Stuart Woods - Shoot Him If He Runs

“I’ll get this done, Director.”

“All right, I’ll make the call now; go back to your office, and I’ll call you when it’s in the works.”

“Ah, there is one other thing, Director.”

“What thing?”

“Hugh English.”

Kate Lee emitted a small groan.

“There was no way I could ask Jim Tiptree not to report this to him. I’m sure he’ll be on the phone to me within minutes.”

The Director sighed. “Hugh English is going to be more trouble than the ambassador,” she said.

“I know. Unless you speak to him before he speaks to me, there will be an eruption, and I don’t think we want that.”

The director picked up the phone. “Get me Hugh English, please; if he’s not in, try his cell or his car phone.” She pressed the speaker button and waited.

Lance tried not to squirm in his seat.

“Hello?” Hugh English might have been in the room with them, his voice was so clear.

“Good morning, Hugh.”

“Not really, Director; I have a problem.”

“The situation in St. Marks?”

There was what seemed a stunned silence, then: “I’m very surprised that you should know about this so quickly, Director; I’m not sure it rises to your level.”

“Hugh, we’re not sure about this yet, but the Peppers may have been detained because Bill was trying to extract some information from St. Marks government computers at my request.”

“I received no such request from you, Director.”

“No, it was made through another Agency officer who is also present on St. Marks at the moment. It’s my understanding that Bill Pepper has been extracting all sorts of information from those computers for months, so I believed that my request would be routine for him, and he did not indicate otherwise.”

“Director, I’m sure this could have all been avoided, if you had had the courtesy to go through my office, as prescribed by the operational procedures which you yourself instituted.”

“Perhaps, but we don’t know that yet. He may well have been detained for something you yourself asked him to do.”

Lance loved that.

“In any case, Hugh, I am personally working to have the Peppers released and returned to the U.S., perhaps as early as tomorrow, so please take no steps in that regard without consulting me first.”

“As you wish, Director.”

“I think we can resolve this quickly and without a fuss, so just give me some time. In the meantime, you might be thinking about a replacement for the Peppers on St. Marks.”

“Don’t you think that might be precipitous, Director? I mean, until we know the meaning of their detention, we won’t know if they’ve been compromised.”

“Hugh, they were compromised the moment they came to the personal attention of the infamous Colonel Croft.”

“Quite,” Hugh English said. “I’ll begin working on a replacement. Is that all, Director?”

“For the moment, Hugh.”

“Good-bye.” He hung up.

“If he calls you, Lance,” the director said, “stonewall him, but as politely as possible. Now, get to work on getting an airplane there tomorrow.”

Lance stood up. “Thank you, Director.” She was asking for the White House when he left her office.

Bill Pepper still sat in the uncomfortable wooden chair, and the light coming through the closed shutters on the window told him that the sun was well up; his stomach was telling him it was near lunchtime. Colonel Croft kept leaving the room and returning and asking the same questions all over again.

Colonel Croft now returned again and took his seat at the desk. “Mr. Pepper,” he said, “I am growing weary of your intransigence.”

“Colonel Croft,” Pepper said, “I have repeatedly answered every question you have put to me; there is no intransigence on my part.”

“Mr. Pepper, go to the door there and open it.”

“Colonel, I have already seen your display.”

“Do as I say immediately.”

Pepper got up wearily, went to the door and opened it. Everything was as before, except that Annie Pepper was seated in the torture chair, blindfolded.

“Return to your chair and sit down,” the colonel said.

“Annie,” Pepper said, “don’t worry, honey; everything is going to be all right.” He closed the door and returned to his chair, this time frightened, but furious.

“Now, Mr. Pepper…” the colonel began.

“No, Colonel,” Pepper replied, cutting him off. “Not now, not ever. I demand to see an official of the American Embassy at once, and if you so much as touch a hair on the head of my wife, I will take it upon myself to see that you will spend the rest of your days regretting it. And if you don’t think I have the juice to do that, you are very much mistaken. This interrogation is at an end.”

The colonel rose from his chair, opened a desk drawer and removed what appeared to be a riding crop. He strode around the desk and stopped in front of Pepper. “Now, Mr. Pepper, we will see how much influence you have.” He drew the crop back so far it was over his shoulder.

Irene Foster was pushing her grocery cart down an aisle at her favorite supermarket in Markstown, thumping melons and sniffing cheeses, when her basket collided with that of another woman.

“Oh, I’m so sorry; I…”

“Irene?”

Irene peered at the other woman. “Margaret Tiptree? I don’t believe it.”

“I don’t believe it, either,” Mrs. Tiptree said. “What on earth are you doing in St. Marks?”

“I retired here earlier this year,” Irene replied. “Is Jim based here?”

“He’s the cultural attaché at the embassy,” Margaret replied, winking.

“Of course he is. What a plum assignment!”

“It’s a great way to ride out the three years until his retirement,” Margaret said. “We like it here so much, we’re thinking of staying.”

“Well, you must come to dinner, soon. It would be good to see Jim again; it’s been years. His work must be boring, though.”

Margaret came closer and lowered her voice. “Not today, it isn’t. Colonel Croft has got Bill and Annie Pepper in his jail, and Jim is worried sick. He’s over there now.”

“I remember Bill Pepper,” Irene said, “but I don’t know his wife.”

“He’s undercover in one of the offshore casinos, and we don’t even know why he was picked up.”

“That’s bad news,” Irene said. “That Colonel Croft is a throwback to the Middle Ages; there’s no telling what he will do.”

“Well, Jim’s all over it, so I’m hoping for a good result.”

The two women chatted a bit longer and made a dinner date for the following week. As soon as they had parted, Irene went to an isolated corner of the supermarket and dialed a cell phone number.

“Yes?”

“Teddy, it’s Irene.”

“What’s up?”

“I just ran into Margaret Tiptree at the supermarket.”

“Jim Tiptree’s wife?”

“Yes; he’s based at the embassy here.”

“Is something wrong?”

“Do you remember a young officer named Bill Pepper?”

“Yes, I outfitted him on his first mission for the Agency.”

“He’s here, too, undercover, in one of the offshore casinos, and that awful Colonel Croft has arrested him.”

“Oh, shit,” Teddy said.

“Jim is on the job, but I’m afraid Bill is going to be hurt before they can get him out. They arrested his wife, too.”

“Christ, I hate hearing that.”

“You’ve had dealings with Croft; is there anything you can do?”

Teddy was quiet for a moment. “Yes, there is, and I should have done it sooner,” he said. “I’ll speak to you later.”

Teddy hung up, remembering where Colonel Croft liked to have his lunch every day. He went to a shelf in his workshop and removed a slightly battered briefcase that was heavier than it appeared. He checked the contents, then closed it and headed for his car. He drove to Markstown, to a hilltop overlooking the town and, in particular, the Markstown jail. He drove up an overgrown dirt trail to a spot he knew: an old tower that had once been used for firespotting, dating to a time when there were more trees on the island.