“You aren’t under arrest, ma’am. May we enter?”
“You may not,” Lynn said, stopping at the end of the hall to stand at the door of the kitchen.
The screen door swung open. Three men entered, all taking off their dark sunglasses. Outside the door, more men stood waiting.
She rose her arm before Roxy, who was holding out her phone like a weapon.
“Don’t take one more step, sucker. I’ll stream all this on Facebook and you can kiss your pension goodbye,” Roxy said.
“I’m not worried about Facebook at the moment, ma’am. I’m sorry for the intrusion, but this is a matter of national security.”
“Dammit,” Roxy swore, repeatedly thumping her phone. Lynn watched as the Facebook app failed to open. Roxy tried to swipe the screen to the phone icon to dial 9-1-1, to no avail.
“You need to leave my house immediately,” Lynn said.
“We intend to leave, ma’am, as soon as you are packed and ready to go.”
“I won’t be going anywhere. This is my house. You have no right to come in here—”
“Ma’am, this is an order from the director of the FBI.” The man held out a sealed envelope. “Please read it in its entirety. We have a plane ready to take you to Washington.”
“So is that who you claim to be with these days? The FBI?” Roxy asked. “I still have the aches and pains from my last tango with you assholes.”
Lynn strode across the kitchen, with Roxy pumping her arms to keep up. Lynn seized the letter, breaking the government seal.
“What is this crap?” Roxy said, peering over her shoulder. “For the greater good of the nation, it is imperative that you come under the protection of the federal government. She’s eighty years old, you jerk offs. What do you think she’s going to do? Let loose the bombs she’s got stashed in the pantry?”
Lynn could barely hear Roxy’s continued berating of the agents, as all of the words began to blur together. Beneath the name of the director of the FBI was penmanship so familiar that she ached to read it.
The order was co-signed by U.S. Senator Kate Roseworth.
SEVEN
William didn’t have to strain to see the smoke. Even though they were halfway across the city at this point, it gushed across the sky.
“It’s a very good thing we got you away from those people when we did, Mr. Chance,” said the man in the front passenger seat.
“There was a child in there!” William exploded.
“Hostage situations can sometimes end very badly.”
William couldn’t take his eyes off the smoke. Had that been the SUV that the woman, Neve, had talked about? Could Quincy and Lily had gotten out safely in time?
“Give yourself a moment, Mr. Chance. You’ve been through a lot. You cannot blame yourself for this. We feared this would happen. They were not going to let you go. Obviously they had explosives in there. There’s strong reason to believe the park employee, who brought that girl to you, was linked to your captors. We believe it was all just an elaborate trap by some fanatical people. The girl and Mr. Martin were just unfortunate casualties.”
“You can save that bullshit.”
“But you are safe now, and you need some time to process all this. We’re going to take you to a place where you can rest and speak with a counselor—”
“Enough.” William held up his hand. The gesture caused the agent beside him to pull back his coat, displaying the gun holstered on his side.
“It’s not unusual for captives—even if they’ve been with their captors for a brief amount of time—to believe their lies. Maybe even sympathize with them. You just need time now to recover. But at least the world knows you’re safe. The family who witnessed your rescue was kind enough to tell the media that they saw you walk out and were rescued by our team. That will calm a lot of people after the explosion.”
“Why,” William’s teeth were clenched. “Why—”
“You were in danger, Mr. Chance. You were being held by clearly unstable people. When you surfaced, we feared they would find you. And we were right. That poor girl was simply dragged into all this.”
All this time, everything he did to try and keep his family safe, to keep himself from hurting innocent people… Look what had happened instead.
“I’ll make this clear right now: You can feed all that crap to the reporters at your press conference. But the one thing you can’t do is keep me from telling what really happened. And I will.”
“We’re going to give you all the time you need to recover. Process what happened. Really analyze what you think happened.”
“No amount of brainwashing will change what I saw, I promise you that.”
“OK, OK,” said the agent sitting on William’s right side. “Listen, kid. We just want to keep you safe and alive. Until we can figure out what’s happening.”
William turned to him. “And that’s why you blew up that motel?”
The anger in the agent’s face was obvious. “We all have bosses that make decisions we don’t agree with. All I’m telling you is this: If you’re with me, you’re safe.”
He gave William a reassuring nod. “Take the west garage, Stan.”
Through the windshield William saw they were approaching a tall building, the flags of the world waving outside, the gray sign reading “Clifford Davis/Odell Horton Federal Building.” They turned and began to head down a ramp.
“Safest place in the world for you right now,” the agent beside him said. “We have agents awaiting—Jesus Christ!”
The driver swerved. William braced himself, seeing a white shape pull up dangerously close.
The SUV was only inches away, close enough for William to see the back seat window lower and a tiny face look out.
William’s heart leapt to his throat.
Even though the windows of the agents’ car were deeply tinted, he could see Lily looking straight at him. Through the dark windows, her black skin made her face almost disappear, with only the whites of her eyes truly visible.
The man driving the car began to lurch suddenly and convulse. The agent in the passenger side reached for the wheel and then began to shudder himself, his skin turning a putrid shade of yellow.
The car veered wildly, sliding with a painful crunching against a stone wall, over a curb and directly into the corner of the front of the garage.
William was thrown forward with such force that he landed between the two front seats, his head crashing into the dashboard.
His vision spun, squinting to see the driver’s face rest on its side, his eyes open, bloodshot. His cheeks were sunken in, his hair drifting from his head in clumps.
William felt a strong hand grab the back of his shirt, and the agent from the back seat yanked him, trying to force him into the back seat. “Stay with me, son! When I give the count of two, we run—”
The back door was thrown open, and Rudd was there, pistol raised. Over his shoulder, William could see Lily’s face. Her worried expression turned to one of anger, seeing the agent with his arm protectively around William.
No, Lily. No.
The girl blinked, her furious expression immediately fading.
“Don’t move, asshole,” Rudd said.
“He didn’t hurt me,” William said. “Listen—”
“Get down on the floor and cover your head. Now!” Rudd ordered. “William, let’s go!”
The agent’s grip loosened and let go, his hands up in the air.
Everything spinning now, William felt like he could throw up. He stumbled from the car into the opened door of the SUV, where Lily was reaching for him.
He slid inside, clutching his head.
“William, are you OK?”
He tried to focus his eyes, seeing Quincy’s face come into view.