I was flattered. I know none of it excuses what I did, but just so you
know.'
'You're an idiot,' she said.
'I know. It never should have come up,' he said.
'So to speak,' she said. She gave him a small grin, and a great weight
left him, as if he had suddenly shrugged off a coat made of lead.
'But that's not what I meant.
You're an idiot for not telling me.'
'When I saw you in the hotel lobby that morning, I didn't think you
would believe me. You were certain I had done it, and you didn't want
to talk about it, remember?
You said you didn't want to hear another word.'
She frowned, as if trying to remember.
'Did I say that?'
'It doesn't matter. The truth was, I was lying naked on a table with a
naked woman straddling me and the desire was there.'
'But you didn't act on it.'
'The thought is as bad as the deed.'
She smiled again, shook her head.
'Not on my planet, it isn't. You felt guilty because in the moment you
thought about it? You really are an idiot. If they could hang us for
thinking, we'd all be pushing up daisies. You can't always control
what you think, only what you do. You could have saved us both a lot
of grief if you had just told me, Alex, even if / told you not to.'
'Yeah, well, I can see that now.'
She reached for his hands, took them in hers.
'Come here.'
'Yes, ma'am.'
And just like that, Michaels's life was very, very good again.
Friday, June 10th Anchorage, Alaska
They were in the airport waiting for the Alaska Airlines flight to SeaT
ac to board when Morrison's new phone cheeped. He froze for an
instant. It was them! He looked at Ventura, then slipped the wireless
headset on and adjusted the straw-microphone.
'Yes?'
A crisp, accentless voice said, 'Good morning. I understand you have a
used car for sale?'
Morrison's neck prickled with gooseflesh and he had a sudden urge to
visit the nearest toilet. This was the phrase he had told them to use,
and outside of the anonymous note he had posted into a security page
run by the Chinese, nobody had been given the number of this particular
phone, which he'd paid for in cash and registered under a phony name.
He put his thumb over the mike.
'It's the Chinese,' he said to Ventura.
Ventura looked at his watch.
'Thirty seconds,' he said, pointing at the phone.
'No more. Follow me.'
Morrison nodded and stood. He moved his thumb from the mike as Ventura
pulled his own com from his pocket and started talking into it
