An Imperfect Reunion, page 16
“Excuse me, have you seen the guard for Niall’s room?”
Michelle looked up from the computer and frowned. “No, I’m sorry, I just came out of another patient’s room.”
“It’s okay. I know you’re busy. We were about to go back to our hotel to get cleaned up and rest, but I don’t feel comfortable leaving Niall vulnerable. I’ll check the restroom, maybe he just needed a break.”
Matt understood that nature sometimes called, but he would have expected to see Agent Donaldson covering the door. The men’s bathroom was located down the opposite hall. Matt gestured he was heading in that direction to Trevor who waited beside Niall’s door. Trevor nodded. Matt smiled at how his lover—whose frame only took up about a half of the doorway—stood as stiff as one of the Queen of England’s Guards.
He pushed open the door to the restroom. “Officer Iona?”
There was no answer. Nobody stood at the urinals or by the sinks. Matt sighed then bent down to peek at the floor beneath the stalls. He saw feet.
Well, shit! I guess that’s literally the case here.
“I’m sorry to disturb you, but has there been anyone else in here in the last couple of minutes?”
Matt frowned when there was no answer from the occupant. This was awkward, but he needed to get some answers before he raised any alarms.
“I’m not trying to be rude, but can you answer me? I’m looking for an on-duty police officer.”
There still was no response from the stall and now the back of his neck started to tingle. He knocked on the door, but instead of the door remaining firm it swung inward.
“Fuck!”
Matt bolted out of the bathroom and heard shouting coming from the end of the hall. He sprinted back toward Niall’s room and slid to a halt when he saw Trevor fighting with a man wearing a doctor’s coat.
“Hey!” he shouted.
“Matt! He’s not a real doctor. He… Ow, you fucker!” Trevor kneed the man in the groin then landed a wicked right cross.
Matt picked the man up off of the floor and held him tight against his body. “Who are you? What are you doing here?”
“Let me go! My name is Dr. Palakiko. I have some medication for this patient.”
Matt didn’t recognize the man and Dr. Nelson hadn’t said anything about a new order for Niall. He was about to loosen his hold when he looked at Trevor whose left eye was already turning black and he was hunched over like he’d taken a hard hit to the ribs.
Why would a doctor engage in a fist fight with a hospital visitor, and where is the rest of the staff?
“Show me some hospital identification and tell me what medication you were sent to administer.”
Trevor started rooting around in the lab coat. “No ID tag, but I did find these.”
Matt peered at the vial of potassium chloride and a capped syringe. There was no way in hell that was legit.
“Trevor? Matt? What’s going on out there?” Niall yelled from inside the room.
“Go in there, call security, and then call Ryan.”
As soon as Trevor disappeared through the door, Matt slammed his captive against the wall. “Who sent you?”
“My name is—”
“I don’t give a shit what name you call yourself. I want to know who sent you. Why are you trying to kill this man? Because there is no other reason for you to have that vial.”
Matt pushed a little harder against the man pinned to the wall. He felt the tension in his body and pulled back on his hands a little harder.
“You’re going to break my arms!”
“Answer the question!”
“Dr. Lincoln, what is going on here?” Michelle shouted
“This man is impersonating a doctor, killed Officer Iona, and was trying to poison Niall with a lethal dose of potassium chloride. Trevor has called security, but I want to know who sent him.”
When his captive turned his head and their eyes met, Matt realized this person had no intention of giving up his secrets. He also had never seen such a dead pair of eyes in all his years of psychiatry.
He heard the sound of running feet and angled his body so he could maintain his grip but look over his shoulder. There was a security guard, Agent Donaldson, two cops and Ryan headed in their direction.
“I bet they have much more effective ways of making you talk,” he said as he lifted Palakiko up to turn him around.
Palakiko thrust his head back and slammed his skull against Matt’s nose.
“Son-of-a-bitch!” Matt screamed.
“Matt!” Trevor shouted, as he ran from Niall’s room.
“Hyuk Ch’oe, freeze!”
Matt knelt on the floor, his head spinning from the slam. Through blurry vision he saw the police tackle the man who’d killed one of their own. His body flopped on the ground like a fish out of water.
“Looks like they got him with a Taser,” Trevor said, while kneeling down next to Matt. “What did they call him?”
All the commotion of the last several minutes had garnered them a whole circle of onlookers.
“I don’t know. But I have a feeling they know something we don’t.”
“Ch’oe, you’re under arrest for conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, resulting in death.”
Matt turned toward Trevor as Ryan continued to rattle off a list of charges.
“Apparently they know a lot of somethings we don’t.”
Chapter Twelve
“Where are we?”
Ryan sat across from Ch’oe, waiting for his captive’s next move in this chess game of an interrogation.
“What do you want? This is not a police station.”
“Nope.”
“Then what are we doing here? You said I was under arrest.”
Ryan looked around the abandoned seismograph station. The roof was partially missing and the jungle had started to invade the concrete walls. According to Noelani, the place was rumored to be haunted too.
“Oh, don’t worry. You’re going away for a very long time. Smile.” He snapped a quick photo then looked down at his phone while he said, “Or I could just shoot you here and tell everyone it was an accident. I guess we’ll just have to see.”
