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Milan, Thursday evening
Outside the bar, Rapp and Donatella fell into stride, Rapp on the left, Donatella on the right. It was an old professional habit. Both could shoot, stab, or punch with either hand but Rapp favored his left and Donatella her right. They walked south on Via Brera. It was nearing eight o'clock in the evening. The streetlights were on. A quick thunderstorm had coated the ground with a film of water that gleamed beneath the numerous restaurant lights and passing cars. There were other people about, but not many. It looked as if the rain had sent almost everyone indoors.
It was obvious that Donatella had been shaken by his words in the bar. Rapp looked over his shoulder; her attitude and his natural instincts were telling him that all was not well. His pistol with the silencer attached was right where it should be in case he needed to get at it quickly. "If you're not going to tell me where we're going, then tell me who hired you."
Donatella's pace did not slow. The collar of her stylish black trench coat was turned up and her chin was set firmly in the downward position like a fullback about to steam roll a linebacker. "I don't think I can answer t
hat question, either."
Rapp didn't like the answer. "You can't or you won't."
"What's the difference?"
"You know what the difference is," replied Rapp in an obviously irritated tone. "Do you know who hired you, or not?"
She laughed bitterly. "Oh, I know who hired me, but I don't know who hired him."
Rapp didn't say anything for a while and then asked, "Who gave you the target profile?"
She shook her head. "I can't answer that."
"Why? Is the person connected to Mossad?"
"Don't ask me any more questions for a while. I need to think."
Rapp could manage to maintain his silence for only a few steps. "Where
are we going?"
"Back to your hotel. I want to meet your girlfriend."
Seeing no humor in the comment, he said, "That's not going to happen. I think you'd better get serious about this, Donny. This problem is not going to go away. This Cameron guy you killed had twenty years with the CIA. Some very important people want to know why he was meddling in an operation and who he was working for."
"I thought you were going to protect me."
"I can't protect you unless you tell me who hired you to make the hit."
"Then we have a problem, because I don't think I can tell you."
Rapp grabbed her by the arm and yanked her to a stop. "Donny, I'm not fucking around. Irene Kennedy knows you killed Cameron. She can prove you were in the country. She has you on surveillance video leaving Cameron's office at George Washington University and she knows of at least three other people who you've killed by shoving a pick in their ear. She is prepared to take this all the way to the top if need be. I'm over here as a personal courtesy to see if we can keep this thing as quiet as possible "
Donatella pulled her arm from Rapp's grip and started walking again. "Thanks for nothing. If you really want to do me a favor you can go back to Washington and tell Irene that I had nothing to do with this."
Rapp followed a step behind, his temper starting to boil over. "Donny, you'd better get real about this, and you'd better start showing some fucking gratitude. If it wasn't for me you'd have been snatched off the street and you'd be sitting in a dark basement with psychotropic drugs coursing through your veins and a black bag over your head." Donatella turned around and stuck her finger in his face. "Don't threaten me."
Rapp slapped her hand out of the way, and leaned in close. "What in the fuck is wrong with you? You know the rules. You a goddamn freelancer. You took a rush job and killed somebody who had been meddling in the business of the CIA, and now the CIA wants some answers."
"Well, they'll have to get them somewhere else, because I'm not talking." Donatella turned and walked across the Via Senate.
Rapp stood with his fists clenched at his side and watched her enter the big park known as the Giardini Pubblici. After a brief moment of indecision he followed. She was headed for her flat and away from the hotel. Rapp jogged across the street and yelled for Donatella to wait for him. She didn't, and kept going at full speed through the park with her head down. A short while later Rapp caught up to her and tried a different tack.
"Donny, I'm sorry I had to be the bearer of bad news, but I'm here to protect you. Whoever you're afraid of I can help."
She gave him a disbelieving sideways glance and kept walking.
"You don't believe me. You don't think I can protect you? Donny, give me the name of the person who got you into this and I swear I will make sure nothing happens to you."
"Just don't talk for five minutes. That's all I'm asking for right now. Just don't say another word until we get to the other side of the park."
