James Smith - The Flock

"What's wrong?"

There was a great gulf of darkness between them. Each stared across the blackness, seeing only that.

"How can you make that accusation against Mary? What evidence do you have?"

Kate didn't reply. Ron stood against a wall, and he wasn't sure any more where the door was. Kate sat precisely where she had been when she and Ron had embraced. Short embrace.

"Two minutes ago you were kissing me," Kate said. "Two minutes ago I was the object of your desire. You were enjoying it, so don't lie."

"I didn't say anything about not enjoying it," he told her. He repressed an impulse to draw his arm across his mouth. "It. It's just. Hell. I can't believe that about Mary. I've…We…"

"You know, I'll never be able to understand your kind. I tell you something that's obviously the truth, then you're scared and frightened and angry because you don't want to hear it." She shifted, let one of her long, long legs slide until it was flat against the tiled floor. Ron heard her booted heel squeaking along the way.

"Angry isn't what I'm feeling. I'm confused."

"Think about it."

"Why would she do that? That's not like her. What evidence do you have?"

"See? You are angry. I can hear it in your voice and I can hear it in the way you're talking. You're pissed off with yourself, for not realizing it, but you're taking it out on me. Now don't deny it, because I've seen it too many times to mention."

"Crap," he said. Finally, he too slumped to the floor, the wall at his back as he came to a sitting position. "I just want out of here."

"That's not what you were saying a few minutes ago. A few minutes ago you were probably hoping no one bothered us for an hour or so."

"Yeah. Well, maybe. But that was before you were accusing Mary of murder."

"Think about it, Ron! Who else was with you when Dodd passed you the disk? Who else knew about it?"

"But she didn't know what was going on there, what he passed on to me. She…"

"But she was there. You even told her you were going in to town to see Dodd. And he never made it, did he? You don't know what she saw when he gave you the disk. She's a sharp young woman. Maybe she knew what it was before you did.

"And you're going to tell me it was just a coincidence that she showed up at your place just in time to save you? And I'm willing to believe a woman can defend herself. But come on, Ron! She bested two professional killers? Give me a break!"

"I…I…can't believe it."

"You'd better start believing it. Or at least consider the possibility," she said.

There was a long pause. They sat there in the total blackness, each hearing the other breathing. From time to time Ron lifted his hand and passed it before his eyes, saw nothing, blinked, repeated the process. It had been a long time since he'd seen darkness this complete.

"You okay?" she asked. "Your head, I mean. Where he hit you."

Ron reached back and felt the large but unpleasantly soft knot on the back of his skull. "I'll survive," he told her. "If we had any light, you could ask me how many fingers you were holding up."

Neither of them laughed.

"We'll be out of here soon," Kate said, as if she were certain of it and could have announced the precise moment if only she could read her watch.

"How do you know that? They haven't seemed too anxious to check up on us." He rolled his head on his neck, checking out the muscles there, and for any traces of dizziness.

"I know Adam, and I don't think he'll leave us here for too much longer. Even if Vance doesn't come right back in, I think he'll let us out. At least out of this room. Kamaguchi won't let him keep us cooped up in here. For a stoic Asian, he's got a soft heart, and he'll talk Adam into letting us out to use the facilities and get something to eat and drink."

"Well, you know 'em better than I do. Whatever they do, they're up the creek, I can tell you that. You can be damned sure I'm going to have the lot of them arrested for this stunt."

Again, an uncomfortable silence settled in. They sat apart, facing one another across the pitch-blackness, the soles of their shoes perhaps six feet from the other. Ron coughed. Kate sighed, cleared her throat.

"What?" he asked.

"I wasn't going to say anything. I just cleared my throat."

"Oh."

They blinked. Breathed. Rested. A few minutes creaked past.

"When they let us out, we have to tell them about Mary. About what we suspect of her," she said.

"But we don't know. Not for certain."

"Are you willing to risk your life on it? If she helped to deep-six Dodd, she can arrange for the rest of us to go, too. Think about it."

And even though he could not see her, could barely even hear her, Ron could feel a wave of anger emanating from where she sat. "But you still haven't given a reason why would Mary do such thing."

"Why does anyone do such a thing? Money, Ron. And the folks who offered it to her have very, very deep pockets. Take my word for it. Even Vance is nothing more than a bump in the road to them. She'd do it for the cash. I mean, the gator trapping business can't be that lucrative."

"But, Mary and I…"

"What? You had a thing going? You made love to her? It's sometimes not that big a deal, Ron. Not to someone who would cooperate in the murder of another human."

"That's hard to take," he told her.

"Well, start considering the possibility really fast. I doubt we have a lot of time left if she's able to get word out to whomever it is helped her take out Dodd. So stop being mad at me for bringing it to your attention."

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I reacted that way. But there's nothing I can do about it. It's just natural for me to come to her defense. It would be cruel to believe that about her."

"And we have another possibility to worry about," Kate continued.

"And what would that be?" Ron asked.

"She may have already gotten in touch with the other side."

"Other side?"

"The bad guys."

And although he didn't like what he was hearing and the suspicions that were creeping into his mind, he couldn't deny that Kate was onto something. Mary had been there when Dodd had passed him the disk. She had become a familiar face in Salutations-at least in certain quarters. There had been the surprise that she and Tatum were acquainted. She'd even known Dodd.

It was possible.

He had decided that he would not say another word until their captors returned to release them, or someone appeared to rescue them. Ron would just sit there and keep his mouth shut. It would be best all around.

And that was when the first shot rang out.

The fire team came down the approach road to the Eyesore as if they were merely a group of lost tourists. That was the way it had been planned, and that was the way it was supposed to have played out with the mole. They were in a plain white Astro van, four years old and completely untraceable. The tag was legit, but it would become invisible and lost for all time as soon as the job was done. The Colonel himself had taken care of most of the fine details, and what he had not accomplished himself he had left to men who were well versed in such misdirection. The last thing on the minds of the five assassins was whether their vehicle could be traced back to anyone who worked with Grisham.

Silently, they sat hunched in the van and all of them merely surveyed the new territory. Their mouths were closed. They had said everything that needed saying before they'd left Grisham's property. The lay of the land and the interior of Holcomb's compound were parts of an open book to them. The outside of the place had already been a faux target to them for months; the Colonel liked to use it in his games and drills and had never seriously thought of it as a legitimate mark. But the interior of the collection of buildings was another matter. One could conjecture, based on the exteriors, what lay inside. But of course they didn't have to guess, for a certain traitor was waiting to let them inside, and make things a little easier.