Bullseye (4 page)

Harry and Reuben passed the bank, each giving it just a brief glance, and continued, turning down the corridor to the restrooms and service area adjacent to the bank.

They found an orange pylon with a
CLOSED
sign attached to it in a janitorial closet in the restroom and set it out by the door to the men’s room.

Harry knelt down next to the wall on the bank side of the restroom. He opened his duffel and took out a listening device. He attached it to the wall, inserting the other end in his right ear.

He listened for a few seconds and then glanced up at Reuben. “Sawing. And hammers. Hand tools it sounds like.”

“Don’t use those sorts of tools on a bank vault,” said Reuben.

“No, you don’t. I think Oliver’s theory is right. They’re using the bank to get to somewhere else in the building. Maybe the residences. You saw who’s there. The VP has to be the target.”

“I think so too. But we don’t know which residence it is. And until Annabelle checks back in we’re running blind. We need more information if we’re going to have a real shot at stopping this.”

“Maybe we should call in the FBI, Reuben. I mean, it is the VP after all. If this gets beyond us and we haven’t told anyone? They might throw us all in prison and forget we’re there.”

“They might. But though we’re few in number I’ll take the Camel Club over all the suits at Hoover. What about you?”

Harry slowly nodded. “Agreed.”

“Good. Now let’s beef up our intel so we can kick these suckers’ asses.”

Reuben called Caleb and told him where to meet. He clicked off. “Let’s go, Harry,” he said.

“Where?”

“You’ll see.”

They met Caleb in front of the mall’s administrative office, which was now closed. It was also located down a service corridor. Admin offices generated no revenue and were thus relegated to the cheap, retail-unusable space in the mall.

Reuben eyed the door and the lock. “Looks to be alarmed,” he said.

Harry nodded and started searching in his bag while Caleb said, “Annabelle hasn’t called yet from the event.”

“She will, once she gets the lay of the land,” replied Reuben. “She’s the real deal. We all know that. Con the pope, that girl could.”

“Actually, she probably has,” added Caleb drily. “I’ve yet to meet the man who is impervious to her charms.”

Reuben eyed him critically. “Really? Would that include you, Caleb? If memory serves correctly, you spent quite a bit of time in a large van with our gal in a very isolated area where innumerable opportunities might exist to test your theory.”

Caleb sputtered, “Don’t be ridiculous. I’m not that sort.”

“What sort?”

“I’m a gentleman. I would never take advantage of a female professional colleague like that.”

Reuben chuckled. “As if you could. She’d kick your butt all the way to Jefferson’s library at Monticello.”

Caleb’s features swelled with indignation. “What do you need me up here for?” he asked. “I presume you have some plan that requires my participation.”

Reuben said, “You presume right. You have to cover our six. I need you to go to the end of the corridor. Anybody starts to come down this way you have to distract them and give us a heads-up. And then keep that up until we can make a clean getaway. Improvise when you have to.”

Caleb looked incredulous. “Really? Is that all? Do you want me to kung fu them too?”

“Do you know kung fu?” asked Reuben pointedly.

“Right now I wish I did!” Caleb spun on his heel and marched back down the hall.

Reuben’s amused gaze followed Caleb down the hall. But when he looked at Harry his features turned serious. “We don’t have much time.”

“I know,” said Harry.

“You can break in there, right?”

“If I can break into the Pentagon, Reuben, I think I can manage an office in the mall.”

Annabelle sipped a glass of wine and surveyed the room. There were about fifty people that she could see in the luxurious penthouse apartment. They were clearly all well-to-do and connected and many seemed to know one another. She followed Bob around a bit and listened in on some conversations, but then used a potty break excuse to go off on her own.

She was looking everywhere for Alex Ford but didn’t see him. The vice president must be in another room of the apartment. Maybe one had to pay for the privilege of being in such august company in addition to what they’d ponied up already. Plus, a photo op would probably set one back another five grand. Politics for the people, she thought.

She grabbed another glass of wine and continued her stroll. She nodded and smiled at people as she went, but her gaze kept roaming. The views out the windows were spectacular, but that was not the way they would be coming. The bank was down below. How they would get from there to here she didn’t know. But she assumed they had found a way. Otherwise why would they have invaded the bank at all?

She took out her cell phone and tried calling Alex, but he didn’t pick up. He wouldn’t, she assumed, while he was on duty. But if she could just find him and tell him what was going on…

“Hey, Annabelle!”

She turned to see Bob standing there with some people for her to meet. She smiled politely and turned to the group. But even her rock-hard nerves were starting to crumble a bit. She had to find Alex and warn him. And she could sense time was running out.

Caleb paced nervously in front of the intersection of the main hallway and the corridor leading to the mall offices. He was hoping with all his might that no one would happen along this way. He figured his odds were good. There were no stores around here. It was just dead space in the mall on a Saturday afternoon.

He pulled his phone and texted Reuben. The message was brief.

Hurry up!

Just as he put the phone away, he looked up. His mouth became dry and he gave an involuntarily shudder.

It was a mall cop headed directly his way.

