Well, at last I've got this finished!
Thanks for reading!
I blinked, expecting to have an extra hole in my body somewhere, but there was no hole, no pain, no nothing.
At the sound of the gunshot – which hadn’t come from his gun, the bad guy had whirled around to see what the heck was happening.
As my brain re-engaged, I used his distraction to my advantage and pounced on him, wrapping my arm around his neck.
He was younger than me, and from the strength he had, a lot fitter, but then, I was a lot more stubborn.
I hung on for dear life, knowing that I had to stop the goon from being able to pull his trigger on me, or the man that had just come to my rescue.
The guy dug his elbow into my ribs, and I grunted, but didn’t loosen my grip.
Instead, I tried to jar us both backwards, hoping he’d drop the gun altogether.
He didn’t.
In fact, he managed to squeeze off a shot, right before my savior joined the fray and slugged him.
I felt the bad guy go limp in my grip, and I let go, letting him fall to the floor hard. He deserved that after what he’d done to Spencer.
“Son!” I grinned and couldn’t help giving Sam a quick hug.
Yes, it pays to have a few aces up your sleeve, and Sam was my first.
He’d just taken out the other goon on security detail in the other room, and that was the first gunshot. And no, Sam doesn’t use guns anymore than I do, but the bad guy had managed to get a shot off before my kid had managed to disarm him.
Sam pulled away from my hold quickly and nodded towards Dr. Spencer.
I followed his gaze and suddenly realized she was still alive.
I dropped straight down to the floor and felt at the pulse in her neck while checking out the wound. The bullet had entered her shoulder and right on out the back, hence the blood on the window as she’d fallen.
Anna’s pulse was still pretty strong, and if we could get her help quickly, I guessed she would live. I pressed hard over the entry and exit holes and she groaned, slowly regaining consciousness.
“Is it bad?” Sam was leaning over, watching me.
He was still primarily a journalist, and wasn’t as used to seeing bullet wounds as I was. Although he had helped me back in the day a few times on freelance jobs after I’d left the foundation.
“She’ll live if we can get her out of here and to a hospital quickly.”
Sam scowled. “That might not be so easy. I got in here using the second data packet you installed on their system for cover, but they probably know were here by now. I had to deck a guy on the next level after he started asking too many questions. They’re bound to have found him by now…”
I thought about it. “How exactly
did you get in?”
He grinned. “Through the ventilation system. You wouldn’t believe the size of the fans. I just stopped one long enough to drop through the blades and…”
“What? You couldn’t just use the front door, like I did?” I was half-teasing, knowing that it was always better to have more than one way in and out of a joint if you’re up to no good. “Can we get out that way?” I asked more seriously.
Sam thought about it. “I can climb out, you should be able too, old or not,” he joked. “But how do we get the lady up and through the shaft in her condition?”
My brow furrowed. Jostling Anna was going to make her lose more blood, and to try and hoist her up through a fan vent was probably going to cause even more problems, but we had to risk it and find a way, because there was no chance of simply walking out.
“We’ll think of something, we always do,” I finally answered, pushing to my feet and then gently hoisting Dr. Spencer up, shifting her good arm over my shoulder. “Which way to the shaft?”
Sam tore out the line from the security phone, tied up my favorite goon, and then tipped his head, indicating to follow him.
Outside the containment area, the other goon lay on the floor, also tied with a phone line. “Like father like son, huh?” Sam smiled.
“I’ll let you know if you get us outta here,” I quipped back.
Sam ignored that one and headed for the elevator the doc and I had used. His access level from my virus meant he could also use it, which was great, seeing as I had my hands full with Anna.
She groaned as I shifted her weight as we stepped inside the car, and I felt guilty for hurting her. “We’ll be outta here in no time,” I assured, but her glazed eyes said she wasn’t really focusing on my words.
The elevator stopped after one floor and we climbed out. How long was left on my “bug” deadline now?
I didn’t check my watch, but tried to keep up with Sam instead.
Footsteps made us both stop and listen.
Someone was coming, and they were in a hurry.
