The Senator: A Blake Jordan Thriller (11 page)

Five minutes before the president was set to speak from the Rose Garden, Chris Reed turned on the large theater-like screen and set it to one of the news stations so that every DDC employee on the floor could watch the speech from their desk. We did this whenever the president spoke to make sure that everyone could get the information firsthand. We also did this whenever the media happened to know more than we did. With DDC being a fairly new organization, this happened more often than it should.

As Reed and the staff waited, talking heads argued on the screen about Jim Keller’s kidnapping, one calling it an act of terrorism and the other claiming that it was likely something being carried out by some right-wing nut. The media’s ability to rile up each side of the aisle was enough to make anyone sick, and most Americans didn’t trust the media because of it.

While the two commentators continued their discussion, which veered into the question of the downtown Chicago mosque and how an imam may have been involved, the video feed began showing an empty podium outside of the White House and the president walked up to it.

“Let’s go to the Rose Garden now where the president is about to speak,” one of them said.

“My fellow Americans,” the president began after allowing for a brief moment of silence to relay to the viewers how serious the situation was. “This morning, I want to speak to you about what the United States will do to address the kidnapping of Illinois Senator Jim Keller. As Commander in Chief, my highest priority is the security of the American people. Still, we continue to face terrorist threats on the homeland. Small groups of people have the capacity to do great harm. Regardless of your political affiliation, what happened last night is a travesty and one that we will not take lightly. We do not know yet all of the details, but our counterterrorism professionals are working hard to understand any terrorism involvement as well as find and rescue Jim Keller. Senator Keller and I could not be on more opposite ends of the political spectrum. But all of that gets set aside when something like this happens to one of our own. We will do everything we can to get the senator back – alive and unharmed.”

As the president continued to talk, Chris Reed was tapped on the shoulder. He had been standing along with all other DDC employees who were watching the president’s address with his arms crossed and trying to understand whether or not the president was going to treat this as a terrorist attack. If he had, DDC would be able to officially spring back into action, but the president wasn’t being clear enough.

“Sir, there’s a man from Base here to see you,” the security officer said to Reed who turned around and looked at the back of the room. Regional Director Roger Shapiro stood against the wall and motioned for Reed to join him.

“Tell Morgan Lennox that Shapiro is here, tell him to relay that to Jordan,” he said to the officer before walking to the back of the room and shaking hands with Shapiro.

“Director Shapiro, what brings you to DDC?” Reed asked, knowing full well why he was there. Shapiro spoke to another man who was standing with him.

“Stop that officer,” he said, pointing to the man Reed had just spoken with. “Put him in holding cell A,” Shapiro said, then turned to Reed before continuing.

“I’m here for Blake Jordan. Where is he?” Reed watched as the officer was taken away, walked down the hall, and placed inside one of DDC’s small holding rooms.

“What do you mean?” Reed asked, judging how far Shapiro was willing to go.

“Blake Jordan mishandled the Keller assignment. Every governmental agency is looking at DDC and therefore the CIA to understand how this happened. This was Jordan’s operation, so I want to talk to him immediately,” Shapiro said. Reed didn’t move. “You have two choices, Agent Reed. You tell me where Jordan is and I make you interim special agent in charge or I find him myself and you go down with him.” Reed paused.

“Follow me,” he finally said, and walked Shapiro to his office.

We were running out of time and I was getting frustrated. The truth was, I couldn’t make John Burnett talk. Jami and I weren’t there on official DDC business. We couldn’t arrest him and we couldn’t take him back to DDC for questioning, either. The best we could do was try to convince Burnett that he needed to tell us what he knew. But if he decided that he was going to stay quiet, Jami and I would be out of options.

“You were pretty close to him, weren’t you?” I asked, hoping to get some kind of reaction out of the man. Part of my SEAL training before joining DDC was how to interrogate someone and know when you were being lied to as well as when you were covering subjects that mattered the most to who you were questioning. You had to pay attention to their facial expressions and breathing. Sometimes you could see their heartbeat through their shirt if they were still enough. The trick was to ask questions until you got a reaction, and then once you did, continue drilling down until you got the information you wanted. Jami and I were hoping to use Burnett’s apparent friendship with Mitchell as leverage, but he wasn’t budging.

“Or maybe you weren’t close to him. Maybe you used David Mitchell for information to help your career at the Tribune. Maybe you stayed in touch with him because you knew that while he was someone you should keep your distance with, he had a knack for getting the scoop on the big stories.” Burnett looked me over before turning away. Just the confirmation I was looking for, so I continued down that path.

