Blake moved to intercept him.
McKinney watched the men approach one another, keeping their hands visible. They converged next to the car, close enough for her to hear them through the glass.
Blake spoke first. “David Shaw. I’d ask what rock you crawled out from under, but the professor was kind enough to tell us.”
Odin glanced at McKinney.
She couldn’t help but feel ashamed.
Odin turned forward again. “I’m surprised she’s still alive.”
“Would you have shown yourself if she wasn’t?”
“No.”
Blake spread his hands. There you go.
“Homeland Security-is that your idea of a joke?”
“One must maintain a sense of humor in these trying times.”
“Why’d they send you, Ritter?”
“To talk some sense into you.”
“Or because they hoped I’d kill you.”
Blake seemed uncertain for a moment.
“But I’m long finished doing their dirty work.”
Blake relaxed a bit and smiled genially. “NorthCom isn’t your territory. You’re supposed to be over there keeping the savages busy.”
“Maybe the savages back here need watching too.”
“The old man’s bitten off more than he can chew this time, David. This isn’t Pakistan. Maybe you’ve been overseas so long you forget that it’s a team sport here. And you’re not on the team.”
“I didn’t come to talk. I came for the girl.” He headed toward McKinney’s sedan.
“Does she know you’re using her?”
Odin turned. “Yeah. You might have noticed she tried to escape.”
“You can’t stop this, David. It’s going to happen no matter what. They want it. Stop looking.”
“You of all people know that isn’t going to happen.”
“Ah, never quit the hunt. Do you want to end up like Mouse? I hear they’re still finding pieces of him over there.”
Odin paused, but then regained his calm and reached the car door.
“What if they let you come home, David? Would you be willing to walk away?”
Odin stopped. He met McKinney’s gaze for several moments. “Walk away.” He nodded silently to himself. “And the professor here?”
“She’s already dead, and you know it.”
“Good-bye, Ritter.”
“Everyone wants this, David. Everyone. You can’t fight it.”
Odin turned to appraise Ritter for a few moments. “See, that’s the difference between you and me. I don’t just fight the battles I know I can win.” Odin opened the car’s rear door.
McKinney glared at Blake-or Ritter, or whatever his name was. He seemed to have transformed into a completely different person. “How did he-”
“Not now.” Odin pulled her up out of the rear seat by her waist chain and started moving her over to the blue van.
Blake called to them. “You can’t prevent something whose time has come.”
Odin opened the side door of the van. McKinney could see that it was an empty metal shell-no padding.
“I’m sorry. I had to know.”
“Now you know.”
He picked her up with powerful arms and tossed her into the cargo hold.
“Odin, I-”
He slammed the door, leaving her in the semidarkness, craning her neck to see the safety cage between her and the driver’s compartment. Odin got in and started the van.
McKinney realized how relieved she was to see him.
He adjusted the rearview mirror to meet her gaze. “Happy now, Professor? The monsters of the deep know you by name.”
She knelt and looked up at him. “I didn’t have a choice. You gave me no good reason to trust you.”
“Smart people are always difficult. Always looking for answers. And the answers always lead to more questions.” He accelerated the van toward the parking lot exit, and she slid into the rear doors.
She crawled forward again. “Who was that man?”
“I rest my case.”
“He said he was with Homeland Security.”
“There are people who work for the people who run the world. He’s one of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they send the Black Chinook for me now.”
“You kidnapped me. You can’t seriously have expected me to trust you.”
“Why the hell did you trust them?”
“The FBI? Homeland Security?”
“You don’t seem the brand-conscious type, Professor.”
“Don’t be glib. I needed independent verification that this was real.”
“Oh, it’s real, all right. Think of it as an iceberg; you only see what’s on the surface. There are people beneath; people who built the systems that run everything.”
“In the government?”
“What difference does it make whether they’re in the government? They’re larger than government. They’re power. The world is a big system now. I don’t think anyone knows who’s in charge. But you can run afoul of various interests. That’s for damn sure. And you just did.”
She pondered that-then looked up at him again. “Shaw.”
He met her eyes in the mirror.
“That’s your real name: David Shaw.”
He clenched his jaw for a few moments. “That was his idea of a warning-letting me know that they know who I am. They think it gives them power over me.”
“But your family? Your-”
“It won’t lead them to anything. That’s why the colonel chose me.”
They locked eyes in the mirror.
“‘Shaw’ was the name of the road they found me on. It’s a common practice with foundlings at orphanages.” He looked back to the road. “All names were made up at some point. I just know when and where mine was.”
McKinney slumped against the sliding door as the van sped along a service road.
“Well, you poured some blood in the water tonight. Let’s see what shows up.”
That’s when McKinney noticed they were actually moving along the airport tarmac, approaching a large propeller-driven aircraft. McKinney recognized it as a C-130 cargo plane. She’d seen them used on various research projects in remote locales, although she’d never been aboard one. There were vehicles and work lights around it. Silhouettes of people rushing around.
In a few moments the van rolled to a stop. Odin got out, but Smokey was already opening the sliding door. He stood in the doorway a moment. “Look who decided to join us.”
She sighed resignedly as he pulled her up out of the van and onto her feet. They were parked next to the C- 130’s lowered rear cargo ramp. The plane itself was unmarked and painted drab brown. Tail numbers were the only markings. Other team members were busy loading gear, while Hoov scanned the skies with some sort of boxy optical device on a tripod. But they all stopped for a moment at the sight of McKinney and broke into mock applause.
She looked guiltily to Odin. Hoov, Ripper, Mooch, and several more people she hadn’t seen before were all dressed in civilian clothes with no guns in sight. At a hand signal from Odin, they immediately resumed loading cases and checking equipment.
