The Last Option

by Alex Lukeman

  "Sounds like a great idea. I've been sitting behind my desk since five this morning."

  They got up and took the elevator down to the ground floor. The memorial garden was located between the old headquarters building and the auditorium. It was a beautiful, peaceful spot, dedicated to the officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty.

  They strolled through the garden until they came to a waterfall and a large koi pond. The two men sat down on a bench and contemplated the falling water.

  "Getting pretty paranoid in your old age, aren't you, Director?"

  "I've never been anything else since I joined this outfit," Hood said.

  "What didn't you want to tell me upstairs?"

  "That our beloved president and Senator Palmer are traitors. I talked this over with Director Harker. They're conspiring together to start a war."

  "Whoa."

  "Yes."

  "To be honest, this isn't a complete surprise," Lucas said. "Steph told me she and Harker talked about this. It was late at night and I confess I didn't pay a lot of attention. She has some wild ideas sometimes. It sounded like just another conspiracy theory."

  "Sometimes conspiracies are real," Hood said. "I think this is one of those times. This latest intel from FOX HUNTER is another piece of the puzzle. How easy is it to get in touch with him? We need more detail, confirmation."

  "There could be a problem with that," Lucas said. "We have a protocol for requesting confirmation that has never failed in the past. It did today. He hasn't replied."

  "That could mean a lot of things."

  "Yeah, but I've got a bad feeling about it. He was taking a risk to get this to us, working outside of his usual schedule."

  "You think he's blown?"

  "I think it's possible."

  "What's your feeling? Do we take this as accurate information?"

  "I don't think we have a choice," Lucas said. "He's always been one hundred percent reliable. My gut says yes."

  "Then we have a problem. Reynolds made it clear he doesn't believe the threat from Status 6 is real. Normally I would go to the White House with this, but I don't trust him to act on the information."

  "We can't ignore it."

  "No. I'll have to do an end run."

  "The Pentagon?"

  Hood nodded. "I'll talk to Adamski. He's old school and he understands the threat Russia represents."

  General Adamski was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

  "He'll want to know why you're not going to Reynolds."

  "I'll tell him about my suspicions. His first loyalty is to the country, not the White House. He'd lay down his life for a president he trusted, but the oath he took doesn't apply to a traitor."

  "That's a strong word to apply to a sitting president," Lucas said.

  "Do you have a better one?" Hood asked.

  "All I'm saying is you'd better have more than a suspicion if you want to convince him Reynolds has betrayed his office."

  "We go back a long way. He'll listen to me."

  "But will he believe you?"

  "There's only one way to find out," Hood said.

  CHAPTER 28

  It was late afternoon in Virginia. Elizabeth had dressed that morning in a deep blue suit and a white silk blouse. The color made her green eyes sometimes seem blue. A silver bird with sapphire eyes was pinned on her jacket. Sapphire and silver earrings completed the look.

  She'd been thinking about Solutions Inc., the group that had tried to kill her. She was damned if she was going to let them get away with it. Someone had hired them. There was only one way to find out who it was.

  Nick couldn't remember ever seeing her wear blue before. It was unsettling.

  She picked up her pen and started tapping on the desk.

  "Nick, I want you and Ronnie and Lamont to have a serious conversation with the people at Solutions."

  Tap. Tap. Tap.

  "By serious conversation, you mean no rules of engagement?" Nick asked.

  "That's exactly what I mean. Do whatever it takes, but I want to know who sent those people after us."

  "Damn, Director, I like your style," Lamont said.

  "It's time to take the gloves off. I want to know why someone wants us out of the way. The best chance we have of finding out is in Los Angeles."

  "When do we leave?" Ronnie asked.

  "Now. You can take the Gulfstream. I've ordered it made ready. You'll be in LA this evening. There's not much I can tell you about the target, but everything's in this folder."

  She pushed a manila folder across the desk. Nick picked it up and opened it.

