Blood Money (28 page)

“Screw that,” Kelton said. “I want them
now.”

“We don’t have time,” Jessica said. “There
are more important things for us to discuss.”

Kelton looked up at her and blinked several
times. Something about her tone gave him some hope, and he forced
himself to concentrate harder. “Important things? Like what?”

“Like how we’re going to spin this so you
don’t end up in an unmarked cell next to your friend over
there.”

Kelton wasn’t sure if he had heard her
right. “What do you mean, spin this?”

“I figure we have another 90 seconds before
the cavalry arrives, so we better get our stories straight.”

“Get our stories straight?” Kelton said. He
knew he sounded like a parrot, repeating her every word, but
whether it was due to the blow to the temple or simple confusion,
he couldn’t seem to grasp what she was trying to get at.

She smiled at him as though he was a
five-year old. “Of course, Kelton. Believe it or not, I actually
think you’re a pretty decent guy.”

“So it wasn’t just an act?”

“At first it was,” she said. “But then you
started to grow on me. You were just trying to do the right thing,
and you deserve to come out of this intact.”

Kelton didn’t know if he would ever be
intact again—or, for that matter, if he ever had been—but he
decided to keep his mouth shut.

“So, what I figure is we can blame it all on
Walter, say that you knew what was going on, and that we wouldn’t
be able to get close to him unless—”

“No,” Kelton said as forcefully as he could.
Despite the ache in his head—or perhaps because of it—his anger was
pushing through, taking over his thoughts.

She tilted her head slightly. “What do you
mean, no?”

“I mean, fuck you,” Kelton said. On some
level, he knew he was being irrational, but that didn’t make the
slightest bit of difference right now. Sometimes rationality took a
back seat to emotion, even for him.

She just stared at him, waiting.

“You can tell them whatever the hell you
want,” Kelton said. “I’ll tell them what happened, exactly the way
it happened.”

“But you’ll end up just like him.”

“Right now I don’t give a crap about that,”
Kelton said, his fury rising with every word. “You used me to get
Walter. You played me like a banjo, exploiting my past to
manipulate my actions, all so you could get what you wanted out of
me.” He closed his eyes and shut his mouth, unwilling to further
articulate his thoughts to her.

“Walter’s the one that used you, Kelton. Not
me. I was just doing my job.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Kelton said, his
rage threatening to explode. “Just doing your job? That’s your
excuse?”

“It’s not an excuse,” she said, her tone
amplifying to match his. “It’s the truth. Walter is the one that
got you mixed up in this operation, not me. No matter who broke me
out of that safe house, my job was the same: Do whatever it took to
get that piece-of-shit traitor lying on the ground over there.”

“Did your job include fucking me? Or was
that just an added bonus.”

Her eyes flashed with a mixture of pain and
anger before she regained control of herself. She took a deep
breath and answered him in a flat, toneless voice. “I did whatever
it took to get the job done. And in this situation, that’s what it
took.”

Kelton closed his eyes and took a deep
breath, unsure of what to say next. It didn’t seem to matter
anymore. Nothing did. “Unbelievable,” he said softly, mostly to
himself, but loud enough so she could hear. “I thought I was fucked
up before, but now . . .”

He opened his eyes just as she turned her
head away from him, but not before he saw tears beginning to well
in her eyes.

“What the hell are
you
crying for,
you conniving bitch? You’re the one that screwed
me
over.
You took my darkest hour and used it against me, manipulating me
like I was some piece of clay, messing with my head, playing with
my emotions. You don’t get to cry.”

She turned toward him, her eyes leaking
moisture but her face steady. “There’s no reason to make it
personal. It wasn’t personal.”

“It was personal to me,” Kelton said. “I
spent the last five years putting my life back together, and you
came along and knocked me over, leaving me back in the hellhole
where I started. And for what? Your job? Your fucking job? Are you
kidding me?”

Jessica didn’t answer him. She wasn’t even
looking at him any more.

