Close, But No Steele
Episode 11

Remington and Laura both turned to find the Major sitting in a chair, Minor standing to his right, her left hand on his shoulder- and a gun in her right. "Put your gun on the floor, Mr. Steele," Minor said in her monotone. "And kick it in this direction."

Glaring at the young woman, Remington took the gun from the small of his back and lowered it to the floor, then gave it a kick with his foot.

"Why not just give it up, Major?" Laura said. "You can't possibly win."

"I think you're wrong, Miss Holt," Minor told her. "My father always wins- in the end."

The Major placed his hand over his daughter's to calm her. "I'm sure you've noticed the control panel," he said, indicating a bank of switches on the wall close to where he sat between them and the door. "This used to be the main control room of the station when it was operational. That bank over there still operates the filtration pump lines- which used to be housed in the room that you spent this afternoon in, Miss Holt. These-" he pointed to the bank closet to him, "Have been slightly modified. My daughter has placed eight explosive devices around the building's interior. One for every year that I've been without my Lily."

"Lovely tribute," Remington commented dryly.

Descoine ignored him. "When I flip this switch-" he placed a shaking finger against one of the toggles, "one of the devices will explode. And after the first one is set off, it will set off a chain reaction, randomly exploding another every ten seconds. My time is short," he told them, and Laura could tell that he was holding the pain he must be feeling in check as she saw a little of it in his eyes. "No more than a few minutes at the most. The last bomb to go off will be here, in this room. If you can escape the building without falling victim to one of the bombs, you will have escaped me."

Laura looked at Minor. "You're just going to stay here with him?"

"My place is with my father," Minor said.

"You'll be killed."

"That won't matter, if the two of you are dead," she pointed out. "And if you somehow manage to escape-" Laura felt a cold chill as the younger woman pointed to a lone switch across the room. "That switch will stop the explosions. Each exit has a laser monitor that will alert me that you're out of the building."

Descoine's finger trembled as he touched the switch. "I'll give you ten seconds, Miss Holt and Mr. Steele, and then the end game begins."

Remington took Laura's hand and pulled her around to the door. In the hallway, he said, "Which way?"

Laura looked both ways, and pointed. "That way."

They'd only gotten halfway down the corridor when the building was rocked by an explosion. The lights flickered, and dimmed to nearly nothing, then went out altogether. "Bloody hell!" Remington grumbled, grabbing Laura's hand in the darkness. "Don't let go," he told her.

"Don't worry, I won't."

***

Jarvis and Officer Mallory had just gotten the main gate open when they heard the explosion. Both men pulled their guns and ducked down. "What was that?" Mallory asked.

"Sounded like an explosion. Descoine's an explosive expert." Another explosion, this one in the back of the building. "He's blowing the place up." Standing up, he yelled, "Mr. Steele! Miss Holt!"

***

"That was close," Laura said, spitting concrete dust out of her mouth.

"Too close," he agreed. "Are you okay?" he asked, lifting his lighter to get his bearings.

"Just dusty," she told him.

"Oh, hell," he groaned.

"What?"

"It's a dead end. That last explosion brought the roof down." He turned them back in the other direction as another bomb went off, this one farther away. But it was still too close for comfort. "How many of those things did he say there were?" he asked as they moved back down the hallway, feeling along the wall as they went.

"Eight."

"And that was- three?"

They both huddled against the wall as the building shook again. "Make that four," Laura told him.

"I don't know how much more of that this old place will take," Remington told her. "Come on."

"What are you doing?" she asked as he picked up his pace and retraced their steps.

"I'm going to put an end to Descoine's game- the Major *and* the Minor's both."

He held up his lighter again, nodded, and let it go out. "The door into the control room is about ten feet down the way. Minor left the agency gun on the floor, remember? I'll create the diversion, you get to that button.

Another explosion, and this part of the corridor from the direction they'd come fell in. "That's five," Laura counted. "When?"

"Might as well be now," he said, and held up his lighter in the other direction. "It's blocked. That switch in there is the only way out," he told her, watching the way the flickering light was reflected in her eyes. Dropping a quick, hard kiss onto her lips, he started to turn away, only to feel Laura's arms go around his neck to initiate a longer kiss- just as the sixth bomb went off.

"I love you," she said, and Remington wished that he could have seen her eyes when she said it. But he would.

"Okay. Let's go. I'll push open the door, I'll get the gun and you press that button."

"Right behind you," Laura assured him as they crept closer to the doorway.

Once there, he felt for the door, and then backed across the hallway, counting the seconds down softly. "3 . . . 2 . . .1!" he rushed the door just as the seventh bomb went off, sending the ceiling of the corridor down on top of where they had been standing just seconds earlier. Remington did a quick drop and roll, grabbing the agency gun from where Minor had left it and came to his knees in time to see Minor closing her father's eyes for the last time.

She turned to him, pointing her own gun at his chest. "At least we'll all die together, Mr. Steele," Minor said in her monotone of madness that seemed even more lifeless with the passing of her beloved father. "I wouldn't, Miss Holt," she warned. "Unless you're willing to continue without Mr. Steele."

