Missing: The Body of Evidence (37 page)

Beads of sweat covered her entire body
as the temperature rose in the interview room. Nancy dove under the desk,
dragging a chair with her for cover. She banged her head on a steel-desk leg
and winced. A peek at the room from behind the chair showed that as suddenly as
the ball of plasma had appeared, it disappeared before her eyes, leaving only a
wisp of smoke. She scrambled from under the desk, over to the door, and grabbed
the handle. Frantically, she twisted the door handle and pulled it, but the
door remained locked. Nancy released her grip and turned to face the mirror.
She picked up the plastic chair, flung it at the mirror and watched it bounce
off without leaving a scratch.

Tension pulsated in an ache behind her
eyes. Nancy touched her scalp at the source of her pain and felt moistness. She
withdrew her hand and stared at her blood-covered fingers. Ignoring her injury,
she dragged the desk from in front of the mirror. Nancy hoped it
was
a
two-way mirror. She trembled from head to toe at the notion that she may have
got it wrong. A loud explosion from outside rang out and she ducked, then
another explosion caused her to flinch. Dad’s words about a diversion ran
through her mind.

With clenched fists, she pounded the
mirror. The glass made a hollow sound under the pounding of her fist, but didn’t
give way. She took a step back and glared at the mirror in frustration. The
mirror vibrated and crumbled into shards before her eyes, revealing a room
beyond. Taking hold of the chair, she used it to remove enough glass to make an
exit. Pushing the desk to the wall, she scrambled over the desk, through the
space, and onto a desk in the next room. She hesitated, to gather her bearings,
before she hopped off the desk and grasped hold of the door handle.

‘Dear God, please.’

No sooner had she uttered the words, than
the door opened. She peeked either way down the corridor. Gunshots rang out to
her left in the direction of reception. She caught a glimpse of the guards
through the glass doors at the entrance. They were crouched in a firing
position and they moved out of view. Her legs buckled as she darted in the
direction of the wedged door, her lungs bursting with the exertion. The doorway
appeared. It was so near she could almost smell the freedom. The unmistakable
sound of the rotor blades of a helicopter flying low drowned out all other
noise. Reaching out for the door handle like a relay racer grasping for the
baton, she stopped in mid-flight with hands grasping her shoulders.

Out of breath, there was no energy left to
fight and strong hands spun her around. Blondie glared at her, grabbed an arm
and a leg, as if she was a rag doll, he hauled her over his shoulder. Nancy
heard Blake’s voice behind them.

‘Get her to my office. We’ll lay low in the
safe room.’

Nancy punched at Blondie’s chest and
wriggled her legs but, try as she may, his firm grip kept her captive. Blake
opened a door in front of them. She grabbed at the doorframe to slow them down.
With her legs flailing, she lost a shoe.

A bright flash in her periphery vision and
a loud bang weakened her tenuous grasp of the doorframe.
Stun grenade
.
Blondie whipped her through the doorway and into the office. She hoped the
flash of light was her dad and the boys outflanking the guards at the entrance.

Blake pulled at a bookcase revealing a
steel door. He tapped a code onto a pad and the door opened inwards. Nancy’s
eyes darted around the office. Blondie charged through the door, but not before
she had kicked off her other shoe. Blake closed the bookcase and snapped the
steel door shut. Her body slammed hard on the safe-room floor. A boot connected
with a crunch in her ribs, sucking the air from her lungs, and she fought for
breath. Nancy writhed on the floor and groaned.

Blondie withdrew his gun from his holster
and pressed it to her head.

‘What are we up against, who else have you
got covering your tail besides Logan and his lackeys?’

‘No one. I thought Logan was on your side
covering up for you and helping you set me up.’

He dug his knee in her ribs. Nancy
screamed.

‘You’re having a laugh, lady, they’re here
looking for you. Now tell us, or I’ll put a slug in your brain.’

She closed her eyes, tensed and heard a
click as Blondie racked the slide of his firearm. He pressed the cold steel
firmly on her temple. A wave of ice-cold pins and needles washed through her
body.

Blake shouted, ‘Put it down, we may need
her as a way out.’

The tension released from her muscles.
Blondie took his knee from her ribs and stood over her. Emotions overcame her
pain-racked body at the revelation that Logan, Bill and Kyle were on her side.
Nevertheless, at the same time, she was left puzzled as to how they knew where
she was. Nancy groaned at the thought her dad and Logan may end up in a
shoot-out. Tears streamed down her cheeks, not knowing how she could have read
Kyle and others so wrong.

Blake stood looking at a bank of CCTV
monitors covering an entire wall and Blondie joined him. She crawled over to a
wall facing the screens and rested her back against it. Blondie stood sideways
and kept throwing her glances, but she was in no shape to put up a fight.

‘Damn, we’ve got serious company,’ Blondie
said.

