Monster (22 page)

“Hey, the little bugger’s looking right at you,” McDaniels said, seeing the baby’s eyes reflect the light from the street lamps. “I think Ansa and Suraya will like the little addition.”

“They will go mad with happiness,” Rasheed whispered, touching the baby’s grasping fingers. “He is very quiet. What of his parents?”

“He is an orphan,” McDaniels answered simply. “I have to get back. They have the explosives stashed in the basement. Get the little boy to Ansa. I will secure the site and call in the troops early.”

“Do not get killed.”

“If I get killed tonight, it will be because the Boss gets so pissed off over my alteration to our orders, she puts a round right between my horns,” McDaniels replied, opening the door.

“You will be missed,” Rasheed said, waving at McDaniels.

McDaniels shut the passenger side door with a chuckle at Rasheed’s remark. A moment later he was gone. Rasheed looked down at his new son with his heart pounding.

“I will name you Jeremiah McDaniels Rasheed,” Rasheed told his new son. “Perhaps you will also be a Cold Mountain one day, my son.”

* * *

“Res… uh… hello…” Reskova said into the phone, which she had grabbed up sleepily from the bedside table, running her hand through her hair.

“Hi, Boss,” McDaniels’ muffled voice greeted her.

“What the hell… Cold… is…”

“Listen up, Boss. Call the cavalry. I’m barricaded in the basement with the explosives. The only guard they had watching the place is no longer with us. Tell them to hurry, but not to worry too much. The only things they had for electronic warning were a couple of Radio Shack motion detectors. I also have all their weapons down here with me. Don’t waste time talking to me.”

Reskova hung up the phone and immediately dialed the hotline number she had for Assistant Director Dreyer. He answered groggily on the third ring.

“Reskova here. McDaniels is in the basement of the Mercado house with the explosives and the terrorists’ weapons. He’s killed the only guard they had. He wants you to send the troops in quickly.”

“Jesus H. Christ!” Dreyer exclaimed angrily.

The line went dead in her hand. Reskova grinned. She walked over to the bedroom window and looked down at the darkened Mercado house.

“The only person in more trouble than me is you, Mr. Mountain,” Reskova muttered, shaking her head.

Black clad figures burst through the front entrance of the Mercado house less than an hour later. The terrorists were caught completely unawares. They reached for weapons no longer within reach and were subdued quickly. The FBI team methodically cleared every inch of the house while gathering the hapless terrorists who were roughly herded to the living room of the house where AD Dreyer and Reskova waited. The team leader brought the last of the captives down.

“Three dead,” the agent told Dreyer. “One in the living room, a man and woman in the bedroom, all with their throats cut. They were Tasered first.”

“What about the baby?” Reskova asked.

“The crib was in the parents’ room but there’s no sign of the baby.”

“Have you found the basement entrance?” Dreyer asked.

“Yes sir, it’s in the kitchen. I figured you would handle McDaniels after we cleared the house.”

Dreyer motioned for Reskova to follow him. At the basement door, Dreyer gestured for Reskova to take over. Reskova walked over and knocked on the basement door.

“Cold, we have the house secure. Come up!”

The door opened a moment later. McDaniels walked out with his hands clasped behind his head. “You could have called me on the cell phone.”

“Shut up, Colonel!” Dreyer shouted, pointing a finger at McDaniels. “I ought to have you shot right here. We can say the terrorists did it.”

“Where’s the baby, Cold?” Reskova asked.

“Safe with Kay. I ordered him to meet me on the corner a couple of hours ago. I gave him the baby. He knew nothing about what I had planned.”

“You murdered the Mercados,” Dreyer raged on. “Are you out of your mind? We needed them alive.”

“Their cohorts know as much as they do. I didn’t want the baby hurt,” McDaniels said simply. “I left the rest of them alive. You suffered zero casualties and zero explosions. The baby’s safe and Kay has a new son. It looks like a win, win, win situation to me.”

