Freedom Does Matter (Mercenaries Book 2) (38 page)

“What do you know?”

“Damn all,” she said. “Mostly, that it’s here, and you seem quite… nervous? Yeah, nervous about it.”

In halting words, Roni confirmed most of their suppositions: The device was a cellular radio designed to release an aerosol when triggered by a phone call. There were a lot of them, between eight and nine hundred, deployed in pairs. The canisters containing the aerosol were safe unless triggered or the steel cylinder was compromised. After twenty minutes, he took a scrap of paper from Kevin’s notebook and wrote a few letters before sliding it back.

Now Beckie saw Kevin blanch as he read the paper. He turned it toward her; she read “GB.” The letters made no sense to her; she looked at Kevin. The question on her lips died as she saw his brows furrowed, pulled down over his eyes, his mouth open in a rictus she didn’t want to see.

“I don’t fucking believe you,” he hissed, diligently keeping the volume low. “This stuff is illegal world-wide. And you— your company built these. But…” His anger faded, a little. “What else do you know?”

“Nothing, Kevin.”

“Where did you think they were to be deployed?” The sneer was back.

“No one said.”

“Where did you
think
they were going?” he repeated, the cold in his voice ice-deep.

“We didn’t think much about it. We never signed the treaty, so… We make arms, munitions. Others use them.” Kevin’s expression hadn’t changed. “We assumed somewhere in Iran… Or, perhaps, in America. Given the cheerful political climate there.”

Kevin threw himself back in the chair and steepled his fingers in front of him.

Beckie turned a little, facing Roni more directly. “As guesses,” she said, “not bad.” She reached back and pulled her pony-tail over her shoulder and began to twist it. “But wrong. Sooo wrong. Don’t say anything.” She reached for her phone and tapped for a few moments before handing it to him.

Roni lost all the color he’d regained since seeing the radio; again he babbled until Beckie took the phone from him and nodded. “This one…” She indicated the radio. “… came from the Atrium. We saw others in the Bobby Moore Club.”

“But… but this can’t be…” He was whimpering. “I have tickets and an invitation to the pre-match gala. With my wife and son. In the Atrium. It cannot be!”

This last was loud enough that a few people turned their way, but Beckie waved, abating their curiosity. “Kev. Wanta stay for the cabaret? It’ll be in a half-hour. Might get more crowded.”

“No. Let’s leave. Roni, are you okay to walk?”

The man nodded, at first shakily, but then more strongly.

Once again, Beckie hoped linking arms with Roni would give him support as well as defuse any questions.

They left the hotel and wandered down a small street, but at the corner, she could see trees through the gloom. The rain had slowed to a mist.

“What else can you tell us, Roni?” Kevin asked as they walked along the Embankment.

“I have said everything I can… No. No. To disarm the device permanently, remove the battery, here.” He pointed to the holder where the cylindrical battery had been. That is all I know.”

“You build arms, you said.” Beckie continued walking though Roni was staring at her. “Who did you build these for?”

“I cannot say.”

“Cannot or will not?”

“It is the same!”

“No need to shout,” Kevin said, looking up and down. “But it’s really important that we figure out what’s driving this. If we can’t stop it, there’s gonna be a lot—”

“A whole lot!”

Kevin patted Beckie’s shoulder. “Yeah. A whole lot of dead people. Lots of your countrymen, lots of Arabs, though maybe that’s not so important to you. A lot of Brits.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and shivered. It’s not that cold… “And sarin’s not a particularly pleasant death, is it?”

“You can’t think I knew… I wouldn’t have brought my family—”

“I agree, you didn’t know where or when. But I’m pretty sure you know who. And even if you don’t, you can find out.”

Roni shook his head. “It is my career… my life if I betray that trust. You know this, Kevin.”

Beckie allowed Kevin and Roni to go back and forth another five minutes before saying, “Well, Kev, unless we get out the rubber hose…” Roni stopped and stared at her with wide eyes. “I think we’re done here.”

