Last Chance to Die by Noah Boyd (good books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

The adrenaline vanishing from her body, Kate started shaking and sank to her knees. She replayed in her mind what had happened. At the time, because her life was about to end, it hadn’t registered. Now, in slow-motion memory, she watched a tiny red dot settle onto the right side of the gunman’s head. And then the shot. “Luke!” she yelled down the rise to Bursaw. “They’re both dead! Hold your fire!”

She worked her way back to Bursaw’s position, keeping her Glock in her hand, watching the stone house. “You get them both?” he asked.

“Just one. Steve must have shot the other one,” she said. “Hold on, let me see if he needs any help.”

She moved quickly but cautiously to the cottage. There was a small light on inside. When she opened the door, she immediately saw the sniper rifle sitting on its firing stand at the window oriented toward the car. Vail was kneeling over Zogas’s body, searching his pockets. The Lithuanian lay on his back, his chest and abdomen covered with blood. She walked up to Vail’s side. “You all right?”

“Fine, you?”

“I assume that last shot was yours.”

“Can you go get Luke out of the cold? I’ll turn up the heat in here.”

“Sure.”

By the time she got back with Bursaw, Zogas’s body had been rolled over and Vail had turned on more lights. He was searching the other man’s clothing. Kate sat Bursaw in a chair. Vail came over and helped him off with his coat and shirt. Examining the wound, he said, “How’s it feel?”

“I don’t know whether it’s the cold or the endorphins, but not bad.”

Vail prodded it a little more roughly now. “Looks like just meat, no bone.”

Kate found a couple of clean towels and gave them to Vail. He pressed them against the wound. In the distance they could hear what sounded like a single siren. “Luke, I think your ride is here,” Vail said. “Kate, can you hold this in place? I’m going to make sure the ambulance finds us.”

Vail hurried down to the road and was surprised to see John Kalix getting out of his car. “Put on your flashers so everyone will know where we’re at,” he told Kalix. “Where’d you come from?”

They started back to the house. “Everybody all right?”

“Luke got dinged, but he’ll be okay.”

“When Kate called Richmond, she told them to call me. I’ve had this thing up over a hundred. I don’t ever want to do that again. How about the bad guys?”

“Four dead, including Zogas.”

“I’m sorry, who’s Zogas?”

“He’s the leader of the Lithuanians.”

“The Lithuanians?”

“They’re tied in to the Russians. I’ll explain everything when we get Luke taken care of.”

As they reached the house, more sirens could be heard in the distance. Kalix went inside. “Luke, how you doing?”

He said to Kalix, “I’m begging you, John, make Vail go back to Chicago.”

Kalix said, “Kate, how about you?”

“You should have seen her,” Bursaw said. “Charging the enemy, taking them out with that MP5. It was definitely ladies’ night out there.”

“One of them anyway,” she said, looking at Vail.

“Well, Bannon,” he said, “if you think you’ve had trouble getting a date up until now, wait until the guys hear about you machine-gunning men who cross you.”

“Actually, I’m thinking about reloading right now.”

37

The blurry light of dawn had come up just as Vail and Kate started back to Washington. Bursaw had been taken to a local hospital, and the doctor had said he would be fine but that he wanted to keep him for twenty-four hours to preclude the risk of infection. Agents from the lab had been brought in to supervise the crime-scene investigation and the excavation of the well where it appeared that multiple bodies had been dumped.

Vail was unusually quiet during the drive. As they crossed into D.C., Kate said, “You’re going to make me ask?”

“About?”

“About searching Zogas’s body?”

Vail said, “Yes, I searched his body.”

“And you don’t want to tell me if you found anything.” When he didn’t answer, she said, “Apparently that isn’t what’s really bothering you.”

“You’re right, it’s not. My real problem is that your first instinct was to call Kalix.”

“He’s the assistant director in charge of counterintelligence. Remember, the director wanted him in the loop. You know, the director, the guy who keeps calling me every time something goes wrong. What’s the big deal? The entire Richmond division was on their way—do you think it was going to be kept a secret?”

“For once let’s look at this from my perspective. Six months ago I told you that under no circumstance would I work for the FBI. And then again two weeks ago, I made it quite clear I did not want to get involved in this. But when the director told me what had happened to you, I agreed, for no other reason than . . . well, since I don’t know how you really feel about me—let’s call it loyalty. And never once did I back off my commitment to you. The only thing I asked in return was that no one at headquarters be told what we were doing. Apparently even after all this time, you don’t understand that’s how I get things done. I knew they would find out soon enough, but I’d have enough time to figure out the next step before they got in the way. As they did when Dellasanti was killed at the drop. And, even worse, the next day, when they somehow figured out I was going to the park to look for more evidence. I don’t know how they figured out what I was doing. I didn’t think they were smart enough. But you were.”

“You think I told Langston?”

“After this call to Kalix, I’m starting to wonder.”

“Why would I do that?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I hope it’s not because of your career, but that is the one thing that keeps getting in our way.”

“So you think—” She stopped herself and fell silent for a moment. “All along, you didn’t really care