by Janie Crouch
“In under a minute?” Lillian tried to keep the incredulity out of her voice, but failed.
“You have your gifts, Muir. I have mine.”
Lillian nodded at him. “I owe you an apology.” For more than just accusing him of being the mole. For the way she’d treated him—like he wasn’t good enough to truly be on the team. Now he was standing in a puddle of his own blood, ready to fight in the best way he knew how. It was all anyone could ask.
Maybe Philip wasn’t such a jackass after all.
“Later, Muir. I don’t have time for female hysterics or teary heartfelt hugs.”
Or maybe he was.
Lillian notified the extra security guards of the problem and set them up outside the conference room door, ready to breach on her mark. She quickly explained the danger of rushing in too soon.
Since the summit had been downscaled, the only security out here was private sector and Denver local PD. Any Secret Service agents who’d been assigned here were in the closed conference room with Congresswoman Glasneck. Derek was in there, too. All of them could be counted on to take out Saul, but not if they didn’t know Saul was the traitor.
And Saul would be waiting for someone to come through this door. Would be ready for that.
“Lillian, we’ve got less than ten minutes until LESS is scheduled to go live.”
“Turn on your comm unit,” she told him. “Be ready to burst in with the security team. I’ll get the trigger away from Poniard, and then you’ll work your magic.”
“This is the only door. There’s no windows. How are you going to get into the room?”
“You have your gifts, I have mine, Carnell. And right now mine includes my size.”
Less than a minute later one of the security guards was giving her a boost up to the industrial-size air-conditioning vent. Lillian belly-crawled as quickly as she could through the small ductwork without making noise.
Arriving at the square grate over the room took longer than she wanted, and then she cursed when she found the situation to be even worse than she’d thought. Things had already escalated.
A Secret Service agent, most probably dead by the amount of blood lost from the bullet wound in his neck, was lying slumped over in the corner. Lillian shifted to be able to see the other side of the room better, and her breath caught in her throat. Derek had been shot also, perhaps multiple times. A man in a suit was holding a balled-up shirt against Derek’s thigh, and blood was running unchecked from his shoulder.
Saul Poniard was pacing back and forth. “The current state of law enforcement is a laughingstock. Surely you can see that by resetting the baseline I am doing this country a great favor. Something that is needed.”
“By killing innocent people?” Congresswoman Glasneck asked. She was over against the south wall, huddled with half a dozen other people.
“The price of liberty is sometimes death itself. Plus, these people are not innocent, they are part of the problem.”
“And us, Saul?” Glasneck asked again. “I’ve been working with you for months. Are you going to kill everyone in this room also?”
“I will not be deterred from what I am meant to do. It is my destiny. Individual lives are not what matter. Change is what matters.”
Lillian looked at her watch. Four minutes. Four minutes until LESS was scheduled to go live and the bomb at the City and County Building was set to detonate. She couldn’t even allow herself to think about Jace. She trusted him to be able to do what he needed to do.
“They’ll know it’s you.” An older, heavyset man next to the congresswoman glared at Saul. “Do you think you’re going to get away with this? That no one is going to notice a room full of dead people, including a congresswoman?”
“I think there’s going to be enough chaos in just a few minutes to leave everyone in utter confusion. The lives of half a dozen will be of very little consequence in the bigger picture. And out of the confusion, I will rise up and lead. Lead law enforcement to the greatness it can be. To reset the path of this country the way it needs to be reset.”
Saul’s voice was rising with his passion. Lillian used the noise to speak into the comm unit.
“Philip,” she whispered. “Poniard’s got a phone in his hand, like you said. Gun in the other one. He’s ready for an ambush through the door, so make sure everyone stands down.”
“Roger that. But we’re out of time, Lillian. Less than three minutes.”
Saul was still yelling at the people huddled against the wall. “And never again will someone like me—someone with vision, focus and purpose—be denied the chance to serve in whatever capacity they see fit. To be a part of the most elite. Never again will I be rejected. For years, Omega Sector thought I wasn’t capable of being on their precious SWAT team. Unfortunately, they’ll all be dead, so I won’t be able to gloat in their faces that I’m smarter than them.”
Spittle flew across the room as he said it. Lillian barely refrained from rolling her eyes. This was all about Saul being jealous because he didn’t make the SWAT team?
“Lil, once LESS goes live, the one-minute countdown is on, no matter what,” Philip reminded her in her ear. “You’ve got to take him.”
Philip was right. Lillian was treating this like a normal hostage situation, where she could just wait out the perp. Eventually he’d tire himself out and lower his weapon or become complacent.
They didn’t have that kind of time now.
As Saul continued his rant, Lillian silently moved the grate that covered the vent opening, progressing slowly but with purpose.
“Thirty seconds until LESS goes live.”
Lillian said a quick prayer that Jace had gotten the bomb disabled. They’d know for sure in just a few seconds. Saul would, too, and once he did, he wouldn’t hesitate to immediately release the biological weapons all over the country.
Lillian waited until he crossed under her again, then forgot all about quiet and yanked the grate up and dove out of the opening, headfirst, landing on top of Saul.
