Part 30 (1/2)
Speed turned the dotted white lines into one continuous white line. Drew's gaze darted between the road and Chapman as he waited for the call to go through. ”Come on, what's taking so long? Call them!” he snapped, as tense as Chapman.
”I did! He isn't answering!” He muttered a litany of swear words as he hit end and redialed. After a few more nerve-racking moments, he straightened with a jerk. ”Renke! Speak up, I can't hear you.”
Drew listened with growing anxiety as Chapman yelled, ”Who?” then added in alarm, ”What the f.u.c.k's going on there?”
”What? What's wrong?” Drew demanded.
”h.e.l.l if I know. I've got your dad's f.u.c.kin' a.s.sistant answering my partner's cell phone, and I can't think of any good reason why that would happen. Then he tells me to hang on 'cause he can't talk right now, like I'm calling during his f.u.c.kin' lunch break. What the f.u.c.k!” Chapman yelled the last part into the phone so Gerald could appreciate his anger, too.
”Give it here, let me talk to him,” Drew said, holding out his hand. At the same time he made a quick, one-handed correction with the wheel, which translated to an eighty-mile-an-hour lurch into the next lane.
”f.u.c.k that. You're barely keeping us alive as it is.” He flicked the phone to speaker mode and held it between them. ”Talk to him.”
”Gerald? What's going on?”
A few seconds of silence followed, and Drew was about to repeat his demand in a testier tone, when they heard rustling. ”d.a.m.n it, keep your panties on,” Gerald said in a hoa.r.s.e whisper. ”I'm turning the volume off. Stand by.”
Chapman almost looked pleased at Drew's frustrated swearing. ”You see? I swear to G.o.d, if that stupid little jerk took Renke's phone and is playing amateur secret agent, I'll wring his scrawny neck. He could be putting my partner in danger! The guy gets a hair up his a.s.s just because he got his precious coat ripped when he interfered with an agent acting in the line of duty, and now he's acting out some petty vendetta against government agents-”
”Hey, whoa, back off, Chapman,” Drew said. He figured he already deserved credit for not telling the guy to shove it up his a.s.s. ”You don't know Gerald. Petty, maybe. But stupid? Never. He's one of the brightest people I know. He's not playing at anything. Shut up and wait until we find out what's happening.” If Gerald really was doing something just to annoy Renke, Drew would personally hold him down while Chapman wrung his neck.
Another quarter mile of highway flashed by before they heard more rustling from the phone, followed by Gerald's low voice. ”Okay, I think it's safe. Talk to me. But keep it down.”
Chapman snarled at his phone, but followed directions. ”You talk to talk to me me. Start by telling me where Renke is.”
”Certainly. Your dumba.s.s partner is about sixty yards away from me, stalking through the woods like friggin' Davy Crockett.”
”Well, get him!” Chapman kept his voice down, but Drew thought he might be close to rupturing an artery from the effort.
”I can't get him,” Gerald hissed back. ”We're in the middle of a covert operation here. We don't have time for chitchat.”
Chapman stared at the phone in his hand as if it had suddenly turned into something rank and slimy. Drew s.n.a.t.c.hed it away, at the same time cutting off a semi and getting a blast from its horn in return. If Gerald was in full officious mode, Drew would have more patience for it than Chapman. ”Gerald!”
”Ssshhh!” he scolded. It sounded like he had his mouth directly on the speaker. ”Do you want them to hear you?”
Gritting his teeth, Drew adjusted his voice to a low rumble. ”Them who? What's going on? Start at the beginning, and keep it short and sweet.”
”Fine. We're in the middle of G.o.dforsaken nowhere, with no street lights or houses, much less malls and spas. But we think we've found Senator Creighton and Meg. We pa.s.sed a car on the side of the road with its parking lights on, like it's just waiting for someone. Renke stopped around the curve, and he's walking back toward it through the woods. Mr. Official Agent says it's always best to be safe. Mihaly is walking back down the center of the road, because if it's them, Meg will see him and recognize him. I should be the one doing that, because they both know me, but Mr. Bigshot told me to wait in the car while they did their hero stuff. And he left his phone, so now I have it.”
Drew relaxed marginally. ”So you're in the car?”
”Of course I'm not in the car. What good would I be there? You think I'd do something just because some government-trained twit tells me to?”
Of course not, what was he thinking?
”Give me that,” Chapman growled, grabbing the phone back with one hand while using the other to brace himself against the dash as Drew cut lanes and swerved into a right turn. ”Listen carefully,” he ordered. ”That's not Senator Creighton in that car. In all likelihood it's the two agents who have been blackmailing senators. It's a trap, and they're going to try to kill all three of you. You got that?”
Gerald paused. ”How do you know?”
Drew answered, knowing Gerald would be less apt to doubt him. ”Because the blackmailer is Pierson.”
”Holy s.h.i.+t,” Gerald breathed into the phone.
”Where exactly are you?” Chapman asked.
”I'm getting up close and personal with Mother Nature, on the other side of the road from Agent Renke. I stepped in something highly questionable, and probably snagged my hand-tailored pants that I-Oh, s.h.i.+t!”
”What?” he and Chapman blurted out together.
Gerald's voice went an octave higher. ”They just spotted Mihaly and turned on their headlights. He's totally lit up, so now he probably can't see the car or anyone in it. Oh, that's not good.”
Chapman brought the phone closer to his mouth and spoke in urgent, clipped tones. ”You've gotta tell Renke and Dragos to back off, now.”
Drew hit narrower city streets and was forced to slow down to navigate parked cars and frequent turns. The squealing tires were the only sound in the car as they listened for Gerald's response.
”I can't see Agent Renke. Mihaly's a sitting duck, completely blind. They're just waiting for him to get closer.”
”For G.o.d's sake, call them off!”
”If I do that, the guys in the car will start shooting, won't they?” Gerald said, sounding more contemplative than Drew would have been at that moment.
”They're going to start shooting anyway. Just do it!” Drew bet if the light had been better Chapman's face would be deep purple.
”Ssshhh! Shut up, I'm thinking.”
Drew frowned in confusion, unable to imagine Gerald not going for the scream-and-run plan.
Chapman was more direct. ”What's to think about?” he asked, his voice vibrating with stress. ”Rule number one, stay out of harm's way. Get the f.u.c.k out of there!”
”Will you hush or do I have to turn you off?”
Chapman gave Drew an incredulous look and tossed the phone onto the console, apparently giving up. ”The man's a control freak! But only an idiot would think he can control this situation. He's going to get everyone killed,” Chapman said.
Drew wasn't sure he could defend Gerald on that point.
”Let's see,” Gerald mused from the dashboard, sounding as if he were deciding which suit to wear and not how to prevent three people from getting shot. ”The car windows are up. They won't shoot at us through the windows.”
”Right,” Chapman muttered, although Drew doubted Gerald was waiting for his opinion.
”They must be wondering where Agent Renke and I are.”
”How do you know they're both in the car?”
Chapman's question stopped him. ”Good point,” he conceded. ”One of them could be waiting for us in the woods.”
Chapman nodded vigorously, obviously pleased that he was beginning to get through to him.