“You gave him privileged access to some of your biggest stories after he was fired from the Tribune to keep the friendship. But you were really using him, weren’t you? Now that he’s dead, you’re all on your own.” Burnett pressed his lips together, like he was keeping himself from speaking. I looked at Jami and she nodded, telling me that she thought I was onto something and that I should keep going.

“Why do you live all the way out here, Mr. Burnett? Why have a house in the suburbs instead of living in the city?” That got a reaction and he didn’t hesitate to respond.

“There’s too much violence in the city,” he said. He was quick to answer that question – but why didn’t he answer my other questions? Why this one?

“And yet, you thought that we were here to kill you. That’s what you said.” Burnett didn’t respond.

I noticed that the man kept glancing at the clock in the kitchen and he seemed to be getting more nervous by the minute. “Why do you keep checking the time? Are you expecting company?”

“Just running late for work,” he said, and his eye twitched when he said it. I knew he was worried about something else.

I walked to the window by the front door and looked outside. Nobody was there.

“Here’s the deal, Mr. Burnett. I know that you’re not telling me everything you know about Senator Keller’s kidnapping. The man who murdered David Mitchell, I believe it’s the same man who took Keller. He’s proved that he won’t hesitate to silence anyone who has information about what he’s doing. I believe you have that same information. You don’t have to tell me what you know. Agent Davis and I can leave. But when we do, understand that you’re going to be on your own again. But, if you tell me what you know, then I can get this son of a bitch and you won’t have to worry about your own safety,” I said and stood over Burnett, waiting for him to give us his decision.

“I’m not saying another word without my lawyer,” he said. I drew my gun and rested the barrel on his leg.

“Blake, stop!” Jami said and grabbed my arm and tried to pull it away.

“Tell me what you know!” I yelled in Burnett’s face and he winced and looked away, fully expecting me to pull the trigger. I never would have. At least I hoped that I’d never do that. For being a by-the-book kind of guy, the lines between right and wrong were starting to blur. I didn’t expect to react this way and I was shaking just as much as Burnett was because of it.

But the clock was ticking and my patience was wearing thin. Jami kept pulling at me and I left the gun resting on Burnett’s leg. “Tell me now!” I yelled again. Suddenly, I heard a voice coming from the stairs.

“Daddy?” a little girl said, and she slowly walked down the steps, dragging a teddy bear behind her.

The teenager stood and walked cautiously toward the kidnapper’s room. The light from the TV flickered against the adjacent walls as the kid walked as slowly as he could to make sure he didn’t make any noise. Once he got to the kidnapper’s room, he turned around and looked back at the senator who gave the kid a nod and a thumbs up. But then the kid looked inside the room for a moment and turned back around. He was terrified and slowly walked back to the senator.

“He’s not asleep!” he said as quietly as he could but obviously distraught at the situation, realizing that he was trapped with no way out.

“What makes you think that? Did you see him moving?” The kid shook his head. “Then how do you know that he’s awake?”

“Because he’s just lying there watching the news. I don’t think he’s asleep and when I walk past him, he’s going to grab me and kill me.”

There was a series of small, rectangular windows on the wall above the area where the senator was sitting which he hadn’t noticed before. “Look,” the senator said to the kid and pointed to the row of windows the best he could with his hands handcuffed. “The sun is coming up. The man in the next room will wake up soon. And when he does and this entire room is lit, you’re not going to be able to hide here much longer.”

The kid shook his head again. “I can’t do it.” Keller interrupted him before he could say anything else.

“You
can
do it. You signaled to me earlier with your cell phone and let me know that you were there, watching. You were brave and you let me know that I wasn’t alone, that you were going to help me.” The teenager pulled out his cell phone again, reminded of it by the senator’s words.

“I have no reception in here. I wanted to call 911 so bad. I couldn’t. We’re trapped.”

“No.
I’m
trapped.
You
can escape. Be brave.”

Tre slowly shook his head and turned away. “I know you’re scared, but you can do this. It’s getting brighter in here. He’s going to be waking up soon and if you don’t leave now, you’re going to miss your only chance.”

“Alright,” the kid said.

“Do you remember what I told you? What to say after you tell them where I am?” The kid nodded.

“Yes, I remember,” he said and stood up to walk back toward the kidnapper’s room that he would have to pass in order to escape outside. He got to the door and once again looked inside. After he got a glimpse of the kidnapper, still laying down, the kid turned around to look at the senator who smiled.

