in the other direction she gunned it. She reached the end of the street and turned left.
She looked at Robie and then glanced at Julie huddled in the back.
“You both okay? Nobody hurt?”
“We’re okay,” said Robie tersely.
“So tell me what the hell happened.”
Robie said, “Just keep driving.”
CHAPTER
76
ROBIE RODE SHOTGUN and he kept rotating his gaze to look behind and then over at Vance. His gaze was suspicious and his hand gripped the butt of his Glock. That had been unbelievably close. If he hadn’t looked down and seen the dot, Julie would have joined her parents among the dead. It was apparent to Robie that the other side no longer required either or both of them to continue living.
He settled back in his seat, but his posture was rigid, coiled. He did not think the danger was over just yet.
Vance kept her gaze on the road mostly. Every once in a while she would glance at Robie’s gun and then her gaze would travel to his face. When their eyes occasionally met, she would quickly look away.
They had traveled about two miles when she finally spoke.
“You have a particular reason keeping your gun out with the muzzle pointed in my direction?”
“I have about a dozen reasons for it, but you’ve probably thought of them all.”
“I didn’t rat you out, Robie. I’m not the one behind all this.”
“Good to know. I’ll take that into consideration.”
“I can understand why you don’t feel you can trust anyone, including the FBI.”
“Again, good to know.” His voice was flat, dead. Robie didn’t even recognize it as his.
“Where do you want to go?”
He looked at her, his expression inscrutable. “Why don’t you pick a place? We’ll see how it goes.”
“Is this a test?”
“Why shouldn’t it be?”
“Will you guys stop? This is not helping.”
They both glanced in the rearview mirror to see Julie staring at them.
“Someone just set us up while in FBI custody,” said Robie, his voice calm and even. He said again, “So pick a place, Agent Vance. Take us there and we’ll see what happens.”
“How about WFO?”
“How about it?”
“Robie, I’m on your side!”
He glanced out the window. “The guys you called in from out of town?”
“I didn’t call them in. They were called in by others at the Bureau.”
“What others?”
“I don’t know specifically. I put in a request for agents from out of town.” She gave him a hard stare. “At your insistence. They were the ones who were sent.”
“One was killed,” said Robie. “I doubt he came down here to die. So we can rule him out. But someone left the blinds open in the room where Julie was placed.” He looked at her. “Which agent sent you back there?”
Julie said, “The one who came to the door after the shot was fired. I recognized his voice.”
“The one who never came back. The one who killed his partner,” added Robie. “The one who told us to hang tight.” He glanced at Vance. “Just like you told me to. Hang tight.”
Vance slammed the Beemer to a stop in the middle of the road. She turned and faced him.
“Okay, shoot me, then. If you don’t trust me I’m no use to you anyway. So put the gun against my head and pull the damn trigger.”
Robie said, “Histrionics really won’t get you anywhere on this.”
“So what exactly do you want me to do?”
“I already told you. For now, just drive.”
“Where?
“Pick a direction and stick to it.”
“Shit,” Vance muttered in a shaky voice. She put the car in gear and sped off.
She said, “I heard explosions before I turned onto the street. Your doing?”
“I blew up two Bureau cars. Be sure to bill me for that.”
“You blew them up?”
“We needed a diversion,” chimed in Julie. “It was the only way we got out of the house alive.”
Robie sat back in his seat. “So I’ve got traitors in my own organization. Traitors in the FBI. A puzzle I’m not close to solving. And time is running out.”
“So what are you going to do?” Vance asked nervously.
“Regroup and rethink. The three of us are going to stick together. But we need new transportation.”
“What’s wrong with my car?”
“Principally, that people know it’s your car.”
“Are you going to steal another car, Will?” asked Julie.
“Another?” asked Vance in a raised voice.
“He’s really good at it,” added Julie. “Makes it look easy.”
“And I hope you’re just as good at driving,” said Robie to Vance.
“Why?” asked Vance.
He had his gun up and he hit the button to bring his window down.
“Because we have an SUV on our six and it’s coming fast.”
CHAPTER
77
VANCE LOOKED IN the rearview mirror. An SUV, black, big, and gaining on them way too fast. It looked like a bulky jet barreling down the runway just prior to liftoff.
She punched the gas and the Beemer leapt forward.
“Wait a minute,” she exclaimed. “Do you think they’re cops or Feds?”
The shot shattered the Beemer’s rear glass. Julie shrieked and ducked down as the bullet passed between Vance and Robie and cracked the windshield.
“No,” said Robie tersely. “I don’t think they’re cops or Feds.”
Vance cut the wheel to the left and screeched the Beemer into a ninety-degree turn, racing down a side street.
“Well then do something!” she snapped.
He turned, looked at Julie, who was hunkered down in the seat. “Undo your seat belt and get on the floorboard,” he said.
“What if the car wrecks and I don’t have a belt on?” she said.
“I think that’ll be the least of your worries.”
Julie undid her belt and dropped into the space between the front and rear seats.
Robie took aim with his Glock and fired once through the shattered back window. His shot hit the front of the SUV. Robie had aimed to take out the radiator. His shot had hit dead center. He could hear the round ping off.
“Armored,” he said to Vance.
He fired next into the left front tire. The rubber should have shredded. It didn’t.
“Run-flat tires,” said Robie. “Cute. Really cute.”
“If they’re armored we should be able to outrun them,” said Vance.
“Depends on what kind of horsepower they’ve got.”
He fired again, at the windshield. It cracked part of the glass, but the SUV did not slow down.
