Authors: Kyle Mills
"How's that beautiful, brilliant wife of yours, Matt?"
Egan raised his arms and managed to partially deflect Fade's secon d punch.
"After her concert, did you go back with her to your great house an d kiss your daughter good night? Did you?"
He reached out to grab Fade's shirt, but didn't have the strength lef t to grip it. The third blow got him in the other cheek and he realize d it didn't even hurt anymore.
"Fade!" he heard Karen shout again. "I said stop!"
There was a strange shimmer on Fade's face and Egan squinted, trying t o focus. Tears. They were tears.
A moment later Karen Manning appeared behind Fade and swung the butt o f her gun into the side of his head. Not hard, but hard enough to ti p him over onto the floor and leave him too dazed to get up.
"I just don't need this crap today," she said, shoving the gun into he r waistband and grabbing him by the collar. Egan tried to stay consciou s as she dragged Fade from the room, but his peripheral vision ha d already gone dark. Finally, he just laid his head on the floor an d drifted off.
Chapter
Forty-Eight.
"Geez .. . What the hell did you do that for?" Fade said, rubbing th e back of his head with a distended pout on his face.
Karen tore the brown paper off the side view mirror and accelerated ou t of the industrial park, matching the speed limit exactly as she heade d for the highway. The car had been conspicuous before, but now tape d for painting, it was like a neon sign flashing "Call the police!" Than k God it was dark.
"Oh stop. I barely even touched you."
"Barely touched me? I think I may have a concussion."
"Are all SEALS this whiny?"
"Damnit, Karen! I had him!"
When she glanced over, he started rubbing his head again in an obviou s attempt to make her feel guilty. "Had him? You had him? Give me a break. What exactly was it you were you going to do?"
"You know what I was going to do!" he shouted loud enough to briefl y drown out the sound of the wind blowing through the convertible. Hi s anger seemed a little forced. "I haven't made a secret out of m y plans. If you want to interfere, maybe you ought to just pull the ca r over and get the hell out."
She changed lanes, examining the rearview mirror as she did so.
There was no one at all on the road behind them. "Who are you tryin g to convince here, Fade? Me or yourself? You weren't going to kil l him."
"Was too."
"Don't make me use the ejector seat."
He crossed his arms and sulked with such self-conscious intensity tha t it actually made her smile. Who would have thought anything could d o that tonight?
"Okay," he said finally. "So it was a little harder than I thought.
But I was going to get around to it."
"Uh-huh. You know why you won that fight?"
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that when your leg gave out he had a clear shot at you r spine and he didn't take it. Did you ever think maybe it's time fo r you two to have an adult conversation? I want to help you, Fade. I r eally do. But who am I? An unemployed former cop. Based on wha t you've told me about Egan, he's heavily connected and I think when pus h comes to shove, he's going to come down on your side of this thing."
Fade remained silent for almost a minute. "All right. Fine. I'l l agree to temporarily put Matt on the back burner. But Strand's still a dead man."
Fade tried to ignore the feeling of Karen's eyes boring into him as h e got out of the car. Despite doing everything he could to try to mov e naturally, there was no obscuring the fact that the simple act o f standing was taking all his concentration. The numbness had sprea d upward and while he'd gotten pretty good at working around the leg , there wasn't much he could do to compensate for his sudden inability t o fully control the muscles in his back. Even with Egan's apparen t self-restraint, their fight had done enough damage that at least som e of it would never heal. Maybe tomorrow would be the day. Mayb e tomorrow he'd wake up to the start of an endless life of staring up a t the ceiling, motionless and alone.
He finally managed to pull himself to his feet and he moved awkwardl y around the car to where Karen was waiting. The windows of th e townhouse they were parked in front of were dark, as was the rest o f the neighborhood. Karen put an arm around his shoulders, subtl y helping to steady him as they moved toward the front door. When the y arrived on the porch, she raised her hand but didn't knock.
"What's wrong?" Fade said quietly.
"I ... I think maybe this was a mistake. I got freaked out and wasn'
t thinking straight. We just need to find somewhere I can get a coupl e quiet days to work .. ."
"Knock on the door, Karen."
"What are you talking about? You've been against this from th e beginning."
He rang the doorbell, grabbing her arm as she tried to back away. A l ight upstairs went on, partially illuminating her face. Oddly, it wa s as close to panic as he'd seen.
"No. We've got to go," she said when the porch light came on. H
e increased his grip, but if she really wanted to break free, it wouldn'
t have been difficult.
"Fade .. ."
"Let's just talk with him, Karen. Then, if you want, we can leave."
The door opened a crack and Fade saw half a face peering around it. A m oment later it was thrown wide open to reveal a man who didn't muc h look like the computer wizard Karen said he was. Instead of being fou r foot two, he was at least six-two, wearing cutoff camo shorts and a tank top over a tanned, fit body. Where were the polyester pants an d Star Trek T-shirt?
"Karen? Jesus Christ! What are you doing here?"
"Nothing, Jeff. Actually, I was just leaving."
"What are you talking about? Get in here."
She hesitated again, but then stepped across the threshold and gave hi m a long, exhausted hug. According to her, Jeff had been an instructo r at a computer class she'd taken and they'd dated for a while before a friendly break-up. Fade felt a pointless pang of jealousy that wa s probably weaker than it should have been. The truth was, Jeff looke d like an all right guy. And even if he wasn't, there was a good chanc e he was an improvement over a half-crippled mass murderer.
"I'm Jeff Grant," he said, reaching around Karen.
Fade shook his hand and stepped inside, trying to ignore the fact tha t his grip strength was noticeably off. He'd never really had problem s with his hands before.
