is, or some such bull crap. This smells of one part of the government-us-bumping up against another part of the government, and we lost.”
“Are you saying that officials in some federal agency decided to let a killer walk?” She was incredulous.
“I’m not saying anything. But yeah, it’s possible. Depends how important he is. Or maybe, if there’s some justice, he’s dealt with quietly.”
“But we’d never know,” she said.
“We’d never know.”
She finished her latte and rummaged her purse for a compact to fix her makeup. “So that’s it? We’re done?”
He watched her remove the streaks. “You’re done. I’m not done.”
His squared-off jaw was set in a classic pose of truculence, but there was also a serenity, the troubling kind when someone perched on a ledge has decided to jump.
“You’re going back to the office,” he said. “They’ll have new work for you. I hear Mueller’s coming back. Maybe they’ll team you up again. You’ll go on and have a great career because you’re one heck of an agent.”
“Will-” she blurted.
“No, hear me out, please,” he said. “This is personal. I don’t know how or why Shackleton killed these people but I do know he did this to rub my face in this dung heap of a case. It’s got to be a part-maybe a big part-of his motivation. What’s going to happen to me is what’s supposed to happen. I’m not a company man anymore. Haven’t been one for years. The whole idea of minding my fucking p’s and q’s to coast through to retirement has been bullshit.” He was venting now, but the public space was keeping him from really broadcasting. “Screw the twenty and screw the pension. I’ll find a job somewhere. I don’t need a lot to get by.”
She put her compact down. It looked like she’d have to redo her makeup again.
“God, Nancy, don’t cry!” he whispered. “This isn’t about us. Us is great. This is the best male-female thing I’ve had in a long time, maybe ever, if you want the truth. Apart from being smart and sexy, you’re the most self- sufficient woman I’ve ever been with.”
“That’s a compliment?”
“From me? It’s huge. You’re not needy like one hundred percent of my exes. You’re comfortable with your own life, which makes me comfortable with mine. I’m not going to find that again.”
“Then why blow it up?”
“Wasn’t my intent, obviously. I’ve got to find Shackleton.”
“You’re off the case!”
“I’m putting myself back on. One way or another it’s going to get me booted. I know how they think. They won’t tolerate the insubordination. Look, when I’m a mall security guard in Pensacola, maybe you can get a transfer down there. I don’t know what they’ve got for art museums but we’ll figure out ways to get you some culture.”
She dabbed her eyes. “Do you have a plan at least?”
“It’s not a very sophisticated one. I already called in sick. Sue’ll be relieved she won’t have to deal with me today. I’m booked on a flight to Vegas later this morning. I’m going to find him and make him talk.”
“And I’m supposed to go back to work like nothing’s happened.”
“Yes and no.” He pulled two cell phones from his briefcase. “They’re going to be all over me as soon as they realize I’m off the reservation. It’s possible they’ll put a tap on you. Take one of these prepaids. We’ll use them to talk to each other. Unless they get our numbers, they’re untraceable. I’ll need eyes and ears, but if you think for a second you’re compromising yourself, we’re going to pull the plug. And give Laura a call. Tell her something that puts her at ease. Okay?”
She took one of the phones. It was already damp from the brief time in his clutch. “Okay.”
Mark was dreaming about lines of software code. They were forming faster than he could type, as fast as he could think. Each line was spare, perfect in a minimalist way, without an extraneous character. A floating slate was filling fast with something wonderful. It was a fabulous dream, and he was appalled that it was being zapped by ring tones.
It jarred him that his boss, Rebecca Rosenberg, was on his mobile. He was in bed with a beautiful woman in a magnificent suite in the Venetian Hotel and the Jersey voice of his troll-like supervisor was stomach- churning.
“How are you?” she asked.
“I’m fine. What’s up?” It wasn’t lost on him that she had never called like this before.
“I’m sorry to bother you on your vacation. Where are you?”
They could find out if they wanted from his mobile signal so he didn’t lie. “In Vegas.”
“Okay, so I know it’s a real imposition, but we’ve got a code problem that no one can fix. The lambda HITS went down and the watchers are freaking out.”
“Did you try rebooting it?” he asked blearily.
“A million times. It looks like the code got corrupted.”
“How?”
“No one can figure it out. You’re its daddy. You’d be doing me a big favor by coming in tomorrow.”
“I’m on vacation!”
“I know, I’m sorry to have to call you but if you do this for us, I’ll get you three extra vacation days, and if you finish the job in half a day, we’ll get you Lear-jetted back to McCarran at lunchtime. So what do you say? Deal?”
He shook his head in disbelief. “Yeah. I’ll do it.”
He tossed the phone onto the bed. Kerry was still sound asleep. Something was fishy. He had covered his tracks so flawlessly, he was certain the Desert Life business was undetectable. He just had to bide his time, wait a month or two before starting the voluntary resignation process. He’d tell them he’d met a girl, that they were going to get married and live on the East Coast. They’d gnash their teeth and lecture him about mutual commitments, the length of time it took to recruit and train him, the difficulty in finding a replacement. They’d appeal to his patriotism. He’d hang tough. This wasn’t slavery. They had to let him go. On his way out the door, they’d give him a good hard scrub and find nothing. They’d watch him for years, maybe forever, as they did with all past employees, but so be it. They could watch him all they wanted.
When Rosenberg hung up, the watchers took their earpieces out and nodded their approval. Malcolm Frazier, their chief, was there too, stiff-necked with an inanimate face and a wrestler’s body. He told her, “That was good.”
“If you think he’s a security risk, why don’t you pick him up today?” she asked.
“We don’t think he’s a security risk, we know he is,” Frazier said gruffly. “We’d prefer to do this in a controlled environment. We’ll confirm he’s in Nevada. We’ve got people over at his house. We’ll keep tabs on his mobile signal. If we think he’s going to be a no-show tomorrow, we’ll move.”
“I’m sure you know your jobs,” Rosenberg said. The air in her office was permeated with the scent of large athletic men.
“Yes, Dr. Rosenberg, we do.”
On his way to the airport it began to drizzle and the taxi’s wiper blades beat like a metronome keeping time for an adagio. Will slumped in the backseat, and when he nodded off, his chin came to rest on his shoulder. He awoke on the LaGuardia service road with a sore neck and told the driver he wanted US Airways.
His tan suit was speckled with raindrops. He caught the ticket agent’s name, Vicki, from her name tag and engaged her in small talk while he presented his ID and federal carry license. He absently watched her as she typed, a chunky, simple girl with long brown hair clipped into a pony tail, an unlikely nemesis.
The terminal was awash in gray light, a clinically sterile concourse with little pedestrian traffic since it was mid-morning. That made it easy for him to scan the hall and isolate persons of interest. His antennae were up and he was tense. Nobody but Nancy knew he was taking a walk on the wild side but he felt conspicuous anyway, like he had a sign around his neck. The passengers waiting for check-in up and down the hall looked legit, and there were two uniformed cops chatting near the ATM machine at the far end.
He had an hour to kill. He’d grab a bite and buy a paperback. When he was airborne he’d be able to relax for a few hours, unless Darla was working this leg, in which case he’d have to wrestle with the quandary of cheating on Nancy, though he was pretty sure he might succumb to the “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas” slogan. He hadn’t thought about the big blonde for a while, but now he was having a hard time getting her out of his thoughts.
