Stone Cold

by David Baldacci

  Stone sized him up. And came away with a clear impression. He reminds me of me, all those years ago. “If you kill for revenge, you want the victim to know why. So you either send them something ahead of time or give it to them right before you pull the trigger. I think that was done with Cincetti, Bingham and Cole. And it was also done with Carter Gray. And he knew that it was tied to Rayfield Solomon. But of course Gray didn’t die.”

  “What!” Lesya screamed and then looked accusingly at her son.

  Finn didn’t even blink. “Carter Gray is alive?” he said.

  Stone nodded. “And no doubt the man who ran out of here is—”

  “Going to get the message to Gray,” Finn finished for him. He grabbed his mother’s bag from under the bed and stuffed her few belongings in it.

  “What are you doing?” his mother said.

  Finn grabbed her arm. “Let’s go.”

  “Where?”

  “Out of here,” Stone said.

  Finn glanced at him. “Plane?”

  Stone shook his head. “No doubt covered by now. They don’t know about me, at least not yet. I’ll rent a car from the airport. That stretch of woods I mentioned? I’ll pick you up there in twenty minutes.”

  “You can’t trust him, Harry! He is a killer. He killed your father.” Lesya said this in pure Russian.

  Stone answered her in Russian. “Everything you say is true. I led the team that killed your husband. Now I know that he was innocent. I lost my wife and daughter violently because of what I used to do for my country. I have spent the last thirty years of my life trying to make amends. I doubt I have enough years left to settle my debt. I know you have no reason to trust me. But I swear to you that I will sacrifice my life to save both of you.”

  “Why? Why would you do this?” Lesya said, though her voice was calmer and now she spoke in English.

  “Because I simply followed orders without question. Because I took the life of another human being and I had no right to do it. And because you’ve suffered enough.”

  Five minutes later, they left the nursing home by a back entrance. Even with her walker, Lesya managed to keep up a brisk pace. She was not as immobile as she had led people to believe.

  Stone left them hidden in the woods, hustled to the airport and rented a car using the credit card Annabelle had given him. He could already see subtle activity all around him that did not bode well for their escape. He drove off with the car, picked the pair up, and with Finn reading a map and guiding, they made their way through a series of back roads to the interstate.

  “Where to now?” Finn asked.

  “Washington,” Stone answered.

  CHAPTER 74

  JERRY HAD NEARLY PACED a trench through the rug in his hotel room.

  When the phone rang he jumped for it and then immediately calmed. He was Jerry Bagger and the Conroys were shit. Yet he would have to settle for the daughter, because Paddy was off-limits now. The thought made Bagger want to tear his own heart out. He would just take it out on Annabelle, giving her enough pain for two.

  “Hello, Jerry,” Paddy said. “You ready to dance with the princess?”

  Bagger said, “You got her? Prove it.”

  “You’ll see for yourself soon enough.”

  “Put her on the phone.”

  “Well, she’s a wee bit tied up right now. And duct-taped.”

  “Then un-duct-tape her,” Bagger said firmly. “I wanta hear her voice.”

  A minute later she said into the phone, in a beaten voice, “I guess you win, Jerry. First Tony, now me.”

  Jerry smiled and sat down. “Annabelle, don’t even mention yourself in the same sentence with that screw-up. But I wanted to let you know that I’m really looking forward to seeing you.”

  “Go to hell, you prick!”

  “Still kicking to the end. It’s a shame, it really is. We could’ve been a great team.”

  “No we couldn’t, Jerry. You killed my mother.”

  “And you ripped me off for forty million, bitch!” he shouted. “You cost me respect. You cost me everything I’ve worked my whole life for.”

  “And it still wasn’t enough for me. All I want is your fat, ugly head on a stick.”

  With an immense effort Jerry calmed. “I tell you what. I’ll let that remark slide. People close to death, they say stuff. And I’ll tell you something else. I was going to make you feel pain like you never felt before. But instead I’ll do you fast, not slow. After you tell me where my money is. You know why I’m doing that? Out of respect. For your talent. Your wasted talent. If you’d learned that little concept of respect you might’ve lived longer.”

  “Tell me something. How much did you pay my old man to set me up?”

  “That’s the best of all. Didn’t cost me a dime. You’re one cheap date.”

  “Good-bye, Jerry.”

  “No, not good-bye, baby. This is just hello.”

  Paddy came back on the phone. “Okay, Jerry, you’ve exchanged your pleasantries. Now it’s time for business.”

  “Where and when? And don’t say in front of the White House or the Washington Monument or some Hollywood bullshit like that or the deal’s off. For me agreeing to leave your ass alone I want privacy.”

  Paddy said, “They’re building a new ballpark in town near the Anacostia River.”

  “So I heard. What’s that got to do with anything?”

