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Patti Bender appeared there. They both noted that her fingers were tapping the butt of her holstered Glock. Then she reached her hand out of sight and jerked on something.
A moment later Blue Man was standing in front of them.
His clothes were dirty, his hair unkempt, and his face unshaven. Yet his eyes were clear and alert and his manner calm and unflustered. Like them, he was shackled.
Both Robie and Reel stood.
Blue Man said, “It’s good to see you’re both still alive.”
“I was about to say the same to you,” said Reel.
“Stop talking, please,” Patti said quietly.
Blue Man glanced at her, and Robie noted something in his eyes that he never thought he would see in his superior.
Fear.
Patti nodded at something out of their line of sight, and a guard appeared. He unlocked the door and Patti pushed Blue Man forward, causing him to stumble as he crossed the threshold. The door was locked after him.
“It won’t be long now,” Patti said ominously. Then she disappeared.
Blue Man wearily sat on the cot against the wall while Robie and Reel hovered in front of him.
He looked up at them. “I trust London and Iraq went according to plan?”
“Not precisely according to plan, at least for me,” said Reel. “But the mission was accomplished.”
“We found your drawing in the gun muzzle,” said Robie. “Atlas. We were just a little slow on getting to your actual meaning.”
Blue Man nodded. “I knew that was a long shot, but I didn’t have much time to consider alternatives.”
“How did you figure out what was going on?”
“I didn’t figure it all out—only enough pieces, I guess, to make people nervous.”
“We know you spoke with JC Parry and Holly Malloy.”
“JC is a good man, who knows a bit of my history. He came to me with this most incredible story of prisoners in hoods. That’s what started all of this.”
“How did you get onto the silo?” asked Reel. “I mean this one, the second silo?”
“I knew about the Atlas missile sites from growing up here. I knew there were two in the vicinity. By coming back here over the years, I knew that Roark Lambert had turned one into a doomsday safe haven for the affluent. But the other one had lain fallow all this time. But when Holly told me what Lamarre had told her, I started doing some digging. Where could you hide prisoners here? I knew of the neo-Nazis and white supremacists in the area. I knew of the Apostles, although they struck me as being rather innocuous.”
Reel looked at Robie but neither of them spoke about King’s actually being an FBI undercover agent. They didn’t know if the cell they were in was being bugged or not.
Blue Man continued, “But I couldn’t think of a reason why any of them would be bringing in prisoners. And they really didn’t have the facilities to discreetly keep a group of people against their will. Word would have eventually gotten out.” He paused. “But I had something else working to my advantage that perhaps others here didn’t. I knew from reports that had crossed my desk that somewhere in this general vicinity it was suspected that there was a large-scale illicit drug-manufacturing center. Both DEA and ICE had internally reported on it to us. Though we can’t operate domestically, the Agency still conducts joint task forces with our sister agencies. And there seemed to be an international element to this operation, which did bring it within our purview. But no one had been able to pinpoint the location in this country besides believing it was in a general six-state quadrant. That was far too large an area to do any type of concentrated search or investigation.”
“Yes it is,” agreed Robie.
“But one day I was taking a drive towards the old rock quarry. There are some good streams to fish in nearby. The quarry was in operation when I was growing up here, though it closed a long time ago now. But I had passed the second silo site on my drive, and it occurred to me for the first time how close the two sites were. I don’t know why I had never noticed that before, but now I did.”
“It took us a while to make the connection too,” admitted Reel.
“I had the benefit of having toured this facility several times on some of my trips back many years ago. It’s quite the labyrinth.”
“We know you also toured Lambert’s place,” said Reel.
Blue Man nodded. “I wasn’t sure what was going on or who was behind all this. I felt I had to look at all possible options. I knew Lambert through Claire. I got the tour so I could see the lay of the land. See if it was possible for them to be holding prisoners here. But it would have been problematic for Lambert to have prisoners at his silo. Too many people would know. This place is different. Thus, it didn’t take a great deal of conjecture to come up with a possible solution to the problem of where one keeps prisoners clandestinely.”
“Did you know they were going to take you here when you left the clue in your gun?” asked Reel.
“When I heard them coming, I thought they were going to either kill me or kidnap me.”
“Have you seen the others? Lamarre or Parry? Valerie Malloy?”
“The sheriff? She was taken?”
“Just recently.”
Blue Man shook his head. “I haven’t seen anyone. They’ve kept me in a cell by myself.”
“Patti Bender shot and killed her half brother,” said Reel.
Blue Man looked deeply shaken at her words. “Derrick is dead? Does…does Claire know?”
“I doubt it. It just happened. They dumped his body in the quarry.”
Reel looked closely at Blue Man. “Claire talked to us…about Patti. That she’s…she’s your daughter.”
Neither one of them had ever seen Blue Man dumbstruck before. Neither had seen him out of control.
Until now.
He slumped over and put his head in his hands. A quiet sob escaped from his lips. “I never knew,” he said hoarsely. “Oh my God. Patti.”
Reel sat down next to him and placed a supportive hand on his quivering shoulder. “That’s what Claire told us. And I don’t think Claire knows anything about what’s going on here.”
Robie stared down at him. “We all have family issues, sir. You know that about us better than most.”
Reel nodded as Blue Man slowly regained his composure and his gaze rose to meet Robie’s. “We do, some perhaps more than others.” He paused and took a deep breath and rubbed at his eyes. When he looked up the calm that they both had always associated with the man had returned. And his features seemed resolute. “I suppose you were sent out here to find me?”
Reel nodded. “The Agency can’t lose you.”
“Well, the Agency can’t lose you both, either. More so than me, actually. And so I’m very sorry that you two had to be brought into this.” He looked around at the cell and then down at his shackles. “They’re very well organized.”
“Which means it won’t be easy,” replied Reel, reading his thoughts.
“Did they show you what they’re doing here?” asked Robie.
