Red Cell Seven (30 page)

“W
E
’
VE GOT
to get going,” Troy muttered as he sat with his back against the cave wall, right beneath the spot that had hidden the Executive Order for so many years. It had been nearly half an hour since Travers had tased him, and he was feeling better. “Seriously.”

“You need a few more minutes,” Jack countered with a wry grin as he crouched beside his younger brother. “Seriously.”

“What the hell are you doing here?” Troy murmured as he glanced at Karen.

She was a few yards away keeping an eye on Travers. Jack had hog-tied him and put him into Troy’s Dark Star sleeping bag. They were going to leave him here—as he had been going to leave Troy. They couldn’t trust him on the trail.

“I’m not really here,” Jack answered. “You’re hallucinating, Troy. I’m just a figment of your imagination.”

“Thank God. I was worried there for a second I might have to share Mom and Dad’s estate with you.” He glanced up into his brother’s eyes. They’d already gone through the initial emotional backslapping scene as soon as Troy’s tremors had settled enough for him to grab Jack. “Seriously, what are you doing here?”

“Watching out for you. Someone has to. You can’t seem to do it for yourself.”

“I mean,” Troy said quietly, “on earth. What are you doing alive?”

Jack chuckled. “Oh, that.”

“Yeah,
that
.”

Jack’s grin faded. “It was all Dad’s idea. He figured Maddux would come after me, so he beat the bastard to the punch. I was wearing Kevlar on the porch that afternoon.”

“But I saw the blood coming from your mouth.”

“It wasn’t real. Just one of those prop cherries.”

“But you—”

“You took off across the field right after the shot to chase down the shooter. I was into the ambulance and gone by the time you got back.”

“That’s right,” Troy murmured as he thought back on it. “It was instinct.”

“The plan was for Dad to yell at you to do that, but he didn’t even have to.”

“No, he sure didn’t.” Troy thought back on how Bill had been about to tell him something in the office. This had to be it. But in the RCS tradition, he’d kept the secret. “I was sure I could run the bastard down.”

“The only people who knew were Dad, the guy who shot me, and the EMTs. Even Mom didn’t know.”

“They didn’t even tell Karen,” she called out loudly. Her voice echoed in the cave. “And when everything calms down again, your brother and I are going to have a very long conversation about that, Troy.”

Jack laughed. “Sorry, baby.”

“You ever do that to me again, Jack, and I’ll shoot you myself. And you won’t have Kevlar on when I do.”

“Good to know, Karen.” Jack touched his chest. “I’ve still got a bruise from where the bullet hit me, even with the Kevlar.”

“I bet.” Troy glanced up as it occurred to him. “So you were the one who got Maddux in the cemetery. You were the one who took him to the house and put him in that cell in the basement.”

“I was keeping an eye on Karen from the shadows, too. I really think he would have killed her if I hadn’t shown up.”

“I think you’re right,” Troy agreed.

Jack turned his head to call to Karen over his shoulder. “Maybe because I saved her life that night, she’ll go a little easier on me when we have that talk.”

“Maybe,” Karen called back. “Maybe not.”

“You know Dad let him go,” Troy said somberly.

“Really?”

“You know why?”

Jack shook his head.

“There’s a tape of Dad and Rita Hayes,” Troy said quietly so only Jack could hear him.

“As in the Rita Hayes who was Dad’s EA all those years?”

“As in that one.”

“The Rita Hayes who’s missing?”

“Yes.”

“Is it the kind of tape I think it is?” Jack asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, and Maddux has it.”

Jack grimaced. “Terrible.”

“It gets worse.” Troy took a deep breath. “I think Dad had Rita killed,” he said softly. “He thought she had the tape, but it was Maddux.”

They were quiet for a long time.

“I can’t believe it,” Jack finally murmured.

“You were lucky to be dead.”

“I guess.” Jack shook his head. “Well, it let me be the one to correspond with Jennie. She didn’t know who I was, so it wasn’t like she could tell anyone I’d faked my murder.” Jack raised an eyebrow. “She’s a nice young woman.”

“Yeah, well—”

“We’re just lucky Lisa never showed her a picture of me.”

“True.”

“She likes you a lot, Troy.”

“I like her, too.”

“Good.” Jack patted Troy’s shoulder, then gestured at Travers. “I feel bad leaving him here. I mean, I understand why he sided with Baxter. But I don’t see any other way.”

“There is no other way,” Troy agreed, making it to his feet with Jack’s help. “He’s a good man, but we can’t take the chance that he’d try to grab the Order on the trail.”

“You sure you’re okay?” Jack asked.

