Silver Shield Security Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “My gun, now!” Emily said and breathed a sigh of relief when she felt the familiar weight of the metal. “Kendra, get down.”

  From the corner of her eyes, she watched her daughter hit the floor of the van.

  “Now listen to me carefully,” she said, keeping her eyes on the van in front while studying the car filled with Asians through the rearview mirror. “Once we step down, I’ll cover you. I want you to crawl beneath the van and stay there till it’s safe to come out. Once you find an opening, you run for it. Is that clear?”

  “What about you?” Kendra asked.

  Emily heard the tremor in her voice and it pierced her heart. This was not the sort of life a fourteen year old should be living. It was too much. But Kendra needed to be strong now. They both needed to be strong.

  “I’ll be fine. But Kendra, I need to know that you’ll do exactly as I say. I can’t do this if I’m worrying about you at the same time.”

  “I’ll do exactly as you say… Mom.”

  Emily’s heart squeezed at the words. It was the most precious word she’d ever heard and she could not break down weeping like she so badly wanted to. She cleared her throat and pushed down the emotion. She needed all her faculties focused on the threat around them.

  “Is your driver armed?” she asked Jade.

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Once we notice the slightest movement from them, we go out shooting.”

  “Too bad we have no idea how many are in that truck.” Jade observed casually.

  Emily had been thinking the same thing. It was going to be close, and in fact, the odds were against them. But she made a vow to herself that she was going to come out of this. She had no idea how it was going to happen, but she knew there was no other choice. She’d come so far and after so much, she’d finally found her daughter. There was no way she was going to lose her now.

  “Is your vehicle bulletproof?”

  “Yep.”

  Suddenly, Emily had an idea.

  “I’m going to crawl to the back. I’ll use the trunk as a shield and open the door slightly. That way I can pick off all the guys at the back before they know what hit them.” The element of surprise when coupled with stealth had always been her greatest ally. “You two can handle whoever pops out of the truck.”

  Even though the glass was tinted and those in the car behind would not be able to see into the van, she relaxed the seat so that she could crawl to the back unseen. She moved until she got to the door of the trunk. Too bad they were so close, a hand grenade would have taken care of them.

  As much as possible she tried to avoid casualties when she went on missions, but this time, Emily did not even hesitate to plan the demise of the men in the car. She would protect her daughter and she did not care how many people went down in the process.

  She hunkered down and waited, wondering why the men in the van had not opened fire. They had stopped for a little over five minutes and she had expected them to start shooting immediately. Yet they hadn’t. Almost as though they were waiting for some sort of signal. She grabbed her gun and peered out the window at the back of the van. She could feel the tension in the air and it made her blood hum. She was ready for this.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “There’s a truck blocking their way. They’re trapped,” Ace said, glancing at his phone.

  The communication device attached to his wrist was also synced to the Silver Shield app on his cellphone, allowing them to communicate. All the other Silver Shield operatives assigned to that particular mission were also receiving the broadcast. Another message came in.

  “She says Emily handed her vest over to her,” he announced to those in the vehicle.

  Drew held on to the wheel with one hand and tapped his ear with the other.

  “Ryan, are you following?”

  The other member of Silver Shield was driving a second vehicle, which also had the Shadow Force people. The car Drew was driving had Ace and Wayne. They had used GPS tracking to follow the signal from Emily’s wrist device. And that was before Emily’s daughter had contacted them.

  “Yes. I’m on Google maps and I can see an aerial view of the situation. There’s a side road just beside the truck. Do we take that?”

  Drew thought about it. It made perfect sense to creep up on them that way. He could drive up behind the car with Asians while Ryan and the others attacked from the other side. If he could get to a vantage position, he could have taken each of them out before they even knew what was going on. He had flown down with his sniper gun and would have loved to use it. But there was no time.

  “We could,” he replied. Then making use of the Bluetooth function of the car, Drew set the call on speaker. “There’s a side road that’s right behind the truck. Ryan wants to know if they should take it?” he said out loud.

  “That way we can approach from both sides. Sounds like a good plan,” Ace said.

  Drew agreed, however something bothered him.

  “We could, but have you noticed how quiet the road is?” There was hardly any other car on the road, which was strange.

  “I wondered about that as well,” Ace commented. He did not say what they were all thinking…that they might be walking into an ambush.

  “Yeah,” Wayne said. He had been quiet for most of the ride, silently staring at his hands.

  Drew glanced at him from the rearview mirror. He wondered what was going through the man’s mind. Just a few months ago, his partner was kidnapped and he had almost lost his mind. What must it be like to have one’s wife and kid in danger? He could not imagine it.

  “We’re approaching the area now,” Drew said. “We’ll need to be on the lookout.”

  “Kendra. Is she okay?” Wayne asked, still staring down.

  “She says she’s fine. Emily made her hunker down,” Ace replied.

  “Emily?”

  “She’s fine, but Kendra is worried because she does not have a vest. I told her that her mom’s a pro and can handle herself vest or no vest.”

  Wayne nodded.

  “Pull up,” Wayne said.

  “What?” Drew glanced at him.

