Blaine started toward the boys, but Reverend Jim cut him off. “You could help them better by makin’ off with yourself and the lady, so this won’t be for nothing. Time’s a wastin’, governor. You read me on that?”
“I’ve got to do something.”
“Getting the people behind the bullets’ll do just fine.”
“Not for me, it won’t. Oh, I’ll do that all right — But I’ve got something else in mind.”
“Save it, governor.”
“Yes, Reverend, save. I’m going to leave you a contact code so you can reach me. Start using it in a week and then every day after. When my business here is finished, we can talk about paybacks.” Again Blaine’s eyes drifted to the children. “I want to send you some money to help set this straight — to set them straight.”
“Nobody’s asking you to.”
“Nobody had to. Believe me, I have to do this. I’ll send you a hundred thousand dollars to begin with. That should be enough to get them out of the favela. After that, I’ll send you as much as you need to keep them from ever going back.”
Reverend Jim’s eyes were bulging. “Where’d a man like you get that much cash?”
“Friends in the right places, Reverend,” Blaine replied, staring into the distance. “All over the world.”
“What happens now?” Patty asked him as he started the engine of the car John Lynnford had left in the mall parking lot.
“We follow John’s plan and hope it works,” Blaine answered, stowing the directions to the airport Lynnford had had written out for them in his lap.
The route would make as much use as possible of back roads, steering clear of major arteries, where more of Da Sa’s men might be concentrated. Of course, this also meant that traditional means of escape couldn’t be used. A letter signed by Lynnford would hopefully provide the alternative here. The Orlando Orfei Circus frequently required the use of cargo services to bring animals and equipment into the country. Sometimes the proper papers were nonexistent, and cash was exchanged in their place. The letter presented to the carrier Lynnford most trusted should guarantee Blaine and Patty passage on the next cargo flight out of the country. The destination didn’t matter. The general direction of the United States would suit Blaine just fine.
“Finish what you started to say back at the carnival. I want to know what’s going on,” Patty said as the circus disappeared behind them. “I want to know what’s really going on.”
“I was hoodwinked.” He looked at her. “You were, too.”
“Make sense!”
“I can’t. Not yet. Virginia Maxwell solicits my services and then turns out to be a potential victim of what I’m supposed to stop. But when Sal warns her, she tries to have him killed. What does that say to you?”
“I don’t know. If I did, I wouldn’t have asked.”
McCracken squeezed the wheel. “Okay, we’ve got these successful Americans, all adopted and all suddenly on a hit list.”
“And the Japanese link — don’t forget about that. Which reminds me about the men…”
“What men?”
“The ones waiting for me at your hotel. All Japanese. They knew I was coming. Do you think Maxwell sent them?”
“No way. She’d never have dispatched any group that stood out that much.”
“Who, then?”
“Good question. Wish I had an answer. The thing is, there’ve been two groups operating in this all along. Your father and Virginia Maxwell are part of one. Whoever sent out the six killers is part of another. But where does that leave the disciples?…”
“The what?”
“Sorry. Just thinking out loud.”
Patty thought for a few moments as the car drove on through the night. “Who was it that was after us at the circus?”
“A crime lord named Da Sa got himself killed, and I got blamed. Whoever really killed him made sure of that…and then made sure to link you with me.”
“The Japanese?”
Blaine shook his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He hesitated. “The thing is…”
“I’m listening.”
“No, it’s too crazy.”
“Nothing’s too crazy at this point.”
“Okay, try this out. What if one of our forces was behind the placing of all these adopted babies? Your father, Virginia Maxwell, every last one of them.”
“Toward what end?”
“They grew up to be rich and powerful, didn’t they?”
“What are you saying, McCracken?”
“I’m not sure yet, Hunsecker.” Patty turned away and gazed out the window into the night. “What about my father? Maxwell tried to kill me, and you’ve drawn a link between—”
“I haven’t drawn a link between anything. I’m just playing with the facts, seeing how they fit together. Anyway, Virginia Maxwell is still alive.”
Patty shifted in the passenger seat and pressed herself against the door, staring at her dim reflection in the window.
“I killed a man tonight,” she said, with strange matter-of-factness.
“Who would have killed you if you hadn’t.”
“Save the dime-store philosophy for somebody else, okay? In that moment I think I understood you better than I ever have, McCracken. I understood what it’s like to be cornered and have no choice but to fight back. I understood what it’s like to kill someone and not feel anything about it.”
“Because you had no choice.”
“That’s what I’m talking about. I look back and I want to be sick, feel sick, but I can’t. All I feel is…nothing. That man doesn’t have any meaning, like he wasn’t real.”
“He was real only in the sense of trying to kill you, Patty. That’s what Johnny Wareagle would say, and he’s right. You saw him in the context of what he was, and that context is the only meaning he had to you.”
“You don’t understand. The context is the problem. I could shoot a man, I could do everything I’ve done these past couple weeks, because of my father. Except now I find out maybe my father wasn’t the innocent victim I thought he was. Maybe he was part of something I didn’t know about that got him killed, and maybe, too, he wasn’t such a nice guy after all. You see, McCracken, if his life was a lie, then so is mine. None of it means anything anymore.”
“Wrong. The meaning’s just changed. John Lynnford could have kept you safe and hidden at the circus, but you insisted on coming with me instead because it still means plenty.”
“I can’t wait to find out what!” she said, half sarcastically.
“Exactly. That’s what keeps you going. That’s what keeps me going, and Johnny, too. Like Hanbelachia.”
“What’s that?”
“A vision quest, an Indian rite of passage ceremony. Johnny told me he was still waiting for his, and I’m beginning to think mine’s gonna come at the same time.”
Patty’s eyes lost some of their sadness. “You’re really starting to sound like him.”
“Mostly because I’m starting to really listen to him. He makes sense, Hunsecker. And when all is said and done, he’s probably the only man I know who does.”
Patty shifted again and sighed. “Well, from my perspective, it’s—”
A quick pop! ended her words an instant before the car swerved violently out of control. Blaine struggled to right the wheel. He was turning into a skid when a second pop! sent it whirling into a wild spin.
“They’ve shot out the tires!” McCracken shouted.
Blaine twisted around, trying to unfasten his seat belt and go for his pistol at the same time. Incredibly he managed both before the car came to a complete stop. He started to shove the door open when the bright lights blinded both of them. A number of figures stormed forward, guns marking their paths.