CHAPTER 17
By the time Buck and Ken got their car—with more room than they needed—and were informed of shortcuts around destruction, it took nearly forty-five minutes to get to Littleton. Finding a church that had been retrofitted into a testing laboratory and reproductive clinic was easy. It was on the only navigable street in a fifteen-mile radius. Every vehicle they saw was dusty and mud-caked.
Buck went in alone to see if he could sneak Hattie from the place. Ken waited out front with the engine idling and monitored Buck’s phone.
Buck approached the receptionist. “Hi!” he said breezily. “I’m here to see Mary.”
“Mary?”
“Johnson. She’s expecting me.”
“And who may I say is asking for her?”
“Just tell her it’s B.”
“Are you related?”
“We soon will be, I think. I hope.”
“One moment.”
Buck sat and found a magazine as if he had all the time in the world. The receptionist picked up the phone. “Ms. Johnson, were you expecting a visitor? . . . No? . . . A young man who calls himself B. . . . I’ll check.”
The receptionist motioned to Buck. “She would like to ask where you know her from.”
Buck smiled as if exasperated. “Remind her we met on an airplane.”
“He says you met on an airplane. . . . Very well.”
The receptionist hung up. “I’m sorry, sir, but she believes you may have her confused with someone else.”
“Can you tell me if she’s alone?”
“Why?”
“That may be the reason she’s not admitting she knows me. She may need some assistance and doesn’t know how to tell me.”
“Sir, she is recovering from a medical procedure. I’m quite sure she’s alone and well taken care of. Without her permission, I am not at liberty to share anything more with you.”
In his peripheral vision, Buck saw a small, dark figure shuffle past in a long robe. The tiny, long-haired, severe-looking Asian woman peered curiously at Buck, then quickly looked away and disappeared down the hallway.
The receptionist’s phone rang. She whispered, “Yes, Mary? . . . You don’t recognize him at all? Thank you.”
“So, Mac, am I paranoid, or does it sound like they’re using Hattie as bait to get the two of us together?”
“Sounds that way to me,” Mac said. “And neither of you are going to walk away.”
Rayford grabbed his phone. “I’d better let Buck know what he’s getting into before I decide what to do about it.”
It sounded to Buck as if the receptionist was calling security. It would do no good to be ushered out by security, or worse, detained by them. His first thought was to bolt. But still there was a chance to bluff his way past the receptionist. Maybe Ken could distract her. Or maybe Buck could convince her he didn’t know what name his friend used and had been only guessing.
The receptionist stunned him, however, when she suddenly hung up and said, “You don’t happen to work for the Global Community, do you?”
How she knew that was as puzzling as Hattie using an ethnic alias while an Asian girl was either named Mary Johnson or had selected that as her pseudonym. If Buck denied working for the Global Community, he might never find out why she asked. “Uh, yeah, as a matter of fact I do,” he said.
The front door swung open behind him. Ken was on the run, Buck’s phone in hand.
The receptionist said, “And does your name happen to be Rayford Steele?”
“Uh . . .”
Ken shouted, “Sir? Is that your car out there with the lights on?”
Buck could tell he should not hesitate. He spun, calling over his shoulder, “I’ll be back.”
“But, sir! Captain Steele!”
Buck and Ken bounded down the steps to the car. “They thought I was Rayford! I was almost in!”
“You don’t want in there, Buck. Rayford’s been set up. He’s sure he would have walked into an ambush.”
Ken tried to shift into Drive, but it wouldn’t budge. “I thought I left this thing running.” The keys were gone.
A uniformed GC security officer materialized at his window. “Here, sir,” he said, handing Ken the keys. “Which of you is Captain Steele?”
Buck could tell Ken was tempted to race off. He leaned across Ken’s lap and said, “That would be me. Were you expecting me?”
“Yes, we were. When your driver left the car, I thought I’d shut it off and bring him the keys. Captain Steele, we have your cargo inside, if you’ll join us.” Turning to Ken, he said, “Are you also with the GC?”
“Me? Nope. I work for the rental company. The captain here wasn’t sure he’d be bringing the car back, so I drove him. He still pays for a round trip, of course.”
“Of course. And if there’s nothing you need from the car then, Captain, you may follow me.” To Ken, “And we will provide transportation, so you may take the car.”
