Buchanan went with her down the fire stairs to the third-floor landing. Her instructions were to take the elevator from that floor down to the lobby. That way, to anyone watching the numbers above the elevator in the lobby, it would seem that Holly had been in Mike Hamilton’s third-floor room all evening. “If anybody stops you, tell them to leave you alone or you’ll call a cop. But if it gets serious, tell them a version of the truth. You’re doing a story on the Maria Tomez disappearance and whether there’s some connection between Tomez and Drummond. If they pressure you about Mike Hamilton, tell them he’s a confidential source who works for Drummond. Tell them the man contacted you, using a false name. He’s a disgruntled employee. He wants to make trouble for Drummond, but he doesn’t want the trouble to be traced to him. So far, he hasn’t been much use.”
At the third-floor fire stairs, Buchanan motioned for Holly to wait while he checked that the corridor was safe. After peering cautiously out the door, he stepped back, his expression concerned enough to make Holly frown.
He motioned for her to follow. “We have to hurry. Two men are outside Mike Hamilton’s room.”
Before leaving 512, Buchanan had packed, made sure that the books and research files were in his travel bag, and filled out an early checkout form, putting it on the bed. A note explained that Mike Hamilton was checking out, too, but that as agreed all expenses were to be on Charles Duffy’s credit card. “I don’t want any more people looking for me than necessary. Quickly. Let’s go.”
He hurried with Holly down the fire stairs to the exit for the lobby. “Wait until some people get off the elevator. Go out behind them. Where do you live?”
She told him.
“I’ll leave a minute after you. I’ll take a taxi, and if I’m not followed, I’ll have the driver go past your place. By then, your own taxi should have brought you home. Leave a light on behind an open window in front. If I see that a window’s open, I’ll know you’re okay.”
“Taxi? I brought my car.”
“Then you’ll get home faster. The elevator’s opening. Now.”
She touched his cheek. “. . Be careful.”
Buchanan felt the impression of her fingers for quite a while after she was gone.
12
“Buchanan!”
It must have been the result of fatigue.
“Buchanan!”
Or else it resulted from his conversation with Holly. Although he’d come to Washington thinking of himself as Peter Lang impersonating Charles Duffy and Mike Hamilton, he’d been distracted into talking to Holly as the core identity he’d been trying to avoid.
“Buchanan!”
So when he heard a man call his name as he walked along the rain-misted street away from the hotel, Buchanan almost turned reflexively to see who wanted him.
It was a mistake, he instantly realized, and he caught himself before he fully turned, but he did twist his head partially, and that was all the indication his hunter needed.
“Yeah, you! Buchanan!”
Buchanan kept walking, not changing his pace, not appearing to feel pressured, although he did feel pressured. A lot. Nerves quickening, he heard rapid footsteps behind him on the wet sidewalk. One person, it sounded like, but Buchanan didn’t dare look to see if he was right.
The time was nearly ten-thirty. Traffic was sparse, sporadic headlights gleaming through the beads of moisture in the gloomy air. Buchanan had glanced casually from side to side when he’d left the hotel, a natural thing to do, one that allowed him to check for any sign that Holly had been detained or that anyone was outside watching him. Seeing no problem, he had turned off Massachusetts Avenue, heading south on Twenty-first Street.
Now, heart pounding, he realized that Twenty-first was a one-way street and that the traffic headed in a southern direction just as he did, which meant that all the cars approached from behind him. Unless he looked over his shoulder, he had no way to tell if a vehicle would be veering toward him. But if he did look, he would reinforce his pursuer’s suspicion. Plural. Other urgent footsteps had joined the first.
“Goddamn it, Buchanan!” a different voice yelled.
The voice was directly behind him, close enough to attack.
With no other viable option, Buchanan whirled, seeing a well-built, short-haired man in his mid-twenties lurch to a sudden, defensive stop.
But not quickly enough. Buchanan struck the man’s chest with the palm of his right hand. The blow was hard but controlled, calculated to knock the man off balance but not to break his ribs.
The man was jolted backward. He exhaled forcefully, a practiced reaction that helped him absorb the impact. That reaction and the resistance the man’s solid chest provided told Buchanan that this wasn’t a civilian. The man was military: trim hips, broad shoulders for upper-body strength. While the man briefly lost his balance, Buchanan swung his right leg hard, twisting it so that his shinbone struck along the outside of the man’s left thigh. A major sensitive nerve ran down each leg in that area. If the nerve was traumatized, the victim suffered not only intense pain but temporary paralysis in the leg.
As Buchanan anticipated, before the man could retaliate from the blow to his chest, he grunted, grasped his leg, and toppled sharply. That left a second man rushing toward Buchanan, cursing, reaching beneath his windbreaker. Buchanan threw his travel bag toward him, forcing the man to zigzag while raising a hand to deflect the bag. Before the man could recover from this distraction and draw the handgun he was reaching for, Buchanan came in close, rammed the palm of his hand sharply against the bottom of the man’s nose, and felt cartilage snap. The man’s vision would blur. The pain would be intense. That gave Buchanan enough time to jab an elbow into the man’s solar plexus and yank his pistol away as he doubled over.
Immediately Buchanan whirled, grabbed the first man, who was struggling to stand, and walloped him against a lamppost. The man’s head made a
If this had been combat, Buchanan would have killed them. As it was, he didn’t want to make the incident even more serious than it was. If he eliminated the colonel’s men, the next time their orders would be to do the same to him instead of to detain him. Or perhaps these men
From where Buchanan had come, at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Twenty-first Street, a well- dressed elderly man and woman gaped in Buchanan’s direction. The woman pointed a trembling arm, her outcry shrill.
Buchanan grabbed his travel bag and ran. His reaction wasn’t caused only by fear that a police car would soon arrive. What sent adrenaline surging through him in even greater quantity, with greater urgency, were the two men who’d scurried around the corner in response to the woman’s cry. Seeing Buchanan, they charged, and their chests were as muscled, their shoulders as broad as the men on the sidewalk.
Buchanan ran harder, the stitches in his knife wound threatening to tear open. He didn’t care. He had to keep straining. Because when the second two men had seen him and raced toward him, both had reached beneath windbreakers, pulling out handguns, and there was no question now. This wasn’t just a surveillance team. It was a hit team.
What had they done to Holly?
But he couldn’t let himself think about that. He had to concentrate on staying alive. The first priority was to get off this damned one-way street, where the direction of traffic left him vulnerable from behind. Approaching P Street, he risked wasting time to look behind him on his left, saw an opening between two approaching cars, and darted between them, hoping that the cars would shield him, having noticed that the men were raising their weapons. A horn blared. Brakes squealed. He scrambled onto the opposite sidewalk and skidded on a slippery puddle but kept his balance, then bolted around the corner as the cars stopped shielding him and two gunshots
