POP-POP-POP-POP!
Four shots rang out, and Xander jumped onto the dinner boat for cover. One bullet ricocheted off the bow, then whizzed past Xander’s head. After a glance inside the dining hall window showed him a completely empty room, he immediately jumped and grabbed the bottom of the rooftop deck rail above him. He fought the panic of Natalie not being there and pulled himself up and hopped over the rail. In five quick strides he was at the other side of the deck, raising his gun, and four shots later both unsuspecting men were on the ground. They had been expecting him to attack from the front lower level of the dinner boat.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw movement at the end of the dock. Xander dropped to his stomach on the floor of the deck just as two gunshot blasts echoed across the water. In front of him, in the open space between the deck floor and the first rail, he could see the man aiming in his direction. Just as Xander aimed his gun, he heard a crack in the distance and the man at the end of the dock jerked, then dropped flat on his face.
Jack.
Xander raised to a knee and scanned the area for any other possible gunmen. When satisfied the area was clear, he hopped the rail, dropped down to the lower level of the boat, then stepped out on the concrete dock that separated that boat and the two smaller boats, one a fishing vessel and one a speedboat. He took one last longing look back through the dinner boat’s window. He knew he wouldn’t see Natalie there, but hope springs eternal. And now he felt completely lost on how to find her. In a crouch he duckwalked over to the fishing boat and boarded. He quickly searched the outside and the cabin but found nothing. He did the same with the second boat, and just as he was getting ready to hop back out to the dock, something black on the white cushion of the outside bench caught his eye.
Kyle’s burner phone.
Kyle was gone.
Natalie was nowhere to be found.
The feeling of failing her slowly began to creep into his nervous system. Instinctively, Xander grabbed a nearby towel, picked up the phone that had been stuffed between his friend’s cheeks, and gave it a quick wipe down. When he unlocked the phone, there was a red alert at the corner of the messages icon. He tapped the icon, and it showed one text message that was clearly meant for him.
Captain America is always two steps behind Akram Khatib. Shame. I really wanted to play. Looks like that King’s Ransom I told you it would take to get your Natalie back comes in the form of your good friend. Remember the good friend of yours my brother shot in the head? Your friend here will wish for such mercy. Happy Hunting. —AK
The vision of Sanharib Khatib shooting Sean Thompson in the face in Syria a few weeks ago flashed in his mind. Then a vision of King’s Ransom dead in the stables, then one of Kyle being tortured, then a vision of those massive spikes being driven into Natalie’s ears. Xander dropped to his knee. Saliva filled his jowls, and he lost it all over the floor of the boat. He wiped his mouth on his sleeve and took a deep breath. After another moment of those visions repeating themselves in his mind, everything went blank. He looked up at the fingernail moon that was half hidden by a moving cloud. He could hear his heartbeat in his ears, rapid and erratic. The sounds around him were muffled.
He felt lost.
It was then that a cool breeze blew gently across the back of his neck. He took a deep inhale and slowly began to gather his wits. He could swear that the scent traveling in the breeze was Natalie’s perfume. He knew it was impossible, but the mind is a powerful force. A force he knew he had to harness to push him toward a different outcome. The smell of Natalie’s perfume, though one he couldn’t have actually detected, triggered a positive chain of visions that flashed before him.
His friend Sean Thompson smiling again. Spouting one of his off-the-cuff country-boy sayings.
King’s Ransom running for the win at the Kentucky Derby. Xander rubbing his nose and patting his back in the winner’s circle.
Kyle’s blazing smile and infectious laugh as they clanked glasses on the back of Xander’s yacht in the Virgin Islands.
Staring into Natalie’s eyes just before she kissed him on the lips.
Adrenaline filled Xander’s veins as he slowly rose to his feet. It felt like a high-octane sugar rush running through his system. The next vision he saw made him clench his jaw and ball his hands into fists. Before his eyes, in the dark water beside the boat, he could see Akram Khatib, blood leaking from his head as he lay on the ground. That was the vision he intended to see come to fruition next. Xander pulled out his phone and dialed Marvin.
