Chapter 16

Jhon knew how to follow a man, but doing it in the woods put him on edge. Every time a twig snapped underfoot, he flinched.

The shooter moved through the trees at a run that Jhon could not match without giving his pursuit away. Soon it was just him, the silence, and a faint trail in the air. By the time he reached the base housing he was worried he would lose the trail.

From the tree line the houses were only a few dozen yards away.

Should I try to walk around and get a house number?

Every building was painted white with army green trim. Jhon counted down the row.

I’m sure it’s this one…unless he lives on the next street and just chose this yard to walk through.

After a few minutes of indecision Jhon decided to fade back into the trees. If someone saw him walk out of the woods and start poking around the houses, they would probably shoot him whether they were part of his current case or not.

He retraced his steps on the way back and discovered the shooter’s rifle hidden under a fallen tree. He picked it up with a handkerchief and turned the weapon over.

The serial number is still here, so it’s probably assigned to a careless private. Still, I’ll check it out.

Captain Adams started in surprise when Jhon greeted him. “Captain, I lost the shooter, but I found this rifle.”

“That’s good work, Director. Why don’t you let me carry that, so the MPs don’t get too excited?”

Jhon passed the rifle to Adams. “That’s a good idea. Make sure to hold it just like this. We don’t want to destroy any fingerprints it might have on it.”

“Right,” Adams said, using Jhon’s kerchief to hold the rifle.

They walked out of the woods together, with Adams generally trailing a few steps. When the captain thought Jhon wasn’t looking, he would surreptitiously rub the rifle with his pant leg or shirt sleeve.

Got you. You may not be the shooter, but you know who he is.

Jhon had Adams drop him at command, and then take the rifle to the MPs for fingerprinting.

It’s pretty unlikely I’ll get a print but sending Adams to do it will make him think I trust him.

He spoke to the officer of the day and got the astounding news that Chun had already been discharged.

How the hell could that happen? I saw the hit, high on the left side of the chest. There’s no way.

He looked up the base map and got the house number--four oh four.

I could go to records and just look this up, but that might warn them I’m onto something.

After some thought Jhon went to the mailroom, where he showed his identification and then asked the clerks a series of meaningless questions about whether Chun had received any mail, and which of his teammates received the most mail, and so on. Eventually he spotted a letter for house four-oh-four.

My friend Sergeant Milsap of the twitchy trigger finger…

Unfortunately, Captain Adams returned at that point, and since Adams was no longer allowed to know what was going on, Jhon insisted on going to records, where he methodically looked up each soldier in Chun’s training platoon and asked Adams pointless questions about whether or not they had any family also stationed at Fort Vodun.

Adams looked relieved when Jhon finally said he was going to knock off for the day. The captain saw him off base, and Jhon drove back to his motel room, carefully checking for any signs of surveillance. He didn’t see anything, but just in case he went into his room, drew the curtains, turned on the lights, wolfed down a can of ham, and slipped out the back window into the darkness.

It took him a few minutes to get his night vision, but once he was moving it went pretty fast. The motel was over two miles from the base, but slightly less than a mile overland.

The pretty fast part turned out to be true in open spots. Under the canopy of pines, the darkness was so dense he was reduced to moving forward, slowly feeling with his hands and toes, and hoping there wasn’t an abandoned well or some other surprise out here.

His sense of the air saved him from blundering into a timber rattler, and then every hair on his body stood out straight as a frantic struggle took place a few yards away, and then silence returned.

Something out here eats timber rattlers. I hope it doesn’t eat people too.

The trip through the trees convinced him that he needed to invest in woodcraft training for himself and his agents. He tripped more times than he could count, despite his care, and any touch to his face from the wind or a passing bug immediately set off the spider web alert in his brain.

At last, he reached the tree line, then repositioned himself behind house four-oh-four. The army’s wisdom in painting all of the walls white was painfully clear.

I gotta be sneaky. Damn hard to hide when every background turns you into a perfect silhouette.

He paused at the picket fence. There was no gate, no way past except to climb over, which would make him visible for dozens of yards. A scar pulled up in front. Jhon couldn’t hear well enough to recognize the words, but the voice was Captain Adams.

Now or never, Jhonny.

He rolled over the fence into Milsap’s back yard with a crunching roll that must have been audible for a mile.

Shit. If they come out looking for me, they’ll expect me to go for the tree line.

Jhon combat crawled along the fence, getting into the narrow space between houses, and away from the spill of light that came through the curtained windows.

The back door opened, and Jhon lay flat on the ground, snugging himself into the base of a shrub. A spotlight shown around the back yard and off into the trees. Then Adams walked around the corner. He peered around in the dark, and Jhon tensed.

.

Adams walked past him, nearly stepping on his fingers, and disappeared around the corner of the house to the front yard. “Nobody on my side,” he said.

“Same,” Milsap said. “Come inside and have a beer.”

“I won’t say no.”

Jhon took a few seconds to calm his heart rate, and then a pair of men trotted past his view, and he heard them turn into the driveway. The front door opened, and Milsap’s voice pierced the night, “Come on in guys, Adams is hot, but the beer is cold.”

The door closed, and Jhon pulled his surveillance kit from his jacket pocket. It was a brilliant little stethoscope and a very compact periscope. He attached the stethoscope to the window with its built-in suction cup, and then carefully extended the periscope, angling it so that he could see through a small crack in the drapes.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

“This wasn’t the plan,” Adams said.

