Blood Money Read online

  “They had us wired the whole time,” Kelton said, trying not to sound like he was defending his actions. “It would have been too big a risk.”

  “Still,” Jessica said. “You could have tried.”

  “And take the chance of the whole thing blowing up in our face?” Kelton said. “No way. Besides, I knew you’d find out eventually.”

  “But I wanted to know beforehand,” Jessica said, a pouty whine in her voice he’d never heard before. “Remember the deal we made back at Disneyland?”

  Kelton opened his mouth but before he could say anything he glanced over and saw the look on her face. Even in the fading light, he could see one corner of her mouth turned up in a smirk and her eyes glowing with mischief.

  Kelton shook his head. “You’re just messing with me, aren’t you?”

  Jessica’s smirk turned into a full-fledged grin. “Of course.”

  “Why, you crafty little bitch.”

  “Yeah, so what’s your point?”

  “Only that I can’t wait until this thing is all over so I can have you all to myself.”

  “Yourself?” Jessica said. “What makes you think I’m going to let you have me to yourself?”

  “If not, I’ll just pump you full of drugs and tie you to the bed.”

  She smiled. “I thought we had already established that was a reward instead of a punishment?”

  Kelton returned her grin. “We had.”

  “In that case, sign me up.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Kelton followed Walter’s instructions and they arrived at the end of Frobisher Road. There was nothing but desert in every direction; the closest bit of civilization was more than three miles behind them. He pulled to the curb but left the engine running; even though the sun had started to dip below the horizon, it was still way too hot to sit around without air conditioning.

  “What now?” Jessica said.

  Kelton shrugged. “We wait, I guess.”

  “For what?”

  “I have no clue.”

  As soon as the words left his mouth, the sound of a ringing cell phone reverberated throughout the car.

  “Where the hell is it coming from?” Kelton said.

  “It’s over by you somewhere,” Jessica said. “Check under the seat.”

  Kelton reached down, felt around beneath him, eventually found the source of the ringing. He grabbed the phone, pulled it out from under the seat, opened it up and brought it to his ear.

  “Hello, my friend,” Walter said. “How are you doing today?”

  “Better than you, old man,” Kelton said without enthusiasm.

  “Oh, I beg to differ.”

  “Beg all you want, it won’t change anything.”

  “You were right,” Walter said. “It seems you’re all alone this time.”

  “I told you,” Kelton said.

  “Yes you did. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to get this thing over with, once and for all.”

  “So would I, my friend. Where are you?”

  “In front of you.”

  “But there’s nothing but desert out there.”

  “Not exactly,” Walter said. “About two miles away, there’s the remains of an abandoned resort called The Oasis. A small-time deal from a couple of years ago that never got off the ground. The developers finally gave up on it early this year. You need to drive through desert to get here, but if you travel in a straight line from where you’re parked, you can’t miss it.”

  “How will we find you once we’re there?”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Walter said. “Just park in the middle of the lot in front of the main entrance. I’ll come to you.”

  They drove for nearly five minutes before The Oasis came into view.

  The desert was in the process of reclaiming the main building, a garish, four story structure that appeared to be modeled after a cartoon version of the Middle East. Sand was piled up along the northern side, almost fifteen feet high, and 70 percent of the palm trees had fallen to the ground. An unfinished wing sat alongside the main building, the steel struts sticking up into the sky like an upraised middle finger towards the heavens. It looked as though a cyclone fence had once surrounded the property, but less than 20% of it still stood.

  “What could possibly possess someone to build this monstrosity way the hell out here?” Jessica said.

  “I don’t even want to know,” Kelton replied.

  They drove over one of the fallen sections of the fence and onto what once had been a paved parking lot, now only recognizable as such by the series of light fixtures set at regular intervals. Kelton parked the car, again leaving the engine running and the lights on. It still wasn’t quite dark, but was getting there quickly.

  “Do you see anyone?” Jessica said.

  “No. Do you?”

  “Not a soul.”

  “I’m going to get out and try to get a better look,” Kelton said. “Care to join me?”

  “I’d love to,” Jessica replied.

  Kelton grabbed the phone, stuck it in his front pocket, then picked up the gun they’d taken from the NDC agent back at the Cleopatra, double-checked the clip, and shoved it into the waistband of his jeans, against the small of his back. He looked at Jessica. “Ready?”

  “Let’s go.”

  They exited the truck and started walking towards the front entrance of the resort. The wind was blowing steadily but not howling, sending pebbles of sand up against the back of their legs with little force. The closer they got to the building, the more ridiculous it seemed, towering over the barren landscape like a bad acid trip.

  Before they had even reached the steps leading to the enormous double-doors that served as the entrance, Kelton could see that they were chained shut. Just to be sure, he rattled the handles, but nothing budged.

  “What the hell?” Jessica said. “Is Walter just playing with us or something?”

  “I don’t know,” Kelton said. “But I sure don’t like the way the situation is proceeding.”

  “Neither do I.”

  The wind gusted.

  Sand smacked against Kelton’s bare skin, this time hard enough to sting. He turned his head to avoid getting a face full of the pebbles, and Jessica did the same.

