by David Archer
He turned and started down the ladder again, carefully because of his bad hip, and Denny followed.
“You think this is funny?” Reese asked. “What, you think this is going to make me give up secrets I don’t have? You’re idiots, gentlemen, complete idiots. I can’t answer questions I don’t have the answers to, don’t you understand that? Hey, are you listening?”
At the bottom of the ladder, Sam looked at Denny with a grin. “So,” he whispered softly, “what happened to the Italian accent?”
Denny rolled his eyes. “After that dance, I could barely remember who I am. Sorry, mate, slipped my mind.”
Sam chuckled quietly. “No problem, just wondered.” He pointed at himself, and then toward the house, while Denny nodded his understanding. He was to wait there, just in case Reese managed to get loose.
Sam left the barn without saying another word and used his cane to make a little extra noise. Reese continued shouting from the loft, but Sam and Denny both ignored him.
SIX
“Is he squirming yet?” Summer asked when Sam got back into the house.
Sam grinned at her. “Not yet, but give him time. Denny is going to keep an eye on him until the rest get here, probably in about half an hour. Rob can put a couple of his men on him, then.”
He took a walk through the house, looking into all of the rooms. As Indie had said, there were four bedrooms, but they were large. Two of them held a queen sized bed and a dresser, but the others each had two sets of bunk beds. There were two bathrooms, the big living room, a laundry room and a kitchen. Sam opened the cabinets and found dishes, but no food of any kind. A glance into the refrigerator showed him that it was perfectly clean, but he did find ice in the freezer.
He went back into the living room and sat in a recliner. “Decent little place,” he said. “When everybody else gets here, we’ll figure out the sleeping arrangements.”
“I already looked around,” Summer said. “I’m calling dibs on one of the big beds for me and Jade, but we can probably squeeze Wendy in, too. I figure you and Indie will take the other one.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Sam said. “The guys can fight over the bunk beds, and whoever’s left can take the couch. Rob and his guys will probably be sleeping on the floor, they seem to like it.”
Summer and Harvey sat on the couch together, and the three of them waited quietly for the rest of the team to arrive.
* * * * *
“Hey, come back here!” Reese yelled. “You can’t just leave me up here like this. Come on, you guys, you said you wanted to talk, let’s talk.”
Denny sat quietly on an old milk crate. He had been listening to Reese for almost half an hour and was really beginning to wish the guy would just shut up.
“Come on,” Reese yelled. “I’ll be honest, I swear!”
The sound of gravel crunching in the driveway caught Denny’s attention, and he rose silently to look out through the barn doors. The rest of the team had arrived and were pulling up in front of the house. He watched as Indie, Darren, Steve, Walter, and Jade, followed by Rob Feinstein and his eight soldiers, stepped out of the vehicles. Rob immediately detailed two men to keep watch outside while the rest of them went into the house.
“Hey, who’s there?” Reese shouted. “Somebody pull in? Come help me, I’m tied up in the barn!”
Denny looked up toward the loft and shook his head. The guy never gave up.
* * * * *
Sam welcomed everyone, pulling Indie into a hug.
“I’ve got two men on watch,” Rob said. “Got anything for the rest of us?”
“Yeah,” Sam said. “We’ve got Mr. Reese tied up in the loft of the barn, hoping he might be a little more forthcoming with information after he stays up there for a while. Denny is keeping an eye on him, but you could send a couple out to relieve him. We’re probably going to be here all night, at least, so you can switch out who’s watching where from time to time.”
Rob turned to the men who had followed him inside. “Jacobson, Maravich, go on out to the barn and give Denny a break. If you can throw a little scare into the guy in the loft, that probably won’t hurt anything.”
“Yes, sir,” came the reply from both men. They walked right back out the door, their M4 rifles in their hands.
Denny looked up as they entered the barn. One of them, the man named Jacobson, silently signaled him to go back into the house. He pointed upward toward the loft to signify that he and his partner would take over.
