Hostage Zero

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Brandy Giddings needed rest. Lack of sleep was part of it, but the kind of rest she needed went far beyond going horizontal and closing her eyes. She craved a few consecutive weeks-even a few consecutive minutes would be a nice start-when her mind could be free of the terrible things that had been polluting it these past few days. She found it all debilitating, and the fact that she felt that way made her feel inadequate-like she was failing the secretary.

She worked for the man who told the president how to fight wars. Violence was supposed to be a part of her psyche. She knew every military branch’s chief of staff by name. She should be tougher than this.

Still, when the phone on her desk trilled, she jumped. The caller I.D. confirmed that it was Pat Bachelor, SecDef’s executive assistant, and her stomach fell. She’d asked to be put onto Secretary Leger’s schedule as soon as possible, but that had been three hours ago.

“Secretary Leger can see you now,” Pat said. “But I warn you that he has tickets for the Kennedy Center tonight, so you’d best be quick.” Washington was chock-a-block with official reporting chains and protocol-driven rules of propriety, but in the Pentagon, everyone knew that Pat Bachelor outranked everyone but the Secretary himself. She’d never actually ordered anyone into combat, but Brandy had no doubt she could pull it off if she tried.

The source of her power had nothing to do with her ties to Washington. Rather, her loyalty lay exclusively with Jacques Leger, whose assistant she had been since the invention of the wheel.

Pat didn’t like Brandy much; if there’d been any doubt in the past, the leer she delivered as Brandy walked by her desk made it clear today. Brandy wrote it off as old-and-fat dismissing young-and-beautiful, but she could never say it out loud.

The lock on the heavy mahogany door buzzed as Brandy approached, and she stepped into Secretary Leger’s elaborate ceremonial office. It was in here that medals were occasionally pinned, and reporters were occasionally feted, but the real inner sanctum was nestled on the far side of the ceremonial space. She knocked, and when the secretary’s muffled voice told her to come in, she opened the door and stepped into what was regarded throughout Washington as one of the most beautiful offices in all of government.

Secretary Leger’s office presented a commanding, unobstructed view of the Potomac River in the foreground, and the famous monuments of the nation’s capital beyond. Intricate moldings inlaid the twelve-foot ceilings, and the walls displayed a collection of Copleys and Sargents from the National Gallery of Art.

Conspicuously absent from Leger’s personal office, Brandy thought, was any significant homage to the armed services. Having never served himself, he’d said that he wasn’t comfortable choosing favorites, and to include every branch would make the place look, in his words, “like a castle keep.” Instead, he surrounded himself with landscapes and still lifes that brought him a sense of peace.

“What can I do for you, Ms. Brandy?” Leger asked, looking up from the work on his desk, but not rising to meet her.

Navigating her way across the carpet was like walking on a cloud. “Good evening, Mr. Secretary. It’s, um, about that matter we’ve been discussing.”

She though she saw the secretary’s shoulders stiffen as he turned back to the work on his desk. “I trust that it has resolved itself?”

When he moved his eyes away, she stopped advancing on his desk. She clasped her hands in front like an errant schoolgirl and shook her head. “No, sir,” she said. “There’s actually been some more information.” She paused, hoping that she might pique his interest enough to look up again. When he did not, she added, “We’ve found Bruce Navarro.”

That did it. “ The Bruce Navarro? He of the nine-year disappearing act?”

She came close enough to hover near the guest chairs in front of his desk, but knew better than to sit without an invitation. “Yes, sir, the very one.”

He scowled, clearly trying to decide whether or not to believe her. Finally, he gestured to a chair with an open palm. “I’m all ears,” he said.

You can’t sit in the presence of that kind of power and not be jostled by the wave of awe that comes with it. Brandy was speaking one-on-one with one of the most recognizable faces in the world-a man who held one of the planet’s most important positions. She took a deep breath to settle herself.

“I received notification several hours ago from a company called Triple-S-Special Surveillance Specialists. They said that a long-dormant listening station picked up key word combinations and kicked back into active mode. They monitored a lengthy conversation from an address in Jersey City, New Jersey.” She opened a leather portfolio and handed him the twelve-page transcription of the conversation. “That’s the address right there at the top of the page.”

Leger shushed her with an abrupt wave of his hand, giving himself time to read through the document.

