Xeno Sapiens (26 page)

“
They’re on holiday,” Merrifield said.
“Maybe you’d like to see their orders?”

“
I’m sure,” Lewis said flavorlessly.
“Not that I really care, unless there’s been a crime, but Walton
noticed. I saw his eyes clicking away like a couple of cameras.
He’s not as dumb as he seems. I want to quit arguing and put our
heads together. We’ve got a hell of a problem and I need your help.
If you’re hiding anything, maybe you’d better spill it if it’ll
help get Scoggins back.”

Merrifield pondered the invitation. He
studied Lewis’s lean form slouched in his chair. His face was
perfectly devoid of expression. Lewis had pieced together pieces of
the puzzle even the highly trained Josh Hall could not have figured
out without the ratting from Clark. If any man outside the facility
could be trusted, it was Lewis. Still, Merrifield was unwilling to
take the risk.

“
I’d tell you if I could,” he said at
last. What was more, he sounded as if he truly regretted
it.

“
I thought as much. How much time do I
have?”

“
Not long. The MP’s are on their way,
as well as the national guard. The state troopers have already been
ordered down. You might as well bring your men home. It will soon
be out of your hands.”

“
I don’t guess it matters you’ll be
usurping the power of the governor as well as the local bailiwick.
That’s been taken care of as well?”

“
It has.” Merrifield paused. “One
thing I should tell you, just on the off chance you should run into
Scoggins in the next couple of hours.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Scoggins has to be taken
alive.”

Lewis looked shrewdly at Merrifield.
“He’s that important? And that dangerous?”

“
It’s imperative he be returned alive.
No price is too high.”

“
Christ Almighty,” Lewis muttered.
“I’m glad it’ll be out of my hands. You’re willing to lose
men?”

“
Willing isn’t the right word. If it
comes to it, it may be necessary.”

Lewis blew out a tired breath. “I
couldn’t use my men for bait. I’d instruct them to use deadly
force.”

“
Put up a front for a couple of more
hours. Let us handle it.”

“
I’d rather sandpaper a lion’s ass
than get mixed up in this thing anymore.” Lewis picked up his hat
from Merrifield’s desk. “Just one last thing, Jon. If this guy
causes anymore trouble, or if I run across him, I won’t ask your
permission to take him down. I won’t let any more people be
hurt.”

“
We have it under control,” Merrifield
said. “We think he’s hurt, holed up somewhere.”

“
He may not be easy to find,” Lewis
said. “There are hundreds of caves and caverns around here. Big
tourist traps. Eric Rudolph led the Feds on a merry chase for
years. If this fellow is as nuts as you make out, he may hole up in
one of them and you’ll never find him. We may all end up chasing
our tails until he comes out. Or dies.”

“
Perhaps.” Merrifield stood up. “This
is something we have to handle on our own.”

“
I’ve known you a long time, Jon. I’ve
never seen you like this. I won’t say scared because I know nothing
scares you. There’s a lot more to this, though. For all I know this
guy could be carrying a killer plague, or be blown halfway to the
moon on LSD. I hope the next I hear of him is from you, telling me
he’s under wraps.”

“
One more thing before you go,”
Merrifield said. Lewis, who had placed his hand on the door knob,
turned around.

“
What did you think of
Hall?”

Lewis tried to read the intent in
Merrifield’s question, but his face was an enigma.

“
He’s a wolf,” Lewis said carefully,
“He’s as pious as a slug and just as distasteful.” He shrugged. “I
don’t like him, you don’t like him. He’s a killer of some type.
It’s a look I saw many times in the back of a squad car. You don’t
forget it and you don’t mistake it for something else if you want
to stay alive. I’ll be watching him until he’s gone. Don’t give him
any reason to stick around.”

Merrifield nodded.

“
How are you going to handle
Walton?”

“
I’ll give him a statement. I won’t
give him any reason to dig.”

“
And Hall?”

“
I’ll have to think that one over.”
Merrifield wondered how he could turn the tables on a man who
actually knew the project objectives. Hall was by no means stupid.
He had already put two and two together and figured out who the
escapee was. That’s why he was here.

“
Give him something plausible,” Lewis
said. He opened the door and waited for Merrifield.

“
You coming?”

“
I’ve a couple of things to do here. I
won’t be long.”

Lewis left. As soon as the door was
shut, Merrifield dialed his phone.

“
This is Jon, Ingrid. Do exactly as I
say. Stay in your quarters for the next half hour. I have an
unpleasant visitor to mollify.”

“
Is that it,” Walton asked,
blinking.

“
Isn’t that, enough,” Merrifield asked
politely. He had reached the end of his rope in connection with Ron
Walton. Twice in the past five minutes Merrifield had come within a
figurative inch of taking Walton’s notebook and pounding it up his
ass sideways. Walton had begun asking some touchy and highly
speculative questions.

“
I was expecting more,” Walton
said,

“
I can’t tell you more than I know,”
Merrifield said patiently. “When we know more, you’ll know it. Now,
if you’ll excuse me, I have other matters to attend.”

“
What I want to know,” Walton said,
“is why Mr. Hall gets the dime tour and I don’t.”

“
Ron,” Lewis said
perilously.

“
No, I mean it,” Walton said, standing
up and holding his notebook at his side. “If you’re doing something
dangerous up here, the people have a right to know. I don’t like
being treated as a poor cousin. I’ll do my job even if it means
going over your head.”

“
Ron, I’ve warned you...” Lewis
said.