“Yeah.” He faced Roni. “You remember how to get in touch with me, through the company. We’ll go to the police tomorrow, and I’ll have to give them your name as a technical expert.”

“But…”

“I have to give them something, because I don’t want Wembley Stadium filled with dead people! And they need to know how many and how to make sure if they miss one, it won’t be set off. There’s no fail-safe or auto-destruct?”

“No. If it is vibrated long enough, one of the links might fail, but otherwise, until the signal arrives, the actuator will not move.”

“As a matter of interest, what happens when the radio gets the call?”

“Well…” He ran his hand through his thinning hair. “The receiver accepts all signals. When the computer recognizes its number, it checks against the specified caller-id, and closes the circuit to the actuator circuit. The links vaporize and the spring forces the actuator away from the canister. The movement breaks the seal between the two chemicals, and the reaction begins, creating the agent. When the actuator reaches the end of its travel, the valve at the top opens and allows the pressurized agent to escape.”

“That’s it, then?”

He nodded. Before they separated, Roni caught Beckie’s arm. “Look for a man who hates both Jews and Arabs as much as we hate each other. He keeps a symbol, a funeral notice for family, on his wall. I can say no more.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Day Thirty-eight - Kansas City

BILLY OPENED HIS KANSAS CITY office and looked around. He checked his watch; it was almost seven in the morning. He could see the sunlight beginning to creep across the western vista the large window showed. It will be a lovely day. He bowed his head to the crucifix on the wall and prayed. “Dear Lord, please forgive me the innocent ones, that the guilty may be brought to justice.” He dropped to his knees. “You know, Lord, that I have long wrestled with the injustice visited on me, and today, together, we will expunge the wrongdoing.

“My Lord God, I regret… You know I regret the few innocents we will lose. I pray for their souls. I pray that You will welcome them Home and bestow the bounties of Heaven on them as recompense for their unwitting sacrifice.”

He stood and walked closer to the crucifix. Raising his hands in supplication, he continued, “We can bring a cleansing to the Middle East, flushing all the hate and animosity and replacing it with reasoned, thoughtful government under our control. Under Your stewardship and governance, and ours, we will bring Your message to the heathen! For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.

“Amen.”

Billy dropped his arms to his sides and relaxed. Outside, the shadows were shortening as the sun rose behind him. No clouds in the sky, today, but needed rain was forecast for the next couple of days. Billy checked his watch again. Half an hour to go.

At his desk, he switched the computer on. While it booted, he reached down to fetch an old cell phone and its battery from the bottom desk drawer. He slid the battery home and turned the phone on, checking that the charge icon was over halfway.

He opened the tray to expose the computer’s keyboard and logged on. A quick glance showed nothing of interest in his e-mail. He clicked the Internet Explorer icon and when that window opened, he clicked the SkyNews bookmark.

That’s interesting. The page failed to load; he read, “Perhaps the web site is too busy, try again later.” He received the same error at the BBC’s news site. Hmm. Should I call al-Aziz? He contemplated the possible things that might have gone wrong, but when the same problem prevented CNN’s main page from displaying, he chalked it up to a local issue. He snorted in derision at the local cable company. I should find a new provider.

One more glance at his watch told him he still had twenty minutes to wait. From his suit coat pocket, he withdrew the sermon for today and began a final review, making a few notes as he read.

The little BEEP might have been unnoticeable except that Billy’s nerves were finely tuned. He started, then folded the papers and restowed them. He picked up the phone. Lord, the time has come. He dialed the memorized number, then checked it against the scrap of paper under the keyboard. He clicked on the SkyNews bookmark, but there was no change. Before he pushed Talk, he walked to face the framed photo of Jacob. “You will be avenged,” he whispered. He pressed the button.

