by Tom Clancy
Two figures stood in the improvised command center — Matt recognized the setup immediately. Then he realized that one of the gang members looked familiar.
Rob Falk was a little taller than the mental image Matt had kept of him. His skinny frame had put on some muscle. His chest was thicker, and Matt could see the sinews in his bare arms exposed by his sleeveless gang shirt.
“A little different from the gawky wimp at Bradford, huh?” Falk gave Matt and Caitlin a sort of sneering smile. “That’s what happens when you get stuck on the wrong side of the Beltway. For a while there, it was touch and go. Then I met James—”
“No last names,” growled the big black guy standing next to Rob. He was built like a wrestler, with arms as big as most people’s legs, a shaved head, and grim, almost glaring, black eyes.
“James is the warlord of the Buzzards, one of the many…ah, voluntary organizations available for suburban youth.” Rob’s lips quirked. “Yeah, I know, the new technological opportunities combined with urban renewal were supposed to mean the end of the old street gangs. It didn’t happen. When the people who got displaced from their old neighborhoods arrived in the suburbs, they found a stew just simmering. All kinds of immigrants, legal and illegal. Salvadorans, Mexicanos, Cubans, Nigerians, Jordanians, Pakistanis, refugees from the Balkans. Plus, there were people just coming to the big city. You met Willy? His parents grew up in a coal-mining town in Appalachia — until the coal ran out. Lots of folks have come to this country — this city — in search of a better life.”
He laughed. “I sound like a damn politician, don’t I?” Then the laughter left his voice. “Instead, they were stuck out along the Beltway. None of these folks have found a place in your brave new world…but they did find a place in the Buzzards — a fine gang with a tradition that goes back a good seventy-five years, now.”
“And the Buzzards found you,” Matt added.
Rob gave him the same look that Mr. Fairlie used for a good answer. “Very good!”
He nodded to the big guy beside him. “James saw that I understood the new technology and could use it. We had a rough time at first, scraping the necessary hardware together. Finally, we ended up heisting a couple of these so-called appliance stores.”
“Got a couple of good holo-sets out of the deal, too,” Willy said.
“It’s mostly junk, of course, especially compared to the systems you’re used to,” Rob went on. “But I managed. Compiled some pretty good programs, didn’t I?” His smile became shark-like. “Good enough to sucker in the great Cat Corrigan and her friends from many lands.”
He shook his head at Matt, making a “naughty-naughty” gesture with his finger. “I can’t figure out how you got involved in all this, Hunter. From what I remember, you always seemed a pretty levelheaded, safe and sane, boring guy. But then”—Rob looked over at Caitlin—“I guess you wouldn’t be the first to be led astray by a pretty face.”
“Why did you drag us here?” Cat demanded.
“You looked about ready to blab,” Rob said, “And we don’t want you blabbing about what we’ve been up to.”
“Was that why you killed Gerry?”
Matt gave Caitlin a glance from the corner of his eye. As helpless prisoners, now was not the time to start annoying Rob and his buddy James.
“Guy was turning into a loose cannon,” the gang warlord said flatly. “That stunt he pulled with the Irish could have caught the wrong people’s attention.”
“I thought you’d be more upset about our attempt to kill your new friend over here,” Rob said with a nod for Matt. “That was pretty clever how you got out of there, Hunter. Of course, I was working third-hand from this pile of…” He paused for a moment. “If I had a first-rate system, they’d still be spooning your brains off the comp-link chair in Veeyar Lab Six!”
Matt shrugged. “Yeah, well, I guess we all have our disappointments. Frankly, I think you went a little overboard. I couldn’t figure out what you were doing. And from the way they were acting, Caitlin and the others didn’t have a clue, either.”
“Maybe not,” Rob said. “But they might give a clue to other people, if they gave up a full list of the systems they’d visited.”
He sighed. “I really thought they’d hunker down and keep their mouths shut until we were completely ready. You know how those people love their reputations. But then you came along and started rocking the boat. Savage began acting crazy, and the others became…unreliable. We’ve had to push up our timetable, and shut some mouths.”
