From within their midst toppled a uniformed club guard, a boxy man with a fresh bullet hole in his forehead. The floor knocked a gleaming revolver from his hand.

Recalling Isadora's description of Drummond as a natural, Charlie's umbrage evaporated. Had William Tell been as good a shot, he would have had no famous dilemma.

Spotting Isadora's wheels inching through the doorway, Charlie dropped behind the vacated operating table. Drummond, her likelier target, jumped behind the stalwart fireproof cabinet. Neither had a shot at the other.

The pandemonium dissolved to just the mechanized humming and intermittent beeps of the machines. The acrid gun smoke faded. The room brightened. Charlie was reminded of the moment at the end of a party when everyone realizes it's time to go.

'Try not to kill me for a minute, Drummond, dear,' Isadora said. 'I need to speak to the two of you.'

'You want a minute?' he said. 'Does that mean you expect your backup here in forty-five seconds?'

She wheeled the chair tentatively with her left hand. She held her gun with her right, letting it dangle from her index finger by the trigger guard. 'My backup is here already.' She pointed to the boxy guard, facedown in a pool of his own blood.

Still Charlie didn't chance budging from behind the operating table. Drummond, too, held fast behind his cabinet.

'I was ordered by my superiors to hand you over to these men,' Isadora said. 'I didn't have the vaguest idea it would turn out like this.'

'Do you expect us to believe that you were just obeying an order?' Drummond asked.

She gasped theatrically. 'Don't tell me you've given up on your belief that obedience is next to G.o.dliness?'

'I just have a hard time imagining you listening to anyone.'

'Well, I did, sir sir. I heeded our club manager, who believed these men were DIA on a legitimate operation, and he's a sphinx when it comes to bona fides*or, I should say, he was was a sphinx.' With a grimace, she nodded at the slain waiter. 'I expected you weren't in for a rollicking time of it in debrief, but that's the game. As for you, Charlie, if I hadn't agreed to turn you over, I would have been charged with aiding and abetting federal fugitives and obstruction of justice, for starters. Still, I agreed to it only after I was given complete a.s.surance that you would, truly, walk away.' a sphinx.' With a grimace, she nodded at the slain waiter. 'I expected you weren't in for a rollicking time of it in debrief, but that's the game. As for you, Charlie, if I hadn't agreed to turn you over, I would have been charged with aiding and abetting federal fugitives and obstruction of justice, for starters. Still, I agreed to it only after I was given complete a.s.surance that you would, truly, walk away.'

Charlie took it for granted that she was lying. 'Don't sweat it,' he said. 'These mix-ups happen all the time.'

Drummond seemed to soften. 'So who are they?' he asked her.

'In hindsight it would appear DIA was just cover, and at the least they co-opted the club personnel,' she said. 'The manager and security guard positions at a glorified nursing home don't generally merit the highest pay grades.'

With a grunt of agreement, Drummond stepped out from behind the fireproof cabinet. He checked the double doors to the recovery room. She inspected the corridor. 'The guards here mostly patrol the grounds,' she said. Both she and Drummond seemed satisfied that there was no imminent danger.

'So what do you think this is about?' he asked.

'I would imagine a secret that you either know, knew, or unwittingly have stumbled onto,' she said.

'That narrows it down to a stack's worth.'

'I might have an idea. First, there's something our son needs to know.'

Charlie felt safe in rising from behind the operating table.

She turned to him. 'In our trade, Charlie, good and evil often blur to the point that it's impossible to distinguish the two. At home, the oil and the water made a better couple than your father and I. On the job, I would stake my life that he's on the good side, anytime, in sickness and in health. So we can rest a.s.sured that the culprit in this case is*'

A gun boomed from the corridor and her head snapped sideways.

17.

She was dead.

Charlie broke free of horror's grip and threw himself to the safety of the back of the operating table. On the way down he glimpsed the lieutenant who had initially brought Drummond and him to the clubhouse. The man was ducking into the conference room across the hall. He must have been hiding there. And evidently he'd been co-opted sometime before that.

In retreat to the back side of the fireproof cabinet, Drummond fired twice more. His bullets came within inches of the lieutenant but damaged only the conference room door.

Isadora slumped in her wheelchair like a rag doll. Her purse tumbled from her lap, cigarette case, lighter, keys, and change spilling out and bouncing away.

Charlie's seconds-old fondness crumbled into heartache. 'Coming here might not have been such a good idea after all,' he said, nausea reducing his words to mutterings.

'Let's take a moment for a silent prayer,' Drummond said.

