Simple Genius

Chapter 85

Michelle ditched the Mercedes before hitting the main road leading to Babbage Town and struck out through the woods to the river with Viggie in tow. On the drive over Viggie had explained how someone had come into her bedroom and pressed something against her face. The next thing she knew she was tied up and in the back of the plane.

Before plunging into the woods Michelle saw a stream of black Suburbans hurtling down the road to Babbage Town; Merkle Hayes’s police cruiser was leading the procession. At least the cavalry was here.

Michelle and Viggie skirted the banks of the York, keeping low because there was enough activity on the water to tell Michelle that something had happened.

The pair slipped and slid on the wet embankments of the York, but finally made it within the grounds of Babbage Town. Michelle looked to the sky as a plane soared overhead. It was soon out of sight and she turned her attention back to the enemies she faced on the ground. She had tried Sean’s cell phone before remembering he’d left it at Babbage Town. Then she had an inspiration. She called Horatio. He answered on the first ring and she succinctly explained what had happened including the fact that she had Viggie.

To his credit he didn’t ask a single question other than, “Where can I pick you up?”

They made it to the river and a few minutes later Horatio pulled up to the shore in the Formula Bowrider.

“I anchored down in a cove near here,” he explained. “I was hoping somebody would call me. Where’s Sean?”

“I don’t kn—” Michelle had glanced over her shoulder back at the woods. “Sean!”

A wave of relief poured over her as Sean King emerged from the trees. An instant later this relief was replaced with terror as she spotted Ian Whitfield and his machine gun. She pointed her gun at his head. “Let him go!”

“It’s okay, Michelle,” Sean called out. “He’s here to help.”

“Bullshit,” she roared.

“He saved my life.”

Whitfield said, “I hear you’re a hell of a shot, Maxwell.” He stepped forward and tossed her the MP5. “You better be.”

Michelle caught the gun in one hand, her pistol still trained on the man, but her look of suspicion had faded. She said to Sean, “What is going on?”

“Babbage Town is crawling with Camp Peary guys armed to the teeth and Alicia tried to kill me.”

“I called the cops,” Michelle said. “They’re at Babbage Town.”

Sean glanced over her shoulder. “Viggie?”

The girl shyly waved back at him.

Whitfield looked at Horatio and the Formula boat. “What’s this?”

“Friend of ours,” Sean replied. “Come on.” He started to climb in the boat.

“No!” Whitfield exclaimed. “That boat won’t cut it out there. Follow me.”

They all made their way along the shore and boarded the RIB that Whitfield had tethered to a piling sticking out of the water. He had the four lie on the deck and put a tarp over them.

Sean popped his head back out and brandished his gun. “FYI, you try to screw us you get one right in the head.”

The storm had quickly settled in with force; the river was starting to pitch and heave and the rain shot out of the dark skies. Michelle took a moment to pop out from the under the tarp, grab a life jacket and put it on Viggie.

They had not gone far when another boat approached them. From under the tarp Sean heard Whitfield mutter a curse, which he did not take as an encouraging sign. His hand tightened on his gun.

The other boat was far larger than the RIB Whitfield was piloting and there were ten armed men aboard, and someone else.

Sean flinched when he heard the person’s voice: “Where have you been, Ian?” Valerie Messaline said.

“Babbage Town. Looks like someone called the cops.”

“And who might have done that?” the woman said coolly.

“Whoever broke into Camp Peary would be my guess,” Whitfield replied. “But whoever did it doesn’t matter. The cat’s out of the bag. You have to pull out. Now.”

“I don’t think so,” she said. “Why don’t you take some of the men and head down the river in your boat? Whoever breached us might have tried to get away in that direction.”

“No, I think you should take your crew and head to Babbage Town. Looks like our boys will need all the help they can get. I’m going back to Camp Peary and try to do some damage control there.”

While he was speaking Valerie had been looking at his vessel. As she glanced up there was a smile of triumph on her features. She said, “Your boat’s riding a little low in the water to just have one person on it, Ian.”

Whitfield throttled his vessel forward and smashed into the side of the other craft, knocking two of the men overboard and Valerie off her feet.

Whitfield rammed the RIB into reverse, props spinning half out of the water, and the boat surged backward. He slammed the throttle forward and the craft shot ahead. Shots fired by Valerie’s men pinged off the water and put holes in the RIB’s hull.

“Could use some help up here,” Whitfield called out.

Sean and Michelle threw off the tarp and came up while Horatio stayed low with his arms protectively around Viggie. The larger boat was racing after them. As gunshots zipped past them, Sean and Michelle ducked and then returned fire. Michelle strafed the other vessel’s bow with her MP5.

Whitfield cried out, “Conserve your ammo, I’ve only got two extra mags for the MP and one for each pistol.” He tossed Michelle another machine gun clip.

They were doing over a hundred kilometers an hour, the craft bouncing in nauseating leaps across the river as the wind picked up. The swells had quickly boiled to well over a meter in height.

Sean took careful aim and fired four rounds. Only at this distance and firing from what amounted to a trampoline, a pistol was not very effective.

“So can I ask a stupid question,” Sean called out to Whitfield.

“You can ask,” Whitfield called back.

“Can you tell us why your little woman is trying to kill you and us?”

Whitfield navigated across a particularly difficult wave and barked, “She’s not my wife. She’s my boss.”

Sean gaped at him. “Your boss! What the hell are you talking about? I thought you were the head of Camp Peary?”

“You can think what you want,” Whitfield snapped.

“And you guys are into drug running?”

Whitfield said nothing.

Sean said, “And what about the Arabs on the plane?”

Whitfield shook his head. “Not going there.”

“And did Alicia kill Len Rivest?”

Silence.

Sean snapped, “The woman almost killed me, and would have except for you. Which is the only reason I’m not making a citizen’s arrest on your ass.”

“And Champ?” Michelle asked. “Does he work for CIA?”

Whitfield said, “Let’s just worry about surviving the next ten minutes.”

“They’re gaining,” Michelle cried out as she glanced behind them.

“Their engines are twice the size of mine,” Whitfield said over his shoulder as he braced himself. “Now hold on.”

“What the hell do you think we’ve been do—?” Sean couldn’t finish because Whitfield somehow managed to cut a ninety-degree turn in the water while going full throttle. Sean would’ve gone over the side if Michelle hadn’t clamped a hand on him as he slid by her. She had her legs scissored around Viggie just in case Horatio couldn’t hold her.

“Mick!” Viggie screamed out.

“I’ve got you, Viggie, you’re not going anywhere.”

Whitfield put on a burst of speed and the RIB shot toward the opposite shore, heading directly toward the inlet into Camp Peary. They zoomed past a gauntlet of lighted beacons five hundred yards from shore that warned of extreme danger for persons trespassing here, and Sean had every reason to believe they meant it. They next roared past two boats stationed at the entrance to the inlet. The men on board leveled weapons at them, including a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, but when they saw who it was, they lowered their ordnance and just stared with bewildered looks. Whitfield actually had the gall to salute them.

Whitfield cut the RIB to the left and then the right, seemingly avoiding invisible obstacles in the water while he kept glancing at a lighted screen on his console.

“They’re still gaining,” Michelle called out. Then she paled even more. “They’re going to fire a rocket,” she screamed. The man in the bow of the chase boat was indeed putting them in the crosshairs of his weapon.

Viggie yelled in terror.

Michelle barked, “Horatio, do not let her go!”

Whitfield eyed one spot in the water and seemed to be timing something. What he was timing was a wave. “Hold the hell on,” he roared.

Sean and Michelle dropped to the deck and held on to anything they could find, including each other.