Sweepers

by P. T. Deutermann

  “We wouldn’t do that,” he said. “We can’t do that.”

  “No? You cops have let this guy run loose so far, ever since this crap started. Why should I believe you?” And then it hit her with the force of a hammer. “You’re not a cop, are you, Mcnair?”

  “Actually, I am. I told von Rensel that I did some moonlighting.” He looked right at her. She was shocked by the in his face. No more congenial detective.

  Somebody very different, with steely eyes and the flat, hard edged face of a killer. Then she really understood.

  “Oh my God, you’re one of them, aren’t you? You’re one of those sweepers!”

  Mcnair shrugged and looked down at the ground for a moment, the leftover rainwater spilling off the bill of his cap. She couldn’t read his expression in the dim light from the car’s cabin, but she could see he was struggling with something. She sensed now that there were other people out in the woods, out of sight, but not from the car.

  “Okay,” he said, looking up at her. “You’re right. You can’t trust Galantz, although I know the guy, and I’d trust him with this. Hell, he knows it’s over. This has to do with Sherman, not you, or von Rensel.

  But we won’t move against all of you. There’s a lock.”

  “A lock? Stop talking in code. What the hell’s a lock?” “Your people know what’s going-on here. That one of ouguys has gone seriously wrong.

  Our people know the real reason why your people pulled the plug on your investigation. But we made a deal that neither of you would get hurt. I

  “By you or by him?”

  “Well, we can’t speak for him, but since nobody wants any of this to come out, that’s a lock.”

  Carpenter, she thought. The blocked file. “And what’s the FBI doing here?”

  He sniffed in contempt. “They’ve homed in, mostly to watch us squirm and, someday, to extract something for their silence. We have this tradition.”

  “If you knew where he was, why didn’t you move? Before we even got here?” She could hear the shrill note of frustration in her own voice.

  “Because von Rensl is in there. And because we had to work some stuff out with the Feebies. Perimeter, comms, who would do what to whom.” He had the grace to be embarrassed. “What can I tell you, we’re all just a bunch of armed bureaucrats.”

  She shook her head in disbelief. Two innocent people had been murdered, and all they cared about was protecting their turf? “And on the basis of that, I’m just supposed to go up there?”

  “That, and the fact that he says he’ll kill von Rensel if you don’t.

  Look, Commander, time is kinda short. There are some people here who really are disposed to use a bomb.”

  She felt the icy hand of fear grip her stomach. She had actually forgotten about Train. So she really didn’t have any choice, did she?

  She stood up, her legs shaky. Mcnair put his hand out, and she hesitated, but then she handed over the .380. Mcnair actually grinned then, the way a coyote might. “You should have heard the Feebies on the radio,” he said. “That guy’s still shittin’ and gittin’.” d at him, dry-mouthed and wanting But Karen just stare the gun back. He saw her expression and his grin died. She looked up the long, dark hillside. The dark bulk of the ruined house was almost invisible among the trees. “I just walk up there?”

  “I’ll call him. Tell him you’re coming in. We’ve got long guns all around it, so if it looks hinky as you get close, they can do something.”

  “But once I’m inside?”

  He just looked at her. He didn’t have to say it. Then the phone in his hand began to chirp. He flipped it open and answered it, then listened for a second. “She’s coming up the hill right now,” he said. He listened for another moment and then snapped the phone shut. “He said come in the front why.” door and then close your eyes. Said you’d understand “oh yes,” she said, and started up the hill. Close your eyes, or he’d fire that damned disrupter again.. She wanted no more of that. Her eyes still hurt a little, and she hadn’t even been looking at it.

  “Commander,” Mcnair called. She turned around, wipup the hill. ing her forehead. He was coming

  “Take this.” He handed her something that looked like a television remote, only thicker.

  “What is it?” she asked, but then she knew.

  “It’s a retinal disrupter. There are two buttons. The big round button charges it. The little sharp button fires it.

  Charge it, wait two seconds, and then it’s ready. Like he said, close your eyes.”

