Cold Case Part 19

Matt stared at him. "And that was enough to justify killing Ed Saunders and Oswald Derbent as well as the hacker?"

The eyes of the man in the wheelchair blazed with fury. Apparently it was the first time in decades that someone had questioned Walter Callivant's decisions. "We didn't know who the hacker was-we only suspected it was somebody in that sim. Saunders's death was an accident," Callivant snapped. "Finch had arranged for him to be mugged. We wanted to get the list of sim partic.i.p.ants from him. We figured we could step up the pressure on all of you and find the hacker."

"It certainly stepped up the pressure on Ed," Matt agreed ironically. "It killed him." He shook his head. "And it was totally unnecessary. The poor guy had already sent your lawyers the letter naming the partic.i.p.ants."

"How were we to know?" Callivant Senior demanded. "The fool tried to run and slipped on the ice."

Matt nodded in understanding. "Of course-it's much more sensible to stand around and get beaten up."

Callivant was so angry, he wasn't censoring himself at all. "I said it was an accident. What about you? What about the threats you sent us after Saunders died? You claimed you had enough already to destroy my son's candidacy."

"Not me," Matt told him. "The hacker, we suspect, was Harry Knox. You must have thought so, too, once your lawyers got Saunders's list. If you checked people's backgrounds, you'd have come upon the juvenile charges against Knox for hacking." He leaned forward. "Was the failure of his truck's brakes supposed to be another warning?"

"We were dealing with a criminal," Callivant said stiffly. "My grandson Daniel devised a response and saw the job through."

"Just like a spy novel," Matt continued to needle information out of the old man. "Did Daniel get his hands dirty monkeying with the brakes, or was it a high-tech job, like what happened to the autobus? Did he use an EMP to send the truck's circuits haywire?

"It's a secret technology." A little belatedly Callivant Senior clamped his lips shut.

"A government secret, you mean," Matt said. "As opposed to a Callivant secret. By the way, Net Force is still looking at that bus. I hope Daniel hid his tracks well."

"But you got the hacker," Nikki burst out. "Matt told me that Knox had a computer full of information about us. Why did you continue to go after those people? Why did Oswald Derbent's house burn down? Why did you almost kill Matt?"

"You believe him?" Scorn sizzled in the Senator's voice. "Unauthorized access to files continued-after that Knox person was eliminated. Worse, it took place on an even more sophisticated level. We targeted those who were most likely to use hacking technology. Derbent had been a systems auditor before he devoted himself to book collecting. And the boy"-Callivant jerked his chin at Matt-"he's an obvious danger. that Knox person was eliminated. Worse, it took place on an even more sophisticated level. We targeted those who were most likely to use hacking technology. Derbent had been a systems auditor before he devoted himself to book collecting. And the boy"-Callivant jerked his chin at Matt-"he's an obvious danger.

"Unauthorized access," Nikki echoed, looking numb. "That-that was me. I started looking into the files. I heard about all those people getting in trouble because of the old Hadding case, and I wanted to see what it was all about."

"You?" Senator Callivant looked as if he were on the verge of having a stroke. "You?"

"I got one person killed," Nikki went on, her voice hollow. "And three more almost killed."

"You didn't do a thing," Matt said grimly. "Your father did, though. I bet he had a hand in the 'accident' at Derbent's. And the Senator already admitted the use of your father's spy-toy on the bus."

Callivant Senior was still concentrating on Nikki's treachery. "You are no longer part of this family," he grated. "You Judas!"

"I wish I I weren't a part of this family!" weren't a part of this family!"

Everyone had forgotten about Walter G. Now they turned to him. Nikki's grandfather suddenly looked years older than he had mere minutes before. "Father, what I did was an accident. But you, Clyde...Daniel...you killed-"

"We protected you." Years of frustration and disappointment sounded in the Senator's voice. "We knew you needed protection."

"Just what I needed, Father," Walter G. said bitterly. "More blood on my hands. I feel so...safe."

He stepped around his father's wheelchair and strode quickly away.

"Walter!" the Senator called after him. "Son!"

He turned a glare on Matt that should have incinerated him. "Weakling," Callivant muttered.

For a long moment the Senator sat in stormy silence, thinking. Then he stabbed a finger down on the armrest of his wheelchair. "Daniel? You heard it all?"

"Yes, sir," Daniel Callivant's voice came through a speaker hidden somewhere in the chair's circuitry.

"He'll be no use to us," the old man's voice thickened. "Again. We'll have to-take care of the situation." Matt didn't like the look Callivant suddenly turned on him. "I think the intruder scenario-"

"Marcus saw him come in with my daughter," Daniel Callivant interrupted over the speaker.

"Can't you handle him?" the Senator demanded impatiently.

"And create another Clyde Finch?" Daniel asked. Walter Callivant's hands turned into clawlike fists on the armrests. "Come here!"

A moment or two later Daniel Callivant appeared in the hallway behind Matt and Nikki. "Grandfather."

"I've thought it through," the Senator said. "Nikki unwisely brought this boy home. He attacked her, and while we tried to subdue-"

"No!" Nikki screamed the word. "I won't-"

"Of course, she had to be sedated," Walter Callivant's voice remorselessly rolled along. He glared at his son. "The alternative, of course, is that the young animal killed her."

Daniel Callivant went pale, looking at his daughter. "No. Grandfather-"

"You heard how she betrayed us. She'll betray us all. Choose, Daniel. The family, or this little-"

"Grandfather! Please!"

"You're a Callivant! You have no choice!"

