President's Daughter's Bodyguard-Chapter 75: The Line They Wouldn’t Cross

Chapter 75: The Line They Would Not Cross

Frank parked the van a block away and killed the engine.

Rain still came down in thin sheets that soaked through jackets. He looked at the warehouse across the street.

"Status," he asked commandingly.

A man in the back tapped his tablet and then spoke. "Sensors are live. There is a device wired to the central structural supports. We detected a high-yield charge when we scoped the exterior. The blast pattern would collapse the roof and send debris across two blocks."

Frank had seen too many bodies to let fear paralyze him. "Get me a read on the trigger," he said. "Is it remote or pressure?"

"Both," the tech answered. "Pressure plates in the floor and a wireless detonator. Range is extensive. It can be triggered over cellular. There is a fail safe that will detonate if tampering is detected."

The rain blurred the warehouse facade. Through the steam of heated engines and the glow of police lights, Ethan’s cameras winked like stars.

The protesters chanting a few blocks away could still be heard in the distance.

Inside that building Danielle’s face had been turned into the only thing that mattered.

Frank rubbed his jaw and breathed, then spoke to the team as if to anchor them. "No one goes in unless I say so. No drones. No forced entry. We ask him. We buy time. We keep her alive."

One of the men, was a second negotiator and he moved forward and keyed his radio and handed it to Frank. "Ethan," he called loud enough for the mic to feed the small PA they had set up, "this is Frank Hale. You know me. I do not want anyone to get hurt. Let Danielle go. Talk to me."

There was a long, slow silence. Then the speaker in the warehouse crackled and a voice filled the air. It was Ethan’s voice,

"Frank...You always loved playing the caretaker. You always loved pretending, no?"

"You are angry. We can fix this without anyone dying. Talk to me. Tell me what you want."

A wet laugh came over the speaker, and for a half second the grain of the voice changed. "Do you hear them out there? People who hate them. People who will cheer when the tyrant falls. I could give them a show. Live. But you must choose, Frank. Move a step closer and the city will wake to their princess in flames."

Frank’s fingers tightened on the radio until the knuckles whitened. "That is not how this ends. Surrender. We will get you help. We will stop this."

Ethan’s answer was only a soft click, then the faint sound of a keyboard. "You think help is possible for men like me? Help taught my allies to leave. Help is for those who deserve it. He does not deserve it. Neither do they."

On the street the team listened. Some had seen this charade before, a man finding god only through violence.

Others had not...

They all felt the battery under their skin like a pulse.

Frank adjusted his earpiece and watched the slow breath of the night. He could picture Danielle strapped to the table, the lights in her face, Ethan’s hands moving with the ease of a man striking a match.

He imagined Theo on the pavement somewhere dying for another minute while the signal pulsed its last.

He imagined the president’s face when the world woke to a burning image.

"Listen to me," Frank let out a shaky sigh, "Ethan, you can have a voice. You can have justice. You do not need to be a murderer. Set the trigger to dead mode. Show me where the device is and we will disarm it under surveillance. No tricks."

Ethan’s laugh arrived again, soundinh so squeezed and soft. "You trade safety for truth, boy? You make me laugh."

There was a click, a mechanical sound too small to be noticed by anyone who was not listening for it. The negotiator’s hair prickled too.

"The device will not just explode," Ethan made a statemend. "It will take... It will take what I say it will. You are tired of the lies, Frank. Let us all be honest right now. The man whose daughter cries on camera will be the man who signs his pardon in front of the morning news. I will broadcast her words and he will have to watch. If you cross that line, then the line will cross everything else."

Frank swallowed. He ran his thumb across the scar on his hand and remembered the men he had lost.

He remembered a promise he had once made to a dying partner.

"Time is moving," he said slowly. "We can do this in a way that keeps her alive."

Ethan’s voice fell to a whisper so everyone leaned in. "You would sacrifice my brothers for your politics? You would let him live while everything burns? You are monsters, all of you. You shape the world with your hands and you call it order."

A pause filled with static. Then Ethan spoke into the speaker with the slow cruelty of a man savoring a wound.

"If you step across that alley and the boots touch my door I will press the button and the building will be dust. If you try to breach through the roof I will detonate the plates. If you send a drone to touch the glass the transmitter will sense it and the charge will go. I could blow us all to nothing. I will do it. I will do it because I want them to see what their leader made them."

Someone in Frank’s team breathed out so hard the sound was nearly a sob.

"You do not want to die either, Ethan. Turn yourself in, and let’s talk... For her."

Ethan hummed as if considering a song. "Talk. Oh yes. Talk on television while your daughter tells the world how rotten the man who made her lived. Talk and then we will see who the people want to hang. I will not be the one who tells them how to feel. I will be the one who makes them feel."

Frank took a step forward, and the tech hissed into his ear.

"There is a delay on the detonation signal. He can trigger remotely. We can jam him, but jamming could be interpreted as interference and trigger the failsafe."

"Then what do you want me to do?" Frank asked the rain.