Razon snapped his good hand into Salic’s jacket, reaching for the gun. Salic jumped back, and one of the soldiers cried out. A single quiet click followed.
Everyone in the room grew still. One of the soldiers had taken out a handgun with a suppressor on it and shot Razon in a panic. The scientist lay back, dead eyes staring open, Salic’s handgun slipping from his fingers.
“Oh, that poor man,” Kalyani said, moving over to kneel beside him.
At that moment, someone tackled one of the soldiers by the door, pulling him down from behind.
Shouting began immediately. I jumped out of my chair, reaching for the camera. Salic got it first, slamming one hand down on it, then reached toward his gun on the floor.
I cursed, scrambling away, throwing myself behind the stack of crates where Kalyani had taken cover a few moments before. Gunfire erupted in the room, and one of the crates near me threw up chips as a shot hit it.
“It’s Monica!” Ivy said, taking cover beside the desk. “She got out, and she’s attacking them.”
I dared peek around, in time to see one of the Abu Sayyaf suits fall to gunfire, toppling in the center of the room near Razon’s body. The others fired at Monica, who’d taken cover in the stairwell that led down to where we’d been captive.
“Holy hell!” J.C. said, crouching beside me. “She escaped on her own. I think I might have to start liking that woman!”
Salic yelled in Tagalog. He hadn’t come after me, but had taken cover near his guards. He clutched the camera close, and was joined by two other soldiers as they ran down the stairs from above.
This gunfire would draw attention soon, I guessed. Not soon enough. They had Monica pinned. I could barely see her, hiding in her stairwell, trying to find a way to get out and fire on the men with the weapon she’d stolen from the guard she’d tackled. His feet stuck out of the doorway near her.
“Okay, skinny,” J.C. said. “This is your chance. Something has to be done. They’ll get her before help comes, and we lose the camera. It’s hero time.”
“I . . .”
“You could run, Stephen,” Tobias said. “There’s a room right behind us. There will be windows. I’m not saying you should do it; I’m giving you the options.”
Kalyani whimpered, huddled down in the corner. Ivy lay under a table, fingers in her ears, watching the firefight with calculating eyes.
Monica tried to duck out and fire, but bullets tore into the wall beside her, forcing her back. Salic was still yelling something. Several of the soldiers started firing on me, driving me back under cover.
Bullets popped against the wall above me, chips of stone dropping on my head. I breathed in and out. “I can’t do this, J.C.”
“You can,” he said. “Look, they’re carrying grenades. Did you see those on the belts of the soldiers? One will get smart, toss one of those down the stairwell, and Monica’s gone. Dead.”
If I let them keep the camera—that kind of power, in the hands of men like this . . .
Monica yelled.
“She’s hit!” Ivy called.
I scrambled out from behind the crates and ran for the fallen soldier at the center of the room. He’d dropped a handgun. Salic noticed me as I grabbed the weapon and raised it. My hands shook, quivering.
This is never going to work. I can’t do this. It’s impossible.
I’m going to die.
“Don’t worry, kid,” J.C. said, taking my wrist in his own. “I’ve got this.”
He pulled my arm to the side and I fired, barely looking, then he moved the gun in a series of motions, pausing just briefly for me to pull the trigger each time. It was over in moments.
Each of the armed men dropped. The room went completely still. J.C. released my wrist, and my arm fell leaden at my side.
“Did we do that?” I asked, looking at the fallen men.
“Damn,” Ivy said, unplugging her ears. “I knew there was a reason we kept you around, J.C.”
“Language, Ivy,” he said, grinning.
I dropped the pistol—probably not the smartest thing I’ve ever done, but then again, I wasn’t exactly in my right mind. I hurried to Razon’s side. He had no pulse. I closed his eyes, but left the smile on his lips.
This was what he’d wanted. He’d wanted them to kill him so that he couldn’t be forced to give up his secrets. I sighed. Then, checking a theory, I shoved my hand into his pocket.
Something pricked my fingers, and I brought them out bloodied. “What . . . ?”
I hadn’t expected that.
“Leeds?” Monica’s voice said.
I looked up. She was standing in the doorway to the room, holding her shoulder, which was bloodied. “Did you do this?”
“J.C. did it,” I said.
“Your hallucination? Shot these men?”
“Yes. No. I . . .” I wasn’t sure. I stood up and walked over to Salic, who had been hit square in the forehead. I leaned down and picked up the camera, then twisted one piece of it, my back to Monica.
“Uh . . . Mister Steve?” Kalyani said, pointing. “I do not think that one is dead. Oh my.”
I looked. One of the guards I’d shot was turning over. He held something in a bloodied hand.
A grenade.
“Out!” I yelled at Monica, grabbing her by the arm as I charged out of the room.
The detonation hit me from behind like a crashing wave.
Eight
Exactly one month later, I sat in my mansion, drinking a cup of lemonade. My back ached, but the shrapnel wounds were healing. It hadn’t been that bad.
Monica did not give the cast on her arm much notice. She held her own cup, seated in the room where I’d first met her.
Her offer today had not been unexpected.
“I’m afraid,” I said, “you’ve come to the wrong person. I must refuse.”
“I see,” Monica said.
“She’s been working on her scowl,” J.C. said appreciatively from where he leaned against the wall. “It’s getting better.”
“If you would look at the camera . . .” Monica said.
“When I saw it last, it was in at least sixteen pieces,” I said. “There’s just not anything to work with.”
She narrowed her eyes at me. She still suspected I’d dropped it on purpose as the explosion hit. It didn’t help that Razon’s body had been burned to near unrecognizability in the subsequent explosions and fire that had consumed the building. Any items he’d had on him—secrets that explained how the camera really worked—had been destroyed.
“I’ll admit,” I said, leaning forward, “that I’m not terribly sorry to discover you can’t fix the thing. I’m not certain the world is prepared for the information it could provide.” Or, at least, I’m not certain the world is prepared for people like you controlling that information.
“But—”
“Monica, I don’t know what I could do that your engineers haven’t. We’re simply going to have to accept the fact that this technology died with Razon. If what he did was anything other than a hoax. To be honest, I’m increasingly certain it was one. Razon was tortured beyond what a simple scientist could have endured, yet did not give the terrorists what they wanted. It was because he couldn’t. It was all a sham.”
She sighed and stood up. “You are passing up on greatness, Mister Leeds.”
“My dear,” I said, standing, “you should know by now that I’ve already had greatness. I traded it for mediocrity and some measure of sanity.”
“You should ask for a refund,” she said. “Because I’m not certain I have found either in you.” She took something from her pocket and dropped it on the table. A large envelope.
“And this is?” I asked, taking it.