near the train was the clincher.'
'They seem to have solved the tricky problem of the drop, the exchange. He is a smart son of a bitch, 'Agent Walsh said.
Betsey said,' He, or maybe it's a she.'
I reminded her, 'Tony Brophy said he met with a male, if we can believe him.'
'And if the person he saw was really the Mastermind,' she countered.
Agent Doud said, 'The name bothers me. Makes him sound like a geek. A loser. The Mastermind.'
'Brophy said as much. He said the man he spoke to was an asshole. But he still wanted the job,' said Betsey.
'Yeah, well the pay is good,' Doud said.
Betsey shrugged,' Maybe he is a geek, maybe some kind of computer genius. I wouldn't be all that surprised. Geeks are running the world now, right? Getting even for what happened to them in high school. I sure am.'
'I was reasonably cool in high school,' I said and winked.
The Handie-Talkie crackled again.
'Hi there, law-enforcement stars. The real fun's about to start. Remember, if we see any choppers or planes near the train, a hostage will be shot,' the familiar male voice instructed. Was it the Mastermind?
'How do we know the hostages are still alive?' Betsey asked. 'Why should we trust you to tell the truth? You've murdered innocent people before.'
'You don't. You shouldn't. We have. The bus hostages are alive, though. All right open the train door now! Get ready for my next signal. Get the duffel bags up to the door! Now, now, now! Move it! Don't make us kill somebody.'
Chapter Sixty-One
The four of us rushed to get the heavy bags of money to the nearest train door. I was already starting to sweat. My face and scalp felt flushed.
'Get ready! Get ready!' The voice on the Handie-Talkie yelled out frantic commands. 'This is it.'
Betsey was already on another two-way alerting her people. The countryside was flashing by in bright greens and muddy browns. We were somewhere near Aberdeen, Maryland, having passed through the last station about seven minutes earlier.
'Get ready! Are you ready? Don't disappoint me!' the voice squawked loudly.
So far, the only trick we had come up with was to try to spread out the area where the money bags would fall. We had even considered keeping one bag on board, which might force them to search for a while. But we agreed that was too dangerous for the hostages.
The Handie-Talkie went dead again.
'Fuck!' Doud exclaimed.
'Do we throw the money bags out? 'Walsh yelled over the rumble of the train and the rushing wind.
'No! Wait!' I yelled at him and Doud, who was leaning precariously over the train's edge. 'Wait for their instructions! He would have told us to throw the money off. Don't throw the bags!'
'Son of a bitch!' Betsey shouted as she swung her arm around in a fast, hard arc,' They're messing with us. They're laughing at us right now.'
'Yes, they probably are,” I said,' Let's keep our cool. We have to keep it together.'
The FBI was going crazy `›/:,' trying to track the channel the kidnappers were using for the two-way radios. It wasn't working. The two-ways were state-of-the-art, the kind the military used. The scrambler chips in them were encoded to change the frequency each time they were used. It was even possible that the kidnappers had several two-ways and were discarding them after each call.
Betsey was still incensed. Her brown eyes flashed. 'He's thought of everything, including not giving us time to plan. Who is this bastard?'
The Handie-Talkie crackled again.
'Open the door! Get ready to heave the bags out,' the radio voice suddenly commanded again.
I grabbed two bags full of twenty- and fifty-dollar bills. My heart was in my throat as I rushed to the open door a second time. The wind outside roared.
The train was hurtling through deep woods now, elms and pines and thick brush. I saw no houses or anyone lurking in the woods. It seemed like a good spot for the drop-off.
The Handie-Talkie went dead again!
Assholes! 'Agent Doud yelled at the top of his voice. The rest of us groaned and dropped to the floor.
The voice repeated the drill eleven times in the next hour and a quarter. Three times we were made to move all the money to different cars on the train.
We were sent all the way to the last car then we were immediately ordered back to the front again.
'You guys are good. Very obedient, 'said the radio voice.
Then the two-way was silent again.
