“Stay here, Mr. Secretary,” McGarvey said, and he headed after Haaris, Pete at his side.
“What are you going to say to him?” she asked.
“Depends on what he says to Rajput. But no matter what, I want the new PM to get a good look at my face.”
“He’s probably read your file.”
“Yeah, but I want him to see me in person,” McGarvey said.
Pete stopped him. “You’re going through with it.”
“I don’t know yet,” McGarvey said, though that wasn’t exactly the truth.
He hurried to catch up as Haaris walked straight to Rajput and the ambassador, bypassing the line. Both men looked up with interest.
“David, I didn’t expect to see you here this evening,” Rajput said. He introduced Haaris to the ambassador, who offered his hand, but Haaris ignored it.
“I thought not, considering that your people tried to have me killed last night.”
A hush spread across the big room. McGarvey and Pete stood only a couple of feet behind Haaris.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Rajput said.
The ambassador said something to the new PM that McGarvey didn’t quite catch. The look of puzzlement on Rajput’s face turned to sadness.
“But that’s terrible news about your wife. You’ve often spoken to me about her. But I can give you my word of honor that I knew nothing about such an attack. And I’m in a position to know about such things.”
“He’s telling the truth,” Pete whispered in McGarvey’s ear.
“So far as he knows it.”
“You’re a liar,” Haaris said. Shock rippled across the room.
The look on Rajput’s face didn’t change. “You’re distraught, David. You don’t know what you’re saying.” He reached out a hand but Haaris batted it aside.
“But you’ve made a terrible mistake, General. I have the president’s ear, and she agrees with me that the Messiah is an ISI creation, and that Pakistan is surely sliding toward nuclear war.”
“Insanity.”
“Yes, it is, only this time Pakistan has miscalculated my country’s intentions.”
Fay struggled through the crowd, elbowing past McGarvey and Pete. “Pardon me, Mr. Prime Minister, Mr. Ambassador, but Mr. Haaris does not speak for the president.”
Haaris turned on him. “Pakistan is no friend of the United States. And it’s time that the president understands it.”
“If you rightly remember it was under my direction that you were rescued from the Taliban,” Rajput said.
“More of your intrigue, General.”
“Why in Allah’s name would I want to cause your death? You’re making no sense.”
Haaris stepped closer. “I can guarantee you, General, that the United States will do more to your regime under this dictator you call the Messiah than simply neutralize most of your nuclear weapons. Perhaps I’ll be flying to New Delhi in the very near future.”
The ambassador motioned to someone and almost instantly two large men in plain Western business suits arrived.
“Mr. Haaris was just leaving,” the ambassador said. “Please show him out.”
“He was just leaving with us,” McGarvey said.
The entire room was silent.
“I will of course lodge a formal protest,” the ambassador told Fay.
“I understand,” Fay said.
“Time to go,” McGarvey prompted.
Haaris glared at Rajput, but then turned and stalked across the room, the crowd parting for him.
“Someone tried to kill me too, Mr. Prime Minister,” McGarvey said. “Quite a coincidence, wouldn’t you say?”
“We all have enemies.”
“Yes, and you should keep it in mind.”
Fay started to say something, but McGarvey nodded pleasantly. “Mr. Secretary. Gentlemen.”
Haaris was waiting for the valet parker to bring his car when McGarvey and Pete came out.
“I didn’t expect to see you two here,” he said. He had a grim set to his features.
“We were waiting for you to show up,” McGarvey said.
“I don’t think I made Fay happy. I’ll be surprised if I keep my job.”
“Walt Page will probably want to have a word with you first thing in the morning. He’ll need an explanation.”
“I thought that would be obvious. I was provoking the bastard.”
“He was your friend,” Pete said.
“No, but I was mining him.”
“A two-way street,” McGarvey said.
“You know how the game is played. I’ve fed him some hand-crafted disinformation and he’s done the same for me.”
“A zero-sum game,” Pete said. “No one wins.”
A faint smile played at the corners of Haaris’s mouth. “Ah, but I’m smarter than he is. That’s how the game is played in the majors.”
His S-class Mercedes arrived, and he tipped the valet and drove off.
“The entire thing was staged,” McGarvey said.
“How do you mean?”
“The PM and ambassador spoke English the entire time for our benefit.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Pete had parked her car around the corner from McGarvey’s brownstone, and when they reached it she hesitated. The night was early and there was a fair amount of traffic, but nothing suspicious, just the usual weekday flow.
“I don’t want to be alone tonight,” she said.
She’d been quiet ever since they’d left the Pakistani embassy. “What’s the matter?”
“The willies, I guess,” she said. “I keep looking over my shoulder expecting to see someone gaining on me.”
“No one on our tail tonight.”
She smiled. “I meant it metaphorically.”
They were double-parked, and a cabby passing them honked his horn.
“Do you want me to follow you home?”
“Only if you’ll come up with me and spend the night,” she said. “But I have to warn you that my fridge is mostly empty, so we’d have to eat out.”
“You can stay with me. I’ll take the couch and you can have the bed.”
“Switch the sleeping arrangements and it’s a deal.”
McGarvey drove around the block and found a spot two doors down from his apartment. Something of Pete’s willies had transferred to him, and he was especially careful with his tradecraft. His apartment was swept every week, but after the incident at the embassy he figured that both he and Haaris were fair game. It was exactly what he wanted. This time when someone came calling he would do everything in his power to take him alive.
Upstairs Pete took off her cocktail dress and put on one of McGarvey’s long-sleeved shirts. While he was changing out of his tuxedo she made them bacon and eggs and toast, and opened a bottle of Pinot Grigio from the fridge. They sat at the small table in the kitchen.
“I’ve haven’t cooked for a man in a long time,” Pete said.
“You were married, weren’t you?”
She smiled a little. “It didn’t work out the way I thought it would. Probably because I was too much of a romantic. Still am, I suppose.” She sipped her wine. “Fairy tales. Ride off into the sunset, all of that. Just like the end of An Officer and Gentleman.”
“Katy loved the movie too,” McGarvey said. She’d made him watch it one Sunday afternoon at their place on Casey Key. Afterward they made love, a sea breeze coming in from the Gulf. Happy times.
“From what I know of her, I expect she did.”
McGarvey looked away.
Pete reached across the table and laid a hand on his. “It wasn’t your fault, Kirk. I read the file. They wanted to stop you and they were willing to do whatever it took.”
“I understood Todd’s death. He got involved with something and they killed him for it. In the line of duty. He understood it when he held up his hand and took the oath. But Katy and our daughter were senseless. The only reason they died was because of me. Not because of something they were involved with, just me.”