He wanted to call Ellie, and probably could get a signal there, but decided to wait. He was close to the Academy Building, close to Andy, his purpose for being here. He pressed on ahead. Somewhere behind him, the rats began to scurry.
At one point, Jake had to crawl again. To get from one section of tunnel to another, he had to pass through a square opening at the bottom of a concrete wall. The fit was very narrow, and Jake squeezed through on his belly. He emerged into a new section of tunnel, with high ceilings and updated electrical and data cables. And then, the stairs. A lot of the yellow paint had chipped away, but the railings were sturdy and the steps safe to climb.
At the top landing, using his master key, Jake unlocked a steel door painted gunmetal gray. He pushed the door open and stepped into a janitor’s closet in the basement of the Academy Building. He had his AK-47 ready to do the talking for him, just in case.
No need. The closet was empty. He pushed a bucket and mop out of the way, clearing a path to the closet’s front door. He stopped and listened. Not a sound. Fine. Just to be sure, Jake put an ear against the bottom of the door to give another listen. Each cup on his Peltor earmuffs had a built-in microphone, receiver, and amplifier that provided an adjustable 19dBA sound gain. All was silent. The tunnels were louder than this. Jake opened the door and exited the closet.
He worked his way out of the basement and up to the first floor of the Academy Building. The school was weekend quiet. No people. No lights. No sound. The tunnel ran directly below the stage in the Feldman Auditorium and went the length of the building. If he had to, Jake would go outside and scope the building’s perimeter to try and pinpoint the enemy’s location.
He returned to the closet. Without several feet of stone in the way, Jake could get a signal there. He didn’t want to risk being overheard in the hallways. Ellie’s number was stored in Jake’s list of favorites, where she belonged.
His mind clicked over and Jake thought for a moment of something other than Andy. He thought of Ellie. It happened in a flash, but the message his brain was sending had come in, loud and clear. Once this was over, things between him and Ellie would be different.
It was an odd time for these thoughts, but Jake didn’t fight it. He had messed up with Ellie, kept too many secrets, but he could make amends. He’d tell her everything about his life, about his fears. He’d open up to her in ways he never could with Laura. He’d grieve for Laura openly; and in Ellie’s presence, he’d find comfort.
On the mound, Jake believed that most everything was within his control. Throw strikes. Keep the ball away from a hitter’s sweet spot. Do your job and get the out. It was away from baseball that things became more complex. But Jake was going to tell Ellie who he was and how he felt, regardless of the consequences. All he could do was throw the best pitch possible.
He slipped the ear protectors to one side. Ellie answered on the first ring. He heard panic in her voice. “Jake, where are you?”
“Trying to find my son.”
“But where?”
“I need to make sure Andy is all right. And after I do, I’m going to need your help.”
“Jake, it’s not that simple.”
“I’m going to tell you where these guys are, and you’re going to send in the troops.”
“Jake, what is going on? Where are you?”
“I’ll call you back,” he said. “I’m not going to have a signal where I’m headed.”
“Jake, please,” Ellie said. “If you’re where I think you are, you need to get out of there right away. Jake, are you hearing me? Jake? Are you there?”
Jake headed down the stairs with the phone pressed to his ear. He would let the rock walls disconnect the call, as he couldn’t bring himself to do it.
As he descended back into the darkness, Jake’s mind conjured up the smell of Ellie’s hair and Kibo’s fur. They brought feelings of home and belonging, and finally something took away the scent of blood.
CHAPTER 33
Ellie put away her phone and set her gaze once again on Jake’s trailer home. A sizable contingent from the Winston Police Department was there, along with vehicles from the FBI, and the state police, too. From the number of strobes flashing, anyone would think Jake was a fugitive killer and the target of an unprecedented manhunt.
Leo Haggar came over to Ellie with a hostile look she knew was not directed toward her. It was just Haggar’s natural mystique.
“That was him,” Ellie said.
Haggar’s eyes narrowed. “Did he give his location?”
“No,” Ellie said. “But I think he’s in the school.”
Haggar whistled and one of his agents, a fit woman in a blue uniform and body armor, came running over.
“Everyone is in position to enter the premises. Are we still waiting for a warrant?”
“Forget the warrant,” Haggar barked. “Get in there ASAP. It’s my call, and I’m saying this guy will further endanger the hostages. I want to know everything there is to know about him. What he reads when he’s taking a dump. Where he shops. Who he’s screwing. Everything. And have forensics in there with you to secure all of the electronics. I don’t want a single byte of data lost. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
The agent turned on her heels to go, but Haggar whistled her back around. “And I want to see the blueprints to the school again. Hell, I think I have them memorized by this point, but have somebody get them to me anyway,” Haggar said.
The agent acknowledged the order with a nod and was off again.
“I’ll try to call him back,” Ellie said. Her voice came out too soft, too weak, too damn emotional.
Haggar’s ears must have been tuned to a different frequency, one that picked up subtext like it was amplified, because he gave Ellie a knowing glance.
“You might not know what he’s reading on the can,” Haggar said, “but I think you can tell me who Jake is screwing.”
Ellie’s face reddened. The twinkle in Haggar’s eyes surprised her.
“It’s okay,” Haggar said. “I already figured. But now you can tell me more.”
Ellie set her hands on her hips, pursed her lips, and looked to the sky. A constricting lump blocked her throat, and everything about Jake hit her at once: the blue of his eyes, the swagger in his smile, a scent sweet as his personality, a touch aware of her needs, the firmness of his body when he lay on top of her, the feel of him inside when she was on top. She loved Jake, but those words had never left her lips. Instead, they had tumbled about in her head, ready to spill out the moment he said it first.
If he’d opened up to her more fully, those three magical words would have come out faster than Kibo could chase down a stick. But Jake Dent had more secrets than he had shared with her the night of their big talk. And Ellie had a sinking feeling whatever they were would be found inside that trailer.
“Talk to me, Ellie,” Haggar said. “This guy is a real threat to our operation. We’re talking thousands of people potentially getting sick here from radioactive fallout if that bomb goes off. Not to mention the number of would-be terrorists an incident like that would embolden. Your guy is a match to that bomb’s fuse and I’m going to snuff it out, one way or another. Help me do it without spilling any blood.”
Ellie took a breath and told Haggar the story, beginning with her meeting Jake at the gun range and concluding with the details she had only recently learned.
Haggar listened with rapt attention. Despite the crisis unfolding around him, he had a remarkable ability to tune out the world and focus on whatever he deemed most important. Jake Dent was evidently very important to Haggar.
“Can you talk him out of there?” Haggar asked.
“I sure as hell can try,” Ellie said.