“Yes it is,” agreed Robie.
“But one day I was taking a drive towards the old rock quarry. There are some good streams to fish in nearby. The quarry was in operation when I was growing up here, though it closed a long time ago now. But I had passed the second silo site on my drive, and it occurred to me for the first time how close the two sites were. I don’t know why I had never noticed that before, but now I did.”
“It took us a while to make the connection too,” admitted Reel.
“I had the benefit of having toured this facility several times on some of my trips back many years ago. It’s quite the labyrinth.”
“We know you also toured Lambert’s place,” said Reel.
Blue Man nodded. “I wasn’t sure what was going on or who was behind all this. I felt I had to look at all possible options. I knew Lambert through Claire. I got the tour so I could see the lay of the land. See if it was possible for them to be holding prisoners here. But it would have been problematic for Lambert to have prisoners at his silo. Too many people would know. This place is different. Thus, it didn’t take a great deal of conjecture to come up with a possible solution to the problem of where one keeps prisoners clandestinely.”
“Did you know they were going to take you here when you left the clue in your gun?” asked Reel.
“When I heard them coming, I thought they were going to either kill me or kidnap me.”
“Have you seen the others? Lamarre or Parry? Valerie Malloy?”
“The sheriff? She was taken?”
“Just recently.”
Blue Man shook his head. “I haven’t seen anyone. They’ve kept me in a cell by myself.”
“Patti Bender shot and killed her half brother,” said Reel.
Blue Man looked deeply shaken at her words. “Derrick is dead? Does… does Claire know?”
“I doubt it. It just happened. They dumped his body in the quarry.”
Reel looked closely at Blue Man. “Claire talked to us… about Patti. That she’s… she’s your daughter.”
Neither one of them had ever seen Blue Man dumbstruck before. Neither had seen him out of control.
Until now.
He slumped over and put his head in his hands. A quiet sob escaped from his lips. “I never knew,” he said hoarsely. “Oh my God. Patti.”
Reel sat down next to him and placed a supportive hand on his quivering shoulder. “That’s what Claire told us. And I don’t think Claire knows anything about what’s going on here.”
Robie stared down at him. “We all have family issues, sir. You know that about us better than most.”
Reel nodded as Blue Man slowly regained his composure and his gaze rose to meet Robie’s. “We do, some perhaps more than others.” He paused and took a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes. When he looked up the calm that they both had always associated with the man had returned. And his features seemed resolute. “I suppose you were sent out here to find me?”
Reel nodded. “The Agency can’t lose you.”
“Well, the Agency can’t lose you both, either. More so than me, actually. And so I’m very sorry that you two had to be brought into this.” He looked around at the cell and then down at his shackles. “They’re very well organized.”
“Which means it won’t be easy,” replied Reel, reading his thoughts.
“Did they show you what they’re doing here?” asked Robie.
Blue Man shook his head. “I wasn’t given the grand tour. But I had my suspicions because of the briefings I received. It’s drugs, correct?”
“On a big scale. Dolph the neo-Nazi is actually a chemist geek named Arthur Fitzsimmons from Caltech doing his very best impression of Walter White from Breaking Bad. He and Patti are in this together.”
Blue Man frowned. “Claire will be devastated by all this. Devastated.” He slowly shook his head.
Reel said, “Fitzsimmons said they’re closing up shop here and moving somewhere else. They know with all of us disappearing that an army of Feds are going to be converging on this place.”
She fell silent as footsteps approached once more.
Patti reappeared at the door. “It’s time,” she said.
CHAPTER
68
They were taken down a series of stairways until it seemed to Robie that they had reached the lowest level of the silo. It was dark, the air dank, but warm. It was hard to breathe down here and he suspected that the air filtration was not really working at this level. There were flickering lights overhead but they gave, at best, a meager portion of light. And farther down the long corridor Robie could see that the light kept diminishing until, at one point, it receded to total darkness.
They neared a doorway when Patti, who had led the group to this point, stopped.
The armed men with them immediately pointed their weapons at the prisoners. Robie glanced at Reel and their looks said it all.
Is this it? The point of our execution?
But no one opened fire, even as a door in the wall opened and Robie, Reel, and Blue Man looked on, surprised, as another group of people joined them.
Three of them were in blue scrubs. Two were male, and the other was a petite woman. All three were Hispanic and they looked terrified.
A fourth person shuffled forward. He was tall and lean with a trim white beard.
Robie recognized him from a photo as JC Parry, the one who had told Blue Man about what Lamarre had seen. Then the man himself stepped out.
Clément Lamarre.
He was thin, with lank hair and a scraggly beard. Both men looked dirty and weak, and Lamarre’s face showed evidence of physical abuse.
Blue Man said, “JC?” He made a move to step forward, but one of the guards thrust a gun muzzle in his face and Blue Man quickly stepped back.
Patti faced off with her father.
“You’re finally reunited with your old friend,” she said, her gaze roaming over his face.
Blue Man stared back at her, a mixture of emotions fighting for supremacy on his features until one finally won out.
Empathy.
“Your mother never told me,” said Blue Man. “I had no idea about… us. I’m sorry.”
Her gaze now held firm on his. “But you’re a very smart man, Mr. Walton. You could have easily figured it out. If you had wanted to. Which you obviously didn’t. So I can’t really accept your apology. Nor do I.”
“I can understand that,” said Blue Man.
“I don’t really care if you do or not.”
Robie interjected, “Where is Valerie Malloy?”
Reel glanced at him and then back at Patti.
Patti said, “Maybe she’s dead. Maybe I shot the sheriff and the deputy.”
Robie appraised her. “No, I don’t think you did. So where is she?”
“I’m here, Robie.”
Malloy appeared from around the corner being pulled along by another guard. She was shackled, and her face was bruised and cut in several places.
She was jerked within a foot of Robie and looked at him. “Good to see you.” Her eyes were watery and unfocused, as though she might have been drugged.