David Baldacci - Divine Justice

"Is there a law against that?" Knox said, now smiling broadly and, he hoped, disarmingly.

"What do you want?" the man said gruffly.

So much for disarming. "Right now, a place to sleep, Mr…?"

"Just call me Bernie. Sorry, but I'm all booked up."

Knox looked over his shoulder. "This the high season in Divine?"

"I've only got two rooms to let."

"I see. Thing is, I was supposed to meet a buddy of mine up here. Maybe you've seen him, tall, lean guy around sixty with close-cropped white hair."

"Oh, you mean Ben? He's got one of the rooms, but he's not there right now."

"Any idea where he is?"

"Over at the hospital?"

"What's he doing there? Did he get hurt?"

"Almost got his butt blown up. Killed Bob and Willie Coombs, and your buddy came real close to meeting his maker."

Knox kept his voice calm and level. "So where is this hospital? I want to go see if he's okay."

"Oh, he's okay. We're all glad of that. Ben's a real hero."

"How's that?"

"Helped a couple of our own. Danny Riker when he got in trouble on the train. And Willie Coombs when he almost died on drugs. Ben saved ' em both. Right good fellow. And then Danny got attacked here in town. And Ben saved him again. Beat up three guys, or so I heard."

"Wow, that sounds like Ben all right. He was always in the middle of all the action. I'll give him your best when I see him at the hospital. And where was that again?"

Bernie told him. "But visiting hours are long over."

"I'll try to talk my way in. But if I can't, anybody else around here that can help me?"

"You can try Abby Riker out at her place, Midsummer's Farm." Bernie gave him directions. "From what I heard she and Ben got real tight."

Knox slipped a twenty into the old gent's hand when they shook.

"You're welcome to sleep in the front room," Bernie said, indicating the space behind him.

"Thanks, I might take you up on that."

He walked back to his truck trying to keep his nerves steady. He climbed in the rig, fired it up and pulled away. As he steered one-handed along the winding country road, he used his free hand to flip open the glove box. He pulled out his nine-millimeter pistol and laid it on the seat next to him.

John Carr here I come.

ANNABELLE LOOKED DOWN at her vibrating phone. "Who would be calling me in the middle of the night?"

"Maybe it's Reuben?" said Caleb as he drove along.

"No. I don't recognize the number." She flipped open the phone.

"Hello?"

"Annabelle? How's it going?"

She snapped, "What the hell do you want?"

Alex Ford said pleasantly, "It's nice to hear your voice too."

"I'm a little busy, Alex."

"I'm sure you are."

"Wait a minute. Where are you calling from? I didn't recognize the number."

"A payphone."

"Why a payphone?"

"Because I'm pretty sure my home, cell and office phones are being tapped."

"And why is that?" she said slowly. "Is Knox on your case still?"

"That's why I'm calling. I got a frantic phone call from Knox's daughter, Melanie. She's a lawyer in D.C. Her dad's disappeared."

"No he hasn't. He's after Oliver and we're after Knox."

"And where is all this taking place?"

"In the boondocks of southwest Virginia. So you can tell little Melanie that her daddy is just fine. For now at least."

"That's not all. His house was turned over by someone looking for something, and I'm not talking your random burglary. And on top of that I had a visitor, a man named Macklin Hayes."

"Doesn't ring a bell."

"No reason it should. He's a former army three-star who's now on the intelligence side. His rep is like a Carter Gray only more sinister and evil. He's also Knox's boss and he doesn't know where his guy is, which means Knox is roaming free."

"Why would he be doing that?"

"He might if he found out something that made him uncomfortable about what was really going on with all this. I don't think Knox is a killer. He's a tracker, and if Hayes put him on Oliver, he must be the best they have on that score. It seems clear that when Knox finds Oliver, he was to call in Hayes' heavy artillery to finish the job."

"What would Knox have found that would make him start freelancing?"

"No clue. How close are you to finding Oliver?"

"Hard to say. We narrowed it down to four towns up here-at least we think that's the case. We've cleared two of them and we're heading to a third now."

"Caleb and Reuben with you?"

"Of course. We're the Camel Club, remember?"

"Or what's left of it."

"Yeah, we seem to be dropping members like flies in a jar. Of course some chose to leave, others had no choice."

"Annabelle, I'm trying to help here, okay? I'm taking a big risk just talking to you about this."

"Nobody's asking you to take any risk, Alex. Just go back to your nice, safe federal job."

"What is it about you that pisses me off so much?"

"My girlish personality?"

"Well, keep this in mind, girly . If Knox is on his own then in Hayes' eyes he's become a target just like Oliver. Hayes will take them both out and anybody else who's standing around."

"The three of us are willing to take that risk."

"I know you are, but have you bothered to ask the other two?"

"I don't have to ask. The fact that they're with me right now is all the answer I need. Unlike some people."

Caleb glanced nervously over at Annabelle.

"Okay, just don't say I didn't warn you."

"Yeah, thanks for all your help." She clicked off and threw the phone down.

"I take it the conversation didn't go all that well," Caleb said.

"You can take it that way, yeah."

"So what did he say?"

"Hang on a minute. There's Reuben."

The big fellow was waving to them from the side of the dark road. They pulled over and in a few minutes had loaded the motorcycle into the back of the van. As they resumed driving Annabelle filled them both in on what Alex had told her. At the mention of Hayes' name Reuben's face turned a shade paler.

"Macklin Hayes?"

"Yeah," she said. "Do you know him?"

Reuben nodded. "I served under him at DIA. Also did some fieldwork for him in certain parts of the world, where the good general had a well-deserved reputation of leaving his men out to drown when things went to hell. I happened to be one of his little sacrifices. But no dirt ever splashed on him. Which is why the asshole sits where he does today."

"Well, he's apparently after Oliver and Knox now."

"So Hayes' plan is to take out Oliver then?" Reuben said slowly.

"But we're ahead of the dude on that score," said Annabelle, noting the nervous look on Reuben's face. "And since he screwed you this would be a perfect way to settle things, Reuben," she added.

"You don't settle things with a guy like Macklin Hayes, Annabelle," he said. "He's got an army behind him and, while the man's heart is as black as they come, he's also smart and cagey as hell. I've never known him to lose at anything."

"Reuben, we can beat this guy."

Caleb said, "But we really don't know if Knox is on the run from Hayes. That's just Alex's opinion. They could still be working this thing together. Maybe Hayes' visit to Alex was a ruse."

"That makes no sense, Caleb," Annabelle snapped.

"It makes as much sense as us running around the country trying to find Oliver while the CIA is too. I mean, do we actually think we can beat them at this? And what if we do find Oliver first? Then what? We just make him disappear without a trace with all those people looking for him? We're not experts at that."

"I am," Annabelle retorted.

"Fine, you are. I'm not. So we make Oliver disappear. Then what? I go back to my job at the library after being inexplicably absent? You don't think they won't be all over me?" He looked over at Reuben. "And if they waterboard me, I'll spill my guts. I'm not naïve enough to believe that I can withstand that crap. And then I go to prison for the rest of my life. Great!"