Charles Brokaw - The Lucifer Code

‘Are you all right?’ Cleena asked.

‘No, I’m not all right. I don’t know who this guy was. He came into the bar, waited till I was alone, then he slapped me.’

‘He slapped you? Nothing more?’

‘Yes.’

‘Nothing broken?’

‘No, nothing’s broken. But he did break Liam’s nose when Liam tried to stop the guy from hitting me.’

Cleena tried to remember who Liam was. Brigid was always talking about friends and co-workers and young men. It was hard to keep them all straight.

‘My boss,’ Brigid said.

‘Right,’ Cleena said. ‘Got him now. Remember: no names.’

‘This guy already knows your name.’

‘Someone else might not. Take a breath and calm down.’

Brigid sucked in a ragged breath.

‘Do you know who this guy was?’ Cleena asked.

‘No.’

‘Ever seen him before?’

‘I don’t think so.’

‘You need to be sure,’ Cleena said.

‘I don’t know! A lot of people come to the bar.’

‘So he looked like a regular?’

Brigid was quiet for a moment. ‘No. He was a little too clean. Too straight. Except for when he started wailing away on me.’

‘What did he want?’

‘You.’

‘Why?’ Cleena asked.

‘He didn’t say.’

Cleena forced herself to be calm. ‘What did this guy say?’

‘He told me he wanted you to call him. He left a number.’

‘Give it to me.’ Cleena quickly copied the number on the receipt from the second-hand store. ‘Don’t go back to the apartment.’

‘I didn’t. I’m not going to. If this guy knows I’m your sister and where I work, he probably knows where we live, too.’

‘That’s right. Keep thinking clearly like that and we’re going to be all right. Are you somewhere safe?’

‘Yes. I’m at-’

Cleena interrupted. ‘Don’t tell me. It might be a good idea for you to stay away from work for a while. You’re too vulnerable there.’

‘I can’t miss work. I like that job.’

‘I know.’

‘And I know money is tight,’ Brigid went on. ‘The only time you ever go out of town like this is when money is tight. And tuition is coming up soon.’

‘There’ll be enough money,’ Cleena said. Even if she had to rip off a few drug dealers in the Combat Zone, she’d make it. ‘I promise. In the meantime, I want you to be safe.’

‘What about you?’

Cleena felt the weight of the Czech pistol at her back and scanned the mall crowd. ‘I’m safe enough, girlie.’

‘You sound like Dad when you call me that.’

‘Sorry.’

Brigid’s voice grew softer. ‘It’s okay. I don’t really mind. It’s just that when you do that I know you’re thinking about him, and you never think about him unless there’s serious trouble.’

‘I’d say a man coming to your work and slapping you is pretty serious,’ Cleena said. And if it wasn’t serious before, it is now. She tamped down the rage inside her, cooled it and held it tight.

‘There’s something else,’ Brigid stated more quietly.

‘What?’

‘This guy, he said if you didn’t call him, he was going to kill me.’

Cleena made herself count to ten. The anger and fear had almost gotten away from her.

‘Are you still there?’ Brigid asked.

‘I am. Don’t worry. I’m going to call him.’

‘Okay, but then I’m going to have to worry about you.’

‘It’ll be all right,’ Cleena made herself say in a light, almost worry-free tone. ‘It’s probably just a client that got a little overzealous.’

‘If that’s the case, it might be better if you never dealt with him again.’

‘I won’t. I can promise you that.’ Cleena focused on the task at hand. ‘For now, you need to get rid of that phone. I’m getting rid of this one as well, so this number will no longer work.’

‘We go to backup?’

‘Yes.’ Backup was computer contact only through ads placed on popular exchange lists.

‘Are you sure?’ Brigid asked in a much smaller voice that betrayed a lot of the fear she was undoubtedly feeling.

‘That everything’s going to be all right?’

‘Yes.’

Cleena answered instantly and smoothly. ‘I’m perfectly sure.’ But her heart was beating much faster than it should have been.

‘Love you,’ Brigid said.

‘Love you too, kiddo.’ Cleena made herself break the connection. Tears misted her eyes but she didn’t let them fall. She checked the crowd again, saw nothing suspicious, and walked to the nearest trash bin. She dropped the phone into the container and kept walking.

Just keep breathing, she told herself. Keep breathing and keep focused. Whoever hurt Brigid, whoever threatened her, you’re going to make them pay.

After buying another pre-paid cell phone inside the mall, Cleena dialled the number Brigid had provided. The exchange was in Istanbul, which didn’t make much sense. Why would anyone go to Boston to threaten Brigid if they were already in Istanbul?

The phone rang only once.

‘Ah, Ms MacKenna, I knew you’d be calling, but I really expected you to call me much earlier.’

‘I’ve been busy,’ Cleena retorted. ‘And if you mention names again, I’m hanging up.’

That seemed to catch the man at the other end of the connection by surprise. Cleena took advantage of the pause to listen for noises at the other end. The voice sounded American, and much too full of himself to be anyone’s peon. Whoever the man was, he was used to having and using power.

‘Listen,’ the man said in a much harsher voice, ‘this is going to be done my way-’

‘No,’ Cleena replied. She gazed out of the windows up at the sky and tried to pretend this was a day like any other.

‘Did your sister tell you what I promised I’d do to her if-’

‘Spare me.’ Cleena checked her watch. ‘You have another minute and twenty-three seconds till I hang up.’

‘If I wanted to track this call, it would already be done.’

‘You work with a United States intelligence agency then? You have to in order to make that claim and not even feign false modesty.’

The man didn’t speak.

‘Not only that,’ Cleena said, ‘you’re a desk jockey. A paper pusher. You’re a mouse playing at being a lion.’ She knew that pushing his buttons was dangerous, but it was also the only way she knew to find out more about him.

He cursed her.

‘See how easy this is to play?’ Cleena asked. ‘The more you talk, the more I’m going to learn about you. And the more you can be sure that one day – when you least expect it – I’m going to walk in behind you and slit your throat for threatening my sister.’

‘You don’t call the shots here,’ the man said.

‘I do. Otherwise you wouldn’t be sitting there waiting on me to call. And you’ve got twenty-nine seconds to bring this to a close.’

‘Your sister-’

‘Already couldn’t be in any more danger, so don’t even bother trying to up that particular ante.’ Cleena made herself sound cold. She was good at that. Even her father had been impressed. ‘Seventeen seconds.’

‘You cost me a team,’ the man snarled.

‘Those oafs at the airport? Please.’ Cleena waited for the man to deny the charge. If he didn’t, she could try tracing those dead men back to their master. She was already certain she was looking at an American intelligence agency, so she felt sure the task wouldn’t take too long.

‘So you’re going to be my team now.’

Bingo, Cleena thought triumphantly. There is a connection I can exploit.

‘Eight seconds,’ she said.

‘I want you to shadow the man you kidnapped and let me know what he’s up to. You can call me at this number any time of the day or night.’