Howard nodded. “Thanks.”
Nadine was there then, and there were tears and hugging. After which she called him a few names, the least of which was “stupid.”
Man, he was glad to see her.
“Dad?”
“Hey, son.”
Fernandez cranked the bed so Howard could sit up. Tyrone came over and smiled at him.
Howard said, “Where’s your little friend?”
Tyrone frowned, then saw Howard grin and realized it was a joke. “She’s in the waiting room. I’ll go tell her you’re okay. They wouldn’t let anybody but family in.”
Howard looked at Fernandez. He shrugged. “I told them I was your brother. They decided it wasn’t worth arguing about.”
A nurse came in, asked a couple of questions, then looked at the beeping machine to which he was wired. “The doctor will be in to see you in just a minute.”
“Uh-huh. Sure. I’ve heard that one before.”
She shook her head and left.
“How long have I been out?”
“Not long,” Fernandez said. “Been about six hours since you got here.”
“Where is here?”
“Anchorage. That’s in Alaska.”
“Thank you for that information, Sergeant. How did you get here so fast?”
“I have a friend in the Air Force who owed me a big favor. You haven’t lived until you’ve done a supersonic barrel roll. Yee-haw.”
Nadine said, “Are you okay, John?”
“I’ve felt better, but yeah, I’m okay.”
“Good. I have to go to the bathroom. Stay right here.”
He laughed. “Don’t do that. It hurts to laugh.”
She headed for the bathroom. Howard grinned as he watched her walk away, then looked at Fernandez again. “You want to tell me about it?”
“Why don’t you go first? I’ll fill in what we know that you don’t.”
Howard nodded. He laid it out, the whole thing; it was vividly clear in his mind.
When he was done, Fernandez nodded in return. “Ninety yards, huh? Hell of a shot.”
“That’s what I thought. I wouldn’t want to meet this guy one-on-one in the daylight.”
“Your tactics could have been better.”
“I lie corrected, Sergeant. Your turn.”
“Well, you actually did better than he did. The marshals had one wounded, but they collected two corpses, one by the fence, one in the SUV. One in the car was in the passenger seat when they found him, but holes in the windshield and spatter pattern says he got it while driving. How many rounds did you fire at the driver?
“Three.”
“All in the glass, four-inch group. And they counted five holes in the back.”
“I shot six.”
“You missed one. You need more practice.”
“Five out of six at ninety yards, in the dark, car going away? I don’t think so. I do think I’m gonna keep that Medusa,” he said. “I feel a certain bond with it. Go ahead.”
“No ID on the dead men, nothing useful in their pockets or clothes, which makes them pros. Feebs are running prints, nothing yet, but I’d guess we’re talking some kind of mercenaries. Our boy Morrison must know he has reason to rent serious muscle. Everybody and his kid sister is looking for him. Some kind of plane took off from an old field not far away, no ID on it yet, but it must have hugged the ground for a ways. Nobody’s radar spotted it.”
Howard’s wife came back from the bathroom, and within a few seconds the doctor came in. He was maybe sixty, iron-gray hair cut short, in a white shirt and slacks and a lab coat. “Good afternoon. I’m Dr. Clements. How are you feeling, General?”
“I’m ready to run a marathon. Right after breakfast.”
“Yeah, I bet. Let me poke and prod a little here. Folks, if you’ll step outside?”
“Nothing he’s got we haven’t seen,” Fernandez said.
“Humor me,” Clements said.
“You heard the man,” Howard said. “Maybe I don’t want you to see my new tattoo.”
Fernandez grinned. “I got a few calls to make, anyhow. I don’t know why, but there are people who care if you croak.”
As he started to walk away, Howard said, “Thanks for stopping by, Sergeant.”
“Hey, no problem. It was a slow day at the office anyway.”
Nadine said, “You stupid, stupid, stupid men! Would it break your faces to say you care?”
Fernandez looked at her deadpan: “No, ma’am, but I’m pretty certain our balls would fall off.”
You really shouldn’t laugh after being shot in the gut, you really shouldn’t.
Toni stood outside HQ and stared into the cloudy blue sky. Going to rain, she guessed.
Yeah, and maybe if you’re real lucky, lightning will strike you.
She sighed. How did she get into situations like this? She had just come from her meeting with Director Allison, and the good news was that she had been offered a job. The bad news was… that she had been offered a job. And what a job — a newly created position, special assistant to the director, and liaison to Net Force.
She would be working with Alex, but not for him. And she would be responsible for conveying the wishes of the director to Net Force in such a way as to make certain that the “interface” between the bureau and Net Force would be more “cleanly meshed.”
Translation: She would be looking over Alex’s shoulder, making sure he didn’t screw up.
She didn’t have to take it, of course. She could walk away, and she would have, except that it was the perfect job. She’d be in fairly close contact with Alex, she could cover him if he did stub his toe now and then, and she’d still be working for the government. With a grade and pay raise, to boot. Essentially, she would be Alex’s equal at work.
The thing was — how was she going to tell him? He might not see it for what it was, and knowing Alex, he might feel, well, upset.
She didn’t want to upset him. Then again, it wouldn’t really hurt him, would it? And in the long run, it could be better for their relationship.
Ah, said her inner voice, rationalization rears its ugly head!
“Shut up,” she told her inner voice.
A Marine lieutenant walking past glanced at her, but apparently decided she wasn’t talking to him.
She didn’t have to take the job. She told the director she’d have to think it over, that she’d get back to her. But she had made up her mind.
Morrison never thought he would be glad to see the gates of a racist militia compound, but as soon as they closed behind the car, he felt a lot better.
General Bull Smith was waiting at the main compound, and as soon as Ventura had alighted, he made straight for the man.
“Everything go okay, Colonel?”
“More or less, sir. We had some problems. I don’t want you to get blindsided by this, so I’ll just tell you up front — we are going to get some heat because of a few things that went down.”
Smith smiled. “Heat doesn’t bother us at all. Idaho summers’ll give Hell a run for the money sometimes.”
“Some of this could be from our own side.”
Morrison watched Smith take this in. “That a fact?”
3”You’ll hear about it on the news soon enough. I lost two men. A couple of federal marshals went down, too.”
“No shit?”