Sweepers (57 page)

She nodded wordlessly, remembering very well, the urge to grab the thing in he& pocket almost overwhelming. But he had one, too. She took one step, then another.

Keep coming. Straight ahead. You’re going through a doorway. That’s good. Now stop. Feel behind you. Find the door. Shut it.

Karen felt behind her, encountered what felt like a vertical sheet of plywood, and swung it shut behind her back. The voice moved closer.

Now, step sideways. More. Once more. Good. Stop. Now, there’s a lot of debris in here. I’m going to open a trapdoor.

Keep your eyes shut. Step -carefully. Take two steps forward.

There will be steps going down right in front of you. As you start down the steps, you can open your eyes. There’ll be a strobe light. Go down the stairs andfind von Rensel.

She did as she was told, opening her eyes on the second step down, then immediately squinting again as the red strobe light penetrated. She put up a hand and tried to see into what looked like a large basement, but the dazzling strobe made it very difficult. But she did see Train, hunched against a side wall, and Sherman, sitting down in the middle of the floor. She didn’t see Jack with the gun in his hand until she got to the bottom of the steps. He gestured for her to get over against the wall and move down to where Train stood, looking like an angry bear ready to spring out at something. Not looking back, she moved across the cement floor and took Train’s hand. It was all she could do not to hug him, but the tension in his hand reminded her of where she was. She turned around when the trapdoor banged shut, and the silhouette of Galantz came down the steps, disappearing into the penumbra of the pulsing red light.

Sherman was just sitting there, not looking at anything.

She thought she could smell gunsmoke in the basement. A small generator was putt-putting away inside the remains of an old furnace. Galantz was saying something.

Jack. Come over here, next to me.

Jack obeyed quickly, keeping the gun in his hand pointed out into the middle distance between Sherman and Train.

He moved over to the stairway and stood just below where Galantz was perched above him on the steps.

Hey. Sherman. Look over here. It’s time tofinish this.

Sherman looked up slowly, as if he had been asleep. He turned his head to face the strobe light. “I can’t see,” he said. Karen felt Train tensing up even more. Galantz apparently sensed it, too. She saw the .45 pointed at them in the next flash of red light.

Sit still, von Rensel, and your lady friend there won’t get hurt.

Yourjob here is to listen and watch, nothing more.

“I can’t see,” Sherman said again.

Yes you can. Recognize your son, Jack here, don’t you, Admiral? He sure as hell recognizes you. You do know he’s been helping me all along with this, don’t you? That he hates you just about as much as I do?

Sherman put a hand up to his face to shield his eyes against the light, but he said nothing. The two of them, Galantz and Jack, had merged into a single shadow right next to the pulsing strobe light.

You two over there, listen up. Did Yellowbelly here tell you why I’ve hunted him down?

“Yes,” Train said. “He failed to rrfake a pickup when his boat ran into a mining ambush.” That what he’said? “Failed to make a pickup”?

“You didn’t make the rendezvous, and then they ran into the ambush.”

Oh, but I did make the rendezvous, didn’t I, Sherman? I saw you at the controls, when that mine went off. And you saw me, too, didn’t you?

Didn’t you, Sherman?

The admiral, still squinting into the light, said nothing.

Galantz leaned forward and fired the .45 again, this time down onto the concrete floor an inch from Sherman’s hand.

The admiral yelled and spun sideways as the bullet went spanging around the stone walls. Train pushed Karen down to the floor and tried to cover her from the ricochet round.

Amazingly, through all the noise, she thought she heard Jack laughing.

The pulsing light clearly illuminated the gunsmoke in front of the strobe.

Right, Sherman? Answer me, you yellow bastard!

The admiral was picking himself up off the floor, and then he stood up, his legs obviously shaky.

“Yes,” Sherman whispered.

Yes what? Tell them!

“I did see you. You were there.”

Where did you see me?

“Under a mangrove tree.”

But you ran away, didn’t you? Answer me-goddamn your eyes!

A moment of silence. “Yes.”

Train helped Karen get back up. She tried to control her shaking knees.

Her hand brushed over her pocket, and she slipped it inside.

But that’s not what the final investigation said. It said the SEAL never showed The SEAL never made the rendezvous.

Missing and presumed lost. Isn’t that what it said, Sherman.?

