Option to Kill (Nathan McBride 3) (45 page)

Nathan took advantage of Voda’s dazed state. Using his good hand, he gripped Voda’s hair, lifted the man’s head up, and drove it into the concrete.

For a split second, Voda’s body went stiff.

With iron determination, he hefted Voda’s head again and slammed it down.

Nathan repeated the move. Harder. Then did it again. And again, each impact sounding like a watermelon being dropped. For every girl Voda had murdered, Nathan cracked the man’s head onto the concrete. Over and over and over, until Voda stopped breathing.

At long last, completely spent, Nathan rolled onto his back.

Time drifted, and he felt an eerie warmness wash over him. Despite the pain, it felt good to lie there, but Jin needed immediate attention.

“Lauren, you can come out now.”

“I’m here.”

He turned his head and knew she’d witnessed what he’d done.

“Lauren, what you just saw…Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” she said with conviction.

Nathan knew she hadn’t passed judgment.

“It will be our secret.”

“Forever.”

Lauren took a tentative step forward and saw her mom. She rushed into the room and knelt beside Jin. “Mom!”

Nathan rolled onto his good arm and felt for car keys in Voda’s pockets. Nothing. “Lauren, there’s an Escalade on the west side of H1. Go see if the keys are in it. Drive it over here. I’ll take care of your mom and stop her bleeding.”

“I don’t want to leave her!”

“Lauren, if we don’t get her to a hospital, she’ll die. Go on, run as fast as you can.”

She looked conflicted.

“Don’t question orders. Get going, now!”

Lauren looked angry but ran from the room.

Using one arm, Nathan crawled over to his sister. Next to his ballistic vest and boots, he saw his belt. He found his shirt under the vest, folded it into a compact square, and, using his good hand and teeth to tighten the belt, secured the compress against her shoulder wound.

Jin didn’t react to the pressure with any signs of pain, and he saw why. A swollen contusion above her left ear seeped blood down the side of her face. Voda had bludgeoned her with something, probably the Magnum.

“Jin, can you hear me?” He gently shook her arm, trying to revive her, and got no response. “It’s over. Lauren’s safe.”

He shook her arm again. Nothing. He checked one of her eyes. Unconscious. Even though she couldn’t hear him, he talked to her anyway. “You’ve got a bullheaded daughter, you know that? You aren’t going to die, Jin — you can’t. Lauren needs you.
I
need you. There are so many things I want to say, I don’t even know where to begin.”

Nathan heard the sound of an approaching vehicle.

“Don’t worry, Lauren’s a good driver. You can’t die, Jin. You have to hang in there.
You are not allowed to die….
”

Epilogue

Nathan awoke and tried to focus. Where was he? In a bed at Sharp Hospital. He looked around, then down at himself. The lower half of his left arm was bandaged and secured in a sling, and his right leg — from the knee down — held a fiberglass cast. His mouth felt like a dry lake bed. He knew he was recovering from surgery to repair his broken carpal bones. The orthopedic hand specialist had told him he was going to need months of painful therapy to get his motion back. He’d also been warned he might need follow-up surgery down the road to remove scar tissue, but the surgeon thought he’d make a full recovery.

He stared at the ceiling, trying to recall everything he could from yesterday’s battle in the desert. He’d been through some harrowing moments in his life, but pulling his broken hand through that handcuff — compounded by his fear for Lauren if he failed — was near the top. He remembered fashioning a pressure bandage around Jin’s shoulder. Lauren had driven the SUV up to the door, and they’d struggled to get Jin into the backseat. The rest came in foggy patches. Lauren must’ve driven to the outskirts of Victorville and gotten help. He remembered being wheeled into an emergency room. Harv and Grangeland had arrived sometime later, in the early evening, but the exact time eluded him. He had a loose recollection of Harv talking on the phone, making arrangements for his and Jin’s immediate transfer down to Sharp, but beyond that, things weren’t too clear. Morphine tended to do that.

“Harvey said it was okay if I came in.”

Lauren’s voice startled him. She was sitting in a chair near the window. She had a clean change of clothes on — an outfit that Nathan had never seen before.

“You have lots of balloons,” she said. “Can I take some to my mom’s room? She doesn’t have as many.”

“You can have all of them.” He elevated his bed and reached for the plastic cup of water on the tray.

“I’ll get it.” Lauren held the straw to his lips.

Plain water had never tasted so good.

“How’s your mom doing?”

Lauren fought back tears. “She doesn’t remember who I am.”

Nathan put his good hand on her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Lauren, brain injuries can have that effect. I’m sure she’ll remember you, but it might take some time. Your mom’s concussion was more severe than mine. That’s why I asked my mom and dad not to put any pressure on her. She needs time to sort things out. So what do you think of them? Your grandparents?”

“They’re really nice. I like them.”

“I think you charmed the senator, but don’t let him spoil you — I like you just the way you are. Are they still in the waiting area with Harv?”

She nodded. “Do you think my mom will be like the guy in the movie who got shot in the head and couldn’t remember anything?”

