Back Track

by Jason Dean

  But the cargo door was still open above his head, the noise of the engine still drowning out all other sounds. Remembering how he’d dealt with Hallaran, Bishop decided to try the same move again. But he had to do it now, while he still had some strength left.

  Just before the next punch made contact, Bishop moved his head two inches to the right. Shaved-head’s fist glanced off his temple and hit the floor instead. Bishop immediately made a claw of his left hand and thrust it upwards with the palm exposed, the heel bone striking Ponytail right under his chin. He felt the man’s teeth click together and used the momentary respite to grab Shaved-head by his shirt lapels. He pulled him forward and at the same time kicked his legs up, using all his weight and strength to launch Shaved-head’s body up and over his head.

  And out through the opening.

  The scream lasted for a fraction of a second and then it was just the sound of the jet engine again. Bishop looked out into the darkness and figured they were about a hundred feet from the ground and rising. No way he could have survived that fall.

  Bishop slowly got to his feet and touched his right cheekbone. His fingers came away bloody. Something was definitely broken in there. And a couple of his back teeth felt loose. Most of his face felt numb, though, which was probably a good thing. He reached up, grabbed hold of the door’s inner handle and pulled it down, fighting the heavy turbulence outside. It took a few seconds, but he finally got it closed and turned the handle clockwise until it clicked into the safe position.

  The sudden silence was almost deafening as he pulled the .38 from his holster.

  Two down. Just one to go.

  NINETY-ONE

  Bishop parted the net partition, creating a gap large enough to step through. Beyond, the main cabin was about as plush as you’d expect. Everything in light tan. Four leather upholstered seats, each with its own glass table. A large LCD screen affixed to the wall ahead, with a small bar and a fridge in the corner. And plenty of space in which to move around.

  Selina was standing in the aisle a dozen feet away, watching Bishop with round eyes. Poleina was behind her, gripping her shoulder while the other hand held a Beretta to her ear. He was half crouching so only part of his head and right shoulder was visible.

  Bishop stepped into the cabin, keeping his own gun trained on Poleina’s right eye.

  ‘Drop your gun,’ Poleina said in a shaky voice. The hand holding the Beretta didn’t look at all steady, either. With his bodyguards gone, the man was clearly well out of his comfort zone. Which made him all the more dangerous.

  ‘Sure,’ Bishop said. ‘Right after you drop yours.’

  ‘I . . . I will kill her.’

  ‘I don’t think so. Not after you’ve just laid out two million bucks.’

  ‘I will. I know you came for this girl. Hallaran told me. You will not let her die, and you cannot shoot me without hitting her.’

  Bishop said nothing, but Poleina was right. Bishop had always been highly proficient with light arms, but right now they were in a jet that was still climbing, with constant turbulence hitting the hull every few seconds. If he shot at Poleina and the plane hit an air pocket at the wrong moment, he’d take Selina’s ear off. Or worse. He couldn’t risk that.

  Bishop needed to get closer. He took a tentative step forward. Then another.

  ‘Stop,’ Poleina shouted, jamming the barrel into Selina’s neck. ‘Stop there. I will shoot her if you keep walking.’

  Bishop halted and said, ‘We really don’t need to do this, Poleina. I don’t care about you. So why not set this thing down somewhere and let us both off? Then you go your way and we’ll go ours.’

  ‘No. You drop your gun and I let you live. Or I shoot you, using her as a shield. I am the one in control here. Not you.’

  Bishop hadn’t really thought he’d go for it, but he had to try. He shifted his glance to Selina. It was up to her now. Except her eyes were glassy, as though she was having trouble focusing on him. God knows what Hallaran had given her to keep her placid. Bishop could only hope she still possessed enough of her wits to do what was needed.

  He stared at her, and without moving his head made a show of lowering his eyes to his right hand. It was next to his leg, just out of Poleina’s line of sight. But Selina would be able to see it if she tilted her head a little to the left. Keeping the thumb and pinkie hidden he started tapping the middle three fingers against his leg. Selina frowned, clearly not understanding. He stared hard at her and then slowly lowered his eyes again.

