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SEATTLE (Monday, Dec. 3, 2012, 6 p.m.) — Danny and Shorty had a hole cut in the fence at the base of the hill, parallel to the water end of the house. Less than 30 feet from the fence was some kind of patio/deck with a big glass door into the house.
“Any problems with the fence?” Mac asked, looking at the hole. He could still hear the melee at the top of the hill.
“Nah, they turned off the electricity to the gate when the reporters showed up, I guess,” Danny said. “Stupid shits have the gate wired to the same circuit as the fence. Can’t turn one off without turning off the whole shebang.”
“Thank God for stupidity.” Mac described the scene above.
“We going to go in now with all the fuss up there or wait?” Shorty asked.
Mac hesitated. The guards would most certainly be distracted now; but he wasn’t used to running a rescue operation with the whole world watching — or at least three dozen media people. If they waited, however, the guards would turn on the fence and notice the hole.
“We’ve got to go in now,” he said finally. “Get them out while the guards are busy.”
“The guards may be busy, but what about the others?” Danny asked. “There’s two sets, here. Parker’s usual security guards, and some hot-shot squad watching their captives.”
“That’s how I figure it,” Mac agreed. “They’ve got to be somewhat distracted, too. They’re human. You can’t have all that going on without watching it, thinking what to do if someone does make it to the house and finds two kidnapped victims.”
Danny shook his head doubtfully. “It’s Kellerman,” he said. “Do you think he’ll link the media with you?”
“You want to back out?” Mac said. “It’s your sister, your call.”
“No,” Danny conceded. “You’re right. This is likely to be the best chance we get.”
Mac turned to look at the house and yard. The door looked good. Too good. Still, the house had been built for a family to live in, not as a jail. He scanned the side of the house. Large-paned windows marched along the wall. About midway up the slope, a wing of the house jutted out toward the property line. Mac visualized the assessor’s diagram. That was a guest suite, he figured, and above it was another one.
“Okay,” he said. “Shorty, b&e time. You go for that door. It’s probably alarmed. When the alarm goes off, you head back here and wait. Danny and I are going in through the windows of that bedroom suite there. Kristy and Troy might be there, or more likely, upstairs above it. We’re going after them. When they come out, you grab them and get gone. Don’t wait for us. Get them out of here.”
Shorty nodded. “What about you?”
“We’ll be right behind them, but if we get held up, we’ll meet you back at my place.”
“Should’ve brought two vehicles,” Danny grumbled. “I hate walking home.”
“We’ve done it before. At least it ain’t no fucking desert. We’ve got 7-Eleven to get drinks all along the way.”
Danny laughed, worked his shoulders to loosen them, and nodded to Shorty. “Go for it, man,” he said.
Shorty darted out across the yard, flattening himself along the house wall. Mac nodded at him, and he went for the door. “He’s got good hands for this,” he murmured, his eyes intent on Shorty.
“Yeah, but has he used them since he was 17?” Danny asked. “He’s a goddamn math teacher now.”
Mac grimaced. He and Danny weren’t no fucking Marines anymore either. He watched carefully. The door cracked open a hair. Mac sprinted toward the guest wing with Danny on his heels. He was vaguely aware that Shorty was already half-way back to the hole in the fence.
The windows were shoulder high. Danny went up on Mac’s shoulders, put a rock through one. He slashed at the grid between panes with his knife until they gave way. He crawled in, and then gave Mac a hand up.
Mac looked around the room — bedroom. Empty. He set his backpack on the floor, pulled out the two 9mm’s and handed one to Danny. He motioned to the door; Danny nodded and took up position beside it. Mac framed the other side, reached over and pulled the door open. Nothing happened. Danny peered around the edge, motioned clear and went through the door. Mac waited a five count and followed him. The bedroom opened into a sitting room; another door to the left turned out to be a bathroom. All vacant. Mac took point for the next doorway leading to a main hall with a staircase at the end. It was all quiet. Too quiet. He checked a door on the other side of the hallway — another empty bedroom.
A door at the lake end of the hall was locked from the other side. They’d apparently separated this wing from the other. Now if they were just in the right side of that door.... Piece of cake, Mac thought wryly.
He motioned Danny toward the steps to the next floor. Leapfrogging from wall to wall, the two of them went up cautiously.
The third door they tried upstairs yielded results. In a large, walk-in closet, Kristy and Troy were tied to chairs and gagged.
Danny untied Kristy’s hands while Mac stood guard at the door. Kristy jerked off her gag and threw her arms around Danny. Tears ran down her face. No sound, however, Mac noticed with approval. Mac cut Troy loose.
