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

“You’re right, they’re probably not. The key is Gaston disappearing in Las Vegas. Where better to compromise someone than a place with unlimited liquor, gambling, women, and desperation?”

“So they’re blackmailing them into giving up classified secrets.”

“That’s the only way everything makes sense. I suppose they may occasionally get a lead on someone who’s heavily in debt or overleveraged with the bookies, but I think their tool of choice is most likely extortion. It’s as old as spying itself. Another advantage to it is that if you’re just an everyday double agent for the Russians, you can quit anytime you want to, but if our Lithuanian chess players have got something on you, you’re in forever.”

“So these people they recruit aren’t being paid?”

“Once they’re compromised, and probably recorded, the LCS owns them. I’d guess they’re given a small percentage of what the Russians pay. At this point I think we can safely assume that Longmeadow is Preston. Remember what he said on the tape: ‘This time I want a hundred thousand dollars in cash, just for me.’ In other words, he’s tired of sharing. He wasn’t talking to his Russian handler, he was negotiating with an LCS extortionist.”

Now it was Kate who stared at the five questions on the wall. She filtered them all through Vail’s conclusions. Finally she said, “You’re making some leaps, but I can’t think of anything to disprove it. It does all fit.”

“For the moment.”

“Meaning?”

“This is all supposition. They know that the only way we can prove any of this is by turning the people they’ve recruited. That’s why they’ve been killing them as soon as we get close.”

“So they’ve destroyed all the potential witnesses against them.”

“Not all of them. We have Longmeadow, who evidently they think we’ve missed so they’re leaving him be.”

“Then why don’t we go get him and see if he’ll come clean? If he is being blackmailed, he’d probably be glad to get them off his back.”

“Two things. First, we have no evidence other than that brief recorded conversation, and I’m not sure we could prove it’s his voice or that there’s any real spying involved. Second, every time we’ve gone anywhere near one of these people, they wound up dead. The LCS has some early-warning system in place. Until we can figure out what it is and how to get around it, I think we should let him be. With Rellick dead, they probably think we’re satisfied that everything has been put to rest. A couple of days isn’t going to make any difference. This is another advantage to our not telling anyone else; we don’t have to worry about it leaking out while we wait.”

“And in the meantime . . . ?”

“The routine stuff. We’ll try to find out if they recruited someone else from Matrix-Linx after Gaston disappeared, like they did with the air force. We’ve got the advantage now. They don’t know we’re coming.”

“You don’t think our little trip to their clubhouse will force them to tie up loose ends like Longmeadow?”

“With Rellick dead, I’m hoping not. They’ve killed all the evidence, remember? But if they do get nervous, they’ll have no option but to play defense, and that might mean eliminating all loose ends.”

Kate asked, “Aren’t we loose ends?”

“These people aren’t fools. The easiest way to prevent Rellick from being exposed would have been to kill you. . . .”

Again Vail’s thoughts were drifting in another direction. This time she couldn’t wait. “What?”

“Your suicide attempt.”

“My what? You knew about that?”

Absentmindedly, Vail said, “The director told me about it. That’s how he got me to change my mind downstairs that day.”

“You believed I would try to commit suicide?”

“Over you dumping me, yeah, that makes sense. He told me that your reputation was being questioned. I know how small-minded these people can be. He thought that if you and I could resolve the Calculus list, the rumors would be put to rest.”

“And you never told me? Why? And why would you go through all this if you didn’t believe it? You were almost killed—more than once.”

He grabbed her roughly by her arm and pulled her against him. His lips were almost touching hers. His breathing quickened. “Aren’t you ever going to get this?”

32

Unsure where it would take them—and not sure she cared—Kate touched her lips lightly to Vail’s.

Suddenly the door downstairs opened. She drew her head back and, with her voice unintentionally throaty, said, “That’s Luke.”

“Luke who?”

She put her head on his chest. “I wish I could remember.”

She started to move away, and Vail pulled her hand to his mouth, nipping the skin at the back of it. “What idiot gave him a key?”

As soon as Bursaw walked in, he sensed he’d interrupted something. “I . . . uh, forgot something in the car,” he offered diplomatically. “I’ll be right back.”

“That’s all right, Luke. We were just finishing an argument,” Kate said playfully.

Bursaw noticed the new handwriting on the wall and went over to it. “Is there one answer to all five questions?”

“We think the LCS is doing contract recruitment of sources for the Russians. Using blackmail when they can.”

Bursaw reread the questions and Vail’s terse, cryptic answers. After a minute he said, “Impressive. Logically, it does answer all the questions.”

Vail turned to Kate. “We must be right. Philosophers take a death oath to never agree with any definitive conclusion.”

Bursaw said, “I guess the challenge is proving it?”

“That’s what we were trying to figure out.”

“Do you think Sundra was approached?” Bursaw asked.

“Hard to say, but my guess would be that they found out she was making inquiries about Longmeadow. Somewhere it leaked out. Maybe, like us, she picked up on all the calls to car washes and started making inquires into Zogas’s businesses and he got wind of it. We may never know now. If they approached her, maybe she was offered money to shut her up. It wouldn’t have been hard for them to find out how much debt she was in. If they offered her something and she