Wrong Time (4 page)

“I love you, too,” she said gently into
the night.

* * * * *

Back in the office at Washington, the
sun was rising, and the twenty profiles had been assembled by Jason and the
others.

“Finally,” Jess said while yawning.

“It should be pretty easy to get nineteen
of these people, but one of them will be a little difficult to get here,” Burt
said.

“Which one is that?” Lee asked.

“Brad Jacobs. He’s currently in charge
of interrogating the prisoners in Houston that we took from the facility in
Tampa, Florida,” Burt said.

“Well, I suppose this might be a good
job for Sam and Nathan then. They’re looking for Markus Boyd, and who knows, considering
that this guy may know Boyd, this could be a lead for them. I’m going to give
them a call,” Jason said while picking up his phone.

Sam heard the phone ring once, then
twice, and then again. She didn’t want to answer it. She was so comfortable,
and for the first time in a while, she had been in a deep sleep. Nathan began
to reach for the phone, but Sam quickly reached up and grabbed it.

“Hello,” she said while sounding
extremely tired.

“Hey, it’s me. I think that I may have
a lead for you, and it might just help us out here, too,” Jason said.

“Who is that?” Nathan asked.

“It’s Jason.”

“Okay. Well, tell him that I don’t like
guns, but I’m going to shoot him with one when we get home.”

“What was that?” Jason asked.

“Oh, nothing. Nathan says hi.”
 

“Oh, okay. Tell him I said hello, too.
Anyway, how would you two feel about going to Houston?”

“We’re already there.”

“Why are you in Houston already?”

 
Sam explained their situation and how
they hoped to get information out of Jeffery Sandusky.

“Okay. There’s a situation I should
probably explain to you,” Jason said.

He then explained how there were suspected
traitors within their ranks and how a man named Brad Jacobs was suspected of
being one of them.

“So what makes you think that this
Jacobs guy is a traitor?” Sam asked.

“His resume is just unreal, and Trish
and Lee both have a feeling that this guy may be worth looking into. Can you
just bring him back with you?”

 
“Wait! Why is Lee with you? He’s supposed
to be in the hospital.”

“It’s a long story, and I’m sure that they’ll
tell you all about it when you get back. Just know that there was an incident
back in Florida, and now they’re safe and also quite useful.”

“All right, we’ll bring Jacobs back
with us tomorrow.”

“Okay. Thank you. I’m sorry that I woke
you up. Go back to sleep for a few hours. I think that I’m finally going to get
some sleep myself.”
 

“Great, I’ll talk to you soon,” Sam
said and hung up the phone.

“So does that guy always call you this
early?” Nathan asked.

“Pretty much, but you’ll get used to
it.”

“What all did he say? It must have been
pretty important to call this early.”

 
“We’ll discuss it when we wake up. For
now, just go to sleep,” Sam said as she turned and laid her head on his chest.

Nathan really wanted to know what was
going on, but it was obvious that she was exhausted, and in truth, so was he.
He put his arms around her, closed his eyes, and then slowly drifted off.

* * * * *

In Washington, Zane arrived at the
office. Dan hadn’t arrived yet, but that was understandable. It was still very
early, but Zane wanted to get an early start. The day before, Dan and he had
picked out the soldiers they were going to bring to Atlanta. All that was left
to do was make the necessary phone calls. Zane would have normally pawned that
task off to Jason, but he knew that Jason had much more important things to
attend to at the moment. Zane was excited to be back serving in an active way,
but at the same time, he couldn’t help but feel like something was about to go
horribly wrong. When they took the place in Tampa, they did it by surprise, and
even then, they had only barely managed to succeed. This time they wouldn’t
have the element of surprise as a luxury. This would be a pure firefight, and
no matter how much he planned or fought, he was going to lose a lot of men
during this operation. Zane had never had a problem with risking his own life,
or even with taking a life, but he had always had a problem with sending others
into a location where he knew that they probably wouldn’t make it out alive. That
was exactly what he was doing now. Zane finally cleared his thoughts and began
making phone calls. First the calls, then tonight we’ll fly to Atlanta, and
finally, the following night, we’ll attack, Zane thought to himself.

