by P A Duncan
“Everything okay, Mr. Bukharin? You look down. I’ve never seen you… Uh, not that I look at you all the time or anything.”
Which meant she had. “Long and fruitless day,” he said, turning his back.
Clad only in an expensive robe, Nelson limped from his bedroom after Alexei let himself in without knocking. Alexei saw a shadow pass behind Nelson, enough to determine it was a naked woman.
“Entertaining?” Alexei asked, sitting on one of the facing sofas.
Nelson eased onto the sofa opposite. “Very,” he said, winking.
“Anyone I know?”
“St. Augustine, new HQ operative.”
Alexei brought to mind a face to match the name. Impossibly young. “I’m impressed.”
“Hopefully, so was she.” Nelson turned on the sofa and elevated his bad leg. His whole body, the mussed hair, the languid posture bespoke his post-coital bliss.
“First of all,” Alexei said, “tell Grace I appreciate Analysis’ effort. Only Elijah and Carroll know the where.”
“I was going to have her and a core group continue.”
“Was?”
“I’ll explain soon enough. I have the White House situation room bugged, but give me your impressions.”
“You heard everything?”
“Oh, yes.”
“What do you think?”
“You did fine. Michelle also thought you’d be the better briefer. She’s had some operations with the FBI, or the Federal Bureau of Misogyny as she calls them.”
“Michelle? Oh, Ms. St. Augustine. Should Mai have done it?”
“She was right to push you to do it. She would’ve handed Brasseau his nuts, maybe literally, in five minutes. They listened to you far longer than they would have to her.”
“If you’ve bugged the Situation Room, what did they talk about after I left?”
“They went to another room to confer, one I don’t have bugged. It would have been the same outcome no matter who briefed them. As at Killeen, the FBI doesn’t want our help.”
“The White House records Situation Room meetings, correct?”
“Yes, and I’m sure the FBI will study the tapes. They may find something useful. Eventually.”
“Not in time,” Alexei said and sighed. “Let me get home, get some sleep. Mai and I will hit the road again to look for Carroll.”
“I got a call from Randolph a few minutes ago. Thanked me, asked me to give Mai his regards, and withdrew the protocol.”
“Can it be an unofficial mission?”
“I thought about it, but here’s what I’m willing to do. I’ll leave the surveillance in place on the Duvals and Carroll’s father. Grace’s people will continue to work on narrowing down a target. If they uncover something, I’ll pass it through channels.”
“No field work?”
“Wait and see what Analysis can do. If something pops, I’ll reconsider a director-authorized mission. All files, papers, photos, etc., at your home office need to be shipped here. Nathan will fix it so you can access everything digitally, with a kill switch at your end if the Fibbers batter in your door.”
“To search my house? Unbelievable. Was the decision political?”
“Definitely. The ninety-four elections shook Randolph badly, and he’s decided to out-Republican the Republicans. His new chief counsel is one. Since they have such a distrust of the United Nations, he can’t be caught having anything to do with us.”
“It’ll be the first thing he hasn’t been caught in.”
Nelson smirked at that. “This guy’s word holds a lot of sway.”
“Randolph told a political hack about us?”
“I can almost confirm it, but not to worry. This particular, long-married political hack has a wandering eye. I managed to hook him up with a local escort we use. He likes to have his toes sucked. At a suitable time, she’ll threaten to sell that story to a tabloid, I’ll step in to save him from embarrassment, and he’ll be beholden. You didn’t have to stop here, unless you’re putting off going home.”
“She thinks I’m convinced things are good between us, but we still have a ways to go. This news will make her withdraw again.”
“She can listen to the whole briefing, if she wants.”
“Yes, well, time to face the music.” Alexei nodded toward the bedroom and smiled. “Try to get some sleep tonight.”
28
The Coldest Blood of All
Mount Vernon, Virginia
Mai didn’t know what woke her. She rose, one hand reaching beneath her pillow for her gun, the other for Alexei. His side of the bed was empty. She looked at the clock. Two thirty-six. She went to the hallway and looked down into the foyer. Light from the direction of the kitchen. So she wouldn’t wake Natalia, she tiptoed downstairs.
Alexei’s suit jacket and tie lay on the kitchen counter, a corkscrew and discarded cork beside them. The keypad next to the office door indicated someone was inside. Mai punched in the code and entered.
Alexei’s desk lamp was a small pool of brightness in the dark. Directorate archive boxes were scattered about. Alexei looked up from packing one when she entered, his eyes unfathomable.
“What’s all this?” she asked.
“Packing.”
“Tell me the obvious, Alexei. Why?”
He nodded to her desk, where he’d stacked the originals of Carroll’s letters and the mini cassettes with his recorded messages. “I left those for you.”
When he didn’t answer direct questions, he had something to hide. “What happened?” Mai asked.
“Our conclusions were incomplete, according to Emmet Brasseau, and, therefore, unreliable.”
“The action plan?”
“I wasn’t allowed to present it.”
“What the bloody hell is wrong with these people?”
