The Jefferson Key: A Novel

by Steve Berry

  He caught the plural them. “That’s not your men coming. I killed them both.”

  She raised her gun.

  He switched off the flashlight, plunging the chamber into total darkness.

  A loud retort echoed off the stones, which pounded his eardrums.

  Then another.

  He’d shifted position, assuming she would fire at where he’d been the moment darkness arrived.

  “Jonathan, this is madness,” she said through the blackness. “Why don’t we just make a deal? One or both of us is going to get hurt.”

  He said nothing. Silence was now his weapon.

  More cold water surged into the chamber, announcing itself with a roar. He rested on his knees, the unlit flashlight held above the surface, waiting.

  Carbonell kept quiet, too.

  She was no more than ten feet away, but with water gushing about them and the complete lack of light, her locating him was impossible.

  Luckily, the reverse was not the case.

  CASSIOPEIA AND STEPHANIE HELPED SHIRLEY KAISER OUT OF the pickup truck and onto the dock. She remained a little stunned, her hand bandaged tight.

  “Damn, that hurts,” Shirley muttered.

  “Hang in there,” Stephanie whispered. “There’s help on the way.”

  Cassiopeia hoped that was true. Edwin Davis had to be suspicious. She saw that Adventure was now lit with activity. Hale was true to his word. They were going for a sail. She noticed fog, but also the fact that out on the river, higher in the sky, the ground mist dissipated, stars winking in and out from a misty veil.

  “I’ll be all right,” Shirley said.

  Hale stood six meters away near the gangway.

  “You think you can kill all three of us and no one will notice,” Cassiopeia called out.

  He walked closer. “I doubt anyone will raise much of a stink. That failed rescue attempt gives me bargaining power. I would say myriad laws were violated with that nonsense. Once our letters of marque are fortified, we’ll be fine. Danny Daniels doesn’t want a public fight on any of this.”

  “You might be wrong,” Stephanie said.

  And Cassiopeia agreed, recalling the fortitude with which Daniels had urged both she and Cotton to find Stephanie. He could well do whatever was required and damn the consequences. Hale was underestimating the president. As Daniels had told her, his political career was about over.

  Which provided a lot of room to maneuver.

  “Get them on board,” Hale said to his men.

  MALONE FINISHED HIS CLIMB AND SLIPPED ONTO THE YACHT’S bow deck unnoticed. He’d almost lost his grip twice on the slippery chain.

  He found his gun and readied himself.

  Decks wrapped a path on either side of a forward cabin, its mirrored windows lit from behind, the angled front softened by rounded, tapered sides. He saw no one past the windows, but kept low.

  He heard a commotion from shore.

  Investigating that could prove tricky, as someone might come forward along the deck. But he decided to take the chance. He stayed low and crept to the rail. Through the darkness and mist he spotted men boarding the ship along with three women, two of them helping a third. An older man stood on the dock, watching, then followed them on board.

  Cassiopeia and Stephanie he recognized.

  The third had to be Shirley Kaiser.

  He found his cellphone and hit a speed dial button. Davis immediately answered.

  “The sloop’s leaving,” he whispered. “We’re all on board. Time to bring in the troops.”

  Literally. They’d talked about that before he left the south shore.

  “I’ll handle it. What are you going to do?”

  “Whatever I have to.”

  HALE STEPPED ABOARD ADVENTURE, IMAGINING HIMSELF AS ONE of those daring men from three hundred years ago, challenging anything and everything, caring only what his men thought of him. His had to be proud of him tonight. He’d stood with them toe-to-toe. Now he would stand toe-to-toe with Andrea Carbonell to finish what she’d started. He hoped Knox would be successful in killing her and he hoped the two missing pages had been found. He’d gladly pay whatever Jonathan Wyatt wanted. Hell, he might even hire him permanently.

  “Ready to sail,” he hollered. “Cast the lines and raise anchor.”

  He would personally captain this voyage.

