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The energy of love.
This was still Ice and Indy’s story, and Benson couldn’t let that get away from him. He was being challenged to reach deeper, to go further, to expand his own understanding of these forces that defied articulation, could never be controlled, could never be predicted. But he still had to remain grounded, never forget that although sex and violence were the twin engines driving the beast, the fuel was love.
“I agree,” came Kaiser’s voice. “With that part, at least. Paige, we’ll put you up at a CIA safe-house until this all gets sorted.”
“Negative.” Benson snapped back to focus. “I meant Darkwater protection. She can’t be connected to the CIA. Rhett might have lost his tech-genius-hacker, but he’s still got access to every law enforcement and intelligence database in the country. You can’t assign CIA agents—or U.S. Marshalls or Secret Service or FBI or even the damn Fire Department.” He blinked twice, then grinned. “In fact this is our chance toreallyrattle Rhett’s cage. We’ll take Paige out of the CIA system entirely.”
27
Paige frowned. “Get me out of the CIA system? You mean . . .”
“I most certainly do.” Benson grinned as that coyote-spirit yipped triumphantly inside the shimmering shell of energy neatly disguised as Benson’s human body. “Your employment with CIA is to be terminated immediately. Phones, email, logins—everything will be cut off. You won’t go anywhere near your apartment until this is over. Rhett will have no idea if you flipped on him and got put into some kind of witness protection or if you actually quit the Agency to protect him or if Kaiser put a damn bullet in your head and tossed you in a landfill.”
Paige blinked about a hundred times. “So I . . . I’m being fired? Forced to resign? For real, or just to trick Rhett? I . . . I don’t . . .”
Kaiser groaned, shot another exasperated look at Benson. “Nobody’s firing anybody, and nobody’s being forced to resign. John, this is not the time for a recruiting sales-pitch.”
“Nobody’s selling a damn thing,” Benson lied. He turned to Paige and shamelessly sold it harder than a 1950s Avon lady. “Look, kid. Like it or not, you’ve been dragged out of your safe little tech-cubicle and into the arena. Do you really think you can go back into your box in Langley’s basement? Darkwater needs a hacker like you. The pay is better. The perks arewaybetter. And this mission is just a taste of what Darkwater can spin up. It’s deadly, dark, and dangerous. But I know a part of you is drawn to what’s deadly, dark, and dangerous. The shadow is awake in you now, and you need to find a way to channel that energy or else it will turn on you. So what do you say, kid?”
Paige stammered under her breath. She glanced wide-eyed at Kaiser.
“Don’t look at him,” Benson said. “Look at yourself.Insideyourself. What do youfeel, Paige? Close your eyes and ask the question silently to your heart like it’s a living breathing truth-machine. Then open your eyes and give us your answer. First thing that comes to mind. First thought, best thought.”
Benson held his hand up to silence Kaiser’s inevitable protest. Paige blinked rapidly, then gulped, nodded, and closed her eyes.
Thirteen seconds later Paige’s eyelids flicked open. She looked around the room like she’d forgotten where she was. Then she nodded once, her face flushing red like she’d only just understood what she’d agreed to, understood that this simple choice that had bubbled up from her thumping heart was going to send her life down a path that would perhaps be as dark as Indy O’Donnell’s.
And that excited her, Benson could tell when he saw the panic give way to a flash of dark thrill, perhaps a split-second vision of what her future had in store.
Kaiser exhaled hard, groaned even harder, then nodded and sat down heavily in his chair. He flipped his laptop open, glanced inquiringly at Paige one last time, then typed out what Benson figured was a quick email to his assistant to mark Paige Anderson as an immediate Voluntary Termination with no further details or annotations.
Kaiser sent off the email, slammed the laptop closed, then leaned back in his swivel and looked up. “All right, John. Once again you’ve gotten what you wanted. Once again you’ve suckered me into playing ball in your insane game. So what’s the play now?”
Benson ruffled the back of his hair. “The play is to wait for Rhett’s play. And that depends on what happens with Scarlet, Ice, and Indy in Mumbai. Paige, what did Rhett want to have happen when he activated Scarlet? What were her instructions?”
“O’Donnell dead. Wagner left alive.” Paige’s voice carried a new confidence that made Benson smile inwardly. “Enough to make it plausible that Wagner killed her on orders from Kaiser or Benson or both. Once Scarlet completes the hit, Rhett goes to Senator Robinson, shows him the evidence planted on O’Donnell’s phone.”
Kaiser grunted. “And Robinson would ask me about her whereabouts, what I was doing about it, status of the investigation, that sort of thing.” His face hardened. “Of course, soon enough it would come out that she was murdered while in the presence of a Darkwater man. It would look like a conspiracy and cover-up. Not a good look for me and you, John—even with Paige as a witness. Her word against Rhett’s. My reputation against Rhett’s. Could go either way with Robinson—hell, he might decide that he doesn’t wanteitherof us as CIA Director when he wins the White House.”
Benson nodded, kept the discussion on point, his focus on Paige. “How would Rhett know if Scarlet succeeds?”
“Scarlet would check back into the NOC database. Her codename would show up in the list of available operators.”
Benson rubbed his jaw. “So right now Rhett is watching that NOC list via his authorized CIA login. And he’s also wondering what the hell you’re telling us in this office right now.” He grinned. “The uncertainty will eat away at Rhett. Then once he sees you’ve suddenly resigned from the CIA and all your phones and emails are deactivated, your apartment empty, he’ll start to worry, get impatient, make a move to close out the game before it eats him alive.”
Kaiser shot a sharp glance at Benson. “What’s that move, you think?”
Benson returned Kaiser’s look. Both veteran CIA men knew exactly what a snake like Rhett Rodgers would do if he was cornered, provoked, trapped.
He’d strike.
“He might come at us.” Kaiser answered his own question, his lips a tight smile, the thrill of the game still alive in him. “Force an endgame in the face of uncertainty.”
Benson nodded, his own eyes shining with that same thrill. “Even more so if he thinks he’s going down. He’ll want revenge before he burns. And if it turns out Paigedidn’tflip on him—well, then with old Martin Kaiser out of the picture, the path to the corner office in Langley is suddenly wide open.”
“So long as he takes us out with plausible deniability.” Kaiser couldn’t stop a sideways smile from breaking.
Benson didn’t even try to stop his own sideways grin. “Exactly. So maybe we give him an opportunity to do just that. Nudge him along the path to his endgame. What do you think, Martin? I know you’re a new father again. I know you’re trying this marriage thing a second time. And I know damn well that Alice will turn psycho-killer on me if you get even a scratch on your pinky toe. But—”
