After the Rain

Jane leaned out her open window, straining her body into the night.

“He’s out, he walking. Walking…Barely see him, more’n a hundred yards. Shit, now he’s walking around in a circle, like he’s lost. Ah, wait. Okay. He stopped. Oh boy, he’s bent over and he’s dragging something heavy, dragging it back to the truck.”

“All right,” Nina said. Sitting next to her, Broker could feel her shift gears as a wave of exhausted tension drained out of her. And the adrenaline afterburners kicked in.

“That’s it, he popped the hatch and he’s manhandling it into the back. He’s done. Hatch is down,” Jane said.

“I thought it would be more of a load,” Yeager said.

“There’s some small packages that pack a hell of wallop,” Nina said slowly.

“Jesus-NBC, huh?” Yeager said.

“Yeah,” Nina said.

They all saw his brake lights as he backed up.

“What do we do?” Janey said.

“Give him some room. We know where he’s going, don’t we?” Yeager said.

“Fine with me.” Jane flopped back in her seat and took a few deep breaths. Then she got on her cell. “Holly, this is Jane. We have a confirmed pickup.” That’s all. She put the phone down.

“Let’s take a minute to work out the ground rules,” Nina said, her voice exploring the darkness in Yeager’s direction.

“The way I explained it to Yeager, he wants in, he accepts that the rules are pretty fluid,” Broker said.

“Yeager,” Nina said, “you got your badge and gun on you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And this place they’re planning to meet, it’s in your county?”

“Yep.”

“You aren’t thinking of like-arresting anybody, are you?” Janey asked.

“How far would I get?” Yeager’s voice was respectful but with just an edge of testing.

Broker joined in. “There’ll be other people where we’re going, people who work with Jane and Nina. I got a feeling that Jane and Nina, they’re the nice ones.”

“What? You’re saying I could disappear?” Yeager said evenly.

No one answered.

“Okay, at least tell me what I’m not a part of here.” Yeager said. “Is Ace Shuster meeting some terrorists? ’Cause that’s what you’re putting out between the lines.”

“This is just my gut read on him,” Nina said, “but I don’t think he knows if he is. I don’t think he has any idea what he just dragged into his car.”

“So what did he just drag to his car?” Yeager said.

“They can’t say,” Broker said, “ ’cause they ain’t here, are they? But I can speculate…”

“Like, you mean, just you and me talking,” Yeager said.

“Just you and me talking.”

“And?”

“They have some pretty good intelligence it could involve a tactical nuclear device.”

Another interval of silence.

Then Nina said, “Yeager, if you or me disappear, well, that’s not cool. But if a big chunk of Chicago or Kansas City disappears…”

“Start the car,” Yeager said, his voice trembling with excitement.

Chapter Thirty

After a tense half hour sneaking around out on the gravel, Ace was relaxing, leaning back, one arm draped over the steering wheel of the Tahoe. He cruised east on Highway 5 with the windows open, enjoying the rush of the summer night in his hair and listening to Linda Ronstadt singing what could be the story of his life-“Desperado,” on KNDK. His other hand came up and he sipped from a bottle of Moosehead Ale. He wondered if Gordy had encountered any hassles. It had been dead quiet on his end.

The easy pickup and a day of drinking had hammered down his spikes and he was sinking back toward mellow. Another day, another dollar; rolling the old boulder up the hill. Ole Camus said we must imagine Sisyphus happy. Ace wasn’t sure about happy, but he did have a moderate buzz going, enough to be charitable-like, maybe they’d been wrong about Nina. Maybe she was just another woman coming up hard on forty in a marriage that didn’t fit.

Woulda been nice to roll Nina Pryce up the hill just once, find out who she really was. Ah well…fact is, she was already starting to fade…

He raised up off the seat slightly, turned on the dome light, and looked over his shoulder at the old-fashioned footlocker in the backseat. Didn’t even weigh much, maybe sixty pounds. He didn’t know a whole lot about George, his dad’s crony. Mostly, Dad and George had played it legal, then every once in a while George would come up with volume he had to move fast, off the books, no questions asked. And everybody made a lot of money.

Sometimes there were small favors, like tonight. Again, no questions asked.

He pushed in the lighter and took out a Camel. When the lighter popped, he lit up. Three drags into the Camel his high beams reached out and caught the crisscross of the chain-link fence that surrounded the old site. He slowed and saw George’s new silver Lexus parked in the driveway. Old George did all right for himself.

“Hey Bugs, Nina. How’s it going?” Nina was on her cell.

“We’re following Khari. He’s in a Lexus RX300, driving west on 5. He’s all alone, no passengers, no other cars.”

“Good. Our guy made his pickup and is driving east on 5 out of Langdon. ETA about five, six minutes to that old base.”

“Okay. We got people in position on site. Holly is standing by with the Hawk. We all roll in when the smoke clears.”

“Let’s hope there’s no smoke.” Nina flashed on a pile of Bosnian corpses and saw Ace Shuster sandwiched in the middle of them. Eyes open, smiling that smile. She remembered the.38 in his desk. She hoped he’d left it there.

“Ah, roger that.”

Nina ended the call. “No need to rush,” she said to Yeager. “From here on in we just watch. They belong to the Hardy Boys now.”

“Hardy Boys?” Yeager said.

“Delta slang for a tactical team in position at the meeting spot,” Jane said as she eased off the gas. They lagged far behind Ace now, driving the speed limit with their lights on. In a few minutes it would all converge on Highway 5 in the dark.

Broker suddenly became aware of his throbbing left hand. He held it up and placed it on his head. Seeing his awkward posture, Nina laughed, this happy release of nerves. “Hey,” Broker protested, “it gets the blood out of…”

“I know, silly,” Nina said. “Like when we met.”

“When you crashed my undercover scene.”

“Yeah, and that mean redneck almost bit off your thumb and we drove up north with you holding your hand up like that…”

“Hey, cut the lovebird crap,” Jane said. “Situational awareness, remember? Nina, how many in the car coming to meet Ace?” she asked.

“Just Khari, driving a Lexus SUV.”

“Just one guy?” Jane made a face. “Nobody else with him? Or on the road?”

“Nope, just him.”