Free Cold Barrel Zero by Matthew Quirk Page B

support, to fight, to hunt, and to kill. We take them to the edge. Sometimes they go over.
    “While coming out of a denied area, Hayes and his team committed grave crimes against innocent civilians. Rather than face punishment for their actions, they fled. Now they’re in the U.S., and they’re on the warpath. We don’t know their ultimate target or their motives. It could be revenge or an attempt to eliminate the people who can testify against them.”
    He opened a folder and slid a photo to me: a bombed-out armored truck surrounded by burned scrub and torn metal. It looked like news footage from Afghanistan.
    “The truck attack. They did that in less than three minutes.”
    I looked at the scorched metal where the doors had been sheared off. It was a surgical hit.
    “What did they steal?”
    “Something very dangerous. This is the latest in an escalating pattern of strikes. And now they seem to be after you.”
    “But why?”
    “You tell me.”
    “No clue. I don’t know why you or the police would think I have anything to do with Hayes.”
    “We’ve been over your file. You two nearly died together at K Thirty-Eight. You’re going to tell me you’re not close?”
    “I haven’t seen him since then.”
    “Hayes’s first target inside the U.S. was an office building in North Carolina,” Riggs said. “It’s an annex of the Defense Cover Program that handles classified-unit personnel records. It is as secure a building as we know how to make, and they went through it like a breeze.
    “He and his team destroyed their personnel files, the information we would need to find them and their aliases, associates, and family members. Pentagon investigators are attempting to reconstruct those records.”
    “You didn’t know him well?”
    “Few did. He was in the field for most of the time I commanded the task force. Your name surfaced when we canvassed past teammates and associates of Hayes. That’s why the FBI picked you up when they found out how close you were to the assault on the truck.”
    “Jesus.” I lifted the photo and shook my head. “You thought I would help him do that? I’m a doctor now.”
    “He can assume identities with ease. Some people thought you were Hayes. We know better, now that he’s following you. He may try to contact you or coerce you into helping him. It’s one of his strengths. Don’t let him lure you in. He’s done it to many people, and it’s a fatal mistake.”
    “I’m nothing to him.”
    “That can’t be true. You saved his life.”
    “I was just doing the job.” I took a sip of coffee, then leaned back in the chair. “How about this: Is it possible Hayes is watching you, hunting you?”
    Riggs looked around the safe house. “Certainly.”
    “He probably saw the police and Hall drag me in. And now he and his team are checking me out. It’s pretty simple.”
    “Help us find him, and we’ll protect you and sort out your travel and financial issues.”
    I clamped both hands around the mug and took a long breath. I was innocent, but they were going to keep treating me like a terrorist unless I made myself a target for the real bad guys. I would suffer for an obvious mistake made high above me that no one could be bothered to correct. Boy, I missed the military.
    “I don’t want anything to do with this.”
    “I imagine Hayes’s crew are already none too happy with you. Why else would they be following you? And now that they’ve seen you talk to the police and us, I don’t think they’ll consider your jawing over coffee with me any worse than what you’ve already done. They can’t kill you twice.”
    I muttered a curse. This was insane. “Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t help you because I don’t know anything. Unless you want to use me as chum to draw them out.”
    Riggs gave me a disingenuous look: Heaven forbid.
    “This is extortion,” I said.
    “You can do some good here.”
    “No.”
    Riggs stood suddenly. His chair skittered back. He tripped