The Laura Cardinal Novels (77 page)

Glad he bought two different kinds of cell phones, two different colors. On the back of a page from the manifest papers with a ball-point pen, he writes his cell phone number as big as he can, going over it several times to make the letters dark and thick.

He holds it up to the window, waggles it.

“Sir, throw the keys out of the truck.”

Coming out of a bullhorn, just like in the movies. For answer, he waggles the paper some more.

Silence.

The wind worrying at the windows, chortling at him. Dust shuttling across the now-deserted patch of asphalt of I-15 north. The lights winking one hundred yards ahead. Black-garbed SWAT team members. The FBI Surburbans, just like in the movies.

He wonders where the snipers are. He knows he’s in the crosshairs right now. The only thing stopping them is the fact that he is sitting on a shitload of transuranic waste, the biggest fucking hostage in the world.

“Throw your keys out now!”

Or what?
You’ll take away my phone privileges?

He walks the sheet of paper along the top of the dash, one corner up, one corner down, up and down.

He hears
Back in Black
—the phone. The right phone. If it wasn’t, he wouldn’t still be here to answer it.

He picks up.

“We want—”

“I don’t care what you want,” he says, keeping his voice whisper-quiet, barely audible. Whoever is on the other end—and he’s pretty sure it’s the head honcho—will have to listen hard to hear him. All his concentration will be on trying to understand what he’s saying, rather than jumping ahead in his mind, finding a way to outsmart him.

“Listen to me. I’ll only say this once. I have a load of transuranic waste right behind this cab. I have explosives strapped around it. If you come near me, I’ll blow myself and this rig sky high. Don’t think I won’t do it—I’ve got nothing to lose. If I go, I’ll go fast. The rest of you—it’s gonna take awhile. You’ll probably end up in a hospital bed with a tube up your nose and a bedpan under your ass. I’ll let you think about that, and you can call me back.”

He hits END.

Shocked silence. He can almost feel it. They have all that hardware, all those professionals, all those Suburbans, but he, Bobby Burdette, he’s the one who is calling the tune.

The phone rings again. A different voice. Calm, reasonable.

Oh-ho, Bobby thinks. When they get all calm and reasonable, they’re really scared.

More waiting. The US attorney and Glenn Traywick’s lawyer—a broad-shouldered, gone-to-fat man, wearing black-framed glasses and a graying ponytail—cooped up together in the tiny conference room, hashing out a deal.

Jon’s phone chirping. Listening intently. His face going from relieved to concerned.

Laura trying to read what was going on, listening to his side of the conversation.

“They’re sure?”

“Dammit.

“But they are talking to him—”

“That’s good. They’re going to need hi—”

Then she saw his face sag, the pouches around his eyes become more pronounced. He looked at her, but didn’t see her.

Laura stared at him, stared at the phone he held in a death grip to his ear.

“ANFO.”

“ANFO?” Laura asked.

He fluttered his hand at her—be quiet.

ANFO. It stood for ammonia nitrate-fuel oil.

“That’s what he says,” Jon said. “He could be bluffing, but … Yeah, all right.”

He closed the phone and stared at Laura.

She’d already put the pieces together, but he told her anyway.

“They caught up with Bobby Burdette. He’s strapped explosives to the tank with the plutonium in it.”

Just then, Jeremy Sharp came out of the conference room.

Peltier could see from here that the hostage negotiator wasn’t getting anywhere. Although SWAT didn’t show it, he knew they were getting disgusted. Going on two hours out here in the heat and the wind, that asshole holding them all hostage.

From where he stood, the LVMPD negotiator didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.

“What’s he doing in there?”

Jordy said, “Waiting us out.”

“He thinks we’re going to go away?”

Jordy shrugged. “Maybe he doesn’t know what he’s going to do. I guess that’s where the hostage negotiator comes in.”

“SWAT wants to move. They think they can get him, with nobody getting hurt.”

Jordy didn’t reply.

“If it wasn’t for that damn N-waste—”

“Heard a good one the other day.”

Peltier wiped sweat out of his eyes. “Yeah?”

