Volcano (8 page)

The door cracked open and Marianne Miller leaned her tightly
manicured head into the room. “Apologize for the interruption, sirs, but I’ve
got an urgent call on line eight for Mr. Neal.”

Mark stood quickly and picked up the receiver on the secure
phone on a credenza at the far end of the conference room.

“Neal, here.”

“Sir, this is Major Walker down at the DIPAC.”

Mark felt a split-second of lightheadedness as he fought the
urge to panic about his daughter. “Is it Isabel?”
 
Mark began, feeling all eyes on him in
the room.

“No, sir. Thank God, nothing like that. She and Maria are
holding up just fine.”

Mark breathed an audible sigh of relief then turned away
from the others who suddenly seemed very intent on studying the varnish of the
conference table’s wood.

“But
it’s
bad news,” Major Walker
continued. “Very bad news, I’m afraid.”

“Don’t keep me in suspense, Major.”

Major Walker cleared her throat. “We’ve had our first
verified reports of casualties.” She paused a moment, letting that sink in.

Mark brought a hand to his forehead. “Was that a plural,
Major?”

“The intelligence scare, sir. This thing has been cutting
two ways. Either people are getting frightened out of their jobs and quite
literally resigning or else somebody they know and love...” Her voice grew very
quiet
as she seemed to flounder.

“I understand, Major,” Mark said, relieving her of the
responsibility. “I want you to send everything you’ve got to Colonel Roberts
post haste.”

“Already on its way.”

Mark hung up the phone, knowing time was getting tight. And,
not just for Ana.
For all of them.

At least,
he thanked God
,
Isa was in capable hands
. There was no one Mark trusted more
at the DIPAC than Major Carolyn Walker.

***

Major Carolyn Walker delivered the baby back into Maria’s
arms with a smile. “She’s such a good girl.”

“Very happy baby,” Maria agreed. “You?”

Carolyn shook her head. “No time,” she partly lied. Partly,
because what she didn’t have time for was the baby’s father. A child, she could
make room for. At age thirty-four, Carolyn was sure of it. Then again, at age
thirty-four, her chances of becoming a mother were looking more and more slim.
Even if she were to try, if she were to somehow find that someone special and
settle down, after serving in Kuwait, she knew her chances were compromised.
Reproductive problems were only a part of the package for those who’d survived
the undeclared war fought with multiple chemicals and oil fires.

Maria settled sleepy Isabel in her crib and began fanning
herself furiously with a nearby magazine. She was stressed and Carolyn could
see it. Then again, who wouldn’t be after being holed up in this basement for
almost three days?

Carolyn laid a hand on Maria’s arm. “You okay?”

“Me sufogo,”
the woman answered. “I suffocate. It’s-”

Carolyn turned toward the wall housing the thermostat.
“Here, I’ll just-”

“No, no.”
 
Maria
interrupted her with a touch. “Eees just I’m not used to being so much inside,
you know?”

“Of course, I understand,”
Carolyn
said, trying to reassure her. She too, had been commanded to stay here and look
after Isabel and Maria. But at least she had her work to keep her busy. She
could escape to her every-day world during business hours and forget for
awhile
she was caged like a zoo animal.

“Maybe I could go to the store? Ten minutes ees all.
Un
refresco
, nada mas
. Just a cola?”

Carolyn knew damn well Maria could get a cola just by
walking to the kitchen at the end of the hall. Maria knew it, too.

Carolyn tried to pull away from Maria’s dark, pleading eyes,
but it was impossible.

“Alright,” Carolyn said, striving her best to remain
professional. It was really Isabel she’d been instructed to protect, and as
long as the child remained with her at the DIPAC, she didn’t really see the harm
in letting the older woman get some air. “There’s a Lucky Seven right around
the corner. But ten minutes is all you get.”

Maria nodded enthusiastically and pulled her purse from a
nearby berth.

“Ten minutes,” Carolyn said, attempting to put a metal in
her voice she nowhere felt. “I’ll look after the baby.”

