Last Chance to Die by Noah Boyd (large screen ebook reader .txt) 📗

with a calm that was intended to contrast the assistant director’s anger.

“You can’t do that,” Langston said, his voice quieter now but still strained.

“Not the first time I’ve heard that this week,” Vail said. “To keep this civil, I’m going to pretend that you are going to accept what I’m about to say, although I seriously doubt you will. You and I come with two different sets of instructions. Where your methods end, mine begin. I wasn’t brought into this because I was likely to follow the agent handbook. And I’ll continue to do what I think is necessary until the director tells me to turn around and go home. Don’t take my tactics personally. What I do has only one purpose—to find the answer. It has nothing to do with you.”

“I’m not asking you to do things differently. I’m just asking you to keep me informed.”

Vail laughed. “Did you really want me to let you know I was going to break into property owned by the Russian embassy?”

It was at that moment Langston realized how foolish he was being. Of course Vail was right. He was taking all the chances, and although Langston wasn’t exactly in charge, his division’s major problem was being resolved. The time would come when Vail was no longer needed, a time when the assistant director could grab the reins of the investigation from him and claim its success. As though in response to Vail’s question, Langston laughed. “I didn’t say I wanted to be informed of everything.”

Vail was surprised at Langston’s apparent change of heart. “Good, because right now this is a race between us and the Russians, and they have Calculus, a distinct advantage.”

“Your argument is not without merit. But if you do identify any more spies, please let me know. Preferably before you kill them.”

Vail started to climb out of the car. “If not before, you’re the first one I’ll call from the lockup.”

Langston watched him get back into his car. He said to Kalix, “What do you think about all this?”

“In the plus column, there’s one less spy to deal with. However, he is dead, so there will be no intelligence to come out of it. And politically, because of the director, you have no choice but to give Vail his head. He may well find all these spies if you don’t try to control him. But you have to protect yourself if this blows up—which, given the way he operates, it most likely will.”

“From now on, John, your number-one priority is to make sure anything that Vail does is not traceable to me. That I had no knowledge of his activities beforehand. If we can manage that, he’s got a deputy assistant director at his side, and she’ll have to take the hit.”

An unmarked police car pulled up, and two detectives got out. Vail went over to them and introduced himself, giving them a brief explanation of what had happened.

“We’re going to be at the scene for a while. Can you come in and give us a statement tomorrow morning, say, nine o’clock?” one of them asked, handing Vail a card.

“I’ll be there.”

Kate and Vail had been driving for a few minutes before she said, “You know that when Langston reports to the director that you found the first name on the list, he’s going to try to turn it around and blowtorch you.”

“The next time you feel the need to ask me why I don’t come back to the Bureau, please remember that.”

“Believe me, I won’t bring it up again,” Kate said. “What do you want to do now?”

“Smelling all this smoke, I was thinking barbecue.”

Once they got into Washington, it didn’t take long to find a neighborhood barbecue restaurant. It was an old place, with sagging wooden floors and rickety Formica tables. The embossed-tin ceiling was stained brown from decades of cooking residue. When Kate and Vail walked in, the place was filled with regulars, who cautiously sized them up at a glance as cops. The house specialties were ribs and brisket. Kate watched the waitress deliver a plate full of meat and fries to an adjoining table and ordered a salad. Vail ordered the brisket.

“What makes you so sure that there’s something else on the disc?” she said.

“I can’t imagine Calculus leaving that Ariadne clue without there being anything to it. But if Pollock was supposed to supply the next step, we may be finished. Which, if nothing else, will make Langston happy. He’ll be able to lay it all off on me, and I’m not sure he’d be wrong.”

Kate laughed sarcastically. “Come on, Vail. Contrition? It doesn’t come in your size. And surrender? You? What are you planning that you’re not telling me about? You’re going to break into Pollock’s house, aren’t you?”

“You’re forgetting that I’m just passing through. And although I enjoy being shot at as much as the next guy, one of these fools might actually hit me.”

“You were passing through Los Angeles, too.”

“I was blinded by your charms.”

The waitress brought the food and asked Vail if he needed anything else. He tilted his head playfully and said, “Would you tell my sister here that you can’t live on salad?”

The waitress laughed agreeably, handed him the check, and went back to the kitchen.

“Cute,” Kate said.

“Sorry. I went weak in the knees from having a woman smile warmly at me.”

“It didn’t look like your knees from here, bricklayer.” She ate a forkful of salad, then said, “So that’s it? You can’t think of anything else to do?”

“How about we go back and take another look at everything, including the DVD.”

She watched as Vail started working his way through the mounds of smoked meat and potatoes. He’d been right about the waitress; she had kept eye contact with him a moment longer than necessary. Kate had seen other women look at him the same way. Although he wasn’t particularly handsome, women sensed something about him that was both primal and protective. She had noticed it as