You’ve got two probable homicides, and two attempted homicides. You grab up a viable suspect, your face is saved, and you can leave Galantz to the spooks and hope he doesn’t get Sherman, about whom the Navy no longer cares.”
Mcnair nodded again in the darkness. “it reads,” he said finally.
“Except for maybe when I take it to a commonwealth’s attorney. Which leads me to believe that this is a really good time for you two to hole up somewhere.”
“Yes and no Train said. “After tonight, I’d rather be the finder than the findee. I think this guy just wants us dead.” He looked back over his shoulder. Karen’s face was illuminated momentarily in the light of some passing headlights. “I don’t want her exposed to any more of this, and I also want a crack at the real bad guy here. Especially if you guys are gonna back off.”
Mcnair didn’t answer. He patted the pocket of his suit coat and then sighed. “Goddamn,. I’d like a cigarette. Quit two years ago, and not a day goes by that I don’t crave one., Look, I’ll make a deal with you.
Give me a day or so. You two get your heads down and stay low. Take her back to your house. I’ll get Stafford County to put some protection on for you, whatever. But basically, you agree to stay put.
In return, I’ll see what I can do about putting some heat on Galantz.”
Train thought about it. “Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“Because he’s killed two people on my turf, and tried for two more. That pisses me off-personally. I want his ass.
Deal?”
Train thought about it. As they approached Washington, the traffic out on the interstate was heavier, even at this late hour. The stream of red and white lights still had a purplish corona to them. “Okay,” he, said finally. “Deal. Two days. “
“Okay,” Mcnair said. “And leave Sherman to me. I’ll break the news to him about his kid’s involvement.”
SATURDAY.
Mcnair dropped them off at Karen’s house in Great Falls.
Karen needed some clothes, and with the Suburban destroyed, they needed a car. Karen’s Mercedes was in the garage. Mcnair stayed in his car to make call while Karen extracted a spare key from its hiding place.
Once they were in the house; Mcnair left. He had given Train a beeper number in case something came up over the next two days.
Twenty minutes later, they were out of there and headed for Aquia.
Karen, refreshed after her long nap in Mcnair’s car, was elected to drive, while Train kept watch behind them, the Glock stuffed between the front bucket seats. He was not going to be surprised by this bastard again. The sodiumvapor lights along the highway still had a reddish purple tinge to them.
“I’d be happier if Mcnair had come with us,” she said as she pulled the car onto the Beltway.
“He’s just as tired as we are,” Train said. “Actually, with all this traffic out here, I think we’re reasonably safe.”
We hope, he thought.
“Nobody’s safe on the Beltway,” she said. “But at least there’s a phone signal.”
At which point, the car phone started to ring, startling both of them.
After a moment’s hesitation, she reached down and hit the button so they could both listen.
“Hello?” she said.
Congratulations.
Karen actually closed her eyes for a moment before she remembered she was driving. Train leaned over to speak into the remote microphone.
“Gonna try again, Galantz?” You were lucky. Again. As I think I told you, you have to be lucky every time. I have to be lucky only one time.
“You some kind of ghost, Galantz? Only come out at night?”
Not a ghost, von Rensel. A grotesque, to be sure. I have one eye, a scar that bisects my face, a stainless- steel hand, and a Teflon larynx. I am memorable.
“So what now, Galantz? Calling to tell us you have the admiral tied up somewhere?”
There was an audible wheeze, a precursor breath each time before the voice replied.
You don’t understand, von Rensel. If I’d wanted Sherman dead, he’d have been extinguished a long time ago. That’s what I do. What I’ve done for years.
“So what do you want?” Karen asked, speaking for the first time.
His destruction. At the hands of his own kind, Commander. I’m provoking his precious Navy to turn on him at the peak of his professional success. I’m going to take away everything of value to him and leave him to contemplate that for the rest of his life. And there’s nothing you two can do about it.
“The Navy knows what’s going on here, Galantz,” Train said. “They’re not going to fall for this.” But as he said it, he wondered.
The admirals will do precisely what I want, von Rensel In a manner of speaking, they’re part of this. That’s why you’re going to Aquia now.
And that’s why I’m making this little courtesy call-to reinforce your orders. Stay out of this. Stay out of this or I’ll extinguish you both, understand?
How in the hell did he know that? Train wondered. He tried to think of something to say, but he sensed that Karen was getting truly frightened.
Hell, -so was he. There was absolutely zero emotion in that machine voice.
You listening, von Rensel? I’ve been setting this up for years. Years of watching Sherman. Years of cultivating his wretched son. But time t’ s growing short. My employers are ‘ a little upset with me just now, and I don’t need any distractions in the end game. Go to your pretty little estate. Stay there. This will be over soon. Now, look behind you.
Train snapped his head around. Their Mercedes was all alone out in six lanes of the Beltway. There was a wall of headlights farther back, but all of the traffic was holding back because of the police car that was a hundred feet behind them.
“Oh no,” Karen whispered.
Train reached for the Glock, but then he saw the police car begin to fall back, signaling an exit, merging into the phalanx of headlights ahalf mile behind them.
Go to Aquia. Live a lot longer. Then there was only the hiss of static.
“Now what?” Karen said.
“We call the cops, that’s what,” he replied. “What’s this number?”
She gave it to him while he reached for the phone, recycled it, and dialed the beeper number Mcnair had given him. The beeper tape came up, and Train punched in the car phone’s number and hung up. The phone rang one minute later.
“Von Rensel,” Train said.
“You called us,” -a male voice replied.
Train hesitated. Us? Who the hell was us? “I have -a message for Mcnair,” he said.
“Go ahead.”
“Tell him Galantz caught up with us on the Beltway, gave us a friendly phone call. We’re headed for Aquia.”
“Your ETA?”
“An hour from now. Maybe less.”
“Your route?”
Train hesitated again. Who was this guy? But then, if they wanted protection, the cops would have to know their route.
He told the voice they would take the Beltway to 1-95, and then straight down to Aquia. “Us” broke the connection without replying. Train hung up the phone.
“Who’d you get?”
“An ops center, from the sound of it. They knew Mcnair, though.”
