“Which floor?” one of them calls behind.
I glance forward. There are only six buttons. “Top floor, please.”
I can see Ruby staring quizzically at me in my peripheral vision. I turn and wink at her.
The doors slide shut and we begin our ascent. We pass the third floor. I start planning my next few moves. I’ll need three, I think. Two targets, close quarters… yeah, three should do it.
We pass the fourth. Then the fifth.
And…
I kick the cop in front of me in the back of his knee, hard.
First move.
As he buckles, I slam into him with my shoulder, sending him head first into the doors. He drops to the floor, out for the count.
Second move.
I hit the emergency stop button as I launch my elbow at the cop in front of Ruby, who hasn’t yet managed to react to what’s happening. It connects with the side of his throat and he falls backward, sliding to the floor, making a horrible wheezing sound, like a gurgle.
Third move. Job done.
“You good?” I ask Ruby, who’s sitting staring at me with the same bemused smile she gave me when I took out the guards at Stonebanks, back in Baltimore.
“Yeah, I’m good. I’m just—”
She stops and frowns at the cop at her feet, still making the noise and clutching his throat. She slams her foot into his face, and he falls silent.
“That was annoying…”
I smile. “Right, we need to change.”
She looks at me, frowning again. “Change? Into what?”
I nod at the cops on the floor.
She shakes her head. “Oh, no. No way. I’m not putting a uniform on. Not a fucking chance.”
“You got any better ideas?”
“But…” She sighs. “Well… no, but they’ll be too big for me. It’ll look ridiculous, and obvious.”
Oh yeah…
“Okay, well…” I reach down and take both of the cops’ guns from their holsters. “…put these under your gown at least.”
I hand them to her and she smiles, glaring at me with an insane mischief in her eyes. “Oooo, kinky!”
I raise an eyebrow. “Now? Really?”
She shrugs. “What? A girl’s gotta have some fun…”
I restart the elevator and hit the button for the ground floor. We reach the top, and thankfully the doors open and close without anyone trying to get in. As we begin our descent, I drag the cops to the back and push Ruby to the front.
“We need to be quick, okay?” I say to her. “I’ve got an SUV parked out front.”
She nods. “Got it.”
The doors open and we walk out. I push her toward the entrance, walking fast and looking away again as we pass the front desk.
We’re almost at the doors now. Just a few more steps and we’re in the—
“Hey! Wait a minute!”
— clear. Fuck!
I look over my shoulder. The nice lady behind the desk is standing and pointing at me. “Get back here! You can’t just walk a patient out of here! Security!”
And we’re out of here…
I run toward the SUV pushing Ruby in front of me. “Back seat!”
She steps out of the chair as I bring it to a stop. The guns fall onto the ground.
She crouches for them. “Ah, shit, sorry!”
“Forget them, just get in the goddamn car!”
She stands and climbs onto the back seat. I slam the door shut behind her and scoop up both guns before pushing the wheelchair away with my foot and climbing in behind the wheel. I drop the guns on the seat next to me, fire up the engine, and drive off. The tires screech loudly and throw up smoke behind us.
“You okay?” I shout back as I check the mirrors to make sure we’re not being followed.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” She sounds short of breath.
I catch her eye in the rearview and raise an eyebrow, asking a silent question.
She sighs and rolls her eyes. “My shoulder hurts like hell, alright?”
“We’ll pick you up some painkillers on the way.”
“Where are we going?”
I open the glove box and fumble around until I find a cell phone. I toss it onto the back seat.
“Get the number for Caesar’s, then call them and book us a suite.”
“Erm… Adrian? Don’t you think we should maybe consider leaving town?”
I navigate the traffic as best I can, forcing myself to slow down so we don’t look like we’re fleeing a crime scene. “No, we need Jonas if we’re going to stand any chance here. Running away is no longer an option.”
I hear her sigh behind me. “Okay… I’ll make the call.”
“We’ll take a detour on the way to get you some clothes and aspirin or something. And when you’re done, I’ll call Oscar and see if he can deliver another bag of supplies to the suite for us.”
I take a right and stop at a set of lights. I can hear Ruby on the phone behind me. I check the time on the SUV’s dashboard.
Once we meet up with Jonas, we’ll start planning how to take the fight to these bastards, instead of simply waiting for them to come to us and defending ourselves. But right now, tomorrow seems a long way off.
19
President Cunningham was alone in the Oval Office. After his daily briefing with the senior staff earlier that morning, he pushed his other appointments back a day, knowing many of them would be largely irrelevant, given everything that would happen in just a few hours.
He sat behind the Resolute desk, his navy blue suit jacket hanging on the back of his chair. He stared blankly at the documents in front of him, seeing the words on the page but not registering their meaning.
He was angry at himself for allowing traces of doubt into his mind. Not doubt in terms of what he was doing and why, but more about whether or not it would work. Everything had played out as expected so far, with the obvious exception of Adrian Hell. He was confident that particular situation would be handled soon, now that he had passed that responsibility on to Director Atkins.
But while things had turned out as planned, the way they had was, at times, anything but smooth, and that worried him. Director Matthews, for example — all the things he had tasked that incompetent idiot with had been done, but it seemed to be more through luck than strategy. Adrian Hell… the mission in Prague with his D.E.A.D. unit… even the management of El-Zurak and his men — it could’ve been done far more efficiently, and now he was concerned he was losing control of things. He hated second guessing himself.
But he also knew that once the next phase was underway, the rest of it would play out by itself. There was only one way it could possibly end. Knowing he was close to the stage where he no longer had to do anything provided him with some comfort. It made him think of a father teaching his son to ride his first bicycle. The training wheels were off, and he was holding the back of the seat with his hand while his son pedaled. Then, when the time was right, he would subtly let go and watch his child ride off into the world.
He knew he would soon be able to relax and watch as everything slowly crumbled around him, ready to be rebuilt, stronger than ever before, with him heading up the transition into a new era of peace for mankind.
A knock at the door interrupted his musings. He looked up as Gerald Heskith entered the room and walked hurriedly toward him from his own office.
Cunningham frowned. He detected the stress from Heskith’s body language — the fast walk, the furrowed brow, the tensed jaw… “Gerry, what’s wrong?”
“Mr. President, I’m sorry to disturb you,” he said, sounding uncharacteristically flustered. “But we have a… situation that requires your immediate attention.”