Page 65 of Shadow of Death
“Really?” he asked miserably.
“You know—deep in your heart, soul, and mind, that I am right.”
Sirens sounded. An ambulance arrived.
Carey was being taken back to the hospital. Hunter glanced at Amy and then rose to walk over to speak with one of the officers.
But he didn’t get the chance.
Along with the ambulance and the EMTs, Andy Mason himself had arrived. “I’ll be driving back with you and this man. I have Crandon heading into the hospital with Carey. We won’t leave her alone for a second. I think we all need to talk,” he said.
Ian was crying again. “You can’t save me,” he whispered.
“The hell I can’t!” Andy said. “We’re taking you to a very safe place. And we’ll need to talk, but you’ll be surrounded by people who will make sure nothing happens to you while you help us straighten this all out, okay?”
“I deserve to die!” Ian said.
“No. No, you don’t,” Hunter said. “You couldn’t do it. You couldn’t kill. In my mind, that very much means you deserve to live. But let’s get moving. We do need to talk and it’s getting late. You need to get some sleep and so do we. All right?”
Ian looked at him and nodded slowly. Hunter clutched his shoulders and helped him to his feet.
Andy Mason took him by the arm and started for the car. Hunter called back a thank-you to the cops and the paramedics, looked at Amy, and pulled her up from where she knelt.
“You know what?” he asked quietly.
“What?”
“You are damned good with weapons and self-defense, but that...well, that was really good. I think you just saved a man’s mind.”
She grinned at him. “Well, you know I had help. From the best.”
He laughed.
“I’ll take that,” he told her. “Come on. Let’s get in, see if he knows anything more than he’s already told us, and maybe get out of the office before the cocks crow again.”
She nodded, grimacing, and then asked, “Hunter, what will happen to these people, though? Will they all go to prison?”
“Some will. It will depend on what crimes they’re charged with. Some will come out of this okay, and I’m afraid others will not. We’ve seen it happen throughout history. Propaganda has always been a powerful tool. The human mind can be the most powerful weapon known to man because it’s the human mind that controls all else. Just like the human body, the human psyche is, in the great scheme of things, fragile. Amy, we do our part. Then, we trust in the laws of our country and in the humanity of it as well. Anyway... Hey. Let’s get into the office so we can get the hell out of it at some point. The human mind also needs sleep. And you know, the body needs bits of the good and the beautiful to stay in good shape.”
“And being together is a bit of the beautiful,” Amy murmured softly.
“You nailed it,” he assured her.
They headed for the car.
As they did so, Amy couldn’t suppress a yawn. And she lowered her head, smiling to herself. Hunter was right.
She thought he was one of the strongest men she had ever met. And she believed in her own strength. But even so, they, like all other human beings, were fragile.
12
Hunter sat with Amy in a conference room at headquarters facing Ian McCormick. He appeared to be a truly broken and miserable man swimming in a sea of uncertainty.
Amy’s words had touched him.
But he was now terrified.
“Ian, you know you’re safe now,” he told him. They’d gotten him a soda. He hadn’t wanted food; he’d said he couldn’t eat.
