“Essuse me, there sonny. How ‘bout fetching my Caddy. I seem to have misplaced it.”
The watcher, a man of stout build, and close-cropped hair had a bulge under his left arm and a receiver in his ear. He watched John dangle the keys in his face for a second, then spoke into his left cuff. “It’s just some damn old drunk.”
He moved his left hand away from his face and made a motion over his shoulder. “Go on, get out of here.”
“That’s no way to talk to me. I...”
John swayed again. He bent at the waist and made what he hoped was a horrible retching sound.
The watcher’s tone was disgusted. “Ah, Gees. Don’t do that here....”
He stepped forward and put a hand on John’s shoulder as if to push him away. John straightened quickly and brought his left fist upward into the man’s abdomen.
With an explosive grunt, the man doubled over in much the same position John had just left. While he was still bent, John raised the Ruger and chopped it hard against the back of the man’s head. The man sprawled unconscious to the pavement.
John heard the door opening behind him. He turned quickly, the Ruger outstretched.
It was Caitlin.
He lowered the gun.
She caught sight of him, noticed the body at his feet, and then swept the wharf with her gaze.
John motioned toward his car and then unlocked the doors and disarmed the security system with the remote. He bent and quickly patted down the unconscious man’s clothing. John found a Sig/Sauer 9 mm strapped in a shoulder holster, and his pockets held a handkerchief, some keys, and a thin leather wallet. John transferred the wallet and keys to his jacket pocket and pulled the Sig from the holster.
It was a good weapon. It was the weapon of choice for the FBI and numerous police agencies around the country. It gave a little more credence to the chance that these were federal agents.
There was also no point in leaving it behind.
Standing, he trotted over to his car. Caitlin waited by the passenger door. Her eyes didn’t hold on him. Instead, they jumped from the building’s corner to the rear door and back.
“It’s unlocked. Get in,” John said.
He climbed behind the driver’s seat, fastened his shoulder harness, and cranked the engine. Caitlin put her bag on the floor and sat down.
“Buckle up. This may get interesting.”
John put the car in gear and eased around the corner of the bar. He drove slowly, looking for any sign of Holdren’s accomplices. There were bound to be more. The street looked deserted, but there was a suspicious van a half block toward the right.
The van was facing The Gleaning Cube. John considered, then immediately turned in that direction. He flicked his headlights on bright. As the lights fell fully on the van, John pointed out across the bay toward distant Oakland.
“Would you look at that,” he said.
Caitlin reflexively turned her face.
“What is it?” Her voice was edgy.
“Nothing, but keep looking that way for a few seconds.”
John accelerated smoothly until they were past the van. “All right, you can stop looking.”
Caitlin turned and stared at him. “What was that about?”
“That van back there. I thought they might be inside, watching for you to show.”
Caitlin turned in the seat and looked back.
“No!”
Caitlin jerked back around. “What? What’d I do?”
“They could have been watching.”
“They couldn’t see my face from here.”
“Did you ever hear of night scopes?”
In the rearview mirror, John saw the van’s tail lights come on.
“Shit.”
He took the next left and punched the accelerator to the floor. “They hadn’t gotten a good look at you before because the headlights would have washed out our images. They were bound to keep watching until either they had a good view of you or we were out of sight.
“If I didn’t know better I’d swear you were trying to let them see you.”
Behind them, the van turned the corner and accelerated. John took the next right, sliding on wet pavement in the curve, before straightening.
“How can you suggest that?” Caitlin asked.
“I can suggest a lot.”
“It’s me they’re trying to kill.” Her voice quivered.
“Well, I did say I knew better, but it does seem damn strange that you’d turn around to look at them.”
John reached behind him and fumbled through the canvas bag he’d set on the floor. His fingers closed on the goggles, and he pulled them out.
“What’s that?”
“Haven’t you ever seen night vision goggles?”
“Is that what those are? I thought they were big bulky things.”
“Used to be, most still are, but these aren’t. Isn’t technology grand?”
John slipped them over his head with one hand but didn’t pull them down. His fingers found the on switch, and he activated them.
The van was just coming around the last corner when John reached the alley he’d been aiming for. He opened the center console and flicked the middle of three toggle switches.
The toggle switch energized a relay disconnecting all of the car’s lights, including the brake lights.
“Hold on,” John said.
Jamming on the brakes, John slowed quickly in the darkness between two street lamps and took a sharp turn into an alley. The interior of the alley was pitch black.
Caitlin let out a little screech and grabbed the dash as she saw the narrow gap John was aiming for.
John pulled the goggles over his eyes.
The greenish cast, typical of starlight devices, was disorientating if you weren’t used to it. John drove through the alley, still accelerating, the big V-8 booming off the brick walls like thunder. In the mirror, he saw the van flash by the alley’s entrance without slowing.
At the
