The Collectors

by David Baldacci

  doing a one-to-one exchange. We get Caleb, you go free.”

  “How can I be sure of that?”

  “The same way Caleb can be, you just have to trust. Now get up!”

  Trent rose on shaky legs and looked at the others arrayed around him in the back of the van. “Are you the only ones who know? If you’ve called in the police—”

  “Just shut up,” Stone snapped. “And I hope you have your fake passport and plane tickets ready.”

  Reuben opened the van doors and they all stepped out, with Trent in the middle.

  “My God,” Trent said, “what the hell is going on here?” He was looking at a sea of people.

  Stone said, “Don’t you read the papers? It’s the National Book Festival on the Mall.”

  “And a march against poverty,” Milton added.

  “Two hundred thousand people total,” Reuben chimed in. “What a great day in the capital city. Reading books and fighting for the poor.” He gave Trent a poke in the side. “Let’s get going, ass-wipe, we don’t want to be late.”

  The National Mall stretched for nearly two miles, bracketed on the west by the Lincoln Memorial and on the east by the Capitol and encircled by vast museums and imposing government buildings.

  The National Book Festival, an annual event, had grown to over 100,000 attendees. Circus-size tents had been erected on the Mall emblazoned with banners reading Fiction, History, Children’s Literature, Thrillers and Poetry, among others. In these tents writers, illustrators, storytellers and others held large crowds enraptured with their readings and anecdotes.

  On Constitution Avenue the March Against Poverty was ramping up, with its destination the Capitol. After that, many of the marchers would join in the book festival, which was free and open to the public.

  Stone had carefully planned the exchange point with input from Alex Ford. It was near the Smithsonian Castle on Jefferson Street. With thousands of people around, it would be nearly impossible for a shooter to get off a clean shot even at a distance. In his knapsack Stone carried the one device that would allow him to complete this mission the right way, for once he had Caleb back safely, Stone had no intention of allowing Albert Trent and his fellow spies to escape.

  Reuben said, “Up ahead, two o’clock, by the bike rack.”

  Stone nodded, and his gaze caught Caleb standing on a small grass plot partially encircled by a waist-high hedge, with a large and elaborate fountain beyond that. It offered some privacy and a buffer from the throngs of people. Behind Caleb were two men with hoods pulled up and wearing dark sunglasses. Stone was sure they were armed, but he also knew that federal snipers were stationed on the roof of the castle, their beads no doubt already drawn on the men. Yet they would only fire if necessary. He also knew that Alex Ford was around helping to coordinate the operation.

  Stone eyed Caleb, trying to get his attention, but there were so many people around, it was difficult. Caleb looked panicked, which was normal, but Stone detected something else in his friend’s eyes that he didn’t like: hopelessness.

  And that’s when Stone saw the thing around Caleb’s neck.

  “My God!” he muttered. “Reuben, do you see it?”

  The big man looked stricken. “Those bastards!”

  Stone turned to Milton and Annabelle, who were following behind. “Stay back!”

  “What?” Annabelle said.

  “But, Oliver,” Milton protested.

  “Just do it!” Stone snapped.

  The two stopped. Annabelle looked particularly stung by Stone’s order, and Milton seemed paralyzed. Reuben, Stone and Trent moved on until they came face-to-face with Caleb and his captors.

  Caleb moaned over the sound of the fountain in the background and pointed to what looked like a dog collar around his neck. “Oliver?”

  “I know, Caleb, I know.” He pointed to the device and said to the hooded men, “Take that off him. Now!”

  Both men shook their heads. One held up a small black box with two buttons sprouting from it. “Only when we’re safely away.”

  “You think I’m letting you walk away leaving a bomb locked on my friend’s neck?”

  “As soon as we’re away, we’ll deactivate it,” the man said.

  “And I’m just supposed to trust you?”

  “That’s right.”

  “Then you’re not leaving, and if you detonate the bomb, we all die.”

  “It’s not a bomb,” the same man said. He held up the black box. “I push the red button, enough toxin to kill an elephant goes right into him. He’ll be dead before I let go of the button. I push the black button, the system is disengaged and you can take the collar off without releasing the poison. Don’t try to take the control from me forcibly. And if a sniper shoots, my reflex will involuntarily push the button.” He let his finger hover over the red button as he smiled at Stone’s obvious dilemma.

  “You enjoying this, asshole?” Reuben spat out.

  The man kept his gaze on Stone. “We’re assuming you’ve got cops everywhere just waiting to take us once your friend here is safe. So excuse us for taking obvious precautions.”

  Stone said, “And what’s to prevent you from triggering it once you’re gone? And don’t give me the trust answer again. It’ll make me upset.”

  “My orders were not to kill him unless our escape was blocked. If you let us go, he lives.”

  “What exact point do you need to get to before you deactivate the poison?”

  “Not very far away at all. In three minutes we’ll be gone. But if we wait too long, I push the red button.”

  Stone gazed at Caleb, then at the furious Reuben and back at Caleb. “Caleb, listen to me. We have to trust them.”

  “Oh, God, Oliver. Please help me.” Caleb didn’t appear willing to trust anyone.

