Prey

'Hello, this is Thomas Woeshack,' Lightstone said calmly. 'I'd like to see if you have two seats available for a flight from Anchorage to Tucson, Arizona, government fare.'

'We can get you on Alaska Flight Eighty-four, leaving Anchorage at seven A.M., transferring to Alaska Flight Six-oh-six at SEA-TAC, and arriving in Tucson at four-forty A.M.'

'That would be fine. The name is Woeshack, W-O-E-S-H-A-C-K, first name, Thomas.'

'And the second passenger?'

Covering the mouthpiece, Lightstone looked up at Woeshack. 'What's your brother's name?'

'Which one?'

'Any one.'

'Timothy.'

'My brother Timothy,' Lightstone said into the phone. 'Yes, government Diner's Card. Thank you very much.'

Thomas Woeshack looked bewildered as Lightstone hung up. 'I thought the FBI guy told us we couldn't leave Anchorage.'

'That's right, he did.'

'So what if he decides to put one of his agents on us, to see what we're doing?'

'He already has,' Lightstone shrugged. 'One of them's waiting in the lobby and the other one's outside, circling the hospital in a blue Ford Explorer.' He reached for the phone again.

'Oh.'

'Alaska Airlines,' an equally cheerful male voice answered, causing Lightstone to wonder momentarily what they fed people who answered phones for a living.

'Hello, this is Robert LaGrange. I'd like to make reservations for a flight from Anchorage to San Diego as late as possible tonight or as early as possible tomorrow morning. One-twenty tomorrow morning? And what time would I arrive in Seattle? That would be perfect. LaGrange. L-A-G-R-A-N-G-E. First name Robert. Thank you.' Lightstone smiled as pleasantly as he could as he returned the phone to the duty nurse.

'I take it I'm going to be the decoy?' Woeshack asked as he and Lightstone walked down the wide hallway toward the main lobby.

'Woeshack, you're starting to think like a cop.'

'I watch a lot of TV when I'm not busy crashing airplanes,' the Native Alaskan special agent shrugged. And then, after a pause: 'You're going after these guys, right?'

'Something like that.'

Woeshack hesitated. 'So how come I don't get to help?'

Henry Lightstone stopped at the double doors, turned to the young agent and stared straight into his dark, concerned eyes. 'You're going to get involved in this, buddy. You can count on it. But the first thing you've got to do is to help break us loose.'

For a moment, it seemed that Woeshack might argue, but Lightstone's gaze never wavered. Finally Woeshack sighed and nodded his head.

'Okay, so how are we going to do it?'

'Ideally, with you and a couple of your brothers. Are any of them close to my height and weight?'

'Joe's about your size,' Woeshack judged, cocking his head as he looked up and down at the tall agent. 'Maybe a little shorter. But the hair-'

'I'll start wearing a hat and shades this afternoon,' Lightstone said. 'Think you guys can make it look good if I give you some of my clothes?'

'Sure, if they don't get in too close.'

'They won't.'

'So how do we do it?'

'Your truck has tinted windows all around, right?'

'Yeah, sure.'

'You and I are going to eat dinner about eight o'clock tonight at the Hilton. Afterward we go over to the bar, have a couple of beers, and reminisce about Paul until about ten. Then you're going to leave me at the hotel, go home, go to bed, and come back with your truck at precisely five in the morning. You'll pick me up in the back parking lot.'

'Except that it'll be Joe I pick up, because by then you're already halfway down to San Diego on the one- twenty flight, right?'

'That's right.'

'So how do we make the switch?'

'Joe's going to be in the bar, too, but he'll stay completely away from us. Around ten, when we get ready to pay the tab, Joe gets up and leaves ahead of us, takes the elevator to the sixth floor and waits for me in the hallway outside Room Six-seventy-two. I give him the key, the hat, and the sunglasses. He goes in, turns on the lights and calls down to the front desk for a four-thirty wake-up call. He turns on a pay-TV movie because he can't sleep. You can figure the Feds will be monitoring all that with hotel security. Around midnight, he turns everything off, goes to sleep, and then gets up at four-thirty, takes the stairs down to the back entrance, and meets you in the parking lot at five.'

'Remembering to put the hat and shades on before he leaves the room.'

'Right.'

'How long do you want us to keep it going?'

'My plane lands in Seattle at five-thirty in the morning, and I've got an hour layover until the next flight,' Lightstone said. 'If you guys keep them from getting suspicious until at least five-thirty, ideally six-thirty, then I'm home free.'

'No problem,' Woeshack smiled. 'I'll have Joe drop me off at the main terminal and drive around while I go in and pay for the tickets. No luggage, just carry-ons. Then I'll go back out to the truck and we'll drive around for a while, make it look like we're going to hold back, and then make a dash for the gate at the last minute.'

'That ought to do it,' Lightstone nodded.

'You really think they're going to be watching the parking lot at five in the morning?'

Lightstone paused before answering.

'What I think is that Grynard's going to have three or four guys on us twenty-four hours a day, working eight-hour rotating shifts.'

'Christ! I thought he said he was short on agents.'

'He is,' Lightstone replied knowingly, remembering the intense and skeptical look in the FBI agent's light gray eyes. 'Otherwise, he'd be using six or eight.'

'Yes?'

'This is Maas.'

'Where are you?'

'Do we have a clear line?'

'Just a moment.'

Dr. Reston Wolfe punched a series of three buttons on his phone, then waited until the green light at the lower right corner of the receiver began to blink.

'Okay,' he said, 'go ahead.'

'We are in Soldotna. Phase One and Phase Two were completed successfully, but we ran into complications with Phase Three.'

'What happened?' Dr. Reston Wolfe asked quickly. He could feel his chest starting to constrict.

'We lost a man.'

'What?'

'A small group of Fish and Wildlife law-enforcement officers happened to be fishing on the lake,' Maas said in his distinctively calm and chilling voice. 'They heard the shots and came over to investigate. They had access to a floatplane, and one of them turned out to be very proficient with weapons.'

'Who did we lose?' Wolfe whispered.

'Bolin got careless and was killed. Parker was wounded in the left leg, below the knee, and in the right arm. We have sent him back to the base for treatment. Watanabe received superficial wounds in the buttocks and lower