A Maiden's Grave by Jeffery Deaver

Author:Jeffery Deaver [Deaver, Jeffery]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, Thrillers, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781101209356
Google: YEqrRLWPSq8C
Amazon: B000OIZUV2
Publisher: Signet
Published: 1996-10-01T05:00:00+00:00

6:03 P.M.

They appeared suddenly, the dozen men.

The slippery wind covered the noise of their approach and by the time the agent was aware of them they’d surrounded him and Dean Stillwell, who was telling Potter about the dock behind the slaughterhouse. Stillwell had looked over the river and the dock and concluded that, even though the current was fast, as Budd had reported, it was too tempting an escape route. He’d put some armored troops in a skiff and anchored them twenty yards offshore.

Potter noticed Dean Stillwell look up and stare at something behind the agent. He turned.

The team was dressed in black and navy-blue combat gear. Potter recognized the outfits—the American Body Armor plated vests, the rubberized ducking uniforms and hoods, the H&K submachine guns with laser sights and flashlights. It was a Hostage Rescue Team, though not his, and Arthur Potter didn’t want these men within a hundred miles of the Webber & Stoltz Processing Company.

“Agent Potter?”

A nod. Be gracious. Don’t jerk leashes until leashes need to be jerked.

He shook the hand of the crew-cut man in his forties.

“I’m Dan Tremain. Commander of the state police Hostage Rescue Unit.” His still eyes were confident. And challenging. “I understand you’re expecting a Delta team.”

“The Bureau’s HRT actually. Jurisdiction, you know.”

“Course.”

Potter introduced him to Stillwell, whom Tremain ignored.

“What’s the status?” Tremain asked.

“They’re contained. One fatality.”

“I heard,” Tremain said, rubbing a gold pinky ring on which was a deep etching of a cross.

“We’ve gotten three girls out unhurt,” Potter continued. “There are four other girls inside and two teachers. The HTs’ve asked for a chopper, which we aren’t going to give them. They’ve threatened to execute another hostage at seven unless we have it here by then.”

“You’re not going to give him one?”

“No.”

“But what’ll happen?”

“I’m going to try to talk him through it.”

“Well, why don’t we deploy just the same? I mean, if it comes down to him killing her, I know you’ll want to move in.”

“No,” Potter said, looking over at the press table, where Joe Silbert and his assistant were diligently typing away on a computer. The reporter looked up glumly. Potter nodded and glanced back at Tremain.

The state police commander said, “You’re not saying that you’d let him kill the girl, are you?”

“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.”

Acceptable casualties . . .

Tremain held his eye for a moment. “I’m thinking we really ought to move into position. Just in case.”

Potter glanced at the men and gestured Tremain aside. They walked into the shadow of the command van. “If it comes down to an assault, and I certainly hope it doesn’t, then my team’ll be the one doing it—and only my team. Sorry, Captain, that’s just the way it is.”

Was this going to explode? Shoot straight to the governor and the Admiral in Washington?

Tremain bristled but he shrugged. “You’re in charge, sir. But those men are state felons too and our regulations require us to be on the scene. And that’s just the way it is too.”

“I have no objection at all to your presence, Captain.

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