Kathryn"s eyes were wild as she stared at Bert. Nikki reached out to clutch at Kathryn"s arm. "What exactly does that mean, Bert? You know how I feel about coincidence. There is no such thing."
Her eyes blazing, Nikki unbuckled her seat belt and moved forward. She braced herself against a chair, leaned down just as all three hostesses warned her to get back in her seat until the pilot announced they were at cruising alt.i.tude. "Yes, yes, but where exactly is this plane going?"
The three women offered up blank stares. "Don"t you know where you"re going?" the pert redhead asked.
"Let"s put it this way, I know where I"m supposed to be going, but I"d like some confirmation that I"m right. Where is this plane headed?"
"Your nation"s capital. Washington, D.C. Dulles Airport, to be exact. We have some good tailwinds, so we might even arrive twenty to thirty minutes early. Please, go back to your seat and fasten your seat belt." The hostess"s voice was so firm that there was nothing for Nikki to do but retreat.
Buckled up, she leaned forward. "At least we"re going to Washington-Dulles, to be precise. Unless she was lying. She said we might get in early because of good tailwinds." Three glum faces stared at her. Nikki shrugged. "There is nothing we can do until we land, so we might as well settle in."
Jack and Bert twirled their comfortable chairs around until they were facing each other. They leaned forward, talking softly. Nikki and Kathryn did the same thing.
"So, Kathryn, just out of curiosity, how fit are you these days?"
"Top form, my friend. All I did for the past year and a half was exercise, swim, and exercise even more. And, of course, I ate right. I found a book on martial arts at one of the bazaars. I taught myself a little and perfected what Yoko and Harry taught us." Kathryn"s eyes narrowed when she said, "Are you asking me what I think you"re asking me? How about you?"
"I think it"s safe to say I can hold my own...against...let us say, three hostesses, and if appearances are correct, those aging, balding, fat-around-the-middle men in the back. But to answer your question, I"m fit. I think Harry and Yoko both would walk away huffing and puffing if they took me on. I know they"d win, but I"d give them a fight they"d never forget. They"ve been practicing practically from the day they were born, and you and I had to learn the art of self-defense. You know, Kathryn, even though my nerves are tw.a.n.ging, Murphy is sleeping peacefully. He"s not sensing any trouble, for whatever that"s worth."
"Let me tell you exactly what that"s worth. I had to tranquilize Murphy. He"s going to sleep all the way across the Atlantic. It was one of the conditions to get him the okay to fly out of the country. I have a ream of paperwork with his name on it."
"d.a.m.n," Nikki said.
Thirty silent minutes went by before the hostesses prepared to serve dinner, a delectable concoction of crab, shrimp, lobster, and filet mignon. One of the hostesses poured wine, another poured coffee, and the third served the actual dinner on fine china.
"It looks good, smells good, but suddenly I seem to have lost my appet.i.te," Jack said as he played with his sat phone, a holdover from back in the day when he was in contact with Charles Martin on a daily basis. He had refused to give it up and had charged it during the wait at Heathrow. Nikki had done the same thing as she looked guiltily at him. Then she had turned defensive, and said, "I"m charging this phone because once it"s working, I will truly know I am headed home. Why are you doing it, Jack?" His own tone had been just as defensive when he said, "For the same d.a.m.n reason you are." And that had been the end of that. In the blink of an eye, the sat phone was shoved under his thigh. No sense advertising anything until the current situation became a little more clear.
The moment the hostesses moved to the rear of the plane with their linen-covered serving cart, Nikki whispered, "I don"t think we should eat this food, and don"t drink the coffee, either. I watched the blonde uncork the wine, so I think that"s safe to drink. Or water, anything that"s been sealed." The others nodded to show they understood. Murphy continued to sleep peacefully at Kathryn"s feet.
A quarter of the way into their flight time, the hostesses prepared to clear away the dishes and the uneaten food. None of them made a comment about the untouched dinners. Minutes later, they returned with a platter of cheese, crackers, and a mound of grapes of all colors.
"We have several new movies. Are you interested?" one of the hostesses asked. The foursome shook their heads. The hostess shrugged and moved back to her station behind the dark blue curtain, leaving the foursome to their own devices.
