by David Nees
“You’re probably right,” Jason said. “But never mind what we want.”
Clayton was sitting on the desk. “What do we do with him?”
The boy turned to look at Clayton. He could barely make him out in the dark; just a shadow on the desk.
“Please don’t kill me. I didn’t do anything. I did what you asked. I told you everything I know.”
Jason stood up. “We’ll find a place to stash him. Some place out of the way.”
“Can’t let him sound an alarm.”
“You’re right. We’ll tape his mouth so he can’t make any noise.”
“If he tries, we’ll just have to shoot him,” Clayton said.
“I’ll be quiet. Quiet as a mouse. You don’t have to shoot me. Just put me in a closet somewhere.” The boy was unnerved by Clayton’s matter-of-fact statement.
Jason clicked on the flashlight again and swept the shrouded beam around the room. There was a closet in the far right corner, built into a dividing wall between the offices. Next to the closet was an inset with a wet bar.
“We’ll put him in there,” Jason said pointing with the light.
“So now we wait,” Clayton said.
“Yep. There’s always a lot of waiting in these kinds of ops.”
“We in the middle of the hornet’s nest now. They’re asleep but things will happen fast when they wake up.”
“Let’s talk about that.”
“First, let’s put the kid in the closet. Make it so he can’t hear or speak.”
Jason cut some cloth from the kid’s shirt sleeve and stuffed a wad in each ear. Then he taped over his ears. Next, he put a strip of duct tape over the boy’s mouth. When he finished, he walked him to the closet and zip tied his feet and pulled them up to his wrists in a hog-tied manner.
“You’ll be uncomfortable, but safe. You’ll survive and no one will blame you for what happens. Especially after they find you trussed up like this.”
Jason closed the closet door.
“He can’t hear or speak and he can’t kick at the door to warn anyone. I doubt if he would try that anyway.”
“Never hurts to be sure,” Clayton said. “Now how do we control this when things erupt?”
“We have to neutralize the two guards if they come into the office with the Chairman. We have to take control of him. He’s our hostage, our leverage. They’ll do what he tells them to do. The Chairman needs to understand that we are willing to go down, taking him with us, if he doesn’t do what we say.”
“The others need to think that as well for this to work.”
“True enough. I’m betting the Chairman can make that point for us. We just need to make it to him.”
“If the guards come in with him?”
“I’ll eliminate them with the .22. It’s quiet enough it may not create a general alarm. The receptionist could be a problem, though. We may need to get control over her as well.”
“Shoot the guards?”
Jason nodded sharply enough so Clayton could see him in the dark. “Can’t have them around to worry about. Remember these are the enemy.”
“I got no problem with that. Just think the fewer we kill the easier it will be for us to get what we came for. Don’t want to incite a harder response than we have to. We got the general to think about.”
“Yeah. I’m worried about him as well. I hope the Chairman or Cordell can control him.”
“Make the Chairman’s life depend on it,” Clayton said.
The two men sat back against the office wall and stretched out their legs. They rested. It would be three more hours until the change of the guard. When that happened things would move fast.
Jason’s thoughts drifted back to Hillsboro and his family. He was a father now. Would he see his son and wife again? Would he see his two teenage step-daughters? He wondered about his decision to attempt this rescue. Yes, he thought to himself. You have to stop evil before it can grow and metastasize. But how much of a price did they have to pay to live in peace and try to rebuild their lives? And why did evil always rear its vicious head when society broke down? Are we all that corrupt…or most of us?
Jason clamped down on his thoughts. He refused to allow himself to second guess his presence in Knoxville. He had made a choice. One Anne had not been happy with. But he was here, trying to rescue two men who were a part of his tribe. Hard times made for hard choices.
Jason looked over at Clayton who sat quietly seeming to stare ahead into the dark of the office. Probably wondering the same things. This could be the end of our run. He shook his head. No, we have to survive this. We can’t let our families and Hillsboro down.
He sat still now, a hard, dark center growing inside of him. No mercy, no weakness. As Clayton had said, “They must fear us.”
Chapter 18
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T he sun came up. Both Jason and Clayton got up and stretched. The Chairman would be coming soon if he kept to his pattern.
“I’ll put myself behind the door, you wait behind the couch,” Jason said. There was a couch along the side wall. “You can back me up. I’ll grab the Chairman. You cover the guards if they come in with him.”
“Shoot if they resist? It’ll be noisy.”
“Can’t be helped. We’ll have the Chairman. If we have to shoot, things will happen faster, but the outcome will be the same. We’ll be in control of the Chairman so we’ll have the leverage.”
Both men drank some water and ate some rations from their backpacks. Jason went over to the desk and checked for any weapons in the drawers. He removed a 9mm semi-automatic and put it in his backpack. Then they took up their positions and waited.
They heard the door to the outer office open. There was the muffled sound of conversation and the door closed. Then the inner office door opened and a thin man stepped through the entrance.
Jason threw his left arm around him and put his .22 pistol to his head. Clayton stood up with his AR16 and swung around to check the outer office. It was empty.
