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

them a quarter of a million and Dellasanti was the intelligence agent, maybe they would somehow let us know we owe them another quarter of a million. Then we’d be sure he was the big fish and be through with this.”

Langston said, “You’re right. Besides, it’s not like the money’s coming out of my pocket. Make the payment, Mark.” Nervously, the assistant director straightened his tie. “Anything else, Steve?”

“Mind if I see the reports?”

“Sure, you may.” Langston pushed them down to him. “What exactly are you looking for?”

“Kate, tell them,” he said as he started scanning the reports.

“Anomalies,” she answered in an amused tone.

As Vail continued to read, flipping past boilerplate pages, everyone sat quietly and wondered if he would find something that they’d all missed. The lab had recovered a small piece of a circuit used in remote-control devices. That meant that Dellasanti had not killed himself, and neither had Calculus. It had to be the Russians waiting until the last possible second before disposing of a potentially embarrassing double agent, something they had now done twice before. “I’m not going to find anything in the lab reports,” Vail said. “Those guys are too thorough. Was there anything left from the package?”

Kate thought Vail’s tone was a little too civil. He had to be hiding something.

“The one with the dark blue cover has photographs of everything,” Kalix said.

Vail started through the pictures. “What’s this one?” He held it up to Kalix.

“It’s some sort of sleeve. A packet of money was inside it and intact. The lab is doing more testing on it. It’s some kind of material that is virtually indestructible. The best guess is that it might be from the days of the diplomatic pouch, to protect documents.”

“Our diplomats or theirs?”

“At this point we have no idea.”

Vail went back to the photos. “Let me have a couple of minutes.”

A clerk came in with a tray of fresh coffee. The others got up and poured themselves a cup. Kate brought one to Vail and set it next to him. Focused on the photographs, he didn’t seem to notice. The men stood around saying little, occasionally glancing over at Vail, trying to see which photographs he was looking at.

Inside the protective sleeve had been two bundles of banded fifty-dollar bills. Finally Vail closed the file. Without a word, everyone sat down. “Bill, can I see the money?”

Langston nodded to Kalix, who went to the nearest phone. “Did you find something?”

“Not really. That’s why I’d like to see the actual items.” He picked up his coffee and took a swallow. “Thanks, Kate.”

Ten minutes later a woman in a gray lab smock walked in with a cardboard box, and Langston told her to give it to Vail. Each bundle of fifties was in a clear plastic envelope. They all had the same purple tinge to them after being fumed for fingerprints. Vail lifted each stack out carefully, examining both sides before setting it down. Finally he picked up one of the bundles and riffled through it. He opened the file and checked the photos of the bills, trying to make out the serial numbers. “Here’s a question I hope someone can answer: Are these bills in their original order? You know, before they were fumed.” He looked from face to face, but no one replied. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

Finally Kalix said, “Wait. There were lists made of the bills.” He picked up another folder and flipped through it. “Yes, here they are. I assume they’re listed in order.”

Vail examined the list. “Very good. If you’re right.”

“What is it, Vail?” Langston asked.

He was still examining the money. “The bills are nonsequential, which is the way spies are supposed to be paid. Did anyone consider the way they’re arranged in the stacks? Like taking the first digit from the top ten bills? If this is what Calculus intended, I don’t know which stack would be the coded stack. Maybe it’s the last ten bills in one of the stacks. Get ahold of whoever made the list and ask him if any of the bills were upside down or backward. If that is the code Calculus used, it’s going to take more work to untangle, which isn’t surprising, since his clues seem to get more complicated as they go along. That’s the only thing I can see. But if there was a clue, maybe it was on the documents.” He looked around the table and was surprised that no one seemed to realize that the Russians had put the package together and that as a result there would be no clues. But Vail wanted them to be kept busy. He had seen something in the photographs.

Langston said to Kalix, “Get somebody up here from Cryptanalysis.” Then he turned to the group. “We’re starting to get calls from the media regarding the bombing at the park yesterday. Once again, refer them to Public Affairs. It’s only a matter of time until they start putting together the other deaths with this one. Let’s hope we’ll be done by then and we can let them know what we’ve accomplished. If no one has anything else, that’s it.”

Kate said to Vail, “Speaking of the media, I heard an interesting item on the radio this morning. Seems two FBI agents caught a serial murderer last night and dropped him off at the locals. Know anything about that?”

He smiled. “I don’t know, I don’t have a radio.”

“It was you.”

“Actually, it was Luke. But unfortunately it had nothing to do with his missing analyst.”

“And where are you off to now?”

“I don’t know. I’ll find something to do. There are a lot of computer records I need to look through for Luke.”

“That’s twice in the last ten seconds you’ve said ‘I don’t know,’ which isn’t a commonly used Steve Vail line. You’ve figured out something, haven’t you?”

“You think I’m keeping something from Luke?”

Kate lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m talking about this.” She pointed to the material on the table.

“I