“In a minute,” Dar replied absently, typing in a final command.
“This is almost done.”
“Dar.” Kerry heard the crackle of a megaphone outside. “Now, please?” She tugged very gently on her lover’s uninjured arm.
“You there inside,” a voice boomed out. “We know you’ve got hostages. If you know what’s good for you, let them go.”
Dar reluctantly got up and joined Kerry and her mother behind the Red Sky At Morning 253
big computer consoles, where Doug and his co-worker were also crouched. She took out her cell phone and opened it, redialing Mark’s number.
“You stay where you are, or these guys get it,” the terrorist leader recited dutifully. “I got women in here, and I’ll waste ’em.”
Andrew gave him a look.
“That’s what they told us to say, sir,” the man rumbled apologetically. He deployed his men to either side of the doorway and told them to keep down. “They’re going by the plan, too. You sure this isn’t just part of the exercise?”
At that instant, the lights went off. A thick, dark silence fell over the room as the air conditioning stopped and the computers shut down in a sad, dying whirr of fans.
“Note to self.” Dar’s voice cut through the gloom. “Recommend independent UPS systems.”
“Jesus,” Kerry whispered.
“Doug, disconnect the box, and pull it over toward me,” Dar said quietly.
“Yes, ma’am.”
Andrew blinked, then blinked again to see if that would help him see anything in the darkened room. No such luck. His mind ran through the possibilities and didn’t much like any of them. “Figure they’re gonna toss something through them there winders next,” he muttered.
“Gas? Yeah,” the terrorist leader agreed softly. “We got masks.”
“Not enough of ’em.” Andrew let his eyes close as he stood up.
“Stay here. You hear something, get down.”
“Yes, sir.”
Doug crept across the tile floor dragging the big box. “Okay, here it is, ma’am.”
Dar felt the equipment, making sure the cover was tightly on and the back ports were secured. She thought a minute, then felt around her until her hand touched a box of fanfold paper intended for the big line printer nearby.
As is always the case with computer paper, it was nearly empty.
Dar inverted it and slid it down over her black box. Then she sat down comfortably on top of it and exhaled. “Okay. Whatever happens, keep your heads down and don’t move.”
In the darkness, she felt Kerry nestle closer to her, pressing their bodies together and sliding a hand to curl around Dar’s thigh.
“You’ve got one chance to come out,” the voice boomed.
Dar heard a slithering sound nearby, and something that sounded like dead fish being slapped on a dock. “Dad?”
“Hush.” Andrew’s voice echoed softly. “Just you stay down.”
“We are,” Kerry whispered back. “What are you doing?”
“Never you mind, kumquat. Just stay put, and keep yer head low.”
“I’m warning you!” their terrorist called. “You do anything, I start 254 Melissa Good shooting in here, and I won’t care what I hit!” A few whispered orders followed, and the shuffling, very faint, of booted feet. “We got gas masks, so don’t bother trying anything, not unless you want these hostages gassed!”
“Didn’t know they were selecting them for intelligence this year,”
Ceci muttered under her breath. “Nice.”
“Mom.” Dar bit back a smile, invisible as it was.
“Yeah, yeah, I know, they only pick SEALs who are smart enough to save the teams’ asses.”
“Don’t none of you be standing ’fore that door there,” Andrew rumbled softly.
The SEAL team leader stepped a pace closer. “You sure this isn’t just reg stuff, sir? They’re going right by the plan so far.”
“Ah don’t know,” Andrew replied. “But I am not taking chances with mah wife and my kids in here. Them folks had best hope they come in with them little paint balls and a lot of hollerin’, and not with anything worse, or it’s gonna get messy.”
A loud thump was heard. Then there was silence. Everyone waited, sweating in the motionless air.
Then everything happened at once. The top windows blew in, and hard, round things entered, bouncing off surfaces with wild abandon.
That was followed by a very strange noise, like an overshaken soda can being popped.
An acrid smell began to fill the room, then stopped as an indescribable noise started and the stink was replaced with a second overwhelming scent, this one chemical.
Dar wrapped her good arm around Kerry and ducked her head as popping noises started and a crash came from the front door. She could sense things happening around her, but the sounds didn’t evoke any logic, and the smell of smoke and sweat and chemical made her queasy.
Now men were yelling. The attacking SEALs poured in the door, and the explosive sound of guns firing filled the room. Tiny red tracers raced everywhere, dotting the walls and floor; then the yells turned to hollering as the odd noise returned, along with a loud whoop Dar recognized as her father.
“What in the hell is he doing?” Dar hissed to Ceci.
“You’re asking me?” her mother hissed back. “You’re the one who checked out the entire Jane’s weapons series from the library, remember?”
“Son of a bitch!” A yell rose up. “What the fuck!”
Now the noise sounded more like cattle being herded into a pen, one filled with Jell-O. Dar could hear bodies colliding, and the chemical smell became almost overwhelming. Then she heard something behind them.
Boots. Shuffling. The cocking of a shotgun.
Instinctively, Dar grabbed hold of Ceci and Kerry and pulled them Red Sky At Morning 255
all down to the floor, ignoring the pain in her arm as the world exploded behind her. She felt the shudder in the equipment they were leaning against, then heard a grunt, another cocking, and pressed her body against the floor.
Another shot. Pieces of plastic showered over them. The shouting continued on the other side of the room.
A red tracer danced lazily through the blackness.
Dar watched in stunned disbelief as it traveled over her chest and stopped. For a second, all she could hear was her own heartbeat turned into a thunder as her mind realized what was happening.
The shotgun cocked.
“Dad!” Dar let out a yell, knowing if she moved, she’d expose Kerry and her mother.
She closed her eyes.
Then there was a thud, and a curse, and the sound of something ripping.
Metal hitting flesh. Flesh hitting flesh.
An animal growl.
“All right.” A commanding voice rose over the chaos. “Hold it!
Everybody stand down!”
And then the lights came on.
“WHAT IN HELL is going on in here?” A tall, burly man strode into the room and put his hands on his hips. “I thought I—Andy?”
Andrew dropped the arm he was holding and straightened from a crouch, turning to face the newcomer. “’Lo, Steve.” His eyes anxiously checked the sprawl of bodies between the ruined computer consoles.
“You all okay?”
Ceci squirmed out from under Dar’s outstretched leg. “Fine.”
Kerry didn’t move an inch, preferring to remain where she was with both arms wrapped around her lover. “Yeah.”
Dar grimaced, shifting her weight off her bad arm as she met her father’s eyes. “Thanks.”
Andrew nodded, then returned his attention to the newcomers. The SEALs, both protectors and attackers, were sprawled everywhere, fatigues in jungle pattern and black smeared with paint and a thick, glutinous coating that also covered the floor and was spattered on walls, consoles, equipment, and every other surface within the room.