“Your timetable?” Matt tried to get a look at the map taped to the tabletop. It was upside down from his point of view, but he could see it was a point of land jutting out into the joining point of two rivers. Somehow, it looked familiar, but Matt couldn’t place it.
“You’ve got to forgive me but I still have no idea what you’re talking about,” Matt said. “What were the virtual vandals doing for you, besides causing confusion?”
Rob Falk gave him that shark’s smile again. “If they confused you, then they did their job perfectly. Cat and her not-so-diplomatic friends were supposed to raise a fair amount of hell to keep the law’s attention on them.”
He paused, and thumped his fist down on the map. “While all the time, they were opening a way for us to get into the Gardens at Carrollsburg.”
Chapter 17
“ WHAT?”
Matt knew his voice was too loud, but he couldn’t help it. At last he recognized the map on the Buzzards’ command-post table.
He’d seen it on his computer only a few days ago. It showed the layout of the Gardens at Carrollsburg, the gated community Sandy Braxton’s father was making so much money from.
But what could Rob — and his fellow gangbangers — possibly want with anything there?
He wondered as much out loud.
James and Rob laughed.
“I’ll show you,” the gang’s computer whiz said. He stepped round to his patched-together computer and began inputting orders — on a keyboard! Matt hadn’t even seen one of those outside of a museum.
How old is that thing? Matt wondered.
Old or not, however, it worked. A grainy, fuzzy hologram swam into view over the computer system.
Matt recognized it as a briefing map, the sort of visual aid shown to troops about to go on maneuvers — or on a real attack. It was a larger version of the map on the table, showing the point of land at the junction of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Instead of showing streets, however, this map was broken into large, vividly colored areas. The tip and eastern side of the peninsula were colored blue with a red and white border. “That’s Fort McNair — an Army base,” Rob explained. “From there up the Potomac to the Tidal Basin, there are expensive condominiums.”
Then he pointed at a green area covering most of the remaining land in the peninsula. “The Gardens at Carrollsburg — a regular garden spot now. Gated community, rush-hour hovercraft service up the Potomac, just lovely. Named after the town of Carrollsburg, which stood on this land before the city of Washington was even thought of.”
Falk grinned at the prisoners, the light reflecting from the holo turning his face into a devil’s mask. “But in between the colonial town and this outpost of gracious living, the area had another name.”
Matt remembered. “Buzzard Point,” he said.
The gang member gave Matt a surprised look. “Very good,” he said. “And you said you weren’t coming up with anything.”
“One of the Leets in school — his father invested in the development. The name came up again when I was trying to track down kids who might have been involved with your vandals. Their addresses seemed to cluster in certain zip codes — Georgetown or the Northwest, or 20024 in the Southwest. That seems to be where the diplomats are found….”
Matt’s voice trailed off as he realized that these were the people Rob had a special reason to hate. They’d cost him his mother, his father’s job, his school, his whole life.
But
Falk didn’t fly off the handle. He simply nodded. “Before all those…nice people…moved in, this area was home turf for the Buzzards. Get it now? The gang took its name from the neighborhood.”
“Not the prettiest handle,” James growled, glancing around at the ruined walls surrounding them. “But then, it wasn’t the prettiest neighborhood, either.”
Rob turned back to the holo-map glowing in midair. “Go a little farther north, and it still isn’t.” He pointed to a large, bright orange blob across the top of the peninsula. “This whole area is still waiting to be renovated. Part of it will be an expansion of the Gardens at Carrollsburg, but other developers are getting into the act, too. The people who lived here were moved out, but the bulldozers haven’t come in yet.”
He ran his finger around the irregular orange borders. “All this space between those rich, fat diplomats and the gentrified neighborhoods coming down from the Mall and Capitol Hill.” Then his hand punched through the orange empty area. “Sort of like a no-man’s-land, cutting off the whole Carrollsburg gated community.”
His voice sounded faraway, thoughtful, but his face was tight. “They think they’re so safe behind their gates and their security. Ha! That stuff is as solid as Swiss cheese. Cat and her friends have riddled the place with trapdoor programs. I can get into dozens of home systems in there now. And those computers all tie in to the hardware that runs the whole development.”
