A Murder of Crows (21 page)

“I’m not going to talk you into doing a damned thing. If you want in, we keep talking. If not, I go find someone else and you go back to your barstool and wallowing in your misery. Makes no difference to me whatsoever,” he lied.

“If I wanted back in, I could ask for my old job back in Mumbai.”

“Good luck with that. They owe you too much to outright fire you, but they don’t trust you enough to bring you back in. Not the way you are. But, maybe I can do something about it.”

“Maybe? Why? How?”

“Because today, I got elevated to Dean of the University.”

Rahul looked up at him and seemed much steadier on his feet. “I’m a drunk, James, not gullible.”

“There are some things even I don’t joke about. This is one of them.”

Rahul looked at him for a few seconds more before looking back down at the rink. The machine had finished one pass over the ice surface and was already beginning its second. “Was it a peaceful promotion or…”

“Peaceful, but I’m not popping any champagne bottles. To tell you the truth, I don’t even want the fucking job, but it’s not up to me. My predecessor dumped a hell of a mess in my lap, a mess I need your help to clean up if you’re interested.”

“Me? Even now?” He held up his hand so Hicks could see how much it shook. “Even like this?”

Hicks slowly lowered Rahul’s hand. “If you sign on, I’ll make sure you get pumped with enough medicine to take the edge off. But I need your commitment to staying sober and on point.”

“But why me?”

“Because you’ve been out of the Life long enough by now to move around without raising too many eyebrows, but not long enough to have lost your edge. You’ve still got your instincts, and I need people with instincts need right now. Christ knows we’re not going to pull this off by sheer manpower alone.”

Rahul rubbed his hands across his face as if he was trying to wake himself up. “Sounds serious. What’s the job?”

Hicks shook his head. “Not until you sign on. Either you’re in all the way or you’re not in at all. Relevance or the barstool. What’s it going to be?”

Rahul’s eyes narrowed as he drummed his fingers on the concrete wall surrounding the rink. “If you’re serious, so am I. When do I sign up?”

“Congratulations.” Hicks pulled out his handheld and called Scott. “Bring the car around. We’re ready to go.”

Rahul protested as Hicks took him by the arm and led him to the curb. “You must be joking. I have to get clearance from my bosses back home first.”

“I already called them.” Hicks saw his expression and grinned. “I’m the Dean now, remember? Influence comes with the job. As of right now, you’re in charge of University field operations in Europe. You’ll be based out of London for the moment.”

“Europe? The University doesn’t have any field operations in Europe.”

“Which is why we need you, Ace.” Hicks steered him through the clusters of tourists roaming through the plaza. “I need you to spend your entire flight over to England reorganizing some of your old go-teams to help you with your first mission. I’m not talking about mercenaries, either. We need the best teams available, and you’re the only one I know who can pull it together practically overnight.”

Rahul got a little sturdier on his feet as he kept pace with Hicks. “Does this have anything to do with the outbreak two weeks ago?”

Hicks wouldn’t tell him all the details while they were out in the open. “All your questions will be answered as soon as you’re on the plane. But this will be a closed operation. No interference or assistance from other agencies. No one to get in your way, either. This will only be you, the people you bring on and the people we’re supposed to stop.”

Rahul stumbled when Hicks pulled him to a stop at the curb. “Sounds wonderful, but you still haven’t told me who we’re after and what I’m supposed to do.”

Scott’s black SUV pulled up to the curb. Hicks opened the back door and waited for Rahul to get in. He kept the details to a minimum. In this case, a single name should be enough to tell the whole story. “Jabbar.”

Rahul stopped half way into the back seat. “For fuck’s sake, Hicks. Jabbar’s a pipe dream. He’s some ghost story ignorant
hajjis
tell themselves around the campfire to keep their nerve up. No one even knows if he even exists.”

“I need you to fly to London and prove it one way or the other. All the information you’ll need on your target has already been uploaded to a tablet and secure phone waiting for you on the plane. Follow the security procedure prompts on the devices and it’ll work out fine.”

Rahul ducked into the back seat. “It’s your dime, mate, but it’s a waste of time if you ask me.”

“And what if it’s not?”

“It’s a big ‘if,’ James.”

“Big enough of an ‘if’ for you to see for yourself.” Hicks shut the door. “Now get going.”

“You’re the boss,” Rahul said through the open passenger window. “I’ll need to go back to my place and get a few things and…”

“I’ve already had a few things taken from your place and loaded on the plane. Anything else you need, you can buy in London.”

Rahul spoke over the rising window. “You were pretty sure of yourself, weren’t you?”