Behind her, Kelton saw the cavalry was
indeed on its way. Another 30 seconds and they’d be here.

“I hope you’re proud of yourself,” he said,
his rage threatening to give way to despair. “I hope the next time
you read about some guy who killed himself, you spend a moment
wondering if it might be me. If, because of you, I am now
dead.”

“Oh, get over yourself,” she said. “You
think you’re the only person in the world who’s lost someone they
loved? Give me a break, Kelton. Millions of people have been
through a hell of a lot more than you, and they find a way to carry
on. Quit pretending that nobody knows what you’re going through,
okay? It’s pathetic. And it makes you look weak. I feel bad about
the way things played out, but it is what it is. Get over it
already.”

She sighed, shook her head, and started
walking away from him. “Or don’t,” she said over her shoulder. “It
doesn’t matter to me. Either way, it’s your choice.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

Kelton had spent the last six hours sitting
alone in a room that looked exactly like the one he had been in the
first time he was in the custody of the National Defense
Commission. For all he knew, it
was
the exact same room.
Barren white walls, a ledge for a bed, a table with two flimsy
plastic chairs and nothing else. For certain, the same exact person
was sitting in the chair on the other side of the table, talking in
the same exact, annoying, preposition-less sentences as before.

“Well, Mr. Kelton,” Nicholas said. “I am
sure you are sick of sitting here waiting, so let us get down to
business.”

“Yes,” Kelton said. “Let’s.”

“It comes down to this,” Nicholas said. “You
infiltrated a government safe house, extracted what you thought was
a government prisoner, betrayed the National Defense Commission
after agreeing to a deal, and almost single-handedly screwed up an
operation that we have spent millions of dollars on, not to
mention, one that I had a direct, personal stake in.”

Kelton waited to make sure Nicholas was
done, then said, “So what are you going to do? Hand me over to the
proper authorities? Throw me in some unmarked prison? Make me
disappear? What?”

Nicholas shook his head. “We are going to do
none of those things to you.”

“Then what?” Kelton said. “Don’t keep me in
suspense here, Nick. I’m not in the mood for any more games from
you guys.”

Nicholas looked at him, offered a little
smile. “Believe it or not, we are going to let you go.”

Kelton stared at him. “Yeah right. What is
this, some kind of sick joke?”

“No Mr. Kelton. This is no joke. You are a
free man.”

“Just like that, you’re going to just forget
everything that happened over the past week? You’re going to forget
that I knowingly betrayed you and helped a traitor steal from
you.”

“Just like that,” Nicholas said. “It never
happened, we never existed, and you were never here.”

“Why?”

“Because Karen insisted upon it.”

Kelton’s brow shot up before he could
control his surprise. “She did?”

Nicholas nodded his head.

“Bullshit,” Kelton said, not sure how else
to react.

“I assure you, it is not, as you say,
bullshit,” Nicholas said. “She was adamant about you being allowed
to start a new life. She explained that you had no personal
interest in our activities and that you only proceeded in the
manner that you did because you believed that Walter was truly
trying to help people that needed helping. She said that you would
hold no grudge against the NDC and would be content to live out
your life without ever thinking about retribution of any kind
against us.”

“And you believed her?”

“To be perfectly honest, no. Not entirely,
at least. But she made it quite clear that she would no longer be a
part of this organization if we did not allow you to walk away a
free man.” Nicholas shrugged. “And because she is an irreplaceable
commodity, and far, far more valuable to us than you are, we
decided that the risk was worth it.”

Kelton leaned back in his chair, his
disbelief quickly being replaced by apprehension. “What’s the
catch?”

“Only that you will live under an identity
of our creation, and you may be called upon from time-to-time to
perform a specific function for our organization.”

Kelton snorted. “So I’m not really a free
man after all.”

“Nobody is truly free,” Nicholas said. “You
should know that by now.”

“But some are more free than others.”

Nicholas offered a tight smile and a shrug.
“As it will always be.”

Kelton crossed his arms, leaned back in his
chair. “And if I don’t accept your offer?”

