Karen was lying crosswise in the backseat, to her legs up on the seat, her sleeping form wrapped in one of the Fenster County EMT blankets.
Train sat up front with are Mcnair, who had been listening c fully to Train’s debrief of the incident on the county road for the second time.
Train finished with the arrival of the first EMTS. Their clothes still smelled of char.
“Pissed me off,” he said. “Burning up my Suburban.”
“Goddamned lucky you both aren’t toast,” Mcnair replied, accelerating to pass a semi. “This wasn’t a warning.
You know’t ‘ hat, don’t you? This was for real.”
“Message received,”
Train said. He looked back over his shoulder at Karen, but she was still sleeping. “I think it’s time we went over to the offensive. I’m beginning to feel like the settlers barricaded in their cabin. I want to get out in the woods and start killing some Injuns.”
Mcnair shot him a skeptical look.
“Yeah, I know,” Train said. “But we need to break the pattern here. We need to act instead of always reacting.
What I can’t figure is why he upped the ante.”
“Maybe the commander’s little courtesy call on the Sherman kid had something to do with it.”
Train nodded silently. He had been thinking the same thing. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s look at that. Galantz wants us out of the way now because we’ve attracted daylight to Sherman’s son. If this is still all about Sherman as the target of revenge, why’s the kid important? Guy like Galantz surely doesn’t need help.”
Mcnair did not reply. Train let him think about it.
“Okay, I give up,” Mcnair said. “I can see the ‘what’ part of it but not the ‘why’ part.”
“My theory,” Train said, “is that Galantz has been planning to fold the kid into his little scheme for a long time.
From what the kid told Karen, they met back when Jack was still in the Corps, at recon school, where Galantz was probably an instructor. That’d be a good stash for a sweeper.
Then something happened, maybe even something his new I old man’ engineered, and then Jack was out with a BCD.
The only friend he’s got in the world now is the guy that got him through recon training.”
“But what’s the game?” Mcnair said. “Like you said, it’s not like Galantz would need the help of a shitbird like that to off the admiral.”
“It’s not about killing Admiral Sherman,” Train said.
“This is about destroying him. Ruining his reputation. Provoking a Navy rubbed raw by a string of scandals to force him out, right when he’s made it to the top. Using the guy’s‘ son would be icing on the cake in that program.”
“But how?”
“Picture the headline: ADMIRAL’S SON A MURDERER. Galantz has been thinking ahead of us. He knows you guys will never catch him, so you’ll settle for what you can catch Sherman’s son. Hell, it’s already working.
Sherman did nothing but attract a homicide cop., and they’ve stashed him sideways over in the Bureau. Then he gets spooke . d and bolts for the hospice. Goes A.W.O.L.. An admiral, for crying out loud. And after this caper tonight, you guys are going have to move. And you’ll move against Jack Sherman, because you know you can pick him up anytime you want.
Arresting Jack Sherman’ gives the Fairfax County cops a: suspect in custody,’ and any potential political heat dies away.”
Mcnair shot him a look. “We’re desperate guys,” he grunted. “But not that desperate. And we’re just supposed to forget about Galantz?”
Train glanced back at Karen, but she was still asleep.
“Isn’t that what certain federal agencies have already asked you to do?
You’ve got two probable homicides, and two attempted homicides. You grab up a viable suspect, your face is saved, and you can leave Galantz to the spooks and hope he doesn’t get Sherman, about whom the Navy no longer cares.”
Mcnair nodded again in the darkness. “it reads,” he said finally.
“Except for maybe when I take it to a commonwealth’s attorney. Which leads me to believe that this is a really good time for you two to hole up somewhere.”
“Yes and no Train said. “After tonight, I’d rather be the finder than the findee. I think this guy just wants us dead.” He looked back over his shoulder. Karen’s face was illuminated momentarily in the light of some passing headlights. “I don’t want her exposed to any more of this, and I also want a crack at the real bad guy here. Especially if you guys are gonna back off.”
Mcnair didn’t answer. He patted the pocket of his suit coat and then sighed. “Goddamn,. I’d like a cigarette. Quit two years ago, and not a day goes by that I don’t crave one., Look, I’ll make a deal with you.
Give me a day or so. You two get your heads down and stay low. Take her back to your house. I’ll get Stafford County to put some protection on for you, whatever. But basically, you agree to stay put.
In return, I’ll see what I can do about putting some heat on Galantz.”
Train thought about it. “Why are you doing this?” he asked.
“Because he’s killed two people on my turf, and tried for two more. That pisses me off-personally. I want his ass.
Deal?”
Train thought about it. As they approached Washington, the traffic out on the interstate was heavier, even at this late hour. The stream of red and white lights still had a purplish corona to them. “Okay,” he, said finally. “Deal. Two days. “
“Okay,” Mcnair said. “And leave Sherman to me. I’ll break the news to him about his kid’s involvement.”
SATURDAY.
Mcnair dropped them off at Karen’s house in Great Falls.
Karen needed some clothes, and with the Suburban destroyed, they needed a car. Karen’s Mercedes was in the garage. Mcnair stayed in his car to make call while Karen extracted a spare key from its hiding place.
Once they were in the house; Mcnair left. He had given Train a beeper number in case something came up over the next two days.
Twenty minutes later, they were out of there and headed for Aquia.
Karen, refreshed after her long nap in Mcnair’s car, was elected to drive, while Train kept watch behind them, the Glock stuffed between the front bucket seats. He was not going to be surprised by this bastard again. The sodiumvapor lights along the highway still had a reddish purple tinge to them.
“I’d be happier if Mcnair had come with us,” she said as she pulled the car onto the Beltway.
“He’s just as tired as we are,” Train said. “Actually, with all this traffic out here, I think we’re reasonably safe.”
We hope, he thought.
“Nobody’s safe on the Beltway,” she said. “But at least there’s a phone signal.”
At which point, the car phone started to ring, startling both of them.
After a moment’s hesitation, she reached down and hit the button so they could both listen.
“Hello?” she said.
Congratulations.
Karen actually closed her eyes for a moment before she remembered she was driving. Train leaned over to speak into the remote microphone.
“Gonna try again, Galantz?” You were lucky. Again. As I think I told you, you have to be lucky every time. I have to be lucky only one time.
“You some kind of ghost, Galantz? Only come out at night?”
Not a ghost, von Rensel. A grotesque, to be sure. I have one eye, a scar that bisects my face, a stainless-steel hand, and a Teflon larynx. I am memorable.
“So what now, Galantz? Calling to tell us you have the admiral tied up somewhere?”
There was an audible wheeze, a precursor breath each time before the voice replied.
You don’t understand, von Rensel. If I’d wanted Sherman dead, he’d have been extinguished a long time ago. That’s what I do. What I’ve done for years.