"All set, ma'am," he said, pulling away.
Lama picked up a handset, started talking rapidly into it:
"Comanche, Comanche, Comanche. This is Field One, Field One, Field One. Items are secured. Repeat: items are secured.”
I could hear the buzz of conversation from the other end and then Laura snapped her fingers at one of the guys, who came over with another Palm Pilot for her to look at. She nodded and said, "Comanche, Comanche, this is Field One. Confirm all items are here, all items are here. None missing. Repeat: None missing."
Then she listened just a bit more, nodded twice, and said, "Roger that. Field One out."
She gave the handset back to one of her crew and then walked over to me and sat down on the concrete next to me. "You okay?"
"I'm breathing," I said.
Laura reached over and squeezed my hand. "You done good, my friend. You done good."
I pulled my hand away. "The hell I did." I remembered again that view --- of that body floating still in the water. Tears started to form in my eyes.
"The hell I did," I said again.
Chapter Twenty-One
Laura seemed almost hurt at what I had just said, and I added, "Not that I'm ungrateful, but how the hell did you end up here?" As I wiped at my eyes, she said, "We knew there were problems this afternoon, with Gus and Clem gone and out of contact, and with you missing as well. Word got out, and then, well, God bless the local cops."
"Why?"
I could feel her shift her weight next to me. "Remember the two local cops who found the body of the Libyan agent last week?"
"Yep."
"Well, one of them came back again on patrol and saw an empty car parked where it didn't belong. Plates carne back odd, as you know, and then he saw blood on the ground, underneath the trunk. Talk about coincidences, huh ? We got the word and we flooded this area, my friend, we really did. Sound and thermal sensors, even in the rain, and we got right to work."
"Yes," I said. "God bless local cops."
She turned to me. “Did you hear what I was saying back there on the radio, just a few minutes ago?”
“Telling your bosses that you secured the uranium. They must be very happy.”
"More than that; Lewis, more than that," she said, her voice exasperated. "Don't you know what almost happened?"
Now I remembered. "The bombing raids against Libya."
"Right. The bombing raids against Libya. I'm not sure of the time frame, but I'm sure we were pretty close to killing hundreds of people. And thanks to you, that was stopped. So, again I say: You done good."
I was starting to feel cold and my arms were cramping up again from all that exertion, and I was going to say something sharp to Laura in return, when my mouth refused to work.
Coming out of the hallway, dripping wet and with a compress against the back of his head, was one very alive Felix Tinios.
I stood up, legs trembling. Laura stood up next to me. Felix broke away from his armed escorts and came over to me. He got right to the point.
"That guy dead?"
"Yes," I said.
"Good." Dried blood was on his wrists. "You do it?"
"No, but it wasn't for lack of trying," I said. "I drew him down with Jack's shotgun. But Jack was low in the ammo department. The only thing I did was to scare him with the sound of a firing pin slamming shut on an empty chamber."
"Well, shit like that happens," Felix said. His clothes were dripping wet on the concrete, his hair was matted and dried blood was on his neck as well. "I guess I have to thank the fed shooters, huh?"
"Looks that way," I said.
Laura spoke up. "Excuse me, and you are... ?
Felix gave her a chilly smile. "Sony, miss, I'm talking to this gentleman here. Don't you know it's rude to interrupt?"
Which I did, just then. "What happened?"
Felix shook his head, seemingly in admiration. "That little bastard was good. I was heading down the corridor, scanning on both sides. Good thing about night-vision goggles is that you can see in the dark Bad thing is that you've got shit for peripheral vision. You know that swimming hole I ended up in?”
“That I do,” I said.
"Little bastard was crouched down in that hole. Lots of hand- and footholds on the broken concrete. I went by and he got up and popped me in the back, and then a couple of more times for good measure. I fell in, and without my Uzi, well, I figured the best approach would be to play possum."
With his free hand, he unbuttoned the front of his shirt, revealing a Kevlar vest. "These things do work, but I know I've got a couple of bruises back there. Damn, it hurts."
Laura spoke up again, "I'm sorry; I really have to ask. Who are you?"
Felix smiled, bowed in her direction. "Ma'am, I make it a rule never to talk to the feds without my lawyer present. And since my friend here Lewis is not a member of the New Hampshire or Massachusetts bar, then I must be going."
"Oh, no, you don't," she said.
Another smile. "Oh, yes, I will. The name is Felix Tinios, I reside on Rosemount Lane in North Tyler, and if you'd care to stop by, do. You can try to take me into custody, and I'll go willingly, but the only thing you'll hear from me is what I just said. I never talk to feds without my lawyer present. Otherwise ... Lewis, I'm sure I'll be seeing you."
"You certainly will."
He smiled again for both our benefit, I suppose, and then ambled down the exit corridor, now well-lit and bustling with people who seemed to know what they were doing and why. I almost envied them. Laura looked at me and said, "Who the hell was that?"
"A friend of mine who came in to rescue me," I said. "He's also someone who you don't want to piss off."
She gave me an odd look and said, "You know, I do think you're right. How are you doing?"
''I'm doing all right," I said.
"That’s fine,” she said. “Look, we need to talk and debrief and –“
I wiped at my face again. “No.”
Laura said, “Lewis, it’s been a long day and ---“
“No, no, and still, no. Tell me, how are you doing?”
"Me?" she asked, surprised. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, all of this," I said. "You're in charge, right?"
"Yes, of course I am. What are you getting at?"
In the strong lights now in this concrete chamber, I tried to gauge what was going on behind those still brown eyes, and I failed. I could not understand who she was and what she had done. "What I'm getting at is how your gun crew came in at the last moment. What I'm getting at is that you weren't interested in capturing Gus, or interrogating Gus, or putting him on trial and embarrassing you and the Department of Energy. It would have been easy to capture him. But that didn't happen. Which tells me that your boys with guns got specific orders. Am I right?"
