Walk the Wire

by David Baldacci

  “Piece of advice: You might want to become a lighter sleeper.”

  Decker clicked on the nightstand light and looked over at Robie sitting in a chair with a placid expression.

  Robie held up his phone. “I just sent you some documents and pictures. I’m here to provide context.”

  “What do the pictures and docs concern?”

  “Ben Purdy, who used to work at London AFS.”

  “Used to. When did he leave?”

  “Around the time they transitioned to Vector.”

  “Where is he now?”

  “Don’t know. And his papers don’t say. That’s a puzzler because they would normally list what his next deployment was. The files I looked at for other personnel all did.”

  Decker picked up the phone off the nightstand and opened the email. He took a minute to scan down the pages that Robie had photographed.

  “How’d you get these?”

  Robie just looked at him.

  “Do they know someone was there tonight?” asked Decker.

  This comment drew a look of respect from Robie.

  “Or was it clean?” added Decker.

  “My exit was not as clean as I would have liked. But they won’t know what my area of interest was, that I can guarantee.”

  “That’s good to know.”

  “What are you going to do now?”

  “Show the picture to someone to make sure it’s the right guy.”

  “We don’t need you showing this picture all around.”

  “I’m only going to show it to one guy. A person I trust implicitly.”

  “I hope your trust is well placed.”

  “It is. That I can guarantee you.”

  “And if it is the right guy?” asked Robie.

  “Then we need to track down this Ben Purdy.”

  “And if you can’t?”

  Decker looked at him. “Why would that be a problem? Even if his current assignment wasn’t in the file. He’s in the Air Force, not in hiding.”

  “He was in the Air Force. We don’t know if he still is. And if you find him he may not talk. For a number of reasons,” he added grimly.

  “You think it goes that deep?”

  Robie ran his fingers along the chair’s armrest. “FYI, I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

  “That’s also good to know.”

  “Anything else?”

  “When I asked you about Irene Cramer, you hung up on me. Why?”

  “I had nothing to contribute to that discussion.”

  “You have a funny way of not answering questions.”

  “Goes with the territory I call home.”

  “I can deal with half-assed answers and even outright lies, because pretty much everybody lies to me at some point. But to solve the case, I have to get to the truth. And FYI, I will.”

  Robie eyed the phone. “Those are the facts. Do with them what you think is best.” He rose from the chair, a bit stiffly.

  This was not missed by Decker. “I take it the nonclean exit was also painful?”

  “They almost always are.”

  Robie was at the door when Decker said, “I know getting this wasn’t easy. Thanks.”

  Robie turned back long enough to say, “It’s my job. Now do yours.”

  “THAT’S THE GUY,” said Baker.

  He, Decker, and Jamison were having coffee the next morning at a café down the street from their hotel. Decker had shown him the picture of Ben Purdy that Robie had sent him.

  “You’re sure?”

  “Oh, yeah. That’s him. He still around? Haven’t seen him since that night.”

  “All the military guys are gone except for the man who runs the place, Colonel Sumter. The rest are private contractors.”

  Baker shook his head. “Never liked those guys. They were paid three times what us grunts got and did a quarter of the work we did.” He eyed Decker. “Where’d you get that picture?”

  Jamison glanced at her partner. Decker had already told her about the encounter with Robie.

  “Just good, old-fashioned police work, Stan,” said Decker, taking his phone with the photo on it back as Jamison hiked her eyebrows at this comment.

  “If he’s gone, how are you gonna talk to him?”

  “Have to think of a way. Did he say anything else to you? Talk about his family? Friends? Anything that might help us track him down?”

  “Well, he said his family was from Montana. Just over the border.”

  Decker sat up. “Did he mention a town?”

  “No. Just that it was small and rural. I guess most of Montana is rural.” He checked his watch. “I got to get going. I’m normally at work by now, but we had some repairs to make and we don’t start staging for another two hours.”

  “Thanks, Stan, see you later.”

  “Hey, um, Caroline wanted me to ask if you two wanted to join us for dinner tonight.”

  “Dinner?” said Decker. “I don’t—”

  But Jamison interjected, “That would be great, Stan.”

  Baker grinned. “I’ll email you with the details. You’ll love the restaurant. It’s a pretty special place.”

  Before they could comment on this, Baker hurried off.

  Decker whirled on Jamison, who put up her hand.

  “He’s your brother-in-law.”

  “Soon to be ex.”

  “Is he your friend? Do you like him?”

  “Well, yes. He’s a nice guy, solid as a rock.”

  “And didn’t you two just fight off a bunch of guys together?”

  “Well, yeah.”

  “The point is, he invited us to dinner. We should accept. At the very least we might learn something that could be helpful.”

  Decker fingered his coffee, looking uncertain.

  “What?” she said.

  “If you want the truth, I guess I’m pissed that he seems so happy. Without my sister. I know that’s stupid and petty, but . . .”

  Jamison put a hand on his shoulder. “And it’s also normal to feel that way after something like this happens to a family member. But you have to let it go. It’s his life to live, not yours. Don’t judge him, Decker, just support him. Like you just said, he’s a good guy.”

