The Sixth Man (45 page)

This came out more like a playback of a recording and both Michelle and Sean looked relieved.

“Okay,” Sean said. “Definitely not the Bureau.”

Michelle said to Paul, “How did you work out that was going to happen?”

“The men watching the facility? That was the first clue. Then a maintenance crew went in recently to do some routine work. Only that work had been done less than a month ago and wasn’t due to be done again for another three months. They spent a long time with the backup generator.”

“Then why did they even let them in the building?” asked Sean.

“Because the man who replaced Carla Dukes as director at Cutter’s authorized it. And he was being paid off.”

“And that work was really to sabotage the electrical systems and the backup generator,” said Michelle.

“And as we saw, they were successful in doing so,” replied Paul.

“So you called some… friends?” prompted Sean.

“Acquaintances,” she corrected. “They came, they saw, and they kicked ass.”

“They were going to do what, kill him?” said Michelle, eyeing Roy.

“Eventually, yes, and blame it on Peter or me or some other convenient target.”

She turned to her brother. “When I visited you at Cutter’s I asked you to think about some things. Have you?”

Roy nodded. He adjusted his glasses and said, “You asked me about patterns. I detected four different ones but all were connected to some degree. What we’ve learned recently has given me new information which I’ve now plugged into these scenarios.”

Roy’s speech now was firm, straightforward, more machinelike than human.

“Four patterns?” said Michelle.

He nodded. “First, Agent Murdock was killed because he’d discovered the existence of the E-Program. That’s not a deduction. He actually told me that when he came to see me at Cutter’s. He said something was definitely wrong and that he needed my help to get to the people responsible. Carla Dukes was eliminated because she wouldn’t go along with the extraction plan, whereas we know now that the new director had no such compunction. I saw him looking at me as we left Cutter’s. He has a terrible poker face; his guilt couldn’t have been plainer.”

Paul said, “He obviously didn’t believe you’d be in a position to tell anyone.”

“Right. Next, Hilary Cunningham was killed to incriminate Ms. Maxwell and distract you and Mr. King from the case.”

“And Bergin?” asked Sean.

“Obviously by someone he knew.”

“Why do you say that?” asked Sean.

“The window being rolled down and then back up by the killer.” He glanced at his sister. “She told me about that in the Morse code.”

“And Sean told me that,” said Paul.

“I guess great minds think alike,” noted Michelle.

“But I don’t know who killed him,” admitted Roy. “Not enough data to go on. The likely scenario was to remove him from the case so it wouldn’t move forward. They were buying time.” He paused. “But that doesn’t really make sense.”

“Why?” asked Michelle.

Sean answered. “Because the case wasn’t moving forward anyway, not with Edgar sitting at Cutter’s.”

“That’s exactly right,” said Roy.

“But at least Foster and Quantrell must be throwing fits,” said Bunting with a grim smile. “That’s a positive for our side.”

“But that means they’re also going to come after us,” added Paul.

“And do we sit back and wait for that?” asked Sean.

“Of course not,” she answered. “Now we go on the offensive.”

“How?” asked Sean.

“I know exactly how,” said Paul. “In some ways, I think I’ve been waiting my whole life to do this.” She looked at Bunting. “What about you, Peter?”

“Oh, I feel the exact same way.”

T
HEY DROVE
to a safe house arranged by Kelly Paul.

“Everyone will be looking for my brother,” said Paul. “This place is far enough away from the action, but we still have to take maximum precautions. If they recapture Eddie, our plan won’t work.”

As he looked around the new space Sean said, “We’re all felons now. Aiding and abetting. That’s not really something we signed on for. And it sure as hell isn’t something we’re comfortable with.”

Paul turned to face him. “I understand. If you have a problem with that, you and Michelle can leave right now. No one knows you were involved in any of this. I would ask that you not turn Eddie in. If you do then it’s really over for him.”

“You think he can’t get a fair trial?” asked Sean.

“He’ll never make it to court, Sean. They’ll never let him. They broke him out of Cutter’s to kill him. If he goes back they’ll find him in his cell dead from some unknown cause. That’s just the way it’s going to happen.”

Sean glanced at Michelle.

She said, “Rock and a hard place.”

“Yeah,” he replied.

“Other things being equal, we’ve come too far on this to let it go now, Sean,” she said. “And we still don’t know who killed Bergin. I know that’s important to you.”

Sean eyed Paul, who was watching him intently.

“Okay, we’ll stay in. But we will not use force against federal agents or state law enforcement.”

“Bona fide federal agents,” said Michelle. “I already laid out a few bogus ones in Central Park and in a diner in Charlottesville.”

Sean kept staring at Paul. “Do we have an understanding?”

She nodded. “We do.”

Bunting gripped Sean by the shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. We’ve got a long way to go.”

After the others retired to their rooms to get some sleep, it was just Paul and her brother left in the room.

“It’s so good to see you, Eddie,” she said. “I’ve missed you.” She paused. “I just wish it were under different circumstances.”

“I’ve missed you too, Kel. A lot.”

She looked down. “I should have come to see you a long time ago. Before all this…”

“I know you’ve been busy.”

“Not that busy.” She looked up. “I’m the reason you’re with the E-Program. I recommended you for it.”

