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Five minutes later, she said, “If you had your druthers, Cronley, what would my story not contain?”
“Any reference to DCI. Any reference to Claudette or Florence being DCI agents. Any reference to the guys Claudette took down being either NKGB or Nazis. Any reference to one of them still being alive.”
“The sign outside says Twenty-seventh CIC. What’s that?”
“Off the record it’s the cover for DCI. On the record, it’s what it says.”
“And would the Twenty-seventh CIC have WAC cryptographers?”
“Yes.”
“And they go around with pistols?”
“Usually in their purses. Sometimes in holsters.”
“Can I use this one carrying her gun in her bra?”
“She’d probably be embarrassed. But maybe not. She’s a hell of a woman.”
“He says with admiration.”
“Yeah. A lot of admiration.”
“Anything happen to be going on between you two?”
“No.”
“Good. I wouldn’t want to fool around with the boyfriend of a woman who just killed three guys with a gun she took out of her brassiere.”
&n
bsp; “Don’t you ever get in trouble making those wise-ass sexual remarks? Aren’t you afraid someone’s going to get the wrong idea?”
“Are you telling me you’re not interested?”
After a long moment Cronley said, “No. I’m not saying that.”
“So I’ll tell you what happens next. First thing, you tell me what you want me to call you.”
“Jim.”
“Then I tell you the truth.”
“What truth is that?”
“Two things. First, when you came in the bar, I thought what a goddamn pity that blond Adonis is not this Cronley guy. I’d love to put the make on him. Second, when you said you would kill me, I believed you and found that very exciting.”
“Jesus Christ!”
“So now that you know my sexual secrets, why don’t we go to a room with a bed, and you can tell me yours?”
When he didn’t reply, she said, “And whenever we finish that, we can come back in here, and I’ll write the story and show it to you. Just so long as I can get the story on the wire to Stars and Stripes before they go to bed at midnight. How’s that strike you?”
“I’m so innocent I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”
“I’m going to send my story to Stripes. They’ll put it on the AP wire. After they go to bed—start printing—at midnight.”