  “They’re tearing down a bunch of buildings and neighborhoods around there. Lot of abandoned places. At eleven o’clock tonight I’ll call with the address of an old parking garage. There’ll be a white van parked on level two. Inside that van will be Annabelle tucked neatly in a roll of carpet. The keys will be in the van.”

  Bagger hung up and looked at his men.

  Mike Manson said, “This could be a setup of some kind, boss.”

  “Gee, Mike, you think so? Not that I believe for one minute that Paddy Conroy is working for anybody other than Paddy Conroy, but I’m not stupid. He may have a big beef with his daughter about Mom getting killed. And that may be why he’s willing to hand her over to me so I’ll leave him alone. But nothing’s for sure with that son of a bitch.”

  “So how do we do it?”

  “We wait for the address. Then you guys are going to do the pickup at midnight. Bring her to a place where I’ll be waiting. A place that’s a lot more private than an abandoned parking garage.”

  “And we just drive off with her? What if they tail us?”

  Bagger smiled and picked up his newspaper. “Says in here there’s a World Bank conference today downtown and then fancy dinners and speeches all over the city. Big muckety-mucks flying in from all over the globe.”

  “So?” Mike said.

  “So I say that’s some great timing if you got the right exit strategy.”

  CHAPTER 75

  CARTER GRAY HAD RISEN from his bunker once more and wondered if his beloved Agency had grown so weak and incompetent that he was going to have to pull the damn trigger himself on Lesya and her son. After a fruitless nationwide search they’d had a wonderful, absolutely golden opportunity at the nursing home in upstate New York of all places, and it had come to naught. The room was empty, mother and son gone. And a third person had been seen with them. Something told Carter Gray that John Carr had gotten in his way once again after losing Gray’s men and getting to Himmerling. And Gray now had to change his original plan to bag all three.

  The description of the old woman left no doubt in Gray’s mind that it was Lesya Solomon. Age had not been kind to her; she was no longer the beautiful, enticing Soviet spy. But it was Lesya, Gray just knew it.

  Yet what would John Carr have been doing with the very people who wanted to kill him? Had he lied about his identity? Had he taken them by force? Had they teamed up? That might actually make my job easier.

  Gray looked out the window of the chopper as it soared over the Virginia countryside on its way to Langley. With the overpowering force of the president’s auth
orization burning a hole in his pocket, he would take command of the search. No questions would be asked. Still, the mission required delicacy, stealth and, when the target was sighted and then fixed, an unstoppable show of force. He would one-up the military on what shock and awe really meant.

  He studied the topography below. Carr, Lesya and her child were down there somewhere. Only three people marshaled against him, one of them a woman in her seventies. Gray had unlimited people, assets and money. It would only be a matter of time. David P. Jedidiah’s son was now being sought with the combined might of America’s intelligence empire. And there was another way to speed up the process. As soon as the chopper landed at CIA, Gray started implementing his attack.

  With Finn driving they crossed into Maryland that evening. Lesya sat in the backseat looking tired and frightened. Stone heard her keep muttering in Russian, “They will kill us all.”

  He glanced over at Finn, who was staring ahead, but Stone noted that his eyes kept checking the rearview mirror.

  “You have a family?” Stone asked.

  Finn hesitated and then said, “Let’s stay focused on the task at hand.”

  Lesya leaned over the front seat. “And what is that? What are we focusing on now? You tell me.”

  “Staying alive,” Stone answered. “And with Carter Gray after us, that’s not going to be easy.”

  “They dug up your grave,” Finn said as they traveled around the Capital Beltway.

  “Gray’s doing, to flush me out.”

  “He knew you were alive?”

  “Yes. We reached an understanding of late. He left me alone and I left him alone.”

  Lesya pointed an accusatory finger at Stone. “You see, you see? They are allies, son. They are working together. We are in the hands of the enemy.”

  Stone turned around in his seat to stare at the woman. “Lesya, you were one of the greatest spies the Soviet Union ever had. It was said that you turned more foreign agents than anyone ever had.”

  “I am Russian. I worked for my country. As you did yours, John Carr. And you’re right, I was the best.”

  He was silent as he saw the pride creep into her hollow features. He allowed her to feel it for only a few seconds before he snapped. “Then start acting like it. Stop with the hysterical and stupid comments, because we’re going to need all the help you can give us if we’re going to survive this. Or are you just going to sit there and let your son die?” he finished bluntly.

  She stared coldly at him, the sudden anger narrowing her eyes. And then her expression cleared. She looked at Finn and then back at Stone. “You are right,” she said matter-of-factly. “I am being stupid.” She sat back. “We need to formulate a plan, keeping in mind that Carter Gray has enormous resources at his disposal. Only sometimes, enormous resources cannot move with agility, while we can. They may find that we have a trick or two they didn’t anticipate.”

