The answer came back about a minute later. “With a patient. I’ll call.”
He opened the door of the new car and let the dogs examine it. They were a bit hesitant at first, because it wasn’t the car they considered theirs. Its smells were not their smells. But because he was holding the door for them they jumped up onto the seat, sniffed a little, flopped down, adjusted their positions, and then lay still.
He got in and drove out the far end of the parking lot so the motel owners wouldn’t see he had a different car. Then he headed west through Erie and turned south onto Route 6 toward Cleveland and Sandusky. After a few minutes the phone rang.
“Hi,” he said.
“Are you still all right?” Emily said.
“So far. You?”
“No changes yet.”
“I wanted you to know that it’s time to get rid of the phones we’ve been using. You can reach me on the second one from now on, if you need to.”
“Okay,” she said. “What prompted this?”
“I’m going to have to sink beneath the surface now. It will be months before I try to call again, so don’t worry about the long silence. Don’t ever go near the house. There’s nothing left there that you want.”
“I know,” she said. “You’re the only relic I have left.”
“If you get the feeling that somebody’s watching you, or anything like that, call. Otherwise, just wait. Don’t look as though you’re being watchful, but be watchful.”
“I know all this. I’ve known it since I was ten. I’m going to be thinking about you every day if this takes thirty years. We all will be. You have a family that loves you. Now go get lost. With your heart and lungs, you could live to be a hundred and six. Do it.”
“I’ll try. Bye, kid.”
“Bye, Dad.”
He could almost see her standing up from the big leather chair in her office in her white coat and striding along with that straight posture and determined walk, ready to see her next patient. She looked a bit like her mother did at thirty, only taller and straighter.
He was going to settle somewhere. Traveling gave too many people a chance to notice him. And since the last time he had needed to disappear, a hundred new layers of danger had been added. The last time, right after he had returned from North Africa, technology had been more primitive.
When he got home from Libya he wrote a letter to his section of military intelligence. He told them he had made it home with the money he had recovered from Faris Hamzah. He included a few facts that an outsider could not have known, to prove he wasn’t a fake. He asked them to reactivate the phone contact number so he could make arrangements to deliver the money to his section.
He had felt wary and very angry. He had not liked the way his contact people had treated him near the end of his mission. They had abandoned a comrade behind enemy lines. But he had also ignored his orders, so he was prepared for some kind of unpleasant reaction. He rented a small retail space in a Virginia shopping center and placed the money there before he mailed his letter to Fort Meade. He suspected that the minute he had given them a location they would put it under surveillance, so he didn’t mention one.
On the day he had set for the delivery, he made a call to the contact number from a pay phone a hundred miles away. He never heard the ring, just heard the faint hiss of an open line and a male voice that said, “Hello.”
He said, “Hello. Thank you for activating the number. I’m calling to turn the money from my mission over to army intelligence. I just need—”
“I advise you to be quiet and listen carefully. You are wanted for a number of serious offenses, and the United States government doesn’t bargain with fugitives. There will be a team of federal officers for you to surrender yourself to at the rendezvous point. You will be taken into custody and transported to a secure facility where you can be interviewed regarding events that occurred during the past five months. You will be given ample opportunity to explain anything you like. Is this all clear?”
“I haven’t done anything wrong. I just want to finish my mission and—”
“Quiet.”
“Get the money back where it belongs.”
“Here are your instructions. Proceed to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center at 8901 Rockville Pike in Bethesda. Park your vehicle, and walk to the front entrance. Step inside, and they’ll be waiting for you. Do you understand?”