The Chaos Kind (John Rain #11)(49)

He started to say something, then stopped. She’d stymied all his earlier efforts to discuss it with an impenetrable wall of It’s fine. He didn’t blame her. She was done with Mossad. Done with the life. So as fond as she was of Dox, she resented the big sniper for refusing to get out as she had. And even more, she resented Livia, who in her mind had once before pulled Dox, and therefore all of them, into her war against child abusers.

But as he sat silently in front of the laptop considering his options, apparently she couldn’t abide the silence any longer. She closed her book and walked over. “All right, tell me. Is this coming from Livia?”

Well, at least they were talking. Though the silence suddenly felt safer.

“No.”

“She’s leading Dox by the nose again, isn’t she? So all of us will be dragged in as a result.”

He closed the laptop. “It’s not that simple. Livia didn’t ask for Dox’s help. She didn’t even know about whatever this is until after the fact. It’s coming from Kanezaki.” Earlier, he’d tried to brief her on what Larison had told him. This time, she let him.

“It’s a distinction without a difference,” she said when he was done. “That Dox, always having to protect the damsel in distress.”

“I wouldn’t call Livia a damsel.”

“Tell that to your friend. He’s the one who needs to hear it.”

“He’s your friend, too.”

“He doesn’t come to me. He comes to you.”

Rain tried to control his exasperation. “He didn’t come to me. He tried to keep me out of it.”

“Another distinction without a difference. He brought in Larison. Larison called you.”

“He called you. You’re the one who insists on carrying a phone.”

The moment it came out, he regretted it. When Delilah was pissed, there was no winning move. Your only option was to try to find a way not to play.

“Don’t you see how impossible this is?” she said. “It doesn’t matter who it starts with. In the end it’s the Three Musketeers, or four, or however many. One for all and all for one. How many rounds of this game are we going to play before someone gets killed or winds up in prison? I don’t want to save the world anymore. I want to be normal. I want some peace. Don’t you?”

“Yes.”

“No, I mean it. Do you really?”

“Yes.”

But it was obviously a rhetorical question, because she continued. “There’s a part of you that doesn’t want to let it go. The danger, the edge, whatever it is you’re afraid to lose. Everyone recognizes it but you.”

“Who’s everyone?” he said, the realization that she’d succeeded in drawing him in coming an instant too late to stop the words.

“Dox, for one. He once told me a stupid joke he says is a parable about you. A hunter in the woods—”

“Yes, and the bear. He’s shared it with me. Along with a bunch of others.”

“And you don’t think there’s anything to it? You don’t see that the hunter is you?”

“I try not to think of myself that way. Look, you know if you were in trouble, Dox would help you.”

“I don’t get myself in trouble the way he does.”

“He wouldn’t care.”

“I wouldn’t ask.”

“You wouldn’t have to. And you wouldn’t be able to stop him.”

On cue, her phone buzzed from where she’d left it on the couch. She stalked over, snatched it up, and brought it to her ear.

“Allo.” She turned and looked murderously at Rain. “Hello, Tom, what a nice surprise.” A pause. “No, I wouldn’t want you to have to go through the secure site, it’s more efficient to use his secretary.” She walked over and handed Rain the phone.

“Everything okay?” Rain said, watching Delilah.

“They’re all fine,” Kanezaki said. “And, uh, sorry if I’ve caused a problem over there.”

“It’s okay.”

“I know Larison already called. Already asked you to come to the States. That was smart. I should have thought to do it myself.”

“Tom,” he said, watching Delilah, “I’m retired. At some point you have to believe me when I say that.”

Delilah watched him, shaking her head. If he thought she’d appreciate his response more than whatever had precipitated it, it was a clear case of the triumph of hope over experience.

“I need your help,” Kanezaki said. “Anything you want in return, you can have. I won’t haggle. I put someone in danger. I need you to protect her.”

“I already told Larison—”

“This is about the same thing.” He briefed Rain on a young CIA Science & Technology officer named Maya, and how she had helped uncover the plot Dox and the rest of them were now embroiled in, and how earlier that evening someone had tried to kill her, and mistakenly killed another young officer instead.

Even beyond the fact of the dead girl, it sounded bad. They weren’t containing this thing. It was metastasizing.

“You’re sure it was an attempt on Maya?” Rain said.

“The murdered girl was her friend. Walking Maya’s dog as a favor in front of Maya’s apartment while Maya was out for a date. They look enough alike. And Maya forgot her phone. Think about it. A hurry-up operation. You’re going on nothing more than a photo and a description. It’s dark. You key on the girl, on the dog, on the place, the cellphone tracker confirms location—”