“I did tell them.”

Bullshit! Because if you’d told them that, your precious career would have been down the tubes, wouldn’t it? Panicked underfire and left a guy behind. No starsfor that kind of cowardly shit, are there, Sherman?

“I did tell them. They didn’t want to hear it.”

See, Jack, you were right all along. Your daddy here is not only a coward but a liar, too. Hey, Sherman, know what? Jackie here remembers the night I came to see you.

Used to have bad dreams about it. Because he knew, even as a little kid, that his daddy had done something wrong.

But you didn’t give a shit, because you never liked him very much, did you, Daddykins?

Sherman sighed. “I was wrong about that. Jack, I was wrong about a lot of things. About your mother, about-“

“Don’t you even talk about my mother, you bastard,” Jack hissed. “It’s because of you that she’s dead.”

Sherman looked up, raising his hand again to shield his eyes against the strobe. He started to say something, but Jack cut him off. “I was there, you bastard. Did you know that? I was there when she did it. Took that damned gun and blew a hole in her head.”

Sherman seemed to shrink when he heard that. He shook his head. “I didn’t know that, Jack. They didn’t tell-“

Jack cut him off again. “They wouldn’t even let me see her. Goddamned cops took me away, never let me see her.

And you didn’t even come, did you? Away somewhere, being really busy and important with all your Navy shit.” Sherman said nothing just hung his head.

Tell him, Sherman.

The admiral snapped his head around and stared into the light, but then he began to shake his head slowly. Galantz said it again, raising the Colt for emphasis. “Tell me ‘ what?” Jack said.

Karen held her breath as Sherman hesitated. Then he said it. “She’s not dead, Jack.”

There was absolute silence in the room except for the muttering of the generator. Even in the strobe light, Karen could see that Jack was stunned.

Give me that gun. He’s mine, and I don’t. want you doing anything to screw that up. Give it here. That’s a boy. Good.

Now ask him where she is, Jack. Ask him what really happened to your mother.

Sherman nodded slowlyhis gaunt face a study in defeat.

He told Jack where his mother was, and in what condition.

Jack just stared at him, openmouthed. Karen began to feel sick to her stomach. Train put his hands on her shoulders, and she flinched when she saw Galantz looking.

You two getting all this, are you? Because that’s why you’re here. When we’re done here, you’re going to be the only ones who know the whole story, once all those people outside do what they came to do. It’s going to be interesting, living with this knowledge. Life’s all about choices, isn’t it?

Well, I’m going to leave you two with some interesting choices. But we’re not done here yet. Not quite done yet.

Jack, step over there, against the wall, would you?

Jack looked up over the strobe light, a puzzled look on his face, and then straightened up when he saw the Colt pointed into his face. Sherman started to move forward, but he froze when the .45 swung his way.

You know what’scoming next, don’t you, Mr. High-and Mighty Admiral? I killed your woman, and I killed your best friend in the whole world. And I made your only son an accomplice, not that he resisted. Now you’ve surelyfigured out how this thing is going to end right?

“Don’t,” Sherman began.

“Hey, man,” Jack said, his voice uncertain. “What are we doing here? Do him! You said you would. You even said I could watch. You don’t want to do him, then I sure as hell do!”

Galantz laughed. Karen shuddered at the horrible sound coming through the electronic voice box.

Sherman had his hands up. “Don’t do this. Shoot me instead. But let him go.”

Ah. Choices again. What do you think of that, Jack? Him for you?

“You’re gonna shoot me?” Jack asked in a plaintive voice. “I thought-“

“Jack, listen to me,” Sherman said, the words tumbling out of his mouth.

“I know you think I’ve despised you all these years. That I despised your mother, too. That’s not true. I know I didn’t do this right. I was wrong. All those years, I was wrong. My career was all I thought about.

That was wrong.”

Jack just looked at him, his mouth working soundlessly.

Karen saw tears in Sherman’s eyes. Galantz was strangely silent, as if he was enjoying all this.

“That’s why I couldn’t marry Elizabeth Walsh, Jack. I’ve been going to see your mother every weekend in that hospice for many, many years.

Elizabeth never knew. I told her I had to work those weekends. She had no idea. The Navy never knew. Galen Schmidt didn’t even know. I’ve paid a price, too, son. Not like she has,’but I’ve paid.”

