Page 91 of Four Cards Exposed

And you kill the bastard.

He dialed Lorraine’s phone again. They’d spoken several times while he was in the air and, in her defense, his partner hadn’t once tried to convince him to stand down and wait for them. He could imagine her now, her things spread out over the sheriff’s station meeting room, which she would quickly have turned into a situation room.

“We’re almost there, Lorraine. The pilot knows to take off immediately.”

He’d already had that difficult conversation.

“I’ve got two people from the tech team working with us. They’re tracking both your phone and the implant in your arm. You should grab the sunglasses from the bag I left on the plane, there’s a tracker inside them as well.”

“I’ll do that. How are we doing with clearances?”

“We were going round in circles with the bail situation for a while, nobody wanting to admit they’d been in the wrong, but I was finally able to get through to a different judge. It looks like Miguel Mendoza was the one to post bail.”

Interesting.

So Miguel’s alive.

Is Miguel working for Guerrero now?

“Guerrero running is an embarrassment for us,” Lorraine said. “One we can’t let stand.”

She’s rallying the troops to get us help.

James nodded gratefully, then realized Lorraine couldn’t see him.

“Thank you, Lorraine. For everything.”

“I need a few more hours, James,” Lorraine said, her tone dead serious now. “You need to buy me those hours.”

“A few more hours, plus a six-hour flight. That’s a full day, Lorraine.”

“I know. I’m working as fast as—“

“I know you are. And I can’t tell you how grateful I am. You’ll come, too?”

“A pack of lions couldn’t keep me away, James.”

“Good. You know what the priority is.”

He waited for her to say it.

Lorraine gave a small sigh. “Susan. Susan’s the priority. But we’ll do our best to bring you both home safe, James.”

James swallowed what felt like a ball of hair in his mouth.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better partner than you, Lorraine.”

“Please don’t fucking do this. Don’t say goodbye.”

“I won’t,” he said, swallowing hard. “We’ll speak soon.”

James hung up. He made his way to the open cockpit, which probably violated half a dozen protocols, and approached the pilot to remind him of their agreement.

“Remember, you leave me and take off immediately. No dilly dallying.”

Buck nodded, as James had known he would. He was a friend of Lorraine’s. “Fuck you, Ramsay. You know I’ll do it. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.”

James stared beyond the pilot’s shoulder as the single, ragged runway came into view.