  He took out an overhead satellite shot of the area where Solutions, Inc., had their headquarters. More photographs taken at ground level showed the building, an uninspired, single story industrial space surrounded by a tall fence.

  "You'll land at LAX. The pilot will take you to a private hanger, where there'll be a vehicle waiting. Take whatever weapons you think you need. You won't have any problems with security."

  Elizabeth turned to Selena.

  "For obvious reasons, you can't go along on this one, but you can handle the comm link. You can watch what's happening on the satellite and update them if there are any complications."

  "Complications?"

  "Like reinforcements showing up. Cops being called. Things like that."

  "All right. I can do that."

  "So our objective is to find out who hired them to come after us?" Nick said.

  "That's right. Gather as much intelligence as you can and come back."

  Nick stood. "Let's get going."

  Selena went down to the armory with them. Ronnie pulled out one of the aluminum cases they used for transporting weapons and gear.

  "I wish I could go with you," Selena said.

  Nick put his arm around her.

  "I wish you could too. It's different, without you. I kind of got used to having you around. Even if I always had to bail you out when the shooting started."

  "You, bail me out?"

  She punched him in the shoulder.

  "Ow."

  "Jerk." She smiled, suddenly afraid for him. "Be careful. I'm not there to watch your back."

  "I'm always careful."

  "Ready to rock 'n roll," Ronnie said.

  She walked outside with them and watched as they loaded the gear into the back of Ronnie's Hummer.

  "Back soon, babe," Nick said.

  "Babe?"

  He grinned and kissed her.

  She watched them drive off. Somebody kicked her inside. She felt another kick on the opposite side.

  Active today. Or maybe they're just mad because Nick is taking off again.

  She told herself she was being unfair.

  What if he doesn't come back this time?

  That was an unwelcome thought. If she were honest, she had to admit thoughts like that were becoming more frequent. She pushed it away into wherever thoughts went when you didn't want to have them.

  Selena had never been particularly religious. Even so, she said a silent prayer for his safe return. For all of them.

  She went back inside.

  CHAPTER 29

  It had gone dark by the time Nick and the others arrived in Los Angeles. A white Suburban with tinted windows waited for them in the hanger. There was a Hertz rental sticker on the rear bumper.

  Lamont looked at the SUV. "Why is it always one of these? Why not something cool?"

  "What did you have in mind, a Ferrari?" Nick said.

  "Now you're talking. A Ferrari would be cool."

  "At least it's not black," Ronnie said. He started coughing.

  Nick and Lamont picked up the weapons case, carried it over to the vehicle and loaded it into the back.

  They drove out of the hanger and into the LA night.

  The Solutions building was located on the edge of the City of Industry, a large industrial complex in Southeast Los Angeles. Only a few people lived there, none of them close to the objective. The cit
y was dedicated to industrial and commercial space.

  "We'll find a place to eat. Kill some time," Nick said. "I want to make sure everyone's gone home before we hit this place."

  "Sounds like a plan," Lamont said.

  "You never miss a chance to eat," Ronnie said.

  "Hey, I like to eat. It's good for you. Course, for you it might not be so good."

  Lamont cast a meaningful glance at Ronnie's gut, protruding slightly over his belt.

  "A small gut is a sign of prosperity. This is not something you would understand."

  "You're just jealous of my perfect physical condition."

  Ronnie put on a concerned expression.

  "Damn, Lamont, I didn't know you had a physical condition. Have you seen someone about it? You know, a condition can be serious."

  Nick interrupted.

  "There's a fast food joint coming up on the right."

  "My kind of fine dining," Lamont said.

  He turned into the brightly lit parking lot of the restaurant and parked where they could watch the car from inside.

  They dawdled over the food until Nick felt it was late enough.

  "Okay, let's do it."

  He left a few dollars on the table and they went out to the car. They were still some distance from the target. Lamont drove. After a while, the traffic thinned and they found themselves in the sprawling industrial landscape of the City of Industry.

