The Chaos Kind (John Rain #11)(21)

It was disturbing, and he’d have to think about it. For now, he was glad he’d made the right call. Or at least the lucky one.

They had made it down the stairs and had just cut onto Ninth Avenue when they saw a woman in a jogging outfit come running up the street straight toward them. Of course. Alondra Diaz.





chapter

sixteen





DOX


Larison and Manus kept their heads down and their feet moving, but Dox couldn’t help looking back as Diaz passed them. Ah, shit, she was turning onto the stairs and heading straight up into the park.

He shook it off and continued along the street. She was probably safe for now. There couldn’t be another team in the park at this point, could there? A cleanup crew, something like that?

Of course not. He was being ridiculous. But—

“Don’t,” he heard Larison growl. The man had gotten to know him too well.

Dox tried to listen. Tried not to think about how he would feel if something happened to the woman. And couldn’t help imagining her walking right into the kind of ambush he and Larison had just prevented.

“Don’t,” Larison said again, louder, but it was already too late. Dox turned back. She was halfway up the stairs and about to go around a corner. He called out, “Ms. Diaz!”

She stopped and looked at him. He heard Manus’s and Larison’s footfalls moving steadily away. He couldn’t blame them. He just hoped they wouldn’t blame him.

“Please, ma’am, don’t go running in the park this morning. There are people there who were planning to hurt you. They can’t now, but there might be others. You need to watch your back. I think it’s about that big case of yours. Some powerful people who aren’t happy about it.”

“What?” Diaz said. “How do you . . . How do you know who I am? How do you know about my case?”

“You need to stay clear of that park,” Dox said. “And anywhere else people might expect you. Now, if you have any sense at all, you’ll listen to what I just said.”

He turned and walked away, fast but not too fast. He made a quick right, then another right onto a series of quiet stairs that led to more stairs and a walking path behind some apartment buildings. One of the bugout routes they had agreed on earlier. In under a minute, he’d caught up to Larison and Manus. He looked back and was relieved Diaz wasn’t trying to follow them.

Manus was walking point and didn’t say anything. Not that his silence meant much. Dox got the feeling the man was even quieter than Larison, and besides, he probably hadn’t heard Dox coming. But Larison glanced back and said, “What the hell was that?”

“You know what it was.”

“I agreed to save her. Not die for her. Or get arrested. She can describe you now.”

“My hood’s up. I don’t think she got much of a look.”

“No, just enough to tell the cops, ‘He was a big guy who sounded straight out of Abilene. And he was with two other big men.”

“How come you’re the men and I’m just the guy?”

“I’m not fucking around.”

“I know, I’m sorry. A lot just happened and I’m trying to improvise.”

“You want to be a knight in shining armor, do it when it’s not my ass, okay?”

“I said I’m sorry, all right? Let’s just keep moving.”

They passed some early-morning commuters, but with the rain, everyone was walking hoods up and heads down. A few were sheltering under umbrellas. No one paid them any heed.

At the top of the path, they emerged back onto the street. They headed into an alley between a pair of apartment buildings and ducked behind a Dumpster.

“Partial as I am to All City Coffee,” Dox said, his eyes going from Manus’s face to the tip of the Espada protruding from his front pants pocket and back again, “I think we’d be better off reconnecting outside the city limits. How’d you get here and how were you planning to leave?”

“No,” Manus said. “I don’t want to split up.”

“Well, it’s not my first choice either, but—”

“I want to know who’s behind this. Who hired me. Who hired you. Who sent those people.”

“Fine, we can talk about that when—”

“I’m not taking a chance on you two ghosting. We stick together until you tell me what you know.”

“Hey,” Larison said. “I don’t want to hear your demands. We just saved your ass back there.”

Manus shook his head. “I saved yours.”

“Why the fuck would we ghost? The only reason you’re not dead right now is because someone wants to know why you were sent to kill Diaz.”

“You want what I know?” Manus said. “You go first.”

Larison took a step back and to the side. “No. You.”

Well, that wasn’t good. A typical posturer would have stepped in to make a point. When Larison stepped offline, it was the opposite. He wasn’t making a point. He was going to shoot you.

“Hold on,” Dox said. “Hold on. We’re all a little upset and we need to take a deep breath. Mr. Manus, my name’s Dox. And this here is Larison.”

“Jesus,” Larison said. “Why don’t you just give him our driver’s licenses?”