He smirked. “That isn’t what I said at all. If you’d been listening, you would’ve heard me say it was people like you who see it as a failure.”
“People like me.” I smirked like he had. “If not a virtue, how do people like you see it?”
“Your aunt believed she could take on the world, that once she exposed the corruption she thought she’d found, that would be the end of it. What she—and you—and people like Veronica Guerin failed to recognize was that it is the very corruption they railed against that keeps the world spinning. Bribes, power plays, deals negotiated in back alleys, that is how it really works. You see world leaders on television, shaking hands as they sign agreements, flashbulbs going off around them—all of that is for show. The real deals were made months, even years, before the stage is set for the public to see. In that time, those who threaten to tear down the carefully mastered plans of men like me, are eliminated.”
“Eliminated? As in agents around the world being assassinated?”
“You are so sure they were the good and I am evil. Your naivete is so common, so typical. Without men like me, you would be nothing.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
“Because you’re a stupid woman.”
“You say that men like you are the real deal makers. Is that how you justify lining your pockets with millions of dollars? You say that all you do is for the greater good, but when your day of reckoning comes, you know as well as I do that you were nothing but a thief. A common criminal. A murderer who only ever knew how to steal, never how to earn your way in the world.”
“So like her,” he murmured, making me want to slap the smirk off his face. “What your aunt found was merely the tip of the iceberg, Tiffany Joy. As if anyone in the world truly cares what goes on at Interpol. It serves merely as a clearinghouse for those of us in the intelligence business to burn evidence before it lands in the hands of someone like Barb. Or you.”
“Are you saying Operation Argead goes beyond Interpol?”
He laughed. “I’m saying that without the voluntary contributions that come through Interpol and countless other organizations like it, the intelligence community, even entire governments, would crumble with lack of funding. No, little girl, our reach is global. Even the most powerful countries—the United States, Russia, China—all rely on Argead. Without us, they would be nothing.”
“Sounds like you’ve let a little power go to your head. You can’t really believe that you and your little group of intelligence has-beens truly affect world governments.”
He sighed. “As I anticipated, this is all too much for your small mind to comprehend. I’ve grown weary of your tedium. Hand over the evidence now so I don’t have to dirty my hands with your blood in order to retrieve it.”
Kerr reached for something I had no doubt was a gun, but was distracted by the sound of shots fired outside the room we were in.
“You know what? Fuck it,” I said, reaching for my own gun.
37
Buck
I tracked Rock’s location to right outside the Key Bank branch that held Barb’s safe-deposit box. By the time we arrived, paramedics were already on the scene, and even from a distance, I could see both Ink and Rock were sitting up, talking to NYPD.
When Crash pulled up to the barricade, he, Vex, and I jumped out of the car.
Two police officers raced toward us to prevent us from entering. “They’re with me. Let ’em through,” I heard a familiar voice say. What the fuck was Jinx doing here?
“Here,” he said, tossing me a phone. “Follow me.”
“What the fuck? What is this?” I asked, looking down at the flashing red dot on what looked like a radar screen as I ran in the same direction he had.
“I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep her safe.”
“Like you did?”
“At least I know how to find her.”
“The warrant,” I mumbled, racing after him.
“In here,” he shouted. I looked behind us and saw Crash and Vex right on our heels. Rock and Ink were a few feet back.
“What are the extent of their injuries?” I shouted at Crash. We sure as hell didn’t need the two of them bleeding out while we went in search of Stella.
“Nothing life-threatening. The vests did their job,” Vex shouted back.
“Buck, you take the stairs with Crash,” shouted Jinx, pointing at me. “Vex, you come with me.” When he went in the direction of the elevator, I pushed him out of the way. The door closed before he could get to his feet and get inside.