“Let me settle up with him,” Buck said. “And I’ll be right with you.”
Ken closed his window. “Say the word, Buck, and they’ll never catch us. You go in there as Rayford Steele and neither you or Hattie will come out.”
Buck made a show of taking out a few bills for Ken. “I have to go in,” he said. “If they think I’m Rayford and that I smelled a rat and slipped away, Hattie’s life is worthless. She’s carrying a child, and she’s not a believer yet. I’m not about to hand her over to the GC.” Buck glanced at the guard on the sidewalk. “I gotta go.”
“I’ll stay close,” Ritz said. “If you aren’t out of there soon, I’m comin’ in.”
“I’m tempted to fly straight to Baghdad and prove to myself Amanda isn’t buried in the Tigris. What’s Carpathia going to do when I show up? Take credit for my resurrection?”
“You know where your daughter is, right? If they’ve found a place to hide, that’s the place to go. By the time it gets back to Carpathia that you didn’t show in Denver, you’ll be hidden.”
“It’s not like me to hide, Mac. I knew this gig with Carpathia was temporary, but it’s strange to be a target. None of us are likely to make it to the Glorious Appearing, but that’s been my goal since day one. What are the odds now?”
Mac shook his head.
Rayford’s phone rang. Ritz told him what was going on.
“Oh, no!” Rayford said. “You shouldn’t have let him go back in there. They may not figure out he’s not me until after they’ve killed him. Get him out of there!”
“There was no stopping him, Rayford. He thinks if we do something suspicious, Hattie is history. Trust me, if he’s not out in a few minutes, I’m going in.”
“These people have unlimited weapons,” Rayford said. “Are you armed?”
“Yes, but they’re not going to risk shooting inside, are they?”
“Why not? They care for no one but themselves. What are you carrying?”
“Buck doesn’t know, and I’ve never had to use it, but I carry a Beretta anytime I fly for him.”
Buck and the GC guard were met inside by an unhappy receptionist. “Had you simply told me who you were, Captain Steele, and used the proper name for the person you were seeking, I could have easily accommodated you.”
Buck smiled and shrugged. A younger guard emerged. “She will see you now,” he said. “Then we’ll all fill out a little paperwork, and we’ll run you both out to Stapleton.”
“Oh,” Buck said, “you know, we didn’t put down at Stapleton after all.”
The guards caught each other’s eyes. “You didn’t?”
“We were told the terrain between here and Stapleton was worse than between here and Denver International, so we—”
“I thought DIA was closed.”
“Closed to commercial, yes,” Buck said, scrambling. “If you can get us out there, we’ll be heading back.”
“Back where? We haven’t given you your orders yet.”
“Oh, yeah. I know. I just assumed New Babylon.”
“Hey,” the younger guard said. “If DIA is closed to commercial, where’d you get the car?”
“One outfit was still open,” Buck said. “Guess they’re serving the GC military.”
The older guard glanced at the receptionist. “Tell her we’re on our way.”
As the receptionist reached for the phone, the guards asked Buck to follow them down the hall. They entered a room labeled “Yamamoto.” Buck was afraid Hattie would say his name as soon as she saw him. She lay facing the wall. He couldn’t tell whether she was awake.
“She’s going to be surprised to see her old captain,” Buck said. “She used to call me Buck for short. But in front of the crew and passengers, it was always Captain Steele. Yeah, she was my senior flight attendant at Pan-Con for many years. Always did a good job.”
The older guard put a hand on her shoulder. “Time to go, dear.”
Hattie rolled over, appearing puzzled, squinting against the light. “Where are we going?” she said.
“Captain Steele is here for you, ma’am. He’ll take you to an intermediate site and then back to New Babylon.”
“Oh, hi, Captain Steele,” she said groggily. “I don’t want to go to New Babylon.”
“Just following orders, Ms. Durham,” Buck said. “You know all about that.”
“I just don’t want to go that far,” she said.
“We’ll take it in stages. You’ll make it.”
“But I—”
“Let’s get started, ma’am,” the older guard said. “We’re on a schedule.”
Hattie sat up. Her pregnancy was beginning to show. “I would appreciate it if you gentlemen would excuse me while I dress.”
Buck followed the guards into the hall. The younger said, “So, what did you fly up here?”
