The Firm

deliver. You name your price, and this government, working through the FBI, will deliver. Within reason, of course. And that's coming from me, Mitch.' They walked slowly along the Wall and stopped by the agent in the wheelchair. Voyles stuck out his hand. 'Look, there's a taxi waiting where you came in, number 1073. Same driver. You'd better leave now. We will not meet again, but Tarrance will contact you in a couple of weeks. Please think about what I said. Don't convince yourself is invincible and can operate forever, because I will not allow it. We will make a move in the near future, I promise that. I just hope you're on our side.'

'I don't understand what I'm supposed to do.'

'Tarrance has the game plan. A lot will depend upon you and what you learn once you're committed.'

'Committed?'

'That's the word, Mitch. Once you commit, there's no turning back. They can be more ruthless than any organization on earth.'

'Why did you pick me?'

'We had to pick someone. No, that's not true. We picked you because you have the guts to walk away from it. You have no family except a wife. No ties, no roots. You've been hurt by every person you ever cared for, except Abby. You raised yourself, and in doing so became self-reliant and independent. You don't need The Firm. You can leave it. You're hardened and calloused beyond your years. And you're smart enough to pull it off, Mitch. You won't get caught. That's why we picked you. Good day, Mitch. Thanks for coming. You'd better get back.'

Voyles turned and walked quickly away. Tarrance waited at the end of the Wall, and gave Mitch a quick salute, as if to say, 'So long—for now.'

Chapter 20

A fter making the obligatory stop in Atlanta, the Delta DC-9 landed in a cold rain at Memphis International. It parked at Gate 19, and the tightly packed crowd of business travelers quickly disembarked. Mitch carried only his briefcase and an Esquire. He saw Abby waiting near the pay phones and moved quickly through the pack. He threw the briefcase and magazine against the wall and bear-hugged her. The four days in Washington seemed like a month. They kissed again and again, and whispered softly.

'How about a date?' he asked.

'I've got dinner on the table and wine in the cooler,' she said. They held hands and walked through the mob pushing down the concourse in the general direction of the luggage pickup.

He spoke quietly. 'Well, we need to talk, and we can't do it at home.'

She gripped his hand tighter. 'Oh?'

'Yes. In fact, we need to have a long talk.'

'What happened?'

'It'll take a while.'

'Why am I suddenly nervous?'

'Just keep cool. Keep smiling. They're watching.'

She smiled and glanced to her right. 'Who's watching?'

'I'll explain in just a moment.'

Mitch suddenly pulled her to his left. They cut through the wave of human traffic and darted into a dark, crowded lounge full of businessmen drinking and watching the television above the bar and waiting for their nights. A small, round table covered with empty beer mugs had just been vacated, and they sat with their backs to the wall and a view of the bar and the concourse. They sat close together, within three feet of another table. Mitch stared at the door and analyzed every face that walked in. 'How long are we going to be here?' she asked.

'Why?'

She slid out of the full-length fox and folded it on the chair across the table. 'What exactly are you looking for?'

'Just keep smiling for a moment. Pretend you really missed me. Here, give me a kiss.' He pecked her on the lips, and they smiled into each other's eyes. He kissed her cheek and returned to the door. A waiter rushed to the table and cleaned it off. They ordered wine.

She smiled at him. 'How was your trip?'

'Boring. We were in class eight hours a day, for four days. After the first day, I hardly left the hotel. They crammed six months' worth of tax revisions into thirty-two hours.'

'Did you get to sightsee?'

He smiled and looked dreamily at her. 'I missed you, Abby. More than I've ever missed anyone in my life. I love you. I think you're gorgeous, absolutely stunning. I do not enjoy traveling alone and waking up in a strange hotel bed without you. And I have something horrible to tell you.'

She stopped smiling. He slowly looked around the room. They were three deep at the bar and yelling at the Knicks–Lakers game. The lounge was suddenly louder.

'I'll tell you about it,' he said. 'But there's a very good chance someone is in here right now watching us. They cannot hear, but they can observe. Just smile occasionally, although it will be hard.'

The wine arrived, and Mitch began his story. He left nothing out. She spoke only once. He told her about Anthony Bendini and old man Morolto, and then Nathan Locke growing up in Chicago and Oliver Lambert and the boys on the fifth floor.

Abby nervously sipped her wine and tried valiantly to appear as the normal loving wife who missed her husband and was now enjoying immensely his recollection of the tax seminar. She watched the people at the bar, sipped a little and occasionally grinned at Mitch as he told of the money laundering and the murdered lawyers. Her body ached with fear. Her breath was wildly irregular. But she listened, and pretended.

The waiter brought more wine as the crowd thinned. An hour after he started, Mitch finished in a low whisper.

'And Voyles said Tarrance would contact me in a couple of weeks to see if I will cooperate. He said goodbye and walked away.'

'And this was Tuesday?' she asked.

'Yes. The first day.'

'What did you do the rest of the week?'

'I slept little, ate little, walked around with a dull headache most of the time.'

'I think I feel one coming.'

'I'm sorry, Abby. I wanted to fly home immediately and tell you. I've been in shock for three days.'

'I'm in shock now. I'm not believing this, Mitch. This is like a bad dream, only much worse.'

'And this is only the beginning. The FBI is dead serious. Why else would the Director himself meet with me, an insignificant rookie lawyer from Memphis, in fifteen-degree weather on a concrete park bench? He's assigned five agents in Memphis and three in Washington, and he said they'll spend whatever it takes to get. So if I keep my mouth shut, ignore them and go about my business of being a good and faithful member of Bendini, Lambert & Locke, one day they'll show up with arrest warrants and haul everybody away. And if I choose to cooperate, you and I will leave Memphis in the dead of the night after I hand The Firm to the feds, and we'll go off and live in Boise, Idaho, as Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur Gates. We'll have plenty of money, but we'll have to work to avoid suspicion. After my plastic surgery, I'll get a job driving a forklift in a warehouse, and you can work part-time at a day care. We'll have two, maybe three kids and pray every night that people we've never met keep their mouths shut and forget about us. We'll live every hour of every day in morbid fear of being discovered.'

'That's perfect, Mitch, just perfect.' She was trying hard not to cry.