The Buried (37 page)

Authors: Brett Battles

Tags: #Mystery, #spy, #conspiracy, #Suspense, #Espionage, #Thriller

All conversation ceased.

Looking at Quinn, she said, “Unless you want your baby born in a missile silo, I suggest we concentrate on getting her out of here!”

__________

A
NANKE AND DANI
led the way up with Nate and Daeng coming next, carrying Orlando in the cradle of their clasped arms. Quinn was immediately behind them.

Not knowing what else to do, he alternated between giving Orlando words of encouragement and updates on their progress. Whether she was listening to him or not, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t stop talking even if he wanted to.

When they stopped for a quick rest around the three-quarters point, Quinn offered to switch with one of his friends.

“Absolutely not,” Orlando said. “Look at you. You’ll drop me.”

He hadn’t noticed until that moment that he was shaking.

Not long after they began walking again, Orlando’s contractions returned. Ananke looked at her watch.

“How far apart?” Quinn asked.

Without looking back, Ananke said, “Let’s just say the sooner we get out of here, the better.”

__________

T
HE BABY WAS
born in the backseat of The Wolf’s Explorer. Ananke, the only one with any birthing experience, acted as Orlando’s midwife. After she made sure the child was breathing properly, she held the cord for Quinn to cut and handed him his daughter.

“Do you have a name picked out?” she asked.

If their child had been a boy, he would have been named David Abraham, in honor of Quinn’s brother who’d died as a child, and Orlando’s mentor who’d passed the previous winter. And if a girl—

“Claire,” Orlando said, looking both exhausted and happy.

“Claire what?” Ananke asked.

“We haven’t decided on a middle name yet,” Quinn said.

“How about Ananke? It has a certain ring to it.”

Orlando frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I did just help you deliver her.”

Orlando’s expression softened. “You did. Thank you. I…I’m glad you were here.”

Ananke looked at her for a moment, as if waiting for a punch line. When one didn’t come, she said, “I didn’t have anywhere else to be.”

__________

T
HOUGH TAKING THE
Explorer would have been preferable, the police would be looking for it and the car Orbits had fled in. So the only safe vehicle for Quinn and his team to leave in was the sedan Orlando had been driving. Everyone was able to fit in only by having Orlando lie across Quinn’s, Daeng’s, and Ananke’s laps.

A phone call to the Mole secured the services of a doctor in Topeka who wouldn’t ask questions. They arrived at his home twenty minutes later, and soon after Orlando and Claire were both asleep in the doctor’s guest room.

“Quinn?”

Dani was standing just outside the guest-room doorway. Quinn quietly walked into the hall and shut the door.

“I need to get going,” she said. “I have…things I need to take care of.”

He knew it had something to do with whatever she took from the bottom storage level.

“I can leave, can’t I?” she asked.

“Of course.”

“What about your client? You’re supposed to give me to her.”

“My client will be more than happy with the silo. I can’t guarantee others won’t still be looking for you, though. It’ll be a little while before word gets out that your father’s stash is in the hands of the US government.” He paused. “I might know someone who can help you.”

“I don’t need help.”

“Have you not been paying attention the last couple of days? Because clearly you do,” he said with a smile. “My friend can get you new identifications, arrange travel to wherever you want to go, and make sure you’re not being followed.”

“And then he tells you and you know where I am?”

“I have no interest in knowing where you are. I’ll put you in contact with him and then I’m out. He’s a little odd but you can trust him.”

When she finally accepted his offer, he connected her to the Mole. An hour later, a car arrived at the doctor’s house to pick her up.

Nate, Ananke, and Daeng said their good-byes before Quinn took his turn.

“In a few months you should be able to stop hiding.”

“I’m not sure I know how to do that,” she said.

“You’ll figure it out.”

She wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you. I’m glad you guys were the ones who found me.”

“I am, too.”

She planted a kiss on his cheek and then hurried to her car.

__________

A
NANKE LEFT THAT
evening after spending some closed-door time with Orlando. With a wink and a “see you later, boys,” she was gone.

“What were you two talking about?” Quinn asked Orlando later.

“Old stuff. Nothing you need worry about.”

“Are you two friends now?”

“Did I say that?” she asked, but with none of the venom he would have expected.

Claire squirmed and opened her eyes.

“Can you hold her for a moment?” Orlando asked.

He lifted his daughter into his arms and stared into her eyes. “We did this?”

