Edge of the Heat 5 (31 page)

He had seen her plan to ditch him first thing that morning. But he had also seen something else. A forlorn, unspoken plea that he not confront her with it.
I can't take it
, her eyes said. And he loved her. So he didn’t confront her. But he would. He swore to himself a hundred times on that long drive that if they made it out of this alive, he would confront her. He would do anything to have a fighting chance to keep her. Anything.

***

I
n front of him, Sara’s truck pulled onto the side of the small country road, just like they had agreed. Jerry breathed a sigh of relief. This was where he got in with her. She wasn’t taking off yet. He got out of his car and ran to the passenger seat of the cargo truck in the darkness. He hoisted himself up into the seat next to her and gave her a smile. She smiled back then averted her eyes quickly.

“We have a 20 minute ride till we get there. Let’s go over the plan one more time,” she said.

“OK.” Fingers of panic began to beat on Jerry’s chest. They were really going to do this. Suddenly worrying about Sara ditching him seemed foolhardy. There was no way the two of them were going to make it out of this with their freedom
and
their lives intact.

Jerry stole a glance at Sara.
Do or die
, he thought, and he started to put on his gear while she talked.

***

S
ara pulled over again at the gate of the huge, sprawling community that Carruthers lived in. Without a word she turned to her phone and pressed a few buttons. Jerry watched her, his heart strangely calm. Satisfied, she put it aside and pulled out the rectangle piece of hardware they had picked up at Radio Shack. To Jerry, it looked like a tiny cassette recorder with two red wires coming out of the bottom and nine pushbuttons on the side. She hopped out of the truck and plugged the wires into the bottom of the gate key card system. Jerry couldn’t see what she did next, but the gate swung open. He shook his head. Was there nothing she didn’t know how to do?
I’ll bet she can’t cook a lick
, he thought. He laughed, nervous laughter, but laughter all the same.

“Let’s switch,” She said. Jerry climbed over the middle console and she ran around to the passenger side, her mouth pressed in a thin line.

“Kiss for good luck?” he asked. She looked at him, that ghost of a smile playing around her lips again. Then she leaned over the console that was between them. He cupped her face gently, and pressed his lips to hers. Her lips felt strangely cold to him. Like he’d never kissed her before. She pulled away, but before she did he saw the tear track down her cheek. Fear of loss gripped him once more.

He wrestled the truck into gear and took off with a lurching start, pushing the truck to go faster so he wouldn’t have to think about anything but staying out of the ditch. They passed huge estates with mile long driveways on both sides of the road. Sara put on a helmet beside him, obscuring her face.

Sara pointed to a driveway coming up fast on their right. “It’s that one.” Jerry twisted the wheel hard and slammed the brakes in front of the small guardhouse. The guard heaved to his feet, clipboard in hand. He took one look at the two people in the huge truck, both dressed in black tactical gear and one wearing a Kevlar helmet with a face guard, and grabbed for the phone.

“We have the shipment the Senator ordered,” Jerry yelled, his heart pounding now.

The man on the phone faltered, said a few more words, and put the handset down. He opened his small window slightly. “You have what?”

“The shipment he wanted from Mexico. I have the report right here that says he authorized it and wanted it delivered here.” Jerry waved some papers around.

“No shipments come through here. You’re mistaken. Take it back,” the guard said.

“Take it back to where? The Senator
ordered
this! Your ass is going to be on the line if you turn us away. You better get him on the phone,” Jerry said. Sara sat still, watching the exchange. She checked the image on her phone. It showed the guard from the Jerry’s vantage point. Perfect. The tiny camera hidden on Jerry’s collar was one of 5. The other 4 images showed in the upper right hand corner. Her phone image was too small to allow her to see them well, but as far as she could tell they looked perfect. All four cameras were capturing audio, but only the image selected was playing audio over the channels they had hijacked.

Sara watched the image shake. Wait, was it her hand that was shaking? Sara felt her thoughts slip into overdrive a little bit as Jerry continued his argument with the gate guard. It caught her off guard. Normally, her cold mission persona never slipped until the job was done. Anxious thoughts, feelings, and behaviors were fine before or after, but during? That could get her killed. But then she knew the difference. It wasn’t just her life on the line now. It was Jerry’s too. What had she been thinking getting him involved in this? Sara looked up slowly. She reached out and touched Jerry’s arm. Her mouth tried to form the words ‘forget it, let’s go back, this is crazy,’ but before she could, Jerry demanded to see the Senator, just as they had planned.

