Jeff Abbott: Trust Me

‘Trade? Get real. I was just going to kill them and get my dad and my friend back.’ Luke spoke with a matter-of-factness that would have appalled him a week ago. But he meant what he said.

‘Are you suicidal?’

‘No,’ Luke said quietly. ‘But I helped build the Night Road. My stepfather tricked me, but the Night Road exists as a network because of me. I have to stop them.’

‘We have to think big picture,’ Wu said.

‘Big picture?’ He remembered the words often in his father’s mouth. ‘How’s this for a big picture. They are launching a huge attack.’ He checked his watch. ‘The planning meeting for the attack is taking place right now. You can decapitate their organization, but only if you act,’ Luke said, his voice rising.

‘As you said, you helped build the Night Road. You can help us reconstruct who’s involved, where they might be. We can’t risk losing you in an ill-planned attack on a terrorist cell. We’ll hide you. Find a way to put you to use. You know them better than anyone, you’re a valuable resource.’

Which meant walking away from his life. Leaving it all behind.

He believed Wu. Quicksilver was not bound by law. He had no idea if they were bound by decency, although he wanted to believe that any group his father had a hand in founding would be guided by good.

‘Please. Please. I need to help my dad. You may never get another opportunity to take down Mouser. And thousands of lives are at stake

…’

‘Orders say no.’

‘Screw your orders. I thought you were supposed to be nimble and fast and responsive. Well, I’m handing you these assholes on a plate and you’re too afraid.’

The stubbornness – bureaucratic idiocy – frustrated him. He gave Wu the details of the rendezvous at Aubrey’s office; it made no difference.

‘I won’t tell you a thing I know about the Night Road unless you help my dad.’

Wu acted like he hadn’t spoken.

‘What is wrong with you? You’re no better than the bureaucrats you claim to replace,’ Luke said. ‘At the least, call the police or the FBI, tell them that Mouser and these bad guys will be there.’

Wu said, ‘That would expose us, potentially, but I’ll consider it.’

Luke heaved back in the seat in complete frustration.

He glanced at his watch. I’m only one guy, Wu had said. Well, so was Luke. And he had made it this far. Sometimes one person had to be enough to make a difference.

He lapsed into silence and conjured up a half-baked plan. Drummond told him not to get cornered. Wu was a trained Quicksilver operative, and who knew what that meant? Ex-CIA or ex-FBI or maybe just a guy who wasn’t afraid of trouble if he was paid enough. He was trained to fight. So Luke would have to be smarter.

Scare him in a way he wasn’t expecting.

‘I have a confession,’ he said.

Wu glanced at him. ‘What?’

‘I’m not going with you.’ Luke threw open the Navigator’s door. At sixty miles an hour.

‘What the hell?’ Wu yelled. ‘Get the hell back in here.’

Luke stood in the open doorway, firming a grip on the Navigator’s roof.

Wu wasn’t slowing down.

Luke hoisted himself onto the car’s roof just as Wu veered across the lanes of traffic, horn blaring as he made for the highway exit. ‘Are you crazy?’ Wu screamed.

He was forcing his hand, at huge risk. He could not fight Wu without crashing the car; and he needed the Navigator. He just needed Wu lured out of it, and he didn’t have time to wait for Wu to get him to a safe house. He had to move now.

The car veered without slowing, and Wu swerved to avoid another car and the swerve nearly threw Luke from the speeding Navigator.

The Navigator careened toward the shoulder, which was all railing rushing by as the driver sped toward an exit.

They kissed the railing, sparks showering from metal biting against metal, erupting past Luke. The roaring of a honking semi tore within ten feet of them. Wu veered hard, taking the next exit, which was in downtown Chicago.

The car peeled through a red light.

He’s not slowing? Why? Because, dummy, he needs the speed. To toss you off. You’ve pissed him off. And he needs you unable to fight.

Wu aimed the careening Navigator toward the parking lot of a convenience store and as he crossed into the lot he slammed hard on the brakes. But Luke timed Wu’s approach toward the building, and slid back in the car through the open window as Wu jammed the brakes.

The brake slam threw Luke into the front seats, landing him on Wu’s head and sending him crashing into the front windshield, which buckled and cracked. But the force of his body hammered Wu into the steering wheel.

The car skidded to a stop.

Luke, dazed, bleeding from the back of his head, slid onto Wu, fumbled for the gun under the jacket. His fingers found it and he yanked it free as Wu struggled to grasp the weapon himself.

Luke put the gun to Wu’s temple. Wu went very still.

‘Stop! Out! Leave the keys in the ignition,’ Luke ordered.

‘You won’t shoot me,’ Wu said.

Luke moved the gun to the side an inch and fired. The bullet shattered the driver’s window. ‘Yes, I will.’

Wu stepped out of the Navigator. ‘You’re a suicidal idiot.’

‘Yeah,’ Luke said. ‘I’m just one guy.’ Luke kept the gun aimed at him, slid behind the wheel and roared off, the wind hard in his face.

Luke knew he’d be a cop magnet, driving with a shattered windshield.

But he had to risk it. If a cop pulled him over he would tell everything he knew. He’d given Wu information that could stop the attack, even if he couldn’t. Calling the police now would take too much time, involve too much explanation – they might not believe him. He was wanted in connection with the death of a Chicago cop. And the Night Road could meet and vanish, carrying their deadly cargoes to the target cities.

He had to act. Now.

I’m just one guy. Wu’s words. But one guy could make a difference in fighting the worst impulses of humanity.

Which was exactly what Mouser and the rest of the Night Road represented. Take away choices, take away security, and replace it with a twisted, bitter view of the world they thought best. It was the common thread linking the ideologies of the various fringes in the Night Road. They wanted the strength they would get – that they could only get – from creating a grave and constant terror that undermined everyday life.

He pulled back into the road and headed for Aubrey’s export/import business.

The meeting place for Hellfire was a small, sad, decrepit strip mall south of downtown. The night was cool and foggy and traffic was light the farther Luke drove from the freeway. He drove past the strip mall and saw a sign: PERRAULT IMPORTS. Aubrey’s company.

Eric – or Henry – had set up her office space as the departure point for the bombs. It made sense. An export/import company would not raise eyes by having a number of vans arriving and departing at odd times. Frequent deliveries would be seen as a part of that kind of business by any curious neighbors.

It made him feel sick, Aubrey pulled into Eric’s world and used this way. Even if Eric had developed real regard for her, he had hijacked her life into the darkness – just as Henry had hijacked his.

He parked the Navigator behind a closed strip mall down the street. Few streetlights dotted the road. He opened his door, checked the clip in Wu’s gun. There was a silencer mounted on the end – he’d never fired a gun with one before. He tucked the gun in the back of his pants.

He had the vaguest shape of a plan in his mind, but it depended on whether his father and Aubrey were being held at the office. He thought they would be. If they weren’t, then he didn’t have to worry about getting them out. If they were – he would face a choice. A hard one. Hellfire had to be stopped, no matter what.