“I’ve asked myself the same question. I don’t have an answer.”
“We’ll get back on the road tomorrow.”
“The President withdrew the protocol. Analysis will continue its work. If they find something, Nelson will pass it through channels.”
“Is he insane? No, wait. I heard he’s doing one of the new operatives. No blood is getting to his brain. We need to change his mind.”
“He won’t change it.”
“Did you try?”
“Of course. We have to archive all the physical material. Our case notes and other supporting documents have already been digitized, and we’ll have access to that. The surveillance will continue in Arizona and New York. No field work.”
“That’s not enough.”
“It’s all we’ve got.”
“What an epitaph for those who might die if we can’t stop Jay.”
“I know that.”
“You blew a simple briefing.”
Alexei stopped his packing and looked at her, his anger transmitting across the room. “You’re the one who didn’t take care of this yourself. Don’t blame me.” He drained his glass of wine and poured a generous replacement. Half the bottle was gone.
“I explained why I shouldn’t do the briefing.”
“I’m not talking about that. If you’d pulled the trigger… Are you going to pack those or shall I?”
She bit back a nasty retort. “Why do we have to archive our original case materials?”
“Nelson thinks the FBI will arrive with search warrants.”
Mai went to her desk and reached for the stack of letters. “I’ll take care of these.” She took a box and began to fill it.
“I’m done here, and I’m beat. I want to sleep for a week.”
“As soon as the digital access goes live, I’ll go back over everything. Maybe I missed something. Maybe I’ll find something that didn’t stand out before. Damn, Alexei, that’s not enough.”
“It has to be.”
“You’re so bloody complacent. You don’t give a damn about what’s going to happen.”
“Look, Brasseau pissed me off, and I’m tired. Emoting won’t
do any good.”
“I’m emoting?”
“Yes, and I’m not in the mood for it.”
“You’re a cold-blooded bastard.”
“That’s old baggage, Mai.”
“You’d rather the new baggage?”
“I’m going to bed before this becomes an argument.” He gathered his glass and the bottle and headed for the door.
“People will die if we can’t stop this,” she said to his back.
He turned to her. “All I want to do is sleep, but you won’t let this alone. So be it. You should have thought about casualties when your hormones kept you from killing John Carroll.”
“I didn’t shoot him because, unlike you, I don’t kill people in cold blood. For fun.”
He took a step toward her and stopped. “And what he’s going to do is the coldest blood of all. Blame me to ease your conscience, but you’re the one who had the gun in his gut and didn’t pull the trigger. I’ll remind you of that on April nineteenth.”
He left her alone.
Mai finished her packing. Despite her anger with him, in the morning, she and Alexei would plan. She indulged herself with the fantasy of dumping Elijah, Carroll, and the others on the floor before Brasseau’s desk. The expression on his face would be worth it.
When she returned to the bedroom, Alexei was awake but in bed, finishing the wine by swigging from the bottle. His bleary eyes held no anger when he looked at her. She hesitated to climb into bed. Fat chance she’d agree to sex after that discussion.
“I thought you were tired,” she said. She got in bed, staying as far from him as possible. That was too familiar.
“I was waiting for you. I was…inappropriate, and I’m sorry.”
“That’s not getting you sex.”
“Contrary to what you believe, I don’t think about that all the time.” He shook his head and drank again.
“All right, we’re both tired,” Mai said. “Much of what we both said was inappropriate.” That was as close to an apology as she’d go.
“I never wanted this mission,” Alexei said. “From the start, it bothered me.” He set the empty bottle on the nightstand. “In the morning, I…” He slept, snoring lightly.
Mai turned her back to him. The mattress shifted as he moved closer to her. She edged away. Dawn crept in before sleep overtook her, and she dreamed of John Carroll, dead by her hand.
29
The Ides of March
Alexandria, Virginia
When Edwin Terrell joined Mai Fisher at the picnic table, he said, “You picked an auspicious day to meet.”
She sat on the table’s top, feet on the bench. He sat next to her, their arms touching. She wore running clothes, and her face was flushed from exertion.
He handed her a cup of coffee, one of the fancy concoctions.
“Auspicious, how?” she asked.
“‘Who is it in the press that calls on me? I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music, cry “Caesar!” Speak, Caesar is turn’d to hear.’”
Terrell could almost see the play’s lines forming in her head, good English schoolgirl she’d been.
“‘Beware the Ides of March,’” she replied.
“‘What man is that?’”
“‘A soothsayer bids you beware the Ides of March.’”
“‘Set him before me; let me see his face. What say’st thou to me now? Speak once again,’” Terrell continued.
“‘Beware the Ides of March.’”
“‘He is a dreamer. Let us leave him. Pass.’”
Mai drank more coffee and watched the marina activity.
“Are you making a point or reminding me you have a degree in English Literature?” she asked.
“I guess it’s the Ides of April you need to beware.” Even with her face in profile, her eyes covered by the wrap-around RayBans, he saw she was unhappy.
“Gave it the old school try and all that rot,” she said.
“You shoulda given the briefing.”
