Wrong Time (18 page)

When the cab pulled up to the large
building where Markus was supposed to be staying, Nathan paid the cab driver,
and they walked up to the building. Markus’s place was located on the top floor,
but there was one problem. Nathan and Sam couldn’t get into the building. The
front door was locked, and there was nothing but a call box on the outside that
connected to all of the rooms.

“Great. I have no idea how we’re going
to get in,” Sam said.

“That’s easy,” Nathan said.

He walked up to the call box and
pressed about thirty of the buttons very quickly. The door opened, and they
hurried inside.

“How did you do that?” Sam asked.

“In a building this big, you have to
figure that someone is already expecting company, so they will just let the
person in upon hearing the buzz from below.”

 
“Well, you’re actually really useful to
have around sometimes.”

“Thanks. I’m glad to know that I’m not
just a pretty face to you,” Nathan said and winked.

The two of them found the lift and
called it. Once it came and they were inside, Sam set the bag down and took out
everything that they would need to kill Markus.

“All right. Are you ready to do this?”
Sam asked Nathan.

“Yes, let’s finish this.”

The door opened, and they stepped out.
They walked to room 806, and Sam quietly placed her ear up against it.

“There’s definitely someone in there,”
Sam whispered.

“Do you think that you can kick this
door in, or am I going to have to do it?” Sam asked.

“I’ve got this,” Nathan said while
stepping up to the door.

Sam couldn’t help but doubt Nathan’s
ability to just swiftly kick the door down. Little did she know that Nathan
actually had a bit of experience in taking down
doors.
He had once locked himself out of his house in nothing but his underwear and a
shirt. It was cold outside, and no one else was home. He had been forced to
kick in his own back door. Was it stupid? Probably, but what else was he going
to do? Sam readied her weapon as Nathan got into position.

“Go,” Sam said.

With one quick kick, Nathan kicked the
door open, and Sam jumped through the doorway. There in front of her stood the
man that they had been looking for. There stood Markus Boyd. As Sam aimed and
pulled the trigger, another man tackled her from the side, causing her shot to
go left and her gun to go flying through the air. Nathan entered the room. He
saw Markus retreating further back into the apartment and two other men rushing
toward them. He was able to fire a shot into the head of one of the men before
the second one reached him. The man tackled Nathan to the floor. Sam, meanwhile,
was having her own issues. The man who had tackled her was now on top of her
and had been punching her repeatedly. She could only deflect the blows with her
arms, which hurt quite a bit, considering the fact that one of her arms still
hadn’t healed from the beating she had taken at the hands of Jacob. She waited
until the man started to throw a left hook and took her right hand and used his
own motivation to flip him over. She got on top of him and hit him squarely in
the throat. The blow took the man’s breath, so as he was clutching his throat,
she pulled out her knife and thrust it straight into his chest. Nathan had been
wrestling with the other man on the floor as best he could when he looked up
and saw that Markus had returned with a gun of his own. He was pointing it
directly at Sam. Nathan quickly threw the man off of him and retrieved his
knife. He threw it at Markus. Just as Markus was firing, the knife stuck squarely
in his right thigh, causing his shot to be inaccurate. Markus dropped his gun
and stumbled backward. Sam hurried to her gun and started to point it at Markus.
At that moment, she heard a click and turned to see the man who Nathan had been
fighting with pointing a gun at the back of his head.

“Go, sir,” the man said to Markus.

Markus limped away as fast as he could.

“If you want this man to live, you’re
going to stay very still,” the man said to Sam after his boss was gone.

“The local law enforcement will be here
soon. Do you really want to answer the question of why we’re all holding guns
and there are two dead bodies here?” Sam asked.

“My boss will pay off the police, and
I’ll be free by tonight. I wonder if your superiors will be so generous.”

 
Nathan slowly turned to face the barrel
and the man holding it.

 
“What are you doing? I didn’t say that
you could move.”

“Relax. I just want to be able to see
it when it comes,” Nathan said.

Nathan knew that they had to get out of
the building, and they needed to do it fast if they weren’t going to be
arrested, so he formed a plan. It was a poor one at best, but he had to try
something.

“Hey you, look at me. If you hurt him, I’ll
make you suffer in ways that you can’t even imagine,” Sam said.

