O
MIGOD, WILL, YOU CAN BE
Darth Vader,” said Claire as they were finishing up lunch at the house.
She next looked fixedly at Reel. “And you could be Maleficent.”
“Thanks,” said Reel dryly.
Eleanor pretended to look hurt. “Hey, I thought I was Darth Vader.”
Tommy put down his fork and said, “I don’t care about the rest of you guys, I’m going as Wolverine. He’s, like, the coolest.”
“What will you go as?” Reel asked Claire.
“Oh, I’m really too old for that stuff. I might just put on a wig and pretend I’m a TV character from like way back in the early 2000s.”
Eleanor looked at Reel comically. “Way back in the early 2000s? I have never felt so old.”
“What time is the thing tonight?” asked Claire.
“We go to the town hall first. I have offered us up to be sort of the parade’s grand marshals. So we’re having a little pre-parade meeting followed by a reception at the town hall. The mayor will be there along with a few others.”
“Meaning it will be really boring,” said Claire.
“Meaning it will not take that long and it will mean a lot to the folks here,” replied her mother briskly.
Robie looked at Reel. “You up for Maleficent?”
“I don’t have the costume.”
“I had them packed,” said Eleanor. “I knew we’d be celebrating Halloween up here. I was hoping the president could make it, but that’s apparently not going to happen.”
“What are you going to be, Mom?” asked Tommy.
“I think this year I’ll venture way, way back to the seventies and go as Cher.” She confided to Reel, who was seated next to her, “I’ve always loved all her different looks over the years. Especially her hair.”
“Share? Share what?” asked Tommy, looking confused. He had obviously never heard of the singer.
Eleanor said, “Need to know, and you don’t.”
After lunch was done Robie and Reel went outside.
“Town hall Halloween parade?”
“Yeah, sounds like a blast,” said Reel, without a trace of enthusiasm.
“I take it you never went trick-or-treating?”
“You take it correctly.”
“Well, you can make up for lost time.”
“I’m glad we’ll be leaving here soon; I’m starting to feel claustrophobic.”
“So no islands in your future?”
“I’m more of a city girl.”
“You had a cottage on the Eastern Shore in the middle of nowhere,” Robie pointed out.
“That’s why I’m a city girl now. I got sick of that.”
“I guess the Secret Service will scope out the town hall and the parade route.”
“Guess so. I’m sure they’re not too happy about this. Lots of people, in costume. Easy to conceal stuff, weapons, explosives.”
“No, they are not happy. At least the president’s not here. If he were I’m not sure they’d be doing the parade.”
“Are you really going to dress up?” she asked.
“Why not?”
“And I have to be Maleficent, huh?”
“Well, it does fit your personality,” said Robie.
She punched him in the arm.
“So when we get back to the mainland, what then?” he asked.
“Wait for the next call-up.”
“Doubtful it will be the both of us. They tend to send us out solo.”
“I know that, Robie.”
“I’m thinking I have about another year of doing this and then I’m calling it a career.”
She looked surprised. “When did you decide that?”
“It seems like just now, but I’ve been thinking about it for a while.” He stretched his arm where the burned skin was. “Your little booby-trap on the Eastern Shore made me think about my life, I guess.” He smiled to show her he was kidding, but Reel did not return the look.
“I can’t tell you how awful I feel about almost killing you.”
“We were on opposite sides back then. It happened. I made it out. We’re okay.”
She looked at his arm and leg where she knew the burns were. “I’ll make it up to you somehow, Robie.”
“I think you already have.”
“How?”
“Well, most recently, North Korea.”
“Doesn’t seem like enough.”
“Trust me, it was,” he replied.
“Are you really serious about getting out?”
“I am very serious.”
“What will you do?”
He shrugged. “Who says I have to do anything? I’ve saved enough money. I live simply. I’ve seen the world, or at least the bad parts of it. I might just do…nothing.”
“You don’t believe that, Robie. Not for a second.”
