“And you didn’t attempt to confirm who it was?” Now Robie had a ready answer that not even a hardass like Whitcomb could dispute. “I had a badly wounded person in the backseat who could expire at any time. There were shooters zeroing in our location. I had no time to do anything other than leave the scene as quickly as possible. My paramount concern was Ms. DiCarlo’s survival.”
Whitcomb was nodding even before Robie finished speaking. “Of course, Robie. Of course, completely understandable. And your prompt actions have, hopefully, resulted in DiCarlo’s survival, for which you are to be commended.”
He paused, seeming to marshal his thoughts while Robie waited for the next query.
“Do you have any idea who this woman might have been?”
“Sir, it would only be a guess on my part at this point in time.”
“I’ll take that, at this point in time,” Whitcomb shot back.
“I think it was Jessica Reel, the rogue agent I’ve been assigned to hunt down.”
CHAPTER
34
GAMESTOP WOULD NOT BE OPEN for several more hours. Yet she knew he always got in early. So Reel sat in her car outside the mall entrance that he would use. She flicked her lights when she saw him drive up and park his vintage black Mustang.
He walked over to her car and got in.
She drove off.
Michael Gioffre wore an unzipped hoodie, baggy jeans, and his “Day of Doom” T-shirt. Reel assumed he had dozens of them.
“Where are we going?” he asked. “I’ve got inventory to check.”
“Not far. And it won’t be long if you have what I need. Just time for a cup of coffee.”
She pointed to the coffee sitting in the cup holder. He picked it up, took a sip.
“You didn’t give me much time,” he mumbled.
“My recollection of you is that you never needed much time. Am I wrong?”
Gioffre took another sip and then wiped his mouth. “I could get in a lot of trouble doing this.”
“Yes, you could.”
“But you still expect me to help you?”
“Yes, I do. If the positions were reversed, wouldn’t you?”
Gioffre sighed. “I hate it when you’re logical.”
“You’re a gamer. I thought you lived by logic.”
“I also appreciate fantasy. I kill guys on the screen. You kill them for real.”
They drove in silence for a while.
“Stupid comment, sorry,” Gioffre finally said.
“It’s the truth, so how stupid can it be?”
“Logic again,” he said. “You have an endless supply.”
“I’ve always chosen that over chaos. When I had a choice, that is.”
For Reel they could have been in a time tunnel, ten years ago, in a car, driving in some foreign land, her seeking information and Gioffre providing it. But then again, every place seemed foreign to her now. Even the one she used to call home.
They drove in silence for another mile. Each plunk of a raindrop on the windshield seemed to Reel to represent a second of their lives draining away.
“Did they deserve it?” Gioffre asked, quietly breaking the silence.
Reel didn’t answer.
He shifted in his seat. “Because knowing you the way I know you, I think they must have.”
“Don’t give me credit for something I didn’t earn.”
“What do you mean?” Gioffre said sharply.
“I’ve terminated lots of people I never even met because someone higher up in the pecking order told me it was not only the right thing to do, it was my duty. Whether they actually deserved it or not never entered into the equation. That’s what I mean.”
“But that’s what you signed up for. That’s what I signed up for way back when. We were on the side of right and justice. At least that’s what we were told.”
“It was mostly true, Mike. But just mostly. You have human beings in the cycle so nothing is perfect, in fact everything is de facto imperfect.”
“So did they deserve it? This time, I mean.”
Reel made a quick turn, pulled to the curb, and put the car in park. She turned sideways in her seat and looked at him.
“Yes, they did deserve it. But it’s both simple and complicated. The simple part is done. Or at least it’s in progress. The complicated part will take a long time. And it may never get done.”
“So there’s more to come?” he asked.
“Do I look like I’m done?”
“No.”
She put the car in gear and pulled off. “And if I tell you any more you become an accomplice for everything I do. So let’s cut to the end. Do you have what I need?”
He pulled a flash drive from his pocket and handed it to her. Reel put it in her pocket.
“I’ve haven’t looked at it,” he said.
“Good.”
“How did you know it even existed?”
“Because they’re executing on it. You don’t do something like that without planning. Without a map to go forward. Someone had to white paper it. That’s not a puzzle you can reverse engineer. Every piece needs to be in place with every upside and downside considered beforehand.”
“Who’s ‘they’?”
She shook her head. “Not going there.”
“Guess you’d have to kill me too.”
“Guess so,” said Reel. She was not smiling even a little bit.
Gioffre rubbed a hand though his straggly hair and looked away.
“Your coffee the way you like it?” she asked.
He gripped the cup. “Perfect. You have a good memory.”
“When you’re always two seconds from dying violently you remember the little things. One cream put in before the coffee, then one sugar. Don’t stir it. What kept me sane. Probably the same for you, right?”
“What else do you remember from those days?”
Reel stared out the windshield. In her mind’s eye lots of images popped up. Most she would never forget no matter how hard she tried.
“The wind was always blowing. The sand hurt my skin and kept jamming my weapons. I could never get enough to eat or enough water to drink. But most of all I remember wondering what the hell we were all doing there. Because it was going to look exactly the same once we left. And all we were really going to leave behind was a lot of blood, much of it ours.”
Gioffre turned and looked out the windshield. He drank his coffee slowly, methodically, like it would be his last cup ever.
“Mike, you did close the path back to you on this, right?”
“I did the best I could. They would have to be better than me to get to me. And I don’t think they are. I know sixteen-year-old punks who’ve never even kissed a girl who can program circles around the best the NSA has out there.”
“All the same, watch your back. No room for overconfidence on this.”
He said, “Looks like it’s going to rain all day.”
“Looks like it’s going to rain the rest of my life.”
“How long might that be?” he asked. “Your life, I mean?”
“Your guess is probably better than mine. I’m no longer an objective observer.”
“You shouldn’t go out this way, Jess. Not after all you’ve done.”
“It’s because of what I’ve done that I have to go out this way. Because there’s no other way to go and be able to look at myself in the mirror. If people did that simple test they wouldn’t do three-quarters of the crap they end up doing. But at the end of the day people can justify anything they want. It’s just how we’re wired.”
“They must have really hurt you.”
They really hurt someone I cared about, thought Reel. They hurt him so much he’s dead. And when they hurt him, they hurt me. And now it’s my turn to hurt them back.
“Yeah, I guess they did,” she replied.
She drove him back to the mall, parked near the GameStop, and let him out.
“I appreciate the assist, Mike. No one
will ever know where it came from.”