“Oh, one of the little jets that survived the quake.”
The other asked, “How was the flight from Baghdad?”
Buck thought Rayford had told him Baghdad Airport was unusable. Relieved they hadn’t asked more about the plane, he wondered if he was being tested. “We flew out of New Babylon,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe how fast the rebuilding is going.”
“Long flight?”
“Very. But of course we stopped every so many hours to pick up another dignitary.” Buck had no idea how many, when, or where, and he hoped they wouldn’t ask.
“What’s that like? All those muckety-mucks on the same plane?”
“Another day, another dollar,” Buck said. “Pilots stay in the cockpit or in our quarters anyway. We don’t get involved in the pageantry.”
Buck knew he had already been inside long enough to worry Ken Ritz. No way these guys were taking him or Hattie to either airport, regardless of how he misled them. He was surprised they hadn’t already offered them a poisoned drink. Apparently they had orders to make it neat and clean and quiet. There could be no witnesses.
When the older guard knocked on Hattie’s door, Buck caught sight of Ken with a janitor down the hall, both carrying brooms. Buck engaged the guards in conversation, hoping Ken could get out of sight quickly. Though Ken was wearing a clinic cap like the janitor, there was no hiding his features.
“So what kind of a vehicle did you guys get issued?” Buck said. “Anything that’ll get us through this terrain faster than a rented sedan?”
“Not really. A minivan. Rear-wheel drive, unfortunately. But we can get you to DIA with no trouble.”
“Where are they sending us, anyway?” Buck said.
The younger guard pulled a sheet from his pocket. “I’ll give you this in a few minutes in the other room, but it says Washington Dulles.”
Buck eyed the man. He knew one thing for sure: There weren’t even plans to rebuild Dulles. It had been obliterated in the war, and the earthquake had wiped out Reagan National. Reagan had an operable runway or two, Rayford had told him, but Dulles was a pile of debris.
“I’ll be another second,” Hattie called out. The guard sighed.
“What’s in the other room?” Buck said.
“A debriefing. We give you your orders, make sure you’ve got everything you need; then we head to the airport.”
Buck didn’t like the idea of the other room. He wished he could talk to Ritz. Buck couldn’t tell if the GC men were carrying sidearms, but they were purported to have Uzis in holsters strapped at their ribs in the back. He wondered if he was going to die trying to save Hattie Durham.
Rayford didn’t want Fortunato to know he was not yet in Denver, in case GC forces there had already reported his arrival. If Denver was tipped off that the real Rayford was still in the air, Buck would be exposed, and neither he nor Hattie would have a chance. Rayford sat on the runway in Kansas as helpless as he had ever felt.
“You’d better get heading back, Mac. Fortunato thinks you were visiting friends, right?”
“I am, aren’t I?”
“How does he contact you?”
“Has the tower call me, and then we switch to frequency 11 to talk privately.”
Rayford nodded. “Safe trip.”
“All right, ma’am,” the guard said through Hattie’s door. “Time’s up. Now let’s go.”
Buck heard nothing from Hattie’s room. The guards looked at each other. The older turned the doorknob. It was locked. He swore. Both yanked weapons from their jackets and banged loudly on the door, commanding Hattie to come out. Other women peeked from their rooms, including one from each end of the hall. The younger guard waved his Uzi at them and they ducked back in. The older burped four shots at Hattie’s door, blowing the latch and lock housing to the floor and causing screams down the hall. The receptionist came running, but when she appeared in the corridor, the younger guard sprayed a fusillade that ripped from her waist to her face. She dropped loudly onto the marble floor.
The older guard rushed into Hattie’s room as the younger spun to follow him. Buck was between them. He wished he’d had some defense or assault training. There must be some strategic response to a man in your face carrying an Uzi.
With nothing in his repertoire, he planted his right foot, stepped quickly with his left, and drove his fist square into the young guard’s nose with all he could muster. He felt the crush of cartilage, the cracking of teeth, and the ripping of flesh. The guard must have been in midstride when Buck hit him, because the back of his head hit the floor first.
The Uzi rattled on the marble, but the strap wound up tucked under him. Buck turned and ran toward the last room to his left, where he’d seen a panicky face peek out a moment before. Swimming in his mind in slow motion were the curtains blowing from the open window in Hattie’s room, the riddled body of the receptionist, and the whites of the eyes of the guard when Buck drove his nose so deep into his head that it was flush with his face.
