Sweepers

by P. T. Deutermann

  You don’t understand, von Rensel. If I’d wanted Sherman dead, he’d have been extinguished a long time ago. That’s what I do. What I’ve done for years.

  “So what do you want?” Karen asked, speaking for the first time.

  His destruction. At the hands of his own kind, Commander. I’m provoking his precious Navy to turn on him at the peak of his professional success. I’m going to take away everything of value to him and leave him to contemplate that for the rest of his life. And there’s nothing you two can do about it.

  “The Navy knows what’s going on here, Galantz,” Train said. “They’re not going to fall for this.” But as he said it, he wondered.

  The admirals will do precisely what I want, von Rensel In a manner of speaking, they’re part of this. That’s why you’re going to Aquia now.

  And that’s why I’m making this little courtesy call-to reinforce your orders. Stay out of this. Stay out of this or I’ll extinguish you both, understand?

  How in the hell did he know that? Train wondered. He tried to think of something to say, but he sensed that Karen was getting truly frightened.

  Hell, -so was he. There was absolutely zero emotion in that machine voice.

  You listening, von Rensel? I’ve been setting this up for years. Years of watching Sherman. Years of cultivating his wretched son. But time t’ s growing short. My employers are ‘ a little upset with me just now, and I don’t need any distractions in the end game. Go to your pretty little estate. Stay there. This will be over soon. Now, look behind you.

  Train snapped his head around. Their Mercedes was all alone out in six lanes of the Beltway. There was a wall of headlights farther back, but all of the traffic was holding back because of the police car that was a hundred feet behind them.

  “Oh no,” Karen whispered.

  Train reached for the Glock, but then he saw the police car begin to fall back, signaling an exit, merging into the phalanx of headlights ahalf mile behind them.

  Go to Aquia. Live a lot longer. Then there was only the hiss of static.

  “Now what?” Karen said.

  “We call the cops, that’s what,” he replied. “What’s this number?”

  She gave it to him while he reached for the phone, recycled it, and dialed the beeper number Mcnair had given him. The beeper tape came up, and Train punched in the car phone’s number and hung up. The phone rang one minute later.

  “Von Rensel,” Train said.

  “You called us,” -a male voice replied.

  Train hesitated. Us? Who the hell was us? “I have -a message for Mcnair,” he said.

  “Go ahead.”

  “Tell him Galantz caught up with us on the Beltway, gave us a friendly phone call. We’re headed for Aquia.”

  “Your ETA?”

  “An hour from now. Maybe less.”

  “Your route?”

  Train hesitated again. Who was this guy? But then, if they wanted protection, the cops would have to know their route.

  He told the voice they would take the Beltway to 1-95, and then straight down to Aquia. “Us” broke the connection without replying. Train hung up the phone.

  “Who’d you get?”

  “An ops center, from the sound of it. They knew Mcnair, though.”

  “That voice scared the hell out of me.”

  “Me, too. Rock and roll, Karen.” She kicked it up to seventy.

  An hour later, they arrived at Train’s estate. Train had called ahead and raised Kyoko to tell her they were coming in.

  Hiroshi was waiting for them at the front steps when Karen pulled the Mercedes to a stop. The two Dobermans, who had accompanied the car up to the house from the front gates, sat attentively on either side of the car until Hiroshi gave them an order that sent them back out into the morning twilight. Karen slumped behind the wheel and turned to look wordlessly at Train, her eyes betraying her exhaustion.

  “For the moment, I think we’re safe,” he said, not entirely believing it even as he said it.

  “Only for the moment? I thought Mcnair said we weren’t targets anymore.”

  “Yeah, but what does he know?” When they got out, Hiroshi signaled that he had something to tell Train. Karen took her bag and went into the house to use the bathroom.

  Hiroshi waited until she had gone into the house. “There is la visitor,” he announced.

  “Visitor?” Train asked. “At this hour?”- And then he knew. “Admiral Sherman.”

  Hiroshi nodded. “Arrived three hours ago. He is asleep in the study.”

