“Cally…” I started again.
She didn’t allow me to get more than a single word in. “He’s got a hostage. Do they know who it is? What are they going to do?”
“CALLY!” I stated her name with a closely guarded firmness. “Slow down. Now be quiet and listen to me.”
She fell silent for a fleeting moment and then spoke again in a meek tone that carried with it an overtone of worry, “Rowan, what’s wrong?”
“Rowan, that was the field office,” Mandalay’s voice came at me.
I looked at her, and she gave a curt nod to the phone in my hand. “Porter is on Sullivan’s cell, and he’s trying to get through on this line right now.”
“Rowan? Rowan? What’s wrong?” Cally’s voice insisted in my ear.
I nodded back to Mandalay and then spoke quickly into the phone. “Cally, listen, I have to go.”
“Rowan,” her voice took on a desperate whine. “What’s wrong? Oh Gods! He doesn’t have Felicity, does he? He called her today…”
“CALLY!” I barked again, all at once struggling with impatience at the situation and sympathy for her turmoil. “Listen to me. He DOES NOT have Felicity. She’s okay, but I have to go. I’ll explain later.”
I could hear her crying my name as I dropped the handset back into the cradle.
I shot a quick glance over to Felicity, and she gave me an understanding nod. “Aye, I’ll call her on my cell.”
The telephone on the wall had pipped out a half ring the moment it hit the base and was already jangling its first full measure as my wife spoke. I closed my eyes and dropped my chin to my chest, drawing in a cleansing breath and forcing myself to blow it out slowly through my mouth.
“Rowan…” Mandalay appealed as the phone gave a second full ring.
I opened my eyes and looked up, giving her a shallow nod of acknowledgement as our eyes met. I could literally feel Eldon Porter on the other end of the phone even though I had not yet answered it; even the sound of the ring was different, angry and more urgent. This time it was the real thing, and I knew I had no choice but to play this out on his terms even though I had no idea what they were.
My hand had never left the telephone, so I slipped it back out of the base in one smooth motion. As the mouthpiece came near my lips, I spoke in the calmest voice I could evoke, “Hello, Eldon.”
“You haven’t won, Gant, you know that, don’t you?” He spat the question tersely.
I could hear rustling noises coming over the phone as he apparently moved about within the confines of the building. I could only imagine what it was like-dark, cold, and no visible escape. Even for someone as insane as he, desperation had to be oozing from every pore.
I didn’t feel sorry for him in the least, but I did fear the dangerous edge the panic would bring forth.
He was breathing hard, huffing shallow breaths out, and wheezing them back in at an alarming rate. The situation had the potential to turn sour in a heartbeat.
“I know, Eldon,” I told him. “You’re right, I haven’t won.”
“Don’t patronize me, Gant!” he screamed. “Your sorcerers’ tricks won’t work this time! You just got lucky, that’s all!”
“Okay, okay,” I said as a shiver traced itself up my spine. “Let’s work this out, Eldon.”
I carefully covered the mouthpiece with my free hand and looked at Constance. “He’s really edgy,” I said. “Nothing like he was earlier. He’s losing control really fast.”
She twisted her cell phone away from her mouth. “I know. They’ve got it patched in, and I’m listening. Look, Rowan, we’re working on something…”
“What?”
“Just keep him talking,” she instructed. “You’re doing fine.”
“Who were you talking to?!” Porter demanded in my ear.
I stiffened, feeling as though I had just been caught in the middle of some heinous act. I pulled my hand away from the mouthpiece and spoke. “I wasn’t talking to anyone.”
“When I called! I couldn’t get through! You had to be talking to somebody!”
I relaxed but not much. “That was just someone calling to check on me, Eldon.”
“One of your minions, I’m sure,” he retorted.
“You’re right, Eldon.” I agreed with him out of desperation.
“Damn you, Gant!” he shouted. “I told you not to patronize me!”
“Calm down, Eldon, we need to…”
“Stop telling me to calm down! Do you hear me?! Stop it, stop it, stop it!”
I pulled the handset away from my ear as he screamed. His voice buzzed in the earpiece, achieving a state of frantic distortion as he repeated the order.
I watched Constance as she glanced to the side and gave a nod. I could hear Ben whispering around the corner of the doorway and assumed that he was conferring with her. About what, I didn’t know, but I didn’t have time to speculate. She had told me they were working on something, so I had to trust them.
I tried to adopt a generic voice. “Okay, Eldon, I’m not trying to be patronizing to you. I’m sorry if that is how it sounded.”
“What is wrong with you, Gant?” he demanded.
“I’m not sure I understand.”
“There’s something wrong with you,” he replied. “There’s something wrong with you!”
“Tell me what you mean, Eldon,” I pressed.
“You aren’t the same,” he answered me, his voice shaking with yet unreleased anger. “You… You aren’t the same as when I talked to you before.”
“I’m the same, Eldon,” I told him.
“It’s a trick! You’re trying to trick me again!” His voice jumped a notch in volume as he fired the accusation at me. “I told you it won’t work, Gant. It won’t work, Satan! Do you hear me?! It won’t work!”
The calm insanity I had always associated with him was gone. He was now coming across as someone with one foot tenuously planted in reality but ravaged by unimaginable delusions. He was escalating beyond anything I had imagined, and I was rapidly losing faith in my ability to contain this.
My mind raced as I tried to formulate a response that wouldn’t push him any further than I had already managed. Agreeing with him definitely wasn’t the way to go. Trying to stick to the middle of the road wasn’t any better. It seemed the only thing that had kept him on an even keel thus far was when he felt like he had pushed my buttons. He was at his calmest when he had my ire raised.
I swallowed hard and started to open the stopcock on the mental valve that was presently holding back my anger. I figured I would start small. Let some of it creep into my voice and see what his reaction was. On the chance that it worked, I would take it a little further. If he wanted me to let loose on him, I would be more than happy to oblige.
I glanced up and saw that Constance was looking off to the side and nodding vigorously as she motioned to me. I could hear her saying something into her phone, but I couldn’t make out exactly what it was. Ben was apparently still just around the corner, because his urgent voice hit my unblocked ear. His words were much easier to understand.
In a quiet voice, he was telling someone, “He looks okay, so go now.”
Before I could put my hastily formed plan into motion, Porter began to scream into the phone, forcing me to pull the handset away yet again.
“TELL THEM TO STOP, GANT!” His distorted voice arced several inches from the earpiece as I held the phone away from my head. “YOU BASTARD, I KNOW THEY ARE MOVING! TELL THEM TO STOP, OR I’LL KILL HER NOW!”
“No! Eldon! Listen to me!” I blurted.
Constance was shaking her head and waving. I could hear the frenzy in Ben’s tone as he asked, “Did they catch that?!”
She didn’t respond quickly enough for him.
“Mandalay!” his voice jumped. “Did they hear that?!”
“I don’t know!” she shot back with her own thread of panic. “I lost the signal!”
