Page 115 of Nobody's Hero

Tas frowned. ‘You’re lying,’ he said.

‘Am I? You look like you need a five-pint blood transfusion. She looked like she needed a spa day. Your cough sounds like a death rattle. She didn’t even have one. But mainly I know she didn’t have cancer because she told me. It was part of her cover. Made it acceptable for her to have extended time off.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ he said. ‘Miss Wexmore is a principled woman.’

‘Wasa principled woman. She’s dead.’

Tas pushed himself off the stern. Picked up his punch-dagger.

‘Relax, Jakob,’ Koenig said. ‘I didn’t kill her.’

‘How?’

‘She stuck something very sharp into something very soft.’

‘She killed herself? Why?’

‘The same reason she killed Stillwell Hobbs,’ Koenig said. ‘To protect the plan.’

‘When?’

Koenig gestured towards the sky. ‘Up there, not two hours ago. Right after we’d figured outshewas the organ grinder andyouwere the monkey. She didn’t want to give up anything.’ He took a silent moment. ‘Which is ironic considering we now know everything.’

‘Everything?’

‘Almost. We know she did this to avenge her daughter’s death. We know she planned to open Pandora’s box. We know she planned to trigger a mass migration event by attacking a body of water. “Badwater.” Wasn’t that what Konstantin said to you before you met with Stillwell Hobbs?’

Tas stared into space. ‘The server was his daughter?’

Koenig nodded.

Tas shook his head in admiration. He whistled. ‘I didn’t like Hobbs, but he came highly recommended. I’m told his daughter is even worse. I hope you didn’t annoy her. She isn’t the kind of person you want holding a grudge.’

‘No, I think she really likes me,’ Koenig said.

Tas smiled. ‘I think that is a small lie?’

Koenig pinched his fingers together. ‘A teeny-tiny one. However, Bess Carlyle told Margaret a whopper.’

‘A whop . . . I’m not familiar—’

‘A lie, Jakob. A big one. Margaret told you certain people had to die to maximise the impact of the mass migration.’

Tas nodded. ‘Miss Wexmore said it would be like the controlled demolition of a skyscraper. A substantial explosion followed by a series of coordinated precision explosions. Bring the skyscraper down exactly where you want it.’

‘This boat is the substantial explosion?’

Tas nodded.

‘And the people Hobbs and Nash killed were the precision explosions?’

Tas nodded again.

Koenig shook his head. ‘Wrong. Carlyle put those people into the plan for one reason, and one reason only: to act as a ticking clock. The same way rock bands play the same preshow music over the PA so the stage crew know how close they are to curtain up. Carlyle sacrificed nineteen people so she’d know how close we were to the trigger event. So maybe you’re not as in control as you thought.’

‘I’m where I need to be, when I need to be, and the people trying to stop me are wheretheyneed to be.’

‘Your trail? The one so obvious even the stupidest federal agents could follow it? That bullshit with the phones in New Silloth. The bodies you left in the paint warehouse. Giving the guy at the marina the keys to your Lincoln Navigator. Making everyone think the Hoover Dam is the target.’

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