On one of the monitors, Nancy could see
four figures dressed in black working their way down the corridors, stopping at
doors, shooting out the locks and entering the rooms. A figure stopped and
stooped to pick something up from the floor at the entrance of Blake’s office.
He called out to the others in the corridor and they joined him.

The camera inside the office picked three
of them up on the monitor as they entered the office. They were about to leave,
when one of them picked up her shoe and signalled to the others. She looked on
as they ransacked the office, turning over filing cabinets. Finally, one of
them pulled the bookcase away from the wall.

‘They’ll never get through the steel door,’
Blake said.

‘Don’t be so sure, It looks as though
they’re setting an explosive charge,’ Blondie replied.

A look of alarm spread across Nancy’s face
and she sprang to her feet. She saw Kyle’s face peer around the doorframe of
room fifteen and one of Dad’s team crouched at the door of the office fired off
a round in his direction. A lump stuck in her throat.

‘Damn and blast, Logan’s team looks to have
taken out Greg,’ Blondie said. ‘One of the guys outside the office took a shot
at one of the detectives, so they can’t be working together.’

‘Forget Greg, grab Roberts and follow me
before the door blows. We’ll work our way through the emergency passage from
here to Simon’s room. They’ll never get to us in there and we can negotiate our
way out.’

Blondie grabbed her arm and dug the barrel
of his gun into the small of her back.

‘Move.’

Blake had moved two filing cabinets to
reveal another steel door and he pushed it open. All her thoughts fused to
finding a way to escape from them. A glance at the CCTV monitor and she saw her
dad’s team scramble behind the filing cabinets. On another screen, figures
abseiled to the ground from a hovering helicopter and an armoured car smashed
through the entrance barrier.

Nancy didn’t know what to make of the
situation.
What the…Oh no, don’t say Blake’s got backup.

A searing pain surged through her head as
Blondie swiped his gun across the side of her head.

‘I said move, lady.’

Her body lunged through the doorway with a
push to her back, and the steel door clanked shut behind her. Flashes of light
in her vision from the blow to her head caused her to stumble. The door
vibrated to the muffled sound of an explosion. Nancy stumbled along the dimly
lit corridor. Air conditioning conduit and cables hung from the ceiling causing
her to stoop. Maintaining forward momentum, Blondie used his gun to prod her
along behind Blake.

Nancy fixed her gaze on a bank of fire
extinguishers next to the security door and the end of the walkway. Blake
tapped in the security code and spun the wheel on the door. Nancy leaned
against the fire extinguishers. With the door open, Blake entered. She glanced
at Blondie and saw him holster his gun and take hold of the door wheel with
both hands. Blondie glared at her and growled.

‘Get inside, lady.’

She stood her ground and he made to
retrieve his gun. Nancy felt behind her back and grasped hold of a small
extinguisher. With serious intent and all the strength she could muster, she
wrenched the extinguisher from its mount and swung it at Blondie’s head. A thud
as it connected with the side of his head and his expression changed as if his
eyes were calling out for his mom. He crumpled to the floor and his gun fell
inside the doorway.

Nancy stooped and scrambled to retrieve the
gun, but Blake got there before her.

Their eyes locked, his narrowed with
determination.

‘Inside now, or I
will
shoot you.’

Slumped in a chair and facing Blake,
Nancy wanted to scream. If her arms had been two inches longer, she knew that
she wouldn’t be facing the barrel end of Blondie’s gun. The only relief she had
from her dire situation, was that with Blondie locked outside, she only needed
to worry about Blake.

Nancy looked at a television mounted to the
wall, with the picture of a rocket ready for launch. At first, she had thought
it was David’s room, but for the motionless body of his brother, Simon, sitting
facing the television screen and wired up in the same way as David. Nancy
patted her jeans pocket and then her breast pockets on her jacket.

‘Do you have a handkerchief? Blood is
running down my neck.’

He averted his gaze to search his pocket
and Nancy took the opportunity to click Dad’s spy pen for it to activate. He
tossed her his handkerchief.

‘Why the picture of the rocket?’

‘It’s today’s mission for the boys over in
North Korea.’ He looked at his watch. ‘Around now the fuel tanks should be
frozen and their command centre should be in flames.’

‘So is that what this project is about,
brainwashing children to enhance their powers to be able to destroy things and
to assassinate people?’

‘Part of it, but I wouldn’t call it
assassination. As for brainwashing, we have to take some credit for some timely
surgical intervention and the discovery of an array of drugs. Mind control is
an interesting weapon for the government. But it’s too complicated for you to
understand.’

‘Was Kelly an alternative?’

‘Yes, but with his drinking and his age, he
couldn’t be controlled. Luckily, he passed on his genes to his sons.’

Nancy thought back to the incident in the
viewing room, with Logan and Kelly’s half-brother’s revelations.

