Unmanned

CHAPTER NINE

COLE SLID ONTO the passenger seat, out of breath.

“Well?” Steve asked.

“We need to get moving.”

“What did he say?”

“It can wait. We need to go now, and stay off the toll roads.”

“Never should’ve let you read that fortune cookie. You have any idea how long that’ll take?”

“Bickell’s advice. He was expecting me, okay? He had a whole taping system. The Agency set it up for him yesterday on the off chance I’d show up.”

“Holy shit. Yesterday?”

“Said he’s giving me a twenty-minute head start, then he’s phoning in to report my departure.”

“Fuck!” Steve cranked the engine and threw it into gear, spraying gravel from the shoulder. “Why didn’t you just say so?”

“Go easy,” Cole said. “Last thing we need is to get pulled over by some local cop.”

“But he’s phoning this in? To the CIA?”

“That’s what he said.”

“Sorry, I’ll risk the ticket, at least till we’re back to civilization.”

Steve floored it up the dirt road, raising a dust cloud you could’ve seen for miles. Cole checked the map.

“How much gas we got?” Cole asked.

“Enough for a couple hundred miles.”

“Enough to reach Logan, then. And the bus station for me.”

“Was he any help?”

“He thinks this all started with homing beacons, for targeting Predator strikes. Castle paid some guy named Mansur to place them, then got outbid by black hats or privateers, which led to a bunch of fuckups. Like Sandar Khosh, probably. Now everybody’s looking for Castle and Mansur.”

“Castle’s missing?”

“Bickell’s heard he’s back in the States. Thinks he’s caught in the middle of some Agency power struggle.”

“But he’s still official? Still employed?”

“Maybe. Just not at any level he knows of.”

“What about this guy Mansur?”

“You’ll like his last known whereabouts. Baltimore.”

“You’re shittin’ me.”

“Bickell seems to think there’s an IntelPro connection, although he never actually said so.”

Steve furrowed his brow.

“Doubtful, from what they’ve been telling me.” He shook his head. “But they could be lying. Or Bickell could be full of it. Maybe neither of them knows what the fuck they’re talking about. What a mess.”

“Why else would Mansur be in Baltimore?”

“Family, maybe? Or a Washington connection, somebody who wants to keep him stashed forty miles down the road. Close, but not too close. Where in Baltimore?”

“Some taco shop. The FBI went looking for him at the Agency’s request. No luck, but Bickell thinks they weren’t trying too hard, and maybe that’s the way the Agency wanted it. Or that they found him but agreed to keep it under wraps.”

“The Bureau’s in on this, too?” Steve grinned, and shook his head in appreciation. “Good stuff. Really good. You did well.”

“Thanks. It was mostly him doing the talking.”

“You ask about any other ops?”

“I, uh, didn’t get to some of the stuff on the list.”

“What about Castle’s job description, the Agency’s chain of command over there?”

“No. Sorry. He was off and running with this beacon stuff. I never got back to some of the other things.”

“It’s okay. You’re new to this. You did well.”

But Steve couldn’t mask a note of disappointment. It was clear that he felt Cole could have gotten more, and maybe he was right. Probably was.

Steve sat up straighter behind the wheel.

“Whoa. What’s that up ahead?”

A black SUV had just crested the horizon, barreling toward them in the oncoming lane. Smoked windows made a head count impossible. They tensed as it approached, and exhaled as it whizzed by with a huge snatching sound.

“Not hitting their brake lights, thank God,” Steve said, checking the mirror. “Massachusetts tags.”

“Better than government tags. The Agency or the Bureau would be looking for a car with one guy. Bickell thinks I’m traveling alone. Besides, it’s only been fifteen minutes.”

“You actually believed that shit about a twenty-minute head start? Jesus, listen to me. I’m as paranoid as you.”

“Good. Stay that way.”

From force of habit, Cole craned his neck to check the skies overhead. This time Steve was too busy checking the mirrors to notice.

They drove on in silence.