“Why did you take a picture of me?”
Ryan shrugged. “Souvenir. Oh, and I was just sending my husband a text.”
Ch’oe scowled.
“What’s wrong? You remember my husband, don’t you?” Ryan’s phone pinged and he smiled. “He remembers you.” Another alert went off and Ryan glanced down then chuckled at the profane bitmoji Ethan had sent. He turned the phone around so Ch’oe could see the screen. “And he sent you a gift.”
“It’s too bad that fag wasn’t just a bit closer when those bombs went off.”
Ryan stood, walked over to the wall. He picked up an old piece of re-bar and studied it for a moment. It was nice and heavy. The ridges dug into the skin of his palm as he gripped it tightly. He took a couple of steps backward then spun and swung the iron bar with all his might.
Hyuk screamed and doubled over. The reinforced steel had in all likelihood broken a couple of ribs and had caused a gash to Ch’oe’s left arm. He tried to get out of the chair that Ryan had cuffed him to. He stood nearby and twirled the bar. The area around the building was isolated, so no local or tourist would hear Hyuk’s screams. Ryan stood in the corner and watched until he’d had enough.
“Would you shut up? Nobody is out there. Now here’s the thing, we’re going to sit down and have a little chat. Then if I like what I hear, I’ll call off the drone strike that is scheduled in the next ten minutes.”
“You can’t do this! You have rules to follow about prisoners.”
Ryan’s laugh even sounded a bit evil to his own ears. “You blew up this island. I have authority to do whatever I want.”
“I need a doctor. You broke my fucking arm!”
“Maybe. You killed nearly fifteen hundred people and caused hundreds of millions in damage. So gotta say I’m not in that big of a rush to get you help. I’m actually pretty disappointed in you. I mean either pickings are really slim here in the Pacific or Kyung has lowered his standards on who he works with. I mean not only did you not fulfill the mission he sent you on, but you got caught, and you still had evidence on you that led us right to your boss.”
That was a partial bluff, but the man didn’t need to know that. The question was would he fall for the bait?
“You’re lying,” Ch’oe said, with a slight wheeze.
“Am I? You remember telling Ethan right after the attack that your phone battery died, right? Well, you…lied. In more ways than one. Not only was your phone working at the time, but you used it to send a text. Now, any self-respecting terrorist would have ditched the phone they’d used by now, but not you. And do you know why?”
“I’m sure you’re going to tell me why you think so.”
“That phone happened to contain the security key information to a remote server. The same server that received the file transfer data from the FBI field office. And it was you who set up the transfer. It was also you who then sent that security key to Shin Kyung.”
“I’m sorry, who? I don’t know anyone by that name.”
Ryan laughed. “Oh, you think I’m looking for a confession. No, no, I don’t need you to confirm anything. We’ve got what we need from your little not so secret bat cave. Just out of curiosity, whose idea was it to keep all the plans, list of sleeper cell members and physical evidence of the bombs all stored in that shed?”
“What shed is that?”
“The one that has your fingerprints and handwritten notes plastered everywhere.”
“If you have all this information, why am I sitting here, rather than in prison?”
“Well, maybe you’re not as high up in Kyung’s operation as you’d like to think. Because if you were, then you’d know he doesn’t leave loose ends. And you, my friend, are a huge loose end.”
Ryan let that sink in and he saw the moment Ch’oe made the connection in his brain. He walked over to the steel door and turned the lever. The sound of metal grating on metal hurt his ears, but he was betting good old Hyuk was moments away from pissing his pants.
“Where are you going?”
“I have a date with a sea turtle. Have a nice life. Although I’ve already placed my bets that it won’t be a long one.”
“You can’t leave me in here like this,” Hyuk shouted.
Ryan waved as he started to pull the door shut.
“Hey!”
“Don’t worry. I texted your boss from your phone right after we got here. I’m sure he’ll be here soon to deal with you,” he shouted through the door.
As he walked away from the cinderblock building he heard Hyuk’s screams. Ryan headed into the jungle and just as the vines covered him Hyuk’s shouts stopped.
Guess that little transdermal sedative did its job.
“I’m clear. Is everyone in position?”
“Roger. You think this will actually work?” Steven said over the earpiece.
“This is Paul. Our drone has spotted movement closing in on your location. There’s a truck moving fast up the road. Once you confirm that Kyung is on site we’re moving in.”
“Your guys are good. I feel totally alone in this jungle.”
Ryan crawled into a dead log and waited. He wanted to see the man who’d orchestrated one of the worst attacks on U.S. soil. Part of him wished there was a drone strike planned to take Kyung out, but the man who lived in the big white house had decreed they were to take him alive if possible. He heard the sound of a truck’s engine approach.
“Be in there. Be in there,” he whispered.
Ryan had to blink as his eyes started to dry out from staring too hard. A car door slammed. Footsteps crunched over dead leaves and semi-buried gravel.
“Hyuk?”
Ryan hit a remote. Paul’s buddies at the NSA had rigged up a recording using isolated words from various recorded conversations with Hyuk Ch’oe. The end result was quite impressive. It sounded just like Hyuk was responding to Shin when in fact the man lay unconscious inside the building. By the time Kyung realized this, it would be too late.
