Cars screeched to a stop, heads popped out of windows, people came rushing out of doorways. Hall slid back into the Lexus and drove away.
The clank of the service elevator coming to a stop jolted Geiger awake. He had nodded out during the ride, and now he felt his damage more keenly, the forty-five-second gap in consciousness allowing the pain to win back territory. He was like a diver coming up from sunless depths, punch-drunk from the pressure, but still aware that he had to keep his ascent slow so he didn’t black out on the journey to the surface.
Geiger picked up the gym bag. Moving carefully, he walked into the stairwell and through the door into the hallway. Everything around him had to be perceived and measured; he would need to constantly realign himself so that he could efficiently manage every expenditure of energy.
He knocked on the door-it took less effort than finding the buzzer with a fingertip-and when the door opened the look on Corley’s face further informed Geiger about his state.
“Jesus!” said Corley, taking Geiger’s arm gently and bringing him inside.
Harry shot unsteadily to his feet and stared at Geiger. “What the fuck happened to you?”
Corley led Geiger to one of the leather chairs, and Harry hobbled over to help him down into it.
Geiger felt the chair’s cushion under him, but he didn’t allow himself to relax into it. “Harry,” he said, “Hall’s a hired gun-either for the CIA or someone like them.”
“Oh, man,” Harry groaned. “We are in the deep stuff. You know where Hall and the others are now?”
“Locked inside my place.”
“And what the hell did they do to you?”
“Not now, Harry. Too much to do.”
Corley was trying to get a read on Geiger’s mental state, but he couldn’t make it past the physical spectacle: the bandaged cheek, the bloodless, ghastly face, and the suggestion from the way Geiger composed his body in the chair that there was more damage beneath his clothes.
Ezra’s voice called out: “Geiger? You back?”
The boy ran down the hall toward the living room but stopped short when he saw Harry and Corley looming over Geiger’s chair, which had its back to him.
“What’s wrong?” Ezra said.
“It’s all right,” said Corley.
But Ezra knew better, and when he rushed around the chair and came face to face with Geiger, he gasped. Against the black pullover, Geiger’s face looked nearly white, and his eyes were red and glassy.
“Geiger!” Ezra said, putting a hand on Geiger’s leg. “Are you okay?”
Geiger’s face tightened with pain. Ezra instantly pulled his hand away and put it on the chair’s arm.
“Yes, I’m okay,” Geiger said. “Your mother’s coming for you.”
“She is? When?”
“Getting on a plane. Right away. She said to tell you she loves you.”
Ezra tried to smile but failed. Geiger slowly reached out and covered Ezra’s hand with his own. “It’ll be okay, Ezra.”
As small as the gesture was, Corley was staggered by its power. He had never heard Geiger speak of anyone with affection, much less show it. Whatever had happened to Geiger in the past few hours, Corley knew it had changed him.
Geiger turned to him now. “Martin,” he said.
Corley crouched down before the chair. “Yes?”
“We can’t stay here. We need to go someplace else.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know how it will play out when Ezra’s mother shows up.”
“What do you mean?” Ezra asked.
“I mean your mother could be upset. She might want to speak to the police.”
“But you saved me.”
Geiger smiled wanly at Ezra and then looked again at Corley. “Martin, we need to go someplace where there aren’t doormen, neighbors down the hall, security cameras in the elevators, witnesses everywhere. Your house in Cold Spring-she could meet us there.”
“Well, I suppose so,” said Corley, masking a sigh. It probably was the right move, but the prospect of it pained him. The house was a haven for memories of a happier time in his life.
“Do you have a car, Martin?”
“Yes. We could be there in an hour and a half.”
“Not ‘we,’ Martin. Harry, do you think you can drive?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” said Harry. “It’s my other leg that’s pretty banged up.”
Corley stood up. “Hold on a second, Geiger. What are you-”
“You’re not coming, Martin.” Geiger looked up at him. “That way we can still keep you out of this.”
“Keep me ‘out of this’? I think it’s a little late for that.” Corley studied Geiger for a moment and then gestured for him to get up. “We need to talk, Geiger. Come into the office-just for a minute.”
Corley walked into the kitchen and continued on into his office through a door in the kitchen’s back wall.
Geiger gave Ezra and Harry a look, and then pushed himself up out of the chair. He rose by increments, dozens of muscles realigning to accommodate his damage, his mind pushing the corporal into the background. Gathering his strength, he walked through the kitchen and into the familiar office. He wanted to focus all his energy on completing what he had started, whatever form that might take.
Corley closed the door softly and turned to him. “Geiger-”
Geiger held up a hand. “Martin, the best thing is for you to stay here. You have no place in what happens once we leave.”
“No? I’m sorry to have to play the shrink, but let’s look at what’s occurred here, at what you did. You came to me. ”
“It was necessary, Martin. But you’re not going anywhere now. And I don’t have time for this.”
It suddenly struck Corley that Geiger might not set foot in this room again, that they were taking part in some sort of finale. Since his divorce, the only true commitment Corley had made had been to Geiger. Now something had happened to Geiger, quite possibly the event that Corley had long been waiting for, the catalyst that would finally reveal the source of all the cruelty and the damage. But if Geiger left and never returned, Corley would never know what Geiger had finally understood.
“Martin,” Geiger said, “I need you to give me the keys and the directions.”
Corley tried to keep the anxiety out of his voice. “Harry told me everything, Geiger-about what you do, about information retrieval. But even if every person you dealt with was guilty or corrupt, even if they were all serial killers or Hitlers or Bernie Madoffs-”
“I’m getting out of the business, Martin.”
“Jesus, Geiger, it’s not that simple, and you know it. We need to talk about this.”
“But not now, Martin. Not until this is over.”
“Then this is how it has to be,” Corley said. “We all go to Cold Spring.”
Geiger shook his head. “No, you’re not coming.”
Corley gave a soft chuckle. “What are you going to do, Geiger-tie me to a chair?”
“That won’t be necessary, Martin. Just do as I say.”
Corley stared at Geiger and saw another man gazing out from behind the hard slate eyes-the Geiger he’d known nothing about before Harry told him of Geiger’s extraordinary, terrible skills. And as he looked into the eyes of this man who always persuaded people to give him what he wanted, Corley’s breath snagged on something inside him. He had to straighten his spine to jar it loose.
“I feel like I haven’t done enough, Geiger. I…”
Corley trailed off into silent thought. All the walls we build… how the mind makes its own bricks and mortar to save itself. All the things we carry within ourselves… how they are far heavier than any burden we might put upon our backs.
“Martin,” Geiger said. “Do you trust me?”
Corley remembered Geiger asking the same question just yesterday. Then it had seemed like another one of
