Advice of Counsel (The Samuel Collins Series Book 1) (29 page)

“That’s my son up there,” Maddie said.  “And if that lunatic is
asking that I go up there, I’ll be damned if anyone is going to stop me.  If I
don’t go and he kills my little boy because of that . . . you might as well
just kill me right now.  Because I couldn’t live if that happened.”

“I’m sorry, ma’am.”

“I am too,” she said, and in one swift motion she had unsnapped
the strap on the Captain’s holster and removed his pistol.  Maddie was pointing
the gun at the stunned policeman, apologizing profusely, but not relenting in
the slightest.

“Now, Samuel and I are going to get on the elevator,” she said
calmly, “and we’re going to go up and get my son.  Excuse us, please,” she
said, and a sea of blue uniforms parted as we walked to the elevator.

I was stunned into silence and merely followed her dutifully. 
In truth, I wouldn’t have known what to say anyway.  I was completely amazed
and incredibly impressed with Maddie’s stunt.  If we got out of this alive, I
was going to have to do some fast talking to get Maddie out of this one.

We got in the elevator and Maddie pushed the button for the
observation deck.   “That’s my baby up there,” she told the officers.  Maddie
slid the gun out on the lobby floor just as the doors closed.  I took a deep
breath and the elevator started its ascent.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” I told Maddie.

“I didn’t have any choice.”

“No.  I can’t believe you gave the gun back.  We could have
used it.”

“I did think about that, but I decided I don’t want to make
Larry mad.  I don’t want to give him a reason to hurt Oliver.”

“You’re probably right,” I acknowledged.  “I heard on the news
that Datacare fired Larry today.  I guess that’s what set him off.”

Maddie nodded, but didn’t say anything.

“When we get up there, I want you to stay behind me as much as
possible,” I told her.  I wasn’t in much of a position to protect her, but at
least I could try to shield her from a bullet.  “I wish we knew what Niki and
that policeman worked out,” I said.

No response.

Maddie’s silence was making me nervous.  After her performance
in the lobby, I was worried to think what she might do out on the observation
deck.  At that moment she seemed as crazy as Niki lying up there on the damn
roof.  She had stopped crying and seemed completely calm as the elevator
climbed higher and higher.  The people below looked like ants.  There were
police cars with lights flashing for a mile in every direction beneath us, and
every news station in the city must have had a van parked down there.

After what seemed like ages, the elevator stopped.  The doors
opened and Larry was standing there with his gun pointed at us. Oliver was
nowhere in sight.  Larry frisked us both, then motioned for us to go outside to
the observation deck. He was walking behind us with his gun pointed at our
backs and I stepped in behind Maddie so that we were walking single file.

“Get beside her, not behind her!” Larry ordered.

Maddie moved next to me and looked at me with a worried
expression.  She was still dry-eyed, which was a shocker.  After all the times
I’d seen her cry for the most frivolous of reasons, there she was in the midst
of the crisis of her life without a teardrop in sight.  It was like she had
gone into some zone of will or determination and there wasn’t room for emotion.

We must have walked halfway around the Tower before I saw
Oliver lying against the side of the building in a lump.  He was bound at his
ankles with duct tape and his arms were bound behind his back.  He was laying
on his side in the fetal position, and he hadn’t seen us.  Larry’s backpack was
on the ground next to him.

“Hi, Oliver,” Maddie called out, and Oliver’s face lit up
through his tears as he tried to sit up.

“Mommy!” he cried.

“Did I say you could talk to him?” Larry thundered.

“I’m sorry.  I was just saying hi,” Maddie said, without
turning around.

“Well from now on, you don’t do anything, you don’t say
anything, unless I tell you to!  We’re going to play ‘Simon Says’ except in
this case its called ‘Larry Says.’”  He directed his voice to Oliver.  “Do you
know how to play Larry Says, kid?”

Oliver shook his head no, terrified.

“When I ask you a question, you answer me boy!” Larry boomed.

Oliver shook his head more vigorously.  “No,” he whimpered.

“Well it’s just like Simon Says except we’re substituting Larry
for Simon,” he said.

“I don’t know how to play Simon Says,” Oliver said.  He shot
Maddie a quick look, then turned his eyes back to Larry.

