The voices got louder, and Nikki could hear chanting.
It was another simple plan that, if carried out correctly, would see her and Jacob free.
Russell had recruited every member of the Marine Institute, his family and all his friends and told them to congregate out the front of Nikki’s house and demand to be let in to see her.Oslo was nine hours ahead of them here in Seattle and she was due to take the virtual stand at one p.m.tonight, which also played into their favor; the FBI wouldn’t be expecting anything to happen at midnight on this sleepy street on a Monday night.Jacob hoped that the sheer size of numbers would render the FBI agents ineffective; they wouldn’t be able to shoot over a hundred people all at once, and more to the point, they wouldn’t dare.These were law-abiding, innocent civilians.If the agents tried to blast their way out and killed or wounded even one person, their careers would be over.Linstead and Miller were smart enough to understand that the moment they were confronted with the mob.Sabitino might not have been so cognizant, and may have shot first and asked questions later, but he was out of the picture, so all the better.
“Go on,” he said, staring down into her eyes.“You’re ready.We’re ready.Let’s get out of here.”He took her shoulders as he leaned in to kiss her on the lips.Passionate and deep, as if he were putting his stamp on her, claiming her, letting her know how much she meant to him.Then he pushed her gently back, and his eyes hardened as his gaze left hers and sharpened on the scene through the kitchen window.“Go,” he said again, this time not looking at her.“I’ll see you at the rendezvous, just like we planned.”
Unable to talk past the increasing lump in her throat, she merely nodded.Drawing away from Jacob, already missing the feel of his big body against hers, she watched as he grabbed a chair and made his way into the hallway to bar the front door.She wondered whether this was all worth the risk.They were putting their lives on the line today.She almost called him back.But then Tammy and Antoine’s sacrifice would all be for nothing.Then Diàoyú would win.And that wasn’t an option.
Grabbing another of the kitchen chairs, she dragged it through to the laundry, taking a fleeting glance out of the little window next to the rear door as she did so.And saw people, lots and lots of people, dark shapes in the dark night, flooding down the driveway around the side of her house, filling up the backyard.In the glare of the single spotlight lighting up her porch, she could see the FBI agents shouting and waving their guns, but Nikki didn’t have time to stop and make sure everyone was okay.She had her assignment.The chair was solid wood, and she jammed it up under the back door handle, stopping anyone from entering the house, knowing Jacob had done the same thing with the front.None of the agents could get in this way unless they had a ramrod, or she let them in.
Task done, she almost wavered, wanting to watch everything unfold outside.But this was her chance.She couldn’t fail them all now, not when so many people had come to her aid.Her heart swelled as the image stayed with her while she rushed through the hidden doorway into her bedroom and the enormity of what was occurring hit her.This crowd was here for her—or, more accurately, because of Russell—but to help her cause none-the-less.
Quickly and silently, Nikki donned her shoes, her jacket and retrieved her backpack from the rear of the wardrobe and was back in the hallway in under thirty seconds.She took a precious few moments to study Jacob’s back as he stood tall and silent at the other end, by the front door, all his focus directed through the peephole as he watched the unfolding event outside.Miller was banging on the door, demanding to be let in, but Jacob ignored her, bracing all his weight against the chair as she battered it harder and harder.
Taking a mental snapshot of his broad-shouldered figure, she stored it away for later, then she went back to the laundry room and stood behind the door, leaning around the side so she could peek out of the small window.The backyard was now crammed with people.It wasn’t a big yard, and the corners remained dark where the spotlight didn’t reach, but there must be at least eighty or ninety individuals out there.Nikki wondered if her front yard looked the same, because if it did, then her neighbors were definitely coming out onto the sidewalk even this late at night for a look.So much for Linstead wanting to keep this on the down low.Nikki would love to see him explain this away to his superiors.