Her training said to get the gun out of his right hand, but she pried the phone from his left hand instead. Keeping him from triggering the canisters was most important.
She was able to get the phone out of Saul’s hand. She was too close for him to shoot, but she grunted when he hit her with his gun, barely missing her head and grazing her shoulder. Damn it, this bastard had hit her with that gun enough times for one day.
Keeping the phone out of his reach, she used her momentum to roll both of them forward, bringing her elbow up to catch him in the jaw. She jumped to her feet and grabbed Saul by the shirt, pulling his back off the floor. She slammed her fist into his nose, hearing the crack as it broke under her force.
“It just went live, Lillian. LESS just went live!” Philip’s voice shouted into her ear.
One minute. That was all the time they had left.
“Breach! I’ve got Saul’s phone.” She heard the door burst open behind her and turned to toss Philip the phone. The security force trained their weapons on Saul.
Still held up by her fist on his clothing, Saul began to laugh. “You’re too late. That bomb in the City and County Building is nothing compared to what’s coming.”
Lillian glanced over. “Philip?”
Philip didn’t look up as his fingers typed rapidly on Saul’s phone. “Working voodoo now. Do not disturb.”
She brought Saul closer to her face. “Philip found out about your canisters and knows how to stop them.”
Saul’s face mottled in fury. “Don’t do it, Carnell. Omega Sector is just using you. You know how elitist they are. We can be a part of something new. Better.”
“New and better by killing tens of thousands of people?” She brought her fist into his jaw again. “Shut up.”
Saul spat blood. “Philip. You know I’m telling the truth. Omega’s
best-of-the-best crap? According to who? The wrong people are making the decisions. It’s time for a change.”
Philip walked over to them. “You know what? You’re right, Saul, it is time for a change.”
“Philip.” Damn it. Philip couldn’t let Saul get into his head now. There were only seconds left. “Don’t let him...”
Philip dropped the phone on the floor next to Saul. “But not your way. Law enforcement, Omega Sector included, needs to take a good long look at itself. Make the needed changes. I want to be a part of that. But not your way.” Philip turned to Lillian. “I did it. The connection to the canisters has been severed. It’s safe.”
Saul jerked away from Lillian and made a tackle for Philip, but Philip was ready. It was his fist that hit Saul this time. Saul fell to the floor, moaning.
Lillian nodded at Philip as the guards handcuffed Saul and led him away. One was already on a radio, calling in an ambulance for Derek. Lillian rushed over to him where he was propped against the wall. Congresswoman Glasneck joined her at his side.
“Derek?” His normally tan skin was devoid of all color. He was so still, Lillian reached up to take his pulse. “Wake up.”
“I’m awake,” Derek muttered. “You did good, Lily.”
“Excuse me, but you’re not allowed to call me that.” Only Jace was. “Don’t think that just because you’ve successfully gotten yourself shot twice, I’m going to let you call me anything short of my full name.”
She said it jokingly as she removed the shirt covering the wound on Derek’s thigh to glance at it.
“How bad?” he muttered, eyes closed.
He knew she wouldn’t lie. “Not life-threatening.” Unless he kept bleeding. “But bad enough that you need to be taken straight to the hospital.”
Derek nodded, then leaned farther back against the wall.
“I have to go check on Jace. We had to leave him with the explosive device in city hall. Poniard had set it up so the explosion would happen the same time the canisters were released. Maximum chaos and damage. There hasn’t been an explosion, so I’m assuming he took care of it.” Thank God.
Congresswoman Glasneck stood when Lillian did. “Thank you. I had no idea Saul Poniard was capable of such treachery.”
Lillian gave a half shrug. “He was convinced of the rightness of his own actions. I hope the LESS system can still be utilized.”
Glasneck shook her head sadly. “Maybe one day, but not right now. If there’s anything I’ve become convinced of in the last hour, it’s that although connecting all law-enforcement systems may help fight crime, it also allows for law enforcement as a whole to be attacked rather easily. You bring down LESS, and it can do countrywide damage.”
Lillian gave the congresswoman a nod and then turned to jog out the door. She gave Philip—who was now sitting on the floor looking exhausted—a nod and continued past him when he gave her a small salute. Saul was loudly explaining his intentions and proclaiming his innocence to the guards who had taken him into custody. Lillian ignored him completely. She’d heard more than enough out of him today.
Outside, the local police were still clearing the area, keeping demonstrators back from the buildings. She saw her teammate Ashton Fitzgerald helping with crowd control and made her way over to him. She explained what had happened with Saul and Derek.
“Do I need to get in there to help Derek?” Ashton had to shout to be heard over the roar of the crowd.
“No, just make sure the paramedics can get to him. You’re needed out here. Have you seen Jace?”
“No. Cell-phone coverage is still down, and honestly we can’t do anything until we clear this crowd out.”
Lillian nodded. “I’m going to check on him and then I’ll be back.” She had to see with her own eyes to make sure Jace was okay.
Ashton nodded. “Okay. Comms aren’t worth a damn out here, either, with the noise level. So just find me when you’re back.”
Lillian sprinted for the City and County Building. They needed as much help with crowd control as they could get. She entered the building and ran down the stairs toward the opening in the supply closet.
