by Ken Fite
Who was he, why was he here, and why did Marco kill him? I wondered while trying to stay focused.
I moved quickly to a box on the side of the house and reached into my jacket and found my knife. There was a cable line running from the box up along the side of the house and ending at the roof where the satellite dish was mounted. After I pried the box open, I found a grouping of cables and held them out with my left hand and quickly cut through them with the knife in my right. I hoped this would work.
I stuffed the knife back inside my jacket, closed the box, and ran to the driveway, where I stood behind the black van. I grabbed my Glock and aimed it at the ground while holding it tightly with both hands and keeping my back against the van. I winced as the pain from my wound hurt more than it had before. For the first time, I started to feel light-headed, but I pushed the thought out of my mind and ignored it.
I stayed quiet, waiting to hear the sound of the front door open. But Marco didn’t come outside.
“Damn,” I whispered to myself, realizing I was going to have to force my way inside, not knowing anything about the layout of the house or which room Marco might be in. I wished I had access to Morgan. I could have used his help, but then again, I had no idea at this point if I was too late or not. The only confirmation I had that Marco and Jim Keller were inside was the black van I was hiding behind.
It’s here. So they have to be here.
Just as I started to move, I heard the front door open. I quickly stepped back and kept myself against the back of the van. I leaned forward and saw Marco. “Damn him,” I said and aimed my Glock at him. Before I could pull the trigger, I heard Maribel call from inside.
“Do you need help?” she asked, but Marco didn’t respond. I watched as he stepped over the body of the dead man and looked up at the satellite dish. I didn’t have a silencer on my gun and I wasn’t sure if there were more men inside the house, so I decided against shooting Marco dead on the spot. He walked around the back of the house to check the satellite and disappeared. I wondered how long until he’d come back.
All I wanted in that moment was to chase after Marco and kill the man. I resisted the urge and instead moved toward the house, passing in between the van and sedan, and I walked through the front door.
EIGHTY-THREE
MY GLOCK LED the way as I entered Maribel’s home. I really didn’t know what to expect when I stepped inside. Part of me thought I might have to hunt for the senator by going from room to room, so I was shocked when I saw the man I’d desperately been looking for sitting down in front of me.
Keller’s back was to me. His hands were wrapped around the chair and tied behind his back. He was also gagged. I lowered my weapon and looked around, unsure of who else might be inside the house. Marco had disappeared around the side of the yard, and besides the yell from Maribel a few seconds earlier, she was nowhere to be found. What is she doing, and where is she? I wondered.
Keller was sitting straight ahead, past the family room on my left and the kitchen on my right. I ran over to him and tucked my Glock inside my belt so my hands could be free to untie the senator.
“I’m here,” I whispered, and Keller looked up at me. I could sense relief in his eyes. I was relieved, too.
Crack! A bullet whizzed right by us and went into the wall. It was Marco! He had come back around through the front door and caught me by surprise. I grabbed Keller and pulled the man still tied to the chair onto the floor. There was a four-foot-tall wall that divided the rooms and offered some protection.
I knew it was probably razor thin. I popped up and fired three shots back at Marco, who ducked back outside. Three, I thought to myself, counting how many bullets I had used so I’d know when to change out the magazine.
I noticed Keller trying to say something and having a difficult time because of the gag. But my main priority was trying to kill the madman standing just outside the door. I’ll remove the gag and untie him as soon as I can, I promised myself.
“Marco!” I yelled, and I heard my voice echo throughout the house. A second later, he reached his arm inside, aiming his gun in our direction, and fired five times. I ducked and put my body over the senator, trying to shield and protect him from any stray bullets. I popped back up again and fired four more shots at Marco, aiming at the three-foot-wide area between the front door and a window. Seven.
I remembered the front of the house was made of brick, and I wondered if my efforts to shoot through the wall to kill him were in vain. I needed a way to provoke him so he’d come out into the open and I could take my shot.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to find me,” Marco shouted from outside.
“It wasn’t hard at all. You were just as sloppy as an agent as you are now. No surprise they chose me.”
Marco peeked around the door and aimed his gun in my direction. I already had my Glock trained on the spot where I thought he’d reappear, and I fired three more shots as Marco ducked, and I missed. Ten.
Just like with Burnett earlier in the day, I felt like I’d struck a nerve. Keller had stopped trying to speak. He was lifeless except for his eyes, watching me as I figured out how I was going to get us the hell out of the house alive. I used the few seconds in between shots to look around and try to get an understanding of the layout of the place. I could see a hallway to my left extending past the kitchen leading to the bedrooms. That must be where Maribel’s hiding.
I looked down at Keller and saw his eyes staring at my drenched shirt. I didn’t even feel the pain from the stab wound anymore. My senses were heightened and I knew I was running on pure adrenaline. When Keller’s eyes met mine, I noticed his pupils were fully dilated. Something was wrong. “What did you do to him?” I yelled and heard Marco laugh outside the door.
