Noble Intentions: Season Three (32 page)

Mason hung up and trotted down the
stairs. “Gloria, get your bag. We’re leaving.”

“Where are we going?”

Mason hit the bottom step, jumped
toward the door. He looked over his shoulder and saw Gloria standing in the
kitchen, half-dressed.

“Do we have to go now?” she said,
her hands on her hips.

“Get your shirt on, Gloria. We’re
going to Number 10.”

“What did you do?”

“What? Nothing.”

“Then why are we going to see the
Prime Minister?”

“You know I can’t tell you that.”

“Then why do I have to go?”

“Because.”

“Because why?”

“Because they said you did.”

Mason waited for her to dress, then
he took her hand and led her outside. They walked a half block to his car. He
opened the door, waited for her to get in. The door slammed shut with a solid
thud.

“They could have sent a Rolls for
us,” she said when he got in the car.

Mason laughed. “Nothing’s ever good
enough.”

“That’s not true. I just think
things can be better sometimes.”

Mason glanced at her, smiled, said,
“I think you’re right, Gloria.”

“Can we trust him?” Alex said. “I
want your gut feeling, Jack.”

Jack leaned back in his chair,
looked up at the ceiling. At this point, Mason was an enigma. Jack’s instincts
fought over the question. “I can’t say that we shouldn’t.”

“But you can’t say that we can,”
Jon said.

“That’s right,” Jack said.

“Let’s wait till he gets here, then
question him a bit,” Jon said.

Everyone agreed. Whether Mason had
told Jack the truth, or was trying to set him up, they’d determine shortly.
Before then, he wanted to arrange for Erin and Mia to be transported to the
Prime Minister’s house. They’d be safest in the bunker with Mandy. Even if
someone tried to blow the place up, the reinforced room thirty feet underground
could withstand the impact and Jack assumed it had an escape route.

So he got up and left the room and
made the call to Dottie.

“Jack, how is it going there?”

“Things are moving in the right
direction, I think. We’ve got some leads and will be following up on them soon.
Look, I’ve asked and Alex has agreed that Erin and Mia should come here.
There’s a safe room. They’ll be protected there. Some of his guys will stay to
protect the girls no matter where we go.”

A moment of silence, then Dottie
said, “Erin’s been taken to the hospital, Jack.”

“What? I thought she was OK? What
happened?”

“Her leg.”

“What’s wrong with it?”

“She started bleeding. Collapsed to
the floor.”

“Is she OK?”

“I haven’t heard from Leon yet, and
I don’t want to speculate.”

She didn’t need to. Jack knew the
location of the wound and realized there must have been damage to the femoral
artery. The doctor had missed it or perhaps caused it. A tiny perforation at
first. Over time, pressure had built, the lining had ripped.

“Which hospital?” Jack said.

“I’m not sure where they went.”

“Which one is closest?”

“They wouldn’t have gone there.
Leon would never…”

Jack waited, but she did not finish
the sentence. He didn’t have time to pull the answer out of her. “Find out and
let me know. In the meantime, we need to get Mia and Hannah here.”

“OK. Do you need me to arrange
that?”

“It’d help. I doubt I can get them
to spare a guy to drive out there. In fact, you might want to bring them
yourself. You can wait here, too. No sense in you putting yourself in further
danger. The guys that took care of Thornton might want to hurt you as well.”

Dottie paused. “The thought had
crossed my mind.”

Jack wondered if the target was in
fact Dottie. Perhaps these guys were not after him. What if they were using him
to get to her?

“Maybe you shouldn’t come here,” he
said.

“Why not?”

“It’s probably better you and I
aren’t in the same place. All I can think is that they are using one of us to
get to the other. I’m starting to think that you might be their main
objective.”

“Or both of us to get to the Prime
Minister.”

“Do you know anything you
shouldn’t?”

“Of course. It came with the
territory in my old job.”

“Not that. You know what I mean.
Were you involved in any of your husband’s dealings?”

“No, Jack. Never.”

Jack didn’t expect her to tell him
if she had been. Not yet, at least. “OK, Dottie. Get the girls here. We’ll work
on getting you a team for protection.”

