Jeff Abbott - Fear

They headed right, toward the falls themselves, walking along the raging creek of cascading snowmelt. There wasn’t much of a crowd this early in the season; Miles saw a trio of Japanese tourists; an elderly couple with a decided spring in their step, leaning on each other, smiling; a young couple staring up at the falls with worshipful rapture.

He saw Nathan, smiling, jumpy, excited. Then Celeste, her lips and nose bruised, her face pale.

A tightness grabbed his chest.

Groote stood next to her – his face was a mess; the tourists passing stared at him, then put their eyes to the waterfall or the trail when Groote returned their looks – and an older man stood next to him. The man was built tall and wiry, balding, with a thin, intelligent face. He wore jeans, a black coat, boots.

They waited at a widening in the trail, a juncture where visitors could observe both the falls and the swollen rivulet that surged away from the falls’ base. The roar of the falls increased and now Miles felt Bridalveil’s kiss on his face, his hands; he would be soaked if he stood in the mist for ten minutes.

‘Hello, Miles. It’s a pleasure to meet you,’ the man said. ‘Edward.’

‘Dodd,’ Edward said, ‘I don’t have Frost. I’ve told you the truth.’

‘There’s a clearing where it’s not so damp. I’d like to smoke a cigarette. Rocks to sit on, nature’s boardroom.’ Dodd started walking, as though assuming all would follow, and they did.

‘Are you okay?’ Miles murmured to Celeste. She nodded, squeezed his arm. He shot a look back at Nathan, who kept a worshipful stare locked on the back of Dodd’s head. They followed him down the soaked stone trail, retreating from the falls, Nathan bringing up the rear. Miles glanced at Groote; Groote met his eyes, gave no expression, no reaction, as though Miles weren’t there.

Dodd led them across a bridge that spanned the snow-swollen creek. A flat area, covered with boulders, was to their right and Dodd found a rock about chair height. He sat, gestured for Miles and Celeste to sit next to him. Nathan, Groote, and Wallace stood. No other visitors were within hearing and the roar of the falls drowned their conversations from any passing ears.

‘A beautiful choice for a meeting place, Miles,’ Dodd said. He lit a cigarette. ‘Nature is so calming.’

He talked, Miles thought, as though he held every face card. ‘Why is Groote here?’

‘He’s working for me now. Not Quantrill.’

‘He kidnapped Groote’s kid,’ Celeste said. ‘Blackmailed him into switching sides.’

‘Celeste is overdramatizing,’ Dodd said. ‘I made a job offer, he accepted.’

‘You clearly have a plan, then,’ Miles said.

‘Groote here goes back to Quantrill and steals Frost. I find a place for you and your friends and Doctor Wallace to lie low. When Groote’s got Frost back, then his daughter – and you and Nathan and Celeste – can be in a legitimate program to test Frost and get the help you all need.’ Dodd smiled.

‘No strings attached?’ Miles asked.

‘A few. I’d prefer you not get back in touch with other… federal authorities. And when you’re feeling better, Miles, maybe I can offer you a more rewarding life than WITSEC ever could. You’re resourceful under difficult circumstances. You could come work for me.’

‘What about Celeste? Her face, her name, is known. She’s on the front page of the papers today.’

‘I’ll help her resurface. Build a back story. Interest in her will blow over in another week. No offense, Celeste,’ Dodd said with a wink.

‘We left a dead man behind in her house.’

‘Hurley’s buried,’ Groote said suddenly. ‘I found him, I took care of him.’ He glanced at Miles – an odd look, Miles thought, full of heat.

‘Hey, Groote,’ Miles said. Groote looked him in the eye. ‘Dodd thinks you killed his agent. Sorenson.’

Groote shook his head.

‘I don’t care about Sorenson,’ Dodd said.

‘You should. If Wallace doesn’t have Frost, I’m sure Sorenson does.’ Miles crossed his arms. ‘What’s he doing with it if he’s not delivering it to you?’

‘If you’re so concerned Sorenson’s alive and well and wishing us harm,’ Dodd said, ‘go hunt him down. I get Frost, I don’t care.’

Miles said, ‘I’m not seeing the powers of persuasion it must have taken for you to talk Nathan into betraying us.’

‘I didn’t betray you.’ Nathan’s voice shook.

‘Shut up, Nathan. You could have been honest with us at any point. You weren’t. You delivered us to this guy.’

Nathan said, ‘This was the only way for us to get Frost, be in legit testing, move on with our lives.’

Miles shook his head at Nathan. ‘Are you really traumatized or you just faking?’

‘Everything Nathan endured in Iraq, and afterward, is true,’ Dodd said. ‘He volunteered. He wanted a chance to help his fellow soldiers.’

‘Don’t judge me,’ Nathan said. ‘I’m not a criminal.’

‘I agree,’ Dodd said. He stood. ‘Celeste, you killed a man, albeit in self-defense, but you fled the scene. Miles, I don’t even want to think about how many laws you’ve broken in pursuit of Frost. Help me and I can make sure none of your crimes haunts you.’ He crushed his cigarette under his heel.

‘Or you kill us. Quantrill’s not an idiot; he’ll hide Frost where we’ll never find it.’ Miles stood now, close enough to Dodd to smell the cigarette smoke on the man’s breath. ‘The question you’re dodging is, what is Sorenson going to do with Frost if he has it? Sit on it, take it himself, sell it back to you or to Quantrill or-’

‘He’s right,’ Groote said. ‘That would be the question.’

‘Answer him,’ Miles said.

Nathan said, ‘Miles. Step back.’

‘What, you’re a bodyguard now?’ Miles said. ‘You were a kid too scared to know what to do in Allison’s house, crying and chained to a bed in that hospital, afraid of mirrors, too scared to be honest with me and Celeste. So shut the hell up, Nathan.’ He decided to test Dodd. ‘Sorenson wanted Nathan dead because he was afraid Nathan knew about him. I’m curious, did Sorenson go after Nathan on your order? Do necessary housecleaning once your operation fell apart?’

The only answer was the steady roar of the falls and the delighted whoop of a hiker heading up the trail.

Finally Dodd shook his head. ‘Of course not. I came to help Nathan. And to offer an arrangement to you. So you two can either help me or I can make one call and have you and Celeste under arrest and in jail for the foreseeable future.’

‘Not if we tell all we know.’

‘I’m talking jail in a foreign country. Shaman was highly classified. You’re in possession of knowledge of top-secret government files. If you had possession of Frost, that’s called treason, son. I can render your asses to Morocco or Pakistan and that’s all they wrote. I don’t think those are the kinds of walls you want surrounding you, Celeste.’ He shrugged and offered a negotiator’s smile. ‘Listen, I don’t want to pull out big guns. But you either cooperate or you don’t. The choice is yours.’

Miles looked up at the boulder opposite him, and Andy and Allison both sat, as though they’d been hiking through the trails and needed to rest.

‘Choice is interesting. Choice helps you pull and tug apart at a theory,’ Miles said. ‘Why, I wonder, did Wallace make the choice to stay and wait for you? Let’s say he got the Frost files when Allison hid them and then covered his tracks, and he’s lying about the files being destroyed. No reason for him to stay and take the heat from you. He could run and vanish. He’s got a commodity worth millions.’

‘Innocent men don’t run,’ Wallace said.