The Camel Club (Camel Club 1)

The man grimaced and dropped to his knees. Next Captain Jack shot him in the right arm.

“Stop, please!” Simpson screamed.

Captain Jack said, “I’m sorry to do this piecemeal, Tom, but I have no desire to have my neck crushed by you.”

Hemingway said between gritted teeth, “You might want to reconsider your plan.”

“Why’s that?”

“Because the cell doors are booby-trapped.”

“Then turn the devices off and open the doors.”

Hemingway shook his head.

“Then I’ll just start killing them one by one until you do.”

“You’re going to kill them anyway, so what does it matter?” Hemingway said.

“We’ll just see how long you can take the screams. Your only weakness is you’re just too damn civilized, Tom.”

Stone managed to catch Hemingway’s gaze and motioned with his eyes to something. Hemingway gave a barely perceptible nod.

Captain Jack pressed the gun tightly against Simpson’s temple and said, “Good-bye, whoever you are.”

“My name is John Carr,” Stone said quietly as he stepped forward. “You were right, we do know each other.”

Captain Jack lowered his pistol slightly. “John Carr,” he said in amazement as he looked Stone up and down. “My God, John, the years haven’t been kind to you.”

“You were a bastard traitor back then, and I see you still are.”

“I went out on my terms. I don’t think you can say the same,” Captain Jack sneered. His attention was fully on Stone now, so he didn’t notice Hemingway edging toward the wall.

Stone took another step forward, blocking Captain Jack’s line of sight to Hemingway. “Why don’t you kill me? You were always second best, so it’d be a thrill for you to take out the top man, wouldn’t it?”

“You’re still one cocky bastard,” Captain Jack growled.

“Unlike you, I earned the right to be. How did you screw up again? Oh, that’s right, you used the wrong barometric reading and you missed your target. They had to send me in a year later to do it right. Face it, you were a second-rate bungler.”

Captain Jack pointed his pistol at Stone’s forehead. “I won’t have to worry about barometric pressure this time.”

Hemingway leaped and hit the light switch, plunging them into darkness. Captain Jack fired. There were screams and shouts and scuffling and finally one horrific cry and then the sound of a body falling.

The lights came back on, and Captain Jack was lying on the floor, his guns gone. Stone was standing over him, holding a knife covered in blood, fabric and skin. He’d taken it from the room of truth.

“You bastard!” Captain Jack groaned as he grabbed his lower calves where Stone had cut him, immobilizing the man.

Captain Jack screamed, “Why didn’t you just kill me?”

“Because I didn’t have to,” Stone answered.

“Listen to me,” Captain Jack gasped. “Ten million dollars to each of you if you kill Brennan.” They all looked at him in disgust. “He’s just a man,” he screamed.

“If you don’t shut up,” Alex snapped, “I’ll kill you.”

Hemingway managed to lever himself up against the wall. “You have to take President Brennan and leave him at a certain spot, to finish this the right way.”

Alex looked at him in disbelief. “I don’t know what the hell your crazy motivations are, and I don’t care. You’ve left the entire world on the brink of war. So the only thing I’m doing is taking the president back where he belongs. And on the way we’re going to make a call and stop six million people from being incinerated because of what you did.” He pointed his gun at Hemingway. “Now you either open the cell door or I’ll kill you.”

Hemingway struggled to his feet. “I’m not a traitor to my country, no matter what you or anyone else might think. I did this for my country. I did this for my world.”

“Open the damn door!” Alex yelled. “Now!”

Hemingway took out a set of keys and unlocked one of the doors.

“I thought you said it was booby-trapped,” Captain Jack snarled.

“I lied,” Hemingway said.

Stone and Alex carried the unconscious president out and sat him up against a wall. They found Chastity and placed her on the floor next to him.

Alex pulled out his cell phone. “Damn it, I forgot there’s no signal in here, so we need to get out of here to call Washington and—”

A man’s voice interrupted. “I don’t think that’ll be necessary.”

They all turned and stared at Carter Gray and six men holding machine guns.

CHAPTER

68

“THANK GOD,” SIMPSON SAID, stepping toward her godfather. However, Gray turned his attention to Hemingway.

“The president was in the chopper that you flew me home in, wasn’t he?” Gray clearly didn’t expect an answer, and Hemingway didn’t provide one. “You corrupted my files, assembled an army of dead men and kidnapped the president.” Gray shook his head.

“The president’s fine, Carter,” Simpson said. “He’s just drugged.”

Gray said, “Very good. Well, we’ll take over from here.” He motioned two of his men to go get the president.

“Wait!” Hemingway shouted. “He needs to be returned the way I planned! You can’t let all those people in Pennsylvania die in vain. They sacrificed themselves for a better world.”

Gray’s face screwed up. “You are insane!” He calmed and turned to Stone.

“Hello, John. I can’t tell you what a shock it’s been finding out you’re alive,” Gray continued. He glanced over at Captain Jack lying on the floor still clutching his bloodied legs. “Two old friends I believed to be dead. Resurrection seems to be a theme of the twenty-first century.”

“I wasn’t ready to die on your timetable, Carter,” Stone said.

Simpson looked between the two men. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Alex interjected. “Look, people, we’re running out of time. We have to notify the White House that we have the president back. They’ll stop the launch.”

Gray ignored this and said, “Jackie, I want you to step over here with me.”

“What?” she said. “Didn’t you hear Alex? We have to stop the launch.”

“When you and I leave here together, you are never to speak of anything you’ve seen or heard tonight. Do you understand?”

Simpson looked at the others. “I’m sure you can trust all of us not to reveal anything that would damage the country.”

“I’m not worried about the others, Jackie, just you.”

Stone looked at the woman. “You’re the only one leaving here alive, Agent Simpson.” He glanced at Gray. “And I believe that includes the president.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Simpson shouted. She looked at her godfather for reassurance, but the truth of what Stone had just said was instantly revealed in Gray’s features. She pointed at the unconscious Brennan. “This is the president of the United States!”

Gray said, “I’m aware of that. And there’s a man in the Oval Office right now who’s equally capable of running the country, which, unfortunately, isn’t saying much.”

Simpson stared at the men with Gray. “He’s going to kill the president. You have to stop him!”

“These men are all loyal only to me, otherwise they wouldn’t be here,” Gray answered.

She said pleadingly, “Six million people are going to die if we don’t make the call to the White House, Carter.”

“Six million Syrians,” Gray countered. “Do you know how many terrorist activities dear old Syria supports? And they’re the clearinghouse for virtually all the suicide bombers going into Iraq. We should have nuked the damn country years ago.”

Simpson looked at her godfather. “You’re insane.”