Sam jerked a thumb to say we needed the next corridor, and we ducked down it into darkness just as the voices passed us by.
It was more goons, and not just ordinary security men, these were the real bad guys, like those two in the containment lab.
It wouldn’t take them long to realize they’d just missed us, so we moved on silently until we arrived at a rope dangling from the ceiling.
“You didn’t exactly hide your entrance then,” I rolled my eyes at my son, but he ignored me, so I looked up to check out his handiwork.
The rope was secured at the base of a cowling, and above that a massive fan whirled around so fast it would have your head off in a second if you were dumb enough to poke it through the gaps in the cover.
“How did you stop the fan?” I asked, as I carefully lowered Anna to the floor, propping her as best I could against the wall.
“I jammed it with a piece of steel from one of the railings outside…I don’t get why it’s running again.” He was scratching his head – and no, before you ask, Sam doesn’t have a mullet like his old man used to.
I watched the huge blade spinning, its mesmerizing movement almost drawing me in like a stage Svengali. “Either the motor was too strong for your makeshift wedge and it’s moved with the sheer force, or…”
“Or there’s someone up top and they’re gonna be waiting for us,” Sam finished.
I winced. “I like my version better.”
“So now what?” Sam looked frustrated. He’s usually just as good at thinking his way out of things as me, but today I think the whole situation was getting to him.
“We risk it.” I tested his rope, then climbed rather stiffly up the dang thing until I was dangling beneath the cowling.
I let my eyes run over the system, what wires went where, what screws fixed what, to where, and then I let my brain assimilate it all like I was a Borg. Yeah, I’ve seen
Star Trek too, ya know?
After a moment, I decided that it would be much safer to cut the fan’s power than it would to try and jam it again. The feed for the motor ran along a conduit, and luckily for us, said conduit was just about reachable on the left hand side of the shaft.
The bad news was, it was above the protective cowl, meaning I had to stick my hands through right near the spinning fan to get to it. One wrong move and I’d need a hook to feed myself.
I swallowed hard, reaffirmed my grip on the rope with one hand, and then slowly poked my right hand into the shaft along with my penknife.
I was shaking, but even I wasn’t sure if it was from the effort it was taking to stay on the rope and work at the same time, or from sheer fear of losing a body part I was pretty fond of.
Using the screwdriver tip of my knife, I oh-so-carefully began to undo the screws that held the plastic conduit to the wall. Once I had enough off, I pulled it away and found myself staring at the power cable.
Cutting it without frying myself wasn’t going to be possible, so I decided on brute force.
Wrapping my hand around the cable with a firm grip, I let go of the rope and let my full weight yank the power line out of the back of the motor, using the momentum of my fall to add more force to the move.
I hit the floor hard, knocking the air out of my lungs, but the cable had at least come down with me. I moved it, sparks and all carefully to one side, then grunted as Sam hauled me up.
“You okay?” He looked concerned.
“Peachy, just peachy,” I scowled. “I may even recover…in about a month.”
He chuckled at that. “Dad, did I ever tell you…”
I cut him off. “Maybe later. What say we escape first?” I looked at Anna, reinforcing the urgency of the situation.
He nodded. “I’ll go up and climb past the fan, then you can pass her to me.” He grabbed the rope and was up it in a fraction of the time it had taken me.
I watched him wait for the fan above to finally stop spinning and then slip through one of the gaps in the cowling.
And dang, I was proud of him.
How the heck I was going to climb the rope with Anna, on the other hand, was what I should be focusing on.
She seemed to sense my concern and began to stir. “I can…can try to help,” she stammered.
I shook my head. “Just try and hang onto me as I climb. I know it’s not going to be easy.” I took hold of her as tenderly as I could, once again wrapping her arm around me.
This time, she seemed to cling on that little bit harder, as if she knew both our lives depended on the next few seconds.
To add to the fun, in the distance, I could hear the voices of the goons returning.
It was now, or never.
I hauled myself up the rope with every bit of strength I had left, and somehow Anna hung on.