After a minute listening to the ringing in the phone’s tinny speaker, he turned it off and removed the battery. He dropped the phone in one coat pocket and the battery in the opposite. Singing under his breath from his favorite hymn, “He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,” he attempted once more to surf the British news sites. Unsuccessful, he shut the computer off and left the office.

On his short walk, Billy enjoyed the warm summer air, though the river was malodorous. He had more than two hours to drop the phone in the water and drive to the church in Olathe. He smiled at the prospect of seeing his grandchildren after the service and hoped they had put their misunderstandings aside by now. We can sit outside, away from the hubbub and… bad news.

An accident on I-35 slowed his pace, but he still walked into the church before ten. He went to his office, waving to members of the congregation who had arrived early, but not stopping to talk. In the office, he sorted through the various robes in his closet, but elected to dress as one of the laypeople: in suit and tie, as he was now attired. I must appear to be one of them, today of all days.

He spent the rest of the half-hour before the service transferring changes from the folded copy of his sermon to the computer that would feed the teleprompter.

Billy closed the benediction with an exhortation: “Remember the Lord our God as He works His will today!” The unusual ending didn’t dissuade the congregation from their usual applause. As they departed through the inverse receiving line at the exit, each one congratulated him for “another wonderful message, Reverend!” He basked in the reflected glory.

Reverend William trailed the last of the congregants, waiting until Billy shook the final hand to smile at him. Billy returned his smirk and said, “How was class today, William?”

“Quite pleasant. Thank you.”

Billy turned sharply to stare at his subordinate. “Why thank me?”

“For asking Sarah and David not to— It was you, was it not?”

“Not to what? We haven’t discussed anything about class since I talked to you.”

“Oh. Well, they were both missing again this morning. I assumed…”

Billy looked around as if to see whether the kids were hiding in the vestibule, but it was empty. He did see Sam Willan, their father, through the open door of the nave. “Sam. Sam!” he called. “I didn’t see Deborah or the children today.”

“No,” Sam said as he came out to join Billy and William. “They’re in London. I thought Deb told you. They went to see that soccer game we’ve put so much money into.”

Billy fell to his knees. No, Lord! This cannot be the reward for our devotion! His prayers were mumbled, unintelligible even to himself.

“Reverend—”

“Dad! What’s the matter?”

Billy opened his eyes; he saw his hands, held before him in a prayerful attitude. He forced his breathing to slow then brought calm to his face before taking Sam’s hand and standing. “I was praying for their safe return.” The honesty in his voice carried the words, made them loud enough to hear.

“Well,” Sam said, “I know you don’t like Virgin Atlantic, but really, they are perfectly safe.”

That was something he could focus on. “Why did you let them go?” His voice still sounded weak, sinful.

“They had the most convenient flight through Washington, and Sarah and David wanted to visit the Capital before school started.”

“Of course.” He was nearly in control again. “There’s your answer, William. Look forward to next week.” He brushed his pants at the knees. “I believe I’ll head home. I’m feeling a little… reflective, all of a sudden.” He shook William’s hand and gave Sam a quick loose hug, doing his best to make it similar to those they always shared.

The drive occupied enough of Billy’s attention to keep thoughts of David and Sarah dying below the threshold almost the whole trip. He left the car and walked into the trees surrounding the house. It was a ten minute walk to his clearing, a fifteen foot wide break in the oaks’ canopy that allowed sunlight to penetrate to the several magnolia bushes. Billy had never brought anyone here except his wife; he considered it as sacred as the altar.

Standing in the light of the sun, Billy thought a moment before dropping to his knees once again. The chair wasn’t appropriate for this meeting with God.

The clouds portending the predicted rain had moved to cover the sky above Billy before he stood. After he prayed, his heart was heavy, but satisfied. I have done the thing that must be done. David and Sarah… Here he stumbled, then caught himself. David and Sarah are innocents; they will be well accommodated in Heaven. He wiped his eye. However, I regret not being able to say goodbye.