First You Run by Roxanne St. Claire

Author:Roxanne St. Claire [Claire, Roxanne St.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

“I DUNNO ’BOUT this, Miss Lucy.” Wade Cordell purposely loaded some serious drawl into his voice, mostly because he knew it amused her, and she’d always appreciated the disarming power of one of his most deadly weapons. People generally thought a Southern boy who talked slow and walked slower couldn’t be much of a threat. “You sure you want me on this assignment?”

“I know this isn’t the kind of thing you left your cushy government job to do,” Lucy said, her subtle sarcasm not lost through the cell-phone connection. She knew the consulting jobs he’d done after he left the Marines were anything but cushy. Deadly, fierce, and shrouded in black but not cushy.

“I don’t have an investigator in the Bay Area right now, and I know you can handle this. It’ll be a nice change.”

Any change from what he’d done for the government would be nice.

“Then you’ll be happy to know I am parking across the street from Kroeber Hall, the anthropology department at UC Berkeley, and I’m about to interview”—he glanced at the notes he’d written—“Dr. Adam DeWitt, one of Miranda Lang’s colleagues who might have some information on Fletch’s target.”

“Good. And if you talk to Fletch before I do, tell him that Sage checked out the bookstore clerk. There’s an Ophelia on staff, but she had called in sick that night. The manager was under the impression the bookstore was closed and no one was there.”

“So maybe their target didn’t set the bomb off. Maybe someone impersonating Ophelia did.”

“Or he had an accomplice. I’ve had Sage’s group going through all of the online databases for the Berkeley anthropology majors and graduate students, and they’ve pulled all possible pictures and will e-mail them to Fletch. When I hand this person over to the FBI, I’d like to be very thorough.”

“Got it.” He climbed out of the Navigator and scanned the campus. “And if we have any leads from the photos Sage is uploading to Fletch, I’ll check them out. I don’t mind a little field investigation work.”

“Thanks, Wade. When you’re done with this, let’s talk. I have some ideas about your future.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“I’m trying to decide between an ambassador on vacation in Nice or an advance security run for a client traveling on the Queen Mary 2.”

He choked playfully. “You’re killin’ me, Luce.”

“I want more than consulting, Wade.”

“I know.” And so far, security consulting for the Bullet Catchers beat the holy hell out of what he’d been doing before. “We’ll talk when I can get to New York. I have to, uh, do some work over in Europe first.”

“I heard.”

Did the woman know everything? She must have some serious connections in the Agency still.

Inside the building, Wade brushed his hand over the S&W 1911 under his jacket. Not that he expected to need it, but habits died hard. Upstairs, down a dimly lit hallway lined with labs and classrooms, he found the main office, where he faced the back of a heavy-set woman working on a computer.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.