Divine Justice

'From what?'

Knox stood. 'Okay, my BS alarm is clanging so hard it's hurting my ears. So like I told your friend, Ford, I'll be in touch. And don't try to leave the city. That would not make me happy.' He walked off.

CHAPTER 20

MACKLIN HAYES did not seem particularly pleased. He and Knox were sitting in front of a fire in the library of a luxurious late-nineteenth-century brownstone in the heart of D.C. that Hayes had access to 24/7. Spy kings, it seemed, had gold-plated perks.

'So you've run around interviewing all the usual suspects today and have no progress to show for it.'

'I'm not just going through the motions, General. I did my little dog-and-pony show with all of them except for the Reuben Rhodes character, and I'll catch up to him at some point. They're all lying. They all know more than they'll admit. That's progress right there as far as I'm concerned. At some point they'll make a slip and then we move in.'

'I seriously doubt the man left them a copy of his travel itinerary.'

'I doubt that too, but Carr is a loyal guy. If we can nail his friends on something, put them at risk for prison time, then that may flush him out.'

'Meaning he'll come running back here to save his friends? You really believe that will happen, Knox?'

'I've studied the man, gone over his career, talked to his friends. Yeah, I think that might happen. And what's the downside if it doesn't work?'

Hayes finished off his glass of wine and stared into the fire. 'Let me speak frankly, Knox. Hopefully it will be instructive and won't bore you too much.'

'I doubt anything you have to say would bore me, sir. And you know I'm a sucker for truthful information.'

Hayes ignored the barb. 'Carr is a killer, clearly. He was at the Capitol Visitor Center that night. We know he murdered Gray and Simpson. That part is simple, the rest is not.'

'And do I finally get to hear the rest?'

Hayes rose and poured himself another glass, this time of scotch, and sipped it while standing in front of the fire. Gazing at this tall patrician figure dressed in a three-piece suit with his beautiful snowy hair, square jaw and twinkling eyes and holding his cut-crystal snifter made Knox fantasize he was in a Hollywood spy film.

Let's see, how does that story go again? Oh, yeah, bright, refined, patriotic people recruited from Ivy League schools doing their noble best to keep their country safe while nattily attired in their Brooks Brothers suits, bedding all the beautiful women, sucking thoughtfully on their sweet-smelling pipes and remaining high above the riff and the raff. Like me. And John Carr. The riff and the raff.

Knox had quickly found that that notion was indeed a fantasy. Intelligence was a nasty, dirty business and necessitated each side to get as filthy as the other. The only rule was there never had been any rules at all. No, actually he was wrong. There was one rule. People like Macklin Hayes did remain above it all. Untouchable. And yet that rule was not absolute. Look at Carter Gray. John Carr had pulled him right down into the trench shit with him.

You go, John.

Hayes said, 'Unfortunately, Carr is also probably in possession of certain information, perhaps even proofs of actions taken by this country at sensitive times, that might, in unforgiving hindsight, mind you, place us in an awkward situation. I'm sure Gray was aware of that as well. I believe he attempted to get to Carr, but as we know, Carr got him first.'

'So in other words he has the goods on us so this is not a case for the law courts?'

Hayes smiled. 'I've always loved your perspicacity, Knox. Saves so much time.'

'I'm not a hired killer, sir. You ordered me to find him. I will do my best to do so. But that's it.'

'And that's all you need do. Others will take over from there.'

'If Carr is as smart as I think he is, he knows all this. He might have devised a way that his violent death will trigger the very disclosure you don't want. A packet of information to the New York Times perhaps in the event a bullet slams into his brain?'

'Find him, Knox, and I believe we can persuade him that such action would not be advisable.'

'What leverage would you have over him at that point?'

'As you said, he's a very loyal man.'

Knox considered this for a moment. 'So his friends are his Achilles' heel? Only in your version instead of coming back and going to jail he takes the bullet, he falls on the sword silently so his friends can what, live?'

'That's certainly one scenario.'

'One or the only one?'

'Just find him, Knox, that's all you have to do. Any leads of interest?'

'The friends have given me squat, and if we have to do this outside the law now it comes back to following the physical evidence as far as it takes me.'

'Back out to the crime scenes then?'

'Yes.'

'Time is not on our side.'

'It never is. This information would have been helpful earlier, sir, in all candor.'

'I'm sure it would have. But there you are.'

'So I'm competing with the cops on this one too? What if they get there first?'

'We've taken certain actions that will preclude that from happening.'

'And if some detective gets lucky?'

'That's highly doubtful because they know nothing of John Carr or his ties to Gray and Simpson. So you have a tremendous advantage there. But if the police get to him first, we will make sure that he will disappear from their custody. National security trumps all, Knox.'

'Of course. Can I inquire as to what the chain of command is on this, sir?'

'You report to me, no one else,' he said sharply.

'No, I mean who do you report to, General?'

Hayes finished off his drink and carefully put the glass down on an antique side table. 'I'll pretend I didn't hear that. Good luck. Regular reports.'

'Absolutely,' Knox said, with more edge to his voice than he would have liked. One could push Macklin Hayes only so far, but Knox was getting sorely tempted to push as hard as possible. Like off a cliff.

'One more thing. John Carr is probably the best assassin this country has ever produced. The fact that he was able to single-handedly kill a dozen of our best paramilitary field agents thirty years after he left Triple Six speaks volumes. God, he must have been something else indeed in his prime. What an honor to have commanded such a killing machine. Gray was lucky in that regard. The meteoric rise of his career was tied, in no small way, to Carr's ability to hit the bull's-eye time after time.'

'And you're telling me this why?'

'Just want you to understand the playing field. We need him alive, Knox. We need to know what he has before the sword falls. Never forget that. There may need to be sacrifices, of course.'

As Hayes left the room Knox did indeed understand the playing field. They clearly needed Carr alive.

Sacrifices? But they didn't necessarily need Joe Knox still breathing when the dust settled, did they?

Knox left the brownstone, climbed back in his Rover, and drove off in pursuit of apparently the greatest assassin his country had ever produced, while a cagey former general who had no problem allowing his foot soldiers to die to achieve his goals was crowding his rear flank.

Whoopie.