“Yeah, let’s get out of here.”

“Maybe we should stay here in the cave tonight. It’s already dark out.”

“I don’t want to wait. I want to go through the night.” Troy tapped his coat on top of the pocket that held the bag with the Order inside. “We’ve got to get this thing out of here and safe as soon as possible.”

“Okay.”

Jack turned, but Troy caught him by the arm. “Thanks, brother,” he murmured as they hugged again. “It seems like you’re always saving my ass.”

“Hey, what’s an older brother for?”

T
ROY
, J
ACK
,
and Karen had gone only twenty feet from the cave opening when six forms appeared out of the snow that was whipping wildly through the high rock walls of Bonny Pass. The assailants were on them before they could even draw their guns.

“Get off her!” Jack shouted when Karen cried out in pain from beside him. One of the men had clasped her roughly by the upper arms and squeezed them together behind her back, stretching her shoulders terribly. “I swear I will—”

“You will what?” a seventh man demanded as he appeared in front of them out of the gloom. He was short and wiry, even with the cold-weather gear.

“Shane Maddux,” Jack whispered in amazement.

“Wasn’t I supposed to have killed you?” Maddux asked sarcastically. “With a rifle from three hundred yards, right, Jack?” He took a few more steps forward so now he was directly in front of Jack and very close. “You’re looking pretty good for being dead.”

“I guess your aim wasn’t that great.”

Maddux grinned smugly. “Let me tell you something. If I wanted to kill you, I would.”

“How did you know we were here?” Troy demanded.

“Your father told me. I had something he wanted very badly. Two days ago we traded that for the information I wanted. It was a good trade. Here I am.”

“You wanted to know where the original of the Executive Order was hidden.”

“The one Roger Carlson wasn’t keeping on hand,” Maddux confirmed. “I told Bill that if he tried to get in touch with you after the trade, I’d kill all of you when I got here. Judging by your reaction to our arrival, Bill kept his word. He’s a wise man.” Maddux took several steps to the side in the snow so that now he was standing in front of Troy. “Give me what I want.”

“You’re not getting anything, Shane.”

Maddux nodded to the men standing behind Troy. As they tightened their grip on Troy, Maddux reached inside Troy’s coat and pulled out the clear plastic bag containing the Executive Order. “Well, that was easy enough. I guess now I can—”

Suddenly Karen broke free. As she stumbled forward, she reached for the .44 inside her coat, turned as she fell into the snow, and fired back at the man who’d been holding her and was now coming at her. She fired once, killing him instantly with a bullet through the chest.

Troy and Jack struggled violently to free themselves as Karen turned her gun on the men holding the brothers. She hit one of Jack’s captors in the shoulder and one of Troy’s in the side, and the brothers broke free.

As she swung the .44 Magnum toward Shane Maddux, he shot her in the head with his favorite pistol—a Winchester .22.

CHAPTER 35

T
ROY AND
Jack sat in a waiting room of New York–Presbyterian Hospital in Midtown Manhattan. It had been a week since all hell had broken loose on Bonny Pass and five days since Karen had been transported from a Casper, Wyoming, hospital to this facility in New York City on the Jensen G450. But she was still in intensive care. She hadn’t yet regained consciousness from the head wound, and her prognosis wasn’t good.

“The doctors here are the best in the world at what Karen needs, Jackson,” Troy spoke up, using the nickname he’d missed using so much. A nickname he thought he’d never use again. “Mom made sure of that while we were bringing Karen home.”

“I know.”

“She’ll make it.”

“I…I hope so,” Jack said haltingly. “But they’re not sure, brother.” He was leaning forward with his face in his hands as he sat on a couch opposite Troy’s chair. “I…I never should have let her come with me to Wyoming. I should have known better, Troy.”

“Remember, brother, I’ve known Karen longer than you have, a lot longer. She’s an awesome young woman, but she’s one of the most stubborn people in the world. Once she knew you were alive again, she wasn’t going to let you out of her sight. She loves you that much.”

Jack took a deep breath, rubbed water from his eyes, and then cleared his throat, embarrassed at his emotions, even in front of his brother. “That’s exactly what she said,” he agreed in a gritty voice after a few moments. “I love her that much, too.”

“I know.” Troy understood what Jack was thinking. “And if you hadn’t followed Travers and me out there with her, I’d be dead right now. Maddux wouldn’t have kept his promise to Dad. We both know that. It wouldn’t have been in his best interest to let me live, and he always acts in his own best interest.” Troy paused. “You saved my life, Jack…again.”

“Karen saved your life.”

