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Bell nodded “Because of how the fight turned out aboard the locomotive, Vern had no choice but to say that Johnny was the saboteur Tonight, I fed Hall a line about Johnny having a girlfriend he couldn’t be with and he ith it, e the story as he went He spun a narrative that dovetailed with how Jake Hobart was secretlyus with every word”

“Only, he was digging himself deeper”

“That he was” Bell shot Vernon Hall a otten over the years because criminals are too stupid to keep their mouths shut”

“What happens now?” Hall asked “Are you going to kill me?”

Bell said to Joshua Brewster, “There’s soet it for me?”

“Yeah” Brewster got to his feet and lurched over to the truck He was at his breaking point, physically and mentally

Returning his attention to Hall, Bell said, “I’ to leave you tied up here until Wednesday afternoon, when there’s nothing oing to turn you over to the Army liaison officer at the American Embassy and see to it you’re shipped back to the States in irons”

Brewster came back, walked up to where Hall lay on the straw He hesitated for just a second Standing only a few inches above five feet, Joshua Hayes Brewster ave that sah Bell had heard in the pub back in Newcastle

“No,” Bell shouted, but it was too late

Brewster had fallen upon Vernon Hall with a rusty screwdriver that Bell had overlook

ed when he’d inventoried potential weapons in the duot to him and pulled him off, Brewster had sunk the tool into Hall’s chest a half dozen tile In fact, he was quite passive, considering the savagery of the attack

He looked at Bell, his face streaked with blood “Sorry about this little outburst I get these wild ideas so what he’d told Bell after the pub incident “Though this time I know exactly where it came from”

A few minutes passed Brewster said, “It doesn’t matter toto tellto believe the French had him in such a jam that he had to do this to us and that he’d been told we’d all be spared I can’t live thinking it was any other way That said, it’s still i to write about Vern’s betrayal in my notes and I’d be beholden to you if it stayed out of your official report”

“I never lie in my personal journals, but I’ll make sure this stays out of my write-up for Colonel Patmore”

“Thanks So what now?”