“You couldn’t have really stopped him,” pointed out Blum.
“He could have come with us.”
“But we can’t collect everyone we run into and try to protect them. We’d all end up dead. But it’s so awful.” She shivered.
Pine eyed Blum. “I think it would be better if you stayed here, Carol. Get a hotel room and lie low for a few days.”
“I use my credit card to get the room and they’ll be knocking on my door in an hour.” She pointed to the screen. “And I don’t want to end up on there with the scroll saying I killed myself.”
“But you could find a place that would take cash.”
Blum shook her head obstinately. “I’m not leaving you to do this alone, Agent Pine. Like you said, we’re a unit, a team. I think we work well together.”
Pine eyed her.
“You don’t think so?” said Blum, frowning.
“I took an oath, you didn’t. I signed up for the danger part, you didn’t.”
Blum waved this off. “Oh, don’t worry about that. I know I’m not a special agent like you, but I did join the FBI, and I promised to do my job the best that I could. And I’m going to live up to my promise. Besides, I shepherded six kids to adulthood without losing any of them. So I can help you, too.”
Pine smiled. “You already saved my life once. Back at the airport.”
Blum leaned across the table and tapped Pine’s hand. “And if the need arises again, I will do so once more. We’re two badass women in a man’s world. What stronger incentive could we possibly have to stick together?”
Pine’s smile deepened. “Actually, I can’t think of a stronger one.”
Chapter 47
The Southwest Chief Train No. 3 headed out from Chicago with its twin P42 locomotives and nine trailing train cars pointed toward the southwest United States. It carried fourteen crew and 130 passengers. It had a max speed of ninety miles per hour, which it would hit on long stretches of the route. However, its average speed over the slightly more than twenty-two-hundred-mile trip to LA would be only about fifty-five miles per hour, when one factored in the thirty-one stops over eight states.
Pine and Blum settled into their seats as the train rocked and rolled out of the downtown Chicago area.
“Do you think anyone else at the Society for Good is in danger?” said Blum.
“I can’t rule out anyone,” said Pine. “I hope they’ll have taken note of what happened and lie low.”
“Do you think it makes sense for you to call anyone at the FBI? Anyone you might trust? I mean, if there is a nuke in the Grand Canyon, they would want to know about it.”
Pine didn’t answer right away. “This whole thing doesn’t make sense, Carol. If Roth is a weapons inspector and he found out about a nuke in the Grand Canyon, what would be the first thing he would do? Or Ben Priest, for that matter? I mean, I don’t think either of them are traitors.”
Blum looked puzzled. “They should have gone right to the authorities.”
“Only they didn’t. And an Army chopper carries away the Priest brothers. And what looked to me to be feds were going to take Simon Russell somewhere and torture him. Then we were nearly killed by two guys at the airport. And what looked to be our military raided Kurt Ferris’s home.”
“You’d think our people were the bad guys.”
“I don’t know if they know about the nuke and are just trying to contain any leaks so as not to panic the public. But right now our government is snatching people right and left and doing some really weird shit. The rule of law has apparently gone out the window.”
“My God, we might as well be in North Korea or Iran.”
“Or Russia,” added Pine. “Because they’re involved as well.” She paused, looking puzzled. “I didn’t think the Russians and the North Koreans were such great allies that they’d maybe work together to place a nuke on American soil. Are they looking to start World War III? If so, they’re not going to win. Not that anyone would against us.”
“But how in the world could the North Koreans, or the Russians, have gotten a nuke down there with no one aware of it? I mean really?”
“I guess they could have taken it down there in parts, over time. And assembled it in a cave off the beaten path that no one knows about. It’s not like you have to go through a security checkpoint and magnetometer to hike down.”
“Do you think the latitude and longitude lines mark where this cave is?”
“Yes.”
“What are we going to do when we get back to Arizona?”
“I’m not sure. But we have a long train ride to figure it out.”
Pine left the compartment and walked down to the train car that sold snacks and drinks. She bought a beer and some chips and sat by herself in the observation car.
She fingered her phone and then decided to make the call.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Sam, it’s Atlee.”
“Atlee, I didn’t recognize the number.”
“Yeah, I’m traveling. Using another phone. How are things?”
“Fine. Good. You coming back soon?”
“Yeah, I’m on my way, actually. How was the concert?”
“What?”
“Carlos Santana.”
“Oh, right. Hey, it was great. The dude can still bring it, that’s for damn sure. I took a buddy. Wasn’t as much fun as if you had gone instead.”
“Now, that’s what I like to hear. Hey, Sam, you hear anything else about Lambert or Rice?”
“No, just that they went to Utah.”
“Any replacements for them yet?”
“No, not yet. We’re having to pick up the slack for them until the new guys arrive. How’s your investigation going?”
“I’m making progress. Turned out to be a little more complicated than I thought.”
“Well, I hope you catch whoever killed the mule. I still can’t believe someone could be that cruel. I mean, what did that mule ever do to anybody?”
“Yeah, I know. You on duty the next few nights?”
“Yeah, I am. Hey, if you wanted to go out somewhere when you get back, I can see if I can switch with someone. It might not be possible because we’re shorthanded.”
“No, it’s not that. I, uh, I thought I might hike the Canyon one night.”
“Okay, let me know when, I’ll make sure we hook up down there.” He laughed. “I’ll bring you a beer.”
“Right, sounds good.”
“You’re not hiking alone, are you?” he said suddenly.
“Well, I’m a big girl. And I’ve done it solo before.”
“Doesn’t make it smart.”
“I never said I was smart, Sam.”
Later, Pine and Blum went to the dining car to eat. They had to sit with two other people and didn’t get a chance to talk during their meal.
At half past midnight, the train stopped in Lawrence, Kansas. Two passengers got on and none got off. The train headed out five minutes later.
Barely five minutes after that, the train began to slow.
“Another stop?” mumbled Blum, who had been dozing in her bunk.
Pine sat up and snagged her phone, where she’d downloaded the train schedule.
“Not until Topeka about thirty minutes from now.”
“Then why are we slowing down?”
Pine already had her gun out. “Good question.”
A minute later there was a screech of brakes, and the train decelerated so swiftly that they were flung against the wall.
That was followed by a jolt.
And then the mighty Southwest Chief came to a dead stop.
Chapter 48
“What happened?” said Blum, rubbing her shoulder where it had struck the wall.
“I think we hit something,” said Pine. She climbed down from her bunk and slipped on her shoes. “You got your gun out?” she whispered to Blum.