He walked past the room and over to a large door that was cracked open far enough for the cords from the generator in the bay area to bring electricity into the two rooms the kidnapper was using but the kid couldn’t squeeze through without opening the door further. He placed two hands on the door and pulled. The door’s rusty hinges made a creaking sound. He stopped and turned around and saw the kidnapper stir in his bed.
He was asleep
, the kid thought to himself. He knew that if he kept trying to pull the door open slowly, it would make the same sound. He decided to yank it open instead, hoping it might not make any sound at all if he opened it with more force.

The kid could feel his heart pounding as he stood there, in plain sight of the kidnapper, his two hands still gripping the door, knowing that pulling it hard might not work, that it might not help him avoid the sound.

He yanked the door hard and it made a terribly loud noise, like metal rubbing against metal. The kid ran.

As he entered the bay area of the warehouse, Jim Keller saw the kidnapper run out of his room and look at Keller and then he turned toward the bay where the kid was.

“He’s awake! He’s coming for you! Run!” Keller yelled to the kid.

The boy ran past the generator and the van and saw that there was a single door to the left of the closed retractable bay door. He pushed the door open and ran into the deserted streets of the industrial park. Fifteen seconds later, the kidnapper followed the boy outside, determined to hunt him down and kill him.

“Everything’s okay, baby girl. Daddy’s fine, just stay in your room,” Burnett said but the girl continued walking down the stairs. When her father saw that she wasn’t going back upstairs, he sat up in the chair and changed his demeanor to keep her from being frightened. I tucked my gun inside the belt behind my back.

“I heard yelling, Daddy,” she said as she got to the last step and Jami walked over to greet her. “Who are these people?” she asked.

“Friends,” Burnett said as Jami crouched down to talk to the little girl at her level once she reached the bottom of the stairs.

“Hi, my name’s Jami. What’s your name?” The little girl looked at me and then her father who smiled.

“Maggie,” the little girl said.

“Maggie – what a beautiful name. And who’s
this
?” Jami asked, pointing to the teddy bear that Maggie was still holding in her hand.

“Teddy,” she said and Jami giggled while Maggie hugged the teddy bear and started to smile.

“Are you and Teddy hungry?” Jami asked.

“Mmm hmm.” Jami stood up and extended her hand.

“Come on, Maggie. Let’s get you and Teddy some breakfast,” she said. Maggie grabbed Jami’s hand and gave her father a huge smile as they walked past him and into the kitchen together.

In that moment, as Jami held Maggie’s hand and put the little girl at ease, she looked like she could have been her mother. It was a completely different side of Jami than I had seen before. She was a natural.

As Burnett and I watched Jami pour little Maggie a bowl of cereal, the man’s smile disappeared. “Tell me what you know. Give me the information I need to get this guy.” Burnett shook his head.

“Not without my lawyer. I can’t go to jail, I’m all my daughter has.” We heard laughter coming from the kitchen, a stark contrast to the conversation Burnett and I were having.

“You’re not going to jail. But I need to know everything while I still have time to catch the man who kidnapped Senator Keller and killed Mitchell. Either I go after him right now so you and Maggie can be safe or you can call your lawyer to protect you.”

We heard more laughter coming from the kitchen and Burnett sighed.

“I called David last night. He said he’d have to call me back, I could hear him driving on his motorcycle. The senator was delayed and I was hoping David might know why. When he called me back later, I found out why. Jim Keller had been kidnapped and Mitchell saw it happen. He followed the kidnapper from a safe distance. David even walked up to the warehouse where he believed Keller had been taken to. He said he heard sounds coming from inside and the entire industrial park was abandoned so it had to be him.”

“Then what happened?”

“I tried to call him again after he broke the news about the kidnapping on his Website but he didn’t pick up. I wanted to know when he was going to release all of the information. He finally called me back an hour later and he sounded scared. He said the FBI had just come to his apartment to question him. I pleaded with him to release the information. He promised that he would.”

Burnett looked back in the direction of the kitchen before he continued.

“He gave me the address. Said he wanted someone else to have it just in case something happened to him. The FBI must have really shaken him up. He told me that they had taken his old laptop and cell phone and wasn’t sure how much time that would buy him. He said he was tired and hungry. Then we hung up. I told myself that if he didn’t release the information by this morning, then I would when I got to work today.”

“You have the address?” I asked.

“I wrote it down on a legal pad. First drawer on the right when you walk into the kitchen.” I went into the room and Jami and Maggie turned to me. “What’s your name?” the little girl asked.

“Blake,” I said and smiled as I pulled the drawer open, picked up the legal pad and read the address – 6176 South Sayre Avenue.