* * * * *

At the prison in Houston, Brad was
sitting with Jeffery in what appeared to be an interrogation room, but no interrogation
was taking place.

“Don’t worry. Help is on the way.
You’ll all be out of here in time for lunch,” Brad said.

“How exactly is that going to happen?”
Jeffery asked.

“Let’s just say that I have a few
friends who are on their way, and when they get here, all hell is going to
break loose,” Brad said with a crooked smile.

Chapter 4

While sitting in a hotel room in Tampa,
Florida, just after the events at the hospital, Chloe made a call that she
wished she didn’t have to make.

“Hello,” Markus said on the other end.

“Hello. This is Chloe, and I have some
bad news,” Chloe said with a hint of fear.

“What is it?”

“There were three targets in the room,
and I failed to eliminate them. I have no valid excuse. I’m sorry.”

“I see. Well, this is very
disappointing indeed. Make this right, or you’re going to become very
expendable to me.”

The truth was that Markus’s threat
toward her wasn’t a real one, but she didn’t know that. She had seen the things
that Markus did to other agents who had failed him, and none of it was pleasant,
but Markus thought of Chloe as different from the other agents. He liked her.
He felt as if they came from the same place, and he wasn’t too far off. They
both came from a place of extreme pain.

“How can I make it right, sir?” Chloe
asked.

“I don’t care how you do it, but kill
them, and do it soon.”

“But how will I even find them at this
point?”

 
“That’s not my problem. Get the job done
if you value your life,” Markus said and then hung up the phone.

Chloe had no idea what to do or even
where to go, but she knew that she needed to act soon. As she tried to piece
together a course of action, her phone rang.

“Hello,” she said.

“Chloe, it’s been a long time.”

“Brad?”

“Yes, that’s right. I need a favor, if
you don’t mind.”

“I don’t have time for favors right now.
I have enough on my plate.”

“A favor for a favor then? If you help
me out with this, then I’ll help you finish whatever it is that’s so important
to you,” Brad said.

“I’m listening.”

“You know that the people from the Tampa
office have been captured, right?”

“Just spit it out. What do you need?”

 
“All right! I know where the prisoners
from Tampa are being held, and I want you to put together a crew to help me
break them out.”

 
“That’s nuts! Do you have any idea how
much security they’ll have at a CIA prison?”

“They don’t have as much security as
you may think. I’m on the inside. I’ve been posing as a CIA agent for the last
year, and as soon as you and your people get here, I’ll turn loose my friends.
With all the chaos on the outside of the prison and all the chaos on the inside
of the facility, it will be easy to take this place.”

“All right, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Great, give me a call back when it’s
done,” Brad said as he hung up the phone.

Chloe made a call to the Atlanta
office. Truthfully, the opportunity to rescue some of their own wasn’t even
going to be a hard sell to the guys in Atlanta.

* * * * *

Nathan opened his eyes and turned to
grab Sam’s phone to check the time. It was 8:23 in the morning.

“Sam, wake up. We’re running a little
late this morning,” Nathan said as he gently shook her.

“What? What time is it?” Sam asked.

Nathan showed her the time.

“Oh, don’t worry so much. I’ve
overslept by more than this before. We’re fine,” Sam said.

 
She then stood up and walked into the
bathroom to take her shower. Nathan lay back in the bed and smiled. Maybe this kind
of life wasn’t all that bad. He was staying in an expensive hotel with a
beautiful woman, and he was experiencing more adventure than he would have ever
experienced back at home. In that moment, despite all of the trials that he and
the rest of his friends had gone through, he was truly happy. As time passed,
they both got ready and started making their way to the prison. When they
pulled up to it, Sam flashed a few credentials to the guard at the front gate.
They were in.