  Follow my eyes down, he willed, and look at my hand.

  Poleina was watching him too, not taking his eyes off Bishop’s face. Which was all to the good. He pulled back the hammer of the Beretta and said, ‘You will drop your gun.’

  Bishop ignored him and kept his attention on Selina. He figured he still had a few seconds left, so he continued tapping his fingers against his leg. Still frowning, she finally tilted her head a little to the left and moved her eyes slowly downwards. They stopped at his hand. Once Bishop knew he had her attention, he stopped tapping and tucked his ring finger into his palm. Followed by the middle finger. Then the index finger.

  She raised her eyes to his, her brows still together. Bishop moved his eyes towards the .38 Special in his other hand, then down to his leg again. Went through it all again quickly. Ring finger. Middle finger. Index finger. Gun. Then he looked at her, willing her to fight through the fog and understand. He did it a third time and locked eyes with her. Ten seconds had passed already. Poleina wouldn’t wait much longer.

  Selina lost the frown. Instead, she started moving her lips with exaggerated mouth movements. Bishop didn’t need to be a lip-reader to understand the words.

  Three. Two. One. Bang.

  Good girl. She’d got it. He gave an almost imperceptible nod and she gave a thin smile back. Then she lowered her eyes to the three fingers of his hand. Waiting for the signal.

  ‘Enough thinking,’ Poleina said. ‘Drop the gun or I shoot.’

  Bishop looked at Poleina. Picked his target and held the gun steady. Took a deep breath. Held it.

  Three. He tucked the ring finger away.

  Two. The middle finger followed it.

  One. The index finger disappeared.

  Then everything happened at once. Selina suddenly screamed at the top of her lungs and lurched her body forward as though about to vomit, instantly freeing her shoulder from Poleina’s grip. Poleina clutched at the space where her neck once was. The other hand was already lowering the gun in her direction when Bishop fired his. The .38 hit Poleina in the shoulder and he yelled and fell back against one of the glass tables, gun still in hand, then rolled off and hit the carpeted floor.

  Bishop was already moving. He sprinted past Selina’s prone body and reached Poleina before he even knew what was happening. Stepping on the man’s right wrist, he pulled the Beretta from his grip and tucked it in his waistband.

  Poleina clutched his wounded shoulder, moaning softly. A small amount of blood leaked onto the light-coloured carpet underneath. He’d live.

  ‘Don’t move,’ Bishop said and turned to Selina. She was still lying on the floor a few feet away and looking up at him. Her eyes looked a lot clearer. The short burst of adrenalin must have temporarily counteracted whatever was in her system.

  ‘Bishop,’ she whispered.

  ‘It’s me,’ he said, helping her to her feet. ‘Are you okay?’

  Instead of answering, Selina suddenly wrapped both arms around him tight and pressed her face against his chest. Bishop could hear muffled sobs and smoothed her hair as she let it all out. She deserved this moment of relief. And if he was honest, so did he. He was dog tired. But holding her in his arms like this, knowing she was physically safe, made everything he’d gone through worth it. And he knew he’d do it all again if he had to.

  Bishop let a few moments pass, then said, ‘You want to ease off a little, Selina? I think you just cost me another rib.’

  ‘Sorry,’ she sai
d and loosened her grip. She used a hand to wipe her eyes and said, ‘I thought I’d never see a friendly face again.’

  ‘Yeah, well, blame me for not checking in with you regularly. That’s a mistake I won’t make again.’ He pulled away and took the small roll of duct tape from his jacket pocket. ‘But right now, you can do me a big favour and bind this guy’s wrists and feet for me.’

  She nodded and went to work while Bishop covered him with the Walther.

  Once she was done, Bishop said, ‘Okay, Selina, grab yourself a seat and yell if he moves.’

  ‘Where are you going?’

  ‘To persuade our friend in the cockpit to take us back to earth.’

