Chapter 206: Surprise Attack

Friday, July 9, 1971

The visit to the children’s hospital went off without a hitch. Ileana and I stayed in the background as much as possible and I felt lucky that the New York press hadn’t cottoned on to who we were. All the attention stayed focused on Princess Grace and her daughter.

That night was another circus, with a benefit dinner at the hotel. This one was attended by over five hundred of the cream of New York society. Ileana and I were content to be seated at a table near, but not too near the front. I spent the majority of my time continuously scanning the crowd and more importantly, the hotel, for anything suspicious. But everything was okay.

The speeches were long, and the Princess made an impassioned plea for financial support. I don’t know how much they raised, but I know that I wrote a check for ten thousand dollars. After the dinner, we returned to the Princess’s suite for a while.

“Did you detect anything?” she asked me at one point.

“You know what they say, no news is good news,” I told her. Shortly thereafter, we returned to our suite. Ileana, Anna, and Luisa immediately went to change out of their formal attire while I simply removed my coat and tie and settled into the plush sofa with a beer.

“Michael?” Anna started as she walked back into the sitting room. She had on her silk pajamas. “Have you scanned lately?”

“Not since the dinner ended. I was just about to,” I told her as I started my now familiar routine.

“SHIT!” I cried suddenly. “There are five of them and they’re in the west stairwell, dressed in overalls and wearing gas masks. They’ve taken out the security in the whole stairwell with some kind of gas. I think it’s sleeping gas because I can still detect a heartbeat in the FBI guys.”

Luisa came charging into the room with her radio and her gun and was heading for the door. Anna had already picked up the phone when she said, “Luisa, wait!”

Luisa turned to look at her and Anna looked at me.

“I’m waiting until they reach this floor because I’m still trying to figure out who the leader is and how many more there are,” I told her.

“Listen to me carefully. Check the hall and make sure that no one is out there, but don’t leave the room. Michael will take care of them, but we have to know how many more there are,” Anna ordered Ileana.

Luisa just stood there looking from Anna to me as Ileana opened the door and looked out.

“All clear,” she announced. Then closing the door, she went into the bedroom and returned moments later with the case containing my sword. Setting it down beside me, she opened it, then stepped back.

“Damn!” Luisa thought to herself. “They’ve done this before!”

I connected all three of them into what I was scanning.

“Fascists!” cried Luisa as she heard their words. “They’re after the princess. We’ve got to stop them!”

I was glad that Luisa could understand them. I didn’t know Spanish.

“Luisa, listen carefully. Anna help me. I need to do this so that it looks like you and Luisa did it. I’ll drop them when they reach this floor, but you’ll probably need to shoot one or two of them to make it believable. Just wing them, okay?”

“Got it!” Anna said. Then to Luisa, “Got cuffs?” she asked. Luisa pulled out her pair.

“Okay. When Michael gives the word, we go. They’ll be paralyzed, so shoot the first one you see in the arm. Then slap your cuffs on another one. I’ll get two of the others the same way. Got it?”

Luisa just nodded her head, as if in a daze.

“Be sure you grab any weapons, too,” Anna reminded her.

“They’re on the landing below. They’ve stopped to listen. One of them is opening the door to the stairwell. Now he’s motioning the others. Okay, get ready ... Now!” I cried as I tweaked each of the kidnapper’s basal ganglia causing them to drop in their tracks.

“There’s one in the stairwell,” I thought to Anna as I heard two gunshots.

“Got him!” Anna thought back. “Keep everyone back, Michael!”

I stepped in the hall in time to see the Princess crack open her door and look out. She had her snub-nose in her hand.

“It’s okay,” I called to her. “Stay in your room until I knock.” Then I positioned myself in front of her door and stood there, waiting.

I didn’t have to wait long until the hall became flooded with agents and security people, all with their guns drawn. My new fear became someone getting hurt accidentally. Namely me, as I refused to drop my sword or move away from the door.

“Stop!” Luisa cried from the end of the hallway when she saw the agent threatening me. “He’s with me.”

The agent who had been about to plug me lowered his gun, “Okay, sonny. Move it. I’ll take care of things here, now.”

“No sir,” I replied politely. “Not until Agent Rivera says it’s okay.”

“I’m the AIC on this detail, asshole. You’ll do...”

I didn’t feel like putting up with his shit, so I put him to sleep.

When the other agents saw him fall, they immediately turned their guns on me again as they tried to figure out what had happen to their AIC.

“He passed out,” I told them before they could ask. By that time, Luisa was by my side.

“Is the Princess okay, Michael?” she asked.

“She was a moment ago. I told her to lock the door and not to answer until I told her it was clear.”

“Gentlemen. I’ll take care of the Princess. Please help them clean up this mess,” she told them.

I looked around for Anna.

“She went for the other two. She has three of the princesses’ men with her,” Luisa explained. “Let’s check on the Princess.”

The Princess had just let us in the room when I felt them. I barely had time to pull the Princess and Luisa close to me, as I quickly raised my shield to deflect the shrapnel as the glass in the floor-to-ceiling windows shattered under the hail of bullets. Then we watched as three machine gun toting men dressed all in black swung into the room on ropes attached to the roof. They immediately jumped to their feet and looked at us.

These weren’t kidnappers, but professional hit men, I realized. One of the assassins headed to Caroline’s bedroom, as the other two began firing at us in three-shot bursts. With my shield up, they couldn’t hurt us, but I couldn’t use my powers to do anything to them either, so I waited. Finally, they paused. I was focused and ready. I dropped my shield and then paralyzed all three of the attackers in the same instant.

“Quick. Shoot them!” I told Luisa. She calmly fired twice, winging both paralyzed men, before hurrying to the bedroom where she simply clubbed the third one who had cornered the young princess.

Then, the front door of the suite crashed open and FBI agents began pouring in just as Caroline came running out of her bedroom to her mother.

“Two down in here, another in the bedroom,” Louisa told them. “I’ll take care of the Princess!”

Then to us, “Please follow me, Your Highness. C’mon Michael,” Luisa ordered as she led us around the glass-strewn room and down the hall to our suite, leaving the other agents to take care of the three new killers.

Anna had just returned from apprehending the other two kidnappers. As Luisa attended the distraught Princesses, I quickly replayed what had happened for Anna and Ileana, then we joined the other three women.

“Professional assassins?” Anna asked. “No wonder the ones in the stairwell were so inept. They were a set-up.”

“How did you stop those bullets? And what did you do to those men?” the Princess asked. I didn’t answer because I was busy scanning everything. I had already made one near-fatal mistake tonight; I didn’t want to make another.