No Way to Die

by M. D. Grayson

  I nodded. “Yeah, unfortunately, it is.” I walked through the lobby, and he followed. “Is everybody still here?” I asked.

  “Yep.”

  “Toni here yet?”

  “No, not yet.” Now I was worried.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let me put this crap down in my office. While I do that, gather everybody up. I want to have a meeting in the conference room.”

  Two minutes later, we were ready to start. Doc and Richard and Bobby were already in the conference room when Kenny and I walked in.

  “Bad luck,” Richard said as I flopped down into my chair.

  “I suppose,” I said. I looked around. “Boys, I think we may—” The office phone rang and interrupted me. Caller ID:Unknown. I hoped it was Toni as I punched the speakerphone button on the phone on the table.

  “Toni?” I asked.

  “Sorry, ’fraid not,” said the voice on the other end. I froze. It was Marlowe. I’d expected to hear from him, but just the same, I was suddenly gripped with a cold chill—the kind of feeling you get when you suddenly realize you’ve made a mistake—a big one. “Just me,” he said. “I must apologize that I had to miss our meeting at Starbucks this afternoon. Something came up that required my direct attention. I tried calling, but your cell phone went directly to voicemail.”

  That’s because it was turned off so you couldn’t track me. “That happens,” I said.

  “Indeed. Well, anyway,” he said, “if I may be so bold, our relationship seems to have progressed nicely to the point where there’s no longer any need to—as you say—‘beat around the bush.’ Would you agree?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  “Good. So here it is, then. You’ve got something that I want. You’ve got the Starfire Protocol box and the key.” He paused. “And as it so happens, now it seems as though I’ve got something that you want, as well. Would you care to guess what that might be?”

  “Put her on,” I said.

  “Aren’t you the clever one,” he said. “Unfortunately, Ms. Blair is—how shall we put it—indisposed at the moment.”

  I clinched my eyes tightly shut. I saw Toni—my best friend. She was hurting and needing my help.“Fuck you then, Madoc,” I said. “I’ll just hand this little key over to the FBI, and you’ll lose—what, ten, twenty, thirty million dollars or so? I figure you must have a buyer standing in the wings. Hell, you’ve probably already collected a deposit and that’s the money you planned to use if you had to actually buy the key. Things might get a tad uncomfortable for you if you can’t deliver.”

  It was quiet for a second. “So,” I continued slowly, “if you ever want to see the key, put. Her. Thefuck. On.”

  A second later, I heard her. “Danny?”

  “Toni,” I said quickly. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m good,” she said. “Did Aunt Thelma call?”

  Before I could answer, Marlowe was back on the line.

  “I assume that was some sort of code between you,” he said. It was. Aunt Thelma was our code word for being under duress. “No matter, though. You heard her. She said she’s fine. And there’s absolutely no need for you to mount any sort of heroic endeavor on behalf of Ms. Blair. You have my 100percent assurance that no harm will come to her—no one will touch a hair on her beautiful head—as long as you do exactly what you are about to be told. You needn’t worry.”

  “Coming from you,” I said, “that makes me feel so much better.”

  He laughed. “Be that as it may; do you agree?”

  “Go.”

  “North of Seattle, perhaps fifty miles or so, there’s a small community called La Conner. Are you familiar with it?”

  “I am.” La Conner is a rural community just west of I-5 in the Skagit Valley. It’s a popular tourist destination in the summer, and it’s famous for its vast tulip fields in the spring.

  “Good. There’s a small farmhouse located at 1217 Marsh Road in La Conner. You are to be there tomorrow morning at nine sharp. You must bring the Starfire Protocol box that you have and the USB key. Come alone.”

  “I’ll give you the hardware, and you’ll give me Toni. Right?”

  “Precisely,” he said. “It’s all we ever wanted. I’m afraid things have a tendency to get much more difficult than they need be.” Right. If people actually try to stick up for themselves, that is.

