by Blake Banner
“And everything go to shit.”
“So are you telling me, Gregor, that Emily was never in your employ?”
“In my employ?”
“At your gym in New Jersey?”
“I have no gym in New Jersey. I have casino in Texas, why I want gym in New Jersey?”
I turned to Emily. “You want to explain to me how the girl-next-door, fleeing from white slave traders in Jersey, wound up trying to sell an NPP to the Russian Mafia in Texas?”
She wouldn’t meet my eye, but said, “So you believe him, but not me…”
“You know what? I have to agree with Gregor, apart from the small matter of drugging my whiskey, he has not lied to me so far.”
“Why I would?”
“Exactly, why he would? Like he said, people lie when they are scared. And until now, Gregor has had nothing to be scared of. So right now, I am thinking that Gregor is telling the truth, and I would like to know, A, how you come to be in Freeport, and B, how did you get hold of the NPP?”
She didn’t answer. Instead, she chewed her lip and continued to stare at her knees. Gregor, on the other hand, sighed noisily and said something in Russian, then added, “This conversation is no interest me no more. I have just one thing which I am need to know. Who I am dealing with for NPP?”
I frowned at him for a moment. “How many men do you see here who are armed?”
“This is true, just you.”
“You’re dealing with the guy with the gun.”
He lifted his shoulders, pulled down the corners of his mouth and danced his head slowly from one side to another. The gesture was oddly Italian, and somehow suggested maybe I was wrong. I frowned and noticed Emily was staring hard at my chest. Gregor said. “Things change now, Mr. Walker. You are not only men with gun. Look at your chest, please.”
I looked down and saw the little red dot dancing slightly to the left of my sternum. Gregor said, “I prefer you are alive, but situation is intense and if I have to kill you, I do. Men is in trees. He know if you do stupid thing, he shoot you. I tell him this when you first arrive. You tell me, ‘Say your boys to lie down.’ I do this, and also tell Stephan, ‘Wait, I want to hear what American mudak will say.’ Is good, yah?”
“Real good.”
His boys got off the grass and retrieved their weapons. I sighed and put the AK-47 and the Galil on the table. I saw Yuri move toward me and I spoke.
“This changes very little, Gregor. So you are armed now and I’m not. But you still have the same problem. I have the NPP. I am scheduled to contact my New York attorneys tomorrow afternoon. If I don’t, he will post a package for me.”
“Post? To where? To CIA? I don’t believe this. You will not give box to CIA.”
“No, you’re right. I actually have no idea where he will post it.”
“This make no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense, Gregor. I instructed him to select an attorney at random anywhere in the world and send him, or her, the package with instructions to throw it into the nearest river, lake or ocean. He thought I was crazy. Maybe I am. But that is what I told him to do.”
Emily had gone the color of old tofu. “You’re not serious.”
“Wrong. I am. I am the only person here who doesn’t know what the NPP is. I am also extremely rich. So that makes me the only person here who has not got a vested interest in the NPP. What I have got is a vested interest in is getting out of here alive. Are you following this, Gregor, or do you need Yuri to translate?”
“I am follow.”
He put his hands on his knees and grunted. Emily was still staring at me. She shook her head once and said, “You can’t, Lacklan. You have no idea…”
Gregor said again, “I am follow, I am understand…”
Emily said, “We have to stop that happening…”
“I am understand, but I am run out of patience.” He stood. “Tonight you both talk, or I cut you in small pieces.”
She stood and gripped my arm in hands like talons and hissed savagely, “You have to kill him!”
Gregor waved his hand at her. “OK, put on table. We take off thumb. Right thumb.”
The two Glocks were burning a hole in my back. I was thinking I had to pull off at least four shots in about three seconds. And then there was the sniper hidden somewhere in the trees. I knew I couldn’t do it. It was that simple.
Then, as the three other guys dragged Emily onto the table, Yuri pointed at me and said something to Gregor. Emily was kicking and thrashing and kept screaming, “Lacklan! Lacklan! Do something!”
