‘Travelling light,’ Vaughn observed.
‘I get the feeling these two don’t do luggage,’ Hannah replied as she circled around the lounge as Warner and Lopez settled in to a couch after they had checked in.
‘They won’t talk.’
‘They don’t have to,’ Hannah replied as she took a direct line, approaching Warner from behind where he could not see her. Vaughn drifted off to her right to watch from a nearby coffee shop as Hannah moved up behind Warner.
‘Hello Hannah,’ Ethan said without looking behind him.
Hannah felt her cheeks flush in irritation as she stared at the back of Warner’s head.
‘A bit of an amateur, isn’t she?’ Lopez murmured from alongside Warner as she leafed through a magazine.
Hannah looked up and saw in the glass windows of a convenience store opposite a shadowy reflection of the lounge behind her, her own form superimposed over it. Hannah mastered her dignity and leaned her arms on the back of the couch as she looked down at them.
‘Going somewhere nice?’
‘Far away from you,’ Lopez smiled sweetly as she glanced up from her magazine. ‘And your puppy dog over there,’ she added with a tilt of her head.
Hannah managed not to glance at Vaughn, who was sitting at a coffee table and watching them. Instead she moved around the couch and took a seat opposite Warner.
‘I’m not sure I can let you leave the country,’ she said. ‘You’re both still suspects in an unsolved homicide.’
Ethan watched her for a long time, his gray eyes unnervingly still until he spoke.
‘You just can’t bear to be parted from me,’ he murmured. ‘I knew it.’
Hannah blurted out a laugh. ‘You’re a real fantasist, Warner.’
‘She does keep hanging around though, doesn’t she?’ Lopez pointed out, new interest in her eyes.
‘It’s my job,’ Hannah shot back at Lopez.
‘To hound innocent civilians?’
‘Let’s not waste time playing games,’ Hannah said. ‘You’re both on the DIA’s official list now but that doesn’t solve my crime scene.’
‘I told you where to look,’ Ethan said. ‘I take it that you found something of interest and that you’re here to ask questions about that something, because you and I know that Lopez and myself are innocent of any murder.’
Ethan Warner had a confidence about him that Hannah found oddly reassuring, despite the fact that he could just as easily be described as a confidence artist and con — man, the sort of person who could win the trust of just about anybody and then vanish overnight with their life savings.
‘Innocent until proven guilty,’ she reminded him.
‘Mitchell,’ Warner said abruptly. Hannah averted her eyes and saw Warner smile. ‘So, you did find out something. Do tell.’
‘I’m not here to talk about Mitchell,’ Hannah snapped back. ‘I want to know where you’re going.’
Lopez smiled ingratiatingly at her. ‘Bless. You just watched us check in and there are only two flights leaving in the next hour off that desk. One of them’s going to Hawaii and we’re not wearing beach shirts. Take as long as you like, hon’.’
Hannah’s hand drifted of its own accord toward her side arm, and with a force of will she suppressed the urge to replace Lopez’s smile with the magazine she was holding.
‘You two should have a show of your own. You’re like Bonny and Clyde, and we all know how they ended up.’
‘Folk heroes and loveable rogues,’ Warner grinned.
‘Dead,’ Hannah countered, her voice cracking like thin ice as her mirth vanished. ‘You’re both playing a dangerous game and this time I have the Bureau behind me.’
‘LeMay?’ Warner uttered. ‘Got yourself a promotion did you?’
‘I’m leading the investigation.’
‘Into what?’ Lopez asked.
‘The both of you,’ Hannah replied cheerfully. ‘It seems that you’ve been involved in a number of major incidents over the years and the Bureau believes that you represent a serious threat to national security.’
‘The only threat we represent to national security is exposing how useless it’s becoming,’ Lopez retorted. ‘But we’re off on our holidays now, so you can consider this green and pleasant land safe from our devious machinations.’
‘What are you really here for?’ Ethan asked Hannah. ‘You know about Mitchell. What did you find out?’
Hannah shrugged dismissively. ‘He served with the Marine Corps and the Navy SEALS in Vietnam, worked for the government after that. He died years ago.’
‘He’s about as dead as I am right now,’ Ethan replied. ‘Either that or he assumed the identity of someone already dead.’
‘Funny how the guy is to be held responsible for your wrong doing and yet nobody, anywhere can find him and the only cover you both have for the things that you’ve done is from the Defense Intelligence Agency.’
‘It’s not by choice,’ Lopez uttered, ‘believe me.’
‘Then why work for them?’
‘Naive patriotism,’ Warner replied. ‘I keep hoping that the agencies that supposedly work for our country will actually keep doing that. What about Majestic Twelve? Did you uncover anything about them?’
‘Y’know, I actually looked into that too,’ Hannah said, ‘and all that I found was a bunch of papers suggesting that some secret cabal was formed in 1947 by President Truman right after an alien spacecraft crash landed in Roswell, Nevada. It was real interesting, and as soon as I took the tin foil hat off my head I promised myself I’d never watch another episode of the X — Files again.’ She smiled. ‘The papers are considered by experts to be forgeries.’
‘They would be,’ Warner replied. ‘Real conspiracies seem to have taken to hiding behind false ones. You ever heard the saying: the best lies are mostly the truth?’
‘I’m not surprised that you’d know that,’ Hannah said. ‘Your record is full of half — truths, government redactions and other inconsistencies that just don’t add up for me. You’re a big bag of mysteries Warner, and one way or the other I’m going to get to the bottom of all of them.’
‘Well, this has been fun,’ Lopez said as she got up. ‘But we have a plane to catch and you have a whole lot of time to be wasting instead of doing a proper job.’
‘Why are you going to New Jersey?’ Hannah asked.
‘None of your business,’ Lopez replied.
Ethan stood and lifted his backpack onto his shoulder. As he turned to leave, Hannah grabbed his arm.
‘I just wanted to check in with you both, let you know that from now on I’m only ever going to be one step behind you.’
Ethan said nothing, but Lopez leaned around him and waved at Hannah.
‘And that’s probably as close as you’ll ever get. Have a nice day!’
Hannah fumed and let go of Warner’s arm, the former Marine’s broad jaw touched with an infuriating half — smile as he turned away and followed Lopez through the departure lounge toward the gates.
Vaughn walked up alongside Hannah and watched their quarry leave.
‘How’d it go?’ he asked.
Hannah watched Warner disappear and then turned for the terminal exits. ‘They’re terrified of me and we’ve got them on the run.’
‘Really?’
‘C’mon,’ Hannah said quickly. ‘Let’s head to the DIA and see if we can figure out what they’re up to.’
XIII
There were few things more beautiful than the desert at night.
The air was untainted by the human stain, the starts glittering with vibrant colors in the velvety black vault of the heavens above to cast a faint glow in the moonless sky that guided him on his journey.