DEAD LOAD (A Nick Stello Action Thriller) Chapter Five: The Weak Point

Nick caught Kate’s panic from the corner of his eye. He switched the radio to his left hand and brought two fingers of his free hand to Kate’s lips. She understood.

“Boston is a large city,” Nick said.

“Not from where I’m sitting.”

Unlike the men at the workshop, Julian wasn’t merely an operative. Nick still had to test him.

“If you have Noah, put him on.”

“I didn’t say I had him.”

“Then you don’t.”

“Not yet.”

“You’ve always been a big talker.”

“Let’s see…” Julian paused as if reviewing notes. “He left the residence hall eight minutes ago. Westbound on Newbury, on foot. He’s approaching Mass Ave.” Another pause. “He’s probably headed for MIT. He meets his PRIMES mentor Thursday mornings.”

Nick looked at Kate. She nodded.

Kate gripped her First Communion cross. Someone was watching her son in real time. Still, she remained silent.

“There. Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get down to business. Kate brought you out of hiding. Noah will keep you from disappearing again.”

“They aren’t part of this.”

“They became part of it when Scottie entrusted them to you.”

Kate went still at the sound of her husband’s name.

“Say what you want,” Nick said.

“The box you carried out of Prague.”

Kate’s eyes moved toward the F-350’s ashtray. Nick had rattled the small box before hiding it there.

Nick did not look toward the ashtray. He didn’t say anything.

“You still have the Prague key,” Julian insisted.

“It isn’t a key.”

“Ten years, and you still don’t know what it opens.”

“It doesn’t open anything.”

“Not for you.”

“Then it’s useless.”

“You’ve carried it for ten years. We both know you don’t believe that.”

Nick didn’t know what he believed. Importance. Responsibility. Guilt. After ten years, he wasn’t sure he could separate one from another.

Julian filled the silence.

“It doesn’t contain the asset. It controls access to it.”

“Asset? What asset? Access to what?”

“Enough resources to change who holds power and who merely serves it.”

“If that’s all you wanted, your men could have searched the workshop.”

“If all I needed were the box, Team Three would have been told to take it.”

Julian needed more than the box. Either something Nick knew, or something Julian believed only Nick could do.

He had always treated Nick as a tool—a particular set of skills he could deploy when needed.

Was Noah simply the new button?

“I’ll make it easy for you. Twenty-four hours. In Quincy.”

Real time: 9:00:00 a.m.
Countdown: 24:00:00

“Why Quincy?”

“You always preferred working with familiar material. And what can be more appropriate than Granite City?” Nick could almost hear Julian smiling through the radio. “Bring the box to the historic quarry grounds.”

“They’re all historic,” Nick teased. “Which one?”

“I’ll be charitable. You pick it. One rule—it can’t be a public site. Make it secluded. And bring Kate.” A pause. “I’ll bring Noah.”

“No.”

“That wasn’t a negotiation.”

“Noah isn’t part of this.”

“Noah is the reason you will be.”

Nick and Kate shared a look.

“One more thing—and needless to say—don’t bother contacting the police. Or Noah, for that matter.”

Nick knew Julian’s watchers did not need to seize Noah immediately. They only needed to remain closer than Nick.

“Every hour you delay, the circle gets smaller.”

“What happens if I destroy the box?”

“You haven’t destroyed it in ten years.”

“People change.”

“Mason doesn’t.”

“You never knew Nick.”

“Twenty-four hours, Mason. After that, Noah stops being surveillance and becomes the bullseye.”

The channel closed.

The lights of the Suburban suddenly went bright. It began rolling down into the gravel pit.

“We’ve got to get to Boston right away before they get Noah!” Kate said.

“Not yet.” Nick watched the passenger-side mirror. “If we go straight to him, we lead that car to Noah.”

“They already know where he is.”

“One team does. I’m not delivering another.”

Geometry once again became the key.

“Julian’s people are watching two locations,” Nick said. “Us here. Noah in Boston. The box makes us the target; Noah makes us move. If we drive straight to him, we collapse the two into one.”

“So we lose the Suburban first.”

“We open a gap.”

Nick had noticed an old haul road behind the aggregate piles when they entered the quarry. Years of neglect had left loose stone, a washed-out culvert, a steep grade, and enough rough ground to slow anyone who didn’t know the way.

Nick started the F-350. He moved deeper into the pit rather than toward the entrance or the access road.

The Suburban accelerated after them.

“Watch the passenger mirror,” Nick said. “Tell me when it clears the tailings.”

