“She’s carrying your child.”
As Harry Rowland brought the fire tongs down toward the top of his head, Bourne raised an arm.
His hand, grasping the fire tongs, redirected them down onto the intruder’s shoulder. Immediately, Bourne kicked out, connected with the intruder’s knee, then rolled away. Rowland struggled, refused to loosen his death grip on the fire tongs. Bourne connected with the point of his chin, snapping Rowland’s head back, his teeth clacking together. But Rowland continued his grip on the impromptu weapon, and Bourne couldn’t turn away. The intruder’s leg swept out, connecting with Bourne’s ankle, and he went down, pulling Rowland with him.
Rebeka figured she must have blacked out for a moment because when she roused herself, wiping blood off her face, she saw Bourne and Rowland tangled up with the Babylonian. Staggering to her feet, she ripped the tongs from Rowland’s hand, grabbed him by the collar, and jerked him backward, away from the other two men.
“Idiot!” she spat. “What d’you think you’re doing?”
He turned on her then and struck her soundly across the face. “You have no fucking idea what you’ve stepped into,” he said.
Recovering, she hit back, but he blocked her, and, at the same time, used the heel of his hand in three percussive blows that brought her to her knees.
“It all comes down to this,” he said as he bent over her. “I remember everything now. Everything, do you understand?”
She tried to get to her feet, but he wouldn’t let her. With his memory, he seemed to have regained all his strength and cunning. He was once again the man she had been with in that hot and sweaty hotel room in Lebanon, the man with whom she had been in a kind of competition, part cat-and-mouse, part shell game.
He twisted her wrist back painfully. “In Dahr El Ahmar, you won. But here we’ll have a different outcome.”
With Rowland’s distracting weight lifted off him, Bourne returned his attention to the intruder, who, he had concluded, must be the Babylonian. And not a moment too soon. The Babylonian had wrapped a powerful arm around his neck, twisting viciously in an attempt to snap it. Bourne, turning his body in the direction of the twist, bought himself several seconds, enough time to drive his elbow sharply into the Babylonian’s kidney.
The Babylonian grunted, and Bourne, repeating the devastating blow, snaked free of the hold, brought a rough stone ashtray he snatched off a table down onto the back of the Babylonian’s head. Blood gushed, and the Babylonian fell onto his back. The shard of glass half-buried there snapped off.
Bourne, thinking him finished, began to stand up. That was when the Babylonian arched up, slamming his forehead into Bourne’s. Dazed, Bourne went to his knees, and the Babylonian hauled him bodily toward the fire. The Babylonian’s strength was incredible, even though he was bleeding profusely, even though the kidney blows would have incapacitated anyone else.
Bourne felt the intense heat of the flames on the top of his head. The Babylonian meant to feed him into the fire. He was only inches away, sliding along the floor, ever closer. He tried several different strikes, all of which the Babylonian brushed away as ineffectual. Sparks flew before his eyes, and he knew he had no time left.
Reaching over his head, he grasped one of the burning logs, and, unmindful of the pain, jabbed the burning end into the Babylonian’s chest. Immediately, his clothes caught fire, the stench of charring material filling his nostrils.
Rolling away, Bourne was up and running. He saw Rebeka restraining Rowland in the kitchen. Pointing to the rear door, he ushered them through, out into the bitter nighttime cold, and into Rebeka’s boat. While Bourne scooped up handfuls of snow to soothe the blistered skin of his palms, she dragged Rowland on board, then started the engine. Bourne cast off the lines, and they raced off in a spray of icy black water, vanishing into the gathering gloom.
I don’t work for anyone,” Peter said, lying smoothly. “At least, not permanently.”
Brick stared at him. “You’re freelance.”
“Precisely.”
They were in Brick’s brand-new fire-red Audi A8. Peter was driving, taking the place of the late, unlamented Florin Popa. Brick had insisted on this arrangement so he could keep an eye on Peter, whom he still had little reason to trust. They had stopped at the pro shop so Peter could change back into his street clothes. He did this while Brick, leaning against the line of metal lockers, watched him like a pervert in a public restroom, even while he made a brief muffled call on his mobile.
Brick, in the shotgun seat, grunted now. “How do I know you weren’t following Richards?”
“You don’t.” Peter was thinking as fast as he could.
“If not you, who followed Richards?” Brick asked, as Peter took back roads at his explicit direction. “Who killed my man?”
“Peter Marks. He works for the same outfit Richards does.”
“He suspected Richards?”
Peter nodded, making a right, then an almost immediate left. They were heading away from Arlington, deeper into the Virginia countryside, leaving the manicured lawns and multi-million-dollar housing enclaves behind, driving into wilder terrain. Rolling hills, dense forests, damp glens stretched out before them.
“The next step,” Peter said, “is to take revenge. Otherwise, this organization, having followed Richards to you, will never let you out of its sight.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“But I am. You want to know what I was doing at Blackfriar? Okay. I was keeping an eye on you.” Noting the tensing reaction throughout Brick’s entire body, he said, “I was keeping an eye on you because I want to work for you. I’m tired of being on my own, with no job security, nothing to fall back on.”
“Times are tough,” Brick mused.
“And getting tougher.”
Brick seemed to consider this seriously. Then he said abruptly, “Pull over.”
Peter did as he was ordered, rolling the Audi up onto the grass that edged the two-lane blacktop and putting the transmission in neutral.
The moment the Audi came to rest, Brick snapped his fingers. “Your wallet.”
Peter reached into an inner pocket.
“Careful, mate.”
Peter froze with his coat half-open. “You do it then.”
Brick’s eyes met his in an icy glare. “Go the fuck ahead.”
Using just his thumb and forefinger, Peter carefully extracted the second wallet that was in plain sight in front of the concealed pocket where his real one lay. He handed it over.
Brick allowed it to sit in the open palm of his left hand. With his right, he peeled back the fold. Only then did his gaze drop to read the driver’s license revealed. “Anthony Dzundza.” The icy eyes flicked up again. “What the fuck kind of name is that, mate?”
“Ukrainian.” Legends always felt it was more realistic to use a name that required an explanation. They were right.
Brick’s eyes turned to slits. “You don’t look Ukrainian, old son.”
“My mother’s a beauty from Amsterdam.”
Brick grunted again. “Don’t fucking flatter yourself. You’re not that pretty.” Reassured, he pawed through the rest of the docs in the wallet—credit cards, a bank debit card, museum membership cards, even, amusingly, an unpaid speeding ticket. Then he handed it back.
“You prefer Anthony or Tony?”
Peter shrugged. “Depends on friend or foe.”
Brick laughed. “Okay, Tony, get out. I’ll drop you off. You meet me at the club tomorrow at one.”
“Then what?”
“Then,” Brick said, his face dead serious, “we’ll see what you’re all about.”
After Thorne apologized to the man known to the world as Maceo Encarnación, hurrying out of the Politics As Usual offices, Encarnación gathered up his greatcoat, and strolled to the bank of elevators.
While he waited, he allowed his practiced eye to observe the orderly pace of the workplace, the concentrated faces, the purposeful strides, the pride puffing out chests. Above all, the sense of superiority and security that, he knew full well, would shatter into ten thousand pieces in the face of the chaos that was about to hurl itself full-tilt at everyone employed here.