Page 138 of Wrecked
“Take a seat behind your desk,” the senator instructed, breaking her from the moment.
Her mind did not want to accept this was happening on a Saturday when she should be anywhere but here. Hallene took in the pieced-together room with a chair placed behind a desk made of two sawhorses and an unfinished wood door.
A laptop sat in the center facing the chair.
When had he placed that? She walked over and realized the evil W had others to do his bidding.
He glanced at the phone where his finger remained ready, probably checking the time.
“You were at the point in the story about how you wrangled a submarine from China. Don’t leave me hanging.” Keep him talking. Anything to avoid what he wanted her to do.
“I shall wrap this up quickly as you have little time left.”
Her throat squeezed tight against the urge to shout and tackle him. She gave him a polite smile and tilted her head to indicate she was waiting.
“Everyone has a weakness just as we’ve discovered yours is Phoebe. My contacts knew the captain assigned to the secret training mission for the new sub. He was to take it through secret maneuvers in foreign waters. The captain follows only my orders at this point while his wife, mother, and two children are being held. He has been promised by someone whose word is without question that if he performs as ordered, his family will be taken out of China to live a safe life somewhere else.”
“But the captain and his crew are forfeit, correct?”
Now the senator shrugged. “I do not create stories with happy endings for everyone.”
She doubted the ending would be happy for anyone except W. She could not keep thinking of him as a US senator. “How are you going to hang Kovac with this?”
“No one would believe he could have orchestrated this.”
“True.” She crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair to give off confidence her jittery insides didn’t feel.
W cocked his head. “Why would you voluntarily finger Kovac?”
She leaned forward with her forearms stretched past the laptop yet to be opened. “He screwed my mother, literally, then mentally destroyed her. She’s very sick with an unknown illness now. I think he poisoned her. I would gut him if he was right here, and I had a knife.”
“Ah, the scorned stepdaughter.”
She really hated being called any kind of daughter to Kovac. “What do you need me to do? If I’m going to die, I want to be sure to take him with me.”
“My, I do love your enthusiasm.” W stepped closer but stopped in the middle of the room. “You will open the laptop.”
She did.
“Now tap the power key.”
The screen came up fast with a control panel of some sort loaded.
“I will tell you when to click the green button at the bottom right.”
She moved her finger toward it as she looked.
“No!” he shouted.
Yanking her finger back, she dropped her hand to her lap. “I wasn’t going to tap it, just looking for the correct button.”
“It isobvious.”
“It isnowthat I’ve looked but this control panel thing is like nothing I’ve ever seen. Is this the panel controlling the sub?”
“Just when I thought we were having an intelligent conversation, you ask a stupid question.”
“Either that or someone else programmed this and you don’t know how the button works.” She fought the panic rising in her. How could she push a button and kill innocent people or not push it and kill Phoebe?
