Wrong Place (The Wrong Series) (24 page)

Several minutes pas
sed in silence before footsteps could be heard coming toward the long hallway-type room that they were in. Sam positioned herself on one side of the door where their intruders would have to enter, and Nathan positioned himself on the other side of the door. Okay, I know what Sam’s going to do when these guys enter the room, but what am I going to do, Nathan wondered. As the door flew open, two men stepped through. When they cleared the doorway, Sam stepped behind the guard nearest to her and with one blow knocked him unconscious. Nathan tried to replicate this blow, and to his credit, he did knock the man to the ground, but the man was still conscious. Nathan began kicking the poor man in the head over and over again.

“Why won’t you pass out?”
Nathan asked the poor guard.

“Stop
it, Nathan,” Sam said while reaching down and applying pressure to a vein on the side of the man’s neck.

The guard almost immediately passed out.

“What were you trying to do, kill him?” Sam asked and then laughed.

“No
. I was trying to replicate what you did, but he just wouldn’t pass out.”

“
You have to hit them in a certain spot. I’ll show you how to do it one day.”

Sam was still laughing at Nathan. She couldn’t quite catch her breath.

“All right, stop laughing at me and let’s get these uniforms on.”

T
hey both changed.

“It fits you perfect
ly,” Sam said upon examining Nathan’s uniform.

“Yeah and yours looks
. . .” Nathan said before being cut off.

“Like it’s falling off of me
, right?”

“Just a little bit.”

“Well, don’t worry about it. We just need to act natural until we can find a way out of here. Then we can get help for the others,” Sam said.

“
All right, let’s go. The quicker we get out of this place, the better.”

They made their way out of
the hallway and eventually came to a large area where many people were. Nathan was slightly stunned by the size of this place and the amount of people that were around them.

“Just keep your head down and
no matter what, keep walking,” Sam said while pulling Nathan along.

Finally
, they saw it; the elevator. They walked straight to it and hit the button for the ground floor.

“I think
we’re actually going to get out of here,” Nathan said.

The doors opened
, and they both quickly made their way through what looked like a winter gear store.

“This can’t be Florida. Where are we?” Sam whispered to Nathan as they headed toward the door.

“I have no idea, but you’re right. Why would there be a winter gear store in Florida?”

As the
y exited the door, they picked up the pace.

“We need to at least get a few blocks from
here before we make a call,” Sam said.

“How are we going to make a ca
ll? We don’t have any money.”

“I woul
dn’t be so sure about that,” Sam said as she pulled some change and a man’s wallet from her pocket.

“Maybe
our luck’s finally changing.”

They walked
a few blocks over and stopped at a pay phone. Sam dialed Jason’s number, but there was no answer. She dialed the number again and still, there was no answer.

“What a t
ime for him to not pick up the phone,” Sam said.

“Is there anyone else
we can call?” Nathan asked.

Sam thought for a moment. S
he remembered the card that Zane had given to her with his number on it. What was that number, Sam thought desperately before it finally came to her.

“I think that Zane may be able to help us
,” she said as she picked up the phone.

`

C
hapter 24

Zane and Dan
were just getting off of their plane in Tampa when Zane received a phone call.

“Hello,” he said as he answered the phone.

“Zane, this is Samantha Fisher. We could really use your help right about now,” Sam said.

Zane was nearly floored out of pure surprise.

“I know that you need our help. That’s why we’re in Tampa, but how are you calling me exactly?”

Sam
explained the whole situation of how they were taken and what ultimately led to their escape.

“How did you even know t
hat we had been captured, and is Tampa where we’re at?” Sam asked.

“
Mr. Higgins called Jason, and then Jason called Dan and me. Our old friend, Mr. Fields, gave us a tip that you were probably in Tampa. It’s very likely that Jason had something to do with your escape,” Zane said.

“Wait, what do you mean?
How could Jason have anything to do with us escaping?”

Zane
recounted how Jason and Lee had gone to save them against his and Dan’s wishes and how they had gotten the information out of Fields for Jason.

“That
stupid idiot! Why would he do something so reckless?” Sam asked.

“I don’t
know, but we need to come and get you two. Do you see any street signs or anything around so that we may be able to find you?”

Sam looked around and began naming every sign an
d building that was around her.

“
All right, as soon as we can rent a car, we’ll be there. If we aren’t there within the next hour, call me back on this number, but for now just sit tight.”

“
I will, and thank you, Zane,” Sam said as she hung up the phone.

