‘Done,’ he nodded. ‘And now if you’d like to check out the boat, I’ve got a few things to discuss with Mr Malloy. I’m sure you understand that ignorance is often the best protection.’
‘But that’s really knowledge, isn’t it?’ Daniel said.
‘Same difference,’ Elmo grunted, then added as an afterthought, ‘Our teachers will love you.’
Flustered by Elmo’s comment, Daniel turned and followed his mother out on the main deck.
When they’d gone, Elmo told Shamus, ‘Detroit by train tonight, then a tour bus across the border and cold storage in Montreal. We got us a boiling case of bad heat. That wacky scientist you latched still hasn’t turned up. Car you left him never moved. He could be stone dead in a runoff ditch or wandering around talking to rocks for all we know, and we pride ourselves on knowing those kinds of things.’
‘That you do,’ Shamus said.
‘If they find him, dead or alive, things would cool considerably.’
‘I understand. I left him off exactly as I said.’
Elmo chewed on his cigar. ‘No idea which way he might have drifted?’
‘Up. Lost in thought.’
‘Yeah.’ Elmo spit a piece of tobacco. ‘All right, we got a fucking UFO on our hands. Figures he’d be a space cadet.’
Shamus folded his hands on the card table, bare hand over the gloved. ‘So where are we?’
‘Volta would like some consideration for the time and money it’s gonna take to keep helping you.’
‘I have money. I’ll gladly pay you back, with interest, when I can get to it.’
‘That’d be the right thing to do, but there’s no press. What Volta would like is your cooperation. He said to think of it as a couple of years of honorable protective custody. What that means to me is he wants your word you won’t run amok for a while. Otherwise, we cut you loose right here – a car and two grand, same as we offered the girl.’
‘You offered her four,’ Shamus corrected him.
‘She’s got a kid.’
‘Good point,’ Shamus said. ‘Guess friends don’t come cheap.’
‘Nope – especially when you screw the heat to ’em.’
‘If I didn’t feel for sure that that guard off smoking a joint was an accident, a random twist, I’d have to believe Volta would have found a way to make sure I didn’t pull it off.’
‘I couldn’t say. Seems you did fine fucking it up by yourself. That’s what we got to deal with.’
‘Put me on the train, then, and somewhere down the line I’ll try to make it right.’
‘Another thing,’ Elmo said, pointing with his cigar stub. ‘The glove’s got to go.’
‘It doesn’t come off. How about a cast?’
‘Whatever.’
Shamus held up his gloved hand. ‘We could cut the arm off at the elbow.’
‘Whatever,’ Elmo repeated.
‘Speaking of fuck-ups,’ Shamus said, ‘any idea how they turned the ranch?’
‘Yeah.’
‘The pilot?’
‘You got it. They just missed your ass at the Nashville airport. Got the plane’s ID and somebody saw the switch in Denver. Took ’em a few days, but they finally run the pilot down in Portland. Pounded it out of him.’
‘I’m sorry about that,’ Shamus said.
‘Not as much as he is. He loved to fly, but he was fond of walking too.’
Shamus slammed his gloved hand down on the card table. ‘Goddammit, whipping on me isn’t going to change it. If you didn’t like my judgment, why did you people recruit me? Why did you send me to Jacob Hind? Why did you encourage me to study radioactivity?’
‘Hey,’ Elmo spread his arms, ‘why the fuck are we helping you? Huh? I’ll tell you why: because we all make mistakes.’
‘Trying to steal that uranium
‘Shamus, you’re talking to the wrong man – do I look like a debate team? My job’s to get you clear. You get to Montreal, you’ll have tons of time to sort the fly shit from the pepper. Right now, we’re moving on the quick.’
‘Fine,’ Shamus said. ‘Let’s move.’
They found Annalee and Daniel admiring the wooden drive wheel.
‘Ready?’ Annalee said. Shamus didn’t look happy.
‘Yep, ready,’ Elmo said.
‘Where to?’