Larry touched Maddie’s shoulder with his pistol and physically
steered her around.  “You’re kid doesn’t know how to play Simon Says?” he asked
in disbelief.

“He’s not even four,” Maddie said.

Larry smacked the gun against Maddie’s arm.  “Tell him how to
play,” he ordered.

Maddie calmly explained the rules of the game while Oliver
tried to concentrate, but as far as I could tell, the kid wasn’t taking it in. 
I could only imagine what Larry intended to do to us if we did something that
Simon, or Larry, didn’t say.  He could have been using the game to make a point
that we were not to do anything we weren’t told to do, but I was afraid that he
was literally going to make us play.  I’d never been good at Simon Says, and I
could just see him putting a bullet in my good arm, or in a kneecap, every time
I screwed up.  I had no idea what he’d do to Oliver if he got something wrong. 
As for Maddie, I figured she was the Simon Says queen when she was a kid. 
She’d never screw up, especially in the mind-set she was in at the moment.

“Get over there beside the kid,” Larry ordered, and neither
Maddie nor I flinched. “Larry says, get over there beside the kid,” he said,
and Maddie and I went over beside Oliver, and stood there waiting for our next
order.

Larry smiled like he was enjoying his game.  It was windy as hell
up there and Maddie’s hair was blowing sideways in my face, but I didn’t dare
move an inch.  Her hair whipped into my eye and I turned my head involuntarily
and blinked, looking out into space, as my eye started tearing up.  That’s when
I noticed the instrument protruding down a couple of inches from the overhang
of the roof.  It looked like a high-tech version of a dentist’s mirror, and I
realized that Niki had to be on the roof directly above us.  How he’d managed
to get up there, I’d never know, but it didn’t surprise me.  The guy was like
Spiderman.

“Stand up, kid,” Larry ordered, and my heart sank.

But Oliver didn’t move.  Larry smiled, “That’s good, kid.  You
catch on fast.  Now go ahead and get up.”

I was mentally willing Oliver to stay put, but I could feel him
moving to get up.  He wriggled to his feet and as soon as he was standing,
Larry swooped in and picked him up.

“I didn’t say Larry says!” Larry yelled at the top of his
lungs.  He crammed the gun into his waistband and held Oliver high over his
head like a sacrificial lamb.

Oliver and Maddie both started screaming as Larry carried
Oliver towards the railing.   “Do you know what happens to kids that don’t play
right?” Larry yelled.

Maddie and I watched in horror as Larry spun Oliver around over
his head, taking him closer and closer to the railing.  Both of us were fixed
to our positions, scared that if we dared to move, Oliver’s fate would be even
worse.  Even if I’d decided to try to tackle Larry, there wasn’t much I could
do in the condition I was in.  My left arm had become dead weight, and I wasn’t
sure that I could even lift it on my own.

“Put him down, Larry!” I shouted.  “He’s just a kid.”

I had a sudden flashback to my childhood days as a bully and to
a particular line I’d heard a thousand times, but in the opposite context, as I
tended to pick on bigger kids who would invariably kick my ass.  It seemed
nostalgically appropriate for the present circumstance.

“Pick on someone your own size!” I yelled.

And just like that, Larry set Oliver down and fixed his eyes on
me.  He gave me a sinister smile that told me I was in big trouble, but I
welcomed the challenge.  Better me than Oliver.  Oliver wriggled like a worm to
the inside wall of the observation deck, trying to get as far away from Larry
as possible.

Larry crossed the distance between us in three large steps and
before I realized what was happening, he had rammed the barrel of the gun right
into my sore arm.  The movement brought me to my knees and I’m pretty sure I
yelled like a girl.  From there, things only got worse.

I could hear Maddie screaming in the background as Larry
pistol-whipped me in the head, neck and face before I finally got my shit
together and attempted to fight back.  I assumed that Maddie would make a run
for it while I had Larry occupied, but my face was buried in Larry’s chest so I
couldn’t tell what she was doing.  Larry rammed the gun into my arm again and
pain radiated all the way down into my little finger.  If he’d shot me again,
it couldn’t have hurt worse that it already did.  I reached up and grabbed his
wrist in an attempt to get the gun away from him, but my grip was useless. 
With all the fights I’d been in, now, when it counted the most, I couldn’t do
anything.  I was fighting like a sissy.

