Bodyguard of Lies

CHAPTER 34

Neeley drove, Hannah was in the passenger seat and Jesse sat in the back, her gun pointed at Neeley's head.

"We'll help you," Neeley said.

"Racine's not stupid," Jesse said. "He's waiting for us and he has Bobbie. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize my son. You brought Racine here and you brought that damn cache report here. I'm going to give you to him and take my son back."

"He won't give you Bobbie back," Hannah said in a level voice.

Jesse glared at her. "Why do you say that?"

"Cause Racine's nuts. You've met him, right?"

Jesse reluctantly nodded.

“So have we,” Hannah continued. "Listen, I know you're upset, but you've got to think this through. It's us against him. Don't let him split us up against each other."

Neeley continued to drive in the direction Jesse had indicated. Both women in the front seat relaxed slightly as Jesse lowered the weapon. "All right. But no matter what, we get Bobbie out of there. Clear?"

"Clear," Neeley and Hannah said in unison.

“How old is Bobbie?” Hannah asked.

“Twenty-two.”

Realizing that Hannah didn’t understand something, Neeley hastened to explain. “Bobbie is—“ she searched for the right words and Jesse stepped neatly in.

“Bobbie is mentally retarded. He’s up to about a sixth grade level now. After a lot of damn hard work.”

Hannah was nodding as if she understood completely.

“He goes to a special school in town,” Jesse continued and both other women could hear the pride in her voice. “He’s doing good. Real good.”

“We’ll take care of Racine,” Neeley said and Hannah nodded at the blunt words.

"What is this place we're going to?" Hannah asked.

"An abandoned quarry," Jesse said. "We're to meet him on the top, at the back." She pointed. "Turn there."

Neeley took the dirt road indicated and the car rumbled over the bumps.

"Hold on a second right here," Hannah said. "We need to be ready. Stop the car."

Five minutes later, they could see a large open pit to their left, about a quarter mile wide. It was so deep, that twenty feet away, on the road, they couldn't make out the bottom.

The trees gave way and they came to an open space, about forty feet wide, by twenty across on the edge of the pit. There was an old metal crane bolted to the edge and a derelict bulldozer rusting away, twenty feet to the right of the crane.

Jesse took a sharp intake of breath. A young man was tied to the blade of the bulldozer, facing the crane. Racine stood under the crane, a gun in his hand and a smile on his lips as the car came to a halt. There was a rope going from behind Racine up into the framework of the crane, the purpose of which none of the women could immediately determine.

"That's Bobbie?" Neeley asked.

Jesse tightly nodded as she stepped out of the backseat, pistol pointed at Racine.

"Steady, now, steady," Racine yelled. "Let's not be getting hasty."

The three women spread out facing him. Jesse looked over. "Are you all right Bobbie?"

There was no answer. Bobbie appeared to be unconscious, held up by the rope around his chest.

"What did you do to him?" Jesse hissed, her knuckles white around the pistol grip.

"I just knocked him out for a little while. I didn't want us to be distracted from the task at hand. A simple shot. No pain or nothing."

Jesse raised the pistol until her sight was set on Racine's forehead.

"Hold on! Don't do it or he dies!" Racine cried out. He pointed above him, at the rope. "Follow," he said, his hand pointing along it until it disappeared behind a generator.

"You," he said, pointing at Hannah. "Move over there so you can see what the rope is tied to."

Hannah did as she was told. When she got about ten feet in front of and to the right of the other women, she could see that the rope was attached to the trigger of a rifle that was clamped down on a tripod.

"Tell them," Racine said.

"It's attached to a gun," Hannah said.

Racine turned slightly and they could see that the other end was attached to his belt. "There's six inches of slack between me and the trigger. I can assure you that the rifle is zeroed in on your son's chest, Jesse. I took several practice shots to settle in the tripod before I tied him to the blade. If I happen to move more than six inches, the rifle goes off, and your son is dead."

"You bastard," Jesse hissed. "Nero promised me that we would be safe."

"Nero!" Racine spit. "Fuck Nero. He was getting ready to terminate me. I may be a bit eccentric but I've lasted a long time in this business. Longer than our mutual friend Mister Anthony Gant.

“Give me the papers!” he yelled.

Neeley reached into her coat and drew out the papers, bound by a rubber band. She threw them onto the ground.

“Good.” Racine said.

“Now the tape,” Racine said.

“We don’t have it,” Neeley said.

“Not the right answer,” Racine said.

“I have a cache report for the tape,” Neeley said. “It’s located not far from here.”

“Put it next to the papers.”

Neeley pulled that out of her pocket and put it on the ground.

"Let my son go," Jesse said. “You’ve got what you want.”

"Shoot Neeley," Racine said, "and I'll think about it." He raised his free hand and ran it up and down the rope. "I'll give you five seconds."

Jesse turned to Neeley, the gun shaking in her hand. "Why did you have to come here and draw us into this? Why?" The muzzle wavered, then centered on Neeley's chest. She pulled the trigger and the round hit Neeley in the chest, knocking her to the ground. Her body twitched for a second, then was still. The muzzle wasn't wavering any more.

“Now the other bitch,” Racine said.

She aimed at Hannah and fired. As Hannah fell, Jesse dropped the hand with the gun in it to her side.

Racine blinked. "A mother's love. Pretty powerful stuff." He reached behind and unfastened the rope, but kept it in his hands. "At last, someone who understands the way things work. Now drop the gun."

Jesse did so. As soon as Racine had the rope clear, her hand went inside her coat, pulling out the sawed off shotgun. She charged forward, a feral scream emanating from her lips as she pulled the first trigger. The first blast hit Racine right between the eyes, taking the top of his skull off. She pulled the second trigger and the second swarm of pellets hit the body in the chest, slamming the already dead body back so that it fell off the edge of the quarry.