“I might do nothing, for a while. And then I’ll figure it out.” He studied her. “What about you? You were all fired up to call it a career.”
“Yeah, but then you said we could continue our careers
and
have a normal life. You made me believe that was possible.”
“I still think it is.”
“But now you’re quitting,” said Reel in a tone that indicated she felt he was betraying her.
“I said I’m leaving in a year. In our line of work a year can be a lifetime. What about you?”
“What about me?”
“I know Evan Tucker had a private discussion with you. What did he say? That no matter how long it takes he’s going to bring you down?”
She let out a long breath and shook her head. “No, he basically apologized for all the stuff he’d done.”
“What?” said Robie, looking stunned.
“He said I was right and he was wrong.”
“Had he been drinking? Did his pupils look normal?”
“I think he knew exactly what he was saying, Robie.”
“Well, how the hell do you like that? I wonder what happened for him to change his mind like that.”
“He said he’d reviewed all the evidence and had given it a lot of thought. Plus you and I had almost gotten killed trying to stop the conspiracy Gelder and Jacobs were involved in. And you and I risked our lives in Syria and in North Korea. I guess it all added up for him.”
“So does that change things for you?” he asked.
“How so?”
“You going to stay on for a while?”
“I don’t know. Probably not. Especially if you’re not going to be around.”
He put an arm around her shoulders. “Well, you’ve got a year to think about that.”
“Yeah, if I live that long.”
M
IN HAD NEVER HEARD OF
Halloween.
She had never worn a costume.
She still didn’t understand what Halloween was, though Chung-Cha had tried to explain it to her. But she now had on a costume and she had been given Halloween candy. They were at a small café on the main street of the downtown area that had been turned into a kids’ party room before the parade was to start.
Chung-Cha had taken Min, who was dressed as a frog, her face hidden behind the costume, only her eyes and mouth visible. Chung-Cha was in the costume of a pirate. The café was filled with children in a wide variety of outfits. At first Min had been terrified to have the frog costume on. But once Chung-Cha had shown her it was only plastic and cloth and couldn’t hurt her, she allowed Chung-Cha to dress her up.
At the front of the café, giving out candy, were the Cassions. When Chung-Cha saw this she panicked slightly. She had seen security people roaming outside, but she never thought that meant the first family would be handing out candy.
She said to Min, “Go get your candy, I will be back.” Then she hurried to the far corner of the café, quickly becoming lost among all the other costumed folks.
Min looked around frantically for her. With the frog costume covering her ears, she had barely heard what Chung-Cha had said, and then when she saw that she was gone, she started to panic. However, she was being herded with the rest of the kids to receive her candy from the Cassions.
As she got to the front of the line, Min was badly scared. She could not see Chung-Cha anywhere, and kids and their parents were crowding in on her from all sides.
When she looked up she was standing directly in front of Tommy Cassion, who was, as he had said, dressed as Wolverine. She looked at him and he looked at her.
“Nice frog,” said Tommy as he held out a handful of candy.
Out of Min’s panicked mind came one thought. She said, “My name is Min. I am ten. Will you help me?”
Tommy looked at her strangely as he dumped the candy into her pumpkin bucket.
Then Min said something else, but it wasn’t in English. She had reverted to Korean.
“Are you okay?” asked Tommy.
“My name is Min. I am ten. Will you help me?”
Tommy started to say something, but a hand reached out and pulled Min away so that other kids could get their candy.
Min looked around the room and breathed a sigh of relief when Chung-Cha rushed over to her. Before she could say anything, Chung-Cha knelt down and hugged her.
“It’s okay, Min. I’m right here. It’s okay.”
Chung-Cha led her outside and then down the street away from the crowds. They reached an alleyway where there was a little brick stoop. Chung-Cha perched next to Min on the bottom step. She had made certain that none of her team had seen them. They also didn’t know that Min was dressed as a frog. Chung-Cha would carry out her mission, but Min would be safe. Min was not going to die. Not by Chung-Cha’s hand.
