It wasn't that he wasn't cynical. You couldn't do this job as long as he had and not cross that line a long time back. Experience without cynicism was a sure sign your brain had dry-rotted and you hadn't bothered to notice. He went into every high-level meeting these days knowing there were at least three agendas and also knowing he'd only be told one of them.
He put on his jacket and fingered his wallet with one hand, his rental truck keys with the other. He could also run, head for the hills, let Hayes find another lackey to do this job. There were plenty waiting in line. And truth be known, Knox was finding his enthusiasm for locating Carr waning the more he learned about the man and the more he found out about Hayes' probable reasons for taking down a war hero who'd never gotten his due.
He went down to his truck and debated whether to go to the One T and give it another whirl. He decided that might be worth it but he would do it later. First, he wanted to take a drive around and see what the night had hidden from him. He highly doubted one of those things would be John Carr. He had started out wanting no more than to find the man. Now a part of him was hoping it would never happen. And not just because a run-in with Carr, the grizzly bear of government assassins, would probably not end well for Knox.
It had something to do with justice, a concept Knox had not entirely forgotten, even if his boss apparently had.
CHAPTER 47
"THERE HE GOES," said Annabelle. They watched from inside their van parked at the corner as Knox drove off.
"What do we do?" Caleb asked.
"Follow him." She held up a device. "I've got another tracker I can put in that truck."
Caleb put the van in gear. "You come prepared, I'll give you that."
"Just wait till you see what Reuben's bringing."
They followed from a discreet distance as Knox did a sweep of the area before parking at the One T and going inside.
"This should be interesting," said Annabelle with a grin.
Knox sat down at the counter. Herky, who was two seats down and working on his third plate of food, looked up, scowled and moved over next to Knox as the same waitress hurried over to take his order.
"Back again?" said the waitress.
"Thought the night might have refreshed your memory," Knox said.
"Only thing it refreshed was me knowing I was right to tell you to blow it out your butt."
Knox dialed back his natural anger and tried his best to keep it light. "Hey, give Uncle Sam's guy a little more respect than that, will ya?"
Herky moved slightly and bumped Knox in the arm. He glanced over at the big man. "Is there a problem?"
"No problem," said Herky, whose menacing features clearly said otherwise.
The waitress moved away to make a phone call.
"So you got any kids?" said Herky.
Knox looked surprised, but said, "Yeah, two, why?"
"So why don't you take care of 'em?" Herky snapped, stuffing a biscuit in his mouth.
"What the hell are you talking about? My kids are grown and gone. They should be taking care of me."
"Asshole," said Herky between bites.
"What?"
"You leave your wife and kids with nothing. Asshole," he said again.
"Herky!" the waitress said as she rejoined them. "Shut up!"
"Doris, this man is letting his wife and kids starve."
"Starve! My wife's dead. Who the hell have you been-"
Herky bumped him again. "I got a mind to take you out back and teach you some manners, mister."
"I wouldn't advise that."
"Advise this!"
Herky swung a big fist. Knox caught it, twisted it around Herky's back and then slammed the man's face into his grits and eggs.
"Hey!" the waitress screamed as other men in the One T started rising from their chairs to help their friend.
Knox pulled his badge and his gun. "Everybody sit their butts back down in their chairs unless they want to spend some quality time in a federal prison a long way from here."
The men froze, all except Herky, who was snorting out grits and egg yolks.
Knox looked at the waitress. "Who the hell told you that I-"
The waitress committed the mistake of glancing toward the door.
Knox burst outside, his gaze sweeping up and down the street.
Annabelle peered back from inside the van, the front of which was just barely in Knox's line of sight. She was still holding her phone from when the waitress had called her. "Damn it, they must have tipped him off somehow. Caleb, put the van in reverse and very slowly back up."
Caleb did so, and then once out of Knox's sight he backed into a parking lot, shifted to drive and sped off.
"That was close, but at least I got the tracker on his truck while he was in the One T." She looked at a small device in her lap. "He's on the move. Let's go, but take it slow."
Knox knew that someone was on his trail, but he wasn't sure who. Hayes would have most likely taken a direct route. Was it one of Carr's friends? The chick with the fast tongue? The Secret Service agent? But how could they have possibly followed him here? He kept gazing in the rearview mirror as he drove to the bus station. It wasn't due to be open for another day, but Knox was done waiting. He didn't like the sensation of people creeping up behind him. He would tear up this whole town and find somebody who could tell him something.
He banged on the door of the bus station long and loud enough till a middle-aged man looking very put off came into view. Knox plastered his creds against the glass. When the man saw them he paled and quickly unlocked the door.
"Can I help you?" he said in a trembling voice.
"You better hope to hell you can."
Twenty minutes later he had his answer and was rushing back out to his truck.
The man had recognized Carr. He'd been traveling with another man, younger. They'd taken a bus heading even farther southwest. The man had gotten hold of the driver at home. He'd remembered where he'd dropped the pair. Basically in the middle of nowhere, but it was a start.
Knox floored it.
He was coming to realize that maybe the only way he was going to survive this was to find John Carr.
CHAPTER 48
KNOX WAS MOTORING DOWN the road trying to fathom how somebody had been able to follow him up here. Not even Macklin Hayes with all his support had been able to accomplish it. It was like they knew exactly where-
He nearly swerved off the road. He cut the wheel hard and turned off into a dark path. He put the truck in park, threw off his seat belt and went over the interior of the cab meticulously. He found nothing. But his examination of the truck's exterior was far more productive. He held up the small tracking device with the magnetized side. It had been placed inside one of the rear wheel wells. As he held the tracker, a smile crept across his face.
Annabelle was driving and Caleb was staring at the tiny screen.
"How we doing?" she asked.
"He's up there about a mile ahead, going straight." They had a vertical slab of mountain on one side of them and on the other a drop of nearly a half mile with not a guardrail in sight. "Seems like Oliver took a bus."
"Judging from the way Knox ran out of the bus station, I'd say that was a pretty safe bet."