When the man temporarily cut his eyes
to Sam, Nathan acted. In a quick motion, he grabbed the man’s hand and thrust
it upward. The gun fired straight into the ceiling. With his other hand, he
punched the man in the ribs, and as he started to crumble to the floor, Nathan
took the gun from him. He motioned for Sam to come with him. She ran to Nathan,
but once she was beside him, she did something surprising. She shot the man
twice in the head.

“Why did you do that?” Nathan asked.

“We don’t need to leave any loose ends.
It’s already bad enough that we lost Markus.”

The two of them quickly made their way
back to the lift and started down to the ground floor.

“When these doors open, I want you to
hold me,” Sam said.

“What?” Nathan asked.

“Just do it.”

 
When the doors opened, there were cops
everywhere. Sam suddenly burst into hysterical tears and Nathan, as she had
told him to, held her. The two of them walked straight through the sea of cops
who were going upward. Once they were outside, all of Sam’s fake hysterics
ceased. They quickly called a cab and went back to their room. When they were
back inside of the room, Nathan asked the most obvious thing.

“What are we going to do now?”
 

“We’re getting out of here. We need to
get to the airport and get home as soon as we can,” Sam answered.

“But we have Markus on the run.
Shouldn’t we stay and try to track him?”

 
“There were bound to be security cameras
around that building and inside of it. It won’t be long until our pictures are
on every television station here in France. We have to go home now.”

 
The two gathered their things and quickly
made their way to the airport. They took the quickest flight leaving for
Washington. Once they were on the plane, Sam turned to Nathan.

“What you did back there was both
incredible and stupid. Why would you have taken that guy on when he had a gun
to your head?” Sam asked.

“I just knew that we had to go right
then. I didn’t want to be selfish and land both of us in a jail cell. My plan
was either going to work, or I was going to give you an opportunity to escape.”

“Don’t ever do that again. I don’t know
what I would do if I lost you. I would rather spend the rest of my life in a
prison cell with you than spend the rest of my life without you,” Sam said as
she leaned over in the seat and kissed him.

“All right. I won’t, but what are we
going to tell everyone back in Washington?”

“We’re going to tell them that we have
Markus on the run, and now he knows just how scared he should be.”

Chapter 17

In Washington, Michael went to see
James again. The mood of their session was a bit different today, though.

“I have good news for you, Michael,”
James said.

“Really, what is it?” Michael asked.

“I think that I’m going to sign off on
you going back to active duty.”

 
That statement threw Michael into an
emotional tailspin. He wanted to get back to work initially, but it seemed like
the more time that he spent with James, the more he started to come into his
own.

“Are you sure that’s a good idea? I
still don’t know if I can do my job yet.”

“There’s only one way to find out what
you can or can’t do, and that’s to throw yourself into the situation. I believe
that you’re capable of much more than you give yourself credit for. You’ll do
your job, not so you won’t feel less than capable, but instead, because you
know that the people around you are counting on you. You can do this, and you
will do it,” James said confidently.

“And what if I let everyone down? What
if I still can’t fire a shot?”

“Then your squad will be no better or
worse for having you around. You can come back here, and we can sort through
everything if it turns out that you’re not ready, but please believe in
yourself, and buy into what you and all of the people around you are doing.
Even when you’re forced to do things that go against your morals, realize that
it’s all for something more important than you or anyone else involved. You
should do everything as if it were for Jess or any of your other friends,
because in a way, that’s who you are doing this for. Every time you do your job,
theirs becomes remarkably easier and even more important, safer.”

Michael thought for a few seconds. He
didn’t know how he felt about all of this or how he would feel if he had to
kill another human being, but he finally realized that none of it mattered
right now. He had to pull his own weight so the people around him didn’t have
to continue to do it for him. He had to keep the people he loved safe.

“All right. I don’t know how I feel
about this, but if you think this is the right course of action, then I’ll do
it, and I’ll do it to the best of my ability,” Michael said as he got up from
the couch.

James laughed a little at Michael’s
eagerness.

“You can sit back down. It’s not like
you’re going to be rejoining everyone at this moment. I’ll get this paper to Campbell
after we’re done here. For now, I wanted to show you something,” James said.

“What is it?”

