His words startled Eric-and everyone else as well. The tension in the air may have made it the worst conceivable moment for me to speak up, but it felt like now or never. I spoke straight to McVee, as if it were just the two of us in the hangar.
"Eric is lying," I said. "And the reason he's lying is because your son didn't commit suicide."
Thankfully McVee wasn't holding a gun, because he would have shot me dead right then and there.
"No, I don't mean he disappeared like Ivy," I said, clarifying. "I mean his death wasn't suicide."
Slowly McVee's need to hear me out prevailed. And even though I was speculating to a large extent, it wasn't just something that had popped into my head on the spot. My suspicions had begun when Ivy told me that Andrea was FBI, and my focus had turned to Eric during our conversation in the WhiteSands' dining room. I had to believe that everything Ivy and I had shared four years ago was real, and that Eric's claims were false. There was no way she would have prostituted herself on a corporate espionage mission for WhiteSands. I knew she wasn't just pretending to love me. I knew she didn't marry me just to facilitate a plan to escape. Eric was lying. And people usually lie to protect themselves.
I had to go with my instincts on this one. It was life or death-literally.
"I knew Marcus," I said. "Your son was a savvy businessman who did his homework. So savvy that I think he knew Ivy was a mole. He used her her; she didn't use him."
"What are you talking about?" said Eric.
I continued my focus on McVee, ignoring Eric and everyone else. "Eric hired Ivy to work undercover and prove that Ploutus was spreading false rumors about WhiteSands to manipulate the stock price. The reality was, Marcus wasn't spreading false rumors. The dirt he uncovered was absolutely true."
"That's preposterous," said Eric.
"Maybe that information wasn't just damaging to WhiteSands," I said. "Maybe it was embarrassing to Eric, personally."
"Michael, that's enough."
I was on to something. I could hear it in Eric's voice. "Are you going to make me keep guessing, Eric? Or are you going to tell me what laws you broke?"
"Michael, stop right now, or you are going to take us both down."
"Is that what you told Marcus," I said, "when he confronted you with his discovery?"
Eric was silent, and I knew him well enough to realize what his silence meant. I almost couldn't believe what I was saying, but everything was suddenly making sense to me.
"That's why you killed him, isn't it, Eric. Or maybe you had him killed. Made it look like he took his own life. Then you went to his father to tell him how sorry you were for the loss of his son. To tell him that it was all Ivy's fault, that you never dreamed she would push him to suicide in playing her role. I'm guessing that you didn't anticipate what Kyle McVee's reaction would be-that he'd want Ivy dead."
Ivy filled in the rest, with me every step. "So you helped me disappear, which worked out very nicely for you. That left no one to dispute your version of what happened between Marcus and me."
"Once Ivy was gone," said McVee, his train of thought lining up right behind ours, "I stopped looking for the person who was really responsible for Marcus' death."
His glare came to rest on Eric.
There was chilling silence in the hangar as the truth settled in. Ivy, her mother, McVee, and on down the line-everyone was waiting for Eric to say something in his defense. But even Eric knew that there was no convincing anyone any longer. McVee stepped away from the helicopter. He stopped just a few feet away from me, his gaze still fixed singularly on Eric. was waiting for Eric to say something in his defense. But even Eric knew that there was no convincing anyone any longer. McVee stepped away from the helicopter. He stopped just a few feet away from me, his gaze still fixed singularly on Eric.
"Jason," he said to his nephew, "spill the fuel."
66.
"WHOA, WHOA WHOA," SAID SAID B BURN.
I was so spent, I'd almost forgotten that he was still standing on the boarding step at the open door to the Sikorsky, a head taller than Ivy.
Wald was approaching the helicopter and stopped suddenly, a fuel can in each hand. "What's wrong?"
"Are you nuts?" said Burn. "You can't just dump that much fuel inside a helicopter hangar."
Wald lowered the cans to the floor, practically dropping them. Five gallons of jet fuel were much heavier than he had expected. "Who's going to stop me, the EPA?"
Burn grabbed Ivy by the hair, as if reining her in. "This one's itching to try another disappearing act. What do you think will happen if this building is filled with fumes when I have to shoot her? Each one of those cans is like eight hundred sticks of dynamite. We could all be toast."
McVee and his nephew exchanged glances. It seemed they had finally seen eye to eye on something: the wisdom of having a guy like Burn in charge.
"What's your plan?" asked McVee.
"I'm thinking a fuel leak from the helicopter, maybe from a bad filter seal or ruptured fuel line. An untimely spark. Tragic results. Help me get these guys aboard, then beat it. I'll take care of the spilled fuel."
