The Footprints of God

by Greg Isle

"Affirmative. And they definitely know we're here. Tennant leaned out and looked up at us."

  "Ground units, when you get there, wait for low traffic, then box in the car and take them."

  "Take them out?" asked a voice with the eerie calm of a fighter pilot on a mission.

  Geli looked down at Ritter's corpse, remembering last night. He was still alive inside her. "Tennant may have kidnapped his psychiatrist. We're not sure. We do know that he's highly unstable, armed, and he's already killed one of ours. Ritter Bock, which should tell you something. Nobody take any chances. Protect your own lives first."

  There was a chorus of "Affirmative."

  "Am I understood?"

  The responding silence said more than the subsequent acknowledgments. This was why she hired former soldiers.

  "Ah, that's a rog," said a cold male voice.

  "Call it play by play for me, Air-One."

  "Will do."

  Geli smiled. Tennant and Weiss wouldn't live to see nightfall.

  Chapter 16

  As the Audi roared eastward toward the turn, I scanned the highway behind us. The nearest vehicle was two hundred yards back. It looked like a pickup truck. I doubted it was NSA, but you never knew. With aerial surveillance, ground units wouldn't have to follow closely to stay up with us. They could even drive ahead of us. There was simply no way to know who or where our pursuers were. If we were lucky, whatever aircraft was up there had acquired us only minutes before I saw the laser.

  Rachel reached out and pulled me close enough to whisper. "I think I see the turn. Is it Highway 45?"

  I checked the map. "Yes, but it's no highway. Take it."

  She slowed to fifty, then screeched left onto 45.

  "Punch it," I said.

  She hit the accelerator and shot down the two-lane blacktop at seventy miles per hour. I put the goggles up to my face and looked for the laser. It had lost us at the turn, but it quickly tracked back onto our rear windshield. I leaned over to Rachel's ear.

  "We're going to cross a bridge over the Cashie River where it flows into Albemarle Sound. Take the next left after that."

  "Just tell me when to turn."

  The A8 devoured the road like a starving tiger, racing up and over the high bridge that arced across the Cashie. I leaned far enough out the window to look skyward. A small plane was flying over the road at about five thousand feet. A wave of relief went through me. My fear was a helicopter that could set down on the road and deploy a SWAT team armed with submachine guns. A fixed-wing aircraft could land on a highway, but not on the twisting road we would soon be driving.

  Rachel pointed at an intersection ahead. I nodded. She slowed just enough to make the turn, then whipped onto a much smaller road that was heavily forested on both sides.

  "Look at those trees," I said, bracing my hands on the dash.

  A hundred yards ahead, towering oaks closed over the road, turning it into a shadowy tunnel. When we entered it, I rolled down my window and leaned out again. First I saw nothing but branches. Then I caught a silver gleam as the plane swooped over the road behind us at about two thousand feet.

  "Go!" I yelled. "We're losing them!"

  "If I go any faster, I'll lose control."

  "You're doing fine."

  Law enforcement used fixed-wing aircraft for surveillance because they could stay on station much longer than helicopters. Today they would pay a heavy price for that strategy. A plane couldn't crisscross the sky in tight enough patterns to maintain contact on a twisting road with heavy cover.

  The Audi's big tires squealed as Rachel took another tight curve at seventy-plus. My right shoulder compressed against the door. Struggling to hold the map steady, I searched for an escape route. If we took the next tiny rural road to the left, we would quickly recross the Cashie River, but not by bridge. The Cashie looked scarcely wider than a creek at that point, and an italic legend said, Ferry. That could mean anything from a free-floating vessel to a cable barge.

  I picked up the goggles and scanned the road ahead. The laser was dancing erratically about seventy yards in front of the car, breaking and re-forming as the operator in the plane tried to contend with the branches shielding us from above.

  "There's a ferry up ahead," I said. "If we can get over to it, we may be able to cut off ground pursuit."

  "All right."

  "You've got a left turn any second."

  "Okay."

  "There!"

