Sweet Dreams (35 page)

Pat's eyes got big as he stuttered and looked away avoiding Marks rock hard gaze. "Uh, how did you--what are you talking about?"

"I will give you two choices, you can cooperate with me and tell me everything you know, or you can spend the rest of your life behind bars, and then who will take care of your grandmother?"

Pat looked up when he heard his grandmother mentioned. He shook his head from side to side and his face turned bright red from anger or shame Mark didn't care either way. The kid did not know how far he was willing to go and with a sigh Pat nodded in agreement. "I didn't do anything--I just sold them the C-4, I stole it from my work and they promised me like fifty grand, I swear--that's all I did, man." Pat put his head in his hands and the faint smell of urine filled the car. He had

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soiled himself in all the excitement, Mark pushed on like a shark smelling blood in the water.

"We have good Intel that you are the one who is going to plant the bomb. What is this crap about you only sold them the C-4?" Mark's temperature began to rise.

"I swear--that's all I did! They were going to pay me for the C-4. I was supposed to meet them today to get my money. I wasn't going to plant the bomb and besides I don't know anything about a bomb, I just gave them the C-4, oh man, this is all wrong, I didn't want this to happen, and I just needed the money!"

Mark could tell from their last meeting that he was telling the truth. They must have been planning to hold the cash until he promised to plant the bomb, and then try to blow him up along with everyone else.

"Get out of my car!" Marked looked at the steering wheel and barked at Pat with a voice that shot icy fingers through Pat's spine. "Now, if you ever contact them or I ever catch you getting into any trouble again, so help me!"

Pat's face relaxed and he glanced out the window and then back at Mark. "No, sir, I swear--I'll be good! It was stupid, and I'll stay out of trouble."

Mark reached over him and opened his door. "Get out of my sight--I'll be watching you!"

Pat ran from Mark's car and up to his apartment without looking back. Mark hoped that he was scared enough to stay out of any more situations that would end up killing him. Starting his car, Mark pulled out of the apartment complex parking lot. It was time to pay a little visit to a few bomb makers.

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Mark took out his cell phone and called directory assistance. He needed to get a gun if he hoped to make his point at the cabin. He was calm and completely in control and he felt like he was a trained killer as his instincts took over. He could feel it all coming back to him, just like in his dream. He did not know how much of his dream was true or going to come true, but he wasn't going to sit around as hundreds of innocent people were killed.

The operator came on the line, and he asked for the gun club Bert had taken him too. She connected him and thanked him for using their service in a monotone even voice.

"American Gun Club,"

"Yeah, is Fred there?"

"Uh, Fred? No one by that name works here."

"No, he's the fat man smoking a stogie over by the fireplace,"

The voice on the other end went silent. It was a long shot, but Fred was the only person he knew in the whole city that had weapons on short notice.

"Hold on, one second,"

Mark could hear the phone as he set it down on the counter. After a few minutes, he could hear Fred wheeze and cough as he picked up the receiver. "Yeah, who is this?"

"Hey Fred, I've got eight hundred dollars, cash, and I need a gun--today!"

"Uh...I don't know what you are talking about,"

"Fred, I know all about you and what you don't know, now, meet me in half an hour at the old train depot out in Brooklyn, you know the one?"

"Yeah, you got cash?"

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"Yes, see you in half an hour,"

Mark hung up the phone and did not even think about how crazy this was. He would only be about an hour out from where the cabin was located. He was going to change his own future and the future of hundreds of families, and ask forgiveness later. ________________________________________

HUNCHED IN A DARK empty cell, Kirk waited. He could hear the sound of a little girl crying softly in a cell down the hall from him.
Come on, you need to help her!
Who knows what they have done to her and who else they have trapped here.

Kirk argued with himself and finally made up his mind. He slipped out of his hiding place and went to the door where he could hear a little girl. It was the same heavy wooden door lined with old rusty metal, just like the one he was trapped in ten minutes ago.

