The Road to Round Mountain: The Betrayal by (31 page)

I turned and the man speaking was of average height and

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weight, short gray hair with piercing brown eyes. They did  not look like the eyes of a stable individual; sorry, another  Criminal Minds reference. Other than his eyes he had no  threatening look about him. His suit looked new, dark blue  with a light blue shirt and no tie. Don’t want to get too formal on a killing spree I suppose.

“The only business I will discuss is letting everyone out,  unharmed and away from here”. The man cocked his head  slightly to the right and replied, “Well said Mr. Speer, but  in this current state of affairs, I’m afraid you have no say in  the matter”. His snooty attitude was starting to piss me off;  I needed to be cautious. “I’ll make this simple, due to unseen  circumstances, our time has run short. You have been able to  side step capture from some very capable people. That being  said, you will accompany us or I’ll be forced to let Olaf kill  one person every one minute until you either come with us,  or everyone dies including yourself”.

Olaf, who the hell names their kid Olaf; this was not  going to end well. My options seemed nonexistence to say  the least. I was clueless as to what I should do, but all things  I came up with would most certainly cause damage to my  Friends; that was definitely not an option.

“I sense that you’re unsure of our intentions Mr. Speer.  Olaf take one of them out and put them in the empty cell”.  Olaf walked over to the occupied cell, unlocked the door and  grabbed Jenny’s arm. Killing Jenny was not an option on the  table either. As Olaf started to open the empty cell, Jenny  started screaming, “No, No, let go of me you big….ouch,  Billy, please help, Billy”………..

I’m not sure what happened other than I just started

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reacting. I swung my arm in as hard as I could and the cell  door flattened Olaf like a pancake. I quickly spun around  and tossed my arm to the side aiming at the older guy’s gun  that he had in his right hand. His arm pulled away from  his body as if he were a marionette and the gun flew out of  his grip against the wall and slid over to the first cell, where  an alert Gordon grabbed the gun with cat like reflexes and  pointed it at him.

Olaf started to return to a conscious state with some

mumbling and starting to move a bit. That was all the distraction that the older guy needed as he hauled ass out the  front door and to the white van in the parking lot. I started  out after him. Damn he was quick for an older guy as he  already had the van started and tires a squealing. I ran to the  edge of the parking lot as he was getting ready to turn onto  Marine drive.

As he started to turn I thrust my arms out away from me aimed at the van. Two cars hit their brakes as the van blazed

it’s way between them. The van was thrown across the street  with such force that he ended up taking out one of the gas  pumps at the Chevron where his van landed. After the pump  was ripped out, the van ran into the side of the Island building where you pay for your gas. The small building simply  flew apart from the impact. The gas attendant was with another vehicle at the other side of the lot. He hauled ass away  from the van as did the car receiving the gas, as the car sped  off and took the gas hose with it. Smoke was pouring out of  the vans engine and I could see the guy trying to open the  van door, but it was too smashed in for him to open it. A  split second later the Van was fully engulfed in flames from

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all the gas that was gushing out. The attendant and the car  were able to get out of harm’s way as what looked like the van  exploded sending flames a good fifty feet high. One thing for  sure, the older guy can’t run away from that one.

I turned to head back to the jail when I heard multiple  shots coming from inside. Oh crap, no, no-no……… As I  busted through the door I could see the final member of the  triplets on his back with numerous holes in his head and  torso. I looked over at Gordon who had a fiendish smile on

his face. He looked utterly satisfied. “Oh sure, take the easy  way out, shoot him until he drops”. Gordon looked over and  smile at me, “Yeah, I thought I already shot him earlier”.

As I was asking if anyone could tell me where I could  find the spare keys for the cell door, a second, then a third  and even louder explosion rattled the jails windows. The  Sheriff tried to pop up out of the smallish bed in the cell but  his wife Anne, put a hand to his forehead and pushed him  back. “Not until you’ve seen a Doctor Walt”. Multiple sirens were now blaring just a couple of blocks down the road.  Deputy Dave pointed towards the cabinets under the front  counter, “back up keys are in the top cabinet, there’s a bronze  salmon hooked to the keychain”.