“I had my reasons.”
“Alexei’s speaking skills didn’t win the day?”
“I’m finding it difficult not to blame him.”
Terrell’s hazel eyes scanned the area, assessing, seeking any enemies. Though he always expected them, he never found them. “You back to fucking him?” he asked.
“On occasion.”
“Shitty for me. You sent the Bat Signal. What’s up?”
“Officially, I’m off this mission,” she said.
She was quiet for so long Terrell thought she’d forgotten he sat beside her. When she did speak, he had to strain to hear.
“Was I naive when I decided I wouldn’t fuck anybody for information?” she asked.
“My opinion didn’t matter. What’s that all about?”
“I’m missing a vital piece of information. I worked this guy harder than I’ve ever worked anyone. I’d decided to fuck his brains out to get him to tell me.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You know what happened.”
“Oh, letting someone beat you silly for no good reason.”
“I thought John Carroll was so in love with me, I could turn him. Instead, he dumped me and headed off with the nutcase preacher.” She drank more coffee and gave a grimace that might have been a smile. “Since I was deliberately not getting any from my husband, I might have enjoyed the fucking part. I should have opted for that instead of potential martyrdom.”
“Why do you think this guy would’ve spilled his guts after you fucked him?”
She looked at him and smiled. “Think about it.”
“Yeah, you’re damned good in bed, Baby, but beyond that, why?”
“Maybe he’d be like most men and brag in bed.”
“Everything I bragged about I fulfilled. Why the second-guessing?”
“I don’t know. The thing with Alexei. Put me off my game.” She looked at him again, the smile lopsided this time. “I know. Me, letting the personal interfere with a mission.”
“You’re thorough, you’re fearless, and you know how to get things done. Sometimes an operative does everything right, but the mission goes bad. We’ve all had ‘em. We put ‘em behind us and move on.” He looked at her. The slight smile remained, making him want to kiss her; he wanted to taste the coffee on her tongue. “Back to the reason for the Bat Signal. What do you want from me?”
“Can you find my missing piece of information?”
“Where your buddy is doing his big blow? That would cost a fucking bundle.”
“How much?”
“No, don’t ask this of me.”
“Why? Conflict of interest?” The smile became a smirk, and she drank more coffee.
“I may do some consulting for people your bleeding heart doesn’t approve of, but I don’t take blood money.”
“Taking down a duly elected president is okay, though?”
“If Nelson told you about that, he told you why. No, it’s not a conflict of interest. It’s a matter of resources. I don’t have inroads where I’d need to look, and because the clock’s ticking, it would take a ton of money.”
“Snake, I’m worth several hundred million. It won’t run out.”
“Why are you hell-bent on this? Didn’t you give them a plan to find out where the Big Bang is happening?”
“President Randolph kicked Alexei out before he could present it.”
“And you wonder why I want Randolph out? You didn’t answer me about being so hell-bent.”
“I don’t like to fail.”
“How did you fail?”
“Are you deaf? I don’t know where the fucking bomb is going off.”
“A minor detail.”
“Not to the people who’ll be collateral damage.”
“You did your bit, Baby, but he’s a paranoid speed freak, right? No way he’d share that kind of secret with a woman he wants to fuck.”
“That wasn’t why. He wanted to protect Siobhan.”
“You didn’t list
en to me at The Wall. You care about this bastard. Screw the bleeding heart and the collateral damage. You don’t want anything to happen to him. By the way, Siobhan doesn’t exist, but she managed to kill the last terrorist she was in love with. Tell me something, Mai. How come you could kill someone you’d slept with and not someone you hadn’t? And don’t say you didn’t have the opportunity. You could have double-tapped him months ago and moved on.”
“I’m not…” She pursed her lips.
“Not me? Not Alexei? Damned right. That was Alexei’s failing. He had his head so far up your skirt when he was training you, he agreed to your ‘no killing except in self-defense’ crap. If I’d trained you, John Carroll would have been mourned by his family for months now.”
“And Elijah would find someone else.”
“You kill that one, too, and every one after that. You made your choices long ago, Baby. Now you have to live with them.”
“Why do I even bother with you?”
“Oh, I don’t agree with your moaning and groaning over a mission that didn’t go the way you wanted, and I’m the bad guy?”
The pulse at her throat increased, signaling her anger. Better that than the wallowing. She took the lid from her cup, drained the last of her coffee, and hopped down from the table to discard the cup in the nearest trash can. When she returned, she stood between the spread of his legs. With his only hand, he hooked a finger through the zipper pull on her jacket, tugging her close. His hand cupped her cheek.
“‘I must be cruel only to be kind,’” he said.
“‘Thus bad begins and worse remains behind,’” she responded. “You are into Shakespearean metaphor today.”
“You understand what I’m trying to say?”
“Yes. I needed reassurance from someone other than the man I sleep with, and you’re not providing it.”
Terrell kissed her, a press of his lips only. Her lips parted, and he withdrew. “Since when do you need reassurance from men?” he asked.
She opened her mouth to say something, thought better of it, and shook her head.