“Did you believe it?”
“Roy talked about a lot of things. And many of them made sense.”
“So you’re for an apocalypse?”
“For real change to happen, certain people have to be sacrificed.”
“Wasn’t that what the Nazis said?”
She snapped, “Don’t be ridiculous. That’s not even a close analogy.”
“Really? You got led around like a lemming by a nut who loaded up his cabin with explosives and had plans to blow up half the government? How does that make sense? You work for the government.”
“We all fight for liberty in different ways.”
“I’ll stick with my way. You can keep yours.”
“You go and kill the people they tell you to. Talk about a lemming.”
“Well, the difference is now I understand that. You apparently don’t.”
She gave him a condescending look. “You can’t stop this from happening.”
“I can if you help me.”
“Not a chance in hell.”
“So you just stand by and watch all those people die? Doctors are supposed to preserve life, aren’t they?”
“I’m not just a doctor. I care about my country. Our enemies are trying to destroy us. We have to kill all of them first.”
Robie said, “Care to tell me who is really behind this?”
She folded her arms across her chest and looked at him dully. “Just give it up, okay?”
He held up her phone. “Got your laptop too. They should tell us a few things.”
She looked suddenly panicked.
“Don’t ever go to Vegas,” he advised. “Your poker face is seriously lacking.”
“They’re password-protected.”
“You had your phone on a five-minute auto lock. You must have just used it before you got into the car. The lock hadn’t reset yet, so I got everything I needed. As for your laptop, next time use a password more difficult than your name spelled backwards and your date of birth.”
“Robie, you’re on the wrong side of this. Trust me. Reel is a murderer. She killed two defenseless men. In cold blood.”
He pointed to the provisions. “There’s enough food and water to last you at least two weeks, maybe more if you ration.”
“And if you’re not back by then?”
“Start yelling. Somebody might hear you. Oh, and while you were knocked out Reel stripped you down and checked every possible place for a transmitter. You might be sore, but you’re definitely tracker free.”
“Robie!” She jumped up and ran to the cell door. “Think about this very carefully. You won’t get a second chance.”
“Funny. That’s what I was going to tell you.”
“You’re being stupid. Please let me go.”
“This is the safest place for you.”
She looked at him with a stunned expression. “Safe? Are you insane?”
“They didn’t find our bodies, Doc. And they can no longer track us. Which tells them we’re onto how we were tracked. You put the sutures in. We found you. You’re out of the loop for a while. If we let you go, you go back to them.”
“I won’t say anything. I promise.”
“That’s not the point.”
“So what is the point?”
“They’ll know you were with us. They’ll interrogate you. And then they’ll kill you.”
Meenan took a step back. “Why would they kill me? I’m on their side.”
“Because they’ll believe you helped us. That would be the only way we would’ve let you go. And your price for that is you die. It’s really that simple. See, to them, you’ll have become the enemy. And like you said, the goal is to kill all of the enemy. And now that includes you.”
“But—”
“It’s not an either/or proposition. So you stay here, you live. You go out there, you die. I’ll let you decide. What’s it going to be?”
Meenan stared up at him and then took a few hesitant steps back before plopping down on the cot and studying the floor.
“Good choice,” said Robie, and then he walked out.
CHAPTER
63
REEL WAS WAITING FOR HIM outside the barn in a new rental. He climbed in, snagged Meenan’s laptop from the backseat, opened it, and started clicking keys as Reel drove off.
“How did it go?” she asked.
“I think she’s starting to see the light. Not that it matters.”
“Just so you know, I’m down to my last fake ID,” said Reel.
“Let’s hope it’s enough.”
“Where to?”
“I’ve got a contact at the FBI I want to work. I got the photos of West and Meenan from her.”
“Special Agent Nicole Vance?”
Robie shot her a glance. “How did you know that?”
“You started out as my enemy. I find out all I can about my enemies.”
“How much did you find out?”
“Julie Getty.”
She looked at him.
“That makes you angry?”
“It doesn’t make me happy. What if someone was following you?”
“Someone was following you. Vance. And me.”
“Okay, let’s just call a truce on that. We need some info that we can’t get on our own.”
She said, “Don’t be too sure about that. And the more people we involve, the more potential pitfalls we face.”
“We face pitfalls everywhere we turn.”
“Proves my point. What do we need to know?”
“Lots of things.”
“Find anything interesting on Meenan’s computer?”
“I got into her email. She has a varied correspondence. Multiple boyfriends, from the content of some of the emails. A little racier than I would have given the doc credit for. West was probably one of them, but he’s not on there now.” He refocused on the screen. “This might be something.”
“What?”
“Give me a sec.”
He read some more emails, scrolling down the screen.
“What is it, Robie?”
“Cryptic one-word messages. Without context they don’t mean anything. ‘Yes,’ ‘no,’ ‘now,’ ‘tomorrow’—things like that.”
“Who’s the sender?”
“The address looks generic, and is probably untraceable. But there are three letters at the end of the messages, like the writer’s signature. RTD. Mean anything to you?”
Reel was silent for a long minute. “Roger the Dodger,” she said.
“Who?”
“It was the code name of the person West said had requested the white paper. He said the person was at least three levels above him at the time.”
“Did he say anything else that might lead us to the person?”
“Unfortunately, that was about the time I had to knock him out.”
“Roger the Dodger? Odd moniker.”
“I thought so too. But he’s been able to dodge us pretty effectively. So it does fit. What do you think Vance can help us with?”
“Finding the apocalypse. Before it happens.”
“The white paper was pretty explicit. Country by country. Leader by leader. Simultaneously. It’s dazzlingly complex and brutally efficient. It’s all in the timing.”
“But what are the exact details? You never said.”
“Targeting all G8 leaders, except the U.S. president, on the same day at the same time using a coordinated attack, and intelligence–sharing, and buying whatever resources are needed on the inside. They’re all killed. What follows is chaos in the civilized world. The paper goes on to detail what steps the perpetrators of the attacks should take to press their advantage.”
“Okay, but who are the perpetrators?”
“West papered various ones. Not surprisingly, they were mostly radical Islamic fundamentalists. He broke it down to include factions of al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Hamas. I have to admit, it was well thought out.”