“Better than the leg. When we get back to Sacramento, can you preflight the chopper while I get our gear from the Hyatt and clean myself up a little?”
“Not a problem.”
“I’ll drop you guys off at Sac Exec Airport and make the call to my father on the way over to the Hyatt. I’d better call Holly back.” He dialed the number from memory and quickly recapped the events at the truck stop leading up to his current situation. She kept turning the conversation to his gunshot wounds and he kept reassuring her he was okay. He told her about his call to Lansing after collaring Ernie.
“Lansing knows I know about Ortega and the failed sting,” he said. “I used it to persuade him I needed some quality time with Ernie.”
“Be careful, Nathan. Lansing can be a formidable enemy.”
“We made a deal. He looks the other way for a spell and I keep quiet about the Semtex business. It’s a good arrangement for him. He knows what’s at stake if this ever leaks. He put Grangeland under my command and she’s okay with it.”
“Nathan, I could get you SWAT backup. You don’t have to do this alone.”
“No. Harv and I can handle it. I don’t want the situation complicated by having friendlies in the area. It’s a shoot-to-kill situation now.”
“I don’t like the sound of that.”
“Neither do I, but frankly, it’s easier than trying to capture him alive.”
She had no response to that.
“We tricked Ernie into believing we have Leonard in custody and that all we’re doing is going up there to recover the cash.”
“Smart move.”
“I need your office to leak some information to the press right away. Tonight. Right now, if you can. Leonard has to believe Ernie is still on the run or he’ll never show at the money drop. You need to leak that Ernie got away and all we recovered from the truck stop was his sniper rifle and his cell phone and that the bureau’s analyzing the call logs from the carrier. Leonard will ditch his phone. He won’t risk the FBI tracking it.”
“That’s a good plan. ASAC Breckensen is dating an anchor at News Ten. I’ll take care of this right away.”
“Needless to say, don’t tell Breckensen the truth.”
“He won’t like it when he finds out.”
“We can’t worry about that right now. Leonard has to believe Ernie escaped. If it leaks he’s in custody we can kiss Leonard good-bye. He’ll disappear. This is our only chance to bag him. We won’t get another opportunity. Ever.”
“Nathan, we lost another SWAT agent at the truck stop. Three civilians too.”
“I’m sorry, Holly.”
“I didn’t know SWAT was going to be there or I would’ve told you. ASAC Breckensen was under direct orders from Lansing. They left me out of the loop again.”
“The beat goes on.…”
“End this, Nathan, before anyone else gets killed.”
“You can count on it.” Nathan ended the call. “We need to get moving.” He pointed to the west where several sheriff’s cruisers were racing down the road with their light bars flashing blue and red. “We’ve got less than a minute to clear the area. You get everything we need out of the SUV?”
“Yes.”
They hurried back to the vehicles. Nathan was thankful the Crown Vic’s windows had survived the blast. He was in no condition for a freezing drive back to Sacramento. Grangeland took the rear seat next to Bridgestone while Nathan slid into the front. Harv left the headlights off as he pulled onto the road. He flipped the night-vision scope down to his eye and stomped the accelerator.
“All the roads in this area are laid out at ninety degrees to one another,” Grangeland said. “Take a right at the first major road we come to. That should take us back to the freeway or its frontage road.”
After another mile or so, Harv turned right and said, “Shit.”
The northbound lanes of the freeway were stopped dead. A string of headlights stretched to the south for at least a mile. Emergency vehicles were using the shoulder to advance. The inferno at Pete’s Truck Palace must have closed down the freeway.
“Keep going under the freeway,” Grangeland said. “We’ll take a parallel road until we’re past this.”
They had to go several miles until Harv could make a right turn. Flat farmland lined both sides of the road. Harv gunned the sedan up to seventy miles an hour. Other drivers had the same idea. The once-quiet country road now looked like a prime arterial. Following the pack, Harv made a right heading north and saw the same string of bumper-to-bumper headlights in the southbound lanes of I-5. After another right turn heading east, they passed under the freeway and accelerated up the northbound on-ramp.
Ernie remained silent. Nathan knew how he felt. Hell, he’d lived it. Immediately after his capture in Nicaragua, he’d been beaten senseless and thrown into the bed of a truck under armed guard. Angry faces had sneered down at him, some spat. The drive through the jungle had seemed endless.
Nathan turned his head and addressed Ernie. “Why don’t you give us the real GPS coordinates now.”
“What are you talking about?” Ernie said.
“I’ll be honest with you. You’ve got a nasty ten years ahead of you before you get the needle. And you
“Shut the fuck up, McBride.”
“Give me the real GPS coordinates and I’ll give you another option.”
“What other option?”
“A bullet to the head.”
Ernie said nothing,
“See, it’s like this,” Nathan continued. “I’m not turning you over to the FBI just yet. I’ve decided you’re coming with us to the coordinates and if you’re lying about them, we’ll start over. I’ve still got fifty-seven minutes left with you.” He made eye contact with Grangeland, who looked stressed.
Harv jumped in. “It costs the State of California a million dollars to go through the death-row appeals process. Isn’t that money better spent somewhere else?”
“I can’t argue with that,” she said, “but I need to be insulated from what you’re doing here.”
“Special Agent Grangeland, consider yourself insulated. I don’t care how you deal with it. Plug your nose, look the other way, pretend it never happened, whatever works.”
“I’ve got your word you won’t take me in?” Ernie asked, closing the deal.
“Marine to Marine. Now give me the real coordinates.”
Chapter 24
After dropping Harv, Grangeland, and Bridgestone at Sacramento Executive Airport, Nathan pulled his cell and looked at his watch. It would be a little after 0700, Eastern time. He dialed his father’s mobile number.
“Hello?”
“Hi, Dad.”
“Nathan. Are you okay? The explosion and fire at the truck stop is all over the news.”
“I need to talk to you.”
“Okay.…”
“Look, I know we haven’t always seen eye to eye. For what it’s worth, I feel like it’s my fault. I have trouble trusting people. Trusting you.”
“Nonsense. You’re my son. Just because we don’t always agree on things doesn’t mean we can’t trust each other.”
