John and Craig’s distraction for Emily consisted of a
duck call. Ignored for ten minutes, the main house emptied of guards
when the noise grew raucous, and it was at that moment that Emily cut
her way through the chain-link fence in back.
“She’s disturbed the fence perimeter detectors by now,”
Craig announced, consulting his watch. “Nobody inside to keep an eye on
things. Someone’s gonna get their ass canned for this.”
An explosion sounded in the distance, sharp and echoing.
Lights went out briefly in the house, and then the generator kicked in
for the five or ten seconds left to its functional lifespan.
The antenna alongside the house blew in a show of sparks.
Fuel detonated in the generator shed, sending a fireball rolling into
the pitch black, early morning sky. Craig and John had already donned
their night vision goggles. “Heads up. We’ve got company.”
Dobermans arced across the front lawns, a prime example
of Murphy's law in action. Battery-powered yard lights came on and
flooded the grounds with the cold illumination of mercury vapor
lighting, each terminated by a quick succession of shots fired from a
surplus M-14 resting against Craig’s shoulder as John armed and chucked
the flash grenades across the interior of the fence.
John covered his eyes. Blue-white light flashed. Dogs
howled in terror, and men roared in anger and outright panic. Craig
nodded the night-vision goggles and exchanged the M-14 for the tranq
gun, taking out a guard and a guard dog unaffected by the flares.
Behind them, a car approached. Francis and Evelyn had
arrived to collect Emily and await the two men. Craig and John ran for
the house and took cover behind planters. “Senator Hacks!” Craig called
out. “Your daughter is here to speak with you! We’re not here to hurt
anyone!”
The front door creaked open. One of the guards stepped
out with raised hands. “Who are you! Identify yourself!”
“I’m here!” Evelyn cried from a distance, her voice
carrying well in the night. “Father, I’m here!”
Senator Caliph Hacks and another of the guards stepped
out onto the porch clutching handguns. Craig took the initiative to
expose himself with raised hands. “Hear your daughter out, sir. Either
it’s done peacefully, or we’re gone and you’re never going to know what
this was about. It’s something you need to hear.”
Senator Hacks gestured for a guard to put his sidearm
away. Evelyn drew closer.
The senator’s voice was flat. “I thought you were dead.
All these years...”
“Father, somebody is trying to kill me.”
The man’s eyes widened. He shook his head emphatically,
but he had already stuffed his foot into his mouth.. “I know nothing of
that. I had nothing to do with it. I swear.”
“Nobody else has any reason! Nobody even knows who I am!”
“I wasn’t my idea! I swear!”
Evelyn stared at the man in dismay. He had reacted to an
accusation. The woman standing before him could have been anyone. The
fact that it was his daughter meant nothing to him.
The Senator glanced nervously about. “We can reach some
sort of accord,” he said. “It wasn’t my idea to allow anyone to get
hurt. I have not had a personal hand in this.”
Evelyn stared at John and Craig, confused and helpless.
“Evelyn, be reasonable,” Senator Hacks said. “It’s not
too late to come to some accord. I can give you everything you could
possibly want out of life. We don’t have to do this to each other.”
“All I ever wanted was my own life, you bastard! You know
they lied! You know they hurt me!”
“None of that mattered!” Senator Hacks yelled back at the
girl. “My God, Evelyn, do you know what the press would have done to me
had I tried to defend you against those men? It would have meant my
career!”
“My career, father. My honor!”
“You were nothing but a plaything to hang clothes on! I
have the potential to become the President of the United States!”
Evelyn’s tone of voice emptied of even anger. “I doubt
it. I sincerely doubt it.”
Evelyn whipped her twenty-two caliber handgun from the
elastic of her slacks, startling John with the realization that nobody
had anticipated this particular turn of events. “I wanted so badly to
see you again, father. I thought you would be glad to see me and tell me
that it has all been a terrible mistake. You were my father! I
was your daughter!”
Francis cried out. “Evelyn, wait!”
Evelyn fired twice. The first bullet spun the Senator to
the ground. The second went wild, her aim deflected by Francis'
double-fisted blow between the shoulder blades that sent Evelyn pitching
to the ground.
The Senator’s guard dived for the gun rattling to his
feet. By then, John had his own pistol drawn and aimed at almost point
blank range, shaking his head in warning. The guard climbed warily to
his feet and backed away.
Francis retrieved Evelyn’s revolver. Craig shrugged, eyed
unhappily by his partner. “Okay, so I shouldn’t have given it back to
her.”
John gestured for the guard to attend the Senator. “Get
him inside before some other idiot starts shooting.”
The guard did as he was told. Already, an ashen Senator
Hacks climbed to his feet, the inside of his chest and arm bloodied by a
flesh wound, but nothing more serious. The guard helped the older man
inside and seated him on a couch near one of the battery-powered
lanterns. John followed them in, leaving Craig outside to monitor the
remainder of the recovering guard force.