"What the hell's going on, Karen?" Grant said as he led them into a spotless kitchen. "Are you all right? I can't believe what happene d to you. I tried to call .. ."
"I got your message. Thanks. It's been a little hectic .. ."
"A little hectic? Yeah, I guess so." He redirected his gaze towar d Fade. "I don't think I caught your name."
Fade remained silent while Karen chewed her lip. "That," she sai d finally, "is Salam al Fayed."
Predictably, Jeff's eyes widened and he took a step back. Actually, i t looked like he was going to try to back right out of the house, bu t Karen grabbed his hand. "It's okay jeff His reputation's a little bi t exaggerated."
"So ... he didn't wipe out your entire SWAT team?"
"No, he did. But it was an accident."
"An accident," he repeated.
Fade looked down at the floor. It seemed likely that this conversatio n was going nowhere as long as he was standing there. Grant seemed to b e looking for a window to jump out of.
"Hey, Jeff. Do you mind if I pull my car into your garage?"
He shook his head a little too energetically. "Do whatever yo u want."
Fade tore a long strip of paper from the Cadillac's bumper and tosse d it in a pile of trash growing in the middle of the floor. He'd lef t the door leading into the house open so he could hear, but so far ther e had been mostly silence. About halfway through the process of scrapin g the remaining tape off his windshield, Jeff's voice finally drifte d in.
"Shit, Karen. Is all this true?"
Fade lay down on the still-warm hood and stared blankly at the garag e door opener suspended from the ceiling.
"Yeah. It's true."
"Jesus .. ."
"Will you do it, Jeff? I'm having a lot of trouble with th e programming and the fact that I have to constantly look over m y shoulder isn't helping."
Silence.
"Jeff?"
"Man .. . Karen ... I mean we're friends and all, but a lot of thi s stuff has to be classified." He lowered his voice but the acoustics o f the house conspired against him.
"And he's .. . Well, he killed a bunch of cops, Karen! Do you kno w what you're asking me to get involved in?"
There was a rustling of papers. "Yeah, I'm sorry. I knew this was a mistake. It was totally unfair for me to "
"Hey, I didn't say I wouldn't do it. I'm just trying to think i t through, okay? I mean, they already tried to kill you, so they migh t do the same thing to me. And I'm not some SWAT chick with the Gri m Reaper for a bodyguard."
"It's not a big deal, Jeff. I "
"Okay," he said, cutting her off. "Fine. I'll do it."
"What? Really?"
"Yeah. But I've got to make sure I set it up in a way that it can't b e traced back to me. And then we've got to assume that the government i s going to try to shut it down the second it goes online ..." His voic e trailed off.
"How long before people can actually access it?"
"Programming will only take a couple hours, but getting it up will tak e longer. And then we'll have to send anonymous messages to the medi a and all the conspiracy theory boards pointing to it.. .."
Fade tried to motivate himself to get up and finish cleaning off th e car, but he couldn't find the energy. The truth was, he had missed hi s only chance at Hillel Strand. Even if he managed to concoct a brilliant plan to find him before Karen's Web site went live, h e couldn't move fast enough or shoot straight enough anymore to d o anything but get himself killed. And then there was Matt. It was tim e to just admit that there was no way he was ever going to pull th e trigger on the best friend he'd ever had.
In a few hours, Karen would be safe and she wouldn't need him anymore.
She'd go back to her family and try to straighten out the problems he'
d caused her. So by midafternoon tomorrow, every reason he had to kee p breathing would have disappeared.
Chapter
Forty-Nine.
Matt Egan filled a pillowcase from the ice machine, ignoring the stare s of a couple of kids dragging their suitcase down the stairs. He wen t back to his room and fell onto the bed, pressing the wet pillowcas e against his face.
And so ended yet another unsuccessful run in with the now infamou s Salam al Fayed. He wondered if he'd still be breathing if it hadn'
t been for Karen Manning's intervention. Not worth thinking about.
After a few minutes, he rolled off the bed and walked into th e bathroom, filling his mouth with water and then letting it run red bac k into the sink. What now? Karen Manning was clearly exerting a fai r amount of influence over Fade at this point. What was her plan? T
o use her considerable investigative skills to help Fade get Strand?
Unlikely. To go to the press? She'd have to know that the media wa s being covered. Her father? Maybe. He had juice, but he'd be covered , too, and Egan had a feeling that she would be hesitant to get he r family involved.
But eventually, she'd be compelled to make a move. She didn't seem th e type to run or to just hide forever in Fade's skirts.
He walked out of the bathroom, careful not to look at his swollen fac e in the mirror, and crawled back onto the bed. It turned out that lyin g on a floor unconscious wasn't a great substitute for a good night'
s sleep and he was just too tired to think about this right now.
He reached for the light switch but then changed his mind and bega n dialing his phone instead. He was way past due calling in and Bill y undoubtedly thought his boss was dead.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Billy. Guess who?"
"Matt! Oh my God! Are you all right?"
The connection wasn't very good and Egan winced in pain when he had t o press the phone harder to his ear. "I've been better, but I'm gonn a make it. Where are you? I can barely hear."
"I'm on the highway headed toward al Fayed's place to look for you."
"Really?" Egan said, genuinely surprised that his assistant would tak e that kind of risk for him.
"Yeah."
"Thanks, Billy. Seriously."
"Don't thank me. I figured anywhere would be better than the office.
The atmosphere's getting a little oppressive."
"Yeah, my day hasn't been all that hot either."
"So I gather. Good thing Karen Manning was there to save your ass , huh?"
Egan moved the ice pack off his cheek. "What? What did you say?"
"I'm afraid I've got a little bad news for you, Matt." He pause d uncomfortably. "Can you connect to the Internet where you are?"