Wrong Time (20 page)

“It’s the best and most thoughtful
thing that anyone has ever gotten me,” Sam said and softly kissed him.

As they were kissing, she couldn’t help
but think about her confusion upon seeing an engagement ring. What would I have
said? I would have just let him down easy, she thought to herself. The truth
was, though, that the idea that she was ever going to turn him down was a lie.
Despite her pale surprised face, she had the word yes right on the tip of her
tongue before Nathan cleared up the situation. Sam led Nathan to their room.
That night would end up being the most amazing night of their lives, but at the
same time, everything would change on that night for everyone.

* * * * *

Campbell was fast asleep when a noise
awakened him. He clearly heard a loud crack like the sound of a door being
splintered. He sat straight up in the bed and reached over to his nightstand
drawer to grab a pistol that he kept there. He got up and walked to his bedroom
door. He carefully walked out of his room to investigate the noise. Once he
reached the dark living room, it became clear that he wasn’t alone. Campbell could
hear the faint sounds of breathing. As far as he could tell, there was not only
one intruder, but two. He flipped the lights on and saw his attackers. He
quickly fired a shot into the chest of the first man, and as he turned to face
the second man, he felt a stinging feeling in his gut, followed by a deafening
sound. He dropped to the floor but kept his grip on his weapon. Once he hit the
floor, he fired every bullet that his gun held, hitting the second intruder
with many of them. The intruder dropped to the floor. He was dead, but there
was one problem. As Campbell looked down, he saw the source of the horrible
pain he was feeling. There, in his lower stomach, were two holes. Campbell had
been shot. He was losing a lot of blood really fast. He felt cold and scared in
that moment, so he talked to the only One who could hear him.

“God, I have made a lot of mistakes,
but I’m going to ask you for something, considering that this will be my last
chance to. Please forgive me, and even more importantly, be with Zane and
everyone else. Let them succeed where I have failed. Also give my wife and
children the peace that only
You
can give when they
learn what has happened to me. I know that
You
will do
these things, so I’m just going to go ahead and say it. Thank You,” Campbell
said.

Before long, he could see police lights
outside of his house, but it was too late. He laid his head back and let a
relaxing sleep take him. John Campbell was gone.

Chapter 19

Sam’s phone rang, waking her and Nathan
from their sleep. She looked over at the clock. It was 3:37 in the morning. Sam
reached for the phone, but Nathan pulled her close to him.

“Just don’t answer it. Whatever’s going
on can wait,” Nathan said.

Sam wanted to just let it ring and stay
in his arms, but it was too early for anyone to be calling unless something was
seriously wrong. Even Jason wouldn’t dare call at that hour. She pulled away
and answered the phone.

“This better be good, Jason,” Sam said.

“It’s Campbell. He’s gone,” Jason said.

“What do you mean, he’s gone? Where did
he go?”

 
“No, Sam. He was killed tonight in his
home.”

A stinging silence was all that was
heard for quite a while.

“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Should
we call the others?” Sam asked.

“No, Zane already knows, and we can
just tell everyone else in the morning. I just knew that you would want to know
immediately.”

“Thank you. I’ll be there as quickly as
I can. I’m getting ready now,” Sam said as she hung up the phone.

She sprung from the bed and started
scrambling to find her clothes.

“What’s going on?” Nathan asked.

“Get dressed if you’re coming with me. Campbell
was killed tonight, and I’m going over there to see what’s going on and if
there’s anything that I can do.”

Nathan got out of the bed and found his
pants from the night before, and soon they were both on their way. Once they
were in the car and Sam was backing out of the driveway, Nathan turned to her.

“I’m sorry that something like this had
to happen on your birthday of all days,” Nathan said.

“It’s okay. You made yesterday special,
and if you want to make today better, then just concentrate on helping me take
down the people who did this to Campbell.”

 
Nathan nodded in agreement, but he had a
lot more thoughts swirling around in his head than Sam probably did. She only
wanted to avenge Campbell and everyone else affected by Markus, but Nathan
couldn’t help but wonder if Sam and his friends were truly safe where they
were. If someone could just waltz right into Campbell’s home and murder him,
then what was to stop the same thing from happening to them? As they pulled up
to the house, they could see police lights and a single ambulance with no
lights on. They also saw Zane and Jason standing in front of the house.

“Do we know who did this?” Sam asked
Jason as she exited the car.