“Well, you couldn’t even make rice the
other night. I’m going to show you a few things that you can make so you don’t
almost kill anyone else while trying to make dinner.”

 
Michael looked at him very strangely.

“Hey, it isn’t my job, but if I let you
get out of here without preventing poor Jess from tasting another meal like the
one that you described the other day, then I just won’t be able to live with
myself,” James said with a slight chuckle.

It was really odd. James had turned
into more of a mentor or a life coach than a psychologist to Michael. James had
always had strange methods when dealing with people. He didn’t just sit them
down on a couch and listen to their feelings while writing on some notepad.
Instead, he tried to be what each individual person needed him to be, and all
Michael needed was someone who would tell him exactly how things were and then
give him a slight push in the right direction, whether that was where he wanted
to go or not.

“So is this our last session?” Michael
asked as the two men worked in the kitchen.

“Officially yes, but I’ll let you in on
a little secret. The CIA pays me by the hour, regardless of whether I have any
patients within that hour, so you can pretty much just drop by anytime you want
to as long as I’m not with someone else,” James said.

“All right, that’s good to know.”

* * * * *

Back at home, Jess, Lee, and Trish were
looking at the headlines about the facility in Atlanta on the news. It had
burned to the ground, and the news channels were predictably calling it a
terrorist attack. After seeing the still smoldering ashes from the building,
Jess couldn’t help but feel a bit of a twinge in her heart. She hadn’t done
anything to literally start the fire, but she had certainly helped plan the
attack, and somehow, even though what she did was ultimately right, it just
didn’t sit too well with her.

“What’s wrong?” Lee asked while
studying her face.

“I just feel a little guilty,” Jess
answered.

“You have nothing to feel guilty about.
We did a great job here, and hitting their largest facility on American soil
will certainly send a message,” Lee said.

“That or royally piss them off,” Trish
said.

Lee hadn’t wanted to mention the fact
that attacking their enemies in such an underhanded way may open themselves up
to more attacks like the one that had occurred at their office.

“You know, you really didn’t have to
bring that up,” Lee said to Trish.

“No, it’s okay. She’s right. We
probably need to have a defense plan against the retribution that will be
coming,” Jess said.

 
“All right, well . . .” Trish said before
the sound of the phone ringing interrupted her.

Jess grabbed the phone. After a few
moments of talking, she hung up.

“Well?” Lee asked.

“It was Campbell. We’re meeting him at
his home in an hour,” Jess said.

“Did he say what it was about?” Trish
asked.

“No, but it sounded very serious.”

Campbell had just hung up the phone
with Jess, and he was very stressed. He had gotten word that Nathan and Sam’s
mission ultimately failed but that Markus was there, and he had been wounded.
With Zane, Dan, and Burt arriving back in town, he was calling the entire crew
together, minus Nathan and Sam, to talk about how they were going to move
forward. He no longer had a clear plan, and he was hoping that he wasn’t going
to have to use the only ace up his sleeve. He didn’t want to have to use a boy
to get Markus. Maybe someone will have some type of idea so I can avoid what is
probably inevitable, Campbell thought. He was tired and emotionally drained. He
had gotten Zane hurt, lost some great soldiers, and his office had been
destroyed all over the last few days. The sad thing was that all of that didn’t
even scratch the surface of the pressure and guilt he was feeling. Every minute
that Markus was still out there was another minute his family had to spend in
hiding, and it was another minute he had to spend in his large empty house
alone. Then there was the guilt he felt for the lives that were lost in Dallas.
He felt that if he had only chosen to act quicker, then things would have been
drastically different. How do you atone for that? How do you explain to the thousands
of families that you’re sorry and that you dropped the ball on this one? Do you
even deserve forgiveness? All of these questions and feelings Campbell wrestled
with in his mind but never let anyone see. He had to appear strong for the
morale of everyone around him. If he didn’t feel confident in what they were
doing, then no one would, or at least that’s what he kept telling himself.

* * * * *

Back at James’s house, the two men had
just finished up in the kitchen when Michael received a phone call from Jess
telling him that they were supposed to meet Campbell in a few minutes, and
considering the fact that he had the car, he needed to come pick them up. Michael
immediately, and as politely as possible, left James’s house and drove over to
get his friends. Once they were all at Campbell’s home, they saw some familiar
faces that they hadn’t seen in quite some time. Zane and Dan were there. All of
them told their stories about what had been going on with each one of them, and
after everyone had caught up, Campbell began their meeting.

