by L. T. Ryan
Bear fired up the engine, shifted into drive, rolled to the exit. He glanced over at Lexi. “Where’re we headed?”
“Someplace safe.” She pointed left and said, “That way, all the way to Oshkosh, then hop on 41 North.”
“Green Bay?” he asked.
“Little bit past there.” She drummed her fingers on the console between them.
“Nervous?” I said.
She shook her head. “No, just ready to get this all figured out.”
“You and me both. Actually, I’m ready to visit Bear on his vacation and crash on the beach for a week. You can roll me up and down with the tide.”
“Vacation’s over, baby,” Bear said. “I’m ready to work now. Don’t think I’m gonna let you slack ‘cause you’re a little cut up.”
I covered my eyes with my hand and leaned my head back. A rough estimate put us an hour away from our destination. I could sit there anticipating what was to come, or I could trust Lexi had it under control and grab a nap. I opted for sleep, but even with the swaying of the truck and the steady hum of the engine I couldn’t quite make it there. Instead, I cleared my head and stared out into the darkness.
The truck rolled along for an hour. Pain had set in as my muscles stiffened due to lack of movement. Fire ran up my left side, down my right leg. The aches spread as I sat up and moved my legs in an effort to stifle cramped muscles. I glanced at the clock to gauge how long I’d been out. Almost an hour had passed. While I hoped there was more sleep in store, I didn’t plan on it anytime soon. If Lexi’s contact turned up any leads on Matt, we had to act fast. The guy was probably planning his escape into Canada, if he wasn’t there already.
“How you doing back there?” Bear glanced at me in the rear-view.
“Hanging in there. Little stiff, but I’ll manage.”
“Get off here,” Lexi said, pointing at the exit. “We’re gonna get you patched up in a few minutes, Jack.”
Over the next ten minutes, Lexi guided us away from the highway through a network of unmarked country roads. There was nothing but woods as far as I could tell. No streetlights. No houselights. No cars. I spotted a couple deer and other critters, that was it.
“Slow down,” she said. “It’s going to be up here on the left. And there it is.”
Bear eased into the turn.
“OK,” she said. “You’re gonna have to cut your headlights.”
“How the hell are—”
She opened the glove box and pulled out a flashlight. “Only as we need it, though. Go slow and you should be able to make it through here.”
Bear sighed, cut the headlights, and moved forward with his foot on the brake. We bounced along the dirt road with Lexi shining the flashlight for a second or two every so often.
“Why no lights?” I asked.
She pointed up. “Never know who’s watching.”
“Where the hell are we?” Bear said.
“Stop the truck.” Lexi smiled, rolled down her window, stuck her arm out and aimed the flashlight straight ahead. “We’re here.”
50
I threw my arm over Bear’s shoulder and used him as a crutch. My calf didn’t respond to the stretching, leaving my foot dangling at an awkward angle. I’d heard of drop foot before, but thought it was a symptom of significant nerve damage. The wound hurt like hell, but didn’t seem that severe.
“You two wait here.” Lexi placed her hand on my chest, patted it, then turned and jogged up to the side of the building. A soft glow appeared next to her, partially blocked by her hand. Looked like a keypad.
“Government facility?” Bear asked.
“Guess it’s an FBI location. Kinda odd spot for it, though.”
“Not the oddest we’ve seen.”
“Definitely not.”
We’d been all around the world, inside safe houses hiding in plain sight, and others buried deep in a mountain. Nothing surprised us anymore.
A door opened in front of Lexi. A tall, skinny man stood there, silhouetted by the light behind him. He reached out and placed his hands on Lexi’s shoulders. She leaned in and hugged him, then turned and waved for us to join her.
The guy looked to be in his fifties, with salt and pepper hair, dark eyebrows, and a mostly white mustache. His face was narrow and angled. He wore thick black-rimmed glasses that reflected the overhead lights
“Fun night?” he said, looking at me with a hint of curiosity in his eyes.
