The Senator's Choice (14 page)

CHAPTER 19

SETH MATTHEWS SETTLED into his leather seat aboard his Learjet 31A and watched the rest of his team settle in. The fact that he owned one of the premier private aircraft in the world often embarrassed him. He took plenty of guff from the team about it, though no one ever complained when they had to travel in it.

“When are you gonna get us some stewardess babes for these flights?” Hammond said as he collapsed into his seat across the aisle from Matthews.

“I believe they
’
re called ‘flight attendants
’
these days,” Matthews said.

“Whatever, man. I just wanna know when you
’
re going to hire a few. It gets old looking at your ugly mug on these flights.”

Matthews glanced back down at the folder in front of him. “Read a book then.”

Shepherd nearly tripped as he stumbled into the plane.

“That first step
’
s a doozy,
”
Zellers quipped.

Shepherd glared at him.
“Do you know the additional gravitational pull a person feels when he is carrying an additional seventy-five pounds strapped to his back and shoulders?”

“Nope, but I have a feeling you
’
re going to tell me.”

“Don
’
t waste your time on him, Shepherd,” Hammond said. “You
’
ll only be decreasing your oxygen intake by—”

“Six-point-four percent,”
Shepherd said.
“Yes, I already figured that out, which is why I didn
’
t say anything while I have this extra seventy-five
and a half
pounds — to be exact — hanging from me.”

Zellers rolled his eyes.

“No wonder you
’
re not married,” Shepherd snapped as he caught the facial gesture. “You are aware that eye rolling is a leading indicator of divorce and broken relationships.”

“Did your girlfriend tell you that?” Zellers said before rolling his eyes again.

Shepherd dropped his gear with a thud on the cabin floor. “I
’
ve never had a girlfriend.”

“Then save me the relationship advice.” Zellers playfully punched Shepherd in the arm.

“Don
’t touch me.
”

“Enough yappin
’
, fellas,” Matthews said. “We
’
ve got a mission to discuss.”

Jones, the only who
’
d ignored the banter, sat on the edge of his seat. “Do you think we
’
ll be able to catch them before they leave?”

Matthews stroked his face with his hand and glanced out the window. “I doubt it, but we need to find out where they might be headed from there.”

“Their options will be limited based on the capacity of the Eurocopter AS350 B2 Astar,”
Shepherd chimed in.

“How limited?” Matthews asked.

“They won
’
t be able to go more than four hundred miles without making a stop to refuel,” Shepherd said as he started to pound away on his keyboard.

Matthews took a deep breath. “What
’
s your best guess?”

“Aurora, Peoria or Champaign. If Luke
’
s right and they
’
re going Northwest, I
’
d say Aurora, though Peoria would give them more options as far as range goes.”

“But you
’
ll be able to hack into the Mansfield system and find out where they
’
re headed?”

“As long as they filed a flight plan.”

“And if they didn
’
t?” Zellers asked.

Shepherd
’
s eyes widened. “I
’
ll have to hack into a few more systems. It shouldn
’
t take too long.”

The pilot alerted everyone that they were preparing for takeoff.

“How long are we talking about?” Matthews said as he buckled his seatbelt.

“A couple of hours.”

“A couple of hours? They might be able to lose us by then.”

Shepherd pushed the glasses up on his nose and peered over his laptop at Matthews. “They had a six-hour head start on us tonight and didn
’
t lose us. We
’
ll be fine.”

“You better be right,” Hammond said.

“Luke
’
s my friend, too, you know. Nobody here wants to find him worse than I do,”
Shepherd sneered.

“Just work your magic, Shepherd,” Matthews said. “We
’
re counting on you.”

CHAPTER 20

LUKE
’
S HEAD POUNDED as he came to his senses. He opened his eyes wide and then closed them shut. Then he opened them again. It was all black. Eyes open or shut — it made no difference.

Where am I?

It was a question he asked himself but he clearly couldn
’
t answer. He didn
’
t even know
when
he was based on the vicious punch Bill delivered to his face.

My face.

Luke grabbed his jaw and touched it gingerly. He recoiled once his thumb made contact with the skin. It was swollen though he couldn
’
t tell how much. According to the pain he felt, Luke assumed it was the size of a softball protruding from his lower left jaw. But without any light, he couldn
’
t confirm anything.

He groped around in the dark and decided to stand up. He did so without incident and managed to put his hands on a few foreign objects in the dark. As his eyes adjusted, he saw what appeared to be a faint streak of light streaming into the room in the far corner. As Luke neared it, he realized it was a door.

He jiggled the doorknob. It turned but wouldn
’
t open, locked from the outside with a deadbolt. Luke finally hit the jackpot when he felt up the wall and located a light switch.

Owwww!

It took Luke several seconds to adjust to the flood of light in the room. He squinted as he scanned the room for any sign of where he was.

A storage closet, likely in the hangar, but who knows how long ago that was.