"Good luck with that," I said. "I count four of us, three of you, and only one gun."
"Two guns," said Wald as he pulled a pistol from his coat.
Burn pushed his gun against Ivy's head with so much force that her chin hit her chest. "And there can easily be one less of you."
Ivy said, "Don't try anything stupid, Michael. Just do what they say. The FBI is on the way."
"Yeah, sure," Burn said with a chuckle. "The FBI, the cavalry-they're all rushing right over here."
"I'm not lying," said Ivy.
"There's not a person here that you haven't lied to," said Burn.
"What if she's telling the truth?" Wald asked nervously. "What if the FBI is is coming?" coming?"
"No chance," said Burn. "Michael played a voice mail from Agent Henning right before you arrived. It was on speaker. Henning would have said they were on the way, if, in fact, they were."
McVee smiled at me. "I knew you didn't go to the FBI." He turned to his nephew and said, "Give me your gun."
"Why?"
"Because it wasn't your son who was killed."
Wald didn't like it, but he removed the safety and, with a push-pull of the slide, loaded a round into the chamber.
"You're ready to go," he said, handing it over.
McVee pointed the gun at Eric. "All right, Volke. You first. Get on the helicopter."
"Me? Why me? You don't believe all that bullshit, do you?"
"Get on the helicopter," said McVee, his eyes narrowing.
Eric stared right back. There was no way to win this argument, but he dug in his heels anyway. "Kiss my ass, Kyle. I'm not getting in that helicopter."
"Then I'll shoot you right now, damn it."
"That beats burning alive."
"You son of a bitch," he said, aiming at Eric's groin. "I'll shoot you right in the-"
A loud pop pop suddenly filled the hangar as a window in the sliding door exploded. My focus had been on McVee's showdown with Eric, but the strange sensation of a bullet whizzing past my ear shifted my attention right away. suddenly filled the hangar as a window in the sliding door exploded. My focus had been on McVee's showdown with Eric, but the strange sensation of a bullet whizzing past my ear shifted my attention right away.
Those next few moments were a blur, and even though many different things transpired simultaneously, they registered in my mind sequentially. A series of sounds and snapshots nearly overloading my ability to comprehend anything. Tiny bits of the shattered window glistening beneath the lights and falling to the floor. Burn's head jerking to one side, his black beanie flying through the air. The sound of Ivy's scream as the hot crimson spray showered her neck and shoulders.
Both Ivy and Burn tumbled away from the helicopter, and it was all too confusing to know if I had heard a second shot. Ivy hit the concrete first, and Burn landed on top of her. Somewhere in that moment-before or after Ivy's fall, it was impossible to know which-I heard the clack of Burn's weapon on the floor. The top of Burn's skull was missing, a ghastly wound marking his certain death. His body was still moving, but not on its own power. Ivy was pushing out from under his dead weight.
As if on a sheet of ice, she pivoted on her hip bone, spun her legs around clockwise, and kicked Burn's weapon in my direction.
"Michael!" she shouted, as it slid across the concrete.
I dived to the floor and grasped it.
And then the lights went out.
67.
THE EMERGENCY-EXIT LIGHT GLOWED OVER THE DOOR, CASTING A surreal orange-red pall over the chaos. It was hard to know exactly what was going on, if the shooting was over, or if more rounds were coming. Obviously, whoever had fired the sniper shot from outside the building had also cut the power. I had no idea if Ivy had been bluffing about the FBI's being on its way, but if she wasn't, a SWAT team should have been busting down the door right about now. surreal orange-red pall over the chaos. It was hard to know exactly what was going on, if the shooting was over, or if more rounds were coming. Obviously, whoever had fired the sniper shot from outside the building had also cut the power. I had no idea if Ivy had been bluffing about the FBI's being on its way, but if she wasn't, a SWAT team should have been busting down the door right about now.
No one came.
"Run!" said Ivy.
I looked up and saw Ivy and her mother racing toward the door beneath the exit light, Ivy's hands still clasped behind her back. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Eric running in the other direction, toward the office. Wald was in pursuit. And I saw McVee raising his weapon and taking aim at Ivy.
The last time I'd fired a gun I was a fourteen-year-old hell-raiser trying to shoot the NO out of a N out of a NO H HUNTING sign posted along our dirt-road neighborhood in Loon Lake. My best friend had dared me and loaned me his shotgun. I couldn't even hit the damn sign. I prayed for better aim with a pistol, squeezing off two quick shots in McVee's direction. I missed, but it sent McVee diving for cover. Ivy and her mother also dived to the floor at the sound of gunfire. sign posted along our dirt-road neighborhood in Loon Lake. My best friend had dared me and loaned me his shotgun. I couldn't even hit the damn sign. I prayed for better aim with a pistol, squeezing off two quick shots in McVee's direction. I missed, but it sent McVee diving for cover. Ivy and her mother also dived to the floor at the sound of gunfire.