He shot a glance up and down the empty open hallway nervously hoping that no one came out of any of the many doors. If someone did, he would be totally exposed and would lose the element of surprise. "Hey, is anyone in there?" he whispered and tapped on the door as soft as he could.

"Yes, we are here, me and my daughter--please help us!"

It was a woman, and her voice shook a little as she spoke.

"Okay, hold on, I'm a cop. You two just sit tight, I need to find a key so I can get you out,"

"Be careful, there are a bunch of them out there, you will come back for us won't you?"

Great!
He thought. "Yeah, just hang in there, I'll be right 328 AARON

back."

Kirk quietly made his way to the door at the end of the hall even though it was over thirty feet of pure out in the open hell. He breathed in deep and opened the door, peeking in. It was a room with a desk, monitors, and a guard sitting with his back to the door.

Kirk could tell that he was asleep, but couldn't tell if anyone else was around the corner or not. Pushing the door open just enough to crawl through, he snuck up behind the sleeping guard.

The guard was a heavyset man with thick, brown hair and a fat nose that looked like it was smacked with a frying pan. He snored as a football game played on the small TV to his right. Getting to his knees, Kirk popped up with his gun drawn, adrenaline flowing, ribs screaming!

Empty.

The wide-open area in front of the desk was empty. He thought he saw a guard walk past the glass windows on the outside of the building, but no one saw him. Kirk noticed the marble floors and the fake plants that stood in pots every ten or so feet along the rounded curve of the front lobby windows. The lobby had to be fifty feet deep and two hundred feet long with a ceiling at twenty feet and the whole front of the building had windows from floor to ceiling.

Patrols, maybe with dogs. He spotted at least two sepa-
rate patrols casting shadows into the dimly lit entryway.
Kirk looked down at the sleeping guard, raised his gun over his head, and swiftly brought it down smashing the guard on the left temple. The guard grunted, and then passed out. Kirk sat him up so he looked like he was watching the TV

and took the keys that hung from his belt.
What is this place?

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He looked around, trying to see if anything looked familiar. It might be an old prison, or even an office building that was converted into a holding facility.

Kirk made his way back to the woman's cell and was happy to see that the hallway was still empty.

"Hold on, I got the keys,"

He could hear them moving inside as he shoved the keys into the lock. The keys were old and rusted, and made a creaking sound as they turned and finally clicked open. "Got it,"

The large wooden door swung open with a loud unnerving popping sound. A woman and a little girl stood squinting as bright light streamed in from the hallway. She was in her late twenties with wheat blond hair and was beat up and dirty from the conditions. The little girl looked up at him with a look of fear in her eyes. She hugged her mother's leg and smothered her face in her pants as if to hide. Her face was smudged with black grime and a small cut had dried blood above her right eye.

"You okay?" Kirk asked.

"Yeah, we're sure glad to see you, thank you so much for helping us. We heard you come in last night, and it sounded like they were going to kill you."

"Yeah, they might have, too,"

"Oh, you're bleeding." The woman gasped, and put a hand out as if her touch could heal him.

"It's okay. Just a few broken ribs, nothing I can't handle, now we've got to get you out of here. Just do as I say and follow me, okay?"

She nodded and the little girl peered out from behind her mother's leg and studied him with big round eyes. Kirk was 330 AARON

not sure how he was going to get out of here with a woman and a child in tow, but he knew he had to try. He led them to the door at the end of the hall and had them wait just inside so he could check to see if the coast was clear.

The main lobby looked empty, and Kirk noticed three elevators off to the left standing side by side like three magical doors offering them freedom or death depending on which one they chose.
Door number one, oh sorry you don't get the trip
to Hawaii, instead you get a one way ticket to hell, no refunds!

He had to hide them until he could find a way past the guards outside. The expanse between the desk and the waiting elevators was a vast open lobby with windows offering no hiding place. The guards who were making their rounds on the other side of the glass would see them fore sure.

