Hogan released a breath. “Zach, check and see who it is.”
“That’s not necessary,” the old man said. He started to stand from the couch. “I can get it.”
The doorbell rang again.
“Sir,” Hogan said, “it’s best if one of us checks it out first. Zach?”
Zach broke his staring contest with the girl. He turned away and started down the hallway. He could see a figure out on the porch. It appeared to be one person, but that didn’t mean there couldn’t potentially be others hiding nearby. Then again, maybe it was a neighbor who simply wanted to stop by and say hello.
He withdrew his gun and held it at his side as he approached the door. The light was on in the hallway. There was no light on outside. It was dark enough outside which put Zach at a disadvantage. It would be best if the hallway had no light but the porch did, so he could peek out the window and see who was there before opening the door.
The doorbell rang a fourth time.
There were two switches beside the door. Zach tried the one, but it extinguished the hallway light. He turned it back on, flipped the second switch. The light outside came on. He peeked through a slit in the curtain and immediately turned his head and shouted, “Hogan, come here!” and then realized that was a mistake, as he no doubt warned the man on the other side of the door.
Fuck it. He could hear Hogan hurrying down the hallway but he couldn’t wait any longer. He tore open the door and there stood Eli, looking a little worse for wear, smiling back at him.
“Hi,” he said, his voice chipper, “I’m selling magazine subscriptions. Would you be interested in purchasing one?”
Zach aimed his gun right at Eli’s face.
“Well,” Eli said, “a simple ‘no thanks’ would suffice.”
Hogan hurried up behind him and then stopped dead. “You’ve gotta be kidding me.”
Eli asked, “Would you be interested in buying a magazine subscription?”
Hogan said, “Get him inside and search him.”
Keeping the gun leveled at Eli’s face, Zach grabbed the older man and pulled him into the house. Hogan then covered Eli with his own weapon as Zach patted him down.
“He’s clean.”
Hogan said, “What the fuck are you doing here?”
“I’m sorry”-Eli looked back and forth at them, frowning-“do I know either of you two gentlemen?”
Zach asked, “What should we do with him?”
“I’m not sure,” Hogan said.
And that’s when, back in the living room, someone screamed.
fifty-six
At first it doesn’t look like the plan is going to work. Only one of the men leaves the living room. The other one stays with Ashley and her parents. He isn’t holding a gun, though it’s clear he has one. If what Eli said is true-and so far all the evidence points in that direction-then Ashley’s parents are very well connected, so connected, in fact, that men who are trying to kill us treat them like royalty.
So I’m not surprised the man here doesn’t treat Ashley poorly when she refuses to sit back down. He asks nicely. When she doesn’t comply, he asks nicely again. Then, finally, the other one calls for him and he leaves Ashley and her parents alone in the living room. Ashley turns back to her parents, her face burning red. Then she looks up and sees me as I step closer to the patio door. She might not notice it’s me at first, and it looks like she’s ready to do something-call out, maybe-so I press my face as close to the glass as I can with a finger to my lips.
Inside, Ashley’s father asks her a question. She blinks and asks him to repeat what he just said. He does. She shakes her head and hurries forward, past her parents on the couch, to the patio door. She turns the deadbolt and opens it. Saves me the trouble of having to break glass.
“What are you doing here?”
Before I can respond, her mother screams.
It’s more of a startled scream than anything else, but it’s enough to set things in motion.
“I’m here to rescue you,” I say, and hand her a gas mask.
“What’s this for?”
“Just put it on.”
“Ashley,” her father shouts, “get away from him!”
Footsteps stampede down the hallway toward us.
Ashley’s mother screams again.
Her father once more shouts at her to get away.
Ashley still hasn’t taken the gas mask, and for a moment I realize this entire plan has fallen apart. The whole purpose-well, okay, half of the purpose-is saving Ashley. But what if she doesn’t want to be saved? According to Eli, because of who her parents are, Ashley will get a free pass. Her life will stop being in danger. She’ll be allowed to return to her old life, no questions asked. Sure, there will be questions, no doubt about it, but she’ll manage to make things work and by this time next year it will be like none of this ever happened.
The two men are almost to the living room. They’re not moving as fast because they’re dragging Eli with them. Eli is doing the best he can to put up a fight, but it’s not much. Time is running out.
“Come on,” I urge Ashley, and show her the tear gas canister in my other hand.
She takes the gas mask and places it on her face.
Her mother screams again.
Her father shouts again.
The two men enter the living room and raise their guns.
I pull the pin on the canister and toss it. At once there’s a flash and a white cloud begins to spread. Ashley starts toward the patio door but I push her back into the living room, securing a gas mask over my own face. One of the men lets off a round in our direction. Glass shatters. Ashley’s mother tries to scream again, but it turns into a fit of coughing.
The gas becomes thick fast. I take Ashley’s hand and lead her into the kitchen, then down the hallway. I’m aware of Ashley’s parents coughing behind us. I’m aware of a couple more shots going off.
We reach the front door, where just seconds ago Eli was standing. I tear it open and push Ashley through. I don’t bother closing it. I now have a gun in hand and raise it toward the hallway, keeping it aimed as we start down the steps in case one of the men appears.
Ashley tears off her gas mask. She’s breathing heavily. “Now what?”
Taking off my own gas mask, I say, “Now we run. The car’s down the road.”
“Where’s Eli?”
I shake my head.
“We can’t just leave him.”
“That’s what he wants. It’s part of the plan.”
“What plan?”
“I’ll explain later. But first, how pissed off are you at your parents?”
“Pretty pissed. Why?”
I hold up a detonator. “Eli and I set some charges around the house earlier. It’s not going to kill anybody, but it’s going to bring the property value down and should, hopefully, give us some time.”
Ashley barely even gives it a second’s thought. She hold out her hand, says, “Let me,” and when I place the detonator in her palm, she immediately uses her thumb to squeeze the plunger.
fifty-seven
Zach didn’t mind tear gas. It wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, of course, but it was far from being his most hated. Like Hogan, he had been trained well. He was always ready for the worst he might encounter. He was accustomed to the burning in his eyes and the back of his throat, and he was prepared when John Smith tossed the tear gas canister. So was Hogan. That was how they managed to get Eli and the Walkers out of the house as quickly as possible.
While Eli was certainly important to their mission, the Walkers were even more important; after all, they were members of the Inner Circle. Hogan was the one who led them out the patio door and down the patio steps. Both of them fell to their knees in the grass, coughing and gagging.
Zach dragged Eli out and threw him aside. He wasn’t worried that Eli would run off. Even if he did, he wouldn’t get far.
“Breathe,” Hogan was telling the Walkers. “Take deep breaths.”
He turned toward Zach and was about to speak when one of the trees in the backyard exploded. A second later another tree exploded, followed by a third. The charges had been set near the bases of the trees. For a moment nothing happened, and then they began to fall forward, right toward the house, their branches and leaves shaking in anticipation, until they crashed onto the roof and into the side of the house.