“SWAT says, ‘Hey, it’s been ten minutes. He’s not gonna ever give in.’ Hostage negotiator says, ‘Hey, it’s been three weeks. I think we’re making progress.' "

Peltier laughed out loud. It felt good.

The hostage negotiator, Frank Handley, was laying out how easy it would be. Bobby might not even get that much prison time. He could serve it in Arizona, where he could see his mother.

That didn’t sound like much of a treat.

Handley had done his research. He’d talked with Bobby Burdette’s mother. Asked her about him. From what Peltier gathered, the woman had real contempt for her son. She said something to the effect that they shouldn’t worry, he wasn’t the kind to go all the way.

She called him a quitter.

Everybody here hoped she was right.

Peltier’s cell rang. It was that DPS detective, Laura Cardinal. She started to talk, just as the other phone rang—the one from Bobby Burdette. “I can’t talk to you now,” he said brusquely and cut her off.

“What’d he say?” Jon asked.

Laura was still looking at her phone. “He said ‘I can’t talk to you now.' "

“Maybe they’re at a turning point.”

Laura heard the faint thwop-thwop-thwop of a helicopter blades. “DPS helicopter’s here,” she said.

“Let’s go. We’ll tell him when we’re up.”

When they were settled in the helicopter, headphones on, Jon said to Laura, “Do you believe it?”

“I want to.”

“So do I.”

Laura thought about Traywick’s demeanor. He’d clearly wanted a deal. The thought of spending the rest of his life in prison had to be daunting, although he did not show much.

He could just as easily be lying.

Hard to tell.

They would know, at some point soon, if it was a lie. Right now the people at NTS were double-checking their transuranic waste canisters, making sure all of them were accounted for. They had people crawling over all of them, doing tests, checking them for radiation. There were a slew of things they could do, she’d been told. The other truck, the one that had gone ahead, had already been checked out. Its load was intact. All three canisters were radioactive.

She pictured Glenn Traywick’s face. He had seemed preternaturally calm, matter-of-fact. Hands clasped in front of him, waiting for the signal to talk. His lawyer clearing his throat. “Go ahead.”

A big pause. Like he was setting up a punch line. And what a punch line it was.

“I never switched canisters.”

Laura not quite understanding. Watching his lips move, not getting what he was saying.

Jon stiffening beside her, at full attention. “What are you saying?”

“I thought Burdette might do something—guy’s crazy as a shithouse rat. I didn’t trust him, so I decided not to switch canisters.”

Jon said slowly, “You’re saying there is no transuranic waste in those canisters?”

Glenn Electric, the bill pulled down over his red forehead. “That’s what I’m saying.”

The room quiet, almost a void, as they considered this.

“He doesn’t know?”

“Nope. Nobody knows.” He paused. “Except the five of us here.”

When they were up, Traywick stowed in the seat behind them, Jon tried Peltier. He got Jordy Benteen, who must have been answering Peltier’s cell.

“I’ve got good news.”

“You just saved money on your car insurance?” Jordy deadpanned.

Jon laughed. “Better than that.”

He told him.

“Empty?” demanded Peltier as he came on the line. “Are you shitting me, Service?”

“Glenn Traywick never switched the canisters.”

“How do you know that for sure?”

“Well, I guess we don’t. Yet.”

“What’d he tell you?”

Jon went into chapter and verse. How Glenn Traywick didn’t trust Bobby Burdette, thought he was a loose cannon. Thought that if he were cornered, he might do something dangerous. Since the object of their scheme was to scare the public, just having one of those trucks in their possession would be enough to do the job. They would make all the cable news networks, and they would achieve their goal: to prove how dangerous moving trucks of transuranic waste was, how easily they could be hijacked. They didn’t need to endanger people any more than they had to. They just needed to make their point.

Traywick had told them he loved fishing the Colorado River. He would never take a chance that it could be destroyed for generations.

Never. On that point, he was adamant.

Peltier said, “That would explain how they got through the California Port of Entry.” His voice wary.

“Empty canisters, just like on the manifest.”

“Hard to believe, though.”

Jon said, “We should hear soon. There are only so many Trupact-II containers, and now every one of them’s been accounted for.” He added, “We’ll talk some more when we see you.”

“What?”

“We’re bringing Traywick. Just in case Burdette wants to talk to him.”