  “A few things you should keep in mind,” he said. “First, do come alone this time. Most likely, there are FBI agents still sitting at Starbucks waiting for me to appear. They rather stand out. Second, make certain you actually bring the hardware and the key. No shenanigans. Finally, please remember that I have no desire to harm Ms. Blair in any way. She’s an absolutely beautiful woman and truly delightful. But, if need be, I’ll have no trouble putting a bullet in her brain. So don’t disappoint me.”

  “That’s good,” I said. “Since we’re giving instructions here, I have a couple for you.”

  He laughed. “I fail to see how you believe you’re in a position to issue instructions to me,” he said.

  “Really?” I said. “Then maybe you should listen. A—I have the key. No key; no Starfire. No Starfire; no money. B—and this one’s really important, so you need to listen extra careful here—you don’t know me. If you harm Toni in any way—if you even touch her—then rest assured, I will make it my life mission to track you down and kill you. You won’t have a minute of peace the rest of your days on this earth. I don’t care where—your Lake Como place, wherever—I will find you. And I will kill you.”

  “Well, let’s not let it come to that then, shall we?” he said.

  “I’ll be there tomorrow,” I said. “Red Jeep. Nine o’clock sharp.”

  PART 3

  Chapter 20

  “SHIT,” I SAID. My fists were clinched in rage. “Shit! Shit! Shit!” I stared at the phone and literally felt the blood drain from my head. Though I was seated, I leaned forward and held on tightly to the edge of the table for support. I tried my best to hide the thoughts racing through my head, but I’m pretty sure I didn’t do a very good job. Then again, it probably didn’t matter much because the other guys were no doubt feeling the same way I was—they’d heard enough of the conversation to know what had happened. While I might have been the official leader of this group, Toni was the heart—and the soul. If she was in trouble, we were all in trouble.

  My heart raced. A kaleidoscope of images began to spin through my mind as I began to succumb to the cold grip of fear that was trying to lock itself around me. Pictures of Toni laughing, smiling, teasing. Pictures of Toni screaming at a bad guy that she’d just floored, of her comforting an old lady. So many pictures—so many memories.

  Stop! I couldn’t do this. My army teachings filled my head: “Fear leads to panic. Panic leads to inactivity. Inactivity leads to death.” Andrew Jackson said, “Never take counsel of your fears.” Clearly, turning into a blubbering immobile idiot was not the way to solve this problem.

  I took a deep breath. “Sorry, guys.”

  Focus, Logan! Suck it up! Be a leader! I could feel the guys watching me, looking for direction. I took a deep breath and searched for something profound to say.

  “Well, that pretty much sucks,” I said finally. It’s the best I could do at the moment.

  Simple words, but they seemed to help everybody snap out of the fog. They all looked at me.

  “Well said,” Richard said somberly.

  Kenny could only nod his agreement.

  “We need a plan,” Doc said.

  I nodded. “We do,” I agreed. I thought for a full minute, organizing things in my mind. When I started to form some ideas, I said, “Doc, tell me. In the army, what did they teach us—what are you supposed to do when you’re ambushed?”

  “Move forward,” he said immediately. “Attack. Get out of the killing zone.”

  “That’s right.” I looked at each man. “Get out of the killing zone. Gentlemen, that’s where we’re sitting right now—right in the middle of
Marlowe’s goddamned killing zone. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to let my best friend suffer because I didn’t do anything to fix that. Fuck that. I’m moving forward. I’m going to attack. I’m not going to sit here and let that son of a bitch Marlowe dictate the rules of this game.” I looked at each of them again, and then I said, “Marlowe’s got her—we’re going to go get her. End of fucking story.”

  Doc nodded.

  “Good!” Kenny said.

  “Let’s start by seeing what we’re looking at,” I said. “Kenny, turn on the computer, put it on the big screen, and bring up Google Earth. Let’s see where this place is.” I took a deep breath. I was functional again.

  While he was doing that, Richard said, “Danny, what about notifying the FBI?”

  I thought about that for a second and said,“Yeah, just now thought about it. Want to guess what I came up with?”

  He smiled. “No need,” he said. “I just thought I’d raise the issue.”

