Take No Prisoners by Wilson Gayle

Author:Wilson, Gayle [Wilson, Gayle]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub
Tags: Suspense
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-04-06T17:33:29+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“How do you know they’ll go back for him?”

With Grace’s question, Landon glanced over at her, taking the opportunity to evaluate her condition. Although she had assured him the wound in her arm was only a scratch, he didn’t like the chalklike paleness of her cheeks.

Before he addressed her concern about Reynolds, he also looked at the makeshift bandage he’d applied. Reassuringly, there was no seepage of blood through the folds of the cloth tied just above her elbow.

“What do you care?” His gaze had returned to the track they were following.

“Because you left him in the same situation we would have been in if he hadn’t found us.”

“They’ll come back for him eventually.”

“How can you be so sure of that? Maybe they don’t like him. Maybe they’re glad to get rid of him.”

“Except their weapons are there. Those are too valuable not to go back for. And if they don’t, then there’ll be one less bastard trying to wrench some advantage from this country.”

“I thought you were convinced Reynolds is backed by the Agency.”

“You think that means he can’t be a bastard?”

“No. The CIA certainly has its share of those. But I do think it would mean he isn’t here for his own advantage.”

“Actually, I think he’s probably an independent contractor,” Landon said.

“Hired to do the Agency’s dirty work?”

“In this case.”

“Do you really think the someone at the CIA is trying to kill me? Because I testified before Congress?” Her dismissal of the possibility was clear in the tone of her questions.

“I think somebody in Washington decided this was too good an opportunity not to take advantage of.”

“Meaning?”

“When your chopper went down, it was an answer to more than a few prayers.”

Surprisingly, Grace laughed. “I won’t argue that there weren’t people at Langley who celebrated. I just can’t see why they’d go to the trouble of getting someone to kill me. My testimony’s a done deal. There’s nothing they can do to change it.”

The expletive with which Landon expressed his derision was blunt, as well as colorful. Or maybe Grace really believed that, he realized. If so, she hadn’t seen the dirty underside of the Agency that the members of the EST had been exposed to.

“How can they change what’s now a matter of public record?” she demanded, reacting to his ridicule. “A very public record.”

“The reason your testimony carried so much weight was because of who you are. A highly respected, female intelligence analyst with a spotless record. One who had, moreover, made it to the top echelon of a very engrained, old-boy-dominated organization.”

“Thank you.” Amusement once more colored her voice.

“So maybe they can’t change what you said, but they can change the public’s perception of the person who said it. And that kind of revisionism is always easier if the person being deconstructed is no longer around to protest.”

“‘Deconstructed’?”

“In your case, I don’t know what they’ll come up with to accomplish that. Maybe that most of the intel failures you cited can be traced back to you.

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