“Min, you have to listen to me very carefully, okay?”
Min nodded, the frog head bobbing up and down.
“I have to go away for a little bit.”
Min started to jump up, but Chung-Cha held her back.
“Just for a little bit.”
From the alleyway she looked across the street where the town police station was located.
“Do you see that place over there?” She pointed.
Min looked past her and nodded.
“I want you to take my watch.” She slipped it off her wrist and handed it to Min. “Now, when this little line gets here, I want you to go over to that place and tell them what I told you to say. You remember it? In English? Can you say it for me?”
“I am Min. I am ten. Will you help me?”
“That is perfect, Min. Perfect. Now, remember, when this line reaches this point, that is when you will go.”
Chung-Cha was indicating an hour from now.
“But where will you be, Chung-Cha?”
“I have a few things to do. But I know those people over there will take care of you until I get back. They are good people, Min. They will help you.”
“But you
are
coming back, aren’t you?” said Min fearfully.
“I will be back,” said Chung-Cha, forcing herself to smile. And then she thought to herself,
Please forgive me for that lie, Min. And please don’t forget me. I only want your life to be a good one
.
Min reached out and wrapped her arms around her. Chung-Cha returned her hug, fighting back the tears.
“I love you, Chung-Cha.”
“And I love you, Min.”
Fifteen minutes later Chung-Cha joined her team near the target location. They were all dressed in costumes.
Jing-Sang came up to her. “Ready, Comrade?”
“Of course.”
“And Min?”
“She is back at the cottage. She drank her milk…and went to sleep.”
Jing-Sang smiled. “Then let us do this great deed. To the glory, Chung-Cha.”
“To the glory,” repeated Chung-Cha.
Out on the main street the elements of the parade were assembling. There were motorized vehicles with floats built on them, a high school band, dozens of costumed zombies, and a plethora of other colorfully clad Halloweeners.
There was also a long Chinese dragon that had emerged from an alley. Underneath its cover one could just make out a number of sneakered feet marching along.
“We ready to move to the town hall, Sam?” Eleanor Cassion was looking at her protection detail leader.
He spoke into his walkie-talkie and then gave her a thumbs-up. “We’re ready to roll, ma’am. Side entrance over there. Two-minute walk to the left and up the front steps.”
He and another of his men stood on either side of the Cassions as they filed toward the door.
Sam gave Robie and Reel a high sign. They nodded and fell into step behind the Cassions.
Claire was dressed in a poofed-out long blonde wig with a headband and skinny jeans. She turned and looked at Robie, who wasn’t in costume. “Can you guess who I am?”
He shook his head while Reel, who had also decided against dressing up as Maleficent, looked on, a curious expression on her face.
“Stevie Nicks. She was a singer with some band way back.”
“Uh, that
some
band would be Fleetwood Mac,” said Reel.
“Yeah, them. They were apparently really popular at some point.”
“I thought you were going as some TV character from way back in the early 2000s,” said Robie.
“I was, but I couldn’t think of any. My mom told me about this Stevie person and she had a blonde wig.”
“Yay for Mom,” said Reel.
The local police and the Secret Service detail surrounded the Cassions as they walked down the street toward the town hall. The sun was setting and the sky looked nearly molten. The wind was picking up and there was the threat of rain later that evening, something the parade organizers were desperately hoping would not happen.
T
HEY WERE NEARLY AT THE
town hall when Robie spotted it. The Chinese dragon marched into place near the front doors of the building. He observed the great many feet under the dragon’s skin.
He looked at Reel, whose gaze was also on the dragon.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” he said, and Reel nodded in agreement.
He spoke into his walkie-talkie, and a minute later the Cassions were being hustled into the town hall. Several deputies raced over to the Chinese dragon and started pulling up the dragon’s “skin.”
Robie saw astonished faces revealed when they did so.
They were teenagers. American teenagers.
Robie smiled at Reel. “Okay, I’m officially paranoid.”
