Blinding Fear (21 page)

Chapter 32

For nearly two hours, Herc, Claire, Kay and their limo driver were subjected to a barrage of questions from the police. Most of them centered around the driver of the gravel truck and his actions. From what the police had said, the truck disappeared from a high-rise building construction site less than an hour prior to the incident.

No more than 20 seconds after the truck driver fled the scene of the crash, witnesses saw him jump into another vehicle—operated by someone else—which sped away at high speed. Although they’d gotten the license plate number, it had also turned out to be stolen.

Their limo driver spent substantial time showing his concealed-carry permit, handgun registration, firearm certifications as well as chauffeur and body guard licenses. He’d also explained in great detail, why he’d brandished his gun at the truck driver.

Eventually, the police were forced to call off the on-scene investigation, even though it was obvious the “accident” was no such thing. Claire could clearly see they suspected she, Herc and Kay knew more of the “backstory” behind the incident than they were willing to reveal. And they were right. Moments before they got out of the limo, the three had agreed that telling the police too much would be counter-productive—if not downright dangerous—for them and many others. Official statements and depositions would have to be taken, reviewed and reviewed again. CSI teams would be called in. Detectives and assorted other investigators and higher-ups would demand total honesty. All of which would take days, if not weeks to accomplish and eventually open history’s largest can of worms.

Fortunately, the delay wasn’t enough to affect their mid-afternoon appointment with Margery Whalen.

At 2:55 their second armored Town Car pulled up in front of a modest, two-story home. It was in a housing development northwest of the city, well into the foothills of the Rocky Mountains and situated on a very quiet cul-de-sac. A well-worn, 10 year-old Honda Accord was parked in the short driveway.

Claire, Herc and Kay made no move to open a door. Given the dramatic events of the past three hours, they knew they should wait for their driver to scrutinize the street for any more threats. They watched as he walked up a short, but steep flight of steps to the front door and knock. After a few seconds a heavyset, middle-aged woman opened it and talked to the driver. Her clothes were disheveled and mismatched; her already-plump face, further distorted by what Claire had to assume was crying. They saw the driver gesturing toward the limo. Then, they disappeared into the house. After several minutes he returned to the limo and opened their doors one at a time. As each of them stepped out, the driver repeated his immediate-threat scan of the neighborhood. As he did, Claire had to admit a 100% tip for DeAngelo Bryant would be far less than he deserved.

A short while later they seated themselves around a battered dining room table, while the driver stood guard near the front door. Claire noticed some odd looking, small dark stains on the table top, along with a larger one on the hardwood floor. She tried not to think too much about their cause.

After Claire briefly introduced Herc and Kay, she could see the older woman was probably in full-blown depression. She knew she must tread carefully. The two men had agreed to let Claire take the lead in the interview. It was much more likely that Margery would open up to another woman.

“Can we please just get this over with,” Margery whispered hoarsely. “I’ve got nothing but bad memories from this place. What’d you want?” Claire smelled liquor on her breath.

“As I mentioned over the phone,” Claire calmly said, “we’re trying to pull together the pieces of what we believe is a huge government conspiracy. I want to do a big article in the Sentinel. From what little we’ve uncovered so far, your husband may have inadvertently stumbled across it and paid with his life.”

“And just what would I know? We’d been separated for more than three months. The only thing he cared about at all was that damned telescope!”

With every word Claire could see her become increasingly agitated; no doubt fueled in part by the alcohol.

“I may as well’ve been living in a cave someplace for all the attention he paid me! He spent over six grand on the stinking thing!”

Suddenly, Claire noticed Herc looking at her, subtly signaling with his eyes that he wanted to speak. She barely nodded.

“May we see the telescope, Mrs. Whalen?” Herc gently asked.

“Be my guest. It’s in the back yard.” As the other three got up and moved toward the back of the house she called after them. “You’d better get a good look while you can. It’s not going to be there much longer! I’m gonna sell it to pay for his funeral. Kind’ve ironic, don’t you think?” She snorted derisively, then suddenly yelled sharply, “Tell you what! I’ve changed my mind about sticking around. I’m outta here! You all can do whatever you want. Just pull the door closed when you leave. I can’t take any more of being here!”

They turned to watch in astonishment as Margery walked rapidly past Bryant and out the front door, slamming it closed behind her. A moment later they heard the Honda’s tired motor sputter to life and the car back down the driveway.

“What’ll we do?” Claire asked.

“Exactly what we planned,” Herc responded. “But I’ve got another idea, too.”

