Countdown - Iris Johansen [112]
A moment later Trevor was back with Jane, opening the cockpit door. “Now we have to get the hell out of here. Give me your phone.” She handed it to him. “We’ll have Kimbrough fly low and eject them over the Atlantic as soon as we get airborne. I’ll have Brenner arrange to get us other satellite phones when we reach Colorado.”
“They can trace our phones that closely?”
“It’s an electronic world, and there are spy satellites used by all the agencies. They can zoom in on practically anything. They probably have a fix on us now.” He said to Kimbrough, “We’ve got to get moving. See if you can hurry up the tower.” He closed the cockpit door and turned back to her. “Sit down and buckle up.”
She nodded but didn’t move. She felt dazed and was trying to take in the implications of what had happened. “Can we get Venable to explain everything to them, get them off our back?”
“He’s probably talked until he’s blue in the face. Homeland Security is all-powerful these days, and sometimes they don’t play well with others.” He grimaced. “And like he said, he did warn you.”
“Then we can’t count on the CIA’s help,” she said slowly. “And we don’t know anyone at Homeland Security; we can’t count on them believing anything we say or letting us do anything but what they tell us to do. We’re on our own.”
“That about covers it.” He raised his brows. “But then, we were pretty much on our own before.”
“But we had Venable for a strong backup. I felt safer.”
“It’s not as if we won’t try to bring them back in as soon as we zero in on Reilly.” He added, “Of course, we could call Homeland Security and tell them to meet our plane if you’d rather forget about Jock and put yourself in their capable hands.”
“No!”
“I didn’t think so.” He opened the cockpit door. “Try to get some sleep. I have to get Kimbrough to change our flight plan. We’ll get fuel in Detroit, and I’ll call Bartlett and see if Eve was able to keep Homeland Security from making a raid on MacDuff’s Run.”
17
Trevor placed the call from Detroit to MacDuff’s Run only minutes before they were due to take off.
He turned away from the phone booth. “No sign of anyone at the Run. And since it’s been several hours, we’re probably in the clear.”
“Thank heavens.”
“Thank Eve and her friend John Logan.” He was striding toward the plane. “But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to pick us up if they can trace us. We’re on their turf and violating it to boot. They’re not going to be as cooperative as Venable was.” He made a face. “I never thought I’d be wistful about losing Venable.”
“Because you could control him,” Jane said.
“No, because, believe it or not, I respected him.” He smiled faintly as he followed her up the steps. “And, yes, I could control him. I hope to hell the bastard didn’t get in trouble with Sabot.”
The chalet was a small three-bedroom bungalow nestled between two mountains. It was one of several cottages scattered around an ice-covered lake.
Jock got out of the rental car, his gaze on the front door. “I remember this place.”
“You should,” MacDuff said. “It’s not been that long.” He strode up the stairs and unlocked the door.
“Do you remember where you were when he found you?” Jane asked Jock as she got out of the car.
“Doctors.” Jock slowly climbed the stairs. “They didn’t understand. They wouldn’t let me— Blood . . . They strapped me to the bed and wouldn’t let me do what I had to do.”
“Because it was wrong,” Jane said. “To take your life is wrong.”
He shook his head.
“Leave him alone,” Trevor said as he and Mario got out of the car. “Let him get his bearings.”
Jane nodded. “I wasn’t pushing.” She made a face. “Well, I didn’t mean to push. It just sort of happened.”
“Jock and I will share the first bedroom off the living room,” MacDuff said over his shoulder. “There’s an office with a Murphy bed down the hall. And another bedroom with twin beds adjoining it. You decide among you who sleeps where.”
“I don’t think we should be here at all,