‘Pity we didn’t have you as a child. It’s a
shame really that the government doesn’t appreciate what we do here.’

She leaned forward in her chair and smiled.

‘Is that why you killed Blake… Professor?
Was it because he, along with the government, didn’t appreciate what you did
here with David and the others?’

He reared back on his chair.

‘Your more intelligent than I gave you
credit for. How have you worked that out?’

‘Well, it isn’t Neuron science, just plain
old detective work. I knew from the moment you walked into the interview room
and caught the fragrance of your deodorant. But let’s start with your shoe
size. Twelve and a half I take it, from when you tried to gain the
psychological advantage over me in the interview room, dangling your legs off
the desk and looking down at me. Your shoe size is stamped on the sole.’

‘Interesting, do carry on.’

‘Well, I’m guessing here, but after you
murdered him, I’m thinking you removed his sneakers, hid them in the closet and
replaced them with your Doc Marten boots. I also think that you had Kelly
remove the battery in the smoke detector, and then replace it, after the body
had incinerated by whatever means you used to get rid of the body.’

‘So now you’re guessing.’

‘My hunches have served me well so far. I
take it Mary’s version of events was concocted to put an end to the
investigation, although I now get where the ball lightning comes from.’

He raised his eyebrows and smirked.

‘You shouldn’t disrespect Mary; she’s in love
with me and will say anything I ask. But really, you’re just guessing.’

‘We’ll soon know when CSI have rechecked
the foot size from the remains. Incidentally, they’ll be doing that as we
speak. The results should come back with a shoe size of eleven and a half.’

His cheeks reddened and his eye twitched.

‘And how, exactly, do you account for CIA
providing the Coroner’s office with records of the professor’s prints and
details?’

‘You mean your henchmen. You had them
switch the record… that’s why. But what you couldn’t do was to let go of your
past.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your degree certificates that were in the
apartment, that’s what I mean. They’re now hanging in your office. Then there’s
the phone pad on your desk that you removed from your apartment. I’m sure when
they check the numbers of the one on your office desk they’ll find they were
all used by the professor.’

‘As regards the phone pad, he worked here…
remember. And what’s to say we didn’t put the certificates on my office wall in
tribute to the late professor?’

‘Nothing, but then there’s the description
of you from a witness that puts you at the apartment, unless Blake was your
twin.’

He began to laugh.

‘It really is all circumstantial. What
you’re missing is the body of evidence.’

‘It’s all there in the circumstantial
evidence. Blake helped David to escape to his father's apartment. And, from
what you have told me, the government doesn’t appreciate the work you do here.
That’s assuming they even know what it is you do. Unless…’

‘Unless what?’

‘Come on, do I have to spell it out.
There’s only you and me that can hear the truth of what happened. The
technician is busy with the monitoring machine.’

He stroked his chin, leaned forward in his
chair and glanced over at the technician

‘You’re right, and I’m not letting you out
of here, anyway. I can shoot you and put the gun back in Carter’s hand. Then I
can do what I intended to do and to disappear with a new identity, so I may as
well tell you… Yes, I killed Blake.’

His eyes glazed over. Her eyes darted
around the room, as much as she wanted to hear the why and wherefore, she
needed to disarm him and escape from the room.

‘How and why?’

‘Like you said, Blake spirited David away
from here to his dad’s apartment after we had a blazing argument. We’re pretty
autonomous here. We have our own funding from drug royalties and the government
only knows what we want them to know. Blake wasn’t happy with some of the
missions we undertook without executive clearance and he was going to go to
Langley headquarters to debrief them.’

Nancy’s mind recalled searching the net for
information on spontaneous combustion
. I wonder? Iran and the death of the
nuclear scientists from the article in the browser search.

He continued. ‘What Blake didn’t know was
that Kelly used David’s situation to extract more money and told me what was
happening. I invited Blake to my apartment to discuss things rationally, but
things got out of hand and I strangled him. Then you came along and screwed
things up.’

‘So really, when you say you left all the
details to security, like the surveillance of me and my apartment, the attempt
to frame me for taking gang money, the fire at the cabin and the highway
incident, not forgetting them placing my gun in Kelly’s hand, they were doing
it on your orders?’

‘Well, yes if you put it like that.’

The technician called out. ‘Professor, I’ve
lost them.’

Relieved as she was to know the truth and
prove her hunches right, she worried how she would get out of there alive to
tell the story. The professor strode over to the technician.

‘What do you mean you’ve lost them?’

‘Well, to be honest, they haven’t left the
grounds, but the signal strength is weakening. If they don’t get back to their
bodies soon, they’ll not make it back at all. The strange thing is that around fifteen
minutes ago I detected three alternatives in the grounds.’

The professor put the gun down on a table
and studied an array of monitors.

