Corkscrew (Nameless: Season Two) by Dean Koontz

Author:Dean Koontz [Koontz, Dean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-06-09T16:00:00+00:00

5

The warehouse is a cavernous building, one of a cluster of four that no one has a use for now that once prosperous California rusts away from the corrosive effect of decades of corrupt and reckless governance, a significant part of its residents having moved out of state. The large property is securely fenced, and agents of Ace are posted at strategic points to make sure that no one enters it during the next few hours. These days, in the Golden State, there are more than a few places like this where no one will hear you scream.

Morning light falls from an encircling row of high clerestory windows, but shadows dominate and seem to pulse with strange life.

The three cushionless straight-backed chairs, chosen for their lack of comfort, are arranged in a circle fifteen feet in diameter. Two men and a woman are zip tied to the chairs at their wrists and ankles, facing one another. All are awake now and terrified.

Nameless moves around them, making them wait, letting their imaginations torment them. He has warned them not to speak unless spoken to, but each of them has challenged this command, whereupon he has Tasered the offender.

One of them, Paul Beckman, has endured three separate shocks in order to insist they have the wrong Paul Beckman, that he has never seen anything like the triskelion that depends from the silver chain of the lavaliere, which Nameless dangles before him, that it’s crazy to think he’s involved in a treasonous conspiracy or that he abetted terrorist acts. Yes, he’s a trial attorney. Yes, he’s defended some questionable characters, because everyone is entitled to a vigorous defense. But he never defended the terrorist they say he did. They have the wrong damn Paul Beckman!

They have been waiting half an hour in tense silence for an agent of Ace, answering to the name Varner, to make inquiries. Now Varner returns in a state of agitation and declares, “Oh, man, we are fucked, we totally are. This bastard is the wrong Paul Beckman. The idiots snatched the wrong guy.”

“Heads will roll for this,” Nameless says.

Varner says, “Yeah, well, not mine.”

“Not mine, either.”

“The snatch team was given the wrong address.”

“Not by accident,” Nameless says. “We’ve got a traitor in our ranks, trying to sabotage this.”

Varner takes a handkerchief from his jacket and wipes a thin sweat off his brow. “So what now? Roll this up, set them loose?”

Nameless surveys the three captives. “He’s not the wrong Reese Spindrift, and she’s not the wrong Ainsley Shepherd. Let them go, and they’ll warn the whole rotten crew. We won’t get another chance at any of the main players. They’ve infiltrated everything, they’re everywhere in government and law enforcement, so now they’ll come after us.” In frustration, he throws the lavaliere on the floor.

Varner says, “If we go forward with the interrogation of these two, we have to make some kind of deal with Beckman here to keep his mouth shut.”

Eager to facilitate his release, Paul Beckman says, “I didn’t see anything.

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