“What do you mean
we’re
bringing him? Who’s we? You’re not bringing that woman, are you?”

“Can’t not bring her. It’s her helicopter.”

Jon Service ended the call and grinned at Laura.

Bobby Burdette had gone to another level. Maybe his molecules really had rearranged. Whatever it was, he felt serene, like it was meant to be. He wondered if soldiers felt like this when they met the enemy. Probably they didn’t have time to think at all. But he did.

Maybe it was more like facing execution. Every sense heightened. Every feeling like a razor cutting into you. Feeling everything. Really living, for the first time.

Two of the helicopters up above were for him. On this day, he was the most important person in the world. What he did in the next few hours would change the US economy, let alone Las Vegas and this godforsaken desert.

Imagine, Las Vegas turned into a ghost town. A fence around it to keep everyone out. All those pricey resort casinos bulldozed back into the earth. And he was the one who held that potential in his hands.

It was up to him. Everybody else out there in their black outfits and fancy SUVs with their radios, high-powered rifles, and helicopters—all of it was just window dressing.

As he talked on the phone with the hostage negotiator, he saw himself from the outside. He was in complete control, even having a little fun with the guy. Saying one thing and then another—contradicting himself. Telling him the most amazing stories. How he saved his sister from a crazy killer when he was just four years old. How he was a paratrooper in the Army. Stuff they could check. Total bullshit.

He saw his picture on the news. Hoped they didn’t use his mug shot from his stint in prison. He saw them poking into his past, talking to his mother, the neighbors.
He always was quiet
.

“It’s not worth killing yourself for,” the negotiator said. “You agree on that, don’t you?”

“You have a point.”

Enjoying this.

“Look, here’s the bottom line. Nothing’s happened yet. If you think about it, all that’s happened is you’re sitting in that truck, you haven’t done anything—”

Suddenly, he heard another voice. “Let me have that.”

Interesting. Bobby viewing it from his serene place, where he felt like he was riding on a pillow, and at the same time, the adrenaline was rushing through his veins—two distinct feelings at once.

Better than the best pot in the world.

“Burdette, we know something you don’t know,” the voice said briskly.

“And what is that?” Smiling inside.

“Your friend Glenn double-crossed you, buddy. You’re not sitting on any transuranic waste. Those canisters are empty.”

For a moment he felt the good feeling flying up beyond his grasp. Grabbed at it, like the string to a kite.

“You’re lying,” he said.

“Glenn Traywick’s on his way. He can tell you himself.”

“That’s bullshit.”

“It’s the truth. You’ll see that. Look at the SWAT team. The whole game has changed. They want to take you out and now there’s no reason not to.”

He squinted through the windshield at the SWAT team, the cars. They looked no different to him, but for the first time, he felt a hairline crack in his confidence. “I don’t believe you.”

“We’re not gonna wait long now. You can talk to Traywick, and if that doesn’t work, you’re toast.”

Bobby hit END.

Prick!

They were trying to mess with his head. What an obvious lie. He should have been prepared for that.

Traywick wouldn’t do that.

Would he?

Bobby didn’t know Traywick well enough to be sure. It didn’t make sense, though. It had to be a trick.

But he could feel it in his gut, a kind of tiny wailing sound, like someone calling from the bottom of his soul. Asking him if he’d done all this for nothing.

Laura had been relegated to the back of the unit. She could see the truck, but that was about it.

All the units were far enough back from Burdette’s truck that damage from even a big explosion would be minimized. If it was just an explosion. She hoped Glenn Traywick had been telling the truth.

Bobby Burdette had heard what Glenn Traywick had to say.

There was no reply.

Calls to his phone were left unanswered.

It had been an hour since the last time they tried. She knew that Peltier was about at the end of his patience. The sun was sinking like a bloodshot eye below the western mountains, turning them pinkish-purple.

What was he doing in there?

The wind swatted at her like an angry cat. Hopefully, when the sun went down the wind would die out.

She leaned against one of the vehicles, her back bothering her. Thirsty, tired, sweaty, her eyes watering from the wind. Her back starting to ache. She had put lip balm on her lips probably five or six times since she’d been here, but it didn’t seem to do any good.