“There have been a succession of attempts upon your
daughter’s life, all of them badly botched,” John said, and the Senator
looked up from his bloodied hand in surprise.
“The body count stands at eight, including three women,
three of Evelyn’s friends. For the sake of a friend of my own, I need to
put a stop to this. Unless you want those deaths made public, I need
your cooperation. I need the name of the people you’ve hired to kill
your daughter.”
“I hired nobody!”
“As you wish.”
The Senator’s eyes widened as John started to turn away.
“Wait! I don’t know who he may have employed! I don’t
know how he learned of my daughter and what she was doing! He warned me
that the political liability was unacceptable and offered to help if I
expected his continued support! He said nothing about harming anyone!”
“She’s family, you fool,” John murmured, “your own flesh
and blood.”
“I can’t survive without the financial support, for
Christ’s sake! Two hundred million dollars worth of campaign funds! He
told me he’d take care of the matter, that I’d never hear of it again!”
“I need a name.”
The Senator moistened his lips. He broke out in a cold
sweat in the warm evening air, trembling and pale. Seeping blood
continued to soak his shirt. “Leave Evelyn with me,” he said softly.
“We’ll work something out.”
“You’re out of your fucking mind.”
“He’s untouchable! He’s one of the wealthiest, most
powerful men in the country! There’s nothing you can do!”
“I don’t have to be here, Hacks. I don’t like it here at
all. I want to get this over with one way or another and get some fresh
air. As far as I can see, we can end it here and now by going to the
press. There won't be anything left of you to protect.”
Senator Hacks lowered his head is panicky submission.
“Bertrand Bartow. His name is Bertrand Bartow.”
John nodded his satisfaction. “Then you had better hope
Bartow is as far as this goes. If we’ve reached a dead-end, our only
recourse is to watch both you go down in flames and hope it takes the
heat off the rest of us.”
The Senator shot to his feet. “Please let me mediate. We
can reach some accord.”
John retreated to the front door and called back to those
behind him. “Everyone, back to the car.”
John caught the guard’s eye, the one cool and rational
intellect at work in the room. “Everything’s been recorded and the
recorder is nowhere nearby. If we’re stopped before we reach Bartow,
it’s already too late to silence us. We've never been here and nothing
at all has happened if you cover for us. Do you understand?”
“The Senator’s name will never be mentioned,” the guard
said. “Is that the agreement?”
John responded with a curt nod.
The guard shrugged. “Works for us.”
John trotted back to the waiting car expecting a bullet
in the back at any moment. “I need to make a phone call,” John said to
nobody in particular on the drive back to the house. Francis handed him
a cell phone.
“A payphone,” John said.
The car emptied at the house. Jennifer appeared from the
house, took the wheel, and drove to a truck stop outside town with the
sunrise a glow on the eastern horizon. John left the car, comforted by
the cool morning air. He dialed the operator, asked for a number, and
reversed the charges.
“State your business,” Garko murmured quietly on the
other end of the line.
“Bertrand Bartow. Evelyn Haxx is the daughter of Senator
Caliph Hacks. According to the Senator, a man named Bertrand Bartow
offered to resolve the threat his daughter poses to his career.”
“You’ve been busy, John.”
“The Senator’s standing behind an eight ball the size of
a planet. Maybe we can salvage the situation if we can negotiate with
Bartow and get him off our back. You could, if it was in your interest
to do so, facilitate matters by letting me know who the hell this
bastard might be.”
“I had no idea of the scope of this situation, John. I’ll
do what I can. Give me a call this evening.”
John returned to the house ready to call it a night.
Jennifer lay at his side, fully awake. “Francis is having a panic
attack. Craig has his hands full with Evelyn. I heard what happened.”
“Some realities you can’t hide from,” John said. “Some
games you gotta play.”
“What if we don’t know the rules?”
“We make our own. Bartow is the end of the line. He’s got
to be the one behind it all.”
Jennifer thought about it. “And then what happens?”
“Bartow calls our number for us and calls off his circus,
or we threaten to turn out his lights. Once we have your antidote, we're
home free.”
“What if it doesn’t work out that way?”
“Then it'll work out some other way.” He folded the girl
into his arms. “Don’t waste your time on fear. Things are happening here
and now. Keep your focus, kid. This is where the action is. Don’t think
another thought beyond the here and now until we get to Bartow. If he’s
big enough to hire killers, it might occur to him that he's a big enough
target to take one and retreat gracefully. I’ve seen it done a thousand
times. It’s the easiest money I’ve ever made.”
“I forgot that you’d know all about that.”
“I’d forget, too, if I knew how.”
Novels by
William G. Tedford