Brandy had only recently learned that “bugging” a residence or a business was a nuanced task. It had never occurred to her that a listening device could live forever. Of course, it would be impractical to have a live person perpetually on the other end, twenty-four-seven listening to every word, so instead, smart devices could be programmed to “listen” passively for a certain combination of words, and then awaken itself to active mode. She imagined in this case that “Bruce Navarro” was the key phrase, but she had no way of knowing that for certain.

“Well, I’ll be damned,” the secretary said, looking up from the report. “Who’s the person on the other side of this conversation?”

“We don’t know for sure. Apparently, introductions were finished before the device went active. I have to assume, though, that it’s Gail Bonneville, the private investigator who visited Frank Schuler in prison. It doesn’t appear as if they were friends.”

Leger laughed. “Hardly. It looks like the husband was ready to throw her out on her ass.” He glanced through the pages one more time with an expression of mild amusement. “All these years of stonewalling, and it all comes down to one stranger promising to save a life. I’ll be damned.”

“The level of knowledge shown by the visitor is concerning,” Brandy said.

Leger’s look of amusement continued. “Concerning,” he repeated. “How about damned troubling? The population of knowledgeable parties is multiplying like rabbits.” Something arrived in his face behind the amusement. Fear, maybe? His eyes bored through Brandy as he waved the sheaf of papers. “Who else knows about this?”

“From me? No one. Just you.”

He continued to stare, gauging her. Then he started through the papers again.

“There’s more, sir,” she said.

“From the look on your face, I was guessing there might be.” He continued to read.

“It’s about the investigator, sir.”

“The one who works for the company that somehow continues to get the better of us.”

“Yes, sir.”

Finally, his eyes rocked up to see her. “Despite the fact that we have access to some of the best talent in the world.”

Brandy’s stomach flipped. “I suppose so, sir.” If she layered the “sirs” on thickly enough maybe he wouldn’t explode in his chair.

Leger waited for it.

“Well, Mr. Secretary, at first we thought she was a nobody, you know? A retired sheriff from somewhere in the boonies of Indiana. Well, then we looked a little deeper and we found some disturbing facts. For example, she’s retired FBI. And she was tangentially involved in that big terrorist raid last year in Pennsylvania. You know, the one that involved the chemical weapons?”

The secretary’s shoulder sagged a little. He recovered quickly, but not in time for Brandy to miss it. “What does ‘tangentially involved’ mean? And we both know that that incident had nothing to do with terrorism.”

Brandy felt herself blushing. “Yes, sir,” she said. That incident had occurred during the early days of the transition between the past administration and the current one, and it had exposed the Department of Defense to huge embarrassment. “By tangentially involved, I mean that she was there at the farm in Pennsylvania. The original terrorist raid-excuse me, you know what I mean-happened in her jurisdiction.”

Leger’s face formed a giant question mark. “That’s tangential? What does direct involvement look like in your world?”

Brandy pretended that she didn’t hear. “Well, the firm she works for in Fisherman’s Cove is solely owned by a man named Jonathan Grave, who himself is former Special Forces. Frankly, I was unable to obtain any records on him, which leads me to believe that whatever he did was very, very black.”

Now Leger seemed stunned. “I’m the Secretary of Defense, for God’s sake. What records are sealed from me?”

“Jonathan Grave’s, apparently.” She heard the bite in her tone, and on a different day it would have bothered her. But today, when Jacques Leger was being a certified asshole, she didn’t much care. She continued, “When Gail Bonneville was with the FBI, she was part of the Hostage Rescue Team. There were some career difficulties along the way, and some job-hopping, but the fact that she landed at a company run by somebody who I assume was a Delta Force operator-or maybe something even blacker, although I don’t know what that might be-raises some major flags with me.”

Leger looked tolerant at best. “And what might those flags be?”

Brandy couldn’t believe that the secretary hadn’t already pulled ahead of her. “What do HRT and Delta have in common?” She actually waited for an answer, but only for a couple of seconds, before she realized that SecDef probably did not like being quizzed. “Hostage rescue,” she said, answering her own question.

She waited for him to connect the dots, but when he didn’t, she pressed harder. “The church that owns the school where Ponder’s men snatched the children is literally next door to Jonathan Grave’s home. He spent a career rescuing people, and Gail Bonneville now works for him. Isn’t it obvious that they’re planning to rescue the Guinn boy?”