“Wow, this place isn’t as secure as you
might think,” Nathan said.

“Why would you say that?” Sam asked.

“Lee could have easily made everything you
just showed that guard.”

“Well, it sounds like if Lee chooses to
be, he could be a huge asset to us.”

The two of them went into the prison
and were directed to the location of Mr. Sandusky. As they were being escorted
into the cell, another man was exiting it.

“Did you make any progress, Mr.
Jacobs?” a guard asked him.

“Not yet, but we’re going to get there,”
Brad answered.

Sam stopped and turned to face Brad.

“You’re Brad Jacobs, aren’t you?” Sam
asked.

“The one and only. Do we know each
other?”

“No, we don’t, but after we’re done
talking to this one, would you mind if my partner and I had a word with you?”

 
“Sure, that won’t be a problem,” Brad
said as he walked away with the other guard.

Brad was a fairly large guy. He looked
as if he could easily break Nathan or Sam in half.

“I hope we don’t have to take him by force,”
Nathan said and smiled.

“Me, too.”

* * * * *

A large truck pulled up to the front of
the prison and stopped in front of the guard shack.

“ID please,” the guard said.

“Let us through,” Chloe said as she
raised her gun and pointed it straight at his head.

The guard complied and raised the gate.
Chloe fired one bullet into the man’s skull and then drove straight through to
the heart of the prison. As they stopped, a man from the passenger side jumped
out, walked to the back of the truck, and opened the back doors. Several
soldiers in full body armor poured out of the back. Guards rushed from the
prison building, but they were almost immediately cut down. This is going to be
even easier than I thought it would be, Chloe said to herself.

Inside the prison, shots could be heard
from far away.

“What in the world was that?” Sam
asked.

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound
good,” Nathan said.

 
“I know exactly what it was,” Jeffery
said and smiled.

Just then, another shot could be heard,
but this one was much closer to them. Suddenly, the prison doors opened. Sam
started to step outside, but Nathan put a hand in front of her and pulled her
back to him.

“Smart choice, Nathan. Then again, you
always were good at protecting Samantha. All of these men were put in here by
you two. If one of them recognized you, they would surely rip you to shreds,”
Jeffery said as he stepped out of his prison.

“Nathan, what are you doing? We have to
go after these people,” Sam said.

“Look, we had to give up our weapons at
the front, and there are a lot of bad people out there. I’m not saying we
shouldn’t pursue Jeffery and possibly Brad if he had anything to do with this,
but I really think that we should at least wait until this area clears out
some,” Nathan said while pulling Sam to a blind spot where people wouldn’t see
them from the door.

“Fine, but we have to do something
soon.”

The two of them waited for a couple of
minutes until it sounded as if the area had cleared out, and then they stepped
out of their cell. Every single cell was empty.

“I would say that Jason’s hunch about
Brad being a traitor was probably spot-on,” Sam said.

The two of them quickly made their way
through the prison until they were at the entrance. Nathan started to push the
door open, but Sam grabbed his hand.

“Wait! We don’t know what or who is out
there,” Sam said.

The two of them listened intently. They
could hear what sounded like trucks pulling into the facility and several men
cheering.

“We don’t stand a chance if we step out
of this prison,” Nathan said.

Sam knew he was right, but she didn’t
want to acknowledge that they were just going to have to let the scum who had
imprisoned them go.

“Okay. I came through for you, and now
I need you to come through on your end of the deal,” Chloe said.

“What is it that you need to get done
anyway?” Brad asked.

“I need these targets dead soon,” Chloe
said while handing him a file that had all of her target’s names and
descriptions in it.

Brad began going through the names on
the list and naming them aloud.

“Let’s see, Lee Higgins, Samantha
Fisher . . .” Brad said before someone interrupted him.

“Did you say Samantha Fisher?” Jeffery
asked.