  She took the thing from his hand and examined it. It was heavy, dense with latent energy. She looked up to thank him, but he was gone.

  As she climbed through the tangled weeds toward the house, she tried to think of what might happen in there, and why. obviously, Admiral Carpenter had been running herno, had been running them like a couple of lab rats in a maze. And Sherman, too. Galantz’s owners had been desperate to corral him once the Walsh woman was murdered.

  Mcnair, the sweeper, perfectly positioned in the Fairfax POLICE Department, had been activated. But how had. Cupen*. known what was really going on? The only one the cops had ever talked to in detail was Sherman. Unless there was some connection between the thing back in Vietnam and the admirals.

  She found herself taking smaller steps as she got closer to the house, which was taking definition now that she was moving into the dripping trees. She could make out the sagging chimneys, but the crumbling mass between them was in deep shadow. She slipped the ‘disrupter into her pants pocket.

  The wood planks on the porch were rotted through, for the most part, but she discovered a piece of plywood had been placed near the front door.

  The front door itself was missing, and the doorway loomed ahead like the entrance to a mine tunnel. She hesitated. She really did not want to go in there. She looked back over her shoulder, but there was only the spidery trace of the trees showing against the night sky. The sound of the rainwater pouring through the holes over the porch obscured all other noises.

  Taking a deep breath, she stepped through the doorway, placing her feet carefully, but it felt as if there was more plywood inside the door. The interior of the house smelled of dry rot, insects, and bird dung, in equal proportions. She was in a central hallway. Ahead, to the left a stairway led up-to the second floor, but the stairs themselves had long ago fallen in. Beyond the stairwell the hallway ended in darkness.

  Probably a door there.

  She waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness inside the house, then remembered that she was supposed to close her eyes. She squinted, keeping them open just a crack, dreading another purple flash but not willing just to stand there with her eyes shut. The skin on her back was crawling, and she had to fight back her own imagination as to what might be approaching, or coming behind her. Then she heard a noise ahead-something being opened, a soft clatter of boards and debris, then silence. Then the darkness at the end of the hall dissolved into a grayness. Someone was standing there. She held her breath and kept her eyes just barely cracked open.

  Karen-n-n.

  She stopped breathing. Him, right in front of her. She surprised herself by wishing she had that big .45 right about now. He must have sensed her thoughts.

  Open your coat and show me your hands. That horrible wheezing voice. She did as he asked. The shadow seemed to get smaller, and then she realized he was backing up.

  Walk straight ahead. Keep your eyes closed I can see just fine, by the way. But if I see your eyes, I’ll use the disrupter. You remember the disrupter, don’t you?

  She nodded wordlessly, remembering very well, the urge to grab the thing in he& pocket almost overwhelming. But he had one, too. She took one step, then another.

  Keep coming. Straight ahead. You’re going through a doorway. That’s good. Now stop. Feel behind you. Find the door. Shut it.

  Karen felt behind her, encountered what felt like a vertical sheet of plywood, and swung it shut behind her back. The voice moved c
loser.

  Now, step sideways. More. Once more. Good. Stop. Now, there’s a lot of debris in here. I’m going to open a trapdoor.

  Keep your eyes shut. Step -carefully. Take two steps forward.

  There will be steps going down right in front of you. As you start down the steps, you can open your eyes. There’ll be a strobe light. Go down the stairs andfind von Rensel.

  She did as she was told, opening her eyes on the second step down, then immediately squinting again as the red strobe light penetrated. She put up a hand and tried to see into what looked like a large basement, but the dazzling strobe made it very difficult. But she did see Train, hunched against a side wall, and Sherman, sitting down in the middle of the floor. She didn’t see Jack with the gun in his hand until she got to the bottom of the steps. He gestured for her to get over against the wall and move down to where Train stood, looking like an angry bear ready to spring out at something. Not looking back, she moved across the cement floor and took Train’s hand. It was all she could do not to hug him, but the tension in his hand reminded her of where she was. She turned around when the trapdoor banged shut, and the silhouette of Galantz came down the steps, disappearing into the penumbra of the pulsing red light.