“You arrogant… Jesus…” Dreyer turned to the leader of the FBI assault team, who was looking at McDaniels with a mixture of awe and respect. “Put this prick in cuffs, Donaldson, and get him out of my sight.”

“Yes sir,” Donaldson acknowledged. “Do you have any weapons, Colonel?”

McDaniels shook his head and put his hands behind his back as he turned around, glancing over at Reskova. “Take care of Dino for me. You’ll need him.”

Donaldson cuffed him. He led McDaniels away. Reskova, who had kept silent, now spoke up when McDaniels had been taken out of earshot.

“He’s right, you know, Sir. The baby is an American citizen unlike his terrorist parents. Now, he’s safe, and…”

“One more word out of your mouth, Reskova, and you’ll be joining him,” Dreyer warned her. “He compromised this mission. His actions led to the deaths of the two most important figures in this mess. On top of that, McDaniels killed them on purpose.”

“He’s an assassin. You and Director Aginson knew it when you put him on my team,” Reskova replied calmly, ignoring Dreyer’s warning. “He’s with me for situations just like this one. We already figured the Colonel is our resident scapegoat on the team. He can be counted on to do exactly what you and Aginson want done, all while taking the rap for any fallout. It might be to your advantage to call Director Aginson. Present it to him as a fate accompli. God knows you can paint this in an extremely positive way if you take a moment to get over yourself.”

“Get out of my sight, Diane!” Dreyer seethed. He turned his back on her and walked away, calling out over his shoulder. “If I find you anywhere around here I will, as God is my witness, have you brought up on charges.”

Reskova reluctantly turned to leave. Donaldson walked toward her from where he had given McDaniels over to agents outside the house. Donaldson stopped her.

“Agent Reskova, what will happen to the Colonel? He did a hell of a job in here.”

“It might be good to mention that in your after action report,” Reskova suggested. “It will all depend on how the thing gets leaked to the media. Dreyer wants cover for any bad press Homeland Security and the FBI get out of this.”

“This will get leaked?” Donaldson asked, surprised at her statement.

“It’s possible.” Reskova smiled up at him. “Slitting the throats of terrorists in their sleep and preventing a school bombing makes for a great front page story - just the kind of story that fits in with the legend of Cold Mountain.”

Donaldson laughed uneasily. “You probably shouldn’t have told me that, just for deniability reasons. I don’t think you know me well enough to lay that on me, Diane.”

“I trust you, Pete. You wanted to know, so I mentioned some of the parameters which could become part of the answer. I saw the look in your eyes when you saw McDaniels.”

“Holy crap,” Donaldson whispered, shaking his head in wonder. “He enters a safe house for terrorists undetected. He slits the throats of a guard and two main terrorist moles. He gathers all their weapons and barricades himself in the cellar with all the explosives they were planning to blow up a school with. How do you order the arrest of such a man?”

“AD Dreyer’s been a politician too long, Pete. You left out saving a baby from the list. I’ll be seeing you.”

Reskova began walking around Donaldson. Before she could get by him, Donaldson put a hand on her shoulder. “Count me in to do whatever it takes to back your play on the Colonel.”

“Thanks, Pete. Mr. Mountain will probably need all the help he can get.”

“I couldn’t believe the stuff they’d written about him in the press until now. Watch your back, Diane.”

Chapter 16

Shipped Out

Reskova continued out of the Mercado house. McDaniels was nowhere in sight. A bedraggled Barrington and Rutledge were waiting at the curb, their FBI vests only half fastened in the early dawn light. They straightened as Reskova walked over to them.

“Did you see them take Cold?”

“Yeah,” Rutledge replied angrily. “The bastards had the nerve to put handcuffs on him like he was a terrorist.”

“We stayed out of their way though,” Barrington added. “We figured he had enough trouble without us adding to it.”

“Let’s pick up Dino and get the hell out of here.”

Reskova walked toward the street, motioning her team to follow. “We’ll gather all our gear and meet up with Kay at the office. The news crews will be here in all their glory real quick. Just look at the faces in the windows around here. Somebody will tip off the media.”

