After the Rain Part 35

As Broker pulled on his jeans and stepped into his shoes he heard a second siren start to wail. Coming out the motel front door he saw the familiar boxy green shape of an ambulance, flashers revolving, heading west on 5. He ran for the Explorer, got in, started up, and took off after the ambulance.

On his way out of town Broker heard and caught the barest glimpse of a red flasher whipping over the fields to the north. Then the lights were gone. Just the sirens ahead of him and to the north. The whole town seemed to echo with sirens.

And he caught some of the old frenzied feeling in his chest. Car chase. Then the adrenaline jag solidified into a dull thump when he saw the ambulance pull into the parking lot of the Missile Park bar...

...and stop next to the dusty red Volvo with the Minnesota plates and the Wellstone b.u.mper sticker. He parked behind the ambulance and got out.

One cop car. A stout county deputy stood on the porch talking to a female EMT. The other EMT hunched over the wheel of the ambulance, absorbing the staccato radio traffic.

The EMT slouched, empty hands hanging at her sides. Her bag sat on the porch. The body language didn't look good, none of that pit-bull intensity of a medic starting in on a casualty. She was waiting.

For a crime lab and a coroner.

Broker came abreast of the Volvo. The window was open on the driver's side, and he saw the blue pack of American Spirits lying on the dash. The brand Nina smoked. He approached the porch and stopped at the steps. He took a breath, held it for a moment, then let it out. "Who's down?" he said.

The deputy and the EMT studied him, put their heads together, and conferred. Then the deputy said, "You're Broker, right? We all heard how Jimmy Yeager went out with you last night."

Broker nodded, still edging toward the door.

"Okay, it's like this. I'm Deputy Vinson. And, Mr. Broker, you can't go in there. We have to keep it sterile for the lab guys."

The EMT stepped forward. She had a short strawberry-blond s.h.a.g, a face dusted with freckles, and vivid blue eyes. She paused. "There's two women that were in town, soldiers..."

Broker's knees started to buckle, the edges of his vision occluded, and he had trouble breathing. He forced the words out: "I'm married to the redhead."

"She's not in there," the EMT said crisply. Broker could see a weight lift from her face. "It's a young woman with very short black hair. And Ace Shuster."

"What happened?" Broker said.

"They think it was a guy named Joe Reed. That's who they're after," the deputy said. Broker toed the gravel, hitched up his belt. "I'd be out there, 'cept the sheriff told me to wait here."

"My wife was with Jane, the dark-haired woman." He pointed to the building. "They went out for breakfast..."

"We don't know much, yet," Vinson said.

Where's Nina? Broker's hands started shaking and he turned and walked back to the Volvo, reached in through the open window, took the pack of cigarettes, removed one, and put it in his lips. Broker's hands started shaking and he turned and walked back to the Volvo, reached in through the open window, took the pack of cigarettes, removed one, and put it in his lips.

He didn't have his lighter.

Vinson came off the porch and popped a Bic. Broker inhaled the comforting poison. Exhaled.

The ambulance driver yelled, "They got him! They're closing in."

They waited, all probably holding their breath. Half a minute pa.s.sed. Another fifteen seconds. They all looked up to the north at the same time. A sound like sheets ripping in the wind.

"Thunder?" the EMT wondered, looking into the fierce blue sky.

Broker and Vinson locked eyes and shook their heads.

Sauer had pulled ahead of Joe's van, but a half-mile of barley separated them. He spotted Yeager coming in a little behind and to the right. First he just saw Yeager's lights, a red streak against the green fields, then the lights erupted in a cloud of dust as Yeager left the pavement and hit the gravel.

"He ain't working no jigsaw to double back west for the rez," Yeager shouted on the radio. Yeager shouted on the radio.

"No s.h.i.+t. He's headed for the border," Sauer shouted into his shoulder mike. Sauer shouted into his shoulder mike.

"Richmond Crossing."

And Richmond Crossing was coming up fast as the brown-green field to the right changed to bright yellow and the Crown Vic hit the gravel and started to s.h.i.+mmy and slide. Sauer gripped the wheel and felt his forearms load up with the road tension. He had to make another decision. Unless Yeager intercepted and rammed the van, they would lose him.

The solution was visceral: high ground dry, low ground still wet.

Old man Kreuger's field fanned out with ripe canola. He had hunted whitetails on it for years. One of the few parcels with some roll and height to it west of Pembina. Little work road skirted the slight rise, running in just about here here...