The crowd in her backyard were all chanting at the top of their voices,“Let her go, let her go,”and they were drowning out any chance that the two FBI agents would be heard over the hubbub.One agent was backed right up against the door; she could see his left shoulder through the window.He was brandishing his gun in the air, but wasn’t aiming it at anyone, and even Nikki could tell it was all bluff.He’d probably tried to get inside already, but the chair was holding fast.Such an old trick, but a good one; it’d been Jacob’s idea.The second FBI agent was at the rear of the yard, with his back up against her small garden shed.He was only just keeping the crowd at bay by strong-arming anyone who came into his personal space, pushing them back.This man—Nikki had never found out his name—had already admitted defeat and had holstered his weapon, but was still yelling at people to get away from him.
Her escape was imminent, but she needed the guy by the door to move; otherwise, she was stuck.She scanned the faces of the throng who were gathered at the bottom of the steps, chanting in unison and pointing at the agent who’d come to his senses and also put his gun away, but then pulled out a taser and pointed it menacingly at them.Nikki didn’t know who all these folks were.Russell must’ve called in every favor from every individual from every walk of life he’d ever known in his fifty-one years.
A face she recognized morphed out of the crowd in the second row of chanting individuals.Dr.Reshma Siram was a conservation analyst working at the Marine Institute.Nikki had consulted with her a few times when she’d been trying to decipher her results from various field trips.The woman was young, but highly intelligent, and while they weren’t close friends, Nikki respected her shrewd mind, even if it were hidden beneath an unassuming exterior.They locked gazes, her colleague’s face all sharp angles and shadows from the bright spotlight.Using sign language, she pointed at the agent outside her door and made shooing motions.Would she understand what Nikki needed?Reshma pushed her bifocals higher up her nose and bit her bottom lip for a second.Her long, black hair swayed over her shoulders as she considered the people on either side of her.Then, as if coming to a decision, Reshma gave Nikki the thumbs up, and Nikki held her breath.
For a second, Reshma disappeared into the crowd, and Nikki wondered if the woman was going to renege on her undertaking.But then she popped up a little way along the line beside a very tall man with a very thick neck and tattooed biceps that bulged out of his tight t-shirt.Reshma whispered in his ear until the guy raised his head and nodded, an excited gleam in his eyes.Nikki watched as Reshma moved through the group, recruiting four more of the biggest guys she could find, who all looked at the agent at the top of the stairs with heightened interest as they nodded enthusiastically.
Then with a loud yell that was most unlike the Reshma that Nikki knew, the woman erupted through the crowd and rushed up the steps, straight at the FBI officer.Did Reshma have no fear?Had she lost her mind?Or did she not realize the magnitude of what she was doing?This wasn’t the dutiful and docile person Nikki knew.A diminutive Indian lady going up against a bull of an agent in a black hoodie waving a taser in her face.This was no contest, surely?Nikki was terrified for Reshma; she was going to get hurt, and it would all be Nikki’s fault.
But then the five handpicked men all came roaring out of the crowd behind her, charging up the steps like a human storm.There was a loud scuffle, and Nikki cursed the solid wooden door that stopped her from seeing everything that was happening.A man screamed in pain, and there was a loud thump as something heavy landed on the wooden deck.The rest of the throng surged forward, more of them running up the steps.The loud grunts and screams increased until it sounded like a full-on melee outside her door.Then everything went quiet.
Nikki strained to see what was going on through the small side window, but all she could make out was a tangle of bodies on her back porch, twisting and heaving.Nikki had had enough; she needed to see what was going on.She wrestled with the chair under the doorknob, shoving it aside and wrenching the door open.
The pile of humans was still writhing on her back deck, but one at a time, someone disentangled themselves from the mound, then stood back to help pull others out of the heap, until at last Reshma’s original big men were revealed.Each of them grunted and heaved their way upright, and then there was only a solitary man left lying on the porch.The agent was unconscious, knocked out cold.One of the big men, the tattooed bald man, was on his knees, glaring at the agent as if he wanted to kill him.Someone helped him to his feet, but he remained unsteady, leaning heavily on the good Samaritan.
Reshma pushed her way through the milling crowd until she stood in front of Nikki.“You’re free.”She beamed a hundred-watt smile and repositioned her glasses back up her nose.
“Yes, thanks to you.”Nikki was very unsure what’d just happened, but she didn’t have time to stand around and chat.“I’m still not safe,” she said, lifting her chin and indicating the other agent who’d been pinned next to the shed, but was pushing frantically at the crowd now, slowly forging his way toward her.
