He patted her clumsily on the shoulder and Pleasance took an obedient sip of the scalding liquid, barely noticing the stinging heat.

  Love? Oh my Lord. What was she going to do? And why did that not bother her very much?

  Alfric bent over the information desk with two of Brick’s Special Forces bodyguards and the building’s manager, perusing blueprints in an attempt to figure out what part of the building terrorists might target.

  The lobby was a swirling mass of humanity as local fire fighters and police tried to usher hundreds of business people and residents from the building.

  Kicked fully into government agent mode, Alfric completely tuned out the frantic rise and fall of voices around him, the sobs and the screaming antics of children who thought the whole thing was just an adventure to fill an otherwise uneventful Sunday night.

  Because of the way the building was supported, with exterior crossing supports rather than interior beams, they weren’t sure where terrorists would focus their attack. Alfric looked up from the blueprints. “We need an engineer here,” he told the manager.

  The man, who currently was the color of paper, nodded and picked up the nearby phone.

  Alfric’s cell phone rang. He dug it from his pocket and looked at the number displayed across the screen. He pushed the button to accept the call. “Brita. What can you tell me?”

  “A daughter of one of the engineers who built the Hancock was kidnapped two months ago.”

  “Bingo. Has she been recovered?”

  “No. Chicago police are going to pick him up now.”

  “I want him brought here.”

  “I don’t know if I can get them to do that.”

  “Have them call Brick. He’s standing outside on the street.”

  “Got it. I’ll keep you posted.”

  Glenn Pepper knew the moment the kidnapper with a Middle Eastern accent had contacted him that his life was over. And what he’d done to try to save his baby girl had ensured that the afterlife wouldn’t be too pleasant for him either.

  There were no virgins where he was going.

  He stood grey and shaking in front of the cops in his living room. His hands were cuffed in front of his body and he was all too aware of the guns hanging from the cops’ belts nearby. He hadn’t slept for four nights. He hadn’t eaten because every time he did the food came right back up as soon as he thought about the hundreds of people he was going to kill. And he constantly fought against the urge to throw himself in front of a bus in the streets of Chicago.

  The only thing keeping him in the land of the living were thoughts of his daughter. If there was any way…any way at all…that he could save her by his actions, he had to keep trying.

  But that last chance had just been extinguished. Pepper knew he wasn’t a brave man. When the police started to pressure him he’d give up everything he knew and then they’d kill his sweet baby girl.

  He really only had one option.

  He would have to die. Before the police could get the information they sought out of him.

  Having finally made that decision, he felt a little better. He took a deep breath and looked again at the guns hanging from the cops’ belts.

  And he began to form a plan.

  Alfric looked up from the blueprints as two Homeland Security agents led a small, dark eyed man toward the Information Desk. The man extended his hand toward Alfric as he reached the desk. “Peter Smith,” he said in a determined voice. “What can I help you with?”

  Alfric liked the looks of the man. “You’re a structural engineer?”

  Smith nodded. “I am.”

  Alfric nodded toward the blueprints on the desk. “We have reason to believe that a terrorist attack will occur in this building. We’re trying to figure out the building’s weak points. Where would they strike?”

  “You’ve ruled out an aerial attack?”

  Alfric nodded. “We’ve contacted all airports within a three hundred mile radius. But we expect the attack to come from within.”

  Smith moved around behind the desk and placed his hands on the desktop, studying the blueprint carefully. After a moment he looked up. “Fire and air.”

  Alfric frowned. “Explain.”

  “Anytime you have a building this tall you have a greater risk of collapse from fire. Structural materials expand as they heat, causing floors and walls to bow and warp.”

  Alfric frowned. “And?”

  “And…the building could collapse.”

  Alfric nodded. “And air?”

  Smith expelled a breath, worry sparking in his dark eyes. “The ventilation system is a huge concern in these buildings. Poisonous gases can be placed in any vent, on any floor, in any room and it will spread through the entire building in a matter of minutes, killing everyone in the building.”