Ooohhhh s.h.i.+ttt!!!! He took his foot off the gas, tapped the brake, and swerved into the chest-high blossoms at 110 mph. He took his foot off the gas, tapped the brake, and swerved into the chest-high blossoms at 110 mph.

Joseph Khari fixed his eyes 200 yards ahead, where the gravel road ended in a rutted two-lane path with a strip of gra.s.s growing up the middle. He had driven this route dozens of times in the dead of night. Canada was less than a minute away. He knew the American cops could not pursue across the border. He figured someone had seen him leave the bar. But he was too disciplined to waste energy wondering why the police were chasing him. He kept his focus on driving, on feeling the gravel under his wheels at high speed. A mile beyond the border he had another truck hidden in a copse of trees. Get to it. Destroy the Joe Reed ID. Wait for dark.

He had always been practical and unflappable. It would be close but he could make it. The cop on the left had no access across the field; had, in fact, dropped out of sight. The one on the right would be too late to stop him. They might have radioed to the Canadians, but it was happening so fast. A plane or a helicopter would be a problem.

But he saw no activity out ahead of him. He could do it.

Then he saw the steak of white shoot through the yellow field to his left, plowing down a slight rise. A police car coming almost out of control. Oily with crushed plants, flattening them like a wave. On a collision course.

The American fool cut through the field and was going to crash into him.

Reflex and instinct dictated that Joseph swerve right to avoid the onrus.h.i.+ng car. But the moment he drove off the trail his wheels slipped into a muddy depression. He lost traction. Had to turn back to the trail...

But the American stopped abruptly just shy of the trail. He'd hit something. The air bag inflated in the police car. Yes, he'd crashed into something.

Joseph mashed his foot on the gas. It only spun his wheels and dug him in deeper. The van shook and then stalled. Instantly he jumped out the door. Wading through the muck-all right then. For a split second he'd considered reaching back for Broker's pistol. No time. All he needed was the Browning in his hand. He kicked open the door, hit the ground in a lopsided run. The police car was heeled over, at an angle. The policeman was clawing at the air with his hands, wrestling the air bag aside, wiping something from his eyes. The Browning swept up. So Joseph would run the last thirty yards to Canada on his bad leg-but first he would kill himself an American.

[image]

Jimmy Yeager saw it happening. He slammed on the breaks and skidded off the road, aiming for a slight knoll in the field. He saw the van jerk to a halt. Saw Sauer block the crossing.

Three hundred yards and closing. Gotta stop now. No time. Two hundred was what he wanted but this would have to do. Timing the lurch of his vehicle so as not to lose time opening the door, he pushed the door and exited, dragging the M-14 by its skinny barrel and heavy flash suppressor. s.h.i.+t! Can't see! f.u.c.king fold in the land. s.h.i.+t! Can't see! f.u.c.king fold in the land. Immediately he hopped on the hood and then clambered onto the roof. Immediately he hopped on the hood and then clambered onto the roof.

Now he could see. It was Joe, all right. Out of the van, running toward the State Patrol cruiser, his right arm extended.

The crack and snap of shots.

Jesus. Shaking, breathing all wrong; Yeager swung up the M-14. His old Corps dad made him learn to shoot offhand at 200 yards.

If you can't shoot offhand you ain't s.h.i.+t!

Joe running with his arm straight out, windows blowing apart in the state cruiser making it hard to see, to tell...All these shots and then Yeager squeezed off three of his own.

It wasn't fair. They had so much. So much s.p.a.ce, this lush yellow-and-green emptiness, the tilt-a-whirl blue sky. Joseph spun like a bad dancer, shredded. He smelled the raw sewage of the camps, saw the bloated corpses again at Sabra and Shatila. The tiny children with flies crawling on them. Cholera, typhoid, diseases that never touch these fat Americans.

Not fair.

He collapsed deeper into a million little yellow flowers. Moist like pollen, smelling like medicine, buzzing of insects. Footfalls coming from in back. Where was the Browning? But all feeling was draining from his arms. Then gone. George and Dale would have to kill the Americans. He, Joseph, was through with them.

Losing pieces of the sky and sound he thought he saw a broad white face loom over him. Lonely now. Leaving. Not sure why, he rasped his goodbye.

"Ma'a.s.salama..."

Yeager stooped to hear Joe's last words. All he got was a rattle of breath. He placed two fingers along Joe's throat and felt for a pulse. There was none. Yeager hoisted himself up slowly. He was gasping, and starting to shake.

