Home Invasion - J. A. Johnstone [115]
Other figures surrounded her. “Alex,” she heard J. P. Delgado say, and then an even more familiar voice said, “Mom!”
Alex handed the rifle to Rowdy and then turned to embrace her son.
It was a tight, desperate hug on the part of both of them. “Jack,” she whispered. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he told her. “What about you?”
Alex managed to nod. “Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.” As much as she enjoyed being reunited with him and knowing that he was all right, there were other considerations. She turned her head and called, “Come on in.”
Eloise entered the library first. She hugged Jack and Delgado while Ford and Parker prodded Garaldo into the room at gunpoint. Eloise stepped back from Delgado and gripped his arms.
“Clint?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” he said gently. “I haven’t seen him.”
Alex knew what Delgado being here really meant, though. Garaldo had boasted that all of her officers were dead, but he’d miscounted. One had survived … and now it was obvious Delgado was that one.
Which meant Clint hadn’t made it, along with Jerry, Betsy, Lester, and Antonio. Grief was a powerful force inside Alex at that moment, along with a justified outrage.
More people were emerging from the shadows between the sets of shelves. Alex saw Clayton Cochrum, the blond reporter, and the cameraman. So they hadn’t been on the helicopter, after all, when it was blown out of the sky. When everyone had come out, she did a quick headcount.
“Twenty-eight,” she announced. “That’s not a very big bunch to take on an army.”
“It’s more than we started with,” Delgado said. “People have been showing up by ones and twos over the past half-hour. If we wait, maybe more will get here.”
“I’m not sure we can afford to wait.” Alex looked at Garaldo. “When’s that shipment of nerve gas supposed to come through here?”
“Nerve gas?” Rowdy repeated in a surprised yelp. “What the heck’s goin’ on here, Chief?”
Alex glanced at the two renegade CIA agents. “Is it all right to tell them?”
“The more people who know about it, the better as far as I’m concerned,” Parker said.
Ford nodded in agreement. “Getting the story out to the public is the only chance we have of surviving this with our careers even reasonably intact. At that, I doubt we’ll ever be trusted out in the field again.”
“All right.” Quickly, Alex told everyone in the library about Casa del Diablo and the shipment of deadly nerve gas that was leaving there today.
“That’s crazy,” the reporter said angrily. “That’s nothing but a pack of right-wing lies. The President would never do such a thing. He’s an honorable man.”
“You’ve blinded yourself to the truth,” Alex snapped. “He’s used all the power at his command to try to keep the truth from getting out.”
“I don’t believe it, either,” Cochrum said. “I voted for the guy. I donated money to his campaign. He … he’d never … well, hell.”
The blonde turned on him like a she-badger. “Don’t tell me you believe those awful lies! The President would never do anything bad. He’s a liberal!”
Cochrum grimaced. “Sorry, babe. I’ve seen what happens to some guys when they get power in their hands. I don’t want to believe it, but I can’t rule it out.”
“Oh!” The blonde fumed. “You’re all just a bunch of… of conservatives”
“Liberal or conservative doesn’t have much to do with it at this level, lady,” Ford said. “We’re talking good and evil here. This guy"—he jerked a thumb at Garaldo—"this guy’s evil. So’s the guy who decided it was okay to use nerve gas on his own people if they disagreed with him. Doesn’t matter what party you’re from, doesn’t matter what your motivation is. It’s still mass murder you’re talking about, and we’ve got to stop it.”
That was the longest speech Alex had heard from Ford so far. It was inspiring, but it didn’t answer the most important question.
“How are we going to stop it?” she asked.
Delgado motioned the cameraman forward. “We’ve been talking about that,” he said, “and we’ve come up with an idea….”
CHAPTER 46
The helicopters seemed to come out of nowhere, swooping