Free An Unlikely Hero (1) by Tierney James Page B

Make sure he has a little too much wine so he’ll sleep soundly.”
    Honey frowned. “Let’s go, Mansur. By the way,” she said looking down at her map of California and Nevada. “What does Mansur mean?”
    Mansur turned his emotionless eyes back to the road and started the engine. “Divinely led,” he said through a forced smile.

Chapter 7
    Tessa knew how to pick the lock on a pair of handcuffs after reading the biography of Harry Houdini to a sixth grade class she’d volunteered in several years earlier. She offered the challenge for students to read three more biographies and promised to escape from a pair of handcuffs like Harry Houdini as a reward. Her research online and practice with a friend of the family who had been a Grass Valley policeman helped her learn the art of escape. It was simple really. All you needed was a bobby pin. If her hands had been cuffed behind her back the trick wouldn’t have worked. Then there was the advantage of having only one hand cuffed to the chair. She didn’t have a bobby pin but had managed to lift a paper clip from the desk next to her when the man in black’s eyes had looked away momentarily. When her captors left her alone Tessa got to work on the cuffs keeping one eye on the inner office where a heated conversation kept the attention off her.
    Since the sparsely furnished office space where she had been forced to sit was dimly lit, Tessa felt confident she could slip out undetected. Unoccupied empty desks in the space, maybe ten or eleven showed no evidence of ever having been used. All were clean and unused. Chairs sat neatly against the lip of each desk like a display scene at Office Max. No trash. No waste baskets for that matter. No office supplies or computers. Empty gray walls, nondescript carpet and low ceiling tiles made the room seem less expansive than it really was. More importantly there were no other people except for her captors. If these people were Homeland Security why wasn’t this place bustling with nervous activity considering a dirty bomb was somewhere in the city?
    Tessa knew these men were dangerous. Even that seemingly nice kid, Vernon, had a quirky look in his eye. Too eager to please, she thought. That scary man in black must have been a demon in another life. The icy stare he dropped on her had sent shivers up her spine. Then there was Chase Hunter. She wasn’t sure what to think of him. Obviously he commanded this group. But who was the suited man that reined them in? She gave him only a passing thought as she slowly rose from her chair and gave one final glance around the room that seemed to be a work in progress.
    She’d stayed close to the wall rather than run across the room which would have drawn attention. Even though it took longer to reach the double doors, Tessa knew her chances of escape lay with a cool head and patience. At first the doors seemed to be stuck. Tessa pushed her hip into it and the door squeaked open. She held her breath at the sound, glancing back at the men deep in discussion. Just as she started through the door, her eyes fell on an discarded fountain pen with the engraved letters B.C. lying on a nearby desk. The sharp point might just be a needed tool or weapon to continue her escape from this building. With eyes on the inner office and one foot propping open the door, Tessa strained to reach the pen. She slipped gently through the doorway and turned to find herself in a short hall that ended with an elevator.
    She ran to the metal doors, and quickly pushed the down button four times hoping that would bring escape sooner. Looking down at her weapon, she read the inscription, “Benjamin Clark.” Tessa turned it around with her fingers. What if someone else was on the elevator? Where were the stairs? She looked for an exit sign as the elevator dinged its arrival. The doors slowly opened as Tessa’s eyes turned back to her attempted route to freedom.
    Tessa’s heart skipped a beat when a tall woman dressed in