  A few seconds later, the wind died down.

  “What do you think?” Jessica said.

  “I don’t know, but standing around out here isn’t doing us any good.”

  “I agree,” Jessica said. “Back to the truck?”

  Kelton nodded. “Sounds like a good idea to me.”

  They started back towards the safety of the car.

  “Well, that was pointless,” Kelton said.

  “Maybe you should call him after we get back inside,” Jessica said. “See what’s going on.”

  “I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”

  They had just reached the truck when Kelton heard something. At first, he thought it was just the wind gusting again, but he soon realized it was something else; the sound was deeper, more resonant.

  Apparently, Jessica heard it too. She looked at him from across the hood and said, “What is it?”

  “It’s a helicopter,” he yelled back, straining to be heard over the rising din.

  “The NDC?” Jessica said, her voice laced with alarm.

  Kelton walked around the back of the truck, came over to Jessica’s side so he didn’t have to yell. “I don’t think so. It sounds more like a civilian chopper.” He looked up at the sky, but dusk had settled in, and it was difficult to see much of anything up there. “But I’m not positive.”

  “Shouldn’t we get in the truck, just in case it’s the NDC?”

  “It won’t do us any good,” Kelton said. “If it’s them, we’re screwed anyway, out here in the middle of nowhere. They’ll be able to run us down without any problem.”

  “Then we better hope it’s Walter.”

  The noise from the helicopter grew progressively louder, and then it was setting down on
the outskirts of the parking lot, about one hundred yards from them. It was indeed a civilian chopper, and apparently a rented one, as it had VEGAS AIR RENTALS and a phone number stenciled on the side.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Kelton said as the rotors decelerated.

  Jessica hesitated a moment, then nodded. Her eyes were wide, her face pale, her lips pressed together.

  “Is everything all right?” Kelton said.

  “Yeah. Why?”

  “Your body’s all tensed up. Like you’re nervous, or something.”

  “Well of course I’m nervous,” Jessica said. She uttered an unconvincing laugh. “The moment of truth is finally here.”

  “Are you sure that’s all it is?”

  Jessica dropped her eyes, lowered her voice. “It’s just . . . I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right. I don’t know why.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged. “I can’t explain it, really. It’s just a bad feeling.”

  “Well, I’ve got a good one,” Kelton said. “Besides, we don’t really have any other choice at this point.”

  Jessica took a deep breath, held it, and let it out slowly. “I guess you’re right. We’re kind of stuck. But can you do me a favor?”

  “Anything.”

  “Just stay in front of me the whole time. That way, if something happens—”

  “I’ll be the one that takes the brunt of it?” Kelton said with a smile.

  “Yeah,” Jessica said, returning his grin with one of her own. “Something like that.”

  “No problem. I’ll take care of everything.”

  Two figures climbed out of the chopper’s back seat. One Kelton recognized as Walter, even from this distance. The other was not familiar, but he towered over the old man, and was half again as wide.

  “Which one is Walter?” Jessica said as they started walking toward the two emergent figures.

  “The small one,” Kelton said. “On the left.”

  “And the other guy?”

  Kelton shrugged. “A bodyguard, I guess. But I don’t know for sure. Every time I’ve ever met with Walter he’s been alone.”

  “Do you still think everything’s going to be all right?”

  “I’m sure it will be,” Kelton said, trying to hide the sliver of doubt creeping up his spine. “But make sure you stay behind me for a bit, just to be sure.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to worry about that,” Jessica said. “I’m not going to show my face until you say it’s safe.”

  They continued creeping forward, cutting the distance with every step, until finally Kelton could see Walter clearly.

  Any doubts about the situation were assuaged as Kelton got a close look at the old man. Walter seemed completely relaxed, his body loose, his trademark smirk painted on his face. He waved at Kelton and said, “Good to see you, again, my friend. I was beginning to think this day would never come.”

  “Me too,” Kelton said. They were now fifteen yards apart and coming ever closer. He was just about to turn his head so he could tell Jessica that it was okay, she could come out from behind him, when he felt a tug at his rear waistline and then saw the old man’s eyes suddenly open wide.

  Walter had just started to turn his body towards the helicopter when Kelton felt a nuclear detonation go off in his skull. The blast was followed immediately by a sharp, intense pain in the side of his head, just above his right ear. He reached his hand up toward the pain, and it came down covered in blood.

  Kelton heard himself mumble, “What the hell?” and then he fell to his hands and knees, his stomach churning, his vision blurry and unfocused, his mind unable to comprehend what was going on in front of him.

  Jessica yelled, “DON’T DO IT!” in a voice that Kelton had never heard her use before, and in his confusion, he wasn’t sure who she was talking to. Then his stomach rebelled and he vomited onto the desert floor. Suddenly the entire universe consisted solely of the amplified roar of the helicopter in his ears and blurred movements that held no meaning for him whatsoever as he heaved uncontrollably.

