watched him leave, her heart aching.
Moira got up, reaching out for him, but he shook her hand off his arm and continued out the door.
Maddox didn't know how he'd ended up sitting in the third-floor hallway of the Princeton Hotel, waiting for Iris Browning to show up. Hadn't he left her at the Poseidon because he didn't want to talk to her anymore? Hell, hadn't he thrown her out of his house to keep her from knowing all his secrets?
Well, it was too late. She knew.
He should've known she wouldn't give up. But she didn't understand. She bought into that garbage on the Internet, the poor deluded souls who thought that just because a guy managed to get a dozen people out of an embassy siege alive, he was some kind of hero.
But heroes didn't watch a sweet kid from Iowa have her throat cut without raising a finger to save her.
There'd been a way to save her. There had to have been. He'd just been too stupid or scared or gutless to figure it out, that's all.
If only he'd been on duty that morning, and one of the guys who'd died at the gate had been the one at the poker game when it all went down, maybe Teresa would still be alive. Maybe Parker or Hunt or one of the others would have seen how to save her where he hadn't.
Maybe, maybe, maybe. Some days, it seemed that maybe was the only word in his vocabulary.
'How did I know I'd find you here?' Alexander Quinn's gravelly voice jerked Maddox's focus into the present. The CIA agent stood halfway down the hallway, leaning against the wall. Maddox hadn't even heard him coming.
He stood. 'You must be psychic.'
'I take it she's not here.' Quinn said.
'Nope.'
'So what happened between last night and this morning, Heller?' Quinn pushed away from the wall and walked slowly toward him, curiosity etched in the fine lines around his eyes. 'To bring the lovely Ms. Browning here to a hotel, I mean.'
'None of your business'
'Trouble in paradise?'
'Shut up, Quinn.'
'The course of true love-'
'I said, shut up.'
Quinn smiled. It made him look even more sinister. 'She was out of your league any way.'
'She's not going to work with you.'
'That's not a decision you can make.' Quinn disagreed.
'No, but Iris has been doing a little Web surfing, man. She's learned just how trustworthy you double types are.'
For the first time since she'd mentioned it, Maddox was almost glad Iris had done the Web search into what had happened in Kaziristan. At least she'd taken a cold, sober look at the lengths a government would go to in order to cover its backside when something went all to hell.
'Then she knows about you.'
Maddox looked down at the herringbone carpet that lined the hotel corridor, counting the rows out of habit. Anything to keep from thinking too hard about what Iris Browning now knew about him. 'Yeah.'
'That's good. Maybe she'll be able to knock some sense into you.'
Maddox looked up, frowning, 'Some sense?'
Quinn shook his head, the look of pity in his eyes making Maddox's stomach twist. 'You really have no idea what most people back in the States think of you, do you?'
'I don't care what they think of me.'
Quinn laughed. It was worse than his smile, 'Why didn't you stand and tight, Heller? You let Foggy Bottom roll over you and you didn't even raise a stink. Why? Did you really buy that garbage those diplomats were peddling to cover their own backsides?Cavanaugh blew it. You didn't.'
'I didn't need the State Department PR machine to tell me I screwed up.'
'You're not God, Heller. You couldn't save everybody.'
'I didn't even try.'
'And that was a damn good thing for those twelve people you got out of there alive.'
Quinn stepped forward, suddenly in Maddox's face. 'You know what your real problem is? You're arrogant. You think you're so damn perfect that you should have been able to save everybody.'
Maddox grabbed the front of Quinn's shirt. 'You don't know what you're talking about.' he growled.
'May be you should listen to him.'
Maddox and Quinn both turned at the sound of Iris's voice. She stood a few feet away, watching their confrontation with her arms crossed over her chest.
Maddox let go of Quinn's shirt. 'You don't know what you're talking about either, Iris.'
'Probably not.' she conceded, her voice desert dry, 'I take it you're both here to see me?'
Quinn smiled at her. Maddox wondered if she found the expression as creepy as he did. 'I heard you'd moved out of Maddox's house, I wanted to check on you, see if everything was okay.' Quinn said.
'Because he only has your welfare at heart.' Maddox added, barely keeping his eyes from rolling.
Iris didn't respond to either of them, walking to her hotel room door and unlocking it. 'As much as I'd normally enjoy being the belle of the ball, I'd like to order lunch and have a few minutes to myself before this afternoon's session at the conference. So can we just get to whatever you want?'
Maddox followed her inside, Quinn at his heels. Iris took the only chair in the room, an uncomfortable looking rattan armchair that matched the small table by the window, leaving Maddox and Quinn to make do with the bed.
Her lips curved as they sat side by side on the floral bedspread, taking pains to keep their distance from each other. Maddox shot her a warning glare, and her smile widened.
'Have you given any more thought to what I asked of you?' Quinn asked.
Iris glanced at Maddox. He shook his head slightly in the negative as he held her gaze.
She looked away from him and back at Alexander Quinn. 'I have.'
'And?'
'I'll do it.'
Chapter Thirteen
'Iris-'Maddox began.
Her sharp look silenced him. She looked back at Quinn. 'I don't trust you. I know you see me as a tool in your investigation. But that's okay. I know what to expect. As long as you understand I have one priority, finding my friend. If I can help save other lives as well, I will, but not if it risks Sandrine's life. Understood?'
Quinn's only reaction was a brief nod of agreement.
'It's still dangerous.' Maddox said.
She looked at him, wondering why he'd come here after walking out on her at the Poseidon, 'I know.'
'What makes you think you can get inside the focus group anyway? They seem pretty picky.'
'Ms. Browning has an advantage ' Quinn said quietly. 'She can actually do what she says she can. And whatever they're up to at Telarana Labs, they seem to need what she can do.'
So Quinn had it figured out, too. She shouldn't be surprised. She pulled her notebook from her purse and handed Maddox the list of names. 'This is Dr.Grinkov's focus group. I got it from someone at the conference.'
Maddox frowned. 'So Celia was part of it.'
'So was Sandrine.'
'Then you know where she is. You can stop worrying.'
'You know that's not true.'