“Xander! I was just getting ready to call you. I have eyes on Khatib! Cameras across the river show that he left where you are on a different dinner boat and is headed in the direction of the Eiffel Tower. I’m showing that you have twenty-five minutes to get to Natalie. You gotta get going!”
Xander didn’t so much as respond. He hung up, walked around the center console, and fired up the speedboat. As he backed out into the middle of the river, he could see the Eiffel Tower’s bright yellow lights off to his right in the distance. As he pushed the throttle forward, he heard Viktor shouting at him from the dock, wildly jumping up and down and waving his arms.
Xander didn’t acknowledge him.
Instead, he pushed the throttle to the max, and the boat lurched forward as he sped away toward his target.
Toward turning that last vision of Khatib dead into a reality.
41
Timber!
“What?” Melanie looked across the warehouse at Sam. “Have you nothing smart to say? Xander would make funny comment to try and throw me off. You should try this, Sam.”
“Why don’t you drop that fake Russian accent and go back to being my little assistant. Off you go, fetch me a coffee.”
Melanie grunted in frustration and fired an errant shot in Sam’s direction. Sam didn’t even flinch.
“That the best you’ve got Melanie, or Melania? Or whatever your name really is.” Sam continued to goad her.
When Melanie turned her pistol from Sam to Adeline’s forehead, Adeline squealed through her gag and struggled to get free of the two men holding her in place. “Actually, the best I have got is to put bullet in first daughter’s head. Will this satisfy you?” Melanie said.
Sarah stood from behind the cubicle. “And what exactly would you gain by doing that? What is it that you want?”
“I have no allegiance. I do what I do for love of money, not country. I have been trained by the best in Russia. Vitalii Dragov is dead, so I move on to Akram Khatib. Information about your precious Xander is very valuable, and it pays very well to have it.”
Sam replied, “Xander is worth far more than Khatib. He will pay you whatever you want if you let Adeline go.”
Melanie laughed, glanced at Adeline, then back to Sam. “But then, I don’t get to kill you.”
“Oh, it’s me you want, is it? Fine.” Sam dropped her arms and tucked her gun in the back of her waistband. “Take me. Let Sarah have Adeline, and you can take me.”
“Works for me, but you must come here first.”
Sarah shouted, “Sam, no! You can’t!”
But Sam walked around the corner of the cubicle and started toward the men holding Adeline. Adeline continued to thrash in their arms and whimper through her cloth gag. Her clothes were still soaked from being in the river, and the closer Sam got, she could see tears streaming down her face. Sam had a plan; she just hoped Sarah wouldn’t jump the gun.
“That’s far enough,” Melanie said. She took hold of Adeline and waved for the men to go and see to Sam.
“Sam,” Sarah begged. “Don’t do this. They’ll kill you.”
“Better me than her. Just don’t let them take us both.”
Sarah took Sam’s words to heart and refocused her gun on Melanie. “Let her go, right now.”
“You are in no position to make demands, Barbie.”
Just as the men began to frisk Sam, Sam whipped her head to the right to look at Sarah. She knew that was one of her t
riggers, and sure enough, Sarah broke. What happened next was a total blur.
Sarah shot Melanie in her arm that was holding the gun. Sam forced her right knee across the left side of her body into the forehead of the man that was frisking her left leg. Just after the smack against his face, Sam spun behind her, whipping her elbow around, and it connected with the other man’s jaw. Behind her she heard Zhanna shout, “RUN!” to Adeline, and as the man Sam hit with her knee rose back up to his feet, she brought her arm forward, the one that had just landed the elbow, and shattered his nose. She had to punch upward to hit him because he was so tall. Ruining his nose would hardly ruin his day; he already had a face that only a grandmother could love. The man didn’t have any quit in him. After pawing at his bloody nose for only a second, he lunged at Sam. Sam stepped to her left—to the outside of his punch—and delivered a left hook to the kidney. As he staggered back in pain, she wheeled her left leg up and around in a full 360, and the heel of her boot connected with the big man’s temple; and he toppled to the ground like a tree.
