Fires of Autumn (42 page)

“Will you
tell me the truth?”

Russ
sighed heavily. “It’s not that easy, Colt.”

“Yes, it
is.”

“You have
no idea what….”

Colt cut
him off.  “Don’t do it for me. Do it for Casey. Please; I’m begging you.”

Russ
lifted his gaze, looking at Casey’s teary-eyed expression.  Emotions rippled
across his face, those of remorse and fear and resistance. “We can put her in a
safe location until we can get this sorted out,” he said. “She’ll be….”

“She’s
pregnant,” Colt cut him off again, almost desperately. “I need to protect my
family, Mr. President. As you did everything you could to save yours, including
illegal bribes, you need to help me save mine.  Please, sir; I’m begging you.”

Casey
broke down into soft tears, hanging her head.  Russ watched her, feeling sick
and sad. He had always feared those moments of weakness when he was determined
to save his family would come back to haunt him one day, and they had. He was
cornered.  But he was also a champion, and the greater part of him wanted to
help Casey and her unborn child.  He couldn’t stand by and watch bad things
happen. More than that, Colt promised to end his Columbian nightmare once and
for all. Perhaps Colt Sheridan would save his life one more time. After a
moment, he exhaled heavily and sat back on the couch.

“Okay,” he
finally whispered. “I’ll tell you everything. What do you want to know?”

Everything
the Core had ever wanted to know about President Russell Talbot was revealed. 
What the best intelligence in the world couldn’t completely gather, the threat
against Casey Cleburne was able to discover in a little under an hour.

***

“He told me everything,”
Colt said quietly.

They were in Mr. Meade’s
study, once again keeping company with the smell of tobacco and priceless
antiques. Meade looked up from his ancient desk, a surprised expression on his
features.

“What…?” he actually
stammered. “Who? Talbot?”

“Yes.”

“He told you
everything
?”

“Everything we ever
wanted to know.  I know it all.”

Mr. Meade was
astonished, so much so that his wrinkled old mouth actually popped open, then
swiftly closed. As he sat there looking shocked, a semblance of a smile spread
over his face.

“What,
exactly
,
did he tell you?” he wanted to know.

Colt was exhausted and
edgy, sitting heavily in one of the many luxurious leather chairs in the room. 
He could still hardly believe it himself, the course of his conversation with
the President.

“He allowed the
Norte de Valle drug
cartel to land on Eric Travis’s land south of Magdelena Ridge in New Mexico to
bring cocaine shipments in to the United States during his tenure as governor
of New Mexico,” he said quietly. “And, yes, he accepted almost nine hundred
thousand dollars in bribes from Gael Rodriguez Noestra, the head of the cartel,
for that privilege.  It was as we suspected – what he didn’t use to try to keep
his boys alive, he donated to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.  He never kept a
penny of it.  As he says, he did what he had to do to keep his boys alive and
he’d do it again if he had to do it all over again.  But that’s not the
problem.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Noestra is back,” Colt
lowered his voice. “Talbot confirmed the rumors that we’d been told. Now that
he’s president, Noestra wants Carte Blanche in landing his drug planes on
Federal lands or he’s threatening to tell everyone what Talbot did for him as
governor of New Mexico.   More than that, he threatened Tracy Talbot.”

Meade looked surprised.
“The First Lady?”

“That shooting at
Andrews Air Force Base was no accident.  That airman was aiming for Tracy.  It
was a warning.”

Meade carefully digested
the information. “You know this for certain?”

“The President told me
himself although that airman hasn’t confessed to it.  Still, investigations
into his bank accounts showed a deposit of fifty thousand dollars the day
before the assassination attempt. I think it’s pretty clear.  The cartel hired
him to shoot Tracy to force Talbot into agreeing to their demands.”