They were facing each other now, Murphy between them. Jack ground his thigh into the sat phone to rea.s.sure himself that it was still there. His head was buzzing like a beehive. He looked over at Bert, who looked as if he was in a trance. Nikki and Kathryn sat stiffly in their chairs, but Jack just knew that every nerve in their bodies was tw.a.n.ging like an out-of-control banjo at a country and western sing-along. "If anything is going to happen, it"s going to happen real soon."
"This might be a good time to share your thoughts, Jack," Kathryn hissed. "Tell us how you arrived at this prescient conclusion."
"How"s this for starters?" Bert said. "The redhead carried six dinners back there. I counted them. But there are only five guys sitting at the table. So, unless one has been in the lavatory all this time-"
"Or someone wanted two dinners," Nikki interrupted. When Jack offered her a withering look, Nikki bit down on her lip. She was angry at herself that Bert had picked up on something she"d missed. Kathryn looked angrier than a hornet. Obviously, she had missed the sixth plate, too.
Jack squirmed in his seat, his hand reaching for the sat phone under his thigh when he felt the air stir and circle the chair where he was sitting. He swiveled around, and said, "I do believe our hosts...are they still our hosts if the Post paid for us...are headed our way." He swiveled back around and surrept.i.tiously snapped open the phone. He pressed number one for Harry Wong. "C"mon, c"mon, you dumb s.h.i.t, answer the phone," he murmured to himself. He listened as the phone continued to ring. Finally, on the seventh ring, Jack heard Harry identify himself. "Harry," he hissed, "listen up, we"re being hijacked!"
"Huh? Jesus, Jack, is that you?"
"Harry, listen to me, this is not s.h.i.ts and giggles. We"re being f.u.c.king hijacked. You gotta do something, buddy."
Back in Washington, Harry"s eyes did their best to widen. "Jack! Where the h.e.l.l are you?"
Harry strained to hear whatever Jack was going to say next. But all he heard was a strange voice with a strong accent say, "I"ll take that phone now, Mr. Emery."
Chapter 11.
Maggie and Ted Robinson exited one of Washington"s popular watering holes just as Maggie"s phone chirped in her pocket. She pulled it out and said, "What"s up, Harry? You never call me." She listened, her face turning white. Ted reached out a long arm to catch her as she stumbled. "Slow down, Harry, I can"t understand a thing you"re saying. Okay, okay. Stop jabbering in whatever language that is." She listened, then said, "Oh, s.h.i.tTT! Are you sure Jack wasn"t playing a joke on you?"
Ted started dancing around, waving his arms and mouthing, "What? What?" Maggie just waved her arms the same way. She ignored him, but her color was coming back, which was a good thing.
"We"re on our way, Harry. Sit tight."
Before Ted could ask again, Maggie was. .h.i.tting her speed dial. "Just listen, and I won"t have to repeat this.... Listen to me, Abner Tookus, I am personally going to hunt you down and castrate you. I might kill you first or not, I haven"t decided. And I"m canceling that check I gave you. Do you hear me, you...you...hacker? What do you mean, what am I talking about? I"m talking about that airplane you got my friends a ride on. It"s being hijacked as we speak. You better say something now, Abner. I paid out good money from the Post for that ride home for my friends. The owner is not going to like this, Abner. What do you mean, why am I blaming you? I"m d.a.m.n well blaming you because you"re the one who got the plane. It belongs to HLJ Enterprises, that"s why. It"s a subsidiary of Global Securities and belongs to Hank Jellicoe!"
"And that"s supposed to mean something to me?" Abner screeched.
"Well, yeah, you dumb cluck.... No, I am not going to the FBI; h.e.l.l, they can"t find their way in the dark even with a Maglite. You better find out where that d.a.m.n plane is, get hold of the pilot or someone else aboard, or your a.s.s is gra.s.s. I will hunt you down and skin you alive. Now hang up and call me when you have news, and it better be soon. I hate you, Abner Tookus."
Ted stopped his furious dancing and threw his hands up in the air. "s.h.i.t!"
