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Hanley barked out a little laugh. “Wonder boy? Heard someone took a swing at that dickhead in Oxford just a few days ago.”
“That was a jab, this was a left hook. Several dead, but Hinton got away again.”
“Lucky dude.”
“More than luck, Matt. Hinton has himself a good body man. An old friend of ours, by the way.”
Now Hanley was the one on the receiving end of information. “Yeah? Who’s that?”
“Hightower. Me and Gentry aren’t the only two ex–Goon Squad boys mixed up in these AI assassinations.”
Matt Hanley leaned back in his chair again. “Small fucking world, Jim.”
“Small fucking world, Matt.”
•••
Pace, Travers, and Takahashi had only left Hanley’s office two minutes prior when the deputy station chief pulled out his phone, opened his encrypted Signal app, and dialed a number. Within seconds it was picked up on the other end.
“Hey,” Gentry answered, but it was obvious to Hanley he was on speakerphone.
Hanley said, “Who’s there?”
There was a small pause, and then a woman’s voice spoke. “It’s Anthem, Matt. How are you?” When Zoya Zakharova had been active in Matt Hanley’s off-book team known as Poison Apple, her code name had been Anthem.
“Shit,” he said. “Violator’s got you mixed up in this?”
“To the contrary, as a matter of fact.”
Hanley let it go. “Court, Jim Pace was cool about it. He’s putting all your intel into the pipeline. No comebacks on you or me, or so he says.”
“That’s good news,” Zoya replied.
Court added, “I guess we’re done with this. Good luck, Matt. Z, let’s go get drunk.”
Hanley said, “There is one other thing. One of the targets in all this killing is Anton Hinton. You know the name?”
Zoya answered quickly. “Yeah. Of course.”
“There have been two attempts on him, both failed.”
“Sounds like he’s got solid security,” Court said.
“Indeed. Zack Hightower is his body man.”
Zoya gave a surprised gasp, but Court said, “That’s random.”
“Yeah, no shit. Good thing for Hinton, though. Zack got his principal off the X last night just outside Havana. Pace is leaving here to go up there to look into the attack.” He added, “You say you’re staying out of this, and that’s fine. But…but if you wanted to pop on up the Caribbean to drink Cuba Libres for a couple of days, that might be fun.”
“To do what?” Zoya asked.
“To check in on our old friend, he might need you.”
Now Court spoke. “Need us to…what?”
“It’s clear that removing Hinton must be absolutely crucial to the enemy’s plan, so you can figure they’ll try again. You could stay on the periphery of his AO, look for indicators of trouble.” Hanley smiled. “Nobody knows trouble when they see it like you two jokers.”
Zoya said, “We’ve got Canadian passports. We can get a visa at the embassy here. Be up there in a few hours.”