As she watched Secretary Leger decode it for himself for the first time, she saw the physical burden consume him. He pushed some papers around on his desk, then cleared his throat. “My, but you are full of news, aren’t you?” he said.

He thought for a moment. “Well, clearly we have some things to do,” he said after clearing his throat again. “The Guinn boy is not our concern. We’ll pass along what we know about him to the right people, and that will be the end of our involvement there. I want to concentrate on this Navarro business.” He avoided eye contact as he said, “Talk to your friend from New England. Tell him he now has the green light to do whatever he needs to do, to whomever it needs to be done in order to eliminate Bruce Navarro and the investigator woman.”

Brandy felt her skin go cold. “Eliminate, sir?”

A beat. Leger made a show of sitting up straight and crossing his arms. “That’s not too big a word for you, is it, Brandy?”

She gaped back at him. No, there was nothing big about the word. The word was easy. It was the murders that came with it that were difficult to comprehend. She squirmed in her seat. “Sir, if you’re talking about killing people…” She let her words trail off.

Leger laughed. “Oh, for God’s sake, Brandy, grow up. This has been about killing from the very beginning. Welcome to the big leagues. Only at this level, we don’t think of it as killing. We think of it as problem solving.”

She felt sick to her stomach. First the child and now this. “I, uh, I don’t think I can do that.”

“Of course you can’t. That’s why I would never ask you to. I never have asked you to. We have people who do that for us. Tell our Boston friend what we need, and he’ll take care of the rest. You never even have to mention the K — word, if you don’t want.”

Brandy felt somehow heavier as she sat there. Would this never end? She found herself nodding in agreement before she’d even thought it all the way through.

“Good,” he said. “And on the other thing, I want you to be my messenger. Go home and pack for a warm climate.”

“Sir?”

“Someone will contact you with the details in a couple of hours.”

It felt as if she’d slept through a part of the movie of her own life. “I don’t understand.”

Leger gave her a little wave. Of course she didn’t understand. “We’re going to get you down to Colombia,” he said.

Evan Guinn had fallen asleep in the back of the SUV, lulled by the never-ending bouncing and rolling along the trails that doubled for jungle roads. When the jostling stopped, he awoke, confused about where he was. The nap had allowed him to forget. Now reality returned.

They’d reached a small clearing, about a quarter of the size of a football field, where the trees had somehow been removed, leaving only a green ocean of low-growing ferns and bushes. A few bore flowers, but most did not. On a different day, it would have been beautiful. As it was, Evan was overrun with the sense that he was going to die out here and no one would ever find his body.

As a lump grew in his throat, he refused to let himself cry again. He’d already been a pussy for running after the car. And what had that gotten him? If this was where they were going to drop him off, it had bought him nothing. Maybe less than nothing.

“Stay here,” Mitch commanded. Without waiting for an answer, he pulled open his door and stepped out. He crossed in front of the vehicle and strode to the center of the clearing, where he stopped. With his arms outstretched and his legs spread to shoulder width, he slowly pivoted 360 degrees, and then stopped.

“What’s he doing?” Evan asked the driver. He craved someone talking to him, but he wasn’t surprised when the driver remained silent. He probably didn’t even understand.

After maybe thirty seconds had passed, the surrounding jungle squeezed out four dark-skinned men armed with rifles-Evan thought they were M16s based on what he’d seen on the History Channel. The men were dressed like soldiers: camouflaged uniforms that hadn’t been washed in a very long time, which, he thought, matched the appearance of the men wearing them. For a second, he thought they were going to shoot Mitch on the spot, but then they approached him.

As they got closer, three of the four men held back, while the fourth approached Mitch like an old friend.

Mitch and the other man chatted for a couple of minutes. They shared a laugh, and they shook hands again before walking together toward the SUV. Evan’s heart jumped as his stomach cramped. They were coming for him. He crab walked to the far side of the backseat, adding space between him and the approaching kidnappers.

This was his last chance to get away. He turned to the left-side passenger door to pull the latch and yelled at the sight of another soldier standing on the other side. He had no idea where he’d come from.

Mitch and the other man were here now, and both back doors opened simultaneously, a stern-faced soldier on his left, and coldly smiling Mitch on his right.

