Long Road to Mercy

Chapter 35

“Thanks.”

Pine looked over at the passenger seat of her Mustang.

They had left Russell’s neighborhood far behind. She turned onto a side road, pulled to the curb, and cut the engine.

Russell still looked pale and shaken, but some color was returning to his face.

“I didn’t save you just for the hell of it,” she snapped. “Now, you’re going to tell me what’s going on.”

“Look, I can’t, okay? I couldn’t tell them, and I can’t tell you.”

“Those guys were going to kill you. Or at the very least torture you within an inch of your life.”

“Maybe.”

“There’s no maybe about it. Who were they?”

“I don’t know.”

“Bullshit. They were feds, but the guy said they had no arresting authority in this country. That narrows the list way down. And you know it!”

Russell shook his head stubbornly. “The guy was just bluffing.”

“You sure about that?”

“Yeah, I am. This is America, not Moscow.”

“Funny you should mention that, since two Russians were at Ben Priest’s house in Alexandria and ended up trying to kill me.”

Russell glanced sharply at her and sucked in a shallow breath. He shook his head. “Look, no one’s going to throw me out a window or stick me with a nerve agent.”

Pine started the car up. “Fine, I’ll take you back to them, then. No sweat. Have fun wherever they take you. And whatever they stick you with.”

Russell placed a hand on the steering wheel. “No, wait, please, don’t do that.”

“Then I need some quid pro quo and I need it now.”

“What do you want?”

“You went to the Chinese Embassy. And don’t lie to me. I followed you there, just like the other guys did. Why did you go?”

Russell looked out the window into the darkness. His expression was one of a cornered beast, desperately looking in vain for a path to survival.

“Your visit prompted me to go there.”

“Explain.”

“Ben Priest.”

“What does he have to do with the Chinese? And the Russians?”

“I’m talking geopolitics, so it’s not a straight line. How are you at chess?”

“Try me.”

“Allies sometimes become enemies. And vice versa. The status can be temporary or long-standing. It can be situational. Transactional. A one-off. Hell, it can be anything, really.”

“Ben told me something like that.”

“He would know.”

“So, you do work with him?”

“I know of his work. Let’s leave it at that.”

“I’m not in a position to leave anything anywhere. What was Priest’s job?”

“He’s very well connected. He got things done that needed doing outside of official channels. That’s really all I can say.”

“Getting back to the chess. What’s the first move? And how did we reach this point?”

“I don’t know anything for sure. It’s speculation.”

“What’s your connection to China anyway?”

“I’ve done work on their behalf.”

“Spying against this country?”

Russell furrowed his brow. “Don’t be stupid. They have legitimate interests, and I make those interests known in the right places. But I can tell you that the Chinese are concerned that something major is about to happen. They aren’t sure what, but they have their suspicions. As do I.”

“Speculate away.”

“The world is seriously screwed up right now. We’ve always had hot spots. The Middle East, in particular Iran. Russia. North Korea. But we’ve never had them all exploding at the same time. Some people, in those situations, look for the fast and easy way out.”

“There’s an Asian guy involved in this. He could be North Korean or Chinese. He almost killed me.”

“That’s interesting. I’m sure you know that this country is in peace talks with North Korea aimed at them giving up their nukes?”

“Yeah, I know. And I know the Chinese have a great deal of interest in how it turns out.”

“Well, those talks aren’t going well. In fact, they may collapse any minute.”

“So, what would be the reason why a North Korean would be over here?”

“How about a change in government leadership?”

Pine stared across the width of the Mustang at him. “Where? North Korea?”

“How about right here?”

Pine’s eyes widened. “That’s nuts.”

“One thing I’ve learned over time, never say never.”

“How could anyone possibly manage something like that here?”

He shook his head. “What did I call you when we first met?”

“Rogue. Wait, are you saying that people within our government are plotting to overthrow it?”

“It’s certainly possible.”

Pine sat back against her seat. “And, what, they’re teaming up with North Korea to do it? That’s crazy.”

Russell pulled out a pack of cigarettes and a book of matches. “You mind if I smoke? I’m stressed beyond belief.”

“Roll down the window and blow it out that way. And how do you play basketball and smoke?”

“I have maybe one cigarette a month. If that’s going to kill me, so be it.”

He rolled down the window, lit the Marlboro, took a puff, and blew smoke out the open window.

Pine said, “Okay, since you’ve opened up to me, I can tell you that Ben exchanged places with a man who rode a mule down to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and then disappeared.”

“What man?”

Pine showed him the digital sketch on her phone. “Do you know him?”