“David, we can’t get into what’s going on, OK?” Lexi said. “I told you that on the phone, so don’t prod us.”
“It’s in my nature to ask questions,” he said. He tapped Bear on the arm to get his attention. “Take him into that room at the end of the hallway.”
I was surprised to see a young, attractive, dark-haired woman dressed in scrubs waiting for us in a sterile room. I glanced at Bear. He concurred.
The lady turned away from us and grabbed a chart and said, “Get out of those clothes and put them in that bag over there.”
Bear piped up. “Ma’am, I had my physical a couple of months ago, but if you wanna check—”
“I suggest that if you don’t have any bullet holes, lacerations, puncture wounds, or bite marks, and you don’t want any in the next few minutes, get out of my room.”
“About the bite marks,” Bear said.
The woman stopped fixating on the end of her pen and raised her gaze up to Bear. “I can arrange that, if you wish. It won’t be from me, though. And you can trust me, it won’t be somewhere you’ll enjoy.”
“You’d be surprised—”
“Bear,” I said. “Come on, she’s here to patch me up. Let’s cut her a break. Go see if you can help Lexi.”
He shrugged us off, kicked the stop holding the door open, and left the room. The door closed with a clank behind him.
“Your friend has quite the sense of humor,” she said while writing on the chart.
“He’s just making up for me,” I said. “Little beat up at the moment, can’t find much to crack jokes at.”
“I often find it a sign of insecurity in men when they have to act in such a way in these situations. I mean, can’t you just man up, or grin and bear it, or, my favorite, rub some dirt on it.”
I removed the paper I’d pulled from Thanos’s jacket, then stuffed my clothes in the bag like she had requested. She tossed me a pair of gym shorts then patted the metal table and waited for me to hop on. The table was colder than the snow-covered ground outside. I was thankful for the shorts.
Her face scrunched up as she investigated my calf. “When was your last tetanus shot?”
“Little cold out to be worried about that, isn’t it?”
“It’s your life. We can take all the chances you want with it.”
“I’d prefer to live,” I said. “At least for a little bit longer. My last one was within the last four years.”
She opened a cabinet and pulled out a syringe and small bottle. “I’m gonna give you a shot just in case. Have you ever had an adverse reaction to this before?”
I shook my head. She proceeded with the shot, then went about cleaning the flesh wound on my hip and suturing it. She then turned her attention back to my calf.
After cleaning and sterilizing the laceration, she said, “Pretty clean cut. You lucked out and avoided any major damage. It’ll be sore for a few days, but overall it should heal up nicely.” She pulled off her gloves and tossed them into the trash. “So, you tried jumping a fence and landed on a sword? Am I close?”
I laughed. “Something like that.”
Her expression soured. “How’d the other guy wind up?”
“He should be deceased.” I looked up at her, found her dark eyes locked on mine. “I had him dead to rights. I don’t know what happened, why I let up. I guess I thought he was done and the rest would be up to me. Then he pulled a knife from God knows where, sliced the back of my leg. Maybe he was sandbagging the whole time. Perhaps the fear of dying gave him one last jolt of adrena
line which he used to get away from me.”
“Jesus,” she said. “I forget sometimes, you know, working in here. When I was in the military—”
“Which branch?”
“Army. You a vet?”
I nodded. “Mostly. Marines.”
“Ahh, oorah, and all that.” She nodded. “Anyway, I was in Afghanistan working out of a makeshift medical facility. Had to amputate limbs, trying to perform miracles on guys who were basically dead before they hit the ground. I was tuned in then. But you don’t think about these things happening on our soil.”
I understood where she was coming from. She, like most people, hadn’t been exposed to the underbelly of our country. Most wouldn’t be able to handle it if they knew what really went on.
“What’s your name?” I asked her.
“Kate,” she said.
“Well, Kate, if I had to take a guess, you’d be doing a lot more work on the other guy if he were in here. Although, if he shows up, give him a shot that’ll finish the job for me.”
