Stone Cold (32 page)

CHAPTER 90

F
OR THE NEXT TWO HOURS
, Stone and Finn choreographed what would happen later that night. Finn was highly experienced when it came to work like this, but he finally had to admit to himself that when it came to killing other people while putting oneself in the best possible position to survive, Oliver Stone was his clear superior.

And then they were as ready as they were going to be. Stone made the call to Gray and then they both took up their positions and waited. Stone knew that Gray would send in an advance guard to recon the place. Sure enough, two hours later, men came sniffing and poking around, with the security guards out front no doubt either tied up or suitably intimidated by the men’s badges.

Then the man himself appeared. Carter Gray was looking chunkier than usual. From his sniper’s post Stone instantly discerned why: body armor. That didn’t bother Stone in the slightest since, as he’d told Finn, he always aimed for the head. People couldn’t survive without a brain. Although it did seem that more than a few people in Washington managed to do so quite nicely.

Next to Gray was a man pushing a hand truck with a bag on it. He unzipped the bag and helped the boy out. David Finn was blindfolded and had sound mufflers over his ears. Wobbling, he stood next to Gray, who looked around the vast interior of the uncompleted Great Hall.

“Well,” Gray said to the emptiness. “We’re here.”

Harry Finn walked out into the room, a gagged Simpson in hand. “Give me the boy.”

Gray looked mildly annoyed at being talked to in such a manner. “Harry Finn, Lesya and Rayfield’s son. You take after your mother more than your father.”

“Let me have my son!”

“Where are the orders? And where is my recording?”

Finn pulled a set of papers and a cell phone from his jacket pocket. He held them up. “I want David next to me.”

Finn pushed Simpson toward Gray. The senator jogged the last few steps. When he reached Gray the intelligence chief immediately had the gag and hand bindings removed.

The guard pushed David toward his father. Finn hugged his son. “It’s okay, Davey, I’ve got you.” He took off the blindfold and sound mufflers.

“Dad!” David said in a trembling voice as he squeezed his father tightly.

Gray held out his hand. “Give them to me. Now!”

Finn tossed the items to him. Gray looked at the orders. “It’s hard to believe these have survived all these years.”

“Lots of things have survived all these years, including my mother,” Finn said as he edged David behind him. He could sense everyone’s fingers edging toward triggers.

Gray listened to the recording on the cell phone, then handed it to a man next to him, who placed it in a small electronic device and played it again. He read off the result displayed on an LED screen on the side of the device. “It’s the original, copied once.”

Stone had given one copy to Gray previously.

Gray smiled, pocketed the cell phone and looked at Finn. “And how is your mother?”

“A widow, thanks to you.”

Gray looked around. “John, I know you’re out there. Perhaps you have your little ragtag regiment with you. But just so you understand the playing field, I have this place surrounded and sealed shut. And it has been placed off-limits to the police, FBI, Secret Service and anyone else you might be counting on. I’m sure you know there is a mock terrorist attack going on outside right now. That’s probably why you selected this place tonight. You no doubt hoped it would help you to escape. But what it does, instead, is ensure that if there is any shooting in here, no one outside will hear it, or if they do, they won’t bother to investigate.”

As they listened, the sounds of staged sirens, gunfire and bombs exploding, all part of the drill, reached them.

Gray glanced back at Finn. “And you might want to thank this young man, John. He killed Bingham, Cincetti and Cole. You have no way of knowing this, but it was your three former colleagues who were part of the team sent to kill you. They missed, of course, but they did get your wife. Cole claimed he was the one who killed her, but Bingham disputed that. They actually volunteered for the job. I guess you weren’t too popular with them.”

Only silence greeted this verbal right cross from Gray.

Gray waited a moment and then added, “You also might want to see who else I stumbled on while I was on my way here.”

CHAPTER 91

F
INN
’
S HEART SANK
as he saw Milton being marched in between two of Gray’s men.

From behind the concrete parapet on the balcony Stone’s finger eased near the trigger of his rifle. He could take both men out before they could harm Milton. The only problem was he didn’t know where the rest of Gray’s strike team was. He needed to flush them out.

Finn said quietly, “I think that concludes the exchange.”

Gray shook his head. “Actually, Harry, it’s just starting.”

He nodded to his men as he backed out with Simpson. When they reached safety, Simpson called out, “By the way, John, I was the one who ordered the hit on you. No one leaves Triple Six voluntarily. My only regret was we didn’t get you then. But good things come to those who wait.”

