Long Road to Mercy (Atlee Pine, #1)(116)

Reading his expression, she added, “It’s the only way any of us get out of this. I think you’re plenty smart enough to see that.”

Another few seconds of silence passed, while everyone held their collective breaths.

The man said, “All right. Anything else?”

“Ben and Ed Priest?” she said.

The man licked his lips nervously and said quickly, “What do you want?”

“They sure as hell better be alive. Or else all of you are going down.”

He hesitated for a moment. “They’re alive.”

“Then I want them back safe and sound and with appropriate compensation for the shit you put them through. And I’ll check on that, so don’t screw with me.”

“Done. So long as they won’t breach any, uh, confidences.”

“You’re also going to owe a lot of money to Oscar Fabrikant’s family. And while you’re at it, throw a ton of cash to the Society for Good. I think we need more, not less, good. And we know about Fred Wormsley. So, his family will be receiving substantial financial support for his patriotic service to his country.”

“All right, anything else?” the man said tightly.

Her features turned somber. “There are three bodies in a cave in the Grand Canyon. Three of your guys.”

“You killed three of our men?” said the man incredulously.

“Well, I didn’t have much choice, considering they were trying to kill me. But I want their bodies retrieved and turned over to their families. And if they were military, I want their families to be taken care of. And their service records will not reflect any of this. They go out clean with full honors.”

“How magnanimous of you,” he said sarcastically.

“They were killed following orders, probably your orders. My beef wasn’t with them. I would have much preferred to have shot you.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said testily. “In case you and I run across each other again.”

She looked at him, a smile playing over her lips. “You could have taken me along with the Priest brothers. Or you just could have killed me. But you didn’t.”

“Well, all I can say is, I don’t make the same mistakes twice.”

She studied him. “You wanted me to keep working the investigation.”

Dobbs said, “But, Pine, why would they want that?”

“Because they needed help to find Roth and the bomb.”

“We could have just captured you and made you tell us where Roth was.”

“Later on, you made attempts to do just that at the airport and at the apartment where I was staying but failed. What you did know was that a nuke was in a cave in the Grand Canyon. Only it was no longer in the cave where your people had originally put it. So, you thought you’d enlist me, however unwittingly, to find it for you. You just expected your men to capture me when I got to the bomb. Only they didn’t.”

The man’s face had lost its sneer and he looked at her with grudging admiration. “Maybe I hope our paths don’t cross again.”

She hooked a finger in the direction of the closet. “And you’ll need to take that thing. I don’t think the Bureau has a nuclear weapons rider on its liability insurance.”

“I already had that on my to-do list,” he replied sarcastically. “Anything else?”

“One more thing. Maybe the most important of all.”

“What?”

Pine gathered herself and blurted out, “Stop trusting the freaking Russians. They are not our friend.”

The man looked at her strangely for a moment and then turned to his men, pointed to the closet, and said, “Get that thing and then let’s go.”

The personnel instantly lowered their weapons. Four of them hustled over to the closet and lifted up the bomb. They all filed out of the room.

The suit was the last to leave.

He looked directly at Pine. “You’ve done irreparable damage to this country.”

“No, I think I actually just saved it. Along with a few million lives. My only regret is that you and every other idiot behind this won’t be going to prison for the rest of your lives. Now get out of my office!”

The man stormed out, leaving six FBI agents and one FBI secretary exhaling long, relieved breaths. They all lowered their weapons, their arms collectively shaking from holding their weapons in a firing stance for so long.

A pale-faced Dobbs looked at Pine and barked, “What in the living hell was that, Pine?”

“Basically, Americans behaving really badly, sir.”

Blum stepped over to face Dobbs. “While we’re asking for things, we’ll need the doors replaced. And Agent Pine needs a new chair.”

Dobbs snorted but then looked at Pine. “You weren’t bluffing that asshole, were you? About your office being wired and all?”

Pine opened her desk drawer, revealing a small metal box inside. She hit a button and a tray slid out. She took out the DVD inside the tray and handed it to Dobbs.

“FBI agents don’t bluff, sir. At least not when it really matters.”

He looked down at the DVD and then glanced up at her.

She said, “I would respectfully suggest that you use that to full advantage.”

Dobbs nodded again, pocketed the DVD, and then glanced around the room before looking at Blum.