He opened the rear door of his car and managed to drag out DiCarlo. Her breathing was ragged. He lifted her into the Rover’s backseat as shots started clanging off the vehicle’s frame.

He pulled his pistol and fired some shots back. He knew he couldn’t hit anything at this distance, but it might slow their advance a bit.

He climbed in the passenger side, slid over to the driver’s seat, and started the truck.

Rounds were coming fast now, hitting everything. Robie was tempted to roll down his window and fire back when the most remarkable thing happened.

Counterfire started up.

He looked a hundred meters in front of him. There was a figure behind a tree, holding a rifle that was balanced on the lowest branch. The rifle must have had an auto feed, because the shooter was rapid-firing.

Robie looked at where the shots were hitting. In the distance he now saw lights. As he watched, one of the lights exploded. Then the other lights scattered.

The countershooter had stopped the advance in its tracks.

Robie watched in fascination as the shooter outguessed his opponents on the grid. They were trying to flee his shots by zigzagging. But the shooter was correctly guessing their movements and Robie saw another light explode as presumably another shooter hit the dirt for the last time.

Finally, the shooters headed the other way, in full retreat.

And the countershooter kept firing, chasing them all the way.

DiCarlo’s moaning in the backseat brought Robie out of this observation. He put the truck in gear and hit the gas. Just as he made the turn to head back down the gravel road and to the main road, he saw it.

Or rather, he saw the countershooter.

Well, all he actually saw was the long hair.

And then the countershooter disappeared into the darkness.

His savior had been a woman.

And Robie was pretty sure that woman was Jessica Reel.

CHAPTER

31

ROBIE DESPERATELY WANTED TO GO back to confirm that his ally in this firefight had been Reel. But he had a badly wounded woman in his backseat and he had no idea where the nearest hospital was.

He hit the main road, gunned it, and called Blue Man.

The man answered right away and Robie told him what had happened, leaving out, however, the information about the female countershooter.

Blue Man told Robie help was on the way and directed him to the nearest hospital; he indicated that a team would meet him there. They were also sending a response unit to DiCarlo’s house.

Robie took two minutes to pull off the road, examine DiCarlo’s wound, and stop the bleeding as best as he could. DiCarlo was going in and out of consciousness. She alternated between gripping his arm and then letting it go.

Robie said, “You’re going to be okay, ma’am. I’m not going to let you die. You’re going to be fine.”

He didn’t know if any of this was true, but she needed to hear it.

He arrived at the county hospital twenty minutes later. Agency personnel were already there, and they took over when Robie screeched to a halt in the parking lot. They stabilized DiCarlo at the hospital, and then she was loaded into a medevac chopper and flown off to a hospital better equipped to handle a trauma patient.

Robie stayed behind to debrief Blue Man, who had shown up about ten minutes after Robie. They sat in a small cubicle outside the emergency room sipping lukewarm vending machine coffee.

“So what’s her condition?” asked Robie.

“She’s stabilized, but in critical condition. From what I heard she lost a lot of blood and was in shock. Don’t know if she’s going to make it or not. Someone has obviously declared war on the agency.” He paused. “Jessica Reel.” It really wasn’t a question.

Robie hesitated. Part of him wanted to tell Blue Man what he had seen tonight. The countershooter had been a woman; he was certain of that. He was also convinced that it had been Reel. That wasn’t a fact; it was just his speculation. Yet who else could it have been?

In the end he decided to keep it to himself.

“There were multiple shooters,” said Robie. “I think Reel is more of a loner.”

Blue Man threw his coffee into a trash can, wiped off his hands, and sat back down next to Robie in a scratched plastic chair. The room reeked of antiseptic and stale food.

“Multiple shooters? You’re sure?”

“Maybe four or five. Maybe more.”

Robie wondered if they would find any bodies out there other than DiCarlo’s guards. He was certain Reel had nailed at least two of them.

Blue Man wiped sweat from his forehead with his hand. “Do we have a full-fledged conspiracy going on here?”

“But why target DiCarlo?” asked Robie.

“She was number two.”

“So the conspiracy is directed at top agency personnel? Then why go after Jacobs? He was nowhere near the inner circle.”

“I don’t know, Robie. But if it was multiple shooters and Reel is working with them, they must have some goal in mind.”

“It’s funny that DiCarlo’s security team was so light,” Robie said. “Particularly after what happened to Gelder.”

Blue Man was nodding before Robie finished speaking. “I know.”

“She comes out here with two guys and no perimeter. Multiple points of attack. You wouldn’t have to be good to get to her. You just have to show up.”

“It was her home.”

“That’s not a reason. The agency has lots of safe houses. She never should have been allowed to even go to her house, given what happened to Gelder.”

“You’re right, Robie.”

“And the guy who should’ve told her that is Evan Tucker, the number one. One trumps two, right?”

“I’m not privy to the dynamics of their relationship or what might have transpired between them.”

“So there’s nothing you can tell me that might help?”

Blue Man looked up at him, the mental battle clear in his features. “I don’t know what to tell you, Robie.”

“That actually tells me a lot.”

Robie went over with Blue Man the details of the meeting with DiCarlo. But again he didn’t tell all. He could vividly recall the anxiety in DiCarlo’s voice as she spoke to him:

Missions that never should have been. Missing personnel. Money moved from here to there and then it disappeared. Equipment sent to places it should not have been sent to and it also disappeared.

And her last comment had been even more troublesome, that something insidious is going on, Mr. Robie. I don’t know if it has anything to do with Jessica Reel. What I do know is that it’s reached a crisis point.

He didn’t tell Blue Man this because, ever the dutiful agency man, he would have reported it up his chain of command. And right now Robie didn’t want that.

“Anything else?” asked Blue Man.

Tags: David Baldacci Will Robie Thriller
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