“Are you certain it’s him?”
“It’s him. They’re bagging his body. He died not long after we found him. He took bad shrapnel wounds when Beatty’s pickup hit the last drone straight on and everything blew. Shrapnel perforated the side of the truck and he caught a piece in the head. My ears are still ringing from the explosion. There’s nothing left of Jeremy’s truck but the chassis. He clipped the second drone and it crashed across the highway. He hit the third straight on.”
“He switched back to our side in the end?”
“Don’t be a jerk, Dan. He was always there. You know he was always there. I was on the phone with him as he came up the highway. I couldn’t talk him out of it.”
Venuti didn’t respond to that, instead asked about my arm wound, which stung but had been cleaned and bandaged. We talked about Creech, where the drone had reached a flight trailer and killed two drone pilots who’d gone back to the trailer to retrieve gear. The explosion had destroyed the trailer and heavily damaged another. I was sorry to hear about the pilots.
“Between you and me, they disobeyed orders to go back in and get their gear,” Venuti said.
Okay, I thought, but that doesn’t change anything.
“Didn’t Creech see the drone coming?” I asked.
“It’s unclear. We know it came in very low. We have eyewitnesses in Indian Wells who saw it arrive.” Venuti paused and I knew what was coming. “Why do you think the targeting was so precise and who is it that knew which trailers were which?”
“With Google Earth and a little bit more information you can get there. It’s not that hard.”
“Here’s another question. Our agents found two middle-aged male bodies in a Dumpster at the warehouse in Pahrump. Any guesses?”
“They may be the mechanics who modified the drones.”
“Where’s Edward Bahn in all this?”
“You’re asking my opinion?”
“We’re being asked to put it together tonight.”
“He was there for money and didn’t know what was going down.”
“Where are you getting that?”
“From what Jeremy told me.”
“How is that credible?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“Okay, what did Beatty the hero tell you?”
“That Bahn was pushing him hard to take ownership of hiring the drone pilots. Bahn threatened to come to us with stories of a drunken Beatty in a bar talking about getting even with the air force. He figured we would lap it up, and he was probably right.” I waited a beat and added, “Beatty sent me an audio file. I copied you. Did you listen to it?”
Instead of answering that, he said, “There are times I wonder if you’re really one of us. Bahn is dead. A helicopter crew found his body and the security pair. We’re out there now. I wish we had Beatty’s handgun to compare ballistics.”
“If it was in his truck, it can be found. I’d like to find it too, so we can finally end this bullshit talk about him. And you’re right. You don’t know it, but you’re right—he’s the only hero in this.”
“Call me when you leave the hospital. You get debriefed tonight, so go easy on any painkillers.”
“I don’t need to go to a hospital.”
“You’re going.”
At the hospital a nurse pulled cactus needles out of my forearms, and they ran me through radiology looking for a bone break before cleaning and redressing the gouge on my arm. It had cut through some muscle and went about a half-inch deep. My arm throbbed. It was tender and didn’t want to be moved. After the wound was cleaned and wrapped again, I rode the elevator up to Julia’s room.
“Uncle Paul, I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“I’m okay and I’ve got to go get debriefed, but I want you to know we’re getting you out of here tomorrow morning. We’ll go from here to your family’s house.”
When her tears started, I was sure it was about going to the house, but I was wrong.
“You got them, Uncle Paul.”
“Yeah, we got them.”
Eighteen terrorists, including the three drone pilots Beatty was training, and Garod Hurin were dead, but more than half were part of a sleeper cell in Las Vegas. A phone one of the terrorists had led to a raid on a house in Henderson and two in Vegas. That was cause for a lot of disquiet in our office, but I could catch up on that later. I went from the hospital to a debriefing that lasted until sundown. By then the media had declared it a tragedy, but an American victory.