Denny nodded and walked away and Jacobson went to the ladder. Quietly, managing to do so without a sound, he climbed quickly up and stepped out. Maravich followed a second later, looked curiously at Reese, then turned and said something in Russian to Jacobson.
“Hey, you guys come to get me out of here?” Reese asked. “What did he say? What was that?”
Jacobson shook his head at Maravich, then turned to Reese. “We’re here to watch you,” he said. “My partner just wanted to know if he could have a little fun with you while we do so.”
Reese’s eyes narrowed. “Fun? What you mean, fun?”
“He’s from Siberia,” Jacobson said, grinning evilly. “Hasn’t seen his wife in almost 2 years.”
Reese’s eyes suddenly shot wide open. “No! No fun! No, no, no!”
Maravich scowled, then sat down on the loft floor and glared at Reese. Jacobson moved aside to sit down on a bale of hay.
“Look, I’ve got money,” Reese said. “You get me out of here, I'll make it worth your while.”
Jacobson shook his head. “I got a better idea,” he said. “You sit there and be very, very quiet, or I’m going to tell Maravich that you think he’s sexy.”
Reese stared at him for a second, then clamped his mouth shut.
It was nearly nine o’clock, and Sam suggested that everybody needed to get some rest. He set an alarm on his phone for midnight and then he and Indie went into one of the bedrooms and closed the door. The rest of the team spread out into bedrooms, as well, leaving Harvey to sleep on the couch.
Indie looked at Sam as he stripped out of his clothes and climbed into the bed. “So? Do you think he’s really the guy?”
“I’m pretty sure of it, now,” Sam replied. “Maybe we just got lucky, and he wasn’t a wild goose chase. He claims not to know who Amber is, but the name didn’t surprise him. He’s a cool customer, I'll give him that. He hasn’t shown any sign that he’s worried about how much trouble he might be in. From what he said, he thinks he can get out of anything just by calling in favors or using whatever leverage he has. I’m hoping that a few hours in the dark will make him a little more forthcoming.”
Indie climbed into bed beside him and cuddled up close. The two of them kissed and whispered sweet nothings for a few minutes, and then drifted off to sleep.
Sam woke up almost a minute before the alarm was set to go off and quickly shut it down. He carefully got out of bed, letting Indie continue sleeping, then dressed as quietly as he could. He made it out of the room without waking her, then slipped out the front door and headed toward the barn.
Jacobson looked down through the loft entrance as Sam began climbing the ladder. He moved aside so Sam could step out where Reese could see him, but stayed on his feet.
“Hello, Evan,” Sam said. “Ready to talk now?”
“Oh, yes, Hell, yeah! Ask me anything you want to know, anything at all!”
“Okay. It’s the same question I asked you before. Where is Amber McCabe?”
“Oh, geez, I told you, I don’t know who that is! Ask me something I can answer and I'll sing like a canary! You want to know what the governor was doing at the Catholic girl’s school last month? I can tell you that.”
Sam stood and looked at him for a moment, then shook his head. “Tempting, but maybe another time,” he said. “Here’s how this is going to go down. You can either answer the question now, or I can hand you over to DHS and let them work on you for a while. They probably have a lot more patience th
an I do, but they also have interrogation techniques I’m not allowed to use. I know they always claimed they don’t use waterboarding anymore, but Roland McCabe is a pretty powerful and influential guy. You may have a lot of politicians in your pocket, and maybe you know some things that they’d like to keep quiet, but I can just about guarantee you that none of them have any control over what the DHS does with its prisoners. Our orders are to find out where Amber McCabe is being held and to get her back safely if at all possible. Do you honestly think you can talk your way out of a secret government prison? Because I don’t.” He paused and just looked into Reese’s eyes for a moment. “Where is Amber McCabe?”
This time, Reese hesitated. “Look, man, I swear I don’t know who that is.”
Sam turned away without a word, walked back to the ladder and started down.
“Oh, come on, I’m trying, here!” Reese yelled. “If you ask me something I can answer, I'll tell you, I swear.” He continued shouting as Sam climbed all the way down, leaving the two soldiers with the prisoner.