“I’ll be fine when Leon gets back.”

Jack ignored her last statement. He
wasn’t about to argue. They’d send someone and that was that.

He returned to the room. Jon and
Sasha were talking about possible attacks and their reactions. Alex seemed to
listen intently to their conversation. Jack went to the other end of the table,
settled across from Bear.

“They coming?”

“Dottie’s sending them.”

“So this Mia, she’s really your
kid?”

“No denying it, Bear. When you see
her, you’ll know.”

“How’re you feeling about this?”

“It’s settling in. Kind of weird,
to tell you the truth. You go through your whole life, and at the end of the
day, you’re responsible only for yourself. I mean, there’s more than just me,
of course. But to a man, I’m it.”

Bear nodded. “Understood.”

“And now that’s changed. In the
back of my head, I keep thinking, is Mia OK? Will she be safe through all of
this? Will they get her just to get to me? Just by sharing my DNA, she’s in
danger. That’s a hell of a weight.”

“It’s how I feel about Mandy, Jack.
I won’t let anything happen to that girl.”

“You feel good with her here?”

Bear shrugged. “There’s better
places we could be. But I wouldn’t be here and have her down there if I didn’t
think she was safe. We’d bail. And I mean that with no offense to you, but my
life is changing, Jack.”

Jack felt a pang of guilt. “I know.
You shouldn’t be here. Again, I’ve put you in a difficult situation. I’m done
after this, Bear. We’ll take a few train rides and clean out some bank accounts
when this is all over. Split it up evenly and go on our own ways. It’s time for
you to release yourself from this feeling of responsibility you have toward
me.”

Bear smiled. “Gosh, sounds like
we’re divorcing.”

Jack laughed. “Had to happen sooner
or later. You’ve lost that girlish figure I fell for so many years ago.”

Bear cackled and almost fell out of
his chair.

“Glad to see you two can laugh it
up down there while this nation is enduring a crisis.”

Jack turned his head and saw Jon
standing, his face red, fists clenched.

“Lighten up, Jon. We’re in a
holding pattern right now. Once Mason gets here, or we get more news, we’ll be
ready.”

Jon stormed out of the room,
slammed his palm against the wall on the way out.

Alex rose. “Don’t mind him. He gets
a little high strung at times.”

Jack knew the feeling. He’d been
there before. But it was him that had been targeted, not Jon. And it had been
Alex that received the death threat. Jon took that personally and Jack
understood why.

They relaxed a while longer. The
conversations were concise and polite. Sasha joined Jack and Bear while Alex
left to discuss the events with members of his cabinet.

“How long have you been close with
them?” Jack asked.

“Couple years,” Sasha said. “Jon
noticed me first, introduced me to Alex. We traded information as we saw fit. I
helped them more than they helped me, and now they’re paying me back, so to
speak. In another ten years, I’ll be a serious candidate for Director.”

“Is that what you want to do?” Jack
said.

“I want to be the best,” she said.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I want what any good agent wants,
to do the best I can, to protect and serve my country. If that means leading
the organization, then I’d be honored. This, of course, could be a major road
block. If it doesn’t go well, it could not only affect my career, but theirs as
well.”

“Well, death has a way of doing
that,” Bear said bluntly. “I’d imagine it’d be hard to get re-elected from the
grave.”

She smiled. “That’s not the only
possible outcome. Have you thought that maybe all this is a ruse? Just a
diversionary tactic intended to get us looking in the wrong place?”

Jack nodded. “The thought’s crossed
my mind. Guess we’ll know more after Mason gets here. If his intel checks out,
and we can take down Naseer, maybe this will all be over.”

“Or maybe it’ll just be starting.”

The three were silent for a few
minutes as they contemplated this.

“What do we gotta do to get some
food?” Bear said. “It’s been a long day, and I’m starving.”

Sasha rose, went to the bar and
picked up the phone. She returned a minute later. “They’ll have something up
shortly.”

But the food never arrived. Jon and
Alex did though, and they had Mason with them.

“Let’s go,” Jon said.

“We got food coming,” Bear said.

“No time,” Jon said.

