Terror Bounty (24 page)

The Gulfstream jet didn’t land in
Baltimore. With the convention center now nothing but a pile of rubble, there
was no sense going there. They would only hinder the rescue efforts. Besides,
Vanstedum was in a hurry to get back to the office.

So they detoured and touched ground in
Washington DC. After they deplaned, they all gathered at the FBO to watch some
of the news footage. It was on every channel, probably everywhere on the
planet.

The hotels were on fire. Police officers
were keeping onlookers out of the perimeter. There were paramedics everywhere
as bodies were being recovered. Apparently, the explosions had affected nearby
buildings and there were dozens injured.

Rick couldn’t shake the responsibility.
Had he caused this? Maybe if he had stayed home, if he had never quit his job
to go hunt Greenwood down none of this would have happened.

He took Olivia’s hand and she didn’t stop
him. In fact, she placed her head on his shoulder. They continued to watch the
news. What else could they do?

Vanstedum pocketed his phone and motioned
to leave with Westerbeck in tow. He stopped next to Rick.

“Go back to your apartment.”

“Sure.”

“And if I were you I’d get a lawyer. Don’t
leave town until we’ve decided whether or not to press charges against you.”

The Assistant Director for
Counterterrorism stomped away with Westerbeck. Peter approached his nephew.

“I’d better go too,” he said. “And I’m
sorry. Everything I said on the plane, you learning about… about what I did. I’m
really sorry, son.”

“Yeah.”

“Go home, I’ll smooth it over. You won’t
be charged with anything, I owe you that.”

Rick stared indifferently at his uncle
until he left.

“Come,” Olivia said. “I’m famished, let’s
eat.”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Come anyway, you can watch me chew.”

Her smile convinced him that it was
easier to just go along. They went to TGI Friday’s. She had baby back ribs and
Rick found that he had an appetite after all so he ordered a Jack Daniel’s
burger. He scarfed it down in record time.

The beer he had with dinner was mostly
what relaxed him though. He couldn’t wait to drink more when he got home. The
television above the bar was tuned to the news and neither of them could keep
themselves from watching.

There were already reports that Navy
SEALs had been involved. The media sure liked to mention SEALs whenever they
could, Rick mused.

He was dying to call Titus to ask him if
he knew the details of the operation. But not tonight. He would wait a few days
until he stopped wondering how much of all this was actually his fault.

“You saved lives today, Rick. You know
this, yes?”

“Of course I didn’t. Greenwood played me.
He made me a part of his deception, bringing that fake bio-whatever from South
Africa, just so he could use it in Cleveland as a decoy.”

“But you’re the one who figured out about
the convention center.”

“Bullshit, you’re the one who found it.”

“You sold it to Vanstedum and your uncle.
It’s because of you they were able to evacuate the place.”

“Not everyone. Not fast enough. Greenwood
played me.”

“Rick…” she pleaded, reaching across the
table to take his hand.

“I bet he even lied about turning himself
in after his big score. This is just going to go on and on, we’ll never find
him again.”

She had no response to that.

~  ~  ~  ~

He brought Olivia to his place. The
burger not only made him thirsty but he wanted to get hammered, to forget his
own name until next month.

As soon as they walked in, he let her
explore his apartment while he got a couple of beers from the fridge. That was
pretty much all he had anyway since he had thrown out all perishables before
flying off to Europe.

He gave her a Sam Adams and then went on
a search for whiskey. He was disappointed to find there was very little left in
the bottle.
Shit
.

He still poured what remained into two
glasses and joined Olivia on the couch.

“It’s over now, Rick.”

“Promise?”

He offered her one of the two glasses but
she declined. He transferred her share into his glass and drank everything in
one gulp.

“Easy there.”

“I don’t want it easy,” he said, wincing
from the alcohol burning his throat. “A lot of people died this afternoon
because I went and played with the beehive.”

“I know you feel bad about it all because
you went into it with a police mindset. But from an intelligence standpoint,
you were perfect.”

“Please…”

“Rick, I’m being serious. You have a
knack for this.”

He gazed into her eyes and was struck by
how beautiful she was. It was difficult to believe that until this morning he’d
thought he had lost her forever. It had been a long day.

He leaned in for the kiss and to his
surprise she didn’t stop him. Her soft lips were better than all the beer and
whiskey and nice words in the world. She made him feel human again.

They had been into it for a whole five
seconds when there was a knock at the door. Rick groaned as he broke the kiss.

“Who is it?”

“Leader and original founder of the
Oppressed World Liberators.”

It was Greenwood’s voice.

Rick jumped off the couch and Olivia
stood, producing a pistol Rick didn’t even know she had on her. They both
headed to the door and took turns looking through the peephole.

Sure enough, it was him, the most wanted
man on the planet.

His heart beating a mile a minute, Rick
flung the door open and pulled Greenwood inside. At the same time, Olivia
stepped into the narrow hallway to make sure this wasn’t an ambush, looking
left and right. He was alone.

“I would’ve sworn you’d be happy to see
me, Rick.”

The young man immobilized him against the
wall and then frisked him for weapons while Olivia covered him, her gun still
pointed at Greenwood. He was unarmed.

“You crazy son of a bitch!”

And with that, Rick punched him in the
face, drawing blood.

Greenwood didn’t resist and didn’t fight
back. In fact, he grinned gently.

“So you really are happy to see me. Good.”
He noticed Olivia for the first time. “Hey, that’s a pleasant surprise! I
thought you were playing Frisbee with Saint Peter.”

She held up her head. “Seems your
assassins aren’t a hundred percent devoted to your cause.”

“Yes, so it would seem. I’m now dying to
have a word with Chamba.”

“All right, enough of this crap. Why are
you here?”

