Red Cell Seven (24 page)

CHAPTER 27

B
ILL
J
ENSEN
eased into the chair in front of the vertical bars, while keeping a watchful eye on the prisoner the entire time.

Shane Maddux stared back unflinchingly from inside the cell.

Bill had made certain that the chair was positioned well back from the bars, well beyond Maddux’s reach. He knew better than anyone what Maddux was capable of, and he wasn’t about to give the man a chance to take a hostage in case this exchange grew testy. Bill had a member of the new security team at the house watching via hidden camera, too. The guy had orders to get in here immediately if anything seemed even slightly amiss on the screen.

There was a camera but no microphone. Bill couldn’t have anyone but the two of them privy to this conversation. Maddux couldn’t, either. It was a good standoff.

“Decus septum,”
Bill murmured.

“Decus septum,”
Maddux replied. “Protect the peak.”

“Protect the peak. You okay?” Bill asked.

“Of course.”

“You were tased three times on the way in here from the cemetery.”

“What was that?” Maddux asked, putting a hand to his ear.

Bill began to lean forward, closer to the bars, and then stopped abruptly. That had been a subtle attempt to draw him physically closer. He could tell by the smug look on Maddux’s face.

“You heard me, Shane.”

“So, what are you going to do with me?” Maddux asked.

“First, we need to talk. Karen said you kept asking about Travers after you chased her down. Why?”

“You know why.”

“Was it because Travers gave Kaashif TQ Haze at the interrogation?”

Maddux nodded. “And I want to find Kaashif. If I have Travers, I have Kaashif. As long as the Haze is still working on Kaashif, of course.”

“But why did you come after Karen? You had Nathan Kohler slip Travers some of the TQ he was carrying. I know you did. Travers said his stomach hurt like he had food poisoning. And Kohler got him a drink before Travers went in with Kaashif again. That must mean Kohler lit Travers up like a TQ neon sign.”

Maddux nodded once more. “Very good, and my phone had Travers covered just fine. Then, poof, all of a sudden the track-and-trace app stops working.” He shrugged. “Sometimes that happens. I’m sure you’ve been told. Some bodies flush the micro-shards faster than others, and some do it
really
fast. Travers was one of those; he turned out to be a bad host. The guys who came up with the stuff are still working out the kinks.” He shrugged. “I figured Karen knew where Travers was because she showed up in North Carolina the other night.”

Bill shook his head. “She doesn’t even know who Wilson Travers is. She was telling you the truth when she said that. I was the one who had her go to North Carolina, not Troy.”

“Interesting, you putting a woman who isn’t even in RCS directly in the path of danger like that. What’s your real motive in all that?”

“No hidden agenda, Shane. She’s very capable, and she asked if she could help. She can handle herself very well.”

“So I saw.” Maddux stood up and began pacing slowly back and forth. It was a decent-size cell, so he had room to take several paces in each direction. “Who tased me, Bill?”

“Not saying.”

Maddux stopped directly in front of where Bill was sitting and wrapped the fingers of both hands slowly and tightly around separate bars. “Why do you and I have so many secrets these days?”

“You know why.”

“We used to work so well together.”

“Yes, we did.”

“It wasn’t that long ago, either.” Maddux glanced at a corner of the room behind Bill. “Maybe we should consider joining up again,” he suggested, covering his mouth with one hand as he spoke.

Amazing,
Bill thought. Maddux had already pegged the camera’s location, and he’d covered his mouth so no one looking through it or examining a tape later could lip-read. “How did you find Imelda? What led you to her in Manassas?”

“I got a tip from one of my guys at Fort Meade.”

“Did she tell you anything during the interrogation?”

Maddux shook his head. “All she did was scare the hell out of me, Bill.”

That didn’t sound good. As far as Bill knew, the man standing in front of him wasn’t scared of anything. “What do you mean?”

“I know she was in on it somehow. I’m convinced. I can always tell when they’re lying.”