“
So what’s going on?” Nathan asked.

“Zane and Dan are her
e, and they’re coming to get us.”

“Here
? Where is here, exactly?”

“Apparently
, here is Tampa, Florida.”

“Okay
, that all sounds great. I have only one more question.”

“W
hat is it?”

“How much money is in that
guy’s wallet because I’m starving,” Nathan said as his stomach growled rather loudly.

* * * * *

Back at the underground prison, Lee had been taken to an entirely new cell, but this cell wasn’t like all the other cells. There was no bed, no toilet, and no sink. He was chained to the back wall of the room. Stupid Michael! I probably would have rather died a few minutes ago than to be tortured to death here, Lee thought to himself. He was desperately trying to think of some way, anyway, to flip his own fortunes, but unfortunately as far as he could tell, all hope had vanished when Michael and his plan had failed them. No matter what, I have to stay strong. I cannot give up anything to these people, he thought. The truth was that Lee still felt terrible about giving up Nathan and Sam’s location back in Atlanta. He felt solely responsible for how Sam had been beaten, and he knew that this situation had to be different. If you’re going to die, at least go out with your pride intact, he told himself. Just then the door to his cell opened up and Jeffery came through it.

“Mr. Higgins
, I have a few questions for you,” Jeffery said with a smile.

* * * * *

After getting a rental car and starting to drive to Sam and Nathan’s location, Zane made a phone call to someone whom he hoped would finally help them.

“Hello
,” the voice on the other line said.

“Mr.
Campbell, this is Zane Green, and I have a very urgent request.”

“What i
s it, Mr. Green?”

“I need a full team in Tampa, Florida. A
s a matter of fact, I need anyone and everyone you can send. We’ll need automatic weapons and plenty of body armor.”

“What is this all about?
I can’t authorize something like this without knowing what’s going on. When did you leave Memphis?”

Zane then explained the situation
with Samantha Fisher and all the people that were with her.

“Yes
, I know about all of this. There’s nothing that I can do about a rogue agent who has been investigating our allies,” Campbell said firmly.

“But sir
, there’s more. Jason tried to rescue them on his own, and while I think that he may have helped a couple of people escape, it’s my belief that he’s likely sitting and rotting in that prison.”

Campbell
was very troubled by this news. He had never seen eye to eye with Mr. Ellis, but he had always respected him. Even though they were normally on the opposite side of most issues, he had grown to admire Jason, to some extent. Campbell had plenty of yes-men in his life, and Jason was certainly the opposite of that. It had become Campbell’s secret opinion that every superior needed someone like Jason who would question their decisions in order to keep themselves in check. Campbell sighed deeply.

“I’m sorry
, but there’s nothing I can do,” he said.

“So that’s
it? You want us to just leave him to die?”

“Unfortunately
, yes. That’s all we can do. Go home, Zane,” Campbell said as he hung up the phone.

As
Campbell hung up the phone, he looked up to see Burt Jones passing by his office.

“Mr.
Jones, can you come in here for a moment?” Campbell asked.

“Sure
,” Burt said as he came in and sat down.

“I have a bit of a situation
, and I don’t know what to do. I could just use a little advice right now.”

“Okay
, just tell me what’s going on, and I’ll help you if I can.”

“Well
, I don’t really want to go into a lot of detail, but I’ll tell you what I can. I have two options to choose from right now. One option endangers my family and forces me to take on someone that I fear I’m ill-equipped to take on. The other option endangers several other lives that I may not be as close to and rips my moral conscience away from me. What would you pick in that kind of situation?”

“Option C, sir.
I would protect my family and burn down my enemy’s world. You have some of the greatest soldiers and minds available to you right here, and no offense to you, sir, but fearing anyone or anything in this world when you have people like us to stand beside is just cowardly. So overall, my advice is simple. If you fear that someone is about to burn your own world down, you should go get some gasoline and start a fire yourself,” Burt said.

Campbell
thought long and hard before saying anything to Burt. He didn’t particularly like being called a coward, but he knew that he had been extremely passive in this situation. Maybe it truly was past time to start a fire.

“Thanks for the advice, Mr. Jones
.”

“
It’s no problem,” Burt said as he exited the office.

Campbell
picked up the phone and made a call. “Hey, honey. I need you and the kids to get up here as soon as you can,” he said. 

* * * * *

“I’m not going to tell you anything,” Lee said to Jeffery.

