Terry Watkins - The Big Burn

The jogger, Frank Patterson, was searching for Ellis, finally spotting him in a tree grove. He looked around as if making sure they were alone, then walked over to his former boss.

“Where are we?” Ellis asked.

“Verrill’s assembling a team to go in.”

“They still getting response from Jason Quick?”

“Yeah.”

“Who’s going in?”

“Quick’s daughter, Anna. She’s a smoke jumper and he’s demanding she come in with the team.”

“What!”

“I don’t know what the hell’s going on with him. Verrill says Quick is over the edge. Full-blown paranoia. He won’t cooperate unless we send his daughter in. She’s agreed. We pulled her off a fire in California.”

Patterson shrugged, then shook his head. He was a CIA agent who’d worked for nine years under Ellis before Ellis was pushed out. “John Brock, Special Ops, took her to Guam for some quick OJT to get her ready to jump on that island.”

“Quick wants his daughter in that mess? He must be crazy.”

“It’s bizarre as hell. Verrill thinks he’s farther over the edge than we first thought.”

“I can’t believe she agreed.”

“Well, she’s at the Guam IC right now. Verrill’s not happy about sending anybody in there. It’s a miserable situation. The island is on fire. It’s a real no-man’s-land. Neither Malaysia nor Indonesia have any authority in that area. Thousands of little islands. Most of them either controlled by pirates or criminal enterprises. Or Jemaah Islamiyah terrorists. Verrill thinks maybe the best way to play this—”

“I don’t give a rat’s ass about Verrill’s worries. We need to get rid of this bastard and get that damn laptop. Verrill understands that his name might be on one of those files, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah. But he thinks if we play it so we can’t find Quick, he’ll just die on his own.”

“So he thinks.”

“Or somebody from the Jemaah Islamiyah will get to him if he’s out there long enough.”

“Can’t risk it. The laptop is still out there. Besides, it’s too late for that. We have to make sure this is buried and buried deep.”

“The ship’s on course to arrive in three days in Marseilles.”

“Then you tell Verrill he better get moving.”

Patterson sucked in his breath, and said, “Consider it done.”

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