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“Where did you get it?”
“Can’t say.”
Contreras turned to the pilot now. “Where are we going?”
“Don’t know.”
Contreras cocked his head. “Who sent you?”
John replied with, “Same person who sent you, I guess. We’re not supposed to talk about that.”
Contreras shrugged. This was the weirdest job he’d ever done in his career, but it was also the most challenging, most fulfilling, and most high-paying.
He hoped it went on forever.
TWENTY-SEVEN
Eight hours after the murder of Lars Halverson, chief technology officer of Massachusetts Automation Endeavors, CIA officer Jim Pace and two of the paramilitary officers traveling with him stepped up to the front door of the crime scene.
Immediately they were met by a detective from the Boston Police Department, who flashed his badge.
“Help you gents?”
“Yeah,” Pace said. “Baker. Homeland Security.”
“Detective Casey. You got a badge?”
“You should have gotten a call from your chief.”
“I did. He said three guys were going to show up and claim to be from Homeland, but he also said you’re probably lying.”
“What else did he tell you?”
Casey’s shoulders slumped a little. “To give you what you need and then stay out of your way.” The detective moved to the side, and Pace, Travers, and Takahashi entered the beautifully appointed row house. They looked at the copious amount of blood staining the hardwood just inside the door, and then Pace looked up at the BPD detective.
“First victim found here?”
“That’s right.”
“Knife wound?”
“How’d you know?”
Pace didn’t answer, he just knelt next to the stain, then looked back to the door.
After several seconds of silence, Casey said, “You know, I’m friends with all the Homeland Security people in Boston.”
“No,” Pace said, his focus still on the blood.
“No, what?”
The CIA man turned to another massive stain, this one at the bottom of the stairwell. He knelt down next to it. Distractedly, he said, “No, I didn’t know that you were friends with all the Homeland Security people in Boston.”
“My point is…you aren’t from around here. And you aren’t Homeland.”
Pace rose back up. “I’m with the government, we can leave it there.”
Casey sniffed. “ ‘I’m with the government and I’m here to help.’ Didn’t Reagan say those were the scariest nine words in the English language?”
