Kill switch tom rollins.., p.23
Kill Switch (Tom Rollins Thrillers Book 14), page 23
First, he needs to get clear. Needs to regroup. Needs to heal. When he does, he’ll come back stronger. He’ll strike directly at Rollins, and make him pay for everything he has cost him today. He’ll get Nina, too, but he doesn’t see her as of great concern. She’s a cop, and she’ll return to her duty, and she’ll be kept busy. Rollins is a loose cannon. He’s not beholden to anyone or anywhere. He moves freely. He can devote all of his time to tracking Orlando down if he wants to. Orlando needs to make sure he gets Rollins before Rollins can get him.
He gets clear of the factory, running toward the parking lot. He passes the slaughtered bodies on the way. The aftermath of the Wolverines. For machines, they were incredibly bloodthirsty. This is the kind of situation Orlando will be sure to stay very clear of in the future. This will be the last time he has anything to do with fucking robot attack dogs.
Orlando pauses next to the corpse of one of the dead factory workers. With his unbroken hand, he pats down his pant pockets until he finds keys. Car keys. He presses the lock and hears the beeping of a disarmed alarm. He looks around, following the sound, and sees a white Honda, its signal lights flashing. Orlando goes to it. He glances back toward the factory. He sees three people at the entrance. They’re not chasing him. They’re just watching him. Like they’re letting him get away.
Or attempt to.
Orlando doesn’t have many other options open to him. He gets into the Honda and starts the engine. He has to use his left hand to do everything. The car is an automatic, which makes driving easier at least. He pulls out of the space, looking up at the mirror toward the factory. The three are still there. Orlando doesn’t like it. He puts his foot down.
63
Tom drapes Lee’s arm over his shoulder to assist him out of the factory. They find Nina waiting for them outside. She’s carrying a rocket launcher. It isn’t any brand Tom has seen before.
Nina points across the grounds, toward the parking lot. “There he goes,” she says.
Tom watches Orlando running. He’s hurt, and clutching his broken hand to himself. They watch him pat down a dead body and take its keys.
“I assume that’s why you’ve let him run?” Lee says, nodding at the rocket launcher.
Nina doesn’t respond. She just smiles. It’s answer enough.
Orlando looks back at them. He hesitates, only briefly, and then continues running toward the car he’s taken the keys for.
Nina holds the rocket launcher out to Tom. “Do you want the honour? I’ve never fired one of these before.”
Lee takes his arm from Tom’s shoulder’s and leans against the wall. Tom takes the rocket launcher from Nina. He looks it over. He taps the screen on top. “What’s this do?”
“I don’t know,” Nina says. “Probably some kind of AI-targeting bullshit, but I’ve looked it over and I think you can still operate the launcher manually, too.”
“Now, that I can do,” Tom says.
Orlando starts the Honda. He pulls away from the parking space. He doesn’t turn on the lights, perhaps thinking it’ll make him harder to see in the dark. The Honda, however, is white, and easy to make out. Tom targets it. The launcher has no sight, presumably because of the input on top. Tom has to go old school, by eye alone.
The Honda is drawing closer to the parking lot’s exit. Tom squeezes the trigger. The missile flies toward the Honda. It connects with the trunk and explodes, touching off the gas tank. The car erupts into a fireball, then flips forward and lands on its roof.
Tom drops the rocket launcher, pulls his Sig Sauer, and he and Nina approach the fiery wreckage for a closer look. Lee stays behind, propping himself against the wall. He’s weak, and getting weaker.
Tom and Nina get closer to the Honda. They feel the heat emanating from it. Orlando has not attempted to crawl clear. Tom doubts he’s able. The whole vehicle is in flames. They crouch down to see better.
They spot Orlando through the windshield. He’s burning. He’s already dead.
64
After the battle at the WilburForce factory, Lee got on the radio and called in a helicopter to come and pick them up, and told them to bring a medic for himself. Tom and Nina took turns keeping pressure on his wound until the chopper arrived.
A full day has passed since then. A full day of Tom and Nina not being chased. A day to rest and recover.
They went back to the safe house with the Fielder family. Jack gave them his sincere thanks for what they did for him and his family. Lee was taken to a medical facility for his wound, taken to see a doctor he trusts and keeps on retainer.