“Jace?” Nothing. “Eakin, you okay?”
She scurried through the hole, into the opening. “Jace! I just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
She heard some sort of scuffle from farther back in a room, past where the explosive device had been placed. “Jace?”
Something was definitely not right. Had Jace hurt himself somehow after defusing the explosive device? Was someone else down here? Lillian pulled her sidearm, keeping it close to her chest.
The muffled sound came again and Lillian rushed into the far room. At the other end, near some sort of second entrance, stood Damien Freihof, a gagged-and-bound Jace in front of him.
He had a gun pointed directly at Jace’s temple.
“Agent Muir,” Freihof said, his smile large and wide. “I was wondering how long it would take before you came to look for Mr. Eakin.”
Lillian’s weapon was immediately pointed directly at Freihof. She didn’t have a shot right now with Jace in front of him like a shield, but Jace wouldn’t be anyone’s human shield for long, particularly not Freihof’s. Jace didn’t seem to be hurt. When he made his move, Lillian would be ready.
She glanced at Jace’s face, ready to read whatever it was he would want her to do.
The sheer agony she saw in his eyes caught her off guard.
“What the hell did you do, Freihof?” she whispered. Had he hurt Jace? There had to be some sort of terrible wound she couldn’t see that was putting that look on his face.
“No need to be angry. As a matter of fact, everyone should be thanking me.” Freihof’s voice rang with childlike excitement. “I haven’t done anything bad. As a matter of fact, all I did was stage a reunion between brothers!”
A reunion between bro—
“You remember Jace’s brother, Daryl, don’t you, Lillian?”
For the first time in her professional career, Lillian’s weapon faltered as her own personal nightmare stepped out from the shadows beside her. Her hand began to shake as shock flooded her whole body. The Glock shook so greatly in her hand she could hardly keep hold of it.
“Hi, Lillian, baby. I’ve been looking for you for a long time.” Daryl trailed a finger down her cheek. All she could do was stare at him.
His fist crashed into her face and Lillian let the blessed blackness consume her.
Chapter Twenty
As soon as Daryl’s fist flew toward Lillian, Jace dove at them. Freihof was expecting it and just laughed, grabbed Jace and pulled him away. He watched, helpless, as Lillian fell to the floor.
“Brother dearest seems pretty excited to see your girlfriend,” Freihof whispered in his ear. “He told me a little about what happened between them. Don’t you just love a classic romance?”
Jace dove toward them again as Daryl crouched down to stroke Lily’s face. She was already regaining consciousness. Freihof grabbed Jace and threw him to his knees, clocking him against the back of his neck with the gun. Jace ignored the pain, yelling at Daryl through the tape.
“I think your brother wants to talk to you, Daryl.” Freihof ripped the tape off Jace’s mouth.
“Don’t you touch her, Daryl. Keep your damn hands off her.”
Lillian was moaning on the floor, still having not quite woken up. It wasn’t because Daryl had hit her that hard. Lily could take a punch. It was because her brain didn’t want her to wake up. Didn’t want to force her into trauma she wasn’t ready for.
Daryl now looked as evil on the outside as he was on the inside. Burns covered over half his face and trailed down his neck before they were cut off by his T-shirt.
“I can’t believe you would choose her over your own flesh and blood, brother,” Daryl spat out. “She left me in that warehous
e to die.”
“We both know why. What you did to her.” If Jace could reach his brother right now, he would rip him apart limb by limb.
“I had that warehouse ready to blow up,” Daryl scoffed. “I knew the cops were closing in. I had been stupid to move into trafficking. Even had a body that looked sort of like mine. Some dealer from across the border who happened to be the same height and weight as me.”
Jace sucked in a breath as Daryl stood. He pushed Lillian with the toe of his boot but didn’t do anything further. “Lillian was the one who was supposed to be in that fire, not me. Fortunately one of my guys came in and dragged me out after she clocked me over the head with that bottle. The rest of our scheme went as planned. He identified my ‘body’ to the police. Then we took off.”
Lillian gave a pitiful moan, her head tossing back and forth. She’d be waking up soon. Waking up to a nightmare.
Daryl nudged her again with his foot. “I looked for her. All over Tulsa, then even farther. Never dreamed she’d join law enforcement, as pathetic as she was. But she won’t be any good to anyone—especially law enforcement—once I’m through with her.”
Lillian’s eyes opened at that moment. Bile rose in Jace’s throat as a look of terror blanketed her features. Almost immediately she was shaking again, her brown eyes darting all around.
“Lillian, look at me, baby,” he whispered, trying to eliminate the desperation from his tone. Her eyes continued to dart from place to place, her rapid, shallow breathing causing her to shake further.
“Tiger Lily.” He kept his tone firm. Calm. Banished every bit of fear and panic threatening to bubble up from inside him. “It’s Jace. I’m here with you. I’m here with you, and you’re going to be okay.”
Her eyes finally rested on him. “Jace?”
He would give every cent he owned to never see this look of terror and helplessness cross Lillian’s face ever again. “I’m here, sweetheart. With you. I’m here.”