“Come now, Mr. Kelton. You know the answer
to that question.”

“Yeah,” Kelton said, letting his gaze drift
down to the tabletop. “I guess I do. But still, I’m not sure what’s
worse; life in a cell or a life in chains.”

“Look,” Nicholas said. “I understand your
apprehension, especially after what you went through the last
couple of days, but certainly you can see that you have caught an
enormous break here. You would be in a cell for the rest of your
life if it was not for Karen putting herself on the line. Because
of her, you have a chance to start over again, to put your past
transgressions behind you, and embark on a new era of your life.
You can—”

“All right, all right,” Kelton said. “Enough
with the hard sell already; you’re putting me to sleep. I’ll take
the deal.”

“Good,” Nicholas said. He reached down,
picked up a sealed manila envelope, pushed it across the table.
“The details are spelled out for you in there. Read the document,
initial each page, and I will be back in ten minutes to get the
document back. Trust me when I say you do not want to fall on our
bad side a second time.”

Kelton nodded his understanding. He knew he
should be elated at the second chance, and perhaps someday he would
be, but for now, he felt nothing but emptiness throughout his
entire being, as though he was a hollow shell consisting solely of
skin and bones. He knew the feeling well; he had experienced it
before, although to a slightly greater degree, after which he had
vowed never to allow himself to get into that situation again. He
scoffed and shook his head, chiding himself for falling into the
same trap again.

“Is everything all right?” Nicholas
said.

“Fine. Great. Wonderful. All of the
above.”

Nicholas narrowed his brow, tilted his head
slightly.

“Don’t mind me,” Kelton said. “I’m just a
little bit miffed at this whole thing.”

“I assume you are still searching for some
answers about how the situation transpired?”

“You could say that,” Kelton said, knowing
full well that the answers he was truly looking for could only be
given to him by one person, and Nicholas was definitely not
her.

As for the other questions, the ones about
the mechanics of the operation, he had been thinking about them for
the last six hours. As much as he tried to tell himself that he
didn’t care, that the specifics didn’t matter, he realized he was
just being stubborn. The analytical part of his mind was immensely
curious about the planning and execution of the operation.

“Yeah,” he said finally. “I guess I have a
few.”

“By all means, ask away,” Nicholas said.
“This is your one chance to get answers. After today, the files on
this case are closed for good.”

Kelton took a deep breath to organize his
thoughts. He had figured out quite a few things for himself, but a
few key questions still remained.

“First of all, was this whole thing an
elaborate setup from the beginning, or is there a real Jessica
Robbins?”

“Jessica is very much real,” Nicholas said.
“In fact, she was offered essentially the same deal you just were,
and like you, she accepted. You will most likely see the benefits
of her research on the open market within the next couple of
years.”

“So all that was legit?” Kelton said. “The
stuff about Jessica, the AIDS vaccine, Walter as a traitor . .
.”

Nicholas nodded. “Everything I told you the
first time we met was the absolute truth,” he said. “The only thing
I did not mention at the time was that we had substituted our
operative for Jessica Robbins after she had been picked up en route
to visit Walter.”

“And was that the plan all along? To pick up
Jessica Robbins and then switch her out with one of your
people?”

“No,” Nicholas said. “That was worked out on
the fly. It came about quite by accident, right after Jessica was
originally picked up. Someone noticed that Karen bore a striking
resemblance to Jessica and we quickly altered the plan. At first,
we were just going to use Jessica as bait, but fortunately, we were
able to take it a step further.”

“So Karen was alone at the end? She had no
backup at all?”

“She was by herself as soon as you two
entered the tunnels,” Nicholas said. “We had decided earlier that
if you and Walter tried to pull something at the Cleopatra, we
would let you go. We figured he would be too careful to allow us to
watch the proceedings, even from afar. Our only hope of capturing
Walter was to allow Karen to deal with the situation on her
own.”

“So you figured all along that I wasn’t
going to go along with your plan?”