Fade (2005) (43 page)

"What?" she said, looking down the hall at the heavily guarded door.

"Why would he do that?"

"We have no idea."

"Is it working?" Egan asked. Pickering glared at him but it seeme d like a relevant question.

"We've been given an address and we're in the process of following up.

No word yet."

Egan let out a long breath and then looked over at Karen. "Are you u p for this?"

She nodded.

"Okay, Captain. Call him and tell him we're coming in. And get thos e men away from the door. I've got enough problems without gettin g caught in a crossfire."

"Are you armed?"

"Huh?"

"We don't need anyone taking weapons in there that al Fayed could ge t his hands on."

Egan laughed. "I'm guessing he's already got your men's guns. But th e answer to your question is no. I'm not. Karen?"

"No."

Pickering motioned toward two bulletproof vests lying on the floor.

Egan shook his head. "I'll pass."

"Okay, Fade! Truce, right? If you want to start shooting, I need t o go back and get a gun," Egan yelled as the door swung open. Th e curtains had been pulled and it was dark enough inside that it was har d to make out detail.

"I just don't know how I'd live with myself if I shot your ass," cam e the answer. Predictably, Fade was up against the wall behind the ope n door.

Karen pushed by and went in first, obviously not worried. Ega n followed, but a little more cautiously. When he was fully inside, th e door slammed closed and Fade shoved a doorstop beneath it.

"You've got to help me," a weak voice behind Egan pleaded. "I've bee n badly burned. I'm in horrible .. . pain."

"Take a fucking aspirin," Karen said, eyeing Fade's knee as he limpe d over to a stool and lowered himself carefully onto it.

"What the hell's going on?" she said, nodding toward the quietl y sobbing man strapped to the bed. "You told me you didn't care abou t him or those women. What are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "I got to thinking that maybe I was wrong."

"Please," Logner moaned. "You have to help me .. ."

The unmistakable stench of burned hair and flesh was hanging in the ai r and Egan walked over to the bed, squinting through the gloom to find a small circle of charred skin on Logner's wrist. "That's it? That'
s what you're whining about? I've gotten worse making pasta."

"Low threshold for pain," Fade said. "Which is going to turn into a real problem for him if the address he gave the cops is bogus."

"So you're going to just sit here and light parts of him on fire unti l they find the girl?" Karen said.

"Pretty much. Yeah."

"And after that?"

"I haven't really thought that far ahead. So, how are things with you r wife, Matt?"

Egan sat down in a vinyl easy chair near the base of the bed. "Sh e called me from the road. She and Kali are coming home."

A wide grin spread across Fade's face. "That's great, man.

Congratulations."

"Well, we have some things to work out, but I think we'll be okay. I'
m not sure yet how living with everything out in the open like this i s going to work. Who knew it would be possible for our relationship t o get any more complicated?"

"Complicated's okay. And besides, now you're rich. I hear the store s can't keep her records on the shelves."

Egan let out a quiet snort. "We haven't really talked about it, but I c an pretty much guarantee that she sees this as blood money and it'
s all going to go to save some endangered African snail or something."

"Can I make a suggestion?"

"Go ahead."

"You probably shouldn't point out that all that money just ends up i n the pockets of gun dealers and Swiss bankers."

"Don't worry. I've learned my lesson."

"Uh, excuse me," Karen interrupted. "Could we focus for a minute o n the fact that you've barricaded yourself in a fifteen-by-fifteen roo m surrounded by a bunch of very motivated police snipers."

Fade shook his head slowly. "She's so practical. And kind of a badass. How can you not love her?"

"Fade, I'm serious .. ."

"And what about you, Karen?" he said. "Has Daddy managed to mak e everything all better?"

She frowned at his wording but then just shrugged. "Yeah, I guess h e has. It turns out that there's almost nothing an army of lawyers , publicity people, and politicians can't accomplish. I'm going to be o n Larry King tomorrow night." Her voice seemed to lose its strength an d she looked down at the floor. "You should watch it."

"Maybe I will."

The silence that ensued lasted almost a minute.

"Jesus," Fade said finally, standing and hobbling around the room. "I b rought you two here because you're my only real friends in the world.

This was supposed to be fun."

"Hillel wanted to send a cake," Egan said.

Fade laughed. "And how is that piece of shit? I gotta tell you, I r eally regret not having an opportunity to put a bullet through hi s skull."

