Fade (2005) (42 page)

The recognition was clear in both their faces and the man who'
d threatened him suddenly lost some of his resolve.

"Now, I don't particularly want to kill either one of you, but then I'
m not really dead set against it, either." He pointed to the man on th e left. "Why don't we start with you? Take your gun out, nice and easy , and lay it on the floor."

He didn't move and Fade nodded toward the door they'd been guarding. "I a dmire your courage and your sense of duty, but I want you to thin k hard about this. Do you want to die for him?"

A few moments later, both men's guns were on the ground and they wer e facing the wall with their hands laced on top of their heads. Fad e took his backpack off, dropped their guns inside, and pulled out a doorstop with carpet tape on the bottom.

Keeping a close eye on his two prisoners, he moved next to the doo r they'd been guarding and took a few deep breaths. It looked thic k enough to be fairly soundproof, but that certainly wasn't guaranteed.

The bottom line was that there was only one way to know what wa s waiting for him on the other side. He threw the door open and jumpe d inside as gracefully as he could, slamming it closed behind him an d crouching low to stay out of the line of the window at the far side o f the room.

"Who the hell are you?" Harold Logner said from the bed he was secure d to. Fade ignored the question, panning the room with his gun stretche d out in front of him and confirming that there was no one else there.

How convenient.

When he was satisfied that they were alone, he peeled the paper off th e carpet tape on the doorstop and shoved it under the door. A quick tes t confirmed that it was completely jammed.

"Who the hell are you?" Logner repeated as Fade skirted the wall an d pulled the curtains closed, leaving the room in a deep gloom. Ther e was a narrow ledge outside that someone could probably use to approac h the window but they'd have to be more or less suicidal.

"What are you doing?"

Fade turned, confirming that Logner's arms and unbroken leg wer e secured to the bed with heavy leather straps, and pulled a roll of duc t tape from his pack. He ran a strip along the bottom of the door an d then went to work on the air vents. The ceiling was solid not dro p panel so he wouldn't have to worry about that.

Finally, he used his crutch to smash a video camera bolted to the wal l and then pushed the bed against the opposite wall while Logner tugge d halfheartedly at his bonds.

Fade was reasonably certain he'd left no cracks that the police coul d get fiber optic cameras through, but it still made sense to stay ou t from in front of the window.

"You can't do this," Logner said. "I'm severely injured! I demand t o talk to Captain Pickering. Do you hear me? Right now!"

Fade scanned the room silently, trying to find anything he'd missed. B
y the time he decided the area was as secure as it was going to get, hi s eyes had fully adjusted to the semidarkness.

"Did you hear me? I want to talk to Captain Pickering! This is no t part of our agreement!"

"No, Harold. I guess it's not."

Fade had met more than his share of psychos in his life Serb mas s murderers, African strongmen, Arab terrorists and they all had on e thing in common: They were surprisingly unimpressive.

This guy took the cake, though. He was wearing appropriately blood-re d silk pajamas that seemed unwilling to conform to his thin, angular bod y and that gave his head a turtlelike quality. His hair was meticulousl y trimmed and his nails appeared to have been recently manicured.

Apparently, he was milking his position for all it was worth.

"Who are you?"

His voice had risen to almost a screech and his eyebrows had crinkle d in a way that made Fade think of a child gearing up for a tantrum. A l ittle disappointing, really. Karen had been right. Just a patheti c little man who liked to sneak up behind women.

"I'm the guy who's been stealing all your publicity. My name's Sala m al Fayed. But why don't you call me Fade."

Logner watched him carefully as he grabbed a stool and limped u p alongside the bed.

"You're the one who killed all those police. The one with the Web sit e .. ."

"That's me," Fade said as the phone started ringing. He pushed himsel f off the stool again and crawled across the floor until he could ge t hold of the cord.

"What are you doing here?" Logner whined as Fade pulled the phone of f a small nightstand, catching it just before it hit the floor.

"Hello? Hello? You still there?" Fade said, rolling onto his back.

"This is Captain Seymore Pickering. Who am I speaking to?"

"You already know the answer to that question, don't you, Seymore?"

"I suppose I do. Tell me what's happening in there, Mr. Fayed."

"It's al Fay Oh, never mind. The truth is, I feel bad about killin g your guys and I figured I'd try to make it up to you."

"We don't want anyone to get hurt, Mr. al Fayed. What can we do t o disarm this situation?"

"I'm glad you asked that. I want you to find Karen Manning and Mat t Egan and send them up here. Let's start there."

"What are you going to give me in return? I need some kind of gestur e .. ."

Logner was straining forward as far as his bonds would allow, cranin g his neck to see. Fade flipped him off.

"Well, the way I figure it, you want two things: to save Elizabet h Henrich and kill me. Not necessarily in that order. Let's just sa y I'm willing to work with you on both of those."

He hung up and crawled back to the stool, dragging the phone along wit h him.

"What do you want?" Logner said again, jerking his right arm uselessl y against the strap holding it.

"You repeat yourself a lot, don't you, Harold? Here's the deal. I w ant to know where the girl is."

"What? What do you care? You're a cop killer. I read all about you.

The government abandoned you .. . What's Elizabeth Henrich to you?"

"She's not really anything to me. But I've decided to go out on a positive note. Maybe you should consider doing the same. They sa y confession's good for the soul, you know? Now would be a good time t o find out if they're right."

Logner stared directly into Fade's eyes for a long time, his ja w clenched tightly shut, and then, suddenly, he relaxed. Easing bac k into his pillow, he smiled serenely at the ceiling. "I guess you'r e not as tough as everyone says you are, eh, Mr. Salam al Fayed? The y got you, didn't they? This is all a trick. They're going to give yo u a break on your sentence and all you have to do is scare me into givin g up the girl. Good try. Now why don't you run along and get me a nic e cup of hot milk. It's time for my nap."