“Glad to see you man,” Troy said softly, shaking out his hands and arms. “What’s going on out there? We were all fixing a late lunch when they hustled us in here and tied us up.”
“Just a little diversion,” Mac said tersely. “Getting in here wasn’t just an Avon call.”
“You’re Mac, right?” Kristy said, keeping her voice down as well. “Danny tells stories about you.”
Mac grinned at her, and her eyes widened at how it warmed his face. “They are probably true,” he said. “Don’t hold it against me, okay?”
She smiled back tentatively.
“We getting out of here?” Danny said, looking at his sister and his old friend.
Mac nodded. He lined himself out against the door to the hallway and paused before he gave the all clear sign. Danny motioned his sister and Troy to move ahead of him. Troy went through the door, flattened himself against the wall above the stairs, and motioned Kristy to join him. Danny went next, and then on down the stairs. Troy followed, tugging Kristy behind him. Mac waited at the top until he heard Danny tap the wall, then he padded down the stairs, past the three others, and along the wall near the door of the guest suite they’d entered through.
He motioned to Danny, who led them through the door into the room, with Troy and Kristy close behind him. Mac backed into the room and closed the door.
“Okay,” he said in a whisper to the others. “Take a deep breath. Relax.” He watched as Kristy struggled to follow his instructions. He didn’t want her running out of breath half-way to the fence. Amateurs had a tendency to hold their breath under stress. Hell, even professionals did. Mac noticed Troy was having to work at breathing too and he hoped nobody passed out before they could make a break for the fence line.
“Danny’s going to go out the window first,” Mac explained. “He’ll guard our escape from the ground. I’ll be up here and go out last. Troy, you take Kristy and head for those shrubs over there. A friend of mine will be waiting for you — short Filipino, goes by Shorty. Danny will be right behind you, and I’ll follow last. That’s 30 yards of nowhere to hide, so once you move away from the side of the house, you don’t stop, you got that?”
Troy nodded. Kristy looked scared, but she nodded too. “Troy, your job is to get out of here, with Kristy; no matter what happens behind you.”
“I heard you the first time, man,” he said impatiently. Mac met his eyes, and Troy nodded. “Okay, okay. I get out of here, with Kristy, no matter what.”
Mac nodded satisfied. “If something goes wrong, you call my boss, Janet Andrews at the Examiner. She’ll take things from there.”
“Janet Andrews. Examiner.” Troy repeated.
Mac nodded at Danny who was keeping watch through the broken window. Danny took a deep breath and let himself out the window slowly. A tap on the wall. While Mac guarded their backs, Troy let Kristy down onto the grass below, then followed. Mac rotated, stationed himself at the window.
Footsteps pounded down the stairs. Shit, he thought. Someone rattled the door. Mac didn’t hesitate. He swung out over the edge of the window and dropped down turning as he landed. Kristy and Troy were just 10 yards away from the safety of the hedge.
Mac surveyed the roofline. That’s where he’d be, if he were keeping watch he thought. He didn’t see anything. More sounds inside the house.
“Go,” Mac ordered. Danny nodded and headed at a dead run toward the hedge. Go, man, go, Mac said under his breath as he kept his weapon trained on the window to his right and his eyes on the roof line above.
Danny was 10 yards from the shrubs, when shots rang out from a semi-automatic just barely visible over the edge the roof. Mac identified the spot and fired shots back. Someone raised up just enough to look for Mac. Mac fired a few more shots — not that a 9mm was going to do much at this distance. The head disappeared. Mac reloaded.
Danny was down, not moving. Shorty’s head poked out of the woods. Mac ran, dropped beside Danny, trained his gun on the roof. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a head in the window they’d just dropped from. He fired a shot; the head disappeared.
“Get out of here,” he shouted at Shorty. “Get them to safety. Leave Danny to me. Go on!”
Shorty nodded, grabbed Kristy as she was about to run out to her brother, and he and Troy pulled her into the woods.
Mac swept his 9mm across the roof, firing a couple of shots at a head that popped up. He didn’t care if he hit anyone. Just as long as they couldn’t fire down.
He waited a minute. No other head or gun barrel showed itself. Still at ready with the 9mm, he looked at Danny. The shots had riddled his back. Mac winced. No way, he thought. Just no fucking way he’s making it home alive from this one. He gently rolled Danny over. No point worrying about further damage, he thought. Shit.
