Part 20 (1/2)
”It's you?” Wally was in a daze, her heart and mind reeling as she tried to come to grips with this new version of reality.
Johanna was still confounded by Wally's appearance there. As her mind processed the situation, the woman suddenly looked very much alarmed, in much the same way that Dr. Rainer had when Wally appeared at her office.
”Wally, you should not be-”
Johanna's words were interrupted by the sound of racing engines and the strobe of flas.h.i.+ng blue lights just outside the hut. Tires screeched as at least two vehicles came to a stop. Within seconds, there came the sound of rus.h.i.+ng footsteps and a loud knock on the metal door of the hut, the sharp sound echoing almost painfully against the inside walls.
”Federal agents!” boomed a voice from outside. ”Open the door!”
Wally stepped toward the window to look outside, but Johanna grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled her back.
”No,” Johanna said. ”This could be anyone. Stay back.”
Both Wally and Tevin moved back, farther away from the front door of the hut.
”Federal agents!” the call came again, with another round of loud knocks. ”Open the G.o.dd.a.m.n door or we'll tear it down!”
Johanna stepped to the tall wooden wardrobe at the far end of the hut. She lowered her shoulder and pushed into the large, heavy piece of furniture, shoving with all her strength. Her force moved the wardrobe away from the wall until there was enough separation to reveal a semiautomatic shotgun with a pistol grip and .45 automatic handgun mounted to the back panel of the wardrobe. Wally and Tevin stood by, stunned by Johanna's swift action as she retrieved both weapons, sticking the handgun under her belt at the small of her back as she moved to the front door. With her right hand Johanna raised the shotgun, and with her left she unlocked the door and slowly pulled it open.
Standing outside the door was a white man in his mid-forties, dressed in civilian clothes but with a nylon-sh.e.l.l jacket that had ATF printed across its chest in bold yellow letters. He held a handgun trained squarely at Johanna's chest. His eyes fixed immediately on her shotgun, which was raised and pointed directly at him.
”Stay cool,” the man said evenly, his words obviously meant for Johanna but also for the other agents behind him. He never took his eyes off Johanna and her shotgun. ”You're gonna want to put that down. We're ATF. We're here to help you.”
Johanna looked behind the agent and saw two more of them-a short but st.u.r.dily built black woman and another white guy, tall and fit. Both were armed, their handguns raised at Johanna. Two unmarked sedans were parked on the lane, one to either side of the hut, both with flas.h.i.+ng light panels in their grills that splashed the colony with hypnotic blue.
Johanna wasn't ready yet to let her guard down.
”I want to see your ID,” Johanna said.
”Yalena Mayakova?” the first agent asked Johanna as he flashed his ATF credentials.
Johanna crept forward just enough to get a clear look at the man's ID, then leaned out just a little farther and scanned the entire area outside the hut, looking beyond the two ATF cruisers. Just the three of them, as far as she could tell. Wally and Tevin exchanged looks of shock and bewilderment; layers of intrigue were unfolding before them with no time to process. Wally had finally found Yalena, but the moment of mother-and-daughter reunion-dreamed of, prayed for-had barely happened at all, and now it seemed to be morphing into something else entirely.
”What do you want?” Johanna barked at the agent.
”We need all of you to come in for questioning,” the agent said. ”We'll move to our field office. This is in your best interest. Your life and the lives of these two young people are in danger.”
”What danger?” Johanna demanded.
”Klesko,” Wally blurted. She looked directly at the agent. ”This is about Klesko?”
Hearing the name shocked Johanna. She kept her eyes on the agent as she questioned Wally.
”Klesko?” Johanna said, alarm in her voice. ”How do you know that name, Wally?”
”I ... I started looking for you,” Wally said, confused. ”Klesko is looking for you, like I was. And-”
”Everything will be explained in due time,” the agent said. ”Now we need to move. Lower your weapon and step out, all three of you.”
Johanna remained silent, still considering her next move.
”Stay behind me,” she said to Wally and Tevin.
The two of them obeyed her, following as she slowly stepped outside the hut and into the lane, her shotgun still raised in front of her as she continued to scan the area with her eyes.
”Everything is secure,” the agent a.s.sured Johanna as she emerged from the hut. ”Lower your weapon and set it down on the ground in front of you.”
Johanna appraised the agents standing before her, all three of them with their weapons still raised in her direction, holding their positions at separate firing angles that had her and the two teens squarely in their sights. Johanna took a quick glance behind her, meeting Wally's eyes.