“I know the movie you’re talking about:
Regarding Henry
. That was totally different. The bullet scrambled his brain and he couldn’t even talk. That’s not what happened with your mom. She just got knocked on the head really hard. You shouldn’t blame yourself for
anything
that happened. None of it was your fault.”

“But I forgot to trigger the ELT in your helicopter. You said if anything happened to you, I was supposed to do that.”

“Lauren, I’d like you to tell me the truth.”

“What do you mean?”

“You didn’t just
forget
, did you….” It wasn’t a question.

She shook her head. “I saw Voda drag you into the house, and I knew I had to help you. Are you mad at me?”

“What you did was incredibly brave, Lauren. Not one in a million kids your age would walk into a situation like that. No, I’m not mad at you. I never was.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. Do you remember the causality pyramid we talked about?”

She nodded.

“What do you think would’ve happened if you’d gone to the helicopter first? Remember, it was half a mile away, in the opposite direction.”

“I wouldn’t have helped you in time.”

“That’s right. We wouldn’t be talking right now, and your mom would be dead.”

She looked at his bandage. “I’m sorry about your hand.”

“For a second there, I thought you weren’t going to jump onto the board.”

“Your hand made a terrible sound. I can’t believe I did it.”

“I can. You’re a very brave girl, and you saved my life. Your mom’s too.”

They fell silent for a moment.

“Remember when you told me your mom didn’t love your stepdad?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Your mom never told you that, did she?”

“No, I could just tell.”

“That was very intuitive on your part.”

She didn’t say anything.

“It means you sensed it. Are you really serious about wanting to be an operations officer someday?”

“You mean, like, a spy?”

Nathan shook his head. “We don’t use that term. The most important part of being an
operations officer
is keeping secrets. What I’m going to tell you must be kept secret. You can never tell anyone, ever, not even your mom.”

“Okay.”

“Before my surgery this morning, Harv and I had a long phone call with someone who’s high up in the intelligence community. Very high. I’m not going to tell you who it is, and you shouldn’t ask, but this person knows secret information about your mom.”

Nathan had actually been returning CIA Director Cantrell’s call. She’d left an urgent message on his phone the night before. They’d done the usual dance, and Cantrell hadn’t been forthcoming until Harv had insisted, telling Cantrell that Jin had used Nathan’s old CIA call sign. That, and Harv’s reminder of a debt she owed Nathan and Harv, got the director’s undivided attention. Still, Cantrell hadn’t revealed everything, but it had been enough for them to get a clear picture.

“Haven’t you always suspected your mom had a secret life before you were born, but she could never talk about it?”

Lauren nodded.

“I’m going to tell you a story about your mom, because it will help you understand her better. Before you were born, your mom was a hero in North Korea. She carried out many successful missions all over the world and was at the top of her game. But she was married to a high-ranking government official who was jealous of all the attention she got. He also drank too much, and when he got drunk, he would abuse your mom. Now, I’m not talking about your
real
dad, who your mom mentioned in her note — this was someone else. Your real father didn’t marry your mom, and I’ll tell you why in a second. Well, the abuse got worse and worse. It went on for years, until one night, when he was super drunk, he tried to kill your mom.”

Lauren’s eyes widened in shock.

Nathan nodded. “And he nearly succeeded. Fortunately, your mom was a trained operations officer. She fought back and accidentally killed him in self-defense. Even though there were witnesses, it didn’t matter. Your mom was in big trouble. She’d killed an important person in the government. She went from hero to criminal in an instant. She was arrested and jailed without a trial.

“But she didn’t do it on purpose.”

“It didn’t matter. North Korea’s government didn’t care and wasn’t fair about it. Anyway, this is where your real dad stepped in to help your mom. Your father saw what was happening to your mom as a real injustice, especially after all she’d done for her country. He couldn’t stand to see your mom spend the rest of her life in a prison labor camp. So, at great risk to himself, he faked some papers, freed her from prison, and smuggled her out of the country. I don’t know this for sure, but they probably posed as husband and wife for the trip. Lauren, it sounds to me like your real father was a good man. Soon after he smuggled her across the border into South Korea, your mom was pregnant with you. Unfortunately, your dad’s role ended there. He couldn’t do anything more for Jin without exposing himself as a traitor. If he’d been caught helping your mom, he would’ve been executed. He gave your mom some money, but it wasn’t much. There were, and are, very few wealthy people in North Korea, and your father wasn’t one of them.

“Here’s where the debt comes into play. See, once she knew she was pregnant, Jin wanted to make the best life for herself and her baby. That meant getting into the US and living there, but that’s not easy to do.”

“Why not?”

“There are thousands and thousands of people each year who want to enter the US and become citizens, but they have nothing to offer in return. The US can only take in a small number of people each year. Well, your mom was different from a lot of people who want to get into the US. She contacted the US embassy in South Korea and told them who she was and that she had a gold mine of secrets to offer. She had information about the inner workings of North Korea’s spy program and details of the missions she’d carried out. Some of her work was quite famous in the espionage world, including the theft of an antimissile system’s plans and specifications. She had quite a reputation. In the covert world, it’s all about what you know….Well, Jin knew a lot. The US was impressed and agreed to offer her asylum, but it came at a pretty high price.”