DEAD LOAD (A Nick Stello Action Thriller) Chapter Four: The Geometry of Tracking

The last half-hour had been a whirlwind for Kate. She sat rigidly in the passenger seat of the white F-350. Between them, three silver disks rested in the open center console, clicking softly against one another whenever the road curved.

Kate peered out the window. The pines passed at an alarming speed. Beside her, Nick thrust a hand into his pocket and pulled out a small box no bigger than a thumb drive. He rattled it once, then snapped open the ashtray, dropped the box inside, and slammed it shut.

“No one smokes anymore,” he said.

Kate ignored the ashtray. “You didn’t call the police.”

“No.”

“You left three armed men tied inside your workshop.”

“I left three disarmed men secured to structural columns.”

“That distinction isn’t going to matter when someone finds them.”

“It matters to whoever sent them.”

The swiftness of the answer caught Kate off guard. “Why?”

“Team Three missed two check-ins,” Nick said. “Whoever comes next will reach the workshop before a local deputy.”

“Then the police need to know that.”

“Two deputies with shotguns would walk into a cleanup operation they don’t understand.”

Kate twisted around and looked through the rear window. The workshop was long gone.

“What happens to the men you left?”

“Dead men bring federal investigators. Living, compromised operatives bring silence from the people who hired them.”

“How long before they get loose?”

“They won’t.”

“Then someone has to find them.”

“Someone will.”

The silver disks clicked again. Kate reached into the console and picked one up.

Kate turned the object between her fingers. It had the weight and finish of a coin, but no denomination or issuing nation. One side bore a circle with a point at its center.

“What is this? Some kind of coin?”

“It’s not really a coin.” Nick kept his eyes on the road. “It’s more like a token.”

Kate turned it over. The flip side was blank. “Okay, it’s a ‘token.’ What’s it for?”

Nick considered that. “Well, I guess it’s not quite a token. It’s a key. It gives you access to certain things. It allows your, uh, coworkers—who might not otherwise know who you are—to recognize that you are with Keystone.”

Kate looked from the key to Nick.

“That’s why the leader showed it to you.”

“Partly.”

“He was testing you.”

“Yes.”

“And recognizing this helped convince him you were Mason.”

Nick said nothing.

Kate let the silence answer for him. She looked into the console.

“There are three.”

“One for each of them.”

“And you took all three.”

Nick took the key from her and placed it with the others. “Keys are useful.”

Kate picked it right back up before Nick could close the console.

“What about this?”

“What about what?”

“The circle and the dot. What does it mean?”

Nick watched the road and gave a slight shake of his head. She wasn’t going to let this go.

“Two things.”

“Of course it does.”

“First, surveillance. You surround the target. Cover every exit. He can move inside the circle, but he can’t get out of your surveillance without someone seeing him.”

Kate traced the circle with her thumbnail.

“And the second meaning?”

“A bullseye.”

The playfulness left her face.

“Meaning?”

Nick said nothing. He glanced at Kate, then returned his eyes to the road.

The caution in her face told him she had already answered the question herself. Once Keystone put the point at the center of the circle, the subject wasn’t merely being watched anymore. He was a target.

Nick changed direction.

“The guys used to joke that the circle and dot were the all-seeing eye. Keystone was always watching you.”

Kate looked past him at the blur of pines. Then something in the side-view mirror caught her attention.

Her eyes narrowed.

“Nick.”

He did not turn.

“What?”

“I think they still are.”

Far behind them, a black Suburban held the road.

Nick kept his eyes forward as if it didn’t matter.

“How long?”

“Since the last town. Maybe before that.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?”

“I wasn’t sure.”

“What made you sure?”

“It slowed when you slowed. It stayed back when the other car passed us. Then it caught up again.”

Good job, rookie. “Keep watching it. But don’t stare.”

Nick made a series of nonsensical route choices, the kind no ordinary traveler would make unless he was lost.

He exited the highway, crossed beneath it, and took a secondary road. He then turned back toward the highway, but didn’t get back on.

The Suburban disappeared.

Then it reappeared in the rearview mirror.

Kate saw it first.

“It’s back.”

“I know.”

“Then why are they hanging so far behind?”

“They’re not trying to stop us.”

“They want to see where we go.”

“Yes.”

“Well, they must be pretty good at their job. We can’t seem to lose them.”

“When you say ‘them,’ you know more than you think. Good surveillance never depends on one vehicle. One behind. One ahead, maybe two. Maybe another at the likely destination. The point is, somebody always has eyes on the target.”

Kate looked down at the key again. Then back at Nick.

“The circle.”

“Yes.”

“They don’t need to stay directly behind us if they’ve already covered the ways out.”

Nick smiled. “Now you understand the geometry.”

For the next few miles, Kate suspended her interrogation. Nick used the silence to think four, five, six moves ahead.

Then he looked farther.

“Kate, is there anywhere you can disappear?”

Kate thought about it. “David’s in Maine.”

Nick glanced at her. “I know where David is.”