  “I’ll tell you anyway. My recent experience with the Feds—FBI, DEA, you name it—makes me think this is a little too fluid and too dynamic for them to be directly involved,” I said. “They probably have some sort of standard procedure all worked out for just this sort of scenario—number of agents, who reports to whom, who stands where, rules of engagement, all that sort of shit.”

  “You can count on it,” Richard said.

  “And if things start to vary from their plan, as they almost certainly will with Marlowe involved, then there will likely be problems,” I said. “And—when it comes to getting Toni out of there—I don’t want any problems.”

  Richard nodded. “I don't disagree. Besides - you’re the boss. I’m with you 100 percent.”

  “Not to mention, Marlowe’s no doubt gearing his defensive prep for a big, lumbering, FBI-type rescue,” Doc said.

  “There’s also that,” Richard said.

  “Here it is,” Kenny said as the big screen came to life. He did an address search on Google Earth, and the screen zoomed in to a small farm just west of Mount Vernon, Washington.

  “Back it up a little bit,” I said. “Zoom out. I want to see the general lay of the land.”

  Kenny zoomed back out.

  “Okay,” I said. “The whole place is made up of small farms.”

  “Mostly flowers; some berries,” Richard added.

  “And you’ve got this little river winding through here between the farm and Mount Vernon.”

  “Skagit River,” Richard said.

  “The Skagit River,” I said. “It runs right along the eastern side of the property.”

  “See there—the property looks like a big upside-down right triangle,” Doc said. “The base leg—what, maybe a half mile long? It’s on the north, here on top. Then you got this leg that runs south along the river to a point, and then you got the—what do you call it—the hypotenuse? It runs northwest along the west side here. It’s got a road all along it. Only way in and out.”

  “I’m impressed you remember so much about geometry, Doc,” I said.

  “One of my best subjects,” he said, smiling. “We usedit to call in artillery.”

  “Really?” The man was full of surprises. I turned back to the map. “Anyway, with the house right in the middle of the property, surrounded by fields, it looks like they have a good unobstructed field of vision all the way around,” I said. “Hard to approach undetected.”

  “Hard for a white man like you,” Doc said. “What’s in these fields?”

  “Tulips, most likely,” Richard said.

  “How tall are tulips?” Doc asked.

  “This time of year, I’d say eighteen, twenty inches.”

  Doc smiled but didn’t say anything.

  I studied the map quietly for a minute. “Why this place?” I asked. “Why would Marlowe pick this particular spot? Put yourself in his shoes.”

  We considered that for a minute.

  “It’s quiet,” Doc said.

  “The local police force is tiny,” Bobby added.

  “It’s a hike up there from Seattle, and that means, logistically, it would be a bit of a challenge for the FBI, especially on short notice,” Richard said.

  I nodded. These were all valid reasons.

  “I know why,” Kenny said suddenly.

  “Why’s that?” I asked.

  “There’s an airport right there.” He pointed to an airport just north of the farm. “It’s pretty big.”

  We all studied the map for a moment.

  “He may have something there,” Richard said. “Aside from all the other things we mentioned, that airport is only a couple of minutes away from the property.”

  Kenny measured the distance. “Seven point four miles. All straight.”

  “With no traffic to speak of,” I said. “Less than ten minutes, easy.”

  “Exactly,” Kenny said. “Think about it. Marlowe will probably have his jet sitting on the tarmac, engines running at nine in the morning. He figures he’ll get the key from you, and ten minutes later, he’s in the air on his way to a safe haven.”

  I nodded my head slowly, considering this. Concepts began to solidify in my mind.

  “So it’s simple,” I said. “We have to approach a farmhouse in the middle of an open field undetected, save Toni from the heavily armed bad guys, make sure Marlowe doesn’t get the key to Starfire, and then make sure he gets busted before he can skip off to his waiting airplane, only minutes away.”

  “All the while making sure we don’t get blown up,” Richard said. “Best not to forget about that.”

  “How could I forget?” I looked around at the guys. “Piece of cake, right?”

  It was quiet for a minute as everyone considered our options.

  “Toni said Marlowe would do the unexpected,” I said. “Pretty clearly, she was right. I’ll bet he’s not giving us the same credit. I think it’s time for us to do something unexpected. I’ve got an idea.”

