“Now you’re using your head. Listen—no police, no FBI, nobody. I spot any snoopers sniffing around and you’ll never see Terry again. Clear? Have the money with you, at home, tomorrow afternoon. You’ll hear from me.”
Click.
Oakley rang off and walked to the office like a somnambulist. Conniston still had the phone in his hand; he was reaching across the desk to switch off his tape-recorder, which he had installed six months ago to record all phone conversations automatically—part of his growing paranoid pattern.
Conniston said in a breaking voice, “Get Orozco.”
Oakley took the receiver out of his hand and hung it up. “We’d better talk first.”
“Get Orozco. Then we’ll talk.”
Oakley thought better of further argument; it would do no harm to call Orozco. He dialed the area code and number, not needing to look it up; a woman answered on the fourth ring.
“Maria? Carl Oakley. Es necesario que yo hable con Diego, pronto por favor.”
“Seguro que sí—momento.” She was laughing at his ungrammatical Spanish. He could hear an infant yowling in the background.
Waiting, he gave Conniston his covert scrutiny. The big man. was kneading his knuckles; his eyes flashed and darted like fireworks.
“Hello, Carl. Com’ está?”
“Diego, can you get down here right now? Earle Conniston’s ranch.”
“Right-now-tonight?”
“Yes. Hire a plane.”
“I guess. I was planning a good night’s sleep but I suppose it’s urgent?”
“As urgent as it can get.”
“Okay. You’ll get a hell of a bill from me.”
“Just get yourself an airplane. We’ll expect you in a couple hours—I’ll have somebody set out landing lights on the field.”
“All righty. See you.”
Oakley broke the connection and dialed 423 on the intercom circuit. When the bunkhouse answered he gave instructions to have the landing field lighted and to meet Orozco with a jeep. Then he hung up and turned a reluctant face to Conniston.
Conniston’s eyes looked like two holes burned in cloth. “Suppose they’re watching the ranch. They’ll see the plane—maybe think it’s the FBI.”
“Want me to call him back and cancel?”
“No. To hell with it. I need a drink.” Conniston bolted out of the office, voice trailing back: “Stay by the phone.”
Left alone, Oakley felt chilled. He chewed a cigar to shreds, enraged beyond reason by his feeling of helplessness. The hot fury sawed through him until his jaw muscles stood out like cables and he wanted to plunge his fist through the desk, the wall, anything in reach.
Conniston returned with two tall glasses full of whiskey and ice. He handed one over and Oakley accepted it without remark. Conniston was chewing up an ice cube the way a dog would grind up a bone—with loud cracking noises. Oakley watched him with dulled curiosity: Conniston went deliberately around the desk to his chair, sat, planted both elbows on the desk, steepled his fingers and squinted—the picture of rational calm. Somehow in the short moments to the bar and back he had got a grip on himself. He looked as he used to look when faced with a business decision: thoughtful, weighing the issues, not ready to jump to conclusions, not prepared to be easily swayed.
The essential coldness which Conniston’s behavior revealed was more frightening to Oakley than panic. Conniston said slowly, “Think they’ve got a hammerlock on me. Fucking terrorists think they can do it. Well, they can’t.”
“The hell they can’t. They have.”
“No. I’m not as soft as they think. Don’t count on me throwing my hand in.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Think they can wipe their feet on me,” Conniston muttered.
Oakley’s face changed. “I wouldn’t worry about that right now. We’ve got other things to think about. I’ll have to call Farmers and Merchants in the morning, think of some reasonable explanation for wanting that much untraceable cash—and just hope they’ve got that much on hand.”
“You’d pay the bastards then?”
“For God’s sake what option have you got? Of course we’ll pay. Anything—anything beyond reason, of course. There’s no choice at all.”
“Wrong,” Conniston said. His head did not move; only his eyes shifted toward Oakley. “What if we refuse?”
Oakley stared at him. “You can’t mean that.”
“Maybe. Let’s think it out.”
“There’d be hell to pay.”
“Then we’ll pay it.”
“No. It’s Terry who’d have to pay.”
“You understand things too quickly, Carl. Just stop and think. What if we refused to pay?”
“How can you even ask that?”
“To find out what the answer is. Well?”
“What do you think would happen? For God’s sake, it’s as plain as the nose on your face!”
“Saying they’d kill her?”
“Of course they would!” Conniston shook his head. His pouched eyes were fiery. “Not unless they planned to kill her anyway. Follow me?”
“No. I don’t. What you’re saying has got a smell of sickness to it.”
“What I’m saying,” Conniston answered evenly, “either they’re killers or they’re not. If they’re killers, they’ll kill her whether we pay or not—she’s seen their faces. If they’re not killers, whole thing’s a bluff.”
“Certainly—but how could you possibly take that chance?”
“You don’t get this yet, do you? Our whole objective is to save Terry, right? Not to do what they want just because they ask. Now, question: given choice between no money but freedom, and big money but inevitable capture, what will they do? Look—spell it out. They call tomorrow. I give them choice, starting with premise that I’m a man of limitless wealth. My offer: they turn Terry loose, she returns here unharmed, and we’ll forget whole thing. The only other choice I offer—since I refuse to pay ransom—is for them to kill her and make run for it. But if they choose that course they recognize I’ll spend every last cent of my vast fortune to see them dead—tracked down no matter how many dollars and years it takes, found, captured, and put to death by most painful slow method imaginable. Given those alternatives, and no others, which would you choose?”
Oakley stared with awed disbelief. “You’d actually take that risk with Terry’s life at stake?”
He saw color rise in Conniston’s cheeks. “You just don’t get it, do you? Carl, God damn it, that risk is far less than the risk we face—the risk she faces—if we do it their way! Can’t you understand that? Because there is no way to guarantee they’ll keep word after we pay ransom. No way to assure Terry’s safety whether or not we pay. Risk is same either way—therefore why pay? Much better to scare shit out of them. Fear can always be used against terrorists. Nothing else will work. Jesus, man, can’t you see? I don’t give that for the money. I want Terry’s life—and I believe this is wisest course. When you face two risks you choose the less dangerous one. That’s all I’m saying.”
“You can’t actually believe what you’re saying.”
“I have to.”
“What kind of maniac are you?”
“You can’t shout me down, Carl. Don’t try. If I can’t make you see that—”
“You can’t. Stop it. You act as if you’re dealing with an opposition team of corporate businessmen who can be reasoned with. You heard that voice on the phone. These people are of another species. There’s no reasoning with psychopaths. That voice belonged to a man who’s lacked from birth the ability to distinguish right from wrong. We’re dealing with a monster who’s indifferent to fear just as he’s indifferent to cruelty.”
“Possibly. But if you read that much into his voice, and read it right, then he plans to kill her anyway. Paying ransom won’t stop him.”