The Sky Is Falling (31 page)

“I think not, Dana. I first began to worry about you when you met poor ill-fated Joan Sinisi. She overheard Taylor talking about the Russian plan. He was afraid to have her killed because she was associated with him. So he fired her. When she sued for unfair dismissal, he made a settlement, on the condition that she never discuss the matter.” Roger Hudson sighed. “So I’m afraid that you were really responsible for Joan Sinisi’s ‘accident.’”

“Roger, Jack Stone knows—”

Roger Hudson shook his head. “Jack Stone and his men have been watching your every move. We could have gotten rid of you at any time, but we waited until you got us the information we needed. We really have no further use for you.”

“I want to see Kemal.”

“Too late. I’m afraid poor Kemal has had an accident.”

Dana looked at him in horror. “What have you—”

“Pamela and I decided that a nice little fire is the best way to end Kemal’s pitiful little life. So we’ve sent him back to school. Naughty of him to break into the school on a Saturday. He was just small enough to fit through the basement window.”

She was filled with a blinding rage. “You cold-blooded monster. You’ll never get away with this.”

“You disappoint me, Dana. Resorting to clichés? What you don’t understand is that we
have
gotten away with it.” He walked back to his desk and pressed a button. A moment later Cesar appeared.

“Yes, Mr. Hudson.”

“I want you to see to Miss Evans. And make sure she’s still alive when the accident happens.”

“Yes, Mr. Hudson. I’ll take care of it.”

He was one of them
. Dana could not believe it. “Roger, listen to me—”

Cesar took Dana by the arm and started leading her out of the room.

“Roger—”

“Good-bye, Dana.”

Cesar tightened his grip on Dana’s arm and marched her down the hall, through the kitchen, and out to the side of the house, where a limousine was parked.

The WTN helicopter was approaching the Hudson estate.

Jeff said to Norman Bronson, “You can set it down on the lawn and —” He stopped as he looked down below and saw Cesar putting Dana into a limousine. “No! Wait a minute.”

The limousine started moving down the driveway and onto the street.

“What do you want me to do?” Bronson asked.

“Follow them.”

In the limousine, Dana said, “You don’t want to do this, Cesar. I—”

“Shut up, Miss Evans.”

“Cesar, listen to me. You don’t know these people. They’re murderers. You’re a decent man. Don’t let Mr. Hudson force you to do things that—”

“Mr. Hudson isn’t forcing me to do anything. I’m doing this for
Mrs
. Hudson.” He looked at Dana in the rearview mirror and grinned. “Mrs. Hudson takes good care of me.”

Dana looked at him, stunned.
I can’t let this happen
. “Where are you taking me?”

“To Rock Creek Park.” He didn’t need to add:
where I’m going to kill you
.

Roger Hudson, Pamela Hudson, Jack Stone, and Mrs. Daley were in a station wagon, heading for Washington National Airport.

Jack Stone said, “The plane is all ready. Your pilot has the flight plan to Moscow.”

Pamela Hudson said, “God, I hate cold weather. I hope that bitch burns in hell for putting me through this.”

“What about Kemal?” Roger Hudson asked.

“The fire at the school is set to go off in twenty minutes. The kid is in the basement. He’s heavily sedated.”

Dana was growing more desperate. They were nearing Rock Creek Park, and the traffic was beginning to thin out.

Kemal is terrified, Dana. I’ve never seen anyone so terrified. He knows he’s going to die, and I told him that you’re going to die, too.

In the helicopter trailing the limousine, Norman Bronson said, “He’s turning, Jeff. It looks like he’s heading for Rock Creek Park.”

“Don’t lose him.”

At the FRA, General Booster stormed into his office. “What the hell has been going on here?” he asked one of his aides.

“I told you, General. While you were away, Major Stone recruited a few of our best men, and they’re into some big deal with Roger Hudson. They’ve targeted Dana Evans. Look at this.” The aide pulled up a screen on his computer, and a moment later there was a picture of Dana naked, getting into the shower in the Breidenbacher Hof Hotel.

General Booster’s face tightened. “Jesus!” He turned to his aide. “Where is Stone?”

“He’s gone. He’s leaving the country with the Hudsons.”

General Booster snapped. “Get me the National Airport.”