“You think?” she replied.
They entered the town hall and Robie said to Sam, “Dragon was a false alarm. Sorry, kind of like the car backfire.”
“No harm, no foul,” replied Sam, though he looked a bit put off.
Eleanor came over to them. “What is going on?”
“False alarm, ma’am,” said Sam. “We can proceed on schedule and—”
He didn’t get a chance to finish as a round hit him in the head, spraying everyone with blood.
Robie grabbed Eleanor and jerked her downward as Reel turned and fired shots in the direction from which the round had come.
Making her stay low, Robie pushed Eleanor toward the others. He yelled to one Secret Service agent who was shielding the two children, “Get them through that door. Now!”
Another agent came up to help, and together they pushed the kids ahead of them.
Claire started crying as she saw Sam dead on the floor. Tommy looked too afraid to make a sound.
Eleanor called out to her children even as one of the agents with them was hit in the back of the head and went down, falling over a stack of chairs.
A body came tumbling down from the second-floor balcony and hit the floor hard. It was one of the deputies from the local police. He’d been shot in the forehead.
“They’ve got the high ground,” yelled out Reel as she kept backing away, acting as the rear guard and firing widely angled shots at the balcony to provide cover.
“Move, move!” Robie urged Eleanor as more shots rang out.
The other agent with Claire and Tommy went down with a bullet in his spine.
“Reel!” yelled Robie.
Reel catapulted across the room and hit the man who had just appeared in the doorway. Her kick crushed his face and sent him flying backward, his weapon sailing away. Before he could try to get up, Reel had fired a bullet into his head.
The next instant she was falling backward as another man struck her low, driving his shoulder into her gut. She hit the floor and spun away on the smooth wood. She still had her gun and was preparing to fire when a shot rang out. The man who had hit Reel stood there stiffly for a second and then toppled forward, his face largely gone from the round Robie had fired into it.
Claire and Eleanor screamed as another man raced into the room brandishing an MP5 submachine gun. But before he could fire, Robie forced him to take cover when he emptied his clip at the man. Robie pulled Eleanor along and through a doorway as Reel sprinted across the room, hurdled a table, grabbed both kids, and propelled them into the same interior room, kicking the door shut behind her.
Back in the main room another Secret Service agent and a deputy raced in. The deputy was shot in the chest and went down before even firing his gun. The agent fired three shots at the second floor and a yell indicated that he had struck someone. Then he went down in a hail of fire from the man toting the MP5. But he still managed to empty his clip and killed the man who had just ended his life.
Inside the other room Robie and Reel pulled the first family away from the doorway and flattened them to the floor just in time. MP5 rounds ripped through it, spraying metal and wood in all directions.
As soon as the shooting stopped, Robie and Reel led Eleanor and her kids through another interior doorway. Robie locked the door and then surveyed the room. It was small, windowless, and there was a set of stairs leading down.
Reel had already eyed it. “Probably the cellar,” she said. “Curved staircase.”
“Constrained fields of fire,” he replied, understanding immediately. “Gives us an edge.”
“Not much choice. Let’s do it.”
They propelled the first family down the steps. The cellar was even smaller than the room above and had no exit.
They were trapped.
There was a stout wooden table that they immediately overturned, putting Eleanor and her children behind it.
They could all hear the gun battle taking place around them. There were screams, and the zings of bullets missing, and then the thuds of bullets hitting and then bodies falling.
Claire was now hysterical.
Tommy simply seemed paralyzed.
Eleanor looked at Robie; she was scared, but when she spoke her voice was firm. “How do we get my children safely out of here, Agent Robie?”
Reel was surveying the staircase. She had already reloaded and she’d also taken pistols from the slain agents. She flipped a spare to Robie.
Robie said, “We’re working on it, ma’am. We will do our best.”
He tried the walkie-talkie three times but no one answered.
Eleanor looked at him in disbelief. “But that means…” she began, shooting a worried glance at her daughter, who was still sobbing uncontrollably.