Maggie was already at the curb, trying to flag down a taxi. Ted had to run to catch up with her and literally fell into the cab as it was moving away from the curb. Maggie gave the address of Harry"s dojo, then said, "Burn rubber!" Like the Pakistani driver really knew what it meant to burn rubber. The stars were definitely not aligned right today.
"Jesus, this is unbelievable, Maggie. What can we do?"
"I don"t know, Ted. I"ve never been involved in a hijacking. I don"t think you or I ever covered anything like that, either. I have never heard Harry so agitated, and I know full well that I barely got a quarter of what he was saying because he was jabbering away in several different languages. I can"t believe this, Ted; they were on their way home. Home!"
"Shouldn"t we be calling Charles?"
"Probably, but Harry called me first, so there has to be a reason why he didn"t call Charles. Maybe it has something to do with Charles being friends with Hank Jellicoe. I don"t know, Ted, I"m just talking to hear myself. Where are Espinosa and Alexis?"
"Probably in the sack, where they spend most of their time. All they think about is s.e.x," Ted said pointedly.
"That"s more than I needed to know, Ted. How can you think about s.e.x at a time like this, anyway? Tell them to get on the stick and meet us at Harry"s. I"m going to call Lizzie right now."
"I think we need to alert Charles," Ted said stubbornly.
"Well, I don"t, and I"m the boss. Where"s Isabelle? Did she get in yet?"
"How the h.e.l.l am I supposed to know that, Maggie?" Ted said, his fingers flying over the keys as he fired off a terse text message to Espinosa and one to Alexis.
"I don"t understand why they would hijack Bert, Jack, and the girls," Ted grumbled. "Why?"
"How about maybe because whoever the hijackers are, they want to sweat Bert and Jack to get information? Like I said, I don"t know, Ted, I"m just guessing."
"These things never end well," Ted mumbled.
"No, they don"t. Shut up now, I have to talk to Lizzie."
Maggie quickly outlined the situation to Lizzie the moment she heard the lawyer"s voice. "I don"t know what to do, Lizzie. We"re on our way to Harry"s dojo now. No, we didn"t call the farm. Why? I guess because if Jack could make only one call, he chose to call Harry instead of Charles. To me, that has to mean something. What it means, though, I have no idea. Now that you"re in the loop, see if you can come up with anything. I vaguely recall your saying you could always get in touch with Jellicoe if need be. This might be a good time to put that statement to the test. I"ll get back to you. When we go out to the farm, which I"m sure we will at some point, I"ll call Elias, since he used to be the director of the FBI, and see what he has to say. Isabelle is back! Good. I wasn"t sure. She"s at the farm! Even better. Stay in touch. Yeah, I"m just sick over this, too, Lizzie."
Maggie powered down and glared at Ted. "Well?"
"They"re on their way to Harry"s." Ted pointed to the taxi driver, his eyes questioning.
"He"s listening to some kind of Pakistani music, can"t you see his earbuds? Okay, we"re here. Pay the driver, Ted."
Ted shoved some bills under the Plexiglas and bailed out of the cab, with Maggie on his heels. They ran around the corner of the building to the back door of the dojo. Maggie didn"t know what to expect but what she saw certainly wasn"t anything near what she could have thought about. Yoko was on her knees next to Harry, her arms around his shoulders, tears rolling down her cheeks. Harry was sitting on one of the practice mats hugging his knees and wailing, a high-pitched sound that sent shivers up Maggie"s arms and down Ted"s spine.
"Enough histrionics already! They aren"t going to get us anywhere. Up and at "em, Harry. We need to talk," Maggie bellowed at the top of her lungs.
Yoko leaped to her feet. With Ted"s help, Harry was upright a second later. His eyes were glazed, but they slowly started to focus. Ted snapped his fingers a few times until Harry had had enough and knocked his hand out of the way. Espinosa and Alexis took that moment to arrive, along with six students from the police academy. Ted made short work of them and said they should call to find out when their cla.s.s was rescheduled. He locked the door and made his way back to the workout room.