Kate tracked the Suburban while Nick navigated the maze ahead.

“The Suburban cleared the pile.”

“Now.”

Nick chose that moment to disappear behind the next ridge. He shifted into four-wheel drive and turned into the old haul road.

The damaged section didn’t bother Nick. The F-350 could take it. More important, Nick knew where the underlying roadbed remained sound.

The three tokens clicked against one another in the center tray as the truck climbed across the broken ground.

The Suburban never made it through the washout. The truck broke free from visual contact.

Kate checked all the mirrors. She looked back.

“Did we lose Keystone?”

“We lost one Suburban.”

“That isn’t the same thing.”

“No.”

Kate settled back against the seat. For the first time since she’d spotted the Suburban, the mirrors were empty.

Kate looked toward the ashtray.

“Was it Scottie’s?”

“No.”

“Then why have you kept it?”

“Before Prague, Scottie was trying to warn me about something. I didn’t understand him.” Nick looked at the closed ashtray. “He disappeared. I came back with that.”

“You think they’re connected?”

“Julian does.”

They had not escaped the circle.

They had created a gap in it.

Nick turned on the F-350’s factory radio.

Kate closed her eyes.

When she woke up, she didn’t recognize the roads they were on.

“Where are we going?”

“Boston.”

Kate smiled and shut her eyes again.

Nearly an hour later, the radio interrupted with a local news bulletin.

“Vermont State Police are investigating the deaths of three unidentified men found inside a rural stone workshop. The property owner, Nicholas Stello, and employee Katherine Andrews have not been located. The victims appeared to have been shot at close range. All three were restrained when discovered. Police are seeking information about a white Ford F-350. Authorities have not determined whether Nick and Kate are victims, witnesses, or persons of interest.”

Now wide awake, Kate remained silent, her eyes staring blankly at the highway ahead.

“You said living men brought silence.”

Nick watched the road. “I was wrong about which kind.”

Nick understood what the killings had accomplished. Team Three could no longer be interrogated. The workshop was now a major crime scene. His ordinary identity was compromised, Kate was publicly missing, and the F-350 had become searchable. Going to the police now meant detention, separation, and time Julian controlled.

“They’ll think we killed them,” said Kate.

“They don’t know what to think.”

“That won’t stop them from detaining us.”

“No.”

They could not go to the police, David, or Noah’s school in person. But they had to determine whether Noah was safe.

Nick turned onto a dirt path climbing into a forested hill. From his secure communications gear, he pulled an unused burner and handed it to Kate. He kept driving until the highway disappeared behind them, then stopped.

Kate called Noah’s school.

As the phone rang, Nick looked at the ashtray containing the Prague box.

Julian had compromised his home, his public identity, Kate’s safety, and Noah’s location.

All without touching the box.

A staff member from The Newman School’s residential office picked up. Kate authenticated herself as Noah’s mother.

She asked to speak with Noah or to make sure he returned directly to the residence hall after his PRIMES meeting.

The staff member hesitated.

“Actually, Mrs. Andrews, Mr. Stello is already here.”

Kate looked at Nick.

“What do you mean? He’s there?”

“Nicholas Stello. He said you asked him to collect Noah when he gets back from MIT.”

Nick understood. The impostor wasn’t there to fool Noah. He was there to fool the adults responsible for him.

Kate’s hand cupped the phone. She turned to Nick. “Noah knows what you look like.”

“They’re not trying to fool Noah.”

“Then who are they trying to fool?”

Nick put the truck into gear.

“The school.” Nick pulled back toward the road. Then he saw the rest of it. “And the police. My name is in the school’s official record now. It’ll look like I killed three men, kidnapped you, then came here for Noah.”

According to the school’s record, Nicholas Stello was in the residence hall office waiting to pick up Noah.

The real Nicholas Stello was sitting beside Kate, fifty miles away.

Kate did not hang up.

Real time: 11:16:43 a.m.
Countdown: 21:43:17

Now It’s Your Turn To Play!

AGENT DECISION:

Question: Noah is at MIT while an impostor using Nick’s identity waits for him at Newman. What should Nick do first?

• Call Noah and tell him he is being followed.
• Tell Newman security to detain the impostor.
• Have Kate quietly redirect Noah while the school keeps the impostor believing the trap is intact.
• Abandon the call and drive directly to MIT to intercept Noah.

[End of Act I. Continued with Act II in Chapter Six.]

Would you like to read the rest of this Action Thriller Visual Novel Game? Click here to go to NickStello.com