The Council of Ten (45 page)

“It’s still out there, you said, still functional.”

“But only temporarily. We’ve got the drop point locations, and Trelana’s lending me the manpower I’ll need to destroy them and all the powder.”

Drew looked at the Timber Wolf closely before speaking. “What about me?”

“Walk away. Take Trelana’s offer, pick up your girl friend, and build a new life. Forget all this crap about loving and hating—none of it means a thing. The world’s not a very pleasant place, and it was your lot to find that out a little more blatantly than most. I used to think I tried to quit five years ago because my standards were too high. Truth was I realized there was no such thing as standards at all. It’s a treadmill, Drew, and when the track speeds up you do your best to keep up with it. You survive—that’s the object, the only object.”

Drew shook his head. “I don’t buy that. You’re probably right about surviving, but I can’t build a new life based on the person I used to be. My past started seven weeks ago and I don’t have a present at all. All I’ve got is a future and I’m not really sure what’s best for me, but I know a new name and social security number don’t even come close.”

“Drew—”

“No, let me finish. You’re going to tell me to go back to Pam, that she needs me, but it’s not like that, believe me it’s not. If I take Trelana’s offer, it won’t be so much that I’m on a treadmill that’s moving too fast as one that’s not moving at all. I can’t look back; I can only look ahead.” His eyes became pleading. “But I need a target, something to focus on.”

Wayman hesitated. “What does Pam say about all this?”

“We didn’t quite … discuss it. We didn’t discuss much of anything.” Drew smiled sadly. “She did say she never could stomach my macho act in your typical Georgetown bar or my adventures at mercenary camp, but she was proud of what I’ve done these past few weeks when it was for real and lives depended on it.”

“And what did
you
say?” When Drew stayed silent, Wayman seized the advantage. “You didn’t say anything because it’s your fault she’s where she is. You got her involved. You don’t want to face that so you turn your back on her. Get used to it, kid. In the world you’re so determined to enter, people get hurt and you just block it out because otherwise it eats you up, tears you apart.”

“I’ve already entered, Peter, and nobody gave me much choice about it. I’d like to choose on my own to stay in.”

But Wayman wasn’t giving up the fight yet. “No, it all comes down to what you just said, except you left something out. You can’t look back because you’re
afraid
to. But that’s the way it always is in this business. You don’t ever look back because there’s too much pain there. It’s called a one-dimensional existence. Hell, even Shane never looked back when the kid stood there on the edge of town screaming his name.”

“He was good at what he did. That got him through.”

Wayman moved forward and squeezed Drew’s good shoulder tenderly. “I’ll come back in two weeks. If you still feel this way, we’ll talk. I owe you too much not to accept your decision, but I owe you too much not to make you think about it. Make sense?”

“Not really.”

“Get used to it.”

They stood together at the railing in silence. Wayman had expected Drew’s request and planned for it. So had Trelana. He would spend much of the next two weeks praying the kid would change his mind, knowing all the time that he wouldn’t.

They both gazed out over the sea where the fading light caught a tern swooning down from the sky to sweep up a fish that had wandered too close to the surface.

“Things don’t change much, do they?” Drew asked softly.

“No,” the Timber Wolf said. “I suppose they don’t.”

A Biography of Jon Land

Since his first book was published in 1983, Jon Land has written twenty-eight novels, seventeen of which have appeared on national bestseller lists. He wrote techno thrillers before Tom Clancy put them in vogue, and his strong prose, easy characterization, and commitment to technical accuracy have made him a pillar of the genre.

Land spent his college years at Brown University, where he convinced the faculty to let him attempt writing a thriller as his senior honors thesis. Four years later, his first novel,
The Doomsday Spiral
, appeared in print. In the last years of the Cold War, he found a place writing chilling portrayals of threats to the United States, and of the men and women who operated undercover and outside the law to maintain our security. His most successful of those novels were the nine starring Blaine McCracken, a rogue CIA agent and former Green Beret with the skills of James Bond but none of the Englishman’s tact.

In 1998 Land published the first novel in his Ben and Danielle series, comprised of fast-paced thrillers whose heroes, a Detroit cop and an Israeli detective, work together to protect the Holy Land, falling in love in the process. He has written seven of these so far. The most recent,
The Last Prophecy
, was released in 2004.

Recently,
RT Book Reviews
gave Land a special prize for pioneering genre fiction, and his short story “Killing Time” was shortlisted for the 2010 Dagger Award for best short fiction. Land is currently writing his fourth novel to feature Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong—a female hero in a genre which, Land has said, has too few of them. The first three books in the series—
Strong Enough to Die
(2009),
Strong Justice
(2010), and
Strong at the Break
(2011)—have all garnered critical praise with
Strong Justice
being named a Top Thriller of the Year by Library Journal and runner-up for Best Novel of the Year by the New England Book Festival. His first nonfiction book,
Betrayal
, tells the story of a deputy FBI chief attempting to bring down Boston crime lord Whitey Bulger, and will be released in 2011.

Land currently lives in Providence, not far from his alma mater.

Land (left) interviewing then–teen idol Leif Garrett (center) in April of 1978 at the dawn of Land’s writing career.

Land (second from left) at Maine’s Ogunquit Beach during the summer of 1984, while he was a counselor at Camp Samoset II. He spent a total of twenty-six summers at the camp.

Land with street kids in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which he visited in 1987 as part of his research for
The Omicron Legion
(1991).

Land on the beach in Matunuck, Rhode Island, in 2003.

In front of the “process trailer” on the set of
Dirty Deeds
, the first movie that he scripted, which was released in 2005. The film starred Milo Ventimiglia and Lacey Chabert.

Land pictured in 2007 with Fabrizio Boccardi, the Italian investor and entrepreneur who was the inspiration for his book
The Seven Sins
, which was published in 2008.

Land emceeing the Brunch and Bullets Luncheon to benefit Reading Is Fundamental at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in the spring of 2007.