  Sherman was just sitting there, not looking at anything.

  She thought she could smell gunsmoke in the basement. A small generator was putt-putting away inside the remains of an old furnace. Galantz was saying something.

  Jack. Come over here, next to me.

  Jack obeyed quickly, keeping the gun in his hand pointed out into the middle distance between Sherman and Train.

  He moved over to the stairway and stood just below where Galantz was perched above him on the steps.

  Hey. Sherman. Look over here. It’s time tofinish this.

  Sherman looked up slowly, as if he had been asleep. He turned his head to face the strobe light. “I can’t see,” he said. Karen felt Train tensing up even more. Galantz apparently sensed it, too. She saw the .45 pointed at them in the next flash of red light.

  Sit still, von Rensel, and your lady friend there won’t get hurt.

  Yourjob here is to listen and watch, nothing more.

  “I can’t see,” Sherman said again.

  Yes you can. Recognize your son, Jack here, don’t you, Admiral? He sure as hell recognizes you. You do know he’s been helping me all along with this, don’t you? That he hates you just about as much as I do?

  Sherman put a hand up to his face to shield his eyes against the light, but he said nothing. The two of them, Galantz and Jack, had merged into a single shadow right next to the pulsing strobe light.

  You two over there, listen up. Did Yellowbelly here tell you why I’ve hunted him down?

  “Yes,” Train said. “He failed to rrfake a pickup when his boat ran into a mining ambush.” That what he’said? “Failed to make a pickup”?

  “You didn’t make the rendezvous, and then they ran into the ambush.”

  Oh, but I did make the rendezvous, didn’t I, Sherman? I saw you at the controls, when that mine went off. And you saw me, too, didn’t you?

  Didn’t you, Sherman?

  The admiral, still squinting into the light, said nothing.

  Galantz leaned forward and fired the .45 again, this time down onto the concrete floor an inch from Sherman’s hand.

  The admiral yelled and spun sideways as the bullet went spanging around the stone walls. Train pushed Karen down to the floor and tried to cover her from the ricochet round.

  Amazingly, through all the noise, she thought she heard Jack laughing.

  The pulsing light clearly illuminated the gunsmoke in front of the strobe.

  Right, Sherman? Answer me, you yellow bastard!

  The admiral was picking himself up off the floor, and then he stood up, his legs obviously shaky.

  “Yes,” Sherman whispered.

  Yes what? Tell them!

  “I did see you. You were there.”

  Where did you see me?

  “Under a mangrove tree.”

  But you ran away, didn’t you? Answer me-goddamn your eyes!

  A moment of silence. “Yes.”

  Train helped Karen get back up. She tried to control her shaking knees.

  Her hand brushed over her pocket, and she slipped it inside.

  But that’s not what the final investigation said. It said the SEAL never showed The SEAL never made the rendezvous.

  Missing and presumed lost. Isn’t that what it said, Sherman.?

  “I did tell them.”

  Bullshit! Because if you’d told them that, your precious career would have been down the tubes, wouldn’t it? Panicked underfire and left a guy behind. No starsfor that kind of cowardly shit, are there, Sherman?

  “I did tell them. They didn’t want to hear it.”

  See, Jack, you were right all along. Your daddy here is not only a coward but a liar, too. Hey, Sherman, know what? Jackie here remembers the night I came to see you.

  Used to have bad dreams about it. Because he knew, even as a little kid, that his daddy had done something wrong.

  But you didn’t give a shit, because you never liked him very much, did you, Daddykins?

  Sherman sighed. “I was wrong about that. Jack, I was wrong about a lot of things. About your mother, about-“

  “Don’t you even talk about my mother, you bastard,” Jack hissed. “It’s because of you that she’s dead.”

  Sherman looked up, raising his hand again to shield his eyes against the strobe. He started to say something, but Jack cut him off. “I was there, you bastard. Did you know that? I was there when she did it. Took that damned gun and blew a hole in her head.”

