“I’m putting my weapon on the table!” Rampert’s voice was authoritative.
Peyton’s shotgun was leveled at Rampert, but he knew it was not a stretch to move it an inch or two. He played out a course of action in his mind where Peyton and Rampert were teaming against him for the tape. It was not implausible.
“Is she really necessary?” Rampert asked, hooking his thumb over his shoulder at Peyton.
Matt paused a second. “Peyton, it’s okay.”
“You people are sure jumpy. What the hell is going on?” Rampert said.
“After a bunch of Rolling Stones last year yanking everyone’s chain, are you kidding me?”
“Well, that’s over with,” Rampert said.
“So you found Lantini?”
“Of course not. He went deep. Completely disappeared. His trail is colder than bin Laden’s.”
“Don’t play mind games with me about bin Laden and The Shot,” Matt said.
Rampert shrugged and looked at him. “Since when did you start following instructions Matt? You had the shot.”
Matt turned away, sensing this was Rampert’s negotiating routine: get him off balance and then make some outrageous demand. “Tell me about Zachary; what you think you know.” Matt wanted to get to the point quickly.
“Well, I assume that there is some quid pro quo going here, and that you’ll reciprocate in kind with information that will help us.”
“This is the quo, my friend. The quid was me letting your ass in the house,” Matt said. His face was stern, jaw set, eyes locked with Rampert’s.
“Right, well, perhaps we can make some progress, then. This is top secret stuff, but I’m trusting you. So here goes. Your brother commanded the rifle company in the Philippine action, and he was executing exceptionally well. I had a small team in the wood line near the last battle. We were calling in the attack aircraft. If it hadn’t been for Zachary and his company, the Marines would have been crushed. His company destroyed just about every enemy attack helicopter and artillery piece. Classic light infantry stuff. Our strength against their weakness and all that. But they finally wised to Zachary’s tactics and chased him with the likes of an infantry battalion. It was about 300 bad guys massing against them.
“I had Winslow Boudreaux with me, along with Hobart and Van Dreeves, the two men with us in Canada. Winslow was about fifty meters away and caught a mortar shell not five feet from where he was standing. The explosion nearly vaporized him. Your brother’s action was about a hundred meters away, and we saw him get hit about the time the weather cleared enough for us to get the A-10s in there to provide air support.”
Matt watched Rampert speak with authority and authenticity. Matt could picture the scene Rampert described as if he had been watching a movie. A thin film of sweat broke across his brow. Matt was traveling back in time.
“Anyway, Winslow was dead. Hobart and Van Dreeves covered me while I pulled your brother out of the fray. His radio operator was also dead. Good man as well. We recovered Zachary. Van Dreeves, who is primarily a medic, literally saved his life. We kept him on oxygen and plugged his holes until the medevac aircraft got there a few minutes later. Last thing I did was switch dog tags and uniforms between Zachary and Winslow. Don’t ask me why, I just did it.”
Matt was having a hard time remaining calm. The emotions were so overwhelming that they seemed to be tripping over themselves. It did occur to him that Rampert was luring him in with the seduction of the story. Hold on. Don’t feel like you’ve got to give anything back.
“We learned that Zachary was going to make it, but he was in a coma. He had taken a gunshot wound to the head, mostly a glancing blow, but enough to knock him out for a couple of months. He had other wounds that, coupled with the two to his head, caused enough nervous system damage for his brain to shut down for a while, until he could recover from the trauma. At first, we were simply trying to keep him alive, but then he started making a miraculous recovery quite unlike anything any of our doctors had seen before.”
“So instead of contacting us,” Matt interrupted, “you let us believe Zachary was dead. What right did you have?” His fire was back, his trance broken.
“First of all, young man,” Rampert said, leaning forward and sensing his first small victory, “your brother would certainly be dead if it were not for Hobart, Van Dreeves, and me. I was the one who placed my team in that spot to support Zachary’s company.”
“That’s your job. Your duty.”
Matt’s eyes broke away, if only for an instant. Rampert had the momentum now. He knew that Matt felt guilty that while Zachary had been able to save him, Matt was not there for Zachary in the Philippines.
“Maybe so, but I was there. Where were you, boy, when your brother needed you?” Rampert said, knowing exactly Matt’s remorse and grinding the thought in a bit. “I pulled him back to safety and got him the medical help he needed. I’ve got proprietary rights, you might say.” Rampert smiled a thin, evil grin.
Matt fumed in silence at Rampert’s smugness. “That’s bullshit.”
“Maybe so, but, there’s more,” Rampert said.
Matt stared at Rampert, waiting.
“I was doing some deep black stuff during the Persian Gulf War. I’ve been face to face with Ballantine. I know what he wants.”
“I know what he wants also,” Matt said, regaining his composure. “My question is, why do you need Zachary so badly now?”
“Ahh. The $64,000 question, as they say.” Rampert was acting the petulant bully now. “Your brother knows things that, left unguarded, could be very troublesome.”
“Such as?”
“We’re not going there, but the things he knows, if they come back to him, will be difficult for some to deal with. And he will become a liability.”
“A liability? Proprietary rights? You talk about Zachary like he’s a piece of real estate.” Matt’s voice was low, nearly a growl.
“It is what it is.” Rampert gestured with his hands. “I’m truly on your side. I’m out to protect Zachary. I’ve invested the last year doing just that and I have no desire to stop now.”
“Why don’t I believe you?”
“I can’t answer that. So tell me what you know about what happened at Moncrief.”
Matt began, “I had Zachary in my arms. He was shot in the back, by Ballantine, I presume. Then a grenade came through the window and stunned us for a couple of minutes. I saw Ballantine drag him away before I was able to do anything about it. I chased them down to the river about the time Ballantine took off in the Sherpa.”
“How do you know it was Ballantine who did all this?” Rampert asked.
“I don’t. I’m assuming. Anyway, we need to be checking the area around Vermont and New Hampshire. Even Maine. Possibly New York,” Matt said.
“We’re watching the area with unmanned aerial vehicles, U2s, and other assets. Nothing so far. It’s a pretty big area, you know,” Rampert said.
“So where do we go from here?”
“I need to ask you, Matt, for your own safety, of course, if during the time that you believed Zachary to be dead, you went through any of his things and perhaps found anything you believed to be unusual?”
“Well, yes,” Matt replied.
Peyton’s eyes darted to his, squinting as if to say, What are you doing?
“Yes?” Rampert said, curious.
“I found out that my brother had two girlfriends, one in Hawaii and one in North Carolina. That dog. I found love letters from Kaoru, a Japanese chick who works as a consultant in Honolulu, and Stephanie, who I believe is a stripper in Fayetteville. Maybe you know her?” Of course, Matt knew that Zach had loved Riley Dwyer and his daughter, Amanda. But he was not giving Rampert any useful personal information.