Claire, Herc and Kay walked out into the weed-infested back yard. There were no houses behind them. They had nearly a 180 degree view of the Rockies to the west, with the sun sinking toward them. Many pine trees dotted the yard and those of the neighbors. Well away from the house, perched on a broad concrete pedestal, they saw a large plastic tarpaulin covering what they assumed was the telescope. It looked to be at least 6 feet tall. Herc quickly walked over and pulled off its protective cover. He whistled. “Whoa! This is a beaut! It’s a 12-inch Orion Skyquest truss reflector. One of the things that’s neat about these is you don’t have to pay for a literal tube. All you’ve got are the light-gathering mirrors, lenses and other electronics at either end supported by truss rods between them. Makes the whole thing a little bit cheaper and lighter. What’s wild about this set up, though, are all the other bells and whistles he’s got! It’s a GoTo telescope with GPS!”

Claire and Kay looked at each other, mutually puzzled. “All right. We give up. What’s all that mean?” Kay asked.

“On the telescope’s computer, besides storing photos, you can digitally record exactly what you’ve been looking at one night—let’s say Saturn. Then one night or one month of nights later, you can go back and tell the computer that you want to look at Saturn. You press one little button and it will automatically rotate and elevate the instrument to precisely where Saturn is at that second! The GPS compensates for the Earth’s rotation on its axis and around the sun, as well as Saturn’s orbit. It’s a backyard astronomer’s dream!”

Claire could only laugh. “And just how do you know all this?”

“Because I’ve got one of my own. It’s at my cabin in Nevada. Whenever I spend some time there I do some stargazing of my own. Every now and then I’ve tried to find my own........” Suddenly he stopped and stared at the other two with a look of intense focus, then turned to closely examine the computerized drive system. “Of course! Why didn’t I think of it earlier!”

“What?!” Claire and Kay asked simultaneously.

“The last things that Frank Whalen looked at are probably still recorded on the hard drive—the images themselves as well as their celestial coordinates and the dates he took them. All I’ve got to do to find out what he was observing is turn it on, press the “Show Last Coordinates” button and we’ll know exactly where in the night sky he was looking! It means we’ll be able to verify what he saw and where it was in the night sky! We can take those coordinates to another astronomer and he could confirm whatever is out there—assuming its a comet.....and where it’s headed!”

“And when, I’ll bet,” Claire added. “This is one of those things that we hoped Ludlow had missed. He thought he was erasing Whalen’s knowledge of the comet—and where it was—by killing him. What he didn’t know was that the knowledge was recorded here!”

“But who can we take the coordinates to?” Kay asked. “If what Halpren said was true—that Whalen got a letter telling him to back off or else—then chances are the rest of the astronomical community is scared to.......”

“What about you, Herc?” Claire asked. “You say you’ve got the same basic setup at your cabin. Could we simply take them to your place and plug them into your computerized telescope?”

“Why don’t we just do it right here when the sun goes down?” Kay added.

“Quite frankly, given what happened at the airport,” Herc replied, “I’d like to quickly get out of here. Who knows what other nasty surprises Ludlow has in store for us. Claire, as I call out the coordinates, would you mind writing them down for me?”

“No problem,” she responded.

He turned back to the telescope and pressed the power button on the main hard drive, then the “Show Last Coordinates” button. A moment later, on the LCD screen, they could all see the numbers that precisely “pointed” to a tiny piece of the night sky. Next to them was the date Whalen had completed the work. Herc repeated them out loud. He then pressed the button repeatedly until it stopped showing any previous coordinates. As he spoke, Claire quickly jotted down all the information in a small notepad she carried in her purse. As she finished transcribing the final numbers she leaned over slightly to put the pen back in her purse. Oddly, she heard a loud ‘snap’ inches above her head and then glass breaking behind them in the house. “What was.....!”

“Everybody down! Get down!” Bryant roared from inside the house. He sprinted out the back door toward them, hunched over, his gun in hand. She was stunned that a man so big could move so fast.

Claire, Herc and Kay flattened themselves into the weeds and started crawling back toward the house, now knowing they were under assault by an unseen sniper. Bryant swung his gun from side to side, desperately trying to see where the shots were coming from. Claire heard a dull “thunk” as another round impacted the dirt no more than inch from her head. She screamed.

“Run! Now!” Bryant bellowed. “You’ve got to get out of here! Get up! Don’t crawl!”

As one, they leaped to their feet and sprinted for the back door. In quick succession one bullet smashed through the sliding glass door barely missing Herc, while another imbedded itself in the blood stain on the hardwood floor. Claire couldn’t understand why she didn’t hear any gunshots; then realized whoever was shooting at them was probably half a mile away in the hills with a silenced rifle.

Somehow they all made it into the house safely. Claire paused to catch her breath. “Don’t stop!” Bryant yelled. “Get to the car!”