Gregor frowned. “Yuri say you still have hand gun.”
I held both hands up, speaking as I did so. “Yes, I have, but you don’t need to do this. Just hold on, Gregor, we can talk…”
“I am boring with talking…”
“Yes, you are, I agree…”
As I said it, I pulled one of the Glocks from my waistband with two fingers, stepping forward and to the side, placing Yuri between me and the sniper. I handed him the Glock. Emily was on her back on the table and the three guys were holding her down, looking at Gregor, waiting for instructions. She was screaming incoherently now and writhing furiously. Yuri reached out, took the Glock, frowning at my chest, aware the red dot had gone, and I was still talking, fast.
“But you don’t need to do this, Gregor. You want the NPP. I’ve got the NPP. I can give you the NPP. Just let Yuri help me!”
Time slowed down. Yuri and Gregor frowned, confused by what I’d said. I seized Yuri’s right hand, and the Glock in it, with both of mine. I headbutted the bridge of his nose and shot the guy holding Emily’s feet, using Yuri’s finger on the trigger. Keeping Yuri between me and the sniper, I aimed at the guy holding her right arm. I fired, but he was already diving for cover and the plate glass, sliding door shattered behind him.
Emily jumped, clawing at the remaining guy’s face, drawing red lines of blood. He let go and ran. I swung Yuri’s arm around and aimed at Gregor, but he was scrambling for cover. I fired anyway, to keep them lively, and yelled at Emily, “The beach!”
I kneed Yuri in the balls and dragged him backward toward the table. There I head butted his nose again and grabbed for the AK-47 with my left hand. As I let him drop to the ground, I sprayed the trees with hot lead and followed Emily down the side of the house at a sprint, followed by a wild volley of bullets.
At the far corner of the house, I turned, dropped to one knee and opened up without aiming, shouting at Emily over my shoulder to make for the plane. I needn’t have bothered. She had vaulted the fence without waiting to open the gate and was running through the sand toward the cover of the trees. I followed, jumped the gate and plowed through the sand toward the palms and the deep shadows. The air around my head popped, the tree trunks ahead smacked, chipped and splintered and ricochets whined into the night.
I dropped, rolled and came up on one knee again, facing back, and sprayed indiscriminately. Glass shattered and I heard somebody cry out. I gave a second burst, turned and ran. Emily was barely discernable up ahead, a bobbing shadow among the black forms of the undergrowth. Now the pier became visible in the wan moonlight, with luminous surf breaking around it and, not far off, the bulk of the seaplane, our ticket out of there.
Behind me, I heard the crackle of automatic fire and on my right, lead tore through the foliage. I shouted to Emily: “Get down! Wait for me!”
I heard her drop. Half a dozen strides carried me to where she was lying and I dropped beside her. I couldn’t see anybody approaching, but I guessed they were among the trees. She was breathing hard. I glanced at her and her eyes were wide with fear.
I said: “Are you hurt?”
She turned her big eyes on me and shook her head. I pointed toward the sea.
“We have to get across the sand. You understand? We’ll be slow-moving and we’re going to stand out against the whiteness, that will make us easy targets.”
She gave several quick nods. “What do we do?”
“We’re going to make it in three dashes. We head for the far side of the pier. I have a boat there. We have to be quick. When I say run, you run like hell, count to four and drop.” I counted out four steady seconds: “One and two and three and four—got it? Then we repeat two more times. OK?”
She nodded and swallowed. “OK.”
“OK, run!”
I stood and opened up with the AK-47, hammering the area where I thought they must be. She ran, half crouching, and I kept pace with her, running sideways, spraying the palms and the ferns with a hail of fire. I counted four, then shouted, “Down!”
She dropped and I dropped beside her, facing the trees. A second passed and then they opened up. There was only one rifle, but there were handguns as well. The rounds came close and kicked up sand around us and made the air sing. It was terrifying, but I noted where the fire was coming from. I figured I had half a magazine. I opened up and shouted, “Run!”