In the helicopter, Norman Bronson looked down and said, “They’re heading toward the park, Jeff. Once they get there, we won’t be able to land because of the trees.”

Jeff said urgently, “We have to stop them. Can you land in front of them on the road?”

“Sure.”

“Do it.”

Bronson pushed the controls forward and the helicopter began to descend. He passed over the limousine, and then began gently to bring the helicopter down. It landed on the road, twenty yards ahead of the limousine. They watched as the car screeched to a stop.

“Turn off the engines,” Jeff said.

“We can’t do that. We’ll be at the guy’s mercy if—”

“Turn them off.”

Bronson looked at him. “Are you sure you know what you’re doing?”

“No.”

Bronson sighed and turned off the ignition. The huge blades of the helicopter began to slow down until they came to a stop. Jeff looked out the window.

Cesar had opened the back door of the limousine. He said to Dana, “Your friend is trying to cause us trouble.” His fist shot out and punched Dana in the jaw. She fell back on the seat, unconscious. Then Cesar stood up and started toward the helicopter.

“Here he comes,” Bronson said nervously. “My God, he’s a giant!”

Cesar was approaching the helicopter, his face filled with anticipation.

“Jeff, he’s got to have a gun. He’s going to kill us.”

Jeff yelled out the window, “You and your bosses are going to prison, you bastard!”

Cesar started walking faster.

“It’s all over for you. You might as well give up.”

Cesar was fifteen yards from the helicopter.

“You’ll be jailbait for the boys.”

Ten yards.

“You’ll like that, won’t you, Cesar?”

Cesar was running now. Five yards.

Jeff pressed his thumb down hard on the start button and the huge vanes of the helicopter slowly began to turn. Cesar paid no attention, his eyes were focused on Jeff, his face was filled with hatred. The vanes began to spin faster and faster. As Cesar ran to the door of the helicopter, he suddenly realized what was happening, but it was too late. There was a loud splash, and Jeff closed his eyes. The outside and the inside of the helicopter were instantly covered with blood.

Norman Bronson said, “I’m going to be sick.” He turned off the ignition.

Jeff glanced at the decapitated body on the ground, jumped out of the helicopter, and raced to the limousine. He opened the door. Dana was unconscious.

“Dana… darling…”

Dana slowly opened her eyes. She looked at Jeff and mumbled, “Kemal…”

The limousine was almost a mile from Lincoln Preparatory School when Jeff yelled, “Look.” Ahead of them in the distance, they could see smoke starting to darken the sky.

“They’re burning the school down,” Dana shrieked. “Kemal is in there. He’s in the basement.”

“Oh, my God.”

A minute later the limousine reached the school. A heavy cloud of smoke was rising from the building. A dozen firemen were working to put down the fire.

Jeff jumped out of the car and moved toward the school. A fireman stopped him.

“You can’t go any nearer, sir.”

“Has anyone been inside?” Jeff demanded.

“No. We just broke open the front door.”

“There’s a boy in the basement.” Before anyone could stop him, Jeff went through the splintered doorway and ran inside. The place was filled with smoke. Jeff tried to yell Kemal’s name, but only a cough came out. He put a handkerchief over his nose and ran down the hallway to the steps that led to the basement. The smoke was acrid and thick. Jeff fumbled his way down the stairs, holding on to the banister.

“Kemal!” Jeff called. There was no answer. “Kemal.” Silence. Jeff made out a vague shape at the other end of the basement. He moved toward it, trying not to breathe, his lungs burning. He almost tripped over Kemal. He shook him. “Kemal.” The boy was unconscious. With an enormous effort, Jeff picked him up and started carrying him toward the stairs. He was choking and was blinded by the smoke. He lurched drunkenly through the swirling black cloud, carrying Kemal in his arms. When he reached the steps, Jeff half carried him, half dragged him up the stairs. He heard distant voices, and he passed out.

General Booster was on the phone with Nathan Novero, the airport administrator at Washington National Airport.

“Does Roger Hudson keep his plane there?”

“Yes, General. As a matter of fact, he’s here now. I believe they’ve just been cleared for takeoff.”

“Abort it.”

“What?”

“Call the tower and abort it.”

