"You've gussied up the place from the last time I was here, Marsh," Knox said.

"Budget cuts have yet to come our way. Just lucky. I guess."

It was far more than a matter of mere luck, both men knew. You couldn't cut what you never saw.

"I won't waste your time. I'm doing some under-the-radar work for Macklin Hayes."

"So I've been informed. How is the general by the way?"

"The same." Knox left his friend to interpret that remark however he wanted. Marshall, whom everyone called Marsh, had served three years directly under Hayes' command. That meant if he ended up going to hell when he died, he would have a pretty good idea of how it would be.

Knox told him what he wanted to look at and his friend's features turned uncomfortable. "That'll take a phone call to the man."

"I'm aware of that," said Knox. "I actually just thought of it on the way over, or else I would've gotten the okay already. I don't think it'll be a problem." He added with as big a smile as he could manage, "On the other hand, if I end up disappearing you'll know I was wrong about that."

Marsh didn't even grin at this crude joke and Knox felt his ass suddenly clinch.

The call was made and the man passed the phone over to Knox.

As though a distant rumble of thunder heralding the approaching storm, he heard Hayes bark, "What's going on, Knox?"

"Just thought of this new angle, sir, but I need to check out a couple more pieces."

"Explain this new angle. But tell Marsh to leave first."

Knox glanced at his friend who got the sign immediately, rose and left. If he felt any anger for being kicked out of his own office, the savvy agent was too smart to show it.

Knox hunkered down, gripping the phone tightly. "I turned a lead that got me thinking about something in Carr's past."

"Where exactly in his past?"

Knox didn't hesitate. "Triple Six days."

"Knox-"

"I know what you said before, but here's my theory. If Carr was with Triple Six and colleagues from his past were being killed-"

"That's out of bounds."

Knox said, "I know Finn and his back story are off-limits, but if I'm going to track Carr down, I need to understand where this guy came from."

"I don't think that's relevant-"

Knox had anticipated this question and broke in. "With all due respect, if you're deciding what's relevant or not on this case, get somebody else to tackle it for you."

"I'm not trying-"

"If you want results, General, then I need some control over my investigation. You called me in to do a job. Then let me do it!"

Knox waited for the man's response, trying to breathe normally. He was betting the farm that Hayes would react one way, but the truth was, Knox could just as easily go down hard for this insubordination. Real hard. As in his butt being catapulted to Afghanistan, where he could spend a little quality time in the mountains with Osama's boys on the Pakistani border.

"I'm listening."

Knox went on autopilot. "Carr knows we're going to be on him. He's been on the run for a long time now. He's loyal to his friends like you said. He'd want to keep as far away from them as possible. But he still needs cover. He still needs help." Knox paused here to allow the bait to sink in. He wanted Hayes to say it. The man had to say it.

"You think he might turn to some old Triple Sixer for help?"

Thank you, God. "Well, General, look at it from his point of view. He pops Gray and Simpson and makes his initial escape. He can't go near his civilian friends. He knows the machine is on his ass, so he has to look somewhere for cover. These Triple Six guys would be retired by now and deep underground. If I can get a lead on any that Carr was close to and either shadow them or beat it out of them, we might turn this guy. It's a shortcut, but it might just work. I know you don't care how we get there, so long as we get there. You know as well as I do the longer Carr is out there, the greater the odds that he does something that will hurt us."

When Knox said us he of course meant you.

He waited again. He could almost hear the former military man's synapses firing off, weighing from virtually every conceivable angle what Knox had just proposed.

Virtually every conceivable angle. Just hopefully not the real one.

"It might be worth checking," Hayes said finally.

"And just so we're clear, this will only be a tangential line of inquiry." Knox wanted to feed the man a comfort bone, however disingenuous. "I'll be following up other leads at the same time. We can only hope that one of them will pop for us."

"Put Marsh on the phone so I can give him the necessary authorizations."

"Thank you, General." You bastard.

Hayes did his thing with Marshall and twenty minutes later Knox was being led into one of the most secure areas of one of the most clandestine facilities the United States of America had.

STONE HAD REJOINED Abby when Tyree burst into the emergency room.

"How's Danny?" he said when he spotted them.

"Doctor just came out and said the x-rays look okay," Abby said shakily. "And they don't think there's internal bleeding."

Tyree knelt down and held her hand. "Well, thank God for that. Have you talked to him any more?"

"No."

Tyree looked over at Stone. "You seem to always be in the right place at the right time. First Willie and now Danny."

"Any leads on the guys who attacked him?"

"I'm hoping to cut to the chase and get Danny to tell me. Any chance of me talking to him?"

Stone pointed at a man in a white coat. "There's the doctor over there."

Tyree hurried over to the man while Stone turned to Abby. "Do you want me to drive you home?"

"No. I'm going to stay here. I'd just worry myself sick if I left."

"Then I'll stay with you."

"You've done enough. You saved Danny's life. Again. I really don't know how to thank you."

"Abby, I talked to Willie a few minutes ago. He said Danny came to visit him yesterday. He talked about him and Willie heading out of town together. Going west."

"Did Willie know why anybody would want to hurt Danny?"

"No, but I asked him about Debby Randolph. He said she and Danny dated some in high school, but it wasn't serious."

"I'm not sure Danny can get serious with a girl. It's all fun and games for him."

"But Willie doesn't think that Debby committed suicide. You see, he'd asked her to marry him. And she'd said yes. He talked to her around eleven the night before she was found dead. She was in good spirits."

"I didn't know he'd proposed."

"I guess they were keeping it secret. So we have Willie in the hospital with an overdose of a drug he didn't take. Debby killing herself for no reason, and now Danny nearly died. There has to be a connection."

"I can't see one."

"Willie also said that his father was accidentally shot by Rory Peterson."

"But that was over two years ago."

"It could still be important."

"Can we go outside for a few minutes? I need some air."

They walked out in time to hear the thump-thump of the aircraft going over. Stone looked up.

"Chopper?"

She nodded, staring up too. "Going to Dead Rock. Prisoner transport."

"Why not just drive them?"

"Most of the prisoners spending the rest of their lives up there come from pretty far away, lot of urban areas. Roads are pretty crappy around here and lots of places for ambush. Hard to bust your buddy out of jail thousands of feet up there."

"I can see that."

She turned to face him. "So what were you doing when you ran into Danny?"

Stone stared over at Willie's pickup truck where his bag was in the back. "I was heading out of town," he said a bit guiltily.