Charlie, who'd never known his father to utter so much as grace before a meal, peeked out from behind the operating table. With an index finger held to his lips, Drummond nodded at the corridor. Charlie saw no one, but he heard a dull groan of floor tile*one man, maybe two, creeping toward the operating room.

Drummond snapped the selector on Cadaret's pistol to an automatic setting, aimed at the wall between the operating room and corridor, and flattened the trigger. He delivered a burst of bullets into the wall, bra.s.s casings arching over his right shoulder. From the other side of the wall came a man's agonized shout, followed by a heavy flop of body against floor. A second man*a guard who was younger and even brawnier than the lieutenant*dove past the operating room doorway. The lieutenant hauled him into the conference room in advance of Drummond's fire.

The duo initiated a hail of their own gunfire. Charlie pressed himself so low to the floor that he could taste the lemon in the cleanser. Even with his hands over his ears, it felt as though the reports would blow his eardrums.

The guards' target was Drummond. Their bullets turned his cabinet's facing to pegboard, but failed to hit him, thanks to computer hard drives within it, as well as a gurney, a steel rack full of monitors, and an anesthesia machine with the dimensions of a floor safe*he'd gathered the lot around him. Still, he wasn't fully shielded: One shot ricocheted off the ceiling, causing a steel tray atop the anesthesia machine to spin away like a Frisbee, giving flight to several loaded hypodermic needles. A few stuck in the ceiling. Drummond dodged the rest. Meanwhile more bullets pierced the cabinet and reached the monitors, resulting in an eruption of gla.s.s and sparks from which he could only turn away and shield his eyes. Additional rounds shredded the linoleum tiles and filled the air with particles of the glue that had adhered them to the subfloor.

Squinting into the resulting gritty green haze, Drummond returned fire. Two shots drove the guards back into the conference room. His next pulls of the trigger resulted only in flinty clicks.

Charlie hoped Drummond was merely pretending to be out of bullets, that a ruse was in the works. But Drummond dumped the gun onto the anesthesia machine beside him and dropped to the floor, obviously searching for another weapon.

The lieutenant and the junior guard scrambled into the operating room, ducking in and around the machinery with the clear intent of flanking Drummond. Like Charlie, they probably expected Drummond would obtain another gun.

As they closed in on the anesthesia machine, Charlie made out the barrel of the boxy guard's shiny revolver against a baseboard, well out of Drummond's reach. Mortimer's gun lay by his body at the entrance*the guards blocked Drummond from it. Drummond's last option was Isadora's gun, still dangling from her hand, also beyond his range. Charlie thought about going for her gun himself. To move from behind the operating table all but guaranteed the guards would obliterate him.

Drummond stepped out from behind his cabinet, head lowered, hands empty. Charlie glimpsed a thin plastic tube connected to the anesthesia machine, caught on Drummond's right sleeve. The guards shared a look of self-satisfaction.

Drummond placed his hands before him, as if to raise them in surrender. Isadora's Zippo dropped from his left sleeve and into his left hand. He spun the spark wheel at once, transforming the invisible gas flowing from the thin plastic tube into a spray like a dragon's breath. The operating room turned orange.

Charlie averted his eyes; the guards' primal howls painted the picture more than adequately. A burst of gunshots followed.

Charlie looked to find the corrupt lieutenant dead on the floor. Also, Drummond had obtained the lieutenant's gun and used it to put an end to the other conspirator.

Simultaneously, a cardiac event monitor, the size of a kitchen television, hurtled through the air, thrown from behind Drummond by Cadaret.

'Dad!' Charlie shouted in warning.

Drummond looked to him, too late. The monitor crashed into his upper back, staggering him. Then Cadaret pounced. Other than a welt where the rock from the bal.u.s.trade had struck his jaw, the killer appeared in the peak of health.

He grabbed Drummond around his rib cage and rode him down. Drummond's head banged into the floor, costing him his hold on the gun taken from the guard. He ended up flat on his back. Cadaret sat astride him, preventing him from regaining the gun.

Drummond somehow sat up, like a jack-in-the-box, surprising Charlie. Cadaret appeared to have expected as much, but his eyes bulged with shock at what flashed in Drummond's hand: the biggest of the hypodermic needles from the anesthesiologist's tray. Drummond thrust it deep into Cadaret's shoulder and hammered the plunger, flooding the killer with anesthesia.

Presumably.

Nothing happened.

Cadaret laughed. 'Must be a placebo.' He pried the needle from his shoulder, tossed it aside, and s.n.a.t.c.hed up the guard's gun.