"I-I can't-"

"You expect me to?" Walter Senior smashed a hand down on his withered legs. "I tell you again, Daniel. You have no choice."

Daniel Callivant's tightly wrapped facade was gone. His lips trembled as he looked at his daughter.

Nikki's eyes went back and forth between the family patriarch and her father, the horror in them growing.

Matt began to prepare himself for a hopeless leap. If Daniel was armed, he was probably dead already. But he had to fight!

Daniel Callivant opened his mouth to answer.

But he was cut off by a harsh blatting sound from the speaker in Walter Senior's chair. He pushed a b.u.t.ton, and a different voice came out of the speaker.

"Sir! The police are here-they say there's an intruder!"

18.

A wild look pa.s.sed between Walter and Daniel Callivant. But Nikki spoke first.

"Let them in, Marcus!"

The noise Walter Callivant made would have been more appropriate coming from an animal. "Marcus!" he shouted when he got control of himself.

But Nikki was already on her knees, tearing something loose from the wheelchair. Wordlessly she held up the transceiver speaker.

"You-!" The Senator sent his chair into a wild pivot, knocking Nikki to the floor.

Matt leaped forward, grabbing both of Walter Callivant's wrists, keeping them from the wheelchair controls. "Try that again-" he threatened.

Behind him, he heard the door slam open and heavy footsteps coming their way.

Daniel Callivant stepped aside.

Walter Callivant wrenched himself loose, turning to the excited-looking young police officer who accompanied Marcus the gate guard.

"The intruder-" the Senator began.

"We're after him!" the cop exclaimed. "He came barreling out in a car the second the gate opened! My partner's in pursuit. I'm here to preserve the scene until the investigators come."

His voice began to wind down as he looked around at the tableau in front of him. "Everything all right here?"

Nikki Callivant got up from the floor. "My great-grandfather had an accident," she said. "My friend Matt went to help him."

"But who drove out?" Walter Callivant suddenly sounded like the stereotype of the confused old man. He suddenly looked up at Daniel. "Walter!"

He means Walter G., Matt realized.

"My son," the Senator clarified. "He's been under some strain preparing his candidacy. Perhaps-ah, perhaps a mistake was made-"

Matt watched the man fumble desperately, trying to construct a story.

Walter G. called the cops and made sure that they would chase him. The question is, where does he intend to lead them?

"You'd better contact your superiors," Daniel Callivant spoke up. "Tell them my father is in the car they're after."

It was neither a high-speed pursuit nor one of those notorious slow-speed chases. Walter G. Callivant left Haddington driving exactly at the speed limit. Local cops were joined by Delaware State Police, and then by Maryland troopers.

And, of course, a fleet of news choppers circled overhead. Matt, Nikki, and the other Callivants were able to follow developments on HoloNews.

The house was filled with various police representatives, legal advisers, and P.R. people. Somewhere along the line, Captain Winters showed up.

"Your parents got in touch with me," he said. "And I got that delayed message you left. You might want to know that I've dispatched agents to keep an eye on Finch until he's fit to take into custody. I a.s.sume you'll be pressing charges? Then I scrambled a chopper-just in case it might be advisable to come by."

He was talking with colleagues when the chase came to its climax. Walter G. Callivant drove his car through the gates of the Cowper's Bluff Nature Preserve. He took an old path directly to the bluff and drove his car over the precipice and into the Chesapeake below.

"That's where they must have hidden his real car," Matt whispered to the weeping Nikki.

"And why they put it off-limits all these years," she choked back.

"I'm very sorry for your loss," Captain Winters told Daniel Callivant.

"My father must have been under more of a strain than we thought." Nikki's dad looked desperate to get out of the room. Maybe he was afraid there was a suicide note with dangerous confessions upstairs.

Winters maintained his grip on the man's hand for an extra second, giving him an appraising look.

Sure, Matt thought. He's got to be checking him out over that EMP gizmo He's got to be checking him out over that EMP gizmo.

Winters turned to Matt. "Can I give you a lift home?"

"I'll drive him home." Nikki Callivant wiped the tears from her delicate cheeks. "And I won't be back, Father. Mom has some relatives in Was.h.i.+ngton. I'll arrange to stay with them."

She took a deep breath. "Remember how we were discussing whether I'd take my senior year abroad? I'm going. And when I come back, I'll be of age to use the trust fund Uncle George left me. It's not Callivant money."

Nikki paused. "But then, I'm not a Callivant anymore."

Daniel Callivant stared, stricken, as his daughter began leading Matt to the door. "Nikki! You can't be serious! We have to talk-"

She looked over her shoulder. "Not now," Nikki said. "Not ever."

Captain Winters walked with them, sending a puzzled, suspicious glance Matt's way. But if Nikki wasn't going to say anything, neither was Matt.

He didn't know if the truth behind Walter G. Callivant's suicide would ever come out. He couldn't even be sure the Senator and Daniel would receive just punishment. A lot of things happened behind the scenes in Was.h.i.+ngton-especially when national security was involved. He knew he and Winters would do their best to put those responsible for the sim deaths behind bars, but it wasn't exactly a certainty that these powerful men would get what was coming to them. That all lay in the future.

Right now Matt wanted to get home. But before he did that, he had to make sure Nikki Callivant got safely to her car and away from the men who had almost killed her to further their own ambitions-her family.

Matt remembered an ending line from an old Lucullus Marten story-something that was pure Monty Newman.

Maybe what I did was more personal than professional. But when a girl has just disowned her family, she could use an arm around her shoulders.

That's exactly what Matt gave her.

NOVELS BY TOM CLANCY.

The Hunt for Red October