“Well, we know that there were at least
two men in the house because Campbell was able to kill them both. We don’t know
who either of them were. They had no identification on them, and at this time,
we don’t know if there was a third intruder involved,” Jason answered.

“It doesn’t matter who they were. We
know that this attack came from Markus. There will be more attacks like this
one,” Zane said while shaking his head.

“What are you doing with your mask
off?” Sam asked Zane after noticing that he wasn’t wearing it.

“It’s nighttime, and besides that, there
are just some things that a person has to see with their own two eyes, or at least
see as well as I can.”

“Can we look at the scene?” Sam asked.
 

“Yes, just come this way,” Jason said.

As they walked into the house, it
became obvious that nothing had been moved yet.
 

“So what do you two make of all this,”
Zane asked.

Sam looked around for a moment. She had
never been close to Campbell, but she respected him. Seeing his lifeless body
there affected her in a way that she hadn’t expected. She didn’t see a crime
scene to diagnose. All she saw was an old comrade who had passed on. With no
explanation, she simply walked out of the room. Nathan was concerned about Sam,
but he stayed for a moment.

“Well, as far as I can tell, that man
near the stairwell was probably killed first, and then as Campbell turned, this
man here likely shot him. The blast knocked him to the floor, and then while
lying on the floor, Campbell fired several shots at the man who had just
wounded him,” Nathan said.

“What makes you think that?” Jason
asked.

“He was shot in the stomach, and
judging by where the first man was killed and where Campbell fell, I don’t
think that it would have been possible for him to be shot in such an area at
that angle. It’s pretty obvious that Campbell shot this man from the floor. The
second intruder was shot twice in the leg, once in the groin area, and then
twice in the stomach. Who shoots that low unless they’re shooting from the
floor and they’re in an awful big hurry to unload their magazine?” Nathan asked.

“Well, you might actually be right,”
Jason said.

Nathan nodded and started to go after
Sam before Zane stopped him.

“If you don’t mind me asking, where did
you learn to diagnose a crime scene like that?”

Nathan paused for a long moment.

“My theory is probably wrong. I just
threw something out there. To answer your question, though, I used to watch a
lot of crime dramas on television,” Nathan said.

“Well, that theory just lost all
credibility,” Jason said once Nathan had left the room.

“Either that, or we really need to
start watching crime dramas,” Zane said.

The two men walked away from the scene.
Zane was trying to stay composed and show everyone that things were going to be
fine by keeping things light, but inside, he was in a panic. These people were
his to lead now. He had never wanted to lead them, but nonetheless, they were
his responsibility now. Once they were outside, Zane called Nathan over to him.

“I need you to go to Jess, Lee, Trish,
and Michael’s home for me. Jason and I will go get Burt and Dan. We need to
hold a meeting about where to go from here. We’ll meet all of you at least by
six,” Zane said.

“All right, we’ll be there,” Nathan
said.

Nathan and Sam got into the car. Given
the fact that Sam was still a bit shaken, Nathan drove. After Nathan explained
where they would be going and what was going on, Sam asked him a question.

“What is wrong with me?”

“What do you mean? Nothing is wrong
with you.”

“I couldn’t even look at that crime
scene back there. I’ve lost my ability to look at things objectively.”

“Okay. First of all, it’s completely
understandable that you couldn’t look at this situation objectively because Campbell
isn’t an object. He was a superior and mentor to you. Second of all, if that
scene didn’t shake you up at least a little bit, I would be worried about you. You’re
not a robot. You’re a human being. Of course that affected you.”
 

“It didn’t seem to bother you very much.”

“It actually did bother me. I just said
something because I knew that one of us had to.”

“Well, I’m the one who’s supposed to be
teaching you. I don’t think that it says anything good about me if you have to
pick up my slack,” Sam said.

“Oh, stop it. We’re partners, and you
pick up my slack all the time. If once in a blue moon I have to answer a
question or two because you need a little time to process the situation, it’s
not a big deal. It’s normal,” Nathan said while sliding his hand over to hers.

Sam didn’t like that she had to lean on
Nathan in a time that she normally would have been composed, but she accepted his
explanation and grabbed her phone with her other hand. She called the person
who she believed would be the most composed in this situation at their friend’s
house.

Jess answered the phone.

“Hello,” Jess said sleepily.

“Something has happened. We’re coming
over, if you could please let us in,” Sam said.