  He listened to the purr of the two 1800 horsepower, Deutz engines. State of the art. Both barely made a sound, with little to no vibration. No generators roared, either. Instead, a bank of lithium polymer batteries provided power. The DynaRig’s sails were stored safely within the yards, awaiting the command from one of twenty onboard computers to unfurl and catch the wind. That would happen closer to the Oracoke Inlet, where the Atlantic waited.

  He noticed that his three prisoners were being led into the main salon.

  “Oh, no,” he yelled. “Have our guests wait on the aft deck, by the pool. I have a special surprise for them.”

  WYATT RE-DONNED THE NIGHT-VISION GOGGLES THAT HE’D brought in his backpack. Carbonell stood a few feet away, smart enough to crouch down, her head surveying the darkness, her eyes of no help. Instead she was probably listening for any change in the pitch or tone of the water rising around her.

  He glanced down.

  Water lapped his thighs.

  The real shift would come when the six-foot-high chutes filled from their grottoes. Which gave him maybe half an hour.

  Movement disturbed the otherwise stable background.

  A man appeared from around one of the corners. He held an unlit flashlight in one hand and a gun in the other.

  Clifford Knox.

  Welcome.

  And here’s a gift.

  He switched on his flashlight and tossed it straight toward a huddled Andrea Carbonell.

  EIGHTY-TWO

  MALONE RETREATED DOWN INTO A FORWARD HOLD THAT opened at the bow. Two tenders, maybe thirty-footers, were lashed to the deck on either side of the hatch. He had to admire the gigantic steel-hulled sloop, a sleek tower of smooth lines, everything perfectly aerodynamic. And tall. Fifty feet off the water, with another thirty or so on top of that in cabins and deck. Its three masts were close to two hundred feet high. Clearly, a masterpiece of technology and design.

  The yacht moved.

  Interesting how the engines could barely be heard. One second they were stationary, the next off they went. He glanced out past the hatch. Fog draped the deck in a protective shield.

  He fled the hold and found a doorway that opened inside the upper cabins.

  The companionway led aft, casting a feeling of height and depth from a bulkhead lined with lighting that reminded him of a row of clerestory windows. A scent of magnolia and green tea came from sprayers near the ceiling. The corridor ended midship where three decks united at a circular stairway that wrapped the main mast. Above, transparent floors allowed light to stream down during the day. He noted the splendid mixture of stainless steel, glass, fine woods, and stone.

  Movement from above caught his attention.

  He ducked into a doorway that led into a gym. No lights burned inside. He kept close to the wall and watched as two men descended the circular stairway at a brisk pace. They did not stop, but kept going down to the bottom level.

  He’d heard Hale.

  The aft deck.

  That’s where Cassiopeia and the others were waiting.

  HALE STEPPED ONTO THE AFT DECK. HERE WAS WHERE HE’D dealt with his traitorous accountant and here was where he would deal with these three problems. He’d said he had a special surprise for them and, under the watchful eye of two armed guards, they were already examining it as he approached.

  “It’s called a gibbet,” he told them. “Made of iron and shaped to the human body.”

  He felt the engines kicked up. Adventure could do twenty knots, and he’d ordered maximum speed. At nearly twenty-five miles per hour they would soon be offshore.

  “Good men were once encased ins
ide these,” he said, “then hung from a pole and left to die. A horrible form of punishment.”

  “Like making someone eat their own ear?” Vitt asked him.

  He smiled. “In the same vein, except these were used on us by our pursuers.”

  He motioned and two of his crew grabbed Vitt by the arms. She started to resist, but he raised a warning finger and said, “Be a good girl.”

  Before appearing on the aft deck he’d instructed that Vitt’s hands be bound behind her back. The other two he’d left alone. One of the crew kicked Vitt’s feet out from under her and she slammed hard to the deck. They then grabbed her by the shoes and head, tossing her into the gibbet, which lay open like a cocoon. Its top was hinged shut and secured with a clamp and pin. Little room existed now for her to struggle.

  He bent down.

  “You killed two of my crew. Now you will experience what my ancestors felt when they died inside one of these.”

  Wind rushed back from the ship’s sleek contours and washed him in moist, cool air. He caught the tart smell of the ocean and knew the sea was not far away. The fog seemed to be lifting, too.