She winked. “You got it.”
51
I found Bear and Lexi talking with David in a room down the hall. The woman who had patched me up followed me in, carrying the bag of clothes. She set them on a stainless counter and gave everyone a report on my condition.
“There’s no way you’ll keep him off it,” Bear said.
I agreed. “Not with these guys still out there. I can rest after this is done. Until then, I have to keep moving. Sitting still is a recipe for death.”
“I can only offer you advice. It’s up to you to listen.” She turned toward David. “It looks like there’s enough on the clothes to do a workup.”
He walked over to the bag, looked inside, nodded. “Go ahead and get it started. Don’t waste any time with it, either. We need to get the results as fast as possible.”
“What’re you doing with them?” I asked.
“DNA,” he said. “If you beat your attacker as badly as I imagine you did, there should be some of his blood on your clothing. Maybe some from the man inside the warehouse, too.”
“Thanos,” I said.
He glanced at Lexi. “That’s who we know him as.”
“What reason would he have to lie about his name?” I said. “Ninety percent of what he did was legit, right?”
“He did a lot, Jack,” Lexi said. “So that extra ten percent is a pretty big deal. Look, I’m not saying his name isn’t Marcus Hamilton Thanos, from Chicago, Illinois, but if there’s any of his DNA on you, we’ll be able to match it in the database.”
“You’re not FBI,” I said to David.
He laughed, shook his head. “Most definitely not. I’m, well, let’s just say I’m not classified these days. At least officially.”
“Not my place to ask questions.” I looked to Bear for his opinion. The big guy gave a quick and simple nod. His nose kind of scrunched up as he did so. His way of telling me it checks out in his book. “So how long do we gotta wait for the results?”
David puffed his cheeks and sighed as he glanced up at the ceiling. “It’s pretty fresh, though not ideally preserved. Best would be to collect the samples straight from the donors. But given the tech I have in this facility, we should have it all split and fed through the system within twelve hours, often sooner.”
A surge of panic raced through me. “I can’t be here, we can’t be here, for that long.”
Lexi placed her hand on my chest. “We’re safe here, Jack. We brought nothing with us.”
“Hell we didn’t,” I said. “The truck’s sitting out there. You know they can trace it with telematics.”
“First off, who is gonna trace it?” she said. “Yashkin? You think he’s sticking around here looking for a damn truck? And second, this facility is scrambled.”
I looked to David for assurance.
He nodded, extended an arm in a swooping motion. “The entire place and a quarter-mile surrounding it. Even if you had a cell phone with you, you wouldn’t be able to make a call. Nothing can penetrate the zone, not even satellite imagery picks us up. Looks like nothing but woods.”
I took a deep breath, shook my head. “Just doesn’t feel right to me.”
David lifted a finger as he left the room. The rest of us waited, the sound of our breathing rising and falling filling the void.
“I’ll get started on this.” Kate grabbed the bag of clothing, stopped at the exit, looked at me. “Let me know if you have any issues with pain.”
I waited until the sound of her footsteps dissipated, then held out my hand, revealing the paper I’d taken from the warehouse.
“What’s that?” Bear said.
“Not sure yet,” I said. “Got this out of the lining of Thanos’s coat. Haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. Hell, for all I know, it could be something that fell onto the jacket while it was being sewn.”
“Or it could be something he was hiding,” Lexi said, leaning forward to take a closer look. “Open it up.”
“OK,” David said from some feet away. “Maybe this’ll calm your nerves.”
Bear and Lexi stepped away from me as I tucked the paper into my waistband. We all stared at the doorway as David re-entered the room carrying three firearm cases.
“Top of the line gear, here.” He set them on the counter and unsnapped each case. “I assume you’re familiar with the MP7. You won’t find them any more tricked out than here. The scopes switch between infrared, laser, dot, and magnified sights. You’ve got single semi-auto and three-round burst options. Two standard thirty-round mags, and one extra capacity that’ll get you sixty rounds. I’ve got tactical gear in all sizes, too. Guarantee you’ll leave here well-equipped for wherever this assignment takes you.”
