Dark Chant In A Crimson Key

around her, gently kissed her on the forehead.

'You're going to New York?' the woman asked.

Sinclair nodded. 'After we tidy up things here. I owe Neuberger a visit, and the complete records can only be accessed from there. I have to finish it, Jan.'

'Yes, Chant. I know.'

Suddenly, there was an ominous click-clack-clonk of metal hitting metal, a magazine being shoved home, an automatic rifle being cocked. We all wheeled around in the direction of the sound, and I was shocked to see Duane Insolers still standing back across the room by a bookcase. One of the dead Black Flame soldiers' weapons that had been picked up and leaned against the wall was now in his hands. The bore was pointed at Sinclair's chest.

'I want everyone to remain perfectly still and do exactly as I say,' Insolers said calmly. 'Sinclair and Kendry, I want both of you to slowly spread your legs apart, then cross your arms over your chests and squeeze your hands in your armpits. Do it right now. If you hesitate, I pull the trigger.'

Veil and Sinclair did as they were told.

'Duane!' Jan cried, anger and sorrow in her voice. 'Oh, Duane!'

'Be quiet, Jan,' Insolers said without looking at her. He had moved the bore of the rifle slightly, now aiming it at a point midway between Veil and Sinclair. 'I'm sorry to have to end up the skunk at the garden party, folks, but it had to happen like this someday, and Sinclair knew it. Our relationship has always been a bit tenuous. I'm only interested in Sinclair, and there's no reason for things to become any more unpleasant than they are so long as none of you tries to interfere with me. But know that I will kill any one, or all, of you if I have to.'

'Do as he says,' Sinclair said in an even tone.

'Thank you, Sinclair. Now, I want the rest of you to move away from him. Kendry, you make sure you keep your hands in your armpits and feet on the floor and apart. Shuffle. Don't turn your body.'

Jan abruptly stepped next to Sinclair, thrust her chin out defiantly, and glared at Insolers. 'If you're going to kill Chant, Duane, you may as well kill me too.'

'Oh, I will if I have to, Jan. I like you very much, but I'm a professional, and I have a job to do. Tell her, Sinclair.'

'Move away, Jan,' Sinclair said in the same even tone as he stared back at Insolers.

'Chant?'

'It's all right. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it immediately, without all this chitchat. Duane has something else on his mind, so it's best to let him get on with it. But he will pull the trigger if you provoke him, or if he feels you're trying to use your body to screen me. So do as he says, please.' He turned his head slightly, smiled reassuringly at Jan, who finally stepped back away from him. Then Sinclair looked back at Insolers. 'I hate to leave things unfinished. You'll take care of eliminating Black Flame for me, won't you, Duane?'

'For sure. I heard everything the little son-of-a-bitch told you, and I'll pass it on to Interpol, the NYPD, the FBI, and everybody else who needs to know. I personally guarantee they'll be put out of business.'

'Thanks. I appreciate that.'

'So you really did know all along what you were talking about, Insolers,' I said, trying to move just a bit closer to Veil. I wondered why the CIA operative was waiting to do whatever it was he planned to do, but I was in no great hurry to resolve the mystery. 'There was indeed a CIA special assassin, an insider who was a real threat-you, you prick.' I paused, swallowed, tasted bile. 'You weren't trying to run me; you were running me right along, using me to get next to John Sinclair, and I delivered him right into your lap. You're a clever man, Insolers, but you're still a fuck. I'm thinking it may be very good insurance for your future personal security if you killed me, pal, because I'm working up a real good mad at you.'

Garth said, 'Shut up, Mongo.'

Insolers nodded curtly. 'I'm sorry you feel that way, Frederickson. But you're right. I did have to find a way to get close to Sinclair, without making him suspicious and putting him on his guard. Like I said, our relationship has always been tenuous, founded more on mutual interests than real trust. I had no way to contact him, knew he wouldn't contact me, and I could never have called or come here without a very good excuse. That was taboo. I'd like to think not, but he might even have killed me if I ever came here alone or tried to contact Jan. I didn't need him angry with me; I needed him off guard.'

'So you made a snap decision and crammed all that information into my head at the very beginning, hoping that I'd do exactly what I did-eventually find my way here, bringing you along with me. But you had to be brought here against your will, kicking and screaming all the way, as a captive. It was the only way Sinclair here would buy your story that you'd come to help, the only way you could hope to get the drop on him like this.'

Insolers' response was another curt nod.

'You took a very big chance in the car back out on the highway, mister,' Veil said in a deceptively easygoing tone that was tinged with regret. 'You were pretty convincing when you had that garrote around Mongo's neck, and you can't imagine how close I came to killing you.'

Garth said, 'This is what we get for listening to Mongo.'

Insolers shrugged. 'Big jobs require big risks, and there's no bigger job than running John Sinclair to ground. I simply couldn't think of any other way to do it.'

I didn't so much actually see as sense a minute shift in the balance of the spread-eagled man standing next to me. Something was about to happen. And, despite all evidence to the contrary, not the least of which was the automatic rifle in the hands of the man standing across the room, I did not feel Duane Insolers was going to be with our little group much longer-unless I intervened, which I did. I had one big question to ask Insolers, and I wasn't going to get the answer if he was dead. Also, dead men's fingers can twitch, and that was all it would take to kill one or more of us.

I raised my right arm and put the back of my hand against Veil's stomach in what I hoped looked like a casual gesture. It was enough to stop him-for the moment.

'Explain something to me, Insolers,' I said quickly. 'John Sinclair has the knowledge, training, and mental skills to defeat that tasty truth tea Al gave us, but you don't. When Al questioned you, you did say that you'd come to help Sinclair. You didn't toss your cookies when you said it. It means you were telling the truth at the time, which makes it hard to understand what you're doing now. Care to comment?'

Insolers grunted, ejected the magazine from the rifle, dropped both it and the weapon on the floor. 'Actually, there's nothing to explain. I was trying to make an impression on Mr. Sin-Jesus Christ!'

Veil and John Sinclair had moved as one, taking their right hands out of their armpits and flicking their wrists in a single motion so quick that I perceived the motion only as a blur out of the corner of my eye. An instant later, both the throwing knife I had given to Veil and a steel shuriken thudded into the wooden casing of the bookshelf behind Insolers, a weapon on either side of his head, both barely an inch from his ears. The blood drained from his face as he took a step forward, then turned and looked back at the two razor-sharp pieces of steel that could have been embedded in his skull.

'It looks like your luck is still holding, mister,' Veil said to Insolers as he and Sinclair exchanged glances and approving nods.

'You can thank Mongo for the fact that you're still alive. That's twice he's saved your life in twenty-four hours. I hope you're going to remember him in your will.'

Jan made a hissing sound of disgust, shook her head. 'Duane, you're an idiot.'

'You look a little shaky, Duane,' Sinclair said with a wry smile. 'You want a drink?'

The CIA's deputy director of operations shook his head. 'No,' he said, and swallowed hard. 'Let's just all sit down. I have a few things to say to you, Sinclair.'

Veil unceremoniously dragged Al's body out of sight behind the sofa. Then we all sat down, with Insolers sitting in a straight-backed chair, and the rest of us on the sofa.

'What just occurred could have happened differently, Sinclair,' Insolers continued, 'and I'm not referring to the fact that you or Kendry might have killed me. You could have taken a sniper's bullet in the brain while you were standing on your balcony or walking around the grounds. The fact of the matter is that I volunteered to come over here to kill you, because if I hadn't come they were going to send somebody else-somebody who would have gotten the job done. Black Flame wasn't the only outfit gradually closing the distance over the years. The agency has also