Maggie took the floor. "This is where we pool our knowledge. This is what we know for certain. The flight the gang was supposed to take didn"t sit well with Kathryn"s dog. He balked at getting on the plane, and through the window Bert saw people at the back of the plane. It was a private Gulfstream, and no pa.s.sengers were supposed to be on the flight other than our guys. They bailed, went back inside the terminal, and called me. Jack seemed to think it was a setup of some kind. I thought he was being overly paranoid, but I called a friend who managed to get another private Gulfstream, but we had to pay to get the guys on board, which we did. The flight originated at Heathrow and was...is supposed to land at Dulles. If my calculations are correct, they"re halfway into the flight. Which means we have another two to two and a half hours till they land. If they land. The plane is registered and owned by HLJ Enterprises, which is a subsidiary of Global Securities. In other words, your previous employer, Hank Jellicoe. Lizzie told me Isabelle is out at the farm, so we"re all present and accounted for except for Bert, Kathryn, Nikki, and Jack. It"s your turn, Harry."
Harry shrugged. "The phone rang, I picked it up, and it was Jack. I could tell he was talking softly, almost whispering. He said, "Harry, listen up, we"re being hijacked." I was so happy to hear his voice. I thought he was playing a joke. Then he said, "Harry, listen to me, this is not s.h.i.ts and giggles. We"re being hijacked. You gotta do something, buddy." I said, "Jack! Where the h.e.l.l are you?" He didn"t answer me. The next thing I heard was a voice saying, "I"ll take that phone now, Mr. Emery." The voice had an accent. I"m not sure what it was or from where, but it was definitely not an English-sounding voice. That"s it."
"Was that verbatim?" Ted asked.
"Word for word. The words are seared into my brain. Why the h.e.l.l would anyone want to hijack Bert and Jack? That whole d.a.m.n episode with Global was nothing more than...I don"t know what it was, but it sure as h.e.l.l wasn"t legitimate. So we quit, so what? So Jack and Bert quit. So what? People take jobs and quit all the time. Why them?"
"Do any of you care to hear my opinion?" Yoko asked quietly.
"Well, good G.o.d, yes, Yoko," Alexis said. "I think I know what you"re going to say before you say it, but go ahead."
"They didn"t hijack Bert and Jack. Well, they did, but they were really hijacking Nikki and Kathryn. There, I said it. Go ahead and laugh at me if you want to."
"You don"t see any of us laughing, do you, Yoko? That"s exactly what I was going to say, which just goes to prove my point. When Jellicoe offered up all those fabulous jobs to the boys, then split them all up, it was to get rid of the vigilantes. I don"t know the why of it, but I think all of us pretty much think the same thing."
"Then we have to figure out the why of it," Maggie said. "If you give me a few minutes to call the paper and make some arrangements, we can all head out to Myra"s. I think this is one of those times when we all need to be present when we discuss it. Besides, I want to observe Charles when we break the news. Everyone in agreement?" They all raised their hands.
"Why do I feel like I"m in the seventh grade again?" Ted grumbled.
"Because you"re stupid, that"s why," Harry said. Ted didn"t bother to stand up for himself. He was just glad Harry was back to being the old Harry.
Maggie finished making her calls and looked around. "Transportation?"
"You and Ted go with me and Alexis. Harry and Yoko on the Ducati. Problem solved," Espinosa said.
Mother-hen Maggie said, "Anyone have to go to the bathroom? It"s a fifty-minute ride out to the farm." Five pairs of disgusted eyes clearly stated that bathroom necessities were not paramount and urged Maggie to hurry along, which she did.
Harry locked up, picked up his and Yoko"s helmets, and they were on the way.
Seventy miles away as the crow flies, Annie was carrying a bag of trash out to the huge can near the electronic gate. She heard the roar of Harry"s Ducati before she saw him blaze down the driveway. Directly behind him, she saw a flashy red car hot on his trail. Company. She did love company.
Yoko slid off the rear end of the cycle and ran to Annie. She was breathless when she said, "Nikki, Kathryn, Bert, and Jack have been hijacked! In a plane! At thirty thousand feet! Jack got a call off to Harry. That"s why we"re all here. We have to do something!"
Annie"s eyes sparked. A hostage situation! G.o.d in heaven! Her adrenaline kicked in as she gathered her little group and shooed them all indoors.
Isabelle leaped up from the table and ran to the group to hug and kiss everyone. While they all billed and cooed, Annie shared Yoko"s news with Myra and Charles.
