Page 79 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
Zorbo got up and hurried through the dining room, through the living room, and up to the window in the foyer. When he looked out and saw the wreckage and two men hoppingout of their SUVs arguing about who was at fault, he relaxed. It never once occurred to him that that scene in front of the house had anything to do with him until he heard what sounded like the backdoor kicked in, and the sound of somebody running.
Realizing he’d been had, Zorbo ran as fast as he could back toward the dining room. But the Drakos brothers were running into the dinning room from the kitchen just as he was running into the dining room from the living room. Zorbo, with his hands in his pockets, stopped them in their tracks. “I have remotes in these pockets,” he yelled out. “Make one more move and she’s dead and another plane with hundreds on board drops out of the sky. Now drop those rifles!”
“Where’s my daughter?” Marcellus demanded to know.
“Daddy, I’m back here!” Kalayna yelled, and Marcellus had to look beyond the den to see her, and that bomb on her lap. His heart squeezed with anxiety. But at least she was still alive.
“It’s a real bomb, Daddy,” she said to him. “He can control it remotely. It’s a real bomb! And he’s going to destroy another plane within the next hour or so if you don’t stop him!” She was crying.
“It’s okay, Kalayna,” Marcellus said, although his eyes stayed on Zorbo. “It’s going to be okay.”
“No it won’t,” said Zorbo, “unless you drop those rifles. Drop them now!” he yelled out.
Alex and Oz quickly began sitting their rifles on the floor.
But Marcellus noticed something else: Zorbo’s eyes. And they kept darting to the side. And that was when he understood.
“I said drop your weapons or everybody’s dead!” Zorbo yelled again because Marcellus still held his rifle.
“You think I’m bluffing?” asked Zorbo. “You think you still can control me? I can kill you and your daughter and everybody else right now with just a press of these buttons. And I’ll do it. All those planes that dropped from the sky, exceptfor the first one, I did that. You killed my son and my beloved woman in that first disaster. I made sure you didn’t get away with it.” He seemed proud. “And I still have one more, another big one, that’ll come down with a press of this button. Now disarm yourself or face the consequences!”
But Marcellus held on.
Oz was angry. “What are you doing?” he yelled at Marcellus. “Drop the weapon. You heard the man. You heard your daughter. He’s not bluffing. You wanna get all of us killed?”
“Show me,” Marcellus said to Zorbo.
“Show you what?” asked Zorbo.
“Show me those remote-control buttons you’re threatening to push. Show me.”
It was then that both men understood each other. And Zorbo understood that his error could blow up all of his plans. And that was why he made a run for it.
He dashed toward the side table because it was within ten feet of his reach, but Marcellus didn’t take any chances. He shot him not once, not twice, but five times. He shot to kill. Zorbo dropped dead where he stood.
Alex and Oz ducked in terror, expecting to be blown away in the explosion. Kalayna was screamingDaddy no! as if she knew he had underestimated Zorbo Lay.
But then they all realized nothing happened.
Alex and Oz, puzzled, stood back up.
Kalayna stopped screaming.
And Marcellus made another phone call. “Bring him in,” he said, and ended the call. Then he walked over to the side table, opened the drawer, and saw the two remote controls staring up at him.
Alex and Oz went and took a look too. Then Alex looked at Marcellus. “How did you know he didn’t have them in his pocket?”
“When he ran up front to see what that collision was about, he forgot to take his remotes with him. But he wouldn’t anyway, would he?”
“What do you mean?”
“Remotes are very sensitive equipment. This time of night he would have been sleep. You can’t sleep with remotes in your pockets. You can’t walk around with them, either, because of the stakes. They had to remain stationary.”
“But you didn’t know he had remotes when we came over here.”
“Grishom had mentioned it, but no, I didn’t know for certain.”
“Then how did you know he didn’t have them on him?” asked a still-confused Oz. “Because he was moving around?”