  Excellent.

  He’d been worried that he would not be able to see this woman die.

  KNOX SAW A LIGHT APPEAR IN THE DARKNESS THEN ARC TEN feet to the right. He wasn’t sure who it was, but it didn’t matter.

  He fired straight at it.

  Nothing happened.

  The light continued on its path, splashing into the water, the bulb now submerged. His bullet found no target, but instead ricocheted off the walls, its pings signaling trouble. He’d caught a momentary shadow to the right of where the light found the water. More movement betrayed a position as the light was lifted from the water and shut off.

  That was a target.

  He fired again.

  WYATT DROPPED BACK INTO THE WATER, SLOW AND SILENT. IN the instant after he tossed the light toward Carbonell, he’d locked his fingers onto the edge of a chute and pulled himself upward. The last place he wanted to be when bullets were ricocheting was near the floor.

  Gravity sent slugs directly that way.

  Through the goggles he watched Knox and Carbonell. Each carried a gun and a flashlight.

  Even odds.

  He used the rising surge of water to ease his retreat toward the tunnel from which they’d come. He realized that neither of them would risk switching on their lights or speaking, and firing wildly in the dark was risky.

  He wondered how long they’d stand there.

  Did they comprehend the danger?

  Escaping through the chutes, as he and Malone had done, would not be possible with the rising tide. Fighting the flow of water inside the tight confines would be like trying to swim up a fast-moving stream, no way to hold your breath long enough to make it out.

  They’d each worked themselves into a corner, from which there was no escape.

  Only low tide would offer a respite.

  But they’d both be dead by then.

  MALONE CREPT DOWN THE MIDDECK, CAUTIOUS AND QUIET, using the open doorways and darkened rooms for cover. He passed a theater, dining room, and staterooms. He’d noticed no cameras, yet every nerve in his body tinged, his finger on the gun’s trigger, ready to react.

  The passageway ended at a grand salon, a juxtaposition of conservative appointments in wenge wood, ivory, and leather. A baby grand piano anchored one corner. Everything was sleek and polished, like the yacht itself. He had to see what was happening on the aft deck. The exterior walls were lined with elongated windows, so he crouched low and made his way toward the glass exit doors, where he spotted a deck, pool, and people.

  A spiral stairway to his right led up.

  He slowly climbed the steep risers, which opened onto a small sundeck overlooking the ship’s stern. He noted their position. Center of the river, both banks visible in the distance, a sun rising ahead, toward the east, the fog all but gone. He glanced toward the bow and spotted open water. They were entering the sound, which meant the ocean was not far away.

  He stayed low and made his way to the aft railing.

  Staring down, he spotted Stephanie and Shirely Kaiser, two men with guns, four more standing nearby, Quentin Hale—

  And Cassiopeia.

  Sealed inside an iron gibbet.

  EIGHTY-THREE

  CASSIOPEIA WAS NEARING PANIC. HER HANDS WERE BOUND, HER body encased in iron straps. Hale’s men were busy tying a line to the top of the gibbet. She stared at Stephanie, whose eyes signaled that there was little she could do, either.

  “What’s the point of this,” Shirley screamed out. “Why do this, Quentin?”

  Hale faced Kaiser. “This is what pirates do.”

  “Killing unarmed women?” Stephanie asked.

  “Teaching enemies a lesson.”

  The men securing the line stood.

  Hale drew close. “Kings and governors loved to use the gibbet on us, so occasionally we reciprocated. But instead of hanging them up to die, we dragged them until they drowned. After, we cut the rope, and down to the bottom they went.”

  Hale signaled and his men lifted the iron cage from the deck.

  MALONE COULD DELAY NO LONGER. TUMULTUOUS EMOTIONS churned inside him. He raised his gun and prepared to fire—but before he could snap the trigger a pair of strong hands locked onto his shoulders and whirled him back from the railing.

  One of the crew.

  A swift kick to his right arm jarred the gun from his grip.

  Fury welled inside him.

  No time for this.

