Mortal Crimes: 7 Novels of Suspense (167 page)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Julia gripped the shotgun and followed the others into the hallway. It was eerily quiet. The two men Gandhi had killed—or, more accurately, seemed to have been killed by other panicking guards—slumped on the ground. She resisted the urge to check to make sure they were dead.

That made six bodies. Six men who had been alive this morning, kissed wives and children goodbye, and gone to work. Normally, Julia was on the other side of the equation, fighting to plug leaking arteries, remove deadly cancers, keep a patient’s heart beating just a moment longer. She felt sick.

Ian waved two fingers at Kilroy, and the two men ducked around the next corner, then waved the others forward. The Almighty didn’t look up from Julia’s laptop. He held it with one hand, typed with the other. Gandhi walked after them with slow, deliberate steps, almost like he was on a pilgrimage rather than escaping from an armed asylum.

“Too quiet,” Ian said. He turned to the Almighty. “Where are they?”

“They have fled the building.”

“No ambush at the front door?”

Julia thought she saw uncertainty in the Almighty’s eyes. “They have retreated to a safe perimeter.”

“What does that mean?” Julia asked. She didn’t like the look on Ian’s face. “Why would they abandon the building?

Ian pushed her gun barrel to one side and she realized that she’d been pointing it directly into the group. He turned back to the Almighty. “What’s going on at Hill Air Force Base?”

The Almighty retreated to his computer. “The birds have flown the coop.”

“What birds, what does that mean?” Julia asked.

“They’ve called in an air strike,” Ian said. “And the guards know it, which is why they’ve abandoned the building. This place is about to get leveled.”

They broke into a run, except for Gandhi, who followed at a slow walk. Ian and Kilroy flashed their guns around each corner and door, then continued. Gandhi would almost catch up, then be left behind again.

The lights went dead while they were still in the corridors. Julia saw Kilroy approach through the glow from her laptop screen in the Almighty’s hands, pause at her shoulder and sniff. She trembled. She knew what Dr. Jonas must have been feeling.

“Keep your distance, Joe,” Ian said in a warning voice.

“Just wondering what she knows,” he said. “Maybe she knows the Fer-de-Lance.”

“You want to know, you can ask her.”

Kilroy took a step back. “It’s not the same.”

“They didn’t cut the network,” the Almighty said. “Give me a moment and I will restore light.” The lights flickered on. “I have given thee a minute, maybe less,” the Almighty said, “before thine adversaries permanently cut all power to the building.”

They didn’t need a minute. Moments later they reached the front doors. As the Almighty had said, there were no guards. The lights went out again, but it was too late.

“It’s the sun,” Kilroy said. “Look, I can see the actual sun. Two years. Two long years without seeing natural light. The bastards took it from me.”

Julia looked around. “Where’s Gandhi?”

Gandhi emerged from the darkness moments later, still walking forward step by deliberate step. He stopped in the middle of the room and stood blinking at the natural light. He apparently didn’t like it, because he pulled the x-ray blanket lower, to shield his eyes.

“You guys ready?” Ian asked. “We’re going to make a run for Julia’s car. Gandhi, you’re going to have to move it.” Ian started to open the door, but the glass puckered on the door with a loud thump. Two more bullets slammed into the glass, which did not shatter. He waved them all back.

“How many are there?” Kilroy asked.

“At least two. Sniper rifles. I don’t see where they are. Idiots, they should have waited until we stepped outside first. This glass is bulletproof.”

“Is there a back door?” Julia asked.

“No way. Not in a secure facility. But we’ve got to get out of here in a hurry.”

“Let us take care it,” Kilroy said. “I’ll go first, launch a couple of wild shots.”

“I can make their cell phones ring,” the Almighty said. “Not much, but it might distract them for a moment.”

“Give Gandhi a chance to do his stuff,” Kilroy added. “You can retrieve the car and meet us by the gates. We’ll open them, pile in and get out of here before the air strike comes.”

“You’ll get killed,” Julia said. “Think about it. Even if Gandhi did have mental powers, they’d never work at this distance, not if a lead shield can block them.”

“Why wouldn’t they?” Kilroy asked.

“It’s got to work like a microwave, right?” she asked. “It might be really strong at a short distance, but it will weaken geometrically with distance.”

“I don’t know, I just know that it works. Maybe it’s like a laser and the distance doesn’t matter.”

“What, does he shoot it from his eyes?” Julia appealed to Ian. “I can’t believe we’re even talking about this.”

“Can you think of anything else?” Ian asked, his voice quiet.

“No, but this is suicide,” she said.

Gandhi, if he had any thoughts, didn’t care to share them. He stood still, his breathing regular, his eyes hidden behind the x-ray shield.

“If you want, you can go back and find Dr. Jonas,” Ian said, “The two of you can run out with your hands up before the planes get here.”

“Oh my God! The air strike. He’s going to die back there.”

“Julia, stop.” He took the barrel of her gun and she realized she’d been pointing it at someone again, this time the Almighty. “You can’t do anything about him, but you might be able to save yourself and some of the people here. And that means we’ve got to get to your car.”

“The gates are open,” the Almighty said, “and the tire shredders down. Now is the best time to go.”

Ian turned to the others. “Go, clear the guard station. And stay alive, if you can.”

“We’ll be fine,” Kilroy said. “And if we’re not, death is a hell of a lot better than what we had before you let us out.”

