Colby Agency: Colby Justice Part 14

"This is the trouble you spoke of?" the new guy on the scene demanded, his tone and bearing one of authority.

Cates nodded. "She's not talking."

On cue, Penny attempted to jerk free of his hold.

"Is Hardin dead?" the man who appeared to be in charge asked.

Cates heaved a frustrated breath. "No, Mr. Pederson. But he's injured. The biggest problem is her." He glanced at Penny. "She couldn't have gotten in here alone. We need to check out the lower floors and see if she had a partner."

Pederson reached out, took Penny's arm. "Go. Take Dixon with you." He hauled Penny toward him. "This is on you, Cates. You miss anything else and you'll pay the price."

Cates hustled off in the direction of Victoria's office. Penny a.s.sumed Dixon must be the guard monitoring the comings and goings of that stairwell since the one who'd been monitoring this end didn't go with Cates.

Would that create an entry point for Steele?

"Now." Pederson jerked her close. "Let's get to know each other."

The pure evil in his eyes rendered Penny unable to speak, even had she wanted to say something. He dragged her to the nearest office...Simon Ruhl's office. She'd had her first interview in that room. Now she might very well draw her last breath there.

Pederson kicked the door shut and shoved her into a chair. He reached for his utility belt. Penny's breath was trapped in her lungs. Was he going to shoot her now? Here? Without asking any questions?

His fingers wrapped around another object on the belt. One she hadn't noticed on Cates's utility belt. Metal hissed against leather as the blade of a very large, very lethal looking knife slid free.

"Let's see how long it takes you to start talking."

Third Floor BEN APPROACHED the door to the stairwell on the west end of the building. He'd decided that taking the elevator made him too vulnerable. He couldn't use the air-return duct without Alexander's a.s.sistance. The stairwell farthest from Victoria's office remained covered by one guard. But Cates and Alexander had used the opposite stairwell and had been joined in the lobby by yet another of the enemy.

"Heads up, Ben," Jim Colby announced via the communications link, "you have company headed down the west stairwell. Two hot spots moving."

Ben hurried to the nearest office door. Locked. No time to, as Alexander called it, "do his magic." He moved to the door on the opposite side of the corridor. Locked. d.a.m.n it!

"Five seconds until they hit the stairwell door," Colby warned.

Another locked door. Ben reached for the fourth door and it opened. He allowed it to close but kept the k.n.o.b turned so that the lock slide didn't engage.

Holding his breath, he listened for the footfalls pa.s.sing the door. He could not allow the worry for Alexander twisting his gut to interfere with his concentration at this pivotal moment.

"How the h.e.l.l did an unarmed female overtake Hardin?" a voice in the corridor asked.

"You got me."

Ben recognized the second voice. Cates. Just as he had predicted, his boss had sent him and one of the others back down to check things out. Sweetened the odds for Ben just a little.

He waited for the two to drift far enough away so that he dared to move. Anything could be happening to Alexander at this point. He had to get up there.

A thump in the corridor had Ben easing the door open the tiniest crack. With the slide not engaged, he could move the door without a single sound.

One of the guards was down, the other hovered over the motionless body.

Had the man in charge ordered Cates to be taken out?

The man turned around to survey the corridor behind him. Though the mask prevented facial recognition, Ben relaxed.

Cates.

The com link was on the right side of his collar.

"Cates," Ben whispered as he eased open the door a fraction wider.

Though the man met Ben's gaze, his hand still went instinctively to rest on the b.u.t.t of his holstered weapon.

Ben moved out of the office. "I'm heading to the fourth floor via the stairwell nearest Victoria's office." He jerked his head toward the one Cates and his friend had just exited. "You need to secure that guy before you take off."

Cates glanced down at the motionless body. "He doesn't need securing. He's dead."

d.a.m.n. "Then get his body out of sight."