I saw Sam’s strong hands slip through the cowling and grab on to the doc, pulling her from me and through as gently as he could.
I looked up to see he had somehow wedged himself on the cowl and Anna along with him, so I concentrated on getting myself into pretty much the same position.
As I swung my legs through, I heard the grating noise of bullets ricocheting off metal and knew the bad guys had found us.
I’d gotten out of their fire with just seconds to spare.
“Let’s go!” The urgency in Sam’s voice pushed me into action, and between us we scooped up Doctor Spencer and began making our way through the top part of the shaft up to the outside world.
It wasn’t easy in the cramped space, and moving Anna was obviously hurting her, not to mention making her bleed more.
I winced as I was forced to carry on urging her forwards, but we couldn’t stop, not for anything.
Eventually, we came to a grid that covered the outside of the fan vent, and thankfully it was loose, just the way Sam had left it when he’d entered.
“Hang on a second…” Sam put a finger to his lips, warning us to try and be quiet while he checked out our exit.
Without saying more, he slid through the loose grid and out into the lab grounds.
After a couple of minutes, he returned.
“There are extra guards everywhere, but I think we can make it to where I cut the fence if we move fast.”
“You cut the fence, when I gave you security access?” I balked.
“Yeah,” he winked. “Good job I did too, security access wouldn’t have been any good to get out now they’re onto us.” He looked me over. “You gonna be okay to make a run for it with that dodgy knee of yours?”
I huffed. “I guess we’re about to find out.”
Sam nodded, and thankfully scooped Anna over his shoulder.
My knee wouldn’t have stood up to my weight and Anna’s as well at any kind of pace.
Sam took point, leading the way to where he’d done his famous MacGyver slicing and dicing of the fence. It wasn’t a neat job, but it would do nicely.
I bobbed through first, then held the wire while Sam moved Anna to safety. As he followed, I heard the familiar sound of unfriendly voices, followed by the chatter of gunfire.
We’d been discovered, and they weren’t even waiting until they were in range to try and drop us.
My heart began to pound in my chest as I helped Sam hoist Anna over his shoulder once again and we began to run for our lives through the woods.
How long could we evade the bad guys, with my age and knee, and Sam carrying the doctor?
I felt more slugs tear into the ground at my heels as we dodged in and out of trees, but I didn’t look back, and simply urged myself on, recounting all the times I’d done things like this when I was young in the hope the memories spurred me on.
I didn’t know where we were heading. That small detail was up to Sam now, as I’d given him the task of liaising with the second ace up my sleeve on this part of the plan.
The path ahead seemed to be on a slight incline, and I began to suck in my breath harder and harder.
How long could I keep this up?
A slug ripped into the tree bark at the side of me sending wood splinters in every direction, and reminding me that it would be my flesh if I gave in.
One last time for Pete…Finally, somehow, we got to the top of the slope and the trees began to thin.
Sam stopped abruptly, and I had to wonder if the bad guy had circled around and were waiting for us the other side.
They weren’t.
Below us was a lake – a lake big enough to land a small plane on.
Except the only thing that bobbed up and down on the water right now was the odd bird.
“Aww crap!” Sam was panting, and he was angry too. “Dad, I knew we couldn’t trust him!”
“Him” was of course, my old pal Jack Dalton. He’d been the perfect person to ask to do this, but I’d had my reservations about whether he could behave or not, because let’s face it, Jack can never behave.
On the other hand, he’s never actually let me down when I’ve needed him most, either.
“He’ll be…”
Before I could finish, the whir of a plane’s engine came from nowhere.
Not the heavy rumble of an airliner, but the cranky, misfiring motor that could only belong to Jack. Jack’s planes were always as misbehaved as their owner.
I couldn’t help but smile to myself despite our dire situation as the oddly painted bird whizzed low over our head’s like he was buzzing a tower, then circled to land. “C’mon Sam, hurry!”
I scrambled down the bank first, skidding and almost tripping on the loose earth that led down to the water. I ignored the dangerous conditions, and the pain in my knee, knowing more bullets would be headed our way once the bad guys reached the top of the hill too.