  NINETY-TWO

  As it turned out, the young pilot didn’t need much persuading and they were on the ground five minutes later. As they were taxiing back, Bishop yawned and looked out the window. He saw two vehicles with flashing red and white lights approaching the airstrip. In the distance, the hangar was totally ablaze, with flames reaching high into the night sky. He spotted at least two fire engines and plenty of other vehicles moving about. No doubt Kate and her photographer were over there, too, getting valuable footage to sell on to the networks.

  Bishop glanced at the unconscious Poleina in the seat across the aisle, then at Selina in the seat behind. She was staring out the window without expression, having barely spoken since they’d turned back. Bishop guessed it might be some time before she was back to her old self. She’d probably need some professional help to get rid of the shit Hallaran had put into her head, too. And, of course, he still faced the unenviable task of telling her about her mother’s possible murder. That was something he really wasn’t looking forward to.

  When the jet finally came to a complete stop, Bishop sighed, got up and went over to the cabin door. He turned the locking bar, lowered it to the ground and saw four uniformed cops in a line. Two were pointing handguns at him. The third held a shotgun. The fourth was the man he’d seen briefly at the station after being arrested. Captain Emery. He was watching Bishop with one hand resting on the gun in his belt holster.

  Bishop put his hands up and turned to see Selina watching him. ‘Time to go,’ he said. She silently unbuckled her seat belt, then came over and followed him down the steps.

  At the bottom, Emery approached, shaking his head. ‘I should have known you’d be at the centre of this,’ he said. ‘Who else is inside?’

  Bishop said, ‘Just the pilot and his boss, a Portuguese businessman named Poleina. He’s also got a bullet in his shoulder. This is the woman he was kidnapping. There should also be five more women around here somewhere.’

  Emery looked at Selina, then turned back to Bishop. ‘Yeah, we found them climbing out of a hole in the ground, four of them doped up on Christ knows what. Paramedics are looking them over right now. We’re finding a lot of dead bodies, too. You have anything to do with that?’

  ‘Depends. Am I under arrest again?’

  Emery gave him a look, then turned to the uniforms and said, ‘Sienkewicz, Boyd, you two search the plane and bring out whoever you find. Thorson, get on the horn and get another couple of ambulances down here, pronto.’ All three uniforms lowered their guns and went into action. Emery turned back to Bishop and said, ‘So who lit the match?’

  Bishop lowered his hands. ‘A man named Alex Hallaran. He had the whole place booby-trapped. That was his body next to the smashed SUV you passed. Or what’s left of it after he caught fire. I assume Kate McGowan’s clued you in on what’s been going on here.’

  ‘Just the basics. Hard to believe something like . . .’

  Both men turned at the sound of another approaching car, coming from the same direction as Bishop had come.

  Bishop had to smile when he spotted the missing front door panel. The vehicle pulled up behind one of the black and whites and Vallejo got out and began walking towards them, holding a cell phone to her ear. Bishop noticed the large bloodstain on her shirt hadn’t gotten any bigger and figured she must have applied a makeshift bandage at some point. But seeing her still upright suddenly put Bishop’s own aches and pains into perspective.

  Once she’d closed the distance, she turned to Selina and held out the phone. ‘Got somebody here wants to talk to you.’

  Selina glanced at Bishop, then took the phone. ‘Hello? . . . Hello? . . . Mom? Is that really you? . . . Oh, Mom, you can’t believe how good it is to hear your voice . . .’

  She turned away from them, still talking, and Bishop said, ‘You’re kidding.’

  Vallejo shrugged. ‘Thought I’d check with the hospital again before you said something you might regret. Turns out the paramedics got to her mother just in time. She’s got a lot of broken bones, but she’s conscious and off the critical list. Doctor said she could be right as rain in a few months.’

  Bishop smiled. ‘That’s good news, Vallejo. Real good news.’

  Emery said, ‘And just who the hell are you?’

