“Come on!” he shouted, dragging Kaylin down the hall. Behind him, the bell rang and he heard the elevator doors begin to open. They were not going to make it to the end of the hall in time. Their options exhausted, he darted through an open door, with Kaylin and Bones right behind him.
It was another office, much like Sowell’s. Fortunately, the occupant was out as was the light. There was no way to shut the door without drawing attention to whoever might get out of the elevator. They stood just inside the office door. Dane strained to listen, but did not hear anything. For a moment he thought he had overreacted, that the elevator had been empty, but then he heard footsteps. Someone knocked on a door.
“Sowell?” a voice boomed down the tiled hallway. “Open up!” The person knocked again. A pause, then the sound of a doorknob turning. Dane heard the sound of the commander entering Sowell’s office. “Sowell, what in the…” He heard thumps as if someone were shoving furniture aside. Wrexham had found the professor. Perhaps there was a chance.
“Go,” Dane mouthed to Kaylin, and bobbed his head toward the door. To his surprise, she neither questioned him nor protested.
Hastily removing her shoes, Kaylin hurried to the door, glanced toward Sowell’s office, then sprinted in the opposite direction. Dane watched her disappear around the corner, and then moved to the door himself, with Bones behind him. Just then, he heard the sound of the commander coming back out of the office.
After a moment, footsteps again echoed down the hall, followed by an insistent tapping sound, which Dane took to be Wrexham pressing the elevator button. The metallic ring of the elevator bell a moment later confirmed his instinct. He heard the doors open, then close seconds later.
Dane placed his hand on Bone’s chest. They needed to make certain that the commander was really gone. He silently counted to twenty, all the while listening for the sound of footsteps that would indicate that they were not alone in the basement of the building.
Twenty seconds.
Nothing.
He nodded to Bones, then peered around the door.
Still nothing.
He moved silently on the balls of his feet out into the empty hallway. He had taken no more than five steps down the hallway when a firm voice rang out from behind him.
“Stop right there.”
CHAPTER 20
A short, stocky, balding man with pale skin and a neatly-trimmed gray moustache stepped out of the next office. He held a Beretta pointed at Bones, who clutched the sword against his chest. Dane was tempted to leap at the commander, but the distance between them was too great. Besides, if Wrexham were any kind of soldier, his reflexes would be too quick.
“Commander Wrexham, what a pleasant surprise,” Dane said, filling the words with as much sarcasm as he could generate.
“Spare me the small talk,” Wrexham said. “I want the sword. Give it to me”
“No can do,” Bones said, keeping his eyes trained on Wrexham’s pistol.
“You can and you will,” Wrexham snapped. “When the M.P.s find out how you attacked Dr. Sowell and stole Navy property, I think you’ll be all too happy to surrender the sword.”
“The sword is not Navy property. It’s belongs to Kaylin Maxwell, the daughter of…”
“I know all about Maxwell,” the officer said. “He was acting on behalf of the United States Navy. It is a matter of national security. The Navy is grateful for your assistance in recovering the sword. Hand it over, and I’ll let you leave unharmed.”
“Don’t think for one minute I believe you’re going to let us out of here,” Dane said. Over Wrexham’s shoulder, at the far end of the hall, something caught his attention. Kaylin had circled around, and was coming up from behind. She held her father’s .380 trained on Wrexham’s back. Dane could not believe she had smuggled that thing onto the campus of the academy. She was too far away at the moment to be of any help. Dane needed to keep Wrexham talking. Careful not to let his eyes betray their only hope, he continued talking.
“We’re the only ones who know about this,” Dane said. “You are acting on your own. If this were a Navy operation, Sowell would have immediately turned the sword over to his superiors, but you had him hold on to it for you.”
Wrexham turned his pistol toward Dane. “Maybe I should shoot you both right now. You talk too much.”
“What about me?” Bones asked, apparently trying to help Dane’s stalling tactic. “I haven’t been talking. That’s not fair!”
“I don’t like your face.” Wrexham smirked.
Kaylin, still in her stockinged feet, was about halfway down the hall, about even with Sowell’s office door. Close, but not close enough.
“Wait a minute,” Dane said thoughtfully. “You aren’t going to shoot us.”
“You are sadly mistaken my friend,” Wrexham said, adjusting his grip on his pistol.
“You can’t shoot us. If you try and use this story of us stealing Navy property, you’re going to have to turn the sword over to them. You want it for yourself. I don’t know who you’re working for, or what your angle is, but I’m willing to bet that you’ve already negotiated a fat bonus for yourself.”
Kaylin was creeping closer, narrowing the gap between herself and the commander.
“Who is it?” Dane asked, watching for the officer to make a mistake. “A private corporation, or another country?”
Wrexham’s eyes twitched at the mention of a private corporation, but otherwise did not react.
“I’ll bet it’s the French!” Bones shouted.
“Excuse me?” Wrexham said, raising an eyebrow.
Dane was grateful that Wrexham had not recognized their stalling tactics, and had allowed himself to be distracted by the absurdity of Bone’s exclamation.
“The French, they’re always pissing Americans off.” Bones looked at Dane, feigning earnestness. “Wouldn’t it piss you off if they had the sword?”
Dane shot Bones a withering glance and shook his head.
“Well, wouldn’t it?” Bones acted as if all was normal. “I mean, everybody hates the French.”
“The only person who is pissing me off right now is you,” Wrexham said. “Drop the sword or die.”
“Drop the gun!” Kaylin had finally crept up behind Wrexham and now held her pistol pressed against his temple.
Wrexham slowly turned his gun hand sideways, the back of his hand facing upward, and began to spread his fingers. He knelt with equal care, Kaylin’s gun remaining pressed to his temple.
It happened suddenly. Wrexham dropped to the ground, spinning to his left. He drove his left elbow into Kaylin’s side. He simultaneously fired off a wild shot. Bones fell back with a grunt. Kaylin, apparently not expecting resistance, stumbled awkwardly, nearly losing her grip on her pistol.
Dane, having expected Wrexham to try something, leapt forward the moment the naval officer moved. He grasped Wrexham’s right wrist in his left hand, and banged the man’s gun hand hard against the ground twice. The gun clattered to the floor. With his right hand, he pressed down on the commander’s windpipe. The man struggled in Dane’s grasp, but could not get loose.
Kaylin appeared at Dane’s side. She had recovered her pistol, and held it trained on Wrexham’s forehead. At the same time, Bones stepped up and delivered a vicious kick to the officer’s temple. The man ceased his struggles.
“I thought he shot you,” Dane said to his friend as the two of them stripped off Wrexham’s jacket and bound his arms behind his back.
“I think it bounced off the sword,” Bones replied, his eyes wide in amazement. “I heard the ping.”
There was no time to discuss it further. They dragged Wrexham into Sowell’s office and dumped him behind the desk alongside the still-unconscious professor.