King of War Tech novel · Chapter 2 of 24

Chapter 2: The Dock

At dawn the Admiral tests Wesley with the unit's call and answer, and Wesley proves who he is; Stellan's security chief arrives with the dock footage.

The Admiral did not arrest me.

He did something worse.

He told me to meet him at the loading dock behind the club at six the next morning, and to come alone.

I was there at 5:40.

The sky over the Elizabeth River was the color of dishwater.

A black sedan idled at the end of the dock, and Dale Wetherington stepped out in a plain gray coat.

No driver, no aide, no uniform.

"I checked on you last night," he said.

"Wesley Tarrant. Married into the Merrick family. Works nights in facilities at Merrick Dynamics."

"That's all the file says."

"That's all there is," I said.

"No," the Admiral said. "That's all somebody wants there to be."

He stopped three feet from me.

"I'm going to ask you one question. If you're lying, I'll walk away and forget you."

"Go ahead."

"What did Clyde's team paint on the side of the test truck?"

I almost smiled.

"A rooster with a missile in its beak," I said.

"The driver lost a bet to the cook, and the cook picked the design," I added.

"Clyde made them leave it on for the whole summer."

The Admiral breathed out slowly.

"That was never in any report."

"No, sir."

"Say the unit's call and answer."

"Ridgeback, status?" I said.

"Warm, dry, and nobody's home."

His eyes closed for a second.

Then he took a pen from his coat pocket and held out a paper napkin from the sedan.

"Write me the fourth key."

I wrote it standing up, on the hood of his car.

Four short lines of code, the same lines I first wrote in a Nevada trailer.

The air conditioner had been dying that night, and Clyde had been asleep in a camp chair.

The Admiral read them twice.

He didn't need to run them.

He knew the shape of it.

"This is yours," he said.

"Yes, sir."

"The Navy has known this man as the King of War Tech for six years."

"We've known him as Clyde Merrick."

"Clyde was the King in the papers," I said.

"He was the one who could stand in a room and make a general laugh."

"I was the one in the trailer."

"Clyde said a face and a mind don't have to share a body."

The Admiral looked out over the water.

"Why did you let us believe it?"

"Because people try to kill the mind," I said. "Nobody shoots the face."

"And after he died?"

"After he died, the mind had six families to protect and a drive nobody could be allowed to take."

The Admiral turned back to me.

"You have the full Ridgeback system."

"Yes."

"Where?"

"Where it can't be found."

He nodded slowly.

"The Navy will pay for it," he said. "Properly. The families first, if you want."

"I'll sign nothing yet," I said.

His eyebrows went up.

"Seven people went into the desert for a test that was supposed to be secret," I said.

"The range schedule was classified, and somebody still knew the day, the hour and the gate."

"Until I know who sold that schedule, nobody gets the key."

"You think it was a leak inside the family."

"I think it was somebody who had Clyde's calendar."

The Admiral's mouth went thin.

"Then we have two weeks," he said. "Stellan's demo is on the twenty-third."

"He'll run it without the fourth key."

"And it will fail in front of the Navy," I said. "Unless he finds the key first."

The Admiral looked past my shoulder.

His face changed.

"Wesley," he said quietly. "Don't turn around."

I heard footsteps on the concrete.

Slow ones.

Shoes with metal taps.

A flat voice spoke from behind me.

"Morning, Admiral."

I knew that voice.

It belonged to the head of security at Merrick Dynamics, a former Marine with a shaved head and no neck.

He stepped into the corner of my eye holding a tablet.

On the screen, frozen and clear, was the loading-dock camera.

It showed me bent over the Admiral's car, writing on a napkin.

"Mr. Merrick would like a word with his brother-in-law," the chief of security said.

"Right now."

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