Jeff Abbott - The Last Minute

‘No. He’s not. Don’t ever suggest that he is.’

I watched her. I needed to know her secrets while keeping my own. No way I could let her know the sisters had an interest in Mila. If she knew there was a bounty on Mila, and that Ray Brewster wanted it, then Leonie had a bargaining chip. One I could not allow her to use.

‘You knew that CIA contact. August. He’s your friend,’ she said.

‘We used to work together. We… we used to be friends.’ Were we any more? I didn’t know. It might be a friendship too expensive for either of us.

‘What exactly did you do in the CIA?’

I took another sip of the martini. ‘I worked for a small, secret branch called Special Projects. August and I worked on transnational criminal rings. They often have ties to intelligence groups or to terrorism. Very much a black ops group. I think we’re actually hidden in the budget under “vending machine contracts”.’ I was in a confessional mode. Thank you, martini, and blinding pain radiating up my arm. ‘That was a joke, Leonie.’

‘August saw me.’

‘You?’

‘Yes. I stole Ming’s knapsack. At gunpoint. Before your friend could get it.’

‘So he knows both our faces now.’

Leonie put her face in her hands, and maybe she freaked out or she mourned or worried but she only did it for twenty seconds. Then she stood up. ‘Okay. Regroup. We have to figure out where Jack will go next. Is there a place where I can work on his computer without interruption?’

‘Yes. In there, there’s a bedroom.’

‘Then why didn’t we just stay here?’

‘Because I didn’t want you to know my business. That I own this bar.’

‘Don’t you trust me?’ she said. ‘Well, I guess I answered my own question.’

‘It was need-to-know. The situation has worsened. I have resources here.’

‘Resources.’

‘Yes.’

‘Okay, another secret. Fine.’ She stood.

‘Hey. Do we tell Anna we have Jack’s computer? You know she’s going to want all the data in it.’

‘Yes,’ Leonie said without hesitation. ‘Maybe it’s enough. Maybe they’ll trade us the kids for the laptop. They could know what he knows then.’

‘Or the laptop could give us weapons to use against them. Information on who and where they are.’

‘No. We give it to them.’ Fear creased her voice.

‘No. We don’t,’ I said. ‘We use it against them. We have no guarantees they’ll give us our kids back, Leonie. We need every ounce of leverage we can get.’

‘If they know we have it, and we withheld it, they’ll kill the kids. We have to do what they say. Exactly. I won’t risk any other action.’

‘Then they don’t ever know we have it. This is our guarantee, Leonie. That we can get the kids back.’

‘They want his notebook.’

‘Yes. Maybe the laptop has the same info on it.’

‘I don’t get why a hacker would keep a paper record of the most important information. It doesn’t exactly fit his psychology.’

‘I don’t care. That’s what they want. We can use Jack Ming’s laptop to find where he might go next, to see who he could turn to. Go work. Delve. Figure out where he’ll go.’

‘If my child dies because you failed… ’

‘What, Leonie? You’ll kill me?’

‘No. I’ll just never forgive… ’ But she knew what I would lose as well, and she choked on her words. ‘Okay. What’s done is done. We have to find him.’ She paused at the door. ‘This Special Projects group at the CIA will be hunting us now?’

‘Oh, definitely.’ I thought it best not to mention that August and I had had a drink here at The Last Minute a few days ago, and he knew I owned the bar.

‘Well, at least you’re not dead.’

‘There is that,’ I said. The phone I’d been given by the lovely snake Anna rang. Leonie sucked in breath.

‘Is he dead?’ Anna said by way of hello.

‘No.’

‘I am very disappointed.’

‘He’s hurt. He was meeting the CIA. I screwed up the meeting for him. Hopefully he will not trust them enough to make another approach.’

‘And where is he?’

‘He’s running.’

‘You failed me.’

‘Technically. But I also kept him from surrendering to the CIA and pretty much ruined their relationship.’

‘That’s not enough.’

‘I probably would have killed him by now if you didn’t have people interfering.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Ray Brewster has sent three people on us.’

‘Who the hell is Ray Brewster?’

‘One of your people inside the CIA.’

‘Sam. I know you are not inclined to believe me on any point, but I do not know a Ray Brewster.’

‘You have an ally inside the CIA. Reel him in. Or you don’t get Jack Ming dead, or his notebook of goodies.’

‘Who… who are these people?’

I told her what I knew.

‘And you dispatched them?’

‘They won’t be troubling us any more.’

Anna was silent. ‘This isn’t our doing. At all. It’s your problem. Put Leonie on the line.’

I gave the phone to Leonie. ‘Anna. Is Taylor all right? Can I listen… Listen to… ’ Her voice broke. I don’t know if she listened to her child or to Anna but she said all right and she handed me back the phone.

‘Yes?’

‘The next time we talk and you tell me that Jack Ming isn’t dead, your child will suffer.’

The phone clicked off.

Leonie helped me shower in the apartment’s small bathroom. The blood and sand rinsed from me. I sported cuts and bruises and a nice slice across my chest, blood caked on my belly. She washed my hair for me in silence, soaping out the grains of sand. She helped me dry off and I found boxers to put on for the doctor’s arrival.

I didn’t tell her Anna’s threat against Daniel. The idea would unnerve her, and we had to keep our focus. I was horrified enough for the both of us.

She closed the door behind her. My arm was a dull ache. My whole body was a dull ache. But if I was hurt, then so was Ming and he couldn’t run as far, or as fast. We might have clipped each other’s wings.

I drank the rest of Leonie’s Guinness. It felt good to be alive. I wanted to keep the kids alive. The past two days made me very tired of death. I could hear the hustle of Manhattan traffic outside the windows. I closed my eyes and I only opened them again when the door opened.

Bertrand stood there. He wore a tailored, subtly pinstriped suit on his tall frame, gray, with a sky-blue tie. He muttered something in French when he saw me, which I couldn’t quite hear. He shook his head as he closed the door. I raised my arm, which screamed in protest.

‘The doctor will arrive soon, Sam.’

‘We could be in trouble. Where is Mila?’

He shrugged. ‘There was a man here. Asking for you.’

‘Blond?’ I thought it might be August.

‘No, dark-haired. He asked how often you came by the bar. I said about once a week, and you had been here yesterday. He wanted to know where you lived. I told him I didn’t know that, all I had for you was a phone number. I gave him a fake one. I don’t think it occurred to him that you have an apartment here.’

August would send someone, the bar might be under surveillance. Or it might not be. They cared about finding Jack Ming more than they cared about me. Special Projects did not have an inexhaustible supply of resources. Eight people in the New York office. If they needed more feet on the ground they’d have to call Langley.

I told Bertrand what happened. He took away the martini glasses and the pint glass and brought me ibuprofen. I swallowed four.

‘I suspect,’ he said, ‘you aren’t going to find this Jack Ming again.’