Page 70 of Master of Lies

Not a little tap. A long, long hiss. The drug came out in a cloud around us as we struggled. Two seconds—three—four, and I gasped in a big, honking chestful of it.

I felt the effects right away. The room wavered and distorted. Proportions shifted and warped. The room swelled out, huge like a football field, the bed lost in the middle of it. I had become tiny, doll-like, in that vast space.

Jed’s arm thudded down onto the cover next to my face. It felt like a tree falling.

“Poison?” His voice seemed distorted. Booming, but strangely far away.

I tried to speak. Tried again, and just barely got the words out. “Not poison.”

“Then what? Knock-out stuff? Is someone coming for me?”

I shook my head, but was unable to lift it. “A truth serum,” I whispered.

There was nothing to say but the truth. It was the only thing relevant or useful. Deceit wasn’t worth my limited energy. Everything was put at the service of the truth.

Jed looked outraged. “Truth serum? I never lied to you.”

“You handcuffed me.” Anger gave me the energy to form words. “You tricked me. Staked me out. Left me alone in the dark. Youbastard.”

“That was a mistake. A fuck-up. Not a lie.”

“Bullshit,” I said. “Did you set Shane up?”

He turned his head and looked straight into my eyes. “Fuck, no,” he said.

“There were fifteen million dollars deposited into an offshore account that I traced back to you,” I said.

“Not mine,” he said. “A set-up. Frame job.”

“Fifteen million dollars? Just to gaslight us? Give me a break, Jed. That is one expensive prop. I don’t buy it. Don’t insult my intelligence.”

“I’m not.” His eyes burned with intensity. “I never had a brother. I never had a family that gave a shit about me, not before Shane and Ethan. They were brothers for me. The first family I’d ever had, and I wouldn’t sell them out for fifteen million, or fifteen billion. I’d die for them. Or for you.”

I stared at him, throat quivering. My eyes were wet. Not a great look for a steely-eyed interrogator.

This was my dream version of his confession. I craved these words from him. I’d gone to crazy lengths to force him to prove it, and now, even when he was stoned out of his mind on a huge dose of truth drug, I still didn’t dare believe him.

He squeezed his eyes shut, cursing under his breath. “Jesus, this stuff is intense,” he muttered. “How long do the effects last?”

“No idea,” I admitted. “You held my finger down on the nozzle. I think we both got something like a triple dose. Maybe more.”

“You must really want to punish me.”

“I just needed to know if you’re fucking with me,” I said. “About what happened. The Ready Line massacre.”

“I am not,” he said. “It happened just like I said. I never lied. I tried to withhold some truths, sure, but that’s useless with you. You’re like a goddamn freight train.” He rolled over onto his side. “This stuff is debilitating,” he murmured. “I’m as weak as a kitten. Wouldn’t it be fucking funny if Boer found us right now?”

I let out a snort of laughter. “About as funny as it would have been if he’d found me while I was cuffed to the headboard.”

Jed’s face contracted. He clapped a hand over his face.

“What, you think that’s funny?” I asked, offended.

“No,” he said, his voice muffled behind his hand. “You’refunny. But that thought is really horrible. Not funny at all.”

“Yup, you got that right,” I agreed. “So tell me what happened, the night of the Ready Line massacre.”

Jed’s eyes went faraway. “It was an ambush. Shane and I were heading back to headquarters. We stopped at a downed tree, and I got out. Someone shot a tranq dart at me. I went down. When I woke up, I was upside down, and my face was stuffed into the exploded airbag of my car. I had been shoved off the bridge. The car was totaled, but I was still in one piece, maybe because the trees slowed me on the way down. I had to die in that car for their frame job to hold water, but the airbag worked too well, and I crawled away before they could get down to me and finish me off.”

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