  Rachel stepped on the brake. I thought we were going to spin out, but the all-wheel drive held the car to the pavement, and she just managed the turn. As the tunnel of oaks thickened, the one-lane road quickly petered out into gravel and mud, dropping at a shallow angle that told me we were nearing water.

  "Careful," I said, dreading the scrape of gravel against the undercarriage.

  With the car listing to starboard, we rounded the last curve and came to rest behind an ancient green Chevy Nova parked in the middle of the track. Beyond the car I saw a dark, slow-moving river about eighty yards across.

  "I don't see a ferry," Rachel said.

  A beat-up aluminum canoe was tied to the roof of the Nova, but I saw no people. I covered my gun with my shirttail, then got out and walked toward the river.

  The sound of an acoustic guitar floated back to me, reminding me of Deliverance. When I rounded the Nova, I saw not two inbred hillbillies but a pair of college-age boys sitting on the ground. One was blond and wore a bandanna as a headband. The other was dark-haired and fingerpicking a beat-up dreadnought Martin guitar. I waved casually and walked past them to the river's edge.

  A ferry built to hold three or four cars was making its way across the water from the opposite bank, a dark column of exhaust rising from its rumbling engine. A house trailer stood on the far bank. Beside it was a small ramp, and a road that disappeared into the woods.

  "We already called the ferry," said one of the boys behind me.

  I turned and smiled at them. The blond with the bandanna wore a UNC T-shirt and had quick green eyes. The guitar player looked stoned and had a bad sunburn across his shoulders. I smelled the unmistakable odor of marijuana.

  "You guys been running the rivers around here?"

  The blond laughed. "We take it pretty slow. We floated the Chowan this morning. We're headed home now. Tarboro. We just wanted a look at the Cashie here."

  I put my hand over my eyes and looked skyward. The surveillance plane droned out of a cumulus cloud and flew across the river.

  "Sounds good," I said to the guitar player, who was still picking softly. Then I walked back to the Audi and got inside.

  "The ferry's on the way."

  "Is the plane still up there?" Rachel asked.

  "Yes."

  She looked as though she'd endured about all she could in one day. As I stared morosely at the Nova's rear end, an idea hit me.

  "I'll be right back."

  I got out and walked around the Nova, then squatted in front of the college boys. "I've got a proposition for you guys."

  "What kind of proposition?" asked the blond.

  "My wife's never done any canoeing. She saw your boat and got a wild idea. She'd like to float down the river to the sound."

  The guitar player stopped picking. "We're on our way home, man."

  "I remember. Tarboro. But I was thinking . . . how much do you figure your canoe is worth? It looks like an old Grumman to me."

  "That's right," said the blond. "Used to be my uncle's. I guess she's worth about four hundred bucks."

  We all turned as the ferry's deck hit the ramp on our side of the river.

  I reached up and twanged the inverted V of rope that bound the bow of the canoe to the car's front bumper. "Two hundred would be closer," I said with a laugh. "But I like to keep my wife happy. How about five?"

  The blond swallowed hard. He was calculating how much weed he could buy with five hundred in cash.

  "The thing is, I don't want to leave my car here. I'd like you to drive it up the
road a ways."

  "Where to?" asked the blond.

  "How about Tarboro?"

  He looked confused. "But how will you get there to pick up your car?"

  "Get aboard!" shouted the ferryman, a white-haired beanpole in faded overalls.

  I took out my wallet and counted out ten $100 bills. "For a thousand bucks, what do you care?"

  "Shit," said the guitar player, getting to his feet. He looked over the Nova at the Audi. Rachel's face was a blur behind the sun's reflection. "Is that your car?"

  "That's it."

  "What's the deal, man?"

  "The deal is a thousand bucks for the canoe and a quick drive. You up for it?"

  Both boys looked at the Audi, then at each other. "Fifteen hundred," said the blond, turning to me. "For fifteen hundred I'll drive it to Tarboro. Call it hazard pay."

  I smiled. "Fifteen hundred it is. But here's how we have to do it."