“Oh, yes, right,” Reshma answered brusquely.“Come with me, then.”Who was this woman?She looked like the Reshma Nikki knew from the Institute, but that’s where the similarity ended.It was as if she’d been transformed into someone else, the way she cleared a path with an imperious wave of her hand, drawing Nikki after her and guiding her away as if she’d somehow become the crowd’s self-appointed leader and was relishing the role.
Nikki wondered what was going on at the front door?Was Jacob faring as well as she just had?His job had been to stop anyone coming in for as long as was humanly possible to allow her time to escape.Then, he was supposed to leave through the front door once it was safe and meet her at the end of the street.She had no time to pause and see, however, because while the crowd still held the agent at bay, they wouldn’t be able to do it forever.And they wouldn’t have long before reinforcements arrived; Nikki had no doubt Miller had called in Linstead as soon as the group assembled.
“Thank you,” she said over her shoulder to the five brave men who’d rushed at an armed FBI agent.“Thank you,” she repeated to the other people standing around on the steps as she descended.“Thank you,” she reiterated to the press of human beings who watched her as she passed by, opening up to let her through and then closing in around her.Protecting her.What else did you say to those who were prepared to come to a stranger’s aid?
“He’s okay,” Reshma said, waving at the tattooed guy on the deck.“He got tasered, but he’s a big, strong man, no worries.He’ll be fine.”Nikki grimaced and wondered if that was who she’d heard screaming when they’d originally rushed up the steps.The agent would’ve fired his taser, hitting the first big man in line, but had no hope of stopping five strapping blokes intent on bringing him down.No wonder Tattoo Guy was dark on him.
Now that the crowd had stopped chanting and become almost silent, she could hear the other agent raging and shouting.He was getting closer, even though everyone tried to hold him back.
“We need to hurry,” Reshma said, grabbing Nikki’s hand and pulling her forward.She led Nikki toward the side fence, away from the driveway and the advancing operative, talking quickly as she did so.“Russell told me everything,” Reshma explained.“He made sure all of us at the institute were well-informed.He didn’t want anyone to be here who wasn’t fully committed.He knew how high the stakes were tonight, even if some of us failed to appreciate it at first.And let me tell you, that man is a very magnificent speaker when he wants to be.He convinced every single employee to come to your aid.”
They made it to the fence, and Nikki paused for a second.“I will thank him profusely as soon as I see him,” she agreed.“I just wish I could thank everyone else here personally as well.”
“The best thanks you can give him, and the rest of us, is to get out of here.Take that dreadful company down.We need some kind of recompense for Tammy and Antoine, and you are going to get that for us.”Reshma had tears in her eyes as she spoke, and Nikki also felt teary.She couldn’t help herself; she drew Reshma into a fierce hug, and in an uncharacteristic show of affection, Reshma hugged her back.“Now go.”Reshma stepped back and motioned for three of the people nearest to help her make a human step, so they could boost Nikki over the fence and into the neighbor’s yard.
Nikki gritted her teeth and pulled the backpack on a little tighter.Then she hopped into the waiting hands of her liberators and had cleared the fence before she even had time to say goodbye.
This was Henry Packham’s yard.Her elderly neighbor kept it neat as a pin, thank God.Nikki had only been in the backyard a few times over the years, but it remained much as she remembered it, which helped her navigate through the dark as she felt her way to the far side of the house where she knew there was a gate that’d allow her access to the front.And more importantly, out onto the road.
Nikki poked her head over Henry’s front gate—the old man was as deaf as a doorknob and was probably sleeping soundly through all this hullabaloo.She hoped he stayed inside and didn’t get involved.He was a sweet gentleman, and it’d just confuse him.She checked out the rest of the street, sending her searching gaze first to her end, then to the other.As Nikki had guessed, quite a few of her neighbors were now standing on their front porches with their lights on, or down by their front gates, watching with curiosity and some trepidation at the kerfuffle going on at her house.The crowd wasn’t visible from her vantage point, but she could hear them.There was a lot of incoherent shouting, and someone was even banging a drum.A great diversion to keep the agent’s attention centered on them.