As the beefy man in the dark blue uniform with squeaky belt and shoes approached, Caleb attempted a smile.

“Hello,” he said as the man drew closer.

The man looked at him suspiciously. “Can I help you, sir?”

“Help?” said Caleb in a shaky voice. “No, I’m fine. Just…just waiting on some friends.”

“Up here?” The guard made a show of looking around at the empty space.

“Y-yes,” said Caleb, stammering slightly. “We, I mean they, don’t really know the area. I suggested meeting here, you know, just for—it gets crowded downstairs.” He paused and swallowed hard. “I don’t like crowds.”

The guard looked even more suspicious. It didn’t help when Caleb gave a nervous glance down the corridor leading to the mall offices.

“Can I see some ID?” asked the guard.

“ID?” asked Caleb shrilly.

“Yes, ID,” said the guard, drawing closer. His hand went up and rested on the butt of his holstered gun.

“Cer-certainly, Officer. Do I call you Officer?”

“Sir, the ID, please.”

“But I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“Then you should have no problem showing me some ID. If it checks out we can all go on our way. How’s that sound?”

“But the Fourth Amendment guarantees protection against unreasonable searches and seizures,” said Caleb desperately.

“I’m neither searching nor seizing, sir, and you’re making this a lot harder than it has to be.”

“I’m sorry, I truly am.” Caleb could see the cop was definitely suspicious now. He suddenly brightened. “I saw
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
with Kevin James,” Caleb said conversationally as he reached inside his jacket for his wallet. “Delightful movie. Very funny. Not an Oscar-caliber film, of course, but quite crowd-pleasing.”

The guard did not look pleased by this at all. “Blart was a moron. I’m not a moron. I served twenty-five years with the metro police.”

Caleb looked horrified. “No, of course not. I didn’t mean to suggest—”

His phone vibrated. As he drew out his wallet and handed his ID to the cop he glanced at the screen.

We’re done, coming out. Coast clear?

Caleb looked up at the cop, who was studying his ID, then quickly thumbed his response.
One minute and then hit it.

“Sir,” said the cop. “I’d like you to come—”

Before he could finish, Caleb started holding his chest and gasping for breath.

“I-I-I think I’m having a pa-pa-panic attack. Ca-can’t ca—catch my breath.”

He started to collapse. The cop caught him and supported him. “Just hold on, sir. I’ve got you. You’re going to be okay.”

Caleb pointed to the elevator bank. “Fr-fresh air. Need—outside…quick.”

“Okay. Okay. I’m going to call an ambulance too.”

Caleb drew a painful, shuddering breath. “Out-out…side. Hurry.”

The guard helped Caleb to the elevator and inside. The doors closed behind them and the car started down.

Five seconds later Harry and Reuben appeared in the main hall. Under Harry’s arm was a set of building plans.

“Where’s Caleb?” asked Harry.

“Probably gone off to a bookstore,” grumbled Reuben. “If there’re any left in this place. Come on, we’re running out of time.”

The door to the interior room opened and Adam Chase stood there, gun in hand. “We are just about done here,” he said. “And then all of you get to go on with your lives. Unless you give us problems.” He looked at Stone and Robie when he said this.

“No problems,” said Stone.

Another man appeared next to Chase. He held a machine pistol in his right hand. His face was, like Chase’s, covered with a ski mask.

Chase looked at him and then indicated Stone and Robie.

“Watch them closely,” said Chase, and the other man nodded. “Any problems at all, just take them out.”

Chase left and the other man put his back against the door, his gaze scanning the room.

In the bank lobby there was a hole in the drywall at the location of the pop-out. The studs had been sawn apart and some concrete blocks broken through, creating an opening large enough for a man to get past.

Chase and his three associates had clambered through the hole and were now staring up the exposed shaft that was framed in by steel beams for the once proposed elevator bank.

It was dark, of course, which was why they had night optics. They slipped the lenses down over their faces and powered them up.

Chase hefted a backpack over his shoulders. His colleagues did the same. They strung sturdy nylon climbing ropes around their waists and then coupled them using D-links. Then they each picked a section of wall, gripped one of the steel beams, and started to climb. The beams were close enough together that they made good progress. On the lower floors the shaft was formed by concrete blocks, but on the upper floors it was only drywall and studs. Each of them moved expertly, gaining a firm purchase with hands and feet on the beams before hoisting themselves higher. At this pace they would be at their destination very soon.

Harry and Reuben were back in the men’s room, the blueprints for the mall and the bank branch laid out on the floor. Harry had quickly studied them and then pointed out the optimal egress. He made his living breaking into places far more secure than even a bank. He pointed to a section of wall next to the row of sinks.

“I think there is the best spot. We have to assume they’ll have the hostages in the interior room there.” He pointed to that area on the blueprints. “Right behind this wall is the bathroom in the bank. They did it that way so they could use the same plumbing from this restroom. Saves time and money.”

“Right,” said Reuben, studying the plans. “But there’ll be sentries, Harry. We have to account for that.”

“I know. That’s why I brought this.” He pulled from his knapsack what looked like a handheld wand that TSA personnel would use at airport security, except that it had a small screen on the handle. “Thermal imager,” he explained.

