Intentional Consequences

by Charles Harris

  Rakesh said, “We’ll get some criticism, but there’s safety in numbers. Launching with a solid group of highly respected companies will help. The risk/reward ratio is strongly in our favor. We’re at a very dangerous time in our country’s history. The dollars are small compared to what’s at stake.”

  The health care SVP said, “Your vision is inspiring, but the devil will be in the details, and there will be a lot of details.”

  Rakesh had agreed to limit the meeting to no more than an hour. After some additional discussion, he wrapped up things up, saying, “I hope you and your company will join with us in this endeavor. Please reach out to me if you or your colleagues have any questions. This is one of several video conferences we’re doing over the next few weeks. We’re also doing a lot of one-on-ones. We want to be live no later than July 4th, so we have a lot to do. I’ll be in touch. Have a great weekend.”

  ◆◆◆

  Less than an hour after the meeting, Alice Harper sent an email to David Bernbach with the login information for the Repaint America website. She followed that with a text that read: “See your email for follow up on Rakesh Jain project to reunite America. One of my SVPs was on a video conference about this today. He was impressed, but we’ve already received calls from some presidential candidates warning us about participating in this sort of program. Website is still in pilot mode. Jain’s goal is to be live with multi-company support by July 4.”

  Chapter 43

  Shortly before noon on Saturday, Eva picked up Andy at his Aunt’s house for a ride out to George and Mary Ball’s house for a lunch. Mary had suggested adding Andy to the lunch so she and George would have a chance to meet him. That was fine with Eva. She had barely seen Andy since he arrived and was looking forward to hearing about how his project was coming. She still didn’t know who Andy was focusing on. Dan was at the office and would meet them there.

  “Nice car,” Andy said as he got into her white Porsche. Eva was wearing white flouncy shorts and a stretchy green tank top with a low neckline. Andy was in khakis and a white golf shirt.

  “Thanks. There’s a ball cap on the floor if you need it. It’s a gorgeous Texas day, but the sun here can be pretty hard on you Yankees,” she said with a wink. “Ride’s about 20 minutes. Or I can put the top up if you prefer.” Andy smiled and put on the cap.

  As they turned out of the Jenkins’ neighborhood onto a business street, Eva noticed a white Dodge Charger pull in some distance behind them.

  She and Andy were both quickly engrossed talking about the Chinese side of Andy’s conspiracy theories. Andy gave her an overview of the role he thought PaprW8 might be playing. Then he said, “The Chinese are getting really aggressive in stealing U.S. technology. I would think your software would be valuable to them. Have you had any hacking issues you can tell me about—not for attribution, of course?”

  Eva said, “We have seen some improper cyber activity.” That’s an understatement, Eva thought. “I don’t want to go into any details. But we do think they’re interested in what we have.”

  “Do you think it could be useful in political marketing?”

  “Yes.”

  Eva turned the Porsche onto a two-lane side road that led out to the Ball’s house. Glancing in the rear-view mirror, she realized the Charger was still behind her. A few minutes later, it pulled surprisingly close to the back of her car. Turning to Andy, she said, “Don’t look back, but any idea why a white Dodge Charger with two men inside would be following us?”

  “No. But I think I was being followed on foot before I left Boston. Nobody knows I’m in Austin. I can’t believe they’re following me.”

  “She punched the hands free on her Bluetooth car phone and said, “Call Mary Ball.” Mary picked up. “Mary, we’re about five minutes away, with two guys in a white Dodge Charger following us close on our tail. May be nothing, but let George know and be sure your gate is open.”

  Glancing at Andy, she said, “Let’s see if they want to pass us.” She cut her speed from 45 to 35. They stayed on her tail. She accelerated, reaching 60 in seconds. After a lag while the big Hemi kicked it, the Charger came after them. “Not good,” Eva said.

  Andy was watching the Charger in his side mirror. As it pulled back on their tail, he said, “Crap, Eva, the guy on the passenger side has a gun!”

  “Slump down so you can still see what he’s doing! What kind of gun?”

  “A pistol.”

