He won. The crowd engulfed him. It was almost a new record – a couple of hundredths off. As he celebrated, he forgot about the somber men until a firm, cold hand clenched onto his shoulder.
Pell turned to find one of the men standing directly beside him. “We’ve got to talk,” he said.
He looked back at the revelers, but they had moved on without him, carrying his victory on to the celebration.
“We’ve got to talk,” the man echoed.
Pell awoke and looked around the unfamiliar room in complete confusion. The two men from his dream were there outside the door looking at him through the window and talking to each other. But where was he? At first, he thought that maybe he had been on a bender and blacked out, but slowly it came back to him – the trip to New Hampshire, showing up at Chris’ house, and finally being left in the car outside the hospital. A hospital in Boston.
He looked at the men again. Carl Moscovitz. He’s probably got a hard-on over what they’re going to do to me.
As he stared at the equipment around him, a middle-aged strawberry blond nurse walked into the room. Their eyes met, and she gave him the nicest of smiles. He couldn’t remember ever seeing a prettier face as she walked over to his bedside.
“You’re awake,” she said softly. “You’re in the Intensive Care Unit at Mass General, Mr. Pelletier.”
His throat was extremely dry, but he managed to crackle, “How long have I been here?”
“Just over twelve hours. They found you outside in your car last night.”
“Could I have some water?”
The nurse filled a cup, and poured it into his parched mouth, before checking the dials and equipment around the bed.
“Are you comfortable?”
He felt stoned and in little pain. They were pumping him with some powerful narcotics. He nodded in reply.
“There are two men outside from the FBI that want to talk to you Mr. Pelletier. One of them was here all night,” the nurse explained as she motioned with her head to Carl and Irving standing eagerly outside the room. “Do you feel up to it?”
“I suppose so,” said Pell.
“Our Head of Critical Care agreed to let them have five minutes with you. Do you understand?” She said with a bright smile.
Pell said he did and she waved the men in before saying, “I’ll be back in five minutes.”
Carl didn’t wait long before starting in. “So what happened in New Hampshire yesterday, Pell? You shot a cop. Do you remember that?”
Pell winced and asked, “Did he make it?”
“He –,” Irving said.
“No,” Carl said. “He died this morning. So that’s two fellow law-enforcement professionals that you’ve killed. That’s got to be some kind of a record.”
“It was an accident,” he said in a raspy, weak voice.
“Wasn’t that what you said about Allen Jenkins? I just can’t believe you did it again. Take some responsibility, man.”
Pell grimaced. He truly wished that he had died yesterday.
“He was going to arrest me. Why were they after me anyway?”
“You were interfering with a federal investigation, going against my direct orders. You forced my hand.”
“You said you were dropping it,” Pell replied. “I had to.”
“This Sarah Burns thing is big. If it had been any other agent, I would have let them lead the investigation, but you –” Carl scrunched his face, wrinkling his thin lips and curling his sharp nose. “I don’t have any faith in you. You’re a screw-up and there was no way I would trust you with a case like this.”
“You’re a bastard,” Pell said.
Carl smirked, leaning down close enough that Pell could smell a recently chewed breath mint and said, “I’ve been looking for a way to get rid of you for years, and thanks to your own stupidity, I not only get to fire you, but I’ll get to see your sorry ass rot in jail too. Just perfect.”
Even though Pell’s mind was cloudy from the drugs, his face heated up, “Fuck you, Carl.”
Carl chuckled.
“We also went to see old man Andleman. Do you want to know what he told us?” Carl asked.
Pell stared back at him blankly, waiting.
“Nothing!” Carl said. “We found the poor old bastard on his floor, almost dead from a stroke.”
“What?”
“That’s right. It seems like where ever you went yesterday you left a body.”
“He was fine when I left there.”
“What did the two of you talk about?” Carl asked.
He thought about this revelation for a moment. If they couldn’t talk to Maurice, they didn’t know about Camilla Haywood. Chris would have more time now. “The weather.”
Carl bared his small teeth in a feigned smile. “You’re a funny guy, Pell – a real fucking comedian. You agree, Irving?”
Irving nodded.
Carl continued, “This isn’t the time for jokes. We’ve got to assume this virus is real and that they are about to release it. We need to do something. Fast. Right now, we’re at a dead end. Maurice Andleman was our best hope for some answers.”
“Then I guess you either better start doing some more digging and hope you come up with something, or you might want to let me get my lawyer, and we can all sit down and talk,” Pell said.
“You think we’re going to deal with garbage like you?”
“Yes, and you know what, Carl?”
“What?” Carl said through clenched teeth.
“If I do talk, it’s not going to be to you. I want to talk to Arthur Kent. I’m sure he would like to know how you handled this thing. You forced me to take matters into my own hands. You let a twenty-year-old grudge hinder an investigation that could be the most important that the Bureau has ever worked on. I’m sure Director Stevens will be interested in this.”
Carl scowled as he grabbed Pell by his thin hospital gown, and pulled him up to a sitting position. The wires attached to his heavily bandaged chest under the flimsy garment fell off. Alarms immediately squealed from the stacks of equipment. “You’re done, Pelletier. Nobody’s going to believe you. You’re going to die in jail, buddy.”
On the verge of losing consciousness, Pell could distinctly see Irving’s face. He stood off to the side, but this last exchange had brought an undeniable smile to his normally stone cold facade. Odd, Pell thought as the nurse burst into the room accompanied by a doctor.
“What the hell are you doing!” The doctor screamed.
Carl let Pell’s limp body drop back down onto the bed.
“He came at me,” Carl said.
“That’s ridiculous. Look at the state of him. Get out and do not enter this room again unless you have direct approval from me.”
The nurse quickly reattached the monitoring equipment and evaluated Pell’s condition.
“This is just great,” Carl said to Irving. “I want you to stay here until he comes to again. As soon as he does, let me know.”
Again Irving nodded as they stormed out of the room.
Pell watched everything unfold. He felt detached from his body, as if he were having an out of body experience. No doubt Carl would be back. This time Pell was not going to let him get the better of him. He was not going to walk away silently. He was going to bring the fight to Carl. As soon as he could get out of this hospital bed that was.
10:54 am FBI Headquarters, Washington, DC
Arthur was scheduled to have a lunch briefing with the Director of the Cyber Division but Carl’s call had forced him to cancel lunch. He was never able to plan anything ahead of time – crises always cropped up. Anyway, he didn’t know Carl to cry wolf.