Дэвид Балдаччи - The Sixth Man

“Not necessarily. You know as well as I do that satellite platforms vary greatly. And who is to say it was a government one?”

“You mean commercial?”

“Or essentially a private one.”

“Why?” asked Bunting.

“If the sat was government-owned it would be harder to control the information, even for Foster. But if it were private eyes?”

“Which she might have agreed to since she was planning this whole campaign with Quantrell against me and the E-Program outside of DHS channels.”

“Or it might be more complicated than that.”

“How?”

“Mercury has a number of satellites, correct?”

“Sure. Quantrell was one of the first in the field.”

“So let’s say he has the bird on Eddie’s property too. They pick a weekday when Eddie is in D.C. Foster orders her sat to look away. They take the bodies in and bury them in the barn in a way that will be easily discoverable later. They phone in a tip to the police, and my brother takes the fall.”

“But why wouldn’t Quantrell turn his bird off too?” asked Bunting. Before she could answer his question, he did. “In case things went to hell he’d have leverage with Foster.”

“Exactly.”

“So how do we confirm this?”

“There are ways. I’ll get working on them.”

“If we can get pictures of what actually happened, then Edgar goes scot free.”

“But that doesn’t get us out of the woods yet.”

“No, it’s only one piece, you’re right.”

Bunting’s phone rang. He pulled it from his pocket.

Paul eyed him. “Who is it?”

“Avery.”

He answered and put it on speaker so Paul could hear, too. “Talk fast, Avery.”

The other man’s voice was strained. “Mr. Bunting, I received a call from someone.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know. They didn’t leave their name. But they had a message they wanted me to convey to you.”

“What was it?”

“They want to make an exchange.”

“What sort of exchange?”

“A woman named Megan Riley in trade for Edgar Roy.” He paused.

“Avery, is that all? Roy for Riley?”

“No, sir. They also want you.”

Bunting drew a quick breath and looked toward the window, as though they might be lurking right outside.

Avery sounded near tears.

“Calm down, Avery, it’ll be okay. Did they give you details?”

They heard him swallow a sob and he said, “The day after tomorrow at the Mall in Washington, D.C. Twelve o’clock in the afternoon. Across from the Air and Space Museum. They said if you tried any tricks, called the police or anything, they’d kill Ms. Riley and shoot up the place. Lots of people will die.”

“Okay, Avery, okay. I appreciate the call. You did good. Now you need to get somewhere safe.”

Bunting flinched when the other voice came over the phone. “Too late for that,” said the voice. There was a single gunshot and they heard a body drop.

“Avery!” screamed Bunting, as he snatched up the phone.

The voice said, “If you and Roy are not at the Mall on the day after tomorrow in the requisite place at the requisite time, Riley is dead and so are a lot of other people. Do you understand?”

Bunting said nothing.

Paul took the phone from him and said, “We understand. We’ll be there.”

The line went silent.

Bunting stumbled over to the window and pressed his face against it.

Paul said, “I’m sorry, Peter.”

Bunting didn’t say anything for a while and Paul let the silence persist.

“He was just a kid.”

“Yes he was,” she conceded.

“He shouldn’t be dead. He’s not a field agent. He’s an office geek.”

“Lots of people shouldn’t be dead. But they are. Now, we have to focus on the day after tomorrow.”

“Our plan didn’t work. We were turning them against each other but didn’t factor this possibility in.” He turned to look at her. “They have an army, Kelly. We’ve got what?”

“I could say we have right on our side, but it seems a bit trite under the circumstances. Yet we still have to try.”

“I want to strangle Quantrell and Foster with my bare hands, I swear to God I do.”

“They forced Avery to make that call and they did it to throw you off, Peter.”

“Well, they did a damn good job,” he blurted out.

“They will expect your thinking to be clouded. They will expect you to act less than rationally. They will expect you to just give in.”

“I don’t even know this Megan Riley. And they want me and your brother in return?”

“They killed Avery. They will kill her too. And they’ve sweetened the pot. Lots of other people on the Mall will die as well.”

He sat back down, wiped his eyes and cheeks dry, and drew a long, replenishing breath. “Okay, the best I can do to avenge Avery is to think this all through. First, why the day after tomorrow? Why wait?”

“The Mall is a popular place, always people around.”

“But the day after tomorrow. Will there be more people around?”

He performed a Web search on his phone. Paul looked at the screen.

“I have to hand it to them. Shows some style.”

“They’re going to do a hostage exchange in the middle of a peace rally,” said Bunting grimly.

IT WAS EARLY IN THE MORNING, and Michelle had driven most of the night to get them to D.C. Sean was asleep in the seat next to her. Roy had nodded off in the backseat. The sky was overcast and promised more rain from a storm system that had been pounding the East Coast.

“Cold, wet, and dark. Sort of matches my mood.”

Michelle glanced over to see that Sean was awake and staring out the window.

He looked at her and smiled resignedly. “Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

They crossed over a bridge and hung a right, following the directions Paul had given them when she’d called about the latest development involving Megan Riley.

Michelle glanced over at a street corner. “I held a post on that street corner for twelve hours. It was the day after 9/11. Nobody knew what the hell was going on. I wasn’t even working protection back then. I was assigned to a forgery case in Maryland. They pulled a bunch of us in to supplement the protection detail for the president and the VP. By the time I was relieved every muscle I had was in a knot. But you know what?”

“You didn’t want to leave your post.”

She nodded. “How’d you know?”

“When 9/11 happened I was practicing law, been out of the Service for a while. I watched it on TV along with every other American. I wanted to suit back up, come to D.C., and help out. That could never happen, of course.” He grew silent and then added in a low voice, “But I really wanted to come back and help.”

“Things have really gotten screwed up, haven’t they?”

“Actually, they’ve been screwed up for a long time. Which means we all have to work a little harder to fix them.”

“That’s a good attitude to have.” Roy sat up and swept a hand through his hair. He looked at them. “The world is complicated, so people seek complicated solutions. And there’s nothing wrong with that because simple answers don’t usually work. But sometimes the answers are simple and people still refuse to see them.”

“Meaning?” asked Sean.

“Meaning the simpler approach in certain circumstances is better, if only because there’re fewer things that can go wrong.”

“You know what they want,” said Michelle.

“Me and Peter Bunting, yes. For Megan Riley. And of course their threat to kill many other innocent people.”

“So what’s the simple answer to that?” asked Sean.

“To give them what they want.”