C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-ONE
Q
uinn was all too familiar with the road between the Naval Observatory and Silver Springs. The Army's Military Amputee Training Center was located off the same road at Walter Reed Hospital. He'd visited far too many of his friends there during their rehab. Riding down the quiet, park-like streets, he could smell the odors of antiseptic and adhesive tape common to amputee wards.
The night before his first deployment, Kim had rolled over in their bed to face him, tears streaking her face. They'd had dinner with a classmate from the Air Force Special Operations Indoc class. The poor guy had just come back from Iraq with a stump instead of a left hand. In hindsight, the dinner had probably been a mistake, but what do you say?
Hey, bud, we can't go out to eat with you because I'm about to deploy and your hook would scare the crap out of my wife... .
Nobody deserved that.
The Bluetooth inside his helmet gave a soft chirp, barely audible over the wind whirring through his half-open face shield. He tapped the side of his helmet.
“Quinn.”
“Daddy ...” It was Mattie. Her voice was drawn, tired like a frayed cord.
Quinn suddenly felt dizzy. He let off the throttle and coasted into a parking area along Rock Creek littered with fall leaves.
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Two blocks behind Quinn, Nona Schmidt's chest tightened. She tapped the brakes on the maroon Nissan. “He's stopping!” she barked into the radio, forgetting to keep it in her lap and out of sight. “I'm almost on top of him. What should I do?”
“Just drive on by and find a place up the road to stop,” her brother said. “Play it cool and pull over at the next parking area. We're less than three miles back.”
Nona found it impossible to keep her eyes off Quinn as she sped by, faster than she probably should have.
“He's all by himself at the turnout,” she spoke into the radio.
“Good,” Bobby came back. Nona could hear the engine of their van roaring in the background. “We'll take him where he sits.”
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“What's wrong? Are you okay, sweetie?” Quinn watched a maroon Sentra drive by with a wild-eyed blonde behind the wheel.
“We're fine, Daddy. Mama says to tell you hello.”
Quinn closed his eyes and sighed. “I sorta thought she was mad at me.”
“She is.” Mattie giggled. “Way, way mad. But I'm not, so she said I could call you.” Her voice grew softer. “She says you're not coming home for a while.”
Quinn had taken fists to the nose that hurt less. For a moment, his throat was too tight to speak. He slumped forward, resting on the handlebars. “Yeah,” he said. “I have some important things to take care of at work... .”
“Important like those men who shot Miss Suzette?”
“Yeah,” he sighed. “Kind of like that.” She was awfully smart for a six-year-old.
“Okaaaay,” she said, putting on her mosquito-whine. “As long as it's that kind of important.”
“Can I talk to Mom?”
“She says she's busy.”
“What's she doing?”
Mattie giggled again. “She's busy staring at me.”
“Okay,” Quinn said. “Tell her hi for me.”
“Miss you, Daddy. You're my besty... .”
Quinn ended the call and sat, thinking. In the past when Mattie called, he'd suspected Kim may have put her up to it. Not this time. Watching your daughter snatched off the stage was bad enough. And then having your ex-husband literally butcher someone in your lap, it was enough to make anyone snap.
He'd seen the look in her eyesâa resolve stronger than he'd ever seen before. Maybe their marriage really was over... .
Quinn started the bike and pulled back onto the empty road. He tried to press the thoughts of such finality from his mind, thinking instead of Veronica Garcia as he leaned the growling GS into a series of smooth S turns along Rock Creek Park.
Though new to the anti-terrorism business, the Cuban woman understood very well what he was doing. The woman had a look deep in the crystalline amber of her eyes that at once startled and intrigued him. He'd caught a glimpse of it the moment they'd first met at Arbakova's home, and then saw again during the interview with Jimmy Doyle.
Outwardly, she was cordial enough, knew the right things to say and the right moments to say them. She was intelligent enough to keep up her end of the social contract when it came to nicetiesâbut deep down, in a part of her brain most people don't like to acknowledge, there was a darknessâa darkness that made her an extremely dangerous human being.
Quinn knew that darkness all too well. He saw it every day when he looked in the mirror.
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“He's moving again,” Nona Schmidt whispered, half relieved that they weren't taking him on the road.
“Don't lose him,” Bobby said, agitation buzzing in his voice. “We're nearly there. We'll get him when he stops again.”
C
HAPTER
T
WENTY-TWO
Q
uinn had never eaten at Cubano's, but the heads-up display on the GPS inside his helmet visor brought him in like a guided missile. His stomach growled louder than his motorcycle by the time he made the turn off Georgia Avenue. It was a popular place and he had to park the bike halfway down the street in front of another restaurant. He unzipped the Transit jacket and pulled the tail of his black polo shirt over the Kimber ten-millimeter. Resting in the Galco inside-the-pants holster, the pistol would be invisible to all but the most experienced observer. Temperature-regulated or not, eating supper wearing a leather jacket on the warm fall evening was bound to draw more attention than he wanted. As was his habit, he let his elbow graze the butt of his pistol, reassuring himself. It calmed him to know the gun was there.
Garcia had found a table outside on the raised patio out front, separated from the street by a short rock wall and metal fence. She waved him over, virtually bouncing with excitement at showing off her favorite restaurant.
Quinn caught the eye of a waiter with a thin black mustache and a loose white guayabera shirt as he trotted up the steps. “I'm with the lady over there,” he said, pointing at Garcia with his raised motorcycle helmet.
Pungent smells of garlic and peppers mixed with grilling chicken. The sweet odor of plantain frying in butter enveloped him like the warm, fleshy hug of a buxom aunt.
“Of course, señor,” the waiter said, showing him to the table.