  Sherman seemed to shrink when he heard that. He shook his head. “I didn’t know that, Jack. They didn’t tell-“

  Jack cut him off again. “They wouldn’t even let me see her. Goddamned cops took me away, never let me see her.

  And you didn’t even come, did you? Away somewhere, being really busy and important with all your Navy shit.” Sherman said nothing just hung his head.

  Tell him, Sherman.

  The admiral snapped his head around and stared into the light, but then he began to shake his head slowly. Galantz said it again, raising the Colt for emphasis. “Tell me ‘ what?” Jack said.

  Karen held her breath as Sherman hesitated. Then he said it. “She’s not dead, Jack.”

  There was absolute silence in the room except for the muttering of the generator. Even in the strobe light, Karen could see that Jack was stunned.

  Give me that gun. He’s mine, and I don’t. want you doing anything to screw that up. Give it here. That’s a boy. Good.

  Now ask him where she is, Jack. Ask him what really happened to your mother.

  Sherman nodded slowlyhis gaunt face a study in defeat.

  He told Jack where his mother was, and in what condition.

  Jack just stared at him, openmouthed. Karen began to feel sick to her stomach. Train put his hands on her shoulders, and she flinched when she saw Galantz looking.

  You two getting all this, are you? Because that’s why you’re here. When we’re done here, you’re going to be the only ones who know the whole story, once all those people outside do what they came to do. It’s going to be interesting, living with this knowledge. Life’s all about choices, isn’t it?

  Well, I’m going to leave you two with some interesting choices. But we’re not done here yet. Not quite done yet.

  Jack, step over there, against the wall, would you?

  Jack looked up over the strobe light, a puzzled look on his face, and then straightened up when he saw the Colt pointed into his face. Sherman started to move forward, but he froze when the .45 swung his way.

  You know what’scoming next, don’t you, Mr. High-and Mighty Admiral? I killed your woman, and I killed your best friend in the whole world. And I made your only son an accomplice, not that he resisted. Now you’ve surelyfigured out how this thing is going to end right?


  “Don’t,” Sherman began.

  “Hey, man,” Jack said, his voice uncertain. “What are we doing here? Do him! You said you would. You even said I could watch. You don’t want to do him, then I sure as hell do!”

  Galantz laughed. Karen shuddered at the horrible sound coming through the electronic voice box.

  Sherman had his hands up. “Don’t do this. Shoot me instead. But let him go.”

  Ah. Choices again. What do you think of that, Jack? Him for you?

  “You’re gonna shoot me?” Jack asked in a plaintive voice. “I thought-“

  “Jack, listen to me,” Sherman said, the words tumbling out of his mouth.

  “I know you think I’ve despised you all these years. That I despised your mother, too. That’s not true. I know I didn’t do this right. I was wrong. All those years, I was wrong. My career was all I thought about.

  That was wrong.”

  Jack just looked at him, his mouth working soundlessly.

  Karen saw tears in Sherman’s eyes. Galantz was strangely silent, as if he was enjoying all this.

  “That’s why I couldn’t marry Elizabeth Walsh, Jack. I’ve been going to see your mother every weekend in that hospice for many, many years.

  Elizabeth never knew. I told her I had to work those weekends. She had no idea. The Navy never knew. Galen Schmidt didn’t even know. I’ve paid a price, too, son. Not like she has,’but I’ve paid.”

  “Jack,” Karen spoke up. “Don’t you see it? This bastard never was your friend. He’s used you. He stumbled across you in recon school, and he realized he had the way to get back at your father. That’s been the plan all along, Jack: to use you and then kill you, too, to complete his revenge.”

  But Jack wasn’t listening. He was staring at his father, his expression unreadable in the pulsing red light. Sherman was pleading with him.

  “I don’t hate you, Jack. I … I love you, son. I forgive you for helping this … this thing to kill those people. I’m asking you to forgive me for the way I treated you and your mother. Please.”