  She redialed Mary. “They’re still back there. Guy on the passenger side has a pistol. Trying to outrun them to your driveway. Leave your phone on.”

  Seconds later, two shots rang out. The passenger side mirror shattered. Andy flinched.

  Eva said “Two shots. Andy, you OK?”

  “Yes.”

  Eva floored the Porsche, which downshifted and surged forward, hitting 90 in a few heartbeats and leaving the Charger behind. Up ahead, the Ball’s driveway cut off the road on a 40-degree angle to the right. As the Dodge began to catch up again, Eva braked hard and skidded into the driveway, fishtailing as she maneuvered the initial turns of the long, winding route to the house. Thank God this thing’s paved, she thought.

  The driver of the Charger hesitated a second too long before deciding whether to stay on the road or commit to the driveway. As he braked later than he should have, the car split the difference and tracked between the driveway and the road, smashing into a forest of small trees before sliding sideways to a stop as its blown airbags deflated.

  Eva heard the crash. As she approached the house, Mary came out with an AR-15 in her hands and a walkie-talkie clipped to her belt. Mary said, “I’ve called 911. George is down with their car. They’re hurt. You two stay here. I’m going to back up George. Kids are with friends, so nobody’s in the house.” Looking back as she walked briskly past the car, she yelled, “You must be Andy. Nice to meet you. Welcome to Texas.”

  Eva pulled her car to a stop in front of the house. “Get out, we’re not staying here,” Eva said. As Andy got out, Eva reached behind his seat and punched some numbers into a box. Leaving her door open, she stepped out and started jogging down the driveway with her Glock in her right hand. Andy followed.

  As they neared the road, Eva saw the Charger jammed sideways in the trees between the road and the driveway. Mary was standing in the driveway with her AR-15 pointed at a man sitting on the ground about six feet away. A pistol lay next to her on the driveway. George was on the driver’s side of the car with his AR-15 aimed at the driver. The door was open, but the driver wasn’t moving. Noticing Eva approach, Mary said, “We’ve got this guy and one pistol. We’re not sure about the other guy. We’re gonna keep him in the car until the sheriff gets here.”

  The tires on Dan Johnson’s black Suburban squealed as he whipped into the Ball’s driveway and pulled to a sudden stop. “What the hell’s going on?” he demanded.

  As Mary glanced over at Dan’s SUV, the man on the ground in front of her lunged forward toward Mary, using his left arm to knock her legs out from under her and the other arm to grab his pistol at her feet. Losing her balance, Mary fired off three harmless rounds from her rifle and fell hard onto the driveway. The butt of her rifle hit the pavement a moment before she did, jerking it from her grip.

  It was a desperate attempt, but it worked. As Mary scuffled for her rifle, the man wrapped his left arm around her neck and jammed the barrel of the pistol against her head. “Put the guns down or she’s dead,” he yelled. “I’m driving out of here in that Suburban. Get out and leave the engine on.”

  Eva scanned the scene. She was standing in the driveway about ten feet away from Mary and the man with the gun. The man could see Eva without turning his head, but barely. George had no shot and the man in the car was starting to move. Dan was still in the Suburban, talking on his cell. Speed, surprise, force, she remembered.

  As George was looking at Mary, Eva saw the man in the car raise his right arm toward the driver’s door. She yelled, “George, watch the car.
The driver’s got a gun!” When the man on the ground looked toward the Charger, Eva had her chance and took it, rapidly firing two rounds into the man’s head. The jacketed hollow point ammunition did what it was designed to do. The man died instantly, his pistol still in his hand. As Eva looked away from the carnage, she heard three shots at the car and saw George fall to the ground, clutching his shoulder. She couldn’t see the driver.

  Mary grabbed her rifle and moved toward the driver’s side of the car. Eva ran a few steps up the driveway to get a better view of the passenger side. Still, no driver. Eva edged into the trees closer to the car. Mary stooped to check on George, who was bleeding badly. Eva moved closer still. Suddenly, the driver popped up in the bushes at the front corner of the car, pulling his arm up to aim his pistol at Mary. Eva yelled, “Mary, look out!”

