Ananke and Dani led the way up with Nate and Daeng coming next, carrying Orlando in the cradle of their clasped arms. Quinn was immediately behind them.
Not knowing what else to do, he alternated between giving Orlando words of encouragement and updates on their progress. Whether she was listening to him or not, he didn’t know, but he couldn’t stop talking even if he wanted to.
When they stopped for a quick rest around the three-quarters point, Quinn offered to switch with one of his friends.
“Absolutely not,” Orlando said. “Look at you. You’ll drop me.”
He hadn’t noticed until that moment that he was shaking.
Not long after they began walking again, Orlando’s contractions returned. Ananke looked at her watch.
“How far apart?” Quinn asked.
Without looking back, Ananke said, “Let’s just say the sooner we get out of here, the better.”
The baby was born in the backseat of The Wolf’s Explorer. Ananke, the only one with any birthing experience, acted as Orlando’s midwife. After she made sure the child was breathing properly, she held the cord for Quinn to cut and handed him his daughter.
“Do you have a name picked out?” she asked.
If their child had been a boy, he would have been named David Abraham, in honor of Quinn’s brother who’d died as a child, and Orlando’s mentor who’d passed the previous winter. And if a girl—
“Claire,” Orlando said, looking both exhausted and happy.
“Claire what?” Ananke asked.
“We haven’t decided on a middle name yet,” Quinn said.
“How about Ananke? It has a certain ring to it.”
Orlando frowned. “I don’t think so.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I did just help you deliver her.”
Orlando’s expression softened. “You did. Thank you. I…I’m glad you were here.”
Ananke looked at her for a moment, as if waiting for a punch line. When one didn’t come, she said, “I didn’t have anywhere else to be.”
Though taking the Explorer would have been preferable, the police would be looking for it and the car Orbits had fled in. So the only safe vehicle for Quinn and his team to leave in was the sedan Orlando had been driving. Everyone was able to fit in only by having Orlando lie across Quinn’s, Daeng’s, and Ananke’s laps.
A phone call to the Mole secured the services of a doctor in Topeka who wouldn’t ask questions. They arrived at his home twenty minutes later, and soon after Orlando and Claire were both asleep in the doctor’s guest room.
“Quinn?”
Dani was standing just outside the guest-room doorway. Quinn quietly walked into the hall and shut the door.
“I need to get going,” she said. “I have…things I need to take care of.”
He knew it had something to do with whatever she took from the bottom storage level.
“I can leave, can’t I?” she asked.
“Of course.”
“What about your client? You’re supposed to give me to her.”
“My client will be more than happy with the silo. I can’t guarantee others won’t still be looking for you, though. It’ll be a little while before word gets out that your father’s stash is in the hands of the US government.” He paused. “I might know someone who can help you.”
“I don’t need help.”
“Have you not been paying attention the last couple of days? Because clearly you do,” he said with a smile. “My friend can get you new identifications, arrange travel to wherever you want to go, and make sure you’re not being followed.”
“And then he tells you and you know where I am?”
“I have no interest in knowing where you are. I’ll put you in contact with him and then I’m out. He’s a little odd but you can trust him.”
When she finally accepted his offer, he connected her to the Mole. An hour later, a car arrived at the doctor’s house to pick her up.
Nate, Ananke, and Daeng said their good-byes before Quinn took his turn.
“In a few months you should be able to stop hiding.”
“I’m not sure I know how to do that,” she said.
“You’ll figure it out.”
She wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you. I’m glad you guys were the ones who found me.”
“I am, too.”
She planted a kiss on his cheek and then hurried to her car.
Ananke left that evening after spending some closed-door time with Orlando. With a wink and a “see you later, boys,” she was gone.
“What were you two talking about?” Quinn asked Orlando later.
“Old stuff. Nothing you need worry about.”
“Are you two friends now?”
“Did I say that?” she asked, but with none of the venom he would have expected.
Claire squirmed and opened her eyes.
“Can you hold her for a moment?” Orlando asked.
He lifted his daughter into his arms and stared into her eyes. “We did this?”
“Yeah, we did.”
Claire wrinkled her brow in the exact same way he’d seen Orlando do a million times.
“She’s perfect,” he said, as he wondered if there could ever be a better moment than this.
CHAPTER 43
For the last several days, Helen Cho had embarked on a housecleaning mission. The first casualty was the overnight director on duty when she’d been kidnapped, who’d been recruited by The Wolf. It turned out he wasn’t the only leak in the office. An assistant info tech had been feeding information to another branch of US Intelligence, and an agent doing the same with an independent, ultra-patriotic organization. All three were arrested and would soon be appearing in a secret court.
The acquisition of the silo was an unexpected bonus. With the weapons and the nuclear devices came the woman responsible for Helen’s disappearance. Not wanting to chance losing her in the stateside system, Helen had The Wolf rendered to a secret base in eastern Europe, where the extraction of information about the woman’s business dealings would be performed under less rigorous standards than in the States. As for Ricky Orbits, Helen decided a nice, ten-year stretch in a federal facility would be adequate.
There was no official rebuke of Morse’s actions in connection with the Charles Hayes matter. There were only citations and tributes in the wake of a “requested” early retirement. As for Lyle Clark, Morse’s contact on the board of directors, some people were too powerful to be removed.
Valor, too, had to serve up a sacrificial lamb. Though Scott Bennett had been no more than a go-between, he was called upon to pay the price.
News services carried a story about rumors concerning a well-known lobbyist’s connections to Mexican drug cartels. The connections would one day be proved as false, but the mere mention of the possibility was all that was needed to start the death spiral of his career, and the business he had worked so hard to build disappeared overnight.
Valor understood sacrifice, and appreciated Bennett playing his part. He would be required to live a quieter life, but money would continue to flow his way, and he was promised that one day he would achieve great success again.
Assistant Trade Attaché Komarov had a message waiting for him when he arrived at the embassy instructing him to destroy the codebook hidden behind his filing cabinet. He was further instructed to avoid all contact with Herr Schwartz.
He knew it had to do with the operation a week earlier, but what specifically he had no idea, and didn’t want to find out.