***

Ana slipped the library card back into her pocket, then
locked and chained the door. Room twenty-six had been an easy mark, an obscure
second floor motel room, conveniently located in between a couple of occupied
others. New lights coming on in an unoccupied corner of the motel would have
raised suspicion. But, as it was, one more light on in her target room would
scarcely be noticed at all.

Ana turned toward the room, and froze in her tracks.

A black dragon surged- as the brawny Oriental snapped her
into his arms.

Hay Long bared his yellowed teeth. “You, Ms. Kane, have more
lives than a cat!”

Ana struggled, but again found his might impossible to
defeat.

“Let me go, you-”

She bent her teeth to his forearm and he whipped her
brutally over the back of the head with something solid and sharp.

The room careened out of focus and Ana stumbled on her feet
then toppled over onto the bed.

Hay Long let out a peel of laughter.

“You Americans are so light on your feet,” he said, drawing
nearer with a sickly smile.

Ana judged the seconds in slow motion as Hay Long approached
the bed. Still dizzy from the blow, she was clear enough to know was about to
happen.

Hay Long smirked and unhitched his broad gold belt buckle.

Ana coiled all her strength into the bend of her legs then
rocketed her heels into Hay Long’s groin.

The man doubled over with a groan as
Ana
rolled off the bed. Hay Long righted himself with an angry Chinese cry and
lunged in her direction.
Ana sprinted to the back of the
room.
He came after her with the fury of a raging bull.

Ana dove into the bathroom and slammed shut the door,
hook-latching its ineffective barrier.

The knob rattled.

More angry curses in a foreign tongue.

Ana’s eyes frantically searched the small sterile space for
something- anything.

 
Not even a
window.

Maria Gonzales set the pay phone back in its cradle with a
shiver. The mere woven shawl she’d brought along hadn’t been enough to ward off
the chill growing inside her. Maria loved Isabel as if she were one of her own.
But now Maria’s own children were grown: her two sons lost to the secret
rebellion in Cuba, her daughter inexplicably missing for years after a
mysterious trip to Miami. After a certain point, Maria had realized that she
couldn’t control her children’s fates. Once they’d matured that had been in
God’s hands.

Her husband Pepe was all she had left and Pepe wasn’t
getting any younger. But Pepe was weak, had always been weak, unable to fend
for himself in a fierce world. After thirty-six years of marriage, he still
counted on Maria to defend him. And defend him she would, until her dying
breath.

She knew the threats the men had made weren’t idle. Though
she hadn’t seen, she’d suspected what had happened to her daughter, Conchita,
five years earlier. There were too many evil forces in the world to thwart
altogether. All one could do was fend off one little patch of wickedness at a
time. And, this patch, this one directed at Pepe, she would stomp into the earth,
even if she had to trade a bit of harmless information to do it. Giving away
Isabel’s whereabouts couldn’t really bring the baby to harm.

The DIPAC was a fortress. And proving her loyalty to El Lobo
would buy her Pepe a little more time. Soon all this would be over. Senor Neal
was a good man, a brave man, and he would find a way to put a stop to it. Until
then, all Maria had done was make one little phone call. Information, really,
that anyone could have gathered had they been observing the situation closely.

Maria reached into her dress pocket and fingered the rosary
beads there with one hand, while drawing the shawl more tightly around herself
with the other.
Just a harmless bit of information.
In
the grand scheme of things, one long distance phone call meant nothing.

***

Carolyn Walker paced the DIPAC’s underground galley kitchen
wondering what could be keeping Maria. She’d made a promise she wouldn’t be
gone long, yet the moment she’d disappeared from view, Carolyn had the
unyielding sensation she’d been wrong to let Maria go. Carolyn wasn’t certain
whether it was fear for Maria or something else. But something was amiss and
she would not be able to relax until the nanny returned.

Isabel was sleeping peacefully in the next room, blissfully
unaware of the storm that raged around her. Thank God she loved Maria so, and
that Maria was equally so good with her. Mark had been right to insist that
when Carolyn took Isabel into hiding, she bring along Maria. But if that had
been so right, what was it that was bothering the devil out of Carolyn now?

