The Camel Club (Camel Club 1)

“I ran.”

She looked astonished. “You ran! All that way?”

“I figured the only place they could’ve tampered with my brakes was at your place. I . . . I had to get back here. I had to make sure you were okay!” This came out in one long breathless purge of his emotions.

She stopped cleaning the blood off him even as her mouth started trembling. Then Kate wrapped her arms around him, her face nestled against his neck. Alex put an arm around her.

What a hell of a first date!

CHAPTER

43

THE CAMEL CLUB HAD WALKED back to Foggy Bottom and ridden the Metro to Union Station, where they had some late dinner at the food court in the lower level and talked things over. Afterward, they went to the train station’s parking garage to pick up their vehicles. Stone elected to ride in the sidecar with Reuben. He turned to Caleb and Milton, who were getting into the Malibu.

“All right, you two can go to your condo, Caleb. I believe you’ll be safe there, but please keep vigilant.”

“Wait a minute,” Caleb said sharply. “Where are you and Reuben going?”

Stone hesitated. “I’ll just have Reuben drop me back at my cottage.”

Caleb scrutinized his friend. “You’re lying! You’re going out to Purcellville, where that man lives.”

“Tyler Reinke,” Milton stated, glaring at Stone.

“You’re going out there,” Caleb continued. “And you don’t want us along because you’re afraid we might get in the way.”

“Consider, Caleb, that you and Milton don’t really have any experience at this sort of thing. Whereas Reuben and—”

“I don’t care,” Caleb snapped. “We’re going.”

“I’m afraid I can’t allow that,” Stone replied evenly. “If we’re discovered, he’d have all four of us instead of simply two.”

Caleb said with dignity, “Can’t allow it! We are adults, Oliver. And full members of the Camel Club. And if you don’t agree to let us go, I’ll follow right behind you blowing my horn the whole way, and let me tell you, my car’s horn sounds like a damn cannon going off!”

“And I’ve already located his house on my computer using MapQuest,” Milton said. “It’s very difficult to find without precise directions, which I happen to have in my pocket.”

Stone looked at Caleb, Milton and finally Reuben, who shrugged.

“All for one and one for all,” Reuben said.

Stone finally nodded, albeit grudgingly.

“Shouldn’t we just take my car, then?” Caleb said.

“No,” Stone replied as he eyed the motorcycle. “I’ve actually grown fond of riding in this contraption, and it also might come in useful tonight.”

They headed west, picking up Route 7 in Virginia heading northwest, passing very close to NIC headquarters as they zipped through Leesburg. A sign at one of the intersections indicated the direction and proximity of the intelligence center. It had always amazed Stone that there were actually signs to NSA, CIA and other highly sensitive places. Yet, he supposed, they had visitors too. Still, it certainly put a crimp in the “secret” part of the business.

Reinke’s place was very, very rural. They wound up and down back roads for a half hour after leaving Route 7, when Milton finally saw the route sign they wanted. He motioned for Caleb to pull off to the side of the road. Reuben slid in behind them, and he and Stone climbed off the motorcycle and joined them in the car.

Milton said, “His house is two-tenths of a mile up that road. I did a cross search of other addresses up there. There aren’t any. His house is the only one.”

“Bloody isolated,” Reuben said, looking around nervously.

Stone commented, “Murderers are notorious for wanting their privacy.”

“So what’s the plan?” Caleb asked.

“I want you and Milton to remain in the car—”

“Oliver!” Caleb argued immediately.

“Just hear me out, Caleb. I want you and Milton to remain in the car, but first we’re going to drive up the road and see if anyone’s home. If they are, we leave. If not, you and Milton will come back here and serve as our lookout. This is the only road in or out, correct, Milton?”

“Yes.”

“We’ll communicate by cell phone. If you see anyone coming, call us immediately and we’ll take the necessary actions.”

“What are you going to do?” Caleb asked. “Break into the man’s house?”

“You know, Oliver, he’s probably got an alarm system,” Reuben ventured.

“I would be surprised if he didn’t.”

“So how do we get in, then?” Reuben asked.

“Let me worry about that.”

The house was indeed dark and presumably empty, since there was no car visible and the house didn’t have a garage. While Milton and Caleb stood guard in a hidden location near the entrance to the road, Reuben and Stone drove up on the Indian, parking it in a clump of trees behind the house and making their way on foot.

It was a two-story old clapboard with chipping white paint. Stone led Reuben to the rear. The door here was solid, but there was a window next to it. Stone peered through the window and motioned Reuben to look too.

A greenish glow emanated from a new-looking object on the wall opposite the door.

“He’s got a security system, all right,” Reuben muttered. “Now what?”

Stone didn’t answer him. He peered closer at the screen. “We’ll have to assume he has motion detectors. That complicates things.”

Suddenly, something flew at them from the inside of the house accompanied by twin slashes of emerald. It hit the window and bounced off. Both men leaped back, and Reuben was already turned to run when Stone called out to him.

“It’s all right, Reuben,” Stone said. “Mr. Reinke has a cat.”

His chest heaving, Reuben staggered back up to the window and looked through it. Peering back up at him was a black tabby with a white chest and huge luminous green eyes. The room they were looking into was the kitchen. And the cat had apparently launched itself from the countertop when it noticed their presence.

“Damn cat. I bet it’s a female,” Reuben said, grimacing.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because women have always tried to give me heart attacks, that’s why!”

“Actually, the presence of the animal simplifies things greatly,” Stone said.

“How the hell do you figure that?”

“Security systems with motion detectors do not cohabit very well with cats.”

Reuben snapped his fingers. “Pet corridors where the motion doesn’t hit.”

“Exactly.” Stone was pulling something from his pocket. It was the black leather case he had taken from his secret room. He unzipped it. Inside was a first-class burglary kit.

Reuben stared at these felonious instruments and then looked up at his friend and said, “I don’t want to know.”

The window to the kitchen was opened within ten seconds.

“How’d you figure the window wasn’t wired to the security system?”

“Wired windows and a motion detector is a bit of overkill,” Stone replied. “And a house this old has plaster walls which are very difficult to run wire through. I doubt our Mr. Reinke could justify the price. And I checked for a wireless security

pod on the window before I jimmied it.”

“Okay,” Reuben demanded. “I do want to know. How the hell do you know about stuff like wireless window security pods?”

Stone glanced at him with an innocent expression. “The library is open to the public, Reuben.”

They climbed inside and the cat met them immediately, rubbing up against their legs and waiting patiently to be stroked.

“All right, before we enter any room, we need to find the motion detector. Then I’ll send the cat across the room and we’ll follow its lead,” Stone said. “Be prepared to crawl on your belly.”

“Great! I might as well be back in Nam,” Reuben groused.

A half hour before Stone and Reuben broke into Tyler Reinke’s house, the back door of Milton’s place was forced open and Warren Peters and Tyler Reinke slipped inside and shut the door behind them. It had not been that easy, since Milton had six locks on every door, and all the windows were nailed shut, something the fire marshal doubtless would’ve disapproved of. They had already checked the power box going into the house for any signs of a security system and had found none.

Reinke was limping from where Alex Ford had punched him in the knee. And there was a bullet hole in Warren Peters’ coat sleeve where one of the Secret Service agent’s shots had almost found its mark. They’d stumbled upon the two when they went to Georgetown for another look at the boat, only to find that Ford and Adams had beaten them to it.