“Yeah, we did.”

Claire wrinkled her brow in the exact same way he’d seen Orlando do a million times.

“She’s perfect,” he said, as he wondered if there could ever be a better moment than this.

CHAPTER
43

ONE WEEK LATER

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

F
OR THE LAST
several days, Helen Cho had embarked on a housecleaning mission. The first casualty was the overnight director on duty when she’d been kidnapped, who’d been recruited by The Wolf. It turned out he wasn’t the only leak in the office. An assistant info tech had been feeding information to another branch of US Intelligence, and an agent doing the same with an independent, ultra-patriotic organization. All three were arrested and would soon be appearing in a secret court.

The acquisition of the silo was an unexpected bonus. With the weapons and the nuclear devices came the woman responsible for Helen’s disappearance. Not wanting to chance losing her in the stateside system, Helen had The Wolf rendered to a secret base in eastern Europe, where the extraction of information about the woman’s business dealings would be performed under less rigorous standards than in the States. As for Ricky Orbits, Helen decided a nice, ten-year stretch in a federal facility would be adequate.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

T
HERE WAS NO
official rebuke of Morse’s actions in connection with the Charles Hayes matter. There were only citations and tributes in the wake of a “requested” early retirement. As for Lyle Clark, Morse’s contact on the board of directors, some people were too powerful to be removed.

WASHINGTON, DC

V
ALOR, TOO, HAD
to serve up a sacrificial lamb. Though Scott Bennett had been no more than a go-between, he was called upon to pay the price.

News services carried a story about rumors concerning a well-known lobbyist’s connections to Mexican drug cartels. The connections would one day be proved as false, but the mere mention of the possibility was all that was needed to start the death spiral of his career, and the business he had worked so hard to build disappeared overnight.

Valor understood sacrifice, and appreciated Bennett playing his part. He would be required to live a quieter life, but money would continue to flow his way, and he was promised that one day he would achieve great success again.

BERLIN, GERMANY

ASSISTANT TRADE ATTACHÉ
Komarov had a message waiting for him when he arrived at the embassy instructing him to destroy the codebook hidden behind his filing cabinet. He was further instructed to avoid all contact with Herr Schwartz.

He knew it had to do with the operation a week earlier, but what specifically he had no idea, and didn’t want to find out.

It was over. That’s all that was important. And he couldn’t be happier.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

T
HE CITY OF
Angels was abuzz with the news of prominent businessman Thomas Rachett’s arrest in connection with a secret sex club he had apparently been running. Each day more tidbits would leak out about other illegal dealings he’d supposedly been involved in, threatening to bring down not only Rachett but several well-known politicians.

GEORGE TOWN, CAYMAN ISLANDS

T
HE MOLE TURNED
out to be even more helpful than Dani could have hoped. Within forty-eight hours of leaving Quinn, she had five sets of IDs, all with different names, and had crossed unmolested into Mexico.

Per the Mole’s suggestion, she had taken a circuitous route to her primary destination, allowing him to ensure she didn’t pick up any unwanted admirers. By the time she stepped off the plane in the Cayman Islands, a whole four days had passed since she had visited the silo.

She was up early that first morning, studying the appropriate page of her father’s notebook. At nine a.m., she put the book away, showered, dressed, and walked the five blocks from her hotel in George Town to the bank where the first account was kept.

The bank president personally handled everything for her, but even with his help it took all morning to finalize the transfer. That afternoon she repeated the process at bank number two.

The next day she was able to fit in three different institutions. And on the seventh day after she left Kansas, she visited the final four.

One would never know from the modest dinner she had that evening that she was now worth nine hundred and forty-eight million dollars. But her wealth would only be temporary. The money wasn’t really hers.

It belonged to the promise.

“There’s a book he keeps in the bottom level,” Marianne had explained. “Bank account numbers and passwords. His failsafe in case he needs to purge his digital copy. If I can’t get it, you have to.”

“I will,” Dani had said, though at that time, she hadn’t known how, if it came to it, she could possibly pull it off.

“And promise me you’ll use the money to help whoever he’s hurt. If I can’t, you’ll be the only one left.”

“I promise.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brett Battles is a Barry Award-winning author of over twenty novels, including the Jonathan Quinn series, the Logan Harper series, and the time hopping novel
Rewinder
. He’s also the coauthor, with Robert Gregory Browne, of the Alexandra Poe series. You can learn more at his website:
brettbattles.com

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