Marcus Sakey - Brilliance

Either Bobby Quinn was a good man, or Cooper and his family were dead.

Quinn jammed the pads of his fingers into his eyes. “Shit.” The words were muffled by his hands. Then he straightened and blew a long breath. “So what do we do?”

“Well, to start,” Cooper smiled and tugged at his wrist, “do you think you could unlock me?”

His partner laughed. “Sorry.” He pulled the cuff key from his belt and tossed it over. “The truth shall set you free, right?”

“Something like that. That’s our play, too. We use the video to set a trap for Peters.”

“Sounds like you have a plan.”

“The beginnings of one.”

“Well, that’s a relief. Sure, we’re facing the most powerful covert organization on the planet, and in possession of stolen information that the president would nuke DC to keep private, but at least you have the beginnings of a plan. I was worried for a second.”

“Hey,” Cooper said, “the way I see it, the chance of success just doubled. Now it’s the whole government against two of us.”

“Three,” said a voice behind them.

They both whirled. Quinn went for his weapon, but Cooper caught his partner’s arm.

She stood with her hip popped, one hand leaning on the other side. A pose, cocky and capable, her lips quirked in that sideways grin. “You left without saying good-bye, Nick. A girl might take that wrong.”

Quinn said, “Who the hell are you, and how did you get here?”

Cooper said, “Hello, Shannon.” She looked good. Damn good. He met her gaze, saw all the levels in it, strength, determination, and, beneath it, some hurt. He smiled in a way he hoped was apologetic, then said to Quinn, “She does that.” To Shannon, he said, “When did you get here?”

“About an hour after you.”

“Smith sent you?”

“No, asshole. I came because you need help. John just provided the plane.”

“How did you find me?”

“I didn’t. I found him.” She jerked a thumb at Quinn.

“You’re the girl from the Exchange,” Quinn said. “And the thing with Bryan Vasquez.”

“And you’re Cooper’s playmate.” She pulled out a stool and took a seat. “So. What are we doing, boys?”

Cooper said, “Bringing down the head of Equitable Services and the president of the United States.”

“Oh good. I was afraid this was going to be dull.”

“I try to keep life interesting.”

“Any train rides planned?”

“If I tell you, it’ll spoil the surprise.”

“Don’t do that. I love surprises.”

“Time out.” Quinn looked back and forth, forth and back. “Would you two quit flirting long enough to tell me what the hell is going on?”

“Bobby, meet Shannon Azzi. The Girl Who Walks Through Walls.”

“Hiya,” she said, and stuck out a hand.

Looking baffled, Quinn took it.

Cooper laughed. For the first time since he’d heard Dickinson’s voice on the phone, he felt something like hope.

“Jimmy’s Mattresses.”

“This is account number three two zero nine one seven. I need to talk to Alpha.”

“Hold, please.”

The speaker of the disposable cell phone was tinny, but it would serve. They’d picked up a couple of them at a mini-mart en route to Quinn’s apartment, a single in a Mount Vernon Square low-rise. Cooper had been there more times than he could remember, knew the furniture and the layout, had crashed on the couch. Quinn stared out the floor-to-ceiling windows at the night sky; Shannon splayed in a chair, one lithe leg up on the arm.

“Hello, Nick.” Drew Peters sounded the same as ever. Calm, in control. The same as he’d sounded in the video, proposing the murder of innocent civilians. “Are you on your way in?”

“No.”

“I see.”

“I found the drive, Drew. Taped to the back of Teddy Eaton’s coffin. And I’ve watched it. A nasty little snuff film.”

“Omelets and eggs, Agent Cooper.”

“Just Cooper. I don’t work for you anymore.”

“As you like. You understand the situation, though, yes? Roger was clear in his explanation?”

“Very clear. But we’re not going to do it that way.”

“What do you have in mind?”

“An exchange. The drive for my family.”

“I don’t think so. The drive is worthless. You’ll have made copies by now.”

“No. I haven’t, and I won’t.”

A pause. “Why would I believe that?”

“Because you know that I know that even if this video got out, you could make sure that my family died. I mean even after you let them go. This would ruin you, but you’d still be able to act. Not all of your resources work for the DAR.”

Another pause. “That’s true.”

“So here’s the deal. We meet somewhere we both feel safe. You bring my family; I bring this. We all walk out. You get to go on running your evil empire. And my children get to grow up.”

“I’m not sure you’re in a position to negotiate. For now, your children are perfectly safe, as is your ex-wife. But Dickinson is a true believer. If I give the order, he won’t hesitate to visit a host of violations on them.”

Fire licked his belly and his knuckles went white, but Cooper kept his voice under control. “You’d suffer quite a few in prison, Drew, while your daughters grew up alone. And this posturing is pointless. We both know that you’ll do anything to get the video back. And I’ll do anything to know my family is safe. So let’s cut the bullshit.”

“All right. How about we meet at the Washington Monument? A public place.”

Cooper laughed. “Yeah. And I’ll never hear the shot from the airship. I don’t think so. No, let’s meet at the L’Enfant Plaza Metro station.”

“Where you can have a news crew at the ready to film everything. I’m afraid not.”

“Okay. We don’t trust one another. So we set it up so that neither of us has time to prepare a surprise. You name a major street downtown. I’ll pick an address. We’ll meet in twenty minutes.”

“Twenty minutes? No.”

“I’m not going to give you time to get set up, Drew.”

“I understand that. But I’m busy cleaning up your mess right now. There was a firefight in a cemetery in broad daylight. It will take time to make sure there’s no connection to the agency.”

“No connection to you, you mean.”

“Those are the same thing. Let’s meet in two hours.”

“Fine. But we don’t pick a location until the last minute. I’ll call you. Have a street in mind, and don’t mess with me. And if anyone in my family has so much as a bruise, deal’s off and I burn you down.”

“If you call this off, your family will suffer more than bruises.”

“So we both better behave. I’ll call in two hours. Agreed?”

“Agreed.”

“One last thing.”

“What’s that?”

Cooper said, “How the fuck do you sleep at night, Drew?”

“With a prescription. Grow up. This is the way the world works.” The director hung up the phone.

“Two hours.” Quinn shook his head. “Just like you predicted.”

“Peters is the head of Equitable Services and thinks like it. That makes him easy to anticipate. He wants enough time that he can use his resources, see if he can track me down without the hassle of meeting. There’s always the chance that I screwed up, that someone caught my face on a camera, or that I was calling from a known phone number. A long shot, but worth checking, especially for a man with his own security force. But at the same time, he can’t risk giving me enough time that I start to second-guess myself, decide to go to the media with the video. One hour isn’t enough time, three is too long.”