  At night, the area was deserted and bleak. They drove past shuttered warehouses and factories until they were close to the target. Nick saw a dark area between two warehouses that had closed for the day.

  "Pull in over there and we'll arm up."

  Lamont parked the car. They went around to the back and Nick popped open the lid on the weapons case.

  They all wore cargo pants that looked innocuous enough and gave them the pockets needed for spare ammo and extras. They all wore the same kind of shoes, black with soft rubber soles.

  They put on body armor. They each took an MP7 and extra thirty round magazines. The mags were loaded two short, at twenty-eight. A full mag sometimes caused the spring that pushed rounds up into the chamber to fail. It wasn't worth the risk for an extra two shots. In addition to the MPs, they had their Sigs.

  "Lock and load," Nick said.

  "How you want to handle this, Kemo Sabe?" Ronnie asked.

  "Drive by and take a look. There are only two ways into that building, through the front doors and an emergency exit in the back."

  "Probably an alarm," Lamont said.

  "Maybe, but these guys are crooks. They might not want to bring the cops to them. If they do have something, Freddie will shut down anything that goes off."

  He activated the comm link.

  "Selena, you copy?"

  Her voice came back through his earpiece.

  "Five by five, Nick."

  "We're a few minutes from the objective. Anything on screen?"

  In Virginia, Selena looked at a live satellite shot of the building. Lights in front and back outlined the target. The satellite had infrared capability and could see the heat signatures of anyone inside.

  "Five people inside," she said. "Two near the front entrance. Three in a room toward the back. Wait a minute. One of them just got up and went off to the side to a smaller room. Probably a bathroom."

  "Okay, we're going to drive by and then go in. Standby."

  "Copy that."

  They entered an area where several blocks of buildings had been demolished to make way for new construction, leaving a wasteland of rubble behind. Nick looked at his GPS.

  "Coming up soon."

  Up ahead of they saw a single story building made of cinderblock, standing alone in the empty lots around it. It was painted gray and surrounded by a high chain link fence.

  "That's it," Nick said.

  "Showtime," Lamont said.

  CHAPTER 30

  They drove past the compound. Spirals of razor wire stretched along the top of the fence. A double gate was closed with a chain. Nick spotted a camera covering the parking lot and another focused on the entrance. Four cars were parked in front of the building. The entrance doors were made of glass and closed. The interior beyond the doors was lit with cold, fluorescent light.

  "Looks like somebody's home," Lamont said.

  "At least two cameras," Ronnie said.

  Two blocks past the building they stopped and turned around. The engine idled softly in the night.

  Nick said, "No way we're going over that razor wire to try the back. Besides, they'll have cameras there. As soon as we got close, they'd pick us up."

  Ronnie scratched his nose. "What do you want to do?"

  "Way I see it, we've got two choices. Easy or hard."

  "What's the easy way?"

  "We park and ask nicely for them to let us in."

  "Uh, huh," Lamont said. "What's the hard way?"

  "We drive this thing right through the gate and those glass doors."

  "Mister Hertz isn't going to like that much," Ronnie said.

  "He's insured. You got a better idea?"

  "Nope."

  "That's going to make a lot of noise," Lamont said. "What about security patrols? There has to be site security around here somewhere."

  "This place looks like a war zone, with all the demolition. No one's going to bother patrolling out here. Weapons free."

  Safeties clicked off.

  "Watch your ass. Don't shoot anyone unless they're armed. Lamont, make sure you give it plenty of juice when we hit the gate."

  "Copy that."

  Nick spoke to the comm link. "Selena, we're going in."

  Her voice came back. "Copy."

  Lamont put the SUV in gear and headed back to the Solutions building, picking up speed. By the time he cut the wheel toward the gate, they were going fifty. The big car rose up on two wheels, then dropped back down with a jolt that sent an electric shock up Nick's spine. They struck the chain-link gate. It flew open with a harsh squeal of protesting metal. The hood buckled. Part of the gate smashed into the windshield and turned it into a crazed spider web of cracks.

