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

Vail said, “I don’t know.”

“I can think of one possibility. Let’s say the Russians have a highly placed source in the CIA. But there’s a problem. Somewhere in his travels, he ran into Kate Bannon at the wrong time. Maybe he was doing something he shouldn’t have been, something that might compromise him, something that, coupled with an upcoming event, might click together for her. So this CIA agent and his Russian handlers now have a problem. Maybe they decide to kill her, but they can’t just assassinate her, because the investigation would never cease, and once solved the Russians would be considered more evil than they were during the Cold War. So they decide to make it look like an accident. I assume you know about her ‘suicide attempt.’ ”

“The director told me. He thought it was as ridiculous as I did. If your theory is right, maybe the Russians were trying to make it look like she took her own life. She did think she was slipped something. And once that didn’t work, maybe an accidental death would work just as well. Like when we had to rappel off that building and the rope was rigged to look like we’d died trying to escape the fire. We’re sure the Russians orchestrated all that. But then they tried to kill just me when I went after Petriv.”

“Maybe they thought she’d be with you,” Kalix said. “Up to that point, you two had been into everything together.”

“So then the Russians went to Plan C, to provide proof that she is guilty of treason and get rid of her permanently. Which was their final, fail-safe plan all along. It’s hard to believe that the entire Calculus ruse was set up to protect somebody in the CIA who’s spying for the Russians,” Vail said. “But it’s the only thing that makes sense out of all this.” He went to the wall and started examining the charts.

Kalix asked, “Do you think Calculus’s movements have something to do with it?”

“I don’t know. But Calculus is the key to this, and thanks to these we know everywhere he went until he disappeared. Maybe they are the answer.”

Kalix stepped up next to him and glanced at the maze of photos, charts, and notes covering the wall. “Do you want me to stay and help?”

“No, why don’t you go get some sleep, and we’ll start fresh tomorrow. I’m going to go to bed myself. Call me first thing in the morning.” Vail smiled crookedly. “If you dare.”

After Kalix left, Vail lay down on the couch and stared at the wall. It was too far away for him to read, but that was good, because he was starting to wonder if there were any larger patterns he was missing. He started to retrace Kalix’s theory through the different sections of the information on the wall, but then his burning eyelids slid shut.

Vail felt someone tap him on the leg. “Steve.” He opened his eyes and was surprised to see Lucas Bursaw standing over him. “I know it’s late, but I saw your car outside and the lights on.”

Vail checked his watch. “Late? It’s almost five A.M.”

“The computer geeks finally finished that Volume Shadow Copy query you suggested. They found fourteen files on Sundra’s laptop that had been deleted in the thirty days before she disappeared.” Vail sat up, and Bursaw handed him a thick stack of pages with the contents of the files printed out.

Vail let his thumb riffle through them. “That’s still a big haystack.”

“I was up most of the night with it. There are five of them that look like she was working pretty hard.”

“And the other nine?”

“She found nothing illegal and closed them, giving her a reason to delete them.”

Vail thought for a second. “So if she was still working on the other five, why delete them?”

“That’s why I’m here. They were all wiped from the computer the day she disappeared.”

“Sounds promising. Have you taken a look at them?”

“Yeah, but there’s nothing that I can see. What do you say we check them out and see if we can get someone to flinch?”

“Luke, I’ve got something to tell you. Kate’s been arrested.”

“What!”

Vail then proceeded to tell him everything, from being picked up at the hospital New Year’s Eve to his trip to Chicago to the shoot-out the day before.

“Kate? A spy? Even the Bureau can’t be that stupid.”

“You’re right, it’s the Justice Department. And they’re low-keying everything about it. She hasn’t been formally charged. I guess they’re hoping if she spends enough time locked up, she’ll tell all.”

“Don’t they have to arraign her?”

“Special provisions have been made. They can hold her for up to ten days before letting her see a judge.”

“Whatever misguided thing you’re about to do, I’m in,” Bursaw said.

“I appreciate it, Luke, but—”

Abruptly Vail got up and walked away as though Bursaw wasn’t there. He went to the workroom wall and picked up a blue highlighter. He drew a streak through one of the entries, and then, after searching a few more seconds, he drew the blue slash through a second, then a third. He picked up the phone and dialed Kalix’s home number. “Get over here.”

Vail hung up and said to no one in particular, “Why didn’t I see this before?”

Kalix knocked on the front door, and Vail went down to let him in. “What is it?” he asked Vail.

“I think I found something. Come on.”

Once they were upstairs, Kalix noticed Bursaw. “Who’s this?”

Vail introduced them. “Luke is at WFO, and he and I go back to Detroit. He’s been deputized and given the appropriate death threats.”

Kalix shook Bursaw’s hand. “That’s good enough for me. . . .” The deputy assistant director’s voice trailed off with a trace of apprehension.

Vail pointed at the newly highlighted entries on the wall. “On three different occasions, Calculus went to the exact same coordinates. A place that it doesn’t make sense for him to go even once.”

Kalix studied them for a