Robie nodded and said quietly, “They’re all gone.”
He punched 911 on his phone. It just rang. “They must be swamped with calls,” he concluded.
He looked at Claire and Tommy.
“Tommy?” The boy didn’t look up.
“Wolverine! You with me?”
He looked at Robie and gave a small nod.
Reel said, “Claire? Claire? Hey, Stevie Nicks! Listen up.”
Claire gulped, stopped sobbing, caught her breath, and finally looked at her.
Reel ran her gaze along the three of them. “We can’t sugarcoat this. The situation is bad. We’ve got some cover here. And we’ve got some weapons. We don’t know how many there are out there. But there’s got to be more of them than there are of us.” She looked at Robie and then continued. “But we are here with you and we will stay with you the whole way. To get to you, they have to go through us. Okay?”
The three slowly nodded.
“Now stay down behind the table.”
A few seconds later, three shots rang out and a man tumbled down the stairs and came to rest at the bottom.
Robie looked over to see Reel lowering her weapon, smoke still rising off the muzzle.
She said, “He was trying to be quiet, but didn’t quite manage it.”
Eleanor said, “I don’t hear any sirens.”
“The police force here consists of about thirty sworn officers,” said Reel. “There were ten assigned to your detail. They might already all be dead. The other side has MP5s, which can do a lot of damage in a short period of time. And pistols are pretty much useless against them. The rest of the cops might not be here yet.”
Robie looked around the room and was also listening for footfalls from above. The ceiling was thick. He didn’t think the other side could fire through it. They would have to come down the stairs. But they had already sent one man in and they knew how that had worked out. Robie and Reel had the advantage here because of the curved staircase. Their enemies couldn’t attack them en masse or straight on. The curve allowed Robie and Reel to fire before the attackers could line up their shots.
They suddenly heard a loud bang from upstairs and then people screamed and then there was gunfire. And then more screams. And more gunfire.
And then silence.
And then they heard voices. But the words were not English.
“Shit,” muttered Reel.
She looked at Robie. His gaze was on a shelf in the corner.
On the shelf was a stack of old clothes. She once more glanced at Robie, who nodded.
Reel ran and grabbed some of the clothes. She flipped out her knife and started cutting them up.
“What are you doing?” asked Eleanor.
“Getting us some protection,” Robie answered.
“But those won’t stop bullets,” said Eleanor.
When Reel was done they worked the small strips of cloth into their ears and then tied other pieces that Reel had fashioned in the size and shape of kerchiefs around their necks. They helped Eleanor and the kids do the same.
“What are these for?” asked Tommy.
“Flash-bangs,” answered Reel. “That’s what we just heard. They’re really loud and the light flash is blinding. And there’s a lot of smoke. The other side obviously has them.”
“They’re used to disorient,” added Robie. “And they do that job well.”
They heard more shots come from upstairs and then a number of footfalls.
Robie and Reel eyed each other and then pushed Eleanor and the kids flat to the floor. “Cover your eyes and nose with the cloth and put your hands over your ears. And stay down.”
Robie and Reel took up their positions, each with one hand on their kerchiefs to pull them up quickly. Only they wouldn’t have much time to recover and return the fire that was surely going to follow the flash-bangs. But then they didn’t have any other options.
They heard the door open and then down they came.
Not one flash-bang or two.
There were three of them.
Robie and Reel hit the floor a second before the trio of explosives detonated. The combined sound was deafening, blowing right through the bits of cloth pushed into their ears, and the hands that covered those ears couldn’t do much to deaden the noise. The smoke penetrated right through the flimsy cloth and into their mouths, noses, and lungs. And the flashes of light were like looking into the sun even though they were staring at the floor.
Eleanor and her children screamed and then all three passed out.
By the time Robie and Reel staggered to their feet, coughing and sickened by the blasts, smoke, and light, they were surrounded and outgunned.
MP5s against pistols.
North Koreans wanting bloody revenge.
It was over.