  There were two loud reports of gunshots that seemed to get swallowed by the wind, then movement in his peripheral vision—someone falling to the ground, it looked like—then another bout of shouting, then another gunshot, then the helicopter’s whine getting louder, then the chopper taking off into the sky, and then he must have blacked out, because the next thing he knew all was quiet, and he was lying on his stomach in the sand, his head throbbing, the pain located just above his left ear.

  Kelton started to climb to his feet, only to fall back to the desert floor with a groan, vertigo gripping him. A couple of deep breaths later, he sat up, slowly this time. Jessica was standing above him, holding the NDC agent’s gun in her right hand. It was pointed in his general direction but not at him.

  “What the hell happened?” he said. “Was that you that hit me?”

  Jessica nodded, her face blank.

  “Why?”

  “Because I needed you out of the way,” she said.

  Confused, Kelton turned away from her, and saw Walter lying on the desert floor next to him, unconscious, or worse. His body was limp, his legs splayed out in an awkward position. Blood was pooled in the sand beneath him.

  “Is he—” Kelton felt a wave of nausea and closed his mouth before he was able to finish the thought.

  “Dead?” Jessica said.

  Kelton nodded.

  “No. He’s just out cold.”

  “But I heard three shots.”

  “Two rounds were for the bodyguard,” Jessica said. “He went for a weapon so I had to put him down. The other round caught Walter in the back of the leg as he was running for the chopper. I caught up to him, knocked him out, and brought him over here. Killing him was the last resort. We’d have taken him any way we could’ve got him, but he’s more valuable alive than dead.”

  “We?”

  “The National Defense Commission,” Jessica said.

  “So you’re with them?”

  Jessica nodded.

  “Since when?”

  “Since before you met me,” she said.

  Kelton felt like he was going to throw up again, but he didn’t know if it was related to his earlier wave of nausea or from what he was hearing come out of Jessica’s mouth. He closed his eyes and shook his head, only realizing how bad of an idea it was after Jessica had picked his head back up off the desert floor.

  “That was dumb,” she said with a tight smile.

  Kelton was having trouble thinking, let alone putting it all together. He managed to spit out, “Is your name even Jessica?” before the next set of waves made his head swim.

  “No. It’s Karen.”

  “So this whole situation was just a ruse to draw out Walter?”

  “Don’t worry about anything like that right now,” Karen said. “You’ll get answers later if you want them.”

  “Screw that,” Kelton said. “I want them now.”

  “We don’t have time,” Jessica said. “There are more important things for us to discuss.”

  Kelton looked up at her and blinked several times. Something about her tone gave him some hope, and he forced himself to concentrate harder. “Important things? Like what?”

  “Like how we’re going to spin this so you don’t end up in an unmarked cell next to your friend over there.”

  Kelton wasn’t sure if he had heard her right. “What do you mean, spin this?”

  “I figure we have another 90 seconds before the cavalry arrives, so we better get our stories straight.”

  “Get our stories straight?” Kelton said. He knew he sounded like a parrot, repeating her every word, but whether it was due to the blow to the temple or simple confusion, he couldn’t seem to grasp what she was trying to get at.

  She smiled at him as though he was a five-year old. “Of course, Kelton. Believe it or not, I actually think you’re a pretty decent guy.”

  “So it wasn’t just
an act?”

  “At first it was,” she said. “But then you started to grow on me. You were just trying to do the right thing, and you deserve to come out of this intact.”

  Kelton didn’t know if he would ever be intact again—or, for that matter, if he ever had been—but he decided to keep his mouth shut.

  “So, what I figure is we can blame it all on Walter, say that you knew what was going on, and that we wouldn’t be able to get close to him unless—”

  “No,” Kelton said as forcefully as he could. Despite the ache in his head—or perhaps because of it—his anger was pushing through, taking over his thoughts.

  She tilted her head slightly. “What do you mean, no?”

  “I mean, fuck you,” Kelton said. On some level, he knew he was being irrational, but that didn’t make the slightest bit of difference right now. Sometimes rationality took a back seat to emotion, even for him.

  She just stared at him, waiting.

  “You can tell them whatever the hell you want,” Kelton said. “I’ll tell them what happened, exactly the way it happened.”

  “But you’ll end up just like him.”

  “Right now I don’t give a crap about that,” Kelton said, his fury rising with every word. “You used me to get Walter. You played me like a banjo, exploiting my past to manipulate my actions, all so you could get what you wanted out of me.” He closed his eyes and shut his mouth, unwilling to further articulate his thoughts to her.

  “Walter’s the one that used you, Kelton. Not me. I was just doing my job.”

  “You’re kidding me, right?” Kelton said, his rage threatening to explode. “Just doing your job? That’s your excuse?”

  “It’s not an excuse,” she said, her tone amplifying to match his. “It’s the truth. Walter is the one that got you mixed up in this operation, not me. No matter who broke me out of that safe house, my job was the same: Do whatever it took to get that piece-of-shit traitor lying on the ground over there.”

  “Did your job include fucking me? Or was that just an added bonus.”

  Her eyes flashed with a mixture of pain and anger before she regained control of herself. She took a deep breath and answered him in a flat, toneless voice. “I did whatever it took to get the job done. And in this situation, that’s what it took.”