“No.” Dajkovic stepped back. “Keep your hands away from your body. And say your prayers.”
“Don’t do this,” Gideon said.
Dajkovic racked a shell into the chamber.
He fought to think straight, to clear the fogginess from his head. “What do you know about me besides what Tucker said? Christ, can’t you think for yourself?”
Dajkovic raised the gun and looked him in the eye. Gideon felt desperation take hold: if he died, his father would never be vindicated, and Tucker would never get his comeuppance.
“You’re not a killer,” he said.
“For you, I’m going to make an exception.” Dajkovic’s finger tightened on the trigger.
“If you kill me, at least do me this one favor: take that envelope. Look into the story I told you. Follow the evidence. And then do what you think is right.”
Dajkovic paused.
“Find someone who was there in 1988. You’ll see. My father was shot down in cold blood — with his hands up. And that memo — it’s real. You’ll discover that, too, eventually. Because if you take my life you’ll also have to take on the responsibility of finding the truth.”
He found Dajkovic peering at him with a strange intensity. He wasn’t pulling the trigger — yet.
“Does it sound likely to you? Not that a guy with a top-secret security clearance at Los Alamos would be passing secrets to al-Qaeda — that’s possible. No — that General Tucker would know about it? And ask youto take care of it? Does that really make sense?”
“You have powerful friends.”
“Powerful friends? Like who?”
Slowly, Dajkovic lowered the shotgun. His face was slick with sweat, and he was pale. He looked almost sick. Then — kneeling abruptly — he reached for the knife in Gideon’s shoulder.
Gideon turned away. He’d failed. Dajkovic would cut his throat and leave his body in the dirt.
Grasping the knife, Dajkovic pulled it from the wound.
Gideon cried out. It felt as if his flesh had just been seared by a hot iron.
But Dajkovic didn’t raise the knife to strike again. Instead, he removed his own shirt and used the knife to cut it into strips. Gideon, head swimming in mingled pain and surprise, watched as the man used the strips to bind his shoulder.
“Hold that down,” Dajkovic said.
Gideon pressed the strips against the wound.
“We’d better get you to a hospital.”
Gideon nodded, breathing hard, gripping the bandaged shoulder. He could feel the blood soaking through already. He tried to overcome the searing pain, worse now that the knife was gone.
Dajkovic helped Gideon to his feet. “Can you walk?”
“It’s all downhill from here,” Gideon gasped.
Dajkovic half carried, half dragged him down the steep slope. In fifteen minutes, they were back at Dajkovic’s car. He helped Gideon into the passenger seat, blood smearing over the leather.
“Is this a rental?” Gideon asked, looking at the car. “You’re going to lose your deposit.”
The old soldier shut the door, came around and got in the driver’s seat, started the car. His face was pale, set, grim.
“So you believe me?” Gideon asked.
“You might say that.”
“What changed your mind?”
“Easy,” Dajkovic said, backing out of the parking spot. He threw the car into gear. “When a man realizes he’s going to die, everything is stripped down to essentials. Purified. No more bullshit. I’ve seen it in battle. And I saw it in your eyes, when you believed I was going to kill you. I saw your hatred, your desperation — and your sincerity. I knew then you were telling the truth. Which means…” He hesitated, gunned the engine, the rubber squealing on the macadam, the car shooting forward.
“Which means,” he resumed, “Tucker lied to me. And that makes me angry.”
11
What the hell’s this?”
Tucker rose quickly as Dajkovic pushed Gideon into the study, hands cuffed. The general stepped around from behind his desk, pulling a .45 and training it on Gideon.
For the first time, Gideon came face-to-face with his nemesis. In person, Chamblee Tucker looked even more well fed and well watered than in the dozens of pictures he had studied over the years. His neck bulged slightly over a starched collar; his cheeks were so closely shaved that they shone; his hair was trimmed to crew-cut perfection. His skin bore a spiderweb of veins marking the face of a drinking man. His outfit was pure Washington: power tie, blue suit, four-hundred-dollar shoes. The soulless study was of a piece with the man — wood paneling, interior-decorator antiques, Persian rugs, power wall plastered with photos and citations.
“Are you crazy?” Tucker said. “I didn’t tell you to bring him here. My God, Dajkovic, I thought you could handle this on your own!”
“I brought him here,” Dajkovic replied, “because he told me something completely different from what you said. And damned if it didn’t sound plausible.”
Tucker stared hard at Dajkovic. “You’d believe this scumbag over me?”
“General, I just want to know what’s going on. I’ve covered your back for years. I’ve done your work, clean and dirty, and I’ll continue to do it. But a funny thing happened on the side of that mountain — I began to believe this guy.”
“What the hell are you trying to tell me?”
“I’m beginning to have doubts, and the minute that happens, I’m no longer an effective soldier. You want me to get rid of this man? No problem. I’ll follow your orders. But I need to know what’s going on before I put a bullet into his head.”
Tucker stared at him for a long time, then broke eye contact and passed a hand over his bristly scalp. He stepped over to a well-polished cabinet, slid open a drawer, pulled out a glass and a bottle of Paddy, slammed them on the mahogany, and poured himself a few fingers. He swallowed it in one gulp. Then he glanced back at Dajkovic.
“Anyone see you come in?”
“No, sir.”
Tucker looked from Dajkovic to Gideon and back again. “What did he tell you, exactly?”
“That his father wasn’t a traitor. And that he isn’t a terrorist, or in league with them.”
Tucker carefully set down his glass. “All right. Truth is, I did tell you a bit of a story. His father didn’t pass secrets to the Soviets.”
“What did he do?”
“You got to remember, Dajkovic, we were in a war, a Cold War. In war, ugly things happen. You get collateral damage. We had a problem: an error was made. We rolled out a flawed code and some operatives died as a result. If that had come out, it would have taken down the entire cryptology section at a time when we desperately needed a new set of codes. His father had to be sacrificed for the greater good. You remember what it was like: them or us.”
Dajkovic nodded. “Yes, sir. I remember.”
“So now this fellow here, Gideon, more than twenty years later, is threatening me. Blackmailing me. Trying to tear down everything we’ve built, to destroy not only my reputation but the reputation of an entire group of dedicated, patriotic Americans. That’s why he has to be eliminated. You understand?”
“I get it,” said Dajkovic, with a slow smile. “You don’t have to work around the facts to get me to do something for you. I’m with you one hundred percent, whatever you need.”
“Are we clear what needs to be done?”
“Absolutely.”
Gideon said nothing and waited.
Tucker glanced down at the bottle and glass. “Drink on it?”
“No, thanks.”
Tucker poured himself another, slugged it back. “Trust me that this is for the best. You’re earning my eternal gratitude. Take him out through the garage and make sure no one sees you.”
Dajkovic nodded and gave Gideon a little push. “Let’s go.”
Gideon turned and headed toward the door, Dajkovic following. They passed into the front hall and headed toward the kitchen, walked to the back where a door evidently led out into the garage.