  “I will, Caleb, I will.” In desperation Stone said, “How many loaded darts do you have in that damn thing?”

  “What?” The man looked startled.

  “How many!”

  “Two. One on the left and one on the right.”

  Stone turned and gave his knapsack to Reuben and whispered. “If we die, don’t let us die in vain.”

  Reuben took the knapsack and nodded, his face pale, but his manner rock-steady.

  Stone turned back around and held up his left hand. “Let me slide my hand under the collar so the left dart will hit me instead of my friend.”

  The man now looked totally flustered. “But then you’ll both die.”

  “That’s right. We’ll both die together!”

  Caleb stopped shaking and stared directly at Stone. “Oliver, you can’t do that.”

  “Caleb, shut up.” Stone looked at the man. “Tell me where to put my hand.”

  “I don’t know if this—”

  “Tell me!” Stone shouted.

  The man pointed to a spot, and Stone squeezed his hand in the narrow space, his skin now resting against Caleb’s.

  “Okay,” Stone said. “When will I know it’s been disarmed?”

  “When the red light on the side there turns green,” the man said, pointing to a small crimson glass bubble on the collar. “Then you can undo the clasp and it comes right off. But if you try to force it off before, it automatically engages.”

  “Understood.” He glanced at Trent. “Now, take that scum and get the hell out of here.”

  Albert Trent pulled away from Reuben’s grasp and marched over to the hooded men. As they started walking away, Trent turned back and grinned. “Adios!”

  Stone kept his eyes tight on Caleb’s face. He was also talking to his friend in a low voice, even as onlookers slowed and pointed at what must have seemed a very unusual scene, one man’s hand jammed under a collar on another man’s neck.

  “Deep breaths, Caleb. They’re not going to kill us. They’re not going to kill us. Deep breaths.” He checked his watch. Sixty seconds had passed since the men had left with Trent and disappeared into the crowd. “Two more minutes and we’re home free. We
’re good, we’re in great shape.” He looked at his watch. “Ninety seconds. We’re almost there. Hang with me. Hang with me, Caleb.”

  Caleb was holding Stone’s arm in a death grip, his face flushed, his breath coming in mangled gasps, but he was standing firm and finally said, “I’m okay, Oliver.”

  Once, a suspicious Park Police officer started heading their way, but two men in white jumpsuits who’d been cleaning out trash cans intercepted the cop and sent him on his way. They’d already relayed the situation to the snipers, who’d stood down.

  Meantime, Milton and Annabelle had crept forward, and Reuben whispered to them what was going on. Tears fell down Milton’s horrified face while Annabelle put a trembling hand to her mouth and watched as the two men clung to each other.

  “Thirty seconds, Caleb, we’re almost there.” Stone’s gaze was now directly on the red light on the collar as he counted off the ticks. “Okay, ten seconds and we’re free.”

  Stone and Caleb together mouthed the final countdown. But the light didn’t turn to green. Caleb couldn’t see this and said, “Oliver, can you take it off now?”

  Even Stone’s nerves began to fail now, yet he never once thought of pulling his hand free. He closed his eyes for a second, awaiting the sting of the needle and the poison right behind it.

  “Oliver!” This was Annabelle calling out to him. “Look.”

  Stone opened his eyes and stared at the beautiful little drop of green in the bubble.

  “Reuben! Help me,” he called out.

  Reuben shot forward, and together they unlocked the collar and slipped it off Caleb’s neck. The librarian fell to his knees as the others crowded around him. When he finally looked up, he grabbed Stone’s hand.

  He gushed, “That was the bravest thing anyone’s ever done, Oliver. Thank you.”

  Stone looked around at the others, and then the truth hit home. It took him barely an instant to react. He shouted, “Get down!” He grabbed the collar and threw it over the hedge, and it landed in the large fountain.

  Two ticks later the collar exploded, sending geysers of water and chunks of concrete shooting into the air. The crowds on the Mall panicked and started running. When Stone and the others slowly got to their feet, Caleb said, “My God, Oliver, how did you know?”

  “It’s an old tactic, Caleb, to draw us all in and let down our guard. And he told me where the poisoned needles were in the collar because he knew the bomb would kill us, not the poison, if there ever was any poison in it.” Stone took the knapsack from Reuben and pulled from it a small flat object with a small screen on it. On the screen a blob of red was moving fast.

  “Now we finish this,” he said.

  CHAPTER 65

  "THEY’VE GONE INTO THE Smithsonian Metro entrance,” Reuben said, eyeing the small screen Stone was holding as the group raced across the Mall and pushed their way through the panicked crowds and small blocks of police.

  “That’s why we picked that exchange spot,” Stone answered.

  “But the Metro will be jammed,” Milton said. “How will we find them in there?”

  “We took a page from Trent and company. You know the chemical wash they put on the letters in the book to make them glow?”

  “Sure, so?” Milton said.

  Stone said, “I injected Trent with a chemical provided by Alex Ford that transmits a signal to this receiver. It’s like the man’s glowing for us. Using this, we can pick him out of a crowd of thousands. Alex and his men also have a receiver. We’re going to pin them down.”

