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“I know,” she says. “Which means we’re going back in to do what has to be done. Are you with me?”
“One hundred percent,” I say. “But we’ve got to break him fast, Elizabeth.”
She says, “I know. That’s why we’re not in there with him, so we can talk.”
“Tell me how we do it, then,” I say. “If we had the time, we could drag him to the nearest men’s room, tie him up, and start waterboarding him. But we don’t have time.”
The staffers out in the small lobby are looking at us, but no one seems to be on the phone.
She says, “Break his fingers?”
“He’s ex-military,” I say. “He might just grit his way through that, knowing he’s going to be rescued. Wound him? Cut him?”
She runs a hand through her hair, shakes her head. “He can be a tough fat bastard when he wants to be. I don’t know if pain or the threat of pain will do it.”
So pain is off the table. Fear?
“Elizabeth, you’ve readNineteen Eighty-Four,right?”
“Stupid question. Yes.”
“What’s waiting for your husband in room one-oh-one?”
At first she doesn’t seem to understand, but then her eyes widen and she smiles. “That’s a good one, John. Can we do it?”
“No other choice,” I say. “What’s waiting for him?”
She tells me and I grunt with surprise. “Really?”
“Really,” she says. “No doubt about it.”
“All right, let’s do this thing.”
I open the door and we go back in. Mason is on the phone; he looks surprised and says, “I’m going to put you on hold for a sec. Got two visitors here I need to get rid of.”
Behind me Deacon closes the office door, tosses the dead bolt, drags over one of the fancy leather chairs, and jams it underneath the doorknob.
Mason laughs. “You think that’s going to hold off security?”
Deacon walks to him, smiling, the look of a hawk descending on an oblivious field mouse. “You got that wrong, Gerry. We’re not locking out any security guards. We’re locking you in with us.”
I step closer to Mason’s desk, take out my Glock, and tighten my finger on the trigger.
Chapter
124
Captain Cardinal fromthe Defense Intelligence Agency is pointing to numbers and lines on a series of papers, and Grissom half listens, admiring her poise and dedication. Coming in like this, bypassing the chain of command and practically ambushing him in his office, is a career-killer.
But Captain Cardinal is smart, and she knows that what she has is too vital to go through the usual channels. Grissom thinks,Damn, this girl is skinny as a rail, but she knows her stuff and she’s as tough as titanium.
“Captain?” he asks, interrupting the flow of tech-speak.
“Yes, sir?”
He gestures to the papers spread out on his desk. “This is incredible work. Well done.”
Her face colors like she’s a teen girl being complimented on her hair and makeup just before leaving for the senior prom.
