Pandemic

Then he turned slowly toward her. But when he faced her again, in his right hand she saw the glint from a long serrated blade.

* * *

For an anxious moment, standing with his back pressed against the peeling paint of the dilapidated old cabin, two over from the one supposedly housing Gwen, Haldane wondered if they had misunderstood Clayton, or worse, if something had already happened to him. "Where are you, Alex?" Haldane mouthed, making no sound but his breath misted in the cold air.

Silently, Clayton rounded the comer to meet them. "Gwen's alive," he whispered tersely, and Haldane felt a flood of relief. "But she's in four-point restraints on a cot in the second bedroom. There's at least two terrorists with her. Sabri and a squat, bearded guy.

"In the window by the front door, there's a gap below the curtains where I could see in." Clayton bent down and picked up a stick. He scratched out a rough floor plan of the cabin in the dirt. "On the right side the door leads into the living room, which is separated from the kitchen behind by half of a wall and a counter." He marked an X by the line marking the countertop. "The fat one was in the kitchen. Sabri was just coming out of the bedroom." He tapped the left side of the cabin. "The empty master bedroom faces front, but on the back side is the room where they're keeping Gwen. There are two windows high up — I had to stand on an old box to see in — but Gwen was tied to the cot. She looked… drugged. But she's definitely alive."

"So what do we do?" McLeod whispered.

"We wait and watch." Clayton nodded. "And if need be, we go in."

"That's your whole plan?" McLeod whispered, unimpressed.

Clayton smiled. "I'm CIA, remember? When we start planning, we end up with the Bay of Pigs." His expression stiffened. He held his phone out for McLeod. "Duncan, I need you to take up the post around back of the cabin. There's no door to get in and out and the windows are too small to climb through, but I want you to keep an eye on Gwen through the window. If anything happens, you call us. Just hit the redial button."

McLeod accepted the phone and nodded.

"Wait here two minutes after we leave and then walk quietly around the back. I left the old box under the window." Clayton turned to Haldane with a confident nod. "We're going to take up the post out front."

"What about the FBI?" Haldane asked.

"I just spoke to Moira," Clayton said. "They're on the way."

Clayton took off his coat and dumped it on the ground, leaving just his black suit jacket on. Waving for Haldane to follow, he dashed around back of the third cabin. Stooped low, he ran below the level of the high windows on the back of the cabin. He stopped at the far comer of the cabin one over from their target and waited for Haldane.

With his hands, Clayton indicated how he wanted them to circle around the far side of the cabin to get to the window in front. He counted down from three with his fingers. Hunched low, they dashed past the box in front of the window to Gwen's room and kept going until they rounded the comer and reached the far wall.

Feeling winded, more from the stress than the short run, Haldane panted while Clayton peered around the comer.

Clayton pulled his gun out from his waistband and nodded for Haldane to do the same, and then he squatted down to his knees. When Haldane pulled the gun out of his belt, it suddenly felt much more substantial and it trembled slightly in his hand.

Clayton crept around the comer of the building and stopped after six or seven feet. He raised his hands off the ground and stared through the lower edge of the window before waving Haldane over to join him.

Haldane crawled forward until he reached him. Slowly, he brought his head up to the same level as Clayton's and stared into the dark living room through the half-inch gap between the curtain and the bottom of the window. The chubby, bearded man paced nervously beside the kitchen counter with a pistol tucked into his waist. Haldane scanned over the rest of the kitchen and living room but saw no sign of Sabri.

Haldane's heart thumped against his ribs. "Where?" he mouthed to Clayton.

Clayton shook his head once.

Startled, Haldane suddenly felt his pocket vibrate silently. He dug a hand inside and grabbed his phone. Recognizing Clayton's number on the call display, he brought it up to his ear. "Duncan?" he whispered.

"A knife!" McLeod whispered hysterically.

"What?"

"Sabri. Knife. Going for Gwen." McLeod rushed the choppy whispers.

Haldane dropped the phone and spun to Clayton. "Sabri's going after Gwen with a knife."

Clayton nodded calmly. "Stay at the door and cover me in the room. Got it?" he whispered.

Haldane nodded.

Clayton counted down again with his fingers. On zero, he took two squatted steps forward and then shot bolt upright in front of the door. Haldane crawled to join him, just as McLeod scurried around the comer waving his arms frantically. "No. No!" McLeod breathed. "It's okay. You don't need to go!"

But Clayton was already in motion.