72 Hours (A Thriller) (19 page)

Simeon nodded.

“So how do you want to do this?”

“The three of us will rotate three hour shifts.
 
One will take the lookout, one will watch over Lindsay and the kids and monitor the video cameras, and one will sleep.
 
I’ll take the first shift outside.
 
I want a chance to look around, get a feel for the terrain.”

“Anything in particular you’re watching for?”

Archer nodded.
 
“Basically anything with less than four legs.”

Simeon led Archer to the kitchen and handed him a fanny pack.
 

“Put a box of shells in there.
 
And here’s a bottle of water.
 
You’ll need it.”

Archer snapped the heavy Nylon belt around his waist.
 
He zipped the shells and the water bottle inside, then spun the pouch around to his backside.

“Put this around your neck.”
 
Simeon produced a pair of thick binoculars coated with rubber armor.
 
“Get up high enough and you can see forever with those things.”

Lindsay found them.
 
Raj had given her a light jacket to put on.
 
It was several sizes too big and the arms were too long.
 
She looked childlike wearing it.

“What’s going on?” she asked, eyes filled with surprise and concern at the sight of the rifles.
 

“I’m going to take a look around outside,” Archer said, shouldering the Bushmaster by the leather sling.

Her lips parted slightly.
 
She shook her head.

“I’d rather you stay here with us.”

“You’ll be fine.
 
Nothing can happen to you down here.
 
I’m just going to go for a little walk.
 
I’d like to stretch my legs after those hours on the highway.”

Lindsay clearly didn’t like the idea.
 
She frowned.
 
The presence of the assault rifles brought the reality of the threat against them back to the forefront.
 
It confirmed that they were still in serious danger.
 

“But it’s still daylight.
 
What if someone sees you?”

“They won’t.
 
And if they do, I’ll kill them.”

He moved past them in the narrow hallway.
 
He turned to speak to Simeon.
 
“Take care of them.
 
I’ll have the radio on if you need me.
 
Otherwise, I’ll be back in three hours.”
 

CHAPTER 56

Archer had no way of knowing how far he’d traveled but ran out of light after about ten minutes of walking and had to use the flashlight.
 
He continued on and the tunnel turned abruptly to his left.
 
He followed the passage until he noticed a faint glow in the distance.
 
It grew brighter as he approached and he saw that the light was coming from a vertical shaft where the tunnel abruptly ended at a wall.
 
He glanced up into the open shaft.
 
Daylight was coming through an iron grate high above him.
 
He gauged that the shaft was at least a hundred feet tall.
 
A steel ladder was bolted to the wall.
 
The concrete floor was stained where rainwater had pooled.

Archer started up the ladder.
 
He climbed hand over hand and reached the top rung in a matter of minutes.
 
The grate was heavy.
 
He strained to lift it.
 
The iron hinges groaned.
 
The grate opened up and away, finally falling back on its hinges with a dull clang.
 
Archer hoisted himself out of the shaft and out into the blazing desert sunlight.

The tunnel had led him from the cool, musty subterranean world to the mountains.
 
It was rugged, steep terrain.
 
The hillsides were thick with desert brush.
 
The shaft had been cut into the base of a bluff.
 
A crude footpath led away from the bluff and down a ridge.
 
From where he stood Archer could see the series of switchbacks that had been gradually worn into the dirt and grass as they fell away from view down the slope.

He took the opposite tack, traveling uphill.
 
He found the sun, considered its position in the afternoon sky.
 
Got his bearings.
 
Faced north.
 
He needed to find an accessible route to the top of the bluff.

The desert floor opened up before him.
 
The horizon was a hazy, featureless blur.
 
Archer raised the binoculars.
 
The barrenness and serenity of the desert floor was quite a contrast to the chaos and violence of the previous night in Malibu.
 

The mob from Malibu had been disorganized chaos.
 
A strategic, calculated assault was always the biggest challenge to defend against.
 
Archer had seen no evidence of such a threat last night, but as time marched on, certain strategic alliances and partnerships would be formed.
 
Certain factions of the mob would begin to see the value of collaboration.
 
After all, five hundred million was a lot to go around.
 
Archer gazed through the lens of the binoculars at the calm and silence and knew the peaceful conditions wouldn’t last.
 
The enemy was coming.
 
He could sense it in that deep-down part of him that had been trained to sense such things.
 
He was certain of it.
 
They were coming.
 
It was just a matter of time.

CHAPTER 57

With late afternoon drawing down and evening only a few short hours away, they made preparations for nightfall.
 
Shadows lengthened as the sun went down behind the ridges of the mountains.
 
The desert cooled significantly.
 
Raj had shouldered a rifle and was sitting watch outside, glassing the horizon for unwelcome activity.
 
Simeon opened a locker and pulled out more ammo.
 
He handed Archer a Kevlar vest.
 

“Ever taken a hit in one of these?” Archer asked him.

Simeon grinned and nodded.
 
“In Berlin.
 
Took a 9mm slug from a Kimber at close range.
 
Knocked me on my ass.
 
Broke two ribs and turned my gut all black and blue.
 
I wouldn’t be here now without it.
 