Bill was convinced, too, and he’d never even seen the woman. “But why did she scare you so much?” He’d heard Maddux refer to the woman in the past tense.

“I killed her son right in front of her. I sliced the boy’s neck wide open while she watched.”

Bill grimaced and glanced at the cement floor. How had the world come to this? How could a civilized man kill a small child, even in the name of protecting a country?

His eyes raced back to Maddux, aware that he’d let down his guard for a split second, and that was all it would take. But Maddux hadn’t moved. A wave of relief rushed through him.

“Imelda didn’t blink. I gave her a lot of chances to open up, Bill, but she didn’t.”

“Maybe you were wrong. I know how good you are at interrogation, but maybe this once you had it—”

“Imelda recognized Jack’s name when I said it. When I said Jack Jensen, she showed me her hand. She couldn’t hide it.”

Bill nodded. “That makes sense,” he muttered, thinking about what the woman had said when she’d first contacted him. “How did you get in that basement in North Carolina?” he asked. “Troy and Travers swore you weren’t down there when they cased the place initially. Travers said it was like you appeared out of thin air.”

Maddux grinned. “I’m a ghost, Bill. You know that.”

“Come on, Shane.”

“One of the fireplaces down there isn’t a working fireplace. The chimney is really a tiny elevator, big enough for one small person. There’s an entrance to the chimney from the house’s porch. I’d used it before.”

Bill stared at Maddux for a long time, then, against his better judgment, stood up and moved close. “Do you have a tape of Rita Hayes and me?”

Maddux stared back. “Did you have her killed?”

“Was she your mole, Shane?”

Maddux nodded. “Yes.”

“Do you have a tape of Rita and me?” Bill asked again.

“Protect the peak, Bill.”

“Yes, yes, protect the—”

“Which one is it?”

“Which one is what?”

“I know you know, Bill. Where is the Executive Order that Nixon signed? What peak is it hidden on?”

“I have no idea.”

“Carlson told you. He swore to me he did. We must move it. The enemies are closing in.”

Bill stared at Maddux. He hated and loved this man at the same time. How could that be?

“Let me go, Bill. Let me do what I do best. Let me protect this country.”

“I—I can’t.”

“More people were killed today.”

How could he know that?
Bill wondered as he glanced at Maddux’s knuckles, which were milky white because they were gripping the bars so tightly. The attacks had started a few hours ago. Maddux had been in here the entire time.

“I must be allowed to stop them. Please, Bill. I’ll get you the tape Rita made. No one but you will ever see it again. I promise.” Maddux hesitated.
“Decus septum.”

Bill stared hard at Maddux, trying to decide. Ending a promise with
“decus septum”
was tantamount to taking an oath. Shane Maddux would never break an RCS oath. Would he?

“There’s a deal here, Bill.”

Bill’s head was pounding. He absolutely could not have that tape out in the ether. He cringed and nearly vomited at the thought of it being played on some Internet site. At the thought of his business associates watching the intimate things he and Rita had done over the last few years. He put his hands to his face and shut his eyes tightly as he thought about Cheryl watching it, after he’d promised her he’d be faithful to her forever so long ago. He was close to the bars, and he wasn’t watching Maddux, but he didn’t care. For a few seconds, he hoped Maddux would do something. But what would that get Shane? Nothing at all, which meant he was safe.

“If I don’t check in by noon, that tape of you and Rita goes viral,” Maddux spoke up, his tone turning nasty. “That’s the agreement I have with one of my people. You don’t want that, Bill.”

“No, I don’t,” he whispered.

“Set me free,” Maddux pushed, “and tell me which peak it is. Tell me where that original of the Executive Order is hidden. You do, and you get your tape.” He shook his head. “Do I really need to describe all the ways she pleases you in the recording, Bill? Do you need me to remind you that in the opening scene you use your tie to secure her to the bed while you—”

“Stop it,”
Bill hissed. Why had he been so damn weak? “No more, Shane.”