Cates's gaze leveled on Ben. "That's probably what Pederson's doing with your friend right now." Then he reached down and hooked his hands under the other guy's arms and started to drag him toward the office Ben had exited.

Ben ran to the stairwell and proceeded upward. If he were lucky, wearing the enemy's uniform of choice would give him the edge he needed. He tapped his com link and murmured, "I'm going up. Hot-spot status."

"As you exit the stairwell on the fourth floor the area remains clear," Ian Michaels reported. "One man is stationed at the opposite stairwell. Two more are in the conference room."

"There's a total of six in the conference room," Jim Colby added, "which we know includes Victoria, Gordon, Clark and Thorp. There's still something going on in there. A struggle of some sort. You need to get in there ASAP. No hesitating."

"And two just entered one of the offices near the lobby. Simon Ruhl's office," Michaels clarified. "Second door on the right from the bank of elevators."

The b.a.s.t.a.r.d had taken Alexander into a room so he could torture her-or who knows what-privately. The goon was a dead man.

Fury roared through Ben as he took the steps two at a time.

He paused at the door to the fourth floor then opened it. If anyone had moved in that direction he would have been informed. He hesitated long enough to pa.s.s along one last update. "Two guards, Cates and Hardin, will attempt to leave the building in the next few minutes. Stop them."

"Thanks for the heads-up," said Kendra Todd, who was watching the back of the building.

Ben suspected the two would attempt a rear exit.

"Got the front and side entrances in my crosshairs," Ted Tallant confirmed.

Ben took a deep breath. Weapon leveled for firing, he eased down the corridor. His pulse rate had kicked into overdrive. Ruhl's office was at the other end of the corridor and around the corner to the intersecting corridor. He would reach the main conference room first, and his primary objective was to rescue Victoria.

He hoped Alexander could hold out a few minutes more.

If she...

Don't think. Just do.

Ben stopped in front of the conference room door. He lowered his right arm, holding the weapon slightly behind his back, and opened the door. Since he was dressed in Hardin's gear, the time the others would require to determine he was not one of them would be all the hesitation Ben needed.

He stepped into the room. The guard nearest the door turned to him to visually verify it was a colleague then s.h.i.+fted his attention back to the others in the room.

Ben identified those still seated at the conference table. Victoria and Thorp. And Reginald Clark.

Gordon was on the floor. The second of the two guards inside was performing CPR on the former D.A.

Oh, h.e.l.l. Ben moved up behind the guard standing only a couple feet away. He wrapped his arm around the guy's throat and pressed the muzzle of the weapon to his head. "Toss your weapon to the floor," he instructed. The guard didn't move.

The one doing the CPR stopped and went for his weapon. Ben s.h.i.+fted his aim at him. "Don't even think about it. Toss your weapon aside, as well. Now!"

Victoria stood.

"n.o.body moves until the weapons are on the floor," Ben warned. He didn't need a standoff. There was no time. And it was far too dangerous.

"Toss your weapon," Ben warned the guard kneeling next to Gordon. "I will not tell you again. Use your left hand."

The weapon slid free of its holster and bounced across the floor. Instinctively, the guard's hands went back up surrender-style.

"Keep taking care of Gordon," Ben instructed. "Let him die and you'll die."

The guard immediately lowered his hands and resumed working on Gordon.

Despite Ben's instructions, Victoria hurried to where the weapon had landed and picked it up.

The guy whose throat he was crus.h.i.+ng suddenly went for his gun. Ben poked the muzzle of his weapon back into the b.a.s.t.a.r.d's temple. "Do you really want to die now that the game is over?"

The guy tossed his weapon to the floor. Victoria grabbed it as well. Ben tightened his grip on the guard's throat and pressed two fingers to exactly the right spot. Seconds later his body went limp. Ben let his weight drop to the floor.

The man seated on the other side of the table with the gag in his mouth started grunting and keening. He shook the chair he was shackled to.

Ben wasn't about to bother with him just yet.

