CHAPTER 8

Hordes of Denver hockey fans poured out of the stadium jumping and pumping their fists in the air to celebrate. The Avalanche won the playoff match. Every horn was blazing as vehicle gridlock clogged the main thoroughfares leading from the stadium. The line of cars went on for miles. Intoxicated revelers fanned across the streets around the stadium and crowded nearby watering holes. Todd, Claudia and John were on foot, headed back to their hotel. A slight snowfall painted the streets white.

Todd pointed to the mountains. “It looks like that storm cloud is moving in.”

There was a gathering storm visible in the night sky over the Front Range peaks that were directly west of downtown.

“The weather report said four to six inches of new snow in Summit County,” said Claudia.

Like most mountain locals, the skiers recognized the hazards of nighttime winter travel in the mountains, so they were glad they had booked a room. Claudia was effervescent about the playoff win. She hooted and slapped high-fives with passing Denver fans. The trio finally made their way through the celebratory crowds, to a side street a few blocks from the stadium, and turned left onto a vacant street.

“Awesome match,” said Claudia. “I just knew Denver was going to win.”

“Ditto,” said Todd.

Claudia caught his overhand swing in another perfectly timed high-five.

“So where are we headed?” said John, his demeanor unaffected.

“This is a shortcut back to the hotel,” said Todd, pointing. “Unless Claudia wants to stop for a night cap somewhere.”

“I’m okay. We can go back,” she said.

They turned onto another side street, a vacant rundown area lined with empty commercial buildings.

“Hold on,” said John, and reached into his pocket. He winked at Todd. “Time for a present,” he said, and handed Claudia a small box wrapped in Christmas paper.

“It’s March. You’re a little late for Christmas,” said Claudia.

John shrugged. “It was all the wrapping paper I had.”

“What is it?” said Claudia, looking at Todd.

“Beats me,” said Todd.

“Open it and find out,” said John.

Claudia tore off the wrapping. Inside a small box was an electronic device the size of a thin cigarette pack.

“It looks like a GPS device, only it’s a lot smaller.” She pushed several buttons, changing the display. “It is a GPS device.” She looked at John. “A design I’ve never seen before. Looks like a smart phone, but different.”

“It’s a GPS, alright - so you don’t get lost in the woods… when the snow Nazis chase you.”

She smiled at Todd. “I was sleeping, I swear.”

“Right,” said Todd.

“It’s compact, but you can download topographical maps online.”

“Thank you.” An amused Claudia pecked John on the cheek. “Where’d you get it?”

“A friend of mine is the company rep; a new model. He had an extra,” said John.

Claudia examined the device and slipped it into a side pocket. The scientist thought she had not had this much fun since her adventure with ski patrol, chasing her across the mountain.

“You two have been great.”

She looked at Todd. “You were right, this was a nice reprieve. I needed to get away, clear out the cobwebs.”

Todd shrugged his agreement.

John opened his cell phone. “Excuse me a sec.”

He dialed a number, and walked to a dark area next to a vacant building.

Todd and Claudia continued their stroll down the abandoned street, illuminated by a string of sodium vapor lights. The yellow glow from the overhead street lamps cast a pall over the empty commercial area, a look that reminded Claudia of a lunar landscape.

“It wasn’t hard to tell that you were under a lot of pressure,” said Todd.

“Self-induced,” said Claudia. She relaxed and leaned her head against his shoulder. She slipped her arm into his as they walked.

“Feel like talking about it?” said Todd.

“The work or my mental condition?”

“John and I both know you’re a little crazy,” said Todd, “so tell me about the work.”

Claudia lifted her head off his shoulder and paused. “I wrote a treatise that ties together some logistical holes in Einstein’s quantum mechanics and general relativity. Something he tried to solve right up until his death, a fundamental, universal view of matter. It’s quite revolutionary; it’s called a unified field theory.”

Todd laughed. “Einstein? Unified what? I don’t understand what you’re talking about, but revolutionary I do. I’m not surprised hearing it come from you. Is that why you dropped out of school?”