“And tell me where Kaashif is,” Maddux demanded. “I swear to God if you don’t tell me that right away, your video will grow wings and fly. Everyone from Washington to Wall Street to Greenwich will see it. Do you really want that? Above all, do you really want Cheryl to see it?”

Bill swallowed hard. He’d never before considered suicide. He’d always called people who took that route weak and cowardly. He’d always sworn to himself that no matter how bad anything got, he would never take his own life. Suddenly he wasn’t so sure.

CHAPTER 28

“T
HAT YOUNG
woman likes you,” Travers said as they hustled through the Tysons One Mall together. It was the first day the mall had been open since the attack, and it was like a ghost town in there when it should have been jammed.

“What woman?” Troy asked.

They were almost to the cell phone store. They’d been inside the cavernous building for thirty seconds, and he’d counted a grand total of nine shoppers, none of whom looked comfortable being here. This morning’s attacks obviously had the majority of the population barricaded inside their homes for good, terrorized. No one was coming out now, not until they were convinced the insanity had been stopped and the bloodshed was over.

Travers snickered. “What woman? You know what woman—the woman in the hospital. Jennie Perez.”

“Give me a break.”

“Give
me
a break. I saw the way she was looking at you. I saw how you took her hand, and the way she squeezed yours back.”

Troy grinned as they headed inside the store. He couldn’t help it. She’d definitely snagged his interest—which made all of this so much more difficult. “How long were you standing there, Major?”

“Long enough to see sparks, Captain.”

“Hey,” Troy called loudly as he approached the first salesperson he saw inside the store.

“Hello, sir,” the young man answered in a deliberate, bored tone. He glanced up from the
People
magazine he’d been flipping through. “How can I help you?”

The kid was probably wondering what in the hell he was doing here today, Troy figured as he pulled a heavy gold badge from his pocket and held it up. He probably wasn’t afraid of the place being attacked again—why would he be? There was no one here to kill.

“I’m a federal agent, and I’m investigating the Holiday Mall Attacks.”

The kid had been leaning on the glass counter, which was filled with different phones, but he stood straight up to look at the badge when he heard that. “Yes, sir.”

The badge was fake, but it looked heavy and real, and the kid bought in to its authenticity immediately. “I want to know who in here helped this woman,” Troy said, stowing the badge before pulling out his cell phone and showing the kid the picture of Jennie he’d taken during his first visit to the hospital.

“Wow,” the young guy murmured as he glanced at the picture, “she’s pretty.”

“She was in a few days ago,” Troy continued, “a few minutes before the attack here went down. I have her credit card receipt. She bought a phone in this store. And according to those credit card records, your company is her service provider as well.”

“Okay.”

Troy skipped to a picture he had of the sales receipt for the phone. One of Travers’s contacts had found it and e-mailed it over. Troy pointed to a number on the screen after he expanded the receipt. “That’s the salesman’s number on the receipt. Who is it?”

The kid’s expression brightened. “That’s Chad’s ID number. He’s right there.”

Chad was on the other side of the store and looked over when he heard his name. “How can I help you, sir?”

Troy moved quickly to where Chad was standing. “You helped this woman just before the attack here.” Troy showed him the picture of Jennie lying in the hospital bed. “Do you remember her?”

Chad rolled his eyes. “How could I forget her? She’s beautiful. I asked her out while she was buying the phone. I thought I was golden, but then all of a sudden she had to go.” He shook his head as he glanced at her photo again. “Is she all right? My God, did she get shot in the attack?” he asked as his voice rose quickly.

“She’ll be fine,” Troy answered, stowing the phone in his pocket and quickly pulling out and flashing the badge again. “According to the records I have in my possession, your company is also her service provider.”

“Yeah, I remember. That’s right.”

“I want to see the record of her calls for the last thirty days.”

Chad spread his hands wide. “Hey, man, I can’t let you—”

“You can, and you will,” Travers interrupted, leaning past Troy and over the counter so Chad had to lean back. “Otherwise you’ll be in direct conflict with the federal government’s ongoing investigation of the Holiday Mall Attacks. Is that what you want, son? I don’t think so,” he said firmly, answering his own question. “With what’s going on in the world right now, that could land you in Leavenworth doing hard time for ten-to-twenty. Now show us those phone records of hers.”

