Silent Night (Sam Archer 4) (38 page)

Rourke looked at Archer. ‘Is he a pig?’

‘Yeah.’

‘So kill him.’

Kruger shook his head. ‘Not here. The bullets will put holes in the cabin.’

Rourke tilted his head and saw Maddy lying unconscious on the floor. ‘OK. Wait till we’re over countryside. Then throw them both out.’

Kruger suddenly pistol-whipped Archer hard, knocking him to the floor of the plane. Rourke grabbed a set of handcuffs from Archer’s hip and cuffed his hands behind him to a metal hand-hold. He also took the time to hit Archer in the face several times afterwards, his fists smashing into his already busted nose. That done, Rourke gave him a final kick, then turned to Kruger.

‘We’re on course. I set up the first pit stop in
North Carolina
.’

Kruger nodded, then took a seat across the cabin from Archer. Rourke kicked Archer again, then headed back to the cockpit. Archer spat blood out of his mouth and looked across at the South African doctor.

The expression he’d worn all day on his beaten-up face had changed.

All trace of his friendliness was gone.

It had been replaced with a menacing stare.

‘You son of a bitch,’ Archer said.

‘It’s a miracle we even made it here,’ Kruger said. ‘I’ve been watching all of you run around like morons all night.’

‘You’re a part of this?’

‘Of course. I set it up. Do you know how much this virus is worth?’

He jabbed a finger at Rourke, up front in the cockpit with Drexler.

‘I needed someone to package and transport it. Figured I might as well hitch a ride. Luckily you made the connection with the farm after I fed you the pesticide idea. You were quick, I’ll give you that.’

Archer glanced at Rourke. ‘How the hell do you know him?’

Kruger grinned.

He undid the buttons on his shirt and pulled it open.

Archer saw a thick black Swastika tattooed on one pectoral.

On the other was an
SS
.

Stuttgart
Soldiers.

‘Surprised?’ Kruger said with a grin.

Kyle Gunnar’s voice echoed in Archer’s mind, a missed warning from earlier in the day.

You’d be surprised who some of our members are.

Suddenly, all the missing pieces of the puzzle started to fall into place.

‘You were the one who told Bleeker about the virus?’

Kruger nodded.

‘He introduced me to them,’ he said, jabbing a thumb at the cockpit. ‘At a rally two weeks ago. We had a plan, but then Bleeker got greedy and double-crossed us. Kidnapped me and stole the vials. He wanted it all for himself. I think he was going to kill me at the house just before you and your friends showed up.’

Archer thought back. It all started making sense. In the dark plane, he saw the South African grin.

‘You piece of shit. You planted the cell phone at Tibbs’ apartment.’

‘Very good. Pay-as-you-go, so no connection to me. All I had to do was clean off my prints, visit Will on Thursday night then drop it on his floor before I left. He must have found it, stowed it in the drawer and framed himself.’

Kruger pointed his pistol at Maddy.

‘Anyway, be thankful you got an extra few hours. You both should have died at the lab.’

Archer didn’t respond. He was thinking back through the day, cursing himself at what an idiot he’d been.

‘When Gunnar walked past at the Bureau this afternoon, you ducked down. Put your head in your hands like you were upset. But you were covering up. You knew he’d recognise you and wouldn’t be able to hide it.’

‘Very good. But what a shame. You’re too late. You’re going to die. And what a tragedy about your friend at the lab. His coffin will be the size of a tinder box.’

Archer spat blood from his mouth again, glaring at the neo-Nazi doctor.

‘Easy now,’ Kruger said. ‘At any moment, I can open that door and throw you out. I could do it right now.’

The two men stared at each other. Then Kruger checked his watch. Archer glanced to his left and saw Maddy still slumped on the floor. She was out cold. Blood had slid down her face from the wound from the blow to the back of her head.

Kruger suddenly whistled at the cockpit. Rourke heard him and turned. Kruger beckoned for him to come down, so Rourke left his seat and walked down into the cabin.

‘How are we doing?’

‘We’re on course.’ Rourke glanced at Archer. ‘You want to get rid of him now?’

Kruger didn’t reply.

He raised his pistol instead, aiming at the centre of Rourke’s torso, and started firing.

Rourke took six rounds. Each impact jerked him back and he collapsed in a torn, bloody dead heap across the cabin. The bullets ruptured holes in the cabin and air started to whistle in. Archer saw Drexler turn, looking at Rourke’s corpse, her eyes wide with shock. But before she could react, Kruger was up on his feet, the pistol trained on her.

‘Don’t move, bitch,’ he said, moving down towards her in the cockpit. ‘I’ll take that weapon.’

Archer saw Drexler stay motionless behind the control stick. Then she reached inside her jacket and passed over what looked like a silenced Glock. Kruger took it, and tossed it into the cabin behind him, the pistol landing near Rourke’s corpse.

He started ordering Drexler to do something, the gun to her head, but Archer couldn’t hear what it was from the whistling coming through the bullet holes in the plane.

Archer saw her nodding and he felt the plane start veering to the left.

Rourke was slumped across the cabin, torn apart by the gunfire. Archer looked up at Kruger, who was walking back into the cabin, grinning at him.

‘Just like that, huh? Kill him and take his ride to
Texas
?’

Kruger smiled, a strange look in his eyes.

‘We’re not going to
Texas
.’

Archer watched as Kruger stepped across the cabin towards him. He grabbed one of the canisters full of the liquidised virus, rolling it towards the tank. He attached the tubing and pushed the pumping mechanism; the big tank started sucking in all the liquid.