“Yes, sir.” Nathan Novero called the tower. “Tower, abort the takeoff of Gulfstream R3487.”

The air traffic controller said, “They’re already taxiing down the runway.”

“Cancel their clearance.”

“Yes, sir.” The air traffic controller picked up his microphone. “Tower to Gulfstream R3487. Permission to take off is canceled. You will return to terminal. Abort takeoff. I repeat, abort takeoff.”

Roger Hudson stepped into the cockpit. “What the hell is this?”

“There must be some kind of delay,” the pilot said. “We’ll have to return to the—”

“No!” Pamela Hudson said. “Keep going.”

“With all due respect, Mrs. Hudson, I’d lose my pilot’s license if—”

Jack Stone moved next to the pilot with a gun pointed at the pilot’s head. “Take off. We’re heading for Russia.”

The pilot took a deep breath. “Yes, sir.”

The plane sped down the runway, and twenty seconds later, it was airborne. The airport administrator watched in dismay as the Gulfstream soared higher and higher into the sky.

“Jesus! He went against—”

On the phone, General Booster was demanding, “What’s going on? Did you stop them?”

“No, sir. They — they just took off. There’s no way we can make them—”

And at that moment the sky exploded. As the crew on the ground watched in horror, parts of the Gulfstream started raining down through the clouds in fiery pieces. It seemed to go on forever.

At the far edge of the field, Boris Shdanoff watched for a long time. Finally he turned and walked away.

DANA’S MOTHER TOOK a bite of the wedding cake.

“Too sweet. Much too sweet. When I was younger and I used to bake, my cakes would melt in your mouth.” She turned to Dana. “Isn’t that true, darling?”

“Melt in your mouth” would have been the last phrase that came to Dana’s mind, but it was not important. “Absolutely, Mother,” she said with a warm smile.

The wedding ceremony had been performed by a judge at City Hall. Dana had invited her mother at the last minute, after a telephone call.

“Darling, I didn’t marry that dreadful man after all. You and Kemal were right about him, so I’m back in Las Vegas.”

“What happened, Mother?”

“I found out that he already had a wife. She didn’t like him, either.”

“I’m sorry, Mother.”

“So here I am alone again.”

Lonely
was the implication. So Dana had invited her to the wedding. Seeing her mother chatting with Kemal and even remembering his name, Dana smiled.
We’ll turn her into a grandmother yet
. Her happiness seemed too immense to absorb. Just being married to Jeff was a blissful miracle, but there was more.

After the fire, Jeff and Kemal had briefly gone to the hospital to be treated for smoke inhalation. While they were there, a nurse talked to a reporter about Kemal’s adventures and the story had been picked up by the media. Kemal’s photograph was in the newspapers and his story was told on television. A book was being written about his experiences and there was even talk of a television series.

“But only if I get to star in it,” Kemal insisted. Kemal was the hero of his school.

When the adoption ceremony took place, half of Kemal’s schoolmates turned out to applaud him.

Kemal said, “I’m really adopted now, huh?”

“You’re really adopted,” Dana and Jeff said. “We belong to one another.”

“Rad.”
Wait until Ricky Underwood hears about this. Ha
!

The terrible nightmare of the past month was gradually fading away. The three of them were a family now, and home was a safe haven.
I don’t need any more adventures
, Dana thought.
I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime
.

One morning, Dana announced, “I just found a great new apartment for the four of us.”

“You mean the three of us,” Jeff corrected her.

“No,” Dana said softly. “The four of us.”

Jeff was staring at her.

“She means she’s having a baby,” Kemal explained. “I hope it’s a boy. We can shoot hoops.”

There was more good news to come.
Crime Line
’s opening show, “The Roger Hudson Story, A Murder Conspiracy,” received both critical acclaim and phenomenal ratings. Matt Baker and Elliot Cromwell were elated.

“You’d better get a place ready to put your Emmy,” Elliot Cromwell told Dana.

There was only one sobering note. Rachel Stevens had succumbed to cancer. The story had been printed in the newspapers, and Dana and Jeff were aware of what had happened. But when the story appeared on the TelePrompTer, Dana looked at it and choked up.

“I can’t read it,” she whispered to Richard Melton. So he had read it.

Rest in peace.