Fade grinned. "I admire your optimism, Harold, but what are th e chances that I'd let a bunch of cops take me alive? Or that they'
d even want to?"

The phone at his feet rang again and he picked up. "Yeah?"

"We've talked to both Egan and Karen Manning. They're on their way."

"Great work, Captain. Send them up when they get here. Don't d o anything stupid, though, okay? If you just keep cool and sit on you r hands for a couple of hours this is going to turn out to be the bes t day of your life. You have my word."

He replaced the handset and looked down at Logner again. "Now wher e were we? The girl, right?"

"Fuck you. Get out of my room."

Fade shrugged and pulled a plastic Bic from his pocket. "The lighte r or the girl. You've got three seconds to decide. One .. ."

Logner seemed uncertain for a moment and then just looked away, makin g a show of ignoring Fade, apparently prepared to bet a fair amount tha t this was all an elaborate plot dreamed up by the police.

"Two .. . Three."

His scream was incredibly piercing like a little girl's. He thrashe d wildly on the bed, arching his back and swinging his broken le g violently back and forth on the cable holding it. Fade stuck a han d over his right ear to block out the noise and used the other to kee p the flame against Logner's wrist. When he finally withdrew th e lighter, Logner's screams degenerated into choking sobs.

"You should count yourself lucky that I couldn't get a set of plier s through the metal detectors," Fade said, ignoring the phone that ha d started ringing again. "Now let's try one more time. Where's th e girl? Count of three. One .. ."

Logner's eyes shot open. "Stop!"

"Two .. ."

"Wait! She's "

This time the screams were even louder. He should have brought som e cotton balls or something the guy could shatter glass.

"Okay," Fade said, pulling the lighter away again. "You know th e question. One .. ."

"I'll tell you! I'll tell you! Please! You have to stop."

The phone was still ringing and Fade picked up. "Captain?"

"What's happening in there? We heard screams. Is everyone al l right?"

"Mr. Logner has something he wants to talk to you about." Fade hel d the phone up to the man's ear and he whimpered an address in it.

"Did you get that?" Fade said. "You should find the girl there. I'v e got a TV in here and I'm going to turn it on. When I see her, I'l l give myself up."

"I need a doctor," Logner said weakly. "Please, get me a doctor."

Fade covered the phone's mouthpiece. "Shut up."

"We're sending someone right now, Mr. al Fayed. I want you to jus t calm down and relax. Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Nope. Just get the girl on TV." He reached over and grabbed the fl y to Logner's pajamas, ripping it open and holding the lighter beneat h his scrotum. "Because if I don't see her in an hour, it's going to ge t really ugly in here." He watched Logner, who was breathing like a woman in Lamaze class, and began to slowly replace the handset.

"Wait!" Logner shouted.

"Is there something on your mind, Harold? Maybe you got that addres s confused? Because you should make sure you're remembering it right.

It's probably the most important thing you'll ever do."

Logner flailed back and forth for a moment, venting his frustration an d pain, then looked over at the phone in Fade's hand. "Let me ... let m e talk to him again."

Chapter
Fifty-Seven.

It was quite an operation. At the far end of the corridor, there wer e two SWAT men crouched behind a steel barrier, rifles trained on a closed door. The one window had been covered with blankets , undoubtedly to keep the press from filming through it and broadcastin g what they saw on the television Fade had access to.

The two men having a hushed conversation in the middle of the hallwa y didn't seem to notice Egan until he spoke.

"Would one of you be Captain Pickering? I'm Matt." The younger of th e two men melted away as the other stuck out his hand.

"Thank you for coming so quickly, Mr. Egan."

"What's going "

The sound of swinging doors being thrown open drowned him out and h e turned to watch Karen Manning burst through them. Her pace faltered a bit when she recognized him.

"I never had a chance to thank you for intervening on my part," Ega n said when she got close enough.

"He wasn't going to kill you. He was ... he was just angry."

Egan nodded and she focused on Pickering. "What's the situation , Captain?"

"You tell me."

"Pardon?"

"Are you going to stand there and say that you didn't put al Fayed u p to this?"

She looked down at the floor for a moment, giving the appearance o f perfect calm, then suddenly lunged.

While Pickering did seem like kind of an asshole, Egan hadn't bee n expecting a physical attack and he barely managed to get between the m before Karen's hands made contact with the man's throat. She was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked and almost managed to get aroun d Egan before he could drive her back.

"If I ever hear even a hint in the press that I had something to d o with this, my family will do whatever it has to make sure that you'r e out of a job and spending your entire life savings fighting lawsuits.

Do you understand me, you officious little prick? Do you?"

She tried to get by Egan again and he maneuvered behind her, gettin g his arms around her waist and leaning into her ear. "Relax, Karen. H
e isn't going to do shit. You've beaten him. You beat all of us."

She seemed to calm down a bit and Egan released her. Pickering wa s visibly shaken.

"Well, Captain, I think it's safe to say that Karen doesn't have an y information on the subject. Maybe you could help us out."

He didn't answer immediately, obviously trying to calculate a way t o regain the upper hand, but finally resigned himself to the fact tha t his momentum was irretrievably stalled. "Al Fayed stormed in here a couple hours ago, gave one of my men a concussion, pulled a gun on tw o more, then locked himself in Harold Logner's room."

"Why?" Karen said.

"He's torturing him to get information on Elizabeth Henrich'
s whereabouts."