forget about Star. As long as he was ignoring her, he wasn’t hurting her. At least, that was my simplistic theory.
I could feel the tension rapidly increasing around me. Some of it was mine, but the majority was coming from the lead hostage negotiator and his team. They couldn’t say that they hadn’t been warned. For all intents and purposes, they knew what I was going to do once I got on the phone-even if my current ploy was somewhat off my previously traveled path. Still, I had to give them credit for their level of patience. Even with the mounting pressure, no one jumped the gun, and they let me continue playing it out my way.
I’m sure they were all speculating on whether or not I knew what I was doing, and if I had to guess, I would bet that someone was standing by to pull the plug on me at any moment. What I wasn’t about to tell them though, was that I was dwelling on that very same issue myself. I was making this up as I went along, and my imagination was getting very weary, very fast.
“Goddammit, Gant! I’ll kill her! I will!”
I looked up at the building once again. I didn’t know if he was watching me at the moment, but based on the earlier exchange between him and Agent McCoy, I gathered he was able to see me if he wanted to. For me, the facade was a visual connection, so I continued to scan the boarded-over windows in search of his face.
I slowly depressed the talk button and then began speaking. “Goddammit? Did I hear you right? My, my, my, Eldon. Taking your Lord’s name in vain?”
“Don’t push me, Gant!” he shot back.
“Isn’t there a commandment about that or something, Eldon? You know what? I think there is. Seems to me it goes: Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain.”
“Don’t you dare pass judgment on ME, Gant.”
“Why not?” I asked with mock surprise. “Turn about fair play, Eldon.”
“Goddammit, Gant! I said…”
“Again, Eldon?” I cut him off. “What happened? Don’t tell me that somehow the devil got behind you.”
“I told you I’ll kill her!”
“Yeah, you keep saying that,” I spat. “So what’s stopping you?”
“I will, Gant! I’ll do it!”
“You talk a good game, but I don’t think so, Eldon. Not this time, and let me tell you why.” I continued with my explanation, ignoring his insistent commentary. “You need Millicent. You need Millicent to get to me. That’s what this is all about, isn’t it, Eldon?”
I waited for him to reply and heard only labored breathing at the other end, so I pressed forward.
“See,” I told him. “What you really want is to kill me, not her. We both know that. Hell, everyone here knows that. You’ve made no secret of it. But there’s something else we both know: if you kill Millicent, about two seconds later a team of heavily armed SWAT guys is going to screw up your little world.
“If that happens, Eldon, it’s all over. There’s no way you’ll ever get to me. How do you think your God is going to feel about that?”
“My God is a compassionate God,” he snarled.
“No, Eldon,” I countered. “I’ve read your book. I know what it says. Your God is a vengeful God.”
“Thou shalt not suffer a Witch to live, Gant,” he finally replied. “And she’s a Witch. She must be punished for her sins.”
“Are you still stuck on that?” I admonished. “You know, when I read that particular passage, there was a lot more to it than that. Are you using some kind of abridged edition?”
“Vengeance is mine,” he returned.
“Saith the Lord, Eldon,” I came back immediately. “Let’s get the quote right if you are going to use it. Or, is it maybe that you’re trying to tell me that YOU are the Lord? If you are, then I think we are talking about a major sin here. Hubris, idolatry, the whole nine yards.”
A quiet lull followed my observation, and I listened closely to the sounds coming from the handset. I wasn’t entirely sure what I was hearing at first. As the noise began, it sounded like sobbing, but after a moment, it inched up in volume and started taking on the properties of a throaty chuckle.
“Glad you find this all so entertaining, Eldon,” I chided.
“You’re good, Gant.” Porter finally eked out the words through the insane laugh. “I’ll give you that, you’re really good. But I’m not fooled. Maybe a man without true faith would have fallen for your lies but not me.”
“Well, Eldon,” I answered in a pseudo-friendly tone. “You know how it is. Satan has an agenda, and he expects me to keep it.”
“Don’t mock me, Gant.”
“Who says I’m mocking you, Eldon? You’re the one who keeps telling me that I’m doing Satan’s bidding.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Do I?”
“Stop trying to mess with my mind, Gant.” He hardened his voice. “It won’t work. You know my path is clear, and nothing you say can shake my belief.”
“Fine,” I replied. “You’re right, let’s just quit screwing around.”
“Yes, let’s.”
The conversation had moved through a series of levels since it had begun. In my mind, I seemed to have accomplished the task given me by Agent McCoy, but he had yet to assume control of the phone. I decided I would just keep going until someone took the device away from me.
I wasn’t really interested in chitchatting with Porter, to be honest. There were several things I wanted to say, but they didn’t fall under the heading of pleasant conversation. I mentally scrolled through the list but realized quickly that the majority of them might very well undo what I had just accomplished.
I wasn’t sure what my next comment should be. I didn’t quite know how fragile the calm was that I had reached with Porter. I suppose what finally came out of my mouth was as much a surprise to me as it was to anyone else. What’s more, the calm with which I made the comment was actually startling.
“Come on out and get me, Eldon, I’m waiting right here.”
“With a small army,” he spat.
“Hey, you invited them when you kidnapped Millicent,” I chided. “Don’t lay that one at my feet.”
“I’m not coming out,” he replied.
“Okay, then what do you suggest we do about this?”
There was a heavy pause before his voice issued from the earpiece. “You come in here.”
“You see, now, Eldon, I’d love to do that,” I offered. “Really I would, but I don’t think the gang down here is going to allow it.”
“It’s heresy for them to protect you that way.”
“Protect me?” I responded with feigned surprise. “They aren’t protecting me. They’re protecting you. You see, Eldon, everyone down here knows that I have every intention of killing you.”
His next words came as an even hiss. “You come in, and I send the Witch out.”
As I’d been expecting, someone took the phone away. Not physically from my hand, but in a sense, the method was just as unceremonious. This time there was no warning click as there had been when I was back at the apartment. No rush of static. No beep. No nothing. The handset simply retreated into the all too familiar thickness of electronic death as the line was instantly severed by the HNT.
“Eldon, Mister Gant isn’t here to negotiate with you,” I heard Agent McCoy begin. “Now, I gave you something you wanted. It’s time for you to give something in return…”
I turned back to face the team and held the now-useless phone out in front of me. Agent Kavanaugh appeared by my side and took the device from my hand then settled it carefully into the large gadget box. When she had said I was her responsibility, she had apparently been serious.
“Don’t trust me?” I quipped, keeping my voice low.
“It’s not a trust issue, Mister Gant,” she returned.
I answered with a shake of my head, “Could’ve fooled me.”
She took me by the arm and began guiding me away from the group. “You’ve been very helpful, Mister Gant, and you did very well on the line. Especially using the hostage’s first name repeatedly.”
“Yeah, I read about that somewhere,” I replied. “But it won’t work with him. He doesn’t care about her