“Honestly, Rick, I thought you’d be
ecstatic by my presence. I’m a little hurt that you’re not.”

“Yeah, I’m a fucking riot. Talk.”

With his foot, Rick tripped Greenwood,
forcing him to kneel. It was hard to keep himself from doing much worse to the
terrorist.

“I’m here to surrender. I want you to
take me in.”

“What?”

“I told you I was preparing for my last
hurrah, Rick. This was my swansong and, as I told you, I’m turning myself in
now. I’m a man of my word.”

“But you didn’t kill any of the VIPs.”

Greenwood grimaced. “I know, I’m a little
disconcerted about that. But you want to hear something really freaky for a
world-renowned terrorist like myself?”

“What’s that?”

“I put my last penny into this operation.”

“Bullshit.”

“I made quite a bit of money shorting
Wells Eastern stock when we bombed New York, that’s how I’ve been funding my
organization over the years. But now it’s all gone. I have a lot of overhead.
Travel, safe houses, bribes. The majority of my followers were actually hired
hands, mercenaries.”

“You’re broke?”

“Actually, I still have a little money in
a Swiss bank account but Sagan was the only one authorized to access it. My
organization was too well-structured, imagine that. So now I’m broke, yes. Life
is cruel.”

“And you want to go to prison?” Olivia
asked.

“That’s messed up, uh? I told Rick the
story already, I’m sure he’ll delight you with it someday. With today’s events
I’m gonna be on every front page in the world tomorrow morning. I can now
address people as equals, spread my message. I’m pretty sure I’ll be trending,
as they say in the Twitterverse.”

“You’re insane.”

“Whatever. I prefer the term
dedicated
personally.”

“Still insane.”

“Okay, I think now’s the time.”

Greenwood joined his wrists together in
front of him as if inviting a pair of handcuffs.

Rick didn’t move. “Why me?”

“Because I feel a smidge guilty.”

“No shit. You’re responsible for many
deaths today.”

“I had you figured out right from the
start, Rick. The minute you walked into my village I knew you wanted to bag me.
So I decided to have a little fun, to use you to take the heat from my real
operation.”

“That’s mean, you know that?”

“I know, but that’s what I do. What can I
say? Anyway, I want to make it up to you.”

Rick leaned down over the man. “What
makes you think I even want to bring you in?”

“I know there’s a four million price tag
on my head. And I want to be handcuffed so that no one shoots me thinking I’m a
fugitive.”

Rick stared at him for long seconds,
making up his mind. The man was clearly crazy – no, evil – but there weren’t
many options. He could do this, bring Greenwood in and get it over with
already.

He went to the kitchen and found some
plastic zip ties in a drawer. He returned and tossed them to Olivia.

“Tie him up, I’ll call Vanstedum to tell
him to expect us.”

Olivia put her weapon down the back of
her pants and started cuffing Greenwood.

“Tie them behind my back, please. I want
this to be unequivocal.”

He smiled. It was almost as if he was
having fun.

~  ~  ~  ~

So they were really doing this, Rick
thought. He was driving his SUV with Olivia next to him. Greenwood was in the
back, right in the middle with the seatbelt on so he wouldn’t try anything.

He had also called Vanstedum to warn him.
The man had initially told Rick to stay put, that he would send people over,
but Rick declined. He wanted to finish this on his own, not necessarily for the
reward money which he was sure they’d refuse him, but to finally have closure.

In some way, Rick had started this quest
and he intended to finish it.

So as a compromise, he had agreed to
drive the terrorist to the nearest police station and Vanstedum would have a
team of FBI agents there to meet him and take custody. Rick was certain that
there would be a SWAT team and an armored car for good measure.

Greenwood smiled again and tilted his
head back. “You liked hunting me, didn’t you Rick?”

“Don’t be a moron.”

“I think you did. It’s a great sport, I’m
not denying it. You’re trying to play it down because of all the corpses that
came out of it, but I can see in your eyes that you enjoyed it. Could be a good
career for you.”

“Shut up, will you?” Rick said. “We’re
almost there.”

“You know, I didn’t
completely
figure
you out though, I fibbed about that earlier.”

This surprised the young man. “Oh really?
I thought you were the expert.”

“You never told me about Hertz. I never
figured you were helping the CIA get to me.”

This made Olivia look at the driver with disbelief.

“I didn’t help anyone,” Rick clarified. “The
CIA just followed.”

“Before you take me in I have to tell you
what Hertz wanted with me.”

“That’s not necessary.”

“Oh, it is! You need to know what your
precious government is like when impunity is guaranteed.”

Olivia asked, “What did he want with you?”

Rick didn’t say anything. He slowed down
the car and stopped at a red light.

“He wanted to offer me a job,” Greenwood
said. “He offered me money and resources to attack several targets estimated to
be enemies of the United States. Can you imagine me as an asset of the CIA? I
mean, even Public Enemy Number One has got to have his standards, you know.”

Rick was flabbergasted by the revelation.
He’d always figured Hertz was shady but this was beyond belief.

“Jesus…”

“And you know the best part? I just told you
this story in the presence of a British spy. I can just smell the international
incident, it’s beautiful!”

He was probably right, too, Rick concluded.
There was no way Olivia could keep this to herself, she still worked for MI6. What
kind of repercussions would this have?

And then Rick decided this was above his
pay grade. He would let people more important than he was to decide what was
relevant or not.

“Is this light gonna stay red forever or
what?” he wondered to himself.

Greenwood laughed. “I know you can
already taste your millions, but I’m not in
that of a
hurry to
surrender.”

At precisely this moment, a bullet came
flying through the window and hit Greenwood straight in the head. It exploded
like a watermelon, sending blood spraying through the interior.