He moved it up and down in front of the wall and then checked the readout screen.

“It’s clear right now.”

“Well, let’s hope nobody with a gun has to take a pee in the next few minutes,” said Reuben.

Harry drew out a saw from his duffel and began, as quietly as possible, to cut through the drywall.

Stone studied the guard in the ski mask, and the man looked back at Stone.

Finally, the man said, “You got a problem?”

Stone said, “How did you draw the short straw? Are you the junior guy on the team?”

“Don’t know what you’re talking about. Short straw?”

The other hostages looked on nervously as Stone leaned back against the wall with Robie tethered to him.

“Short straw. Surely you understand the concept. They left you here. They left you
behind
.”

“Important job,” countered the man. “Guarding all of you.”

“Not really. Better to have killed us, drugged us, or tied us up so well we couldn’t escape. Why waste someone? You’re a small team. Why divide your manpower that way?”

“Why don’t you shut up, old man?”

“You should have at least asked for backup,” said Robie.

The man snorted. “Backup? I’ve got an auto pistol. All of you are tied together. You take a step toward me, you’re dead. Why do I need backup?”

“For unforeseen things,” said Stone. “But apparently your mission leader didn’t care about that. About you, I mean. Expendable.”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

“Actually, I do,” countered Stone. “The rear-flank guy almost always goes down. That’s the nature of the beast. And your friends aren’t coming back through here to make their escape. But I bet they told you they were.”

The other man’s shoulders tensed. He snorted and said, “So now you know all about our plan?”

Stone kept staring directly at him. “The motorized outer wall to the bank is key-operated. Charlie had one key. You don’t have it because I saw your leader take it. He also took the other key behind the tellers’ stand. So you can’t open the door to get out.”

“Yeah, but he can.”

“Do you know what those things were he was having positioned on the overhead door to the bank?” asked Robie.

The man glanced at him but said nothing.

Stone said, “They’re either Semtex or C-4 hardwired to a detonator. They’re armed and I bet they’re configured so they can’t be disarmed except remotely. A handful of Semtex can take down a jumbo jet. What do you think those packs will do to this bank and everyone in it? Including you.”

Robie added, “And why put those up if they were planning to exit that way?”

Before the man could say anything Stone said, “Because they’re not coming back this way. Why would they? Cops will be waiting. It’s been long enough that people will know something is up.” He glanced at the bank employees and customers. “All these folks have people who will be missing them. Won’t take long to realize something is off.”

“Shut up,” said the man, but his gun hand was trembling slightly.

Stone said, “A vertical shaft up a building allows for lots of possibilities for escape. Lots of floors. That’s what I’d do. And I’m sure that’s what your friends are planning to do. While you stay behind here. For the cops to arrest. Or kill.”

The man’s gaze darted in the direction of the shaft, confirming for Stone that his speculation had been correct.

He continued, “They have the plans for the building. That will tell them the best place to branch off the shaft after they’ve completed their mission. Different floor, masks and jumpsuits come off. They walk away and out of the mall. Gone. Just like that.” He snapped his fingers.

“But not you,” said Robie. “You’re stuck here with us. And when someone tries to open the door to the bank, we’ll be vaporized. All of us. You included.”

One of the female tellers started to moan. A customer choked back a sob and began whimpering.

The gunman started nervously licking his lips.

Stone said, “So that’s what I meant when I said the short straw. You’re the sacrificial lamb. Maybe the cops will think you were acting alone. I mean, there won’t be anyone alive to say otherwise. That way your buddies get away free and clear. While your ass gets sacrificed. For the cause. Whatever that might be.”

The gunman pointed his weapon at Stone’s head. “I said, shut up. Or the next person to be dead will be you.”

The next moment the man was falling forward, the door having struck him from behind.

Robie and Stone surged forward together. Robie ripped the gun free from the man’s fingers. Stone slammed an elbow into the man’s neck, sending him down to the floor, where he stayed.

The door opened all the way and there stood Harry and Reuben.

Reuben eyed the fallen man. “Now I’d say that was pretty damn good timing.”

“Perfect timing,” corrected Stone.

Harry quickly cut all the hostages loose.

Reuben said, “There are C-4 packs strung across the entrance to the bank. No one’s leaving that way until the bomb squad comes in and clears them out.”

“I take it no one was in the front part of the bank,” said Stone.

Reuben nodded. “That’s right..”

Harry nodded. “But there’s a hole in the wall.”

“We knew they were trying to get from here to somewhere else. Do you know where they’re going?” asked Robie.

“A fund-raiser on the top floor,” replied Reuben. “Lots of elite types attending. Annabelle managed to get in.”

“And the target?” asked Stone.

“The vice president of the United States,” answered Harry.

Stone and Robie glanced worriedly at each other.

Robie said quickly, “Does the Secret Service know?”

Harry said, “Alex is on the protection detail, but Annabelle hasn’t been able to make contact with him yet.”

Reuben hiked his eyebrows and smiled. “VP. Just your run-of-the-mill stuff. Keeps us from getting rusty in our old age.”