One Rough Man - Brad Taylor [110]
He gave each of the men a call, telling them he had a job and the time to show up at the office if they were interested. He then began building a target package on both Jennifer and Pike. In the back of his mind, he thought about the money he’d make and the chance to get out. To get away from people like Standish. Maybe I’ll get my check and smoke him for free. Help out the country.
67
I waited until I was outside of Fredericksburg, on Interstate 95 about forty-five minutes south of Washington, D.C., before I made the call. I had Jennifer dial the number on our new TracFone, then hand it to me. A man answered on the third ring.
I said, “Ethan, hey, it’s Pike Logan. How’re you doing?”
There was a pregnant pause. I’m sure he was getting over the initial shock of hearing my voice. I looked over at Jennifer, raised my eyebrow, and tilted the phone so she could hear.
“Pike? What’s up? How’re you doing?”
“Hey, nothing like a call from the past. I’m fine. I’m going to be in D.C. tonight, and I thought I’d drop by for a visit.”
Ethan was an analyst inside the Taskforce. As such, he was support. Ordinarily, there was an unofficial separation between operators and direct support personnel, but I had always thought the distinction was bullshit, and had hit it off with Ethan. Being a geographic bachelor whenever I was in D.C., I had dinner with Ethan’s family about twice a month. The last time I had seen him was in the mission brief for the operation in Tbilisi.
Since my implosion, Ethan hadn’t said two words to me. It would do him no good to take sides on my demise, and so he had taken the route of discretion being the better part of valor. I didn’t blame him, although I could hear the wariness in his voice as I finally convinced him to let us come by.
Jennifer, having heard my end of the conversation, said, “That’s a friend? Don’t get mad, but out of curiosity, how bad were you when you left? What happened?”
“About as bad as I was when we first met. You can expect everyone to look at me funny, like a cancer patient who might or might not be in remission. Everyone will be afraid to ask how I am.”
I was surprised to find I was comfortable talking about it. That was a first.
“There wasn’t any big blowout, like a drunk finally killing a carload of kids or something. I just sort of . . . fell apart. The Force did everything they could to help me, but it was all based on me wanting to get better. I didn’t. Eventually, I just left.”
Jennifer appeared lost in thought. She finally said, “You ever think about fate, or destiny? You ever think that God makes things happen for a reason?”
“I think about that all the time. In fact, it tears me up. Why’d you ask?”
She suddenly looked embarrassed and uncomfortable. “Nothing. Nothing at all. I just sometimes wonder.”
I let the silence go for a second, then prodded her. “Wonder what? What were you going to say?”
“Well, what’re the odds of me picking you up at the Windjammer? Me, someone who’s about to get killed, picking up you, the one person with the skills to prevent it? Think about it, what are the odds that we’d collide at all? Given the entire United States? Shit, given just the city of Charleston? It’s just weird, is all. It’s a perfect storm. It makes me think.”
“So what’s the reason for this? Besides my company, I mean?”
“Maybe saving a lot of lives.”
68
Later, after the settling in at the hotel, I decided it was time to get moving. “It looks like we have a few hours before we need to link up with Ethan. I’m going to the Taskforce Headquarters to leave a note for Kurt along with our cell phone numbers.” I paused, not wanting a fight. “No offense, but I can’t take you there. I have to go alone.”
She smiled. “Come on. I’m not that big of a jerk, am I? I understand. I’ll just hang around here. No big deal.”
No way was I going to resist that opening. “No, no. That’s not what I meant. Jerk isn’t what