Chapter 14
In a while they both fell asleep in each other's arms. They slept soundly and didn't hear Thor's throaty growl. The dog raised his head when the door opened about 3 inches. The door stopped opening and there was no other movement. Thor slowly got up and warily made his way to the door. He stared at the gas canister rolling across the floor. The dog's legs got weak and he collapsed on the floor unconscious.
Two figures silently entered the kitchen. Both of them were dressed in black from head to toe. They both had black ski masks on so that only their eyes showed. The two figures walked silently down the hallway to the bedroom. They were each armed with a wicked looking Uzi submachine gun. With great care, one of the men opened the door without making a sound. They maneuvered until they were positioned on each side of the bed. When they were in position, both men nodded and they called out.
"OK get up and don't make any sudden moves."
Roy woke up and reached for his gun only to get the Uzi along side of his head. The other man dragged Ann out of bed and held her in front of him with the Uzi pointed at her throat. Roy crawled out of bed, leaning on the bedside table for support. His body was hiding the tape recorder and neither of them saw him turn it on to record. He was moaning loud so that they wouldn't hear the click.
The man holding Ann shouldered his Uzi and pulled a knife from a scabbard on his belt and held it to her throat.
"If you make any trouble Mr. Baines I'll slice your girlfriends throat open."
Ann started to struggle and Roy hollered to her to be still and not anger the men. The man not holding Ann started to search the room. After they had emptied all of the drawers on the floor they shove them into the office. The man doing the searching turned on the computer. When all he could get was a black screen he told Roy to boot it up.
"It's broken, can't you see that?'
They finished trashing the office and then shoved them back to the bedroom. The man holding Ann grabbed her breast and squeezed it cruelly. Ann tried to get away from him and he warned her to be still or he would cut her throat. His hand went to her stomach and he tried to cup her mound. She held her legs together tight and he moved his hand to her breast again.
"Leave her alone," the other man said. "Maybe later we can check out how fine she is."
He turned to Roy, "Ok, what did you do to the computer. We saw you working on it. We know it works. Do you have some sort of scrambler on it? We couldn't monitor it. We tried everything."
Roy asked who they were and what they wanted. He got another hit in the head with the Uzi.
"The General doesn't appreciate you trying to leave us after all we've done for you. We know that something is going on between you and this girl. If you don't tell us what's going on, the police will get a call. We'll let them know were to find the bodies."
Roy started toward the man and he raised the Uzi, "I wouldn't try it, Mr. Baines. Now are you going to tell us what is going on?"
Roy looked at the man trying to figure a way out of this mess. He was sure that the General had sent these men. He was also sure that they meant to kill them. He knew that the police wouldn't find any bodies. They would just disappear. The man holding Ann held her breast and was squeezing it, making her wince in pain.
"I take it you two are from the Pentagon? Why did General Brainerd send you? I told him the reason that I resigned. It has nothing to do with the Ann. I'm just burned out."
The man pointed the Uzi at him, "General Brainerd doesn't see it that way. He knows that you have something up your sleeve. You going to Congress and spill you guts by any chance? You going to tell those asshole Congressmen about the funding setup? Now, you going to tell us what's going on or do we have some fun with your girlfriend here?"
Roy made a move at the man and the man raised the Uzi menacingly. He warily watched Roy. Roy glanced at the other man and he was busy trying to get his hand between Ann's legs. Both of them were so intent on what they were doing that neither of them noticed the dog sneaking into the room. Suddenly the dog leaped at the man holding Ann and grabbed his arm.
The man holding the gun on Roy turned to see what was happening. Roy turned and grabbed the open bottle of jewelry cleaner and threw it in the man's eyes. The man screamed and started clawing at his eyes, trying to wipe the burning liquid out of his eyes and mouth. Roy knocked the gun out of his hands. He quickly picked up the gun and hit the man in the back of his head as hard as he could. The man dropped to his knees dazed and then fell on his face. Roy could hear the man's nose break.
Ann had pulled away from her captor and was trying to get Thor off of the man. Roy took her arm and pulled her away so that he could subdue the man when she got Thor off of him. Roy watched for a minute as the dog kept trying to sink his teeth into the man's throat. The man held his arms in front of his face and Thor sunk his teeth into the man's wrist. The man's wrist broke with a loud snap.