“I have called you all here because
Nathan and Sam’s mission failed. They did locate Markus, and they even wounded
him, but in hindsight, I probably should have sent more people because they
found themselves outnumbered once they reached his apartment,” Campbell said.

Michael felt a large amount of regret
sweep over him. He couldn’t help but feel that if he had been there, things
might have been different.

 
Campbell continued.

“This leaves us at a bit of a dead end.
Nathan and Sam can’t get back into France because any cover that they may have
had there is now blown, and the option of striking the facility in France isn’t
a realistic one.”

“Why is it unrealistic?” Dan asked.

“It’s on foreign soil. It would cause
one hell of a political storm if we got caught with an army attacking over
there, and given the fact that we would be in the middle of a firefight there,
I’m pretty sure that we would make a little too much noise to be under the
French authority’s radar.”

“What other options do we have?” Zane
asked.

Campbell told him about Markus’s son.

 
“I don’t really feel comfortable
involving a child in all of this, so if anyone has any bright ideas, then now
would be the time to speak up,” Campbell said.

“Is there any chance that we could
cooperate with the French government to take down the facility there?” Jess
asked.

“That would be ideal, but there’s one major
problem with it. We’ve bought weapons and given jobs to Markus for years now.
How is it going to look to the public when they find that out? How do we know that
the French aren’t going to have a convenient leak as soon as we give them the
information? I can just see the headline now . . .US funds terrorist attack on
its own soil,” Campbell said.

The room was dead silent for a moment.

“I have poured through everything on
the device that we brought in, and there are several records of the French
buying from Markus, too,” Lee said.

“What’s your point, Mr. Higgins?” Campbell
asked.

“His point is that the French government
wouldn’t want the public to know what’s going on any more than we do,” Trish
said.

“Right. I really don’t see why we
couldn’t let different governments around the world know exactly what’s going
on. Pretty much everyone has been screwed over by Markus at one point or
another. What government is going to want to run to the public with this information?”
Lee asked.

“I see your point, but you have to look
at the big picture. If we just blew the lid off this whole thing and let all the
world leaders know what was going on, it might create problems for Markus, but
it would also create an opportunity for him.”

 
“How do you figure that?” Michael asked.

“Most modern super powers would purge
anything that had Markus Boyd’s name on it from their land, and in turn, force
him into hiding in a third world country. He would still have facilities there because
while countries like our own and France don’t really need to have help from
him, others do. Do you believe that places like Iran, North Korea, and Syria
would simply abandon their partnership with him because they had been misled? I
don’t. Instead, I think Markus would be forced to pour all of his energy into
helping these third world countries, and with his kind of money and influence,
the difference between our own fire power and a country like Iran’s becomes
significantly smaller. When you separate the world between countries that do
things reasonably and countries that only want power, it’s a dangerous thing.
That’s how large scale wars that span multiple boarders are started,” Campbell
explained.

“Okay, but maybe we could use the
France situation to test the waters. We could share some
intel
with a likeminded people and maybe end all of this in the process,” Jess said.

Campbell thought for a moment.

“Zane, I have something that I want to
talk to you about,” Campbell said.

“What is it?” Zane asked.

“I have a new job for you, if you want
it.”

“What will I be doing?”

 
“I want you to be my advisor and second
in command. I want you to check every major decision that I make, and if
anything were to happen to me, I want you to lead my team.”

“I’m honored, but are you sure that you
want me to do this?”

 
“I am. Your first order of business will
be to tell me what you think of all this. Would you try to cooperate with the
French government in this situation?”

 
Zane thought for a minute.

“It’s risky, but I would do it. We
don’t have any other ideas, and Jess hasn’t had a bad idea yet from what I’ve
heard. I would stand by this decision.”

“Great, then it’s decided. Mr. Higgins,
I want you to get me copies of everything that we have on Markus, and first
thing tomorrow, I’ll get in contact with the French government and turn over a
copy of our evidence. As for you, Michael, I would like to congratulate you on
being reinstated for duty. Get ready, because when everything is set, you’ll be
going with Nathan and Sam back to France,” Campbell said.