Julia saw Ian’s jaw clench as the other three inmates of the asylum made their way to the doorway. He was sending men into battle to die and he knew it. He followed behind Kilroy’s shoulder with his own shotgun

A long sidewalk led from the front of the building to the parking lot and beyond, the gates and the guard station. The grounds were nicely landscaped with flowers and miniature shrubbery, but there were no bushes or trees to give cover.

Joe Kilroy led, followed by the Almighty with Julia’s laptop held in front of him. He didn’t look up, but kept typing. Kilroy fired toward the guard station. Gandhi came behind them at his slow walk.

“Go!” Ian said. He had Julia by the sleeve and dragged her outside with him. “Now!”

Julia sprinted toward her car. It was a light gray Chevy, a rental car, parked behind an SUV. A bullet whizzed past her ear. Someone cried out.

Julia turned to see the Almighty fly backwards with a surprised expression. The laptop went flying, shattered by a bullet that had slammed through it while the Almighty cradled it in his chest. He fell on his back, then turned his head and groped for the remains of the laptop with one hand. The other hand felt at his chest, as if unable to believe that a bullet had found its target.

Kilroy had reached the cars directly in front of the parking lot and used them as cover to fire at the guard station. He surprised Julia with his agility. This man was no stranger to combat. Gandhi walked behind, stepped over the Almighty’s prostrate body, and continued toward the guard station. He pulled off the x-ray shield and dropped it to the ground.

There was a flash from the guard station at the gates and without thinking Julia lifted her shotgun and fired. The stock slammed back into her shoulder.

“Julia!” Ian cried. He, too, fired. “Get out of there! The car!”

Julia reached the rental car. She struggled with the handle before realizing it was still locked. She grabbed the key fob from her pocket and unlocked it. Glass shattered on the windows of the SUV behind her and she ducked.

Ian grabbed the keys from her hand. “Get in the other side. Now!”

She ran to the passenger side in a crouch. Ian pulled the car out and she scrambled to get inside before it left her behind. Ian gunned it. The tires squealed.

He rounded the corner and there, to Julia’s surprise, was Kilroy and Gandhi standing in front of a row of parked cars.

Without warning, the rental car seemed to explode. It lifted into the air and slammed down. Ian lost control and the car spun around 180 degrees.

They were facing the building again and a column of smoke roiled into the air where it had once stood. Half the cars in the parking lot were on fire, including the ones surrounding the empty space that had just held her rental car.

Somehow, Ian put the car in motion a second time. He turned it around and accelerated toward the guard tower. A man stood in the middle of road with a gun in hand. Ian accelerated, but Julia grabbed his arm.

“It’s Kilroy!”

Ian screeched to a stop just in time and Joe Kilroy climbed in. His face was pink, lightly burned, and his beard singed.

“Where’s Gandhi?” Ian asked.

“Dead! The Almighty?”

“Also dead.” Ian peeled past the guard station and beyond the gates. The car made a clanking sound as Ian accelerated down the road, but it kept running.

“What? He can’t be dead. He must have got away from that explosion.”

“He’s dead,” Julia said. Her voice sounded cold and distant in her ears. “He was already dead before the building blew up. Bullet hit him in the chest.”

“Well, I guess I always knew that he couldn’t be immortal,” Kilroy said in a disappointed voice. “But a guy like the Almighty doesn’t expect to die.”

“Nobody ever does,” Ian said over his shoulder as he gunned the throttle and turned sharply onto the access road.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

There was only one road that led to the facility and Ian thought there would be more trouble on the road ahead. Vehicles approached from the direction of Nephi with lights and sirens going. But the fire trucks and police cars just raced past, toward the fire that still burned behind them.

Minutes later they were on Interstate 15, headed north.

“I can’t believe they’re dead,” Kilroy said from the back seat. “Gandhi, he expected it, but the Almighty? He said he was immortal. I only knew those guys a few days, but we were there, for years, side by side.”

“I’m sorry,” Ian said.

“Someone is going to pay for this.”

“Just remember,” Julia said, “that you’re mortal too.”

“I wish I’d eaten their brains,” Kilroy said in a distant voice, clearly not hearing what she’d said. “Then they’d always be with me. A kind of immortality in its own way. And think of what those guys knew. The Almighty, especially, eating his brain would have meant truly knowing the mind of God.”

“Where are we, anyway?” Ian asked, to change the subject from eating brains.

“This will take us toward Provo,” Julia said. She’d rolled down her window. No doubt Ian and especially Kilroy smelled awful. “After that, Salt Lake. Maybe we should go south, instead. Bet there are tons of rural roads and small towns we can take to get out of here.”

Ian looked her over, and was surprised to see that she was holding up remarkably well. By now, he was used to being shot at and bombed by his own side, but Julia had probably never fired a gun before, let alone had people try to kill her. A lot of guys came out of their first battle and it started to sink in at once. Even if they’d held up well, the shakes would set in and they’d be useless for hours, or even days.

Ian felt terrible about what he’d put her through. The screw-up in Namibia was in no way her fault. He’d jumped all over her when she’d come around the first time, at great risk. And now where was she? A fugitive from the U.S. government, on the run with two escapees from a government-run psychiatric ward. Emotion choked up in his throat, mixed with gratitude for her willingness to come back for him. He’d make it up to her. He’d get her out of this. He had to.

“You’re right, let’s turn around,” Ian said. “But first, we’ve got to do something about the way we look.”