Free The Hit by David Baldacci Page A

He checked his face in the rearview mirror.
    No damage there.
    His right arm had not been so lucky. Bad burn there.
    He slipped his burned trousers down and examined his left leg: red and slightly blistered near his upper thigh. Some of the pants fabric was embedded in the burn.
    He kept a first aid kit in the car. He pulled it out, cleaned the burns on his thigh and arm as best he could, applied salve to the damaged areas, covered them with gauze, and then threw the first aid kit on the floorboard.
    He turned the car around and headed back the way he had come. He had no way to contact Blue Man or anyone else. He couldn’t stop to get medical care. Too many explanations and reports filed.
    As isolated as the Eastern Shore was, flame balls rising twenty feet in the air would attract notice. He passed a police car, rack lights blazing and siren blasting, on his way back. They wouldn’t find much left, he knew.
    He made it back to D.C. in the wee hours of the morning, reached his apartment, retrieved a spare phone, and called Blue Man. In succinct sentences he told him what had happened.
    “You’re lucky, Robie.”
    “I feel lucky,” he replied. “Part good, part bad. Fill me in on Gelder.”
    Blue Man took a few minutes to do so.
    Robie said, “So that’s all. Just where and how? No eyes on Reel anywhere?”
    “Come in and we’ll see to your injuries.”
    “No theories on why she would target the number two?” Robie persisted.
    “That’s all they would be right now, just theories.”
    There was something in Blue Man’s voice that began to concern Robie. “Something going on between the lines here?” Robie asked.
    Blue Man didn’t answer.
    “I’ll be in in a few hours. Want to check some things out.”
    “Let me give you another location to go to.”
    “Why is that?” asked Robie.
    Blue Man gave him the address without elaboration.
    Robie put down the phone and walked over to the window.
    Reel had been in town last night to gun down Gelder. That was officially speculation, but something in Robie’s gut told him it was true.
    If so, she could still be out there. Why she would hang around was not easy to answer. Typically, whenever Robie had killed he had left wherever he was immediately, and for obvious reasons.
    But this wasn’t typical, was it?
    Not for me and not for her.
    Robie took off the gauze around his burns, showered, put on fresh dressings and fresh clothes.
    Blue Man had told him where the shooting had taken place. The area would be full of cops. Robie couldn’t do much more than observe. But sometimes observations led to breakthroughs. He would have to hope that would be the case here.
    As he walked down to his car he knew one thing. He would not be able to survive many more nights like the last one. Reel seemed to be one step ahead at all times. That was often the case with the person being chased and the one doing the chasing.
    Reel knew why she was doing what she was doing.
    Robie was still playing catch-up.
    Maybe that’s all I’ll be doing on this one.
    So right now the odds were definitely stacked in Jessica Reel’s favor. Robie couldn’t see any development that would easily or quickly change that state of affairs.
    He drove off right as the sun was starting to rise.
    Just another beautiful day in the capital city.
    He was glad he was still alive to see it.

CHAPTER

14
    H E HAD LIVED. Reel had watched it on her laptop.
    Inside the outbuilding near her cottage was a camera on a tripod pointed at the cottage and uplinked to a satellite. Through it she had seen Robie drive up, get out, and recon the property.
    He hadn’t looked inside the outbuilding, which had been a mistake on his part.
    It was gratifying to her that Robie made mistakes.
    But then he had done the remarkable. He had figured out that the pond was a trap and risked throwing himself through a wall of fire to survive.
    She clicked some computer keys and watched it again, in slow motion.
    Robie burst from the house and