The Chaos Kind (John Rain #11)(12)

“Deal,” Kanezaki said, probably with a suppressed smile. “Are you going to bring in Rain?”

Dox was glad they were done haggling. The truth was, he had certainly considered asking for John’s help. And it was funny, when they’d first met in Afghanistan, a lifetime earlier, they hadn’t gotten along well, at least not personally. Dox talked too much for John’s taste, though from Dox’s perspective, the problem was that John talked too damn little. But then they’d met again in Rio, where some government dumbasses thought they could get Dox to betray an old comrade in arms for money. They turned out to be wrong, in the dead-wrong sense of the word, and afterward, realizing he could trust someone had just about melted old John’s brain. But they’d had each other’s backs ever since, stumbled into a few adventures—sometimes with Kanezaki’s help, other times at his instigation—did a good deed or two, and somehow even managed to make a little money along the way by outsmarting a few bad guys.

“Nah,” Dox said after a moment. “He and Delilah deserve some peace. He’s always going on about how he’s retired. It’s high time someone acted like he means it.”

“Does he?”

“He thinks he does.”

“Then who?”

“My God, the calumny. Maybe I’ll just handle it all by my capable self, you ever consider that?”

“Come on, we both know less-than-lethal is likely to be more complicated. Who?”

“Sources and methods, son.”

Kanezaki laughed. “That’s my line. Let me guess. Daniel Larison.”

Larison had fallen in with them a few years back in connection with a series of false-flag terror attacks initiated by some of America’s most esteemed political personages. It hadn’t been a great fit initially, and in fact they’d all nearly killed each other before finding a way to work together. And now Larison was on the very short list of people Dox trusted to have his back. More amazing still, he knew, was that Larison felt the same way.

Dox smiled. “Not much I can hide from you, is there?”

“Not if I’m looking. You don’t think Larison might be . . . too much?”

“I’d rather use a soldier as a diplomat than a diplomat as a soldier. But I’ll tell the old angel of death to dial it down this time.”

“Remember, we don’t want death here. We want Manus motivated to tell us what he knows.”

“Oh, it’s we and us now, is it?”

“For all the things that matter? Yes. It is.”

Dox couldn’t deny that. Kanezaki was an ace bullshitter, but that didn’t mean he never told the truth.

And now here he was, just two days later. Not an ideal amount of time to prepare, but he and Larison knew each other’s moves and they were managing.

His cellphone buzzed in his back pocket. He pulled out the unit and glanced at the screen. Caller blocked. Well, of course. The phone was an encrypted burner, and only Kanezaki had the number. He pressed Answer and raised the phone to his ear.

“Hello.”

“She just left her apartment,” Kanezaki said. “As soon as it was clear she was heading toward the park, they called me with instructions to have you in position near Pike Place Market.”

“Why there?”

“They say Manus spent the night at a hostel in the neighborhood and they expect him to be there again later this morning. I’m betting that means he’s at the park now. They don’t want you to have those coordinates because they want you to remain ignorant of what he does to Diaz. A federal prosecutor falls and cracks her head or gets mugged or whatever in the park, you drop a guy near Pike Place Market, no one ever makes the connection. Congratulations, I think you called all of it.”

He had called it, hadn’t he? Well, a killer just knows a killer. Kanezaki’s people had assembled Diaz’s cellphone history. She didn’t have a lot of reliable patterns beyond home and office, neither of which would present an attractive option for something intended to look natural because of too many witnesses and too much known connection with the target. But it turned out she had a habit of using Freeway Park on some of her morning jogs. Dox and Larison had agreed that if they were looking to take her out, and especially if it had to look at least seminatural, this was the spot they would use to make it happen. And if they were thinking that way, it was reasonable to expect Manus would be, too.

“What’s your intel on the man based on?” Dox said.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, are we talking national technical means? Or are there other operators in the vicinity?”

“He’s carrying a burner they dialed into. I gather foot surveillance against this guy would be difficult. Especially this early in the morning, without many people around.”

That was a relief. Too many cooks and all that.

“We’re here already,” Dox said. “My partner’s out having a look-see as we speak. But are you sure you’re not going to take any shit for this not turning out per your boss’s request?”

“Who can say what went wrong? Manus didn’t do the job. He never showed up where they told me to instruct you to wait, or at least you didn’t see him. Etc.”

“Fair enough. Just wish you could have told me more about this guy. But okay, with the rain and the early hour, the park’s pretty empty right now. Shouldn’t be too hard to spot him.”