The Devil’s Punchbowl. Greg Iles

Those are compromised. It’s this line or nothing.’

      ‘Understood. We’ll see you in seven hours. Six, if we can manage it. Stay well.’

      I feel a rush of relief so powerful that my face goes hot. ‘Thank you.’

      Waiting in the dark with my hand on the phone, I sense the fragility of those who matter most to me, as though they’re barely clinging to the planet as it spins through its orbit: my mother and daughter sleeping across the street with only my aging father to protect them; my sister in England, going through her day without even a hint that she could be in danger; Julia Jessup hiding in or near the city, or running for her life with a fatherless child to protect. Swirling around them are people whose paths I can neither control nor predict: the men watching my house, who may realize I’m gone and call their master; Caitlin, who might return at any moment and discover me; Sands himself, who might decide he can’t trust me after all and consign me and mine to Tim Jessup’s fate.

      The half hour I must wait for Kelly’s call is measured in clenching heartbeats, rapid-fire eyeblinks, startle reflexes, sudden bowel constrictions, and drops of sweat. When I don’t see the ghostly white dog peering at me through the guesthouse window, I see images of my friend’s brutalized body, or his wife and young son hiding in terror and grief. Strangest of all is my memory of last night’s dream of Tim on the ice sheet, and the white wolf watching me. How did I dream of an animal I’d never seen before? Or have I seen that white dog around town somewhere, perhaps even with Sands, and stored the memory in some reptilian neurons, where they waited to be triggered by Tim’s twisted tale?

      When the phone rings, I jerk it to my ear so fast the chirp fades almost before it’s begun.

      ‘Hello? Hello!’

      There’s only silence at first. Then Kelly’s voice comes into the receiver as though it’s being transmitted from a distant spacecraft. ‘What’s happening, man? Somebody threatened Annie?’

      ‘Jesus, Kelly, it’s great to hear your voice. We’re in trouble here. They threatened Annie, my parents, my sister, everybody. They already killed a friend of mine tonight. A guy I went to school with.’

      ‘Slow down. Are you safe where you are?’

      ‘Yeah, but I don’t have much time. Are you still in Afghanistan?’

      ‘Yeah. The mountains. Look, talk to me. Who’s your problem?’

      ‘The main guy is Irish. He runs one of the casinos here. He pretends to be English, but that’s just a front. He goes by the name of Jonathan Sands. I have no idea who he really is. Paramilitary type, but hiding it in a suit.’

      ‘I don’t like the sound of that,’ Kelly says reflectively. ‘Ex-IRA, maybe?’

      ‘He definitely knows how to handle weapons.’

      ‘What the hell have you got into?’

      ‘I’m not sure. But I didn’t take it seriously enough at first, and a friend died because of it. According to him, I can’t use conventional law enforcement. Sands has got a lot of people on his payroll.’

      There’s a long silence. Then Kelly says, ‘It could take forty-eight hours.’

      ‘What could?’

      ‘Me getting there. The company will get Annie and your mother sorted out, but it could take me two days to get back to the States.’

      ‘Dan…are you sure?’

      ‘Hey, it’s only money.’

      ‘You know I’ll—’

      ‘Shut the fuck up, okay? Before you embarrass both of us. And try to keep breathing for the next forty-eight hours.’

      ‘I’ll do my best. Look, you can’t call me, okay?’

      ‘Understood. The Blackhawk team is going to bring you a secure telephone. A satellite phone. You’ll have to decide when it’s safe to use it. Update the company when you can. Just keep using Spartacus as your code. They’re also going to bring a gear bag. That’s for me. I’ll have them stash it somewhere in town, and you can pick it up if you’re not being tailed.’

      ‘Okay. Daniel—’

      ‘Hold up. If you get in a really tight spot after the team leaves and before I get there, there’s couple of guys in your area I trust. They’re from Athens Point, down the river.’

      ‘Who are they?’

      ‘One’s a young guy, ex-marine. Carl Sims. Met him at the range there. He’s a black guy, a sniper. I don’t care what you’re mixed up in, use my name, you can trust him.’

      ‘Okay. Who else?’

      ‘There’s a guy used to fly for the sheriff down there at Athens Point. Ex-air force. Name’s McDavitt. He’s the real deal. If you need to get somewhere fast, or get away fast, he’s your man.’

      A jolt of synchronicity makes my scalp tingle. ‘I met McDavitt today. No shit. Some corporate big shot hired him to fly us around the city.’

      Kelly laughs softly. ‘You see? Things don’t look as bad as you thought. Now, you get back to Annie. We’ll take care of things on our end. See you in a couple of days. I’m out.’

      I wait until I hear the click, then slowly hang up.

      The circuitous trek back to my house doesn’t seem to take nearly as long this time; I feel Daniel Kelly sitting on my shoulder like one of Odin’s crows. The watcher on the corner is still in place, but I move across Washington as though cloaked in darkness. Just as I slip through the hedges into my backyard, I see a man walking across the parking lot of the bank behind my house. I silently double my pace, drop into the moat beside the basement window, and slide into the relative safety of my home.

      My father is standing watch at the top of the stairs. He looks old in the shaft of light falling from my bedroom door, like a monk meditating over a gun he found by chance.

      ‘Don’t shoot,’ I hiss from the bottom of the staircase.

      ‘Son of a bitch,’ Dad whispers with relief. ‘I was about a minute from calling 911.’

      ‘I’m feeling a little better now,’ I say loudly, hurrying up the stairs.

      ‘I think that was worse than Korea,’ Dad whispers, standing slowly and rubbing his lower back. ‘Except for the frostbite. I took two nitro pills while you were gone. Let’s get to that damned computer so we can talk.’

      He follows me into my bathroom, and I bend quickly over Annie’s MacBook.

      Kelly called me himself from Afghanistan. I had to wait a half hour, but it was worth it. Blackhawk dispatched a team as soon as I told them we were in danger. They’ll probably come in an armored SUV. I imagine they’ve already left Houston. They’ll be here in less than seven hours.

      Dad nods thankfully, then pecks out two words: And Kelly?

      Kelly’s coming himself. 48 hours minimum before he gets here though.

       Good. So. What do we do now?

      Wait for the cavalry. We should probably stop using the computer. There are lasers that can read keystrokes by the vibrations of window glass. This is sci-fi stuff we’re up against.

      As Dad shakes his head slowly, I type: We’d better stay upstairs. We can pull shifts. One of us by Annie’s bedroom door while the other catches a catnap in my bed.

      You think I can sleep a wink after what you told me tonight? Drag a couch out here and we’ll play cards until dawn.

       Cards? You don’t play cards!

      A smile that’s almost a grimace makes my father’s eyes squint.

      Haven’t since Korea. Bores