A hand grasped Bane’s shoulder. He turned and found himself staring into the liquid gray eyes of Trench, silenced pistol still smoking by his side.
“Let’s get out of here,” Trench whispered.
Chapter Twenty-two
“My car is just around the corner, Winter Man,” Trench told him when they had made it outside.
“You saved my life,” Bane managed lamely, not fully believing this was the same man who had killed Jake Del Gennio and who had wanted to kill Davey.
“We’re even. You spared mine in the hotel room two nights ago.”
They had reached Trench’s car, a maroon Cutlass. Seconds later they were in traffic, both breathing easier.
“Who were the men at the station working for?” Bane asked.
“Chilgers.”
“COBRA …”
“Chilgers is COBRA, Winter Man. One does not exist without the other.”
“Then Scalia was working for him too.”
“As well as myself. Until today, that is.”
“You changed sides.”
“I don’t keep sides, Winter Man. I work for who pays me until they reach their limit or I reach mine.”
“Which is it in this case?”
“Both. Chilgers has gone too far. He must be stopped.”
“And who’s paying you to do it?”
Trench tensed as two taxis pulled up on either side of him. They sped away as soon as the traffic light turned green. “I’m working for myself on this one, Winter Man. If I don’t get Chilgers, he’s sure to get me now that I’ve disrupted his plans. It’s a question of survival.”
Bane’s eyes grew cold. “What was it a question of when you paid a visit to Jake Del Gennio?”
Trench looked over briefly. “I had no choice. You should understand that better than anyone.”
Bane shook his head. “I’ve been through with this kind of life for a long time now,” he said trying to mean it. Hadn’t his return to the Game cost Janie her life? Weren’t Nadine and Peter dead now because he had made a similar return five years ago?
“Yes,” Trench responded, “because the damned Americans decided you couldn’t hack it anymore.”
That brought Bane’s eyebrows up. Trench’s phrasing had just eliminated America as one possible point of his origin. Bane had always been curious about the killer’s roots. This was hardly the time to probe further, though.
“I made that decision on my own,” he said instead.
“And now circumstances have forced you back into the Game, the same circumstances which have forced me to become independent.”
“COBRA and Chilgers …”
“The important thing now is that they must be stopped. It won’t be easy. Of all the men I’ve worked for over the years, I consider Chilgers to be the most dangerous, the most ruthless. He’s not about to let anything stand in his way.”
“You seem to know an awful lot about him, Trench, including no doubt what he’s been working on.”
“Not necessarily. I was a soldier to him, called in only when a soldier’s duty was required. I never concerned myself with the scientific aspects of what was going on around me. But there were bits and pieces concerning Vortex I couldn’t help picking up.”
“Vortex?”
Trench turned another corner. “The operation which cost your friend Del Gennio his life, Winter Man. It’s centered around making objects disappear and then appear again. Other than that, I’m afraid I know nothing.”
“But you’ve finally confirmed that Flight 22 really did disappear. Jake was right.”
“But there were complications, beginning with engine trouble, that threw the timing of the experiment off. And then that boy escaped and gradually revealed the newfound powers he’d acquired on his ride on that plane. At that point, it became a soldier’s problem. After Del Gennio, I was assigned to bring the boy in.”
“But you elected to try to kill him instead.”
“An independent action on my part,” Trench explained. “My parting with Chilgers was already inevitable and I couldn’t tolerate him controlling the kind of power the boy possessed. Besides, I had no intention of allowing the boy to use his abilities on me. I know my limitations, Winter Man, and whatever this boy has well exceeds them. Killing him was the only alternative.”
“Except now Chilgers has him, thanks to Scalia.”
“All the more reason for us to work fast. Chilgers will be after us both when he learns of his failure at Penn Station. Together, we might just prove a match for his army, though it might not be a bad idea for you to contact your old friends again.”
Bane frowned. “Only I have no idea who I can trust anymore, Arthur Jorgenson included.”
“Jorgenson had nothing to do with what happened this afternoon.”
“But one way or another, those were his people who tried to take me out. And by your own admission, Trench, you were never aware of everything afoot at COBRA. Jorgenson, the entire government even, could have been in on this from the beginning.”
The car became stuck in traffic. Trench tensed again. Horns blared maddeningly around him.
“No,” he insisted, “Chilgers planned to activate Vortex without government knowledge. He has controlled this operation on his own. For twenty years, he has personally supervised Professor Metzencroy’s work.”
“Metzencroy’s dead.”
Trench’s eyebrows fluttered briefly. “I’m not surprised. Chilgers’ displeasure with Metzencroy’s attitude had become obvious of late. And with Chilgers, displeasure often leads to elimination.”
“You’re saying he had Metzencroy killed.”
“Almost certainly.” Trench hesitated, squeezed the wheel tighter. “There’s something else you should know, Winter Man.”
“I’m listening.”
“In Berlin, five years ago, my target was supposed to be you.”
“I know. Someone else went in my place.”
“You don’t understand. I was hired by … certain elements of your government to do the job.”
“What?”
“After all these years, I thought you would have suspected.”
The shock hit Bane like a kick in the stomach. “Who?” he asked bitterly. “Who gave the order, Trench?”
“Such men have no faces, Winter Man. Someone high up wanted you killed or neutralized, taken out of the Game. You insisted on returning to the field. The risk of that was too great. You knew too much if captured.”
“Jorgenson,” Bane muttered.
“No. It would be someone considerably higher in the government, beyond Jorgenson’s level, buried too deep, perhaps, after all these years to uncover. But there’s always a chance. Perhaps Jorgenson can even help you. He can still be trusted more than the others. All the more reason to see him,” Trench said in an almost fatherly tone, and the difference in age between them made it acceptable.
“How have you done it?” Bane asked him. “How have you stayed in the field so long?”
Trench started to chuckle but gave way to a sigh. “I never align myself with countries or causes. Politics are good for nothing but developing a conscience, and a conscience in our business is an ill-afforded burden. You were the best, Winter Man, but you let it get to you. You played for only one side because you genuinely cared and eventually that ate you up. East, West; Communism, democracy — they’re all the same. See them all or don’t bother to see any. Either way, morality for me never enters in. As soon as it does, emotion takes over. You hesitate, doubt, think too much. Times don’t change, only politics do. Eliminate politics and you become ageless. The demand for our kind of work is always present if one does not choose his employers on conscience.”