“I don’t. But I know you do. And I can’t ignore them.”
He nodded, then frowned and shook his head, his expression suffused with a newfound resolve. “Well, we’ll need to come up with something else,” he said, his tone firm. “That can’t happen. You don’t just walk away from the Oval Office. It’s not that easy.”
I didn’t expect anything less. Not from President Yorke. He was no pushover.
But I wasn’t biting.
“Of course it is,” I insisted calmly. “You’ll find an excuse. Family priorities. Health issues. Make something up. Happens all the time. We live in a world of spin, remember?”
He pondered some more, then he said, “Let me think about it. I’m sure I can come up with something else that’ll satisfy you. Some other solution that’ll work for us both. How about that? Will you let me do that?”
For all I knew, he’d be giving the order to have me shipped off to Guantanamo or set into the concrete foundations of some highway overpass the second I stepped out of his office. But somehow, and despite everything I now knew about his past, I didn’t think Hank Yorke, the president, would do that.
“No,” I told him, firmly. “There are only two possible ways this plays out. You do as I ask. Or it all comes out. And FYI… Janitors or anyone else comes after me? The whole thing goes live. Big time. The cork pops and there’s no way of putting that genie back in the bottle. You really don’t want to go there. Trust me.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that for a moment, Reilly.”
We didn’t shake hands.
I walked out of there, hoping I hadn’t unleashed a trunkload of pain on myself.
I didn’t think I had.
But I guess only time will tell.
About the Author
RAYMOND KHOURY is the New York Times and international bestselling author of four previous Reilly thrillers: The Last Templar (his debut), The Templar Salvation, The Devil’s Elixir and Rasputin’s Shadow, as well as two standalone thrillers, The Sanctuary and The Sign. His work in film and television includes the BBC’s BAFTA award-winning spy series Spooks (MI:5 in the US) and the ground-breaking crime series Waking the Dead.
Connect with him at www.facebook.com/lasttemplar and find out more about his work on his website at www.raymondkhoury.com
