Extinction Machine

Chapter Ninety-five

VanMeer Castle

Near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sunday, October 20, 8:46 p.m.

Howard Shelton grinned like a happy uncle and held his arms wide as Erasmus Tull came through the door. There was a lot of laugher and back-slapping. Aldo drifted along in Tull’s wake, and Mr. Bones stood politely to one side.

“My boy,” Howard kept saying. “Well done, my boy.”

Then Howard turned and offered his hand to Aldo.

“And well done to you to, Mr. Castelletti. Fine work.”

“Thank you, sir,” said Aldo, a bit awed. He had met Howard Shelton once before, but the man intimidated the hell out of him. It was like meeting Donald Trump. “It was Tully’s call. I was there to tote barges and lift bales.”

“Aldo pulled his own weight,” said Tull generously. “Don’t let him tell you different.”

“It’s a shame that the teams sent to retrieve Junie Flynn and dispose of Captain Ledger were less successful.”

“‘Less successful’?” snorted Mr. Bones. “Ledger damn near wiped them out.” He cocked his head at Tull. “You trained that team, I believe.”

Tull gave him a long, unsmiling look. “What about it?”

“This must come as a crushing blow. The fruits of your labors being so easily stepped on. What was the total body count? Seventeen men and two helicopters? Only three survivors?”

“If you have a point, Mr. Bones, go ahead and make it,” said Tull.

“All right, all right,” growled Howard, “everybody stop pissing on each other and put your dicks away. Who gives a damn if Ledger is alive? The point was to keep the DMS occupied and on the run until we were ready to make our move. Done that, Mr. Bones, wouldn’t you say?”

Bones said nothing, but he wore a totally false smile.

“The DMS isn’t a factor now. It’s going to take them weeks or months to recover from losing the Deacon. We have a new set of challenges facing us.”

The other three men turned to face him.

“What challenges?” asked Tull. “The air show is tomorrow and—”

“The air show is canceled. That’s done.”

“What about Specter 101? All the work you’ve put into it? Is that all scrapped now?”

Mr. Bones said, “My dear Tull, you are horribly out of the loop. I think it’s fair to say that the world has changed since you woke up this morning.”