Roen found the right moment shortly after two in the afternoon. Kallis and four of her team walked into the Woodchuck Chuck for lunch. An hour later, the four guys walked out. Roen waited until they were out of sight before he crossed the street from the parking garage he was lounging in. He made one circle around the bar, checking the back door to see if it was unlocked – it was – and then he peered through the window. She was facing the west wall, seemingly focused on the tablet in her hands. The burger and fries on her plate were half-eaten, and the glass of beer was mostly empty. From the times he had hung out with her and her team, he knew that Kallis’s people never left beer unfinished.
He opened the door to the bar as softly as he could, and then sped across the length of the room. The barkeep gave him a puzzled look, but he had seen him around enough over the past week to not give him any trouble. Kallis had her side to him. All she had to do was look to her right, and one of them was dead. Fortunately, whatever was on the tablet was more entertaining than her surroundings. Well, Roen was about to fix that.
“Hi,” he said, and immediately regretted his opening. There were probably twenty things he could have said to diffuse the situation. Tao probably would have done it right. Oh well, Roen was stuck with Roen, so he was just going to roll with it. “Please don’t reach for your sidearm, Kallis. This is like that Han Solo with Greedo scene.” He tapped his pistol on the underside of the table.
She froze and slowly placed her hands on the table. “Thanks for removing all doubt, Rayban Ghost.”
“I kind of figured my cover was blown when you called in the armed forces this morning. I’m still waiting for the paratroopers.”
“What do you want, Rutherford, if that’s actually your name, or Ralphy, or whatever?”
Roen shook his head. “Do you know how hellish my childhood would have been if I had been a Rutherford?”
“Do you know how hellish I’m going to make your life after today? There’s no way I’m letting you out of this town. Dead or alive, you’re mine, Rayban. Your best bet is to just shoot me now. Waller just got out of surgery. We were up all night seeing if he’d pull through.”
“I hope he’s all right.” Roen remembered Waller. He was the older agent who shared pictures of his four children. Then the guy tried to get him to drink a line of tequila shots. Roen liked him.
“I’m sure he’ll love to hear that from you in person,” she snapped.
Roen sighed. This wasn’t going as well as he had hoped, though in truth, what sort of reaction did he expect from her? “Like I said a dozen times before, Special Agent Kallis, we’re the good guys.”
“Like hell you are. You put half my team in the hospital.”
“Well, you killed one of mine.”
Kallis ran her fingers through her hair with her left hand while moving her right toward the edge of the table. “Guess I win the big-dick contest, Rayban. So unless you have something else to say, why don’t we just get on with it now?”
This approach wasn’t working. Roen had to remind himself that he needed Kallis, probably more than she needed him right now. The problem was, she had every reason not to trust him or the Prophus. After all, he did just jump her guys the other day, not to mention all the lies he had told her over the past week. She must also be kicking herself for hanging out with the same aliens she was trying to catch. Hell, she went on a date with one.
Roen decided to take a risk, hedging a bet that if he made the first move, she might be decent enough to follow. That, and he gave himself a fifty-fifty chance of beating her to the punch. “Obviously, we have some trust issues to work through.” He looked over at the barkeep. “Hey, Lou, can we get a couple of beers? Whatever is on tap.” Then to her surprise, he slowly raised his hands from underneath the table and placed them flat where she could see them. “No threats. I just want to talk.”
Roen thought this was a bold gesture, a show of really extending the olive branch. He couldn’t think of anything else to do to sway her opinion. He just hoped that she couldn’t hear the desperation in his voice. However, for some reason, he had a flashback of Sonya shaking her head saying, “Well that was dumb.”
Kallis stood up and drew her firearm. Roen kneed his side of the table, flipping it toward her and sidestepped as she opened fire, the bullet narrowly missing his chest as it plunked into the wall. The table momentarily distracted her as he lunged forward and tried to knock the gun out of her hand. Unfortunately, she was ready for it and held on. Then, she swung it across his jaw, almost knocking him out.
Strangely, the Sonya in his thoughts continued to shake her head. “You never learn do you?”
Roen’s training kicked in, Tao and Master Lin’s words echoing in his head. Combat was like kissing. He moved close into her guard so she couldn’t point her pistol at him. A body should react like sand. He kept his body relaxed as Kallis tried to push him away. She only succeeded in throwing herself off balance. Control is lucid; be even more so. Roen hooked his arms around her wrist, and with a chopping motion, flicked the pistol out of her hand and into his. He bent her over and wrapped his legs around her arm, then he dropped to his knee, trapping her underneath him. He looked up just in time to see Lou standing open-mouthed in the middle of the bar with two glasses of beer in his hands.
“Thanks, my good man.” Roen pointed the pistol at him and motioned at the table with his head. “Put them right there. And if you would be so good as to close shop for a bit, shut the curtains, and lock the door, I’d appreciate it.”
Kallis growled and struggled underneath him as Roen kept his pistol trained on the barkeep. When Lou had done as he was ordered, Roen motioned to the table right behind the one they were sitting at. “Now pour yourself a beer and have a seat.” He relaxed his grip on Kallis’s arm and slowly let her up. He took her pistol, pulled the magazine out, and tossed it to the other side of the room.
“Have a seat.”
Kallis scowled as she sat back in her original chair. Behind her, Lou, hands shaking, downed his beer.
“Go help yourself to another one.” Roen waited until Lou returned with a fresh brew before he righted the table. He sat down again and shoved the pistol to the center of the table. “Here’s the deal. There’s one bullet in the chamber. You’re going to listen to what I’m going to say. Afterward, it’s up to you if you want to shoot me or let me go.”
She looked down at the gun just within reach of her hands. “I can always just -”
“Sorry, arresting me isn’t an option. Shoot me or let me go. After I say my piece. Deal?”
Kallis nodded.
Roen reached into his bag and pulled out a manila envelope. He slid it forward. Her eyes followed his motion, but Kallis didn’t move. “Go ahead, open it.” He watched her face while she pulled out a series of satellite images as well as all the detailed notes that Roen’s scout team had gathered over the past month.
She looked up. “That’s why your people are here. You guys are planning on attacking it. Why?”
“It’s not a recycling plant,” Roen said. “That facility is sitting on top of the beginning of a major fault line that spans down to Mexico. The Quasing who built it are planning on using it to detonate a series of cascading explosive effects that will change the entire world.”
He could read the disbelief in her eyes as she looked at the image again. “How can one building do that?”
“It’s not one,” he admitted. “They have several all over the world, including at least a couple in the United States.”