There was an ugly, scary light in Rob Falk’s eyes as he turned to Matt and Caitlin…and this time it didn’t come from the garish colors of the holographic map he’d been pointing to.
“I’ve got dozens of doors to reach in and cut their communications, turn off their alarms, kill their power. I can lock those precious gates of theirs, stranding them inside.” His voice took on a gloating tone. “Or I could open those gates up to let in a couple of hundred uninvited guests.”
Matt’s eyes shot from Rob to his new friend James.
“We got Buzzards from all around the Beltway gathering here,” the gang warlord assured him. “All of them will be carrying.”
“Carrying?” Caitlin said.
James gave her a scornful look. “Guns, girl. What you think we’d be carrying?”
“They really don’t have enough guards in the compound,” Rob said.
“Just enough to sit on their fat butts at the gates and direct traffic,” James agreed.
Rob laughed. “But then, who’d expect an invasion in such a classy neighborhood?”
“It’ll be the biggest rip-off in Washington history,” James boasted.
“At least since the British burnt down the White House in 1814.” An ugly look of triumph covered Rob’s face. “House after house full of diplomats — and not one of them will have any immunity.”
“You’re crazy!” Cat Corrigan burst out.
Matt gave her another look. He might agree with her, but he knew it wasn’t healthy to point out facts like that to crazy people.
“Even if you pull off this ‘rip-off’ you’re talking about,” Matt said, “you’ll have more than the police after you. You’ll have people whose reach doesn’t end with the D.C. line. The State Department will have to get involved if you molest diplomats. And the rest of the feds will be right behind them — the Attorney General, the FBI, Net Force, and who knows what other agencies?”
“You left out the Congress, rushing to rescue Senator Corrigan’s little girl,” Rob Falk said mockingly.
“We got it figured out,” James assured them. “In quick, slap those rent-a-cops down, grab what we can, then out even quicker. Before the big shots know anything happened, we’ll be spread all over the Beltway. It’s like a guerrilla war, baby. They won’t know where to look to find whoever is responsible.”
Rob Falk leaned forward. “But just in case, we’ll provide the perfect high-profile fall guys for the media and politicians to blame.”
He poked contemptuous fingers at Caitlin and Matt. “Think of the fun some people could have carrying on about a bunch of wild diplo-brats, a Senator’s daughter, and a military bureaucrat’s wannabe son, all taking a walk on the wild side?”
Matt felt sick. He could just imagine the media circus. Their faces smeared over every holo-news program, in the broadcast magazines and the sleazy gossip-fests that pretended to be news shows. The preaching and the finger-pointing by self-appointed guardians of morality and political opportunists. Dad would be laughed out of class. Mom would never get another promotion again. Cat’s father would probably have to get out of politics. And the diplomats would have to go pack up and go home.
Unless….
“Maybe you’ve got us,” Matt bluffed, “but I don’t see Luc Valery or Serge Woronov. Do you think they’re going to sit around quietly when they hear that Caitlin has been kidnapped? Especially since you killed Savage.”
Loud laughter drowned out his words. Rob Falk just waved his argument away. “Already taken care of.”
Caitlin looked as sick as Matt felt. “Y-you mean you k-k-killed—?”
James was already shouting through the doorway on the other side of the room. Seconds later, two more husky Buzzard gangbangers led in two bedraggled figures.
The warlord laughed as if he’d heard a great joke. “We nabbed them before we took care of you.”
Luc Valery was dressed in an expensive suit — or what was left of an expensive suit. At the right shoulder of his jacket, the arm had almost been torn off. It hung crazily, held in place only by the pale silk inner lining. Serge wore jeans and a sweater — and a huge, swollen black eye.
Rob gave the diplo-brats the same kind of smile a cat would give a lame canary. “Luc was supposed to be going to lunch with his dad — until he heard this.”
