“Johnny … Wareagle,” he heard her mutter and watched the Indian’s back tense as he turned his gaze upon her.
“Blainey,” the Indian said in what had seemed to have started as a question.
“I know where he is,” the woman followed.
“So do I.”
“Jesus Christ,” Pop said. “Jesus H. fucking Christ….”
Billy Griggs had seen the Indian enter the bar. Man, was he big! Didn’t even have to look twice to make that fucker.
Wouldn’t have been so bad if there wasn’t a truck outside marked NAB. Must have belonged to some big cheese who had something to do with the artillery show he’d seen being set up in the remnants of an amusement park, as he cruised the nearby area in search of his quarry. After the hit team had failed to return from the bayou, the old guy seemed pretty certain that the Indian would be arriving in the area before too very long. Billy’s assignment was to watch for him and report in. That was it. Don’t even think of approaching. Guy was so big and, well, scary, that Billy was glad for the order.
What he’d do now was wait and see what happened when the injun came outside. Anything other than alone just wouldn’t do. So when he emerged between an old man for whom walking was a chore, and a woman Billy recognized as the one McCracken had been with back in Turkey, he knew what he had to do next.
“Help Mr. McCracken to a seat on the couch,” Arnold Rothstein ordered the Twins.
The Twins each grasped an arm and led Blaine toward the rear of the office that Rothstein had appropriated. Not surprisingly, they carried no weapons, nothing McCracken could make use of, on the chance that he got lucky and managed to overpower them. Fat chance. He had witnessed the Twins’ work in Germany. Two minds that thought and acted as one; conceivable to eliminate one all by himself, impossible to take out both.
“You faked your own attempted assassination,” Blaine said to Rothstein, still standing between his captors.
“With the help of the Twins here, it went exceptionally well.”
“You used a stand-in.”
Rothstein shrugged. “Regrettably, of course, my death will be announced in just a day or so. Or should I say his death.”
“Effectively closing the book on the man you really are.”
“No.” The old man shot out a finger to punctuate his words. “I have hidden the man I really am for a generation: the man who was born that day in a schoolyard when a classmate took his place before the firing squad. I learned to hate that day. I learned how powerful a motivator it can be.”
“And you haven’t stopped hating since,” Blaine said sharply. He was pushed into the sofa by the Twins, both pairs of eyes staring fixedly at him.
Rothstein shrugged in concession. “I suppose you are correct, but I had no choice. I couldn’t let the Tau die, because we were meant to serve as the world’s policemen, and that is what we will do. The White Death gives us the means to stop evil, to stamp it out before it has a chance to spread its venom.”
“How?”
“You must understand the background first. My sister was conservative. She and the others did not wish to acknowledge the awesome power the White Death gave us. They refused to even consider using it during the early years of our struggle to found the state of Israel, if you can imagine that.”
“Yes,” Blaine told him, “I can.”
The old man looked disappointed. “I had expected more from you. Right from the time I learned of your involvement, I thought if I could explain it to you, reason it out …”
“What kind of man do you think I am?”
“One who pursues justice, just as I do.”
“Not as you do.”
Rothstein smiled condescendingly. “All I have read and heard about you indicates otherwise. What we did to the Nazis in the years following the war was not enough. Nothing could have been enough.”
“On that much, we agree.”
“Then you’re saying vengeance on the Nazis who had escaped war-crimes trials was justified?”
“Yes,” Blaine responded without hesitation.
“And you see a difference between that and what we have risen again to destroy today?”
“I’m not sure what exactly that is.”
Arnold Rothstein’s breathing had picked up. His eyes glistened with determination and resolve.
“We struck fear into the hearts of the Nazis we did not kill, Mr. McCracken. Those that eluded us knew we would always be out there, waiting, watching. But why stop at the Nazis? There were other battles to be fought, other enemies to put down; there always would be.”
“Obviously your sister and other original members of the Tau did not share your feelings,” Blaine said, feeling the eyes of the Twins locked upon him.
“What choice did I have? I took matters into my own hands. There were enough who felt as I did to begin building the kind of army we needed: a Tau presence in every nation watching, waiting. Ready to be mobilized when the time was right.”
“The killings …”
“Here in the United States and all over the world, justice is being served. The slime is being swept away, dead skin of the world peeled back. As a prelude.”
“For what?”
“The world has seen enough ugliness. The time has come to vanquish it.”
Slowly McCracken realized what Rothstein was intimating. “Large quantities of the White Death distributed all over the world to be released as you deem fit.”
“Not just me, the entire Tau. The time was right.”
“Only because you had finally figured out a way to duplicate the original formula,” Blaine advanced. “But you still went back into the chamber to remove the remainder of the crates. Why?”
“Because the process required to produce the White Death remains painfully slow. To accomplish all that we must, we needed the considerable reserves stored in Ephesus as well.”
“And what exactly is that, Mr. Rothstein.”
“Can’t you figure it out?” Rothstein raised, half challenging, half scorning Blaine. “In centers of the world where crime festers, where evil rears itself on hate, in the breeding grounds for violence that will destroy innocent lives without compunction, the White Death will be released. Look at me, Mr. McCracken, and tell me you don’t approve. Tell me you would not take these very same steps if given the opportunity.”
“Not if it means destroying the lives of others who are just as innocent as those you’re trying to protect.”
“A regrettable, but necessary, sacrifice. Our point will be made before too very long. Just as the original Tau made the Nazis cower and withdraw, our legacy will do the same to the evil that has followed in their wake.” Rothstein shook his head in disappointment. “I thought of all people, you who have seen so much senseless death and suffering would understand. You who have seen the world come to the brink of destruction on so many occasions only to be pulled back by your hand at the last instant. The Tau can at last control these madmen who seek to rule others. That is where I differ from the others you have faced. I do not seek control or power. My work justifies itself, a means and an end. Tell me it isn’t tempting. Tell me it doesn’t appeal to you.”
“I won’t lie to you, Mr. Rothstein. I’ve lain awake plenty of nights trying to come up with the kind of plan you’re putting into operation. I think of terrorists who kill schoolchildren and madmen who terrorize entire nations….”
“Yes! Yes!”
“But I always come up short of committing to something like the Tau because of what pursuing this kind of vengeance ultimately boils down to: to destroy your enemy, you must become as he is. The disregard for innocent life, the willingness to accept sacrifices, putting your dogma above everything else — all those things are part and parcel of what you’re suggesting. Your sister was right: the power the White Death brings with it is terrifying. It allows you to define standards of existence. Sure, it all sounds good now, but what happens when you’ve wiped out all those you consider evil? You’ll have to come up with new standards to justify your own existence, and others will have to pay. Others will always have to pay.”