After the Rain Part 30

He returned the squeeze. Felt good, too. After all this time. Then Jane stabbed the gas and Broker tensed, pressed back in his seat by imaginary G-forces.

Jane, her augmented eyes fixed on the road, had an adrenaline frog in her throat as she shouted over her shoulder: "Don't get your hopes up, Nina. Holly ran this Khari guy through all the databases. His dad was with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. But that was twenty years ago. Khari immigrated here to live with his uncle after his folks died in 1982. He comes off pretty clean. And his uncle was a decorated Korean War vet."

"We'll see," Nina said.

"It gets worse. Homeland Security sent a honcho in to watch over us tonight. One of those serious prayer-breakfast types. Same old same old. He wants to shut Holly down for exceeding his authority."

"Aw, Christ," Nina said. "It's Afghanistan all over again."

"You got it," Jane said.

"What happened in Afghanistan?" Broker asked.

"Holly and some of his regular Army pals tried to commit a couple U.S. battalions on the Pakistani border to seal the routes out of Tora Bora. Washington was afraid of taking U.S. casualties on the ground. They nixed the plan and relied on the B-52s and the Afghan warlords. Holly got in a lot of trouble and bin Laden got away," Nina said.

"That's our Holly-fighting a two-front war against terrorism and and Washington. Then there's the hawk," Jane said. Washington. Then there's the hawk," Jane said.

"The hawk?" Broker asked.

"The Black Hawk at the radar base," Nina explained. "The people trying to shut us down are saying Holly stole it."

Hearing this, Broker smiled in the dark. I'm starting to like this Holly guy... I'm starting to like this Holly guy...

"Wait a minute," Yeager said nervously. "You guys stole stole a helicopter?" a helicopter?"

"Whoa, hold on," Nina said. "It's this gray area. Justice and the FBI want to arrest people and charge them with civil crimes, right? But if these guys are the real thing tonight, we're going to s.n.a.t.c.h them as enemy combatants. Naturally, they're a bit more sticky about procedure. We didn't ask permission, we just took the bird and went."

"Uh-huh," Yeager said, sounding unconvinced. He turned in the front seat. "What do you think, Broker?"

"I think they probably borrowed borrowed the helicopter..." the helicopter..."

"Yeah, borrowed. Along with a Delta team and an NBC response tech," Jane said.

"NBC?" Yeager said. "Christ, we got televison in on this?"

"That's a nuclear, biological, and chemical responder from Department of Defense," Jane said with a twist of humor in her voice.

"Oh s.h.i.t!" Yeager said.

"Yeah, see? Now you know who you're running with? No wonder they're so strung out," Broker said.

"Hey, people. Turn should be coming up," Yeager said.

Jane slowed the Explorer, pulling up hard on a gravel road. They completed the turn and she accelerated again. Off to the left the headlights were almost a mile away.

Several minutes pa.s.sed. The headlights drew closer. "You should see a clump of trees on your right, and the road intersection," Yeager said.

"Got 'em," Jane said.

"There's a shallow shoulder and a dip, just ride it into the trees and stop," Yeager said.

Jane didn't respond, intent on driving. The tires left gravel, then bit into dirt and vegetation. Weeds and shrubs snapped against the cha.s.sis, whipped in the dark through the open windows. Broker still couldn't see anything but an orange glow back toward Langdon. A big clump of brush hit the door. Milt's Ford was going to need a visit to the body shop.

"Good...stop," Yeager said.

They stopped, killed the motor, and held their breath as the night air turned loud with insect buzz and the cooling ticks of the engine. The headlights came closer and they only caught the barest flicker of a vehicle a hundred yards away as it pa.s.sed. Then Ace turned off his lights.

"It's him all right-a new Tahoe," Jane said.

"Okay, give him another hundred yards," Yeager said. Jane did. "Now get on the road." She drove to the intersection, turned right. Much closer now. "Okay, when he turns off, you turn off into the fields, but the minute he stops you stop. And kill the motor. We play dead. He'll probably shut down, too, and listen before he does the pickup."

"Christ, this is like a submarine movie," Broker said.

They all giggled to break the tension.

"Oh s.h.i.t," Janey said. "He just turned again."

"We're cool, he's just turned on a prairie road that runs toward the border. Get ready. Won't be long now," Yeager said.

Jane followed the Tahoe through one last turn and they all breathed in sharp when she cranked the wheel and drove into the waist-high field. Damp splatters pelted the sides of the Ford and a heavy, pungent scent came in through the open windows. Tiny wet blossoms tickled Broker's face.

"Canola," Yeager said. Then: "Kill it, now now!"

They jerked to a halt and the motor stopped. Dead quiet. Just the oily reek of the crushed canola, the engine ticking down, and the whir of mosquitoes.

Jane leaned out her open window, straining her body into the night.

"He's out, he walking. Walking...Barely see him, more'n a hundred yards. s.h.i.t, now he's walking around in a circle, like he's lost. Ah, wait. Okay. He stopped. Oh boy, he's bent over and he's dragging something heavy, dragging it back to the truck."

"All right," Nina said. Sitting next to her, Broker could feel her shift gears as a wave of exhausted tension drained out of her. And the adrenaline afterburners kicked in.

"That's it, he popped the hatch and he's manhandling it into the back. He's done. Hatch is down," Jane said.

"I thought it would be more of a load," Yeager said.

"There's some small packages that pack a h.e.l.l of wallop," Nina said slowly.

"Jesus-NBC, huh?" Yeager said.

"Yeah," Nina said.

They all saw his brake lights as he backed up.

"What do we do?" Janey said.

"Give him some room. We know where he's going, don't we?" Yeager said.