After a moment of
thoughtful silence, Meade got up out of his chair and began to pace his study,
a room where generations of Meades had made critical decisions that affected
the path of the Nation.  He paused by the big fireplace with its carved marble
mantle, gazing up at a portrait of General George Gordon Meade.  He had his
great-great grandfather’s big puppy-dog eyes, and he had his cunning brain. 
What he didn’t have was his heart.  The man completely lacked compassion.

“So now we move,” he
turned to Colt. “We tell Talbot that he can resign his office or we go public
with the information. We tell him that….”

Colt shook his head,
cutting him off. “No, we don’t,” he said firmly. “Mr. Meade, I’ve worked for
you for a lot of years. I’ve always taken my directives without question and I
have executed every task, no matter how dirty, flawlessly. But this time,
you’re going to listen to me on this.  It’s important.”

Meade wasn’t offended.
In fact, he was rather curious. He leaned back against the hearth. “Go on.”

Colt stood up from the
chair. “The problem isn’t Talbot,” he said. “It’s the Columbians. If we boil
all this down, they’re the root cause of all of this. Russ Talbot did what any
father would do to save his children; I can’t fault him for it.  The man’s not
crooked by nature and I’ve been around him enough to know. He’s intelligent,
handles himself well, has an excellent approval rating, and is getting things
accomplished in congress. Haven’t you been paying attention?”

Meade nodded slowly. “I
have.”

“Do you disagree that
he’s been an excellent president?”

“I do not. He’s been one
of the better ones when it comes to policy and decisions.”

“So why remove the man
from office because he did something, albeit illegal, to save his children? Do
we really want to see Anthony Peck as president?”

Mr. Meade shrugged.
“He’s not nearly the caliber that Talbot is, but he’ll do.”

“Maybe he will, but that
doesn’t solve the root of the problem. I have a better idea.”

“What?”

Colt began to walk
slowly towards Mr. Meade as he spoke. “I don’t want to see Talbot thrown out of
office and into jail because of what he did fifteen years ago to save his
children,” he said quietly. “I like the man. I think he’s good for the
country.  So I will make you this proposal.”

“I’m listening.”

“I will go to Columbia
and take care of Noestra.  I’ll wipe the man  from this earth.  That will
eliminate the problem of the cartel blackmailing Talbot because with Noestra
gone, that entire organization will fall into chaos.  Everyone will be vying
for a chance to lead it.  Noestra’s the head and if we cut it off, the group
will be ineffective.  But if I do this, it will be with a concrete
understanding between you and I.”

“What’s that?”

“That The Core leaves
Talbot alone, that you leave Casey alone, for good, and that this will be my
last mission for The Core.  I want out after this. I’m finished.”

Mr. Meade scratched his
cheek thoughtfully before reaching on to the mantle and flipping open the
humidor that carried his beloved Cuban cigars.  He lit one up as he thought on
Colt’s proposal, mulling over all angles as he was so capable of doing.

“I don’t want to lose
you, Colt,” he finally said. “You’re the best we have but I will be honest when
I say that I had a feeling it would be coming to this.”

“I want to marry Casey
and raise a family. I don’t want to do this covert stuff any longer.  It’s time
for me to grow up and move on.”

Meade puffed on the
cigar. “You realize that it will not be an easy thing to assassinate Noestra. 
You may not make it back.”

“I am aware. But if I do
succeed, my provisions stand.”

“If you succeed, then
they will.”

“Then you agree?”

Meade didn’t say
anything for a moment. He puffed on his cigar, thoughtfully, but Colt could
sense his indecision.  It wasn’t like Meade to give in or give up.  But he had
been known to compromise.  Perhaps that’s what he viewed this as. Colt could
only hope.

“I do,” Meade finally
said. “You’ve always accomplished everything you set out to. I’ve never had to
worry about you.  But you’re distracted now with Ms. Cleburne and that
diminishes your effectiveness for our cause.  I can see that she’s not a
passing fancy so I am resigned to her presence in your life. Little did I know
when I told you to get close to her that you would get closer than I
anticipated. It’s my fault, really.  I told you to do it and you did.”