  He planted a kick to the gut, which doubled his opponent forward. He brought his knee upward into the face, righting the man’s spine. He then jammed his elbow into the bridge of the nose, snapping the neck backward. Two swipes from his fists and the man spilled over the railing, falling the fifteen or so feet to the deck below.

  The men hoisting Cassiopeia heard the thud and momentarily stopped. Hale heard it, too, and whirled, then glanced upward and spotted the source of the problem.

  Malone searched for the gun.

  “Toss her,” he heard Hale scream.

  He found the gun, snatched it up, then leaped over the railing, dropping to the deck below. He hit, rolled, and fired at the two men with guns, dropping both.

  He sprang to his feet and raced ahead.

  Hale tried to cut him off, a gun in his hand, but he shot the older man once, the bullet tearing into the chest and hurling the body backward to the deck.

  He kept moving.

  “Go,” Stephanie yelled. “Help her.”

  The four men reached the railing with the gibbet.

  Too late for him to use the gun to stop them.

  They tossed Cassiopeia into the sea.

  WYATT RETRACED HIS ROUTE TO WHERE THE ROPE WAITED. The water had risen to waist-high. Shortly, the upper chutes would complete the flooding. Only fitting that these two meet their end here, both of them so smug. Carbonell counting on her backup to save her, Knox thinking he had an easy opportunity to eliminate two problems. Even more fitting that they were both armed with lights and weapons, neither of them any good to them.

  Carbonell was responsible for the needless deaths of several agents. Knox had personally killed a few, too.

  For that, they both had to pay.

  Knox had also tried to kill the president. And though Wyatt wasn’t a big fan of the U.S. government, he was an American.

  And always would be.

  These two problems would end here. By the time they realized their dire predicament and decided to save their hides, it would be too late.

  Only a few more minutes remained.

  High tide had arrived.

  Through the night-vision goggles, he spotted the rope.

  He grabbed hold and hauled himself up.

  Once there, he yanked the line from the hole and walked away.

  CASSIOPEIA WAS FALLING. SHE TRIED TO BRACE HERSELF WITH her feet, anticipating the water’s impact. Her hands wer
e of no use and she reminded herself to grab a breath and keep sucking air for as long as she could. Unfortunately, the tight confines offered her no opportunity to use her legs, each of which was encased separately. The gibbet was snug, and the latch mechanism was nowhere close to where she could reach it. Besides, it operated from the outside.

  Just before they’d tossed her overboard she’d heard what sounded like gunfire and Stephanie yelling Go. Help her.

  What was happening back there?

  MALONE FIRED TWO SHOTS AT THE FOUR MEN, SCATTERING THEM. He then tossed the gun aside and leaped from the railing, hurling his body outward and bear-hugging the falling gibbet.

  His added weight increased momentum and, together, he and Cassiopeia smacked the sea.

  SOMETHING HAD SLAMMED INTO THE GIBBET, STARTLING CASSIOPEIA. A body. Male. Together they hit the water.

  Then she saw the face and relief poured through her.

  Cotton.

  MALONE HELD TIGHT. NO WAY HE WAS LETTING GO. THEY teetered on the surface, tossing in the surf, as the line’s slack played out behind the yacht.

  “Glad you finally made it,” she said.

  His gaze found the latch mechanism.

  The gibbet was starting to sink.

  He reached out but the line went taut.

  And they were dragged through the water.

  HALE WAS STUNNED. THE INTRUDER HAD SHOT HIM, BUT THANKFULLY in the chest. The body armor he’d donned earlier before leading the defense of the prison had saved him, though his ribs throbbed. He’d dropped to the deck, but not before seeing the man leap from the railing toward the gibbet.

  He brought himself to his knees and sucked a few deep breaths.

  He turned for his men, who were nowhere to be seen.

  Instead Stephanie Nelle stood with a gun aimed straight at him.

  “I told you Cotton Malone was trouble,” she said.

  MALONE KEPT A DEATH GRIP ON THE GIBBET, HIS RIGHT hand finding one of the rounded vertical supports to which the flat iron was welded. A shower of color burst before his eyes. They were skimming in and out of the water about a hundred feet behind Adventure, in the center portion of the sloop’s long wake.