“Seriously?” he said.
“Seriously.”
“I don’t know if I believe you.”
I shrugged. “What do you want me to say?”
“That you’re a human being. Come on, Alex. You can’t get by in this business without at least a little walk on the dark side.”
“Absolutely,” I said. “Been there, done that. I’m just saying, I wouldn’t pull the trigger.” Whether or not it was true, I really wasn’t sure. I just didn’t want to go there with Siegel.
“Interesting,” he said, and turned back to face the front door of the Midlands. “Very interesting.”
Chapter 103
ALEX WAS LYING through his teeth. He was a good liar, but he was lying. If he had any idea he was sitting across from Kyle Craig right now, that Glock would be out in a heartbeat, and one round shy a second later.
But that was the whole point, wasn’t it? Cross didn’t have a clue. Any doubts about that were well behind them. This couldn’t possibly be more delicious, could it? No, it could not.
Kyle sipped his coffee and went on. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it?” he said offhandedly. Interesting — Siegel’s speech and inflection were now more natural to him than his own.
“What do you mean?” Cross asked.
“The whole ‘foxes in the henhouse’ thing. The good guys and the bad guys, all mixed in together. The line between good and evil isn’t so clear anymore.”
“That’s true,” Cross said. “More for the Bureau than the PD, though.”
“I mean everywhere,” Kyle said. “The crooked congressman. The greedy son of a bitch CEO who just can’t get by on that first ten million. Hell, embedded terror cells. What’s the difference? They’re all out there, right under our noses, living next door. It’s as if the world used to be black and white, and now it’s all just gray, if you squint a little.”
Alex was staring now. Right into his eyes. Was he finally tuning in?
“Max, are you talking about Steven Hennessey here? Or yourself?”
“Huh-oh,” Kyle-Max answered, and shook a finger at him. “I didn’t even see you switch hats. Very slick, Dr. Cross.”
And Alex just laughed. It was amazing, really. Kyle had managed to make Cross hate Max Siegel, and now, with the turn of a few screws, Kyle was well on his way to making Alex into a true-blue fan of the smart but obnoxious agent.
Who knows — Siegel might have gotten all the way to an invitation for family dinner or some such thing, at the rate this was going. But then something happened that even Kyle hadn’t expected.
A bullet came through the windshield.
Chapter 104
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SIEGEL AND I were both out on the pavement and behind our doors at the same time. I heard another shot hit the grille, and then a sickening thud as one hit Siegel’s side of the car.
“Max?”
“I’m okay. Not hit.”
“Where’s it coming from?”
My Glock was out, but I didn’t even know where to point it. My other hand was dialing 911 while my eyes scanned the buildings around me.
“One of those two,” Max said, pointing at the Midlands and the place just north of it.
I looked up at Hennessey’s apartment again — still dark, with the windows closed. Rooftops were his thing anyway. Wasn’t that true?