“W
E HAVE
to leave,” Gadanz said into Sasha’s ear when he’d made it inside their Manassas townhouse and turned the stereo up loud.

For all he knew Daniel had planted listening devices in the home. Hopefully, the stereo would give them cover if there were bugs in here.

“I need time to get my affairs in order at the company, and then we have to leave.”

Forty minutes ago, he’d hurried off the plane from Miami and raced home from Dulles in the Accord, terrified that something had happened to Sasha when he couldn’t reach her after calling her number three times on the way. He’d prepared himself to find them all dead, murdered by Kaashif or one of Daniel’s men as a clear message not to fuck up and to toe the line.

“Do you understand?”

Jacob had almost been overcome by relief when she met him just inside the door a moment ago. Maybe he’d let his paranoia go too far; maybe the cocaine was still playing tricks on him—he hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours now, and it had been so pure he was still feeling it. Whatever it was, he was completely convinced they had to get out fast even though everything appeared to be fine. This afternoon Jacob was going to arrange a move to new quarters for the death squad here in northern Virginia, to make it seem like he was cooperating and doing what he’d been told. But once that was checked off the list, he wasn’t doing anything else for Daniel or Kaashif. Once the squad had been moved, he was going to transfer two million dollars out of Gadanz & Company—the most he possibly could—to where it would never be found. He and the girls would have to live on that money for the rest of their lives, because he could never lift his head above ground again and expect to survive.

“We’ll pack whatever we can, put it in the minivan tonight, and take off first thing tomorrow morning.” Tears were already spilling down Sasha’s cheeks. “We’ll be all right, sweetheart, I promise we will.”

“Jacob,” she said as he gently wiped moisture from her face, “does this have anything to do with the Holiday Mall Attacks?”

He gazed down at her for several moments, and then nodded once.

She turned and raced for the stairs to pack.

“J
ESUS
C
HRIST
,”
Travers muttered as they pulled to a stop in a parking spot at the Fairfax County Hospital.

“What is it, Major?”

Travers glanced up from his phone and over at Troy with a shell-shocked expression. “Don’t get too fond of Jennie.”

“What do you mean? Why not?”

“Remember I told you and your father about following Kaashif from Philadelphia down here to northern Virginia?”

“Sure.”

“How Kaashif went to see a woman in Manassas named Imelda Smith?”

“Yeah, so?”

Travers held his phone up. “I just got a report back from one of my guys. You’re not going to believe this.”

“Try me.”

“One of the numbers on Jennie’s list of calls for the last thirty days is for Imelda Smith.”

Troy’s heart skipped a beat, and the world suddenly seemed to be closing in around him. And then his phone went off with a text. “Holy shit,” he whispered as the words on the tiny screen blurred in front of him. He’d run a detailed background check on Jennie Perez, and the results were in.

Jennie was Lisa Martinez’s first cousin. No damn wonder they reminded him so much of each other.

S
OPHIE AND
Elaina shrieked with joy as they jumped from the school bus and ran for their father.

Jacob scooped up Sophie in one big arm and hugged Elaina with the other. He kissed Sophie several times, then put her down and hugged and kissed Elaina.

He didn’t care about money anymore, he realized as he gazed at Sasha over Elaina’s slender shoulder. She was doing her best to hold back her emotions, but he knew what she was going through. She wanted to get out of here right away, but he had to move the squad and the money.

He’d been a bastard last night in Florida, he’d given in to terrible temptation and all that Daniel held dear. Well, that would never happen again, he promised himself as he hugged his girls. Tomorrow morning they would drive somewhere, anywhere that was far, far from here, and settle down quickly into an anonymous life. From this day forward he would cherish and do anything he could for the three people he cared most about in the world—his three girls.

And he would kill anyone who tried to harm them.