The Agent's Daughter (31 page)

“
Human!” Evan said.
“You’re talking about Laura.”

“
The night Laura showed up
at work seemed an ideal time to try it out. I had one of the
specially modified large animal test cans in my office. They have
an electronic timer on them so that you can get out of the room
that contains the test animal before they go off. Anyway, I set the
timer on the FCAN for thirty minutes and had one of my men go into
the parking structure and shove it under the driver’s seat of her
car where no one would find it. I also had him loosen a brake line
a little on her car so that when she crashed it would look like an
accident. It worked perfectly. Her accident looked real. Since
Laura didn’t wake up afterward, the doctors just assumed that there
had been a head trauma.”

Evan stood motionless and looked to the
side, deep in thought. Everything that he knew about Laura’s
accident was wrong, even her being in a coma.

“
But you said that the
formula would last a month,” Evan said, looking back at William.
“She has been in the hospital for six months.”

“
That’s right,” William
said. “The formula does work for about a month. Around that time,
it starts to wear off, and she starts to get more sensation and
starts to move around more. She looks to everyone as though she is
starting to come out of the coma. At that point, I just have
someone disguised as a doctor walk into Laura’s room to inject her
with another dose of the raw nerve compound.”

“
So your plan is to keep
injecting her with this nerve compound forever?” Evan
yelled.

“
That was the plan in the
beginning,” William said as he stopped pacing and turned to Evan.
“Inject her for a year or two until the agency just gave up on her
and turned over her files to her boss. That would be
me.”

“
They wouldn’t give up on
her,” Melina cried.

“
You’re right. They might
not. So I have a new plan. You see I wasn’t satisfied with the new
nerve formula, so I kept experimenting with the new methodology
that I had discovered. Then, a few days ago, I made another
breakthrough. I created a formula that I calculate will extend the
duration of the nerve compound from one month to several hundred
years.”

“
Why didn’t you try that
one out on yourself?” Evan said.

“
Funny, Evan,” William
said. “But I was, of course, worried about accidental exposure. I
even left detailed instructions for an antidote to the formula in
my lab notebook, just in case.”

“
You are not going to
inject her with that new formula,” Evan said. He stepped forward to
where he was face-to-face with William.

“
Evan, I already have,”
William said, followed by an exaggerated grin. “I had her injected
with the new formula this afternoon right after you left. It had
been about a month since the last injection and she was getting a
little too ‘alert’.”

Evan had heard enough.

In one lightning fast motion, he stepped
back on one foot and thrust his other foot forward with a side kick
that connected with William’s midsection, causing him to double
forward. Without stopping, Evan reached down, grabbed William by
the neck, and forced him to the front so that he became a shield
between himself and the two gunmen. William struggled in vain as
Evan reached into William’s jacket and found his gun in its
holster. Evan quickly pulled it out and pointed it at William’s
head. Melina and David inched backward toward the wall at the edge
of the building as the two gunmen raised their weapons at Evan and
William.

“
If either one of you even
twitches, I will blow his head off,” Evan said through clenched
teeth as he looked alternately at both gunmen.

Nobody moved. It was quiet as everyone took
a deep breath and assessed the situation. Melina had never seen her
dad quite this angry.

The silence was pierced by a loud
high-pitched hissing noise, followed closely by two even louder
thunderclap pops. It sounded as if giant balloons had exploded on
the roof. With that, the two gunmen fell to the floor of the roof
and began writhing wildly. Mixed in with the sound of the gunmen’s
legs involuntarily scraping in the gravel of the roof was the
distinct sound of crackling static.

Evan smiled. He looked at the wires hanging
out of the gunmen’s bodies, and he knew that they had been hit by
an LRED. Still holding William, Evan picked him up in the air and
threw him to the ground.

“
Give me one reason why I
shouldn’t shoot you now,” Evan said as he raised the gun toward
William.

“
Daddy, no!” Melina yelled
from behind William.

Evan lowered the gun as William composed
himself and got to his hands and knees with his head down, looking
at the roof. In the quiet of the moment, everyone became aware that
there was the sound of sirens. Many of them.

David leaned over the retaining wall and
looked down the street. “Holy cow! I think the whole Dallas Police
Department is coming down the street!”

As Evan looked over at David, William
grabbed one of the gunman’s weapons, sprang to his feet, and lunged
toward Melina. He grabbed her by the neck and dragged her the few
feet remaining to the edge of the roof, holding her in front of him
with his gun pointed at her just as Evan had done to him.

Evan looked back at William and raised his
weapon. “Now you know that I can hit a fly at this distance. Let go
of her right now or I will kill you.”

“
Now, you wouldn’t want to
do that,” William said. “This gun might accidentally go off in the
direction of your daughter. So why don’t you back away and lay down
the gun.”

“
That’s not going to
happen,” Evan said as he pointed the gun at William’s head. “Are
you okay Melina?”

“
Not a problem, Dad,”
Melina said.

William looked over the edge of the building
and saw a sea of police vehicles pulling up to the front.

“
Get back!” William said
as he turned back to Evan. “Get back away from me.”

The sight of the massive police presence had
suddenly made William agitated. Evan worried that in his nervous
state William might just accidentally shoot Melina. He had to think
of something fast.

Then it came to him.

Evan bent down on one knee and appeared to
tie one of his shoes.

“
What are you doing?”
William said in a panicked voice.

“
Nothing to worry about,”
Evan said, still looking down. “Just tying one of my
shoes.”

Evan stood up and took off his jacket,
leaving it in a heap at his feet. Then he started walking backwards
slowly.