“You see
, I think that up until this point, I’ve been plenty patient with you and your little group, but I’m starting to lose my patience. You’ll give me the information I want now or you’ll be tortured until you tell me what I want to hear,” Jeffery said.

“And
then what will happen to me? Why would I tell you anything when I know that as soon as I do, you’re just going to kill me and everyone else?”

“My dear boy
, by the time this is over, you’ll consider the escape of death to be a luxury.”

Lee knew that what the man had just told him was probably true
, but he wasn’t going to tell him anything he wanted to hear. After all, as soon as he did all of his friends would die. Jeffery knocked on the door and four men entered.

“First
, we’re going to beat you. Then, we’re going to pull all of your finger and toe nails out, and after that we’re going to water board you. We’re also going to turn the temperature all the way down in this room. Tonight, we’ll make sure to keep you awake with some of the loudest and most irritating noises possible, and then if you still have not given me anything, I’m going to start cutting off all your body parts, starting with your fingers. You
will
tell me what I want to hear, so why don’t you just go ahead and tell me now? It will spare you a lot of pain.”

“Bring on your worst,” Lee sai
d as he turned his head and spit into Jeffery’s face.

Jeffery reached d
own and took a handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his face with an understandably disgusted look.

“Okay
, guards, let’s begin. Remember, he asked for your worst,” Jeffery said.

Throughout the day
, screams could be heard coming from Lee’s cell, but he held strong. Maybe if I hold out a little longer, help will come for us, he kept telling himself.

* * * * *

Trish had been thrown into a cell and was pleasantly surprised to see that she was sharing it with Jess.

“Are you okay? What’s
going on?” Jess asked her.

Jess had been stuck in the
cell for all of this time without any contact with anyone. All she could remember was going to sleep in the safe house and then suddenly waking up here, so she had a lot of questions, and she was extremely panicked. Trish explained the whole situation to her.

“I can’t believe that Michael actually tried to break out of this place,” Jess said.

“I know, but I’m glad that he did. I was about to have to be a part of Lee’s torture session. Poor Lee,” Trish said while looking down at the ground.

The moments passed slowly as the two friends tried to talk about anything that would
seem normal in a situation that was obviously not normal. After a while, they heard what sounded like a door open, and then they heard what sounded like a person being beaten.

“I hope they aren’t hurting Michael,” Jess said with a desperate look in her eyes.

Just then they heard it.

“Why won’t you pass out
?” a desperate person said and then a short time later laughter could be heard outside the cell.

“That sounded like Nathan and Sam,” Trish said.

“But how could they have gotten out?”

“I have no idea
, but at least this means we have a chance of getting out of here, and quite frankly, I’ll take any small glimmer of hope at this point.”

* * * * *

After seeing Sam standing by the service station that she had described earlier on the phone, Zane pulled up and got out of his car. Sam immediately ran up to him and hugged him.

“Thank you for coming
for us,” Sam said.

“It’
s no problem,” Zane said.

Zane’s phone suddenly rang during their reunion. It was John
Campbell.

“Hello,” Zane said as he answered.

“You’ll have your team by tonight. Send the location of where they’re being held, and I’ll have a team meet you there at midnight.”

“Thank you
, but what changed your mind about this?”

“Believe
it or not, a short, bald, and very courageous man changed my mind.”

“Well thank you again
, and tell the little bald fellow thanks, too,” Zane said with a smile.

As Zane
said his goodbyes and got off the phone, everyone looked at him expectantly.

“
So what’s going on? It looks like you have some good news,” Nathan said, effectively breaking the silence of everyone around him.

“I have better than good news. You two need to get some sleep because tonight at midnight
, we’re going to meet a team and get your friends back.”

Nathan and Sam
felt a wave of relief run over them. Finally, things were starting to turn around. Sam paused and a frown suddenly formed on her face.

“What’s wrong?” Nathan asked.

“I think you should stay behind,” Sam said plainly.

“No way!”

“You barely even know how to shoot a gun. I don’t want you to get hurt, or worse, die.”

“Have you ever shot a gun?” Zane asked.

“Only once,” Nathan responded.

“A
nd how did that go?”

“I killed that big guy from back
in Silver Springs.”

“He’
s in!” Dan immediately said.

Zane loo
ked very puzzled by Dan’s statement, and Sam looked as if she wanted to kill him.

“I’m sorr
y. I just really hated that guy . . . it was really more of a joke,” Dan said while backing away from his earlier comments.