“Sure, but what’s going on?”

“We’ll explain everything when we get
there. Please wake everyone up if you could.”

“All right,” Jess said and got off the
phone.

Michael stirred after he heard the phone
ring, and he was curious to know what was going on, but Jess only asked him to get
Lee. Jess, meanwhile, went to Trish’s room and woke her up.

“Wake up. We’re having an early
meeting,” Jess said.

“What’s this all about? Do you have any
idea what time it is?” Trish asked, still half asleep.

Jess told Trish that Sam had called,
and the two women walked to the kitchen table where Michael and Lee were sitting.
Michael got up and walked to the refrigerator.

“Does anyone want eggs?” Michael asked.

“From you, no thanks,” Lee said.

“Just for that, you aren’t getting any.
I’ll just have to fix Jess and Trish some.”

Trish looked confused. She didn’t know
about the raw chicken incident.

“Just go to a different place in your
mind when he serves the eggs,” Jess whispered to Trish.

After a few minutes, Michael was done
and he served the two girls their eggs. Trish cautiously scooped a piece of egg
up from the plate and slowly brought it up to her face. It smelled like a
normal egg and it looked beautiful, but what kind of horror must it be holding
for Jess to be so worried. Jess, meanwhile, waited for Trish to taste the eggs.
She didn’t want to be the first one to suffer. The doorbell suddenly rang.
Thank God, Trish thought as she jumped out of her seat and walked to the door.
Once she let Nathan and Sam in, they explained the whole situation to everyone.

“So what’s next?” Lee asked.

“We don’t know. That’s what we’re going
to talk with Zane about,” Sam said.

After a little more talking, Michael
noticed something.

“Hey, neither one you have even touched
the eggs,” Michael said.

“Oh, I’m sorry, but they’re probably
cold by now. Maybe tomorrow morning we can try some,” Jess said in relief.

“I don’t mind cold eggs,” Nathan said.

“I’m a little hungry, too,” Sam said.

The two plates were passed to them. It
was all Jess could do to contain herself. She wanted to knock the plates away
from her friends, but she controlled herself. Nathan took the first bite, and
then he took another one. Sam tasted hers.

“This is really good,” Sam said.

“Wait a minute. They don’t taste bad!”
Jess exclaimed.

“No, why would they taste bad?” Sam
asked.

“Oh, no reason,” Jess said.

“All right, after the other night I can
understand why you would doubt me. I’m going to fix some more. Try some this
time, please,” Michael said.

The friends ate together, and for a
short while everything was normal again, but it wasn’t meant to last. The
doorbell rang, and they were all snapped back to the harsh reality that
everything was about to change.

Once Zane, Jason, Dan, and Burt were
inside, the meeting began.

“I’m calling this meeting because I’m
now officially in charge of leading all of you. I don’t know if I can do as
good a job as John did, but I hope that you will all give me a chance,” Zane
said.

“Of course, we’re going to give you a
chance. You’ll be excellent at this job. Your entire life has prepared you for
it,” Jason said in support.

Zane nodded to him in order to
acknowledge his loyal friend.

“What are we going to do next?” Trish
asked plainly.

“That’s the main thing that I wanted to
talk to you all about. John was able to contact the French government, and I’m
going to pick up where he left off. I’m hoping to have a team in France by
tomorrow and move on the facility shortly after we arrive.”
 

“How are we going to take the
facility?” Michael asked.

“We aren’t going to rush in like idiots,
if that’s what you’re worried about. We’ll work with the French government to
formulate a plan. If you don’t like the plan that they come up with, then by
all means, I want you and anyone else who is under my command to pack your bags
and come back to the United States. We will win this fight, but we will not
lose lives carelessly while I’m around.”

“I have a concern,” Nathan said.

“What is it?”

“If someone could come to Campbell’s
house in the middle of the night and kill him, then how safe are any of us?
Couldn’t someone be sent to kill any one of us very easily? Is there anything
that we can do to prevent further incidents like this one in the future?”

“You pose an interesting question,
Nathan. I’ve been thinking that maybe after we’re done in France, we should all
relocate to an unofficial place where we won’t be found so easily.”

“I think that would be good,” Nathan
said.

“So I only have one question for you
all. Who wants in on the op in Paris? Obviously not all of you will be suited
for this mission, but I’m not going to turn down help, so whoever wants to be a
part of this will be able to take some part in it,” Zane said.