  Train was wondering where the hell the good admiral had been all night.

  He ‘was still bothered by what he thought of as the feasibility problem.

  Then he dismissed his suspicions: As Galantz had said, Sherman was in end game and didn’t know it. He took Hiroshi aside.

  “Go in and wake him up. Take him some coffee. When Commander Lawrence comes back out, we’ll take a little walk around the grounds, give him a few minutes to get himself together. Then we’ll come in.”

  Hiroshi gave a short bow, then hesitated.

  “Yes, Hiroshisan?”

  “He has a gun, I think. In his coat pocket.”

  Train nodded. Why not, everybody else was packing tonight. “It’s been a long night, Hiroshi,” he said. “We were ambushed up in Maryland.” He told Hiroshi about what had happened.

  “Ninia,” the old man murmured thoughtfully. Train caught the note of approval. But then he realized that it was respect being given to a worthy and capable opponent and not admiration for what Galantz was doing.

  “Yes, ninia,” he replied. “But a ninja without honor. He kills women and old men. His real objective is the destruction of this senior officer, this Admiral Sherman, the man inside.”

  “This is the senior officer?

  The ninja will kill him?”

  “I don’t think so. I think he means to disgrace him and then let him live with that disgrace-for’d long time.”

  Hiroshi gave another nod. Disgrace was much worse than being killed.

  “Commanoer Lawrence and I interfered. I think the first. attack on her was meant to neutralize me. The second time was meant to remove both of us. Now I think if we were just to stay here, nothing more would happen to us. Or to anyone else here,” he added pointedly.

  Hiroshi gave a dismissive snort. “Let him come here. Life is sometimes boring.”

  Train laughed out loud. “Not with this guy, Hiroshisan.

  But my other problem is that my superiors are playing at some kind of game.”

  Hiroshi was silent for a moment while he absorbed this news. Then he gave Train a sideways look. “You will remain here?”

  “I’m not sure. When I was in the Marines, we were taught not to sit still and wait for the enemy. Waiting in one place just simplifies his problem. There’s another factor: The senior officer’s son is involved in this matter. He has been helping the man who is behind the killings.”

  Hiroshi shook his head. ““The son helps the man who would destroy his father? What kind of son is this?”

  Karen was coming back out of the house. There was a hint of sunrise across the river. “There’s history, Hiroshisan. The father treated the son very badly long ago. The father is not entirely innocent here. Send Gutter out, please.

  Hiroshi bowed . and went back into the house as Karen walked up, carrying two mugs of hot coffee. A moment later, Gutter came trotting out from behind the house. Together, they walked across the front lawn and down a gravel path toward the river oaks. Train was amused to, see that Gutter was staying closer to Karen than to him. Dogs figure stuff out, he thought. There was a thin band of red light defining the silhouette of the Maryland hills across the Potomac. They could hear the honking of some Canadian geese upstream in the park; the sound made the Galantz problem seem remote.

  “Have you figured out what we’re going to tell this poor man?” she asked, taking his hand.

  “I’m getting the inklings of a plan,�
�� he replied, kicking a dead branch off the path. “Although Mcnair might not like having his hand forced. I think we need to tell Sherman about his son’s involvement. Then maybe suggest we put the two of them face-to-face, see what happens.”

  “What about your deal with Mcnair?”

  “So far, we’ve kept it. Sherman came to us, not the other way around.

  But here’s the problem: Mcnair knows the kid’s involved. He may have told the Navy. If he has, what use does Galantz have for the kid now?

  Jack’s served his -purpose-another nail in Sherman’s political coffin.”

  “Which makes Jack expendable?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I think he plans to kill the kid and heap final insult to injury. Things of value, remember? Galantz knows that, despite the estrangement between father and son, it would just about crush Sherman if his son became the final victim.”

  Karen shivered in the predawn air. “And we’re the ones who told Mcnair.

  I’m beginning to feel a little like a puppet, aren’t you?”

