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Avery sounded near tears.
“Calm down, Avery, it’ll be okay. Did they give you details?”
They heard him swallow a sob and he said, “The day after tomorrow at the Mall in Washington, D.C. Twelve o’clock in the afternoon. Across from the Air and Space Museum. They said if you tried any tricks, called the police or anything, they’d kill Ms. Riley and shoot up the place. Lots of people will die.”
“Okay, Avery, okay. I appreciate the call. You did good. Now you need to get somewhere safe.”
Bunting flinched when the other voice came over the phone. “Too late for that,” said the voice. There was a single gunshot and they heard a body drop.
“Avery!” screamed Bunting, as he snatched up the phone.
The voice said, “If you and Roy are not at the Mall on the day after tomorrow in the requisite place at the requisite time, Riley is dead and so are a lot of other people. Do you understand?”
Bunting said nothing.
Paul took the phone from him and said, “We understand. We’ll be there.”
The line went silent.
Bunting stumbled over to the window and pressed his face against it.
Paul said, “I’m sorry, Peter.”
Bunting didn’t say anything for a while and Paul let the silence persist.
“He was just a kid.”
“Yes he was,” she conceded.
“He shouldn’t be dead. He’s not a field agent. He’s an office geek.”
“Lots of people shouldn’t be dead. But they are. Now, we have to focus on the day after tomorrow.”
“Our plan didn’t work. We were turning them against each other but didn’t factor this possibility in.” He turned to look at her. “They have an army, Kelly. We’ve got what?”
“I could say we have right on our side, but it seems a bit trite under the circumstances. Yet we still have to try.”
“I want to strangle Quantrell and Foster with my bare hands, I swear to God I do.”
“They forced Avery to make that call and they did it to throw you off, Peter.”
“Well, they did a damn good job,” he blurted out.
“They will expect your thinking to be clouded. They will expect you to act less than rationally. They will expect you to just give in.”
“I don’t even know this Megan Riley. And they want me and your brother in return?”
“They killed Avery. They will kill her too. And they’ve sweetened the pot. Lots of other people on the Mall will die as well.”
He sat back down, wiped his eyes and cheeks dry, and drew a long, replenishing breath. “Okay, the best I can do to avenge Avery is to think this all through. First, why the day after tomorrow? Why wait?”
“The Mall is a popular place, always people around.”
“But the day after tomorrow. Will there be more people around?”
He performed a Web search on his phone. Paul looked at the screen.
“I have to hand it to them. Shows some style.”
