Maritime Caper (Coastal Fury Book 12), Matt Lincoln [good books to read for beginners TXT] 📗

us had our backs to the door by then, and I heard a dull banging sound ring out from behind me. I whirled around to find a shadowy figure standing in the dark hallway leading to the elevator from our office door.

The sound must’ve been the door to the stairwell closing behind him, and I cursed myself for not looking in there sooner.

“Who are…?” I started to ask, instinctively pulling out my gun at my side, though I didn’t raise it. Then I saw the outline of a gun pointing out in front of the man’s figure.

I couldn’t see him very well. The only light was coming from the lamp on my desk and the dull beams above the elevator. He was wearing all black and had a ski mask over his face. I could tell that he was a man, though, around medium height with a good build, broad shoulders but not quite stocky.

“Hold up!” Diane screamed, and I glanced over without moving my head that she had her own weapon drawn and trained on the dark figure. “Don’t make a single move!”

The man appeared frozen, unsure of what to do next. He kept his gun trained on me, as I still had mine at my side, and I didn’t dare raise it for fear that he would shoot me. But at the same time, he didn’t dare shoot me for fear that Diane would shoot him. In short, we were at a standstill.

“You’d better not move,” Diane said quietly, though her tone emanated authority. “We already have people on the way. This is a federal agency office, and if you so much as lay a finger on a federal agent, you’ll get the book thrown at you, or worse.”

The ski-masked head swiveled between Diane and me subtly, as if the man was trying to make a decision.

“Who hired you?” I asked. “You left this box?”

I nodded down at the empty box that was still at my feet. But the man didn’t answer. He just continued to stand there, pointing his gun at me.

I squinted at him. I couldn’t see his hands shaking, so I doubted he was just some scared dumb kid. And he hadn’t exactly played this well, either.

He hadn’t expected both of us to be there, I realized. He’d expected it to just be Diane, and then he would shoot her when she went for the box, leaving the warning message behind for the rest of us to find in the morning. But I had stayed late, and now the three of us were in a quagmire where no one could shoot, but no one could lower their weapons, either.

“Look, man, if this isn’t going according to plan, it’s better to get out now before anyone gets hurt,” I warned him. “I don’t know who hired you or why you’re here, but it can’t be worth dying over, can it?”

The man looked back at the door as if he wanted to make a run for it.

“Oh, you’re not going anywhere, my friend,” Diane assured him. “We have a whole host of questions for you.”

Realizing once more that he was stuck, the man froze in place again and stopped looking around the area. This whole time, not once did he move the barrel of his gun from being trained right at my chest.

I could feel my pulse throbbing in my neck and hear my heart pounding in my ears. No matter how many missions I’d been on over the years, no matter how many sticky situations I managed to get myself into, it was never fun being shot at. Especially in slow motion like this, when you didn’t know what was going to happen if anything.

I saw his hand flinch as if he was going to pull the trigger, and I instinctively ducked down behind the box, not that it would help me much, flimsy as it was.

A shot did ring out, and I covered my ears with my free arm, ducking my face into the crook of my elbow to try to shield myself from a painful noise.

Another shot rang, then a third, and I stayed put, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire in such a small space. Then I heard a ding, maybe, but I couldn’t be sure with all the ringing in my ears.

“What happened?” I gasped as I peered over the box to see Diane, who was looming angrily near the elevator.

“He slipped by me,” she said angrily. “He shot in the other direction to divert my attention, and now he’s on his way down.”

“Well, come on,” I said, waving her forward with me.

Together, we ran downstairs. But there was no one out front. There was no one in the basement lab, either, or on any of the other floors.

“I should call the police,” Diane murmured when we’d surveyed the place, pulling out her phone.

“But who was that?” I asked, dropping my hands in defeat. “What the hell is going on?”

“I don’t know,” Diane said, pursing her lips. “But we’re going to find out. This is definitely our case now.”

10

Ethan

Tessa and I rented a car at the airport and drove to Walldale, Virginia, a small city sticking out along the coast, outside Newport News, where the museum used to be. The museum moved to be in a more quiet area closer to the ocean landmarks they studied there.

It was the perfect location for a maritime museum, I thought, as we drove into town along a bridge and saw the ocean pressing along out of Tessa’s window.

“Oh, it’s beautiful,” she gushed, following my gaze, and she smiled, her eyes gleaming at me. “Do you think we could stop by the museum tonight? Just to take a peak.”

“I don’t know…” I said carefully, as this had not been the plan. If I were honest, the museum manager’s behavior had managed to get to me, and I didn’t want to walk Tessa into anything dangerous, especially at night.

Oh, come on, it’ll be