Chris Carter - An Evil Mind

‘So what now?’ Hunter asked Lucien even before the plane came to a complete stop. This was the first time Hunter had addressed him since Quantico.

‘Now we get a car,’ Lucien replied, and pulled a dubious face.‘But this isn’t LAX, Robert, there are no car-rental companies in the airport’s foyer. Actually, there isn’t even a foyer.’ He jerked his head toward the window. ‘You’ll see. You’ll be lucky if you find a vending machine somewhere around here.’

Taylor threw a questioning look at Hunter.

‘You can call a rental company if you like,’ Lucien proceeded. ‘I’m sure you can get a number for one either in the town of Berlin or Milan, but it will take them about twenty to twenty-five minutes to get everything arranged and a car out here. If you don’t want to wait, I suggest you improvise.’

‘Improvise?’ Taylor said.

Lucien shrugged. ‘Commandeer a car or something. Like in the movies. You’re the ones with FBI badges. I’m sure the folks around here would be very impressed by them.’

Taylor considered what to do.

‘Remember that every second counts for poor Madeleine,’ Lucien added. ‘So feel free to take as long as you like.’

‘You stay here with him,’ Hunter said, already moving toward the plane’s door. ‘I’ll go.’

Taylor agreed with a nod. Right now she really didn’t want to leave Hunter alone with Lucien.

‘Let’s go,’ Hunter said as he stepped back into the plane.

‘We’ve got a car already?’ Taylor asked, jumping to her feet. Hunter had been gone for less than three minutes.

He nodded. ‘I sort of borrowed it from the guy who runs air traffic control here.’

‘Fair enough,’ she said. She didn’t need any more explanation. Taylor then unholstered her weapon and pointed it at Lucien. ‘OK, we’re going to do this nice and slowly. When Robert presses the release button to the door to your cage, the floor chain loops will also disengage. You will then stand up, slowly , step out of the cell, and stop. Do you understand?’

Lucien nodded, unimpressed.

Taylor gave Hunter a head signal. He hit the button by the door to the pilot’s cockpit before also unholstering his weapon and placing Lucien dead in his aim.

An electronic buzzing sound echoed loudly throughout the passenger cabin. Lucien’s cage door clicked open and retracted. The metal chains that kept his ankles and hands shackled together were also released from their floor and chair restraints.

‘Up slowly,’ Taylor said.

Lucien complied.

‘Now step forward and outside the cage.’

Lucien complied.

‘Walk toward us and the exit, nice and slowly.’

Lucien complied.

Taylor moved over and positioned herself behind Lucien. Hunter stayed ahead of him. He came down the steps first. Lucien and Taylor followed shortly after.

A red Jeep Grand Cherokee was parked just a few meters from the plane. Hunter walked over and opened the back door.

‘Nice car,’ Lucien commented.

‘Get in,’ Hunter replied.

Lucien paused and looked around him. There was no one about. Berlin’s municipal airport was nothing more than a landing strip of asphalt built next to a forest. There was no airport foyer, or lounge, or anything. Two mid-sized hangers, large enough to fit maybe a couple of private planes each, were located east of the runway. Just south of them were a few smaller administrative buildings. That was all there was, nothing else.

Lucien looked up at the sky. Night was fast approaching, and with it a cold breeze was settling in. His eyes stayed in the sky for a long while, searching, listening.

He saw and heard nothing.

‘Get in,’ Hunter commanded again.

With Geisha steps Lucien moved toward the car. Hunter held the door open. Like an educated lady, Lucien sat down first before bringing his legs in. With his hands and feet shackled to his waist, it was easier that way.

Hunter closed the door and signaled Taylor to go over to the other side. She did. Only once Taylor had taken her place in the backseat did Hunter get into the driver’s seat.

Taylor’s gun was still aimed at Lucien.

‘I want your back against the seat,’ she said. ‘And your arm on the door’s armrest at all times.’ She pulled down the back seat’s center armrest, creating a flimsy division between Lucien and herself. ‘You make any sudden movements, and I swear I’ll blow your kneecaps. Is that simple enough for you?’

‘Perfectly simple,’ Lucien replied.

Hunter started the car.

‘So where to from here?’ he asked.

Lucien smiled.

‘Absolutely nowhere.’

Hunter had been right. Director Kennedy would always have a plan B for any situation.

Exactly ten minutes after the Lear Jet with Hunter, Taylor and Lucien took off, a second jet left Turner Field landing strip in Quantico. This one was carrying five of Kennedy’s top agents, all of them expert marksmen skilled in covert operations. With them they had a satellite-tracking device that specifically tracked the GPS signal coming from Hunter and Taylor’s microphone buttons. They also had ears in the plane, as the surveillance microphones transmitted back not only to Director Kennedy at the FBI Academy, but also to the second jet and its agents.

Inside the FBI Operations Control Room back in Quantico, Adrian Kennedy and Doctor Lambert were following both planes’ progress on the radar screen. They had also been listening to every word that had been uttered between Hunter, Taylor and Lucien. As soon as their jet landed at Berlin’s municipal airport, Kennedy reached for the phone in his pocket.

‘Director,’ Agent Nicholas Brody, the team leader in the second jet, answered his cellphone before the second ring.

‘Bird One just landed,’ Kennedy said.

‘Yes, we saw,’ Brody replied. They were also following the first plane’s progress on their radar application.

‘Tell your pilot to start flying in circles right now,’ Kennedy said. ‘Do not, and I repeat, do not fly over airspace which is visible from the ground from Berlin’s municipal airport. I’ll call you back when you’re clear for landing.’

‘Roger that, sir.’

Agent Brody disconnected from the call, passed the new instructions to the pilot, returned to his seat, and waited.

Hunter met Lucien’s cold eyes in the rearview mirror. The smile on Lucien’s lips was a mixture of arrogance and defiance.

‘What was that?’ Taylor asked, her patience more than wearing thin.

Lucien kept his gaze on the rearview mirror, his eyes battling with Hunter’s.

‘We’re going absolutely nowhere,’ he said again, his tone controlled and even.

Hunter calmly turned the engine off.

‘What do you mean, Lucien?’

‘I mean exactly what I said back in my cell,’ Lucien said. ‘The deal was — just the three of us, no one following. You break the deal, I take you nowhere. I thought I had made that perfectly clear.’

Hunter took his hands off the steering wheel and turned his palms up.

‘Do you see anyone other than the three of us? Anyone following us at all?’

‘Not yet,’ Lucien replied confidently, before his eyes moved up and to the right, ‘but they’re up there, probably waiting, flying around in circles. You know it and I know it.’

Taylor’s inquisitive eyes also found Hunter’s in the rearview mirror. He kept his gaze on Lucien.

‘No, we don’t know that,’ Hunter said. ‘And neither do you. You’re assuming it. So you want us to sit here while Madeleine runs out of time because of an assumption?’

‘My assumptions are always very accurate because they’re based on facts, Robert,’ Lucien said.