The Killer Collective (John Rain, #10; Ben Treven #4; Livia Lone #3)(10)

Trahan said nothing. He was looking down as though ashamed.

“I’m not ‘enabling’ anything,” Smith said. “I’m following the rules. As for the ‘hurtcore’ itself . . . I can imagine.”

“I doubt it. If you could, you wouldn’t shut us down.”

Smith said nothing.

“Do you have children, Agent Smith?”

A little color crept into Smith’s cheeks. “My personal life has nothing to do with this. Beyond which—”

“Nieces? Nephews? Were you ever even a child yourself?”

“—it’s none of your business. As I said, this is not my decision.”

“It is your decision, if you make yourself complicit in it.”

“It is a Bureau decision. It is above my pay grade. And yours. And it is final.”

“Fuck you. I have a case against those traffickers. I’m going to have them arrested. And I’ll find a way to have them prosecuted.”

She knew she wasn’t being tactical. She knew she was showing too much. She didn’t care. And she couldn’t have reined it in regardless.

Smith looked down. “Detective Lone.” She seemed to be struggling for words. “Livia.”

“Detective Lone.”

She nodded. “Detective Lone. My understanding . . . there is some exposure here for everyone who participated in this operation.”

“What does that mean?”

“The videos being posted as bona fides themselves could be the basis for prosecution.”

Livia shook her head as though to clear it. She felt buffeted by currents she hadn’t sensed and couldn’t see.

“You can’t be serious,” she said. “You just can’t.”

“Let it go, Detective Lone. Just let it go. Keep doing your good work in all the other ways you do it. There are some fights you just can’t win.”

“That doesn’t mean you don’t fight.”

“It does if you want to live to fight another day.”

Livia wanted to stride over and sweep Agent Smith’s ass to the floor. But that would have solved nothing. Beyond which, she recognized on some level that the woman wasn’t threatening her. Not even warning. Advising, if anything. Maybe even trying to signal a sympathy Livia was resisting because being the object of sympathy was abhorrent to her.

She looked down for a moment and took a deep breath. Then another. When she felt calmer, she looked up. “I’d like to speak with your superior. Whoever made the decision to pull the plug. Or I could have my lieutenant make the call, if she would be the right pay grade. Hell, if you prefer, we’ll get Seattle’s chief of police on the phone.”

Agent Smith shook her head. “You can have anyone call anyone at the Bureau. I’m just telling you, you’ll be wasting your time. Or worse.” She inclined her head toward Trahan. “Terry and I have to be back in Washington ASAP. We’re leaving on a red-eye. Tonight.”

Trahan looked at Livia and shrugged helplessly. “I’m sorry, Livia.”

Livia stared at both of them, knowing she’d lost but determined to make this just a round, not the fight.

She picked up the laptop. Fuck them. If they wanted to prosecute her, let them try.

“You’re both cowards,” she said, and walked out.





chapter

seven





RAIN


Larison wasn’t able to shed much light on the identity of my mystery caller. “Hort knows everyone,” he told me. “You know that. You thought the guy was a former officer of some type? Colonel or higher? Well, that narrows it down to about a hundred and seventy possibilities. You want more, you’re going to have to ask Hort.”

“I already did.”

“Well, maybe you didn’t ask him the right way.”

I’d seen Larison in action. No one would ever want to be on the wrong end of what he considered the right way.

“Here’s the question,” I said. “Why is Horton protecting this guy?”

“No. The question is, Who is Hort more afraid of? This guy? Or us?”

“Oh, it’s ‘us’ now?”

“Up to you. I told you after what you did for me I’d have your back. You think I say that kind of thing lightly?”

All I’d done was show him trust when the smart thing would have been to kill him. Still, having once been on the other end of that equation—with Dox—I knew it could be mind blowing.

“No,” I said. “I don’t think that.”

“Then say the word and we’ll pay Hort a visit. Make sure he’s got the right fear priorities.”





chapter

eight





LIVIA


Livia headed from the loft to Lake Union Park and strode along the water, her footfalls reverberating against the wooden planks of the walkway. The rain had stopped, but the sky was still gray, the air cold and wet, and the park nearly empty.

She was seething, and she knew that until she got past it she wouldn’t be able to think tactically. The worst part was, so much of it was her fault. She should have been clearer in telling Trahan to keep quiet about the Secret Service angle until she and he had learned more. Maybe he would have gone around her anyway, but at least she wouldn’t have been left with the feeling that the shutdown was her fault.