Pleasance turned to him, tears in her eyes. The little blond child watched them both with tear filled, blue eyes. “We have to get this child’s mother. She’s…” Pleasance didn’t know how much the child could understand, but she had to convey the urgency to Alfric.
Alf let her go. “I know, I saw. I’ll get her. You take the child toward that bookstore there and wait inside. I’ll bring the mother there.”
Pleasance stared at him a beat longer, willing him with her eyes to come back to her safe. Finally she nodded.
She turned and started fighting her way through the crowd. It was slow going and she almost went down once, when an elbow hit her hard and high on the cheek just below her eye. Suddenly bodies were flying away from her and Brick Honeybun had an arm around her shoulders. “Damned animals,” he muttered in her ear. Jiles Green flanked her other side. Between them she was cocooned in a violence free bubble.
Outside of that bubble was a different story.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Sam leaned heavily on Candace as they limped toward the mall’s entrance. The parking area was totally, eerily silent. There were no cops visible on the street any longer. Sam figured they’d either been there as part of the plot, planted into the ranks of the police and security god knew how many years earlier for just this very purpose, or were inside helping.
As they opened the door to enter the mall, the sounds of screaming hit them like a punch to the face.
They emerged finally from the crowd and Pleasance saw the bookstore. “There! That’s where Alf said he’d meet us.”
As they ran toward the store, Lee Greenwood hit the first crescendo of his refrain, and the ceiling of the Rotunda exploded, clattering toward the ground in an array of shapes and sizes, each one deadly to those trapped below the fall.
People screamed in horror as huge shards of glass dropped toward them. The terrorized shrieks of one woman in particular were cut off abruptly as an oddly shaped piece of glass about five feet long hit the ground where she stood.
Pleasance turned away, sheltering the little girl in her arms from the destruction. Brick hunched over them both, despite the fact that they were relatively safe inside the store.
“Alf!” Pleasance’s gaze swept the mall frantically.
She didn’t see him.
Clovis suddenly surged through the door with a woman in his arms and another man in tow. He laid the bleeding woman on the floor at Pleasance’s feet. “See what you can do for her.”
Pleasance looked down and saw that the woman’s arm was deeply gashed. In fact, she could see the smooth white bone beneath. She forced back bile but then stiffened her spine, forcing herself to deal.
Her tear filled blue eyes lifted to Clovis’s face. “Alf?”
Clovis held her gaze for a moment and then touched her shoulder. “I haven’t seen him…”
Just then Greenwood hit another refrain and another section of the glass ceiling exploded downward. Screams of terror and pain filled the mall, coming from the center, the amusement park area. Clovis turned away. “I’ve got to go.” He looked at his uncle. “You stay here.”
Brick frowned but nodded. “We’ll set up triage and do what we can until the medical teams can get here.”
Clovis squeezed his uncle’s shoulder briefly and disappeared into the chaos beyond.
Brita, Percy, and Heathcliffe were passing through the amusement park area when the glass ceiling exploded. They jumped a short fence and dove into the carousel as glass rained down all around them. Brita was all but taken out by a contented looking giraffe with a small boy on its back. The boy looked down at her as she landed hard beneath the giraffe’s neck. His small mouth formed an “O” of surprise.
She pushed herself to her feet and looked for Percy. He was holding a young girl who was trying to jump off the ride to get to her mother on the outside. The girl was screaming, “Mommy! Mommy! Let me go! Mommyyyyy!!”
The ride continued to spin as glass trickled down outside. Brita saw Heathcliffe climbing to his feet nearby. “Keep these kids on this ride until the glass stops falling.”
She didn’t wait for his response but pulled her T-shirt up over her head and jumped off. She reached the young girl’s mother in three long strides and grabbed her under the arms. She was bloodied and looked as if she’d hit her head on something, but she seemed generally okay. She dragged the woman under a nearby tree and left her there.
