Operation: Endgame (32 page)

Chris looked up at her in concern as she entered the room. She could tell the antibiotics being fed through his I.V. were doing their job. Every time she saw him, his eyes seemed more and more alert. The bodyguard named Philip had escorted her to Chris’ room and she listened as the lock clicked into place as he left. They were all busy upstairs getting ready for this evening’s event with Jake. About three quarters of the household and staff were moving back to Columbia and were already clearing out while the remaining few would be handling Ricky’s orders for tonight. By Cassie’s estimation, they had a single chance to escape now. They might have a thirty minute window while everyone was distracted so they had to move quickly.

She rushed over to Chris’ bedside. “Are you ready?” she asked as she reached under the bed and pulled out his brace. Luckily, they planned to have Chris involved in the events for the night so his nurse had already dressed him in scrubs. He didn’t have any shoes, but at least he was dressed.

Chris nodded and reached to take the brace from her, but instead he grabbed her arm. “Are you sure you won’t go without me? You’d have a better chance and then you could bring help back to get me.” He looked at her pleadingly to take his advice.

Cassie immediately started shaking her head. “No, I won’t leave without you. That’s not up for debate. They’d just kill you and I refuse to bury you again. That’s not going to happen.”

“Okay, then come help me with this,” he said as he took the brace from her.

The brace could be worn over the scrub pants and as Cassie tightened the strips of Velcro, Chris hissed in a breath of pain. She hadn’t actually seen his knee yet, but even through the layer of fabric of his pants and the brace, Cassie could tell it was extremely swollen. She looked up at him and grimaced at the sweat dripping down his forehead and the obvious pain he was suffering through. “I’m sorry,” she whispered to him.

He took a deep breath. She finished and watched while he took a minute to compose himself before he answered. “It’s okay. That’s going to seem like a picnic before we’re finished. Let’s do this.” He levered himself up onto his good leg and when Cassie reached to help him, he held up a palm to her. “Hang on.” He reached under the mattress of his bed and pulled out two long lengths of metal tubing and grinned at her. “I did a little reconstruction on my bed today. They aren’t long enough to use as crutches, but they will help as a cane and they are heavy enough to be a decent weapon too. Been playing any baseball lately?”

“I can’t say I have, but I bet my swing is still better than yours.” She gave him a cocky smile, glad to see glimpses of the twin she thought she’d lost. This escape had to work.

“We’ll just see about that. So how do you propose we jimmy the lock?” He nodded towards the door as he looked at Cassie.

She reached up the sleeve of her shirt and removed a shiny, sharp letter opener. “I managed to pilfer a bit today too.” She reached up and inserted her shoulder underneath Chris’ on his weak side to help him hop to the door where she propped him up against the wall while she set to work on jimmying the lock. After a minute of working with it, she felt the tumblers give and the knob turn.

She turned to Chris. “I got it. I think most everyone is busy upstairs so we’re going to head to the office at the base of the stairs you told me about yesterday with the exterior entrance. I was in there earlier today and I think it may be an old cellar entrance that’s been converted. I’m hoping we can manage to avoid running into anyone that way. Are you ready?”

At Chris’ nod, Cassie peeked out into the hallway to find it deserted. She quickly ducked under his shoulder and they rushed down the hall. When they got to the other doorway, Cassie wasn’t surprised to find it locked. She quickly set to work on it with the letter opener. This lock went faster and they quickly entered the room and shut the door behind them. Cassie could feel the trembling of Chris’ body from the effort and pain they had already exerted on his battered body. She pushed him down into a chair behind the desk while she examined this exterior door. From her tour of the house, she knew the entire house was wired for security and this door appeared to be no different. She looked for the access panel of the alarm system and found it to the left of the door.

“Chris, I know this is a long shot, but look around the desk and see if you can see any numbers which might be the access code for the system.”

Chris immediately reached inside the left drawer and reached all the way to the back and came out with a sticky note and a victorious smile.

Cassie’s jaw dropped as she said, “How the hell did you know that was there?”

He smiled. “Easy. That’s where I keep all my important codes too.” He gave a quick frown as he glanced down at the paper in his hand. “Maybe I should change that habit.”

“Ya think?” Cassie laughed as she reached for the paper. “Now what are the odds this is the code to the system and not a password for something else?”

“There’s no way to know until you try.” He nodded towards the panel.

Cassie offered up a little prayer as she entered in the code into the panel. There was a successive flash of three lights which sent her stomach spiraling before the green light lit up. She smiled at Chris and whispered, “I think it worked.”

She started to work on the lock with her letter opener, but stopped when she felt a hand on her shoulder and Chris saying, “These may work better.”

She glanced at the keys hanging over her shoulder and grinned at Chris. “And you said you would hold me back. I don’t suppose there’s a gun in that desk too, is there?”

Chris shook his head, but he reached deep inside the drawer, “No, but I did find this.” He held up a large sheathed buck knife which he handed over to Cassie.

“Yes, that could be useful.” She tucked it into the inside of her boot. They might need the element of surprise and between helping Chris to walk and the metal poles, she was out of hands to carry it.

She gingerly opened the door and looked up to a small crawl space filled with a handful of small stairs. “Wait here while I go see if the cellar door is unlocked.” She scrambled up the short steps and gave a tentative push on the wooden doors which gave easily, although she didn’t push them all the way open.

She rushed back down to Chris. “The doors are open. I hope when we come out I’ll recognize the neighborhood, but I have no idea what kind of perimeter security Ricky has so, from here on out, we’re going to be moving as fast as possible. Are you ready?” Cassie looked at Chris critically. He was still horribly pale and sweating from their simple walk down the hall. She didn’t think they’d be able to make it far before he collapsed, but they had no choice in the matter. This was their only chance.