Larry easily broke free of my grip and I guess he decided he’d
had enough, because he cocked the gun and held it to my forehead.

“You fucked with the wrong person,” Larry said.

“Obviously,” I said, trying to catch my breath.

I was looking past Larry and I noticed that Maddie was there
but Oliver was nowhere in sight.  And then I heard the ding of the elevator. 
Larry heard it too, but just as he turned to look, a body came swinging down
from the overhang of the roof.  It was the perfect Hollywood stunt, except this
wasn’t a movie and it wasn’t a stunt man.  He came in feet-first and he knocked
Larry so hard against the inside wall of the Tower that Larry crumpled to the
ground in a heap, out cold.   Niki was lying on the deck with a harness
strapped to his torso.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

I was so stunned that all I could do was nod, then I lay down
carefully on my back.  “Thanks,” I managed to say.

“Don’t mention it.”  Niki reached over and took Larry’s gun and
stuck it in his waistband, then started unhooking himself from the harness. 
“You okay Maddie?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” she said.  She came running over and knelt down
beside me.  “Oh my God!  Look at him, Niki!” she said, and she burst out
crying.  She ran her fingers gently over my face on the different places Larry
had belted me.

“I’m okay,” I lied.  “Where’s Oliver?”

“I sent him down in the elevator,” Maddie said.

“You should have gone with him.”   I moved to get up but I got
a searing pain down my arm and into my chest and I winced at the pain.  “Can
you help me sit up?” I asked her.

Niki was on his cell phone.  “Everything’s okay up here,” he
said, “but we’re going to need a medic.”  When he’d finished the call he looked
me over.  “You look like shit, Collins.  Can you walk?”

“Hell yes, I can walk!” I said irritated.  “Just help me up.”

Maddie got on one side of me and Niki on the other and they
helped me to my feet.  The elevator sounded and five members of the SWAT team
came out to the observation deck.

“You want some help?” Niki asked.

“Yeah, but from her,” I said, pointing to Maddie.   “She’s a
lot prettier than you.”  I put my arm around Maddie’s shoulder and she hooked
hers around my back and we made our way to the elevator.  “You coming?” I asked
Niki.

“In a minute.  I’ll meet you down there.”

Maddie and I got in the elevator by ourselves.  “Come here,” I
said, and I took her in my arms and held her as the elevator made its way down
the 600 feet to the ground.  “You doing okay?” I asked her.

She nodded.  “I’ll be fine as soon as I see Oliver,” she said. 
I was leaning more and more heavily on Maddie until she was practically holding
me up.  “You’re not going to pass out on me, are you?” she finally asked.

“I hope not.”  I leaned back against the elevator wall, still
holding onto Maddie for balance.  I knew I was bleeding again because the
bandage was wet against my skin, but I didn’t know how bad it was.   My whole
body hurt.

Maddie moved next to me and rested her head against my chest. 
“I know you don’t like for me to thank you for anything, but thank you for
helping me get Oliver back.”  She started crying again and I stroked her hair. 
“I don’t know what I would have done without you today.”

“It’s okay.  It’s all over,” I said, trying to assure myself at
the same time.

Maddie looked up at me, tears streaming down her cheeks.  She
looked so beautiful and so vulnerable, and I had this terrible urge to kiss
her.  I’d just witnessed yet another facet of this woman’s persona, one that I
never would have believed existed.  Granted, I could very well be bailing this
particular facet out of jail within the hour, but all the same, I was wholly
impressed and my desire for her was undeniable.  I would have acted on the
impulse, but as it was, I couldn’t muster the energy to do it like I wanted to.

I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the elevator
wall.  “I’d kiss you if I weren’t so damn tired,” I said.

She took my face gently in her hands and kissed me on the
cheek, then rested her head back against my chest.

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, and I could feel her
laughing into my chest.

The ground rose up beneath us and the elevator came to a stop. 
The doors opened and we were greeted by cheers, which quickly turned to gasps
of shock and horror.  At the time, I didn’t know why.  It was only later when I
looked in the mirror, that their expressions made sense.

I leaned on Maddie as we walked out of the elevator arm in arm.