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A THREE-QUARTER MOON was out, and that was both good and bad news. I was sure they would come for me now. It seemed logical, but was my logic the same as theirs?
I was back close to my original position in the woods. I thought so anyway.
Then I was certain.
My eyes teared involuntarily. I saw Sampson, lying still, right where he’d been shot. I could see the body clearly in the moonlight. And I started to shake. What had happened was finally hitting me with its full force. I swiped at my eyes. A fist seemed to clench my heart and hold it tight, wouldn’t let go.
I could see the dead women lying in the dirt road. Flies were buzzing around the bodies. An owl hooted from a nearby tree. I shuddered. In the morning perhaps a hawk or turkey vultures would come to feed on the bodies.
I slipped on the night goggles I’d brought with me. I hoped they would give me an advantage. Maybe not, probably not. Starkey and Griffin would have the best too. They worked for a company that manufactured high-tech equipment, didn’t they?
I kept reminding myself that I’d taken out Brownley Harris. It gave me some confidence. He’d looked utterly surprised to see me. Now he was dead, his arrogance gone, exploded in an instant by a bullet.
But how could I surprise Starkey and Griffin? They must have heard the shot. Maybe they thought it came from Harris. No, they had to know he was dead.
For a couple of minutes, I considered a flat-out run. Maybe I could get to the road. I doubted it, though. More likely I’d be shot down trying.
They were good at this, but Harris had been good too. He was experienced, and now he was lying dead in a ditch. I had his rifle in my hands.
Patience. Wait on them. They have questions and doubts too.
I watched Sampson’s body for another few seconds, then I had to turn away. I couldn’t think about him now. I mustn’t, or I would die too.
I never heard it coming — a sudden blast of deafening gunfire. One or both of them had gotten between me and the cabin. I spun in the direction of the shots. Then a voice pierced the darkness.
Close behind me.
“Put down the gun, Cross. I don’t want to kill you. Not just yet.”
Warren Griffin was down in the hollow with me. I saw him now. He had a rifle aimed at my chest. He wore night goggles and looked like an alien.
Then Thomas Starkey appeared, also wearing goggles. He was above the gully, staring down. He had an M-16 aimed right at my face, and he was smiling horribly. His victory grin.
“You couldn’t leave it alone, asshole. So now Brownley’s dead. So’s your partner,” said Starkey. “You satisfied yet?”
“You forgot the two women. And the lawyer,” I said.
It was strange to be looking at Griffin and Starkey through the night vision goggles, knowing that they were seeing me the same way. I wanted to take them down so much it hurt. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen.
“What the hell happened in Vietnam?” I asked Starkey. “What started all of this? What the hell was it?”
“Everybody who was over there knows what happened. Nobody wants to talk about it. Things got out of hand.”
“Like what, Starkey? How did it get this bad?”
“At first, there was a rogue platoon on the loose. That’s what we were told anyway. We were sent to the An Lao Valley to stop them. To clean it up.”
“You mean murder our own soldiers? Those were your orders, Starkey? Who the hell is behind this? Why the murders now?”
I was going to die, but I still wanted answers. I needed to know the truth. Hell of an epitaph. Alex Cross. Died seeking the truth.
“I don’t even fucking know,” Starkey hissed. “Not all of it. I’m not going to talk about it anymore either. Maybe what I’m going to do is cut you into little pieces. That happened over there. I’ll show you what was done in the An Lao Valley. See this knife. It’s called a K-Bar. I’m really good with it. I’ve had some practice recently.”
“I know you have. I’ve seen some of your butchery.”
Then the strangest thing I could ever imagine happened. It blew my wheels off, completely blew my mind into a thousand pieces.
I was staring past Starkey. But something was different in the background. At first I didn’t know what, then I did and my knees were weak.
