Executive orders - Tom Clancy [435]
When he next looked at Marlene Daggett, he wished that he might tell her that her murderers would not be leaving this building alive.
It was miraculous that none of the kids were wounded as yet. All the shooting had gone high, and he realized that had Miss Anne not knocked him down, he might be dead beside his daughter now. There were holes in the wall, and the bullets that had made them would have transited the space he'd been in a second or two before. He looked down a second, to see his hands shaking. His hands knew what they had to do. They knew their task and they didn't understand why they weren't doing it, why the mind which commanded them hadn't yet given them the release. But his hands had to be patient. This was a job of the mind.
The subject lifted Katie Ryan by her arm, wrenching it, making her cry out as he twisted it. O'Day thought about his first supervisor, working that first kidnapping case, Dom DiNapoli, that big, tough guinea who'd wept bringing the child back to her family: Never forget, they're all our kids.
They might just as easily have selected Megan, they were so close-and that thought did cross from mind to mind as the one with SANDBOX looked at the photo again, and over toward Pat O'Day.
Who are you? the voice demanded, while his partner moaned with increasing pain.
What d'ya mean? the inspector asked in nervous reply. Look dumb and scared.
Whose child is that? He pointed at Megan.
She's mine, okay? I don't know who that one belongs to, the FBI agent lied.
She is the one we want, she is President's child, yes?
How the hell should I know? My wife usually picks Megan up, not me. Do what you gotta do and get the fuck outa here, okay?
You inside, a female voice boomed from outside. This is the United States Secret Service. We want you to come out. You will not be hurt if you do. You have no place to go. Come out where we can see you, and you will not be hurt.
That's good advice, man, Pat told him. Nobody's gonna get out of here, you know?
You know who this girl is? She is daughter of your President Ryan! They will not dare shoot me! the subject proclaimed. His English was pretty good, O'Day noted, nodding.
What about all the other kids, man? That's the only one you want, that's the only other one that matters-hey, why not, you know, like, let some out, eh?
The man was partly right. The Service guys wouldn't shoot at one target for fear that someone else might be in here, as one surely was, his rifle leveled at Pat's chest. And they were smart enough that they were never less than five feet apart. Shooting them would take two separate moves.
What really scared O'Day was the casual, reflexive way he'd killed Marlene Daggett. They just plain didn't care.
You couldn't predict that sort of criminal. You could talk to them, try to calm them down, distract them, but beyond that, there was only one way to deal with them. We give them children, they give us car, yes?
Hey, that works for me, okay? I think that's just fine. I just want to get my daughter home tonight, y'know?
Yes, you take good care of your little one. Sit there.
No problem. He relaxed his hands, bringing them closer to his chest, right at the top of the zipper on his jacket. Undo that and the leather would hang better, concealing his gun.
Attention, the voice called again. We want to talk.
CATHY RYAN JOINED her children in the helicopter. The agents' faces were grim enough. Sally and Jack were coming out of the initial shock and sobbing now, looking to their mother for solace as the Black Hawk leaped into the sky again, heading southwest for Washington with another in trail. The pilot, she saw, was not taking the usual route, but was instead going directly west, away from where Katie was. That was when SURGEON collapsed into the arms of her kids.
O'DAY IS IN there, Jeffers told her.
You sure, Norm?