He was correct, top cabinet with a bronze salmon staring  at me. I was fumbling at the keys not sure which one would  work, “Here give them to me”, Dave declared. It took him  less than a second to unlock their cell and he rushed over to

unlock the cell that Jenny was in. I could have sworn that I  used that door to knock out Olaf, the force must have been  enough to click the cell door shut.

Jenny rushed to my arms and started to give me a kiss

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when I heard a slight buzzing and she shook her head. “Billy  I think you still have some leftover juice from the lightning,  when I kissed you I got a small shock. Not bad though, I  could get used to that”, she said smiling and holding on to  me for dear life.

Everyone was thrilled that they were out of the cell and everyone was safe; almost everyone. The Sheriff lumbered out of the cell aided by his wife, but shrugged her off and went over to the front door. He stood in silence as he stared

at the mess down the block at the chevron station. He turned

back at me pointed toward the chevron station and said,  “You”, his jaw was so swollen what came out of his mouth  sounded like ooh! I nodded, but said nothing as I could tell  by his eyes that he was less than thrilled with the way that I  handled the situation. He shook his head and went into his

office. Deputy Dave was on the phone to get paramedics out  to the jail to look at the Sheriff.

Jenny was still shaking from the crap Olaf and the older  man put her through. She lifted her head up from my shoulders and looked lovingly into my eyes. “Do you think it’s  over”, she asked? “For now, I think so, but I doubt that it  will ever be over until I figure more about what they’re doing at Round Mountain”. Gordon came up to me and stated, “I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m going out for a  smoke”, as he put the emphasis on the word out.

Gordon led the way as Jenny and I were hand in hand a  few feet behind. As we got away from the front door, Jenny  notice he huge flames coming from the Chevron station,  “Oh dear, that’s simply horrible, I hope no one got hurt”.  “Only one did, the older guy who told Olaf to shoot you”, as

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she squeezed my hand. I never wanted that feeling to end.  “Crap”, Gordon sighed. He opened up his pack of smokes  and showed me the empty pack. Jenny was oblivious to  Gordon’s statement as she stared at the inferno down the

block. The fire department had showed up and was trying to  put a damper on things, but judging from the size of those  flames, this would take a while.

I let go of Jenny’s hand and went back inside to tell  the Sheriff we were going to get smokes when the front  counter phone rang. Deputy Mallory answered, listened  intently then hung up. He ran to the Sheriff’s office as I  followed close behind. “Sheriff, we just got a call from one  of the deputies in Seaside that a woman was shot to death  at the Seaside Inn, and her name was an Agent Boling with  the FBI and there were directions and maps that had our  little jail as the bulls eye, and wondered if you knew anything about why she had our jail in her sights”? The Sheriff  looked up at Mallory and said, “Never heard of her, and  don’t have a clue as to why she was watching us”. “I call  them back and let them know”. Mallory left the office and  I looked in at the Sheriff. With his swollen jaw it was hard  to tell, but I’m pretty sure he was smiling.

“Was going to tell you that we were going to get a pack  of smokes, did you need anything”? Yeah he was smiling, “I  think you should be safe now, I take it you over heard the  news”? “I did, I guess the triplets and the old guy didn’t need  her anymore”. He nodded and shoed at me with his hand to  say go on, get out of here, which we did.

We were heading out as four guys dressed in fishing outfits pulled into the parking lot in their Minivan. Guess they

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needed some fishing licenses. Both Deputies and the three  Astoria Police rushed past us and into their cars, I guess my  mess required some assistance. The phone inside the Jail was  ringing off the hook.

Gordon stopped and pulled out his wallet only to find  dust and the memory of money past. “We need an ATM, I’m  out of cash”. “There’s an ATM at the Mini-Mart two blocks

down”, Jenny stated.