I’m a big fan.”

Archer zipped up the vest.
 

Simeon keyed his walkie-talkie, rousing his brother for an update.

“Just me and the coyotes,” Raj reported.

Simeon had taken second shift.
 
Archer would be up again in a couple of hours.
 
It would be cool and dark for his next watch.

The kids had discovered a television.
 
An ancient twenty-three-inch set jacked into a satellite dish that pulled in a few hundred pirated channels.
 
It sat at the end of the long table in the camera monitoring room.
 
They stared at VH1 for hours, laughing at an endless parade of disposable reality TV.
 

The Toyota Prius was now just a dark, static silhouette.

The stillness made Archer nervous.
 
It was the calm before the storm.
 

CHAPTER 58

The Volkswagen Passat was parked beneath the iron girders of a massive overpass near an industrial area of the city, warehouses and rail yards visible beyond fields overgrown with weeds.
 
The late afternoon sun turned the brown weeds golden and made the tall grass glow.
 
The sprawling buildings in the distance were silhouetted against the gray sky.

Julie Sperry was seated at the steering wheel with her hands at her sides.
 
The motor was turned off.
 
Her face was streaked with mascara where tears had poured down her cheeks.
 
She could barely breathe.
 
The piano wire wrapped around her throat was cutting into her windpipe.
 
She couldn’t understand what was happening.
 
She couldn’t understand how the nice lady she’d met that afternoon, Wendy Cohen, had gotten into her car, or why.
 
And she couldn’t understand why Wendy Cohen had attacked her.

Noella Chu was in the back seat holding the piano wire around Julie Sperry’s throat.

“Open your cell phone,” Noella Chu said.

Between sobs, struggling for breath, Julie said, “Why…why are you doing this?”

“Open your cell phone.”

Julie reached out a trembling hand, fumbled for her purse and dumped the contents out on the seat beside her.
 
She held up her cell phone so that the woman strangling her with the piano wire could see.

“Dial your husband.”

“I…I don’t…understand!”
 
The wire was crushing her larynx.
 

“Dial your husband’s cell.
 
Do it now.”

Julie could barely see through her tears.
 
She scrolled through the contacts list and sent the call to Jason’s cell.
 
It rang twice.
 
Then Jason’s voice was in her ear.

“Hey, babe,” he said.

“Oh my God, Jason, it’s Julie…”
 
Her voice constricted.

A pause.
 
“Babe, what’s – ”

Noella Chu grabbed the cell from Julie Sperry’s hand.

“Listen to me now,” she said.
 
“I will kill her.
 
Do you want to hear her die?”

“Who is this?”

“You will do as I say.
 
You will not trace this call or I kill her.
 
I will cut her throat.
 
Do you understand?”

Jason was silent.
 
Noella Chu had the man’s attention.

“Tell me what you want.
 
Just don’t hurt my wife.”

“Where is Lindsay Hammond?”

“Oh my God, that’s what this is about?”

“Where is Lindsay Hammond?”

“I have no idea!”

Noella Chu did not hesitate.
 
She tightened the slack in the wire, constricting it against Julie’s windpipe.
 
Julie wheezed, crying out.
 

“Do you hear her pain?”

Jason’s voice went low and quiet.

“I don’t know who you are, but I’m begging you.
 
Please don’t hurt her.”

“Where is Lindsay Hammond?”

Jason Sperry took a deep breath.
 
“How do I make you understand?
 
I don’t know where she’s at.”

“You are FBI Special Agent Jason Sperry.
 
You have ten minutes to utilize the resources at your disposal as a federal agent.
 
I will allow your wife to remain alive for only those ten minutes.
 
Call her cell phone in ten minutes with information regarding the location of Lindsay Hammond or I will leave her body for the animals to find and move on to someone else, someone who will give me what I want.
 
This conversation is over.”

Noella Chu disconnected the line.

Julie Sperry convulsed with sobs.

CHAPTER 59

Julie Sperry’s cell rang seven minutes later.

Noella Chu saw Jason’s name appear in the ID window.
 
She answered.

“Where is Lindsay Hammond?”

“I need more time.”

“I will not ask again.
 
Tell me now.”
 
Noella Chu was calm and unemotional.
 

Jason Sperry was flustered.
 
“All I can give you is a name.
 
Ryan Archer.
 
He was hired to protect Lindsay Hammond, but I have no way of locating him.
 
They have disappeared.
 
You have to give me more time!
 
Please!”

“No.”

“Please, half an hour!
 
That’s all I’m asking!”

Noella Chu glanced at the rearview mirror at Julie Sperry’s panicked, pain-stricken face.
 
Julie saw her looking and their eyes met.
 
Noella Chu believed that Jason Sperry would go to the ends of the earth to rescue his wife.
 
Break any law, cut any corner, tell any lie.
 
He’d stop at nothing.
 

“Find him,” she said.
 
“You have twenty-nine minutes.
 
Not a second more.”
 
She ended the call.
 
She leaned forward, gently bumping her cheek against the side of Julie Sperry’s headrest, her lips an inch from Julie’s ear.
 
Noella Chu let up slightly on the piano wire.