Sam made a slightly more careful decent with Anna, but was soon at my side, wading into the water before Jack had even brought his sputtering plane to a halt.
As we reached the floats that replaced the aircraft’s wheels, the door opened and Jack’s grinning face and slightly silly moustache greeted us. “Greetings friends, Dalton Airways at your service.” He tipped his hat, then grimaced as a barrage of bullets splattered the lake a few feet in front of his plane. “You never said there’d be bullets!”
I clambered onto the float and was tempted to punch him, simply because I’m always tempted to punch Jack. “Yeah, and you never said you’d be late,” I groused back instead, tugging open the door and helping Sam get Anna inside. “Now will you just FLY!”
Jack shot me a salute, slammed his door shut and hit the throttle so hard I almost lost my footing.
Then a whole clip of bullets tore through the fuselage reminding me I had more to worry about that my buddy’s flying skills. Luckily, they didn’t seem to have hit anything important, including any of us.
“Mac me boy, I’ll have us out of here in a jiffy!” Jack pulled back on the yoke probably a little faster than was the norm and the plane roared into the sky still burping and hiccupping as if it was about to die a death.
Then he began fiddling with controls I had never even seen before and I had to wonder what was coming next. “
Jack…”
“Tricks of me trade…you should know that.” He winked, and for a second I thought his eye was going to start twitching, meaning a big fat lie was going to follow.
Thankfully, it didn’t.
Something did, however, begin to pour from the rear of the plane is large amounts, dousing our bad guys below enough to stop them firing on us.
“What did you just do?”
Jack shrugged. “Freight jobs have been slow. I’ve had to take on a little crop dusting lately. It’s perfectly legit, honest.” He crossed his heart with his hand as if he was in church.
“You covered them with
bug spray?” I couldn’t help but smile just a little.
Jack grinned. “Well, they kinda are nasty little creatures that needed dealing with, right?” He tapped his compass, although I’m not sure it was even working anyway. They never did seem to in his planes. “So where to, Mac, me boy?”
I looked over my shoulder and the moment of mirth was gone when I saw Sam tending to Anna. “The nearest place with a decent size hospital.” I sighed. “And you better call the cops…”
Jack’s face screwed up as if I finally had punched him. “Can’t you call them after we’ve arrived, and I’ve kinda gone, kemo sabe? Only I kinda have this cargo back there they might sorta frown upon. Just ever so slightly.”
“Crop dusting you said. Perfectly legal, you said…” I shook my head, and moved to the back to try and help Sam with Anna. If she made it, and we actually got the information we needed to the authorities, then maybe, just maybe the assignment had been worth it.
For Pete.
For
everyone who deserved to be safe from things like Reaper.
Epilogue Back in my Phoenix days, there was nothing I liked better than taking a vacation skiing. Once I’d even dragged Pete along, when all he’d wanted to do was go to Hawaii. I mean, c’mon, what the heck is there to do in Hawaii?
Well, that’s what my young mind and body had thought back then.
Right now, I was seeing Hawaii from a whole new perspective.
Driving along the coast with the soft top down, wind blowing through my hair, sunglasses on and the sun beating down on my weary bones – yes sir, Pete had a point after all.
And why not, because this whole shenanigan had been for Pete, and for his memory.
It had taken literally years to resolve properly if you counted the affair back at Wolf Creek, but with a little help from friends, and of course, Sam, I’d done it.
Reaper was gone, and all the evidence against the bad guys was in the hands of the authorities. Paul Ashmore and several of his cohorts had already been arrested, along with my favorite goon who like a bad penny had kept coming back.
So what of Dr. Anna Spencer, I hear you ask?
Well, Jack got her to the nearest hospital in time and she made a full recovery. After a little soul searching, she retired from lab work altogether for a simpler life.
And who could blame her after what she’d been through?
I looked across to the passenger seat of my Chevy, slipped off my sunglasses and couldn’t help but smile mischievously.
Because right now, that simpler life happened to be on Hawaii, in a fast car, with me…
The End 
