Chapter 6
Sunrise at the navy yard, but Jessica can't see it. The blindfold and the gag are back on, and she can feel the road getting bumpier beneath her. As she'd expected, she never slept, lying there on the sleeping bag all night, watching the men watching her, wondering again and again if she would die today, if John would show. If she wanted him to.
The van comes to a stop, and for awhile, nothing happens, but she can feel her pulse pounding, and it becomes harder to breathe around the gag. Part of her wishes that if these are her last few minutes to live, this petrifying panic and fear, that they would just kill her now.
And then the rear door to the van is opening, and she is pulled outside, and pushed to walk forward, now in her bare feet, across a stretch of broken, weedy pavement. First the blindfold, and then the gag are pulled from her face, but she hardly notices the gag in the sudden rush of light.
She is still blinking when the sound of a car reaches her, something blue, and the men seem to tense around her. The car continues to pull forward, but then there is an explosion of sound, police cruisers squealing in, gravel flying, sirens on and lights flashing.
A woman steps out of the blue car, strides forward with a confidence that's somehow reassuring to Jessica, although she knows that this is far from over. From the police cars, men in their uniforms jumping out, pulling their guns, pointing them at Jessica and the men.
"Got an anonymous tip that a suspect in one of our ongoing investigations was going to be here this morning," the woman says. "But instead, we roll up and we find you. And a hostage, apparently."
Reese watches all of this from a rooftop a hundred yards away, through the sight of an M24 rifle, listening to Carter through a parabolic mic. His finger tight on the trigger, Snow his target. It would be so easy to pull the trigger, to take revenge for all the things Snow has done, all the things he's attempted to do. But he will do nothing to put this in danger, not while Carter has things under control.
He keeps the gun steady, allows himself one glance up, to look at Jessica. She seems to be holding up, although the man behind her is now holding a Glock to the base of her skull. He shifts the gun's sight slowly over to that man. If things go south, he'll shoot the greatest threat first and hope he still has a clean shot at Snow in the chaos. It is not the best of plans; he hopes deeply that Carter's strategy will work.
"Now we're stuck," Carter says. "Because I don't think our guy is going to show, now that the party's already started. But we've got ourselves a problem. Because you're CIA, and you're operating on American soil. And you have a hostage, who looks like she's probably an American citizen."
Snow says nothing.
"And actually, you've really got a problem, because three of these squad cars have video cameras. I think you know our suspect well enough to know that he's got friends who can have that video up on YouTube within the hour. So you might just want to hand the woman over to us, and we'll keep this quiet, the way you like it."
"Damn, Carter, you're brilliant." Reese glances up from the rifle, wishes he could see Snow's face as he considers what Carter has said. He must know he has no other option, must know his trap has failed.
"Hand her over," Snow says, finally, and the gun is released from Jessica's neck, and the man behind her pushes her forward.
Reese notices her bare feet as she runs on unsteady legs towards Carter, who reaches out her arm and whips Jessica around, so she's now behind Carter. Reese exhales. Carter has her, she is safe. And Snow and his men are already scrambling into their vehicles, speeding off.
When they are gone, finally gone, Carter turns around and puts her arm around Jessica, says something too soft for the parabolic mic to pick up.
"I've got her," Carter announces to the men around her. "She needs medical attention. I'll get her to the hospital. For obvious reasons, you'd all be best to forget what you saw this morning."
Carter ushers Jessica into the back seat of her car, and then the police cruisers are backing up, followed by Carter's Chevy. Reese watches until they drive out of sight before he breaks down the rifle and the microphone, and he can't leave the rooftop without a glance back at the last place he thinks she stood before she got into Carter's car.