“You both did.”

“And Maddux got away…again.”

“There’s nothing we could have done. He’s slick. We both know that.”

“And he has the Executive Order.”

Karen being shot was the worst part of what had happened. But Maddux escaping with the bag and its precious contents was a close second.

In the end, Troy, Karen, and Jack had shot three of Maddux’s accomplices before the other three had taken off into the gloom. Then they’d gone back into the cave and freed Travers, and each man had taken turns carrying Karen’s limp body down the mountain to Troy’s vehicle at the trailhead. They hadn’t stopped once for food or even rest until Karen was in the Casper hospital emergency room—after which they’d all gotten treatment themselves for exposure and dehydration.

“Where do you think Dad is?” Jack asked.

“I called First Manhattan. The woman I spoke to said he was taking two weeks off for a vacation in the Caribbean with Mom.” Troy glanced down the hallway. Cheryl was just coming back from changing Little Jack’s diaper. “We know that’s not true. He told Mom he was going on a business trip to Europe.”

“You think Mom knows it was a lie?”

Troy nodded. “Yeah, she’s too smart to be fooled anymore. But I don’t think she cares that much. I think she’s carrying what she cares about.”

“Where do you think Dad really is?”

“I don’t know, Jack. I’m not sure
I
care.”

P
RESIDENT
D
ORN
smiled serenely at the television as he and Baxter sat in the Oval Office watching the CNN news report. The anchor had just announced the capture of the last member of the death squads—and Dorn was getting all the credit.

He only had one of the Executive Orders, true. So Red Cell Seven was still legitimate. But sooner or later he’d get the other one. He’d learned long ago to enjoy huge victories in the moment, and this was most certainly one of those victories.

“You’re a hero,” Baxter said loudly. “The country adores you. You’ve solidified your legacy.”

Dorn’s smile grew wider. “I am a hero. And they should love me.”

“By the way, sir, Major Travers is—”

“Not yet, Stewart,” Dorn interrupted, still soaking in the accolades from the newspeople and from the series of interviews CNN had done in Washington and New York with citizens on the street. Everyone was being effusive with praise for the efficient and effective end to what had essentially been a nationwide hostage situation. When the report was over, Dorn looked over at Baxter. “Now what was that?”

Dorn didn’t give a damn about Wilson Travers. That was obvious. He probably didn’t even remember who Travers was. “What are you going to do about that other original of the Executive Order?” It was the first time Baxter could remember intentionally leaving off the word “sir” at the end of a question addressed to Dorn. Maybe taking this job had been a mistake after all.

“You’re going to find it for me, Stewart, and you’re going to find it for me quickly.” Dorn raised an eyebrow as he stared steadily at Baxter. “If you don’t, I’ll fire you.” He pointed at his chief of staff. “One way or the other I will crush Red Cell Seven. Do you understand me?”

“R
OGER AND
I shouldn’t have cut you loose the way we did, Shane. I’m sorry for that.”

Maddux nodded. “I’m glad to hear you say that, Bill, very glad. But why’d you do it? Why’d you tell the president I was behind the assassination attempt?” Maddux had explained to Bill his connection to Stewart Baxter, and therefore how he knew what Bill had divulged to Dorn. “I understand the cover story internally, for the rest of Red Cell Seven, but why give me away to the president? Why make me public enemy number one in the Oval Office?”

“When Roger found out you were the one behind sailing those LNG tankers at Boston and Virginia, he lost it. In the forty years I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him that angry before at anyone. He hated it that you’d gone outside the chain of command. He felt you’d put Red Cell Seven in a terrible position. And he believed that killing half a million people to make a point was wrong, even if your intention was strategically correct. He felt we had to cut you loose, because if it ever came out that you were the one behind those plots, RCS might have been finished despite Nixon’s Executive Order. He figured the chief justice of the United States might not care about an Executive Order at that point. But he thought if we could prove you’d gone rogue, we’d be okay.” Bill paused. “Red Cell Seven and the safety of the United States was everything to him, Shane. I think you were second, even in front of Nancy on some level. But it was a distant second.”

“I know. And it should have been that way. For us, loyalty to country must come before any personal fidelity. But why did
you
give me away to Dorn?” Maddux asked.

“I had to trade something sensitive in order to smoke the president out. He was making all this noise about getting behind Red Cell Seven. I was trying to build a bridge to get at the truth. The same way you were doing with Stewart Baxter. As it turns out, we were right for trying to assassinate Dorn. He was lying about his change of heart. He really
was
trying to shut down RCS. As far as I know, he still is.”

