Clint and Mitch were more or less upright now, though they both looked like they should be hunched over a toilet. He twitched the nearest tablet toward himself and looked up the coordinates that Clemens had sent. “Where is this place?”
The map had a pointer. Josh leaned over and stared at it. “It’s not far from another one of my dad’s houses,” he said. “Maybe ten miles. That’s a state park where he wants you to go, but I’ll bet you anything he’s keeping Lu in that house.”
“What house?”
“Here.” Josh pointed a blood-darkened finger at the map. “It’s on Beecham Lake. One of my father’s favorite mountain houses. He spent a lot of time there. He did a lot of work and renovations on that place. It’s about an hour and a half drive from here.”
“What’s with him, using family properties for his dirty games? Seems risky.”
Josh shook his head. “Once I understood that he wasn’t ever going to let me leave that place alive, he got real talkative. Especially when he drank. He kept me there because it would be easier to dispose of me. He wouldn’t have to bury me, or hide my body or account for my disappearance. He’d just stage a suicide or a drug overdose. They’d find my body, and oh, woe is me. He liked to fuck with my head about it. What’s your preference, Joshie? Slit writs in the bathtub? Hanging from the elk horn chandelier? Chug-a-lugging some drain cleaner? He got off on that. Evil sadist motherfucker. He’ll have something nasty planned for Lu, too.”
They stared at each other in blank dismay.
“I have to go,” Nate said. “Right now.”
“I should go,” Josh said resolutely. “Gil said I had to go with you.”
“You can barely stand,” Nate said. “I’ll go alone.”
Josh’s face looked pinched and miserable. “But it’s a suicide run,” he said bleakly. “He’ll eat you alive if you go alone. And he’ll find out soon enough that I was never at the Amity Springs ICU. And Lu will pay.”
“I don’t think it matters anymore.” Nate pulled out his spare handgun, checked the magazine, and pressed it into Josh’s hand. “I’m going to do whatever I can. You look after these two guys until help arrives. Shouldn’t be long.”
“So this is goodbye?” Josh’s voice was angry. “You’re just running into his fucking fangs without a plan? Do you have your own private army on retainer?”
Nate stared at him for a second, startled by a sudden, batshit crazy idea.
“Ah…yeah,” he said distractedly. “Yeah, that is exactly what I need. A private army. Ready to move at a moment’s notice. It would be perfect. Thanks, Josh.” He looked around until he saw the car keys for Clint’s SUV parked outside.
Josh looked baffled. “Thanks for what?”
Nate had no more bandwidth for chit chat. He gestured at Clint and Mitch. “Guard them,” he said. “Gotta go. I have an idea. Cross your fingers. Take care. Stay alive, okay?”
Josh stumbled on his dirty, bleeding feet over to the open front door and watched Nate open Clint’s car. “You’re a fucking maniac, you know that?” he called.
“For her, absolutely.” Nate popped the trunk, and looked for Clint’s go-bag, a hard black plastic clamshell case. It looked more like a thing to carry guns than clothes. It was convincing as a case to carry hazardous biological material.
He opened it and the suitcase practically exploded with dirty clothes. Damn, that was so foul. Clint really needed to get his nasty ass to a laundromat.
Nate placed the flash drive on top of the soiled clothes and forced the thing to close again. He was still dressed for Josh’s extraction. Suited up for battle, no need to change. “Tell Clint to use my Jeep to get back to Granger Valley, if he recovers fast enough to drive. The keys are on the kitchen island. Watch yourself.”
“But what are you…” Josh cut himself off. “Never mind,” he said. “If you get to talk to Lu, tell her I love her.”
“Of course,” Nate said. “But you’ll tell her yourself.”
“Right,” Josh said, his lips tight and grayish. “Thanks for everything. Good luck.”
Nate pulled the hacked smartphone battery out of his pocket and put it back inside the phone. It still had some charge, thank God. Enough to get the job done.
Windshield wipers brushed the sloppy snow off the windshield as he sped along the highway. He put a good thirty miles between himself and the staging area before he pulled into the parking lot of a big box store and made the call. He stared at his compromised smartphone, and thought how perversely funny it was that he actually hoped Kimball was listening. Just this once, the guy needed to pay attention.
He pulled up Anton’s number. The compromised one, from the hacked phone.
It rang and rang. Please, Anton. Pick up. Pick…the fuck…up.
The line clicked open. “Hey.” Anton’s voice was wary. “Nate? What the hell?”
Nate made his voice ugly. The cadence and tone were very familiar. All he had to do was sound exactly like his drunken father. “Listen to me, you dumb fuck, and listen good,” Nate said. “I’m just calling because I want you to know who’s putting it to you. Just in case you’re too fucking stupid to figure it out. I’m done taking your orders. Starting right now. You get me?”
An astonished pause. “Nate? What the fuck? Are you delirious?”
“I took your virus, asshole. I took it right out of the vault.”
“Oh, fuck me,” Anton breathed. “No. Nate, no! What the fuck are you doing?”
“It’s too late for you to stop me now,” Nate said. “I’m too far away. I got a way better deal than any of the ones that you dickwad assholes had on the table. I found these guys on the darkweb, and I am going to do my deal. Don’t even try to come after me. These dudes have a fucking army. You’ll get your asses flattened.”
“You asshole!” Anton sounded horrified. “Don’t do this!”
“Too late. It’s done, and I’m not sharing. So long, sucker.”
As he spoke, he punched in the GPS coordinates Clemens had sent him, texting them into the burner, and then adding
Gil has Elisa. I released the hounds. Sorry man. Already on the move. Josh thinks Gil will take me to the Roarke house at Beecham Lake.
He didn’t want to get there too long before Kimball and his horde. The timing was tricky, but that was what you got for conjuring up demons to do your dirty work. Demons who didn’t play by any rules but their own.
The whole thing was probably going to get him killed. And badly, too.
What the fuck. Everybody had to die someday. He gave the car more gas.
The burner rang. He grabbed it, texting as he drove.
Cant talk. Driving now. he’s probably listening to the mic in my smartphone.
Anton texted wtf r u doing?
Calling the cavalry he texted. Kimball’s cavalry.
U r fucking nuts! U asshole! U can’t control him! He’ll kill you all!
No choice. No time. Had to try. Tnx 4 everything. ttyl.
Anton was right. He was meat. Elisa, too. But at least this way, no matter what happened to them, Gil got hammered. Maybe Kimball’s ranks would also be thinned.