“No ducking, no sudden jerks from side to side. I’m standing right behind you. You’re my human shield, big guy.”
The girl shifted in Theo’s arms, and Theo rocked forward onto the balls of his feet to keep his balance.
“Don’t move till I tell you to!” Falcon said, pushing Theo’s head forward with his gun to emphasize the point.
Theo froze, which forced him to hold the girl in a somewhat awkward position. “I’m not going anywhere. Just staying loose.”
The gun remained in place, aimed at the back of Theo’s brain, as Theo listened. There was very little sound, like the eerie calm before the storm. He heard the discomfort in the injured girl’s breathing. He heard the distant hum of helicopters hovering somewhere above the motel. He could hear Falcon rummaging through his pocket for the cell phone and then punching out the number.
“We’re coming out now,” Falcon said into the telephone. “If I open that door and see anything I don’t like, if I even sense something I don’t like, your friend Theo is dead.”
Theo heard the close of the flip phone, Falcon’s call to Jack having ended. Two things were now certain.
Falcon was ready to make his move.
And so was Theo.
chapter 58
T heo let the plan run through his mind one last time.
The moment of opportunity would arise when he bent down to lay the injured girl on the stoop. Crouched like a football lineman, he could let his right leg fly back with the force of a mule kick. Falcon would never know what hit him. Theo would sweep up the girl and roll away from the open doorway, out of the line of fire. The cops would see Falcon go down and immediately send in the SWAT to save the other two hostages. That was the plan, but Theo was nothing if not a realist.
Things never went according to plan.
“Open the door,” said Falcon.
“How? I’m holding the girl.”
“Hold her tight with your right arm, drape her knees over your left forearm. That will give you a free hand.”
Theo complied, and Falcon was right. The girl weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and he could easily free up a hand and still manage to carry her. He turned the deadbolt, and the door unlocked with the portentous sound of a shotgun shucking.
“Nice and slow now,” said Falcon.
Theo reached for the doorknob, grasped it tightly, and turned it to the right.
“Even slower,” said Falcon. “Now open it.”
Theo pushed the knob away from him, and the hinges creaked as the door swung outward. Building codes required external doors to swing out in south Florida, to prevent hurricanes from coming inside. This time it seemed that the hurricane might be going the other way. Theo, however, suddenly felt very small standing in the open doorway. Night had indeed fallen, and searchlights cut through the darkness like giant lasers. One was aimed directly at Theo, and it was momentarily blinding. Had he not been holding the girl, he would have shielded his eyes. He couldn’t see very far-that was probably one of the intended effects of the searchlights-but he sensed or at least hoped that somewhere out there was a huge police presence.
“TAKE THE SHOT,” Chavez said into his bone microphone. He spoke in a hushed voice, albeit with urgency.
The sniper came back in his earpiece, “It’s a black male, one of the hostages. I don’t have a shot.”
Chavez was with his tactical team in room 105, just two doors down from Falcon and the hostages. It was as close as they felt they could get to Falcon without tipping their hand that SWAT was on the way. The entire team was dressed in black SWAT regalia with Kevlar helmets, flak jackets, thigh guards, and night-vision goggles. Each was armed with an M-16 rifle and.45-caliber pistol. The front door was open for a quick exit. The men stood in the ready position in anticipation of the crack of a sniper shot that would be their starter pistol.
“Can you see Falcon?” said Chavez.
“Negative. The black male is holding the injured female in his arms, but there is no sign of-Check that. There’s Falcon. He’s standing directly behind the male hostage.”
“Then take the shot.”
“There is no shot.”
“If you can see Falcon, there’s a shot.”
“It’s too risky. He’s using the hostage as a shield.”
“What about the north-south snipers? Any angle for a shot to the side of the head?”
“Negative. The hostage is standing at the threshold. Falcon is still inside.”
“Then back off. It’s time to breach.”
“If you breach now, Theo Knight is dead.”
“Then take the shot, damn it!”
TAKE THE SHOT.
For a brief instant, Falcon thought he was hearing voices in his head all over again, but it sounded unlike any voice he’d heard before, and it was coming from a place that seemed all too real-specifically, one of the nearby rooms.
“Back inside!” shouted Falcon as he grabbed Theo by the collar and pulled him out of the doorway.
chapter 59
V ince listened intently as Jack described what was unfolding on the command center’s closed-circuit television-Falcon retreating into the hotel room with both Theo and the injured girl still held hostage. Vince’s telephone rang almost immediately. He answered just as quickly, only to get an earful of Falcon’s most hysterical screams yet.
“You tried to screw me, Paulo!”
“No one’s screwing with you.”
“I heard your SWAT guy or sniper or whoever talking to someone in the next room. He said to take the shot! Now call them off, or I’ll take the shot. This is no joke. Somebody’s gonna die here!”
“Just calm down, all right?”
“Calm down? You send in a shooter, and now you’re telling me to calm down?”
“Hear me out, Falcon. If SWAT or anyone else is anywhere near you, it’s not my doing. Let me check into it, and I’ll get them to back off.”
“I don’t buy that for one second. It’s just like you did to me on the bridge. You’re lying through your teeth all over again.”
“Look, for what it’s worth, I didn’t lie to you on the bridge. When I said you could speak to Alicia if you came down from the lamppost, that was a firm deal in my mind. Someone else-someone higher up-pulled the plug on us.”
“It’s never your fault, is it, Paulo?”
“I know I must sound like I’m full of excuses, but I swear I’m not lying to you.”
“And I swear right back that I don’t believe you.”
Vince could see that this conversation was going nowhere, along the lines of the timeless are-too-am-not playground debate. He needed another tack. “Falcon, let me make good on this, all right?”
“How?”