Maravich grinned and said something in Russian to Jacobson, and there was a hopeful sound in his voice.
Jacobson shrugged. “I guess you might as well,” he said. “It’ll give him a taste of what’s waiting for him in the joint, anyway.”
Reese’s eyes were wider than ever. “Hey! Hey, come back here! Okay, let’s talk, I'll tell you what I know.”
Sam had been standing at the bottom of the ladder, and he looked up. “If I climb back up there and you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’m going to get really, really pissed off. I might even decide to leave, just let you die up there.”
“Come on, please! You wanted to talk, let’s talk.”
Sam climbed up again, but Jacobson motioned for him to come aside before talking to Reese. When they were at the other end of the loft, he whispered to Sam, “My buddy has this dude scared to death. It’s a little game we play when we watch prisoners, we make out like he wants to turn them into his personal bitch. Wouldn’t hurt anything if you were to help us carry on that little charade.”
Sam glanced over at Maravich, then nodded. “Sounds like a good idea,” he said softly. “Follow my lead.”
He turned and walked back over to Reese.
“You see this guy over here?” Sam asked, pointing at Maravich. “He’s hoping you will be stupid enough to make me mad, so that I'll go away and leave you alone with him for a while. Now, I’m not sure what he has in mind, but he seems to find you rather charming. So, the next time I ask you a question, I want a straight answer, otherwise I might decide I’m finished with you. If I do that, you’re all his. Do you understand me?” He moved to stand where a little bit of moonlight was coming through, so that Reese could see him.
Reese licked his lips nervously, his eyes never leaving Maravich for more than a couple of seconds at a time. “Yes, yes, whatever you want,” he said. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know, I promise!”
“That’s good,” Sam said, “because whether you get through this intact or not depends on how honest you are with me right now. So tell me, Evan, old buddy, where is Amber McCabe?”
Reese licked his lips again. “Okay, look, here’s the truth, they just hired me to make the freaking call, okay? I never even saw the girl until after they had already grabbed her, and then I just had to make a phone call, that’s all.”
Sam shook his head and started to turn away. “That’s not the answer I’m looking for,” he said as he took the first few steps back toward the ladder.
“Wait! Wait, please! I didn’t have anything to do with taking the girl, myself, that’s the truth, I swear, but I might be able to help you find her! See, it’s not the Ethiopians or that company over there that grabbed her, it’s a group called People’s Army of Freedom. They’re a whole new organization, only been around for a few years. They’ve been fighting against ISIS and the Taliban and all those groups, just trying to liberate parts of Africa from all the terrorism and oppression. They want this deal to go through because it will get them access to technology that will help the whole region economically. The stronger the area’s economy becomes, the more the PAF can influence what goes on there. For them, this was just business.”
Sam stood and looked at him for a long moment. “So who was it that hired you? You got a name?”
“He’s from Germany, an independent intelligence specialist I’ve known for the last couple years. His name is Heinrich Wegner, and he deals in intelligence all over Africa. I think the PAF was his idea, and he honestly believes he’s some sort of great benefactor or liberator. He called me up a couple of weeks ago and told me he needed me to help negotiate a deal for him. It was all set up, he said, all I needed to do was handle talking to somebody. I didn’t know what the situation was until I was already in Atlanta, that’s when he told me what was really going on. It was one of his people that snuck into the house and took the girl, but he said the idea was just to push her daddy into agreeing to this business deal. I swear, he told me no one was really going to hurt the girl.”
“And you believed him?”
Reese’s tongue went over his lips once again. “Okay, maybe I didn’t, but he’s not the kind of guy you look in the eye and call him a liar. By the time I figured out what a mess I was into, it was too late. They already had the girl before I even knew what I was supposed to say on that phone call, okay?”
Sam stood still and stared at him for a long moment, then crouched to look him in the eye. “You know, earlier, you claimed not to know anything about this whole situation. How do I know you’re not just making all this up, just to try to get on my good side?”