Nancy eased herself off the chair and tried
to make no sound. Like a tiger stalking its prey, she slowly moved toward the
professor, her eyes darting from him and then to the gun. A cold blast struck
her, as if a ghost had walked through her body.

‘Turn the power up to factor seven,’ the
professor said.

‘It’s dangerous, we could destroy him.’

‘Just do it.’

Nancy stopped in her tracks to a foul odour
of burning plastic. A fizzing sound above her caught her attention and she
looked upward. Flames ran down wires from the dome above. Her eye-line followed
the flames to the helmet on Simon’s head. His body jerked and his eyes opened
wide. What looked like steam rose from the helmet. His face contorted and
appeared to melt in a disfigured expression of pain. The clothing he was
wearing smoked and then burst into flame. A sudden blue flash, and his body
incinerated before her eyes. Her jaw dropped and she screamed.

The professor turned and threw her a look
before his stare settled on the gun. This time two inches wouldn’t do it, she
was at least six-feet away. Out in the open with nowhere to hide, she froze as
if she were an actress caught in the footlights on stage, her lines forgotten.
She knew Blondie had put a bullet it the chamber and it had her name on it. He
picked up the gun and aimed it. Her eyes focused on his trigger finger and she
mentally prepared to dive.

‘Leave her alone, she’s my friend,’ rang
between her ears.

A white-tennis-sized ball flashed into her
vision from behind her and stopped short of the professor. It seemed to dance
around before his eyes as if holding him in a trance like a preying Cobra. He shrieked.

‘No, David. No.’

The professor’s eyes bulged with fear. In
an instant, the sphere struck his face and was absorbed into his head. He
dropped the gun. First, the skin and hair on his head frosted. Then, as if he
had liquid nitrogen injected into his heart, spreading the substance through
his veins, his entire body froze over like an ice statue. The skin cracked on
his face and crumbled, his entire body collapsing like a skyscraper at
demolition, until all that remained was a pile of dust on the floor.

Her jaw dropped in readiness for a scream,
but the neurons in her brain scrambled, sending a message that missed her vocal
chords and landed in her stomach. She felt as though someone had kicked her in
the gut and she doubled over. The foul odour from Simon’s burning flesh added
to her stomach pains and she wanted to throw up. She heard David’s voice in her
mind.

‘Please, open the connecting door to my
room, I have to get back to my body or I’ll die.’

Nancy grabbed the gun from the floor and
aimed it at the technician.

‘Open the door to the next room… now.’

A glance in the direction of the smouldering
chair, and all that was left of the body was Simon’s two legs. The technician
scurried to the connecting door, tapped in the code and spun the wheel. Nancy
ordered the technician into the room. Haunted by the visions she had witnessed,
she still wanted to throw up the contents of her stomach.

‘Do whatever you have to do to get David
back into his body.’

She left the technician to his orders,
walked over to David’s lifeless body and took hold of his hand. His head jolted
as if his body had received an electric shock. His hand gripped her fingers.
David sucked in a sharp intake of breath. She hoped for a smile, but his head
slumped forward and his grip of her hand went limp.

‘Excuse me,’ said the technician and
removed the helmet. He took hold of David’s wrist. ‘His pulse is weak, but he’s
alive.’

Nancy snapped her head to the direction of
the door making a loud hiss. Slowly it drew open and she caught a glimpse of
the cart woman. Figures dressed in black clothing and ski masks brushed her
aside, their automatic weapons at the ready, Nancy dropped her gun. A loud
explosion and flash of light disorientated her and she fell to the ground.
Voices barked orders.

‘On the ground, everyone.’

‘Detective Roberts, I’m police. We need a
medic for the boy in the chair.’

Hands grabbed at her wrists ignoring her
introduction and plea for help. Someone forced her hands behind her back and
she felt plastic cuffs tighten. Picked up bodily, the next thing she could
remember was eating grass face down outside the building. The sound of truck
engines roaring, and helicopter engines winding down, together with men barking
orders was deafening. Nancy glanced either side. The whole area resembled a
disembarkation rendezvous for an army exercise. Children were being ushered
onto school buses. Some Astral personnel were lying face down on the ground.
Others formed a line, with those at the front climbing into the back of trucks,
shepherded by heavily armed guards.

‘Nancy?’

It was the voice of Kyle. He was lying face
down, his hands trussed behind his back.

‘Kyle? Of all the places in the world and
they have to put you next to me.’

‘Play it again, Sam.’ He curled his lips in
a smile.

‘How the hell did you know I was here?’

‘The watch I gave you. You destroyed the
GPS bug in the Dictaphone Bill gave you.’

Nancy rolled her eyes.
Boys and their
toys.

‘Listen, Kyle, I’m sorry for all the crap
I’ve given you. I…’

‘Don’t worry, save the apologies for later
over a glass of wine.’