Liars & Thieves by Stephen Coonts

Author:Stephen Coonts [Coonts, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Action & Adventure, Intelligence officers, Mystery & Detective, Virginia, General, Spy fiction; American, Massacres, Suspense, Thrillers, Suspense stories; American, Fiction, Espionage
ISBN: 9780312936211
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2005-04-27T23:00:00+00:00

Liars And Thieves

chapter NINETEEN

What is your name?” Callie Grafton asked in Russian. The archivist sat silently at the kitchen table, apparently thinking about the question. “I don’t know,” he said at last.

“What kind of work do you do?”

“I don’t know,” he repeated hoarsely. A sheen of perspiration appeared on his forehead.

“Are you married?” Callie sat beside him and held his hand.

“I don’t know?” he said, obviously bewildered.

“You came to my house a few moments ago with two people. Do you remember their names?”

“Oh, yes. The woman is Kelly. The man is Carmellini—that’s an Italian name, I think.”

“Is he Italian?”

The Russian pondered it. “He might be,” he said at last. “But perhaps not.”

“If he is not an Italian, what nationality is he?”

Her questions didn’t trouble Mikhail Goncharov, but they obviously confused him. She thought it interesting that he was not curious about the answers to her questions, merely surprised and troubled that he didn’t know them.

“Are you thirsty or hungry?” she asked finally. And for the first time she got an affirmative answer.

After Kelly Erlanger took a powder, Jake Grafton wandered into the kitchen. I trailed along behind. Mikhail Goncharov was sitting at the small round table drinking soda pop and Callie was fixing sandwiches.

“Would you like a sandwich, Tommy?” she asked. “Ham and Swiss or tuna salad?” She didn’t remark on the commotion in the living room, nor did she ask if Kelly Erlanger was going to join us. The thought occurred to me that Callie Grafton was as tough as her husband.

“Ham and Swiss, please.” I dropped into a chair beside Goncharov. “Is it amnesia?”

“He doesn’t seem to remember anything,” she said without turning around.

“I’ve heard these hard-drive crashes are sometimes temporary,” I said, just to make conversation. “Of course, what I know about it wouldn’t fill a thimble.” There was a napkin dispenser on the table. I helped myself to one; I used it to swab at the scratch on my cheek, which was still burning. There was a trace of blood.

Jake Grafton pulled three beers from the fridge and handed me one. It tasted great. He opened another and put it in front of Goncharov, who abandoned the soda pop and took a long swig.

After I had a couple of slurps, I said to him, “Kelly must be making a beeline for a pay phone. She might have already told them about this house. They could be here in the next five minutes.”

Grafton savored a swig of beer, swallowed it, and nodded.

“Maybe I’m just a nervous Nellie, Admiral, but if they hit us here in this house, we’re dead.”

“I called some friends yesterday,” Jake said. “They arrived this morning.”

“Oh.”

Callie put a sandwich in front of Goncharov and one in front of me. She had even put mustard on mine. I took a bite and worked on it a while. “Who are they?”

“Snake-eaters. There are a half dozen of them out there.”

“I didn’t see anyone .. . and I was looking.”

“They’re hard to see,” he admitted. When Callie served his sandwich, he sat down beside me.

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