Дэвид Балдаччи - Hell's Corner

“Right. Although knowing Oliver, he probably does blame himself for what happened.”

Reuben growled, “You go after terrorists, people can get hurt. And they damn well asked him back into the fold, not the other way around.”

“That’s what’s so infuriating, Alex,” said Annabelle. “He didn’t have to do this at all. Now he’s in there risking his life and they blame him for someone getting killed.”

Alex spread his hands. “Annabelle, don’t be naïve. This is Washington. There’s nothing fair about any of it.”

She flung her long hair out of her face. “That makes me feel so much better.”

Caleb spoke up. “But what will happen now?”

“An investigation is being conducted. Two of them, actually. The search for the terrorists goes on, obviously. But now there will be a secondary inquiry regarding what happened that led to the death of Agent Gross and the others. To determine if there’s any evidence of negligence or wrongdoing.”

“With respect to Oliver, you mean,” interjected Annabelle.

“Yes.”

“What might happen to him, worst case?” asked Caleb.

“Worst case? He might go to prison depending on how it plays out. But that’s unlikely. He might be kicked off the case. That’s far more likely. Even with his friends in high places, no one can stand that heat for long. Especially if the media starts riding that horse right into the ground.”

“This is a nightmare,” said Caleb. “If the media does enter the fray then they’ll start investigating Oliver and his past.”

“The man doesn’t have a past, at least officially,” noted Reuben in a deep grumble.

“Exactly,” said Caleb. “That’s my point. They will be relentless in trying to find out exactly who he is.”

“The government won’t want that,” said Alex.

Reuben nodded in a knowing fashion. “He knows too damn much. A lot of stuff that would be embarrassing if it came out now.”

Annabelle said, “Triple Six stuff, you mean?”

“Exactly.”

“You... you don’t think the government... might try to silence him?” she said in a halting voice.

Caleb looked incredulous. “This isn’t the Soviet Union, Annabelle. We don’t assassinate our own people.”

Annabelle glanced at Alex, who quickly looked away. She said, “All right. He’s helped all of us in one way or another. Which begs the question of why we’re here debating whether to help him or not.”

“That’s not the question,” Alex said. “The question is, by trying to help him will we make it even worse for him?”

“How is that possible?” she asked. “Right now he has everyone against him. He needs us. We’re all he has left.”

“He made his position on that pretty clear,” said Alex. “He doesn’t want our help.”

“Only because he doesn’t want us in danger,” she shot back. “And speaking for myself, that’s not a good enough reason.”

She rose. “So I’m going to help him, whether he wants that help or not.”

James McElroy sat down next to Stone on the bench while the Brit’s security team hovered in the background. He leaned his cane against the edge of the metal armrest.

“Chapman has filled me in on the particulars,” said McElroy.

“I’m sure.”

“She said you saved her life.”

Stone didn’t answer.

“Still, not a particularly good day for any of us.”

“You could say that.”

“And do you blame yourself?”

Stone looked at him. “And why wouldn’t I?”

McElroy considered this. “I suppose I would’ve been disappointed if you’d answered any other way. I’ve grown used to finger-pointing over the years, accepting it as just the way the world works now. But I know it doesn’t work that way for you and never has. And neither does it for me.”

“So am I going to be pulled from the case?”

“Do you want to be?”

“I don’t like unfinished business.”

“I wish I could give you a definitive answer, but I can’t.”

“The president wavering on me? He’s done it before.”

“He’s a politician. It’s never easy. That’s mostly why I never threw my hat into the ring. A spy’s life is a bit easier in that department.”

“So until I get the word either way am I free to continue my investigation?”

“The answer to that would be yes.”

“That’s all I needed to know.”

“I understand that Riley Weaver came to visit you.”

“He did.”

“He’s scared, as I understand it. Sees something big coming over the horizon. And he thinks that what happened here plays into it somehow? That it was merely a first step?”

“I think he believes that, yes.”

“And do you?”

“Since the attack at the park made no sense, then it seems likely that it was part of something else.”

“Bigger than exploding a bomb and scattering machine-gun fire across from your president’s humble abode? Goodness, we might be in serious trouble.”

The man’s words were said in a jesting tone, but it was apparent from the look of concern in his eyes that McElroy too had a sense of foreboding. “Any inkling as to what that something else might be?”

Stone turned to him. “Fuat Turkekul.”

“What about him?”

“I don’t believe in coincidences.”

“Meaning his being in the park at the same time of the attack.”

“I think someone in your food chain knows something about it.”

“So why didn’t they kill him, then?”

“That would make the answer simple. This isn’t simple.” He eyed the security team. “Feel like a bit of a walk?”

“If you’ll lend me a hand, yes. Knees aren’t what they used to be, and what they used to be was never much, I’m afraid.”

The two old allies walked along the brick path. Stone supported McElroy with a firm hand under his elbow as the spy chief made his way slowly along using his cane.

“Theories?” said McElroy.

“They know everything before we do. And more to the point, they seem to know what we’re going to do at the same time we decide to do it.”

“So a traitor assuredly?”

Stone nodded. “Any possibilities?”

“I’ve looked that issue up one side and down the other and I can’t find a viable suspect. Damn infuriating.”

“So you suspected something like that too?”

“I always suspect something like that. And it usually turns out to be true. I agree with you that the other side seems to be always ahead of us. But I don’t know how they’re doing it.”

“We could lay a trap. Channel information through one source only and see if it ends up in the wrong hands.”

“I don’t think whoever it is will fall for that.”

“Worth a try?”

“Then we warn them we suspect.”

“If they’re as good as I think they are, they already know that we suspect.”

“I’m afraid I’m going to have to sit down, Oliver.”

Stone helped his friend to another bench and then sat next to him. “Tell me something,” said Stone. “Did what happened at the park cause Turkekul to change his plans in any way? Was the mission altered at all?”

McElroy didn’t answer right away. “Of course it would have been completely altered if Fuat had been killed,” he pointed out. “Altered to the point of being abandoned. One would think that would have been the goal of the attack.”

“Since the man didn’t die, we have to think of alternative reasons.”

“I can think of none.”

“For now, but we have to keep trying.”

“It won’t be easy for you. The FBI is looking to crush you. Its director has already had a meeting with your president. I have also had the pleasure of your leader’s company, and have done my utmost to dissuade him from giving in to the entreaty that you be removed from the case.”