“Sort of.”

“You’ve been consumed with this for the past year.”

“Ten years,” said Claudia. “I started the idea when I was sixteen.”

“Must have interfered with your prom plans,” said Todd.

Claudia smiled. “My teenage years in Austria were not exactly spent as a debutante.”

“I’m trying to imagine you in high school,” said Todd.

“The project is almost complete,” said Claudia, her tone serious. “I submitted a paper, a treatise, to an old friend, a physicist. They need to crunch some numbers and cross-reference the data with some physical experiments in a massive article accelerator in Bern. Expensive to do, but I’m excited about the prospects.”

“Time to celebrate?”

Claudia returned her head to his shoulder. “I guess.” She lifted her head and gazed into his eyes. “I’m sorry I’ve been so harsh with you, Todd. My work – it’s exhausting. It consumes me and I don’t know why. Ever since I was a little girl I have been passionate about science, and physics. …It’s what drives me. I can’t explain it …or why I do it.”

Todd pulled her in tight.

“Don’t try. I’ll take you any way you’ll let me.”

“You’re so sweet.” Claudia looked up at him. “I don’t deserve you.”

He leaned over and kissed her. She tipped her head back and pulled him to her, rising on her toes to meet him. Their passion increased as he slid his hand down her back, lower, and pressed her against him. She could feel him against her, his stiffness. Electricity shot up her legs and through her fingertips, a goose bump sensation that covered every inch of her. The strength of her grip around his sculpted back increased as she let herself go, forgetting everything, lost in the passion of their kiss.

A shrill noise broke their embrace and echoed down the empty street, startling the both of them. They broke their embrace and turned in the direction of the sound.

About a block from them, a group of thunderous teenagers with slick dark hair, dressed in oversized shirts and low-hung jeans, rounded the corner. The noise came from a bouncing bottle one of them had kicked. Several rushed after the airborne object, laughing and kicking until the glass container smashed into pieces against the curb.

The jocular group wore identical red bandanas and were pushing and shoving each other. Their olive-skinned leader spotted the couple embracing and pointed.

“Look, mang.” He nudged the gang member next to him. “That’s what ah need… to get me somethin’ like that.”

“Yo. Ah hear you… Least he’s gettin’ some.”

“Yeah, and she hot,” said the leader. “Ain’t like them fat hogs ah seen you wid.”

“Easy, dawg, don’t go dissin’ my ladies.”

The pair laughed and pushed each other in jest as the group continued down the street.

Todd released Claudia, slowly put himself between her and the gang, and began to back away from them. John, off in the shadows and unseen by the group, watched intently.

Hidden on the opposite side was another crew that was watching Claudia and Todd. They were unseen by any of them, and far more dangerous. There were five men, mercenaries who watched from a side alley, their attention focused on Claudia. The men wore sophisticated military gear, dressed in state-of-the-art flack vests, and stood next to a dark-tinted late-model panel van.

All of the men were armed.

The mercenary leader stepped into the street blocking Claudia and Todd’s forward movement.

“Hold it.”

John noticed the move and pulled himself deeper into the building shadows.

Claudia stiffened at the sight of the guns. “What’s going on?”

The leader ignored her and gestured to one of his men. “Take her, but be careful. No rough stuff.”

The largest man in the group slipped behind Claudia and pinned her arms against her sides. She struggled, kicking and screaming, but could not budge from his grip.

Todd jumped at the man holding Claudia. Before he could reach him, another mercenary stuck a gun in Todd’s face.

“Don’t move.”

Todd froze.

“Keep your hands off me!” Claudia scanned the street for a way out, her voice frantic.

“Help!”

The remaining three mercenaries stepped out of the alley.

The mercenary leader was adamant. “Be careful with her.”

