Blue Man shook his head. “I wasn’t given the grand tour. But I had my suspicions because of the briefings I received. It’s drugs, correct?”
“On a big scale. Dolph the neo-Nazi is actually a chemist geek named Arthur Fitzsimmons from Caltech doing his very best impression of Walter White from Breaking Bad. He and Patti are in this together.”
Blue Man frowned. “Claire will be devastated by all this. Devastated.” He slowly shook his head.
Reel said, “Fitzsimmons said they’re closing up shop here and moving somewhere else. They know with all of us disappearing that an army of Feds are going to be converging on this place.”
She fell silent as footsteps approached once more.
Patti reappeared at the door. “It’s time,” she said.
Chapter
68
THEY WERE TAKEN down a series of stairways until it seemed to Robie that they had reached the lowest level of the silo. It was dark, the air dank, but warm. It was hard to breathe down here and he suspected that the air filtration was not really working at this level. There were flickering lights overhead but they gave, at best, a meager portion of light. And farther down the long corridor Robie could see that the light kept diminishing until, at one point, it receded to total darkness.
They neared a doorway when Patti, who had led the group to this point, stopped.
The armed men with them immediately pointed their weapons at the prisoners. Robie glanced at Reel and their looks said it all.
Is this it? The point of our execution?
But no one opened fire, even as a door in the wall opened and Robie, Reel, and Blue Man looked on, surprised, as another group of people joined them.
Three of them were in blue scrubs. Two were male, and the other was a petite woman. All three were Hispanic and they looked terrified.
A fourth person shuffled forward. He was tall and lean with a trim white beard.
Robie recognized him from a photo as JC Parry, the one who had told Blue Man about what Lamarre had seen. Then the man himself stepped out.
Clément Lamarre.
He was thin, with lank hair and a scraggly beard. Both men looked dirty and weak, and Lamarre’s face showed evidence of physical abuse.
Blue Man said, “JC?” He made a move to step forward, but one of the guards thrust a gun muzzle in his face and Blue Man quickly stepped back.
Patti faced off with her father.
“You’re finally reunited with your old friend,” she said, her gaze roaming over his face.
Blue Man stared back at her, a mixture of emotions fighting for supremacy on his features until one finally won out.
Empathy.
“Your mother never told me,” said Blue Man. “I had no idea about…us. I’m sorry.”
Her gaze now held firm on his. “But you’re a very smart man, Mr. Walton. You could have easily figured it out. If you had wanted to. Which you obviously didn’t. So I can’t really accept your apology. Nor do I.”
“I can understand that,” said Blue Man.
“I don’t really care if you do or not.”
Robie interjected, “Where is Valerie Malloy?”
Reel glanced at him and then back at Patti.
Patti said, “Maybe she’s dead. Maybe I shot the sheriff and the deputy.”
Robie appraised her. “No, I don’t think you did. So where is she?”
“I’m here, Robie.”
Malloy appeared from around the corner being pulled along by another guard. She was shackled, and her face was bruised and cut in several places.
She was jerked within a foot of Robie and looked at him. “Good to see you.” Her eyes were watery and unfocused, as though she might have been drugged.
Robie shot Patti a glance. “Why did you take her?”
When Patti said nothing Malloy said slowly, “The boot print at Walton’s cabin. I finally recognized it.”
“It was mine,” said Patti. “Luckily, she told my brother first and he came to me. He just thought I’d been out there looking around after the fact and wanted to confirm that, which I did.”
“Was that the other reason you killed him?” asked Reel.
“What!” barked Malloy, no longer looking unfocused. “You killed Derrick?” She tried to lunge at Patti but the guard held her back.
Reel said to Patti, “What happens now?”
Patti didn’t even look at her. She spoke directly to Blue Man.
“I’ve hunted all of my life. I do it fairly. With respect. Sometimes I win, sometimes the thing I’m hunting does.”
“I’m not following you,” said Robie.
“It doesn’t matter,” said Patti, wiping a bit of dirt off her face. “And I won’t be the one doing the hunting tonight.”
“So does that mean we’re the prey?” asked Reel. “We’re the ones who are going to be hunted?”
She looked at Reel. “I had no beef with you, not really. I sort of liked you. Even admired you. But then you came here. Then you made me kill Derrick.”
“We didn’t make you do anything,” retorted Reel. “You pulled the trigger.”
Patti didn’t even seem to hear her. She looked back at Blue Man. “You’ll have a chance, not much of one I’ll admit. But it’s more than what I had in life. I got stuck in this place. I got stuck with…this.”
“You don’t have to do this, Patti,” said Blue Man. “There are other options available to you.”
She smiled. It made her look vulnerable and even lovely somehow.
And then she slammed her fist into his face. Blue Man staggered back as Robie and Reel moved forward, only to be met by gun muzzles and fingers pulsing on triggers.
As Patti rubbed her injured hand, Blue Man slowly straightened. There was blood pouring down his face from his broken nose.
“I suppose I deserved that,” he said.
“So what?” said Patti. “But it’s what I wanted to do. And so I did it. It’s just how I’m wired.”
She nodded to one of the guards.
And then Patti Bender turned and walked back in the direction from which they’d come. Soon she was out of sight.
Robie looked at the guard expectantly. “She said she hunts fair.”
The guard cracked a smile. “Well, she’s not hunting tonight, like the lady told you.”
“So who is?” asked Robie.
“That would be me.”
They all turned as the man came out of the shadows.
It was Scott Randall.
Chapter
69
RANDALL STEPPED FORWARD. He was wearing cammie gear, jump boots, and a pair of NVGs on his head, though they were tilted upward.
He was also carrying a Remington rifle with an infrared scope, both Robie and Reel noted.
And he was sporting a malicious grin.
“I was hoping we would hook up again at some point,” he said. “We left things…incomplete last time.”
“I thought the outcome was pretty straightforward,” countered Reel. “You and your wife were lying on the dirt with your tails tucked between your legs.”
Randall’s grin faded. He shook his head. “You were maybe going to get a little bit of sympathy from me, lady. But that just went out the door.”
“I don’t need sympathy, certainly not from a dick like you.”
“You need to learn how to keep your fucking mouth shut,” shouted Randall.
Robie said, “Patti mentioned something about being fair?”
Randall turned to him and chuckled. “You’ll be armed. You’ll get a head start. Maybe you’ll pull off a miracle. But I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.”
“Do we get NV optics?” asked Reel.
“That would be a negative,” said Randall. “And just so you know, I won’t be alone.” He called over his shoulder. “Hey, guys, don’t be shy. Come out and show yourselves.”
From the shadows, seven men appeared. They were all tall and muscular with shaved heads and hardened countenances. They
did not appear to share Randall’s cavalier attitude toward what was happening. They said nothing. They held their weapons professionally and stood in the manner of men with military training.