  He refocused and said, “If Purdy’s family lives in Montana just over the border we should be able to find them.”

  “It’s a long border, Decker. What about Robie? Could he help?”

  “He got us the photo and the name. He did his job. His forte is not running stuff down in a database or interviewing witnesses. We should be able to do that.”

  “In a normal case, yes. But this is apparently not a normal case.”

  Decker thought about this for a long moment, took out his phone, and punched in a number.

  “Who are you calling?” she asked.

  “A professional colleague . . . Hello, Bernie, it’s Amos Decker. Yeah, it has been a long time. Yeah, still doing PI. Look, I’m on a job for a client who’s trying to track a deadbeat dad. Name’s Ben Purdy. He’s in the Air Force, but I think he might be AWOL, so he’s got bigger problems than alimony and child support. We tried to garnish, but the guy’s gone all cash and the military’s not been very helpful. Right, I know. Same old story. Now we got a lead on some of his family being in Montana, near the North Dakota border. I remember you know a guy out that way who was pretty good. Any chance you dial him up and get some intel for me on Purdy and his family? An address for them because I happen to be out that way?” Decker paused and listened. “Yeah, that’s right, that’ll work. Give him my number so you don’t have to be caught in the middle. Right, thanks, Bernie. Beers on me next time and I’ll cover the guy’s hourly.”

  He clicked off and looked at Jamison. She stared back at him incredulously.

  “You just called in a favor from, what, your private PI boys’ club? I thought that only happened in the movies.”

  “Bernie Hoffman used to be a homicide detective in Cincinnati. We got to know and trust each othe
r working some joint cases. About the time I went private so did he. We helped each other back then, too. I remembered he had a really good guy in South Dakota. Bernie will put him on the case and we’ll see what pops. And it’s not a favor. I’m paying the guy.”

  When she kept staring at him, he said, “What?”

  “Well, you handled that so deftly over the phone. I mean, you weren’t, um . . .” Her voice trailed off and she looked a little embarrassed.

  “I get tongue-tied in social situations, Alex. Put me in the middle of a dinner, or a party or anything like that, I’m not your guy for eloquence or even stringing a few words together. But when it comes to what I do for a living, I don’t have that problem. I thought you would have remembered that from our first few encounters back in Ohio.”

  She smiled, shamefaced. “You’re right about that. Okay. So what do you think Purdy meant when he said they were all sitting on a time bomb here?”

  “He could have been speaking metaphorically. Or literally.”

  “The latter gives me the chills.”

  “Robie got the photo by breaking into the military facility.”

  A wide-eyed Jamison said, “You didn’t tell me that part. Did he actually say that?”

  “He didn’t have to. But it was a close call for the guy, and he strikes me as the sort who can pretty much go where he wants. So the security there must be tough.”

  “Well, it is a secret government facility,” said Jamison.

  “Yeah, I just wonder what the secret is.”

  “What do you mean?”

  In response Decker brought up some photos on his phone. “Robie didn’t tell me about these. I guess he thought the photos would speak for themselves, and they sort of do.”

  He showed Jamison shots of the men on the gurney being taken to the ambulance, and the man and two women getting off the jet.

  “I wonder who they are,” said Jamison. “And I wonder what happened to the men on the gurneys? Sumter said the place was really safe. No accidents.”

  “Well, maybe what happened to them was no accident,” replied Decker.

  THE ROOM WAS DARK. Any illumination appeared to be coming from a lamp in another area. A man sat in a comfortable upholstered chair. He was dressed in a suit, crisp white shirt, and a tie. His winged loafers were polished. His hair was salt and pepper. His face was creased with decades’ worth of worry, all honestly earned while serving on behalf of his country. His demeanor was calm; he was used to projecting such a façade in times of extreme peril.

  This was one of those times.

  His code name was Blue Man, which denoted the sky-high ring of seniority of which he was a member in America’s intelligence apparatus.

  Will Robie sat opposite him.

  “Amos Decker has the information?” asked Blue Man.

  “He does. Plus the photos.”

  “Good fortune shone on you last night, Robie.”

  “It didn’t feel like it at the time. How’s Jess?”

  “Busy” was all that Blue Man would say on that. “Now, I take it from your overall demeanor that you wonder why we are not performing a full frontal assault on this particular problem?”

  “I do what I’m tasked to do,” said Robie evenly.

  “But still.”

  “Yes,” said Robie. “But still.”

  Blue Man held up one of his hands. “Unfortunately, we have one of these tied behind our back, Robie. Very tightly, in fact.”

  “Is that so?”

  “Powerful interests are arrayed all over this situation. The problem is, while they are arrayed, they are not aligned with our interests.”

  “Money?”

  “And power. Now if we knew for sure, with demonstrable proof, what is going on, it would be different. Without that, I can’t even get a meeting. I can’t even get an email returned. People would rather ignore a potential problem in the hope that it will go away.”

  “And when it doesn’t?”

  Blue Man looked dubiously at him. “You’ve been in this game long enough to know that when it doesn’t, those who ducked their responsibilities will point fingers at others. That apparently qualifies as leadership in certain places.”

