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He twisted her wrist back painfully. “In Dahr El Ahmar, you won. But here we’ll have a different outcome.”
With Rowland’s distracting weight lifted off him, Bourne returned his attention to the intruder, who, he had concluded, must be the Babylonian. And not a moment too soon. The Babylonian had wrapped a powerful arm around his neck, twisting viciously in an attempt to snap it. Bourne, turning his body in the direction of the twist, bought himself several seconds, enough time to drive his elbow sharply into the Babylonian’s kidney.
The Babylonian grunted, and Bourne, repeating the devastating blow, snaked free of the hold, brought a rough stone ashtray he snatched off a table down onto the back of the Babylonian’s head. Blood gushed, and the Babylonian fell onto his back. The shard of glass half-buried there snapped off.
Bourne, thinking him finished, began to stand up. That was when the Babylonian arched up, slamming his forehead into Bourne’s. Dazed, Bourne went to his knees, and the Babylonian hauled him bodily toward the fire. The Babylonian’s strength was incredible, even though he was bleeding profusely, even though the kidney blows would have incapacitated anyone else.
Bourne felt the intense heat of the flames on the top of his head. The Babylonian meant to feed him into the fire. He was only inches away, sliding along the floor, ever closer. He tried several different strikes, all of which the Babylonian brushed away as ineffectual. Sparks flew before his eyes, and he knew he had no time left.
Reaching over his head, he grasped one of the burning logs, and, unmindful of the pain, jabbed the burning end into the Babylonian’s chest. Immediately, his clothes caught fire, the stench of charring material filling his nostrils.
Rolling away, Bourne was up and ru
I don’t work for anyone,” Peter said, lying smoothly. “At least, not permanently.”
Brick stared at him. “You’re freelance.”
“Precisely.”
They were in Brick’s brand-new fire-red Audi A8. Peter was driving, taking the place of the late, unlamented Florin Popa. Brick had insisted on this arrangement so he could keep an eye on Peter, whom he still had little reason to trust. They had stopped at the pro shop so Peter could change back into his street clothes. He did this while Brick, leaning against the line of metal lockers, watched him like a pervert in a public restroom, even while he made a brief muffled call on his mobile.
Brick, in the shotgun seat, grunted now. “How do I know youweren’t following Richards?”
“You don’t.” Peter was thinking as fast as he could.
“If not you, who followed Richards?” Brick asked, as Peter took back roads at his explicit direction. “Who killed my man?”
“Peter Marks. He works for the same outfit Richards does.”
“He suspected Richards?”
Peter nodded, making a right, then an almost immediate left. They were heading away from Arlington, deeper into the Virginia countryside, leaving the manicured lawns and multi-million-dollar housing enclaves behind, driving into wilder terrain. Rolling hills, dense forests, damp glens stretched out before them.
“The next step,” Peter said, “is to take revenge. Otherwise, this organization, having followed Richards to you, will never let you out of its sight.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“But I am. You want to know what I was doing at Blackfriar? Okay. I was keeping an eye on you.” Noting the tensing reaction throughout Brick’s entire body, he said, “I was keeping an eye on you because I want to work for you. I’m tired of being on my own, with no job security, nothing to fall back on.”
“Times are tough,” Brick mused.
“And getting tougher.”
Brick seemed to consider this seriously. Then he said abruptly, “Pull over.”
Peter did as he was ordered, rolling the Audi up onto the grass that edged the two-lane blacktop and putting the transmission in neutral.
The moment the Audi came to rest, Brick snapped his fingers. “Your wallet.”
Peter reached into an i
“Careful, mate.”
Peter froze with his coat half-open. “You do it then.”
Brick’s eyes met his in an icy glare. “Go the fuck ahead.”
Using just his thumb and forefinger, Peter carefully extracted the second wallet that was in plain sight in front of the concealed pocket where his real one lay. He handed it over.
Brick allowed it to sit in the open palm of his left hand. With his right, he peeled back the fold. Only then did his gaze drop to read the driver’s license revealed. “Anthony Dzundza.” The icy eyes flicked up again. “What the fuck kind of name is that, mate?”
“Ukrainian.” Legends always felt it was more realistic to use a name that required an explanation. They were right.
Brick’s eyes turned to slits. “You don’t look Ukrainian, old son.”
“My mother’s a beauty from Amsterdam.”
Brick grunted again. “Don’t fucking flatter yourself. You’re not that pretty.” Reassured, he pawed through the rest of the docs in the wallet—credit cards, a bank debit card, museum membership cards, even, amusingly, an unpaid speeding ticket. Then he handed it back.
“You prefer Anthony or Tony?”
Peter shrugged. “Depends on friend or foe.”
Brick laughed. “Okay, Tony, get out. I’ll drop you off. You meet me at the club tomorrow at one.”
“Then what?”
“Then,” Brick said, his face dead serious, “we’ll see what you’re all about.”
After Thorne apologized to the man known to the world as Maceo Encarnación, hurrying out of the Politics As Usualoffices, Encarnación gathered up his greatcoat, and strolled to the bank of elevators.
While he waited, he allowed his practiced eye to observe the orderly pace of the workplace, the concentrated faces, the purposeful strides, the pride puffing out chests. Above all, the sense of superiority and security that, he knew full well, would shatter into ten thousand pieces in the face of the chaos that was about to hurl itself full-tilt at everyone employed here.
The sense of chaos put him in mind of Moscow—the end of the story he had begun before the interview with Charles Thorne was aborted, the end Thorne would never know. Using the algorithms he and his crew had so cleverly and painstakingly devised, he had tracked down the criminals who had hacked his online account and sucked his money into the scarifying Russian underworld. After having thoroughly prepared himself, he had spent precisely three days in Moscow. By the time he had flown out, two corpses, weighed down with their own weaponry, were lying at the bottom of the Moskva River, eyes wide and staring in disbelief. As for the money, Encarnación had repatriated his andretrieved theirs the same way they had robbed him.
When the gleaming chrome elevator doors opened, he stepped in, placing himself next to a blonde with long legs and impressive hips. He’d always been a sucker for impressive hips and butt.
“Good afternoon,” he said, basking in the incandescent glow of her wide smile.
There was frantic movement in the fisherman’s cottage in Sadelöga as the Babylonian fought to strip off his clothes and minimize the damage the flames were wreaking on him.