Countdown - Iris Johansen [111]
“We don’t have a choice.” She paused. “Unless you decide to give us something to negotiate with.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. I’m not callous. I don’t want to cause a catastrophe like 9/11. But I have to have my chance at those sons of bitches.” He leaned back in the seat and closed his eyes. “Now I’m going to take a nap. So don’t keep jabbing at me. It’s not going to work.”
“I’ll keep jabbing and jabbing and jabbing,” she said. “Maybe sometime in a moment of mental clarity you’ll realize that chance isn’t worth the price.”
He didn’t answer and kept his eyes closed. He was obviously going to ignore her.
Well, let him, she thought. She’d get her opportunity to nag at him when they reached Colorado. She smiled ruefully at the thought. MacDuff had accused her of pushing Jock, and now she was doing the same to Mario. Evidently her period of self-doubt had vanished with those words Trevor had spoken.
No, those words had warmed her, but she had bounced back quickly because that was her nature. All her life indecision had been the enemy. You had to go forward, not take a step back or stay in place. She didn’t know any other way.
So to the devil with MacDuff and Mario. She’d do what she’d always done. She’d try to shape her world to suit herself. It was the only way to—
“Come with me.” Trevor was standing beside her. “I need to talk to you.”
“Why should—” She broke off as she saw his expression, and got to her feet and followed him toward the cockpit. “Problem?”
“Maybe.” His lips were tight. “I just got a call from Venable. He said one sentence and hung up: ‘Sorry, I warned her.’”
“What’s that supposed to—”
“Call Eve,” he said. “Now. See if she knows anything.”
She dialed the number. “Eve, Jane. Something odd is—”
“Hang up,” Eve said curtly. “And get out of there. Joe just found out that Homeland Security is taking over and pushing the CIA out of the picture. They’re planning on scooping up everyone at MacDuff’s Run, questioning you all, and conducting their own investigation.”
“Shit, they can’t do that. It would tip off Grozak and tie our hands.”
“It’s going to happen. John Logan tried to talk them out of it, but he did his job of stirring them up too well. They’re panicky about looking bad if they don’t take some action. Get off the phone. Our line is bugged and they’ll trace you.”
“Good. Then they’ll realize that we’re not at MacDuff’s Run any longer. It would be senseless for them to pour into the castle and try to arrest us.”
“No arrest, just quest—”
“It’s the same difference. They’ll tie our hands. And we can’t afford that right now. We have a chance, Eve.” She glanced at Trevor. “I’m going to hang up and have Trevor call you. They can trace him and tell he’s not at the Run either. Try to get through to someone at Homeland Security and tell them that they’re going to blow everything for nothing.”
“They’ve heard you tell them,” Eve said. “And I’ll have John put it to them in the way they understand best. A monumental blunder will stick them right smack in the political hot seat. It may keep them away from the Run, but don’t count on it stopping them from trying to find you. Keep safe.” She hung up.
“Call her,” Jane said to Trevor. “Homeland Security’s taken over and bugged her line. We’ve got to try to keep them away from MacDuff’s Run.”
Trevor nodded and dialed his phone. Jane leaned against the wall and listened to him talk to Eve for a few minutes and then hang up. “That should do it. I’ll be right back.”
“Where are you going?”
“To have MacDuff call his government friends in London and have them put all kinds of roadblocks in place to keep Homeland Security from touching the Run. They’d have to have special permission to operate on foreign soil, and they have no concrete proof of any crime. The government isn’t going to want to believe anything bad about MacDuff.”
“That’s right, you said MacDuff was some kind of folk hero.”
“And it may prove to be an ace in the hole.”
She watched him walk