Assignment?
What had Lexi told him? I shot her a look. She averted her eyes. I guess it didn’t matter at that moment, she’d fill me in whenever it was safe to do so. If it had to wait until we left, so be it.
“You all are free to arm yourselves now,” David said. “I’ve got some chow cooking and it should be ready in fifteen minutes. Go back to the foyer and take the east hall to the end. We’ll get you filled up, then you can rest while the DNA is brewing.”
52
We ate before retreating to a bunk room suitable for sleeping up to eight people. Bear and I took one side, Lexi the other. We met in the middle a few minutes later.
“Keep in mind this room is most likely monitored,” I said. “Talk in generalizations, nothing specific.”
Bear and Lexi agreed as I unfolded the paper. I’d considered what we might find on it. A name or an address. Maybe someone or someplace where we could get to the bottom of why Thanos had been taken, revealing his secret. Lexi seemed unsure of the reason, and I trusted her on that, though I still wondered if she was holding back. Perhaps now was the time when I’d find out.
I stopped with one fold left, looked Lexi in the eye. “I need to know if you’re withholding on us.”
It looked as though I had slapped her across the face. Hard. Her head snapped back, lip curled up, eyes closed hard. She shook her head and then locked eyes with mine. “You think I’d lead us through all of this if that were the case? Christ, don’t you think we would’ve avoided the meeting with Kozlov if I knew enough to get us on the right track? I’m as blind in this as you, Jack. And, I mean, if you can’t trust me by now…”
“That’s not what I’m saying.”
“You sure about that?” She licked her lips, looked away from me. “Why are you even asking then?”
“All right,” I said. “You’re either one hell of an actress, or you’re one-hundred percent on board.”
“Maybe not for long.”
“Come on, you telling me you’re confident in everything I’ve told you?” I paused and waited for a response, but there was none. “That’s what I thought, Lexi.”
“I’m up for a good fight as much as anybody,” Bear said. “But how about we get on with this before someone co
mes to whisk us away again?”
He was right. We were wasting time and creating bad blood between us by offering up messages of distrust. I apologized to Lexi, blamed my injuries and the pain meds Kate had given me. A reasonable excuse. I flipped the folded paper over and placed it on the middle of the table.
We all stared at the number for several seconds. Twelve digits, starting with five-five. Lexi mouthed it. Bear tipped his head as he read it silently.
“A phone number?” Lexi said. “Five-five, where’s that?”
“Brazil,” Bear said.
Lexi and I stared at him.
“What?” he said. “I was there not long ago.”
“So we’ve got a country code,” I said. “How long are the numbers there?”
Bear exhaled, flapping his lips like a motorboat. He held up his hands, one mimicking cradling a phone, the other punching buttons. “City code is two, then the rest of the number, uh, eight.”
“So ten plus the two-digit country code and we’ve got twelve,” Lexi said.
“Sounds about right,” Bear said.
“We need a phone,” I said.
“Won’t make a difference here,” Lexi said. “Not gonna get a call out unless you’re on David’s secure line. And it’s probably not a good idea for us to use that.”
“Both of you commit it to memory. Lexi, how well do you trust this guy here? Can he get us to Brazil?”
“He’s got the connections to do so. How quickly? That I can’t tell you without talking to him. As far as trust, I trust him with my life. He’d likely do anything for me, no questions asked.”
“Why?” Bear said. “Why would he do that?”
“He owes me,” she said, leaving it at that.
“OK,” I said. “We can’t do anything about this right now. Let’s get some shuteye and attack it in the morning.”
As I lay there, I considered the probability we’d find an answer at the other end of the phone number. It seemed like we had a shot. Yet, there was something about it that felt all wrong.