Double Cross

Chapter 124

HE KEPT ON TALKING, almost as if he were excited to see me. Maybe I was the one he’d been following. “I was so hurt that you didn’t come out to Florence to visit me more, Alex. You have no idea. They put you in a tiny cell and keep you there twenty-three hours every day. It’s inhumane and does no good at all. I’m serious about that.

“Maybe I’ll make a deeply disturbing film, like An Inconvenient Truth, or The Road to Guantánamo. Call it Never See the Sun Again. Play it in all the art houses here in the East. Get the bleeding hearts on my side.”

“You killed a lot of people, Kyle. You committed murders since you’ve been out. How many this time?”

Kyle shrugged, and then he mugged for me. He wasn’t as good an actor as Anthony, just a more subtle killer. “Honestly, I didn’t bother to keep count. There was Mom, of course. Or was that a hallucination that I had?”

“No, you slaughtered your mother.”

“Slaughtered her, did I? That seems extreme. I don’t actually recall that much about it. Perhaps I was in a rage state. Can you give me some gory details? I want to hear it from you, Dr. Cross.”

“Is that part of this, Kyle? The psychologist co

“Could be. I never thought about it quite like that.”

I stared at Kyle for a moment and didn’t speak. He was so incredibly evil, with no conscience. I wondered how his reflexes were these days. He seemed confident enough with the gun in his hand. And why shouldn’t he be? Why would he have any trouble shooting me now?

“Kneel on the ground, Alex. Just to be on the safe side. All that training at Quantico is kicking in.”

I stood there, refused to obey him.

Kyle held his gun arm out, perfectly straight and still. “I said-kneel on the ground. There’s still a chance that I won’t kill you. I might want an audience for what I’m going to do next.”

That got my attention. An audience? “What are you going to do now, Kyle? And what part did you play for DCAK and his partner?”

He smiled and seemed to be formulating an answer. “Interesting questions. If I tell you, is it because you won’t be around to see it or because I want you to be able to anticipate the slaughter, as you call it? Kneel! This is your last warning, Alex.”

I bent my knees slightly, and then I went down on them. I didn’t see that I had a choice. Kyle didn’t like to be disobeyed. That much I knew for sure.

“Ah, that’s good. This is how I like seeing you. As a supplicant. You know, I almost wish DCAK was alive to witness this.”

“You could have saved him.”

“Maybe. Probably not. I really think the boy wanted to die. I studied his early murders while I was still an agent. He made contact with me at Florence. I think… I might have been a father figure to him. You’d know better than me. I can’t live in the past, though. I’m not much for regrets either. You can understand that, can’t you?”

“What did he mean when he said, ‘In your honor’?”

“Oh, that. He was a fan, of course. Who isn’t? So was the girl. His sister? Who knows? They got the messages to me at ADX through my lawyer. Another fan. They’re all just freaks, Alex. Although… he did give you a good run.

“I helped him with a few ideas. The football stadium-that was me. And I suggested Tess Olsen, of course. That one was in my honor.”

Kyle walked forward, and he put the gun to my temple. There wasn’t any unsteadiness in his hand.

“I, Kyle Craig, being of sound mind and body,” he said, and smiled broadly, wickedly, insanely, “choose to spare the life of Alex Cross. At this time, anyway.”

He took a step away. “I told you, twenty-three hours a day. Four years in there. I can’t let you off this easy. A couple of minutes of abject fear-that’s nothing in comparison to what I went through. It’s not enough payback. Not even close! You’ll see.”

Kyle continued to back away. “I have bigger and better plans for you, Alex. One thing is for sure, I’m going to torture you and your family to death. Don’t bother to try to hide them. I’m really good at finding people. That was my specialty at the Bureau. I have skills, Alex. The Mastermind. Remember?”

“Put the gun down, Craig. Do it slowly, you piece of shit. Or you really will understand payback.”

It was Bree. I couldn’t see her yet, but I wanted to warn her.

About Kyle Craig, and why you should never, ever warn him.

My mouth opened -

Chapter 125

“BREE!”

Kyle had been an FBI field agent, and before that he was with Special Forces in the army. He was an expert with knives, guns, even explosives, and I knew that from past experience. He was no one to fool with-no one to warn.

He heard Bree’s voice, and before she finished her threat, he was twisting his body around toward her and diving at the ground. I watched-unable to do anything to stop it from happening.

“Bree!”

His Beretta came up level and was aimed at the center of her chest-he wouldn’t take a chance of missing what would be a difficult shot, especially while he was still moving. He had her in his sights, and I had one thought: Take me instead.

I’m not sure if Bree waited until she had finished the words “you really will understand payback.” I doubt it.

She fired-and Kyle Craig jerked in midair. His mouth flew open in surprise. His eyes went wide.

He never got a shot off. He landed with a dull thud on the ground and lay there with one leg twitching. Finally he let go of the Beretta. Then, nothing at all.

Nothing.

Blessedly, nothing.

I hurried forward, kicked away his gun. I crouched beside Kyle, who I’d once thought was a friend and who had turned into my worst enemy. His eyes were open, and he looked at me, right into my eyes, maybe my soul. He stared, and I wondered if he was dying at that instant, and if he knew it.

Then Kyle spoke, and he said something so very strange, something I didn’t understand, not to this day. “In your honor,” he said.

Then a horrible rattle began to stir somewhere back in his throat.

And I liked it. Sad to say, horrifying to me, I was relieved and exultant. I’d liked being in the audience, so much so that I clapped my hands together and applauded Bree.

And then, suddenly, Kyle was on all fours, then up on his feet. He pulled another gun from a holster behind his back.

Bree had lowered her gun, and now he had us.

“Put down the gun, Detective,” he said in the calmest voice I’d ever heard. “I don’t want to kill you right now. Not just yet. Tell her, Alex.”

“She won’t listen,” I said.

“Then she’s a dead girl. Put the gun down. For Christ’s sake, if I wanted to kill you, I would have pulled the trigger already.”

Bree bent at the knees and lowered her gun to the ground.

Kyle pulled the trigger.

But he missed her on purpose.

“You know, Bree,” he said in the same deadly calm voice, “the advice about chest shots versus head shots is good as far as it goes, but”-he patted his own chest-“it doesn’t allow for the possibility of vests, which I always wear to parties like this one. You should too. Especially with that exemplary chest of yours.”

Kyle started to back away from us. Then he smiled and said, “Oh, what the hell! Sorry, Alex!”

He fired in Bree’s direction-twice-and purposely missed again. Then he laughed and ran down the alley, disappearing around the first corner, still laughing.

The Mastermind.