Three Minutes to Midnight
Page 35
He couldn’t believe what he was hearing from Gunther’s mouth. His voice, however faint, was whispering over and over, “Help me.”
Mahegan took a few steps back and looked up the hill at the boulder, where he knew the watchers were, well, watching. He nodded.
He heard the coughs of his rifle, fired by Elaine, he presumed, and allowed her to get a measure of justice, as well.
The bullets found their mark on Gunther’s body. His grip released, oddly causing his body to slap against the near side of the pipe as his boot heels mysteriously clung to the ledge upon which they had found purchase. Quickly, though, Gunther’s sheer weight pulled him downward into the chasm.
Mahegan heard the thud on the metal plate one hundred yards below and what he figured was the sizzling of human skin.
He then walked over to the wheel he had used to close the shutdown valve. He turned the wheel in the opposite direction, until he felt Gunther’s mass leave the plate. Reignited by a fresh dose of oxygen, the fire briefly licked at the sky again, like the tongue of a sneering reptile.
Mahegan quickly closed the valve, having served Gunther to the devouring beast below.
EPILOGUE
TWENTYFOUR HOURS LATER, BACK AT HIS APARTMENT, MAHEGAN sat on his bed with his rucksack packed. He nodded at Grace. “You did good,” he said.
She was dressed in tight-fitting jeans, an even tighter-fitting T-shirt, and wedges, which added to her height. Her hair was hanging loosely across her downturned face, some of it wet from tears. She hooked her hair behind her ears and looked at him.
“I don’t understand why you have to go,” Grace said. She sat on the bed next to him.
Mahegan was silent. He wasn’t sure, either. Grace was someone he could spend time with in the future. He felt a twitch in his chest and fought it.
“It’s what I do,” Mahegan said.
“That doesn’t make any frigging sense! What are you? A spy or something?”
Mahegan shook his head and changed the topic. “What are the environmentalists telling us?”
“Elaine is getting the update outside now. Word is that your friend Blackmon plugged the bottom of the pool enough to prevent oxygen from getting to the fuel rods.”
“Old age is not an honorable death,” Mahegan said. “Croatan saying. Rather die a hero than grow old. Sam may have saved all of us.”
“I can’t even fathom what he did. When you shot the water and the fracking fluid into the wellhead, that was a smart move, too. Beat back the flames, and the Geiger monitors are not showing substantial radiation in the air. The groundwater is a different matter, though. It’ll take some time to test and see how much radiation actually leaked into the aquifer, if any.”
A knock on the door indicated that Elaine was back from her phone call. Mahegan walked over and opened the door for her. With Elaine were Maeve Cassidy and Piper.
“Hey, sharpshooter,” Mahegan said.
“Found these two out front with some badass dude with a crew cut.”
“That dude is my boss,” Mahegan said. “And my ride.” He watched Grace and Elaine exchange glances.
“You’re leaving? You can’t leave,” Elaine said. “Where are you going?”
“I am. I’m not sure where.”
Grace stood. “Still have my number?”
Mahegan had gone through so many burner and cutout cell phones, he couldn’t remember in which phone he had loaded the number. Once he arrived at Fort Bragg for his debriefing, he would have to process every phone and GPS he had acquired over the past week, so he was certain he would come across Grace’s number.
“I know where to find you, Grace.”
“This is some bullshit,” Elaine said. Then, looking down at Piper and up at Maeve, she added, “Oh, sorry.”
Maeve Cassidy walked up to Mahegan and hugged him. “Thank you. For everything,” she said.
Mahegan nodded, thankful that there was one less child without a mother. Then he picked up his duffel bag, hugged the women, knelt in front of Piper, and said, “Love your mom.”
The little girl nodded, as if she understood.
Walking out of the above-barn apartment and down the stairs, Mahegan saw Major General Savage leaning against a black Suburban.
“Let’s go, Ranger, before you let them women convince you otherwise.”
“You got something better?”
“You know I do, Jake. It’s called Charlie Mike. Continue mission. Now, get in the car.”
Mahegan glanced over his shoulder at the three women and Piper. They were staring at him through the window he had used to shoot the Russians. That was a fitting juxtaposition of his life, he figured: violence and love. At some point he would dispose of the violence, he hoped, and share his life with a woman who loved him.
As he rode back to Fort Bragg with General Savage, Mahegan thought of his mother and father and all that he had lost.
And the justice that he had finally delivered.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to my agent, Scott Miller of Trident Media Group. Scott continues to be a great mentor and friend. The team at Trident is so very talented, including Emily Ross, Nicole Robson, Brianna Weber, Sarah Bush, and Scott’s assistant, Allisyn Shindle. Thank you for all you do in support of me and all of Trident’s talented authors.
Thanks also to Gary Goldstein for his mentorship and friendship. Gary is an author’s editor, supportive and engaged. The team at Kensington Publishing has been superb, including Karen Auerbach, Vida Engstrand, Alexandra Nicolajsen, Robin Cook, and Rosemary Silva. Thanks for making Three Minutes to Midnight the best book it can possibly be.
To friends and family in North Carolina and Virginia, thank you for your tremendous support. To my children, Brooke and Zachary, I love you and am so very proud of all that you have accomplished. And to my parents, Bob and Jerri Tata, and sister, Kendall, thank you for your unconditional love, commitment, and support. A son could not have asked for better parents or role models.
Finally, to all of the thousands of readers, thank you for your support, and comments. Please feel free to send me email from my website at www.ajtata.com.
For the record, I am making no political statement about fracking, and do believe that energy independence is a must for our country. Simply put, I looked at the map of the shale deposits in North Carolina as they ran beneath the nuclear power plant at Shearon Harris Lake and thought, “Interesting.”
KENSINGTON BOOKS are published by
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Copyright © 2016 by A.J. Tata
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
Library of Congress Card Catalogue Number: 2015958939
Kensington and the K logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4967-0625-6
ISBN-10: 1-4967-0625-0
First Kensington Hardcover Edition: May 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4967-0625-6
First Kensington Electronic Edition: May 2016