Part 21 (2/2)

”The house was built in nineteen sixty-two by a doctor. He put a fallout shelter in the bas.e.m.e.nt. It was the height of the Cold War.”

It was the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis, but I kept my mouth shut.

We came into a finished bas.e.m.e.nt with wood paneling and an ancient pool table. He pointed to another, heavier door at the far end of the room. I stepped through that portal into a concrete-encased hallway that slanted down. Bare light bulbs protected by steel frames burned overhead. I started to sweat.

It reminded me of one of my maze dreams as I stepped more slowly, made a turn and went another twenty feet on a slanting concrete floor. Two doors were open. One led through thick walls into a shelter, maybe ten feet by ten feet, looking as if it hadn't been touched since Kennedy was president. A dusty yellow Geiger counter sat on a table. Ed Cartwright would look down his apocalyptic nose at such a primitive set-up.

The other door led outside, where a Phoenix cop stood guard. He greeted Peralta by name, as if the election had never happened.

We were at the bottom of the stubby hill. The house loomed above us.

”This is where Dowd probably got out while we were still staging,” Peralta said. ”We didn't realize there was this escape route out.”

”What's this 'we,' Lone Ranger?” I said sourly. ”I said we should go in and do it ourselves instead of setting up the paramilitary show that everybody could see.”

”Mapstone, we would have been shot dead.”

He was right, of course. But I was still angry. The only benefit was the hot west wind, replacing the tear gas in my lungs with good old Phoenix smog and dust. The sheen of sweat across my chest and belly remained.

”We think Dowd came out here and went into that neighborhood.” He pointed to lights two-hundred yards away. ”He kidnapped a woman and made her drive him through a checkpoint. Let her go down at Forty-Fourth Street and Camelback. He's probably already ditched her car.”

Dowd's black Dodge Ram truck sat ten feet to my right, with its tracker no doubt uselessly attached to the back.

He faced me. ”Where are the girls?”

”Shopping in Scottsdale.”

”Call. Get them here. Now.”

I already had the cell out. I asked Lindsey to bring Sharon and meet us back at Seventh and Dunlap.

He walked out into the darkness, kicking the hard ground, thinking.

”Thoughts? Ideas?” It was as if he were talking to the mountains as much as to me.

I moved toward him, wondering if Dowd was watching with night vision. He could take us out right here with a sniper rifle.

”We can't stay on Cypress.” I stated the obvious through a scratchy throat. ”Your place in Dreamy Draw is more secure but not secure enough. It's also dangerously isolated.”

I had only gotten Lindsey back. Sure, she had left me twice before, but for now it was sweet. The idea of putting her at risk was intolerable, a rocket into my brain. Dowd knew we had defrauded him with the flash drive. He would come to kill us all. And he was the kind of man who would seek out Lindsey first, so my agony would be under way well before he got to me. I would have been responsible for losing them both, Robin and Lindsey.

I said,”You know we've got to find him ourselves. Get him first. You know this, right?”

He nodded.

”But for now,” he said, ”we need to get out of the Valley. How about San Diego?”

It sounded smart. But one other thing bothered me.

”How many Claymores did they find here?”

”Ten.”

”You're sure?”

He shook his head and cursed. He could do the arithmetic as easily as I: a dozen stolen, one used on me in Ocean Beach, ten seized tonight.

One Claymore was still missing and I wagered it was with Dowd.

36.

The call came a little after eight p.m. Only one person had called me on the cheap phone I had bought in El Centro.

”Time's up, Doctor Mapstone.”

”For you,” I said. ”You escaped once, you won't again.”

”Did you ever serve in the military? In combat?”

”No.”

”Then you don't understand anything. I gave you a chance to serve your country by giving me the list of Scarlett's clients. I appealed to your patriotism. I appealed to your intellectual side. But, no. You refused to obey my orders. You refused to negotiate.”

”I'm really sorry about that.”

”If you had served in combat, you would know that a soldier can't let his rage get the better of him. It can overwhelm discipline and training. Effectiveness. So I have to push you with some clearer incentives. I've researched you, Doctor Mapstone. I'm going to kill everyone you love. Then I'm going to kill you. And then I'm going to bring the war where it belongs, right here to America.”

”Keep talking, General,” I said. ”The trace is working.”

There was no trace.

He laughed as if a private joke had been shared between friends.

”I'm going to start with your first wife, Patricia.” He read out an address in La Jolla. It was Patty's address. ”I know you're in San Diego. If you come alone and bring the client list, then I'll let her live. I might even be willing to let you live. But you have to come within the next hour. You won't find her there. If I'm satisfied you're alone, I'll call and give you instructions. No cops. No bulls.h.i.+t. This is your last chance to negotiate.”

Then I was only holding a useless plastic object to my ear, hearing nothing.

37.

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