The Tower (1999) (14 page)

McGuire stood to leave.

"His parents live in San Jose. Have you set up twenty-four-hour surveillance on them?" Jade asked.

"The minute we heard about the break," Travers said. McGuire sat back down. "But we'd like you to go down and talk to them."

"Obviously. I'll go later. I'm heading to the Tower after this meeting."

"Well, we'll certainly miss your company at lunch. Mr. Marlow, you have--"

"Excuse me. It's ex-Agent Marlow."

"Oh for fuck's sake!" McGuire yelled, pivoting around in his chair. "You two stop it. We don't have time for this shit. See them tomorrow. I thought Trav--"

"Thanks, I'll go alone," Jade interrupted.

After a moment of icy silence, Travers continued. "Mr. Marlow, you have the manuscripts and tapes from the prison's psychiatric department to study. Unfortunately, we can't get access to reports from any private psychologists Atlasia may have seen before he was imprisoned."

"We'll see about that," Jade said.

"Did he have any relationships with other prisoners who may currently be free?" Fredericks asked.

"None of any significance," Travers and Jade replied at the same time. They glanced at each other.

Travers continued, "There are very few prisoners who have received parole from the kinds of jails Atlasia has been in for the last six years. The few who have been paroled didn't overlap with him very much at all."

Jade paused and ran his thumb across his bottom lip. "This kid's a reject. He had no visitors at Maingate or at the two jails before that. No friends, no family, nothing. He spent half his time in solitary. Clearly, he doesn't like people much."

"Funny, ex-Agent Marlow," Travers said, "that's just what some people would say about you."

Chapter
21

T H E first briefing had gone well, Jade thought. The agents seemed willing to give him access to the materials he needed. In the past, whenever they'd hired him, the FBI had tried to exert control, but evidently he had earned their trust.

For much of the ride to Maingate, Jade thought about Agent Travers. He found her severity amusing, and once he got out on the highway, he actually laughed out loud. His laugh came in three descendent atonal notes. He didn't laugh much, but when he did, it was always the same. Travers had a quick mouth and a caustic wit that rivaled his own. And clearly, she could get extremely pissed off in a hurry. A few times, Jade had seen her clamp down her teeth to hold her temper inside.

Maingate was in disarray when he arrived. Men with equipment ran back and forth through the front gates, barking instructions. Trucks drove down to the shore where there were several large cranes. Two guards armed with Win Mag .300s paced the top of a small guard tower. Extra prison-security officers oversaw the operations, their bright-blue jackets standing out against the colorless prison.

Jade glanced at the Tower and saw men scurrying over it like ants. A black security guard ran by him, yelling into his walkie-talkie. Jade reached out and touched him softly on the arm.

"What?" he asked.

"I'm looking for Walker Banks."

"That's good to know."

"I'm Jade Marlow."

"Oh shit. Damn. Sorry. Warden's tied up right now on the Tower. We'll have to run you out on a boat."

Four more security guards walked by briskly, their sleeves whistling against their sides. "What's all the panic?" Jade asked.

"Looks like we're evacuating the prisoners. Too much activity. Trucks and equipment all coming and going."

Two white buses with thick bars across the windows pulled in. "Looks like a big operation," Jade said. "You moving 'em in small groups?"

The guard smiled. "Just ten at a time. We got over two hundred men to clear out of here. Not exactly juvenile delinquents, either. It's a big job." He looked over at Jade. "Even for you, I'd imagine."

"I'd imagine," Jade said dryly.

A sudden blast sent Jade into an instinctive crouch, his pistol drawn and at the ready.

"Hey, relax, man," the guard said. "They're just blasting out some of the rock to get the cranes through."

The ride out to the Tower was bumpier than Jade had thought it would be. The speedboat flicked over the water's surface like a skipped rock, and by the time they reached the ladder leading up the Tower, his clothes were soaked.

The guard pulled in close, and Jade had to make the transition from the boat straight to the steel ladder. There was no true dock, only a thick rubber strip for the boat to bump against. Jade clung to the ladder as the boat sped away. He felt very alone hanging above the ocean on two steel rails. For the first time, he realized how desolate the Tower really was. He surveyed the water stretching around him, then began the long climb to the top.

The frenzy at Maingate was nothing compared to the activity on top of the Tower. Divers were geared up in wet suits and tanks, dangling their flippers in the water that filled the Hole. An FBI team had been there since shortly after Allander's break was discovered.

Won't do much good, Jade thought. Already know who, what, and when. There was nothing new they'd discover about the scene of the crime--they'd created it. Won't tell them anything about what Allander's doing now.

A short, burly man charged around barking orders. A cigar was wedged in the side of his mouth almost parallel with the line of his molars. Sweat and moisture from the sea air dotted his bald head.

Jade walked over to him, noticing that his soggy cigar had long since gone out. Still, between barking out commands, the man chewed it with vigor.

"Walker Banks," Jade said.

"Marlow. Jesus fuck, what took you?"

"I just got the job seven hours ago."

"What took them?"

"The FBI, Warden. Moving at the speed of bureaucracy."

"No shit. I got a stack of papers on my desk could sink the Titanic."

"The Titanic is sunk."

"My point, Marlow. My point."

One of the divers surfaced, his arms looped underneath those of a corpse.

Walker pulled the cigar out of his mouth and stabbed it at the body. "Mills Benedick. Smells like a Tijuana whore."

Jade grimaced.

"On one of his good days, I mean," Walker said.

Another diver pulled Mills from the Hole by his hairy arms and flopped him on his stomach. Mills's hair stood out against his pale blue flesh. His naked back was humped like a buffalo's.

"Must be fun getting the cells unlocked underwater," Jade said. "Then pulling the bodies up."

