Their canoe sat on yellow foam squares that protected the car's roof from the metal gunwales. I started to untie the bow ropes, but the blond whipped a knife out of his pocket and cut the lines at both ends of the canoe. I took hold of the bow, the guitar player took the stern, and together we slid the boat off the roof, inverting it as we lowered it to the ground. At the last minute we lost hold and the canoe hit the gravel with a ringing blang.
The blond reached into the backseat, took out two long wooden paddles, and dropped them into the canoe. When he looked up, his eyes focused on something behind me, and he blushed. I turned and saw Rachel standing behind me in her jeans and white button-down.
'Hey,' she said. 'I appreciate this.' Then she smiled in a way I'd never seen her smile before.
'Uh, no problem,' said the blond.
The guitar player waved at Rachel but said nothing, and I saw that even at thirty-five, Rachel Weiss still impressed boys in their twenties.
'We've got to get going,' I said. 'So do you guys.'
I handed the blond fifteen $100 bills.
'You're either paying me too much or not enough,' he said. 'But it's cool.' He pointed into the trees. 'If you carry the canoe through there, you should hit the river after fifty yards or so.'
'Thanks.'
He trotted back to the Audi and slid behind the wheel. As I got Fielding's box from the backseat, I touched the kid on the shoulder. 'If anyone stops you in this car, tell them exactly what happened. The money, everything. You'll be fine.'
He nodded. 'No sweat.'
The Audi roared to life and tore off down through the tunnel of oaks. The guitar player in the Nova laughed, shook his head, and slowly followed. I tossed Fielding's box into the canoe, wrapped the bow line around my right hand, and started dragging the boat toward the trees.
'Should I push?' asked Rachel
'I've got it. You watch for snakes.'
From that moment forward her eyes never left the ground.
The trees grew almost too close together to pull the canoe between them, and I was soon dripping sweat. But the blond kid was right. Before long, I smelled decaying plants, and then I sighted a yellow flash of sunlight on water. Fifty more feet and I was shoving the canoe between two cypress knees and into the river.
'Get in,' I told Rachel. 'All the way to the front.'
She climbed into the stern and made her way care¬fully to the bow seat. I shoved the canoe into deeper water, then jumped into the stern as it arrowed away from the shore. Settling on the hard seat, I picked up a paddle and propelled the boat along the snaky-looking bank.
'I'm going to keep us under the trees,' I said. 'Watch for the plane.'
Rachel looked up and squinted. I listened hard as I paddled, but I heard only the frothy whisper of wood cutting water.
'See anything?'
She shook her head.
I looked down the long, dark bend of river, bounded on both sides by thick stands of cypress and pine. At this moment, the vast resources of the NSA were focused on finding us. But here, those resources were largely useless. For the first time in many hours, I felt some peace.
'Any idea where we're going?' Rachel asked.
'No. But I'll know when we get there.'
CHAPTER 17
Geli Bauer sat in her zero-gravity chair in the security basement of the Trinity building, her right hand squeez¬ing a pair of weighted dice she'd taken from Fielding's personal effects in the storeroom. She'd taken them for luck, but so far they had brought her little.
On the bank of monitors to her right, dozens of NSA personnel with forklifts and dollies were moving sensi¬tive equipment and files to trucks waiting at the back of the building. If Tennant went public, she wanted nothing left here for nosy congressmen to find.
'Tennant just pulled onto the shoulder and stopped,' said a female voice in her headset. It belonged to an ex- navy warrant officer named Evans, who was in the first ground unit to sight the stolen Audi.
'Did he try to run at all?' Geli asked.
'Negative. When he realized we were pursuing, he just pulled over like it's a traffic stop.'
Geli didn't like the sound of that. 'Are they in plain sight?'
'Only the man.'
'Do you have a megaphone?'
'We don't need it. He just got out of the car. He's holding his hands up.'
'Dr. Tennant?'
'I don't think so.' The line crackled. 'This looks like a kid.'
'A kid?'
'A hippie. College kid.'
'You stopped the wrong car!'
'No, the plate's right. Wait… they must have pulled some kind of switch.'
'Who?'
'There were two college kids in a green Chevy on the ferry. Tennant and Weiss must be in that car.'
'Question the goddamn kid! Find out!'
'Hang on.'
She glanced at her monitors. The NSA movers were rolling stacked computers onto the loading dock on the ground floor. Moving the equipment was a pain in the ass. If they had let her kill Tennant at the same time as Fielding, none of this would be happening.
'Evans here,' said the voice on the headset. 'They're on the river now.'
'They're what!'
'The college kids had a canoe on their car. Unpainted aluminum. Tennant bought it off them.'
Geli felt like she was about to stroke out. 'Find the Chevy and nail it anyway! And impound the Audi.'
'Will do.'
'Air-One, do you read?'
'Affirmative.'
'Start making low passes over the river. Start at the ferry and move toward Albemarle Sound. Even Tennant wouldn't try to get away by paddling upstream.'
'We'll be back over the river in five minutes.'
'Get ground units started down the river on both sides.'
'There's only a road on one side. The north side.'
'Jesus Christ.'
'We'll cover the other side.'
Geli killed the connection and said, 'Skow, home,” into her headset. After one ring, Skow said, 'Tell me you have them.'
'They're gone.'
'What does that mean?'
'Tennant pulled a switch on the ferry. He and Weiss are now in a canoe somewhere on the Cashie River.'
'Damn it, Geli. How could you screw this up?'
Her cheeks burned. 'Do you want to have a conver¬sation about who fucked this up?'
'Don't be insubordinate.'
'If Tennant slips through our fingers here, you can kiss control goodbye.'
'That's not necessarily true. Give me a moment.'
