«And me?»
«Your appearance, my dear, is by choice—insistence, if you like, as an interested party—and not a legal requirement. However, as you well know, your signed and notarized agreements with the general and Sam here are legally binding. In this situation the interested party controls the case for the plaintiff—not an unknown happenstance.»
«Read that as in mob trials where certain spectators hover around defendants’ tables,» said Devereaux, addressing Jenny, his eyes then straying back to Pinkus. «Why not stay here until around noon the day after tomorrow, take our own plane to Washington, then a couple of ordinary taxis to the Court? I can’t see it as a problem. No one knows where we are, except the man who hired Cyrus and Roman to join our guard detail, the one Mac spoke to. Even Cyrus agrees with the Hawk now; whoever that man is, he wants to keep us alive and well and heading directly into that hearing.»
«Cyrus also wants to know why,» said Redwing. «Or didn’t he mention that?»
«Mac told him; I was there. This ‘Commander Y’ is settling a score with the people who want to stop the hearing, which means stopping us from getting there.»
«Apparently, my dear, our unknown benefactor was previously a staunch ally of those against us until he learned that these same people had other plans for him. Something in the order of a political sacrifice, if not a human one, neither of which is terribly unusual in Washington, according to the general.»
«But Mr. Pinkus…» Jennifer squinted, pinching the features of her lovely face, part morning sunlight, part disturbing thought. «Something’s missing, something vital, I think. Perhaps I’m paranoid where Chief Thunder Head is concerned, and why shouldn’t I be? But all Hawkins told us last night was that everything was under control—‘under control.’ What does that mean?… Okay, he’s somehow called off these actor-guerrillas from blowing us away in ravines—it’s always ravines, or cliffs, or whorehouses—but how? What happened in Fort Benning? We were all so relieved to hear we could sleep peacefully, we never asked him.»
«That’s not quite accurate, Jennifer. Prior to this morning, he and I agreed not to talk in specifics over the telephone, for as he pointed out, a previous assault team was sent after us in Hooksett, and a tap on the line would be routine.»
«I thought that line up there was cut,» interrupted Devereaux.
«In the telling, not the reality. He could not say last evening what he said this morning.»
«The tap was shut down? How could he know—»
«It wouldn’t matter. This morning he was calling from a pay phone at Sophie’s Diner on Route Ninety-three. He even extolled the kielbasy and eggs.»
«Please, Mr. Pinkus,» said Redwing. «What did he tell you about Fort Benning?»
«Maddeningly little, my dear, but enough to make this elderly lawyer wonder what happened to the rule of law among those guardians of the concept… On second thought, I wonder why I’m even astonished any longer.»
«That’s pretty heavy, Aaron.»
«What the general told me carries considerable tonnage, young man. To paraphrase our much-decorated soldier, the hostile action against us—essentially against the laws of airing public grievance—emanates from the office of one of our most powerful public figures, who has covered his tracks to the point of nonexistence. He cannot be confronted, for there’s nothing to confront him with—»
«Goddamn it!» exploded Devereaux.
«With everything that’s happened, there must be something!» cried Jennifer. «Wait a minute… that gangster from Brooklyn, the one Hawkins knocked out at the hotel, Caesar somebody-or-other. He was taken into custody!»
«And traced to the deceased director of the Central Intelligence Agency,» said Pinkus.
«That has a familiar ring to it,» noted Sam.
«Those naked men at the Ritz …?»
«Disowned by all of Washington, including the zoo. Subsequently they were bailed out by someone claiming to be a member of a nudist cult in California and disappeared.»
«Damn,» said Jenny, discouragement as well as anger in the drawn-out expletive. «We should never have permitted Hawkins to ship those four armed lunatics up at the ski lodge back to wherever it was. We had them for intended assault with deadly weapons, concealed invasion of property, masks, guns, grenades—even a tattooed forehead. We were idiots to let Thunder Cigar talk us into it!»
«My dear, they knew absolutely nothing; we questioned them at length—to no avail but incoherence. They themselves were maniacally programmed psychopaths, as deniable as the nudists. And to turn them over to the police would have revealed our whereabouts… Worse, I’m embarrassed to say, since the lodge is in my firm’s name, there would have been considerable media interest.»
«Also,» added Devereaux, «and I’m not in the habit of throwing bouquets at Mac, but he was right: By sending them back, we created the climate that led directly to this crazy Suicidal Six flying into Boston.»
«And to General Ethelred Brokemichael,» said Aaron, smiling as wickedly as it was possible for him.
«What do you mean, Mr. Pinkus? You made it clear yesterday that Brokemichael would be out of reach, shipped to an unmapped outpost, if he surfaces. You said Washington could not permit the name of the official who ordered up the Air Force Two—I remember, because I agreed with you.»
«And we were both right, Jennifer, but we lacked the general’s deviousness, as I believe Sam phrased it. That fine military tactician had a voice-activated recorder strapped to his chest during his entire interview with General Brokemichael. The Pentagon couldn’t send ‘Brokey the Deuce’ far enough away to be out of reach… I must tell you, however, that General Hawkins wants it known that it was our mercenary-chemist, Colonel Cyrus, who suggested the device.»
«I assume the name of that powerful public figure is on the tape,» said Sam, controlled but dire hope on his face.
«Most definitely. Even to the fact that he got on the base without being recognized.»
«Who the hell is he?» pressed Devereaux.
«I’m afraid our general declines to reveal the name at this time.»
«He can’t do that,» exclaimed Redwing. «We’re all in this together, we have to tow!»
«He says if Sammy knew, he’d become a loose cannon and ‘… mount his high horse and take his personal cavalry into battle …’ to the detriment of Hawkins’s next strategy. The ‘high horse cavalry’ words were exact and accurate. I know, for I’ve lived through a number of Sam’s legal indignations.»
«I’m never a loose cannon,» protested Devereaux.
«Should I remind you of several loud criticisms you’ve given the court?»
«They were entirely justified!»
«I never said they weren’t—if they were, you’d be with another firm. To your credit, you caused the retirement of at least four judges in the Boston district.»
«There, you see?»
«So does the general. He claimed you got on that high horse of yours—by way of bribed pilots and stolen helicopters—from someplace in Switzerland to Rome, and he doesn’t care for a repeat performance.»
«I had to!»
«Why, Sam?» asked Jennifer quietly. «Why did you have to?»
«Because it was wrong. Morally and ethically wrong, against all the laws of civilized man.»