On Thin Ice (Ice 6)

“This is more than I asked for,” he said, counting it.

“Got word from London. You’re to have anything you want.”

M

acGowan grinned sourly. “A little late for it,” he said, folding the wads of cash and tucking it in the stained wallet Tomas provided.

“You got off that damned mountain just in time, friend,” Tomas said. “Word has it that Alcista was on his way up there when you got out. He ain’t happy.”

“My heart’s broken.”

“The sooner you get out of here the better. He wants back the ones you took, and he wants you dead, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of brains to figure you were heading in this direction. It’s the nearest port. You don’t want that man catching up with you. You got trouble from the CIA as well.”

MacGowan looked up from his perusal of the documents. “Why the fuck would the CIA give a rat’s ass about me?”

“It’s not you they’re interested in, exactly. I think they want to use you as bait to lure Madame Lambert out of retirement.”

“She retired? Hard to believe, but good for her.” He would have thought Isobel Lambert would die at her desk, frozen solid. Good to know she was human after all. “Where did she go?”

“No one knows. The problem is she went with Serafin the Butcher.”

“You’re shitting me.”

Tomas shook his head. “Turns out Serafin is actually CIA, and he didn’t exactly tell them good-bye. They want him back.”

“So they want to use me to get to Isobel to get to Killian? That’s crazy.”

“That’s the CIA,” Tomas said, unimpressed with American intelligence.

MacGowan shrugged. “The day I can’t outsmart the CIA is the day I deserve to die. Assuming they want to kill me.”

“Everyone wants to kill you, MacGowan,” Tomas said.

He grinned. “It’s part of my charm. So I get to avoid the CIA and the Bull. Though hell, maybe I can finish what I came here for. Alcista was my original target. The world would be a better place without him.”

“Maybe. But I think you’ve got enough on your plate for now, getting those two gringos out of here and keeping away from the CIA. Where’d you leave them? Not at the American hotel, I hope.”

“What kind of an idiot do you think I am?” He drained his glass of cheap whiskey. “I put them in a hotel down by the docks. The Santa D’Oro.”

“Jesus fucking Christ.”

MacGowan put the empty glass down. “Wrong hotel, eh?”

“It’s Guiding Light territory. I thought you knew.”

“It wasn’t three years ago.”

“Times change.” Tomas’s face creased. “You need some help?”

MacGowan shook his head. “Thanks to you I’ve got enough firepower to blast through Alcista himself. I better get back there.”

“They may not have figured out who you are.”

“Yeah, and pigs may fly.” Suddenly he remembered Sister Beth, looking at him after he told her he’d kiss a pig. Yeah, he was in deep shit there. Maybe if he saved her life again she’d overlook it.

“Good luck, amigo. You’ll need it.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN