The Namesake 3 (of 5)

 

 

Note to readers. Don't read if you don't like poor grammar, this is rough.
This is a work of adult fiction. No resemblance to reality should be inferred or expected.
Copyright… are you kidding?

Edited by Amanda Lynn.

 

I went outside, passed the patrol cruiser, and went down the street.

“Special agent Rose Dossett,” the phone in my hand answered.

“Cassandra Schwab Kiesha here. Good afternoon, ma’am.”

“At last, I got to know who that Kiesha is,” Rose chuckled.

“Back to the business. Have you something to tell me?” I asked.

“I guess it’s not a case,” Rose started, “when I have something to tell you.”

“I’ve expected such an answer,” I said. “Then I have something to tell if you would be so kind as to listen to me.”

“Go ahead!”

“I’m sure, that there is a leak in the police, in your agency, or both.” I started. “You said your partner had already informed the local police about minivans near our home. They retreated before police sirens were heard. It seemed as if they were informed.”

Rose said nothing.

“Talk to me woman!” I ordered.

“Language, young lady…” she started to scold me.

“Well, you are still alive and talking,” I replied. “How many kills is there on your special agent account?”

“FBI isn’t about killing…”

“Let me assume there is none. You don’t like killing that is why. I don’t like it too. But you leave me no other choice. You know what, anything is better than being bloody bait, it’s why. Staying here in full ignorance about the situation just because of shitty rules.”

“Language…”

“OR WHAT! Will you spank me? Or will you ground me?” Then I added in a calm voice already, “Have you seen ‘Home alone’?”

“Yeah…”

“Do you know why that little guy won the confrontation?”

“It’s just a comedy…”

“Well, he got ready and when he was ready he decoyed and ambushed bad guys. Got it? I’ll do the same. I guess I’m ready. I’ll announce in the middle of my kitchen loud and clear that tomorrow early in the morning we will leave to Seattle. If I’m wrong, what will happen… nothing. Two or up to four thugs will mean I’m right. More of them will mean you’re the leak.”

“Wait, wait… What if my phone is monitored?”

“Are you saying you are giving a potentially burnt phone number to the valuable informant? Don’t FBI agents know about pre-paid phones?”

“How do you know…”

“Is-this-phone-number-safe?”

“Yes, it is.”

“Is your partner here with you?”

“Why, hello, Kiesha. Special agent Brian Malone’s here.”

I liked this voice. It wasn’t cheering or patronizing like Rose’s.

“Hello, Brian,” I answered. “This doesn’t change much just adds ‘or’ and ‘or both’ to my last statement.”

“I understand your worries,” Brian said. “But we don’t know much about the case and even less we can reveal to others even involved in it.”

“So I’ll tell you what I think and you’ll say where you disagree. Are you both listening to me?”

“Intently.”

“My dad in DEA lab did something that drugs’ bosses want him at their side. They want him to work to them or reveal some long term secret. Otherwise, he would be killed as well as my mom and me as witnesses. They abducted us instead. Not they but some agency they hired. Agents ‘interviewed’ my dad while mom was raped in front of him. I’m not sure it happened this way. I can only guess. Then there was a time for the last strike and they were about to rape me in the interrogation room.”

“When my parents were placed in the hospital and I was released with my uncle plan B was started. They planned to prepare better than they had done it initially. Then they will abduct me and Harry, or just me and kill Harry. Then they will use me to get to my father.”

There was a long pause.

“Hello?” I asked into the phone.

“We are here,” Brian replied. “Generally you are right. We have some suspicions I can’t reveal but you see the picture right.”

“What about my plan? It’s not just a threat,” I asked.

“I agree…”

“Brian, what are you saying? It’s impossible. We…” Rose complained.

“Shut up! I’m in charge and this is an order.” Brian retorted. “Kiesha is right. She is still under surveillance. There is no clue when the attack will take place. They may wait a day or two. Then after two sleepless nights, they’ll take her unconscious quietly without a single shot.”

“So?” I inquired.

“Do as you’ve said,” Brian said. “Say aloud that you are leaving for Seattle tomorrow morning. Say, you’ll leave together with FBI special agents. Ok?”

“Deal,” I replied, “and FYI the backdoor isn’t safe.”

I disconnected and went back home passing the patrol cruiser on my way. I waved to the officers in the car and entered the house. There were some things I didn’t like that I heard from Brian. But it could be because I wasn’t the native English speaker. Hopefully, I misunderstood what he’d said. If even so, it added some more suspicions and worries.

“Oh, you are back,” Harry stated as he turned to face me and muted the TV he was watching. “Have they said something about your parents?”

“Nothing, actually,” I replied. “They said they’ll take me tomorrow morning to Seattle.”

“Don’t I have to go with you as your legal guardian?”

“I dunno. They didn’t say about you. Just about me being a key witness,” I improvised.

“Go upstairs to your room and pack your clothes. It’s not good to pack in the morning. You might forget something essential,” he said and turned TV’s sound back on.

It was better to pack and keep the illusion that I was going to leave in the morning. Most of my things were still in respective Wal-Mart bags. The packing job took me less than thirty minutes. Afterward, I went downstairs and started dinner. I’d planned veggies stew with roasted meat.

 

 

Later the scenario of the previous day was repeated. We ate dinner, I cleaned the kitchen and Harry had called the hospital. This time mom was there and they could speak directly to each other without a doc in between. Mom said special agents had informed her that they will take me tomorrow to Seattle. Alone without Harry. She signed all the needed papers. I was relieved that the agents played along.

I went upstairs to my room for the night. Harry stayed to watch some TV. As I turned to him from the stairs to say “Goodnight” his face was in such pain that I thought about cardiac arrest.

“What’s on?” I ran to him.

“I got used to you here,” he said. “You seemed such a brat before. I see you as a wonderful person now. This witness protection thing means I’ll never see you again. It hurts.”

I hugged him. He cried a little. I cried too. I didn’t know why. It wasn’t in my plans to go all emotional. It happened and I was angry at myself. I couldn’t afford tears when on the mission.

 

 

It was late and it was time for kids to be in their beds. I was in my room and I was in my bed listening intently for the sounds in the house. After we both, that’s Harry and me, were calmed after some emotional outburst, Harry was about to watch TV a little. There were sounds from his TV. They were not loud but as I was trying to listen I could hear the TV was still on. Then the sound was lowered and a few moments later I heard the entrance door open and then a thud. Someone was carefully getting upstairs and opened the door to my room. The blanket was torn to the side…

“Shit,” that someone cursed under his nose. It was a police officer. He quickly checked my bathroom, then Harry’s bathroom, and at last Harry’s room. Nothing. Another person came upstairs. It was a man in his thirties wearing a combat uniform.

“Kleist?” officer asked.

“Secured,” was the reply. “Brat?”

Officer shrugged. He pointed to my room and went back to Harry’s room. They were about for thorough inspection in the rooms and closets and bathrooms. The lights were off but there were LED indicators on light switches in the hall and the rooms. One could see where to turn the light on. After some time in the darkness, my eyes were adjusted to the low light. Those LEDs were giving enough light for me to see around. I prowled down the stair setting two consequent wire traps on my way.

The TV was still on giving enough light to see the entrance door and the living room. Partially the kitchen and hallway to the guestroom were lit enough as well. Harry was on the floor. There was no blood. Good. He was gagged and his hands were tied behind his back.

The kitchen was empty as the guestroom and bathroom too. Time for some play. Besides I needed to know where the second officer was. I looked through the living room window. Patrol cruiser was there as it was before. The officer was sitting in the shotgun seat and seemed like he was dozing. I opened the entrance door and then closed it with a slam. The officer in the car didn’t move.

I heard my guests stomping on the second floor and then the noise of bodies falling down the stairs and cursing. The man in combat uniform was the first to stand up and he was the first to sprawl on the floor. Someone needs more than one lesson to learn. Another session of cursing followed and the police officer repeated the same action. I had enough time and space around to zip-tie their wrists. Ankles, elbows, and knees followed and then duct-tape to silence them. I didn’t like to kill as someone could suggest. Those two were moaning. I was waiting.

The backdoor cracked open and then it opened wide and a man with a gun in his hands entered silently. He looked around. He noticed those two on the ground but didn’t pay much attention to them. He motioned to someone with his head and the woman entered with a gun too. They moved silently around and when the man noticed Harry on the floor he motioned to the woman. She knelt behind Harry and checked his pulse and tried to crack his eyes open.

“I’ll call the ambulance,” she said silently.

“Wait, I’ll check the second floor.”

He went upstairs on his way chuckling at wire traps. Two minutes later he said aloud, “It’s safe here, call the ambulance.”

Then he was on the first floor again putting his gun away.

“Special agent Brian Malone’s here,” the man said. “You did a great job Kiesha.”

I came from the kitchen and finger waved to him, “Hello!”

“The second officer is in the car and I guess he’s dead,” I offered.

“I noticed,” Brian replied.

“Nice to meet you in person at last,” the woman said.

 

 

They had called an ambulance and police. We were in the living room. We had Harry on the couch with a wet cloth over his head. The police broke through the entrance door and backdoor at the same time. Three of them at every door. They had guns in their hands. As they saw Brian’s and Rose’s badges they lowered barrels of their guns down. Except one. I looked at him and our gazes met and I dove behind the fridge. I won. I was alive and he was arrested.

