Blood Money (19 page)

“I’ll tell you,” Kelton said. “But I don’t
think you’re going to like what you hear.”

“Oh, just spit it out already.”

Kelton flashed a tight smile. “We’re going
to turn ourselves in.”

Jessica snorted through her nose, offered a
slight shake of her head. “You’re right,” she said. “I don’t like
it. Not one bit.”

“I figured you wouldn’t, but we’re going to
do it anyway.”

“What about the agreement we made back at
Disneyland?”

“What about it?”

“Doesn’t it mean anything to you?”

“Of course it does,” Kelton said.

“It sure doesn’t seem like it.”

He narrowed his brow. “What makes you say
that?”

“You mean, besides you still making all the
decisions without consulting me first?”

“I agreed to tell you what we were going to
do
before
we did it,” Kelton said. “Nothing more. I never
agreed to let you have a say in what we were going to do.”

“I thought that was implied,” Jessica
said.

He shrugged. “I’m sorry that you thought
that, but I never viewed things that way.”

“So we’re going to do this thing, no matter
how stupid I think it is?”

“Yes.”

“Can I at least argue with you about
it?”

“If it makes you feel better, go right
ahead.”

Jessica looked out the window for a moment
before returning her gaze to Kelton. “Walter doesn’t want you doing
this, right?”

“He doesn’t know about it.”

“But if he did, he wouldn’t like it.”

“I’m sure he wouldn’t,” Kelton said. “He
told me to lose the tail and give him a call to set up the next
meeting point. Nothing more.”

“But you want to do this instead.”

“I sure as hell don’t
want
to do it,”
Kelton said. “But I need to do it. I can’t run around blindly like
this anymore, especially with the situation changing every time we
turn around. I need to know what’s going on.”

“And you think that turning ourselves in to
the people who are following us around is the solution?”

“It may not be the solution, but it’s the
only thing that makes sense. Plus, it may be the only way to save
our own asses.”

“But what if they just decide to lock us up
and throw away the key.”

“They won’t,” Kelton said.

“How do you know?”

“Because they’ve invested way too much into
this chase to give it up now.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Hell yes,” Kelton said. “The way this thing
has played out, these guys are casting for a big fish. And we’re
nothing but the bait.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

They drove through the desert for half an
hour before Kelton found an unpaved road that looked like it would
serve their purpose. He turned onto it and drove further out into
the sand, only the occasional shrub brush and cacti breaking the
monotony of the wasteland before them.

Jessica looked at him with a hint of
concern. “Is this really a good idea? There’s nothing out
here.”

“That’s the point,” Kelton said. “No place
to run, no place to hide. And once we destroy the transmitter that
was in your arm, our pursuers will know the jig is up, and they’ll
come down on us hard. And when they do, we’ll let them know we want
to turn ourselves in.”

“And what if they don’t show themselves,”
Jessica said. “What if they just fly a plane over to keep an eye on
us and wait for our next move? What do we do then?”

Kelton shrugged. “Write them a message in
the sand, I guess.”

“What will it say? WE GIVE UP?”

“Either that or PLEASE COME AND GET US,”
Kelton said, a little grin forming on his face. “I haven’t decided
yet.”

Jessica barked out a harsh laugh and shook
her head. “You better hope you have these guys figured correctly,”
she said. “Or else we’re both going to have one hell of a
sunburn.”

A few miles later, they came to a slight
rise in the desert. Kelton followed it to a small plateau that sat
a good twenty feet above the rest of the valley. He stopped the car
and stepped out into the hot, dry air of the early afternoon. He
opened the rear door of the car and pulled a pair of binoculars out
of the black duffel bag, then climbed on top of the vehicle and
brought the binoculars to his face. First, he looked back towards
the road they had taken from Furnace Creek, but he couldn’t find
it. He then began to survey the surrounding area.

“Nothing out there,” Kelton said as he began
to climb down from the roof of the Explorer.

“You needed binoculars to tell you that?”
Jessica said. “Hell, a blind man could see there’s nothing out
there but sand and cactus.”