Then, she plunged back out into the chaos, calling for medical teams as she ran.
Another explosion announced the culmination of Greenwood’s song, as he hit the hard notes of the chorus one last time.
Another section of glass dropped from the sky.
Brita ran in that direction.
The air in the mall was thick with dust and smoke. There was a bitter tang to it that reminded Candace of the firing range. They walked as fast as they could, with Sam leaning heavily on her shoulder. Candace spotted Bob Jones hurrying away from the center of the mall. She released Sam and started toward the older man. “Hey, Bob!”
He turned and looked at her and started to run.
“Wait! What’s going on in there?”
The man disappeared into Sears just as another explosion rent the air. Sam spotted a tall, red haired guy ushering a large group of people into the department store. “Hey you! Stop that guy who just ran past you!”
The guy nodded and took off into the store. He looked very familiar to Sam.
Candace said, “Holy crap! That was Warwicke Honeybun!” She got a dreamy look on her face.
Sam nodded. “You’re right, that’s where I’ve seen him before.” He grinned at his young partner. “You’re into racing?”
Candace shrugged. “I follow NASCAR pretty closely so I know who from IndyCar is being looked at to move up.”
“He’s a damn good driver.”
She grinned as she took Sam’s arm back over her shoulder. “And not so hard on the eyes either.”
Sam’s chuckle turned into a groan as he started walking.
Candace frowned. “Are you sure you don’t want to sit this one out?”
Sam shook his head. “I need to get in there.”
“Okay, you’re the boss.”
“So what’s up with that guy?”
She shrugged frowning. “I don’t know. He was acting very strangely.”
“Maybe he just panicked.”
“Yeah, maybe.” She had a sudden memory of Bob giving her the CD a few days earlier. It had seemed strange at the time, which was why she’d written up a report on it. But she hadn’t given it much thought since then. Maybe Bob Jones did have something to hide. She hoped Warwicke Honeybun caught him so they could find out for sure.
Warwicke caught up with the older man in the perfume department. He grabbed the back of the security guard’s shirt and yanked him backward and down. Though Warwicke was much younger and stronger, the guard was stocky and panicked. He didn’t go all the way down on the first try.
Jones grabbed a large, display bottle of perfume and crashed it against the side of Warwicke’s face. The bottle broke and Warwicke felt glass slicing through his skin. The spicy scent of musk permeated the air. Perfume slid into the fresh cuts on his cheek and stung like a mother.
Warwicke punched the guy in the jaw and the older man sagged slightly, only to be yanked upright again and dragged toward the mall. Warwicke was reaching for his radio to call Alfric when Jones struck again. He’d grabbed the belt off a robe as they passed a display rack and Warwicke soon found it wrapped around his neck.
He tried to pull it off his neck first but Jones had thrown his weight backward and was using it to keep the belt taut around Warwicke’s throat.
Warwicke used the belt to reel Jones in and punched him again, twice, like he punched the bags at the gym. The older man’s eyes rolled back into his head and he went down. Warwicke pulled the belt from his neck and used it to tie the security guard’s hands behind his back. Then he slapped him
awake and pulled him to his feet. “Now just behave, old man, or I’ll have to get really rough with you.”
Warwicke pushed the older man to the front and shoved him toward the mall. He lifted the radio to his lips. “Is there a Honeybun on this frequency?”
A moment later the radio crackled and Clovis’ voice emerged.
“I grabbed a security guard who was running away.”
“On whose orders?”
Warwicke suddenly realized he didn’t know who’d ordered the grab. “I’m not sure. It was some big guy, with another security guard.”
Silence met this remark. “What did these guys look like?”
Warwicke described Sam and Candace.
“Okay, I’ll watch for them. Bring him to the security hub I guess. I’ll meet you there in a while.”
Pleasance looked around the huge bookstore. The floor was covered with bleeding people. The explosions had stopped and medical personnel had finally been allowed in. She’d been slowly relinquishing her patients to them. All except the little girl she still held in her arms.
