29

The brothers walked in step together toward an old shed behind the abandoned Red Bluff Trading Post. Marcus still found it surreal that the man beside him had once been his enemy, and now, there was no one else he would rather have by his side. It was amazing how much things could change within a relatively short span of time. Enemies could become friends, and the people closest to you could just as easily turn away.

Oddly enough, Ackerman was perhaps the only person in the world whom he trusted. Relatively speaking, of course, in the sense that he knew Frank would always have his back. His brother would stand by him to the death. Once, he would have said the same about Andrew, but something between them had changed since the Director had started grooming Andrew for management. Marcus sensed that Andrew was learning all kinds of secrets that he couldn’t share with any of them. Every time they talked, he felt the tension, the secrets and lies slowly erecting a barrier between them. And Maggie...he couldn’t bear to think of all the ways he had pushed her away.

Ackerman, as if reading his mind, said, “We’ll find her, brother.”

“I know that. I just have my doubts whether or not she’ll be breathing when we do.”

Ackerman had nothing to say to that. Instead, he said, “What wonderful toys did you bring with you this time?”

Marcus thought about that. He had packed the four-door Jeep Wrangler with as much hardware as it could carry and had unloaded the cases into the shed before Emily departed in the Jeep. Opening the slide door of the shed like a snake oil salesmen revealing his wares, Marcus said, “We have four MP5s, a .50 cal sniper rifle, a few different types of grenades, C4, and a crap ton of ammo.”

“But did you bring the items I requested?”

In reply, Marcus grabbed a rolled up blanket from atop the stack of black weapons cases and spread it out to reveal the series of items that his brother had instructed him to bring. The first was a bone-handled Bowie knife that Ackerman had acquired during the Thomas White investigation. Along with it was a sheath designed for concealment beneath the shirt in the small of one’s back. The second was a pair of push daggers that had once belonged to the Gladiator, a killer the team had recently hunted in San Francisco. The third was a bit of an enigma to Marcus, and it had actually stirred some troubling realizations about the items and how his brother had acquired them.

Marcus said, “Frank, what are all these things to you?”

“I’m not sure I understand your question, but they are basically the only possessions I have in this world. I don’t count Theodore as a possession. He’s more like a lamprey clinging to a great white shark.”

A mental image of his brother playing with the small Shih Tzu puppy brought a smile to Marcus’s face and a small chuckle to his throat. Emily had felt that it would be good for Ackerman to have another life over which he needed to care. And Marcus had to admit that the animal and Ackerman had formed some sort of strange kinship that seemed to help Frank. The puppy was currently back home in Rose Hill, VA with their technical director, Stan Macallan.

Ackerman—who refused to call Stan by his real name—added, “Are you confident that Computer Man is capable of caring to Theodore’s needs?”

“Stan has a doctorate from MIT. I think he can handle a little dog for a few days.”

“I still feel we should have left him under Dylan’s care,” Ackerman said, referring to Marcus’s son.

“His grandpa doesn’t want a dog in his house. He’s allergic. And he’s pushing eighty.”

“Shih Tzu’s are actually very hypoallergenic dogs. They don’t shed.”

“Stop avoiding the question,” Marcus snapped. “Are you keeping these things as trophies from other killers we’ve beaten?”

Ackerman smiled and shrugged. “They certainly carry with them many fond memories. The bone-handled Bowie knife has pierced the flesh of many, but in particular Mr. Craig—our old friend from the CIA—and our father. The push daggers are, of course, the weapons you used to finish off the Gladiator.”

“Yeah, I get those. But what about Judas’s watch?” Marcus asked, referring to an accessory retrieved from the body of the Judas Killer that should have been collecting dust in an evidence locker somewhere instead of sitting among his brother’s keepsakes.

Ackerman’s eyes lit up at the mention of Judas’s timepiece. “Have I not shown you this one? You’re gonna love it.” Ackerman slid the titanium gray watch over his wrist, and then, with a twist of the watch’s crown, he pulled out a long thin wire hidden inside. He added, “All of you thought it was merely a clothing accessory, but I knew better. Our old friend Judas was full of surprises, including a superbly crafted garrote concealed in his watch. I’m not sure of the material, but the wire is quite sharp.” When he released the crown, the garrote automatically retracted back into the watch.