“Hey, buddy,” he said softly. “How you doing?”
Danny opened his eyes. “Mac,” he said weakly. “This sucks.”
Mac shook his head. “You just hang on. We’ll be hearing sirens any minute. Doctors and pretty nurses.”
“Don’t bullshit a bullshitter,” Danny said. “I’m not going to make it away from this. Should never have let Troy drag me into it. What was that saying you used to say? Don’t do something your ass can’t cover?”
“Don’t let your mouth write checks your ass can’t cash,” Mac corrected him. Danny never did get that saying quite right.
“Yeah,” he said, fell silent a bit. “But I got Kristy out. She is out, isn’t she?”
Mac soothed him; grimness deepened the grooves around his mouth. “You got her out, buddy. Mission accomplished.”
Danny sighed. “You promised me once you’d never let me die alone. You remember?”
“Yeah,” Mac said. Danny had gotten hung up on that in the Gulf. Dead was dead in Mac’s book, alone or not. But he had planned to take out a few of the enemy for an escort when he went.
Mac didn’t bother to deny Danny was going to die. Shit, if he lived, he’d be dead from the neck down. He’d rather be dead, himself. “But you got to hang on, man. There’s something I got to do.”
Danny closed his eyes. “It was Kellerman, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
“You going to get me company? How did you use to say it? An escort to Valhalla?”
“You just hang on, man. I’ll be back.”
“I ain’t going anywhere,” Danny said, a weak attempt at humor. Mac patted his shoulder.
In one fluid movement he was on his feet and moving toward the closed-in porch. The plans had shown an outdoor stairway to the roof just to the north of that wing. He crouched low, listened and then moved swiftly around the corner. A guard was looking up the hill toward the reporters who were even more out of control now that shots had been fired.
Mac rapped the guard on the back of the neck with his 9mm, catching the guard’s semi-automatic before it could clatter against the wall. He let the body drop to the roof on its own. He didn’t bother to check the guard for signs of life. He was either dead or out for a long, long while. He remembered clearly just how the knock-out tap should go.
Other skills and talents were awakening as well. He felt the cold, clear adrenaline rush through him. His mind was sharper. His eyes, cold and gray, could see better; smells came pouring in. He’d forgotten what it felt like to be on the hunt.
He moved up the steps silently, his gun still in his hand, the guard’s semi-automatic slung across his chest. A second guard stood at the landing. He too had been distracted by the protesters. Unprofessional, Mac thought, as he put the 9mm against the man’s spine. The guard froze. Mac tapped him at the base of the skull and gently lowered the limp man to the ground. Mac was close enough now that any sound might give him away. He slung that gun across his back quietly.
Mac crept along the half-wall that separated the stairway from the roof patio where he could hear the small sounds of men on watch. Shifting feet, the clack of metal hitting the wall, a long sigh.
“Shit!” one voice said loudly. “Where did he go?”
“You were supposed to be watching him!”
“I was! He was just there!”
“He isn’t there now,” interrupted a voice Mac recognized. “Where did he go?”
“Maybe he left?”
“Hell, he wouldn’t leave a wounded man alone,” said someone who sounded almost familiar. “And if his partner was dead, he’d pack him out. He’s here somewhere.”
Mac stepped around the half-wall into sight. “I’m right here,” he said.
Kellerman straightened and turned toward him. “Shadow,” he said.
Mac looked at him. “You shot him in the back. In the goddamn back, Kellerman.”
Mac shook his head, clearing the rage that burned red behind his eyes. “He was once a man under your command. And you shot him in the back. Does you no good. Your hostages were out. Why?”
“Troy said he didn’t know where Danny hid his records. We figured if Danny was dead those records die with him,” Kellerman said simply. “So we decided, last ditch, we needed Danny dead.”
Mac laughed. The others winced at the harsh sound. “Well, you were wrong. Danny told me where they were,” Mac lied. “Danny never could keep a secret.”
Kellerman shrugged, gave Mac a lopsided smile. “Win some, lose some. Besides, you’re not out of here yet.”
“So Parker told you to, and you shot one of your own men in the back.”
Kellerman hesitated, stopped by such a cold evaluation. “Yeah,” he said, finally. “I guess I did.”
Mac looked at the other men, back to Kellerman.
“Parker here?” he asked the older of the other guards, a black man. Mac thought it might have been his voice that had sounded familiar.
“No. Left in his boat about two hours ago,” the man said.
“I know you?” Mac asked, not taking his eyes off Kellerman. Mac wanted to be after Parker. He was disappointed but not surprised that Parker was gone. Kellerman wasn’t the real enemy.
