available to them, including satellites. Satellites were hard to beat. But there were ways to do so. They could only spy on what they could see. And sometimes what they thought they were seeing wasn’t what it really was.
He checked his watch. As good a time as any. They were really going to have to hustle now.
He didn’t go back to his car. He took an escalator down to the Metro.
He was instantly surrounded by a horde of commuters scrambling to make trains. He wedged in with a group trying to board the train just entering the station. He got on and dropped his bags, which caused a scrum at the entrance to the train.
A voice announced that the train doors were closing. Robie kept walking, down the aisle of the train car. He looked back as he reached the end of the car. Two men were fighting their way onto the car by forcibly pushing the scrum out of the way.
Robie didn’t know them. But he did know what they were.
They were his tail. The signs were unmistakable.
Right before the doors closed, Robie stepped out of the other door.
The train slid away from the station while Robie walked to the exit, invisible within a wall of other travelers.
He didn’t go up the escalator. He slipped through a door that was nearly hidden in the wall. It led to a maintenance area.
Robie ran into two men in the hall inside this area. When they asked him what he was doing there, he flashed his creds and asked for the nearest exit. They told him and he was through it in under a minute.
He flipped his jacket inside out, turning his brown jacket blue. He slipped a ball cap from his pocket and put that on. Sunglasses covered his face.
He hit the street, found a cabstand, and within twenty minutes was on his way out of the city.
He got out of the cab well short of his destination. He walked the rest of the way.
The shoe repair shop was in a blighted area of run-down homes and businesses. The bell tinkled when Robie opened the door. It automatically closed behind him.
He paused, took off his hat and glasses, and looked around. It contained everything that one would expect to see in a shoe repair shop. The only difference was that the gent who owned it did not count on resoling shoes for all of his daily bread.
The man came out from behind a curtain set in a doorway behind the counter. “Can I help—” When he saw Robie he stopped.
Robie came forward and put his hands on the counter. “Yeah, I hope you can help me, Arnie.”
The man was in his fifties with gray hair, a trim beard, and ears that stuck out. He automatically looked over Robie’s shoulder. Robie shook his head. “Just me.”
“You never know,” said Arnie.
“You never know,” agreed Robie.
“You working?” asked Arnie.
“Something different.”
“Gelder?”
Robie nodded. “Could use some help.”
“I’m mostly retired.”
“That’s mostly a lie.”
“What do you need?”
“Jessica Reel,” answered Robie.
“Haven’t heard that name in a while.”
“That status might change. Who were her contacts?”
“Inside you should know, you’re still with the agency,” said Arnie.
“I don’t mean inside.”
Arnie ran a hand along his chin. “Reel is good at what she does. Maybe as good as you.”
“Maybe better.”
“What’s this about?”
“She’s in a bit of a jam. Maybe I can help her.”
“You two worked together,” noted Arnie.
“A long time ago. I’d like to find her.”
“And do what?”
“My job.”
Arnie shook his head. “I’m not going to help you kill her, if that’s what this is about.”
“What this is about, Arnie, is making sure this country is secure. I thought that was the only thing this was about.”
“I haven’t seen her in a long time.”
“But her contacts?”
“You swear to me that you want to help her?” said Arnie.
“If I did swear would you believe me?”
“You have the rep of a straight shooter, Robie. And I’m not just talking at the end of a rifle. But you level with me, maybe I can help you. Those are my terms. If you don’t like them and you don’t have shoes that need repair I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
Robie thought this over and decided he didn’t really have a choice. “They think Reel killed Gelder and another operative.”
“Bullshit.”
“Actually, I think she did kill them. But it’s not that simple. Something is going on, Arnie. Something internally that stinks to high heaven. I knew Reel. I trusted her with my life.”
Arnie said, “But if she killed the number two?”
“And in the interest of full disclosure I’ve been tasked to get her.”
“But you’re having doubts?”
“If I weren’t I wouldn’t be here,” replied Robie.