Archer watched him work. ‘So where are we going?’

‘Take a guess.’

Archer thought of their flight path and the veer they’d taken.

‘DC?’

Kruger didn’t respond.

‘Are you nuts?’

Kruger shook his head. ‘No. I’m not. I’m going to do something that the Third Reich only ever dreamt of. They fought an entire war with the Americans but never got anywhere near their homeland. By the time the rest of the country wakes up this morning, thousands upon thousands of people in their capital city will be dead. My virus will cleanse that place like a Biblical plague.’

‘Keep dreaming. They’ll shoot you down before you get anywhere near the city.’

‘Doesn’t matter. This stuff will still be in the air. Rourke will go down as the man who killed a city. I’ll be just an innocent passenger.’

Archer looked at the thickly-built doctor with the hate tattooed on his chest.

Kruger flicked his gaze to Archer. His eyes were gleaming.

‘Why the hell are you doing this?’

‘What?’

‘You’re a doctor, for Christ’s sake.’

‘So?’

He paused.

‘You know the history. Apartheid, Mandela, black and white. But you don’t know that four black men broke into my house when I was a boy. You don’t know that they raped my mother in front of me, then shot her in the head. That they put a shotgun in my father’s mouth and pulled the trigger. I would have been next but a neighbour heard the shots and arrived just in time. He killed them and saved me.’

He spat on the floor.

‘I was orphaned at eleven years old by those bastards,’ he said. ‘These men worked for my father. He took them in when they had nothing. Gave them a home, food, water, a job. A purpose. And that’s how they repay him.’ He sneered. ‘And over there, American culture is everywhere. All those guys worshipped it. The rappers, the baseball caps, the pants around their asses. All that shit started here. It’s spread, like a disease. Liberal, democratic bullshit. So now, this is payback.’

He looked down at the canisters, then at Archer.

‘I’m no different from Peter. He created this virus because he lost someone he loved. Now I’m going to use it for the exact same reason.’

‘You won’t even make the city,’ Archer said again. ‘They’ll shoot you down.’

‘Like I said, it doesn’t matter. Hell of a wind blowing today. Headed south.’

He smiled.

‘I’ve thought of everything, Detective. It makes no difference whether I spray this stuff or we take a hit. Either way the virus will be in the air and will be spread for hundreds of miles, floating down onto the city.’

‘And you’ll be a martyr for the cause, right?’ Archer said.

‘Correct.’

Silence.

Beside him, the tank sucked up the liquidised virus, the piping sealed tight so none of it escaped into the air.

‘Bleeker was a fool. But he was the only one with any balls to use this virus.’ Kruger nodded at Rourke’s corpse, slumped across the cabin. ‘All he wanted was money.’

He paused.

‘But not me. Not tonight.’

With that, Kruger moved off and headed up the cabin. He moved into the cockpit, jabbing the pistol into Drexler’s neck who nodded and said something to him. Watching him go, Archer felt helpless.

Kruger
was right. The gas would be airborne whatever happened, if it was sprayed, they were shot down or they crashed. Hundreds of thousands of people would die.

Archer felt the tight handcuffs around his wrists.

In desperation, he looked over at Maddy who was motionless on the floor.

Suddenly, her eyes flared open.

Maddy had regained consciousness whilst Kruger was talking. She’d heard everything he said, but had played possum, staying still. She looked straight at Archer, who was sitting across from her in the rear of the plane and saw the cuffs holding him to the bar. With Kruger’s back to them, assuming his hostages were restrained or out cold and therefore no threat, she quietly raised herself to her hands and knees and crept forward, never taking her eyes off Kruger who was still focused on Drexler and where they were going. She crawled towards Archer, who tilted his hips, mouthing
this pocket.
She reached inside and found the key to his cuffs.

She quickly undid them.

Now free, he went to rise, but Kruger suddenly stood upright. Maddy froze then frantically scrambled back to the rear of the plane and resumed her previous position trying not to breathe too heavily.

Archer put his hands behind his back as if they were still bound.

Kruger moved back into the cabin. He walked up to Archer and stared down at him, a mad light in his eyes.

‘Not long now. But you’re pissing me off. I think it’s time you and the bitch went for a skydive.’

He laughed.

‘Just like her old man.’

He placed his Beretta to one side, then moved towards the door. He grabbed a support rail and reached for the handle. As he did so, Archer shouted something to him, but given the noise the whistling wind made from the bullet holes in the cabin, Kruger couldn’t hear.

Instinctively, he turned towards Archer, stepping closer.

‘What?’

Launching forward, Archer suddenly took Kruger off his feet.

Kruger had done his research. The duster was coming in from the north-west. The wind reading was perfect, blowing south. If they took a hit, the virus would be airborne, drifting down onto the capital city and the surrounding area.

They were beginning to approach a military installation. It was
Fort
Myer
, a military base aligned with the USMC Henderson Hall and the first joint base in the Department of Defense. Although it was the early hours of the morning, the main ops room was busy. A serviceman studying the screen in front of him frowned, peering closer. He pulled off his head-set, then turned.

‘Captain?’

A man looked over.

‘I’ve got a small propeller aircraft headed south towards the city,’ one of the men said.

‘That’s restricted airspace.’

‘Could be a private airplane off course?’

‘I don’t care,’ the Captain said, walking around the ops room towards the controls. ‘He comes anywhere near the city, he’s going down. Pass me the transmitter.’

The man did so. The Captain took it and pushed the buttons down on either side.

‘Unidentified aircraft, this is the United States Army. Identify yourself.’