Invasive Species by Joseph Wallace

Author:Joseph Wallace [Wallace, Joseph]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction, General, Thrillers
ISBN: 9780425269497
Google: HqFUTv7u95sC
Amazon: 0425269493
Barnesnoble: 0425269493
Goodreads: 17572809
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-SIX

Dry Tortugas, United States

WHEN THE MEN from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security met her at Kennedy Airport, Mariama assumed her counterfeit passport had tripped her up. Perhaps the fat man back in Panama City had alerted the authorities. Maybe this was his revenge.

Or maybe her number had just come up. She had, in fact, entered the United States illegally. No matter how porous the borders were, sometimes you just got caught.

As she sat across the table from the three men who would question her, her mind was racing. She had to be able to keep going. They had to allow her to go on. What could she say that would make them unlock the door and set her free?

But then it turned out not to matter. As soon as the questioning began, she realized she had it all wrong. They didn’t give a damn about her passport.

The leader, a man with a strong jaw and unblinking gray eyes, said, “You are from Mpack, in the Casamance region of Senegal.”

Not a question.

Mariama recalculated. “I am.”

He reached into a briefcase and pulled out a single sheet of paper. Laid it down on the table between them. “And you are familiar with these.”

She looked down at the paper and saw a drawing of a thief.

Mariama laughed. All three men, their careers built on unflappability, showed their surprise in subtle ways: a blink, a slight clenching of the jaw, the fingers of a hand flexing for an instant.

“Yes,” Mariama said. “Quite familiar.”

“Do you know how to stop them?”

Getting to the point more quickly than she expected.

They must be very afraid, she thought.

Yet she was unsure how to respond.

She could say yes, she knew. But what would happen then? She’d get absorbed. Become merely a cog.

Disappear into the machine.

Or she could say no and . . . perhaps complete the task she’d traveled across the world to accomplish.

The three men’s eyes were fixed on her. Even with the lag she demanded due to a (feigned) difficulty with English, she had barely a second left before her hesitation became obvious, before their suspicions were raised. And once that happened, there would be no turning back. They’d break her to find out what she knew.

Decide.

“Of course not,” she said. “I came here to escape them.”

She saw the disappointment on their faces. And, for a moment, she almost weakened, told the truth.

But she’d never been much for playing on a team. Her philosophy: A team was only as strong as its weakest player. And in Mariama’s opinion, almost every player was weaker than she was.

* * *

IT WAS THE wrong decision. Catastrophically wrong.

She’d thought at worst they’d send her home. Then she could start trying again.

But they didn’t. After two days in New York they flew her here, to this rock in what had to be the Caribbean Sea, with its old fort and manicured lawns and boatloads of tourists coming to see the ruins and watch the seabirds circling above, white against the blue sky.

None of

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