“What can we do about the Colonel?” Barrington asked.

“How much do you two think we ought to do?” Reskova slowed down so the other two agents could walk beside her.

“Well, let’s see… you, me, and Tom here would be buried in pieces somewhere in the damn woods if not for Cold. I’ll go for anything, including an assault on wherever they have him jailed.”

“Ditto,” Barrington agreed.

“I was hoping you two would feel that way. What say the three of us come up with a fool proof way for the media to add to the legend of Cold Mountain?”

“Meaning some way they can’t trace it to us so we don’t end up in orange jumpsuits by the end of the week?” Rutledge asked.

“Exactly.”

“Consider it done,” Barrington promised.

* * *

Rasheed paced the floor of the team’s front office, his hands clasped absently behind his back. Reskova, followed by Barrington and Rutledge, came through the entrance after swiping their security code cards. Rasheed rushed up to them expectantly, his face a mask of worry.

“Where is my friend?” Rasheed blurted out.

“Calm down, Kay,” Reskova urged. “I…”

“Do not treat me like a child, Agent Reskova,” Rasheed replied grimly, surprising the FBI agents. All semblance of the easy going Iraqi was missing from his manner. “Is he well?”

“Yes, Cold’s fine. He’s been taken into custody for his unscripted part in the mission this morning,” Reskova answered. “We tried calling you.”

“I turned off the cell phone I was given. I thought it best I be unreachable by the people idiotic enough to order the arrest of the Cold Mountain.”

“That was probably a good idea. You didn’t make coffee by any chance, did you Kay?”

“I made a pot back in the lab, Boss,” Rasheed said, motioning the three to follow him. “I am sorry I was short with you. I feared the worst.”

“You didn’t think Cold could do it?” Rutledge asked, following their newest member.

“I feared he would kill all the terrorists and be shot by your people for disobedience,” Rasheed answered as they entered the lab complex and walked over to their small break area. He repeated McDaniels’ joke about Reskova probably shooting him in the head after seeing what he did in the Mercado house, much to the three FBI agents’ amusement.

Rasheed filled their coffee cups from the pot. When they were seated at their break table, the group sat in silence before Barrington broke the uncomfortable lapse in conversation.

“How’s the newest member of your family?”

Rasheed’s face literally shone with excitement as if the mention of his new son replaced the fear concerning his friend. “My wife Ansa has not stopped crying since I placed the baby in her arms. She is very emotional and would not even allow my daughter to hold the baby for over an hour.”

“Wow,” Rutledge said, “how’s the baby taking it?”

“He was very hungry. Luckily, I had stopped on the way home with him to pick up all the things I could think of we might need at a twenty-four hour store. When the foolish woman saw her sobbing was upsetting the boy she let my daughter Suraya feed him.”

“Sounds like Cold found the right place for him,” Reskova said.

“Yes,” Rasheed agreed enthusiastically. “My new son’s name is Jeremiah McDaniels Rasheed. Suraya already calls him the little Cold.”

This pronouncement evoked laughter for the next few minutes. The four were happy thinking about anything besides the fate of their comrade.

“What will we do next?” Rasheed asked.

“We’re thinking of a way to get the story out to the media without being arrested ourselves,” Reskova replied.

“Yes, I know he was freed before due to your newspapers and his interview where he received his nickname. Cold did not take the heads this time, did he?”

“He might as well have. Three were found dead at the scene with their throats slit.”

“I see,” Rasheed said thoughtfully. “Although very effective in deterring other bad people, this type of story will not look good on the front page of your newspapers.”

“The way I see it,” Rutledge put in, “they’re going to try and railroad him anyway so how could it hurt?”

“When the people learn what these scum planned on doing, they’ll be wondering why we didn’t kill them all on the spot,” Barrington added. “I’ll leak it through the Washington Times. I know someone over there I trust completely. With the Pentagon contacts he has it will be tough for Dreyer to lay it on us.”