“Kyung present. Execute.”
In a blink of an eye the jungle came alive with men dressed in ghillie suits, surrounding Kyung and the building. One was so close Kyung would have tripped on him had he moved a foot to the left. Kyung spun in circles as the team surrounded him. Ryan crawled out of his tree, weapon raised and trigger finger just a little itchy.
“Get on your knees!”
Kyung screamed something in Korean and he pulled out an M67 fragmentation grenade. Several of the agents moved in and the air filled with so many shouts that Ryan’s ears rang. Kyung started to pull the pin on the grenade, but one agent kicked it out of his hand.
It seemed as though time slowed to a crawl, but in a blink of an eye Kyung was on the ground. Ryan wanted to verify with his own eyes that the man was at long last in custody. Kyung burst up from the ground, screaming, then lunged. Ryan raised his weapon and for half a heartbeat thought about pulling the trigger but pistol-whipped Kyung across the face instead. He fell to the ground and several of the agents tackled him. This time he was hogtied with cuffs and chains.
Ryan caught his breath as he watched Kyung being led away and loaded up in a secured truck. It was over. But for so many recovering from the aftermath their journey was just starting. The sound of the truck’s engine faded and Ryan couldn’t help but listen till the last possible moment. He didn’t quite trust the fact that the events of this week had concluded without further drama.
“So, we should probably go retrieve the sleeping asshole,” Steven said.
“Or we could just leave him there. What’s a worse punishment for his actions? Life in prison with all meals and recreation provided, or rotting slowly in a jungle and going mad from the isolation?”
“Personally, I’d choose option B, but unfortunately we do have to follow procedure, which includes due process. I can’t thank you enough for your help, Ryan.”
“Well, this has certainly been a vacation to remember.”
“What are you going to do now? I mean you’re off the hook for anything further on the investigation.”
Ryan snorted. “You and I both know there will be task forces and inquisitions I’ll have to answer to in the coming months, but for right now…? I’m going back to my hotel, give my son a huge hug, fuck my husband and have a drink with my friends. Probably several drinks.”
Steven shook his head. “TMI, man, but I was glad to hear that your friend will make a full recovery. How long will you be on the island?”
“Not sure. We were scheduled to leave in six days, but we’ll have to see.”
“Well, if you want to grab a drink before you go, give me a call.”
“Will do.”
Ryan smiled and started to whistle a little tune as he walked down the dirt road toward a concealed truck that would take him back to civilization.
Chapter Thirteen
“Alannah Nicole, don’t taunt your brothers,” Calleigh said as she sat down in one of the club chairs scattered around the hospitality suite. Their group had commandeered the top floor of the hotel since Ethan’s return.
The kids were all gathered around the television watching something with lots of colors and annoying sounds. Ethan stood over by one of the walls of windows, staring out across the island.
“Think he’s okay?” she asked Miranda.
“I hope so. He’s seemed nervous ever since he got back from seeing Ryan.”
Logan leaned in. “I think something is going down. He keeps checking his phone. And the way he gathered us all up then led us away from our rooms? Why would he do that other than to make sure our group was in a central location and accounted for?”
Clay nodded. “It makes sense, but I haven’t been able to get him to talk.”
Vic handed Chase a bottle of water. “The news stations keep playing the same information over and over. All they keep saying is that it’s a fluid situation. I didn’t realize how much I hated that phrase until now.”
Chase nodded. “I don’t like just sitting here, waiting for news. But it’s not as if any of us have the skills to help. Being out on the streets would most likely only make it more difficult for those trying to work the situation.”
“Well, at least they’re saying the number of casualties isn’t near what they originally thought. I still can’t help but feel guilty in a way,” Miranda said.
“Why, princess?”
“Well, in a few days we’re all getting on a plane and flying away. But, the people of this island have a long road to recovery and rebuilding ahead of them.”
“I’m sure there are ways we can help. Just out of curiosity, have any of you contacted the airlines to find out if we can go home when scheduled? Last I heard, the airport is still closed,” Vic said.
Calleigh leaned her head back on the chair and rested her eyes. She sighed as someone picked up her foot and started to massage the arch. When she opened her eyes she met Conor’s aquamarine gaze.
It hardly seemed possible that their dream vacation had been turned upside down. They were scheduled to fly home in another six days. She knew the kids were getting restless in the hotel, but so far the police were still asking residents and tourists to stay off the streets as much as possible.
If Ryan was involved in something at the moment, she hoped it would bring some kind of conclusion to this stalemate of life.
Please let him be safe and come home to our family.
“I’m going to make the kids some supper in this nice little kitchen they have. Are any of you hungry?” Rick asked.
Calleigh shook her head. “No, I couldn’t eat anything.”
Rick looked over at Ethan. “Anything for you, Grapenuts?”
Ethan shook his head and checked his phone again. Then he spun around and Calleigh didn’t think she’d ever seen such a big smile on his face.
“I changed my mind. How about a champagne toast?”
Calleigh squinted as Ethan held up his phone. “What’s it say?”
