“So what do you want?” Karen asked, speaking for the first time.
His destruction. At the hands of his own kind, Commander. I’m provoking his precious Navy to turn on him at the peak of his professional success. I’m going to take away everything of value to him and leave him to contemplate that for the rest of his life. And there’s nothing you two can do about it.
“The Navy knows what’s going on here, Galantz,” Train said. “They’re not going to fall for this.” But as he said it, he wondered.
The admirals will do precisely what I want, von Rensel In a manner of speaking, they’re part of this. That’s why you’re going to Aquia now.
And that’s why I’m making this little courtesy call-to reinforce your orders. Stay out of this. Stay out of this or I’ll extinguish you both, understand?
How in the hell did he know that? Train wondered. He tried to think of something to say, but he sensed that Karen was getting truly frightened.
Hell, -so was he. There was absolutely zero emotion in that machine voice.
You listening, von Rensel? I’ve been setting this up for years. Years of watching Sherman. Years of cultivating his wretched son. But time t’ s growing short. My employers are ‘ a little upset with me just now, and I don’t need any distractions in the end game. Go to your pretty little estate. Stay there. This will be over soon. Now, look behind you.
Train snapped his head around. Their Mercedes was all alone out in six lanes of the Beltway. There was a wall of headlights farther back, but all of the traffic was holding back because of the police car that was a hundred feet behind them.
“Oh no,” Karen whispered.
Train reached for the Glock, but then he saw the police car begin to fall back, signaling an exit, merging into the phalanx of headlights ahalf mile behind them.
Go to Aquia. Live a lot longer. Then there was only the hiss of static.
“Now what?” Karen said.
“We call the cops, that’s what,” he replied. “What’s this number?”
She gave it to him while he reached for the phone, recycled it, and dialed the beeper number Mcnair had given him. The beeper tape came up, and Train punched in the car phone’s number and hung up. The phone rang one minute later.
“Von Rensel,” Train said.
“You called us,” -a male voice replied.
Train hesitated. Us? Who the hell was us? “I have -a message for Mcnair,” he said.
“Go ahead.”
“Tell him Galantz caught up with us on the Beltway, gave us a friendly phone call. We’re headed for Aquia.”
“Your ETA?”
“An hour from now. Maybe less.”
“Your route?”
Train hesitated again. Who was this guy? But then, if they wanted protection, the cops would have to know their route.
He told the voice they would take the Beltway to 1-95, and then straight down to Aquia. “Us” broke the connection without replying. Train hung up the phone.
“Who’d you get?”
“An ops center, from the sound of it. They knew Mcnair, though.”
“That voice scared the hell out of me.”
“Me, too. Rock and roll, Karen.” She kicked it up to seventy.
An hour later, they arrived at Train’s estate. Train had called ahead and raised Kyoko to tell her they were coming in.
Hiroshi was waiting for them at the front steps when Karen pulled the Mercedes to a stop. The two Dobermans, who had accompanied the car up to the house from the front gates, sat attentively on either side of the car until Hiroshi gave them an order that sent them back out into the morning twilight. Karen slumped behind the wheel and turned to look wordlessly at Train, her eyes betraying her exhaustion.
“For the moment, I think we’re safe,” he said, not entirely believing it even as he said it.
“Only for the moment? I thought Mcnair said we weren’t targets anymore.”
“Yeah, but what does he know?” When they got out, Hiroshi signaled that he had something to tell Train. Karen took her bag and went into the house to use the bathroom.
Hiroshi waited until she had gone into the house. “There is la visitor,” he announced.
“Visitor?” Train asked. “At this hour?”- And then he knew. “Admiral Sherman.”
Hiroshi nodded. “Arrived three hours ago. He is asleep in the study.”
Train was wondering where the hell the good admiral had been all night.
He ‘was still bothered by what he thought of as the feasibility problem.
Then he dismissed his suspicions: As Galantz had said, Sherman was in end game and didn’t know it. He took Hiroshi aside.
“Go in and wake him up. Take him some coffee. When Commander Lawrence comes back out, we’ll take a little walk around the grounds, give him a few minutes to get himself together. Then we’ll come in.”
Hiroshi gave a short bow, then hesitated.
“Yes, Hiroshisan?”
“He has a gun, I think. In his coat pocket.”
Train nodded. Why not, everybody else was packing tonight. “It’s been a long night, Hiroshi,” he said. “We were ambushed up in Maryland.” He told Hiroshi about what had happened.
“Ninia,” the old man murmured thoughtfully. Train caught the note of approval. But then he realized that it was respect being given to a worthy and capable opponent and not admiration for what Galantz was doing.
“Yes, ninia,” he replied. “But a ninja without honor. He kills women and old men. His real objective is the destruction of this senior officer, this Admiral Sherman, the man inside.”
“This is the senior officer?
The ninja will kill him?”
“I don’t think so. I think he means to disgrace him and then let him live with that disgrace-for’d long time.”
Hiroshi gave another nod. Disgrace was much worse than being killed.
“Commanoer Lawrence and I interfered. I think the first. attack on her was meant to neutralize me. The second time was meant to remove both of us. Now I think if we were just to stay here, nothing more would happen to us. Or to anyone else here,” he added pointedly.
Hiroshi gave a dismissive snort. “Let him come here. Life is sometimes boring.”
Train laughed out loud. “Not with this guy, Hiroshisan.
But my other problem is that my superiors are playing at some kind of game.”
Hiroshi was silent for a moment while he absorbed this news. Then he gave Train a sideways look. “You will remain here?”
“I’m not sure. When I was in the Marines, we were taught not to sit still and wait for the enemy. Waiting in one place just simplifies his problem. There’s another factor: The senior officer’s son is involved in this matter. He has been helping the man who is behind the killings.”
Hiroshi shook his head. ““The son helps the man who would destroy his father? What kind of son is this?”
Karen was coming back out of the house. There was a hint of sunrise across the river. “There’s history, Hiroshisan. The father treated the son very badly long ago. The father is not entirely innocent here. Send Gutter out, please.
Hiroshi bowed . and went back into the house as Karen walked up, carrying two mugs of hot coffee. A moment later, Gutter came trotting out from behind the house. Together, they walked across the front lawn and down a gravel path toward the river oaks. Train was amused to, see that Gutter was staying closer to Karen than to him. Dogs figure stuff out, he thought. There was a thin band of red light defining the silhouette of the Maryland hills across the Potomac. They could hear the honking of some Canadian geese upstream in the park; the sound made the Galantz problem seem remote.
“Have you figured out what we’re going to tell this poor man?” she asked, taking his hand.
“I’m getting the inklings of a plan,” he replied, kicking a dead branch off the path. “Although Mcnair might not like having his hand forced. I think we need to tell Sherman about his son’s involvement. Then maybe suggest we put the two of them face-to-face, see what happens.”