I didn’t know how the system worked in this country. I guessed federals were superiors over the police. If so, were the Police involved here? Now that police leak was confirmed I was in danger as well as Harry. My parents were in danger too because they were guarded by police officers in the hospital. Brian got it when I was in the middle of the sentence telling them my suspicion. Rose didn’t get it. I don’t say women are worse agents than men. She needed more practice or more training or maybe she wasn’t suited for this job.

We got in their SUV. That’s both agents, Harry with me.

“Don’t call the agency,” I suggested.

“Sure,” Brian confirmed.

“But we need support,” Rose complained.

“Rose, don’t…” Brian sighed heavily.

There was a hospital in the town where Harry lived. We needed to get to the hospital with my parents. That was another town. I remembered it took more than an hour for Harry to get from the hospital to his home. I planned to take a nap. This young body wasn’t suited for a long stay awake.

Brian called the hospital. He asked their security to double with police officers at rooms with dad and mom. I was dozed off when I heard Brian saying, “We have a company”.

“What kind?” I asked

“One car. We are a quarter away. Rose, it’s a good time to call the agency for support.”

“We’ll need ambulance parking clean,” I offered.

“Calling them.”

With all services in one place and without a time left for conspiracy it ended almost smoothly. There were no victims, two muffled shots and an ambulance’s windshield shattered.

It was already a day when we were let into the hospital.

 

 

It was a kind of family reunion. I was in the same room as dad and mom. They two looked at me like at alien. Who could blame them right? Mom was in that kind of hospital gown that exposes a lot of skin. Over it, she was wearing a robe that made her look almost decent. Dad was in a wheelchair. He was dressed similarly to mom and he was covered with a plead over his lap.

Most probably I’d made a great mistake meeting with them. I didn’t know how this family expressed its affection for the reunion. I simply hugged mom and then dad. Harry was much more emotional. He hugged mom and they stayed hugged for a while and first Harry and then mom cried a little. An eleven years old girl was expected to be much more emotional. What could I do? I wasn’t in drama and I didn’t know how to act. It would be false and unnatural.

Mom and dad had some questions but they were hesitant to ask me or ask Harry in my presence. I got the message.

“I’ll be right back,” I said and exited the room. There were two guards at the door.

“Go back,” one of them ordered.

“I need to see special agent Brian Malone,” I replied. “It’s urgent.”

One of them turned away from me and said something into his walky-talky. “He’ll be right here.”

I didn’t wait long.

“Go to your family and we’ll talk there,” Brian offered.

“I don’t think it’s good. The less they know the better they sleep.”

“The only thing that bothers me is that you are eleven. My niece is twelve and she still plays with her dolls.”

“I’ll be like her. Only after my family is safe.”

“Sooo…” he started, “Is there something you want to tell me? Or you want to be alone for a while?” Brian asked.

“I have some considerations. Is there something new you can tell me?”

“Not a lot,” he hesitated for a while. “We want to put your family into witness protection…”

“With or without Harry Kleist?”

“Without, why?”

“He was exposed.” I offered.

“So?”

“Put yourself into the gang. Wouldn’t you to eliminate him just to be sure there’re no loose ends?”

“How old are you, Kiesha?”

I said nothing.

“What else?” Brian asked.

“I didn’t expect the details of your investigation. I wouldn’t give them away were I in your place. I want you to give some consideration of what I’ll say to you. There is some gang that isn’t local and not another town not local. For easier action, they hire local thugs and local small gangs. I would expect real gangs to be more professional. What I’d confronted until now were amateurs. They are persistent so the gang is powerful, that’s the money isn’t a problem. They don’t want to expose themselves because it would be a lead for you. With all racial diversity around the difference can’t be racial. If you haven’t still done it, try to look for a new Russian gang in the Quebec-Montreal area.”

“Well… Ok… I’ll see what I can do about Uncle Harry,” he replied and turned around to leave.

“I haven’t finished yet,” I said.

“What else?”

“I was bothered by the fact that the police officer who was the last to enter the scene was about to kill me. If I was a valuable thing to get to my father, it’s stupid.”

“Now that you say it, I have to agree with you. It’s stupid,” Brian agreed with me.

“Or our family was attacked by mistake,” I offered.

“It may be possible.”

“The possible reason could be someone misspelled our family name Schwab,” I started. “The first three characters are S-C-H like in the word school. Instead of sounding like SK, they sound like SH.”

“I don’t get it…”

“According to this rule if you’re looking for someone called kind of SKVAB wouldn’t you look for Schwab instead of Squab?”

“Shit!” Brian whispered. “Oh, shit! Thanks, Kiesha! I have to run.”

I got back into the room with my family. They all were looking at me as I entered.

“I guess you will not be left alone here,” I turned to Harry and I hugged him. It was strange that I was more emotional around this man than with my parents. Maybe it was because he was so dependent on me. But they all were.

“Would it be courteous to ask for a doll for me?” I asked. ”Otherwise I’ll forget who I am.”