"Keep running!" I shouted as I sprinted after them.
I turned and, just for cover, fired another quick shot back at McVee. Ivy and her mother were at least ten steps ahead of me. Olivia hit the door first and pushed it open. She made it out, and Ivy was right behind her. Through the open doorway, I could actually see stars in the night sky. Then I heard one more crack of gunfire.
I dropped like a stone. The pain in the back of my thigh was somewhere between getting whacked with a hammer and stabbed with a red-hot screwdriver.
"Michael!" screamed Ivy.
She was halfway out the door when she stopped. I could see that she was about to turn and come back to get me, though what good she could have done with her hands bound behind her back wasn't clear. Another shot rang out, and I heard the bullet slam into the wall of painted cinder block behind me.
"Go!" I shouted, rolling toward the door.
Two more shots followed, the second skimming off the metal door, missing Ivy by inches. My leg was getting hotter and wetter, and then I saw the blood. Less than I would have expected-clearly no major artery involved. This was a survivable wound, I was sure of it. But I was equally certain that another bullet would finish the job if I didn't keep moving. The pain and loss of blood was making me light-headed, but I drew on my reserves and kept rolling across the floor in Ivy's direction.
Ivy was outside the hangar now, crouched low, hiding behind the door and holding it partly open for me. Bullets continued to skid across the floor, ricocheting off the concrete. I lost track of the number of rounds McVee had fired so far. At most seven, and even with my limited knowledge about firearms, I knew there were plenty of pistols with magazines bigger than that.
I continued moving toward the door, but my momentum was slowing. My leg was starting to feel numb, and my head clouded up with congestion in places I had never felt congested, as if my entire brain were turning into cotton. Losing consciousness was an immediate possibility.
Another bullet whizzed past my ear. McVee continued to fire in my direction, but I couldn't see him. I, on the other hand, was a sitting duck, and as my thoughts became less and less coherent, I had a memory flash of Papa telling me the story of the LST-"large stationary target"-that had transported him and some other very unlucky souls onto the beach at Normandy. I fought off the mind fog, giving it my all, but it felt as though I were moving at a turtle's pace. Had McVee been a better shot, I would have been dead already. But I couldn't remain out in the open, an easy target-LST-just waiting for him to finally hit the bull's-eye. I suddenly recalled Burn's warning about the fuel. I reached inside for one last burst of energy and sprang toward the open doorway. In midair I reached back and aimed in the direction of the fuel cans Wald had dropped to the floor. I squeezed off a shot as I rolled out the doorway.
68.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" SHOUTED A AGENT A ANDIE H HENNING.
Andie was three hundred yards from the heliport, inside an FBI mobile command unit that was parked on the entrance road. A full hostage negotiation team was with her.
Minutes earlier, FBI tech agents had just completed an infrared-camera scan of the hangar, which picked up a fourth hostage inside the helicopter. A recent corpse could give off enough body heat to be picked up by a scan, but the possibility of a fourth hostage tipped the already shaky balance away from an all-out SWAT assault. A peaceful resolution also seemed highly achievable once Kyle McVee had entered the building, a powerful businessman whose entire life was about cutting deals. The negotiators were just thirty seconds away from initiating contact by loudspeaker when the shooting started. Andie raced out of the command unit and couldn't believe what she was hearing in her headset. WhiteSands Hangar No. 3 sounded like a war zone.
Andie was immediately on the bone microphone with the FBI sniper, who was on the rooftop of WhiteSands Hangar No. 2, directly across the heliport from Hangar No. 3.
"The order was to hold your fire!" she shouted.
"Roger that," came the reply. "No shot from here."
She switched over to the SWAT unit commander. Agent Kowalski and his team had taken various strategic positions, completely surrounding Hangar No. 3, invisible even to Andie, ready to move in the event that the planned negotiations broke down.
"Are you green on breach?" asked Andie.
The breach was forced entry-showtime in SWAT-speak. Green was the assault-the moment of life and death, literally-after yellow, the final position of cover and concealment.
"Negative," said Kowalski, his voice crackling with radio squelch. "Hot environment, no element of surprise. Holding at yellow."
From the sound of things in Andie's headset, Kowalksi was positioned right outside the building.
"Who went green?"
"Local SWAT."
"Repeat that, please."