Matt Hilton - Dead Men's Harvest

‘Future use?’ I offered.

He shook his head. ‘Further study.’

I didn’t have time for a convoluted explanation, but now that Walter seemed poised to offer one curiosity won out. I looked at him questioningly.

‘You’ve heard of MKUltra?’ he asked.

Of course I had. It was a CIA experiment conducted during the Cold War; one that had sought to turn out brainwashed assassins who could be used to target those deemed enemies of the USA. It had been fictionalised by Hollywood on more than one occasion, most famously in the movie The Manchurian Candidate. What I believed Walter was hinting at was that Arrowsake had recognised Tubal Cain as a potential future weapon. They had kept him alive in order to mobilise him when it became necessary.

‘Arrowsake again,’ I grunted. My old masters were fast becoming my nemesis.

Walter shook his head, then finally lifted it from his cupped palms. ‘No, Hunter. They are responsible for keeping him alive, but they had no part in his escape. If they wanted him out to do their bidding, they would’ve simply had him moved to another facility, then released without the hullabaloo that surrounded his escape from Conchar.’

‘You’re saying that someone else helped him?’

‘He couldn’t have escaped without external aid. Everything was too easy for it to have been left to chance. Tubal Cain has the backing of someone with money and resources, that’s obvious.’

‘How long has he been out?’

‘Only a few days.’

‘He’s resourceful. He probably had a series of secure drops set in place before he was imprisoned. Documents, money, weapons, everything he needed to move around the country at his leisure.’

‘A likely assumption,’ Walter agreed. ‘He must’ve got his hands on fake identification and such, because it’s apparent that he’s flying here, there and everywhere. He couldn’t have been in the number of places he has been otherwise. But, still, he needed help from someone to set up his escape in the first place. He had a getaway vehicle waiting, and quite probably was picked up and transported out of the state by someone later on. I think the plane he’s using belongs to whoever is helping him.’

‘You have your suspicions?’

‘I do. I believe that Cain contacted his benefactor, offered his services, in exchange for assistance to get out of prison.’

‘Only one person I know who’d benefit from such a thing,’ I said. ‘You’re talking about Hendrickson.’

Walter acknowledged my accurate assessment. ‘A month from now, Kurt Hendrickson, Sigmund Petoskey and other members of the Hendrickson organisation are facing judicial trial. As you well know, your brother John is our key witness in the case against them. It would suit the Hendrickson organisation if John doesn’t make it to trial.’

‘And it will suit them even more if John’s death can be blamed upon an escaped convict with a vendetta against him,’ I finished. ‘With John out of the way, the trial will collapse, they’d be exonerated, and free to continue where they left off.’

‘Of course it would be a simple matter to show their hand in this, but for one thing.’

I snorted. I’d already seen it coming, but it still made me sick. ‘To implicate them, it would mean coming clean about Tubal Cain.’

‘The scandal the government wanted to avoid the first time around would be magnified tenfold.’

‘That’s why nothing has made the news about his escape? Cain is supposedly dead, so how could he be on the loose again? And that’s why you’ve brought me in…’

‘We have to do this quietly, son.’

‘I can’t guarantee that,’ I said.

‘You must. It’s imperative that Cain is silenced, without the government’s inclusion being a factor in any of the fallout. You will have our full backing, but only on our word. Nothing will be recorded anywhere, we will exercise full deniability. In the past I’ve influenced the decisions of the other agencies, I’ve had your actions covered up. On this occasion the consequences are way too big to do so again. If you don’t cover your own tracks this time, well, you might have to pay the consequences.’

‘So if things go wrong I’ll be vilified? Painted as the crazy vigilante I’m suspected of being? It’s some deal you’re offering me, Walter.’

‘It’s why you must do things quietly.’

There was no question that I was going to become Walter’s bloodhound. That was a given. But I was certain he hadn’t realised the enormity of the beast he was letting loose. I hated Cain; he was a monster who shouldn’t be allowed to exist. But Walter had just aimed me at other enemies, too. The Hendrickson Organisation. If it proved that they were behind Cain’s escape, and were sponsoring him against my brother John, then they had nothing to worry about concerning an upcoming trial. If I had my way, none of them would be around to make their day in court.

‘For the time being Hartlaub and Brigham are at your disposal. I’ll have them take you anywhere you want to go, but then they will have to withdraw,’ Walter said.

‘They can take me to the nearest airplane. I’m going after Rink.’ Before Walter could argue, I added, ‘I’ve a feeling that when I find him, I’ll also find Cain. And God help anyone who gets between us.’

‘Just remember, son…’

‘I know, Walter. I have to do it quietly. You say John’s safe. You can guarantee that?’

‘He’s safely out the way.’

‘Keep things like that and I’ll do what you ask. But if anything happens to him all bets are off.’

His trip to the Adirondacks had proven more a distraction than a step in the right direction. Tubal Cain had never seen the man responsible for saving his life that day in the cavern at Jubal’s Hollow, but he had heard his name whispered during frequent visits by doctors who conducted their studies upon him while he was confined at Fort Conchar. He didn’t feel that he owed Walter Hayes Conrad a thing: the man’s apparent magnanimity hadn’t been born from humanity. He had tracked the CIA man to his retreat in the woods, before news of Cain’s escape forced him into deep hiding. He’d ambushed the two goon-like bodyguards, shooting both of them before moving on to the older man. Give the old bastard his due, he’d held out even when Cain dismembered his bodyguards in front of him. Only when Cain turned his ministrations to the CIA man himself did he elicit any answers. Shame that he hadn’t mentioned sooner that he wasn’t the one Cain was looking for. It would have earned the man a quicker death than the one that followed.

Still, he wasn’t complaining. The distraction had proven quite enjoyable. Just like old times. Cain left the Adirondacks feeling rather nostalgic.

With Conrad apparently aware of his escape, he would be untouchable for now, so Cain had moved on to another avenue that would lead him to his prey. He found Michael Birch easily enough.

Birch thought he had made it when he’d landed the job with the Virginia State Attorney’s Office. He was only an underling to the state attorney himself, but so what? He was moving in the kind of circles he’d always aspired to. Securing the job, he’d expected a new lifestyle that included big money. As a top analyst in his field, he’d attained the rewards befitting his position, but had avoided the media interest that occasionally made the state attorney’s life unbearable. He rested easy in his obscurity, just took the remuneration and left the accolades to his boss. He’d thought himself safe from the men and women that his office prosecuted. Untouchable. But he hadn’t vectored the Harvestman into the equation.

Cain — once an agent with the United States Secret Service — knew how the Federal Witness Security Programme worked. He also had insider knowledge of the creation of new identities for those placed into the safe keeping of the US Marshals Service.