  Lamont kept going. He crashed through the closed entrance doors, sending a blizzard of broken glass into the building, and slammed on the brakes.

  They piled out of the car into a hallway, weapons ready.

  Two men came out of a room at the other end, firing large pistols. Lamont grunted and went down. Nick and Ronnie opened up toward the shooters, the noise of the guns drowning out the harsh bark of the pistols. A bullet knocked Nick's leg out from under him. He went down hard on the floor. Ronnie brought down the shooter.

  Lamont fired from the floor. The second man staggered backward and fell.

  Suddenly everything was quiet. The hall was littered with spent shells. The air stank of burnt powder and the coppery smell of blood leaking from the dead men.

  Nick's leg felt wet. He looked down at blood seeping through his pants. The bullet had hit his thigh but missed the bone.

  Ronnie dropped an empty magazine and pushed in a new one, racked the charging handle. Nick climbed awkwardly to his feet and inserted a new magazine. Lamont came up beside him. There was a hole in his shirt where a bullet had struck his armor. He looked at Nick's leg.

  "You all right?"

  "Yeah. We've got three to go."

  They moved to the end of the hall. The two shooters had come out of a room on the left. The door was open. It was a security room, with monitors for the cameras. No one was in it. At the end of the hall was another door. They moved to each side of it.

  Nick reached for the knob and tried to turn. It didn't move. He lifted his weapon and fired a quick burst at the lock. Ronnie kicked the door open.

  They were in the main room. A desk and filing cabinets sat against the back wall. There was a laptop computer open on the desk. A couch ran along the side, next to a table with a coffeemaker on it and a TV playing a movie. A door leading out to the back stood open.

  A c
ar started up in the front of the building.

  "Shit," Nick said.

  Lamont and Ronnie ran out of the room, back toward the entrance. Nick limped up behind them, ignoring the pain in his leg. They reached the entrance in time to see one of the cars that had been parked out front drive over what was left of the gate. With screeching tires, the car turned onto the road and sped away into the night.

  "All right, let it go."

  Nick dropped to one knee, suddenly weak. His pant leg was soaked dark with blood. Ronnie and Lamont helped him back into the big room. They sat him down on the couch. Ronnie cut away the pant leg.

  "It's a through and through. Doesn't look like it hit an artery. Gonna make a nice scar for your collection."

  He tore strips from Nick's pants and improvised a bandage.

  "That will hold it for now."

  "Ronnie, you go through the desk," Nick said. "Grab that laptop and take anything that looks useful. Lamont, what's in the cabinets?"

  Lamont stepped over to the cabinets and began opening drawers.

  "Nothing. A few empty folders. It's all for show."

  Nick used his arms to lift himself off the couch. It hurt, but he could walk. He still felt the effects of the adrenaline. It would wear off soon and the leg would hurt a lot more.

  "Time to boogie. Lamont, check the pockets of the bodies in the hall as we go."

  "Got it."

  They hurried to the Suburban in the hall. It was still running. There were two bullet holes in the cracked windshield. One of the headlights pointed at the ground. The grill was pushed back into the radiator. Antifreeze dripped steadily onto the floor.

  Lamont got behind the wheel and backed out of the building. He got the car turned around and pulled out of the parking lot.

  Nick activated the comm link.

  "Selena, are you there? We're leaving now."

  Nick heard stress in Selena's voice. "We watched everything on the satellite. Is everyone all right?"

  "Ronnie and Lamont are good. I've got a scratch."

  "A scratch? What do you mean, a scratch?"

  "One of the bad guys winged me in the leg. I'm okay, don't worry."

  Elizabeth came online. "Nick, did you get what we needed?"

  "I don't know, Director. Three of them got away. Two are dead. We have a laptop. There wasn't anything else."