Chris nodded. “Let’s go.”

Cassie reached under to prop him up again and then started to work his large body up the short flight of stairs. Midway up, they stopped so Cassie could open the wooden doors. She did so quickly and quietly and then went back down to help Chris up the rest of the way. They each held a metal pole and when they got to the top, Chris had to lean heavily on his as he suffered from a dizzy spell which almost sent them both tumbling. His breathing was harsh as Cassie leaned him up against the wall of the house to let him rest for a second, while she looked around trying to get her bearings.

“Oh my God. I know where we are. You do too.”

With sweat rolling down the sides of his face regardless of the frigid winter temperatures, Chris took a moment to look around. “That’s the Miller house, isn’t it?” They were literally only one block over from Cassie’s house. It hadn’t even occurred to her when she saw Joel, but obviously the underground network they’d just left went under both his house and this one which was right behind where he lived, which was right across the street from her house.

“Let’s go. We’ve got to get out of here, before they realize we’ve escaped.” Cassie propped Chris back up as they started to move as fast as they could, but it was only a few steps before she heard the sound that sent a chill straight to her very soul.

“Professor, you wound me. I might just begin to think you don’t appreciate my goodwill and hospitality.” She felt Chris tense up next to her and she turned to see a pistol pressed into his temple. Ricky stood there looking at them with hard, glittering eyes. He motioned to one of his bodyguards who took away her metal pole as Ricky kicked the one Chris was using out from underneath him. The loss of support sent them both stumbling to the ground. Cassie heard Chris hiss in pain, but before she could turn to him, Ricky was yanking her up by the arm. His grip on her was punishing, but she didn’t fight back because she didn’t want him to kill Chris in anger.

Ricky turned back to the large men with him and motioned towards Chris who was still on the ground. “Get him back inside. I’ll take care of her.”

Cassie watched as they yanked Chris up from the ground and unceremoniously drug him back inside. She felt her eyes fill with tears of frustration. They’d been so close. They were close enough to her house that, if she yelled, Jake would probably be able to hear her, but she couldn’t risk Chris’ life by doing so.

Ricky leaned so close to her she could feel the heat from his breath as he ground out, “That was very stupid of you, Professor.”

Colton was about to head to the police department so he could move in with the command and control van when Jake’s phone rang.

“Madsen.”

“Jake, it’s Max. I finally managed to find some information for you.”

“What do you have?”

“We’ve linked four properties in Lubbock, Texas to associates of Ricardo Ramirez. Two of them are homes located 23045 22
^nd
Street and 23044 23
^rd
Street.”

“Son of a bitch. That’s right across the street.” Jake muttered as he wrote down the addresses. “What’re the other two addresses?”

“One looks to be a warehouse of some sort located at 104 Ave F and then another commercial business address located at 11425 Indiana Ave.”

“Thanks Max. I really appreciate you finding these for me. I owe you one.” As Jake hung up, he looked over at Colton who’d been relaying the information to Brian on his phone.

As Colton finished his phone call, he pinched his nose between his fingers. “The Lubbock PD’s already stretched thin with the operation going down on campus tonight. They’re sending in FBI from Dallas, but it’s going to be several hours before they get here. They’re sending a single cruiser to each location to check out the situation. Brian said we could join the one that comes to the addresses over here.”

Jake pulled out his weapon and checked his ammunition. “Like he could stop us? His uniform can catch up with us when he gets here. I’m not waiting if there’s even the slightest possibility she’s close by. You ready?”

Colton nodded. “Let’s go.”

As they approached the house across the street, they split up, checking the windows as they went. They each entered the backyard, Jake by gate, Colton by hopping over the fence. When they met up at the backdoor, Jake whispered, “Anything?”

Colt shook his head and said, “There doesn’t appear to be any lights on and I couldn’t hear any noise from inside the house. I didn’t see any movement through any of the windows that had the blinds open either.”

Jake gestured at the back fence which had a gate standing wide open to the backyard of the house behind it. “What do you make of that? Both of these addresses were on our list.”

“I think it looks like we’re on the right track.”

Again, they split up and canvased the windows around the house. Unlike the first house, this one appeared to have some life in it since there were lights on in several of the rooms, but they couldn’t see anything through the closed shutters.

They located what looked to be an open cellar entrance and decided to enter through that entrance. With weapons drawn, Jake went first and Colton followed down the short staircase which led to a surprisingly unlocked door. When they came into the office, there were several drawers open with a few papers scattered across the floor like someone had come in and gathered the important papers rather quickly. Jake and Colton exchanged a concerned look before they headed down the hall. They didn’t run into a single person on this floor. Several of the rooms appeared to have the same cleaned-out look, like they had been gone through rather quickly.

When Jake came to the empty room which had obviously been set up as a hospital room, he looked at Colton. “What do you make of this?”

“I have no idea, but I’m getting the feeling they cleared out of here in a hurry.”

Jake clenched his jaw and nodded. “Let’s check upstairs and make sure no one’s home. This place is massive,” he said as he eyed the many corridors of the basement they’d just checked. “I feel like we’re missing something important here, but I know we’re running short on time.” He glanced down at his watch. It was already 10:15 and Colton needed to get positioned with the PD.

The check of the upstairs yielded the same result. The house was completely empty, but from the looks of things, this had definitely been Ricky’s home base while he’d been in Lubbock. The bastard had been within reach of Cassie the entire time. The knowledge she’d probably been here at some time within the last twenty-four hours ate at Jake’s gut, but they didn’t have time to dwell on it now. They had a meeting to make in just over an hour and a half and Jake didn’t plan on losing again.