‘You know about the Night Road?’
‘I didn’t know the name until Eric mentioned it two days ago. We know it’s a loose affiliation of extremist groups, turning toward violence, working together to share resources, tactics, and information. And I suspect the Road’s hand in the Ripley attack, and the attacks over the past week.’
‘Attacks?’
‘ E. coli infecting a food plant in Tennessee. Pipeline bomb in Canada. Attempted bombing of a pipeline in Alaska. And last night, a bombing at a high school football game in Kansas City, eight dead, a hundred injured. And one of our leading thinkers in counter-terrorism was slaughtered with his family while leaving a restaurant in Los Angeles.’
‘Oh, God, no. You should know I found these people.’
‘You found all these people for who? Henry?’ When he said Henry’s name his mouth made a curl of distaste.
‘Under the false pretense of doing psychological profiling for his think-tank. I gave him thousands of names. He whittled it down to the most committed and dangerous. My role is a pawn who got played.’
‘Henry used you. And you’re a pawn who’s pissed off about it,’ Drummond said.
‘Yes. What is Quicksilver?’
It was as if Drummond did not hear the question. ‘I can offer you what I offered Eric. Get you out of the country, hide you under another name. You’ll be safe. You give me all the information you have on the Night Road. That’s the deal.’
‘No. I don’t want to be stashed away. I want my life back. My good name. I want to be cleared of Clifford’s death, and the officer in Chicago. And I want to help stop the Night Road.’
‘Noble of you, but unnecessary,’ Drummond said. ‘My offer is what it is. You’re not part of this battle, Luke, and I think it best you hide until the danger’s passed. Know that you’re helping us by telling us everything about the Night Road. That’s your contribution.’
‘It’s not enough. Please. I helped build that network. I want to help destroy it. I can’t just sit someplace safe while Henry runs a terror cell.’
Drummond studied him. ‘Why did Henry use you?’
‘I don’t know; I was handy, I guess. What is Quicksilver? Are you CIA? FBI? A black ops group? What?’ He took a breath. ‘Are you like the Book Club?’
‘How did you know about the Book Club?’
‘Henry. He was desperate that I not see you.’
‘Oh, I’ll bet he was.’
‘Did you know my dad? Did you work with him in the government? What did he do?’
‘I said no more on Quicksilver.’
They stared at each other. Luke tried a different tack. Drummond wouldn’t answer his questions but oddly, he seemed to want to hear what Luke wanted to ask. ‘What are all these pictures?’
‘My many failures.’
Luke turned away from the portraits of suffering. ‘What, you screwed over all these people yourself?’
‘Consider them salt in the wound. I failed in these instances, so these people suffered. I remember them. Every day. I have no choice.’
‘The Book Club tried to help people?’
‘Mostly succeeding but not always. Good doesn’t always win out.’
‘You could take the pictures down.’
‘I would still see their faces. It’s easier to see them on the walls than in my dreams.’
‘I don’t understand why you would help Eric get out of Chicago when he killed your friend.’
‘Because stopping the Night Road is more important than revenge. Eric made a bad choice, under tremendous pressure, and then when it all unraveled he was ready to betray the Night Road. I didn’t like him but I do what’s necessary to save lives.’
‘I will trade everything I know for Aubrey’s release and information about Quicksilver. Otherwise, we have no deal.’
‘You assume that we would hurt Aubrey. We won’t. We’re the good guys,’ Drummond said.
‘Then please, tell me what I need to know.’
‘I can’t. I need you to trust me, entirely. I need you to tell me everything, Luke, and to please, please ask me no questions. I need you, for the sake of your country, to cooperate fully and to let me hide you some place where you’ll be safe.’
‘Why should I trust you when you won’t trust me?’ Luke said.
Drummond sighed. He reached under his turtleneck and lifted up a piece of silver from under the sweater’s black weight. A Saint Michael’s medal, an exact duplicate of the one that Luke wore. The archangel stood tall, sword in one hand, shield in the other, wings of steel spread.
Luke’s eyes widened. ‘Where did you get that?’
‘An old friend gave it to me, a few weeks before he died.’
‘An old friend,’ Luke echoed.
‘Your father. One of my closest friends. Now. Knowing that, will you trust me?’
Luke studied Drummond’s face. ‘I will.’ Seeing the twin of his own medal around Drummond’s neck filled his head with a hundred questions. ‘My dad…’
‘Would order you to listen to me and to do as I say. Please. For your own safety, I cannot explain more. Now. Help me the only way you can. Tell me everything about the Night Road.’
‘I guess I should start with the most important part. The fifty million dollars.’
Drummond raised an eyebrow. Luke could see he hated to be surprised. But he was.
‘The fifty million what?’ Drummond asked.
38
Henry Shawcross leaned forward across the table and said, ‘Quicksilver has my son. We are going to get him back.’
Mouser and Snow glanced at each other. A thin haze of smoke from Mouser’s cigarette hung above the hotel room table; they sat at a window, but Snow insisted the curtains be kept drawn. She said satellites could spy on them. Henry thought she might be right. He studied their faces; they looked haggard, tired. They could not be. He needed them sharp.
‘There was a police incident report filed, shots fired near the air park where Luke’s plane landed, a man running into traffic, causing a couple of accidents. Quicksilver grabbed them.’ He’d driven up from Washington late last night when the news came from Mouser that Luke was headed for New York.
‘Who the hell are these Quicksilver clowns?’ Mouser asked.
Henry waved the smoke away from his face. ‘I gave some of my think-tank clients a security exercise to perform, to find every record affecting Quicksilver Risk and my old friend Drummond and Clifford, who are not much more than hired guns. Quicksilver is a small risk management consulting group, but I’m sure it’s just a front. But they have also bought, sometimes through front companies, buildings around the US, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. They have accounts in banks around the world, again, under a set of holding company names.’
‘Are they CIA?’
‘Drummond used to be State Department. I don’t think it’s State. But I’m not sure why the CIA or FBI would go to this trouble to hide, unless they’re simply breaking the law and avoiding congressional oversight.’
‘You want us to attack a building,’ Snow said.
‘I live for this,’ Mouser said.
‘It’s not a typical building. There are no tenants. They will have a skeleton staff. All you have to do is get Luke back. Kill everyone else, I don’t care.’
‘And this is to save Luke? You know we’re just going to have to kill him, Henry, face facts. He’s not coming over to your side.’
‘I want to talk with him. Hustle him into a van and bring him to me.’
‘Face facts,’ Mouser repeated. ‘You’re deluded.’
‘I am in command here, Mouser. Not you.’
Mouser said, ‘For the moment.’
Henry ignored him. ‘Quicksilver knows of us, thanks to Bridger. So we have to decapitate them before they can act.’
‘Just the two of us and you?’ Snow said.
‘I have some important Hellfire work to do. I’ve arranged for some Night Road help for the two of you.’ He looked at Snow. ‘And, Snow, we need to move your bombs. I need to know you didn’t leave booby traps around your storage space in Houston.’