  Bishop saw Vallejo’s face change and broke in before she said something she’d regret. ‘She’s your white knight, Captain,’ he said. ‘Meet Clarissa Vallejo, currently on suspension from the Corvallis Police Department. She’s been after these people for months, on her own time, and long before I came into the picture.’

  ‘Is that so?’ Emery said, looking thoughtful.

  ‘And since this is going to be a pretty big deal once the news gets out, I’m thinking the two of you could put your heads together so you both come out of it smelling of roses. That way you can keep me out of it entirely, and everybody gets what they want.’

  ‘I must be delirious from the pain,’ Vallejo said. ‘What are you talking about?’

  Bishop looked at Emery. It was obvious from his expression he was already on the same page. And that he hadn’t reached the rank of captain by missing golden opportunities when they were presented to him.

  Emery turned to Vallejo. ‘Why were you suspended?’

  ‘For slugging my superior officer.’

  He gave a slow smile. ‘That’s not too good, but maybe we could work around it.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  Bishop said, ‘He means you were working off the books for the Saracen PD all along. He’d suspected something like this was going on under his jurisdiction for a while now and decided to enlist an out of town cop to investigate further, incognito so as not to alert the bad guys.’ He turned to Emery. ‘Something like that?’

  ‘Close enough. We can go over it in detail later if Vallejo here’s agreeable. I could also be persuaded to submit a glowing, personal recommendation to her own captain if she thought it would help her case.’

  Vallejo looked at each of them in turn. Then she smiled and said, ‘You won’t find anybody more agreeable than me. Maybe we could come to an arrangement at that.’

  ‘Good,’ Bishop said and turned to Emery. ‘Now you can do me a favour.’

  Emery looked as though he’d just swallowed a spider. ‘Do you a favour.’

  ‘Don’t worry, you’ll get something of equal value in return.’ Bishop pointed to Selina’s back and said, ‘That woman over there’s been through enough hell already. Even before all this. Now I spent a lot of time and effort to give her a new chance at a life without violence, and the only way that’ll ever happen is if she doesn’t get mentioned in your report. So what I need is for you to forget you ever saw her.’

  Emery snorted. ‘That’s all? Just falsify a police report? In a major murder investigation? You don’t ask much, do you?’

  ‘You’re already bending the truth regarding Vallejo here. All I’m asking for is one small omission. Besides, you got four other female victims to work with. What’s one less?’

  Seconds passed as Emery frowned at Selina, who still had her back to them. Then he turned to Bishop again. ‘And what do I get out of it?’

  ‘The jackpot. Names. Dates. Financial details of everybody involved. Details and locations of scores of women who’ve gone missing over the past few
years. In addition to details of hundreds of murders that were listed as accidental deaths.’

  The cop raised an eyebrow. ‘Are you serious?’

  ‘Very,’ Bishop said. ‘Do we have a deal?’

  ‘If you can give me that, then we definitely have a deal.’

  Bishop turned to Vallejo and said, ‘Better hand him that flash drive I gave you.’

  She reached into a pocket and passed the stick to Emery.

  ‘And if I were you,’ Bishop said, ‘I’d send some men over to the Garrick Hospital before word of this gets out. Room 4–25. There are two men in there, Claiborne and Hedaya, who you really want under lock and key, ASAP. Trust me on that.’ Bishop saw no advantage in ruining Emery’s present good mood, so he didn’t bother mentioning Levine’s involvement. Emery would find out himself soon enough. And so would Kate, once he gave her the other flash stick. Or an amended version, at least. After all, he didn’t want her stealing all of Emery’s glory. Or Vallejo’s. There was enough for everyone.

  Emery paused, nodded once at Bishop, then went over and started giving Thorson new orders. Bishop turned and saw an ambulance shape silhouetted against the fire in the background. It drove through the gap in the fence and made its way towards them.

  ‘You two better take that one,’ Emery called out. ‘I’ll speak to you both later at the hospital. We got plenty to talk about.’

  Bishop gave a mock salute in response. Selina came over and handed the phone back to Vallejo. Bishop noticed she looked more upbeat. Good news generally had that effect.