“Yeah, I did, but why?”

 
“Well, you aren’t going to believe this,
but the woman you passed when you were leaving my cell was Samantha Fisher.
Nathan Grey’s name doesn’t happen to be on there too, does it?”

“As a matter of fact, it is.”

“The guy that was with her is Nathan.
Two of your targets are right here inside of this prison.”

“All right, let’s go take care of
business then,” Chloe said while tapping Brad on the shoulder.

Brad turned toward two of the soldiers
who Chloe had brought with her and motioned for them to come to him.

“These two people are inside the prison,
and we need them dead. Can you help us out?” Brad asked while showing them the
pictures of Nathan and Sam.

“We’re on it,” one of the men said.

“All right, this should be
interesting,” Brad said as he pulled his gun from his side and smiled.

Footsteps could be heard coming toward
the front door where Nathan and Sam were standing.

“We need to move,” Sam said as she
grabbed Nathan by the hand and led him back into the inner portion of the
prison.

As they were running, Sam was thinking
desperately of anywhere that they could hide or anything that she could use as
a weapon. The two of them ran into the closest cell they could find and were
both as quiet as possible. Sam edged her way around to take a peek at their pursuers.
Brad was one of them. There were also two soldiers in full body armor and a
woman she didn’t recognize.

“There are four in total. Two of them
are in full body armor,” Sam whispered to Nathan.

Nathan thought for a second. He had to
come up with something quick, or they were both going to end up dead. A plan
came to him. It wasn’t exactly a good plan, but it was all that he had at the
moment. He had to go with it.

“Slam this cell door when I tell you
to,” Nathan whispered.

“Wait. Why?”

 
“Please, just trust me on this.”

 
As one of the armored guards came up to
the cell, Nathan jumped out and slammed his head into the wall.

“Now!” Nathan yelled.

Sam slid the door shut with as much
force as she could muster. Nathan had positioned the man so that his head was
slightly inside the cell while the rest of his body was outside the cell. When
Sam slid the door closed, it closed directly on the soldier’s neck, effectively
crushing his windpipe.

“That was genius, but now what do we do?”
Sam asked.

“Now you have a gun,” Nathan said as he
picked up the man’s weapon and handed it to her.

The loud slam alerted the other three
people pursuing them, but at least now they had a chance to fight back. Sam
opened the door back up and peeked out of it. A bullet hit the wall just a few
inches away from where her eyes were peering out.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” Sam
said.

Nathan thought for a minute. He had an
idea, but it was going to be extremely risky.

“Maybe it will be,” Nathan said and dragged
the soldier who had just met his end inside.

“What are you doing?” Sam asked.

“You’ll see,” Nathan said as he
stripped the man of all of his body armor.

Nathan put all the armor on. Sam still
looked a little confused, though.

“Okay. Now what?” Sam asked.

“Now I’ll act as a distraction while
you pick off our friends out there.”

 
“No. You’re not going out there, even
with body armor on.”

“Look, that’s exactly what I’m about to
do, and I hope that you’re going to cover me when I do it,” Nathan said as he
turned and ran out of the cell.

 
The men immediately started firing at
Nathan. As quickly as she could, Sam turned and looked around the corner. She
fired a shot into the neck of the armored man first. It was the only area of
the man’s body that didn’t seem to be completely covered by the armor. She then
turned her gaze toward Brad. She fired two shots into his chest. After seeing
what was happening, Chloe turned and began firing at Sam. Sam ducked back into
the cell just as the shots met her former location. Nathan had been hit two
times in his chest, and the force of the impact took his breath away. As
quickly as he could, he rolled into a nearby cell where he tried to catch his
breath. Sam stood in her cell and tried to regain her composure. When her
breathing slowed and she felt a calm run through her mind, she acted. She
sprung from her cell and aimed straight at her attacker. Then she fired. She
hit her target directly in the shoulder.