  We loaded the cars on the ferry, and the old man guided the shuddering vessel back into the slow current. As agreed, the boys sat in their Nova during the crossing. Rachel and I stayed in the Audi. The NSA plane remained on station, flying a tight circle over the river. I could almost feel Geli Bauer's security teams converging on this little corner of North Carolina.

  When the ferry reached the far bank, the Nova drove slowly off the deck and down the ramp onto the road. Rachel followed. Then suddenly she swerved around the Nova and raced into the woods like a woman pursued by demons. As soon as the oak branches closed over us, she braked and waited for the Nova to catch up. Twenty seconds later, the old Chevy rounded a curve and pulled up behind us.

  "Move fast!" I yelled to the boys as they got out.

  Their canoe sat on yellow foam squares that protected the car's roof from the metal gunwales. I started to untie the bow ropes, but the blond whipped a knife out of his pocket and cut the lines at both ends of the canoe. I took hold of the bow, the guitar player took the stern, and together we slid the boat off the roof, inverting it as we lowered it to the ground. At the last minute we lost hold and the canoe hit the gravel with a ringing blang.

  The blond reached into the backseat, took out two long wooden paddles, and dropped them into the canoe. When he looked up, his eyes focused on something behind me, and he blushed. I turned and saw Rachel standing behind me in her jeans and white button-down.

  "Hey," she said. "I appreciate this." Then she smiled in a way I'd never seen her smile before.

  "Uh, no problem," said the blond.

  The guitar player waved at Rachel but said nothing, and I saw that even at thirty-five, Rachel Weiss still impressed boys in their twenties.

  "We've got to get going," I said. "So do you guys."

  I handed the blond fifteen $100 bills.

  "You're either paying me too much or not enough," he said. "But it's cool." He pointed into the trees. "If you carry the canoe through there, you should hit the river after fifty yards or so."

  "Thanks."

  He trotted back to the Audi and slid behind the wheel. As I got Fielding's box from the backseat, I touched the kid on the shoulder. "If anyone stops you in this car, tell them exactly what happened. The money, everything. You'll be fine."

  He nodded. "No sweat."

  The Audi roared to life and tore off down through the tunnel of oaks. The guitar player in the Nova laughed, shook his head, and slowly followed. I tossed Fielding's box into the canoe, wrapped the bow line around my right hand, and started dragging the boat toward the trees.

  "Should I push?" asked Rachel

  "I've got it. You watch for snakes."

  From that moment forward her eyes never left the ground.

  The trees grew almost too close together to pull the canoe between them, and I was soon dripping sweat. But the blond kid was right. Before long, I smelled decaying plants, and then I sighted a yellow flash of sunlight on water. Fifty more feet and I was shoving the canoe between two cypress knees and into the river.

  "Get in," I told Rachel. "All the way to the front."

  She climbed into the stern and made her way carefully to the bow seat. I shoved the canoe into deeper water, then jumped into the stern as it arrowed away from the shore. Settling on the hard seat, I picked up a paddle and propelled the boat along the snaky-looking bank.

  "I'm going to keep us under the trees," I said. "Watch for the plane."

  Rachel looked up and squinted. I listened hard as I paddled, but I heard only the frothy whisper of wood cutting water.

  "See anything?"

  She shook her head.

  I looked down the long, dark bend of river, bounded on both sides by thick stands of cypress and pine. At this moment, the vast resources of the NSA were focused on finding us. But here, those resources were largely useless. For the first time in many hours, I felt some peace.

  "Any idea where we're going?" Rachel asked.

  "No. But I'll know when we get there."

  Chapter 17

  Geli Bauer sat in her zero-gravity chair in the security basement of the Trinity building, her right hand squeezing a pair of weighted dice she'd taken from Fielding's personal effects in the storeroom. She'd taken them for luck, but so far they had brought her little.

  On the bank of monitors to her right, dozens of NSA personnel with forklifts and dollies were moving sensitive equipment and files to trucks waiting at the back of the building. If Tennant went public, she wanted nothing left here for nosy congressmen to find.

  "Tennant just pulled onto the shoulder and stopped," said a female voice in her headset. It belonged to an ex-navy warrant officer named Evans, who was in the first ground unit to sight the stolen Audi.