Cleaning supplies lined the shelves and a pile of old vacuum cleaners filled one corner. He looked for something, anything to write a clue with. After about a minute, he located a red marker and decided to tear off part of a box of trash bags so he could pass along his message. He wrote the word “
Colorado
” on it and slid it underneath the bottom shelf so it stuck out just enough so that it
’
d only be found by someone who was looking for it.

Several minutes went by and Luke did nothing but stare at the cans of Ajax and bottles of Clorox. Nothing exciting — until he spotted a half-deflated volleyball on the top shelf. He leaped up and batted it down. Moments later, he decorated it just like Wilson from Castaway.

Satisfied with his creation, he lifted up Wilson and stared at it in the face. “Hey, you wanna hear something funny? My dentist
’
s name is James Spalding,
” he quipped, mimicking his uncle
’
s favorite line from the movie.

The smile on Luke
’
s face disappeared as the door swung open.

“Who are you talking to in here?” asked Dave, Luke
’
s second least-favorite gang member.

Luke slid Wilson behind his back. “No one.”

“
Get up,
” Dave said. He didn
’
t wait for Luke to comply, grabbing him by his collar and yanking him to his feet.

The volleyball dropped behind Luke and bounced once on the floor before settling and rolling toward a corner.

Dave laughed.
“Who do you think you are? Tom Hanks?” He snickered again. “Get outta here. Let
’
s move.”

Luke complied and headed toward the door with Dave behind him, pushing on his back with the tip of his handgun. Then Dave released him. Luke turned to see Dave closing the door before he froze.

“What
’
s this?” Dave bellowed as he re-entered the room. “Leaving notes are we?”

Luke grimaced as Dave knelt down and fished his note out from underneath the bottom shelf. He held it up and read it. “So you think someone is coming for you, eh? And you
’
re going to let them know where we
’
re going?” Dave chuckled. “Stay right here, kid.” He locked the door and walked outside.

Luke pressed his ear against the door to see what he could ear. Nothing discernible. But Luke deduced he was talking to someone on the phone based on the long pauses in the audible voices. Then footfalls increased in volume just outside. He backed away and slumped to the floor against one of the shelves.

Dave entered the room and glanced around. He grabbed the torn box and ripped off another piece. He motioned for Luke to pick up the red marker on the floor.

“Write ‘Idaho
’
on here,
” Dave ordered as he shoved the cardboard piece into Luke
’
s hand.

Luke shook his head. “
I won
’
t do it.
”

“I think you will,” Dave said before grabbing Luke
’
s left hand and bending several of his fingers almost to the point of breaking.

“Okay, okay. I
’
ll do it,
” Luke conceded.

Dave released his hand and hovered over Luke to make sure he wasn
’
t doing anything sneaky. “Don
’
t play around with me, kid. I
’
m smarter than you think.”

When Luke finished, Dave slid the piece of cardboard into the exact spot he
’
d found the first one.

He stood up and laughed at Luke, who stared at him, mouth agape.

Dave laughed again. “No one is going to find you now.”

CHAPTER 21

AS THE WHITE KNIGHTS
’
PLANE made its final approach into the Mansfield airport, Seth Matthews stared at his team. Everyone except for Shepherd had chosen to grab a short nap. Matthews wanted to do the same, but he couldn
’
t stop thinking about Luke and how terrified he might be at the moment. He was smart enough to know that once these men got what they wanted, what happened to him was a crapshoot.

Despite Matthews
’
display of bravado and confidence to the rest of the team, he was trying to convince himself that it was true. While he had rescued dozens of kidnapping victims over the years, his failures weighed exponentially on his memory than the successes.

Nick Jones awoke without Matthews
’
knowledge and tapped his boss on the leg. “Whatcha thinkin
’
about, boss?”

“Oh nothing,” Matthews said as he turned toward Jones. He gnawed on his thumbnail and looked out the window.

“Come on, man. I
’
ve been around you long enough to know when something
’
s eating at you. Talk to me.”

Matthews sighed and shook his head. “You remember those kidnappers who took the tech mogul
’
s son a couple of years ago?”

“How could I forget?” he said pointing to the two-inch vertical scar on the left side of his face.

“Exactly. We didn
’
t get his son back alive, even after tracking him down in the Azores.”

“The guy paid the ransom against your advice. The kidnappers weren
’
t going to let the kid go, especially after they got what they wanted. And the kid saw their faces.”

“That
’
s why I
’
m afraid for Luke. I can
’
t be certain that Senator Daniels won
’
t try to assuage the kidnappers and comply with their ransom.”

“Have you warned him against doing this?”

Matthews nodded. “Sure, but people get crazy when it comes to protecting their kids
’
lives. I mean, he
’
s only my nephew but I
’
m worried that I may not be thinking clearly about this case either.”

“In what way?”

“
I don’
t know. It just seems like everything has come too easy for us so far.”