“I’m not sure how I feel about you keeping trophies from our cases.”

“Other than my books and a few articles of clothing, these trophies, as you call them, are all that I have in this world.”

Marcus detected a hint of sadness in his brother’s tone and said, “That’s not true, Frank. You have me. Dylan. Maggie. You have a family. People are more important than possessions.”

Cocking an eyebrow, Ackerman said, “You didn’t mention Emily or Father as part of that family.”

“Thomas White is not part of our family. He’s a sperm donor and that’s all. And Emily...”

“Is planning to leave the Shepherd Organization.”

“She told you?”

“As she was leaving.”

Marcus hadn’t wanted to have this conversation with his brother until after they had found Maggie, but he had found that more often than not things didn’t work out the way he planned, at least not when it came to his personal life. He said, “Frank, listen, she has to do what’s best for her daughter.”

Ackerman’s face remained stone. “I don’t have possessions because they are pointless. Or at least, the emotional attachment you normals have to your possessions is. I’ve learned over and over that everything you have can be taken away in the blink of an eye. These weapons are useful tools that have been tried and tested in battle, and yes, the remembrances they stir in me bring a smile to my face. But I don’t need these things. If they were lost to me, I would simply find other tools to replace them. It’s the same with people.”

“So all of us humans are as replaceable to you as a new knife?”

“Don’t be overly dramatic about it. I’m merely saying that both possessions and people can be taken away from you. There’s no sense crying about it. One must simply carry on and make due with the resources at hand.”

“You’ve been crying about her leaving?”

“What? No. Stop being obtuse.”

Marcus said, “That’s funny coming from you. And you can drop the hard-ass routine with me. I know you care about her.”

“I find Agent Morgan to be a very capable and fascinating person. The world is a better place because she’s in it. But that doesn’t mean that my world will grow dark just because she’s not part of my personal circle of acquaintances.”

“Well, hypothetically speaking, if you did care about Emily on any kind of deeper level, you would have to understand that things were never going to work out between the two of you. There’s too much history there.”

“Is that why the two of you have been keeping plans for her departure from me? Do you both share in the assessment that my behavior toward Agent Morgan has somehow implied—”

“Okay, okay. Now who’s being dramatic,” Marcus said, his hands held up in surrender. “The point is that Emily bit off more than she could chew with this lifestyle, and she’s chosen to go back into counseling. Considering how often I get to see Dylan and how terrible I feel about that, I can understand where she’s coming from. Once Maggie is safe, she’ll be leaving the team. That’s happening. You can talk about it or not. You can care or not. That’s your prerogative.”

Ackerman fixed him with the kind of laser-beam gaze that he hadn’t seen directed his way in a long time. Ackerman whispered, “Don’t ever patronize or coddle me, little brother. Emily is a beautiful woman with the type of exotic features that I’ve always found attractive. I would be lying if I claimed to have never experienced a stray thought. But believe me, I am fully aware that the sins of the past can never be truly erased in the minds of men, and that a woman like Emily could never love a monster like me.”

“That’s not at all what I meant.”

In a tone that implied there would be no further discussion on the matter, Ackerman said, “We’ve wasted enough time on this subject. With Emily taking the Jeep, how do you intend to reach Canyon’s ranch? We should have stashed the trailer full of wool and cocaine up in the mine and drove the tractor part of the equation back here as another vehicle. I told you that was a poor use of our resources.”

“I can’t drive a big rig. How in the world did you learn? Never mind, I don’t want to know. I’m sure it would just bring up some horrible story from your past.”

“Actually, Father taught me. It’s one of the few pleasant memories I have of him from my childhood. I had a natural aptitude for it. It was one of the few times that I felt like he was actually proud of me. I should teach you.”

Marcus couldn’t help but smile as he looked at his brother’s face and saw an edge of excitement at the prospect of teaching him to drive a big truck like their sperm donor had taught him. He said, “If we make it out of this alive, I’d be happy to learn. In the meantime, we’re covered. The Director actually came through for us on that.”

Ackerman looked skeptical. “In what way?”

“Let’s move all of this hardware into the main building, and then you can help me assemble my new toy.”