The street gang was caught off guard when the armed men appeared out of nowhere. They had seen similar military garb on television and in the movies, but never in the back streets of Denver. They hesitated, unsure of what to do. The leader of the group puffed out his chest and tapped the man next to him. They all nodded in agreement. Hispanic chivalry rose like a phoenix from the ashes of the misguided group. The leader stood tall and stepped out in front. The rest of the gang followed, forming a horizontal line across the street. They slowly approached Claudia and her captors. Their pace gradually increased until they stopped ten yards from the five mercenaries.

Their leader pointed at Claudia. “Yo Rambo, what you doin’ wid my lady?” He pointed at their guns. “And what’s wid this urban assault shit?”

The mercenary leader snarled at him. “This is none of your concern, asshole. Go rob a liquor store.”

In sync, the entire gang reached into their waistbands and pointed ten pistols at the mercenaries.

“I ain’t robbin’ no liquor store, white bread – and who you callin’ an asshole?”

The mercenaries swung their weapons at the gang and there was a standoff as the five mercenaries stood opposite the ten gang members, each side tense, and each side brandishing their weapons.

John watched the events unfold from his hidden vantage point. He whispered into his cell phone and slipped across the shadows to a spot behind the man holding Claudia. He slid a cylindrical stainless steel device out of his pocket. With a measured flip of his wrist the telescopic device extended two feet and locked, becoming a case-hardened metal rod.

The two groups were oblivious to John as he silently worked his way to the man holding Claudia. The leader of the gang tensed when he saw the move, but said nothing. John winked at gang leader before he swung the steel against the knee of the big man holding Claudia.

The mercenary screamed in pain, and loosened his grip on Claudia.

Claudia felt the release of his hands and slammed the heel of her shoe against her captor’s shin. John pulled him off balance and foot swept the man, slamming him on the asphalt.

On his way down, the mercenary dropped his gun.

The falling weapon struck the pavement and exploded, sending a bullet into the wall of a building. The gang and the mercenaries opened fire as each side dove for cover. There was pandemonium, shots fired in all directions. The two sides hid behind dumpsters and walls, pointing their weapons out, shooting in rapid succession, the air thick with bullets. Bits of wall exploded as the bullets ricocheted off the vacant buildings. Brick and dust spit outward. It was a war zone as the angry bullets flew everywhere, missing their targets.

The mercenaries were careful not to discharge their weapons anywhere near Claudia. John’s fighting skills were impressive. His foot sweeps and kicks, timed with the arch of the stainless steel rod, devastated the first man who attacked him. Claudia watched him out of the corner of her eye. His skills told her that John was a hell of a lot more than just a ski instructor. He kept the mercenaries at bay, staying between them and Claudia. A shell-shocked Todd stood frozen in the middle of the battle zone as the bullets whizzed by him. Claudia ducked down and ran to him, latching her arm into his as she pulled him out of the line of fire. The mercenaries tried to follow, but John held them off, fighting three at once.

Claudia picked up a metal trash can and smashed it through the plate glass window of an empty building.

Todd resisted. “Come on!” said Claudia, screaming as she pulled. Claudia dug her fingers into Todd’s arm and dragged him through the broken glass and into the building.

The mercenary leader pointed. “She’s getting away!” He keyed a small radio. “Unit two; come in. We’re in a fire fight and the target is loose. I repeat: The target is loose.”

One of the mercenaries pointed a handgun at John. Their leader pushed his arm down. “No guns in her direction, you moron.”

John hovered outside the broken window staying between the mercenaries and Claudia. He fought like a maniac, his feet and hands swinging in timed succession, twirling the metal rod like a baton, dropping one man with a swift blow, his screams shrill as John’s blow snapped his wrist.

Temporarily safe from the group of mercenaries, Claudia rushed into the empty building and looked for a rear exit. To her right, a dilapidated wood stairway led to the roof. She spotted the rear door and rushed across the floor, side-stepping construction debris strewn throughout the building. She pushed against the back door until she realized that the owners had screwed anchors into the door to keep transients out.

“Damn.” She pointed at the stairs.