  “And the son thinks Galantz is more of a father to him than his real father. He’ll never see it coming.”

  “Wow. Like he said, years of planning.”

  Train nodded. “I’m starting to regret our deal. This stinks. We ought to do something.”

  Karen paused to watch the morning twilight play on the broad silvery expanse of the river. An alert catbird discovered them and began to scold from one of the oaks. “We have company,” Karen said, glancing back over her shoulder.

  Train looked. Admiral Sherman was coming across the lawn. Karen quietly disengaged her hand from Train’s. Even from a distance in the dawn twilight, they could see that his face was haggard and his eyes unnaturally bright, almost as if he might have a, fever. He was wearing his navy blue uniform trousers, shirt, and black tie, but he had a beige civilian car coat on over his uniform. Karen felt Train tensing up as the admiral came across the wet grass. She felt a pang of disappointment that Train was still suspicious of this man.

  “Good morning to both of you,” Sherman said, the fatigue audible in his voice. There were dark pouches under his normally youthful eyes.

  “Hiroshi said you were out here. Mr. von Rensel, I hope you’ll forgive this intrusion.”

  “Good morning, Admiral,” Karen replied, jumping in before Train could say anything. “I hope your night wasn’t as interesting as ours.”

  Sherman stared down at the grass for a moment and then out over the river. “I’ve been driving,” he said. “All night.

  Never done that before. Just got in the car and drove. All the way east to the north side of Baltimore, then back down to D.C. Trying to sort some things out.”

  “How did you end up here?” Train asked.

  “Mcnair,” Sherman said. He looked from one to the other. “We need to talk. I want to know what my son has to do with all this.”

  “Did Mcnair tell you about our being attacked last night?”

  “Only that you had been. That you would fill me in—on that and on Jack.

  He said that you and I needed to talk.”

  “Where were you last night, Admiral?” Karen asked as gently as she could, trying not to sound accusatory.

  Sherman frowned, but then he answered. “Where? I was up in Maryland, near the Pennsylvania line. A little town called Hamey.”

  “So were we, Admiral, courtesy of Detective Mcnair,” she said, giving him a moment to comprehend that they knew, that Mcnair also knew. “We do need to talk. Train, let’s all go back up to the house.”

  Over coffee, fresh fruit, and hot rolls, Karen told the admiral about what had happened since Wednesday. She finessed what they knew about the hospice situation, limiting it to the fact that his wife was still alive. With one eye on Train, she told the admiral about Jack’s admissions. Train dutifully kept silent. Sherman’s face was grim when she was finished.

  “Great God,” he snapped. tossing down his napkin. “I had no idea. This guy is on a god damned rampage.” He looked from one to the other. “How muqh of this does the JAG know?”

  Karen looked at Train for a brief second. He picked right up.

  “He knows about what happened out on the river,” Train said. “To my knowledge, he doesn’t know about the attack on the road last night, or your situation at the hospice. I’m not sure he knows of your son’s involvement.”

  The admiral let out a long breath. “If he doesn’t, he will,” he said.

  “Mcnair will probably be filling him in shortly. Perhaps it ought to come from me. Technically, I’m probably A.W.O.L. right now, anyway.”

  “Why did you bail out, Admiral?” Karen asked.

  His face tightened, but then he relaxed. “I felt everything closing in.

  Usually, I go up there out of a sense of responsibility. She’s there because of me.” He stopped to take a deep breath. “But the second reason I go there is to seek. refuge. It’s the one place in this entire world I can go and never be judged.”

  “Karen nodded slowly. Train continued to study the table cloth.

  “Now tell me what Jack’s role is in all this. Did he help Galantz kill those two people?”

  “From a legal standpoint, I think the police would say he was an accessory after the fact,” Train said. “But he did admit to being part of Karen’s abduction.”

  “He was there? At Elizabeth’s? At Galen’s?”

  Karen gave Train a reproving look. “He says he wasn’t.

  He claims his only role was to show up at the funerals, so that you would see him. But we think he’s definitely working with Galantz. The attack on us out on the highway involved a machine Jack uses at work.”

