Page 31 of Trust No One

She shrugged one shoulder as she held back her tears. “Another of life’s cruel ironies. I love you, but I can’t live with you. And in spite of how you might feel about me, you can’t give me what I need. Stalemate.”

Someone was walking toward the door they were blocking, and Dev took her arm and pulled her down the staircase beside the door. They stood on the landing below the door and listened to a woman with two small children walk into the library. The kids were jumping with excitement as their mother talked to them, telling them they were going to the children’s section and would each be able to pick out three books to take home.”

Mel stood there, unmoving, until the family walked through the inner doors and the sounds of their footsteps faded away. Then she drew a deep breath. “Let’s go get some work done,” she said. “The longer we hang around here, the jumpier I’m going to get.”

“Yeah, I agree,” Dev said.

She walked up the stairs in front of him, finally stepping into the library. Scanning the signs, she saw one that read ‘Computer station’ and headed toward it.

Fifteen minutes later, they’d paid ten dollars each for an hour of computer time, and they settled in side-by-side carrels. Dev handed her a flash drive. “First of all, mark the names you recognize. I’ve already marked the ones I know. Then take the first half of the rest of the names. I’ll take the rest of them. We need to figure out who they are.”

Mel nodded. She needed a job like this to keep her focused on their mission. It had been a mistake to rehash their relationship and their breakup. It solved nothing and only complicated the time they needed to spend together.

So she took the flash drive, plugged it in to her computer, and scanned the list. She put an M next to the names she recognized, then copied the first half of the remaining names. Then she ejected the flash drive and handed it back to Dev. “I marked the ones I knew, then took the first half of what’s left,” she said.

He nodded without looking at her and copied the second half of the names. Then he, too, ejected the drive and slid it into his pocket.

Between them, she and Dev knew about half the people on the list. As she worked through her list of names, she found that most of them were CIA employees. Using the databases she’d constructed when she worked for the CIA, she marked what department they were in, who they worked for and what they did.

The remaining names were mostly FBI agents. When Gideon Wolfe was protecting his now-wife Alex Conway, they’d suspected that there were Russian assets in the Bureau. One of them turned out to be Gideon’s boss. Gideon’d been pretty sure there were more than one. Suspecting that these agents might have ties to Kingsley and Larrimore, they’d take a deep dive into these names.

Dev paid for another hour for each of them with the computers, and when they reached the end of the second hour, Mel looked over at him. “I could stay here all day and work on this,” she whispered. “But I don’t think it’s safe. We should probably leave.”

“Yeah,” Dev said. “I’m getting that tingly feeling in the back of my neck, too.”

“I need to do one more thing first,” she said in a low voice. She turned back to her computer and let her fingers fly over the keyboard. In a couple of minutes, she turned her computer off and closed it.

Dev had already packed up his computer, so they stowed them in their bags and headed for the door that led to the staircase. But instead of opening it, Dev drew her up the stairs to the top floor. “We need to do a little surveillance,” he murmured. “Look on all sides of the building for someone watching.”

“Good thinking,” she whispered walking quickly up the stairs.

When they reached the top floor of the public part of the library, they started on the side they’d entered. They stood on opposite ends of the wall of windows, studying everything. Then they moved to the next wall, followed by the final two walls. Then Dev drew her into the stacks, next to the automotive repair books.

“See anything?” he whispered.

She nodded. “Two sides of the building. Two watchers. One in a car. The other sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper like he was waiting for a bus. What about you?”

“The same,” Dev said. “Also saw cars parked illegally on the cross streets. Signs on the dashboards I couldn’t read. Should have brought binoculars.”

“Police business’ or something like that,” She muttered staring at the cars. “Any ideas who they are?”

“Almost certainly CIA agents. I figure Kingsley is in one. He wouldn’t sit on a bench. Too easy for us to see him.”

“So they have us surrounded,” Mel said.

Dev smiled. “They think so.Ithink we need to go looking for one of those tunnels. I bet there’s one on a lower floor.” He rubbed his hands together like this was a great adventure. “I’d like to check them out anyway. Now we have an excuse to do that.”

Mel drew a deep breath. There was a reason she wasn’t a field operative. She liked sitting behind her desk and directing things from the safety of her office.

Dev clearly read her expression. “Don’t worry, Mel. It’ll be fun. Who knows where we’ll end up?”

“That’s what I’m worried about,” she muttered.

“Let’s go down the stairs as far as we can. Then we’ll start looking for a door that might lead to a tunnel.”

“Ha. Like they’d be marked ‘escape tunnel’, right?” She rolled her eyes.

“Smart ass,” Dev muttered, but she saw his lips twitch. Shaking his head, he led the way to the lowest level of the library.

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