We ran another four seconds, raining fire on their position, forcing them to take cover. On the count of four, I shouted, “Drop!”
She screamed, “No! We’re there!”
I bellowed back, “No!”
I was pulling the trigger and getting dry clicks. I needed to reload. Then I saw the flames spitting from the trees. We were still twelve or fifteen feet from the pier. I turned and hurled myself at Emily, wrapped my arms around her legs and we sprawled in the mud as bullets kicked up showers of wet sand and water just inches from us.
“You stupid bitch!” I shouted at her. “When I say drop, drop!”
I scrambled around, staying flat, pulling the Galil from my shoulder. I could see three, maybe four figures running toward us, eighty or a hundred yards away. I opened the stock, nestled it and fired two short bursts. I didn’t wait to see if I’d hit anyone. I screamed, “Run!” got to my feet and started running backward toward the pier and the dinghy, firing short bursts as I ran.
Then we were waist-deep in water, with the small swell breaking around us behind the wooden supports of the pier. The dinghy was there. I grabbed Emily by the scruff of her neck and the seat of her pants and hurled her into the boat, then slashed the rope holding it to the struts and jumped in. “Stay down,” I snarled, “and do as you’re told!”
I fired her up and we sped, bouncing over the small waves, staying close to the wooden structure. I heard the crack of gunfire, but the shots went high and wide. Then we were skimming around the end of the jetty, out in open water and speeding toward the aircraft. Now I knew the risk was high. We had no cover and we were highly visible in the moonlight. I veered and danced erratically, aiming to move behind the plane. Shots peppered the water around us, sending up great plumes of foam.
I came in under the belly of the plane. A couple of shots hit the fuselage and whined into the night. I clambered onto the float on the far side from the pier. On the shore I could just make out the guy with the rifle. He was running to get a line of fire on me. I yanked open the door and shouted at Emily, “Get in! Fast!” As I said it, I reached down and hauled her up. She scrambled into the cockpit and clambered over to the far side. A shot sent a shower of spray cascading over me, and a second smacked into the fuselage. Emily screamed, “Get in! Let’s go!”
I pulled myself onboard, released the anchor and powered up the engine as a hail of bullets rattled against the side. I prayed to all the gods I didn’t believe in that nothing essential was getting hit. Next thing, the props were thudding and we were accelerating away from the beach into dark ocean, smacking over the waves in showers of spray. And then we were rising, rising up high above the sea, toward the stars, and banking toward the moon.
Thirteen
The engine droned in the night as we climbed. She cried convulsively for about five minutes, maybe a little more. I didn’t speak. I kept the plane on a heading slightly east of north, with the moon to my right casting a long, silver path across the blackness below.
Slowly, her sobs subsided and eventually, the only sound in the plane was the steady drone of the engine. It was an oddly peaceful sound. After a while, she looked at me and said, “Your face…”
“It’s looked better.”
“Why did you come…?”
“Don’t flatter yourself. The smart thing would have been to take the plane and get the hell out of there. Maybe it’s what I should have done. But I aim to find out what this damn business is all about.”
She looked away. “I’ve caused you a lot of trouble.”
“Yeah. You caused Jerry a bit of trouble, too. Why do I get the feeling it’s something you do a lot of?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Tell Jerry that. Sorry doesn’t cut it, Emily. I keep warning you and you just keep lurching from one sack of horseshit to the next. Maybe you don’t give a damn that people all around you keep getting g killed. But sooner or later—probably sooner—that person getting killed will be you.” I glanced at her and said without smiling, “Keep pushing me and I’ll do it myself.”
She frowned and looked genuinely shocked. “Don’t say that!”
I grunted and after a moment she added, “This isn’t my fault. I had no idea things would turn out this way. I’m sorry I lied to you, but I have been so scared…”
“You sold me that line already, Emily. Don’t try and sell it to me again. I was there listening when you were talking to Gregor, remember?”
