Неизвестный - 6. Justice For All

He sat up in the dark room.

“Come in and shut the door,” Mitch said when he saw Irina backlit by the hall light. He didn’t want her standing there like a target.

Irina closed the door and flipped on the wall switch. She stared at him from across the room, her gaze traveling slowly over his body.

“Hello, new boy.”

“Hi.”

“Aren’t you going to ask me where I’ve been?”

Irina removed a thin quilted jacket and hung it in the closet.

Beneath it, she wore formfitting black slacks with narrow tapered legs and a red wraparound top. She couldn’t be too much older than Mitch, but her body was lush and womanly and Mitch had the sudden image of rich fertile fields bursting with life. He unexpectedly had the urge to plant some part of himself in her, and he quickly forced the thought away.

“I told you I wasn’t your keeper.” He didn’t add that she could easily lie to him, so what was the point of asking.

“So you didn’t follow me today?” Irina asked.

“Jesus. No.” Mitch jumped up. “Was there someone?”

Irina shrugged. “Sometimes I thought yes. Sometimes no.”

“You’d be able to tell?”

She smiled grimly. “I am used to making myself invisible. And I know when eyes are on me.”

Mitch spun around to the window. The sidewalks below were deserted. In the patchy light filtering through the neighboring rowhouse windows, the cars lining the street all appeared empty. For one brief second he was so happy Sandy wasn’t here. Then he concentrated on Irina.

“Did you actually see anyone?”

Irina shook her head. “Many someones. No one I recognized.”

“All right. If you see anyone suspicious, or even think you see anyone, tell me.”

• 152 •

Justice for All

“Where are we going?”

“We need to let people know we’re a couple, so your…associates…

believe us. I’m taking you to a club. Then we’ll go to Ziggie’s.”

“Like a date,” Irina said.

“Like work,” Mitch replied. “We need to get you a warmer coat.

We’ll be riding my motorcycle again.”

“I’m all right.”

“No, you’re not. We’ll stop on Market Street and get you something.”

“It’s nighttime, Mitch.”

“Those places are always open.” Mitch held out his leather jacket.

“Wear this for now.”

Irina studied him curiously. “Why do you care? I am…an enemy.

No?”

“No.” Mitch couldn’t say that she reminded him of Sandy. She was very proud and in her own way, very brave. He couldn’t say that he wished someone had given Sandy a warmer coat, or that she would take his more often.

“What will you do with these men you want me to help you find?”

“They’ll be arrested, and they’ll probably go to prison.”

“They will be killed?”

Mitch shrugged. “I don’t know. It depends on what they’ve done and what can be proved.”

“I will be sent to prison?”

“What did Clark tell you?” When Mitch saw her blank expression, he said, “The federal agent who said you had to help us?”

Irina laughed bitterly. “He told me I would go free.”

“You don’t believe him.”

“Would you?”

“No, probably not.” Mitch held his jacket open and after a few seconds Irina slid her arms into it. When she turned to face him, he gently tugged it closed. “We’re going to try to help you.”

“You should not be a cop, new boy.”

“Why?”

Irina kissed him. “You are not hard enough.” She put her hand over his heart. “In here.”

• 153 •

RADclY fFe

Mitch hadn’t anticipated the kiss, not here and not like this, but he hadn’t felt anything other than an odd sadness. He put his hand on her back and guided her toward the door. “Let’s go.”

“Do your friends believe we are together?” she asked him as they walked down the hall.

“Yes.”

Irina smiled. “Good.”

v

Talia sipped her wine, stretched her stockinged feet out onto a silk brocade hassock, and launched another probe. She didn’t really expect the bot to strike pay dirt. Thus far, she hadn’t found any easily accessible back doors in JT Sloan’s corporate system. No admin shortcuts, config errors, easily deciphered passwords, or unsecured remote access ports.

Sloan’s system was completely unlike the one she’d encountered at Police Plaza when she’d done a quick scan a few hours earlier. After only moderate effort, she’d gotten in deep there. Granted, the average hacker would not have had such an easy time, but then she wasn’t average. She hadn’t launched a serious assault because she didn’t want to risk leaving a trail back to her home base—she’d only created her own back doors for access at some future time. With luck, a few would remain hidden long enough to be useful.

She chuckled as she encountered yet another roadblock. JT Sloan was very good. She thought back to the grainy newspaper images and the dark good looks that even the poor photographs couldn’t hide.

Intelligent, handsome, and something of a cipher herself, Sloan had stood among the players whose names Kratos had provided. Talia had run background checks on all of them, and while several were notable locally, Sloan and her partner McBride were ex-federal agents, and both their dossiers had more blacked-out sections than available information.

Sloan’s in particular had been thoroughly cleansed. Whatever she had done for the U.S. government, it had been cloaked under deep cover and high security.

“You’re going to be fun,” Talia murmured, sending a Trojan horse she doubted would get past Sloan’s firewalls. But even experts made mistakes sometimes, and she had no doubt she would eventually find this woman’s weakness.

• 154 •

Justice for All

Being able to envision Sloan’s face while battling her mind, on a field where few could compete with her as an equal, excited her. She was looking forward to meeting her in person. Bedding her, knowing that Sloan was unaware of her identity, would make the climax all the sweeter. Talia let her fingers drift over her nipples. They were hard and tingling beneath her sheer blouse. The wine warming her depths, the arousal that always accompanied a hunt, and the persistent image of her quarry made her want sex. The brief caress had created an answering echo between her legs, and she was aware of her clitoris throbbing. No one had captured her attention, mind and body, so completely in a very long time.

Finishing her wine, she called up another program and continued with her campaign to best JT Sloan. As she watched the screen, she reached for the phone beside her and punched in a number from memory.

A woman answered, her voice eager, as if she had been waiting for Talia’s call despite the late hour. “Yes?”

“Hello,” Talia said throatily. “I have been thinking of you.”

“I’ll be right there.”

“Good.” Talia disconnected.

As she refilled her wine, she wasn’t thinking of the woman whose mouth would soon bring her to climax. She was envisioning a far more challenging and intriguing seduction.

• 155 •

• 156 •

Justice for All

ChAPTER FIFTEEN

This place,” Irina said as Mitch guided her toward the entrance of the Troc. “It is like Ziggie’s?”

“Not really.” Mitch grabbed the door and held it open. “No dancers here. Different kind of performers.”

Irina hesitated for a second, giving him an odd look. At first glance, the place did look like Ziggie’s. A large, dark, rectangular room that smelled faintly of old whiskey and spent desire. But the Troc wasn’t a strip club, and although customers might be getting it on in the shadows, sex wasn’t the main course. Entertainment was the chief offering, and at the moment, the Front Street Kings were on the stage.