"Use this," Ben said to Victoria as he fished the tape from his cargo pack. "Secure the downed guard." Then he took a bead on the guy still kneeling next to Gordon. "Remember, if he dies-" he motioned to Gordon "-you die." The guard put a little more effort into his movements. Judging by the color of Gordon's face, it might already be too late.

As Victoria moved to secure the guard, Thorp stood. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"All you need to know is that this is over." He motioned to the floor with the weapon now aimed on the man who had set the nightmare in motion. "On the floor. Facedown."

Rather than obey, Thorp made a dive for the shackled man. "I won't let you live!" he screamed.

Ben was across the room dragging Thorp off Clark in three seconds flat. He verified that Thorp was unarmed, then took him in a choke hold. To Victoria he said, "Come with me."

He moved to the door, tapped his mic. "Corridor near Victoria's office still clear?"

"Affirmative," Colby said.

Ben s.h.i.+fted his attention to Victoria. "Take the stairwell next to your office. When you reach the front lobby entrance, help will be waiting."

Victoria shook her head, glanced at Gordon and the guard still reluctantly performing CPR. "I can't leave him like this."

The head of the Colby Agency looked beyond exhausted. One side of her face was bruised and her hair was mussed. Yet, she held the weapon in her hand like a battle ready soldier.

"You," Ben said to the guard kneeling next to Gordon, "pick him up and carry him down to the lobby. Shoot him," he said to Victoria, "if he so much as looks at you the wrong way. And keep your distance."

She nodded. "Don't worry. If he even coughs, I'm shooting him on the spot."

The guard lifted Gordon up onto his shoulder. Ben dragged Thorp into the corridor, keeping enough pressure on his throat that speaking would be immensely difficult. When Ben had verified that all was clear, he nodded to Victoria. "Go!"

Victoria stood back until the guard carrying Gordon had exited the conference room. She followed him to the stairwell near her office, keeping the weapon trained expertly on his back.

Ben activated his com link. "Victoria is on her way down to the lobby entrance. She's armed and ushering one of the guards who's carrying Gordon. You're going to need a paramedic ASAP. Gordon appears to be in cardiac arrest. Clark is still shackled in the conference room. I have Thorp."

Thorp struggled at the mention of his name. "Give it up, old man," Ben warned. "You've lost this one."

Moving quickly, Ben covered the length of the corridor. At the intersection where the two corridors met, he waited for verification that one final guard waited near that stairwell. As soon as Jim's voice made the confirmation, Ben launched into action.

He dragged Thorp around the corner. "Where the h.e.l.l is Pederson? This guy has gone loco!"

The guard reached for his weapon but hesitated when he saw what he presumed to be one of his colleagues struggling with Thorp.

Thorp attempted to warn the man, but Ben ruthlessly tightened the grip on his throat, cutting off his ability to breathe much less speak. "Help me secure him," Ben urged the other guy.

The guy double-timed it over to where Ben wrestled with Thorp. When he'd grabbed hold of Thorp with both hands, Ben released Thorp and cracked the b.u.t.t of his weapon into the guard's skull.

Shaken but still standing, the guard went for his weapon. Ben got to it first. A solid punch to the center of the guard's masked face, then a second crus.h.i.+ng blow to the back of his skull, and he went down.

Thorp attempted to make a run for it, strangled words of warning gurgling in his throat. Ben dove for the old man. They landed on the floor in a rolling heap.

When he had the b.a.s.t.a.r.d under control once more, he hauled him to his feet and put him back in a firm chokehold. Frustration and fear pounding in his brain, Ben started for Ruhl's office. He hesitated, touched his right ear. Where the h.e.l.l was his earpiece?

No time. He had to get to Alexander.

Ben dragged Thorp to Simon Ruhl's office.

The door stood wide open.

The office was empty.

Then he spotted the blood on the desk.

Chapter Nineteen.

Main Lobby, 4:45 p.m.