“Jack,” Karen spoke up. “Don’t you see it? This bastard never was your friend. He’s used you. He stumbled across you in recon school, and he realized he had the way to get back at your father. That’s been the plan all along, Jack: to use you and then kill you, too, to complete his revenge.”

But Jack wasn’t listening. He was staring at his father, his expression unreadable in the pulsing red light. Sherman was pleading with him.

“I don’t hate you, Jack. I … I love you, son. I forgive you for helping this … this thing to kill those people. I’m asking you to forgive me for the way I treated you and your mother. Please.”

Galantz stood up behind the light. So, Jackie boy. what’s it going to be?

Jack looked from Galantz to his father and then back again.

“You were gonna shoot me?”

That’s right, Jack. But now your father’s made a more interesting offer.

All along, I’ve wanted him to live with the knowledge that Id taken everything of value to him. But maybe I ought to let you decide, Jack You said you were ready to do him Are you, Jackie boy?

Karen, holding Train’s arm with her left hand, gripped it twice, trying to alert him that she was going to do something. Train was staring at Jack, but then he was looking sideways at her, trying not to attract Galantz’s attention. She felt with her thumb over the smooth plastic surface of the disrupter, searching for the big round button. She found it and pushed it once. She felt a tiny vibration, which stopped after two seconds. Then she moved her thumb over to the sharp, smaller button and began to extract the disrupter from her pocket.

C’mon, Jack We have an offer on the table. His life for yours. This is even better. You choose him he dies knowing you did it. Or you could choose yourseii,’Jack. Make him live with it. What do you think Jack?

Life been that good for you?

Karen tried very hard to move her arm without showing movement, but it took supreme concentration, and that damned pulsing light was driving her nuts. Jack kept looking at his father, then at Galantz. His hands moved.

Hey, Jackie, not thinking about making a move here, Jack? Did you forget something? I’ve got your gun, Jack.

Galantz held up both hands, Karen’s Colt in his right and Jack’s bulky automatic in the other hand. The red light glinted off the goggled mask he was wearing.

Karen had the disrupter just about out of her pocket as Galantz pointed the .45 over at Jack. Then she screamed and pulled hard on Train’s arm, spinning him around, away from the disrupter, which she raised and pointed right at Galantz’s face and his light-intensifying nightvision goggles.

NO-0-0-O! the voice box squalled, the guns starting to swing around, and then there was that terrible ripping blast of light. Karen closed her eyes at the last possible instant, and then Train was pulling Karen and himself flat onto the concrete as there came a barrage of gunfire, the blasts from Galantz’s two guns hammering against their brains in the confined space, the whine and howl of bullets smacking stone and . wood and concrete, and even the furnace. Karen tried to melt into the concrete floor with each blast, every shot punctuated by a high keening noise from the steps.

Then came a sudden silence, followed by the sound of the trapdoor opening and banging shut. She realized that the strobe light had stopped and that the room was in total darkness. She couldn’t hear anything after the intense hammering of the gunfire in the enclosed space.

Train rolled off her and they clutched each other on the concrete, coughing in all the smoke. They heard a moan from the direction of where Jack had been standing, and an ominous gurgling noise coming from where Sherman had been. As the strobe light died, Karen realized the generator had been hit, its smooth puttering sound replaced by a distinct knocking sound. She wanted to call out, but she was afraid to. Her ears hurt from all the gunfire.

Train was signaling her with his hands to move with him, away from where they had been when the strobe light had last been on. The smoke was very strong, but she realized it wasn’t gunsmoke. It was -something else.

Then they both found out precisely what: There was a bright orange glare accompanied by a whoomping noise from behind them as the generator burst into flames. But at least now they could see.

Sherman was down on the floor, both his hands to his head, and there was a shiny black pool of blood around his hands and head. Jack was slumped against the wall, his eyes open. He was holding his stomach and breathing through his moutfi’ There was a pool of blood expanding beneath his legs. Karen crawled first to Sherman, then turned to check Jack. Train ran for the steps and tested the trapdoor, but it was either blocked or locked.’He had to jump down off the steps because of the bank of dense oily smoke that was accumulating along the ceiling of the basement. The diesel-oil fire in the furnace was gathering strength.