Alpha Kat

Twenty-three

On the third of August, Ben Wilcox and Ted Simonson reviewed the damage.

“It’s not as bad as it could have been,” Simonson said.

“No. The objectives were met,” Wilcox said. “We got rid of a drug kingpin and we suppressed a coup attempt. The anti-drug people and the State Department will both be happy, though not happy with us, since they don’t know our role. But damn, Ted, there were a hell of a lot of collateral problems with this operation.”

“First, there’s Crider.”

“He’s in jail in Riyadh.”

“Right, and though we’ve made overtures, it looks as if they’re going to go ahead and try him for the sabotage of the Alpha Kat.”

“The punishment can be brutal in Saudi Arabia.”

“We can count on that, I think.”

“Knowing how Dixon has worked in the past, though, I don’t think Crider can name names,” Wilcox said.

“I’m sure that’s true. Still, the trial has scared the hell out of Dixon. He’s afraid we may leak his telephone connection with Crider to the Saudis.”

Wilcox was certain that Simonson had made that point clear to Dixon before he released the general from custody. “I’ll bet he retires.”

“He’s already turned his papers in. Not unsurprisingly, a general named Ailesworth who has something to do with procurement is also retiring.”

Wilcox grinned. “Kimball shot down some people he’ll never know about. Still, I regret the loss of Henry Loh. He’d been on my payroll for twenty years.”

“But, damn it, Ben, you knew he grabbed the bucks anywhere he could. He didn’t care whether he was on the winning side or the losing side, as long as he came out of it unscathed, with a few more millions in his accounts.”

“Yeah, but I understood him, Ted. And I’d promised him that his information wouldn’t get him killed.”

“Did you also tell that to Kimball?”

“No. I don’t give out the names of my best sources. What’s the current status in Burma?”

“Lon Pot’s army kicked off its own coup attempt. Apparently, there was a major disruption of communications. My analysts don’t think the army knew that their air support had evaporated. Colonel Mauk crushed the major advances with air-to-ground suppression, and all that’s left is some mopping up.”

“Mauk will come out of this a hero,” Wilcox said. “We may have to get close to him.”

“I think it’s a good idea.”

Susan McEntire arrived in Riyadh on the morning of the fourth of August, and Kimball met her at the airport. The short white skirt and print blouse had been left behind in favor of a smart blue traveling suit.

She was very subdued on the drive to the hotel. Since he had already taken a room for her, he carried her two pieces of luggage directly up to her suite.

He unlocked the door and ushered her inside.

Turning slowly, she surveyed the expansive and elegant sitting room, but he felt she wasn’t really seeing it. She settled onto the sofa and lit a cigarette.

“I don’t suppose a girl can get a drink?” she asked.

“No. Not unless it’s soft.”

“Seven-up?”

“Sure.” He went to the small refrigerator and got it for her. He even poured it in a glass over ice cubes.

“Thanks. Do you want to hear about what’s going on in Phoenix?”

“I do,” he said, taking one of the chairs opposite her.

“As soon as the governor heard that the Saudis were buying sixty airplanes, and that they’d subsidize a new factory here if the U.S. wouldn’t restore our airworthiness certificates, he and a contingent of congressmen began a blitz of Washington. He assured me that Kimball Aero would be staying in Arizona.”

“Paying taxes there,” Kimball added.

“Of course. No one in the state wants to lose a promising and substantial industry. There’s employment, as well as a tax base, to think about.”

Kimball retrieved the emerald ring from his pocket and handed it to her.

“Sam Eddy bought this for you.”

“What?”

“He stuck it in the pocket of my slacks. I’d left them in a locker on the Starlifter and didn’t find it until we landed here.”

Susan stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray on the coffee table and held the ring in her fingers, twisting it so that the light from the lamp reflected in brilliant green splatters on her hands.

He realized for the first time that the emerald was the exact shade of her eyes, something Sam Eddy probably knew when he bought it. The silver flecks around the irises seemed particularly intense. The tears were welling up in the corners.

“Sam Eddy didn’t intend to return from this trip,” she said.

It was Kimball’s turn to say, “What? That’s crazy, Susie.”

“I went up to his apartment to water the plants. All of his plants were plastic.”

“Uh —”

“There was a letter for me. Along with his will. He named you executor.”

Kimball had known that.

“All of his KAT shares go into a trust administered by me,” she said. “The income is to go to AIDS research.”

Kimball hadn’t been aware of that.

“He was HIV-positive, Kim.”

“Oh, shit.”

“That’s why he divorced me.”

“You…?”

“I’m fine. He gave me up. He gave up all women. That was his problem. Always had been.”

Kimball felt devastated. He wished he’d known, but he didn’t know what he would have done about it.

“I never stopped loving him,” she said.

“I know.”

“And I was kind of like him.”

Kimball didn’t say anything.

“Because I loved the two of you.”

And she started bawling.

Women.

He got up, went around the coffee table, and sat on the sofa beside her.

Put his arm around her shoulders.

And held her while she cried.