The old man climbed from his own vehicle and followed his agents as they converged on the door marked with plastic numbers: 27. Three of the four agents pulled pistols from shoulder holsters and checked the mechanisms before looking at the old man for orders. The fourth man held a black iron door ram cradled in his arms.
‘Any chance of exit from the rear?’ he asked them in a whisper.
Two of the men shook their heads and the old man gestured to the door. ‘Do it.’
The agent with the door ram moved into position and hefted it up before smashing it into the door right alongside the lock and jamb. The door shuddered and splintered at the lock with the first blow, and with the second it smashed through as the door swung open and the five armed men plunged into the room.
The old man walked in behind them, to see them staring about in amazement.
The room was entirely empty.
Ethan followed Lopez through the sparsely furnished surroundings of room 28. The room smelled of fresh linen and cleaning fluids. He turned to a large cabinet that stood against the wall opposite the bed.
‘Help me shift this one,’ he said.
Lopez grabbed the cabinet and, with Ethan, hefted it away from the wall and turned it sideways. ‘What, you think you’re going to find the gateway to goddamned Narnia behind one of these?’
Ethan smiled as he examined the wall and tapped it lightly. ‘Near enough.’
Cheap motels had thin stud walls, built with timber and often not more than six inches thick. Ethan rapped his knuckles on the wall until he found what he was looking for and then lifted a boot and pushed it hard against the plasterboard wall, close to the thinly carpeted floor. The wall bowed and then with a soft crack it folded inward and exposed a gaping hole. Ethan swiftly pushed it out and knelt down. The timber frames in the wall were built in a cross-hatch pattern that created two-foot square gaps. Ethan got down onto his butt and slammed his boot through the wall of the adjoining room, smashing the plasterboard aside and then scrambled to his feet.
‘Off we go, quickly. They’ll check the adjoining rooms. Ladies first.’
Lopez shook her head and hurled their backpacks through the hole before she scrambled through it and disappeared.
Ethan turned to the bathroom and hurried through, reaching up for one of the dressing gowns hanging from the door and pulling the waist tie from it. He quickly dragged the cabinet as close to the wall as he could while still leaving enough room to wriggle through the hole he had created, and then looped the gown’s tie around the base of the cabinet.
Ethan climbed backwards into the hole in the wall and through into the adjoining room, then hauled on the robe tie. He heard the cabinet shuffle back into place an inch at a time, until it bumped gently against the damaged wall, concealing the hole. Moments later, he heard two dull thumps, a loud crack and a rumble of heavy feet bursting into the room.
Ethan released one end of the tie and then yanked on the other, pulling it through the gap. He got to his feet, dusted his hands off, and looked at Lopez with a bright smile. ‘You’re welcome.’
Lopez raised an eyebrow. ‘Are we going to be doing that all the way down the block?’
Ethan shook his head.
‘The rooms have just been cleaned,’ he said, ‘that’s why I knew these would be empty. My guess is that our government friends want to be discreet, so they’ll ask the cleaner instead, who will confirm that the rest of these rooms were empty when she cleaned. I’m hoping they’ll think we gave them the slip.’
Another series of loud crashing sounds came from outside, and Ethan hurried to the window. Through the aged blinds, he saw a group of suited men barging their way into Room 28, pistols in their hands.
‘That’s a big chance to take,’ Lopez said as she heard the scene unfolding outside.
‘Not that big,’ Ethan said, and suddenly opened the front door of the room and stepped out into the lot.
7
Ethan covered the few steps to room 28 in silence as he saw the back of an old man peering into the deserted room. He drew his pistol from where it was tucked into his jeans and rammed the barrel under the old man’s ribs as he reached across and wrapped his other arm around the man’s throat, pitching him backwards and off-balance.
‘Jesus!’
Ethan held the old man firmly in place, the pistol pressed securely against his torso, as the four agents in the motel room spun and aimed their pistols at him. He heard Lopez rush to his side, her own weapon drawn as she saw what Ethan had done.
‘Jarvis?’ Ethan turned the old man slightly until he saw both the recognition and the relief in the old man’s eyes.
Jarvis waved his men down. ‘Lower your weapons,’ he snapped.
Ethan released Jarvis and glared down at him. ‘Looking for someone?’
‘Both of you,’ Jarvis nodded, somewhat shaken but quickly recovering as he glanced at Lopez. ‘Good to see you, Nicola, you’re looking well.’
Lopez forced a crooked ‘up yours’ smile onto her face. Ethan decided to do the talking.
‘Coming in a little heavy, don’t you think?’ he snapped as he gestured at the agents in their motel room. ‘You trying to clean something up here, Doug?’
Jarvis raised his hands in placation. ‘I had no choice,’ he replied. ‘You’re under suspicion for multiple homicides and we didn’t know if you were responsible or not. For all we knew, you might open fire on us.’
‘What homicides?’ Ethan demanded.
Jarvis turned to his men. ‘Form a perimeter, quietly.’
The four men hurried out of the room and crossed the lot to their vehicles, as Jarvis walked with Ethan and Lopez into the room and closed the damaged door behind them as best he could. He looked at them both.
‘Are you okay?’ he asked. ‘You look tired.’
‘We’re fine,’ Lopez snapped. ‘Just cut to the chase.’
‘Several CIA agents have been murdered in the past few days,’ Jarvis said promptly. ‘The CIA believes that you’re responsible.’
Ethan shook his head. ‘We’re not. But we did hear about one of the murders, out Wisconsin way.’
‘That’s what I thought,’ Jarvis replied. ‘And it’s what I told the Joint Chiefs of Staff’
‘You’re back at the DIA?’ Lopez asked.
‘I wasn’t until this morning,’ Jarvis admitted. ‘I got a call to come in. Turns out the DCIA is finally getting his just deserts and is in a world of hurt over MK-ULTRA. The rest of the intelligence community is keen to see the whole thing shut down, but there are loose ends and none of it can be brought to public trial.’
Ethan rolled his eyes.
‘So we get to carry the can and the rest gets swept under the carpet, right?’
‘That’s what the CIA wants,’ Jarvis said, nodding, ‘but I’ve managed to reach a compromise with them. I’ve got our department up and running again and you’re both in the clear.’
‘In exchange for what?’ Lopez demanded.
‘They want you to find out whoever’s responsible for the deaths of the six agents, and bring them in.’
‘Six dead agents.’ Ethan repeated.
‘Last one was killed in New York yesterday,’ Jarvis confirmed. ‘I’m assuming you figured that might happen.’
‘There seemed to be a hint of a trail of slayings being covered up,’ Ethan replied, ‘crossing states and pointing to the east coast. New York seemed like a good, crowded place to hide.’
Lopez peered at Jarvis suspiciously.
‘You’ve got your entire department up and running and agents with you right now, but you want us to go and sort this out for you.’