David Baldacci - Divine Justice

He gazed at a stunned Knox for a moment longer and then turned to Stone.

"It's been a long time, John. I can't say the years have been kind to you."

"They've been better to me than they have been to you, Mack ."

"Tell me, how did it feel to kill our old friends? Did your chest puff with pride when you finished them off?"

"That's right, you wouldn't know how it felt to kill somebody. You always got other people to do it for you."

Hayes opened his briefcase and took out a single piece of paper. He held it up for Knox to see. It was the order signed by Hayes cutting off further discussion of John Carr receiving the Medal of Honor.

"When you called and told me that the 'country' folks around this filthy hole in the ground might rally around the persecuted Vietnam vet, I wondered what you might have meant by that. And how you found out about it. I went to the military archives. They were very helpful in showing me what you'd looked at. Unfortunately, the boxes weren't inventoried, but this page had left a bit of the print on the inside of the box wall. It was enough to have my people search your house. And they found this. I thought it had been destroyed a long time ago. Just goes to show that no one is truly omniscient."

He glanced over at Stone. "And I'm sure John here has told you all about our little disagreement in the jungle."

"I've told him nothing. He was working for you. You think I'd trust his ass?" Stone snapped.

Hayes sat back and rested his hands on his lap. "John, you're a much better killer than you are a liar. Prevarication is my bailiwick. And I could always sense it in others."

"You could never let it go, could you?"

"Why should I? You hurt me a long time ago. Where's the justice in that?"

"Justice?" bellowed Knox. "You kept him from getting the Medal of Honor!"

"And he kept me from the promotion that was rightfully mine."

"You're comparing what this guy did on the battlefield to making you wait a couple extra months to get your crappy pair of oak clusters?"

"He was a grunt. We had millions of them. But there weren't that many officers of my caliber. I'm certain he hurt the war effort by doing it."

"You really think we would've won the Vietnam War if you'd been made lieutenant colonel sooner?" Knox said in disbelief.

"I admit I have an ego."

"That's not an ego. That's freaking psychotic."

Hayes pulled out a lighter, clicked it against an edge of the old paper and in a few seconds it crumpled to ash.

"Now let me get this right." He pointed at Knox. "You're an armed robber and murderer. Nasty business. If I'd only known." He turned to Stone. "And you're Anthony Butcher . At least that idiot warden has a sense of humor if not style. Triple murderer. How perfect, though that tally hardly does you justice."

He rose and clicked his briefcase shut. "I believe that's all. I'll leave you two to serve out your debt to society. I've told the warden to be especially attentive to you both. I'm sure you appreciate the significance of that."

"Hayes!" Knox screamed as he strained against the shackles. "There is no way in hell you can pull this off. Not even you."

Hayes stopped at the door. "Well, the fact is, I just did. Oh, and one more detail. The guard who contacted Marsh on your behalf? I wouldn't wait around for his help again. You see, we traced the call to his home phone. I've shared that information with the good warden. I'm certain he'll follow up in an appropriate manner."

He closed the door softly behind him.

"THE HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH people and Amnesty International, among others, have been trying to get into Blue Spruce for years," Caleb said after he'd informed them of many particulars of how the prison was run. They were all back at Tyree's house, which they were now using as a base.

"The list of alleged human rights violations there is very lengthy," Caleb continued. "But the prison has refused all requests for visits by Amnesty and other organizations. God, even Russia has allowed those folks to visit its prisons. And when several inmates had stun guns used on them at Blue Spruce, lapsed into comas and died, additional requests were made to enter the prison, but they were denied."

Alex looked at Tyree. "I know he's your brother, but all that going on right next door and you never did anything about it?"

"That's another reason Howard and me aren't close. Who do you think turned Amnesty International on to the place?"

"You?" said Caleb.

"I went up there once on a prisoner transport. Poked around a bit when nobody was watching me. I guess my big brother thought I could be trusted. Stuff I saw, heard. Yeah, I called it in. Howard found out later. That was the official end of our brotherly love and I haven't been invited back to Blue Spruce since."

"Let's just call the place by its real name, okay?" said Annabelle sternly. "Dead Rock!"

"With all that stuff how come the Justice Department or the Civil Rights Division hasn't opened an investigation then?" said Harry Finn. "Or at least the Virginia Department of Corrections?"

Caleb looked at his notes. "Apparently, the current state and federal administrations don't have the rights of prisoners as a priority. There was talk of a state inquiry but it went nowhere, and the Justice Department has nothing pending. And for the last two years the prison has been more or less shut down to all visitors."

"So Howard Tyree has his own personal little fiefdom and can do what he wants. Including selling drugs," growled Reuben. "And holding innocent men."

"Looks that way," said Caleb.

"What about the mineshaft?" asked Annabelle.

"I did find some info on that," Caleb answered as he pulled out some pages he'd printed off at the library. "It was cut on a parallel course to the shaft the miners were trapped in. I read a couple newspaper articles about it and then compared it to records I was able to access about the prison construction. I can't be certain, mind you, because it's not like they publish the blueprints for supermax prisons online. But it seemed to me that that rescue shaft ran all the way up that ridge because that's where the miners were trapped. When the explosion happened it collapsed the tunnel the trapped miners were in, but the rescue tunnel survived. I know that because the other miners were able to get out okay. It says that the mine was sealed up at the entrance, but it doesn't say anything about the rescue shaft entrance."

Reuben said, "But if you build a supermax on top of a mine and you know there's a shaft running underneath, you sure as hell are going to plug it up."

"Plug it up, sure, but maybe in a way that allows you to unplug it," replied Annabelle as she paced the room in front of them.

"Howard was involved in the construction planning, that I know," said Tyree. "It would be just like him to allow himself some flexibility."

"But why would anybody do that?" asked Alex. "Prisoners could escape that way."

Annabelle turned around to face him. "From what Caleb has been telling us about Blue Spruce, there's no way that escape is that serious of an issue. Every prisoner is kept segregated, and then shackled and searched when they need to take a leak. There are almost as many guards as cons, and they only get one hour out of their cells a day. The setup is perfect for a drug-dealing operation that requires some of his men to routinely leave the prison in the middle of the night to take care of business."

"But if some of the guards are involved why wouldn't they just leave from their houses?" asked Caleb.

"Howard Tyree sounds like a real control freak to me. He'd want every man right under his thumb."

"You're right about that," agreed Tyree.