Kelton reached into his pocket, and pulled
out the tiny, complicated little piece of metal that had been
imbedded in Jessica’s arm less than an hour ago. He bent down and
set the transmitter on a flat part of a large rock jutting out of
the sand, then cast his gaze towards the desert floor, and
eventually found a fist-sized rock with a smooth, flat bottom.

He picked up the rock, walked back to where
the transmitter was sitting on the ground and dropped to his knees.
He used the rock to smash the transmitter, slamming it down three
times before flinging it back into the desert. He then climbed to
his feet, made his way back to the car and sat down on the trunk,
his legs dangling over the bumper.

Jessica stood over the tangle of wires and
metal for a few seconds before joining him. “What now?” she
asked.

“Now we sit tight and hope I didn’t just
make a huge mistake.”

Kelton saw the first plume of dust shortly
after he crushed the transmitter. It came from the same dirt road
they had taken through the desert to get to the small plateau where
they now sat. He stood up, grabbed the binoculars and brought them
to his eyes.

A black Humvee was bouncing along at what
appeared to be a fairly significant speed, leaving a trail of dust
in its wake that didn’t allow Kelton to see if there were any more
vehicles behind it.

“Is it our friends?” Jessica asked.

“Sure looks like it,” Kelton replied.

“How many cars?”

“I can only see one so far.”

“Just one?” Jessica said. “They must not be
taking us very seriously.”

Kelton was just about to agree with her when
he heard the unmistakable
thump-thump-thump
of an
approaching helicopter. He pulled the binoculars from his eyes and
took a few steps forward to have a clear look at the sky.

After a few moments of scanning, he saw a
black dot high in the sky to the east. He used the binoculars to
get a better look at it.

“That’s more like it,” Jessica said from
behind him.

“What’s up?” Kelton asked as he searched the
sky for more choppers.

“It looks like we have more company than we
first thought,” Jessica said. She was pointing in the direction of
the approaching vehicle. “The dust thrown up by the first Humvee
must have been hiding the ones behind it. Now I can see four
separate dust trails. They seem to be surrounding us.”

“Plus there are two choppers up here,”
Kelton said.

“That seems a little excessive, don’t you
think?”

“More than a little,” Kelton said. “What the
hell do they think we’re going to do out here? Set off a nuke?”

“Who knows?” Jessica said. “But it sure
looks like they’re not taking any chances.” She stood up and walked
over to Kelton. “How long until the chopper gets here?”

“Two minutes, three tops. About the same
time as the Humvees.”

Jessica looked at the large, ugly vehicles
lumbering along the desert floor beneath them, up at the choppers
approaching in the sky, then back at Kelton. “I hope you’re right
on this one, my friend.”

“So do I,” he said under his breath. His
earlier confidence was under assault by the forces of doubt. “So do
I.”

They were standing next to each other on the
plateau, watching the net close in around them, when Kelton felt
Jessica take his hand and give it a quick squeeze. He looked at
her, smiled thinly, opened his mouth, then abruptly shut it.

“What?” she said with a smirk of her own.
The choppers were still far enough away that it was possible to
talk without shouting.

“Nothing,” Kelton said. “I was just thinking
about us.”

“Is there an us?”

“I guess that’s the question.”

“Well,” Jessica said. “That’s something
we’ll have to discuss further. But not right now. I think we’ve got
enough on our plates at the moment.”

Kelton laughed at the absurdity of his
timing. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“We’ll figure
us
out later. Okay?
After we get all this other crap sorted out.”

Kelton felt an absurd urge to turn and kiss
her right there, regardless of the armed forces massing around them
at this very moment. But the madness passed abruptly, as the
scorching desert air was filled with the bullhorn-enhanced words:
“FACE OPPOSITE DIRECTIONS AND STEP AWAY FROM EACH OTHER.”

They did as they were told, sharing one last
squeeze before their hands separated. Kelton could see soldiers
massed alongside each Humvee. Every one was armed with Heckler and
Koch MP-5’s and dressed in desert fatigues.

“PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEADS,” the
voice intoned. “DO NOT SAY A WORD. DO NOT MOVE ONE MUSCLE. YOU WILL
BE SHOT IF YOU DISOBEY.”

Kelton followed the directions.

Soon enough, the soldiers were on the move,
climbing up to the small plateau with their weapons at the ready
and pointed at their quarry. He didn’t make a sound as they glided
up to him, frisked him, forced him to the ground face first, pulled
his arms behind his back, and zip-tied his wrists together.

Kelton caught a glimpse of Jessica as they
lifted him to his feet. He flashed her a quick wink. She had time
to return the gesture before the soldiers spun her around and
started marching her towards the Humvees.

They placed a black hood over Kelton’s head,
shoved him into the back seat of one of the vehicles, and drove
off.

It wasn’t until the rough bouncing of the
desert floor gave way to a paved road that Kelton heard anyone in
the vehicle speak.

“Now what, exactly, was that all about,”
said a soft, leisurely voice.

Kelton turned to the right, towards the
speaker. “Talk to me face-to-face. Like a real man.”

“I am truly sorry, my friend, but I cannot
remove your hood until we arrive at our destination.”

“I’m not your friend.”

“No? Then why the friendly gesture of giving
yourselves up so easily back there?”

“I have my reasons,” Kelton said.

“Would you care to articulate them to
me?”

“I don’t know, would you care to take this
damn hood off my head?”

“As I stated earlier, I simply cannot do
that at this particular moment.”

Kelton shrugged. His right hand started to
tingle and he adjusted his arms to alleviate the pressure. “Then I
guess our conversation will have to wait until we can see each
other.”

“Very well then, Mr. Howlett.”

Kelton took a deep breath, let it out
slowly. He shouldn’t have been surprised that they’d been able to
track down his true identity, not after what he’d witnessed over
the last couple of days, but still, it pained him to be called by
his given name.

“James Howlett has been dead for five
years,” he said.

“Very well then, Mr. Kelton. But understand,
whatever you call yourself these days, not only do we know who you
are, but we know who you
were
. We know everything about you.
We even know about your little foray into the home of the son of a
certain billionaire financial giant a few days back. Not to mention
your role in his death.”

“Yeah, well I know about you, too,” Kelton
fired back, trying not to think too deeply about his visitor’s
previous comment. “And last I checked, the FBI didn’t go around
sticking transmitters in people’s arms without them knowing about
it.”

A throaty chuckle was the only reply.

“What?” Kelton said. “Did I say something
funny?”

“Ah, Mr. Kelton. You know so little, and
understand even less. Who ever said anything about the Federal
Bureau of Investigation being involved with this operation?”

“You mean you’re not with the FBI?”

“Of course not,” the voice said. “Certainly
you have figured that out by now.”

“Then who are you with?” Kelton asked.

“We will get to that in time, my friend. Do
not worry.”

“I told you before—”

“You are not my friend. Yes, I remember. But
if we are to continue on with our relationship, you are going to
have to at least pretend that we can get along with each
other.”

“Taking off this hood would go a long way
towards me adjusting my attitude.”

“I am sorry,” the voice said. “But like I
have explained twice already, I simply cannot do that right
now.”

“Then how about telling me who you are.”

“You can call me Nicholas.”

“I didn’t ask you what your name was,”
Kelton said. “I asked who you were.”

Nicholas’s laugh sounded like sandpaper
being rubbed against concrete. “All right. In the spirit of
extending an olive branch, I will tell you that I am a high-ranking
member of an intelligence group that operates at the utmost levels
of the government.”

“Care to get a bit more specific?”

“I do not think that is necessary at the
current time.”

“It is for me,” Kelton said. “If you really
want to be friends, you need to share some information with
me.”

Nicholas paused for a moment, then said, “We
are known as the National Defense Commission.”

“I’ve never heard of you.”

“And there is no reason why you would have,
as we are not a public entity.”