In the darkness of the cab, Sara plucked at Jerry’s sleeve. Her throat felt frozen closed. She watched the house at the end of the long driveway. The front door was opening. More guards. How long till the ones with the guns on their hips showed up? It would be a miracle if they weren’t shot here at the end of the driveway.

“I have to see the Senator. You tell him I have his shipment here. You’ll see. He wants it!” Jerry yelled. He slammed the truck into first gear, never feeling Sara’s hand on his arm or sensing her sudden distress. He released the clutch and the truck bucked forward. He pressed the gas, driving right into the gate and pushing the two halves open. Sara heard metal screech against metal. They were through. Sara’s mission persona tried to take over. She didn’t know what to do.

“Here we go baby, it’s gonna work,” Jerry said through gritted teeth. He shifted and shifted again and they drew close to the house. Sara saw a tall man with white hair standing at the door of the immense house, framed by the light spilling out from inside. He didn’t look scared or unsure. He looked pissed.
Maybe they did have a chance
, she thought.
Do or die
, she told herself, one of Jerry’s favorite expressions. If someone was going to die tonight, she would do her best to make sure it was her, and not Jerry.

Jerry slammed the brakes and the big truck shuddered to a stop. She knew they had 7 minutes - 10 at the most, before the cops showed up. She hopped out of the truck and climbed up the back to the cargo area. Her gear was bulky and confining. She had to fight it to climb. She threw back the tarp covering the guns and began to throw them over the side of the truck.

“Your guns, Senator Carruthers,” Jerry bellowed. “This is the first shipment. The second one will be here soon.”

Sara stopped pitching guns over the side and stood, being sure to train her camera on the senator’s face. She grabbed her phone from her pocket and switched the main camera to hers. She climbed down the side of the truck and picked up a short-barreled, machine gun. She held it up by the stock, making sure not to point it at anyone. She sensed the guard from the gate house running up the driveway. Another guard was standing next to the senator, dressed in a security uniform. No one had produced any guns yet but them.

Sara saw confusion, then fear on the Senator’s face. “What do you mean the second shipment?”

“The second shipment. We have 4 trucks coming total. That’s the only way we could carry 50,000 assault weapons.”

“50,000 assault weapons? What are you talking about? Why are they coming to my house?”

“Didn’t you order the weapons to be brought in from Mexico?” Jerry yelled from the cab of the truck. Sara made him agree to stay in there no matter what, although she doubted he would just drive out if things got bad.

Sara was gratified to see a new flurry of emotions cross Carruther’s face. Calculating emotions. He knew he was caught, and he was trying to think of a way out of it.

A new face showed up at the doorway. The bottom dropped out of Sara’s planning. They were dead. TV feed or not, they were dead.
Oh, Jerry, I’m so sorry
, she thought.

Frank Thorpe was standing in the doorway.

He walked slowly down the cobbled path straight for Sara. “Agent Medina, how nice of you to come by. I’ve been looking for you. And how considerate of you to bring your friend. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.” Thorpe smiled a broad, genuine smile. Hate filled Sara with silent, black fury. “You bastard,” she whispered. “You killed my mother.”

He looked surprised, then his smile reappeared. This time it was 100% predatory. “I did kill your mother, Melissa. She gave me no other choice. She tried to have my program shut down. She petitioned an audience with my boss and asked him to go to the president. What else could I do?”

Sara felt sick. She wanted to slice Thorpe’s face open with her fingernails. Her teeth. Anything.

“Hey!” she heard Jerry call out of the passenger window of the truck.
Jerry!

“
Jerry this is Thorpe,” she yelled, not taking her eyes off Thorpe. “Abandon the plan. Just get out of here. Tell your friends what happened. Go!”

“Hey, no, no way. You get in the truck Sara, and then I’ll go,” Jerry said.

Thorpe laughed lightly. “You know I can’t let that happen, right? You two aren’t going anywhere.” He produced a large, heavy-looking handgun from a holster under his jacket and pointed it at Sara’s stomach.

“You hop on down here Mr. Mansko, or I’ll gut shoot your girlfriend.”

Sara heard the door scrape open and her heart burst. “No Jerry! Just go! You have to or he wins!”