  Raising her Glock quickly, Eva fired three rounds at the man’s torso from about 25 feet away. The first one missed. The other two hit home. As the man fell, two wild shots rang out from his pistol before it dropped from his hands. Mary kicked the pistol under the car and kneeled to help George. He was barely conscious.

  Dan came over, holding his own Glock from the Suburban. He was on the phone with 911. “Ambulance should be here in five minutes, along with the cops. I’ll watch this guy.”

  Andy was standing on the driveway. He hadn’t moved. Dan called to him. “Andy, can you pull the Suburban up the driveway to make room for the ambulance and the cops? Keys are in it.”

  Eva stooped beside Mary, who said, “He’s losing blood. Looks like one clean hole below his right collarbone, in and out. Blood’s oozing not spurting, so it probably didn’t hit any arteries. Hope he doesn’t have a collapsed lung.”

  Still holding her Glock, Eva hugged her with one arm. “He’ll be OK.”

  Mary said, “Thank you for what you did. Never knew you could shoot like that.”

  “Never knew I’d ever need to shoot like that. Sorry about all this. I guess these two were after Andy. I had no idea he might really be in danger. Where are your kids?”

  “Separate sleepovers with friends. Thank God. I’ll call the parents from the hospital.”

  The two ambulances arrived just ahead of two cars from the Travis County Sheriff’s office. The paramedics quickly loaded George into the first ambulance and sped away. Mary rode with them. The second ambulance followed with the driver of the Charger, who was bleeding from two ugly gunshot wounds, but still breathing. Communicating through the 911 operator, a sheriff’s deputy instructed Eva and Dan to put their pistols in the back of the Suburban with the tail gate open. Mary had put the two AR-15s next to the Suburban before she’d climbed into the ambulance.

  A crime scene team arrived 30 minutes later. The deputies questioned Eva, Dan and Andy separately at the Balls’ house. They shared the sandwiches Mary had planned to serve for lunch. While they were eating, Eva received a text from Mary: “George should be OK. No permanent damage. Partly collapsed lung. Lost 2 pints blood. No transfusion. More later.”

  After a while, the interrogation focused on whether the two men were after Andy or Eva or both. Once the investigators realized Andy was a political journalist for the Sentinel Observer in Boston, their questions about his work became more penetrating. Andy fueled their interest when he refused to divulge the targets or sources for the story he was working on.

  When the Sheriff’s investigators found out the Charger had been stolen, the Florida plate on it belonged to a different car in Tennessee and the driver’s licenses of the two men showed home addresses in West Virginia, they decided they had an interstate crime on their hands. They called in the FBI. In an encouraging display of intraagency communication, the FBI Resident Agency Office in Austin quickly realized Eva was the same Eva Johnson in the ongoing investigation about her home invasion and the drone incident. By the next day, the FBI special agent-in-charge on that case had been briefed on the Charger gunfight.

  ◆◆◆

  Back home later that evening, Dan and Eva shared a hot shower and ate tomato soup and salad together at the kitchen bar. Dan said, “I don’t know how you did that today.”

  “I just did what I had to do. Gruesome as it was, I never thought about getting sick. I was clinical. My sole focus was on saving Mary’s life. If I didn’t shoot the guy, he would have killed Mary and probably you and me too. If that wasn’t enough, then I had to shoot the other guy to save George’s life. I don’t know why I was put in that position, but I’m glad I was able to do it.”

  “Do you think the men were after Andy or you?”

  “Like I told the investigators, it was obvious to me they were after Andy. I never thought otherwise until the deputy raised the question. I still think they were after Andy.

  “I agree, but after the things we’ve been through this year, maybe we need to think about it some more. If they were after you, we need to know that. Regardless of who they were after, do you think they were trying to create fear or do something worse?”

  “At the time, I was convinced the guy was shooting to kill Andy. I still believe it. If he was just trying to scare Andy, why would he aim so close to him in a moving car? Either way, the guy paid a heavy price.”