EIGHTY-FOUR
THE SENATOR TRIED to speak again and struggled to get up. “Stay down,” I said in a low voice, trying to keep him calm so I could focus on getting to Marco. Just then, he fired two more shots in our direction. One bullet made it through the wall and hit one of the chairs in the den. Dust from the drywall got in my eyes, blinding me. I reached over the wall and fired to buy some time as I blinked to clear my eyes. Fifteen.
I ejected the mag and replaced it with the last one I had in my jacket and fired again. Two.
A few seconds later, I could see again. I noticed that Marco’s shoulder kept coming into view from the window just to the right of the area where he was standing. I aimed my Glock, closed an eye, and fired. Three. I heard Marco curse and I knew I had clipped him.
“So this is all about me? Are you that insecure that you couldn’t just go find yourself another job?”
“I worked too hard to be passed up. I knew you were incompetent. Now everyone is seeing it for themselves.”
“Nobody liked you, Marco. I was at your funeral—nobody was there. Except Maribel. Where is she?”
Marco fired another shot around the corner. “You ruined my career, so I’ll ruin yours. That seems fair.”
Keller kept looking up at me, watching my every move and how I was handling Marco. A few seconds of silence passed and my mind raced. The irony of protecting the life of the man who trained me hit me hard. I couldn’t help but think that if it weren’t for me, we wouldn’t even be in this situation. I tried to refocus.
“I thought after Maria died, you’d step down. But you’re just too damn stubborn, aren’t you?” Marco said.
“What do you know about that?”
“You should have seen her face, Blake. She was terrified. Too bad her death was in vain, isn’t it?”
“You son of a bitch,” I yelled, and Marco started firing. In that moment, I felt a rage boil over inside me more intense than anything I’d ever felt in my life. I didn’t care about anything other than putting a bullet inside Marco. When there was a break in fire, I came up and unloaded, firing repeatedly as fast as I could.
Then it was over.
“Damn it,” I said and ejected my magazine onto th
e floor. Marco looked around the corner and laughed, knowing I was out of ammo.
I was shaking. The man who took my wife away from me stared back at me. I was looking in the eyes of a madman who knew I was completely helpless and at his mercy. He was enjoying every second of it. Marco walked slowly and cautiously to me and laughed again as I held onto my gun, aiming it at the ground.
“You need to learn to control your anger,” he said and smiled as he continued to move closer to me.
“And you need to learn how to count.” I saw terror in Marco’s eyes when he realized what I’d done.
I quickly brought the Glock up and pulled the trigger, sending the single chambered round into Marco’s forehead. He immediately dropped to the ground, and I stood motionless for a few seconds, my hands still shaking. I lowered my weapon and let it fall to the floor as the reality of the situation started to sink in.
I walked closer to Marco and picked up his gun. In the silence, I heard the senator trying to speak again. I ran back to him, removed the gag, and looked for my knife to cut away the zip ties that secured his wrists to the chair. Keller was slipping into unconsciousness.
I wondered what Marco and his sister had done to him. His sister! Where is Maribel! I realized that in the chaos of the last few minutes while I focused solely on taking Marco down, I’d forgotten all about her. Is that what the senator was trying to tell me? That Marco’s sister is still somewhere inside the house?
EIGHTY-FIVE
I AIMED MARCO’S gun into the dark hallway past the kitchen, where I believed his sister was hiding. “Maribel! Show yourself!” I yelled. I wasn’t sure what her involvement was. If Keller had been in better condition, I would have just left with him. But right now, my main concern was getting him to safety.
I didn’t have a way to call for help. I needed to find Maribel and make sure she wasn’t going to be a problem if I was going to be able to focus on finding a way to get help for the senator. I called out to Maribel again, and a second later, I heard her voice coming from the back room beyond the kitchen.
“Jordan, I’m coming out, but you’re going to let me go—unharmed,” she demanded.
“Yeah. Right,” I whispered to myself. I saw a few unused zip ties on the kitchen counter. I thought that when she came out, I’d tie her to the same chair the senator had been secured to and neutralize her.
I was holding my position, aiming at the doorway, when I felt a tug at my leg.
Keller whispered something, but I couldn’t make it out. I crouched down, keeping my aim at the spot where Maribel was going to appear, ready for anything.
“Say it again, sir,” I whispered to the senator. He took a deep breath before attempting to speak again.
“Blake, she’s got another hostage,” he said, slurring the words badly, but loud enough to understand.
I stood back up, immediately remembering Derek Murphy and Jami, who had gone after him. The psycho had taken someone from both Jami and me. I prepared myself to take Maribel out and end the terror now.
The light in the hallway was off, but I could see Maribel look around the corner before she disappeared. A moment later, she started walking toward me, but was led by a man in front of her. The hostage.
I aimed Marco’s gun at her, ready to pull the trigger as soon as I could see her head. There was no way in hell I was going to let her escape. I owed that much to the senator and to Jami. This was going to end here.
“Tell him,” she said to the man and pulled down the gag on his face.
“Son, don’t listen to her—kill her.”
“Dad!?” I couldn’t believe my eyes as my father and Maribel walked closer and came into the light.