Going to be difficult to sweep this mess under the rug. Mac thought of the news media banging on the gates outside. He smiled; by the look of them the others didn’t find it reassuring.
“Maybe,” the man said. “You served with a cousin of mine. We partied a time or two.”
Mac nodded, filing the information away. He studied Kellerman who stood easily in front of him. Still no hesitation, there, Mac thought. Kellerman was a man who believed in what he was doing. Believed in who he was doing it for.
“Kellerman, you willing to testify that Parker told you to shoot Danny if you got the chance?” Mac asked.
Kellerman smiled, shaking his head. “You know I won’t do that, Shadow. If I had to testify, I’d say all this was my idea, that Parker didn’t know a damn thing about any of it.”
“Shadow?” one of the other younger guards whispered. “That’s Shadow Davis?” Someone shushed him.
Mac looked at Kellerman, looked at the other Marines. “Do you know what this is all about?” he asked Kellerman. “What happened in 2007?”
“07?” Kellerman’s puzzlement looked real. “Troy was going to reveal one of Howard Parker’s black-bag jobs. Parker got scared. Called in the FBI instead of the Marines.” The joke fell flat.
“What are you going to do, Mac? Shoot me? An unarmed man?” Kellerman asked, with a half-smile.
“Yes,” Mac said, and pulled the trigger of one of the semi-automatics, putting a round in Kellerman’s chest. He landed against one of the chairs, half on the table.
“I didn’t think you would do it,” Kellerman whispered. “I...,” he trailed off as the air in his lungs bubbled out of the bullet hole in his chest with each breath. Mac said nothing, waiting for Kellerman’s labored breathing to stop. When it did, he looked menacingly at the other guards who still held their hands out. They looked shocked.
“Any of you want to pick up where he left off?” he asked. They shook their heads. Mac pulled a bandana out of his pocket and wiped the semi-automatic down carefully. He tossed it into the pile of weapons. Wiped the other one down, added it to the pile.
“One of you must have a number to call for clean-up,” Mac said, holding the 9mm at the ready in case someone got brave.
The older man nodded. “Yeah, I got a number.”
“You call that number. I think you’ll find that I was never here, because you were never here. And Kellerman? Kellerman is in Europe someplace.”
The man nodded. He was careful to not move his hands, to not move at all. He knew the craziness that battle manifested in some people. He wasn’t planning to do anything to set off Mac’s hair trigger. The others looked scared. Mac watched them carefully. Scared and young was a bad combo, tended to make men think about being heroes.
“Sorry about your buddy,” the leader offered. Mac’s jaw clenched. He looked at Kellerman’s dead body. He wanted to spit, make some last statement. But he couldn’t find anything to say. Two buddies died today, he thought awkwardly, groping for the words. And they were deaths he planned to lay at Parker’s doorstep. His jaw hardened. Kellerman had to pay for Danny, but there was still Parker.
“You’ve got two down on the stairs,” Mac said. “You might want to check them out. But don’t show your head over the ledge. And don’t even think about coming around the corner of the house. If I see anybody, and I will kill them.”
Turning quickly, he moved lightly down the stairs.
“That’s Shadow Davis,” one voice said shakily.
“Yeah,” said the laconic voice. “You’ve crossed the Shadow and lived to talk about it — although I wouldn’t recommend talking about it. This kind of thing is best filed deep and forgotten.”
Danny was still alive when Mac trotted across the lawn and dropped down beside him. Mac surveyed the roofline, checked out the rest of the area. He could hear sirens now getting closer. He held the 9mm loosely.
“How you doin’ man?” he asked.
“Did you get him? Kellerman?” Danny asked weakly.
Mac nodded. Danny sighed, and relaxed a bit as if that removed a burden.
“Promise me you’ll take care of Kristy.”
“Not a problem,” Mac said with a smile. Danny’s little sister had grown up to be a fine-looking woman.
“Serious, Mac. She’s all I have — I’m all she has. Parents died when we were young. She’ll be alone now. That’s not good.”
Mac gripped his shoulder. “I’ll see to her,” he promised quietly. Danny searched his face, and satisfied, he closed his eyes.
“Don’t leave me to die...,” his voice trailed off. Mac watched carefully for a sign of breathing. There was none. He checked Danny’s pulse at the neck. It was still. Leave it to Danny to talk right up until his heart stopped, Mac thought.
“Go in peace, my friend,” he whispered. “You’ve got your escort.”