“Well, at least they’re not perfect,” said Robie.
He saw the gun appear from the passenger-side window. Robie observed instantly that it wasn’t just any gun. If it hit them it would be over.
He grabbed the wheel from Vance and slammed the car into a hard right turn that took it off the road, over the curb, and into someone’s front yard.
A split second later the gun pointing from the SUV roared a dozen automatic times. The rounds missed the Beemer, but behind them the car that was parked nearest the intersection exploded.
The SUV couldn’t make the turn and continued to speed down the road. Then came the screech of brakes and gears reversing.
Robie worked the wheel and the Beemer jumped the curb and landed back on the road. He took his hands off the steering wheel and looked back.
“What the hell was that?” demanded a shaky-looking Vance.
“It’s called a Sledgehammer,” said Robie. “Assault combat shotgun. I recognized it from the big ammo drum. It must’ve ignited the fuel tank on that car back there.”
He pointed up ahead. “Take the next left and then
a right and then hit the gas hard. By the time they get back on our tail we’ll be gone.”
Vance did as he instructed and they were soon alone on a road leading west away from all the shooting. They could hear sirens seemingly coming from all directions.
Julie sat up and buckled her seat belt after wiping shards of automobile glass off the seat and out of her hair.
Robie glanced at her. “You okay?”
She nodded but didn’t say anything.
He looked around. “You left your backpack at the safe house?”
She nodded again.
Vance said, “What changed, Robie?”
He looked at her after easing his gun back into its holster.
“Come again?” he said.
“They didn’t want to kill us before, just scare the shit out of us or intimidate us or who the hell knows what. But now it seems pretty clear they want us gone. So what changed?”
“Could be lots of things,” he answered. “Without knowing the endgame it’s hard to know what makes these folks tick. Or what part any of us play in all of it.”
“So we need to figure out the endgame,” said Vance.
“Easier said than done,” replied Julie.
“What changed?” This time the query came from Robie.
Vance and Julie looked at him. “That’s what I just said,” replied Vance.
He didn’t answer. He just stared straight ahead.
He would’ve smiled, only he didn’t because it might lead to nothing.
But finally, finally Robie might have something.
CHAPTER
78
ROBIE DIRECTED VANCE to his hideaway farmhouse. At his demand she had turned off the GPS chip in her phone. Vance had called in to her supervisor on the drive over and reported what had happened. One FBI agent was dead on the scene, the man Robie and Julie had seen. The other agent was nowhere to be found. In fact, the Bureau could not confirm that he was in fact the agent that had been sent to Virginia to protect Julie.
Vance dropped the phone into her lap with a grimace of disgust. “Dammit! Get the little shit right and the big shit doesn’t happen.”
“You have to go off grid,” said Robie. “You okay with that?”
“Does that mean you actually trust me?”
“They were willing to kill you back there too.”
“I have no problem going off grid so long as there’s a plan.”
“It’s evolving. But I need some information.”
“What kind?”
He looked at Julie, who sat in the backseat staring at him.
“What changed was Julie came up with the right answer.”
“What answer?” Julie asked.
“It was a timing issue, really. As soon as you said it the red dot appeared on your chest. That’s when we both might’ve become expendable.”
Vance looked at Julie. “What did you say?”
She said, “That my dad and Mr. Broome and Rick Wind were part of a squad. And a squad has nine or ten soldiers in it. So maybe they talked to someone else in the squad. And that’s where all this started. I mean, if the three of them kept in touch, maybe some others did too.”
Robie nodded and looked at Vance. “So the safe house wasn’t just unsafe. It was also bugged. They could hear everything we were saying. And the second Julie said that, the dot appeared.”
Vance said, “You really think that might be it? The other members of the squad?”
“I think we need to find out whether it is or isn’t, and we need to do it fast.”
“You can get that info pretty quickly from DCIS.”
“I could. But since DCIS has been infiltrated I don’t want to tip my hand.”
Vance slumped back as she drove and thought about this. “And the Bureau might have been infiltrated too.”
“Might have been!” exclaimed Julie. “What part of tonight did you miss super agent Vance?”
Vance grimaced. “Okay, was infiltrated.” She looked at Robie. “So what do we do?”
“I know someone who might be able to help,” he said. “An old friend.”
“You sure you can trust this person?”
“He’s earned that trust.”
“Okay.”
“But I have to leave you to go see him,” said Robie.
“Do you think it’s a good idea to split up?” asked Vance nervously.
“No,” he replied. “But it’s the only way this will work.”
“How long will you be gone?” asked Julie anxiously.
“Only as long as I have to,” he replied.
Robie got them settled in the house, showed Vance where things were, set the alarm and perimeter security, and then strode out to the barn. He climbed on his motorcycle, slipped on his helmet, and started the bike. The powerful pulses of the engine soothed him, gave him something else to focus on besides what he had to do later.
He rode his bike east and then north. He reached the Beltway and followed that long curve north. He raced over the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, the winking lights of D.C. to his left, the green sweep of Virginia running to Mount Vernon to his right.
The building he arrived at nearly thirty minutes later was brick, small, and had a high fence running around it. There was a guard in uniform posted out front. Robie had called ahead. He was on the list. He had his proper creds. The guard let him pass through after doing a thorough search.
A few minutes later he was walking down the only hall the building had. Doors on the left and right led off from this main artery. They were all closed. The hour was late. There wouldn’t be many people here.
But there was at least one. The one he wanted. The man who had held