Merrifield held up his hand. It was
steady, giving no indication how far his temper had built. Ron
Walton was treading on very thin ice.

“
It’s alright, constable.” Merrifield
spoke directly to Walton. “I’m aware you have a job to do and if
I’ve treated you as a poor cousin, I apologize. There is no higher
authority at this facility. My word is Law. It appears some things
must be made plain to you.

“
Number one,” Merrifield said, tapping
his right index finger in the palm of his left hand for emphasis.
“You are not here by invitation. I could have you forcibly ejected
and be well within my rights.

“
Two. You’ve been a constant pain in
my ass since you arrived. You’ll soon be stepping on overly
sensitive toes. Some people would not treat you as civilly as I
have. They would as soon have you blackballed from the practice of
what you call -and I say this in the kindest sense of the word,
considering the rag you work for- journalism, as to read anything
you wrote.

“
Third. You have been attempting to
procure statements or evidence against the national security of the
United States. I understand the penalty for treason is death only
during wartime. More’s the pity. Still, a lifetime at Leavenworth
is not normally on the young man’s list of preferred careers, and
the newly formed Department of Homeland Security has broader powers
to put you there than you can possibly know. If you believe you’re
protected by the first amendment, allow me to readjust that,
notion. My young friend, you are now standing on federal property
just as surely as if you were in the middle of a tank trail at Fort
Bragg. A secretly convened Grand Jury would roast you like a hot
dog at a camporee. As far as they are concerned, you have no
rights.

“
Four. Any information given you at
this facility is given only with my consent. We have no obligation
to you at all. Now, what I would suggest is that you stop acting
like an asshole- if that’s within your scope- and print your
statement. You’re too young and stupid to be messing about in such
things as you want to know. Your biggest worry should be whether or
not a new pimple has sprouted on your ass. You’ve caught us at a
bad time. Be grateful for what you’ve got.”

“
Mister,” Walton said, “You’ve just
dug yourself a grave. You can’t talk to me like that. You don’t
know what I can do to you.”

Merrifield was unimpressed. In fact, he
had to stifle the urge to laugh out loud.

“
You,”
he said. “Do something to
me?
Try it,” he said
placidly, “and see what happens. You make your phone calls, then
I’ll make mine. We’ll see whose ass goes up in a sling. Everyone
will benefit if you don’t blow this thing out of
proportion.”

Walton turned angrily to Lewis. “Are
you going to listen to this shit? Aren’t you going to do
something?”

“
Like what,” Lewis said. “Arrest him?
I don’t think so. You better do like he says, Ron.”

Lewis sat in a chair with his legs
comfortably crossed. He had not changed position during the entire
exchange. Walton moved his gaze over to Hall who was likewise
seated and obviously bored with Walton’s fresh, righteous
attitude.

They’ve seen this before.
Could this blown up jackass he serious?

Walton turned to Merrifield. There was
no sign of a bluff in his face.

“
You would do it, wouldn’t
you?”

“
Without hesitation, Mr. Walton.
You’ve got your statement. There is nothing else of concern to you
here.”

Walton’s face reddened. He turned and
stormed out the door.

Lewis whistled through his
teeth.

“
Did you have to do that,
Jon?”

“
He’ll put it in his diary,”
Merrifield said. “Nowhere else.”

“
I’d better hunt him down.”

“
He won’t get far. The gate’s locked.”
Merrifield went behind the glass cage and punched in a digital
code.

“
It’s open now. Maybe you better get
to him before he ruptures a gut.”

Lewis nodded. “I’ll wait for you
outside, Mr. Hall. Call me when you know something,
Jon.”

Lewis left.

Hall and Merrifield were still for long seconds. The air
thickened, seeming to ring like a guitar string plucked and
tightened until it was beyond the range of human hearing, leaving
only the unpleasant vibrations that might drive a man mad. Both men
asked themselves:
Who is cat? And who is mouse?

“
Kay,” Merrifield said softly, “why
don’t you get a cup of coffee? Something to eat, maybe.” He never
stopped looking at Hall.

Kay almost ran out of the room, the
spikes of her high heels teetering a little as she hurried out. She
looked back once at the two men regarding each other like wary
beasts. She closed the door.

Hall stared at Merrifield as if he
could bring the wrath of God down on him with just his glare. That,
or something worse.

“
You’re getting soft, Jon,” Hall said
pleasantly. It was a voice one used with their closest friend, but
with a mocking undertone. “That reporter still had some life left
in him.”

“
You won’t have that
luxury.”

Hall smiled through a painful mouthful
of teeth. “I won’t need it. You’re still willing to put your head
on the counter.”

“
Do you really want to find
out?”

Hall sat back. “I won’t need the tour,”
he said abruptly, “I don’t think for one second you haven’t covered
everything with your people.”

“
There was never anything to cover.
I’m surprised Johnny Clark could have misled you so. He’s not
nearly the convincing liar you seem to believe. How much did he get
out of you? Five? Ten thousand?”

“
You still have no faith, Jon. No
guidance other than what science dictates.”

“
What can you do, Josh,” Merrifield
asked. He sounded genuinely perplexed. “You can’t get to me or my
project. Why don’t you give it up?”

Hall steepled his fingers and sat
comfortably, as if he were with an old friend.

“
I should ask what
you
can do,” he said. “For twenty years I
wondered when the bullet would come out of the crowd while I
preached. For that long I wondered when I would turn the key in my
car’s ignition and set off a bomb, or open a package and have it
explode in my face.