They raced out the front door, down the steps, yanked open the limo’s doors and literally threw themselves into the bulletproof safe haven. Seconds later, Bryant piled in after them. He straightened up in the driver’s seat and brought the engine to life with a roar, then floored the accelerator and careened down the street away from the killing zone.

Chapter 33

“You’ve got to get out of town!” Bryant declared as he expertly guided the speeding Town Car through the streets of Colorado Springs. “Whoever’s after you isn’t going to stop now! We’ve been lucky so far.”

“They must’ve had the house staked out the entire time we’ve been here,” Kay said. “When that truck failed to kill us, someone must have told the sniper we were on our way again. For all we know they’ve got somebody else already waiting for us at the airport.”

“I doubt it,” Bryant said. “Whoever these people are, they probably assumed one of those attempted hits would get the job done. Right now, whoever’s running the show is trying to figure out Plan C on the fly. Ours is this: I’ll drive as fast as I can right up to your jet. Once we get there, stay in the car while I get your luggage transferred and open the cabin door. Don’t get out of the limo until I tell you to, then stay low getting into the plane. I’ll provide you as much cover as possible.”

“Before we get there we need to consider another....shall we say..... complication,” Kay said. “Mr. Bryant has almost certainly become a new threat in the eyes of our friend from the FBI.”

“Oh, my God! You’re right!” Claire replied.

Bryant glanced quickly at Kayode, a look of alarm on his face. “FBI? Hold on a sec! My job is to get you safely from point A to B. I protect you from any threats as best I can, so long as you’re not criminals on the run on something! From all I can tell, that’s what I’ve been doing. That’s fine. But the FBI.... chasing you! Sorry, that’s a whole new ball game!”

“No, no. It’s not like that,” Herc protested. “It’s just that we....I.....uh...” He stopped and looked at Claire and Kay for help in deciding what to tell Bryant.

Suddenly, Bryant swung the car into a deserted gas station and brought it to a screeching stop. “End of the line until I get the full story!” he snapped as he threw the car into park, then turned to stare at each of them.

His three passengers looked at each other in confusion. Finally, Claire said, “Look guys, he’s already involved, whether he knows it or not! We might as well lay it all out.”

“Okay,” Herc replied.

Kay agreed.

For the next 10 minutes—as best they could given the many unknowns—the three took turns detailing the intricate story, their suspicions and fears.

When they finished, Bryant shook his head in dismay. “Man, you people are in it up to your necks! And now you got me about buried too! If half of what you say is true, this Ludlow character will come gunning for me after he takes all of you out! But......I can see you’re trying to do the right thing.”

Kay seized the opportunity. “Mr. Bryant, I think it’s safe to say we’re going to need somebody with your skill sets for the foreseeable future. Would you be interested in working for me?”

Bryant was taken aback. “I don’t know.......”

“I’ll match whatever your present compensation package is plus 25 percent. Of course, you’ll also be helping us do something that’s really important.”

The others could see Bryant mulling over the offer. “That’s really generous, Mr. Seok, but after what you’ve just told me, money doesn’t seem to mean as much to me as it used to. Yesterday, I’d’ve bargained you up to 35 percent. Today, helping you do something important is worth a whole lot more. Okay. I’m in. When do I start?”

“You already have. But before we talk anymore, I need you to get us to the airport before Ludlow and his hired guns beat us there—if they haven’t already!”

Bryant answered by throwing the gear selector to “D” and burning rubber getting out of the gas station. “I’ve got one problem,” he said as he wove in and out of traffic with the ease of a veteran Indy Car driver. “Assuming you want me to go on the plane, what’s on my back is all the belongings I’ve got. No toothbrush either.”

“Not a problem,” Herc replied. “Where we’re going there’s a store or two where you can pick up the stuff you need. No big and tall stores, but I think you’ll get by. What about your family? Shouldn’t you let them know something?”

“Nobody to notify really. My mom lives in the Bronx. We talk all the time. But what would be the point in telling her anything right now? Haven’t seen my dad since I was two. Had a girlfriend for a while in Denver and thought we’d get married. Seems she found herself a sugar-daddy a few weeks ago. I’m living out of a suitcase in a residential hotel right now.”

“Sorry,” Herc said. “I didn’t mean.....”

“Nah. That’s okay. What you folks are offering me is the best thing to come along in quite a while.” He was quiet for a few seconds as he deftly maneuvered around a slow moving semi. “By the way, since we’re all in this frying pan together now, how about calling me by my first name. And if it’s okay I’ll call all of you by yours. Fair enough?”

