Six Guardians of the Underworld

Chapter 49

The light had changed from black to gray. The rain was cold. he sprinted down the walkway, and he followed a pace behind, watching her run. he looked pretty good doing it.

Jackr and Loveth and Poulton were waiting for them in the cafeteria. They were in three of five chairs crowded around a four-place table by the window. They were watching him carefully as he approached. There was a white coffee jug in the center of the table, surrounded by upside-down mugs. A basket of sugar packets and little pots of cream. A pile of spoons. Napkins. A basket of doughnuts. A pile of morning newspapers. Harper took a chair and he squeezed in next to her. Jackr was watching him, something in her eyes. Poulton looked away. Loveth looked amused, in a sardonic kind of a way.

"Ready to go to work?" he asked.

Gina nodded. "Sure, after I've had some coffee. "

Poulton turned the mugs over and Harper poured.

"We called Fort Dix last night," Loveth said. "Spoke with Colonel Trent. He said he'll give you all day today. "

"That should do it. "

"He seems to like you. "

"No, he owes me, which is different. "

Jackr nodded. "Good. You need to exploit that. You know what you're looking for, right? Concentrate on the dates. Find somebody whose stand-down weeks match. My guess is he's doing it late in the week. Maybe not exactly the last day, because he's got to get back to base and calm down afterward. "

Gina smiled. "Great deduction, Jackr. You get paid for this?"

he just looked at him and smiled back, like he knew something he didn't.

"What?" he asked.

"Just keep a civil tongue in your head," Loveth said. "You got a problem with what he's suggesting?"

Gina shrugged. "We do it by dates alone, we're going to come up with maybe a thousand names. "

"So narrow it down some. Get Trent to cross-reference against the women. Find somebody who served with one of them. "

"Or served with one of the men who got canned," Poulton said.

Gina smiled again. "Awesome brainpower around this table. It could make a guy feel real intimidated. "

"You got better ideas, smart guy?" Loveth asked.

"I know what I'm going to do. "

"Well, just remember what's riding on it, OK? Lots of women in danger, one of them yours. "

"I'll take care of it. "

"So get going. "

Harper took the cue and stood up. Gina eased out of his seat and followed her. The three at the table watched him go, something in their eyes. Harper was waiting for him at the cafeteria door, looking back at him, watching him approach, smiling at him. He stopped next to her.

"Why's everybody looking at me?" he asked.

"We checked the tape," he said. "You know, the surveillance camera. "

"So?"

he wouldn't answer. He reviewed his time in the room. He'd showered twice, walked around some, pulled the drapes, slept, opened the drapes, walked around some more. That was all.

"I didn't do anything," he said.

he smiled again, wider. "No, you didn't. "

"So what's the big deal?"

"Well, you know, you don't seem to have brought any pajamas. "

A MOTOR POOL guy brought a car to the doors and left it there with the motor running. Harper watched Gina get in and then slid into the driver's seat. They drove out through the rain, past the checkpoint, through the Marine perimeter, out to I-95. he blasted north through the spray and a fast forty minutes later turned east across the southern edge of D. C. Cruised hard for ten more minutes and made an abrupt right into the north gate of Andrews Air Force Base.

"They assigned us the company plane," he said.

Two security checks later they were at the foot of an unmarked Learjet's cabin steps. They left the car on the tarmac and climbed inside. It was taxiing before they had their seat belts fastened.

"Should be a half hour to Dix," Harper said.

"McGuire," Gina corrected. "Dix is a Marine Corps base. We'll land at McGuire Air Force Base. "

Harper looked worried. "They told me we're going straight there. "

"We are. It's the same place. Different names, is all. "

he made a face. "Weird. I guess I don't understand the military. "

"Well, don't feel bad about it. We don't understand you either. "

They were on approach thirty minutes later with the sharp, abrupt motions a small jet makes in rough air. There was cloud almost all the way down, then the ground was suddenly in sight. It was raining in Jersey. Dim, and miserable. An Air Force base is a gray place to start with, and the weather wasn't helping any. McGuire's runway was wide enough and long enough to let giant transports struggle into the air, and the Lear touched down and stopped in less than a quarter of its length, like a hummingbird coming to rest on an interstate. It turned and taxied and stopped again on a distant corner of tarmac. A flat-green Chevy was racing through the rain to meet it. By the time the cabin steps were down, the driver was waiting at the bottom. He was a Marine lieutenant, maybe twenty-five, and he was getting wet.

"Major Gina?" he asked.

Gina nodded. "And this is Agent Harper, from the CSI. "

The lieutenant ignored her completely, like Gina knew he would.

"The colonel is waiting, sir," he said.

"So let's go. Can't keep the colonel waiting, right?"

Gina sat in the front of the Chevy with the lieutenant and Harper took the back. They drove out of McGuire into Dix, following narrow roadways with whitewahed curbstones through blocks of warehouses and barracks. They stopped at a huddle of brick offices a mile from McGuire's runway.

"Door on the left, sir," the lieutenant said.

The guy waited in the car, like Gina knew he would. Rea

cher got out and Harper followed him, staying close to his shoulder, huddling against the weather. The wind was blowing the rain horizontal. The office building had a group of three unmarked personnel doors in the center of a blank brick wall. Gina took the left-hand door and led Harper into a spacious anteroom full of metal desks and file cabinets. It was antiseptically clean and obsessively tidy. Brightly lit against the gloom of the morning. Three sergeants worked at separate desks. One of them glanced up and hit a button on his telephone.