He closed the door.
“Don’t yell and you’ll be okay. Yell and you’ll get hurt,” Jason said.
“What do you want? Do you know who I am?” The man asked. He had a vibrant voice but pitched high with tension.
Clayton pulled up a straight chair and Jason pushed the man into it. He took another one and pulled it in front of the man while Clayton secured his hands behind his back with zip ties.
The man looked to be in his fifties. He had had a full head of shocking white hair. His eyes were fiercely blue. They shone brightly now with agitation.
“I asked you, do you know who I am?”
“We know who you are,” Jason replied.
“Then you know you’re in a lot of trouble. You can avoid making it worse by stopping right now. If you have a complaint, a problem, I’ll listen. You’ll get some punishment, I can’t let this pass, but I may be able to help with whatever drove you to do something so stupid as this.”
“As a matter of fact, you can help us out with a problem,” Jason said.
“I’ll listen, but first you have to untie me and put down your weapons. I can’t help you otherwise.”
Jason studied the man. It was important that the Chairman see how committed they were, even desperate. “You’ll listen and you won’t be untied.”
“My secretary will be in here shortly. She’ll alert the guards and then you’re screwed.”
“Thanks for the heads up.” Jason turned to Clayton, “Maybe you should wait for her in the outer office. She can be helpful.”
Clayton nodded and headed to the door.
“Make sure she goes through her normal routine before bringing her in,” Jason said as he left.
“Now Mr. Chairman,” Jason said, turning back to his prisoner, “what is your real name?”
The man didn’t respond.
Jason held up the Walther PPK. “This is a silenced small-bore pistol. It doesn’t make much noise. Probably
can’t be heard in the outer office. If you don’t cooperate and answer my questions, I can begin shooting you, starting with your feet and working my way up. It’s painful and you’ll be crippled for the rest of your life if you don’t die, medicine being what it is now days. I suggest you answer me.”
Jason looked at the man coldly. He knew his face reflected an unconcern about which option the man chose. The Chairman’s eyes changed. They lost some of their fierceness as he stared at Jason. Doubt now crept into his face.
“My name is not important but if you must know, it’s Tom Horner.”
“Okay Tom. Now you asked me what we wanted, so I’ll tell you. We’re from Hillsboro. We’ve come to take our kin back home with us.”
“Did you bring the ransom? Where’s my courier?”
“No, we didn’t bring the ransom…or your courier.”
“You’re not kin to those men. One of them is black.”
“True enough, but they’re members of our tribe. See we take personal relationships seriously in Hillsboro. Fighting alongside one another for your survival develops strong bonds. So they’re both family to us.”
“I told the courier to inform you we’d release them when you paid the ransom.”
“That’s just the problem. You shouldn’t have taken them in the first place.”
“How do you know? They broke our laws. I had to arrest them.”
“So you say. But I know they were passing through, headed west. They had no interest in Knoxville. If they broke any of your laws, especially made up ones they were unaware of, it was not their intent.”
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse. You should know that.”
Jason gave Tom a cold smile. “I’m not here to discuss your laws. I’m here to take my men back.”
“You can’t get away, you’re in the middle of my territory. I suggest we talk about how to limit the damage for you and your partner.”
Just then they heard the outer office door open. Jason jumped up and put the pistol to Tom’s thigh.
“Not a sound, or I’ll shoot,” he whispered.
There was a scuffling sound a muffled cry and then Clayton entered the inner office with a woman. He had one arm around her torso and one hand over her mouth. The woman’s eyes were wide with fright. They got even wider when she saw the Chairman in the chair with his wrists bound. Clayton shuffled the woman over to the couch and pulled her down.
Jason put a finger to his lips and looked at the woman until she nodded. Clayton slowly withdrew his hand.
“You can remain ungagged if you keep quiet, like you boss here. Understand?” The woman nodded. “What’s your name?”
“Mary.”
“Okay Mary. You’re going to be fine. Just do what we say when we tell you. It will be pretty simple for you, if you don’t try anything stupid.”
Mary starred at Jason, her mouth open, fear showing on her face.
“Got it Mary?” Jason said in a stern voice.
The woman flinched and nodded her head.
“Let’s get on with it,” Clayton said. “Times a wasting.”
Jason turned back to Tom. “You’re going to call your second in command and tell him to come to your office. You’ve got a busy day and something unusual just came up. If he asks, tell him it has to do with the Hillsboro prisoners.
Tom just looked at him.
“Repeat that back to me.”
The Chairman repeated what Jason had said.
Jason turned to the woman. “Your part is to play the hostage. That means you just sit there with your mouth shut. Can you do that?”
Mary nodded.
“When’s the assistant come in?” Jason asked her.
“He’ll be here shortly. He likes to let the Chairman get his day started, coffee, maybe a snack, work out his agenda or to-do list, before they meet.”
“Do you usually call him?”
Mary shook her head. “He just comes to the office.”
“He stops in his office first?”
“Yes,” she said.