  Finn stared at his mother in the mirror. He had never heard this tone of voice, seen this calm confidence before. Her Russian accent was completely gone. It was as though she had taken thirty years off her life. She was even sitting up straighter!

  Lesya continued, “They may not know of my son’s involvement, at least not yet, but they will before very long.”

  “How?” Finn asked.

  “They will check the flights into the airport today. Match descriptions. It is a small place, it won’t take long.”

  “I didn’t use my real name. I had a fake ID.”

  “Video surveillance at the airport,” Stone said. “They’ll match your face to some database. I assume it’s in at least one.” Finn nodded. “Then your family may be compromised.”

  “Call them, now!” Lesya urged.

  Stone could see the enormous pressure the younger man was under as he gripped the phone.

  In a shaky voice Finn spoke into the phone. “Please, honey, no questions now. Just get the kids and take them to a motel. There’s a cell phone in my desk drawer. Use that to call me. No one can trace it. Get cash out of the ATM. Don’t use your credit card or your real name at the motel. Stay there. No school, no baseball games, soccer or swimming, nothing. And don’t tell anyone. Please. I’ll explain later.”

  Stone and Lesya could hear the woman’s frantic responses.

  A bead of sweat slid down Finn’s forehead. His voice dropped still lower and finally his wife calmed. “I love you, sweetie. I will make this all right. I swear it.”

  He clicked off and slumped back. Lesya slid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed.

  “I’m sorry, Harry. I’m sorry for doing this to you. I . . . I . . .” Her voice trailed off. She removed her hand and eyed Stone.

  “You say Gray knows you’re alive, Carr? He flushed you out of the grave, as it were. Do you have anyone he can use to get to you? To flush you out again? Because as I said, undoubtedly someone at the nursing home saw us leave and will already have given a description. He will know you are with us. He will know the easiest way to get to us is to get to you. So tell me, is there?”

  “I do have people he can exploit, but I already warned them, before I went to the hospital.”

  She shook her head. “A warning is meaningless unless it’s acted on with skill. They are capable people who can take care of themselves, follow orders, these friends?” she asked as she scrutinized him. “Don’t color the truth. We need to know exactly how it stands.”

  “One of them is and he’s with another friend of mine. But there’s a third friend . . .” Caleb, please don’t do anything stupid.

  “So that is the flank Gray will exploit. Tell me, how close do you value this friend?”

  “Very!”

  “Then I am sorry for you and your friend.”

  Stone leaned back against the seat and felt the smacks of his heart. He hated what the woman was saying and yet he knew she was absolutely right.

  She added, “And if it comes down to it, will you trade us for your friend?” Stone turned around to find her looking at him. He had never seen a more piercing stare than the one Lesya was giving him now. No, he was wrong about that. He had seen a gaze like that once before: on Rayfield Solomon, right before Stone killed him.

  “No,” he said. “I won’t.”

  “Then let’s work to ensure it doesn’t come down to that, John Carr. And maybe you can redeem yourself for killing my husband.”

  She glanced out the window and said, “And I was the best agent the Soviet Union ever had. But Rayfield was even better.”

  “Why?” Stone asked.

  “Because I fell in love with him. And he turned me.”

  “What?” Stone blurted out.

  “Didn’t you know? I was working for the Americans when you murdered him.”

  CHAPTER 76

  JERRY BAGGER HAD BEEN WORKING the phones ever since he’d talked to Paddy Conroy. The casino chief had been thinking a lot in the last few hours and he’d arrived at a decision. Normally, in any confrontation, Bagger’s instinct was to trade blow for blow until he or the other guy fell down. He wasn’t going to do that this time, for a lot of reasons. Chief among them was the fact that he’d seen Annabelle in action. He knew how good, how convincing she could be. And there was a little tickle in the back of his brain that reminded him that a jab-jab-jab was a great setup for a left hook, a haymaker that had put many an opponent down permanently. He didn’t intend to be on the receiving end of one of those.

  Yet he couldn’t bring himself to not go through with the whole thing, because the opportunity of getting his hands on Annabelle—in the event Paddy was playing straight with him—was too good to let pass. If he had a shot at getting the lady, he had to go for it. But you always had to have a backup plan, because the first plan almost never went perfectly. And sometimes it went so badly you weren’t sure if you were going to wake up the next day. Annabelle had taught him a valuable lesson by ripping him off. Unpredictability was a powerful thing.

  He first called his money guy, instructing him to park
a ton of cash in a safe place offshore with instant access for Bagger, and untraceable by anyone else. With money you could do anything. He had his jet fly back to Atlantic City to pick up some things for him, including his passport, and land back at a private airstrip in Maryland.

  Next, he phoned another associate of his, a very trusted colleague who had one unique talent. He could make anything go boom. Bagger told him what he wanted and the man said he could have it ready in two hours,