The little girl’s mother still hadn’t arrived.
And there was no sign of Alfric.
She was about to turn the little girl over to Brick and head out to look for him when a young woman stumbled in, supporting a bigger man who was bleeding from the midsection. They both looked exhausted.
Pleasance set the little girl down and ran to take some of the big man’s weight. She looked at the female security guard. “You okay?”
The girl was panting from the effort but she nodded. “This is Sam, he’s a cop. He’s been stabbed.”
Pleasance realized the cop had all but passed out. “Brick!”
Brick and Jiles Green hurried over and relieved her of the man’s weight. They dragged him to a clear spot on the carpet and lay him down carefully. A nearby med tech bent over him and started working on his wound.
Pleasance turned away, feeling sick. So much blood and death. Her knees wobbled and she almost hit the ground, but someone caught her. She turned and exclaimed, “Alfric!” Throwing her arms around his neck, she kissed his lips and his sooty…blood covered…face.
She stopped kissing him in horror. “You’re hurt?”
He shook his head. “A small cut on my scalp. It looks worse than it is.”
Pleasance wasn’t convinced. She tried to drag him over to a med tech but he resisted. “I’m fine, really. These people need it more than I do.”
“Mommy!”
Pleasance turned and saw the little girl’s mother at the bookstore entrance. She was pale and covered in blood but she was upright and standing on her own two feet, though wobbly. The golden haired child ran to her mother and flung herself into her arms. The mother grimaced and almost fell over, but then she snatched the child up with a wide smile. Tears flowed freely down her filthy cheeks.
“You brought her? What took you so long?”
Alfric opened his mouth to speak just as a cop stepped up behind the young mother and child and placed a gun to her temple, wrapping a bloody arm around her waist from behind. “If anybody moves, the woman and child die.”
The cop was thick around the middle, young, dark haired, and dark skinned. His head was coated in a thick layer of dried blood on one side. Blood had darkened one sleeve of his shirt. His hand shook visibly on the gun. He smiled and Pleasance shivered. “Time for round two, infidels.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Alfric slowly pulled Pleasance behind him.
“That’s the guy who stabbed Sam.”
He turned to find a young woman dressed in a bloody security guard uniform standing just behind them.
Her green eyes were as big as saucers. “I hit him on the head with my flashlight.” She touched the big, black flashlight in her belt with a finger and shivered as if recalling the incident. “I thought I’d killed him.”
“I wish you had,” Alfric said.
The girl’s head jerked toward him. Her face was paper white. Her pale lips quivered with emotion. “I’m starting to wish I had too.”
“Hands up in the air where I can see them and everybody step back, away from the door. NOW!”
They jerked into action. One man who was awake but incapacitated on the floor sobbed and covered his head with his arms.
Pleasance lifted the hand he could see and grabbed Alfric’s shirt with the other one as they backed away. She wasn’t going to get separated from him again.
Even if it got her killed.
The terrorist shoved the woman in front of him and she stumbled forward with a cry. One of her legs gave out on her and she almost went down. But concern for her child gave her strength and she managed to stay upright, though she limped badly when she walked.
Pleasance began to see why Alfric had taken so long to get her there.
The terrorist stayed at the door, holding the gun out in front of him.
The woman continued walking, heading right for Alf. He stepped between her and the terrorist as soon as she got close. “You know the building’s full of cops, feds, and security right?”
The terrorist fixed dark, fear filled eyes on Alf. His face shone with a layer of sweat but his smile was resigned. “It doesn’t matter. Everyone in this building will die today.” He pulled his shirt up and several people gasped. He had an explosive belt strapped around his waist.
“Then what are you waiting for?” Candace said from behind Alf. She stepped forward and he threw her a glance. “If you’re gonna kill us all anyway, why are you standing there flappin’ your lips. Just get it over with.”