"Doesn't really matter. He's fucked. Actually, he's in jail righ t now. If you play your cards right, maybe you two could b e cellmates."

"Yeah, right. Somehow I don't think they're looking to put me in on e of those country club places."

"It's not a country club, Fade. Just plain old jail. Crenshaw blew a gasket when all this came out. He says he's going to personally mak e sure Strand ends up in a maximum-security prison for the rest of hi s life. And you know the general. What he wants, he gets."

Fade nodded and kept limping around the room for no apparent reason , seeming to become more detached and distant with every awkwar d movement. Finally, he dug into a backpack and pulled out a larg e Ziploc full of neatly bundled hundred-dollar bills.

"The rest of my money," he said, tossing it to Karen. "It's not much , but why don't you split it up between the families of those guys I k illed. There's also a disk in there the very last installment of SWAT

KILLER Maybe you could post it for me."

"Fade. I ..."

"And I want you to go by my shop. That hope chest is still ther e waiting for you. Fill it up for when you find that guy who's secur e enough to marry you."

She didn't answer and it was too dark for Egan to make out he r expression clearly, but he could see her wipe a sleeve across bot h cheeks.

"These are for Elise," Fade said, tossing Egan a set of car keys. "A w oman like that shouldn't have to drive around in a minivan. You migh t want to take it to a mechanic and have a little work done before yo u give it to her, though ..."

Egan opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the ringing o f the phone. Fade limped excitedly toward it and picked up. "Hello?"

He jabbed a finger toward the TV and Karen turned it on, flippin g channels until she landed on one depicting a young woman wrapped in a blanket and surrounded by police. One of the cops stepped aside , allowing the camera to focus on her face.

Fade covered the phone's mouthpiece. "Is that her?"

Karen rose to her tiptoes, examined the screen for a moment and the n nodded.

"Now you have her!" Logner screamed. "I need a doctor! Get me a doctor!"

"I thought I told you to shut up," Fade said, replacing the handset an d pulling a gun from his waistband. Karen jumped for his hand, makin g contact a split second after a bullet slammed into Logner's chest. Ega n didn't move as she shoved Fade back hard enough to nearly topple him.

"What the hell was that?" she shouted, running up to the bed an d looking down at the bleeding hole in Logner's breast bone. Egan pushe d himself up on the arms of his chair to get a better angle, but the n settled back into the cushion when it became clear that Logner hadn'
t survived.

Karen came to the same conclusion a moment later and turned back towar d Fade just as the phone started ringing. "What were you thinking? Yo u just killed a helpless man tied to a bed! Are you crazy? How is thi s going to help your case?"

He shrugged, the simple motion seeming to take nearly all his strength.

"Not the worst thing I've ever done, huh, Matt?"

Egan didn't answer, instead, concentrating on Fade as he wandere d across the room and stopped in front of the window.

"Kind of dreary in here," he said, reaching for the closed curtains an d throwing them open. "Maybe a little light.. ."

Even with everything he knew about her, Egan still underestimated ho w quickly Karen could react. He threw himself out of the chair an d barely managed to get hold of her and drag her to the floor.

She was still thrashing wildly when the first round hit Fade betwee n his chest and right shoulder. Egan pressed his face into her back an d forced her head down as the air filled with shattered glass. A t hick-sounding thud that seemed to shake the room marked the impact o f the second round. When Egan looked up again, Fade was fallin g backward, eyes closed and arms spread wide.

Karen managed to swing an elbow at Egan's head and he was forced t o release her in order to dodge it. She crawled forward, ignoring th e glass cutting her knees, and dragged Fade from the snipers' line o f fire. For a moment she tried to stop the bleeding, but then just fel l back against the wall.

Egan went back to his chair and put his head in his hands, taking deep , measured breaths. When he finally looked up again, Karen was starin g at him with eyes full of tears and accusation.

He shook his head meaninglessly. "How did you want him to die?"

FPIIflGUF

Epilogue.

SWATKILLER
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OM

Final Entr
y Looking back, I think a lot of the things I've done were wrong. I hop e the fact that I believed in them-that I believed I was helping-wil l make people remember me more fondly than maybe I deserve.

I wish there had been time to balance the scales. But there jus t wasn't . S
alam al Faye d Kyle Mills lives in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where he spends his tim e skiing, rock climbing, and writing books. He is the author of si x previous novels. Free Fall, Rising Phoenix, Storming Heaven, Sphere o f Influence and Smoke Screen are all available from Hodder paperbacks.

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