"Fine with me." Jane flopped back in her seat and took a few deep breaths. Then she got on her cell. "Holly, this is Jane. We have a confirmed pickup." That's all. She put the phone down.

"Let's take a minute to work out the ground rules," Nina said, her voice exploring the darkness in Yeager's direction.

"The way I explained it to Yeager, he wants in, he accepts that the rules are pretty fluid," Broker said.

"Yeager," Nina said, "you got your badge and gun on you?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"And this place they're planning to meet, it's in your county?"

"Yep."

"You aren't thinking of like-arresting anybody, are you?" Janey asked. anybody, are you?" Janey asked.

"How far would I get?" Yeager's voice was respectful but with just an edge of testing.

Broker joined in. "There'll be other people where we're going, people who work with Jane and Nina. I got a feeling that Jane and Nina, they're the nice ones."

"What? You're saying I could disappear?" Yeager said evenly.

No one answered.

"Okay, at least tell me what I'm not a part of here." Yeager said. "Is Ace Shuster meeting some terrorists? 'Cause that's what you're putting out between the lines."

"This is just my gut read on him," Nina said, "but I don't think he knows if he is. I don't think he has any idea what he just dragged into his car."

"So what did he just drag to his car?" Yeager said.

"They can't say," Broker said, " 'cause they ain't here, are they? But I I can speculate..." can speculate..."

"Like, you mean, just you and me talking," Yeager said.

"Just you and me talking."

"And?"

"They have some pretty good intelligence it could involve a tactical nuclear device."

Another interval of silence.

Then Nina said, "Yeager, if you or me disappear, well, that's not cool. But if a big chunk of Chicago or Kansas City disappears..."

"Start the car," Yeager said, his voice trembling with excitement.

Chapter Thirty.

After a tense half hour sneaking around out on the gravel, Ace was relaxing, leaning back, one arm draped over the steering wheel of the Tahoe. He cruised east on Highway 5 with the windows open, enjoying the rush of the summer night in his hair and listening to Linda Ronstadt singing what could be the story of his life-"Desperado," on KNDK. His other hand came up and he sipped from a bottle of Moosehead Ale. He wondered if Gordy had encountered any ha.s.sles. It had been dead quiet on his end. sneaking around out on the gravel, Ace was relaxing, leaning back, one arm draped over the steering wheel of the Tahoe. He cruised east on Highway 5 with the windows open, enjoying the rush of the summer night in his hair and listening to Linda Ronstadt singing what could be the story of his life-"Desperado," on KNDK. His other hand came up and he sipped from a bottle of Moosehead Ale. He wondered if Gordy had encountered any ha.s.sles. It had been dead quiet on his end.

The easy pickup and a day of drinking had hammered down his spikes and he was sinking back toward mellow. Another day, another dollar; rolling the old boulder up the hill. Ole Camus said we must imagine Sisyphus happy. Ace wasn't sure about happy, but he did have a moderate buzz going, enough to be charitable-like, maybe they'd been wrong about Nina. Maybe she was just another woman coming up hard on forty in a marriage that didn't fit.

Woulda been nice to roll Nina Pryce up the hill just once, find out who she really was. Ah well...fact is, she was already starting to fade...

He raised up off the seat slightly, turned on the dome light, and looked over his shoulder at the old-fashioned footlocker in the backseat. Didn't even weigh much, maybe sixty pounds. He didn't know a whole lot about George, his dad's crony. Mostly, Dad and George had played it legal, then every once in a while George would come up with volume he had to move fast, off the books, no questions asked. And everybody made a lot of money.

Sometimes there were small favors, like tonight. Again, no questions asked.

He pushed in the lighter and took out a Camel. When the lighter popped, he lit up. Three drags into the Camel his high beams reached out and caught the crisscross of the chain-link fence that surrounded the old site. He slowed and saw George's new silver Lexus parked in the driveway. Old George did all right for himself.

"Hey Bugs, Nina. How's it going?" Nina was on her cell.

"We're following Khari. He's in a Lexus RX300, driving west on 5. He's all alone, no pa.s.sengers, no other cars."

"Good. Our guy made his pickup and is driving east on 5 out of Langdon. ETA about five, six minutes to that old base."

"Okay. We got people in position on site. Holly is standing by with the Hawk. We all roll in when the smoke clears."

"Let's hope there's no smoke." Nina flashed on a pile of Bosnian corpses and saw Ace Shuster sandwiched in the middle of them. Eyes open, smiling that smile. She remembered the .38 in his desk. She hoped he'd left it there.

"Ah, roger that."

Nina ended the call. "No need to rush," she said to Yeager. "From here on in we just watch. They belong to the Hardy Boys now."

"Hardy Boys?" Yeager said.

"Delta slang for a tactical team in position at the meeting spot," Jane said as she eased off the gas. They lagged far behind Ace now, driving the speed limit with their lights on. In a few minutes it would all converge on Highway 5 in the dark.

Broker suddenly became aware of his throbbing left hand. He held it up and placed it on his head. Seeing his awkward posture, Nina laughed, this happy release of nerves. "Hey," Broker protested, "it gets the blood out of..."

"I know, silly," Nina said. "Like when we met."

"When you you crashed crashed my my undercover scene." undercover scene."

"Yeah, and that mean redneck almost bit off your thumb and we drove up north with you holding your hand up like that..."

"Hey, cut the lovebird c.r.a.p," Jane said. "Situational awareness, remember? Nina, how many in the car coming to meet Ace?" she asked.

"Just Khari, driving a Lexus SUV."

"Just one guy?" Jane made a face. "n.o.body else with him? Or on the road?"