The ATM was just outside the Mini-Mart. Gordon  was doing his business as Jenny and I engaged in another  lip lock. Jenny pulled back and smiled, “No electrical zaps  this time, I think that maybe when you get worked up your  energy starts to surface. We’ll need to work on keeping you  relaxed”. I smiled and we started kissing again. “Son of a  bitch”, Gordon hollered.

Jenny and I made our way to the ATM where Gordon  was thumping the side of the ATM with his hand. Gordon  looked up at us, “My balance shows that there’s money in  there but for whatever reason it won’t complete the transaction”, as he continued with his thumping. Jenny offered to  try for him and he stepped aside while she tried. I was next to  her and I put my hand on the ATM and lights started flashing, different options kept popping up on the screen. After  a few seconds money started popping out of the dispenser.  Gordon jumped in between us and grabbed the wad of cash.  As soon as he took it, more popped out. The Scenario continued as we all were stuffing money in whatever pockets  had room left in them. The ATM let out a small spark followed by a tiny trail of smoke. Our work was done here so  we decided to high tail it out of there before someone saw us.

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Gordon stopped and ran into the Mini- Mart.

That would be the quickest confession on record but I understood. Jenny and I looked about the area hoping that no one was coming up to the ATM. Gordon came back out in less than a minute carrying a carton of Marlboro’s and a smile. “I can afford a carton now” he said with the grin of a seasoned criminal. We went around the corner, popped open a fresh pack and lit up.

“So how much do you think we got”, Gordon asked? I shrugged as did Jenny, “Does this make me an accomplice”, she asked with a smirk on her face. “I’ll put in a good word for you, I’m tight with the Sheriff”, I replied with an equally smirky grin. We had the satisfied grin of a group that had just enjoyed an overdue smoke combined with new found wealth.

Looking down the road we could see that the fire at the chevron station was still blazing away and the Deputies were blocking off traffic in both directions of Marine Drive. The flames were not getting any smaller.

We arrived back at the jail, and the four fishermen were coming out. Three of them went to the van but the last one was staring at me. “You must be Billy”, He asked? I mo-tioned for Jenny and Gordon to head inside, “I guess I must but who are you and how did you know my name”? His fair-ly lengthy blonde hair was being tossed about as the west wind picked up. He smiled, “Your hair gave it away; I take it the lightning did that”? I nodded as he handed me a card.  “What’s this”? “A friend of mine asked me to give this to you, and to tell you that you’ll know when the time is right to use it”. I was confused, nothing new there but I asked, “What is it that I will know”? He was walking back to the van but

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turned slightly back to me and replied, “You’ll know”, he said  smiling and got into the van.

I gave the card a once over, Mindful Inc. was all that was  on it, no phone number, no address. I pulled out the Velcro  wallet the Sheriff gave me and tucked it safely inside. Inside  the jail was utter chaos, Anne was manning the phone at the  front counter as the Sheriff was busy switching from line to  line on his phone in the office. Every time Anne hung up the  phone, it immediately rang again. Jenny sensed her frustration and took over phone duties so she could help the Sheriff  in his office with any dispatches since his jaw wasn’t working  too well.

Things finally slowed down after a couple of hours. The  Deputies came back in smelling of soot and ashes. During all of this madness Anne still managed to order food for everyone which we didn’t know about until a delivery guy came thru the door. Subway to the rescue with three big bags filled with assorted sandwiches, chips and cookies. Gordon went up to the delivery guy and told Anne, “I got this”, as he pulled a wad of bills out of his pocket. “Goodness Gordon, what did you do, rob an ATM”, Anne asked in astonishment of the amount of bills he had in his hand?

Gordon paid the guy as Jenny and I walked up to him. I had my hand out and he knew what I had in mind. He fished out the rest of the bills, Jenny did the same and the three of us went into the Sheriff’s office. I two fisted the pile of bills on the Sheriff’s desk, as I dug out what I had crammed in my pockets. He looked up at me in amazement, but after I had told him what had happened he actually started to laugh.  Jenny helped him straighten out the bills and the Sheriff

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pulled an envelope out of his desk drawer and tucked away  the money inside and placed it the drawer.