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Clive might have thought Harry had lost the plot if it weren’t for the fierce clarity in his eyes. But still, Clive needed to regain some control. “You shouldn’t have come here,” he said, surprised at the conviction in his voice.
“Oh, I told you I was coming,” Harry replied, sipping his drink.
Clive could barely contain his rage. He had to make himself whisper so he didn’t yell for everyone to hear. “You threaten my family and think I wouldn’t do the same? Imagine my surprise after a little bit of digging that you do have a family. Parents, alive and well, living in Sydney.”
Harry’s grin widened. “If you put a bullet in my old man’s head, you’d be doing me a favour. Actually, beat the shit out of him first. Then do it. And make sure my mother watches.”
Clive shook his head. “You’re sick.”
“I’m exactly what you trained me to be. An asset to be used and manipulated however you saw fit. Not the government, not the military. You.”
“Iamthe military. I am the government,” Clive said, his teeth clenched. “I make those hard calls for the betterment of this country.” He sneered at Harry. “You were nothing but a kite, Harry. To be cut loose at any time. Nothing more.”
Harry sighed. “I really hate that word. And you didn’t just cut me loose, Parrish. You put a contract on my head, hoping to clean up your loose ends to cover your own ass.”
“Your skills were no longer required. We’re fighting a different war now. Terrorism is online. We fight people we cannot see. It’s binary codes and hacking security systems. Hell, even the nuclear power plants, the bio security systems, are all controlled online. Banking, crypto... funding wars with money you can’t even hold in your hand.”
“You think wars are fought online? You think bad guys no longer exist on the streets? You wanna come with me to Kabul? To Syria? You want me to give you a tour? Want a recount of every contract I did for you?”
“That’s not our fight anymore.”
“It was never your fight,” Harry said, his anger beginning to show. “You sent me in to kill innocent fucking people to fund your online chess games for money. While you sit here in your comfortable house with your comfortable wife while me and Asher take the kill-shots. And for what? You fed me bullshit about national security, and it was never about protecting this country. It was about lining your pockets with blood money.”
“Keep your voice down.”
“My blood. Asher’s blood.”
“Asher Garin,” Clive scoffed. “You bring that man into this country and—” Cold realisation dawned on Clive and trickled down his spine. “He’s here already? Watching us right now, isn’t he?” He looked around, panicked. “Christ. My grandkids are here.”
Harry smiled. “You know he can make a shot a mile out, right? He’s really very good. Who you gonna send to kill us now? Who in the world is good enough? Who’s left? The French and Russian schoolboys you sent to kill us in Madrid. Or the guys you have working at the gas and oil fields in Algeria? All those ex-army guys who are running your illegal skimming farm? Or you just gonna have them all killed as well, you know, to mitigate your losses?”
Clive’s mouth went suddenly dry.
“I have all the names,” Harry said. “From every deal you made with Professor Taleb before you had him killed. He’d made records of everything because he knew better than to trust you, even put them on a handy USB so you couldn’t delete it online. His lovely wife was kind enough to give it to us after I promised to make you pay for having her husband killed. All the names, all the files, all the data of everything you’ve done in the last decade, all that data you thought you’d had erased. All the people you stole from. They’re not the people you want to piss off, Parrish.”
Clive’s blood pressure was too high. His pulse pounded in his temple.
“You can’t stop it,” Harry said calmly. “It’s too late. And I promise you, try and hurt Asher again, look twice in our direction ever again, and I will rain a shitstorm down on you like you can’t even imagine. All the families you had me ruin, why stop there.” Harry waved his hand back toward the house, toward Clive’s family, to his grandkids. “Why stop there?”
“You piece of shit,” Clive spat at him.
It only seemed to please him. Smiling, he put his hand up and raised one finger. “Uh-uh, Clive. Asher wanted me to use hand signals. See my finger? You don’t want me to get to three.” Then he raised a second finger. “Speak to me like that again, I dare you. One more finger, Parrish. Which grandkid are you least fond of?”
It took a long moment before Clive could speak. There was no begging, no bullshit. “What do you want?”
Harry smiled. “Oh, it’s already done. I just wanted to watch your face when I told you. It’s funny that you mentioned cryptocurrency.” He shook his head slowly. “Funnelling all your illegal money into something that’s decentralised and unregulated. You should have known better. Who can you report your illegal losses of illegal money to?”
What was he talking about?
Oh no. Clive’s heart rate spiked, and fear squeezed his lungs. “What have you done?”
“Every cent of blood money you took is gone. We didn’t touch your military pay. That wouldn’t be fair. But I think the feds have probably frozen all your accounts by now, so I’m not sure it matters. Did you have trouble using your bankcard this afternoon?”
Clive blinked.
“We forwarded every detail we had—all the files, photographs, emails, contracts, financial records, all of it—to ASIO, the AFP, and Homeland Security. Oh, and all the major news outlets, here and overseas, and the oil and gas tycoons you stole from. Hell, I even think the Hague was notified. You know, because government officials ordering unsanctioned murders in other countries isbad, Clive.”
Blood pounded in Clive’s ears. He felt lightheaded. He wanted to wrap his hands around Harry’s throat. He wanted to kill him, right here and now. But he knew better. Harry was too big, too strong, too brutal. Too good.