“I can’t do it Sara.” Sara heard tears in his voice. He knew the stakes. He knew she was going to die and he was going to die beside her.

Before he could climb down the sound of a helicopter filled the air. First Carruthers, then the guard, then Jerry looked up. Thorpe kept his eyes on Sara. A spotlight skimmed up the driveway, then over the truck. Sara squinted against the light but didn’t look up. She watched Thorpe for an opening.

As the helicopter circled the driveway, coming in to land, Thorpe grabbed Sara by the arm and pulled her around the other side of the truck. “I’m sorry to lose you Sara, but you’ve become just as bad as your mother.”

He fired 4 bullets into her chest. Sara thudded to the ground.

Quickly, Thorpe shoved his gun into his holster, then pulled a tissue out of his pocket, then bent and pulled a gun out of his boot. He pressed it to the outside of his arm and without thinking fired a shot. He screamed at the pain for just a moment, then knelt again and pressed the gun into Sara’s palm.

He stood up in time to see Jerry sprinting around the side of the truck towards him. Jerry saw Sara and skidded to a stop. “No, no, no,” he moaned.

Thorpe pulled his gun out of his holster, saying “She shot me, what other choice did I have but to kill her?” His face contorted grotesquely into what might have been a smile or a grimace.

Jerry saw the gun coming for him and he dropped to the ground and rolled under the truck. Thorpe fired shot after shot at his retreating body.

Jerry saw Thorpe’s boots coming for him. He crawled frantically to the far side of the truck but knew he wouldn’t make it in time.

The sounds of men yelling split the air. “Put your hands up! Drop the gun!” Jerry heard bodies connect and a thud. He kept crawling and somehow made it out the other side alive.

Shakily, he got to his feet and pressed against the side of the truck. The helicopter’s rotors caught his eye, but all his mind could think was ‘Sara! Sara!’

A man ran around the truck and Jerry turned his head away, waiting for a bullet to rip through him.

“Jerry, thank God man, you’re OK.” Jerry knew that voice. He turned his head back, and saw Craig.

“Thorpe is in handcuffs, Jerry. We got him.”

Surreality washed over Jerry. Craig was here? How? And Thorpe was in handcuffs? But was it too late?

He ran past Craig, a single word on his lips. “Sara!”

As he rounded the truck he saw her, on her back, perfectly still, 4 holes in her shirt. Her face was still covered by the helmet and he couldn't see it. His vision blurred and blackened at the edges. He fell to his knees next to her. “Sara, baby, talk to me,” he whispered, his voice low. Gently, he pulled her helmet off.

She opened her eyes. “Jerry,” her lips said, but nothing came out of her mouth. Her face contorted in pain.

He grabbed a hole in her shirt and ripped it down the center, letting the two sides fall to the ground, revealing heavy body armor with 4 charred holes. As gently as he could, he pulled the Velcro straps apart and lifted the armor to look under it. Craig came to his side. “What can I do?” he asked.

“We have to get this over her head without hurting her,” Jerry said through his tears. Craig nodded and knelt at Sara’s head. Her eyes fluttered and she moaned. They maneuvered the bulletproof vest over her head. Jerry gently lifted the black shirt she wore underneath it. Her chest was a massive purple bruise, covering her abdomen, her ribs, and even her breasts. As gently as he could, he ran his fingers over her ribs. He looked at Craig, his eyes pleading. “Her ribs are broken, maybe her sternum, we have to get her to a hospital now.”

Craig nodded and ran off barking orders at Hawk and two other men.

Within 3 minutes, Jerry was holding Sara’s hand as they lifted off in the helicopter from the Senator’s estate.

J
erry paced in the hospital room Sara would be brought to after her surgery. The doctor had given her a good chance of pulling through, but Jerry couldn’t rest until he saw her face. He rubbed his fingertips against his jeans, still feeling the black dye soaking into his skin from his fingerprinting. Craig had arrested him, and said Sara was under arrest too, in order to keep the local police from coming in and doing it. If the local police got their hands on him he would be sitting in a cell block until everything was straightened out. Jerry knew he would go insane in a cell block. He looked up at the clock. Three hours. They’d been in surgery for three hours. He was about to go insane in
here
. He would be pacing the hall, maybe waiting outside the surgical bay, but the guard at the door said he had to stay here. Just a formality, Craig told him, and then he left for the Los Angeles FBI office. Apparently he and Sara had stirred up quite a mess.