Jason turned to the Chairman. I’m going to untie you so you can sit at your desk. Mary will sit on the couch with my partner. I’ll sit in this chair. I’ll have my jacket on my lap. My pistol will be under it. How you act, what you do will determine whether or not your assistant gets killed.”
“This is crazy. You can’t get away. Stop this now before someone gets hurt. Mary shouldn’t be a part of this.”
“You need to understand that if you don’t follow directions, you’ll die. Even if we die, we’re capable of taking out a lot of people, starting with you and your assistant. Mary might die also. It’s on you if you don’t play along.”
“If you die, your friends will also.”
Clayton spoke up from the couch. “Could be. They’s fighters. They know the score. But you’ll die for sure.”
“All your dreams of empire, gone,” Jason added. “We’ll snuff them out in a heartbeat if you don’t cooperate. I’ve got no sympathy or patience with someone who’d kidnap my people and try to ransom them.”
The Chairman was now staring at Jason. His burst of anger now gone.
“Here’s your first test,” Jason said as he got up and crossed over to the Chairman. He took out his knife and sliced through the zip ties. The man massaged his wrists.
“Now go sit at your desk,” Jason said. “Your phones work. Call your assistant. Keep it on speaker and tell him what I told you to say.”
The Chairman did as he was told. A few minutes later the assistant entered the room. He stopped when he saw Jason. Turning to the right he saw Mary and Clayton sitting on the couch. Clayton had hidden his M16 but the man could see how frightened Mary looked. He stopped at the door.
“Close the door, Mr. Cordell,” Jason said.
He looked back to Jason, then to his boss, sitting behind his desk. Jason could tell he was sizing up the situation. It looked normal, but Mary didn’t look right and he probably noticed an odd look on the Chairman’s face.
Jason looked over at Tom. “Mr. Cordell should be involved in our discussions. I suggest he sit down.”
The Chairman nodded and pointed to the other chair in the middle of the room.
Phillip Cordell walked over to the chair and sat down facing the desk. “What’s going on Tom?”
“These men want to negotiate the release of our Hillsboro captives.”
“How did they get in?”
“We slipped in last night. Broke in, if you want to call it that. Figured that was the best way to get in front of the Chairman, seeing as how strangers don’t seem to be well treated here.”
Phillip turned back to Tom. “What do they want? Do they know how dangerous this is, what they’re doing?”
“We know,” Jason replied. “You need to know how dangerous this is for you and the Chairman, here.”
Phillip turned to Jason. “I’m talking to my boss.”
“No, you’re talking to me and I’m talking to both of you.” He paused for a moment as Phillip digested what he said. “We’re willing to negotiate for the release of our two men, but we need to see them. Call it proof of life or proof they haven’t been abused. Your job, Phillip,” Jason dropped the mister, “is to get them here so we can see what shape they’re in.”
“I can’t do that,” Phillip’s voice was firm.
“Yes you can,” Jason turned back to Tom, “Can’t he Mr. Chairman.”
“You want me to get those men out of their cells and bring them here?” Phillip’s question was directed to Tom but Jason answered him.
“You can and you will, if you want this to end well and no one gets hurt. We have a tense situation here, we all need to realize that. Mary could be in danger. But there’s no need for that if you bring the men here. Then we can get on with our negotiations.”
“What negotiations?” Phillip asked. “You pay the ransom, you get the men.”
“Well, that’s what we have to talk about. There may be a payment or somet
hing else of value to exchange.” Jason stood up. His coat dropped to the floor. Phillip looked directly at his pistol. “You come back with our men and knock on the outer door. Don’t open it until you hear us shout to come in. There must be no one with you but our two men if you don’t want to get yourself shot. Now go. Everyone is depending on you.”
Cordell looked over at Tom who nodded in a guarded way. He turned to go.
“And Phillip,” the man stopped as Jason called his name, “don’t do anything stupid. I expect you to alert the guards but if anyone tries to storm this office, people will get killed. If my partner and I feel threatened, the Chairman and Mary won’t survive. Am I clear?”
Phillip nodded and left the office.
Chapter 19
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N ow we wait. I hope for everyone’s sake Cordell doesn’t do anything stupid,” Jason said.
“He’ll bring the men,” Tom replied. “But it won’t change your situation. You can’t get them or yourselves out.”
He was beginning to feel confident he could wait out the situation without getting hurt and his men would handle the rest once Jason’s team tried to leave.
“We may have an offer you won’t want to refuse, something of great value. Let’s wait to see how our guys are doing.”
Clayton grabbed his carbine and went to a corner of the window and pulled back an inch of curtain. “We got men collecting outside where we came in.”
“What I figured. They probably got some snipers set up in the building across the walkway. Don’t expose yourself.”
“Can’t see them. All the windows are open but dark inside. Expect you’re right though. Good place to shoot from.”
His matter of fact tone was unnerving to Tom. What role did these men play in Hillsboro that they’d be so suicidal?
“Are you someone important in Hillsboro?” He asked Jason. You know about the courier and you seem to be in charge. You’ve obviously got some training. Did the mayor send you? Are you in the army?”
