“What’s the nature of their enmity?”
The Russian grinned up at him through bloody teeth. “Get the fuck off my chest.”
“Sure thing.” Bourne stood up, grabbed the Russian’s AK-47, and slammed the butt into the side of his head.
3
ISHOULD HAVE KNOWN,” Soraya said.
Delia turned to her, a twinkle in her eye. “Known what?”
“That an inveterate player like you would take me to the best private poker game in the district.”
Delia laughed as Reese Williams led them down a wallpapered hallway peppered with paintings and photos of African wildlife, predominantly elephants.
“I’ve heard about this place,” Soraya said to Williams, “but this is the first time Delia’s seen fit to bring me here.”
“You won’t be sorry,” Williams said over her shoulder, “that I promise you.”
They were in her Federalist brownstone off Dupont Circle. Reese Williams was the strong right arm of Police Commissioner Lester Burrows, indispensable to him in many ways, not the least through her extensive contacts within the upper echelons of DC’s politicos.
Williams threw open the double pocket doors, revealing a library that had been converted into a gambling den, complete with a green baize table, comfortable chairs for six, and clouds of aromatic cigar smoke. As they entered the only sounds in the room were the click of chips and the barely audible flutter of a deck of cards being expertly shuffled, then dealt to the four men sitting around the table.
Besides Burrows, Soraya recognized two senators, one junior, one senior, a high-powered lobbyist, and, her eyes opened wide, was that-?
“Peter?” she said incredulously.
Peter Marks looked up from counting his chips. “Good God. Soraya.” At once he stood up, said, “Deal me out,” and came around the green baize table to embrace her. “Delia, how about taking my place?”
“With pleasure.” She turned to her friend. “Peter’s a regular here and I called him from the office. I thought you could use seeing an old compatriot.”
Soraya grinned and kissed Delia on the cheek. “Thanks.”
Delia nodded and left them, sitting down at the table. She took her usual stacks of chips from the bank, signing an IOU for the amount.
“How are you?” Marks said, holding Soraya at arm’s length.
Soraya surveyed him critically. “How do you think I am?”
“I heard through my pals in CI what Danziger did to you.” He shook his head. “I can’t say that I’m surprised.”
“What d’you mean?”
Marks led her across the hall to a quiet corner in the deserted sitting room, where they were ensured complete privacy. French windows looked out on a shadowy alley of greenery. The room was wallpapered a warm persimmon color, the walls covered with photos of Reese Williams in Africa amid crowds of tribesmen. In some of them she was also with an older man, possibly her father. Plush sofas and several deep-cushioned armchairs of striped fabric were arrayed before a fireplace with a marble mantelpiece. A low polished wooden table and a sideboard with two trays of liquor bottles and cut-crystal glasses completed the picture. No amount of municipal salary or rake-offs could account for this magnificent house. Soraya thought Reese must come from enormous wealth.
They sat side by side on a deep-cushioned sofa, turned partly toward each other.
“Danziger’s just looking for excuses to get rid of CI’s top management,” Marks said. “He wants his people-and by that I mean Secretary Halliday’s people-in positions of power, but he knows he has to tread carefully to avoid it looking like a wholesale slaughter of the old guard, even though that’s been the plan all along. It’s why I bailed when I knew he was coming in.”
“I’ve been in Cairo, I didn’t know you’d left CI. Where did you land?”
“Private sector.” Marks paused for a moment. “Listen, Soraya, I know you can keep a secret, so I’m willing to go out on a limb here and tell you.” He paused, his eyes flicking toward the door, which he’d carefully closed behind them.
“So?”
Marks leaned in farther, so their faces were close together. “I’ve joined Treadstone.”
For a moment, there was nothing but shocked silence and the tick-tockof the brass ship’s clock on the marble mantel. Then Soraya tried a laugh. “Come on, Treadstone is dead and buried.”
“The old Treadstone, yes,” he said. “But there’s a new Treadstone, resurrected by Frederick Willard.”
Willard’s name wiped the smile from Soraya’s face. She knew of Willard’s reputation as the Old Man’s Treadstone sleeper agent inside the NSA, who had been instrumental in exposing the former director’s criminal interrogation techniques. But since then he’d seemed to vanish off everyone’s radar. So Peter’s information was all too credible.
She shook her head, her expression troubled. “I don’t understand. Treadstone was an illicit operation, even by CI’s covert standards. It was shut down for very good reasons. Why on earth would you sign up for it now?”
“Simple. Willard hates Halliday as much as I do-as much as you do. He’s promised me that he’s going to use Treadstone’s resources to destroy Halliday’s credibility and his power base. That’s why I want you to join us.”
She was taken aback. “What? Join Treadstone?” As he nodded, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “Wait a minute. You knew I was going to get canned the minute I walked through the doors to HQ.”
“Everyone knew, Soraya, except you.”
“Good Lord.” She jumped up and began to stalk around the room, running her fingertips over the tops of the books on the shelves, the contours of bronze elephants, the textures of the heavy drapes without even being aware of it. Peter had the good sense to say nothing. Finally, she turned to him from across the room and said, “Give me one good reason why I should join you-and please don’t state the obvious.”
“Okay, putting aside the fact that you need a job, step back and think for a minute. When Willard makes good on his promise, when Halliday is gone, how long d’you think Danziger will last at CI?” He stood up. “I don’t know about you, but I want the old CI back, the one the Old Man ran for decades, the one I can be proud of.”
“You mean the one that used Jason over and over again whenever it suited its purpose.”
He laughed, deflecting her blade of cynicism. “Isn’t that one of the things intelligence organizations do best?” He came toward her. “Come on, tell me that you don’t want the old CI back.”
“I want to be running Typhon again.”
“Yeah, well, you don’t want to know how Danziger’s going to fuck up the Typhon networks you built up.”
“To tell you the truth, Typhon’s future is all I’ve been thinking about since I walked out of HQ this afternoon.”
“Then join me.”
“What if Willard fails?”
“He won’t,” Marks said.
“Nothing in life is assured, Peter, you of all people should know that.”
“Okay, fair enough. If he fails, then we all fail. But at least we’ll feel that we’ve done whatever we could to bring back CI, that we haven’t simply knuckled under to Halliday and an NSA run rampant.”
Soraya sighed, picked her way across the carpet to join Marks. “Where the hell did Willard get the funding to resurrect Treadstone?”
Just by asking the question she saw she had agreed to his offer. She knew she was hooked. But while weighing this understanding, she almost missed the pained look on Peter’s face. “I’m not going to like it, am I?”
“I didn’t like it, either, but…” He shrugged. “Does the name Oliver Lissmean anything to you?”
“One of the principals of Black River?” She goggled at him. Then she burst out laughing. “You’re kidding, right? Jason and I were instrumental in discrediting Black River. I thought the three of them were all indicted.”