Foreign and Domestic by A.J. Tata

Author:A.J. Tata [Tata, A.J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Thriller
ISBN: 9780786035410
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2015-02-24T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 21

Several hours later, as night fell, Mahegan sat on a bare zebra-striped mattress exactly like the cheap ones he had slept on in basic training. He was in the vacant dorm used to house the actors and actresses for the seasonal theater production, The Lost Colony.

Three minutes and twenty seconds had been the longest he had been able to stay beneath the water. It had been sufficient.

Mahegan had made it to the buoy and found an air gap inside the channel marker. He had stayed inside the bubble for what he calculated to be an hour and then began a series of long underwater swims, not unlike a porpoise, surfacing only for air and staying beneath the water until he reached the western shore of Roanoke Island near the bridge. From there it was a quick thirty-minute walk through the woods to Locklear’s place, where he had scouted the bungalow from the forest, concealed by the foliage. He had watched Sheriff Johnson’s maroon Buick come and go. After that, Paslowski’s black F-150 had looped through. His blond-haired counterpart had jumped out and pounded on Locklear’s door. Then an airplane had flown slow and low overhead, but presumably didn’t loiter because of airspace issues.

They were looking for him. Local cops wanted him for murder. The Inspector General wanted him for questioning. And Copperhead, Inc. wanted him dead.

Figuring the procession would continue, he broke into Locklear’s house, left her a note, and then proceeded through the woods another half mile to the theater. There he found a marginally hidden building to the east of the outdoor stage that he figured was the dorm. The rows of bunk beds and gang latrines proved him right.

Sitting on the bunk, he waited for her, digesting all that he had discovered, which he knew was only the beginning. But for the first time, he felt hopeful that he could uncover how the MVX-90s fell into enemy hands. What had taken a year to develop now had to be resolved quickly. Adham’s attacks had claimed dozens of lives and it was clear he was using MVX-90s as trigger devices.

He heard the screen door bounce lightly against the wooden frame of the old dorm. “So you found this place, I see. Sounds like you’ve been busy,” Locklear said.

Mahegan watched her approach through the darkness. He sat on the far bunk, nearest the latrine and the back exit. She was holding the white slip of paper in one hand and a reusable grocery bag in the other.

“Where’d you hear that?”

Next to Mahegan on the bunk was his rucksack packed with appropriated equipment: pistol, GPS, and two MVX-90s. The rest was lost in the crash and was probably at the bottom of the sound.

“Jesus,” she said when she saw him up close. “You look like you’ve been through a meat grinder.”

“You should see the other guys, as the saying goes.”

He knew he looked rough. Mahegan had stared in the latrine mirror at his assorted cuts and bruises from the vines, thorns, glass, and impact of the truck crashing into Croatan Sound.

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