  “We’ll be better on foot.”

  There was an exit on the left. Drew turned on the indicator and made a left, then parked on the curb. He looked around, it was a quiet neighborhood, a residential area. They had to work quickly and do their best not to draw attention. The last thing they needed was police interruption.

  Just then they heard the rapid sound of gun fire. They all froze for a split second before they jumped out of the car.

  “Quick, this way!” Ace pointed out a path between two houses.

  “Ryan? What’s your position?” Drew asked into his earpiece.

  “We’re coming up behind the truck. Did you hear the gunfire?”

  “Yep. We’re approaching on foot. Let’s take them out.”

  “Roger.”

  Drew made a hand signal asking them to spread out. The others nodded and went different ways. He walked to the clearing, his gun in his hand. Hiding behind a hedge, he was able to see the action. He saw the vehicle sandwiched between the truck and another vehicle and assumed it was probably the one that held Kendra and Emily. But that was not what made his blood run cold.

  There were about half a dozen Asian men at the back of the vehicle and they all held semiautomatic weapons and were firing nonstop. Another half dozen men or so stood on the other side of the van and were pumping bullets into the van, which was obviously bulletproof. But he knew those inside were only safe for the moment. It wouldn’t be long before they moved closer and attempted to get into the car. It seemed they were not interested in taking any prisoners. This was clearly an execution.

  Taking a deep breath, he pulled out his weapon and took aim, but before he could pull the trigger, he heard the muffled sound of a silencer and two of the Asian men crumbled before him. He felt his mouth tip up in a grim smile. The party had begun.

  **

  As soon as he
saw the number of men surrounding the van that held his wife and daughter, something inside of Wayne snapped. Suddenly everything faded, including the sound of gunshots, leaving only a sharp clarity as he trained his weapon at the men. With eerie precision, he began to fire shots rapidly, each one reaching its mark. He had taken out four before they realized what was going on. With shouts the others turned their attention to where he had was hidden and began to fire at him.

  The men who had been stationed in front of the van realized what was going on and hurried to where their associates had fallen, joining the two that were left standing. They began to fire in the direction where the shots had come from, Wayne’s hiding place. He stopped shooting then so that he wouldn’t give away his exact location, and let the others pick them off. Two went down on the spot.

  While the fire exchange was going, on, he noticed the door of the van slide open. A woman slipped out and dragged Kendra with her. He saw his daughter struggle. He had no idea who the woman was, but there was no way he was going to let her go off with his daughter. So he took aim and fired, hitting her in the thigh. She went down and Kendra ran off, clearing a hedge in an impressive jump.

  One of the Asian men made it to the car and Wayne watched as he put the car in reverse and fled like a bat out of hell. The others must have decided to let him go because no one fired at him.

  By this time, his Shadow Force team along with Ryan had appeared and taken out the remaining Chinese men. Suddenly there was complete silence.

  Wayne vaulted out of his hiding place and hurried to the van. He saw the woman trying to crawl away, but ignored her. Someone else would get to her. He had something, or rather, someone more important to get to.

  He pulled open the van and when he saw no sign of Emily at first, his heart stopped for a microsecond and then began to race. Then he remembered that Kendra had said she’d gone to the back of the van. So he hurried there and pulled open the door. Emily crumbled against him.

  “Emily? Baby, are you hurt?”

  “Kendra,” she murmured without opening her eyes.

  “I got her,” Drew said, appearing with the young girl. “But we need to get out of here before the cops show up.”

  Wayne nodded. He placed his arms around Emily and lifted her. Then together with Drew and Kendra, they hurried to the car. They found Ace behind the wheels, the engine already running. As soon as they were all settled in, he drove off.

  Wayne had placed Emily on the seat beside him and was carefully looking over her body for any signs of injury.

  “You’ve got blood on your shirt.”

  He heard the young girl speak in a toneless voice and looked up with a slight frown. “Huh?”

  “You’ve got blood on your shirt,” she repeated.

  He glanced at her for a full moment. Most fourteen year olds should have been weeping and trembling after what had just taken place. She looked like it was the norm in her life. He found that heartbreaking.

  He glanced down at his shirt and discovered the part where Emily had leaned against him was soaked with blood. He reached for her and saw that there was blood on her right arm. Quickly, he pulled off her jacket. His jaw tightened when he saw her arm. She’d taken a hit there and had lost a lot of blood.

  “You okay, kid?” Drew asked, turning to face them.

  Kendra shrugged. “Is she going to be okay?”

  Drew turned to Wayne. Seeing their questioning glances, he shifted his gaze to Emily’s. He could see the steady rise and fall of her chest, but she’d lost consciousness. He lifted his gaze to the others and nodded slowly.

  “Yeah, she’ll be okay.”

  “She gave me her vest,” Kendra said.

  Behind that simple statement, Wayne heard the guilt and sorrow. He turned to his daughter and looked into eyes so very much like his.

  “She would do it all over again. It is what parents do.” He spoke in a matter-of-fact way. “Besides, she got hurt on her arm. The vest would not have protected her from that.”