  Chapter 44

  The following morning, Dan and Eva slept late, which for them meant 9:00 a.m. even on Sunday. They lingered over their coffee, Dan in plaid lounging shorts and a golf shirt and Eva in short fluorescent pink beach dress.

  Eva said, “I think yesterday’s catching up with me.”

  “Not surprising. I’m exhausted and I didn’t do what you did. Can you take some downtime today?”

  “Maybe this morning. I’d love to curl into a ball, but hiding’s not the answer. Better to push through it. I need to call Steve Cole and Andy. I’d also like to go by to see George. Mary sent me a text this morning. He had a good night.”

  Eva pulled off her beach dress and dove into the pool. When she came up, she floated on her back, staring silently into the cloudless blue sky. After a few minutes, she said, “I still don’t think they were after me. But if they were after Andy, whoever sent them must be really scared about whatever he’s working on.”

  Dan said, “Do you know who Andy’s investigating?”

  “No, he still hasn’t told me, and I haven’t asked.”

  Climbing out of the pool after a few lack-luster laps, Eva wrapped a towel around her waist and helped Dan put out vanilla yogurt with strawberries and granola for breakfast. They both read the Sunday Times on their iPads, hardly speaking.

  After breakfast, Eva unwrapped her towel and stretched out on a chaise lounge to let the sun bake away her trauma from the day before. She dialed Andy on her cell. She hadn’t talked with him since the incident. Maybe I should surprise him with Facetime, she thought with a smile.

  Andy said, “Eva, hi, how are you doing? Are you alright? How’s George?”

  “I’m OK, thanks. George is good. The man who shot him is still in intensive care.”

  “You were amazing yesterday. Where did you learn to shoot like that? Delta Force?”

  “Lots of lessons and practice. Ironically, George recommended the lessons and my instructor. Long story, better over some wine. I just did what I had to do. How are you doing?”

  “Not very well. Actually, I’m scared shitless. I didn’t sleep much last night. I talked to my mom and dad. Dad’s concerned. He thinks I’m in way over my head. He wants me to resign and take some time off, come live with them in New York for a few months.”

  “Do you have any idea who could have hired these men?”

  “Had to be somebody who knows what I’m working on and wants to scare me off before I figure it all out. Could be David Bernbach or someone at PaprW8 or someone in China. Or even someone at the Sentinel Observer.”

  “Who’s David Bernbach?”

  Andy was silent for a few seconds, then said, “Well, I botched that. I’ve avoided telling you who my investigation is about. The main subject is a hedge fund guy named D
avid Bernbach. I really need you to keep his name in confidence, especially after what happened yesterday. Do you know him?”

  “I’ve never heard of him. Does anybody else down here know he’s the person you’re chasing?”

  “Valerie knows. I told her she could tell Rakesh. You can talk to them about Bernbach if you need to.”

  “What about Dan?”

  “No, he doesn’t know. At least he’s not supposed to know. There’s a possibility Bernbach or one of his political entities is a client of JPAC. It would help to know that, but I can’t risk Dan telling Bernbach I’m targeting him. Please don’t tell Dan.”

  “OK, nothing about Bernbach to Dan. Could be awkward, but I get it.”

  “Thank you.”

  “Do you think they were trying to scare you or kill you?”

  “I’d like to think they were only trying to scare me. But I’m not sure. My dad thinks it was supposed to scare me off, but he also thinks they could take me out if I don’t back off.”

  “What about the FBI? Could they help you nail the people you’re after?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t told the investigators who I’m looking at or given them any sources. I’m sure the FBI will press me on it, especially given the political overtones. I’m going to need to decide whether to talk or not. Bad to have to say this, but I’m not sure I trust the FBI to be apolitical. My story may be safer if they’re not involved.”

  Eva rolled over, giving her bare backside its time in the sun. They talked for a while longer and agreed to touch base later in the day. Eva called Mary and was encouraged to hear George could be going home early in the week. Her next call was to Steve Cole, who had no idea how she had spent her Saturday afternoon. By the time she was finished with the call, she had pulled her sheer beach dress back on and moved to a chair under an umbrella.