“Shut up!” she screamed at him and hit him on his back with the butt of her gun and jammed the barrel in his side. I recognized her voice from the video on Anita’s TV. Shut up. She was talking to my father.
Maribel continued to slowly move toward me as my dad tried to speak again. I realized he was slurring his words just as badly as the senator. Whatever drugs she gave Keller, she must have given him, too.
“What did you do to him?”
“Like I said, you’re going to let me go, unharmed,” Maribel responded and walked through the kitchen.
When she was just a few feet away from me, she began walking backwards toward the front door.
“I can’t let you do that,” I said and slowly closed my right eye and kept the gun aimed at her forehead. “How did Marco get you involved in this, Maribel? Did he promise you money? Is that why you’re here?”
“You’ve screwed me, Jordan. Months of planning, all for nothing. Now I’ll make you pay,” she said. I slowly started to walk toward her when she stopped and moved her gun to the back of my dad’s head.
“Drop it! Drop the gun now or he’s dead!” she screamed.
Maribel stopped walking and stood just a few feet away from the front door, still wide open.
“One second after you shoot him, you’re dead, too,” I said.
Maribel waited a few seconds before she started walking backwards again toward the door. And that was when I saw Jami standing behind her.
EIGHTY-SIX
JAMI WAS IN the front yard, aiming her gun at Maribel’s back.
I wasn’t sure how she found me, but I wasn’t surprised that she figured it out. My dad stared at me. He didn’t look scared at all. He looked proud. He was giving me the same look he’d given me when I came home for Christmas after my first tour of duty in Afghanistan as a member of SEAL Team Three.
I blinked a few times and refocused my eyes on Maribel.
Maribel was standing between Jami and me. For a moment, I thought that if Jami took a shot, she very well could hit my dad or me instead. Maribel kept inching her way out of the house, and I knew I didn’t have a lot of time to decide what I was going to do about it.
She’d see Jami either way, but right now we had a chance to take her by surprise. I blinked and refocused on my dad and saw his eyes move. He knew someone was behind them and winked at me to let me know.
“Take her out, son,” he yelled, and I was sure that Jami heard him across the yard. She approached slowly.
“Don’t even think about it. You killed my brother, and if you think I’ll hesitate in putting a bullet in—”
“Do something, Blake,” my dad interrupted her. “Don’t let her get away, son. Don’t worry about me.”
I knew that my dad was right. Any second now, she’d realize that someone was behind her. And when that happened, there was no way to know how she’d respond. Right now, this very moment, was our only chance to end the nightmare that Marco and Maribel had brought to the country. To my city. To me.
Jami kept her Glock trained on Maribel’s back as the woman slowly moved closer to her.
Jami’s eyes were fixed on mine. She was waiting for a signal from me that she should take the shot. But I was waiting for her to let me know she had a shot to take.
“Where are you taking him?” I asked, trying to stall and give Jami more time.
“Do you really want to play this game with me? Does your father’s life not matter that much to you?” She had me. And she knew it. But I had one more card to play and I was finally ready to play it.
I kept the gun aimed in Maribel’s direction. Then my dad winked again to tell me he was ready.
“Okay,” I said and held my gun in the air while bending down to drop it on the ground. I was completely vulnerable. No gun. No Kevlar vest. And that was the point. I knew Maribel wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity to take me out if she had the chance.
I was right.
As I stood, Maribel brought the gun out from behind my dad’s back and aimed it at me.
Jami nodded at me, letting me know that she had her shot, and I nodded back.
As soon as I did, Maribel turned around to see who I was looking at, and my dad broke free and ran toward me. Jami was still a good distance away from us, but she pulled the trigger and too
k Maribel out.
As I watched Maribel hit the ground, my dad reached his arms out and we embraced as Jami approached.
EIGHTY-SEVEN
AS I HELD onto my dad, I noticed movement down the road. The FBI had arrived. I figured that either Jami had called Morgan on her way over or they’d just tracked her to the Palos Park home. Several vehicles drove up to the driveway, and agents stepped out and began to move in our direction.
“You did it, Blake,” my dad said, still holding me tightly. “You saved Jim.” For a moment, I felt relieved. This was finally over. My dad wouldn’t let go of me, and I started to laugh at the bear hug he was giving me.
I moved my head so I could see past him. Jami had stopped to tell the agents that Keller was inside the house. She turned around and began walking toward us again as even more vehicles started to arrive and parked down the street. The FBI was setting up a perimeter to secure the area. Red and blue lights flashed and reflected on the woods that surrounded us and on the faces of the agents arriving at the scene.
Then I noticed it.
I looked down and saw Maribel staring right at me. A cold chill ran through my body. Is she still alive?
Before I could react, a faint smile came across her face and she lifted her hand that was clenching the gun.
“No!” I yelled as I realized what was happening. I saw Marco’s gun on the ground next to me. I tried to move my father out of the way, but he was holding onto me so tightly that I wasn’t able to react fast enough. In that moment, time seemed to slow down. I had never felt so helpless in my life.
I felt my father’s body jump from the impact of the bullet.
Immediately, Jami unloaded into Maribel, and I watched her body become lifeless and let go of the gun.