Pleasance thought the young woman had lost her mind. Her eyes were still saucers in her paper-white face and she was shaking so hard her teeth were clanking together. But then Pleasance noticed movement at the front of the store, just behind a tall display of books to the right of the entrance.
It was the wounded cop, Sam. He was making a play for the terrorist.
“I have demands.”
Seeing the wounded cop on the move, Alf decided to play for time. “Why would we meet any demands, you’re gonna kill us anyway. You just said so.”
The terrorist shrugged. “I know how you Americans feel about life. You think it is precious beyond all else. You do not recognize the glory in dying for a greater good. Like the cowards you are, you will do anything to buy yourselves more time on this earth,” he sneered as if this idea disgusted him.
“What do you want?” Alf kept his gaze determinedly away from the book display.
“I want a news person with a camera. I have something I want to say to this country of infidels before I press this button.” He held something that looked like a garage door opener into the air.
Sam took that opportunity to make his move. He shot out from behind the book display and launched himself at the terrorist, grabbing the man’s upraised hand and twisting it until it cracked.
By all rights, the terrorist should have dropped the detonating device, but he was so hopped up on adrenaline he didn’t seem to even notice the pain from the broken wrist.
Alf turned, grabbed something from behind him, and took off. Pleasance cried out as he jerked away from her grip.
Sam sagged to the floor, completely spent, and the terrorist kicked him hard in the stomach.
It was the last outrage he would ever perpetrate on the poor, half dead cop.
Alf smacked the guy hard on the head with Candace’s flashlight, grabbing the detonator out of his nearly useless fingers with the other hand. The terrorist sank to the floor with another crack in his head. “If I don’t get a chance to see you again before you die, say hey to those virgins for me, asshole.”
The bookstore erupted in cheering.
They stood around Sam’s bed while the nurse checked his bandage and fussed over him. In the day and a half he’d been there he’d won over most of the nurses on the floor. Some of them were divorced and a bit desperate and he wished they would learn to dislike him a bit more.
Al
though bandaged and banged up pretty well themselves, the Indiana contingent was there in his room to say goodbye. He looked up as Alfric Honeybun extended a hand toward him.
“If you ever want to get away from winters that flash freeze your skin and mosquitoes the size of my brother’s plane, we could use a man with your skills and dedication in Indiana.”
Sam nodded and clasped the younger man’s hand. “I appreciate that but I’m starting to think being a cop is a young man’s sport.”
Brick stepped forward and took Sam’s hand next. “I’m starting to think just being around these guys is a younger man’s sport. Trouble seems to follow wherever they go.”
The room erupted with sounds of disagreement but Brick waved them off.
Sam laughed. “I wouldn’t know about that but they sure know what to do with it when it finds them.” He looked at Warwicke, who was standing by the door and had a couple of pretty wicked cuts on the side of his head. “Did you ever catch that security guard?”
Warwicke grinned. “He clocked me with a perfume bottle and tried to strangle me. But I managed to knock some sense into him.”
Clovis laughed. “He’s smelled like a whorehouse ever since.”
Sam wrinkled his nose. “I thought somebody had used a heavy hand with the perfume.” He smiled up at Pleasance. “I was blaming the only woman in the room.”
They all had a good laugh at Warwicke’s expense. He took it pretty well, laughing with them.
“I understand the guard had a daughter who recently disappeared,” Alf added, sobering them all up. “Apparently, they promised him she’d be released if he submitted that music.”
A knock sounded at the door and Brita came in with Percy in tow. She had a cast on one arm and her face and arms bore evidence of cuts. She strode to Sam’s bed and shook his hand with her good one. “We haven’t met. I’m Detective Brita Muldane, Indy PD. I understand we have you to thank for dispatching the bad guy.”
Sam shrugged. “I just distracted him a little while the young guy bashed him over the head.”
Life Liberty and the Pursuit of a Honeybun Page 21