He motioned for Ann to call off Thor. Ann called Thor and the dog begrudgingly left the man and came to her side. The man was screaming and Roy shoved the barrel of the gun in his mouth and told him to be quiet or he would kill him. The man started to whimper and moan.
"Ann, there's two rolls of duct tape in the cupboard in the kitchen. Hurry and get them and bring them here."
Ann left and came back a few minutes later. He held the gun in the man's mouth while Ann taped his hands and feet. The other man was still unconscious. Ann bound his hands and feet. He started to come around a few minutes later.
Roy went to each of them and pulled off the ski masks. He stood back and shook his head.
"Mr. Sellers and Mr. Barton. I thought I recognized those voices."
Ann Looked at him, "You know them?"
"These two work in security in the weapons department that I used to work in. They dance to any tune that General Brainerd plays."
He turned to the two men, "Why did Brainerd send you here? What did he tell you to do to us?'
One of them yelled, "If you know what's good for you you'll let us go and forget we were ever here."
Roy handed the knife to Ann. He gave her a wink and turned back to the pair.
"Ann, take the knife and cut open each man's leg. We'll ask questions and if they don't answer fast we'll watch them bleed to death. We can say they got cut while we were fighting for the gun."
Ann advanced toward the closest man. He tried to push himself away from her. She grabbed his leg and held the knife to his skin.
"How deep should I cut him?"
"Better make it deep. I can't keep them here too long. Someone might come looking for them."
The man started whining, "Don't cut me. I'll tell you what you want to know."
"Ok, are there any others out there?"
The man shook his head no.
'What did Brainerd tell you to do?"
"He said to find out why you were refusing to come back to the weapons program. He wanted to know what you did to your computer. We couldn't see what you were working on. He said that if we didn't get the right answers, we should kill the both of you. He was afraid that you were going to go to Congress and tell them about how we get funding for the weapons programs. He said you know where too many of the bodies are buried."
Roy threw Ann a robe, "Better get some clothes on. We're going to have company soon."
He got Paul's business card out of his wallet and called his home phone number. It was 3 o'clock and he knew that Paul and his family was sound asleep. After about six rings, a sleepy voice came on the line.
"Hello, who's this?'
"Paul, this is Roy Baines. I need you right now. Get over to my place with a stenographer and a photographer. I've got a couple of government men tried up in my bedroom. They just tried to kill me because I quit the weapons program. There's a lot more. Better get over here right now. This is big enough to make your paper a daily. This is Pulitzer stuff."
Paul told him that he would be right there. In about 45 minutes Roy heard cars screaming up the road. He heard them for several minutes before he saw them. Paul screamed to a stop in front of the house and jumped out of the car. Roy met him at the door. A few seconds later another car pulled up in front of the house and a woman got out of the car followed by a man carrying camera gear.
Roy took them into his bedroom. By this time both of the men were moaning from the pain of their injuries. He played the tape for Paul. The cameraman took pictures of the pair and the house. He used 3 rolls of film before Paul decided that he had enough. Paul took out his tape recorder and made a copy of the tape that Roy had made of the break in. Paul called him into the kitchen.
"Roy this is big. I'm going to give this to the wire services after I break the story in my own rag. Take this tape that I just made. I'll say that my recorder didn't work and make another tape for myself. Don't tell anyone that you have this unless you have to. It's your insurance policy."
They went back into the bedroom and Pal told him that his recorder didn't work and that he would have to try it again. He replayed some of the tape to make sure that he got it and turned to the men. They admitted that they worked for the security department of the Department of Defense. They refused to answer any more questions, figuring that they had said too much already.
Roy called the police and told them what had happened. He was told that the police were on the way. Paul sat in his car until he heard the police sirens and then took off down the road. Two police cars pulled up in front of the house. They rushed into the house.
They questioned Roy and Ann before they took the pair out to the squad car. The police were obviously nervous. A call was put in to the FBI. About dawn the police left with the men. Roy told them that he would be in later to make a statement. The police looked at each other as if they didn't know what to say.
After they left and Roy locked up the house again, he took Ann by
the hand and they sat in the living room. Roy held her tightly and
tried to calm her.