He hit some keys on the keyboard, and suddenly the floating map was replaced by an image of Caitlin. “I’ve got to talk with you — right away.” Her voice turned to a breathless whisper. “That guy who’s been pestering us — I think he’s the one who drove that car that got Gerry!”
Rob turned to the speechless Caitlin. “Pretty effective, don’t you think? Of course, I’ve been sampling your voice for months, just in case I needed to imitate you. The gallant M’sieu Valery rushed to the meeting place your virtual version suggested — then wound up coming along here with just a little persuasion.”
He turned to the other foreign prisoner. “Now Serge — he was a bit more of a challenge. Although he goes out to play on the Net pretty much as often as he likes, the security people from Slobodan Narodny try to keep an eye on their ambassador’s son. So we needed to give him a strong reason to ditch any trailing bodyguards. Luckily, I had the perfect button to push.”
Rob turned to Matt. “I borrowed your stick man and put him together with the Idiom Savant program.”
Another set of keys pushed, and the hologram changed to Leif Anderson’s whimsical stick figure spitting words in Serbo-Croatian. Serge gave a roar and tried to pull free of the two guys holding on to him. In seconds, however, they had him efficiently — and brutally — pinned to the floor.
“In case you’re wondering, that speech your proxy is spouting runs something along the lines of ‘give me money or I spill everything to your father and his government.’ It’s a little more insulting and nasty in the Balkan version.”
Shaking his head, Rob gave another chuckle. “You should be glad old Serge never saw your face,” he told Matt. “When he went to meet with you to pay the first installment, he was carrying this.”
Rob reached into his back pocket and pulled out an old semi-automatic pistol. It was an ancient Army M9, the Beretta 9mm side arm used around the turn of the century. Probably it had gone off to the Balkans with one of the many peacekeeping forces sent there over the years, been lost, used by several sides in the seemingly never-ending wars and feuds in the region, and now returned to the United States in somebody’s diplomatic luggage.
“Luckily, our reception committee was able to take it away from him before anybody got hu
rt.”
Rob glanced at Serge, who lay groaning under the weight of his two guards. “At least,” Rob added, “before anyone got hurt too badly.”
Luc Valery stared wildly down at his friend, at the guards, at the other prisoners, and finally at Rob. “Who are you?” he demanded. “What do you want?”
Rob gave him a slow, insolent grin. “I’m your fairy godfather, Froggie-boy,” he said. “Thanks to me, you got to go out and play to your heart’s content on the Net, doing things nice kids would never be allowed to do. I gave you interesting shapes to use, doorways to come back and have fun, and yeah, the occasional order. I’m Rob Falk.”
“You’re a coward and a killer,” Luc said. “You murdered Gerald Savage — or more likely, you ordered one of these thugs to do the job.”
“Actually,” Rob said, “my friend James here volunteered to take care of it. But then, he never liked loudmouthed bigots. Especially foreign loudmouthed bigots.”
Luc turned bright red. The veins popped up on the side of his head and the cords in his neck stood out through the skin. “You don’t know what a mistake you’ve made! My father is a representative of the French government! He has the ear of the ambassador! And as you said, Serge’s father is the ambassador for Slobodan Narodny! Whatever you’re planning, you’ll never get away with it! Our voices will be heard! And our governments will demand that you and your — associates — receive the proper punishment!”
Matt thought the young Frenchman was going to hurl himself across the table and take Rob Falk down. Certainly Rob’s friend James expected it. He pulled a pistol, aiming it at Luc. The remaining guard grabbed the diplomat’s son.
But Rob’s face hadn’t even changed expression. He’d listened to Luc’s tirade as if the other boy were suggesting that it might rain that evening.
“I suppose that’s true,” Rob said. “You guys — except for Matt here — are all pretty important.”
“Depend on it!” Luc threatened. “We’ll tell—”
“LET ME FINISH!” The words rapped out as if they were being hammered on steel. For one second, the incandescent hatred that Rob Falk held for all diplomats blazed across his face and eyes. Then, as if he were slipping on a mask — or donning a proxy — he returned to the distant, ironic pose he’d used in talking to the prisoners.