Fighting off queasiness, Charlie lunged for Isadora's gun, prying it from her still-warm hand just as Cadaret pressed a thick muzzle into Drummond's temple.

'Drop it!' Charlie called out, glad to have kept the tremble out of his voice. From a crouch behind the instrument cart, he fixed the side of Cadaret's head squarely in his sights.

Cadaret didn't flinch. Nor did he bother to look. 'Whatchya got there, Charlie? Mom's Colt?'

Charlie noted the rearing horse etched onto the grip. 'That's right.'

'Poor choice of names, in my opinion. It should've been Bronco or Mule, the way it kicks. My guess is, by the time you get off a decent shot, the three of us will be dead of old age.'

'Go ahead and shoot him, Charles,' Drummond said, as if growing bored. Probably he sought to calm Charlie.

Charlie suspected that the full contents of the anesthesia machine wouldn't calm him now. The Colt's grip was uncomfortably coa.r.s.e, the heaviness of the pistol startling. He had blasted away with the gamut of weapons in virtual reality, but the only actual gun he'd ever held fired water. It was difficult just to keep the Colt steady. Although Cadaret was a mere twenty feet away, Charlie had no confidence he could hit him.

'Yeah, go ahead, Charles,' Cadaret said. 'But if you do, know that even if, somehow, you get a bullet into me, I'll put two or three easy into Papa Bear's head, and at least one through that flimsy cart you're squatting behind and into your red zone.'

He was articulating, practically verbatim, Charlie's concerns.

'He's afraid of you, Charles, or he wouldn't be gabbing,' Drummond said. 'At this distance your bullet will probably kill him before he's able to process that you've pulled the trigger. At worst it will knock him well beyond the point of being able to do anything to me, except by happenstance.'

Charlie resolved to fire.

Cadaret spun at him and pressed his trigger first. At the same instant Cadaret's eyes rolled up into his head, leaving them white. The anesthesia had kicked in.

Still the pressure of his finger against the trigger resulted in a blast from his gun.

A bullet bored into the ceiling directly above Charlie, dusting his hair with bits of soundproof tile. Cadaret crumpled to the floor.

Drummond said to Charlie, 'Fine stall tactic.'

Charlie couldn't tell whether he was kidding. Through a general daze, he replied, 'Thanks, I was worried the fear I was going for wasn't quite playing.'

Drummond hurried to his feet. 'Now comes the hard part,' he said, plucking the gun from Mortimer's corpse.

18.

In the dressing room, Drummond burrowed through scrubs cabinets. 'I worked up an escape route,' he said, as if that were something he usually did, like turning on the lights when entering a dark room. He tossed Charlie a surgical gown, cap, pants, a mask, and a pair of disposable booties. dressing room, Drummond burrowed through scrubs cabinets. 'I worked up an escape route,' he said, as if that were something he usually did, like turning on the lights when entering a dark room. He tossed Charlie a surgical gown, cap, pants, a mask, and a pair of disposable booties.

'You want to leave disguised as doctors?'

'As it happens, it worked for me at a similar facility in Ulaanbaatar, a couple of years ago, just after the Tiananmen Square protest.'

Charlie began to put on the scrubs in the faint hope that his father's plan was more substantive than the Marx Brothers' plot it smacked of. Clearly a high percentage of Drummond's mental channels were open. At issue were those that weren't. He never said 'a dozen' if he meant eleven or thirteen; only twelve. Similarly he used 'a couple' exclusively for 2.000. The Tiananmen Square protest was not a couple couple of years ago, not by anyone's measure; Charlie had been in grade school at the time. of years ago, not by anyone's measure; Charlie had been in grade school at the time.

As if sensing Charlie's misgivings, Drummond added, 'In Ulaanbaatar, my life came down to getting through a single door. It had granulated tungsten carbide locking bolts and eight inches of steel and Manga.n.a.l hard plate*or enough to repel a tank. Opening it from outside required an eye scan, a thumbprint match, and a numeric code. But opening it from inside required only knowing how to use a push bar, which I did, and no one saw me do it. As you may have noticed, there are hardly any surveillance cameras here, and obviously the guards are elsewhere. The security in these places is geared toward keeping people out, not in. Our job is to get away without being noticed, and that's all about camouflage.' He launched himself toward the exit. 'You'll see as we go.'

Charlie's concerns were allayed. Until Drummond inexplicably bypa.s.sed the exit door and headed back into the operating room. Charlie stumbled after him toward the recovery room. The doctors and nurses were startled as Drummond smashed through the double doors.