"No," she said slowly. "No, you're not right."
"Good going, Laura," I said. "That was the same tone of voice you used on me when you first said you worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency. Which is why I asked how you were doing. Considering how Gus was set up and terminated, without too much fuss. Pretty cold, Laura. Pretty cold."
"We do what we have to," she said. "That's the nature of our business. All right, we'll talk tomorrow. Give me a couple of minutes and I'll get a car and driver for you."
"Sorry," I said. "No again. I'd rather walk."
Laura said, "It's pouring rain out there. You'll be soaked."
"That's right," I said. "And I'll be soaked on my own, without owing you or anybody else. See you later."
And with that, I turned around and started heading out. While the trip in with Gus and Jack in the darkness had seemed to take hours, the trip out took only a few minutes. Earlier in the darkness I had imagined the vastness of the tunnels and chambers, wondering how Jack had gotten us here, and I felt slightly sheepish as I easily made my way back. Other serious looking men and women kept on streaming in, carrying cases of equipment, more lights, photographic paraphernalia and who knows what. At the entrance the door was propped open and more lights wore set up outside, the rain streaming down highlighted in their strong beams.
A couple of men looked over at me and started coming toward me, but I just kept my look down and went out into the rain.
Some long minutes later, soaked and with my clothes sticking to me and my shoes squishing in the mud, I made it out to the parking lot of the Samson Point nature preserve. I stopped, coughed a bit, and looked around. I had earlier thought of walking out onto the parking lot and then ambling down Atlantic Avenue, keeping to the side of the road, making my way home quietly, But the lot was full of LTDs and dark vans, and beyond the gate other cars were parked as well, cruisers with lights flashing and what looked like a couple of television news vans.
Not much chance of a quiet walk home.
The rain seemed to come down even harder, and I only hesitated for a moment. The longer I'd wait, the wetter and colder I'd get. I turned and started heading out to the low dark hills beyond which my home was. I walked across the parking lot, dodging through the parked vehicles, and as I started climbing up into the darkness, I looked back The last thing I saw was a little pool of light around a parked LTD with its trunk open, where people were looking at the body of a dead ex-Marine who had died this evening at the hands of a trusted coworker.
When I got home, before I did anything else, anything at all, I made sure the telephone was unplugged. No talking tonight, no, sir. Shivering and cold, I went upstairs, stripping off my wet clothing and footwear as I got up to the second floor. I turned the shower on as hot as I could stand it, and spent what seemed like a half hour or so scrubbing and washing and rinsing, repeating the process over and over. When my hot water heater finally surrendered and the water started to cool down, I got out and automatically began checking my skin, the way I did after every shower, looking for the bumps or swellings that meant that the bio agent from my long-ago exposure had finally bitten me again.
My skin was clear, at least this night. I rubbed my body dry and wished there were a way I could reach in and check my mind, for what I had seen today would be with me for a very long time ---- the blood and the bodies and the shooting and that terrible, cold-blooded moment when I had raised the shotgun ready to kill another man, and how disappointed I had felt when the firing pin fell on an empty chamber.
Dressed in a blue terry-cloth robe, I went downstairs and built a fire in the fireplace, piling in the oak chunks as high as I dared. In my kitchen I grabbed an unopened bottle of Australian Merlot, a package of saltine crackers and from the refrigerator a chunk of cheddar cheese. I got back to my couch, listened to the crackling of the fire and the rain still coming down in sheets, and got to work on the only food and drink I cared about. I sipped from the wine bottle without benefit of glassware, and ate the cheese and crackers, as I looked at the fire, its flames rising higher and higher. I watched the flames for a long time, keeping my eyes open as much as possible, for whenever I closed them, I saw the same things.
Clem, jackknifed and dead in the trunk of the LTD. Jack, collapsing and dying in the central chamber. Gus, stumbling back, as bullets tore into his chest.
I drank and ate and stared at the flames as long as I could. Sometime during the night I woke up on the couch. I didn't remember stretching out or pulling a down comforter over me. I woozily stood up and went upstairs and used the bathroom, and then came back down. In the kitchen I drank two glasses of cold water and then went to the sliding glass doors that led out to my deck. The rain had stopped and it seemed the clouds had moved away.
I got out on the deck, the wood wet under my bare feet. I
hugged myself and looked out at the ocean, at the swelling of the waves, coming in again and again. I looked up at the stars, the bright and beautiful stars, just imagining what layout there in the universe, what wonders and mysteries. Staring up there, I saw a tiny dot of light moving, fast and unblinking. Perhaps it was the space shuttle. Perhaps it was the International Space Station. Perhaps it was just a weather satellite. But it didn't quite matter. What was up there belonged to us, had been sent up there and now residing up in the heavens.
I looked over to the north, where Samson Point was, and there were plenty of lights over there, as Laura was doing whatever work and her crew was continuing. I remembered a night some days ago, when the lights I had seen over there had drawn me, like a curious moth to a flame. Well, this particular insect was still living, though singed.
I looked at the lights and then went back to looking at the stars.
In the morning I had two cups of tea, three scrambled eggs and an English muffin, and throughout the morning I kept the phone unplugged. If someone wanted to talk to me, they could damn well come down and talk to me in person, though I knew eventually I would have to talk to them. Laura Reeves. Felix Tinios. Even Diane Woods, my detective friend, and Paula Quinn. Always, Paula. I owed her a lot and I knew I had blown off her last phone call, when she had said she needed to talk to me.