Blood dripped from Buck’s hand as he ran. He glanced back as he raced into the room at the end. No sign of the older guard yet. A pregnant Hispanic woman shrieked as he flashed into her room. He knew he looked awful, the sore on his cheek still fiery, his hand and shirt covered with the blood from the young guard’s face. The woman covered her eyes and trembled.
“Lock that door and stay under the bed!” Buck said. She didn’t move at first. “Now or you’ll die!”
Buck opened the window and saw he would have to turn sideways to get out. The screen wouldn’t budge. He backed up and lifted his leg, driving it through. The momentum carried him out and down into some bushes. As he regained his footing, bullets ripped through the door behind him, and he saw the woman cower under her bed. He raced along the side of the building past Hattie’s open window. In the distance, Ken Ritz was helping her into the back of the car. The Global Community minivan sat between Buck and the sedan.
Buck felt as if he were in a dream, unable to move faster. He made the mistake of holding his breath as he ran and soon had to gasp for air, his heart cracking against his ribs. As he neared the van he shot a look back as the guard leaped from the window he had escaped through. Buck ducked around the other side of the van as bullets drilled the chassis. A block ahead, Ritz waited behind the wheel. Buck could stay put and be massacred or held hostage, or he could take his chances and run to the car.
He ran. With every step he feared the next sound would be a bullet crashing into his head. Hattie was out of sight on the seat or the floor, and Ken leaned right and disappeared as well. The passenger door flew open and beckoned like a spring in the desert. The more Buck ran, the more vulnerable he felt, but he dared not look back.
He heard a sound, but not gunfire. Duller. The van door. The guard had jumped into the van. Buck was within fifty yards of the car.
Rayford dialed Buck’s phone. It rang several times, but Rayford did not want to hang up. If a GC man answered, Rayford would bluff him until he found out what he wanted to know. If Buck answered, Rayford would allow him to talk in code in case he was in front of people who shouldn’t know who was on the other end. The phone kept ringing.
Rayford hated helplessness and immobility more than anything. He was tired of games with Nicolae Carpathia and the Global Community. Their sanctimony and sympathy drove him wild. “God,” he prayed silently, “let me be Carpathia’s out-and-out enemy, please.”
A petrified female voice answered the phone. “What!” she shouted.
“Hattie? Don’t let on, but this is Rayford.”
“Rayford! Buck’s pilot scared me to death outside my window but then helped me get out! We’re waiting for Buck! We’re scared he’s going to be killed!”
“Give me that phone!” Rayford heard. It was Ritz. “Ray, he looks fine, but he’s got a guy shootin’ at him. As soon as he gets to the car, I’m gone. I may have to hang up on you.”
“Just take care of them!” Rayford said.
A few steps from the car, expecting to be leveled, Buck had heard nothing more. No shots, no van. He stole one last look as the GC man clambered out of the van. He dropped into a crouch and began firing. Buck heard a huge blast next to him as the right rear tire was blown. He dove for the open door, grabbing the handle and trying to get a foot inside. The back windshield blew through the car in pieces.
Buck tried to keep his balance. His left foot was on the floorboard, his right on the pavement. His left hand gripped the chassis and his right the door handle. Ken had leaned over onto the passenger’s seat again to escape the bullets, and before Buck could pull himself in, Ken blindly floored the accelerator. The door swung open, and to keep from flying out Buck swiveled and sat on Ritz’s head. Ken screamed as the car spun, flat tire flapping and good tires peeling rubber. Buck tried to keep out of the firing line too, but he had to get off Ken’s painful head.
Ken let go of the wheel and used both hands to fight his way out from under Buck. He sat up to get his bearings and wrenched the wheel left, not in time to miss the corner of a building. The right corner panel tore and crumpled high. Ken straightened the car and tried to put some distance between them and the shooter.
The car was not cooperating. More bullets narrowly missed Ritz, and Buck saw his demeanor change. Ken went from scared to mad in a flash.
“That’s it!” Ritz hollered. “I’ve been shot at for the last time!”
To Buck’s horror, Ritz swung the car around and raced toward the guard. Buck peeked over the dashboard as Ritz pulled his 9mm automatic from an ankle holster, braced his left wrist between the outside mirror and the chassis, and fired.
