Matheson’s pale lips parted in an ugly sneer.
“Hello, Eli. Welcome back.”
sixty-one
Zach and Hogan walked down the corridor in silence. At a door near the end of the corridor they entered another room, this one much less drab and dull. There was a refrigerator, a coffee maker, several tables and chairs.
Hogan approached the refrigerator. “Thirsty?”
Taking a seat at one table, Zach said, “I could go for a soda.”
Hogan retrieved two cans and brought them to the table. He handed Zach his can as he took a seat and then each man popped the tops of their cans and listened to the carbonated fizz.
Hogan held up his can. “To another successful mission.”
“I wouldn’t quite call it successful,” Zach said, but he tapped his can against Hogan’s anyway.
“We ended up securing the target, didn’t we?”
“Yes, but at what cost? We lost good people. We risked exposure one too many times.”
Hogan shrugged. “Again, we secured the target. In the end, that’s all that matters.”
The men were silent for a minute, drinking their sodas.
Hogan asked, “So what’s next for you?”
“Sleep.”
“And then?”
“Whatever new assignment comes my way. Why?”
“Thought maybe you might want to come over to the games side of things.”
“And do what-work for you?”
“We’d be working together, but yes, I’d run point.”
“As Simon?”
Hogan nodded, grinning. “You bet.”
“You really enjoy it, don’t you?”
“It’s a blast.”
“You get a power trip from it.”
Hogan downed the dregs of his soda and popped his lips. He crumbled the can in a fist, rose from his seat. “I could go for some junk food. You want some junk food?”
Zach waved away the offer and watched Hogan open one of the cabinets over the counter and grab a small bag of Doritos. He returned to the table and opened the bag.
“So what’s on your mind?” Hogan asked.
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve known each other now for over, what, twenty years, give or take? I know when something’s bothering you. What is it?”
Zach wasn’t sure he wanted to get into it with Hogan. It was true, they had known each other for nearly twenty years-had ended up in the same training school, in fact, had even become bunkmates-and he knew just how dismissive Hogan could be. Hogan was great at what he did-no doubt about it-but still he could be difficult at times.
“Just thinking about Eli.”
“What about him?”
“How he and his kid managed to find us on the island. And then how he just came to the door, like … like he wanted to get caught.”
Hogan munched on the chips, nodding slowly. “Yeah, that’s been bothering me, too. We know why he came to the door, though, to distract us so his kid could get the girl.”
“But why? They didn’t know each other. There was no connection besides the fact she was friends with Melissa Baxter.”
Silence then, both men thinking it over.
Hogan said, “We checked the girl once we got her in the helicopter. She didn’t have anything on her except the throwaway phone and a lighter, and we destroyed the phone.”
“The lighter, then.”
“What about it?”
“Maybe it was more than just a lighter. Maybe it was a tracking device.”
“Seriously? I think you’re reaching.”
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“So you think after everything Eli went through not to get caught, he just, what, suddenly decides to turn himself in?”
Zach was quiet for a moment, thinking about it. “Did we check him?”
“Of course we checked him. He was clean.”
Silence again, Zach staring off into space, running everything through in his head. Something just didn’t feel right. Something didn’t make sense.
“Hey,” Hogan said, snapping his fingers.
Zach blinked. “What?”
“Do you remember why I ended up helping you out on this?”
“Something about an FBI agent.”
“That’s right. So you want in?”
“On what?”
“On dealing with him.”
“I doubt I’d get approval.”
“I already got you approval. Called and confirmed it an hour ago. If you want in, you’re in.”
“And what’s this about again?”
“An FBI agent stumbled across the games, started asking too many questions.”
“So you’re taking him out?”
“Him and his family. Guy’s got a wife and a baby boy at home.”
“You’re going to make it look like an accident?”
“That was the plan at first, but after what we just dealt with, I could use some entertainment. I’m thinking about throwing him into a game. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a waste of time.”
“Why?”
“The guy will know at once he’s in a game. He’ll probably already know the stakes, and know they’re bullshit.”
“Still, just imagine the surprise on his face when he wakes up.”
Zach pinched the bridge of his nose. A headache had been building for a while now, and it was just starting to get worse. He kept thinking about looking through the front door window and seeing Eli out on the porch. The stupid act the man had tried playing, like he was there to sell magazine subscriptions.
“We need to check him again.”
“Who?”
“Eli. We need to scan his entire body.”
Hogan started munching again on the chips. “I think you’re overreacting.”
Zach rose from his chair and walked toward the locked cabinet in the corner, pulling a key from his pocket. “Something just doesn’t add up.”
Hogan held out a hand, his fingers already stained with orange Doritos dust. “Are you crazy? Matheson’s in there with him now. You can’t interrupt him.”
Zach inserted the key into the lock and opened the cabinet. Inside were weapons-rifles and guns-as well as several electronic devices. The selection wasn’t nearly as varied as Zach would have liked-this was a satellite location, after all, the closest facility to Matheson-but Zach found what he needed anyway, closed and locked the cabinet.
“You’re going to piss him off,” Hogan said.
Zach started toward the door. “He’ll get over it.”
sixty-two
“Thirty-two years,” Matheson said, his voice low and rusty, the wheelchair beginning a harmonious hum as he maneuvered it to the side of the bed so he could get a better look at Eli. “For thirty-two years I’ve been waiting for this moment, and now here it is, and I’m still not sure yet what to do with you.”
Eli kept his gaze level with Matheson, his mouth a tight line.
“You disappointed me, Eli. I always held you in such high regard.”
“And yet you never told me the truth.”
“I wanted to. I was even going to, once I received permission, but by then you had betrayed me.”
“Your judgment became clouded.”
“Clouded? If anything, my judgment became crystal clear. You know why I began the work I did, don’t you? Of course you do. Your sister-what was her name again?”
Eli said nothing.
“It doesn’t matter,” Matheson said, his words tinged with annoyance. “But your sister-who we tried to find, by the way. What did you do with her, hide her or did she die?”
Eli said nothing.
“We had quite a few discussions about your sister’s Down’s syndrome before I hired you, if you recall. After all, you saw exactly what kind of harm her disease did to your family. My own sibling was mentally retarded. It killed my parents’ marriage. Their entire fate-mine included-changed the moment he was born. My parents started fighting all the time. They started blaming each other for my brother. Sometimes, when they were most desperate, they even tried to blame me. But it was nobody’s fault. It all stemmed from a mutation in the genes. That’s it. One simple, innocuous mutation, and it caused such friction that my parents eventually divorced and sent my brother away so he would become someone else’s problem.”