by Camden Mays
“Hannah, you’re like a badass,” Brittany said.
As the room sat back down Cameron caught the look of the three men from the earlier altercation. One of Shepherd’s friends whispered in his ear and gave a smug look over to the table. One day me and that guy are going to go at it. Cameron thought.
After dinner, a cover band began playing hits from different eras. The girls were quickly up and on the floor. Cameron dreaded this moment. It was one thing to be a fool in front of his girl and her friend at home, it was another to dance with the woman he was falling for in a room full of people who all knew him by name now. But he had brought her so by God, he was going to be the one to dance with her.
“Shall we?” he asked Hannah taking her hand as they stood.
“Actually, do you mind if I freshen up first.”
“Sure,” Cameron said, happy to procrastinate making an ass of himself.
“I’ll walk with you. I need a break myself.” On the way out of the hall to the restrooms, they ran into McCune.
“You heading out?” Cameron asked. Hannah excused herself and headed to the restroom leaving the two to talk.
“No, actually heading upstairs. I’ve got a meeting. Hey, your daughter is so beautiful.”
“Thanks.”
“Everyone having a good time?”
“It’s been great, thank you. Even if the price of admission was a little bit of my dignity.”
“You mean the PR move back there.”
“Yeah, not really comfortable with that.”
“I know but the country needs some good news, and right now you’re it.”
“God help us!”
“You said it.” McCune saw Hannah returning.
“If I don’t see you again, you two enjoy the rest of the evening, and I hope you don’t mind me saying this, but you two really do look great together.”
“Thank you, Ma’am,” Cameron said, and Hannah tilted her head and smiled.
“You ready,” Cameron said holding his arm out for Hannah.
“Absolutely! I am so excited to see the moves that Jess and Brittany told me about.”
“Oh no,” he said knowing he was in trouble.
They got to the floor and fortunately for Cameron it was a slow enough song that he could take Hannah in his arms and keep it simple. But that didn’t last, by the third song, Hannah seemed to be dancing with Jess and Brittany as much as she was Cameron. In those breaks, there was always someone coming up and saying thanks or congratulations on the Star.
He saw all three of the girls conspiring and then Jess ran up to the band leader as they finished a song.
“This one for Officer Cameron, courtesy of all three women you brought to the Gala tonight. Whoa, what a stud!”
Several laughed, but Cameron wasn’t one of them.
“Easy Ragweed, that’s my daughter,” he yelled back.
“Even sicker man!”
The band leader got more laughs then strummed the strings of the guitar, as the drums joined in then and Cameron recognized the tune. The girls came to him dancing as the band sang the Crowded House song, ‘Don’t Dream It’s Over.’ Cameron found joy again and let loose and begin singing the lyrics and dancing with each of them.
As the band rested between sets, Cameron took a break and stood at the urinal in the men’s room when Shepherd’s two cronies pulled up beside him, one on each side. Both had been served too much, and it showed.
“You think your hot shit don’t you,” the one to his left said.
“Yeah, three hotties hanging on an old fart like you,” the one on the right said.
“Speaking of farts, you two really stink. I thought it was your personality that was repugnant, but really, quite literally, it’s your odor.”
There was a chuckle from one of the stalls, and Cameron zipped up. That really pissed the boys off. He washed at the sink as the two moved in behind him. The first one getting really close to his ear.
“We have connections shit bird. We can make your life miserable. But not until we take turns on all three of those girls.”
Wisdom told Cameron to just ignore them and walk away, then the second one added his thoughts.
“You might want to get a checkup tomorrow if you are porking the FBI girl. I hear she’s like a petri dish.” The man in the stall cleared his throat.
Cameron spun around.
“I’m going to pretend for your sake that you never said that. Now step aside.”
“Hell, I thought the FBI girl was hot shit until the tall blond strolled in.” The first one was back at it. They weren’t letting up. Cameron knew and braced himself for the inevitable. Just like tenth grade all over again.
“Talk about fresh, I can’t wait to have my way with her. I bet that's some sweet pus…” before he could finish the word Cameron had decked him with a solid punch to the nose. Blood spewed out as the man fell against the wall screaming in pain.
The second stepped up to throw a swing, but Cameron ducked and raised up with an uppercut from his left hand connecting under the jaw of the assailant. He too flew backward.
Cameron felt a shooting pain in his left shoulder as if someone had just shocked him. It was the shoulder injury from Yemen all over again. Before either of the two could recover a hotel security guard arrived breaking it up.
A small crowd had gathered near the restrooms as the three were pulled out into the hall. Cameron saw Shepherd off to the side with a smirk on his face. Hannah ran up to see the guards and crowd, then she saw Cameron being taken to the security office. His Glock 22 in the guard’s hand.
“Where are you taking him?”
“He’s going to the security office, the police have been contacted, they’ll question him and determine if any charges are to be filed.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“Hannah, there was a guy in a stall, who heard everything. You got to find him. I think Shepherd set this up,” Cameron said being hauled into the security room.
“Shit!” Hannah shouted, this time in anger.