“You got it,” Herc said. “Welcome to our frightening new world.” He shifted his attention to his boss. “Kay, once we get there—if we get there—we’ll have to forget the usual pre-flight checklist. We’ll have to cut it back to the essentials. I won’t file a flight plan, either. I don’t want anybody to know where we’re headed. It’s gonna be just jump in and go!”

“To where?” Claire asked.

“Earlier, you asked me where we could meet with that other guy you talked to over the satellite phone. I suggested my cabin in Nevada. Maybe we should head there and lay low for a while. It’ll be a little earlier than we expected but things have definitely taken a turn for the worse. While there I’ll plug the celestial coordinates we got from Whalen’s telescope into mine. If it works the way I hope, we can take a look and see what’s out there. I’ve also got some additional software that lets me determine a comet’s direction and speed. I’m guessing that Whalen didn’t know that. If we can tell when and where the comet’s going to hit—if it’s going to hit—that’ll be another big piece of the puzzle you can plug into your article.”

Just then, DeAngelo swung the limo onto East Fountain Way and sped by the spot where Ludlow’s assassin and his gravel truck had nearly taken them out. A moment later they burst out from between the hangers of the near-deserted Jet Center and came to a sliding stop in front of the Gulfstream. DeAngelo jumped out, transferred the luggage to the plane, opened the passenger door and pulled down the built-in ladder. He quickly came back to the limo and scanned the surrounding area for any new threats. After a few seconds he opened both doors on the right side of the limo. “Looks okay for now. Get out, make it fast and stay low.”

All three clambered out of the car and did exactly as they were told. A moment later, after again sweeping the airport grounds for any dangers, DeAngelo climbed in himself, barely squeezing his bulky frame through the two-foot wide door. He quickly pulled up the ladder, then closed and locked the door.

Claire took one of the two seats near the cockpit, while Kay’s newest employee took the other. She listened through the open door as Herc and Kay began their abbreviated pre-flight checklist. At the same time she heard DeAngelo on his cell phone calling his former employer to tell them he was quitting and where to find their limo.

“Batteries?” Herc asked as he read from a small booklet.

“On and in the green.” Kay responded.

“Fuel?”

“A little over 7,000 pounds.”

“Good. We can get anywhere on the west coast from here. Engine start.”

Claire heard the two engines whine to life and begin to “spool up.”

“Oxygen?”

“60 percent.”

“Hydraulics?”

“The pressure is coming up. Should be in the green about.....now”

“Cabin pressure?”

“Coming up. Should be green shortly.”

“Tire pressure?”

“Normal.”

“Engine temperatures?”

“Normal.”

“Now the fun starts,” Herc said. “Colorado Springs ground control. This is KS-150.........Request emergency clearance for taxi and immediate departure from 35-left.......That is correct, sir........We’re an air ambulance. We have a human heart on board......LAX........Implantation is scheduled for 0700 tomorrow at L.A. County Medical Center, so time is of the essence.......No, you are correct. We have not filed a flight plan. The organ became available only within the hour.......Thank you, sir. Have a good day.”

Claire heard the unmistakable sound of two sets of seat belts and harnesses being snapped into place.

“Okay, gang,” Herc yelled through the cockpit door. “If everybody’s got their seat belts on back there, maybe we can get out of Dodge without any further incidents!”

She heard the engines increase in power and the plane begin to roll. Within seconds it was taxiing faster than she could ever remember on any other commercial flight. All the imperfections, lumps and bumps in the concrete taxiway were greatly magnified by the increased speed. Thirty seconds later the 150 turned and Claire could see Herc was lining up on the main runway. He didn’t hesitate. The engines immediately roared to full power and the jet began to accelerate rapidly.

“All systems normal,” Kay said loudly. “50 knots, 80, 100, V1...rotate....Herc! Somethings on the runway! It’s a baggage train!”

“What the......everybody hold on!!” Herc screamed.

Claire felt the plane suddenly leap into the air. Her stomach lurched as she heard DeAngelo yell, “What’s goin’ on?!” From the cockpit several chimes and buzzers sounded loudly and a way-too-calm female voice said, “Danger! Stall imminent!” The 150 staggered for a second, shuddered slightly, seemed to settle toward the ground, then miraculously stabilize and continue its climb-out from the airport.

“Sorry about that,” Herc called back into the passenger cabin. “Seems like Special Agent Ludlow is full of all kinds of tricks today. Had to yank us off the ground sooner than I wanted to get over that baggage train. Another foot lower and we’d have scattered luggage from here to Denver! Everybody okay?”

“Yeah,” DeAngelo said. “But I almost made a big mess in this little cabin!”

“I’m okay, too,” Claire added. “But I’m with DeAngelo. I’m glad I haven’t eaten much today.”