They could hear the high-pitched beep of the officer opening up his radio. Once he was done talking, his voice was considerably calmer.
“You could have hurt someone seriously. We need to talk about that. I understand you’re not alone in there. The boy said it looked like some people were being carried in. Have you got a little girl with you?”
Rudd’s eyes grew wide. “Like I said—I’m really sorry. I will pay for a new drone once I find my wallet. It’s just me and my family. My daughter’s actually in the bathtub right now.”
Rudd pointed his finger at Neve and then to the bathroom. She nodded and hurried to the back of the room, motioning with her gun for William and Quincy to bring Lily.
“Never a good idea to shoot a loaded gun around a kid,” the cop said through the door. “You need to open up right now.”
The woman rushed the three into the bathroom. The uncomfortable tightness of the room was revealed in the dim light from a single bulb in a double socket, and a window with a frosted pane.
Neve slid back the shower curtain and kneeled in front of Lily. “Listen, honey. I know this seems really strange. But we’re doing all this to protect you and William from getting hurt.”
“Including drugging you,” Quincy said.
“You,” Neve said, again displaying her pistol. “See if you can quietly get that window open.”
“That’s your exit strategy? I couldn’t begin to get my fat ass through there.”
“Wouldn’t that be a loss. Now move,” she said.
As Quincy grumbled something about bleach while inspecting the window, Neve leaned on the counter, tapping the countertop and trying to listen through the door.
“You can end this right now, you know,” William said. “You have no proof that my grandmother sent you. Just let us leave and go with that officer. He’s just a local cop; he’s here on a nuisance call. No one has to get hurt.”
“You don’t get it, do you?” she said. “Even after everything you’ve seen. You go with that cop, and eventually you and this extraordinary girl would end up in federal custody, which means no one will ever see you again. They’ve seen what she can do. They’ll take her away forever, get it? We’re trying to keep that from happening.”
“All I’m worried about now is that no one gets hurt, and you have filled this room with guns. I swear to you that I will make it clear we were not harmed by you—”
“Just shut up,” she said, and then forced herself to calm, looking at Lily. “I shouldn’t have said that honey, we’re all just a bit stressed right now. I need everyone to stay quiet. Please. No more talking. And get that window open.”
For several minutes, they watched Quincy struggle. The window, coated in years of grime, clearly hadn’t been opened for some time.
“It’s stuck,” Quincy said.
“Help him,” Neve said, motioning with her chin.
William slid by the woman. “Take that corner, and I’ll do this one. On the count of three.”
As they both pushed, the window slammed open so roughly that the glass cracked.
“Nice place you chose here,” Quincy said, peering outside. “Even nicer view of the alley. Is this where your ride is coming?”
“Is it big enough for us all to get through?”
“If I really sucked in my gut,” Quincy said.
“You’re the least of my concerns. Now we wait.”
Lily moved over to where William sat on the edge of the bathtub. Quincy unrolled a ridiculous amount of tissue and spread it out on the toilet lid, wincing as he sat.
“How much you guys going to ask in your ransom?” Quincy asked.
“I’m serious about shutting the hell up.” Neve came to lean on the door frame. “I need to hear—”
The sound of splintered wood came from outside, and then the breaking of glass. Heavy footsteps rushed across the room.
“Stay down!” Rudd yelled.
“What’s happening?” Neve asked, yanking open the bathroom door.
Rudd had his hand on his forehead, breathing loudly as he leaned against the wall.
“The cop. They shot the cop.”
“Who shot the cop?” Neve demanded.
“They’re outside. They must have heard the cop on the scanner. How’d they get here so fast? They’re gonna make it look like we shot through the door at the cop and he fired back. Shit… Kevin…”
“What about Kevin?”
“Stay in there, Neve—”
She pushed her way past him and then gasped. “Kevin!”
“Neve, don’t—” Rudd rushed after her.
“Now,” Quincy said, pointing to the window. “We’ve got to get out now.”
William nodded, reaching for Lily. “Come on.”
She immediately came to him. He began to lift her up when the sound of more bullets riddled the front room, along with the crashing of glass, followed by a scream.
“Lift her out!” William said, sliding to peer around the doorframe.
The front door was splintered with holes, the window nearly shot out. Kevin lay in the sunlight streaming through, covered in blood. Neve slumped, unmoving, on the floor in front of the bed, where she clearly had run into the line of fire.
“My God,” William whispered. Bodies on the floor. Bodies at the airport, in the field.
Rudd kneeled in the back corner with a AK-47, sweat pouring down his shaved head.
“They’ve got to have snipers out there,” Rudd gasped. “We can’t get out. Where’s the damn SUV?”
Neve’s hair was a matted dark red. Kevin’s clothes were stained the same color, his neck tilted unnaturally to the side.
William thought of Lois and her unblinking eyes in the headlights. The agents’ faces as they died, their skin turning yellow, their cheeks sinking, their bodies convulsing in pain.
He turned to Quincy. “Get Lily out that window and run.”
“William—!”
“I’m in here!” William yelled, coming to stand before the window. “I’m not hurt! Don’t shoot! I’m coming out!”
“William!” Rudd was standing now, running for him.
But William got to the door quicker, ripping it open and immediately shutting it. Fighting back the bile that rose to his throat at seeing the dead officer–-more bodies—he stepped over it and lifted his hands into the air.
The heat from the deserted Memphis street was immediately oppressive, rising like smoke as if the pavement were on fire. The blight was everywhere, from the outdated apartment complex across the street to the abandoned gas station next to it. On the roof of the complex, William could see dark figures, their guns pointed at him.
He slowly walked out and then took a sharp right, heading down the street.
“Stop!” came a command from a dark vehicle parked at the gas station. Another man, dressed in all black, was kneeling beside the driver’s-side door, his pistol aimed at him.
William continued to walk. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a white flash. An SUV passed on the intersecting street, turning behind a rundown tire store and down the alley stretching behind the motel.
“Stop! Right now!”
William kept on walking. Get out that window, Quincy. Get her out.
“Do not shoot!” William yelled. “Do you hear me? I am William Chance! There are innocent people in there! Do not shoot!”
He then calmly laid down on the street. She had to be out now. Quincy could fit through. Go. Go. Get in and don’t stop.
He knew no one anticipated this. The agents or police, whoever they were, were frantically talking about what to do. But the gunfire had stopped.
“Do not shoot!” William cried out.
A few moments later they were on him, all wearing dark sunglasses, their weapons drawn. He heard the squeal of tires and the car from the gas station was beside them.