Colt wasn’t sure what to
say to that. “I just can’t make my work for The Core my life anymore,” he said
quietly. “I was very content to do that while I was single and unattached, but
now… I realize there’s something more for me and I want it.”

Meade didn’t really
understand but he nodded anyway. “There are others who can eventually take over
for you. I’m will admit I’m sorry to see our association coming to an end.”

Colt was surprised by
the sentiment. He’d never known Meade to show any emotion that wasn’t either
self-serving or manipulative.  To be honest, the display put him on guard.

“I’ll take care of
this,” he said after a moment. “But you leave Casey alone. Are we clear?”

“We are. But if you
don’t make it back….”

Colt didn’t like the
sound of that. “Go ahead; what if I don’t make it back?”

Meade blew pale gray
smoke into the air before speaking. “Talbot goes down and there isn’t a damn
thing you can do about it.”

Colt didn’t say
anymore.   He quit the study, desperate to get home. Home to Casey.

***

Colt was
standing in the kitchen talking to Casey after dinner until Brody came into the
kitchen and rammed him with a runaway skateboard.  Grinning, Colt fell over the
counter, pretending to be wounded, as Brody made a grab for the skateboard and
a quick escape.  Colt grabbed it too, quick as a flash, and yanked on it. 

Brody fell
forward and Colt put him in a headlock, rubbing his knuckles against the top of
Brody’s blond head. Trapped, the kid alternately giggled and yelled until he
was released.

Colt
cocked an eyebrow at him as he folded his big arms across his chest. “Let that
be a lesson to you,” he told Brody. “Every action has a reaction. Run me over
with that skateboard again and pay the price.”

Brody was
grinning, staying out of arm’s reach. “Eh, it didn’t hurt you, you big….”

Colt was
trying not to laugh. “Big
what
?”

“Big…
man.”

Colt
started laughing then. “That’s not the point.”

“What’s the
point?”

Colt
snorted as Casey shooed her son out of the kitchen. “The point is that you
should apologize for running into Colt,” she said. “And another point is that
you know you’re not supposed to ride that thing in the house.”

Brody just
smiled at his mother, who shook her head reproachfully at him.  He scooted out
of the kitchen, running into to his brother and some friends who had just come
in the front door.  All six boys settled down in the family room to play alien
war games as Colt and Casey slipped upstairs for the evening.

Casey went
into her bedroom and kicked off her shoes. “Ugh,” she said as she fell back on
the bed, staring up at the ceiling. “I’m so exhausted.”

Colt
closed the bedroom door and sat down on the bed, unlacing his shoes as well. “I
know you are,” he said softly, putting his hand on her gently rounded belly.
“How’s my boy today?”

She smiled
up at him. “He’s doing fine,” she said, her smile fading. “You know, it’s going
to be more difficult for me to keep this from the boys as my belly gets bigger.
My clothes are already pretty tight.”

Colt
rubbed her belly. “I know,” he said. “It’s becoming pretty obvious, at least to
me. Have you told anyone at all?”

“I told
Riley, but only because I had to. She saw me get out of the shower one day and
nearly had a heart attack.  She was upset at first but she’s come to terms with
it. I think she’s pretty happy about it now.”

“Good,” he
said. “I don’t want to have to live in fear of her ambushing me in the hallway
and shoving me down the stairs in vengeance for her sister’s honor.”

 Casey
giggled. “She wouldn’t do that,” she said. “But I think we need to make some
decisions, soon, about what we’re going to do.”

Colt
shrugged, kicked off his shoes, and lay down next to her. “Get married.”

She lay on
her side, facing him as he lay on his side facing her. “I don’t want anything
splashy,” she said softly. “I just want you there, and the boys and Riley. 
Maybe my parents and your parents. Do you think the Cleburnes and the Sherdians
can stay peaceful for the wedding? It won’t turn out like the Hatfields and
McCoys, will it?”