AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Webster paused. Ryder got the impression his boss was choosing his words carefully as he continued the briefing. "Marshall is a friend of our family, if you know what I mean. To say that he was furious to have his wife and young daughters put into danger would be a massive understatement. I can't even begin to express to you the depths of his gratitude towards you for risking your life and years of undercover work to save hisfamily."
Ryder turned Brandon's words around in his brain, listening for the unspoken message his boss was relaying between thelines.
"Are you saying he's a man of action?" Ryder probed cautiously, trying not to let the inkling of hope in his gut lay down roots justyet.
"That's exactly what I'm saying. He has many influential business partners and thosepartnerswere able to finish the job that youstarted."
Ryder's heart hammered so hard, he felt his pulse pounding against his eardrums. Could it betrue?
"I don't believe it. Are you telling me it was a sanctionedmission?"
"Hell no. I'm telling you that Marshall is a big enough fish that he doesn't give shit about being sanctioned or not. He went off the reservation on thisone."
"So why are you the one tellingme?"
"Because you won't get your head out of your ass and answer his fucking phone calls. You've turned me into a God-damned message boy and I don't likeit."
Ryder didn't give a shit about his boss's aggravation. He was too busy trying to contain his sprouting hope that he was interpreting the messagecorrectly.
"Have you seen visualproof?"
"Onlyphotos."
"Any insidercorroboration?"
"Police scanner transcripts. Funeral home hearse arrival/departures. State news reports. So far everything validates Marshall'sclaims."
Ryder refused to get his hopes up. There was too much at stake to get itwrong.
"And he's sure the count was three? Anything less than that ismeaningless."
"I was able to get someone into the church for the joint funerals. There were threecaskets."
"Open orClosed."
"Closed."
"Next ofkin?"
"Three grieving widows and one grievingmother."
Ryder thought of Irena Volkov, dressed in black playing the part of the wife in mourning. He suspected she'd be relieved in private that the days of being beaten by her husband were nowover.
Could he possibly believe his most dangerous enemies weredead?
His boss proved how well he knew Ryder by parroting his very thoughts. "I know you won't believe it until you're able to verify the job is done on yourown."
"Yeah, and don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for you tracking me down to get the news to me, but why exactly couldn't this have waited until I came into the office in a fewdays?"
Webster's sardonic laughter filled the line. "Because Marshall or his aides call me three times a day, badgering me about why he hasn't connected with you yet. He's driving me fuckingnuts."
"Why does he have such a hard-on to talk withme?"
"That's the best part. The asshole wants to offer you a job. Can you believe that shit? Seems he's looking to invest in otherbusiness partnerswho have your rather unique set of language and organizational skills, if you get mydrift."
"So he asked my current boss to pass along the word that he's trying to poach me from activeduty?"
"Can you believe the set of balls on theasshole?"