Hannah returned to the hall near the restroom, she surveyed the people and spotted Shepherd working his manipulation on the guards. She walked straight up and confronted him in front of everyone.
“You set this up you little bastard,” she said and slapped his face.
She turned and saw a man giving a statement to one of the guards. They pulled him away from the event, and the guard pointed to a seat and told him to wait there for the police. The man who looked to be in his late sixties complied with the directions and rested on a sofa with his phone in his hand.
Hannah came over and played coy asking, “Oh my gosh, what happened in there?”
“That guy from the CIA they talked about tonight opened a can of whoop ass on two drunk assholes.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, they were asking for it too. I mean those guys were very vulgar ma’am.”
“Wait, aren’t you the one that was with the CIA guy?”
“Hannah Jacobs, FBI.”
“Oh wow, Miss you need to know that man defended your honor and that of his daughter as well.”
She smiled. “I’m afraid, Officer Cameron might be in trouble because of it.”
“What’s wrong with this world?” the man asked shaking his head, “Who goes up to a man in a bathroom and asks for a beating and then when they get one, they call the law?”
Hannah saw police entering the building and knew her time was short.
“I’m sorry I didn’t get your name."
"Samuel Meade, but you can call me Sam, Agent Jacobs.”
“Ahh…thanks, Sam,” she said rubbing his arm. “Is there anything else you can tell me?”
“Well, the guard told me that a congressman wanted to talk to me and I guess the police as well. He left before I could tell him, I think I’ve got all of it on a recording right here, well, most of it anyway.”
“Can I see that? Do you mind if I send a copy of to myself?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“Sam, this is Washington, I’m with the FBI, you know.”
“Yeah, I guess, go ahead.”
Hannah saw Shepherd working his way toward them, she quickly uploaded the audio file to her cloud account. Then tapped her phone and saved a file on her device as well.
“Sam, the congressman that’s coming to talk with you, is not a good guy. The two in the bathroom were his buddies doing his dirty work.”
She stood up and kissed his cheek. “You be careful.”
The old man lit up. “Ma’am you are the prettiest FBI Agent I’ve ever seen, and I’m talking about the ones on TV, too!”
“Thank you! You’re such a sweetheart!” she said with a big smile.
She walked down the hall passing Shepherd and drew back her hand as if she was going to hit him. He flinched big time, nearly tripping over his own feet.
“I have the recording, so think twice before you have twiddle dee and twiddle dumb press charges,” she said.
She found Jess and Brittany wandering the halls looking for them.
“Where’s Dad? What happened?”
“Over here, over here, your Dad's alright, follow me.” Hannah motioned for them follow her into the hotel lobby looking for a place to sit. The three attractive women in formalwear drew a lot of attention.
Finally finding a couple of seats together she played the recording of what had happened. At first, Brittany laughed at Cameron’s quick comeback, but as the tone grew intense and hearing the sounds of the scuffle, she realized the seriousness of the situation.
“Who does that? What major assholes!” Brittany said.
“Yeah, I hate to say it, but there’s a lot of them out there like that,” Hannah cautioned.
“Is Dad going to be in trouble?”
“I hope not Jess, but he shouldn’t be, they really backed him into the corner.”
“He kicked their asses, didn’t he?”
“Yeah, he did, but I could see he was in pain. I think it was his shoulder. Let’s go to the security station and see if the police are there, maybe this recording will be enough.” Hannah attempted to conceal her worry for Cole.
CHAPTER 30
Washington, DC Hilton Capital Ballroom
Cameron sat in a small office with a security guard who sat across from him. They had locked his Glock 22 up in the desk drawer. He had been watching all of the hotel monitors outside the office in a large open room. A dozen monitors rotated vantage points. Two security guards in front of the monitors toggled to different cameras sometimes zooming in.
The guy sitting across from him seemed like a decent man. Cameron explained what went down. But was destined to wait for the police.
“What’s your name?” Cameron asked.
The guard just pointed to his name tag on his uniform. Mike Kilroy.
“Mike?”
“You got kids Mike?”
“Yep.”
“Daughter?”
“Three.”
“Ouch, sorry man it’s tough. It’s harder when they get older.”
“For what it’s worth sir, if that’s what truly happened, I’d kicked their asses, too.”
Cameron smiled and caught a glimpse of Hannah with the girls on one the monitors. What have I done? I really messed up. Cameron thought about the implications of charges being filed against him.
“Hey, there’s my boss,” Cameron said.
“Top monitor on the left,” He said helping Mike spot it.
“I didn’t really like her at first, but now I think she’s kinda cool. What is that the Presidential Suite she's headed into? Is that on the top floor? What is there like fourteen or fifteen floors here?”
Cameron didn’t know why he was talking so much. Maybe he was coming down from the adrenaline of the fight, or maybe Mike just looked like a guy that you could talk to.
“You ever do any bartending?"
“Uhh”
“Hey, there on the bottom toward the middle. The three girls. The one in the black dress, she’s my girlfriend, badass FBI Agent too.” Mike looked over at the monitor. “The one in the blue is my daughter and the other one is her friend.”