Neeley slowly stood up; ripping open her shirt and rubbing her chest under the vest she wore. One of two vests that had been in the kit bag they'd taken from their trailers' car. "Good shot," she told Jesse.

There was a moan and they both turned and looked as Hannah rolled on her side. "Jeez," Hannah said with great difficulty. "Someone give me a hand here."

Jesse ran over to her son as Neeley knelt next to Hannah.

"I think my rib is broken," Hannah said, trying not to take a deep breath. Jesse had untied Bobbie and was cradling him in her arms.

They all watched as two cars raced into the open area and stopped close to the edge. Bailey leaped out of the front one, pistol at the ready along with three other armed men.

"You're too late," Jesse said.

Bailey walked forward as the other men waited at the cars. "I'm sorry, Jesse," he said. "We lost Racine." He looked at the body in the quarry. "We'll take care of that. Is Bobbie all right?"

"No thanks to you," Jesse said. She looked up at the two women and Bailey. "I want to be left alone. Do you understand that? Leave my son and me alone! I don’t care about the past." She pointed at her son. “He’s the future. Let him have his own.”

Bailey holstered his pistol. "We understand, Jesse. I'm sorry this happened. Like I said, we lost Racine and—"

"Just leave us alone." With that she walked away, holding her son.

Bailey turned to Neeley. "The tape, if you don't mind."

Neeley shook her head. "I don't have it here, but I know where it is. Gant left everything he had to me. I say that includes the tape. It's as safe with me as it was with him. Tell Nero that Hannah and I will use it to protect ourselves."

Bailey looked old and tired. "Mister Nero will be displeased. He's not a man who likes loose ends."

Neeley stood close to Hannah, her voice a ragged whisper. "You know, I really don't give a shit. Our lives depend on that tape and you know it."

"I—" Bailey began, but Hannah cut him off.

“Nero made a mistake a long time ago. He knows that.”

Bailey stared at her, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a secure cell phone. He punched in a number, waited a moment, then spoke into it. “Mister Nero, I have Neeley and Hannah Masterson here.” He nodded, looked surprised for a second and then turned toward the second car and its dark windows. He indicated for Hannah and Neeley to come with him. “He wants to talk to you.”

Hannah didn’t seem surprised. Bailey opened the back door and the two women slid in. It was dark inside and they could barely make out a form seated across from them.

The metallic voice was a surprise as it rasped into the sudden silence. “Do you know why I’m here?”

Hannah nodded. “Yes.”

There were several moments of silence. Neeley was looking between the old man and Hannah, waiting to be clued in.

“Please tell me, Mrs. Masterson.”

“You want me to work for you.”

“Not quite.”

Hannah could see the surprised look on Neeley’s face at hearing this. Hannah’s eyes were beginning to adjust and she could make out a little bit of Nero’s face. The scars were shocking, but she kept her reaction from her own face. She realized he was waiting for her to speak.

“You want me to be you,” Hannah finally said.

“Very, very good. I knew I was right about you. And Neeley also. Mister Bailey is getting on in years as I am. We need new blood. And more importantly, a different perspective.”

“A woman’s perspective?” Hannah asked.

“The world has changed greatly in the last sixty years,” Nero said. “I’ve made mistakes. Allowed people like Collins to thrive. Bad things have happened on my watch. My fault.”

“How long have you tracked me?” Hannah asked.

“Since the accident when you were six.”

“Why?”

“You were betrayed at a fundamental level. But you didn’t turn against that which betrayed you. That was key.”

“Like you were in some way?”

“Like I was, indeed.”

“Jenkins. He profiled me for you. All those years and all those sessions, he never really helped me. He was just filing a report to you.”

“Yes.”

“I should be pissed.”

“But you aren’t,” Nero said. “You’re intrigued.”

There was a prolonged silence, and then Hannah answered. “Yes.”

“Good.”

“Except you’re saying a woman in the prime of her life is the equal of an old blind man,” Hannah said.

A cackling noise was immediately followed by Nero coughing for almost half a minute before he regained his composure. “A most interesting observation. However, I know you aren’t quite ready yet to step into my shoes, so to speak. We’ll have time to work together. For you to learn what you will need. And I fervently hope you will be better than me.”

“And if I say no?” Hannah asked.

Nero shrugged. “I cannot force you.”

“No, you can only manipulate my entire life to this end. How many people like me have you followed and manipulated?”

It was Nero’s turn to pause. “I did very little manipulation,” he finally said. “Mostly observation.”

“How many?” Hannah was insistent.

“Twenty-seven.”

“How many failed?”

“Twenty-four. Two have not been, shall we say, activated by circumstances as you were.”

“I’m lucky twenty-five? You’re running out of possibilities.”

Nero didn’t respond.

Hannah glanced at Neeley. “What do you think?”

“It was all a set up?” Neeley was still trying to comprehend.

Hannah nodded. “There was no need for all those loose ends over ten years ago to be allowed to last so long.”

“Most true,” Nero said.

"What about Collins?" Hannah asked.

"Senator Collins has become like Racine: a liability. He will be Sanctioned."

Hannah leaned back in the deep leather seat. She glanced through the dark glass. She could see Jesse guiding Bobbie to her car. The young man’s face was confused, the drug Racine had given him still affecting him. Jesse leaned close and whispered something his ear and his face split in a wide grin.

Hannah turned back to Nero. “What exactly is your job?”

“The Cellar is the country’s bodyguard.”

“A bodyguard that uses psychos like Racine and lies and deceit?”

“Whatever means necessary for the greater good. A bodyguard of lies, so to speak.”

Hannah opened the door. “We’ll let you know.”

“The world is changing,” Nero said. “It is your time now.”

“We’ll let you know,” Hannah repeated as she exited the car, Neeley following.