“I’ve got a boat tied up about two hundred yards down from the dock.”
“Aren’t they patrolling the water?”
“Yes, but once we get to the boat I’ll hide you under some tarp. When they see it’s me, they won’t bother us.”
“Let’s go then.”
Whitfield put up a hand. “Not so fast. I’ve seen the grid search they have in place. As soon as they clear one area we enter it. We’ll work our way backward to the river.”
“Where’s Michelle?”
“No clue.”
“She was under the truck when it left Camp Peary.”
Whitfield looked stunned for a moment and then his features turned grim. “Shit.”
“Was it heroin they brought in on that plane? And the Arabs? Who were they?”
Whitfield brandished his weapon threateningly. “Look, King, I don’t owe you or anyone else an explanation about jackshit. I’m here to save your neck and maybe right a few wrongs. Don’t make me reconsider my decision.”
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 soare
d 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.”