Дэвид Балдаччи - Walk the Wire

“I know. And that’s what scares the hell out of me.”

He said nothing more, but just stared at the darkening skies like they would any minute starkly reveal his even darker future.

When they drove up to the front gate of the facility two men in suits approached them.

Jamison rolled down her window and showed her creds.

“Go right in,” said one of the men. “You’ve been cleared through.”

The gate opened and Jamison drove on.

“Robie’s doing?” she said.

“When I called Robie and filled him in on what we had discovered, he said he was going to get the wheels turning for our visit here. And they were going to start making discreet inquiries about the chemical weapons piece.”

They parked where they had last time and got out.

Jamison said, “So where do we begin?”

“Let’s try the pyramid building first. Probably the closest I’ll ever get to Egypt.”

Another man stationed there and also wearing a suit, his eyes shielded by sunglasses though now the dark clouds fully covered the sky, let them inside.

They could see that the stone walls on the outside also constituted the interior walls.

The inside was enormous. In the center of the facility was, at least Decker assumed, the PARCS radar apparatus that Sumter had told them about. It looked somewhat like the enormous telescopes one would see in an observatory but with lots of other equipment surrounding it, including workstations lining the walls, with banks of darkened computers on them.

“Wow,” said Jamison. “This looks like something you’d see in a weird science fiction film where they’re plotting how to blow up the world.”

“It might not be fiction,” retorted Decker.

“Gee, thanks for that comforting thought.”

Decker saw only one doorway set into the far wall. “Let’s go see where that leads.”

Multiple sets of stairs led to a lower level, where Robie had previously told them the prisoners had been kept.

They were cages more than prison cells, obviously improvised by the look of them.

“They probably just dumped these things in here once they decided to use this place as a jail,” said Decker. “Doesn’t look like a lot of thought went into it at all.”

“Imprisoning and torture don’t require a lot of thought. Just a lot of immoral people doing all the wrong things for all the wrong reasons,” Jamison said forcefully.

“I can see you’ve given this some thought.”

“In my previous life as a journalist I did a story on the subject. It wasn’t pretty.”

They both noted the blood and what looked like bodily waste on the floors of the cages. And the smell of urine was strong in the air.

“Despite how disgusting this all is, I take it we won’t see any congressional hearings,” said Jamison.

“They’re going to bury it all like they told us,” replied Decker. “And so long as the people behind it are punished, I’m okay with that. We have enough to deal with as a country without having this added to the pile.”

“I suppose,” said Jamison doubtfully. “But what about the truth coming out being the cornerstone of democracy?”

He glanced at her. “Your old journalist’s antennae tingling for the truth to come out again?”

“But that’s in the past. I follow orders now.”

“No, it’s not in the past, Alex. It’s why we’re here. To find the truth.”

She smiled. “I knew I liked you for a very good reason.”

“If they did work on chemical and biological weapons, it must have been down here somewhere.” He eyed twin corridors that went off to the left and right.

“Do you think this place might be contaminated?” asked Jamison suddenly. “I mean some of that stuff can hang around a long time.”

Decker stiffened. “I didn’t really think about that. But people have been working here for decades. If the place had been contaminated, they would have shut it down. At least they should have.”

“Let’s hope you’re right. I’m not as confident.”

He led the way down the corridor on the right. After taking flights of steps down they reached a cavernous room nearly as large as the one containing the PARCS system above them.

“We went down several sets of long steps to get to this point,” noted Jamison. “So this space must be well underground. A hundred feet or more.”

Decker nodded in agreement as he gazed around. “Doesn’t look like they used this when they were running the prison. And it smells moldy, too.” He walked the perimeter of the room, examining the walls and floor. In one place the wall was lighter than the other sections. Decker looked this over and then kept moving.

He stopped abruptly and turned to Jamison. “Wait a minute. How did Ben Purdy even know that something like that had happened here? That there were chemical and biological weapons produced here.”

“I don’t know. But we saw the research he’d done on those pages.” She tensed. “Wait a minute. What would prompt him to even do that research?”

“That’s what I was talking about. And I think the answer is Brad Daniels.”

“No, Daniels was the catalyst for Cramer’s coming here. He had nothing to do with Purdy.”

“Why do you think that?” asked Decker.

“Your cardinal rule: There are no coincidences.”

“Well, for every rule there is an exception. In fact, I think he did learn about it from Brad Daniels.”

“Based on what?” she asked.

Decker pulled out Daniels’s hat and pointed to another pin on there.

Jamison examined it. “An anniversary event the Air Force held?”

“Two years ago, at Minot Air Force Base, right here in North Dakota.”

“But how can we know they both attended, even with that pin on his hat?”

“I know they did, because it was noted in Purdy’s service record that he attended that very same event.”

“But we still can’t be sure that they met there.”

“Which is why I’m going to call the nursing home in Williston and have it out with Brad Daniels once and for all.”

“Go easy on him, Decker. He’s an old man.”

“That ‘old man’ is tougher than just about any son of a bitch I’ve ever met,” Decker groused.

“But he wouldn’t tell us anything before. Why would he now?”

He held up the hat and smiled. “Because now I’ve got a bargaining chip.”

“Mr. Daniels, it’s Amos Decker with the FBI.”

Decker held the phone away from his ear as the old man started screaming at him.

“You son of a bitch. You give me back my hat. You’re a thief!”

“So you noticed it was gone? I take it your eyesight is better than you let on.”

“If I were forty years younger, I’d kick your ass.”

“But you’re not, so let’s make a deal, Mr. Daniels. You answer my questions and I guarantee that you’ll get your hat back intact.”

“What questions?” Daniels barked. “I told you I can’t answer nothing. It’s classified. Do you know what ‘classified’ means, moron?”

“What I’m going to ask you has nothing to do with classified information. I just want to ask if you met someone at the anniversary event you attended at Minot Air Force Base.”

“How the hell did you know about that?” Daniels barked.

“You have a pin about it on your hat.”

“A hat you stole . That’s a felony.”

“At most it’s a misdemeanor. And like I said, you’ll get your hat back. I promise.”

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?”

“Because, like you, I took an oath to serve this country. And that oath means a lot to me, like it did to you.”