Quinn ordered a Diet Coke and pulled out a chair across from Garcia. To her credit, she'd chosen a table against the outside wallâa wall to protect his back. Kim had always known to give him the “gunfighter seat” when they went out to dinner. She made fun of him, but she did it.
The evening was warm and Garcia's tan suit jacket was draped over the back of the chair beside her. Black hair hung thick and loose around the shoulders of a sleeveless blouse of iridescent blue. Cloth and curls shone like a butterfly wing in the low rays of an evening sun. She'd taken the time to freshen up with a new coat of plum lipstick. The color was perfectly suited to her caffè latte complexionâa fact not lost on Quinn.
“Sorry it took me so long,” he said, taking in the lay of the land as he sat down.
Nearly every table was taken both on the patio and, from the looks of things through the double picture windows, inside the restaurant as well. An older couple chatted at the table to Quinn's left, closest to the door. Both looked like academics with sensible, stand-around shoes and ratty cotton dress shirts frayed at the collars and cuffs. The slender man spoke to his enraptured female companion in hushed tones about past sailing trips to Havana and how much trouble they would be in if anyone in the U.S. government found out. Just beyond the conspirators, three tables had been pushed together for a birthday party. The blue-haired matron had the seat of honor, surrounded by her large Cuban family.
“Looks like a nice place.” Quinn stuffed his Held kangaroo hide gloves inside the Arai. He hung the leather jacket, with Yawaraka-Te inside, over the adjacent chair.
Garcia reached to touch the helmet, running her finger over the crossed war axes dripping candy-apple blood. “Interesting art,” she said. “I like.”
“Frank Frazetta.”
“Ahhh.” Garcia's full lips drew back in an easy, plum-colored smile. “The Death Dealer ...”
“Amazing.” Jericho chuckled. “I knew I liked you.”
Garcia leaned across the table, folding her hands in front of her breasts as they pressed against the edge. “My father was a toe-the-party-line Russian in Fidel's Cuba. He was supposed to be anti-American in all thingsâbut get this... .” She looked to her left and right as if to make sure no one was listening in on her secret. “He taught me to be a closet Molly Hatchet fan. His favorite albums were that one with the Death Dealer... . And what was it? There was a guy with a red beard and a bloody axe... .”
“
Flirtin' with Disaster
.” Quinn shook his head in disbelief. She was dangerous
and
had good taste in music.
Garcia's eyes played up and down, studying him. “I'll bet you were the kind of kid who had Meat Loaf posters all over your walls. I mean, since you ride and all.”
“Would have, but my mom didn't care for the blood-dripping warriors. She drew the line at half-naked women on motorcycles.” Quinn sat back in his chair, taking a deep, slow breath.
“I can't imagine someone like you coming from a demure sort of mother,” Garcia said, still eying him intently.
“Oh, my mom's an Alaska girl through and through,” Quinn said. “She could fillet a halibut, field dress a moose, and birth a baby all the same dayâbut she's awfully tenderhearted. I supposed that sort of thing skips a generation.
Garcia still leaned forward, pressing against the table. “Mr. Palmer said you were a boxer at the Air Force Academy.”
“I dabbled.” Quinn shrugged. He would have to talk to Palmer about the depth of information he disclosed. “I did okay.”
Garcia wagged her tan finger. “Okay? I hear you won the Cadet Wing Open your senior year and came in second the year before.”
Jericho pressed an index finger to his nose, showing the lack of cartilage that went along with repeated blows to the face. “Those statistics are true, but as my kid brother is so fond of pointing out, if you come in second in a boxing tournament, it means you got your ass kicked at least once.”
Suddenly uncomfortable with so much personal talk, Quinn cleared his throat and picked up a menu. “So, what's good here? You mentioned something called
moros
and ...”
“
Moros
and
cristianos
âspiced black beans and rice.” Garcia picked up her sunglasses from the table and began to toy with them. Her eyes sparkled with mischief. “Moors and Christians. You know, like black people and white people ...”
“I'm so hungry a big bowl of that sounds good.”
“It's a side dish.”
He shut his menu and pushed back from the table. “I need to hit the head. Surprise me. Something spicy sounds good for the main course.”
Garcia's full lips parted as if to speak, but in the end she only smiled broadly, keeping her thoughts to herself.
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A half a block up the quiet street in the parking spot directly behind Quinn's motorcycle, a windowless white van sat in the evening shadows cast by the Mi Rancho restaurant. Nona Schmidt slouched behind the wheel and watched as her boyfriend, her brother, and her Uncle Frank walked under the blue awning and through the double glass doors into Cubano's. She'd abandoned the Nissan around the corner. Her job was to pull up front with the van when she saw the men drag Quinn outside. She never considered the idea that they wouldn't be able to handle him.
He'd gone in only seconds before. Probably to use the can. The Mexican womanâScott called her the Spic Chickâstill sat at their outside table. She looked like she was his date. Quinn was supposed to be dangerous, but Nona didn't fret over that. She'd seen her boyfriend fight mixed martial arts in Corbin, Kentucky. He'd whipped the everlovin' ass of everyone who came into the octagonâactually broke one guy's arm in four places. He was sure enough capable of beating the crap out of some bike-riding dude who was past his prime.
Nineteen years old, rawboned, and handsome, Scott Brady was tough as they came. And, every bit as important to Nona as his muscles, he had nearly perfect teeth. He'd have no trouble with Jericho Quinn, who, with any luck, would have his pants down when they shot him.
It seemed such a waste to Nona, but after the mess at the gas station, the boys had decided not to bother with a Taser. The plan was for Scott to take out both his knees with a .22 pistol. Scott said if the guy bled to death before they got him back to the compound to interrogate, well, that was his own damn fault.
Nona bit her lip. She hoped it didn't come to that too awful soon... .