Joe was pitched on his side so Yeager could see his back and front were both a mess. They got him coming and going. Sauer's .45 sure tore some holes coming out.

Sauer.

Yeager jogged the last fifteen yards to the State Patrol cruiser. Barry Sauer was sprawled forward across the front seat. His hair and grimacing teeth were covered in white powder. His arms still extended out the shattered pa.s.senger-door window. Gently, Yeager pried the .45 from the death grip of Sauer's clamped hands. Yeager gritted his teeth, seeing the blood at Sauer's throat, thick above his s.h.i.+rt collar. On his cheeks, his nose.

"Man," Sauer gasped, "I am...sure...f.u.c.king glad...my...wife...made...me...wear...this."

With his left hand, Sauer ripped at the top b.u.t.tons of his uniform s.h.i.+rt, tearing the cloth away to show the two deep impact impressions on his Kevlar.

"You're bleeding!" Yeager said, his voice too loud.

Sauer shook his head. "Just cuts. Gla.s.s. Whole lot of stuff flying around for a minute there."

Yeager helped Sauer out of the car and supported him as they walked up to Joe's body. Cars with flas.h.i.+ng lights were converging. Norm's Silverado. Cops from Towner.

"I yelled for him to drop it but there was no way," Sauer said. Then more urgent. "The van?"

"I went by it. No sign of Dale. Was in a hurry. Then when I got to him he said something, couldn't make it out. Sounded strange. Indian maybe."

Sauer grimaced and said, "Now we got some people missing."

Yeager nodded.

"d.a.m.n," Sauer said. This time he pointed at his cruiser. "Old Man Kreuger probably only had one sleeper rock in his field and I had to hit it." He shook his head, dripping blood. "Totaled another state car. That's the second air bag I kissed in seven days."

Yeager grinned. "Three more and they gotta make you an ace. Don't sweat it, road dog, we're gonna be all right."

"How's that?"

Yeager pointed at the cloud of dust kicked up by four new Border Parol Tahoes coming in a tight convoy. "The cavalry's here."

Chapter Thirty-five.

Face into the wave.

Numb, her teeth fuzzy. Hard to breathe. Nina tried to spit the taste of decay from her mouth, but she was too dry. Memory jabbed. Memory jabbed. Some drug he used. Some drug he used.

Moving. Patterns of light and shadow dappled a wall of knotty pine veneer.

The morning's shark attack all came back to her. Jane. Ace...

Not now. Focus on the present. She tried to move.

Spreadeagled on a bed.

Not good.

Resistance at her wrists and ankles. Little strength. She could move her head and she saw that her wrists were secured with double-tied bungee cords. The same for her wrists. The hooks had been crimped together tight. She strained against the cords with her wrists and legs. Some give. They were makes.h.i.+ft. Maybe she could defeat them. Given time, she figured, she could. But not if he kept giving her that drug.

He. Dale. The other Shuster.

Her mind churned, scurrying. Not okay yet. Process. Not okay yet. Process.

Automatically, she confronted the fear. She had been trained to convert it into a manageable image. So it became a wave building in the distance. An instructor in survival training explained that extreme fear was like the ocean. Too big to get your mind around, too fast to outrun. You had to navigate it. Great, so now I'm in the f.u.c.king Navy. Great, so now I'm in the f.u.c.king Navy. You had to turn into it, meet it head on, ride it out. If you froze up or ran away, it would roll you up and take you down. You had to turn into it, meet it head on, ride it out. If you froze up or ran away, it would roll you up and take you down.

Orient yourself. Face into the wave.

She was lashed down on a bed in the rear of a van or camper. From some calm center in her brain she recalled that Broker had in-grained in her a suspicion of vans. She twisted around to get a better look. Not the kind of bed that was built into this kind of vehicle. This was an ordinary twin bed, wooden head and footboard, sideboard, slats and springs and mattress. The interior of the vehicle had been gutted and the bed brought in. The bedroom was part.i.tioned from the front seat by a curtain. Dale. Up there driving. Maybe that other dude, too. Just ten, twelve feet away.

A screened window over the bed was partly open, letting in patches of light and shadow. She heard the thrum of tires, road sounds. Traffic pa.s.sing.

She tried to look around the compartment. She could see where a sink, counter, and part.i.tions had been removed. It had been stripped and now just contained a TV bolted to a shelf over the bed, a VCR stacked on top. A small chemical toilet sat next to the curtain. Then her eyes stopped on the video camera set on a tripod in the corner with a cable looped around it. The cable ended in some kind of remote device.