The two men stared at each other across the width of the scarred and stained countertop. It seemed to Robie that Arnie was trying to assess, as best he could, his sincerity. And Robie couldn’t blame him. Sincerity in this business was hard to come by. When you found it you were almost always surprised at your good fortune.
“You might be in luck,” said Arnie.
“Why’s that?”
“It’s a small world I operate in. Not too many players in that world. I won’t say we have reunions, but we do keep in touch. One of us needs help, we call in chits or sometimes we do favors for one another, hoping when the time comes you get a favor in return.”
Robie said, “And how does that help me?”
Arnie said, “Got a call, from another person who does what I do. No names, but he knows Reel. And maybe he just had recent contact with her.”
“What did she want from your friend?”
“A document and an address.”
“What sort of document and whose address?” asked Robie.
“Not sure. I actually couldn’t help him. But I referred him to someone who I thought could.”
“Again, Arnie, I’m not seeing any daylight here for me.”
“There was a name attached to the address.”
“What was the name?”
“Roy West.”
“Who is he?” asked Robie.
“He was with the agency. Small fry, but Reel was interested in him. Interested enough to take a risk in contacting my friend. If she did kill Gelder, they would be putting markers on her known circle.”
“Any idea why Reel is interested in West?”
“No. But the request was pretty urgent.”
“Do you think your other friend was successful in getting this document for her?”
Arnie shook his head. “No way of telling. And don’t bother to ask me to do the same for you. The friend does a favor maybe once every five years. He’s gone back underground. No way to reach him.”
Robie scrutinized the other man. Part of him thought this was bullshit, but part of him thought it actually made sense. Clandestine folks were not exactly retail vendors. Their shops were not open just because you wanted them to be.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to track West and this document down another way.”
“West is in Arkansas.”
“How do you know that?”
“I couldn’t help with the document, but I get a name, I get curious. I checked him out.” Arnie pulled out a pair of glasses and put them on. He turned to his computer, which sat on the counter, hit some keys, and a piece of paper fell into the printer tray. He pushed it across to Robie, who didn’t glance at it before slipping it into his pocket.
“It’s not an address, it’s directions. Complicated ones from what I could see. Just that kind of a place, I guess.”
“I appreciate this,” said Robie.
“I won’t appreciate you,
if you’ve been bullshitting me. Reel goes down at your hand, don’t ever come back here.”
“I take it you like her?”
“If she killed them I know one thing. She had a damn good reason.”
“Let’s hope you’re right.”
Robie left and grabbed another cab for the next leg of his journey. It dropped him off two miles from his destination. He hoofed it the rest of the way.
The woods were on his right. He ducked down the gravel drive that cut between the trees and accelerated his pace. The house was a mile back.
His hideaway. His safe haven that the agency didn’t know about.
But Julie knew where it was. So did Nicole Vance. But that was it.
Robie actually regretted their knowing about it, but there was nothing he could do about that now.
He disarmed the security system, ran upstairs, packed a bag, and went out to the old barn next to the house. He unlocked the door and slipped inside. In the single bay of the barn was a pickup truck. It was fully gassed.
Robie pushed aside the hay that covered the floor, revealing a square panel of wood. He lifted this up and hurried down the exposed set of stairs.
He had not built this room under the barn. The farmer who owned it originally had done so back in the fifties, no doubt hoping that a veneer of wood and hay would somehow protect him against a Soviet thermonuclear strike. Go figure.
Robie had stumbled onto it by accident one day while looking through the barn after buying the property under an alias. He had outfitted it with things that he might need from time to time. This was one of those times.
He packed the gear in a large duffel and slid it into the bed of the pickup truck, which had a locking cover. He opened the barn door, drove the truck out, and locked the barn door. He drove out onto the main road and hit the gas.
He hoped for many things from this trip. Most of all he hoped he would run into Jessica Reel. And if he did, he hoped he was ready for whatever she threw at him.
