“That voice scared the hell out of me.”
“Me, too. Rock and roll, Karen.” She kicked it up to seventy.
An hour later, they arrived at Train’s estate. Train had called ahead and raised Kyoko to tell her they were coming in.
Hiroshi was waiting for them at the front steps when Karen pulled the Mercedes to a stop. The two Dobermans, who had accompanied the car up to the house from the front gates, sat attentively on either side of the car until Hiroshi gave them an order that sent them back out into the morning twilight. Karen slumped behind the wheel and turned to look wordlessly at Train, her eyes betraying her exhaustion.
“For the moment, I think we’re safe,” he said, not entirely believing it even as he said it.
“Only for the moment? I thought Mcnair said we weren’t targets anymore.”
“Yeah, but what does he know?” When they got out, Hiroshi signaled that he had something to tell Train. Karen took her bag and went into the house to use the bathroom.
Hiroshi waited until she had gone into the house. “There is la visitor,” he announced.
“Visitor?” Train asked. “At this hour?”- And then he knew. “Admiral Sherman.”
Hiroshi nodded. “Arrived three hours ago. He is asleep in the study.”
Train was wondering where the hell the good admiral had been all night.
He ‘was still bothered by what he thought of as the feasibility problem.
Then he dismissed his suspicions: As Galantz had said, Sherman was in end game and didn’t know it. He took Hiroshi aside.
“Go in and wake him up. Take him some coffee. When Commander Lawrence comes back out, we’ll take a little walk around the grounds, give him a few minutes to get himself together. Then we’ll come in.”
Hiroshi gave a short bow, then hesitated.
“Yes, Hiroshisan?”
“He has a gun, I think. In his coat pocket.”
Train nodded. Why not, everybody else was packing tonight. “It’s been a long night, Hiroshi,” he said. “We were ambushed up in Maryland.” He told Hiroshi about what had happened.
“Ninia,” the old man murmured thoughtfully. Train caught the note of approval. But then he realized that it was respect being given to a worthy and capable opponent and not admiration for what Galantz was doing.
“Yes, ninia,” he replied. “But a ninja without honor. He kills women and old men. His real objective is the destruction of this senior officer, this Admiral Sherman, the man inside.”
“This is the senior officer?
The ninja will kill him?”
“I don’t think so. I think he means to disgrace him and then let him live with that disgrace-for’d long time.”
Hiroshi gave another nod. Disgrace was much worse than being killed.
“Commanoer Lawrence and I interfered. I think the first. attack on her was meant to neutralize me. The second time was meant to remove both of us. Now I think if we were just to stay here, nothing more would happen to us. Or to anyone else here,” he added pointedly.
Hiroshi gave a dismissive snort. “Let him come here. Life is sometimes boring.”
Train laughed out loud. “Not with this guy, Hiroshisan.
But my other problem is that my superiors are playing at some kind of game.”
Hiroshi was silent for a moment while he absorbed this news. Then he gave Train a sideways look. “You will remain here?”
“I’m not sure. When I was in the Marines, we were taught not to sit still and wait for the enemy. Waiting in one place just simplifies his problem. There’s another factor: The senior officer’s son is involved in this matter. He has been helping the man who is behind the killings.”
Hiroshi shook his head. ““The son helps the man who would destroy his father? What kind of son is this?”
Karen was coming back out of the house. There was a hint of sunrise across the river. “There’s history, Hiroshisan. The father treated the son very badly long ago. The father is not entirely innocent here. Send Gutter out, please.
Hiroshi bowed . and went back into the house as Karen walked up, carrying two mugs of hot coffee. A moment later, Gutter came trotting out from behind the house. Together, they walked across the front lawn and down a gravel path toward the river oaks. Train was amused to, see that Gutter was staying closer to Karen than to him. Dogs figure stuff out, he thought. There was a thin band of red light defining the silhouette of the Maryland hills across the Potomac. They could hear the honking of some Canadian geese upstream in the park; the sound made the Galantz problem seem remote.
“Have you figured out what we’re going to tell this poor man?” she asked, taking his hand.
“I’m getting the inklings of a plan,” he replied, kicking a dead branch off the path. “Although Mcnair might not like having his hand forced. I think we need to tell Sherman about his son’s involvement. Then maybe suggest we put the two of them face-to-face, see what happens.”
“What about your deal with Mcnair?”
“So far, we’ve kept it. Sherman came to us, not the other way around.
But here’s the problem: Mcnair knows the kid’s involved. He may have told the Navy. If he has, what use does Galantz have for the kid now?
Jack’s served his -purpose-another nail in Sherman’s political coffin.”
“Which makes Jack expendable?”
“Yeah, I think so. I think he plans to kill the kid and heap final insult to injury. Things of value, remember? Galantz knows that, despite the estrangement between father and son, it would just about crush Sherman if his son became the final victim.”
Karen shivered in the predawn air. “And we’re the ones who told Mcnair.
I’m beginning to feel a little like a puppet, aren’t you?”
“And the son thinks Galantz is more of a father to him than his real father. He’ll never see it coming.”
“Wow. Like he said, years of planning.”
Train nodded. “I’m starting to regret our deal. This stinks. We ought to do something.”
Karen paused to watch the morning twilight play on the broad silvery expanse of the river. An alert catbird discovered them and began to scold from one of the oaks. “We have company,” Karen said, glancing back over her shoulder.
Train looked. Admiral Sherman was coming across the lawn. Karen quietly disengaged her hand from Train’s. Even from a distance in the dawn twilight, they could see that his face was haggard and his eyes unnaturally bright, almost as if he might have a, fever. He was wearing his navy blue uniform trousers, shirt, and black tie, but he had a beige civilian car coat on over his uniform. Karen felt Train tensing up as the admiral came across the wet grass. She felt a pang of disappointment that Train was still suspicious of this man.
“Good morning to both of you,” Sherman said, the fatigue audible in his voice. There were dark pouches under his normally youthful eyes.
“Hiroshi said you were out here. Mr. von Rensel, I hope you’ll forgive this intrusion.”
“Good morning, Admiral,” Karen replied, jumping in before Train could say anything. “I hope your night wasn’t as interesting as ours.”
Sherman stared down at the grass for a moment and then out over the river. “I’ve been driving,” he said. “All night.
Never done that before. Just got in the car and drove. All the way east to the north side of Baltimore, then back down to D.C. Trying to sort some things out.”
“How did you end up here?” Train asked.
“Mcnair,” Sherman said. He looked from one to the other. “We need to talk. I want to know what my son has to do with all this.”
“Did Mcnair tell you about our being attacked last night?”
“Only that you had been. That you would fill me in—on that and on Jack.
He said that you and I needed to talk.”
“Where were you last night, Admiral?” Karen asked as gently as she could, trying not to sound