”We'll go with them,” Johanna said.
Wally nodded in agreement. ”No choice.”
Johanna turned back toward the agents and lowered the muzzle of her shotgun.
”Good. Now set the weapon down,” the agent said again.
Johanna carefully bent forward, her arms extending outward as she prepared to set the shotgun down on the ground. She had almost done this when the sound of racing engines came again, this time from the direction of the front gate. Johanna straightened, the shotgun still in her hands, as the three ATF agents all turned in the direction of the engine sounds.
”What the h.e.l.l-?” The black female agent began to speak but was interrupted by a squeal of tires and then a cras.h.i.+ng sound: the colony's security gate behind torn out of its track by a charging vehicle. This all took place out of their line of vision-the group's view was blocked by the Quonset huts surrounding them-but the sound of the approaching vehicles grew louder ... closer. The female agent turned to Johanna and yelled at her.
”Drop your weapon NOW and get in the vehicles-!”
Before Johanna could respond, a cab swerved around the corner at the far end of the lane and raced toward them at full throttle.
”What the h.e.l.l?” the older agent growled.
With a clear shot at the agents and their waiting vehicles, the cab gave no sign of slowing or stopping but continued on its collision course, hurtling toward them, faster with each pa.s.sing second. The agents raised their weapons and all fired simultaneously but with no effect; even as the bullets tore into the taxi's winds.h.i.+eld, the driver-Klesko-kept the vehicle on course. The taxi plowed head-on into the first ATF cruiser. The cruiser lurched backward and slammed into the second male agent, rolling over and crus.h.i.+ng him beneath its weight. Within seconds, the wreckage burst into flames.
The two surviving agents-the older man who had first appeared at Johanna's door and the younger black woman-now fired on the taxi as Klesko ducked down low behind the dashboard to s.h.i.+eld himself from the barrage.
”We're going NOW!” Johanna said to Tevin and Wally, grabbing Wally by the arm and leading them both down the lane in the opposite direction, toward the area where the gate had stood. Wally spotted a Glock 9mm handgun on the ground-it must have belonged to the fallen agent-and grabbed it as she moved.
The gun battle continued behind them as Johanna and the teens made it about halfway down the narrow lane, and they stopped only when they became aware of some loud noises ahead of them. With a terrible screeching of tires, a red-and-white-striped tow truck rounded the corner at the far end of the lane and hurtled straight toward them at high speed. The truck was too wide for the lane, and as it moved forward, it plowed aside whatever was standing in front of the huts: wooden porches, sculptures, and plants.
”s.h.i.+t!” Johanna hissed.
She s.h.i.+elded Wally and Tevin with her body as she fired her shotgun at the charging tow truck. The truck continued barreling forward, its heavy steel body unaffected by the barrage of gunfire. Wally grabbed Tevin and Johanna, pulling them away from the lane and toward a walking pa.s.sage between two of the huts. The tow truck-with the younger Russian from Dr. Rainer's office clearly visible behind the wheel-tried to follow them, but the pa.s.sage was far too narrow. The truck tried to power its way through, but it only succeeded in tearing away the corner of one of the huts.
Wally and the others raced away as fast as they could run, the enraged howl of the driver following them.
Back in front of hut 27, there was a break in the gunfire as the two ATF agents reloaded. Klesko took advantage. He threw open the door of the taxi-now riddled with dozens of bullet holes-and rolled out onto the pavement. He jumped to his feet and charged forward, slamming a new magazine into his gun as he ran. He was quicker than the agents-they were still reloading when he sidestepped the burning cruiser and leapt up on top of the second vehicle, standing tall as he gunned down the frantic agents below him with successive shots to the head.
Wally led Johanna and Tevin in a zigzagging pattern through the colony of huts, crossing the lanes that ran north and south and dodging in between the huts in places where the s.p.a.ces were not blocked. Even as they made progress, they could hear the two vehicles now scouting the colony, patrolling the grounds like circling sharks. Occasionally they caught a glimpse of the vehicles, the taxicab now rolling along the north end of the lanes, closing off that direction as the tow truck swept through the lanes behind them, driving them forward.
”They're trying to cut us off,” Wally said, and the three of them pushed their pace, hoping there was a way out at the far end of the colony. They finally reached the last lane-and the last row of huts-at the northeast corner of the Navy Yard. Just past the huts was another tall cyclone fence with at least four feet of razor wire looped at the top, virtually impossible to surmount.