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kids, too."
Sarah watched Michael looking at Kleinschmidt, not liking what she saw in his
eyes.
"I'll get somebody to take the boat out and scuttle her," Mary Beth said.
"No you don't," Sarah told her. "I'm just a taxi service. Harmon was wounded,
I brought him here. I hope nobody minds if I stay for a little while, let my
children rest a little. But then I'm leaving."
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"We're both leaving," Harmon entered.
Sarah looked up at him, watching his eyes. She didn't know if she liked what
she saw there.
"Then you get it down into the shallows along the beach there." Mary Beth
pointed to the left with her pistol. "And get her moored and camouflage it.
Them Russians see a boat here, they're gonna come lookin' for us for sure."
"Agreed," Sarah shouted back.
"Come on then," Mary Beth said, smiling for the first time. "I'll give you a
hand and watch the kids. Some of the girls here can help you with Harmon,
gettin' him up to the cave. Then I guess we can all give you a hand with the
boat. Come on." She started toward Michael and Annie, Michael's arm going
around his sister's shoulders, his feet moving back across the sand. Mary Beth
looked at Michael and Annie. "Suit yourself, boy. Just follow everybody else
then."
"See," Harmon Kleinschmidt whispered. "It's gonna be fine."
Sarah just looked at him. He was the only fully grown man on the island and
couldn't take more than two steps without someone holding him up. She shook
her head, shivering a little, not thinking it was going to be fine at all.
Chapter 33
John Rourke waited in the shadows by the corner of the building, watching.
Chambers had called the emergency meeting, not announcing Rourke's arrival but
did reveal the presence of Sissy Wiznewski. Chambers had announced to his
advisers that disaster in Florida was imminent; he told them everything that
had nothing to do with Rourke's plan to flush the traitor. Prior to the
meeting, Chambers had selected eleven men, Rourke making the twelfth. The
eleven had been chosen from Army Intelligence, men Chambers knew Reed
personally trusted.
The meeting finally broke up. Rourke waited. On mere chance, he had selected
to follow Randall Soames, commander of the Texas Volunteer Militia. Each of
the other men would also follow one of the advisers. If someone left the
compound, it would be almost a dead giveaway that this person were the
traitor, Rourke had determined.
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As he studied the compound, looking for some sign of Soames, Rourke wished it
were merely as simple as finding the traitor. But once the traitor was
recognized, it would be necessary to follow him to his contact, his radio,
whatever means he used to notify the Soviets. And through that chain Rourke
could contact Varakov. Already time was running out and there was little hope
of an evacuation, however limited.
Rourke turned up the collar of his coat, the wind cold on his neck. He'd left
the pistol belt with the Python and the CAR-15 with his bike. As he closed the
leather jacket he checked the twin Detonics .45s in the double Alessi rig
under the coat they were secure, with spare magazines for the pistols on his
trouser belt in friction retention speed pouches.
Cold still, Rourke hunkered back into the niche in the wall beside which he
stood, then stopped. Randall Soames, dressed in a pair of Levis, a black
Stetson and a western-style plaid shirt, was walking across the compound
toward the gates. It was almost too easy, Rourke thought. As soon as Soames
disappeared through the gates, Rourke took off at a dead run after him,
reaching the gates, nodding to the guard there and looking down the road.
Soames was walking. Rourke turned to the guard. Both the Intelligence people
and the MPs were under Reed. "Did he say where he was going, Corporal?"
"No, sir just for a walk, I guess. He does that a lot, but so do some of the
others."
"How long is he usually gone?"
"You're Mr. Rourke, aren't you?"
"That's right, son," Rourke told him.
"Maybe half an hour. But if he were going anyplace on foot, the only place he
could make in that amount of time and get back would be the town. It's
abandoned now, and there wouldn't be time for him to do anything except turn
around and walk right back."
"He always walks that way?" Rourke said, pointing down the road.
"Leastways every time I've seen him, sir."
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"Thanks, Corporal." Rourke smiled, starting down the road after Soames,
hugging the compound wall until the man disappeared over the rise. Then he
started running as fast as he could, getting to the rise and dropping down
beside the road.
Randall Soames wasn't walking quickly, wasn't turning around nothing
suspicious. Rourke waited. Maybe all Soames was doing was going for a walk
for a man his age he looked reasonably fit, and riding a desk all day could
make any man antsy. He watched Soames pass over the next rise there wasn't
even a weapon visible. Rourke couldn't see anyone going out these days unarmed
unless he were a complete fool.
Rourke ran ahead to the next rise, barely catching sight of Soames as he [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]