Page 115 of To Die For

Campbell seemed to have anticipated this question. “I’ve already taken this up with the highest levels of government. I laid it all out there, left nothing on the battlefield.”

“And?”

“And they have not responded, nor does it seem likely that they will.”

“So what now?”

“We will finish this mission,together. And then I am tendering my resignation. I’m done playing the bullshit games. And I’m too old and I have too much damn dignity to wrestle with pigs in the mud.”

“Yes, sir.”

CHAPTER

53

AT TEN MINUTES TO ELEVEN,Devine was nearing Gum Alley. It was cold, breezy, and a marine fog had settled in from the harbor, glazing Seattle into the Victorian London of Sherlock Holmes.

Devine pulled up his coat collar and kept his gaze roaming. He’d left the hotel early and performed a zigzag, in-and-out-of-buildings trek across the city to throw off anyone attempting to follow him. When he entered the alley, he glanced at the hardened gum revealed through the threads of fog and thought this was all beyond surreal, outdoing even the battles he’d fought in, where he’d seen things he could never unsee. Combat was horrible but straightforward. You tried to kill the enemy while they tried to do the same to you. Here, there were no sets of rules, no obvious goals, only puddles of darkness and shifting allegiances.

He kept walking, his fogs of breath joining the firmament of the marine layer. He glanced at his watch. It was one minute to eleven. There was no one else around because who would want to be out on such a foul night? Devine had no idea what to expect, maybe even a bullet in the back. Only he didn’t have much choice in the matter. He needed help to crack this case, and ironically, the woman who had tried to kill him a trio of times seemed to be his best bet.

He made it halfway down the alley and stopped. He was armed but did not intend to draw his weapon unless it was necessary. He knew he was putting a lot of trust in the woman, and he hoped it would be rewarded.

Devine’s attention turned to a shadowy figure standing along a part of the alley that was just beyond the gum on the wall.

“You want to come out where I can see you as well as you can see me?” he said.

One foot emerged and then another. Pru Jackson took three slow strides and stopped in the center of the alley facing him. She was a bit shorter than he remembered from the train and her figure was bundled under protective layers, her long coat sleeves hiding her hands. A ballcap covered her hair; dark glasses did the same with her eyes.

She looked at him but said nothing.

“I’m not in a real trusting mood, so how do I know you are who you say you are?” he asked, sensibly enough.

“The knife I was going to kill you with on the train was a Wander Tactical Megalodon with a fixed one-hundred-millimeter blade. Black Micarta handle.”

“Wander Tactical, they’re more of an outdoorsy hunter’s carry, aren’t they?”

“Well, I wasn’t outdoors on that train but I was definitely hunting. And I find that the Italians really know their knives. It cost me a packet. I don’t suppose you still have it? I assumed you took it because it wasn’t there when I woke up from your little love tap to my jaw.”

“I must have dropped it somewhere. Thanks for confirming your identity. You working with spotters tonight or did you just trust me to come alone?”

“Intel I don’t divulge,” said Jackson.

“You put a tracker on my car.”

“Lucky for you that I did; otherwise you wouldn’t be here talking to me or anyone else.”

“Okay, what’s on the program for tonight?”

Jackson drew closer. “A while back you and I were on the same side.”

“So you alluded to on the construction site easel. Feel free to elaborate.”

“I won’t tell you my name; that would be too easy. But let’s just say that I have a rather large grudge against my former employer.”

“Why?”

“Because of them for two years my home was in a prison in a country that is no friend of ours, and has no designs on treating their own citizens humanely, much less someone like me. If I hadn’t managed to escape, that would have been the end of me.”

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