Tom and Nina didn’t stay at the house. It was still dark, and they were tired, but they drove back to San Francisco. They drove back to Nina’s home. Just to be safe, they made sure it was clear. That there was no one watching in the street. There wasn’t. They set up empty glass bottles, stringing them around the door handles so that if anyone tried to get in they’d hear. Once that was secure, they collapsed into bed.
Tom slept for twelve hours straight. Nina is out for eighteen. Tom has been monitoring the news.
“Anything about us?” Nina says, sitting beside him on the sofa when she finally awakes. She’s showered, and she smells clean and fresh.
“Plenty,” Tom says.
Senator Jack Fielder held a press conference early this morning. It doesn’t take long for it to replay on the news and for Nina to see it for herself. Jack explains the events of yesterday. Explains who was truly behind the attacks, and what they were attempting to accomplish. He tells of WilburForce, and the Wolverines. He reveals everything. There is heavily censored footage shown of the aftermath of the WilburForce factory near Santa Rosa, and the names of all the dead workers are listed.
And, most importantly for Tom and Nina, he vindicates their innocence. Throughout the news reports it’s repeated, over and over, that they were not responsible. It runs along a banner across the bottom of the screen.
“Have you heard from your station yet?” Tom says.
“Not yet,” Nina says. “I’ve checked my phone and there’s plenty of missed calls and messages, but nothing from Bayview Heights. I’ll get in touch with them, but I’m not in a rush. Right now, we’ve earned this rest.” Nina goes through to the kitchen to get a drink. It’s late evening. The sky is dusky.
“Surprised there aren’t any news vans outside your home,” Tom says, peering out the window.
“Probably don’t expect us to be here,” Nina says, coming back and sipping water from a refrigerated bottle. She’s brought one for Tom, too. “Has there been any news on Senator Hanley?” she says, handing the bottle over.
“Dead,” Tom says.
Nina sits back down, raising her eyebrows. “Yeah? When?”
“Cops went to Wilbur Magnusson’s house. They found Hanley there, shot.”
“Shit,” Nina says. “Any idea what went down?”
Tom shrugs. “No,” he says. “But at this point, it doesn’t really matter anymore.” He motions toward the TV. “The reports have been cycling all day, so you’ll see it for yourself soon enough, but I’ll tell you now. WilburForce factories across the country have all been shut down. The contents seized. Obviously Wilbur is dead, but there’s still a board of directors, and Jack says he’s going to make sure the whole organisation is dismantled. There’s no chance of them getting any kind of military contracts going forward.”
“Anything said about the Wolverines?”
“They’re gonna ban them,” Tom says. “It’s gonna have to go through all the necessary stages, but after yesterday, and last night, and all the factory workers they killed, there’s no possibility they’re ever going to allow mass production of them. They’re too dangerous. Wouldn’t surprise me if the blueprints have already been destroyed.”
They sit in silence for a while, watching the news cycle.
A while passes before Nina speaks again. “So, what now?”
“Well, right now, I’m going to rest,” Tom says. “Yesterday was a very long day, for both of us. But next, I’m going to leave San Francisco. There’s going to be a lot of journalists, and a lot of questions from cops and government officials, too, and I’m not interested in wasting my time with that. We proved we weren’t responsible, we stopped what Hanley’s team had planned and more besides. It’s time for me to leave.”
Nina nods like she expected this to be his answer. “I figured as much,” she says.
“You?”
“Well, I’m gonna field all those questions from journalists, and fellow cops, and government officials,” she says with a grin. “And I’ll take all the photographs with Senator Fielder where we shake hands and smile for the camera. But don’t worry, all the way through, I’ll be sure to say plenty of good things about you.”
“Appreciate it.”
“But before that, I’ll go and see Liz, and thank her profusely for everything she did for us. And then pay her back for any damages incurred during said help. And I suppose I should go and visit Dante, too, and see if he managed to free himself.” Nina pauses, then adds, “But I’m not in a rush to do that. I’m sure he’s fine.”
“That covers what’s next,” Tom says. “What about now?”
Nina smiles at him. “You know, before we were picked up yesterday morning, I remember we’d spent a damn fine evening together. It would be a shame if that was the epilogue we put on things between us.”
“You’re right,” Tom says. “But do you think anyone’s going to be doing an open mic tonight, after everything that’s happened?”