“What’s going on?” Jack said.

“We’ll talk in the car.”

They hurried down the stairs, a
hall, another set of stairs. Instead of using the front door, they moved to the
rear of the house and went down another level and entered a lit tunnel. LED
lights cast a bluish hue over them. The passage extended a few hundred yards.
They stopped in front of a reinforced door. Alex pulled out a key, stuck it in
the top lock. Jon put one in the bottom lock and turned both. The door opened.
A gust of air blew past, carried the smell of old oil and gasoline.

“How many tunnels are there under
this place?” Jack said.

“Off the record, four that I can
tell you about,” Alex said.

“Where do they go?” Bear said.

“That I can’t tell you.”

Jon stopped in front of a panel on
the wall. Next to the panel was a keypad. He curled his fingers and punched in
at least eight numbers. A hiss and click followed. He pulled the panel open,
retrieved two sets of keys. He handed one set to Sasha and kept the other to
himself. He pressed the key fob and a black van honked and flashed its lights.

“That’s our ride?” Bear said.

“Armor plated, bullet proof glass,
equipped with a tactical defense system and enough weapons in back to arm two
dozen men,” Jon said.

“I was just going to say it’s my
kinda van,” Bear said. “But that other stuff’s cool.”

Jack shot Bear a look.

Bear hiked his shoulders an inch
and held out his hands. “What?”

“Cut the guy some slack. He’s wound
a bit tight. That’s going to come in handy later as long as you don’t piss him
off so bad he leaves us on the side of the road.”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m riding in
back.”

They piled into the van. Jon drove,
Alex took a seat next to him. Bear and Jack settled in the back. Sasha and
Mason in the middle.

Jon navigated the van through a
network of tunnels. The dash had an LCD screen built in. The van came to a stop
and Jon pushed a button below the screen. The LCD came to life and they saw
what looked to be a small parking garage. Jon and Alex nodded to one another,
then Jon pushed another button. The wall in front of them rose, and the image
from the screen appeared in front of the van. The van pulled through the opening.
The wall dropped into place behind them.

When they emerged from the garage,
Jack wasn’t sure where they were. He had little interest in finding out. He
wanted to hear what Mason had to say and he wondered what the man had told Jon
and Alex already.

“So let’s get down to business,”
Jack said. “What did you tell them that you didn’t tell me, Mason?”

Jack felt as if someone was
watching him. He looked up and met Jon’s stare in the rear view mirror.

“I got a directive from my boss
that we’re to capture Naseer. The order came down from above him. They want him
alive.”

“That it? Anything else? Did you
figure out any of the other players from that night?”

“I’ve got the address. He’s holing
up north with a few of his trusted guys. And no, still no clue who that man
was.”

“I’d presume the men with him now
are the same from the warehouse,” Jack said.

Sasha flashed him a look.

“One would assume,” Mason said.
“Anyhow, I’ve got a team that is going to meet us there. Still working on
reaching my partner.”

Jack looked at Sasha. She gave a
slight shake of her head.

Don’t say a damn word.
Understood.

They drove in relative silence for
another half hour. They left the city and the suburbs behind. Freshly born
leaves, light and bright green, adorned the trees. The sunlight peeked through.
Jack felt the van slow. He turned his head forward and saw a break in the tree
line.

The van headed off road and down a
path. They bounced and rocked at a slow speed until the road was no longer in
sight. Jon shifted out of gear, pulled the emergency brake, got out, came
around to the passenger side and opened the door.

“Get out.” Jon aimed a pistol at
Mason.

“What’s this about?” Mason said.

“Go,” Sasha said. She put her hand
in the middle of his back and pushed.

Mason slid out of his seat and
hopped to the ground. Sasha and Jack followed.

Jon aimed his pistol at Mason’s
head. “Tell us everything.”

“Jon, what are you doing?” Jack
said.

“I swear, I’ll put one in your
brain if you don’t talk,” Jon said.

“What is going on?” Mason said.
“Jack? What’s this about?”

Jack had no idea. Added to that, he
was still unarmed. Sasha had her hand on her weapon, but had not yet drawn it.