The Rising by Robert Ovies

Author:Robert Ovies [Ovies, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Spiritual & Religion
ISBN: 9781681495446
Publisher: Ignatius Press
Published: 2017-08-21T00:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Two men got up from the kitchen table and moved to shake Joe’s hand as he entered the room. Lynn said as it happened, “Joe, these men are from the government.” She looked quietly desperate.

Joe nearly reeled backward. Had they pulled off the surgery on Turner already?

The taller of the two, in his dark-blue suit and dark-red tie, stretched out his hand to Joe and smiled. He was a tall, fortyish man with sharp Italian features and perfect teeth and close-cropped dark hair and hard-looking eyes that flashed over a thin and practiced smile.

Joe pushed a few words out, saying, “Which government?” Trying to act cool. Trying not to look rattled. Feeling shaken.

“I’m Paul Curry”, the man said, taking Joe’s hand. An ID came up in his left hand. It read “Deputy United States Marshal”.

Joe shot another glance at Lynn, who was getting ready to fight, he could tell.

The marshal nodded toward the square-shouldered, middle-aged man with gray hair cut short and lazy eyes who stood beside him and said, “This is Captain Michael Shuler, United States Air Force.”

At that, Joe managed the beginnings of a forced smile. Working his way back into control. “You kidding?” he asked. “The Air Force?”

Their expressions said, No, Joe, we’re not kidding at all.

“I’m assigned to the Department of Defense”, the captain told him. He took his seat again. Then he smiled, too. For the moment, lots of smiles. “We were just talking about your son.”

“How did I know that?” Joe said, trying to sound carefree, even entertaining, but thinking as he said it, all the power in the world, from the Vatican to the White House, looking down the barrel at C. J. right now, and me with a ticket for five million dollars parked right in my back pocket.

He pulled up the sixth chair. “You want C. J. to be a pilot, or what?”

The captain stopped smiling. “We were telling the others that we’ve set up a process to establish the authenticity of your video”, Deputy Curry continued.

“It’s not our video”, Joe said, relaxing for the first time.

They didn’t know yet, he thought. Not for sure. Thinking about it, and snooping around, but no operation yet.

“We’ve also been spending some time at the hospital”, the captain added. “Reviewing the medical reports for both people with death certificates and both women in remission. And spending several hours with attending physicians.”

“And with Mrs. Klein and Mr. Turner”, Curry said. “And their families.”

“You talked to the Kleins?” Father Mark asked, sounding protective.

“The Kleins. Turners. Mrs. Welz. Mrs. Koyievski. Their families.”

“You must be tired fellas”, Joe said, smiling now and meaning it for the first time. They were close, but still fishing.

“We enjoy our work”, Curry said, smiling back at him.

“The video”, Joe said. “You’d need the original. You took the original from MacInnes?”

“We have the original, yes, sir.”

“You confiscated it”, Joe said. No more pretense about cordiality. What did he care? “He didn’t offer it to you to be a good citizen, did he?”

Lynn shifted in her chair, eyeing Joe.

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