"You shoulda seen the first ones, Marlow." Walker circled his head and shoulders with his damp cigar. "Head trauma from the force of the water." He shook his head.

"Look, Warden, I know you're tired--"

"Marlow, the past forty-three hours have been a bigger pain in the ass than hemorrhoids. I got two guards dead. I got sixteen prisoners drowned, one in lockdown, and one on the loose. Not to mention the fact that I'm gonna lose my standing at the Warden Hall of Fame. So yes, I'm fuckin' tired."

He looked over at the divers, who were resting at the side of the Hole. "Move your asses. We got eight more bodies that need to be up before we roll the pumps. I'd like to get home while my wife still recognizes me."

He walked away, speaking to Jade over his shoulder. "We had to bring in outside pumps--the internal ones can't get out from under that much water."

Jade stepped in front of him. "All right, Walker. Give me a quick tour and I'll be out of your hair."

"My hair?" Walker rammed the cigar back in his mouth and placed a thick hand on Jade's shoulder. "Come on, hotshot. Let's peek at the sunken treasures."

He took Jade around the top of the Tower, his voice gruff as he explained guard procedures, equipment use, and prisoner containment mechanisms. In about twenty minutes he had given Jade a full summary of the Tower's operating procedures.

The other workers and guards glanced over at Jade from time to time. Even though he was quietly listening to Walker, Jade had a very loud presence. His eyes were penetrating; they seemed to pick apart the disaster site, noting and filing clues invisible to everyone else.

Walker finally wound up his procedural review and his account of what had happened during Allander's break.

"The survivor. What's his story?"

"Claude Rivers. Typical Boy Scout--mass murderer, postmortem fornication with his mother's headless corpse. We pulled him out safely. He's in lockdown at Maingate, but we're gonna get him back in here as soon as possible."

"Even during evacuation?"

"Peter Briggs's direct orders," Walker said. "Called up in typical fashion, ranting and raving, saying his prison wasn't gonna be shut down by some psychopath, even if it meant keeping the Tower up and running for one prisoner. Don't matter anyways. I'd prefer to have Rivers here. Tower prisoners are a different breed. You might think this place was built for them, but it wasn't. They were built for it." He gazed at Claude's submerged cell. "Won't eat up much manpower, having Rivers back here. One guard could handle it."

"He talk? Rivers?"

"No. Literally. Not a peep since we stuck him in here in '96." Walker groaned, putting his hands on his sides and arching to stretch his back. "There's one thing that's just not sitting right with this, Marlow. How the hell did Allander get Hackett? I came up with Hackett. He could eat scrap metal and shit bullets."

"Must've got him from behind. Swept his legs or took out a knee."

"No, no," Walker replied. "Knee was fine." Using his tongue, he brought his cigar to his front teeth, straining his mouth to breathe around it. "How the hell'd he fool Hackett to get behind him?" he asked himself, looking down at the moist stone.

"Maybe we'll find out from the TV movie," Jade said.

Walker shook his head, then went to the shed to call for a speedboat. Jade followed, waiting as a man rolled another drum of diesel fuel over to the enormous water pump.

A diver came over and met them at the door. He pointed at the levers that controlled the vents. "Warden, I just wanted to let you know that these levers move automatically when the vents open. They could have . . . I mean, something could have pushed the vents open from the outside. Like they could've just given way or something. Are you sure Atlasia did it?"

Walker turned around, rolling his cigar from one side of his mouth to the other. He looked at the diver, then at Jade, then back at the diver. "Did Rose Kennedy have a black dress? The odds of a spontaneous implosion with such impeccable timing are fairly low, I would have to say. Yes, we're sure. Would you not agree, Marlow?"

Jade bit his lip to keep from smiling. "Yes, I would."

The diver blushed, retreating to the Hole.

Walker chomped on his cigar. "You see the shit I've been wading through here? I'm getting screwed six ways from Sunday, Marlow." He sighed deeply. "Problems. We've got problems."

Jade glanced at the flashing red lights above the vent switches. "Well, consider this," he said. "Allander had been locked up for fifteen years. Fifteen. And he took the extra time to come back to the shed just to kill everyone else. He could've been caught, but he risked it. He risked it all. Killed people he didn't even know, just to send a message. You think we've got problems now, Warden? This is just the beginning."

Walker met his stare. A look of recognition passed between the two men.

"How'd he get Greener, Marlow? We got the body parts, we got why he was down there, even how he got cut in half. But how'd the kid get his hands on him?"

Jade ran his thumb across his bottom lip and squinted as he thought. "I bet you'll find one of those metal arms for the food down there," he said. "I'll say Greener's concentration wandered and he hung it too close to Alland--Atlasia's unit."

Walker nodded sharply. "Good man. He's a good man here," he said over his cigar to no one in particular.

A guard called over from across the Hole. "Hey! Docker on the line!"

"Your ride, Marlow. It's here. I'll walk you over."

"I appreciate your time, Warden."

"I appreciate yours. Call me if you need anything else."

Jade swung his leg over the parapet and rested it on the ladder's top rung. "Hey, Banks!" he yelled.

The warden stopped and turned around.

"I'd check for prints underneath the platform. You might be surprised what'll turn up."

Walker snapped his fingers. He stood shifting his cigar around his mouth long after Jade was out of view.

Chapter
22

T H E children finally dozed off, their palms stuck together by their sweat and the duct tape. Since comfort was nowhere to be found, they retreated to the anesthetic of dream. The boy shivered occasionally as his eyelids flickered. His cheeks were a shade of red that normally would have been described as cheerful.

Allander watched the two children sleeping side by side on the bed, tape still covering their eyes. They had found a way to escape their physical bondage, and Allander was proud of them.