‘This isn’t going to work,’ Amber said from the backseat. ‘Just because we’re not there now doesn’t mean they won’t come back later, and who’s to say there isn’t a reward out for us?’
The two agents emerged from the motel and climbed back into their sedan. Moments later, they pulled away and vanished around a corner on the street.
‘Okay, here we go,’ Ethan said. ‘Remember, stay in the truck while I go inside. The TV stations are using a mugshot that makes me look bad, but that’s also different to the way I look now. Hopefully that will be enough to fool whoever’s on the desk inside.’
‘Or get us arrested,’ Lopez muttered, but she said nothing more as Ethan eased the truck across the street and into the motel’s lot.
Ethan killed the engine and climbed out. The sunlight was bright and the air clear and crisp as he put on a pair of sunglasses and pulled a baseball cap down over his thick brown hair. He took a deep breath and then strode across to the reception door and walked inside.
The interior smelled of old wax and polish, a pall of stale cigarette smoke wafting toward him from behind a security grill in the wall. Behind the grill sat a fat, ugly man with sweat — sheened skin, a small electric fan humming nearby and pointed up at the man’s face. He looked up at Ethan with eyes devoid of any enthusiasm for life that Ethan could detect.
‘Got a room?’ Ethan asked, sensing that engaging this guy in conversation would be a pointless exercise.
‘We’re a motel, what do you think?’
The voice was rough from decades of smoking, brazen while behind the security grill. Ethan’s gaze snapped to meet the hotelier’s and anger flared inside him.
‘Be nice, or I’ll drag your fat ass out of that office and kick it all the way down the street.’
‘You want a room or not?’
‘Ground floor, my mother’s a little weak legged after her operation and needs a rest from the journey.’
The lie came easily, as did the aggression. The fugitives on the TV would be expected to lay low and not draw attention to themselves by threatening people. Likewise, the story about his mother was dropped casually and would hopefully derail the fat man’s interest in anything Ethan had to share.
‘Do you take credit cards?’ Ethan asked brusquely.
‘Cash only.’
Ethan tutted irritably despite only having cash on him. The more deception he could throw at the dim — witted hotelier, the greater his chances of remaining unrecognized.
‘How much?’
‘Fifty bucks a day,’ the man replied. ‘Each.’
‘A hundred fifty bucks for this flea — ridden dump?’
‘You don’t like it, go to Richmond,’ the hotelier shrugged.
Ethan peeled off the money from his meagre funds and handed the notes over. Moments later, the hotelier slid a key under the security grill. Ethan saw his chance and grabbed the fat man’s wrist, twisted it sideways and pinned his hand against the outside of the grill to a shriek of pain as he leaned in close.
The hotelier squealed in panic as his wrist was twisted and bent back at a sharp angle. Ethan offered him a cold grin.
‘I ever see you outside of your little cage here, I’ll shove this hand up your fat ass, understood?’
The hotelier nodded frantically, grunting as fresh sweat spilled from his forehead and his lank black hair hung in greasy fronds before his eyes. Ethan grabbed the key with one hand and gave the hotelier’s wrist a last painful wrench before he released it and turned his back, walking for the door.
‘That’s assault,’ the hotelier uttered weakly from behind Ethan as he opened the reception door.
‘It’s a friendly warning,’ Ethan replied without looking back as he stepped out into the sunshine and strode back to the truck.
He opened the passenger door and leaned in to Amber’s side to look at her. He took a fresh handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.
‘What the hell am I supposed to do with this?’ she asked.
‘Wear it on your head. You’re seventy five and have just had a hip operation,’ Ethan replied. ‘Stay between Nicola and I and act like it.’
Amber dutifully wrapped the kerchief over her head in the manner of a bonnet and hobbled out of the truck’s rear seat as Lopez moved to her side and helped shield Amber from view of the hotel’s reception. They held her between them and slowly crossed the parking lot toward a line of apartments with aged, sun — weathered doors and grubby windows.
‘This is ridiculous,’ Amber hissed. ‘If anybody gets a look at me we’ll be sold out before we even realize what’s happened.’
‘Keep moving,’ Ethan whispered. ‘One thing at a time, okay? Let’s just get out of sight first.’
Ethan unlocked the apartment door and Lopez helped Amber inside as Ethan followed and then closed the door behind them.
‘That’s it,’ Amber snapped as she tore the handkerchief from her head and tossed it onto the grubby sheets of a small bed, grabbing for her cell phone. ‘I’m calling for help.’
‘You can’t,’ Ethan snapped back. ‘We need to sit this out and wait.’
‘For what?!’ Amber wailed. ‘Divine intervention?!’
Ethan shook his head wearily as Lopez took up the mantle.
‘We can’t move, not until we’ve got a game plan. Stanley’s gone, and if he’s got any sense he’ll sell out. It’s all he can do now to prevent us from … ’
‘He already has,’ Ethan said.
He had switched on a small, aged television propped on a wall mount in one corner of the room, so old in fact that it wasn’t even a flat — screen but an old cathode ray tube with a thick layer of dust gracing its surface. Despite its age, however, the picture was more than clear enough as a news report appeared showing an image of Stanley Meyer.
‘Turn it up!’ Amber cried.
Ethan looked about for a remote, but it was Lopez who reached up and turned the volume knob on the television itself. The sound came in abruptly from the ancient speakers at the television’s rear.
‘Police this morning confirmed that they had eliminated four suspects from their enquiries into last night’s forest fire after one of the four, renowned scientist Stanley Meyer, was able to confirm that all four suspects were in fact in Kentucky at the time of the blast. Police have announced that they are still searching for witnesses to the fire, and are urging anybody with information to come forward as soon as possible…’
Ethan could see that Stanley Meyer appeared unharmed and was walking between a police station and a pair of smart, black SUV’s parked in a lot nearby. A lawyer was by his side and doing the talking for him, but it was clear that he was being released without charge and that the media were being used to spread the news to all concerned.
‘He’s sold out,’ Lopez agreed. ‘Only way he’d be walking like that on live television.’
Amber stared open — mouthed at the screen, for once lost for words as Ethan shifted his attention to the two vehicles parked in the lot on the screen.
‘Government?’ Lopez hazarded. ‘Can’t see the plates.’
‘No,’ Ethan shook his head. ‘They wouldn’t get themselves on film too close to Stanley. My guess, it’s Huck Seavers.’
Amber managed to regain her voice as she shoved one hand in her pocket and retrieved her cell phone.
‘I’m calling my mother, right now!’ she snapped.
‘No!’ Ethan shot back. ‘We can’t be sure this is all over.’
‘The hell it isn’t!’ Amber replied, the cell phone already in her hand and the screen aglow. ‘My father’s alive and he’s free!’
‘It might be a ploy to draw us out,’ Lopez explained to her.
‘They don’t need us anymore!’ Amber replied. ‘They wouldn’t bother with all of this. You said it yourself, they’re using the media to get messages across to us. They’ve killed Red McKenzie and now my father’s folded to their demands. They probably threatened our entire family with extinction for all I know. I understand what you’re saying and I appreciate what you’ve done for me, but I don’t answer to either of you. I need to call my mother and that’s what I’m going to do, okay?’