Long Road to Mercy

Chapter 44

They paid in cash at a motel in Stafford County, Virginia, about an hour south of DC.

They settled into the small, drab room, again leaving their bags packed, as they had throughout the trip.

Blum sat on one of the twin beds.

“Do you think Kurt will get into trouble over this? Allowing us to stay at his place?”

“I had told him before to just plead ignorance. As far as he was concerned, I was a friend requesting a place to stay while he was out of town and I was in town. He had no way to know about what I was really doing.”

“How do you think he knew they were coming for us?”

“Kurt’s with CID. He has lots of friends in the military, of course, and in the intel area. They must have tipped him off, or else he heard some chatter through the vines he listens to.”

“What do you believe the FBI thinks about all this?”

Pine sat down on the other bed and took off her shoes and lay back. “Hard to tell. They know I lied about where I was going. They know I’m working this case after I was ordered off it. They probably know about the two guys at Dulles Airport by now.”

“Do you think the Bureau has tied in Simon Russell to all this?”

“Anyone’s guess. And they may not know about the Army chopper that took Priest and his brother away. Hell, they may not even be looking into this at all.”

“Why not?”

“National security trumps all. They might have gotten called off, like they tried to call me off.”

“What would an overthrow of the government look like?” said Blum slowly.

“In other countries, the president or a group of generals takes over the media and says due to — fill in the bullshit reason — martial law is being declared and elections are being suspended because there are enemies of the country all over, and also in high places. That justifies them snubbing their noses at democratic norms. Then the president says he’s going to serve for life. I mean look at what happened in China. Or the generals could drive tanks to the capital and tell everyone that they’re in charge and will save them. All the citizens have to do is follow orders. Or it could be a group of top-level advisors pulling off a junta. Or a bunch of billionaires tired of simply throwing money at the problem through their super PACs, and opting for a more direct route to get what they want.”

Blum stared at her. “What can we do about it? Really?”

“This is new territory for me, Carol. At Quantico, they didn’t have a course on countering a coup of the U.S. government. Maybe they need to rethink that.”

“What’s our next move?”

In answer, Pine took out the pages with Ben Priest’s files on them. “We have to crack the password for the flash drive. And the answer may be in Priest’s other file names.”

Pine opened her laptop on the bed and set the pages with the file lists next to it. She said, “Priest has shown himself to be the sort who bases passwords on personal items.”

“What else might he have based the password on?” asked Blum.

“Something in his house, maybe?”

“What was in it besides the basketball and the jersey?”

“Again, not much that seemed personal to the man.”

“How about something personal but not connected to his house?”

“What else is there?” asked Pine. “He has a brother who has kids. That makes them Ben Priest’s nephews. Wait a minute, you had lunch with his wife. Did you—”

“Of course I did. Billy and Michael are their names.” Blum thought for a moment. “Billy is eleven and Michael is nine.”

Pine jotted all of this down on a slip of paper. “Any other details?”

“Billy likes to water and snow-ski and is the pitcher on his Little League team. He’s terrified of having to date when he becomes a teenager. Michael is the reader in the family, plays lacrosse, and often gets on his mother’s last nerve. And he plays bass guitar. They both spend too much time on social media, have their phones glued to their hands, especially Billy, and they think their dad’s sole purpose in life is to act as their personal ATM. That may be because he works all the time.”

“You learned all of this at lunch with a woman you just met?”

“Moms don’t screw around when it comes to information exchange. She knows a lot about my kids, too. We do it very efficiently. And in great detail.”

Pine had been writing notes down as Blum was speaking. “Okay, you’ve given me a lot to use as possible passwords.”

She worked away for several hours after using a program on her computer to put together a graph of possible password combos based on what Blum had told her and also using the names from the file list she’d taken from Priest’s office.

When she had tried the last possible combination, and nothing had worked, she sat back in frustration.

Blum, who had dozed off on her bed, awoke a minute later. Rain was drumming down on the roof of the one-story motel.

“No luck, I take it?” Blum said groggily.

“Apparently, his brother’s family wasn’t important enough to warrant being the basis for his all-important password, nor did his list of files have any clues that worked.”

“Well, I’m starving. I saw a diner down the street when we were coming here.”

They drove over, parked behind the building, and went inside.

They ordered their food and sipped their coffees as the rain continued to pour.

Blum looked out at the gloom. “My God, is it always like this here? I’d get suicidal. I need sun.”

“They get rain and then they get sun. And then they get fall and then they get snow.”

Blum shivered. “No thank you. Is that why you moved to the Southwest? For the weather?”

“I almost moved to Montana or Wyoming.”

“My God, do you know how much snow they get?”

“The weather wasn’t the deciding factor.”

“What was then?”

“I already told you. The people or lack thereof.” She glanced over at Blum, who had her coffee cup halfway to her lips. Pine explained further, “I don’t like crowds.”

“How would you define a crowd?”

“Pretty much anyone other than myself.”

“Well, I’m sorry if I’m crowding you then,” said Blum, sounding a bit hurt.

“Actually, Carol, I sort of consider us one unit, so when I say me, I include you, and vice versa.”

“You know, when I had six kids at home, and several of them still in diapers, I longed to be by myself, for just a few minutes, even. It seemed like every second of my life, someone was calling my name, demanding that I do something for them.”

“And now?” asked Pine curiously.

“Now, I live by myself. I wake up alone. I eat alone. I go to bed alone.” She glanced at Pine over her coffee cup. “I wouldn’t recommend it, I really wouldn’t. Crowd or no crowd. Sometimes it’s as simple as another human being keeping your feet warm in bed, or fetching you some aspirin because your head is splitting. I mean, really.”

Their food arrived and they ate in silence, each lost in her own thoughts.

As they finished up Blum said, “What are you thinking about?”

“The case. My career. Whether either or both are over.”

“You ever think about a career outside the Bureau?”

“No.”

“I’m a Leo. The lion. We’re stubborn control freaks with a streak of kindness. But we adapt. I think you can, too. Are you a Leo? Or are you another sign?”

Pine stared at her without answering.

“I said are you—” began Blum. She froze when Pine jumped up and threw some cash down on the table for their meals.

“Let’s go.”

“What’s up?” said Blum as she and Pine raced back to the motel.

“In answer to your question, I’m a Capricorn.”