'All of you come with me except your patient and you and you,' Drummond said. With Mortimer's gun, he pointed to the anesthesiologist and a nurse*the two men closest in size to himself and Charlie.

Charlie realized that Drummond's idea was to pose as part of an evacuating surgical team, while retaining its original number and composition. Once more he felt better about the idea's cogency, but he wondered whether incorporating the doctors and nurses added too many variables, not least of which was their cooperation.

No sooner did the thought strike him than the surgeon instructed his team, 'We're not going anywhere.' With a bold step forward, he told Drummond, 'Our first responsibility is the well-being of the patient.'

'I'm aware of that, sir,' Drummond said. 'It's my hope that the club's security force is aware of it too. Now, please?' He indicated the door.

The surgeon stood fast.

'Sir, what's your name?' Drummond asked.

'Rivington.'

'Dr. Rivington, I don't want to shoot you, but I will if you don't do exactly as I say.' Drummond waved his gun at the rest of the men and women. 'That goes for every one of you.'

They all shuffled into the operating room. Following alongside Drummond, Charlie could practically see the fear rising off them.

'Now I want you to place that man on a gurney,' Drummond told them. He pointed to the unconscious Cadaret. 'Put an oxygen mask on him, plus the fishing hat and the sungla.s.ses your patient had on, and a blanket.'

Charlie didn't entirely understand the thinking, but it wasn't the time for Q & A. The doctor act would play better, he guessed, with a patient, and Cadaret was a more manageable prop than the real patient.

While the members of the medical team readied Cadaret, Drummond threaded an IV stand through the handles of the recovery room doors. If the nurse and anesthesiologist sought to thwart the escape, they would have to break down the doors.

Next Drummond s.n.a.t.c.hed the handset from the wall-mounted intercom and dialed 9. When it was answered, he exclaimed, 'This is Rivington in the OR. We have a code green!' Then he tore the intercom from the wall.

19.

The 'surgical team' hurried up the ramp to the lobby. Drummond brought up the rear, his gun trained on the real doctors and nurses from beneath his surgical gown. Charlie was glad Drummond had a.s.signed him, along with the scrub nurse, to push the gurney. The solid side handles enabled him to appear steady. hurried up the ramp to the lobby. Drummond brought up the rear, his gun trained on the real doctors and nurses from beneath his surgical gown. Charlie was glad Drummond had a.s.signed him, along with the scrub nurse, to push the gurney. The solid side handles enabled him to appear steady.

At the top of the ramp, the clubhouse resounded with taproom chatter and the occasional ring of silver against china*none of the hurried tread of guards' jackboots or the rattle of rifles he'd been bracing for. He considered that the club members, accustomed to the sounds of gunfire from the various ranges, had been given no reason to think anything was out of the ordinary*and ordinary ordinary encompa.s.sed a lot at this place. encompa.s.sed a lot at this place.

As they turned onto the marble hallway, the scrub nurse narrowly avoided ramming her side of the gurney into a member*one of the tennis players Charlie and Drummond had been marched past in the portico on arrival. He wore a madras sport coat now and was drinking scotch from a tall gla.s.s. Given their surgical caps and masks and gowns, Charlie put the odds of the man recognizing them now at astronomical. The problem was that the fright in the scrub nurse's eyes was like an alarm beacon.

The tennis player hopped out of her way. 'Code Green?' he asked.

'Yes, sir,' she said tremulously. It came off as urgency.

'G.o.dspeed,' he said, raising his gla.s.s to exhort the team.

Only at the Monroeville Hunt and Fish Club, Charlie thought.

'This way,' said Drummond, pointing to the door across the hall*the library, according to the letters chiseled into its marble archway. Because going to a library made no sense, Charlie expected the big oak door to veil something else, hopefully the armory.

The door indeed opened to a library, a lofty room with leather-bound books crammed into creamy pine shelves so high that three tiers of balconies were necessary to access them. Inside, two octogenarians sat hunched over a backgammon board the size of a suitcase. They nodded to the team in polite greeting and returned to their game. In their time here, Charlie thought, they probably had seen so many surgical teams rushing past that the sight rated as less compelling than double twos.

Within the bookshelves on the far wall was a round-topped door leading to the terrace. The frosted gla.s.s transom and side lights offered no clue whether club guards*or the National Guard*waited outside.

Drummond gingerly drew the bronze handle, the door opened inward with a lengthy creak, and he peered out.