As she turned back to face the man she had hit with her elbow, out of the corner of her eye she saw Adeline running toward the elevator into Zhanna’s waiting arms. And Sarah was closing the distance between her and the injured Melanie. The man in front of Sam reached for the gun inside his waistband. As he pulled it up to aim at Sam, she front kicked it out of his hand, and as soon as her foot tapped back down to the ground, she torqued her hip to the left, and the bottom of her shin bone landed flush against his jaw with the force of a Louisville Slugger. The instantly unconscious man did his best impression of his big friend, and Sam resisted the urge to yell, “Timber!” as he collapsed to the concrete below.
Sam turned her attention to Melanie and Sarah at the front of the room and stalked around the cubicles toward them. Beyond where Sarah was grappling with Melanie, Sam saw Zhanna pull Adeline into the elevator, and off in the distance, she could faintly hear sirens closing in. If she didn’t hurry, the police would steal her chance at returning the punch that Melanie had given her in Moscow as she was being held back by Dragov’s men. Some people never forget a face; Sam had never been able to forget a punch.
Just before Sam could get there, Sebastian emerged from the cubicles and tackled Sarah to the floor. Sarah’s gun skittered across the concrete, halfway between Sam and Melanie.
Sam said, “Let’s see how fast you are, Melanie.”
They both sprinted for the gun. After only a split second it was clear that Sam was going to get to the gun first, and Melanie decided to sidestep the gun and bolt for the door. Sam dove headfirst for the gun, grabbed it, aimed it, squeezed the trigger, and the bullet smacked against the door a millisecond after Melanie’s shoulder turned the corner.
Sam popped up to her feet and noticed Sarah was in full guard on her back, holding Sebastian off with some jiujitsu defense. Sam walked over as Sarah trapped Sebastian’s arm that was closest to Sam, leaving him completely defenseless against the kick that Sam delivered to the side of his face. Sebastian collapsed onto Sarah. Sam nodded to Sarah. Sarah gave the “I’m okay” nod in return.
Sarah said, “I’ll call the police and make sure they pick up Zhanna and Adeline. Then I’ll call Marv and have him coordinate a pickup for all of us. You go get that ugly bitch.”
Sam barely heard Sarah’s words. Her mind was already on running Melanie down. Finally, her body caught up with her thoughts, and Sam sprinted out the door after her.
42
A Quick Detour
Xander kept the speedboat at full throttle as he sped down the Seine. The river was nearly empty. The wind was cold in his face, and he squinted into the night, desperately searching for the first sign of Khatib’s dinner boat. The hum of the boat’s engine engulfed him. The slapping of the bottom of the boat against the tiny waves sprayed a mist of water all around him. He felt anxious. His mind continued to race, but he did his best to keep his breathing slow and his head clear. Worrying about whether Kyle was still alive and visualizing how he would pull Natalie from that wall were only clouding his mind. He needed now to rely on his instincts.
The Eiffel Tower’s thousands of lights sparkled just around a left turn in the Seine now. The lights were casting their rays all the way down to the river below. Xander caught his first glimpse of the back end of the dinner boat rounding the bend up ahead just before it disappeared. His stomach clenched and his grip tightened around the steering wheel of the speedboat. He was close. Then his phone began to ring. He almost didn’t answer it. He didn’t want to hear bad news if that’s what was calling. But it could be news about Natalie.
Xander shouted over the boat’s engine, “Marv, I’m a little busy.”
“Xander, we have a problem.” Marv’s voice was animated.
“No shit. Any other ways you want to try to blow my mind?”
“Xander there is a boat somewhere, the boat Kyle was on. It’s got a bomb on it. Kyle told Sarah that the bomb on it looked big enough to blow up a few city blocks.”