From the balcony Stone stared down at the spot where Simpson was speaking from. The senator was smart enough to have put a thick wall between them. For an instant Stone’s mind went blank, then everything clicked back on. He had a job to do and nothing Simpson could say would interfere with that. He raced over to a large powered winch they’d set up earlier.

On cue, Finn grabbed his son and flung him down, pulling a gun from his waistband and shielding David with his body. The next instant a large object dropped from the rafters. It was a heavy Jersey wall they’d hoisted up earlier. Stone had just let it go and hustled back to his shooting position.

The barrier hit its mark perfectly, landing a foot in front of Finn and his son. The impact nearly broke it in half but they immediately took cover behind it.

Gray’s two men took aim at Milton, the easiest target. Before their fingers could squeeze the triggers, two rounds from Stone’s weapon fired a second apart killed them.

Next to Stone was a long electrical cord attached to a power strip. He hit a button and the entire room went black.

Stone raced down from the balcony. He had memorized the number of steps and turns, so the darkness didn’t slow him much. He dropped on top of a flat roller that they’d found in a storage room, the kind that mechanics use to glide under cars. He slid across the floor of the Great Hall, heading toward Milton. The original plan had been to get Finn and his son out this way. But Milton was in the most immediate danger.

He called out, “Finn! Cover!”

Finn immediately started laying down fire.

As he rolled along, Stone blinked rapidly, making his eyes adjust to the absence of light. He hit one dead body, his fingers snagging the NV goggles off the dead man’s belt. As he put them on he said, “Milton!”

“Over here,” Milton answered weakly.

Stone powered on the goggles and looked to his right. Milton was lying there, his hands over his head. The other dead man had fallen on top of him.

Stone asked, “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

Stone pulled the body off his friend and, “double-decking” on the roller, they slid across the room toward the stairs to the balcony while Finn emptied two clips from his pistol to cover their escape.

Stone said to Milton, “I’m taking you to Annabelle. She, you and David will get out via a duct that leads to the Capitol. It’ll be a tight fit, but you can make it.”

“Oliver, I can’t go out that way.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve got claustrophobia.”

Stone sighed. “All right, then you can leave with me.”

“No tight places,” Milton said nervously.

“It’s all tight places in here, Milton,” Stone snapped. “Did you see how many men Gray brought with him?”

“A dozen.”

“Then he has ten left.”

Stone knew that the next part of their escape involved running through quite a bit of open space. Gray’s men were certainly watching for any sign of them through their NV goggles. Stone was actually counting on that. The goggles were wonderful tools, but they had one Achilles’ heel.

Stone pulled off his goggles, tensed and then hit the button on the power strip again. Lights blazed on all over. He heard voices calling out in pain. Gray’s men. When bright lights came on and you were caught wearing your NV goggles, the result was you wouldn’t be seeing anything except hot stars for at least a minute.

He and Milton ran for it.

No sooner had they gotten behind cover than Gray’s men recovered and opened up with overwhelming firepower. Stone left Milton and raced off again. Finn and his son were still behind the barrier, pinned down by fire. Stone grabbed the motorized hand truck full of commercial HVAC equipment and made his way to Finn and David. The bullets fired by Gray’s men bounced off the heavy metal.

With this shield they made their way back to relative safety and collected Milton. They sprinted down the hall and through a series of doors, handing a terrified David off to Annabelle.

Annabelle saw Milton and said, “My God, what are you doing here?”

“Long story and no time to tell it,” Stone said. “You and David can get out through the ducts. Milton will come with us.”

Finn hugged his crying son, who kept his arms tightly around his father.

Finally Finn eased the boy off and told David he had to go with Annabelle. “You have to help your mom,” he said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Dad, they’re going to kill you. They’re going to.”

“I’ve been in tougher spots than this, believe me,” Finn said, managing a smile.

Annabelle looked at Stone, took his hand and squeezed it. “Don’t die, Oliver. Please don’t die.”

They helped her and David into the duct. Finn led Stone and Milton to another tunnel paralleling the one they had been in. It had been put in in case construction workers had to evacuate the place and they couldn’t get out for some reason through the visitor center’s exit.

They came to a stop at a secured door. Stone shot the lock off, and Finn opened the door, revealing a long passageway.

“That’ll take us to the Jefferson Building,” Finn said.

Stone nodded. “Caleb told me how to get out of the Jefferson without anyone seeing us. Harry, you go first, Milton in the middle and I’ll bring up the rear.”

Milton peered down the long, dark corridor. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

“As safe as—”

Stone never knew where the shot came from. He barely heard it. He never saw Finn raise his gun and fire. He never saw the sniper fall.

