When she was gone, Nate asked, “How long has she been here?”
“Three months, July,” he said. “We’re like an old married couple the way we fight all the time. She’s got a good heart, though. I’m fond of her, and it’s tough on her Cohen is gone. Really tough.”
Nate did a quick calculation in his head. She couldn’t be the vixen who lured Large Merle to his death if she’d been in Idaho for three months. But who was to say there was only one vixen?
“Have you checked her out?” Nate asked Kennedy softly.
The man nodded. “Of course, or I wouldn’t have let her in the door with Cohen. In a nutshell, she’s a North Carolina girl, born and raised in Charlotte. Old Southern family. Went to the University of Montana, then moved to New York. She was some kind of prodigy at a big public-relations firm for a while, got married to a sharpie, then divorced. No kids. She wanted to move back home, and she bounced around for a while until she ran into Cohen at Sun Valley and he brought her back here. No gaps in her history, no likely interactions with bad guys. Most of all, no incentive to infiltrate our compound. She was crazy about Cohen, even though they fought all the time.”
Nate nodded. “Are you two …?”
“No,” Kennedy said flatly. “Not that I haven’t suggested it. But no.”
“And Nunez?” Nate asked.
Aldo Nunez was a wiry man of Hispanic origins with a cherubic face and the ability to insinuate himself into any group. Nate had met him only once but liked him immediately.
Kennedy said, “He went down to talk to the local cops to find out what they knew about Cohen’s beating a week ago. That’s the last we’ve seen of him. He just never came back. You didn’t know Nunez very well, but believe me, he’s not the type to bug out.”
Nate rubbed his face with his hands.
“Diane Shober went with him,” Kennedy said flatly.
“So she’s gone, too.”
“I’m afraid so. Collateral damage.”
“It’s worse than I could have guessed,” Nate said.
Kennedy simply nodded as he kept his eyes on Nate.
“She’s right,” Kennedy said, referring to what Haley had exclaimed. “We’ve been virtual prisoners here. Honestly, I’m not afraid to go out, but I understand the odds. So we haven’t left this place since Nunez vanished. I haven’t been able to go to the church to preach.”
He chinned toward the window above the sink. “We haven’t opened the curtains until just this morning. We’re locked down and I’d like to say we’re ready for anything, but it depends what they throw at us. As you know, this is a tough place to get into if you don’t know the keypad code. I can’t see them trying an all-out assault. Instead, they’ve been patient and they picked us off one by one.”
Nate said, “Why do you think they’re gone now?”
Kennedy shrugged. “Because we’re still alive, and God has a plan for me. He wants me to continue to do what I’m doing here.”
After a few moments, the Reverend Oscar Kennedy said, “You came here for help and information, Nate. I’m not sure I can provide information, and the men who could help you have been taken from us.”
“I understand,” Nate said. “I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is.”
“Do you know how many men Nemecek has on his team?” Nate asked. “Has there been any chatter about changes in tactics?”
“A little,” Kennedy said. “Obscure references. Some serious complaints. But I can’t recall seeing a number, and certainly not a list of operatives.”
“Damn.”
“Everything is locked down tight. Tighter than you can believe.”
“What do you mean when you say ‘serious complaints’?” Nate asked. “About what?”
“The quality of Nemecek’s team. There is some grumbling from ex — Five operators still in the business that quality control isn’t what it used to be when he’d been selecting men. I get the impression,” Kennedy said, “there is a feeling Nemecek has surrounded himself with a close group of men without strong character. Not that they aren’t well trained like we all were, but that he’d let the intangibles slip. There’s been some chatter that Nemecek prefers yes-men to patriots these days. That at least some of the Peregrines are there to serve John Nemecek instead of their country. He’s ambitious — we both know that. He likes power, and he always thinks he’s the smartest man in the room.”
Nate nodded. “So he’s surrounded himself with thugs.”
“That sums it up pretty well. But you know how it is. Ex — Five operators always think they had it tougher than the new recruits. It’s part of the game.”
“But in this case they may have a point,” Nate said. “The three men I saw in Colorado wouldn’t have been in Mark V ten years ago. They would have washed out, believe me.”
“Because you defeated them?” Kennedy asked.
“Because they weren’t that good,” Nate said. He looked around the small kitchen, at the thick window and the steel window frames. At the dishes undone in the sink.
“Maybe we should all get out of here,” Nate said.
Kennedy quickly shot that down. “Never. This is my home, and my church needs me. I owe them. I can’t just leave. My work has just started here, Nate. The word is starting to get out that people like us have a place to come and find fellowship and worship God.”
Nate didn’t argue. Kennedy was adamant.
“Can you print out some of the chatter you found?” Nate asked. “I might be able to decipher some of it. I need anything I can get.”
“I’ll find what I can,” Kennedy said, wheeling back from the table. “I’ll check to see if there’s anything new. Maybe we can find out what happened to our friends out there.”
“Thank you.”
Kennedy spun in his chair and propelled it toward the next room, where his computers hummed. But in the doorway he stopped suddenly, and turned a half turn so he could look at Nate.
“Are you finally going to tell me what this is all about? A lot of blood has been shed, and we’ve lost some really good men. I’d like to know why directly from you, because I’m not sure I can believe what I read on the Net anymore. I’m sure Nemecek has changed history.”
Nate said, “You know why.”
Kennedy’s face flushed with anger. “I know John Nemecek is your mortal enemy. But what I don’t know — and I deserve to know — is exactly what happened back in 1998 in the desert.”
“Nineteen ninety-nine,” Nate corrected.
“So be it,” Kennedy said. But his face was set and he wasn’t moving.
“Print out what you can,” Nate said, “and I’ll tell you if you really want to know.”
The Reverend Oscar Kennedy glared at Nate for a while until his expression finally softened. “Okay, then,” he said.
While Kennedy was in the computer room, Haley reentered and strode purposefully toward Nate and sat down at the table. There was no avoiding eye contact this time. She was all business.
“I want you to find the men who did it,” she said. “You owe it to me and to Gabriel. Not to mention the others.”
He stared back at her and again felt the little tug inside him as he looked into her wide blue eyes. He had always been a sucker for long black hair and blue eyes, especially if they belonged to intelligent women.
“I’ve heard a lot about you,” she said. “At one point I really wanted to finally meet you and hear if what they said was true. But not under these circumstances. Now I just want you to go and find them.”