  "Did he try to run at all?" Geli asked.

  "Negative. When he realized we were pursuing, he just pulled over like it's a traffic stop."

  Geli didn't like the sound of that. "Are they in plain sight?"

  "Only the man."

  "Do you have a megaphone?"

  "We don't need it. He just got out of the car. He's holding his hands up."

  "Dr. Tennant?"

  "I don't think so." The line crackled. "This looks like a kid."

  "A kid?"

  "A hippie. College kid."

  "You stopped the wrong car!"

  "No, the plate's right. Wait. . . they must have pulled some kind of switch."

  "Who?"

  "There were two college kids in a green Chevy on the ferry. Tennant and Weiss must be in that car."

  "Question the goddamn kid! Find out!"

  "Hang on."

  She glanced at her monitors. The NSA movers were rolling stacked computers onto the loading dock on the ground floor. Moving the equipment was a pain in the ass. If they had let her kill Tennant at the same time as Fielding, none of this would be happening.

  "Evans here," said the voice on the headset. "They're on the river now."

  "They're what!"

  "The college kids had a canoe on their car. Unpainted aluminum. Tennant bought it off them."

  Geli felt like she was about to stroke out. "Find the Chevy and nail it anyway! And impound the Audi."

  "Will do."

  "Air-One, do you read?"

  "Affirmative."

  "Start making low passes over the river. Start at the ferry and move toward Albemarle Sound. Even Tennant wouldn't try to get away by paddling upstream."

  "We'll be back over the river in five minutes."

  "Get ground units started down the river on both sides."

  "There's only a road on one side. The north side."

  "Jesus Christ."

  "We'll cover the other side."

  Geli killed the connection and said, "Skow, home,” into her headset. After one ring, Skow said, "Tell me you have them."

  "They're gone."

  "What does that mean?"

  "Tennant pulled a switch on the ferry. He and Weiss are now in a canoe somewhere on the Cashie River."

  "Damn it, Geli. How could you screw this up?"

&nb
sp; Her cheeks burned. "Do you want to have a conversation about who fucked this up?"

  "Don't be insubordinate."

  "If Tennant slips through our fingers here, you can kiss control goodbye."

  "That's not necessarily true. Give me a moment."

  As Skow pondered the situation, Geli punched up a map of North Carolina on her screen. What would Tennant do after getting on the river? Where could he go? There were five miles of water between the ferry and the sound, and no road on the south bank from which to surveil the river. If Tennant knew that, he could beach the canoe anywhere.

  "What do you want to do?" Skow asked.

  "I want real-time satellite imagery of that river right now. Highest possible resolution. You authorize it, I'll give the NRO the coordinates."

  "What else?"

  "I need more manpower. I don't have near the tactical strength to carry out a wide-area search in wooded terrain."

  "That's a problem. Until we go public with some form of this story, we're low on manpower."

  "Then you'd better think about going public, and fast."

  "Listen, Geli, if we lose him here, we still have a good shot. I'm going to be giving you some information that could put you one step ahead of Tennant."

  Her internal radar went on alert. "What kind of information?"

  "You'll see when you get it. It's from an unimpeachable source."

  "There's no such thing. Is this an NSA source?"

  "Yes."

  "The agency hasn't given me anything reliable so far."

  "That's about to change. I'm in a hurry. Have we covered everything?"

  "No. Rules of engagement."

  Skow took an audible breath. "I'm comfortable with your rescue scenario."

  "I'll bet you are. I want a shoot-to-kill order."

  Skow did not reply.

  Geli felt her temper rising. "Look, we've waited—"

  "Give me a moment to think."

  "Why are you so damn wishy-washy about this?"

  "Look . . . this is a hostage situation. You have the tactical experience. I have to leave the rules of engagement to your discretion."

  Geli shook her head and muttered, "Be careful what you wish for, right?"

  "The burden of command, Ms. Bauer."

  "Command isn't a burden, Skow. It's nirvana. The burden is putting up with ass-covering bureaucrats second-guessing every move after the fact."