  “Don’t you get tired of this shit, sir?”

  “I became tired of it my first day on the job.” Blue Man leaned forward. “But if all of us who hate the status quo were to leave, then the status quo would not only remain, it would become intractable.”

  “Meaning evil only wins—”

  “—when good men and women do nothing. I choose to do something.”

  “So what now?” asked Robie.

  “Do you think he can find Ben Purdy?”

  “If anyone can, I think Decker can.”

  “I have a good friend at the Bureau. He speaks very highly of Decker. In fact, he told me Decker is the best pure investigator that the FBI has. He also said that Decker has some quirks.”

  Robie nodded. “I read the file. The man’s entitled to some quirks after what happened to him.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Vector?” said Robie.

  “A recently created company but already embedded throughout the DoD’s operations with a cavalry of powerful political allies whom they have bought and paid for.”

  “But there’s something going on out there that doesn’t jibe with their mission.”

  “For various reasons, I have been concerned with the Douglas S. George Defense Complex ever since Vector was given the contract to take over operations.”

  “But with an Air Force colonel, Mark Sumter, in charge.”

  Blue Man waved this off. “He’s a titular placeholder. A career soldier who, unfortunately, will follow any order he’s given without gauging the moral or legal virtue of it.”

  “Which may be one of the reasons why he got the assignment.”

  “I think it’s the only reason he got the assignment.”

  “Radar array. Eye in the sky,” said Robie.

  “Officially, yes.”

  “Unofficially?”

  Blue Man settled more deeply in his seat. “The walls of secrecy have always existed within the American IC,” he said, referring to the intelligence community. “But I have never seen it so compartmentalized. Secrets are being kept everywhere. DOJ, DHS, DoD, and all their related platforms. Members of both parties in Congress have made inquiries and met a stone wall in response.”

  “Meaning something might be going on there other than what we think is?”

  Blue Man said, “It actually might be fortunate that Irene Cramer turned up dead here.”

  “Not so fortunate for her.”

  “I’m only talking about the bigger, strategic picture. Her murder has engaged the official machinery of the FBI. They might be able to make some headway where we could not. You know that we have no authority to operate domestically.”

  “They already tried to kill Decker.”

  “Which is why you were sent out, to prevent that from happening. And you did.”

  “The body was disposed of?” inquired Robie.

  “Yes. He was a gun for hire with no possible route back to who hired him.”

  “Any guesses?”

  “We can’t guess, Robie. We don’t have time for it.”

  Robie cocked his head. “And why were the FBI called in? It has to do with Cramer. Decker asked me about her. I had nothing to tell him.”

  “And I have nothing to tell you on that subject. Perhaps at a later time.”

  Robie took this in stride. He was used to not having the full story on any op for which he was called in. “Okay. But she must have been important to us.”

  “She may be more important to us in death than she was in life. But I for one believe that every death such as she suffered must lead to justice, and punishment.”

  Blue Man gave him a curt nod, and Robie rose to go back to work.

  “Look out for Decker and his partner with the greatest care, Robie.”

  Will Robie d
idn’t say anything. He didn’t have to.

  “SUMTER HASN’T GOTTEN BACK to me,” said Kelly as he joined Decker and Jamison by prearrangement in the lobby of their hotel. He had on a gray two-piece suit and white shirt, but instead of scuffed boots he wore black loafers.

  “That’s telling,” said Decker.

  “The DoD works like a glacier, at least that’s been my experience.”

  “Sumter came here about a year ago?”

  “That’s right, when the operation of the facility transitioned.”

  “What do you know about Vector?”

  “Not much. But they got a lot of people over there. And most of them carry weapons. The very serious kind.”

  “Got a question,” said Decker.

  “Shoot.”

  “Why all the ambulances over at the Air Force station? Sumter said it was a really safe place, no accidents, so I don’t see the need.”

  Kelly looked at him shrewdly. “You asked that when we were over there.”

  “And I didn’t get an answer. Thought I’d tee it up again.”

  “You think I’m supposed to know?”

  “I think you might have an opinion.”

  “Well, the easiest answer is all military facilities prepare for worst case, so having ambulances there might just be for that reason.”

  “And it might not. Lot of security there for a radar array. I mean, it’s not like someone can go in and steal that pyramid.”

  “But they can sabotage it,” countered Kelly.

  “Okay, I’ll give you that one,” conceded Decker.

  “Why do you care about any of that?” asked Kelly.

  “I care if there’s something going on over there that might be tied to Irene Cramer.”

  “I don’t see a connection.”

  “It’s our job to find one, if there is one.”

  “Well, like I said, I’ve heard nothing back.”

  “Then we have to move forward in other directions.”

  “And where would that be?” asked Kelly.

  “I’d like to go back to the Brothers’ Colony.”

  “What do you expect to get there?”

  “Irene Cramer worked there. We might have missed something. At the very least we can talk to other people. A lead might shake out from that.”

  “I’ll give them a heads-up that we’re coming. But let’s tread carefully. They’ve all been hit hard by this.”