All he saw was the look on Milton’s face. The eyes widened slightly, as though he was only mildly surprised. Then he dropped to his knees, still looking up at Stone. The blood started dripping from his mouth. He only said one word: “Oliver?”

Then Milton Farb dropped face-first to the hard floor, his body twitched once and he lay still, the large hole dead center of his back oozing red.

Stone had seen many wounds just like that one, all of them fatal.

Milton was dead.

Finn stared down at the body. “My God.”

Stone knelt down, lifted his friend’s body up, carried it over to a corner and placed him gently down. He closed the blank eyes and put the small, slender hands over the still chest. Then he rose, clenched his weapon and walked past Finn without a word. He wasn’t heading toward safety. He was heading back to the visitor center.

Harry Finn eyed the door to the Jefferson Building and freedom. His son was safe. He could join him in a short time if he left now. This wasn’t his fight anymore. John Carr had killed his father. What did he owe the man?

Everything. He saved me, my mother and my son. I owe him everything.

He gripped his gun and raced after Oliver Stone.

CHAPTER 92

I
T WASN
’
T MILD
-
MANNERED
, middle-aged cemetery caretaker Oliver Stone who strode out into battle that night. It was a killing machine called John Carr, thirty years younger, with all the skills and ferocity of a lifetime spent ending other people’s lives in ways unimaginable to most people. He used every one of those skills that night. And yet there seemed a greater power at work. Bullets that should have ended his life numerous times missed by less than an inch. Disaster that should have struck never did. Maybe it was finally his time for justice. He only thought about that later. Tonight, he just killed. And the unfinished visitor center ran red with blood. Finn had killed only one more man. Stone had finished off the other six, two with shots that Finn had never seen anyone make before. He still couldn’t fathom how Stone had done it. It seemed the man had simply willed the bullets to find their marks.

To Stone, there was another explanation as to how he had survived. Undoubtedly, Gray’s men were younger, stronger, faster, superbly trained. These days they always had overpowering force before they attacked. They had killed thousands of times—in practice.

It was altogether different when one did it for real. And counting Vietnam, Stone had probably killed more people than all of Gray’s men combined. And he had never had overpowering force. He had often only had himself. That just made you better than the other guy.

When the last man had dropped, Finn and Stone left via the emergency exit, reaching the Jefferson Building and leaving from there as Caleb had told them. An anguished Stone carried Milton’s body over his shoulder. While he waited behind some bushes with the body, Finn managed to sneak out and snare a spare EMT uniform from a body recovery truck stationed near the epicenter of the mock terrorist attack. Next he spotted an ambulance that was parked near the library with the keys still in the ignition. A few minutes later Milton’s body was loaded into the ambulance by Stone and Finn on a gurney, a sheet placed over his face. With all the chaos going on everywhere around them, no one could tell a fake corpse from a real one. With Stone riding in the back, Finn drove away, the ambulance lights flashing.

Finn glanced in the rearview mirror. Stone was sitting next to his friend, his head hanging down. He had not escaped the battle unscathed. A bullet had sliced through his right arm, leaving a bloody gash. Another had left a crease on the left side of his head. The man took no notice of them. Finn had had to bandage them up using gauze and tape from the ambulance’s supplies while Stone had just stared down at his dead friend.

Stone lifted the sheet, took Milton’s still warm hand in his and squeezed it. He started mouthing words that Finn could not hear clearly, but he instinctively knew what the man was saying.

“I’m sorry, Milton. I am so sorry.”

A tear trickled down from Stone’s weathered face and dropped onto the sheet.

Finn didn’t want to break into this very private moment but he had no choice. “Where do you want to take Milton?”

“Home. We’re taking him home, Harry.”

Leaving the ambulance about three blocks from the house, they carried Milton’s body through the woods at the rear of his neighborhood. Stone placed him gently in his bed and turned to Finn.

“Give me a minute.”

Finn nodded and respectfully withdrew from the room.

Stone was a man who had suffered more heartbreak in life than any human being should have to. He had done so stoically, trying to look ahead rather than focusing on the past. Yet as he gazed down at his friend’s body, every memory of every personal tragedy in his life came charging at him from the darkness.

And for one of the very few times in his life, Oliver Stone sobbed without restraint. He cried so hard his knees buckled and he ended up on the floor, his body curled tight like a child in distress, suffering the anguish of a million nightmares that had collected inside him all these decades, nightmares that had suddenly been released, like the crush of water over a collapsed dam.

Thirty minutes later he had no more tears left to shed. Stone rose and touched his friend’s face with his hand. “Good-bye, Milton.”