Page 190 of One Minute Out

You’re the Gray Man, you can just slip away, I tell myself.

But I’m wrong.

A pair of vans appears around a turn below me on the road, and I’m sure they’ve already crossed a police line to make it this high up on the hill. As they approach, I stop, look at a densely wooded property next to me, and consider making a run for it.

But I don’t. Instead I just let out a long, tired sigh.

The vans stop alongside me and the side door of the closest one slides open.

Zack Hightower looks me over, up and down. “You look like shit, kid.” He sees the hilt protruding from just below my collarbone. “But on the bright side, looks like you won a free knife.”

I don’t speak, I just climb into the back of the van and it begins rolling off. Armed men all around search and cuff me while Zack looks on. When they’re finished, he reaches over to me and puts his hand around my back. Hightower knows I keep a handcuff key secreted under a belt loop, so he grabs it, then tosses it out of the van.

He pulls out his phone as we start driving off.

“Sir? I’ve got him. No trouble, but half of Hollywood is on fire.” He waits a moment then says, “Yes, sir.”

Zack holds the phone to my ear. I know it’s Hanley.

I’m right. He says, “Subtle, Violator. Real subtle.”

I just look out the window.

He adds, “I want to break your fucking neck.”

“Get in line, boss.”

“Is he alive?”

“He is.”

“Okay.” I think that’s the end of it, but what he says next surprises me. “Court, here’s what I’m prepared to do. This isn’t a negotiation; this is not my opening offer. You get what you get, and what you get is all you get.”

“I’m listening.”

“We’ll reach out, quietly, to all the federal law enforcement agencies along the route of the pipeline. Not the state or regional or municipal agencies, but the big guys. At the highest level.”

I start to speak but he cuts me off.

“We’ll pass on any information Talyssa Corbu gives us, and then we’ll tell these agencies that we’ll be checking back to see if the pipeline is shut down and the women safely recovered.”

I think there’s more coming, but when he says nothing, I reply with, “That’s it?”

“That’s it. You are too precious a commodity for me to let you run around the world saving individual girls. The next job I have for you... frankly, kid... it’s bigger than that.”

“What about Kareem and Rodney and Carl?”

“I assume those are the men who helped you and survived.”

“Yeah.”

“The Agency will assist them. We’ll get them out of custody.” He adds, “Eventually. Quietly.”

Hanley ends the call before I can put up any fight, and Hightower takes the phone from my ear, disconnects it, and drops it back in his bag.

The Ground Branch guy called Teddy pulls the knife out of me; I scream in agony, but he knows what he’s doing, and instantly he’s cleaning and then bandaging my shoulder, while another guy pours antiseptic on my arm and rib wounds. Chris Travers reaches out from behind me and gives me a squeeze on my good shoulder, then leans forward. “We gotta stop meeting like this, bro.”

I don’t reply.

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