  All eyes focused on me as I stood up and went to the map. I explained my idea, and the comments started to flow. Two hours later, our plan was complete, and everyone was familiar with his assignment.

  * * * *

  I made it home just after eight o’clock. I took the Starfire box home with me because I was going to need to get a very early start the next morning, and I didn’t want to have to swing by the office. When I got home, I took it out of the duffle bag and checked the tiny slide switch. It was barely visible on the bottom of the case, but it was securely in the off position—no LED glowing. I took my shoes off and tried to relax. I say “tried” because I never really got there.

  I walked over to the stereo but nothing sounded good, so I changed my mind and left it off.

  I made a sandwich, but it turned out that I didn’t have much of an appetite. I played with it for fifteen minutes or so before I tossed what was left, which was most of it.

  I turned the TV on to the news, but as I tried to watch, it somehow seemed incredibly trivial, so I turned it back off.

  I poured myself an African Amber from the growler in the refrigerator and sat on my sofa and stared at the wall. I listened to the clock tick. I ran our plan through my mind, over and over, probing, looking for weaknesses. The plan was bold, even a little audacious. But it wasn’t stupid. It should work. I hoped it worked. It had to work.

  I grabbed my Martin and tried running through some songs. My fingers played the notes, but it was mechanical—there was no passion, no feeling. Technically, I imagine I hit the notes; I really don’t remember. My heart was somewhere else.

  * * * *

  At ninethirty, the phone rang. Caller ID: Jennifer.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “Hi,” she said. “How’s it going?”

  I hadn’t planned on telling Jen what had happened or about our plans until tomorrow. I figured, as an FBI agent, she’d feel the need to notify her higher-ups about our little clandestine operation. This would most likely turn it into my feared big, official operation
with all the accompanying hoops to jump through and rules to follow. I guess I figured that our situation was way too fluid for this. I was afraid that that sort of big operation might lead to the sort of bungling that could get Toni killed. But I couldn’t very well lie to her. She was a friend, but she was also a senior FBI agent. Lying to her was a good way to get busted.

  “It’s not going too well,” I said.

  “Why? Did you hear from Marlowe?”

  “Yeah, I did. He called a few hours ago.”

  “Really? What’d he say? Why didn’t you call me?”

  “Jen, while we were jerking around at Starbucks waiting for someone who it turns out never had any intentions of showing, he was busy. He kidnapped Toni and Holly Kenworth. He’s holding them hostage right now.”

  The line was silent for a second.

  “You should have called,” she said. “I need to call an emergency meeting—to get everyone back in tonight.”She thought about this for another second. “Why didn’t you call, anyway?”

  Before I could answer, she said, “What’s going on, Danny? You’re trying to make a deal on your own, aren’t you?”

  “We have a plan,” I admitted.

  “A plan?You going to share it?”

  “Sorry, Jen. I can’t.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “Jen, listen. This prick is holding someone I care a whole lot about. He’s threatened to kill her if I don’t play along. And you know what? I believe him. I believe him because he’s done it before. He killed Thomas Rasmussen.”

  “Think for a second, Danny,” she said. “You can’t go charging in, guns drawn, with your own private army. You’re going to get people killed. You’re going to get yourself arrested. Also, you can’t give Marlowe the key. Think of the chaos that could cause. If he sells it to a terrorist group—it could cost lives. You can’t do it, Danny.”

  “We’re not going marching in, and we’re not going to shoot anybody unless they start shooting at us first. If that happens, I think shooting back would be self-defense. I’ll take that heat. As to the key, I need you to trust me on this, Jen. I’ll protect the key—I won’t give it to Marlowe unless it’s the only way. But—and you need to know this, too—if it comes to it, I’ll trade that key for Toni’s life in a split. Fuckin’. Second. No questions asked. Toni never signed up for this shit. She never agreed to sacrifice her life for any sort of greater good. And I won’t allow it to happen. I’ll say this—if I do have to give up the key, I’ll call you and tell you where you can bust him. But I’m not taking one single extra chance regarding Toni.”