Kirk looked around the desk, hoping to find something--

anything that would help.

Ah, a radio!
He took the radio from the fat guard's belt.

Here we go!
Kirk hit the talk button, "Intruder! Intruder at the rear of the building. Every available man go to the southeast end of the building!" Kirk ducked down behind the desk as he saw guards running past the windows, heading toward the back of the building.

"Okay," He leaned his head back into the hallway, and motioned for the two frightened captives to follow him. "Time to go,"

He hurried across the lobby and out the main door thinking that the elevators would only be needed if they needed to retreat. It was dark, and Kirk didn't know if it was early morning or late in the evening. The woman and her daughter followed right behind him without a word. The air was cool and

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sharp as they made their way across the lawn in the front of the building, and Kirk could see his breath puff out in front of him as he ran hunched over.

He found a large bush and had them hide behind it. They could see bouncing beams of light from flashlights as their captors searched for the intruders.

"Okay, you two stay here; I'll be right back,"

Kirk looked around and saw that they were in the middle of the woods somewhere. He saw a dirt road to the left, and it led to a gate that had two towers with snipers standing guard. The glow of a cigarette stood out like a tiny spark against the dark sky and one of the snipers took a drag. They didn't seem too concerned by the alert and didn't even act as if they were worried in the least.

Now what?

The fence was a double fence with a dog run in-between that held pit bulls and maybe something worse sniffing around and some were even sleeping. He saw a Jeep coming toward them with a gunner sitting on top holding a machine gun and a spotlight.

Kirk ducked down, he looked over to where the woman was hiding, and a sick feeling came over him. The Jeep stopped a few feet from them, and a guard stepped out and began to look around. He pulled out a cigarette and lit up, the light from the cigarette made his face look sinister in the dark and reminded Kirk of a movie he saw where, the Devil possessed a man, and this man had that same lost dead look in his eye.

Don't move! Just stay still!

He could just barely make out the woman and her blond 332 AARON

hair in the dark as they hid ten yards from where Kirk was. He cursed himself for not making sure they were closer to him as they ran. She had her hand over the little girl's mouth, and Kirk's heart jumped into his throat as he heard the girl cry out.
No!

Kirk jumped up, yelled, and started running toward the Jeep waving his arms as he ran. The guard dropped his cigarette and leveled his automatic machine gun at Kirk. He dropped the Glock on the ground behind him hoping that maybe the girl and her mother would find it and at least have something to defend themselves with.

"Stop--or I'll shoot!"

Kirk raised his hands in the air; he looked at the two hiding in the bushes. They backed away and crawled under some broken pallets that sat nearby in a twisted heap. He breathed a sigh of relief as the guards, in the confusion, forgot about the first scream.

Kirk was shoved into the Jeep and taken around back to a loading dock, where he was dumped on the hard concrete floor. After a few men beat him and spit on him, he was dragged back to his cell. The door slammed with a loud thud, and, once again, Kirk was alone in the dark.

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THE WOMAN HID UNDER a wooden pallet and held her hand over her daughter's mouth. She had never been as scared as she was now. If they found her, they would kill her, and her daughter for trying to escape.

She tried not to cry; she needed to be strong for her little girl. The whole complex was swarming with guards now and

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they all had flashlights and guns.

They will find us, for sure! Just stay hidden until morning.
This is better than the cell.
She and her child hid out all night with guards and searchlights passing within inches from them at times, and she thought of her brave rescuer and shuddered at the thought of what they planned to do to him.
He helped them. Why would he help them?
She held her little girl, who had silently sobbed herself to sleep. It would be morning soon, and she would have a completely new situation to get out of. With light their hiding place would not be enough to escape detection.
Looking around, she saw a small outbuilding about one hundred feet away. Maybe it was an electric building or a pump house of some kind; she knew they had to go there.