“I can’t say I’m surprised.”

“Analyzed the situation, did you?” she said with a weak smile.

“I’m pretty good at it.”

“Bunting’s done nothing but rave about you.”

“But it’s… it’s not easy being…”

“God?”

“You understand then. It’s not a role humans, no matter how smart, are designed to play. We have doubts. We have prejudices. We make mistakes.”

“You keep a lot of people safe, Eddie.”

“I also kill a lot of people.”

“Not directly you don’t.”

“That’s simply splitting hairs.”

“What you do is try to make the world better and safer and more just. Yes, your decisions result in people dying, but only so that many, many more people can live. What’s wrong with that? What does your amazing mind tell you about that?”

“Logically, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s a no-brainer. But it’s also not that easy.”

She sat back. “I know it’s not.” She gazed at him. “Do you want to continue doing it?”

“I don’t know. I need to see whether I survive this or not first.”

“Whether
we
survive it. You and me.”

“You and me,” he said quietly, though it was obvious her words had pleased him.

“I got you into this and it’s my job to get you out,” she said.

“My protector,” he said almost in a whisper.

“Can I ask you something?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you choose to continue to live at the farm after Mom died? You could have sold it and moved somewhere else.”

“It’s my home.”

“That’s not a good enough reason, Eddie. We both know that.” She paused. “I visited the place. Before you became the Analyst.”

“Where was I?”

“At work at the IRS.”

“Why did you come when I wasn’t there?”

“I don’t know. Maybe I was afraid.”

His face fell. “Afraid? To see me?”

“No, of course not. To see you in that place, I guess.”

“It was a long time ago, Kel.”

“Not long enough. Not for me. Or you.”

“You came back for me.”

She put up a hand. “I never should have left you there in the first place. I knew. I… knew. That man. That animal.”

“But he’s dead now. It’s over.”

“It’s never over, Eddie. Not for you. Not for me. We both know that. Those scars run deep. I’ve never married. Never even thought of it. Never had kids. Never wanted them. You want to know why?”

He nodded.

“Because I didn’t think I could protect them. Easy way out, really. I was a coward, Eddie, plain and simple. A coward.”

“Kel, it wasn’t your fault.”

Paul rose and paced in small circles in front of him. “Of course it was, Eddie. I abandoned you. I’ve spent my whole life making penance for it by doing very dangerous things. And it just occurred to me recently that while I was making my penance I forgot one important thing.” This all came out like a blast of pent-up air finally released.

“What was that?”

“You.” She knelt in front of him, took his hand, and squeezed it. “I forgot you, Eddie.”

“You never forgot me. You wrote. You came to see me sometimes.”

“It’s not the same. You know that.” She sat back and put a hand up to her eyes.

“Please don’t, Kel. Don’t be sad.”

She rose abruptly. “I will get you out of this, Eddie. That I promise. Even if I die in the process.”

Kelly Paul turned and walked unsteadily from the room, leaving her younger brother alone with thoughts not even his unique mind was really equipped to deal with.

E
LLEN
F
OSTER WAS SEATED
in a chair in an underground bunker she reserved for the most private of meetings. No notes, no recordings, no surveillance of any kind.

She sat there looking at the man who stared back at her.

“Can you even comprehend how furious I am about all this?” she said.

Mason Quantrell said nothing. He nervously tapped his fingers on the wooden tabletop and simply eyed her with caution.

She continued. “It was the neatest package I could possibly provide. It was perfect. All you had to do was your job. And now?” She slapped her hand against the table. “And now?”

Quantrell’s face darkened and caution was thrown aside. “We were set up, Ellen. You have a spy in your operation, obviously. It wasn’t my fault. We hit all of our cues right on the mark.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous. They just played you. They outsmarted you.”

“They outsmarted
us
,” he corrected in a high tone. “You and me. In this together.”

Foster’s angry look was slowly replaced with something far subtler: apprehension.

“I don’t like your tone, or your words,” she said.

“This is not the time to fight with each other,” Quantrell said in a calmer tone. “They took one round from us, that’s all. We’ve been victorious in every other one.”

“They have Roy. That’s a pretty big round to lose. That may be the knockout, in fact.”

The other man in the room cleared his throat.

James Harkes said, “I believe Mr. Quantrell is right, Secretary Foster.”

She turned to him and her face hardened even more. His rejection of her from the other night was still stark in her features. He would not have even been here except that with the recent disaster she needed him.

“And how do you figure that?” asked Foster icily.

“The plan was always to extract Roy and then blame it on Bunting and his allies. Well, now they actually have him. We don’t have to fabricate the blame. It’s a fact.”

Quantrell said, “That’s right.”

Foster was already shaking her head. “You’ve forgotten one significant detail. The FBI convoy that took Roy from Cutter’s was fake. It was Quantrell’s people. His
idiot
people.”

“That doesn’t really matter,” said Harkes. “Fake or not, Mr. Quantrell’s backup team was on the scene fifteen minutes after the attack on the convoy. They weren’t in time to stop them from taking Roy, obviously, but the scene was sterilized before anyone else arrived there. So as far as the world is concerned a fake FBI team lifted Edgar Roy from Cutter’s. And Roy is now in the hands of Peter Bunting. Ergo he must have been behind it.”