The guard scrambled to the other side of the van. Buck hollered for Ken to head for the airport.
“No way!” Ken said. “This guy’s mine!”
He skidded to a stop about fifty feet from the van and leaped from the car. He squatted, the Beretta in two hands, squeezing shots off just above ground level.
Buck screamed for Ritz to get back in the car as the GC man turned and ran toward the building. Ritz fired off three more shots and one hit the guard in the foot, sending his leg shooting up in front of him and flipping him backwards. “I’ll kill you, you—”
Buck ran from the car and grabbed Ritz, dragging him back. “No way he’s alone!” Buck said. “We’ve got to go!”
They jumped into the car, and Ken spun the wheel with the accelerator on the floor. A huge cloud of dust boiled up behind them as they bounced and shimmied across the earthquake-ravaged terrain toward Stapleton.
“If we can get out of sight,” Buck said, “they think we’re headed toward DEN. Why couldn’t he get that van started?”
Ritz reached under his seat and pulled out a distributor cap, wires dangling. “This might have somethin’ to do with it,” he said.
The car protested noisily. Buck put a hand on the ceiling to keep from hitting his head as they bounced along. With his other he reached across Ritz and buckled him in. Then he buckled himself in and saw his phone slide by his feet. He grabbed it and saw it was in use. “Hello?” he said.
“Buck! It’s Ray! Are you safe?”
“We’re on the way to the airport! We’ve got a blown rear tire, but all we can do is go till we stop.”
“We’ve also got a gas leak!” Ritz said. “The gauge is dropping fast!”
“How’s Hattie?” Rayford asked.
“Hanging on for dear life!” Buck said. He wanted to buckle her in but knew it would be impossible in her condition, especially with the bouncing. She lay in the backseat, feet pressed against the door, one hand holding her stomach, the other pushing against the back of the seat. She was pale.
“Hold on!” Ritz hollered.
Buck looked up in time to see a tall dirt mound they would not be able to avoid. Ritz neither slowed nor tried to stop. He kept the pedal to the floor and steered for the center of the dirt. Buck braced himself with his feet and reached back to try to keep Hattie from flying forward upon impact. When the car dived into the dirt pile, Hattie slammed into the back of the front seat and nearly pushed Buck’s shoulder from the socket. The phone flew from his hand, cracked into the windshield, and skidded to the floor.
“Call me when you can!” Rayford shouted, hanging up. He taxied the Challenger 3 to the end of the runway.
“Scuba to Albie,” he said. “Albie, do you copy?”
“Go ahead, Scuba.”
“Get back to base and find out what they know. The cargo is safe temporarily, but I’m going to need some kind of a story when I show up.”
“Roger that, Scuba. Consider a Minot.”
Rayford paused. “Good call, Albie. Will do. Need everything you can give me ASAP.”
“Roger.”
Brilliant, Rayford thought. He had long ago told Mac of an experience while he was stationed in Minot, North Dakota. His jet fighter malfunctioned, and he had to abort a training mission. He would tell Fortunato that’s what had happened to the Challenger, and Leon wouldn’t know the difference. Mac would vouch for whatever Rayford said. The biggest problem was that by the time he got back, Leon would know of the fiasco in Denver and would suspect Rayford’s involvement.
What he needed was leverage to keep himself alive. Was Hattie important enough to Carpathia that he would keep Rayford around until he knew where she was? Rayford had to get back to Baghdad to know what had become of Amanda. There was no guarantee Carpathia wouldn’t have him killed as an example to the rest of the Tribulation Force.
“She’s overheating!” Ritz said.
“I’m overheating too!” Hattie wailed. She sat up and braced herself with a hand on each of the front headrests. Her face was flushed, her forehead sweaty.
“We have no choice but to keep going,” Buck said. He and Ken tried to brace themselves against the violent shuddering of the wounded vehicle. The temperature needle was buried in the red, steam billowed from under the hood, the gas gauge was perilously low, and Buck saw flames coming from the flat rear tire. “If you stop, the gas will hit those flames. Even if we get to the airport, make sure we’re empty before we stop!”
Hattie shouted, “What if the tire burns up the car anyway?”