“You must realize that was an act!” She studied my face and her expression was incredulous. “Tell me you realized that was an act!”
“Why the hell should I, Emily? All you have done, from the moment the Colonel introduced us, is lie! I don’t think you’d know how to tell the truth if you had to!”
She sighed and looked out at the moon. “I can’t blame you for taking that view, I suppose. But not everything I said was a lie.”
“Name one thing that wasn’t.”
“Harry, the Colonel, he really is my father.”
“Yeah, right.”
“He is, and when I said I wanted to stay the night with you, that was genuine, too.”
“Don’t try to play me, Emily. That is a bad plan right now.”
“I wasn’t trying to play you.”
“That whole story about your mother dying, about working for Gregor, about the Colonel…”
“Some of it was true, Lacklan. I did live in Jersey, and my mother did die. When I looked through her things, I did find that Harry was my father…”
I was losing patience and I interrupted her. “Who was Jerry, and what was your business with him?”
She didn’t answer for a moment, and the only sound was the hum of the engine as we moved slowly above the sea below. Far off to our left, small lights glimmered along the coast. I looked at her and asked savagely, “Are you working out the next story, the next collection of lies? Just tell the goddamn truth for once, will you!”
She looked at me resentfully and blinked tears from her eyes. “No, I am not. I was thinking about Jerry and how I am going to miss him. We were friends. We had been colleagues for a long time. Jerry was an IT expert.”
“So now you worked in IT?”
Her voice became shrill. “What is the point of demanding that I tell you the truth if you are going to sneer at everything I say?” She was silent a moment, then turned to stare at the windshield. “I majored in Information Technology at NJIT. Jerry and I were both software developers in the field of artificial intelligence.”
“So what were you doing in Freeport?”
She looked away, toward the coast. “I don’t want to tell you.”
“Why not?”
“We were working on a project that was highly classified. It had government backing, though it was also partly private sector investment, too. We weren’t supposed to talk about it.”
“So it’s OK to sell it to the Russian Mafia, but it’s not okay to talk about it?”
She sighed and turned hooded eyes on me. “You can be a real asshole sometimes, Lackl
an. Do you know how damn self righteous you sound sometimes?”
“You going to answer the question or just insult me?”
“If you got down off your damned high horse for five minutes, maybe you’d realize that what I have been trying to do since I met you was not sell the goddamn thing to the Russian Mafia!”
I ran through everything that had happened since the Colonel had introduced us and realized that what she’d said was true. She waited for that to sink in and then went on.
“Yes! OK! I used you and I am sorry, but you’re a soldier, Lacklan. And a special ops soldier at that! It’s your job to get used, and to put your life at risk for the greater good! Sorry, but it’s true.”
“The greater good?”
“Jerry made a mistake. He contacted Gregor to make him an offer. It was a stupid thing to do. Then we didn’t know how to get out of it. It was a mess. When Harry told me about you, and that you were on Galveston Island, I thought maybe I…”
“Maybe you could use me, manipulate me, risk my life and it would be OK because I was a soldier, I’m meant to be used and it’s for the greater good anyway.”
“You make it sound awful.”
“No, it is awful, Emily. It stinks. Before you put a man’s life at risk, you talk to him, you tell him the truth! And you give him the option to say no.”
“I’m sorry.”
“So basically you were selling a top secret device you had stolen from the U.S. government.”
“No, it wasn’t like that.”
“What was it like?”
She buried her face in her hands and I thought she was going to start crying again. Instead she rubbed her face, ran her fingers through her hair and said, “What is the point? You won’t believe me anyway.”
“The point is,” I snarled, “if you don’t tell me, I’ll open that damned door and push you out! Start talking! Were you selling a U.S. Government device to a foreign power? Yes or no?”
“No!” She looked genuinely horrified, then closed her eyes and sighed. “It wasn’t meant to be like that, but it got out of hand.”
“I’m still waiting for you to explain, Emily, and you had better not be cooking up another damned story.”