“I’ve kinda got my hands full here, Marv. Can’t you let the French police look into doing something tonight? Call that George Costanza–lookin’ son of a bitch detective that took my Glock at the police station earlier. Maybe he’ll give a flying—”
Before Xander could finish his words, a boat came out of nowhere from his right side and smashed into the front end of his speedboat. It hit the boat so hard that Xander was thrown violently out of his boat and sent soaring through the air into the dark and cold water below. All he could see was darkness. Or maybe he wasn’t seeing anything. The water wasn’t nearly as cold as it should be. He felt like he was breathing fine. But he felt as if he were an astronaut floating in deep black space. No gravity, no sound…
Then he did hear a sound. It was like a fly buzzing around his head but very far away. He tried to move, but he couldn’t. He tried to look, but he couldn’t. Then he felt something burning. Not his skin, not from a fire, but it felt like fire in his lungs. He desperately tried to take a breath to extinguish the flames that grew inside his chest, but nothing was working. Then, it seemed the fly was getting closer, and closer, right up on him now. He tried to swat the fly away, but he still couldn’t move. Then, the fly was gone. Complete silence followed. Blackness.
Then, as suddenly as he had been thrown from the boat a moment ago, his head was pulled up out of the water by his hair and the world came crashing in on Xander. Pure instinct made him shoot his hand right for the throat of the man who was leaning off the back of the boat trying to pull him in. Simultaneously, Xander pulled in air through his mouth so hard that he nearly choked, and as he coughed out river water, his grip tightened as if it were a reflex around the man’s neck, and he pulled the man into the water with him. Xander managed to get his elbow up on the top rung of the ladder hanging from the swim platform at the back of the boat. As he let go of the man’s throat, he wrapped his legs around his body with the strength of a boa constrictor. As he squeezed with all his might, he forced the man underwater, holding him there as he uselessly writhed and bucked between Xander’s legs. Xander glanced at his watch; he only had twenty minutes left before Natalie was dead. As the man’s movements underwater eased to a halt, Xander regained his breath.
When the man was finally still, Xander opened his legs and the drowned man floated away. As soon as Xander turned and hoisted himself up onto the swim platform, he was forced to flatten to his back as the driver of the boat fired at him from inside the cabin. Xander quickly unzipped his pocket, pulled his knife, hit the blade release button, and, as the man stepped down on the swim platform, Xander drove the knife into the side of his calf muscle. The man screamed in pain and bucked backward, sending the bullet meant for Xander’s head somewhere in the direction of the Champs-Elysées. Xander removed the knife as he scrambled to his knees, then jammed the blade between the man’s fourth and fifth rib, straight through to the heart.
The man grunted, then collapsed after Xander twisted
and removed the knife. Xander stood and then nudged the man’s lifeless body out over the edge of the swim platform where he could join his friend in a float-off to see who could reach the Eiffel Tower first. Xander wouldn’t be there to see who won; he immediately jammed the throttle and turned toward the dinner boat. He noticed a cell phone sitting in the cup holder beside the captain’s chair. He picked it up and dialed Marv.
“Who is this?” Marv answered.
“Do I have to do everything?”
“X? What the—whose number are you calling from?”
“Long story short, I found the bomb.”
“What? How could you possibly—”
“The timer isn’t running, but you have exactly sixty seconds to tell me which wire to cut so they can’t set it off remotely. Starting now.”
“You crazy son of a bitch. I’ll call you right back. Don’t you leave that—”
Xander ended the call and sped away toward the boat that he hoped would be holding Kyle, Natalie, and that dead-man-walking son of a bitch, Akram Khatib.
43
She Started It
Sam sprinted out the door of the warehouse and down the side street in the direction Melanie ran. For a side street it was fairly well lit. Yellow lights hung from the brick buildings, shining over intimate little cafes and bistros. At first, Sam didn’t see anything that resembled a cowardly woman running away from her like a little bitch. Then she thought if she were being chased by herself, she would run like hell too. But up ahead she noticed a shadow move to the left. Sam found another gear and dashed toward it.
She pulled to a stop at the street where she had seen the movement. It was much darker there. More like an alley than a street. There were plenty of nooks and cafe awnings to hide inside and behind. This was a dangerous game. Sam was exposed and at a major disadvantage. She searched the dark street for clues, but nothing turned up. She was surprised at just how empty it was. It was a nice enough night; people should be out and about. Maybe this wasn’t the best neighborhood for that. Sam took a step forward when she saw a glimmer of dark liquid on the ground, reflecting the only light nearby. She bent down, and upon further examination, she discerned it was definitely blood. She was in the right place.
Xander King BoxSet Page 67