  “I hope it works,” Caleb said as they forced their way through the swells of people. He rubbed his neck. “I want to see them rot in jail. And no books to read. Ever! That’ll serve them right.”

  Suddenly, screams poured out of the station below.

  “Come on!” Stone shouted, and they dashed down the escalator.

  While Trent and the two men were waiting for the next train, a pair of agents disguised as maintenance workers had approached from their rear. Before they had a chance to draw their weapons, both men fell forward with gaping bullet wounds in their backs. Behind them Roger Seagraves, wearing a cloak, replaced the silenced pistols in his twin belt holsters. The noise of the crowds had covered the suppressed shots, but when the men fell, and the people saw the blood, the screams started, and panicked citizens began running in all directions. An instant before one of the agents died, he rallied, pulled his gun and shot one of the hooded men in the head. As this man dropped, the detonator device he still carried in his hand clattered to the stone tile floor.

  A westbound train roared into the station and disgorged still more passengers, who ran headlong into the growing chaos.

  Trent and his remaining guard used this panic to jump onto one of this train’s cars. Seagraves did likewise, but with the riptide of the crowd he could only manage to scramble onto the next car down.

  Right before the doors closed, Stone and the others fought their way through the mass of people and clambered aboard. The train car was packed, but Stone checked his tracking device and saw that Trent was very close by. He scanned the interior and finally spotted him at the other end. Stone quickly noted that only one hooded man remained with him. The problem was that at any moment Trent or his bodyguard could spot them.

  A few moments later Alex Ford and several other agents ran through the crowd, but the train was already pulling out. He yelled at his men, and they ran back out of the station.

  Inside the moving train, Stone said, “Reuben, sit down, quick!” Reuben towered over everyone and thus was the one most likely to be spotted. Reuben pushed some teenage boys out of the way and sat on the floor. Stone ducked down and kept his gaze on Trent. He was talking to his bodyguard and holding his hands up to his ears for some reason. Facing the way he was, Stone couldn’t see Roger Seagraves in the car behind him, watching him through the glass. Seagraves had been stunned to see that Caleb and the others were still alive. He was lining up for a shot to Stone’s head when the train sped into the next station and lurched to a stop. People pushed and pulled to get on and off, and Seagraves was levered away from his kill position.

  The train took off again and gained speed rapidly. Stone was now making his way through the crowd toward Trent. He palmed his knife, keeping the blade tucked against his forearm under his sleeve. He visualized plunging the knife up to the hilt into Trent’s chest. Yet that wasn’t his plan. He would kill the guard, but Stone had no intention of cheating Trent out of spending the rest of his life in prison.

  Stone was closing in on his target when his plans were foiled. The train rocketed into Metro Center, came to a stop, and the doors burst open. Metro Center was the busiest station in the entire subway system. Trent and his guard jumped through the open door. In the next car down Seagraves did likewise. Stone and the others pushed their way out and into a crush of passengers rushing to and from trains arriving and departing on two different levels and from several different directions.

  Stone kept his gaze on Trent and the hooded figure next to him. From the corner of his eye he saw two men in white jumpsuits heading toward Trent. What he didn’t see was Roger Seagraves slide a small metal object out of his pocket, pull a pin with his teeth and let it fly, even as he turned his back and made sure his ears were plugged.

  Stone saw the oblong cylinder sail past him through the air and knew instantly what it was. He whirled around and screamed to Reuben and the others, “Get down and cover your ears!” A couple seconds later the “flash-bang” went off, and dozens of people around it collapsed to the floor holding their ears, covering their eyes and screaming in pain.

  Trent and his bodyguard had been unaffected by the explosion. They’d put ear protectors on and had averted their gaze from the “flash” part of the flash-bang.

  Stone, woozy despite having put his face to the floor and jammed his coat sleeves into his ears, looked up and saw shoes and feet flying in front of him. As he tried to get up, a large man fleeing the panic barreled in
to him, knocking him down. Stone felt the tracker fly out of his hands, and he watched with a sickening feeling as it slid across the floor, over the edge and onto the tracks under the train as it pulled out of the station. When the end car cleared the station, he lunged to the edge and looked down. The box had been crushed.

  He turned back around and saw that Reuben had attacked the hooded man. Stone sprang to his friend’s aid, not that the big man needed it. Reuben put the smaller man in a half nelson, lifted him off the floor and slammed him headfirst into a metal pole. Then Reuben flung the man away, and he slid across the slick floor as people scrambled to get out of the way. As Reuben stormed toward him, Stone hit him from behind, knocking his friend down.

  “What the hell—” Reuben grunted as the shot fired by the man sailed by overhead. Stone had seen the gun and knocked Reuben out of the way just in time.

  The hooded man rose on one knee and prepared for a point-blank shot but was dropped by the impact of three rounds in his chest fired by two federal agents who came running up followed by uniformed police.

  Stone helped Reuben up and looked around for the others.

  Annabelle waved from a far corner, Milton and Caleb beside her.

  “Where’s Trent?” Stone called out.

  Annabelle shook her head and held her hands up in a helpless gesture.

  Stone stared hopelessly around the crowded platform. They’d lost him.