Russell studied the image closely, then shook his head. “If I had to speculate, I’d say that this person might have known what was going on and came to Ben for help.”

“What would he do?”

“The guy might want to bring that information to the right quarters but was unsure how to do that effectively. You mentioned helicopters and Ben being snatched? How do you know that?”

“Because I was there. And the chopper was one used by the Army.”

“Shit, this thing does go high up, then,” said Russell anxiously.

“How high is high?” said Pine.

“Maybe higher than we want to believe. If they took Ben, they might be tying up loose ends. Or quarantining everything, like they do with Ebola. That’s why they came to me.”

“But they let me live,” said Pine.

Russell studied her. “Then you’re very lucky.”

“You really believe that people in our government are planning some sort of coup?”

Russell looked amused by her incredulity. “Didn’t you just tell me that Ben got taken away in an Army chopper? And I know that the FBI bleeds red, white, and blue, but your agency has been taking it on the chin, hasn’t it? You’re all corrupt, so they say.”

“But toppling the government?”

“People are fed up with DC. They see it as an impediment. And then they see autocratic governments kicking ass around the world and they want that, too.”

“That is not who we are.”

“Who we are is dictated by those powerful enough to say who we are. If anything, we’re a plutocracy and have been for a long time now. And the next logical step in a plutocracy is an oligarchy. I’m not on a soapbox. I’m just stating facts. I’ve seen it happen in lots of places.”

“Is there anything you can talk about that might help me find Ben Priest?”

Russell took a long drag on his cigarette and blew the smoke out the window. “Have you ever heard of SFG?”

“No, should I?”

“It’s an acronym. Stands for the Society for Good.”

“Sounds remarkably cheesy.”

“In reality, it’s a group of very serious people. They cover a variety of issues of global significance. They’ve got some heavyweight members in all sorts of professional disciplines from all over the world. It’s like a think tank.”

“There are already think tanks on the left and right.”

“This one isn’t politically oriented. It’s been around for about eighty years. They do a lot of TED Talks. Publish papers, give presentations, work with governments and companies all over the world. Trying to do good, as the name implies.”

“And what does this have to do with my case?”

“Ben Priest was a member of SFG.”

Pine was silent for a few moments as she absorbed this.

“Okay. You think whatever plan he had with the missing guy might have been run through the society?”

“I don’t know. But I can tell you that SFG has been involved in some whistleblower cases, government malfeasance in some developing countries, things like that.”

“But not corruption in this country?”

“Corruption is corruption, right? And from what I know of the membership they won’t shirk from what they see as their duty.”

“Where can I find them?”

“They have a building in DC on H Street.”

Pine leaned back in her seat and gripped the steering wheel. “Can you get me into the place? You’re the cloak-and-dagger guy. I’m an investigator with red, white, and blue coming out of her veins.”

“I don’t know. I’d have to think about it.”

“We don’t have time to waste.”

Russell turned and blew smoke out the open window once more.

An instant later he toppled sideways toward Pine as a foot came through the open window and collided with the side of his head.

Russell hit the steering wheel hard, bounced off, and then limply hung forward, kept in his seat solely by his lap belt.

Pine looked to her right and saw the Asian man. He was not holding an umbrella this time. His hand was reaching for the door handle.

Pine slammed the car into gear and floored it.

The Mustang shot out from the curb like a projectile.

Pine hit seventy before the next intersection, which she blew right through.

“Screw it,” she said.

She hit a U-turn at the second intersection and drove back to where she had come from. She took out something from her pocket.

As she raced down the street, she saw him.

He was walking fast down the pavement.

She slowed, as did he.

She had rolled down the window and lifted her hand.

The man braced for an attack as he looked directly at her.

Pine snapped his picture with her phone and then she pulled her gun.

I’m just going to shoot the son of a bitch.

But, in the blink of an eye, he was gone.

Pine floored it.

Five minutes later, after many turns, she slipped into a parking lot at the back of a Starbucks.

She put the car in park and looked at Russell. He had no pulse. His eyes were glassed over, unresponsive. He was dead. She felt the back of his neck.

His vertebrae were like a jigsaw puzzle that had fallen out of a box.

One kick thrown through the small opening of a car window to the head had literally shattered a very large man’s spine.

She sat there thinking for a few minutes. When she arrived at her decision, she wasn’t happy about it, but she could see no other way. At least no other way that would allow her to remain an FBI agent and stay out of prison.

Pine put the car in gear and drove off.

She now had to do something she had never thought she would.

I have to dispose of a body.