Page 55 of So Sinister
Faith lifted her hands in awhaddya want me to saygesture.“Look, Robert, I’m here to drive you out of here, okay?It doesn’t matter if I agree or not.You’re the one holding the detonator.”
Robert nodded.He started to shuffle toward her.“I just wish people understood, you know?Everyone blamed me.They said it was my fault the machines didn’t work, but I told them.And theyknew.They just wanted people tothinkit was me.”
Faith planted her hands on her hips and nodded sympathetically, trying not to let him see her rising tension as he approached.He came closer, and his scent struck her like a high wind, the sour smell of sweat and dirt mixed with the heady sweetness of gasoline and the almost bread-like smell of plastic explosive.
He pushed past her, sniffling and mumbling, “Excuse me.”
She stepped aside.He walked ahead.Now or never.
She moved, grabbing his right hand firmly with her right and his waist with her left.She stepped in front of him and tripped his right foot, leaving his left planted so she could push him out of the bathroom.He stumbled and struggled, screeching and clawing at her face with his left hand.She felt the sting as his nails bit into her face, but she didn’t let go of his right hand.
Jessica grabbed his left hand and pulled it away.He shrieked, “No!No!You assholes!You liars!”
The two agents struggled to bring him down.He fought back ferociously.It wasn’t until Turk sank his teeth into Stevenson’s calf and pulled him down that he finally went to the ground.Faith followed him down, holding desperately.Stevenson shrieked again and tried to yank his hand free so he could release the detonator, but Faith didn’t let go.
She planted a knee into his shoulder blades and pulled his arm straight.Despite his wasted appearance, he was still stronger than her.It took every ounce of strength she had with both arms to pull his right arm out.Jessica twisted her hips and held his left arm back behind his body.Faith did the same with the right, moving carefully so her fingers didn’t slip off of his thumb.Just before she pinned him, he cried out again and yanked his arm.His thumb slipped free, and Faith cursed and grabbed it with her left hand.She twisted her body a full three-sixty, bringing the arm with her until it was bent almost to the point of breaking.She held it there and pressed her right hand over her left, both thumbs pressing down on his.
“You liar!”Stevenson sobbed.“You fucking liar!”
“It’s over,” Faith said.“Tell us where the bomb is.”
“Go to hell!”
Faith twisted his arm.He grimaced and shouted, "Break it, bitch!Fine!Whatever!I told you,the Great Incompetent will die today!”
Faith looked at Jessica.Her partner’s face was drawn and bloodless.
Faith looked at Stevenson.“Listen.There are innocent people in this terminal.There are innocent people who willdieif you don’t—”
“Let them!Fucking let them!Just let mekill that asshole!”
Faith sighed.The negotiator was right.Stevenson was gone.Whatever sanity had allowed him to create the carefully constructed scenes of the previous crimes had disappeared.He was nothing more than his rage now.
“Sergeant,” she called.“Did you bring bomb detection dogs?”
The EOD sergeant, face ashen, replied, “No.We thought we knew where the bomb was, so we evacuated the TSA dogs.We didn’t think we needed to bring our own.”
Incompetent is right,she thought irritably.
But that was just the stress talking.“What’s your name?”she asked.
The sergeant blinked.“I’m Larry, uh, Burkman.Larry Burkman.”
“Okay, Sergeant Burkman.Take Turk.He’s got a good nose.He’ll help you find the bomb.”
“Are you sure?”Jessica asked.
Turk barked in answer and trotted to the EOD sergeant.
“Go,” Faith repeated.“We’ll hold him here.”
Stevenson shrieked and yanked his arm again.Faith tensed and struggled but still held him.“Sometime today would be nice, Sergeant.”
“Right.Sorry.Uh… Come, Turk.”
Turk trotted off, nose to the ground, leading the EOD team away from the two agents and their prisoner.Faith met Jessica’s eyes again and resisted another attempt by Stevenson to release the detonator button.Her heart thudded in her chest, and she tried to smile only to give up on it a second later.
“I think Hozier might have been right about you,” Jessica remarked.