They were sitting around a small, round dining table. Each man had a beer, and a deck of cards sat next to one of the newcomers.

“The asshole left it laying out,” Milsap shrugged his shoulders. “You know how things are when some dumb private loses a rifle. It was a use it or lose it moment.”

“I told you shooting him wouldn’t work.” Adams said.

“It should have. I hit him right in the heart with the first shot, and then he started flinging magic around, goddam Satanist,” Milsap said.

“You guys aren’t saying much,” Adams said.

From his position Jhon could clearly see Milsap’s nametag, and sort of see Adams’.

Damn the luck.

“Does the stove pipe have any idea what’s going on?”

“No way. He’s looking into the associates and histories of everyone in Kang’s platoon,” Adams said.

“Know if they got anything off the rifle?”

“No. I wiped it down while we were walking back to the MPs,” Adams said.

“Trust me, it was wiped down before that,” Milsap said.

“I don’t see the problem,” the second newcomer said. “Now we’re sure a bullet won’t do the job. The stovepipe’s got nothing, and Kang can’t get away. We reset and try again. Do a better job next time. Here, I brought you a present.” He set a hand grenade on the table.

Chun won’t survive that, especially since he’s already injured.

“How do we deliver?” Milsap picked up the grenade and ran his fingers along its dimpled body.

“He sleeps in the northwest corner of his bay. Steal a ladder, climb up, and drop it through the window,” said newcomer one.

“I thought we were trying to minimize collateral damage,” Adams said.

“We still are. That bay is split into two camps. The slant lovers are close to Kang, and the rest are as far away from him as they can get.”

“Seems like a good solution to me,” Milsap said. “I’ll do it, unless one of you wants the honors.”

“I don’t like it,” Adams said.

“Of course you don’t like it,” Milsap said, “you never like anything. That’s why it’s so much fun to beat you at cards.”

“I’m over a hundred positive on you, you asshole,” Adams said.

“I vote we do it,” newcomer number two said.

“Second,” said one.

“I already said I’d execute,” Milsap said.

“Meticulous preparation?” Adams took the grenade, wiped it over with his handkerchief, and placed it back on the table.

“Trust me,” Milsap said. “I appreciate you trying to wipe that rifle down, but it was already done.”

Adams produced a small revolver. “I bought this in Linden a while back just in case I ever needed it. No serial number, no history. You kill Kang tomorrow night, and I’ll kill the stovepipe.”

“I think that wraps up the business,” said Milsap. “Who wants to open the windows and get some air in here, maybe have a smoke?”

It’s hard to shoot a stovepipe if he knows you’re going to try it.

Jhon put his surveillance kit away and crawled toward the front of the house, flinching when the back door opened, and light spilled into the back yard. Someone opened the front door, and then footsteps faded toward the back.

Father, forgive my sins and let me be with you in paradise.

Jhon stood, walked around the corner and through the front door. He could see four silhouettes against the back drapes.

Jhon pulled a small roll of twine from his pocket, picked up the grenade, and carefully, oh so carefully, worked the pin until it was almost out. Then he tied the grenade to the leg of Adams' chair, and the pin to number two’s chair.

He risked walking down the street, and nearly made it to the beginning of the street before the explosion washed over him. Even three houses down it was deafening. Jhon broke into a jog and rounded the first house, hurdled their fence, and made for the trees.

* * *

In the morning Jhon took the horrible risk of driving his rental onto the base, then went to General Park’s office.

The general’s assistant let him in right away.

Park looked perfectly composed behind his desk. “We had a freak accident last night. Four men killed when a grenade went off. Captain Adams was one of them.”

Perhaps I shouldn’t have come back.

Jhon glanced at the door. “Yes, General. But it wasn’t my grenade.”

“Explain.”

“Sergeant Milsap was going to drop it into Chun’s barracks using the window nearest his cot. They reasoned that the barracks had divided into camps sympathetic to Chun, and those who hate him. They thought the grenade would only kill Chun and his sympathizers, General.” Jhon stood in front of the general’s desk and clasped his hands behind his back.

“You heard them planning?”

“Yes, sir. I tracked Sergeant Milsap to his home after the shooting, and then snuck onto the base and listened to his conversation with his friends. I need to do a bit more background work, sir. Perhaps a connection between them will become clear.”

“All four of them came from Alder, in Barland,” said Park, pushing four folders across his desk.

Jhon opened the first one. It was Adams. “Caught up in a protection racket. Offered service before punishment. Are all of them the same?”

“They worked together and got arrested together. It was a Buchanan operation, if that clears anything up.”

Jhon shook his head. “The Buchanans control most organized crime, so it’s not surprising.”

Park nodded, sadly. “I didn’t know the others personally, but Adams was a good officer. I knew he was pro-segregation, but I assigned him to you because he had a history of doing his duty, even when he disagreed with it.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I would much have preferred a lone assailant we could toss into an institution,” Jhon said.

Park nodded. “Good work, Director. Four men killed in an accident is far better than sixty trainees slaughtered. Please try not to come back to Fort Vodun.”

“I’ll try sir. Please remember, they spoke like everyone was there, but there may be more than four of them.”