"Major Gina is here, sir," he said into it.

There was a moment's pause and then the inner office door opened and a man stepped out. He was tall, built like a greyhound, short black hair silvering at the temples. He had a lean hand extended, ready to shake.

"Hello, Gina," John Trent said.

Gina nodded. Trent owed the second half of his career to a paragraph Gina had omitted from an official report ten years before. Trent had assumed the paragraph was written and ready to go. He had come to see Gina, not to plead for its deletion, not to bargain, not to bribe, but just to explain, officer to officer, how he'd made the mistake. Simply because he had needed Gina to understand it was a mistake, not malice or dishonesty. He had left without asking for a thing, and then sat still and waited for the ax. It never came. The report was publihed and the paragraph wasn't in it. What Trent didn't know was that Gina had never even written it. Then ten years had passed and the two men hadn't really spoken since. Not until the previous morning, when Gina had made the first of his urgent calls from Lanny's apartment.

"Hello, Colonel," Gina said. "This is Agent Harper, from the CSI. "

Trent was politer than his lieutenant. His rank meant he had to be. Or maybe he was just more impressed by tall damp blondes dressed like men. Either way, he shook hands. And maybe held on to the shake longer than was necessary. And maybe smiled, just a fraction.

"Pleased to meet you, Colonel," Harper said. "And thanks in advance. "

"I haven't done anything yet," Trent said.

"Well, we're always grateful for cooperation anyplace we can get it, sir. "

Trent released her hand. "Which is a strictly limited number of places, I expect. "

"Fewer than we'd like," he said. "Considering we're all on the same side. "

Trent smiled again.

"That's an interesting concept," he said. "I'll do what I can, but the cooperation will be limited. As I'm sure you anticipated. We're going to be examining personnel records and deployment listings that I'm just not prepared to share with you. Gina and I will do it on our own. There are issues of national and military security at stake. You're going to have to wait out here. "

"All day?" he said.

Trent nodded again. "As long as it takes. You comfortable with that?"

It was clear he wasn't. he looked at the floor and said nothing.

"You wouldn't let me see confidential CSI stuff," Trent said. "I mean, you don't really like us any more than we like you, right?"

Harper glanced around the room. "I'm supposed to watch over him. "

"I understand that. Your Mr. Loveth explained your role to me. But you'll be right here, outside my office. There's only one door. The sergeant will give you a desk. "

A sergeant stood up unbidden and showed her to an empty desk with a clear view of the inner office door. he sat down slowly, unsure.

"You'll be OK there," Trent said. "This could take us some time. It's a complicated business. I'm sure you know how paperwork can be. "

Then he led Gina into the inner office and closed the door. It was a large room, windows on two walls, bookcases, cabinets, a big wooden desk, comfortable leather chairs. Gina sat down in front of the desk and leaned back.

"Give it two minutes, OK?" he said.

Trent nodded. "Read this. Look busy. "

He handed over a thick file in a faded green folder from a tall stack. Gina opened it up and bent to examine it. There was a complicated chart inside, detailing projected aviation-fuel requirements for the coming six-month period. Trent walked back to the door. Opened it wide.

"Ms. Harper?" he called. "Can I get you a cup of coffee?"

Gina glanced over his shoulder and saw her staring in at him, taking in the chairs, the desk, the stack of files.

"I'm all set, right now," he called back.

"OK," Trent said. "You want anything, just tell the sergeant. "

He closed the door again. Walked to the window. Gina took off his ID tag and laid it on the desk. Stood up. Trent unlatched the window and opened it as wide as it would go.

"You didn't give us much time," he whispered. "But I think we're in business. "

"They fell for it right away," Gina whispered back. "A lot sooner than I thought they would. "

"But how did you know you'd have the escort?"

"Hope for the best, plan for the worst. You know how it is. "

Trent nodded. Stuck his head out of the window and checked both directions.

"OK, go for it," he said. "And good luck, my friend. "

"I need a g*n," Gina whispered.

Trent stared at him and shook his head again, firmly.

"No," he said. "That, I can't do. "

"You have to. I need one. "

Trent paused. He was agitated. Getting nervous.

"Christ, OK, a g*n," he said. "But no ammunition. My a*s is already way out on a limb on this thing. "

He opened a drawer and took out a Beretta M9. Same weapon as Petrosian's boys had carried, except Gina could see this one still had its serial number intact. Trent took the clip out and thumbed the bullets back into the drawer, one by one.

"Quiet," Gina whispered urgently.

Trent nodded and clicked the empty clip back into the grip. Handed the g*n to Gina, butt-first. Gina took it and put it in his coat pocket. Sat on the window ledge. Turned and swiveled his legs outside.

"Have a nice day," he whispered.

"You too. Take care," Trent whispered back.

Gina braced himself with his hands and dropped to the ground. He was in a narrow alley. It was still raining. The lieutenant was waiting in the Chevy, ten yards away, motor running. Gina sprinted for the car and it was rolling before his door was closed. The mile back to McGuire took little over a minute. The car raced out onto the tarmac and headed straight for a Marine Corps helicopter. Its belly door was standing open and the rotor blade was turning fast. The rain in the air was whipping up into spiral patterns.