Breacher (Tom Keeler Book 2) by Jack Lively (reading well TXT) 📕

Hagen nodded. “Yes.”

With my other hand, I removed the Glock from my jacket pocket. I saw his expression change, from friendly to cautious. I said, “There’s one more thing I need to tell you.”

Hagen watched me. “What’s that?”

I said, “Once it’s done, I’ll need you on a boat back to Russia. Either that or I’ll bury you here.”

For a while Hagen said nothing, remained motionless as if his pause button had been depressed. He said, “You would bury me, personally with your own hands?”

“I meant that proverbially.”

He nodded. “I understand, yes. That’s how it is going to be.”

He held out a massive hand and I brought mine up to meet it. Hagen said something in Russian which I didn’t understand. He said it again in English. “Russian proverb: Better to have a hundred friends than a hundred rubles.”

“Amen brother.”

Forty-Six

We split from Hagen at the creek.

I wanted to look at the plans Ellie had retrieved from the code enforcement office. She and Hagen discussed the details of how to get to her house. Hagen climbed past the boulders and up the bank to his vehicle. Ellie and I returned the way we had come, stepping across the creek over stones. Now that I wasn’t focused on Hagen, I noticed other sounds. There was the wind and the water, and there was something else. Which made me look to my left. Several forms moved in the mist, animal shapes. The shapes came with sounds and smell. The sounds were low and guttural, the smell was heavy and pungent. I realized that we were sharing the creek with other creatures. I looked at Ellie.

She turned to me with a grin. “Bears drinking. Isn’t that cute?”

When we emerged from the woods back to the roadhouse, old-school country music was seeping out of the Rendezvous. A couple of men were sitting on the porch drinking from tall beer bottles. As I crossed the lot, a woman came out the front door, banging it loudly and shouting.

When we arrived back at the vehicles, Ellie turned to me. “Let’s summarize.”

I leaned back against the Land Cruiser. “You want to go first or want me to go first?”

“You were closer to him, so you heard it better. I’m a little fuzzy on the details.”

“I thought you wanted the summary.”

“Okay I’ll go first. You fill in anything I’m missing.” She leaned against the truck next to me.

I said, “Shoot.”

Ellie was looking up at the place where dark sky ran into the treetops.

“The big guy and Chapman are Russian spies with an anti-proliferation unit of the FSB. The Russians figured out where the stolen submarine is located but they wanted proof before committing.” She looked at me. I nodded.

“So far so good.”

“So rather than send in a bigger team, they figured they’d get the Americans to do the heavy lifting for them. Chapman has an in with the USNRC via the hook up with George Abrams as an unwitting agent. She feeds him information that he feeds to Zarembina. That leads to George Abrams getting sent up here to investigate. But I don’t get why he came alone.”

“You missed an important step Ellie. Valerie Zarembina wanted to investigate. I met her. She was smart and tough, maybe fearless even. The kind of woman who would go all the way if she had a strong intuition. Zarembina felt that whatever Abrams had was good enough, but someone further up the ladder in the USNRC didn’t agree. So, at that point the investigation is blocked. My guess is that Chapman slipped Abrams something extra, enough to push Zarembina over the edge and send young George up here alone. Probably she wanted to gather irrefutable proof.”

Ellie was nodding. “Right. Which is why we’re here now. George stopped responding. I guess Zarembina freaked out and came up here to try and clean up the mess, hoping to extract her agent.”

“And behind all that is Chapman and Hagen, quietly scheming.”

She said, “Yeah but we’re talking about stolen nuclear materials. There’s more at stake than George Abrams or any other individual person. Like you said, Abrams took one for the team. Am I supposed to blame the Russians here?”

“I don’t. They had a major problem and needed it solved. Institutional failure both ways. Their people lost the sub, ours lost the opportunity to get the hint from Zarembina. Or worse, the Mister Lawrence people go deep and somebody’s bank account got a bump.”

Ellie said, “And now Chapman’s put herself in the middle of it. Woman’s got courage.”

“Damn right she does.”

Ellie looked at me. I shrugged. “You straight now?”

She said, “Enough for now. What about Dave? Can we let him go home?”

Dave had worked out as a useful appendage to the operation. “Yes. You should bring him a donut. It’s the least he deserves.”

Ellie nodded and brought out her phone. She tapped a couple of times on the screen and then held it up to her ear. Nothing. She looked at me. “Not answering. Goes straight to voice mail.”

I said, “Dave’s had an eventful evening. I bet he’s asleep. You want me to go check on him?”

Ellie shook her head. “I’ll cruise by on my way home. Maybe bring him that donut.” She walked away from the Land Cruiser. Turned back and said, “See you when I see you.”

Ellie got into her Ford pickup truck. The engine growled and then she was gone. Taillights receded into the dark. I pulled out after her.

About a mile from the roadhouse, the Land Cruiser hit the asphalt again. Tires that had been rocking over gravel now began to hum. I was back in America, whatever that was supposed to mean. I blew past the airport with the fence on my right. The runway was a strange field of mist, like a soft and flat surface that went on as far as the eye could see. Which wasn’t far, given the reduced visibility. I had come in from a logging trail alongside the southern