“This woman—is she a real threat?” Janet asked.
“What do you think?” When she didn’t answer, he explained her nickname.
“Scared me just to look at her,” Janet said.
“I think she took it as a given that you’d be afraid other, too.”
“Which is why I have to go now, Carter.”
“I’ve quit the Bureau,” she said.
That surprised him.
“What happened?”
“They wanted me to do something that I didn’t want to do. They wanted me to page you for the Dragon Lady.”
“But you did anyway.”
“Because she showed up here at my house and dazzled me with her personality and some nasty little number you people call a ‘retinal disrupter!”
Then she trussed me up in some kind of sticky shit and told me that things would go poorly for me if I didn’t do what she said. I elected to do what she said.”
“That was the correct decision. Carter.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. Humiliating, maybe, but ultimately smart.
But that was only the half of it. I quit because, originally, they wanted me to tell you they’d found Lynn but that she had not survived.”
It was his turn to be silent for a moment.
“Sweet,” he said.
“Well, it kind of offended me, too. But I was able to talk Farnsworth out of that. Games like that—not my style. Then this shit with Dracula’s daughter. Even Farnsworth wouldn’t mess with her.”
“Your boss knows the real thing when he sees it,” he said, looking around at the darkening parking lot. If Misty had been in Roanoke at 6:00 P.M. he had a few hours before she could be here, but no more than that.
Unless she had helpers, and of course she might. Time to go. And yet—he owed this woman.
“You really put a snake in a guy’s car?” Janet asked, seemingly out of nowhere.
Ransom, he thought.
“No, a tape of a snake. But you’re asking about Misty? She likes things visual. She cut the rattles off a snake and stuffed the thing into the back pocket of a guy’s bucket seat. He never heard it buzz, of course, but he did get to see it in his mirror just before it slid over his shoulder and dropped into his lap. What’s this about a bomb?”
Janet filled him in on what she had been doing since Kreiss had pulled her out of the tunnels. She emphasized McGarand’s ties to the Waco disaster.
Krless didn’t say anything when she finished. The bureaucrats never change, he thought. He wondered if he should tell her about the propane truck.
“Are you still there?”
“I have to go,” he said, cutting her off.
“And I dumped your pager. It’s in a flower planter in front of the main exchange at Fort Belvoir, if you’re interested.”
“Do you think that McGarand’s taken a bomb to Washington?”
“It’s possible. But that’s not my problem anymore, Carter. You recovered my daughter, like you said you would. I thank you for that. I’ve got other problems right now.”
“But—” “Does that woman know about Lynn?”
“I don’t know. It’s possible. She was there in the Roanoke office when I got there. I don’t know what Farnsworth told her. But why—oh.”
“Yeah, oh.”
Another silence.
“Would you like me to go to the hospital? Stay with her until you can get back here?”
“I appreciate the offer, but in what capacity? You’re not with the Bureau anymore.”
“Everybody tells me I was a shitty agent. How about as just a human, perhaps?”
He laughed but hesitated. If he went back to Blacksburg, he might walk directly into a trap. But if he didn’t, and Misty took Lynn, then he’d have no choices at all. Carter was no match for Misty, but she might be better than no one at all. And Misty would never take Carter seriously, so Carter, suitably warned, might have a chance to do something.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said.
“I have a neighbor out there near my cabin.
Name’s Micah Wall. He has a phone. And he’s got lots of kinfolk, as they call them. They’re mountain people. They’re pretty decent people, although they don’t look it. If Lynn can be moved, maybe you could get her out of that hospital and into Micah’s hands.”
“I can sure as hell try,” Janet said.
“If they’ll release her into my custody.”
“Lynn’s over twenty-one. Technically, I think she can release herself, as long as there’s no medical issue. Take her to my cabin, make sure you’re not followed, and then call Micah. I think he’ll know what to do, and I’m also pretty sure he and his boys can make it tough for Misty if she tries them on. But you’ll have to move fast.”
“I will. Now, how’s about a quid pro quo: I seem to be the only person down here who thinks McGarand has gone to D.C. on a bombing mission.
My bosses, my ex-bosses, are suddenly not interested in hearing that, based, I think, on guidance they’re getting from Bureau headquarters.
If you have something, some evidence, I can give to Farnsworth, and then maybe I can ask that they protect Lynn in return.”
Kreiss shook his head slowly in the darkness.
“You are depressingly naive for an ex-special agent,” he said with a sigh.
“Your boss has been told to assist this woman who is coming after me, not get in her way.
Those orders probably came from Bureau headquarters, if not Justice. At this juncture, I’ll bet Farnsworth won’t even take your calls.”
“But that explosion at the arsenal was huge. If there’s anything like that being planned for Washington, we have to do something!”
“Look, Carter. If there’s a bomb here in Washington, that’s your ex employer problem. Or actually, it’s aTF’s problem.”
“But they won’t even admit the possibility, or at least that’s their official stance. They keep saying there’s no direct evidence. Please, can’t you tell me something?”
Kreiss thought about it. Carter sounded frantic, and she still cared, even if she had left the Bureau. And she was going to help him with Lynn.
“Okay. Tell ‘em this: McGarand left Blacksburg driving a propane truck. I saw that truck at the arsenal, inside the power plant.”
“Propane truck?”
“I’ve got to roll, Carter. Listen to me: If Misty needs a distraction to get Lynn out of that hospital, she’s most likely to start a fire. So be prepared.
Take a gun if you have one.”
“I’ll give it my best shot,” Janet said.
Her best shot, he thought, giving a mental sigh. Right through her foot, probably.
“Okay,” he said.
“And whatever happens with Lynn, thank you. Big-time.”
“Can you stop McGarand?”
“Stop him? I can’t even find him.”
“But if you do, you can do better than revenge, Mr. Kreiss. You might prevent a tragedy. You say he has a