  “Damn,” Sherman said, rubbing his face. “And Mcnair knows this?”

  “Yes, sir, he does,” Train said. “But we’re not sure what exactly he’s doing with it. Galantz is the guy Mcnair really wants.”

  “My God,” Sherman muttered. “My own son.”

  Train leaned forward. “We think that’s part of the plan, Admiral.

  Galantz has been contemplating revenge for years.

  He encounters your son at the recon training school, realizes who he is, befriends him, then sets something up that gets Jack thrown out of the Corps. Once Jack get’s out on his ass on civvy street with a bad discharge and a drinking problem, here comes his old buddy from recon school to make life interesting again.”

  “And fold him into his master plan to destroy me.”

  “We think so. Use Elizabeth’s homicide to frame you, or at least to get you in trouble with the Navy. We think Galen Schmidt became a target of opportunity.”

  “Because I went to see him when I got the note,,” Sherman said, his face gray.

  Train sidestepped that remark. “And if that didn’t do it,” he continued, “Galantz puts Jack in our faces. We focus on Jack, the cops are right behind us, and now you and your son are involved in homicides.”

  “Jack was a hater,” Sherman said softly. “I never figured him as a dupe.”

  Karen reluctantly began to shake her head. “No, sir. I think he’s in this willingly. I’m sorry, Admiral, but that’s what I -took away from talking to him’ “The admiral stared down at the ground. Karen’s heart went out to him when she saw the desolation in his eyes.

  Galantz has won, she thought.

  “Jack’s not exactly-how shall I say this-socially functional?” she said.

  She described the living conditions at the trailer, and Jack’s physical state when she first found him.

  Sherman shook his head and pushed back roughly from the table, causing Gutter to sit up. Sherman got up and stared out through the windows for a minute while Kyoko came in and silently cleared away the dishes.

  “I told Mcnair I need to go resolve this,” he said finally.

  “I’ll call the JAG. I had thought of maybe going to see Jack, alone, to try to sort this out. But … He didn’t finish this thought. Karen looked at Train. She could now see at least
two problems with what Sherman was suggesting. If the police found the two of them together, the implications might be very disturbing for the police. But worse, she wasn’t sure the admiral would stand up under the emotional assault of his son’s boasting about helping Galantz, as he surely would. And then of course, there was Galantz. She was relieved when Train stood up.

  “The phone’s in the study, Admiral,” he said. “Then if you’d like to shower and shave before you go in, Kyoko will show you to a guest room.”

  The admiral rubbed the sides of his face with both hands, his characteristic gesture, and then nodded absently. He followed Train to the study, where Train showed him the phone. Then Train came out, closing the door behind him.

  Karen met him in the hallway.

  “He’s at the end of his rope, I think,” Train said. “Taking him to see Jack doesn’t seem like such a good idea just now.”

  “1. agree. If the police showed up, they’d be very suspicious if they found the admiral there, especially if Jack seized the opportunity to deny Galantz’s existence and point the finger at his father.”

  “Damn. He would, too.”

  “That three-star is going to force Sherman out,” she said.

  “And he knows it.”

  “I hate to say this,” Train said, “but maybe you should go in with him.

  He’s-going to need a friendly face.”

  She smiled up at him. “About time you were nice to this poor mart-. And why, exactly, do you hate to say that?” she asked.

  Train actually flushed a bit under her direct look. “I don’t want to let you out of my sight. Things of value, you know?”

  She, smiled again and squeezed his hand. But then she thought about Sherman’s situation. “If they agree to see him this morning, on a Saturday, they’re not going to want any commanders in the room,” she said. “Especially commander lawyers. This will be a flags-only meeting.

  No mere mortals allowed. At least not until they get all the blood off the walls.”

  “Yeah, but I’m worried about what he might do afterward. Like try to go to find Jack, and maybe walk into Galantz in the process.”

  Karen was not fooled. “And while we’re gone, kind sir?