"That can"t be!" Myra wailed. "Why would someone hijack our people?"
"You need to get with the program, Myra. Whatever this is all about, I am certain that it has something to do with that Jellicoe person who did his best to make all our lives so miserable for the past year and a half." Her tone turned sour when she said, "And remember, he obviously thought that you and I were no threat to him and whatever he was doing. You do remember that, don"t you, Myra dear?"
"What do you think, Charles?" Annie asked as she looked at Charles, her gaze filled with shooting daggers.
Charles held Annie"s gaze, but he didn"t fail to notice how the others moved back a step. "To be honest, Annie, I don"t know what to think. I"d like to get on this immediately if you are all in agreement. If not, say so. Has it occurred to any of you that we should be calling the authorities?"
"Well, yeah, Charles," Maggie drawled. "My question to you is, has it occurred to you that Jack called Harry? I have to a.s.sume if Jack got a call off, Bert could just as easily have called the FBI. Or you. Jack called Harry for a reason. That"s why we"re all here. I think I speak for the others when I say we"d like you to find out all you can about Hank Jellicoe, where he is, how that plane came to be at the right place at just the right moment, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera."
"Then I will get right on it."
"Whose side are you on, Charles? Hank Jellicoe"s or the vigilantes?" Isabelle suddenly demanded.
"I"m going to ignore that question and believe that you are tired and cranky due to your long trip. I would also like to say if you have to ask me that question, one of us doesn"t belong here."
"I just wanted to be sure. There"s something I haven"t told all of you," Isabelle said as she ma.s.saged her temples, trying to ward off the headache she knew would surface in just moments.
"What"s wrong, dear?" Myra said, reaching out to Isabelle. "Tell us so we can help you. You"re so pale. Annie, get some brandy."
"The headaches, the visions, are back. Remember how they started after I had that horrible accident and how I had them when we all first met? They started back up several days ago. They scared me. That was why I packed up and left as soon as Stu went off to do whatever it is he does. I knew something was going to happen. I saw Nikki and Jack on the plane. I saw other things, too. Oh, G.o.d, I"m getting another one!"
The others watched, their startled faces full of questions as Isabelle pressed at her temples, moaning softly as she slumped in the kitchen chair.
Chapter 12.
Charles Martin skirted the dining room and made his way to the formal living room and the one-of-a-kind ageless bookshelves that a master craftsman had built long before Charles was even a twinkle in his mother"s eye. He stood still for a few seconds to admire the carved roses that ran down the side of the cases. He counted down and pressed the center of the correct rose. He waited patiently for the humongous shelf to silently glide inward. He still marveled, even to this day, that the authorities had never found the catacombs and his and the vigilantes" war room, from which they had conducted business for so long.
Charles descended the long flight of stone steps, whose risers were covered with moss. In the beginning, they had made concerted efforts to get rid of the moss, all to no avail. Myra finally said to leave it; it belonged to this place and the long-ago time when her ancestors had partic.i.p.ated in the Underground Railroad.
Eons ago, his and Myra"s daughter Barbara and Nikki Quinn, their adopted daughter, had played down here. He and Myra had strung bells every few feet to make sure the girls never got lost. Somehow or other, they never did. He smiled at the memory. He touched one of the cl.u.s.ters now and was rewarded with a sound so pure, so melodious, it was hard to fathom how that could still be after all these years. Another one of those little mysteries in life that would probably go unanswered until the end of time.
Charles opened the door to the huge climate-controlled room and switched on every light. There were so many memories here. He swallowed hard as he looked at the round oak table and the chairs so neatly placed. He blinked as he recalled the seating arrangement. Julia was gone now, their only casualty. He closed his eyes and offered up a prayer for the repose of her soul. He knew for a fact that the girls did the same thing whenever they entered the room. He knew this because Myra had told him.
What had started out as a small group-the Sisterhood or the vigilantes, depending on who was describing them-had been small. Now their numbers, out of necessity, had increased, all to the better, in their fight to right injustice and save those they could. They"d operated in this fortress for longer than he cared to remember. There were good days, bad days, good times, and some not so good times, but the Sisterhood had prevailed.