She’d been watching him. “Do you think he’ll show up alone?”
“As long as he thinks she’s alone, he will,” McAllister said. “He’s going to want to talk to her.”
“What are you saying now?” Kathleen O’Haire asked, alarmed. “What if he sends someone else?”
“Then you’ll get the hell out of there, and we’ll take care of the situation.”
“He could be sending someone to kill me.”
“No,” McAllister said. “If he wants you dead, he’ll do it himself, but after he finds out what you know, and what we supposedly told you.”
“Oh, damn… oh, damn,” she said, gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles turned white. As before, on the airplane, there was nothing he or Stephanie could say or do to make it any easier for her. The die had been cast the moment she’d returned Harman’s call.
The property around McMillan Reservoir formed a rough triangle; Howard University to the west across Fourth Street; the Washington Hospital Center to the east across Michigan Avenue; and a pretty park along the base leg. The park entrance, off First Street, led to a road that wound around the water’s edge. The trees at this time of the year were bare and it looked as if cross-country skiers had used the rolling parklands over the last few days, leaving behind their narrow tracks crisscrossing the snow-covered expanses.
They parked the car a half a mile from the entrance after first passing once completely through the park and coming around past the university, along Bryant Street and back up First. The water looked cold and dark-gray beneath the still-overcast sky.
A few whitecaps were raised by the wind and a piece of newspaper tumbled and slid up the road. Very few people were around.
It had taken them better than an hour to drive across town from the airport, still they were early. Benches and picnic tables were set here and there along the water, trash barrels chained to the trees. A small cement-block building that housed public restrooms was just ahead of them. It was probably closed at this time of year.
A car entered the park and passed, McAllister holding his gun at the ready until he could see that they were no threat; they’d probably used the park road as a shortcut over to the university. He relaxed slightly.
“Stephanie and I are going to get out of the car now,” he told the O’Haire woman.
She turned in her seat, her face screwed up in a grimace of fear.
“I don’t want to go through with this,” she said. “It’ll be all right,” Stephanie said. “We’ll be just down the road a little ways. At the first sign of any trouble we’ll come running. He’s not going to try anything out here in the open, not with witnesses.”
McAllister looked at his watch; it was quarter after eleven. “He’s got another forty-five minutes before he’s due to show up, but I’m betting he’s going to be early. He’ll want to do the same thing we’re doing, look the place over. He’s counting on the likelihood that you’ll be coming alone and won’t know what you’re doing.” Kathleen O’Haire looked down the road as a couple in jogging outfits came around the sweeping curve. “What do I say to him?”
“let him do most of the talking,” McAllister said. “He’s going to give you assurances that he’s here to help you, but he’s going to want to know what we told you, what proof we supposedly have that someone in the White House is a penetration agent.”
“What do I say?”
“Stall him for as long as you can.”
“Why?”
“I want you to make him mad.”
“What are you talking about?” Kathleen O’Haire shouted. “He’s meeting me here possibly with the intent to kill me, and you want me to make him mad?”
“He won’t try anything until he finds out just how much you know.”
“I don’t know anything.”
“He won’t know that,” McAllister said. “We’ll be nearby, and as soon as it becomes obvious that he’s getting agitated, we’ll start toward you.”
“So what?” Kathleen O’Haire said. “What will that prove? Nothing.”
“You’ll see us heading toward you. At that moment I want you to say this to him: ‘McAllister knows about Zebra One and Zebra Two here in Washington and in Moscow. He has the proof.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’ll know,” McAllister said. “And if he’s going to try anything, it’ll come right then, but we’ll be right there. He won’t have any choice but to try to fire on us, if he gets that desperate. But I think he’ll run.”
“No thanks,” Kathleen O’Haire said, shaking her head. “I’m just not going to do this. It’s insanity.”
“Listen to me, Mrs. O’Haire, Harman can’t afford to let you go. If you’re not here for this meeting today, he’ll send someone after you, and it’s a fair assumption that he won’t bother talking to you in a public place. It’ll be somewhere he’ll have the upper hand, where he’ll be able to say and do whatever he wants.”
“I’ll run.”
“Believe me, there’s no place to run from a man in Harman’s position, with his power and connections.”
She looked from him to Stephanie. “Why did you do this to me?” she wailed. “Now, of all times.”
“To stop the killing,” McAllister said softly. “As soon as he shows up, I want you to get out of the car and walk over to him.”
“How will I know who he is?”
“You won’t have to, he’ll know you,” McAllister said. She turned away. “He killed Jim?”
“Him or someone like him.”
It took her a moment, and when she spoke her voice was small. “Zebra One, Zebra Two?”
“Here in Washington and in Moscow. I have the proof,” McAllister said. “Have you got it?”
“Yes,” Kathleen O’Haire said distantly.
McAlIister motioned for Stephanie and they got out of the car. Kathleen O’Haire didn’t look up. The joggers passed them as they headed toward the restroom building. It wasn’t as warm out here as it had been in the city. The wind off the reservoir was sharp. They walked for a little while in silence, McAllister maintaining his limp, Stephanie shuffling like a much older woman.
“It’s her, isn’t it,” Stephanie finally said. McAllister looked at her. “What do you mean?”
“Ever since we got to California and talked to her, you’ve been strange; distant, sharp. At first I thought it was me, because of what happened… on the”
He stopped. “What happened, had to happen,” he said. “He knew what we looked like, we could not have left him alive.”
She looked away. “When he said that about Baltimore… being a big job… I couldn’t help myself.” She turned back. “David, I’ve never killed anyone before. I’ve never even shot a gun in anger. It wasn’t..
“How you thought it would be?” She shook her head. “No.”
“It never is,” he said gently. “But you’re right, I am worried about her.”
They glanced back at Kathleen O’Haire sitting behind the wheel. She was staring at them.
“There is no way of changing this either,” Stephanie said. “No. Harman made the first move. It’s up to us now to see how far he’s willing to carry it.”
They started walking again.
“He might be innocent, you know,” Stephanie said. “I thought about it. But the timing of his call is just too coincidental. And he agreed to meet her here, alone.”
“What then?” Stephanie asked. “I mean what happens if he makes a move and we stop him. Then what do we do?”
“Ask him some questions. “Which he won’t answer.”
“He will,” McAllister said. “He’ll answer.” He shivered.********
It is too bad your father isn’t alive now to see this. He was a good man. A brave man. A straightforward man. A soldier. He knew who his enemies were, and he met them head on.