"Go on, Laura," Remington said, his own gun still pointed at Minor. "You shoot me, I shoot you-"

"I'll die either way," Minor pointed out.

"Do it, Laura!" Remington yelled, rushing Minor, his arm sending hers up as Laura dove for the switch with only one second left on the small counter beside it. Minor's gun went off, the bullet striking the ceiling, sending shards of concrete down, then her body hit the floor hard, her head impacting on the concrete, leaving her still, but breathing. "Damn!" he moaned as he lifted himself from the unconscious young woman's body.

Laura knelt beside him. "What's wrong?" she asked, concerned.

"I think I broke my arm," he told her, wincing.

***

The arm wasn't broken, but it was badly bruised, forcing him to wear it in a sling. Jarred's ankle, however, *was* broken, and it took all of Remington and Daniels' charm combined to convince his worried parents that the boy would recover and be as good as new in no time, and that there was no need for him to go back to England with them.

Minor Descoine was finally behind bars, awaiting trial for her part in the kidnapping of Laura, and for four counts attempted murder of Laura and Remington. Jarvis had assured them that the younger Descoine was going to stay behind bars- in some fashion, unlike her late father. "Actually, it's a sure thing that she's insane. Probably never stand trial. End up in a hospital for the criminally insane somewhere making macramé doilies or something." He'd also given them the answer to a question that they had all been wondering about for years: Minor's real first name. "It's Grace," he had said. "Came up when we ran her fingerprints. She'd been using the name Grace Condesie. That's why we hadn't been able to find her." He shook his head. "An anagram of Descoine. She walked right into that police auction and bought that truck, and we never realized it was her."

As Laura and Remington walked hand-in-hand along the beach a few days later, she looked up at him, her expression curious. "You still haven't told me how you knew there'd be light in that control room," she reminded him. "The rest of the place was totally blacked out."

"Generator. I heard it when we were there earlier, behind the sound of the water pump. He needed some way to send the signal to blow up the bombs. It made sense that there would be a generator- hence- lights."

"Ah. You know, you're getting pretty good at this PI stuff," she told him.

"I had a good teacher," he told her, grinning.

Laura stopped, causing him to stop as well. "Only good?"

His smiled widened. "The best." He gave her a light kiss, then put his good arm around her shoulders as they continued. "Daniel and I had a little chat last night while you were seeing your mother off. Got some things straight."

"Such as?"

"I've agreed not to treat him like an invalid, for one thing. I think he's considering asking Mildred to marry him."

Laura looked at him. "She thinks so, too. Would you mind?"

"Mind? Having Mildred for a stepmother?" He shook his head. "No. I've always thought of her as a substitute mother. Daniel also wanted me to talk to you about something."

"Oh?"

"He wants to help out at the office."

"What?"

"Little things, helping Mildred and Jarred with research-"

"I'm just getting to the point where I don't have to cover for you anymore and he expects me to-"

"He just wanted you to think about it, that's all. Just to keep him busy. Plus, it would make Mildred and me feel better to have him there where we could keep an eye on him."

"I'll think about it," she agreed.

"Thank you." They walked a little longer in silence. "Did you mean it?" he asked.

"Mean what? That I'd think about Daniel at the office?"

He shook his head. "No. I meant- what you said to me just before we burst into that control room."

She stopped and turned to look into his eyes. "Yes. Every word."

Remington released the breath he'd been holding and pulled her into a one armed embrace. "Thank God. I was afraid that maybe this was all one sided."

"Remember what we talked about - before all this happened?" she asked.

"Changing the agency's name?" he asked.

"Before that- but I still think that's a good idea, too. Changing *my* name."

He went very still as she pulled the small velvet box from the pocket of her sweater. His eyes searched her face. "Laura?"

"Maybe you should- ask again?" she suggested.

Remington took the box from her hand and looked at it for a long moment. Tucking the box into his sling, he took her hand in his. "Laura, I know that- well, you know that the words don't always come easy to me, but - if you would do me the great honor of becoming my wife, I'll show you every day how very much I love you. Those twelve hours I spent trying to find you were the worst in my entire life. If I hadn't -"

Laura placed a finger against his lips. "You know, for someone who doesn't say the words, you talk an awful lot, Mr. Steele." She smiled. "Give a girl a chance to say yes, will you?"

He went still again. "Yes? Did you just say- yes?" She nodded, still smiling, and Remington pulled her close, spinning them around.

"Your arm!" she worried.

"To hell with my arm," he told her, and yelled, "Yes!" at the top of his lungs, causing Daniel and Mildred to turn and look at them from the deck of the house. Frustrated with being unable to hold her properly, he untangled his left arm from the sling to frame her face. "Oh, you won't regret it, Laura. I promise you."

"There you go again," she sighed her smile teasing. "Talk, talk, talk. Kiss me."

"Gladly," he said, lowering his lips to hers. Once the kiss ended, he found the ring box. "I guess we need to do this, don't we?" Laura watched as he fumbled slightly opening it, and held out her hand for him to slide the ring onto her third finger. "Perfect fit," he commented, and then pulled her back into his arms. "Now, if we can just stop Mildred from trying to turn this into a double wedding . . ."

The End


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Original Content © Nancy Eddy, 2001