“Hope you’re right with God!” Ritz shouted.
“You took the words right out of my mouth!” Buck said.
Rocketing toward Dallas at several hundred miles an hour, Rayford was afraid he would overtake Mac in the chopper. He had to time his arrival appropriately. Several minutes later he heard Fortunato contact Mac.
“Dallas tower to Golf Charlie Niner Niner, over.”
“This is Golf Charlie. Go ahead, tower.”
“Switch to alternate frequency for your superior, over.”
“Roger that.”
Rayford switched to frequency 11 to listen in.
“Mac, this is the Supreme Commander.”
“Go ahead, sir.”
“What’s your location?”
“Two hours west of you, sir. Returning from a visit.”
“Were you coming straight back?”
“No, sir. But I can.”
“Please do. There was a major foul-up north of us, do you follow?”
“What happened?”
“We’re not sure yet. We need to find our operative and then we need to get back on schedule as soon as possible.”
“I’m on my way, sir.”
Buck prayed the car would run out of gas soon, but he didn’t know how they would get Hattie across the torn-up ground. The flames licked the back right side of the car, and only Ken’s keeping the thing rolling kept them from exploding.
The fire was closest to Hattie, and even with the car jerking this way and that, she managed to crawl into the front seat, jamming between the men.
“The engine will blow before I run out of gas!” Ken shouted. “We may have to jump!”
“Easier said than done!” Hattie said.
Buck had an idea. He found his phone and punched in an emergency code. “Warn Stapleton tower!” he yelled. “Small craft approaching on fire!”
The dispatcher tried to ask something, but Buck hung up. The engine rattled and banged, the back of the car was a torch, and Ken nursed it over one last rise to the far end of the runway. A foam truck moved into position.
“Keep her rolling, Ken!” Buck said.
The engine finally quit. Ken shifted into neutral and both men grabbed their door handles. Hattie latched onto Buck’s arm with both hands. The car was barely rolling when the foam truck reached it and unloaded, smothering the vehicle and snuffing the fire. Ken burst out one side and Buck the other, Hattie in tow. Lurching blindly through the foam, Buck lifted Hattie into his arms, stunned at her added weight. Weak from the ordeal, he fell in behind Ken and followed him to the Learjet. Ken lowered the steps, told Buck to hand Hattie to him and get aboard, then carried her to where Buck helped her into a seat. Ken had the door shut, the engines screaming, and the Learjet rolling within a minute.
As they jetted into the sky, the foam crew finished with the car and stared at the fleeing plane.
Buck spread his knees and let his hands dangle. His knuckles were raw. He couldn’t wipe from his mind the images of the receptionist—dead before she hit the ground—the guard he rocked off his feet, and the woman trembling as she locked her door.
“Ken, if they find out who we are, you and I are fugitives.”
“What happened to noon?” Hattie said, her voice thin.
“What happened to your phone?” Buck asked. “Chloe and I tried to reach you all morning.”
“They took it,” she said. “Said they had to run diagnostics on it or something.”
“Are you healthy?” Buck said. “I mean, other than your condition?”
“I’ve felt better,” she said. “I’m still pregnant, if you’re curious.”
“I gathered that while carrying you.”
“Sorry.”
“We’re going to be in hiding,” Buck said. “Are you up to it?”
“Who else is there?”
Buck told her.
“What about medical care?”
“I have an idea there, too,” Buck said. “No promises, but we’ll see what we can do.”
Ken seemed to still be wired. “I couldn’t believe my luck when I paid off that janitor and he took me outside where I could look right through the window.”
“When you said you were with Buck,” Hattie said, “I had to trust you.”
“How in the world did you get out of there, Buck?” Ken said.
“I wonder that myself. That guard murdered the receptionist.”
Hattie looked stricken. “Claire?” she said. “Claire Blackburn’s dead?”
“I didn’t know her name,” Buck said, “but she’s dead all right.”
“That’s what they wanted to do to me,” Hattie said.
“You got that right,” Ken said.
“I’ll stay with you guys for as long as you’ll have me,” she said.
Buck got on his phone, updated Rayford and Chloe, then punched in the number of Dr. Floyd Charles in Kenosha.
Rayford concocted a story he believed would be convincing. The only problem, he knew, was that it might not be long before Buck was identified as his impostor.