“Don’t even think about it, kid,” Mitch said. “You’ve got a long hike ahead of you, and it’ll be a lot harder with your hands tied. Make us do it, and we will. It’s your call.”

He had no choice. This was why it was better to fight to the death before being taken. After that first moment, all the options were shitty ones.

“Allow me to introduce myself,” said the soldier that Mitch had been talking to. “My name is Oscar.” He reached a hand into the car, and Evan recoiled, almost falling out the other door on the far side.

The soldier closest to him reached out to catch him, but it wasn’t necessary.

“Why are you doing this?” Evan asked. He heard the whiny tone in his voice, but he couldn’t help it.

Oscar’s features softened. He didn’t smile, but it was close. “I realize that this must be frightening for you,” he said. “How could it not be? You go to bed one night, and then in so short a time, you’re in so strange a place. I’m sorry that it had to happen this way.”

“What is happening?”

“You’re embarking on a new adventure,” Oscar said. His eyes didn’t frighten Evan as much as Mitch’s did.

“I don’t need a new adventure. I don’t want a new adventure.”

Oscar smiled gently. “I understand. Unfortunately, we don’t always get to choose the events in our lives. You need to come with us, Evan. No one means to harm you. In fact, these guns are intended to protect you.”

Evan looked to the soldier who’d tried to catch him. The soldier gave him that quick smile that adults always give to kids when they make eye contact. The one that was meant to say that they were not a threat. It was also the smile of every child molester. Can you help me find my lost puppy?

“We have a long way to go before dark, Evan,” Oscar said. “We need to get moving.”

His mind raced for a way to stall. “Where are we going?”

Oscar cocked his head. “Does it matter? One way or another, I have to deliver you. As my friend Mitchell here said, it will be so much easier if you come along easily.” He let that sink in, then motioned with a flick of his fingers for Evan to join him. “Let’s get started, shall we?” He stood to his full height, and pivoted to the side of the door, opening a corridor for Evan to step outside.

In the end, he had no choice. He scooted on his butt across the bench seat and out into the weeds. They stabbed at the soles of his feet and tickled his legs-not in a way that made you want to laugh, but in the way that made you want to take a shower.

“Good for you,” Oscar said. “You chose well.” He extended his hand again. “Let’s make it official. I’m Oscar, and it’s nice to meet you.”

Evan stared at the hand for a few seconds, and then he took it. “Evan Guinn,” he said. Oscar’s palms were as rough and hard as granite. He stopped short of saying that it was nice to meet him.

Releasing Evan’s hand, Oscar turned to Mitch. “We’ll take good care of the boy,” he said. “Rest assured.”

Mitch clearly didn’t care one way or the other. He climbed back into the truck. The last thing Evan heard before the door closed was, “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

As the truck’s engine revved, Oscar gently pulled Evan out of the way. The SUV drove in a wide circle through the clearing to turn around, and then it was gone.

He was alone now with his new captors. Evan became aware of Oscar’s rough hand on his bare shoulder.

“Try not to be afraid,” the man said.

Evan fought to control his breathing, which had started to chug like a train as he fought back the tears.

“I promise that no one wants to hurt you. I know that there’s been some of that in your past, but you’ll find none of that here.”

Evan scowled and looked up at the man. What did he know about his past?

“We know a lot about you, Evan. I am not in a position to explain these things to you, but it’s very important to us that you remain safe. That can be difficult in this country, and that truly is why I am accompanied by these gentlemen with the guns.”

Evan’s vision blurred with tears, and he swiped them away. People who didn’t mean harm didn’t kidnap people.

“The man who just left,” Oscar went on. “That was Mitchell Ponder. He is a very, very dangerous man. Now that he has left, I promise you that you are safe.”

“But why am I here?” If he could just know that one thing, then maybe something would start to make sense. Just that one bit of information might make him relax. Just a little.

Oscar sighed and cocked his head. It was a look of genuine sympathy, Evan thought. “Tell you what,” he said. “Let’s start walking so that we don’t waste any more daylight. I’ll try to think of a way to tell you something without betraying the confidences that I have pledged to honor. I know it’s not really the answer you’re looking for, but will it make do for a while?”

Again, there was no choice. Evan nodded.

They walked in single file, with two of the armed soldiers in the front, followed by Oscar and then Evan. Three soldiers brought up the rear.

The jungle swallowed them all.