“There. Let’s go.” Claudia ran to the stairway with Todd close behind. She rushed up the stairs, almost reaching the third floor landing, when she heard a crash. Todd’s foot broke through a step. He was dangling off the stairwell. Claudia rushed to his side, struggling until he could support his weight on a railing and stood.

“Thanks,” he said, embarrassed.

“No time to waste,” she said, looking down. “We need to get to the roof.”

The sounds of gunfire diminished as the gang and the mercenaries reached a standoff.

John remained in front of the building, preventing the mercenaries from entering. He lifted his knee in a quick move, blocking a low kick from a mercenary, slowly moving backward, blocking more strikes, timing his swings of the metal rod, trying to follow Claudia and Todd into the building. Seeing an opening, he thrust the heel of his foot into his opponent’s solar plexus, and spun around, gaining precious seconds as the man dropped forward. John started into the building when another man rushed from the side, unseen by John, and struck him in the head.

John fell to the pavement, unconscious.

Three mercenaries jumped over John and rushed into the building after Claudia.

The sounds of gunfire faded as Claudia and Todd hurried to the top of the stairs. Their strides were long, jumping two steps at a time. The stair climb was almost effortless for the pair. The gunfight-engendered adrenaline pumped their hearts far beyond the stress of the climb. Todd managed to gain his momentum after his fall, and he was right behind Claudia. Their five story climb ended when Claudia reached the door at the top of the stairwell. She tried the handle and it was locked. Without hesitating, she kicked the door and smashed it open, rushing onto the roof.

She scanned the rooftop, looking for an escape. “Damn it. There’s no place for us to go.”

She had thought they might scramble across to another roof and escape, but the closest building was too far away.

“What do we do?” said Todd.

“Let’s see what’s over here.”

She ran to the edge of the roof and Todd followed. They stopped at the three foot high parapet and peered over the edge.

“There’s no way out.” Todd pointed down the five story drop to the street below.

Claudia noticed on her right an old standpipe that ran the length of the building. Below them was a gang member’s car, parked adjacent to the standpipe, unoccupied and waiting on the back street. She gripped the standpipe and tried to shake it. Claudia turned back to look at the stairwell and remembered she had kicked the roof door open. The door was ajar.

She ran to it.

“Go, go!” The mercenary leader and his two men were at the second level, dashing up the stairway.

Claudia heard them coming and slammed the door shut. A piece of two-by-four wood was on the ground next to the door. She levered the two-by-four between a section of roof and the metal handle of the old wooden door, praying it would hold. Running back across the roof to Todd, she put a foot on the parapet, wrapping both of her gloved hands around the rusty standpipe.

“Let’s go.”

“No way,” said Todd. “It won’t hold us.”

“Do we have a choice? Come on. We rock climbed Maroon Bells last summer. It was a lot higher.”

“Yeah, but we had equip-”

Claudia looped her leg over the parapet and began to descend the old standpipe, leaving Todd behind. Several feet into the descent, her foot slipped and she almost fell. Her strength was incredible as she regained her hold. She used her feet to stabilize the descent, pushing her toes into the grout lines of the decaying brick wall.

The mercenaries reached the top of the stairwell and discovered the access door was locked. First they threw their shoulders into the door, which pushed the door off its center, but it failed to open. The leader pulled the two men back, lifted his leg in an arc and thrust the heel of his foot against the door. The door started to weaken, and the two men joined in the effort, with all three slamming their feet against the door.

Todd watched from the outside as the pressure cracked the area around the hinges and it began to give. He glanced back and forth between the door and Claudia, trying to decide.

Claudia heard the loud thumps.

“Todd, come on!”

Todd took one last look at the stairwell door and decided to follow Claudia over the parapet.

“Here goes nothing.”

He latched onto the rusted drain pipe and squeezed a toe hold into the space between the bricks. Todd’s upper body was strong and he worked his way down quickly, almost reaching Claudia. Close enough to touch her, his foot slipped. He yelped but was able to regain his hold. Terrified at almost falling to the pavement, he clung to the standpipe, unable to move.