“OK, I’ll give him a call.” Kate reached for her phone.

Nick grabbed it before she could unlock it, popped the upper glove compartment, tossed the phone inside, and slammed it shut.

“What did you do that for?”

“I lined it to create a Faraday pouch. Makes electronics harder to trace. Didn’t think I’d ever need it. On the other hand, I wasn’t sure I’d never need it.”

“That tells me nothing, ‘Mason.’”

Nick’s head snapped toward her.

“Don’t ever call me that.”

Kate drew back. “Sorry. But why can’t I use my phone?”

Nick caught himself. When he spoke again, the professor was back.

“Every call draws a line between two points.”

“I was going to call my father-in-law.”

“Which would make him the second point.”

Kate stared toward the upper glove compartment.

“He probably wouldn’t answer anyway. He never does when he’s out.”

“Out where?”

“Who knows? He’s remarkably busy for someone who’s retired. Probably playing in another pickleball tournament.” She went quiet. “If I call him, they watch him.”

“Yes.”

“If we drive to Maine, we lead them to him.”

“Yes.”

“Then David isn’t somewhere I can disappear.”

“Not anymore.”

Kate went still.

“Noah is in Boston.”

“We think he is.”

“I spoke to him this morning.”

“On that phone.”

“You think they were already listening?”

“I don’t know.”

“That isn’t an answer.”

“It’s the only honest one I have.”

“We’ve got to get hold of Noah.”

Nick couldn’t disagree. “Sure. But your phone is compromised. We’ve got a tail we can’t lose. And we can’t lead them right to Noah.”

“And we can’t leave him there without warning him,” countered Kate.

“No.”

Nick turned onto a road leading away from both Maine and Boston. He knew this road.

The Suburban followed.

A few miles down the road, Nick found what he was looking for: an abandoned gravel pit he’d used years ago. Something had happened to the parent company, and the place had shut down without warning.

It had everything he needed. A long entrance road. Unobstructed sightlines. No civilians. Aggregate piles for cover. Multiple ways out. Enough open ground that the Suburban couldn’t approach unnoticed.

Straight out of Central Casting.

The F-350 left the pavement and rolled onto loose aggregate. Gravel crackled beneath the tires. As they descended into the pit, the highway noise fell away behind them until there was only the low rumble of the truck and the rattle of stone beneath the wheels.

Kate looked around at the empty gravel pit.

“You’re stopping?”

“I’m choosing where we stop.”

Nick rolled the truck behind a pile of tailings with a clear view of the entrance. He shut off the engine.

For a moment, the ticking of the cooling F-350 was the only sound.

Then the black Suburban appeared at the entrance.

It rolled into the driveway and stopped.

Two hundred yards away.

Its headlights went dark.

The Suburban could not come any closer without declaring its intent.

And it knew it.

Nick opened the upper glove compartment and removed the encrypted radio he’d taken from the leader. He had kept it powered down and isolated since the workshop.

“Why did you bring that?”

“Because Team Three failed.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Someone will want to know why.”

Kate watched him prepare the radio. She had learned enough already to see the problem.

“What if turning it on tells them where we are?”

Nick pointed toward the Suburban. “They already know.”

He activated the radio. The green indicator slowly brightened, then began to pulse. Static filled the cab.

A flattened voice broke through.

“Team Three, report status.”

Nick remained silent.

“Team Three, confirm status.”

Now it was the radio’s turn to fall quiet.

Nick did not transmit. He waited to see whether the unseen controller would reveal anything else.

The channel remained open.

No static. No voice.

Whoever was on the other end knew Team Three no longer held the radio.

Then a different voice entered the channel.

“Mason.”

Nick froze.

Kate had watched him face three armed men without a hint of worry. This was different. His reaction told her more than the name itself.

Nick did not answer immediately.

The voice continued.

“I wondered how long you would leave me waiting.”

Nick finally spoke.

“Julian.”

“Ah, the stonemason lives,” said Julian plaintively. “I had begun to think Prague broke you permanently.”

Nick’s voice growled. “You sent three men after Kate.” Whatever had stunned Nick earlier had disappeared.

“I sent three men to find Mason. Kate merely supplied the line connecting us.”

“What do you want, Julian?”

“You know what I want.”

Julian waited.

Nick gave him nothing.

When Julian spoke again, he changed tactics. “Before you decide where to hide Kate,” he warned, “you should make sure Noah is still in Boston.”

Nick turned to Kate.

The color had drained from her face.

He looked toward the entrance. The black Suburban waited there in the dark.

Nick, Kate, and the F-350 remained inside the circle.

Now It’s Your Turn To Play!

AGENT DECISION:

Question: Julian has revealed that Noah may be in danger, but the black Suburban is still tracking Nick’s truck. What should Nick do next? (Select one)

• End the transmission and drive directly to Boston.
• Confront the occupants of the Suburban immediately.
• Keep Julian talking without confirming anything while determining what he actually knows about Noah.
• Call David and ask him to reach Noah first.

[Continued in Chapter Five.]

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