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“Fine,” she relented. “Just give me a minute.”
CHAPTER 52
WASHINGTON, D.C.
RALPH Wassen sat at the bar and took a sip of his Manhattan. It was his second in a little less than an hour. At a quarter to twelve on a Tuesday evening the place had plenty of open seats. The person he was supposed to meet was late, and it didn’t surprise him one bit, even though he didn’t know the man. He knew enough about him, though, to understand that he would make him wait. He had no hard evidence that told him so, it was more intuition. Wassen had canceled a date for this little rendezvous, and he was hoping he wouldn’t regret the decision, since his love life had all but dried up in the last year. He kept telling himself it was the demands of work, but he knew it was more than that. He was growing tired of
all the jetting around to New York and Miami. Turning fifty had sobered him to the fact that there were fewer years ahead than behind.
Wassen didn’t even notice that the man had arrived until the bartender came over and asked if he could get him something to drink. The man answered in his deep, steady voice. Wassen looked up and saw the man’s reflection in the mirror behind the bar. The sight of him standing behind him and the sound of his voice sent a stab of fear through Wassen’s veins. Wassen swiveled his chair to the left and realized the man must have come through the back door. He was wearing a black field jacket with a mandarin collar and plenty of pockets. Wassen imagined them filled with all types of gadgets, most of them lethal.
Rapp threw a twenty down on the bar and grabbed his bottle of Summit Pale Ale. “So, Ralph,” he said casually, as his eyes looked at everyone except the person he was talking to, “what’s on your mind?”
“Ah…” Wassen was caught off guard. “Thank you for coming.” There was no apology for being nearly forty-five minutes late. No acknowledgment, really. Just a nod.
“Should we take that booth over there?” Rapp pointed to an empty one on the far wall.
“Sure.”
Rapp left the bartender a buck and picked up the rest of the bills. Both men slid into the high-backed booth, Rapp facing the front door and Wassen the back. Wassen clutched his small drink with his long fingers and thanked Rapp again for coming.
“It’s not a problem,” Rapp said in an easy tone. “What can I help you with?”
“You’ve got a big day tomorrow.”
Rapp shrugged as if to say that it was bigger for some than others.
“My boss is pretty keyed up.”
“I’m sure she is. A nationally televised hearing is a lot of free advertising for them.”
“Yes it is, and you seem,” Wassen said with a grin, “very calm for a man who is about to be grilled on national television.”
Again, Rapp shrugged his shoulders. “Let’s just say I’ve been in worse spots.”
“Oh…I’m sure you have, but this is different.” Wassen took a sip. “This group won’t play fair. They will stack the deck in their favor.”
“I’m sure they’ll try.”
Wassen noticed a bit of cockiness. “That doesn’t worry you?”
“I can take care of myself,” Rapp replied with a grin.
Wassen studied him for a moment; the alert eyes, behind the handsome rugged face. Sitting here in the bar he seemed like a decent fellow. Not the immoral animal some made him out to be. Although, it was not difficult to imagine that he was capable of extreme violence. “Why do I get the feeling that you know something that no one else does?”
Rapp grinned, a lopsided dimple appearing above the scar on his left jawline. “I know a lot of things that others don’t, Ralph. That’s my job.”
“But you’re supposed to pass all of those secrets on to the Intelligence Committee, aren’t you?” Wassen asked in a sarcastic tone.
“We both know that would be a mistake.”
Wassen nodded and then stared into his drink for a long moment.
Rapp watched him intently and then said, “You’re going to have to put your cards on the table. You’re not the one in a vulnerable position. I am.”
“Do you want to bet? If Babs found out I was here, she would pluck my testicles out with her pretty little French manicured fingernails.”
“That might be true,” Rapp laughed, “but no one is looking to indict you.”