“Geez, man,” Reese said, “do I really look that stupid? I really am willing to help, but you’ve got to believe me. It was Wegner, I’m serious. He’s the guy behind it all.”
Sam looked at him for a moment, then seemed to get an idea. “So, where did you make the call from?” he asked.
“What? They had me go to this truck stop. I met up with them there, they had the girl in the back of a car. One of the guys handed me a phone, and gave me the number and told me what to say.”
“So you called from inside a car?”
“No, but I was standing right beside it. They had the girl in the back seat, and the window down so I could hand her the phone. That was so her daddy would know they really did have her.”
“It seems to me a truck stop would be a pretty noisy place,” Sam said.
“Yeah, I guess so,” Reese said. “There was this tow truck right by where they were parked, and it had this loud beeping thing going on.”
Sam nodded. That explained what they thought was a backup alarm. “So where can I find this guy Wegner?”
“Look, I can set him up for you. We’ve done a little bit of business together, if I ask him to meet with me, he will. I don’t have to tell him what it’s about, I can say I’ve got a lead on some new information he really needs.” He licked his lips with a very dry tongue. “Just one thing, though—you can’t let him go when you’re done with him. You’re gonna have to throw him into one of those holes, and it’s got to be one he can never get out of. If he ever gets loose, he’ll come after me, and I'll end up dead. Deal?”
Once again, Sam just stared at him for a moment. “All I want is to find the girl alive and bring her back safely. What happens if it turns out that he’s more valuable to me than you are? If it gets me the girl, I might decide it would be worth it to me to let him have you.”
“Oh, come on, man,” Reese said frantically. “Do you have any idea how a guy like him can be, not just to me, but to the entire world? You keep me safe and let me go, and I can help you shut him and his entire operation down! That’s gotta be worth something, right?”
Sam crossed his arms and looked into Reese’s eyes. “Can you find out where the girl is within the next twenty-four hours?”
Reese opened his mouth, but then closed it again. He licked his lips once more, then said, “I can,
yeah, but you’re going to have to take me with you. And you gotta stop talking about locking me up for the rest of my life, okay?”
Sam smiled and Reese was reminded of a fox who just got into a henhouse. “What in the world makes you think I would ever trust you, Evan?”
Reese burst out laughing. “Look, man, whoever you are, you got me right by the balls. Do I look stupid enough to try to doublecross you? I know the feds keep tabs on me, so the chance I could ever hide from you would be pretty slim, right? You want to find this girl alive? Then, right now, I’m probably the best shot you got. If giving Heinrich the finger and helping you find that girl gets me out of this mess, it’s worth it. Okay? Hell, I’m ready to retire from this life anyway; after this, I won’t have any choice. Once the word gets out, I’ll have to change my name and go into hiding.”
Sam rose and stood there for a moment, then nodded. “Believe it or not, I actually think you’re being honest with me,” he said. “Hang tight for another minute and I’ll cut you loose. Just remember what you just said, though, and understand that if you cross me, I can guarantee that you will never see daylight again. Got that?”
Reese nodded furiously. “I’ve got it, believe me, I’ve got it.”
Sam stepped back and turned to Jacobson. “Cut him loose,” he said, “and let him make himself as comfortable as he can. Keep him here in the loft, don’t let him out for any reason.”
“Yes, sir,” the soldier said.
“Hey, wait a minute,” Reese said. “That Russian guy there, you got to take him away. I don’t like the way he looks at me, like I’m just a side of beef or something.”
“You mean, the way you looked at the girl I sent to collect you? I’m pretty sure she didn’t like the way you were looking at her, either.”
Sam turned and walked away while Jacobson cut the zip strips to release Reese. Sam climbed down the ladder again and headed back toward the house.
Rob was awake when he got there, and Sam quietly filled him in on what he had learned. “We need to get some rest, but we’re going after this Wegner in the morning. You might want to change the guards on Reese, though. I think one of them is scaring the poor man half to death.”