“
Melina,” Evan said,
looking her in the eye, “Let me know if the pizza guy shows
up.”

Then, Evan subtlety pointed to each of his
exposed wrists. He was not wearing the watch any more.

Melina smiled. She knew what that meant.

She positioned herself as best she as could
into a fighting stance and waited. Nobody said a word as the wail
of sirens continued to dominate the sound in the background. Evan
continued to back up and was now twenty feet away from William and
Melina. He crossed his arms and stood there staring at William.

“
Did someone here order a
pepperoni pizza?” a loud voice boomed from underneath Evan’s
crumpled jacket on the floor of the roof.

William jumped nervously and looked around
for where the sound was coming from, momentarily loosening his grip
on Melina. That was the moment she needed. She leaned forward and
sent an elbow backward connecting with William’s forehead. Stunned,
he let go of Melina. She stepped away from him and then turned
around and leaped toward him delivering a side kick to his
midsection that caused him to bend over and drop his gun. William
reached to pick it up, but Melina bent down, grabbed the gun and
tossed it aside. Then she stood up right in front of William.

“
This is for my mom!” she
said as she jumped in the air and delivered a roundhouse kick that
landed on the side of William’s head.

William crumpled to the ground next to the
edge of the wall, groaning in pain.

Evan walked over to Melina and stood in
front of her.

“
Melina, I am so proud of
you,” he said as he looked in her eyes. “I always knew you would
make a great agent.”

Then he took her in his arms and gave her
the biggest hug he had ever given her. A tear ran down his cheek as
he rested it on the top of her head.

“
That was the most awesome
display of karate I have ever seen!” David said as he ran up to the
two of them.

“
Actually, that was krav
maga,” Evan said without looking up.

“
Oh… I’m sorry,” David
said. “That was the most awesome-”

David stopped and focused his eyes beyond
Evan and Melina across the roof.

“
Uh, I think I just saw
someone move in the shadows behind you,” David
whispered.

“
Angela, you can come out
now,” Evan said, again without looking up. “My daughter has the
situation under control.”

Evan stopped hugging Melina and turned
around as Angela stepped from the shadows, lowered her weapon and
walked toward him followed by seven Dallas SWAT team members. She
put her gun back in its holster as she approached and stood in
front of Evan.

They shared a smile as Evan held out his
hand. “Thank you, Angela.”

Angela took his hand and drew him toward her
in a hug. “Any time, Evan.”

…………………………
.

Melina sat in the SWAT van with her feet
dangling out the back door. It was parked in front of the building,
but it was behind the police line, so she had some privacy from the
herd of news organizations that had descended on the scene. Evan
and Angela were helping the police search the building and gather
clues they could use to help them unlock the secrets of William’s
enterprise. Travis was in front of the SWAT van asking a poor SWAT
team member question after question about his equipment. Melina
looked out at the sea of red and blue flashing lights from dozens
of Dallas Police squad cars parked in front of the building on the
street. All was in chaos around her, but she was at peace.

“
Hey Melina!” Travis said
as he ran around the corner of the van. “Look who I
found.”

Travis ran away and disappeared back behind
the van. Melina gave him a curious look as she got up and started
to follow him around the corner. She stopped in her tracks when she
came face to face with Alex, their faces just inches apart.

“
Hey,” she said as she
moved her face back only slightly from his.

“
Hey,” he said nervously,
his face frozen in place. “I need to explain-”

“
I know what happened,”
Melina said. Then she grabbed him around the neck and drew him
toward her, her face buried in his chest. Alex put his arms around
her shoulders and gently squeezed her, his chin resting on the top
of her head. They stood there in silence amid the chaos and the
noise, slowly swaying as if they were being blown by the
breeze.

They had held each other like that for
several minutes before Melina moved her head to look up at Alex. He
moved his head too, and they found themselves face to face, their
lips almost touching. Neither of them knew what to say, but they
remained frozen their lips still close. Melina closed her eyes and
tilted her head a little, and Alex moved his head downward. When
their lips met, he grabbed her around the waist. They pressed their
lips harder together and held each other in a tight embrace as they
kissed.

“
Melina!” a voice called
out.

Melina and Alex quickly unlocked their
embrace and stepped away from each other.

“
Melina!” Angela said as
she walked up to them. “There you are. Hello Alex.”

Alex nodded in return.

“
Angela, what is the
matter?” Melina asked.

“
It’s starting to get a
little crazy around here, so your father wants me to get you out of
here immediately. I have your brother in the car. We are going to
stay at an agency safe house tonight.”

Melina turned to Alex, who was still dazed
by the kiss. “I guess I have to go,” she said.

Angela grabbed Melina by the hand and led
her toward the sidewalk. Melina looked back at Alex and waved as
she disappeared around the corner.

Evan stood bent over the side of Laura’s
hospital bed with his face buried in her pillow, his face next to
hers. He had been a fixture at her side since the previous night’s
escape from William’s building, and he had fallen asleep. Because
Laura was a witness to William’s scheme, Evan did not feel
comfortable leaving her alone until he was sure everyone involved
had been captured. He had sent Melina to a safe house for the night
for the same reason.

Although it was morning, the room was dark
with the lights off. The sun barely peeked through around the heavy
curtains on the window. Arthur had promised Evan that he would put
every agency chemist to work on creating the antidote for the nerve
agent that had been injected into Laura. He had ordered them to
work straight through until they came up with it. Evan was not
leaving Laura’s side until they did.

The door to the room opened, and the room
was filled with light from the hallway as Melina entered. Travis
and Angela followed close behind.