“Fine. But you had people looking for me,” Maddux said. “You had agents who were ordered to shoot me on sight. You weren’t just trading information. You were trying to eliminate me.”

Bill swallowed hard. For all he knew, Maddux was considering the ultimate punishment here. Admitting that he’d put agents on Maddux’s trail might hammer that last nail in the coffin and push Maddux over the edge. On the other hand, Maddux respected the truth.

“Did you really think they’d find me?” Maddux demanded.

“No.” It seemed like the thing to say. And they probably wouldn’t have. “What happened to Roger?” Bill asked quickly, trying to change the subject.

“I killed him. Then I drove his body back to Georgetown.” Maddux’s eyes narrowed to slits. “Did Dorn have Roger’s wife killed?”

“I don’t know for sure. All I do know is that Nancy’s still missing, and I doubt she’ll ever be found.”

“Bastard,” Maddux whispered. “That’s as good a reason as any to try again.”

Bill understood exactly what Maddux meant by that. He wanted to try again to assassinate Dorn. “What now, Shane? Where do we go from here?”

“You take Roger’s place,” Maddux said firmly. “You’re the natural choice to become the next leader of Red Cell Seven. And I become RCS’s Number Two.” He laughed softly. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to kill you.” He laughed a little louder. “Not yet, anyway.”

A wave of relief surged through Bill’s body. Not until now did he realize how much he’d been worried about exactly that possibility. “We’ve never had a Number Two before.”

“Well, we do now.” Maddux gestured at Bill. “You’ll have to resign from First Manhattan. You won’t have time to lead it and RCS. Besides, you basically have to go underground at this point. Dorn and Baxter will be trying to find you. They know we’ll be coming after them, so they’ll try to get us first. Us and the Order,” Maddux added. “Bottom line, you would have had to resign from First Manhattan anyway. They would have made certain of that, I’m sure.”

Maddux was probably right, Bill figured ruefully. “Have you spoken to Baxter again?”

“Only long enough to tell him that I have the Executive Order and that he and Dorn will never get it.”

Another wave of relief rolled through Bill. “Thank God,” he whispered. Maddux wouldn’t lie about having the Order.

“I want this to work,” Maddux said evenly. “We’ve had our differences, Bill, but I think we’re the only ones who can completely trust each other in the long run. Now, anyway. I think we finally get each other.”

Strangely, Bill understood exactly what Maddux meant.

“The safety and security of the United States is the most important thing to both of us,” Maddux continued. “Not many men can say that and truly mean it.”

“It’s true,” Bill agreed. “So what do we do with the last Executive Order, Shane? The physical document, I mean. Dorn will be using every means available to him to find it. If he does, he’ll have the ability to destroy us.”

“I’ll keep it,” Maddux said firmly.

“I’ll need to know where it is.”

Maddux nodded. “Okay, but only on one condition.”

“What?”

Maddux pushed open the metal door of the cell they were standing in front of. Its rusty hinges squeaked. “You prove to me you’re strong enough to be the leader of Red Cell Seven.”

“How?” Bill asked, following Maddux inside the cell. “What do I have to do?”

“This is Kaashif,” Maddux said, pointing at the young man who was hanging from the ceiling of the stone-walled room by his wrists.

“This is the one?”

“Yes,” Maddux confirmed.

Bill and Kaashif stared at each other for several moments before Bill finally spoke up. “We stopped you, you little bastard, you and all of those people who worked for you. They’re all in custody or dead now. I want you to know that.”

“There are more,” Kaashif replied, “many more. There will always be more. I want
you
to know
that
.”

Maddux pulled out the Winchester pistol he’d shot Karen with. “I want you to carry out Kaashif’s execution,” he said, holding the gun out for Bill, handle first. “The sentence has been passed. He must die.”

Bill gazed down at the gun for a long time. Finally, he reached out, took it from Maddux, pressed the barrel to Kaashif’s head as the young man began to scream—and fired. “There,” he said calmly when it was over and Kaashif hung limply from the rope.

Maddux nodded appreciatively. “I need to ask you one more question.”

“Go.”

“What did you think about me sailing those LNG tankers at Boston and Virginia?”

I think you were out of your mind.
“I understood.” Of course there was no way he could say what he was thinking. That would have been suicide. “It was a great act of patriotism.” He had to play the game.

Maddux nodded again. “Good. Now we get to work.” He glanced at Kaashif then back at Bill. “I have information that indicates that there is a plot in process that will make the Holiday Mall Attacks seem minor. Obviously, we need to get on it.”

Bill shut his eyes tightly. Would the bloodshed never end?