Silent Waters

Chapter 57

Mako closed the door to the airplane behind him. The seat nearest to the door had been saved for him. He sat down and buckled up. The lights in the cabin were off. There were empty seats, and the others were scattered throughout the small plane. Some of the men had died, some lived. That was the nature of this line of business. It was the risk they all took. Mako wasn’t going to lose any sleep over it.

He looked through the small window at Kilo, who was now leaning against his car, cell phone again held to his ear. Another phone call. Mako took his own cell phone out of his pocket and took a look at the display. No missed calls. He put the phone back in his pocket.

One of the men sitting behind him was listening to a news station on the radio. One specific word caught Mako’s attention. He peered over his shoulder. “What was it they just said?”

“Dead or alive. They are talking about the rescue on Hartford. They don’t know how many are dead or how many are alive.”

Mako turned around in his seat and looked out the window again. Kilo was getting into the station wagon.

There’d been too many screw-ups with this operation. Hartford was supposed to sink to the bottom of the Sound. There weren’t supposed to be any survivors. A dead Darius McCann was supposed to take the rap for planning it. A few things had gone wrong and a few things had gone right.

The plane began rolling toward the end of the runway.

Mako tried to look at this entire operation through the eyes of those who’d hired him. The job was done. The three survivors were a problem, but they were being taken care of by Kilo. A bigger problem was that everyone knew they’d gotten away. That wasn’t good. They’d be found. For the people that hired him, dead would be better than alive.

At the end of the runway, the pilot revved the engines. Mako looked out the small window. The taillights of the station wagon were disappearing down the dirt drive that led to the main road.

“Hold on,” he said, tapping the pilot on the back. He unbuckled his seatbelt and opened the door. “I’m getting out.”