Maybe he could run for it. What if he took this Cadillac, turned around, and just headed west, didn?t tell anyone where he was going? It wasn?t fair to trouble his uncle with this mess. He could just drive and keep on driving. But where? Andrew had nothing and nobody and no place to go. He had no ideas and no prospects and no idea how to live wherever he ended up.
And that was just way too much nothing for Andrew Foley. He parked the Caddy in front of the cabin, went inside, and handed the keys to his uncle.
20
Meredith Cornwall-Jenkins ironed her dress uniform at a Holiday Inn Express three miles from the Tulsa Army National Guard base. She planned to load up on ordnance, depending on what Ortega told her. She needed to know Andrew Foley?s situation. Was he holed up by himself? Was he surrounded by a posse of armed chums? Hopefully Ortega had the information for her.
She dialed the phone.
?Hello?? Ortega?s voice.
?What?s the word??
A long pause. Ortega cleared his throat. ?There?s been a complication.?
?Tell me.?
?I dispatched one of my problem solvers. I thought I could do you a favor. Eliminate the problem for you. But my man is overdue to report in. I can only assume he?s had the tables turned on him.? Ortega sighed. ?I freely admit this was an error in judgment, and I stand ready to make it up to you.?
?I see,? Meredith said. ?If this job was important enough for me to handle personally, did you think it would be an easy assignment??
?No.?
?But you thought one of your thugs could handle it as well as I??
?As I confessed,? Ortega said, ?an error in judgment.?
?A costly error for you,? Meredith said.
?I was trying to save you some trouble. The man I sent was very capable.?
?Apparently not,? Meredith said. ?Now all you?ve done is warn them we know where they are.?
Ortega didn?t have anything to say to that.
?When this is over, I?m going to pay you a visit and we?ll decide what punitive actions are necessary to soothe my wrath.? She hung up.
Ortega had been a lot more reliable in the old days. Still, she had to admit that Ortega had some tough sons of bitches working for him. If this man had been eliminated by the target, then this might be a little trickier than she?d originally planned. She decided she?d better go in hot with heavy firepower, sweep the whole area clean. She wanted this taken care of, and by God it was going to be quick and decisive.
She looked at her watch, picked up the phone again, and dialed her husband. She reminded him of the frozen dinners in the freezer and apologized for not picking up the dry cleaning before she left town. He was pleasant, but sounded like he?d already built himself a couple of scotch and sodas.
That wouldn?t do after they had the baby. Daddy needed to live clean and set a good example.
* * *
Meredith flashed her identification and rolled past the guardhouse and onto the National Guard base at six- thirty in the morning. She sipped coffee. Bleary eyes. This early in the morning bullshit was one thing she definitely did not miss about the military.
She followed the signs to the armory, then slammed on the brakes as she passed the airfield. The little Cayuse helicopter with the grenade launchers and 20mm cannon looked shiny, like it had just been washed and serviced. She flashed on a memory of her buzzing treetop level in Central America, little huts exploding in fire as brown villagers scrambled for the jungle.
