The Chaos Kind (John Rain #11)(93)

Kanezaki gave him a nod in return.

Manus scanned the area, then looked at him. “You sent Dox? And Larison?”

Unlike Larison, who radiated danger, there was something about Manus that was as still as a bomb. Kanezaki felt nervous at the question, and how Manus might mean it. But he didn’t see a way to avoid answering. So he simply said, “Yes.”

There was a long, silent beat. Manus extended his hand. “Thank you,” he said.

They shook. Kanezaki said, “I’m glad everything worked well.”

Rain got out and did a perimeter check. It was reassuring—both substantively, and because some things, it seemed, would never change. Nor should they.

Rain held out his hand. They shook. Then Rain surprised him by offering a bow. Rain didn’t ordinarily express the Japanese half of his background, even though he’d grown up in Japan and was far more “both” than half of anything. Kanezaki had always wondered whether the reticence was some way of denying Kanezaki’s own heritage. Kanezaki was ethnic Japanese, but as a nisei, he’d been born in America and identified fully as American. And compared to Rain’s native Japanese fluency, his own language skills were a joke.

“You know,” Rain said, “the older you get, the more you remind me of Tatsu.”

Kanezaki was surprised to find himself a little choked up by that. “Thanks,” he managed to say.

Delilah came around the car from the driver’s side. “Hello, Tom.”

Kanezaki smiled. “Delilah. At last we meet.”

She kissed him on both cheeks. “I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. Though I always imagined different circumstances.”

He nodded. “I’m sorry.”

She waved a hand as though dismissing the problem. “My fault. By now, I should know better. You know, John talks about you a lot.”

“Really?” Kanezaki said. “I didn’t know he talked a lot about anything.”

She laughed. “We’ll have to work on your elicitation skills.”

He smiled. “I think you might have skills I don’t.”

He saw Maya getting out on the other side of the car, still holding the dog. Two more people emerged on his side—a pretty brunette, and a teenaged boy, lanky but filling out. Evie and her son, Dash.

“You must be Tom,” Evie said.

He nodded. “Hello, Evie.”

They shook hands. “Marvin told me what happened,” she said. “Thank you.”

He nodded but didn’t feel he deserved their gratitude. He hadn’t been trying to save Manus—or, to the extent he had, it was subordinate to his desire to protect Diaz. And even that was a function of the imperative of intelligence—of learning more, understanding more, knowing more.

Dash held out his hand and gave Kanezaki’s a firm shake. Kanezaki looked at Evie. “You sure you want to do this?” he said. “It’s a long trip, and—”

“We stick together,” Evie said. She put her hand on Dash’s shoulder. Manus did the same from the other side. Dash put his arms around both their backs.

Maya came around the back of the car. When he’d talked to her earlier, after Rain and Delilah had picked her up, she’d sounded shell-shocked. Even beaten. She looked tired now. But also . . . determined.

“You all right?” he said.

She looked at him. “Let’s get these motherfuckers.” Her dog barked, and she added, “Yeah, boy, that’s right.”

Kanezaki nodded. “We will. But you’ve already given us all the critical intel. On where they were holding Schrader, on how to get to Grimble. On Grimble’s interests, habits, everything. You don’t have to—”

“Tom. I’m going.”

Rain looked at him. “You don’t have to go, either. You have two kids, Tom.”

Kanezaki shook his head. “You’ve got to be kidding. I caused this.” He looked at Maya. “All of it.”

“No,” Delilah said. “Rispel caused it. And Devereaux. And Hobbs. And Schrader. They caused all of it. And dragged us in. Now let’s finish it. Okay?”

Rain looked at her, his expression unlike anything Kanezaki had seen in him before. Gratitude? Protectiveness? Love? All those, and more. He realized he had gotten to know Rain over time. But only in a relatively narrow range of circumstances. No wonder Delilah had joked about Rain’s being talkative with her. When it was just the two of them, he was probably a different person. He was happy for them. But not quite happy enough to wish they weren’t here.

“I got your shopping list,” Kanezaki said, looking from one of them to the next. “Most of what you asked for is already on the plane. There’s enough firepower and ammunition to lay siege to the Alamo. Commo’s also good to go. But let me ask . . . is anyone here into bicycling?”

“I am,” Maya said. “On weekends, I bike to work.”

Dash seemed to have missed what Kanezaki had said, and Evie was signing to him. After a moment, he turned to Kanezaki. “I have a trail bike.”

“Are you asking for the reason I think you’re asking?” Rain said.

“Probably,” Kanezaki said. “Grimble lives in a town called Woodside. I’ve attended a lot of conferences and other meetings in Silicon Valley, and they take their biking seriously. Daily waves of pelotons, not just on weekends, but on weekdays, too. For reconnaissance, it would be low-profile.”