Chris Mooney - World Without End

Riley sat upright.

"I'm not sure what you're referring to."

"Your drug problems."

Riley's face drained of color. He stared at Bouchard for a long moment, the dude sitting there all confident, maybe even a little smug, and then he thought, Who the fuck do you think you are? And where the fuck do you get off coming in here and asking questions that are none of your fucking business?

And then, under his anger, another voice said, How the hell does he know about your drug problem? This guy a cop?

"I'm sorry," Bouchard said.

"I don't mean to be forward. But my experience with people with drug problems is " "That they're all liars," Riley finished for him.

"Well, I'm not. Now that we've got that out of the way, how about you tell me what your connection with Steve is."

"Steve worked for me. For the CIA."

Riley started laughing.

Bouchard's face was dead serious.

"Steve's been working for me since he got out of college. That's one of the reasons why he moved around so much. I can't get into the specifics, so please, don't ask."

"Wait. Wait a second, back up." This was… Riley didn't know what the fuck this was. This conversation was taking on this bizzaro aspect that he didn't care for at all. Let's hit rewind and start over, shall -we?

"I'm sure this seems unbelievable, but you have to trust me when I say I'm telling you the truth. That's why this has to stay confidential.

Now tell me, what do you know about Praxis?"

"I know…" Riley stopped. He took a moment to regroup and refocus.

"Praxis is the company Steve works for. They're based out of Austin."

"That's right. Did he tell you about the company?"

"I know they make fiber-optic cameras. Steve mentioned something about digital… replication."

"Digital pixel replication," Bouchard said.

"Right. Steve was their network-security specialist. Microsoft certified and all that stuff."

"That's correct. The technology you just mentioned, Praxis was developing an application for the military called optical camouflage, or cloaking."

"Cloaking. Like the stuff they do on Star Trek?"

"Similar, only Praxis was developing the technology for a very high-tech military suit. How it works is that you climb inside the suit, press a few buttons on the wrist-mounted computer and in the blink of an eye you're invisible."

Riley's mother had been a major Star Trek addict, so he had seen the show multiple times. He conjured up the image of one of those Klingon Birds of Prey warships vanishing.

Cloaking. Jesus. Could they actually do that? It seemed unbelievable.

"I'm sure you can see the implications if this technology ended up in the wrong hands," Bouchard said.

"No one would be safe."

Riley listened, rubbing his palms together. They felt damp and cold.

"Last Friday, a bomb threat was called into Praxis," Bouchard said.

"The company was evacuated, only the firemen and bomb technicians who arrived at the scene weren't who they appeared to be. They were members of a terrorist group. Have you been following the news?"

"Outside of football, no. I've been cooped up in here, working."

"We're certain of two things, John. The military suit with its optical camouflage technology was stolen, and Stephen went back inside the lab and tried to shut the terrorist group down."

By himself" Riley had an image of Steve rushing inside like James Bond.

Steve? The guy who almost passed out the day they went skydiving?

Bouchard said, "We don't know what went down in there, but we do know he tried to call you from inside the lab."

"And you're here because you want to know why Steve called me."

"Stephen's trapped inside the lab, about to burn to death, and instead of calling me or the police or fire department he calls you.

You have to admit, it's a little odd." Bouchard added a smile, and his tone had changed, congenial now, like they shared a common interest.

"The truth is that I wasn't sure it was Steve on the phone."

"You didn't recognize your friend's voice?"

"This guy on the phone was screaming about it being an inside job."

Riley watched as Bouchard started writing.

"The voice… it did sound like Steve, but the problem was all this noise in the background."

"Explosions," Bouchard said.

"Jellied gasoline in the floor, under the tiles."

Jesus Christ on a pop side stick, someone call Tom Clancy. Riley took a deep breath and held it for a moment. Okay. Then he said, "The guy Steve he kept screaming. I tried to talk to him, but there was all this stuff going on in the background, like stuff crashing against the floor, and then the line went dead."

"What did you do?"

"I had a hard time believing it was Steve. I didn't have his work number, so I tried his home number and got an answering machine with a woman's voice on it."

"Did you leave a message?"

"No. I thought I had the wrong number. Is he living with someone?"

"He was." Bouchard stopped writing; he looked upset, as if he knew the woman.

"They were quite intimate."

"And Steve doesn't know she's dead."

"Not yet."

John thought of Renee, thought of the times they had shared, memories so vivid and real and a part of his life that if something ever happened to her This isn't about her, it's about Steve, so focus, okay?

"You didn't know he was involved with someone?" Bouchard asked.

"No."

"You don't seem surprised."

"Steve's a very private guy, even with his close friends. We used to call him The Vault because stuff would go in and never come out. He was always secretive about who he was dating. Actually, he doesn't date that much. He always had women. He just didn't hang onto them that long."

"Pasha was different." The dude tapped his pen along his pad, preoccupied, as if the dead woman lay at his feet.

"John, do you remember anything specific that Stephen said?" he asked and looked up.

"I do remember him saying, "It was an inside job. We were set up.

Angel Eyes knew we were coming, we've got a leak."

" "He used that name, Angel Eyes?"

"Yes. What does that mean?"

"Angel Eyes is the code name we've given to the leader of this terrorist unit. Somehow, the press has picked it up."

Riley nodded, his attention turned inward on the specifics of the phone call. His eyes narrowed in thought.

"What is it?" Bouchard asked, pen ready.

"The conversation I had was brief. Maybe fifteen seconds. But I thought I heard the sound of another voice. He was screaming something about… I know this is going to sound whacked, but this guy, this other voice screamed out "Mittens! Mittens!" That mean anything to you?"

"No. Did you hear anything else?"

"I'm afraid that's all I know."

"Would you be willing to undergo hypnosis?"

"Absolutely. Anything you need."

"John, one last question. You have a girlfriend by the name of Renee Kaufmann."

"What about her?"

"Did you tell her about the phone call?"

"No."

"You're sure."

"Of course I'm sure." Riley saw the look of doubt flash across the man's eyes.

"I may have had a drug problem, Mr. Bouchard emphasis on the word had but that doesn't automatically make me a liar."

"When two people are intimate " "Renee's been in Amsterdam for the past week running around, and I've been stuck at home working on sales presentations. I haven't told her anything. I haven't told anyone, in fact, not even our other friend, Book. To be honest, I thought the call was a crank or a wrong number and forgot about it."

"Do you have the address and phone number of where your girlfriend is staying in Amsterdam?"

"Why do you need it?"

"John, I want to post some people on you, your girlfriend, Booker and his family."