CHAPTER
38
THE OLD WOMAN SHUFFLED THROUGH the security line at the airport. She was tall and thin, her hands covered in age spots. Her back was bent and she seemed to be in pain with each step. Her hair was white and cut short. She stared at the floor as she passed through the magnetometer without it making a beep.
She recovered her bag and kept shuffling.
She rode in coach in a window seat. She stared out the window and didn’t engage in conversation with the passenger sitting next to her. The flight was smooth, the landing unremarkable.
When they arrived the sun was shining and the sky clear. It was a welcome change from wet and cold D.C.
She deplaned and shuffled to a restroom.
Twenty minutes later she reappeared, younger and straighter, and she no longer shuffled. Her disguise was carefully packed away in her carry-on.
She had one bag to claim at baggage. It was a large roller bag, and inside were two metal boxes, both locked tight.
One held two different sets of ammo.
The other held her Glock.
She had lawfully declared it at check-in in her old-lady disguise.
The airline personnel at check-in had merely assumed she was an old woman who liked to protect herself.
There were also a lot of plastic parts and other pieces of metal and springs strewn throughout the nooks and crannies of her luggage.
She picked up her bag and rolled it to a car rental counter. Twenty minutes later Jessica Reel was driving out of the airport in a black Ford Explorer.
Her Glock was in a belt holster, fully loaded and ready to go.
She hoped not to have to use it. Or the other weapon she had brought.
Most of the time those hopes were not realized.
She had perhaps a dozen disguises that her former employers were completely unaware of. She had made certain it stayed that way even when she was working for them. She was not a trusting person—particularly with an employer who would disavow all connection to her if she failed on a mission.
She found the right road and headed west. It was not a populous area. It became even less inhabited with every mile she drove. Following the GPS, she turned off the main road, and ten miles of curves and switchbacks later the GPS failed her. Fortunately she had manually mapped this area previously, and in her mind’s eye she followed the turns on her internal compass until she was about a mile from her destination.
She passed the turnoff she would later take and kept going.
It was time to do some necessary recon.
She followed the road around and then saw another turnoff, which she took. She rode it up as far as she needed to. She had to engage her four-wheel drive to do so, but she came away satisfied. She retraced her route and took the turnoff she had earlier passed. She drove up the dirt and gravel road for about three-quarters of a mile and then stopped.
This was as far as she would go by car. The rest would be on foot.
She opened her luggage and took out all the pieces of plastic and metal and springs. Some pieces were fairly large, others small.
She laid out all the items in the cargo area of the Ford. Her fingers moving with dexterity and precision, she assembled the MP5 submachine gun in a very short time.
She attached the box mag containing thirty-two rounds to the subgun and lifted the strap over her head so the weapon rested comfortably in front of her. She covered up the gun with a long leather duster that reached nearly to her ankles. She put on a cowboy hat pulled low, sunglasses, and gloves.
She could be the female version of a gunslinger going to do battle in the street.
She stared ahead of her, studying the topography, then she started walking. Her pace was unhurried, her gaze swiveling in all directions. Up and down. Side to side. And behind her, all the while listening for any sound that would herald a threat.
She covered the quarter mile, cleared a bend in the road, and stopped. She looked right and left and once more behind her.
She moved forward another fifty feet and then squatted down, took in the lay of the land. Potential threat points were numerous and all fully visible to her.
The house was really a cabin. Felled logs shaved down, their ends tapered, the filling in between solid and new-looking. The door was a sturdy piece of wood. She assumed it would have multiple locks and probably a security system.
No electrical lines out this far. Her gaze swiveled and she saw the diesel generator. But it wasn’t on. It was a backup, clearly.
So where was the primary power?
She drifted to her right to get a better look behind the cabin.
That’s when she saw where a large field of solar panels was arrayed. That was overkill, she thought. Enough energy to power a place ten times this size. There would be underground lines taking the power to the cabin.
To the left of the cabin and fifty yards back was a barn. Solar probably fed that too.
Totally off the grid. Makes sense.
Reel didn’t think there were cows or horses in that barn.