“Mike, why do those guards keep zooming in on my girls?”
Mike got up and went into the monitor area to see which person was toggling the control.
“Hector, knock it off.”
“Thanks, man,” Cameron said as Mike came back.
Cameron stopped talking and watched the camera on the door to the Presidential Suite as three men arrived. One person entered, and the other two stayed outside the room. Shit. Something big is happening up there. He thought.
A few minutes later a camera caught a dark figure ascending the stairs.
“What was that?”
There it was again. It was apparent to Cameron that whoever was ascending the stairs was working hard to try to avoid the cameras.
“Mike, something is going down.”
“Mr. Cameron please.”
“Listen to me man, you know what I’ve done. My job is to spot threats…there it is again!”
“Mike, east stairway, man in a hood, heading up the stairs.”
Mike opened the door, “Hector scan the east stairway.” The guard populated the monitors with different views.
“There it is!” Cameron yelled. Mike saw it this time.
“Twelfth floor. Damn, where did he go?”
“Mike, this is a professional. Let me out. I’ve got to get up there. Pull the alarm, do something.”
“I can’t just let you go and as far as we know this is just someone exercising or something. We have guards at the doors of that floor tonight. They’ll stop him if he gets too close.”
“Damn it! Mike, give me my gun. Let me out. There’s a high-ranking CIA officer up there.”
“Oh, Shit!” Yelled the other guard at the monitors. The camera feed from that floor went out. “I think the dude took the guard out just before the cameras went out!”
“What are you talking about! Playback the feed!”
“Look!” he replayed the scene at the door of the suite showing one of the Russians shot the other.
“Mike, the gun now!”
“Get Rogers up there,” Mike ordered and nervously opened the drawer and handed Cameron his gun.
“Which floor is the presidential suite on?”
“Fourteenth.”
“I’m going with you,” Mike said. “Service elevators will be the fastest.”
“We got to move fast.”
The two ran out of the security office toward the service elevator. “Take it to the thirteenth floor,” Cameron yelled.
“There is no thirteenth floor.”
“OK the floor below fourteen then, Geez!”
The elevator lifted them up, Cameron checked his ammo. “Check your weapon,” he told Mike. “Is your safety on?”
“Yeah,” Mike was breathing heavy.
“Take it off, your finger is the safety. Shoot only the bad guys.”
“How will I know who is bad?”
“If they’re shooting at you, shoot back.”
The elevator stopped on the eighth floor.
“Shit.” A housekeeper stood at the door with her cart.
“Get out” Cameron yelled waving his gun. “Get your guys on the radio, find out what’s happening on the monitors.”
“Radio’s not working.”
“They’re jamming signals.”
The elevator was moving again, and the fire alarm was ringing now. Finally, he thought. This time the service elevator stopped on the tenth floor.
“We’re on foot from here.” They pushed their way past another server with a cart.
“Which side is the Presidential suite on?” He yelled over the alarm ringing.
“It’s in the middle across from the elevator hall.”
“Of course, it is! I’ll take the east stairway where we saw the guy, you take the West
.”
“Got it,” Mike said as he started to run down the hall.
“Mike, no matter what, make sure you go home to your girls tonight.”
Mike nodded his head, “Yeah, you too!”
Cameron scanned the east stairway and hustled up to the next levels. Two guards had been taken out with headshots. He wondered what Mike had found on his side. He got to the fourteenth floor and in the stairway outside the hall laid a female CIA agent. Cameron checked for a pulse but found none. He went to ease open the door to the hallway, but it was locked. Shit.
Cameron hustled back down to the guards and found a key card. Soon he was back up at the hall door of the fourteenth floor. He hesitated, knowing that he would be an easy target down the narrow hall. He saw no other way. Waving the keycard over the scanner, he pulled the metal door back about an inch. He heard someone say something in what sounded like Russian.
He threw open the door, falling to his right knee and using the door frame to shield his body. Bullets flew into the metal door just above his head, as he saw two men, guns raised, charging down the hall at him. Two taps and the closest one went down. He ducked back for cover.
He heard other gunfire. Not like the suppressors that were shooting at him. That’s got to be Mike.
He leaned back in now to see the second man had darted into the elevator hall across from the entrance to the suite.
“Hold your fire, Mike!” Cameron yelled.
Cameron and Mike raced quickly to converge on the second target in the middle.
“Mike he’s going to get on that elevator.” Cameron motioned for Mike to lay down two cover shots.
Mike nodded and fired two shots toward the suspect near the elevators. As return fire was directed on Mike’s side, Cameron leaned in from his corner and nailed the big Russian with a headshot.
“Mike, we got him!” He turned to see his new friend gasping for air.
“Damn it!”
“Mike, hang in there!”
Cameron examined him then dragged the big man to the elevator and selected the first floor. He sent him down praying that he would make it.
Cameron entered the double doors to the spacious fifteen hundred square foot Presidential Suite and braced himself for the worst. He grabbed a decorative piece from the table in the entryway and jammed it under to door to keep it open.
