Page 83 of PSYCHOlogical

Chapter Thirty-Five

Staff Sergeant Briggs

Ironically, the address the caller had given me to meet was Val’s home. Using Apple’s “Track My iPhone” app on Val’s iCloud, I tracked her phone’s location. The phone was stationary, in the garage two doors down from Val’s.

I was parked in front of a house in the block behind where Val’s phone was located. I maneuvered the thermal camera-fitted drone over the residence where I suspected Val was.

One person was in the front of the home, pacing the floor. Two were positioned at the rear of the home, one of which was sitting. The other was standing ten feet away.

I suspected the one sitting was Val.

I flew the drone over Val’s home. The thermal imaging indicated there was no one in the residence.

My guess was that the caller intended to lure me to Val’s home, leave through the rear door of the residence he was currently in, and enter through the back door of Val’s home. I would then enter Val’s through the front door under the belief that he had been there all along.

Despite his claim to free us upon receiving the information, he had no reason to. In fact, he had every reason not to.

If obtaining any and all copies of the electronic files was crucial, his mission’s priority was to ensure the information couldn’t be distributed by either of us. The majority of what was in the SD card was filed away in my head. I had no doubt Val’s mind was a vault filled with classified information that could be resurrected at will. The only way he could truly prevent the revelation and distribution of New Dawn’s activities would be to kill us both.

Upon receiving the SD card, Val’s abductor would direct the guard at the second residence to kill her. If I hadn’t tracked her phone and used the thermal camera drone, I would have no idea that she was only two homes away, and there would be nothing I could do to prevent her from being killed.

His promise of a polygraph test was part of his plan to kill me. Under the pretense that I’d be released after passing the test, he’d lure me to a back bedroom. After strapping me in a chair and fitting me with electrodermal sensors, he’d kill me when I was incapable of defending myself.

I wasn’t going to give him the luxury of deciding when Val or I were going to die. He was going to do things my way. If he opted not to, the night’s events would make national news.

I flew the drone over the home Val was held in and placed it in “hover” mode. With it in a fixed position over the residence, I drove around the block. Two houses away from the Val’s home—and four houses away from her location—I slowed to a near stop alongside the curb and shut off my headlights.

Steering with my knee and allowing the truck to roll forward at a slow idle, I called the man who I intended to torture until the sun came up.

As the phone began to ring, I watched the monitor. One person was in the back of the home, and two were in the front.

He answered on the third ring. “Unarmed, Mister Briggs.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about,” I responded. “Where do you want me to park?”

“Where are you now?”

I needed to stall for a moment to see what he intended to do.

“Coming around the corner right now,” I said. “What do you want? Driveway? Curb? Garage? You’re calling the shots.”

His image migrated toward the rear of the home. “Park in the driveway,” he said. “Be prepared to be searched and scanned at the door.”

“Understood.”

“Park in the driveway, come onto the porch, and place your flattened palms against the door. I’ll let you in.”

“I’m pulling in front of the house now,” I said, even though I was still two houses away.

I hung up the phone. As I suspected, he exited the rear of the residence and turned toward Val’s home. The image at the rear of the home remained in place, while the other continued to pace the front room.

I parked the truck. I left the drone in “hover” mode and carefully placed the control into the passenger seat. I unzipped my jacket two-thirds of the way and glanced at my handiwork. With slight reluctance, I gripped the dead man’s switch in my left hand. Then, I connected the terminals of the switch to the bomb’s trigger device.

With my pistol in a holster at the small of my back, I got out and sauntered up the sidewalk no differently than if I were going to meet Val for dinner. If the night was destined to be my last on earth, I would die content.

I’d devoted my life to making the Nation a safer place. My means and methods would certainly not be accepted as moral by everyone. Nevertheless, those who chose to condemn my actions slept well at night under my watch.

Grateful for Val, and what comfort she brought me throughout my time with New Dawn, I stepped onto the porch. Without her kindness, concern, and devotion to my well-being, I never would have made it.