  Alfric swore under his breath and scrubbed a hand over his face. “Just to be safe we need to close all vents right away. Then we need to find out if any maintenance has been done recently on the air conditioning or heating systems.”

  Smith nodded. “The building is managed through an electronic system that tracks all maintenance.” He turned to the computer on the desk, his fingers moving quickly over the keys.

  Alfric watched as a login screen turned into a screen listing all of the building’s maintenance events for the previous month.

  A commotion at the door made Alfric look up. A young cop strode quickly toward him. He stopped before Alfric, looking embarrassed. “Sir, we had an incident while arresting Glenn Pepper.”

  Alfric’s gaze narrowed. “The building engineer whose daughter was kidnapped?”

  The young cop nodded. “We had to take Mr. Pepper to the local hospital. He managed to grab my partner’s gun and shoot himself.”

  “Shit.” Alfric shook his head. “Will he live?”

  The cop shrugged. “Unclear at this point.”

  Alfric turned away and took several deep breaths to get his anger under control.

  “Agent Honeybun!” Pounding footsteps sounded behind him and he turned. One of the building’s security guards, a heavyset older man named Cleats, was huffing toward him, his radio clutched in one beefy hand.

  “Sir, we’ve found a body!”

  Somebody gasped and Alfric hurried over to the distraught man. He grabbed the guard’s arm and turned him away from the people who were still making their way out of the building. “Keep your voice down Cleats!”

  The guard swallowed audibly and nodded. “Sorry sir.” His face was grey and shone with sweat. “I’m a little rattled. I don’t mind tellin’ ya that, sir.”

  Alfric nodded, motioning for two Chicago cops who’d escorted the engineer into the building to move closer. As soon as the two men had moved near enough to hear, he told Cleats to give them details.

  “We was goin’ door to door like you told us, Agent Honeybun. Knockin’ on doors and tellin’ people they needed to evacuate the building. A woman on the sixtieth floor was poundin’ on a neighbor’s door, carryin’ on somethin’ fierce. We asked her what was up and she said her friend, an elderly gentleman wasn’t answering his door and she knew he was in there ‘cause he’d been sick and she’d been tendin’ him.” Cleats stopped to take a breath and gulp.
>
  Alfric guided the older man to a nearby chair and pushed him into it. He looked like he might pass out at any moment.

  Cleats sucked air for a minute and then looked up, his eyes shining with unshed tears. “It was the old guy all right. He was dead. Looked like he’d been bashed over the head with something.”

  “6103,” a voice said from behind Alfric. He turned to find Smith standing there. “The records show a repair was logged for 6103 yesterday. Heating vent apparently not working.”

  Alfric looked at the two cops. “Okay, focus your people on floors 60, 61, and 62. Make sure those floors are evacuated first. Then make sure security personnel close and seal all air vents. Now!” They took off running. He turned to two of Bricks Special Forces bodyguards. “We’ll need hazmat suits. See if they have them on the fire trucks. If not, Brick should be able to expedite that for us. And we need to step up the evacuation somehow, without panicking people.”

  “We can use all three elevator banks,” interjected Smith.

  Alfric looked at him. “Explain.”

  “They’re only using the evacuation elevators. If we use the general bank of elevators and the service elevators too we can evacuate people three times as fast.”

  Alfric nodded and the two bodyguards took off through the lobby, speaking to the firemen and cops who were ushering people to safety. The urgency of the evacuation picked up several notches as the cops learned what they were probably dealing with.

  He turned back to Cleats. “You heard Smith. I need you to get the word to the rest of your people, we need to get these people out of here ASAP. Forget niceties, this is life or death.”

  Cleats gulped again and shoved himself to his feet. As he lumbered toward the elevators he was already talking into his radio.

  Pleasance paced beside the ragged semicircle of cop cars, lights still flashing wildly into the night. She’d kept the blanket they’d thrown over her wrapped tightly around her shoulders. Her body seemed unable to get warm on its own.