Nina laughs. She’s leaning close to him. The news is still playing in the background, but they’ve heard it all already. They don’t need to keep watching. They’ve taken onboard all of the important information. They’re exonerated. They’re no longer the most wanted people in America.
Tom kisses Nina, and then he takes her in his arms and carries her upstairs.
EPILOGUE
It’s another day before Tom leaves Nina’s place. He goes when she’s not there, having left to visit Liz Farr and make sure she’s okay, and to give her both of their thanks.
Tom borrowed a baseball cap from her. He walks back to his apartment, the cap pulled low to conceal his features. There’s no guarantee that everyone has been informed of their innocence. When he reaches his street, he spots a news van parked down the road, watching the front. He goes around the back and sneaks inside.
It’s clear that the place has been searched. The lock on the front door is broken. Cops, probably, but it could have been Orlando and his team while they were trying to find him and Nina. Tom is sure the landlord won’t be happy with the broken door and the mess, but Tom won’t be around to deal with the aftermath. He’s leaving San Francisco right now. He doesn’t know where he’s going to go, but that’s never stopped him before.
He finds his backpack where he stashed it at the rear of the wardrobe. Either it was missed in the search, or whoever was looking didn’t see anything important about it. Tom checks the inside. Everything is still present. His Beretta. His KA-BAR. A change of clothes. A folded and worn picture of Alejandra. His burner phones.
He checks them. He has missed calls from his father, and from his best friend, Zeke Greene, and from others he has become acquainted with over the years. No doubt they called after seeing the news. They won’t have believed he was responsible, but they’ll have called to check if he was all right, if he needed help. Tom will have to call them back.
But first, he sees a number of missed calls from Cindy Vaughan. Tom has wondered about her lack of response to his calls. He’s worried about her, too, though not as much as he’d have ordinarily been able to. There was too much going on. Too many pressing matters at hand.
He calls her back. This time she answers, almost instantly.
“Tom?” she says.
“It’s me,” he says. “How’ve you been? I tried to call.”
“I assumed those unrecognised numbers might have been you,” Cindy says. “And I got your message. I saw the news. I saw the footage, too.”
“That’s why I was calling.”
“Uh-huh – to help prove that footage was bullshit, right? It was good, I’ll give them that, but I saw through it, and I didn’t need to know you already to know you weren’t responsible.”
“I appreciate that. Is everything okay your end?”
There’s a pause, and instantly Tom knows that everything is not. “Things are resolved there for you, right? I saw yesterday’s news, too. And today’s. They’re calling you a hero. It’s not the first time. They’ve had people on proving that the footage was faked. So you don’t need to hang around, right?”
“I’m not planning on it,” Tom says. “Cindy, what’s happening? Something’s wrong. I can hear it in your voice.”
“Yeah, something’s pretty fucking wrong all right,” Cindy says, her voice on the verge of hysterical laughter.
“What’s happened?”
“Uh, I don’t know if we can talk on the phone, Tom.”
Tom understands. “I’m on my way,” he says.
“You know where to find me.”
Tom hangs up. He grabs his bag and he leaves the apartment. He goes out the back way again, and to his parked Ford. He keeps the baseball cap pulled low. The news van doesn’t see him. He gets into the Ford and he sets off for Texas.
For Cindy.
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Paul Heatley left school at sixteen, and since then has held a variety of jobs including mechanic, carpet fitter, and bookshop assistant, but his passion has always been for writing. He writes mostly in the genres of crime fiction and thriller, and links to his other titles can be found on his website. He lives in the north east of England.
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ALSO BY PAUL HEATLEY
The Tom Rollins Thriller Series
Blood Line (Book 1)
Wrong Turn (Book 2)
Hard to Kill (Book 3)
Snow Burn (Book 4)
Road Kill (Book 5)
No Quarter (Book 6)
Hard Target (Book 7)
Last Stand (Book 8)
Blood Feud (Book 9)
Search and Destroy (Book 10)
Ghost Team (Book 11)
Full Throttle (Book 12)
Sudden Impact (Book 13)
Kill Switch (Book 14)
The Tom Rollins Box Set (Books 1 - 4)
Paul Heatley, Kill Switch (Tom Rollins Thrillers Book 14)