  He held her gaze for several moments until he saw some of the tension recede from her eyes.

  They rode in silence until they got back to the house they’d been staying at. As soon as Drew parked the car, Wayne got out. Very gently, he lifted Emily into his arms and walked into the house. He laid her on the bed they had shared just a few hours before. Her eyes fluttered open and he read the confusion in them.

  “Wayne?”

  “I’m right here, baby,” he said gently.

  “Kendra?”

  “She’s alright,” he said, reassuring her.

  “I’m here.” The girl stepped forward so her mother could see her.

  Wayne saw Emily’s eyes fill up with tears before her lids came down. Drew appeared with a first aid kit. Wayne took it from him and using scissors, first cut up the sleeve of her jacket. Then he gently cut around the wounded area. He sighed with relief when he saw that the flesh had just been grazed by a bullet. Very quickly, he cleaned up the area and bandaged it up.

  “Is she going to be alright?”

  He lifted his head and gazed into the anxious eyes of his daughter. He tried to smile, but it felt tired. For a fraction of a second, he thought about giving her some trite reply, but then he remembered himself at that age and changed his mind.

  “She’ll be okay. She’s lost some blood, but it’s not life threatening.”

  She nodded.

  Wayne had learned from a very early age that it was always better to be as honest as possible with children. He had grown up in a house where children were to be seen and not heard. So he’d seen and heard a lot, but no one had bothered to explain anything to him. Not even when his mom had upped and left one day. His father had never explained anything and when he had summoned up the courage to ask about her, he was told that from that day, his mother no longer existed.

  **

  Mila tapped her beautifully manicured nails on the wooden surface in impatience as she waited for her call to be answered. After several rings, it was picked up on the other side.

  “What took you so long?” she snapped.

  “Work,” was the short reply.

  “I see.”

  Her eyes focused on the painting hanging from the wall in front of her. It was of a landscape. Nothing spectacular about it, except for the colors. The artist must have blended an eclectic mix of colors to achieve that particular effect. She needed to do that. Use some tact to achieve the effect she was after. Control.

  “Is that all?”

  She narrowed her eyes at the impatience in the voice but kept her voice soft. “You are angry with me, yes?” she said with a soft sigh.

  “No.”

  “Then why have you not told me about the microchip?”

  Silence.

  “You see, I got to find out that even if I had the prototype, it would not work without the microchip. When you stole it for me, you must have known that, yet you did not say anything to me.” She felt rage flow through her at how easily she’d been deceived, but she pushed it down. Rage would not get her what she sought. This called for charm.

  “You did not ask for the microchip.”

  “Ah, but you see, my darling, I trusted you to keep me informed.”

  “So you want the microchip then?”

  She frowned at the impatience in the voice.

  “Yes.”

  “That would be double the original amount. Send the money to my account before morning.”

  “Double!” she screeched into the phone, all pretense of charm forgotten. “That’s four million dollars, asshole!”

  “I’m aware of the amount.”

  “But I already paid you for the prototype.”

  “And I got you the prototype. Take it or leave it, babe.”

  If he were close by, Mila would have strangled him with her bare hands. She considered walking away, but she needed that chip.

  “Fine,” she said and ended the call.

  *

  In the shadows of
the large house in a suburb of Washington D.C., he stood and listened. He could only hear one side of the conversation, but it was enough to tell him what he needed to know. He watched as the man ended the call and walked into the house.

  **

  Wayne watched the steady rise and fall of Emily’s chest. He shifted his gaze to his daughter and saw her looking at him. He lifted an eyebrow in inquiry. She shook her head and looked away, but he could tell she had something on her mind.

  “What’s the matter?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said.

  Wayne sighed. He didn’t want to force her to talk if she was not ready, but he did not want her keeping things in her mind either. He fully intended to get out of this crazy prototype saga alive, but he had no guarantees. Anything could go wrong.

  “Look, I know you have some questions,” he said, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze. “I do too. Lots of them. I’m not sure how much time we have together right now, but I would like us to make the most of it.”

  “Why won’t we have time together?”

  “I need to get you and your mom to safety. Then when I finish up with all this stuff, I’ll come get you both.” And he meant it too. This time, he was not going to let them get away. Not Kendra and not Emily either.

  “Okay. What questions do you have?”

  Wayne chuckled. Trust her to turn the question back on him. She was so much like her mom.

  “Well, I always wondered why you didn’t run away even once.”

  She met his gaze head on. “Why did you not come for me?” she shot back.

  “If I had, your life and that of your mom would have been in danger.”

  She nodded. “They told me you would get hurt if I ever ran away.”

  “Get hurt?”

  “They would kill you.”

  Wayne’s heart clenched at the starkness in her voice. No child should have to live with that. Just then he caught some movement and looked up as Drew entered the room.

  The other man nodded towards the door and Wayne nodded once. He turned to his daughter…His daughter! He still could not believe that after so long she was right there with him. He wanted to wrap his arms around her, but even though she stared at him with hungry eyes, which he recognized, she had a huge Keep Off vibe about her. Like she would burn anyone who came too close. Come to think of it, Emily was that way as well.