The Last Family

46

The Falcon was above twenty thousand feet making a beeline for Miami. Paul’s telephone buzzed from inside his briefcase. It was Tod Peoples.

“Where are you?” he said.

“Tod, we’re over the Gulf, headed for Florida. My shadow team should be landing there right before we do.”

“A bomb went off at a DFW terminal a little while ago. Just getting the update. Looks like… okay, ten dead, no telling how many wounded.”

“Bomb? When?”

Rainey sat on the edge of his seat, the Bible in one hand. “What?” he asked. “What bomb, where?”

“Went off fifteen, twenty minutes ago,” Tod said.

“A diversion maybe?” Paul wondered if the bomb was to help Eve lose her tail.

“What bomb, where?” Rainey repeated.

“DFW,” he said to Rainey. Then he spoke to Tod again. “That was after Eve’s flight took off-Joe called me on his cell phone when they took off for Miami. This is not good. Maybe the bomb was just late going off? Maybe it was supposed to be a diversion while Eve sneaked on the Miami flight?”

“Martin twenty minutes off with a bomb?” Tod’s voice was full of skepticism. “Man’s very accurate, but it’s too coincidental not to be Martin.”

“A bomb is too overt for a diversion with his mother in the place. Maybe the flight was originally scheduled to be loading later and he set the device before the schedule change. Can you check that original schedule from where you are? When he bought the ticket.”

“Sure,” Tod said. Paul heard keys clicking in the background. “Just a minute.”

There was a click alerting Paul that he had another call coming in.

“Believe this shit? Hold on, Tod. Got a call on the other line.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Tod said.

“Hello?”

“Paul?” The voice was light, the background full of static.

“Is that you, Joe?”

“Yeah. This is terrible.”

“The bomb?”

“Bomb? What… no bomb. Paul, we can’t find her!”

“What? Find who?”

Joe said, “Eve. She isn’t on the plane.”

“How the hell could she not be on the plane? Look in the can,” Paul said, his heart sinking.

“We did. Larry’s asking the stewardesses… Wait a sec…”

Paul could hear Joe talking with someone he assumed was Larry Burrows.

“She got off.”

“What?” Paul shouted. “How can anyone get off a fuckin’ plane?”

Paul listened while Larry mumbled something. The static grew louder, and Paul couldn’t make out but a few words.

“At the terminal? In DFW?” He listened for a few more seconds, then clicked back to Tod. “Anything?”

“Regularly scheduled flight,” Tod said. “That’s strange.”

“It gets stranger. Tod, that was Joe. Eve slipped them at DFW.”

“Then she got another flight.”

“Tod, see what took off in that window. After the Miami flight and right after the blast. Call me back.”

The telephone went dead and Paul turned it off. He sat for a minute in silence tapping the phone against his teeth as he thought. Something had been nibbling at his subconscious all day. Something Rainey had said. “Six years ago, the day you were hit. Thorne, Joe, and I were standing around in a hospital waiting room in Miami covered in your blood.” Then another piece, something Tod had said. The reason it had stuck in his mind. “His only weakness is his mother. He has seen her every year on or near his birthday with one unavoidable exception six years ago.”

“Rainey, when did Martin break out of prison?”

“Day you were shot. Or maybe the day after that. I can’t remember exactly. We didn’t know it right off.”

“Son of a bitch, that’s it!” Paul yelled. Six years ago Martin had missed his rendezvous with Eve. It was when he was… This is the anniversary of Martin’s family’s deaths!

“What’s what?” Rainey asked.

Paul picked up the phone and dialed a number.

“What’s up?” Rainey asked.

“Thorne, it’s Paul. She slipped them. Eve slipped Joe’s team, but that doesn’t matter. She’s a red herring. Go red alert. Meet us at Lakefront Airport in forty-five minutes. Martin’s still in New Orleans.”

Dear God, why didn’t I see it?

Paul dialed the direct number for Tod Peoples and screamed at the cockpit door as he pressed the final numbers. “Turn around!”

“You sure?” Rainey asked as he stood, then stooped to avoid hitting his head.

“I’d stake my life on it.” Paul watched Rainey enter the cockpit.

The copilot came out into the cabin behind Rainey. “That weather’s already covering the area. Airport’s closed. We’d have to go to an alternate strip or wait a couple of hours to get in.”

“New Orleans!” Paul said. “Now! To Lakefront.”

“They’re closed, I said. Am I not making something clear? There’s no way to see the ground. There’s a thunderstorm passing through with moderate turbulence. That means it isn’t quite bad enough to twist us like a beer can, but enough to slap us out of the sky!”

“Then we’ll open it!” Paul yelled.

“It’s out of the question, sir.” The copilot spoke as if he were certain Paul simply didn’t grasp the situation. “Minimums won’t allow-”

“Turn back and land at Lakefront, or I’ll blow your fuckin’ heads off and fly it back myself!”

“But it isn’t possible. It’s suicide! The turbulence will take us out of the sky.”

“Don’t call Lakefront till we get close and then declare an emergency and put her down. Don’t tell me you can’t-just do it. Not doing it is suicide.”

The copilot went back into the cockpit, leaned over to speak to the pilot. The pilot turned and looked back over his right shoulder at Paul, who took out the Colt, held up it in plain view, and jacked a shell into the chamber. He let his arm down on the armrest, his wrist down, the pistol aimed at the floor. The plane banked sharply right and headed north by northwest for the Louisiana coast.

“We’re flying back into the storm?” Rainey asked.

“Yeah, you want out? They do.” He pointed absently at the cockpit.

“Where can I go?”

Paul smiled. “Say a prayer for us, Rainey. And for every one of our people in New Orleans.”

“I never stop praying, Paul. I’ve never stopped, and I think the first set’s being answered right now.”

“I should have stayed with them.”

Rainey nodded and muttered something about hindsight as Paul dialed Tod Peoples again. Rainey had never seen Paul so upset.

Rainey decided that if they landed, it was a sign from God. Then he would do what he had to do. He hoped Paul would not get in the way. But if he did, Rainey would walk over him and anybody else who got between him and Martin Fletcher. God was delivering Martin to him.