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

“Kate, we’ve been through this.”

Her eyes softened as she looked away from him. “Do you know what our problem is? Two people cannot get involved with each other, truly involved, without becoming vulnerable, and that is something you and I have guarded against our entire lives.” She smiled sadly. “Sorry, I was just hoping—you know. But no one understands better than Steve Vail how frivolous hope is.”

“Hope isn’t necessarily frivolous, but by inference it is a long shot,” he said. “Right now you’re still unsettled with all of this. Anybody would be. You may think you want things to be a little more permanent, but give it a couple of days. You go back to work, put up with me hanging around for a while, and then we’ll figure out where everything is going.”

She looked directly at him again and steadied her eyes against his gaze. “Right now I am feeling vulnerable, and for the first time in my life I’m not afraid of it. Maybe because I know that no matter what happens, you’ll be there. That’s a nice feeling.”

“I’m happy for you, Kate. I genuinely am. I don’t know if that’s a possibility for me.” He turned and watched out the window. She realized he was struggling to understand that kind of commitment.

“So, Vail,” she said, her voice now lightheartedly official in an effort to change the mood, “I’m curious. Are you satisfied that we got everybody? You seem distracted since John gave us the news.”

Vail turned back and gave her a small, courteous smile. “You know I’m never satisfied. I’m afraid that tomorrow I’ll find that chimney torn down again.”

“I know when you start thinking that way, there usually is someone else involved.”

“Does anything bother you about this case?”

“Do you mean other than me being thrown in prison?”

Vail laughed. “Yes, other than that.”

“We’ve talked about this before. Why did they kill all the double agents?”

“And our best guess was that they didn’t want to embarrass Moscow with revelations of Russia spying against the U.S. But then why didn’t they kill Rellick? He said they wanted to take him to Moscow because he had been exposed.”

“Did they?” she asked. “Maybe they were setting him up to kill him, too. They just didn’t know where he was.”

Vail thought about the list of CIA informants Rellick was trying to sell and conceded that maybe Kate was right, that they would have killed him once they had the information. “You’re probably right.”

“What difference does it make? All those who should go to hell are on their way. And you and I are talking about scuba diving.”

“We’ll see.”

“I really hope you’re talking about the scuba diving.”

When the cab pulled up to Kate’s apartment, she said, “Do you want to come in?” She knew he wouldn’t, because she could see he was still distracted. And she suspected that her talk about vulnerability was making him cautious.

“Thanks, Kate, but I’ve got some things I need to do.”

“Well, that’s certainly vague enough,” she said. “Tell me the truth, what are the chances of my seeing you at the director’s office tomorrow morning?”

“I don’t think I really belong there. You guys will be celebrating, and after Florida I’ll be back in Chicago scratching for work.”

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe the director would feel better about your turning him down if he could thank you in person?”

“He asked me to work on a case, not his feelings.”

“I hope you’re not planning on sneaking out of town tonight.”

“I told you, I’m going to help Luke for a couple of days—or at least until we run out the rest of those leads,” Vail said. “Why would you think I would do that? I came here to see you.”

“And you’ve seen me. All of me.”

“Let me just say in my defense, dating a jailbird isn’t all that easy.”

She leaned over and kissed him lightly on the lips. “We prefer ‘ex-con.’ ”

28

Kate was the last to arrive at the director’s office. “Good morning,” Bob Lasker said. “It looks like everyone is still standing. Nice work, people.” Nodding at Kate, he said, “I thought Steve might be coming with you.”

“I think he didn’t want to turn down another of your job offers. And you know how he likes to be thanked.”

“He hasn’t gone back to Chicago already, has he?”

“He promised me he wouldn’t, but . . .” She shrugged her shoulders.

“I can’t figure out what drives him.”

“I’m sure hearing that would make him very happy, sir.”

The director laughed. “Okay, let’s get down to business.” He turned to Bursaw. “Luke, let’s start with you. Do you have any aspirations to come to headquarters?”

“Me? Coming to this building every day? I’m sorry, sir, but I enjoy bad-mouthing management far too much to give it up.”

“I guess that answers the question of why Steve trusts you. Just remember you have a Get Out of Jail Free card should you need one.”

“I’m sure you won’t have to hold on to it for very long.”

“And, Kate, you’ll go back to your old job as deputy AD simply because of the amount of paperwork that has piled up in your absence. I wouldn’t give that to my worst enemy.”

“Nothing would make me happier.”

“So do we have any loose ends we need to tend to?” No one said anything. “No. Then I’ve got one more item of interest. Bill Langston has been reassigned as AD in charge of training at Quantico. Effective immediately, I am appointing John Kalix to the position of assistant director of counterintelligence. I’m concerned about how the Russians manipulated the Bureau and almost destroyed the reputation of a deputy assistant director. John was involved, sometimes to the point of great personal danger, in the entire investigation and because of that is more equipped, I feel, to prevent it from happening again. ”

Kalix’s face was expressionless. Apparently the director had told him of the promotion previously. Kate recalled Kalix’s comment that Langston had ordered an end to the investigation into whom