by Rick Mofina
Sydowski had no rights here. No say in the matter.
“Sure, Ben. I understand.” Sydowski patted his shoulder and left.
Reed was the only reporter with access to Wyatt, who gave him the full account of Olivia being his girlfriend; how Vryke had locked onto her and how he had locked onto Vryke. At one stage, Wyatt told him he couldn’t have tracked Vryke without Reed’s information.
“Like you said, Tom, it was the key.”
In the weeks after Vryke’s story broke, the Star suspended Brader for harassing Molly Wilson.
Around that time, the Star revoked Reed’s suspension, giving him, instead, a three-week paid vacation. He used it to stay home and reconnect with his family. He also picked up on his crime novel. Reed and Ann went out to dinners and movies. He dropped by her stores. They began talking about a second honeymoon and future plans when he got a job offer from the New York Times. The job was in New York. National crime features.
“Take your time to think it over, Tom,” the editor said.
Reed was doing just that when a few days later, Violet Stewart, a senior editor at the Star caught wind of the Times pitch and called Reed with a heartfelt and fair proposal. She would give Reed an additional three weeks of paid vacation to think it all over. The Star was then willing to negotiate with him against whatever the Times, or any other news organization, offered him.
“We’d like to keep you, Tom.”
When Reed first met Ann in college she told him how she had dreamed of owning a children’s clothing store in Manhattan. Maybe this was an opportunity for both of them. He turned to her for advice.
“What do you think of these offers?”
“What about my offer, Tom? Nobody can match it,” she said as they buckled their seatbelts in the first class section of a 747 bound for Hawaii.
“Stay home and write novels?”
“Yes. The stores are doing just fine.”
Reed looked at Zach, playing with his newest computer game. He was doing much better since they had gotten rid of the mice and switched his office and Zach’s bedroom.
“I don’t know, Ann. What do you think about expanding your empire to New York?”
“Are you serious? I love New York. You’re seriously considering the Times?”
“I think we should seriously consider everything.”
“Glad you see it that way.”
“But we’ve got lots of time to think,” Reed said as the jet lifted off, pushing them into their seats. “For now, let’s have fun.”
A few days after Vryke’s death, a lawyer arrived at the San Francisco medical examiner’s office in the Hall of Justice. She was there to claim Vryke’s body and ensure interment in Florida. A plot had been purchased in a small cemetery in Brevard County not far from Cape Canaveral, the Kennedy Space Center, and the beaches where he had played as a boy.
The modest granite headstone would have Vryke’s name, date of birth, and death, over a few lines of inscription:
Revelation 24
It was Vryke’s monumental cyber-attack program that would eclipse R-23, for it was designed to adapt to technology under development. Not a soul knew of it, for it was lying dormant, its timer set for July 20, 2004, the thirty-fifth anniversary of the lunar landing, the day Vryke would be resurrected to give meaning to the final words on his headstone:
AND THE WORLD SHALL KNOW HIS NAME.
AUTHOR’S NOTE and ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The parts of this book that ring true do so because of the kind and generous contributions of several people. Among them: the late Pierce R. Brooks, Captain, L.A.P.D., who conceived the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. Inspector Ed Erdelatz, San Francisco Homicide Detail (Ret.), now with the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Tom Knowles, Unit Chief, FBI Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, Quantico. Special Agent Diana Snyder, VICAP Coordinator, FBI San Francisco Division. Special Agent Andrew Black, Media Coordinator, FBI San Francisco Division. Sergeant Larry Wilson, Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Ottawa. Daniel Rahn, Crime Scene Bloodstain Pattern Analyst, Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Toronto Police Service. Ontario Provincial Police.
For their computer expertise, my thanks to Darryl Gittins and Dereck Louw, who know that this story was completed prior to the emergence of the infamous Code Red worm. And to Wendy Dudley. To my literary agent Mildred Marmur and to Jeff Aghassi. To Ann LaFarge, Laurie Parkin, Steve Zacharius, Doug Mendini, Joan Schulhafer and everyone at Kensington. Barbara, my wife, who made this book, and my previous books, better. To relatives, colleagues, and friends for their overwhelming support. Special thanks to John and Jeannine Rosenberg, who make good things happen.
Again I am indebted to booksellers everywhere, for without them a writer’s story remains an untold tale.
And to you, the reader. Thanks for your time. Hope you enjoyed the ride.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Mofina is a former crime reporter and the award-winning author of several acclaimed thrillers. He's interviewed murderers face-to-face on death row; patrolled with the LAPD and the RCMP. His true crime articles have appeared in The New York Times, Marie Claire, Reader’s Digest and Penthouse. He's reported from the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Africa, Qatar and Kuwait's border with Iraq.
New York Times Bestselling author, Tess Gerritsen, says: "Rick Mofina's tense taut writing makes every thriller he writes an adrenaline-packed ride." His short stories have been selected for anthologies by Michael Connelly, Peter Robinson, Ed Gorman, the Mystery Writers of America and the United Kingdom's, Crime Writers Association.
The International Thriller Writers, The Private Eye Writers of America and The Crime Writers of Canada have listed Rick Mofina's titles as being among the best in the world.
His books have been published in 21 countries and have been praised by James Patterson, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Lee Child, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver, Sandra Brown, James Rollins, Brad Thor, Nick Stone, David Morrell, Allison Brennan, Heather Graham, Linwood Barclay, Peter Robinson, Håkan Nesser and Kay Hooper.
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