The door to the stairwell broke off its hinges, pushing aside the two-by-four Claudia had braced against the door, slamming it down with a loud bang. The three mercenaries jumped over the door and raced across the roof. Looking for Claudia and Todd, they stopped at the edge and stuck their heads out from the parapet.

The first thing Claudia saw was the barrel of their weapons, aimed over the side.

The out of breath mercenary leader yelled at Claudia.

“Lady, you move another inch and my friends here will blow your boyfriend’s brains all over the street.”

Two mercenary rifles were aimed at Todd.

Claudia and Todd froze, stuck halfway between the ground and the roof. The strength in Claudia’s arms was starting to weaken. The pipe was rusty and old, and she was glad they both wore gloves. The leather helped her grip the metal. She looked up and down the standpipe and rearranged her hold, transferring more of her weight to her toes. She noticed that Todd had shifted his grip on the rusty pipe, his strength also beginning to wane. Claudia was desperate, her mind racing with what had taken place. Why, she wondered? Why were these people after me? Why this was happening?

Her jaw dropped and her eyes widened with enlightenment.

That was it. This was about her treatise. She had discovered the answer to Einstein’s final question. It was the ability to understand, and perhaps shape, matter. The destructive use of such power was not a topic she gave much thought to. Of course she had read about Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. But weapons of mass destruction were anathema to the young physicist whose simple life reflected her love for her dog and remote mountain lifestyle.

With the development of atomic weapons, the physicists at Los Alamos had changed the world forever. Her work took the concept much further, all the way back to the beginning, the shaping of the universe, the big bang theory, the collision of matter and antimatter that most scientists agreed had formed the universe. Splitting the atom seemed miniscule in comparison. What she had done could alter the cosmos and possibly destroy mankind.

The final realization drew chills down her spine. How could she have been so naïve?

Claudia now realized that the entire world would be after her.

She whispered to Todd, who was almost on top of her.

“This has to be about my work. I don’t know how they found out so fast because I just finished the paper. But that can be the only reason. You have no idea how powerful it is. They want me because of my work.”

Todd again shifted his weight and moved his handhold on the standpipe. The harder he tried to grip, the more he slipped. The cold weather and hidden ice made the pipe slippery with each new hold.

“Don’t do anything,” said Todd, his voice a plea. “They’ll shoot both of us.”

“No they won’t.”

Todd yelled when a brick crumbled and his leg slipped. He was frantic, but held on, regaining his footing.

“Careful,” said Claudia.

She shifted her hold on the pipe. A chunk of red brick supporting her toehold released and bounced off the sidewalk below.

She yelped, almost falling, and barely regained her grip. At her wits end, she looked up at the gunman and decided to test her theory.

“Let me guess,” said Claudia loudly, “you want me to be a good little girl and come with you.”

“Right,” said the leader, his voice friendly. “Look, nobody needs to get hurt. We just want to talk with you.”

“It’s about a project I’m working on, isn’t it?”

The mercenary was silent.

Claudia continued her descent, ignoring the guns trained on them.

“No, wait,” said Todd.

“Climb down,” she said, “They won’t shoot.”

Todd reluctantly started his descent.

“DON’T MOVE” said the leader.

“Ignore him,” she said. Claudia looked up at the leader. “You won’t shoot.”

“Don’t bet on it, lady.”

“Shoot at him and miss, and you kill the golden goose.” She continued to descend the standpipe. “The treatise doesn’t work without me.”

The mercenary paused.

“Shit.”

He gritted his teeth, glanced at the stairwell and signaled his men to lift their weapons.

“Down.”

He pointed his gun at the stairwell.

The group of armed mercenaries ran from the parapet, leaping over the broken door jam and down the stairs. The leader was the last to leave. Watching as Claudia continued her descent, he swore in disgust as he turned, following his men to the streets below.