***

Ana steadied herself on the narrow rim of the porcelain
sink, one boot sole on either side of the basin.

To her left, the flimsy bathroom door rattled and roared in
its frame as Hay Long pounded from the other side.

“I’m giving you to the count of three, Ana Kane,” he spewed
from the other side, “and then you’re going to be sorry they want you back
alive!”

Ana hoisted the heavy weight of the toilet tank lid to a
level just above her shoulders.

“One...” he began in furious menace. “Two...”

Oh God
. Ana’s stomach revolted as he threw his weight
into the door, which rattled and roared on its hinges.

“Three!”
 
One
more smack against wood and the door flew wide, splintering the wood of its
frame.

Hay Long stared blindly into the empty room.

In that hint of a second, Ana focused all her fear, all her
energy,
all
her love for baby Isabel into the dead
weight in her hands and brought it down
hard
on Hay Long’s head.

Hay Long spilled to the ground and sprawled, belly-down.

Ana stared
in horror as blood
seeped from Hay Long’s nose and mouth. She leapt down off the sink and brought
a hand to his motionless throat.

She waded through the chill of his skin until finally,
finally she felt something. Vague, but it was there.

Ana looked frantically around the small space, past the
shards of the toilet tank lid that had shattered when Hay Long’s head had
carried it to the floor. When he’d collapsed, something had fallen from his
vest.

Ana grabbed for the Glock automatic just
as a rabid curse sliced through the air.

Hay Long hurtled into consciousness and brought two
vise-like hands around her throat.

“You’ll pay!” he cursed, sitting up
part-way
,
the blood dripping from his face an eerie collusion.

Ana gasped as she felt her senses leaving
her, as the harsh light of the room blinked in and out in frantic assault.
She reached to the side, extending her right arm with all her might. The pistol
was just inches out of reach.

Hay Long grabbed for her arm and forced her right hand down
to her abdomen, pinning it between them.

“Want the gun?” Hay Long seethed, thrusting her sideways,
then rolling the crushing weight of his body on top of hers. He forced her two
wrists together then clamped them tight in his left hand at her hip.

Ana pushed and squirmed beneath him, but he was far too
heavy to budge and she was losing air. Losing consciousness, she feared, as
black and red sparkles pelted her vision.

Hay Long snapped the Glock off the tile with his right hand
and whipped it to her forehead. “Very stupid move, for such intelligent girl,”
he said, blood still oozing from his mouth and nostrils. Ana clenched her teeth
and as his sticky warmth dripped down upon her, splattering the bridge of her
nose.

Ana defied him with squinted eyes, “You’ll never-”

He unlocked his weapon. And, in a fraction of a second, Ana
realized that he would.

Hay Long’s eyes glinted with satisfaction. “What do you have
to say for yourself now, Ana Kane? Any parting words to leave your baby
daughter?”

Ana’s eyes shot to the open bathroom door. “Maid!” she cried
out with panicked intensity.

Hay Long’s head whipped toward the door. “What the he--?”

In the split second he turned to look, Ana bucked her knees
toward his clamping hand,
then
thrust freed arms
toward the pistol.

Hay Long growled as the weapon angled sideways then
discharged, shattering the mirror above the sink.

He shifted in rage and Ana rolled out from under him,
knocking the weapon from his hand with her standing force.

The Glock hit the tile and skittered across the floor,
coming to a stop beside the toilet tank.

“Stay, stay...away from me,” Ana commanded, stepping
backwards into the bathtub.

Hay Long chortled and got unsteadily to his feet. “You...”
He took one step and then stopped, apparently fumbling for his balance.

Ana reached behind her and flipped up the shower gauge, then
laid her hand on a knob.

Hay Long shook his head with a force that sent blood
streaking across the white tile floor. “You bi--” He took another step and then
stumbled. “No more,” he said, appearing more and more unsteady on his feet,
“chances...”