“Talk to me when you get to London.”

As Rahul’s window rose, Scott lowered his. “Sounds like I’m taking him to the airport.”

“Sounds like it.”

“I would’ve lost that bet.”

“That’s why you’re not in charge, remember? Make sure he gets on the plane, no stops. Head home after. Tomorrow could be a busy day.”

Scott rolled up his window and pulled the SUV into eastbound traffic.

As he watched the SUV pull away, Hicks realized he had given his first official order as Dean. He had given orders to people before, especially in the field during operations, but never as the person with complete authority for the University before. The act should have meant more to him than it did, but it didn’t. The Carousel of Concern in his mind only grew larger and spun even faster.

Jabbar. Shaban. Stephens. Roger’s operation. Tali’s demands.
And now
Rahul.

He decided not to dwell on the hundreds of other ongoing operations and plans other University Faculty Members and Adjuncts were planning and executing even now as he watched Rahul drive away. Jason would brief him on all of those in due time. For now, he’d taken the first decisive strike against Jabbar’s operation. It might not amount to anything. Rahul could fall off the wagon. Shaban might only be another run of the mill street corner revolutionary.

But he’d done something. And he’d done it as the Dean of the University. And he decided to savor the moment because it might be the last win he would have for a hell of a long time.

Hicks decided to check his handheld as he began walking west. OMNI still hadn’t detected any abnormal secure signals in the area, but he saw hundreds of emails had filled his in box in the last hour. Status reports from Istanbul: a possible Asset willing to turn in Moscow, a proposal to fund a safe house in Tehran, and approval request from a Ringmaster in Venezuela who was convinced he could seduce an important trade minister’s wife if he received enough financing to buy her a string of pearls she’d always wanted.

But of all the messages he had received only one killed his reasonably good mood. The several messages from Tali Saddon. She had sent him a text at fifteen minute intervals for the past hour from her secure University device. The message was the same each time:

PLEASE PROVIDE TODAY’S UPDATE ON THE PRISONER BRIEFING.

Her final message was especially terse:

I DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE MEETING TO DISCUSS ACCESS TO THE PRISONER.

He knew he couldn’t delay telling her about Bajjah’s death for much longer. Agent Tali Saddon of the Mossad had many virtues, but patience wasn’t one of them. He knew she must already be furious he hadn’t responded to her messages. Telling her Bajjah was dead over the phone or via text would make things even worse. He’d have to tell her in person. He hoped telling her he’s been named the Dean would calm her down a bit, but doubted it.

T
ALI LOOKED
more concerned than surprised when she watched him step off the elevator into her apartment. He was glad she’d decided to lower her nine-millimeter when she saw he had come alone.

“Where the hell have you been?” she said. “I have been trying to talk to you all day. What’s going on with Bajjah? Are you okay?”

Hicks surprised himself by taking her in his arms and kissing her. He was even more surprised when she kissed him back. She didn’t struggle as he swept her up into his arms and heeled the door shut as he carried her into the bedroom. He’d barely given her a chance to breathe, much less protest, though he knew she could’ve stopped him if she’d wanted. The Mossad trained their field personnel well.

For Hicks, it was almost as though he was outside his own body during the course of the lovemaking, as if he was watching it instead of doing it. He watched himself pull off her clothes as she pulled off his, kissing each other deeply as he made frantic love to Tali. She climbed on top of him right after to begin a second round. For the second time that evening, he surprised himself, this time by being ready again so quickly. He didn’t complain. He didn’t plan. He simply let it happen.

Hicks knew it was happening, but he knew this wasn’t him. He was never this uncontrolled, this hungry. It was a desire which had come over him somewhere between the elevator and the sight of her holding a gun at her apartment door. But as foreign an emotion as it was, it was also natural and real. It was a swirl of emotion and panic and fear and he didn’t dare try to stop it. And neither did Tali.

Tali arched her back and moaned through her climax, her head sagging so her hair fell across his face before she slowly collapsed on top of him. As the two of them lay panting from the effort, Hicks slowly returned to normal. A shiver went through both of them at the same time and he surprised himself by laughing.

He looked over at Tali, who was panting as heavily as he was. She was laying on her back now, her lean body slicked with sweat. She rolled on her side and propped up her head so she was looking down at Hicks. Her tan skin was flushed; her green eyes bright in the afterglow of their lovemaking. He liked the way a thick black strand of hair fell across her face. “Would you mind telling me what brought all of this on?”

Hicks began to return to normal and found he was a little embarrassed. “I’m sorry if I was too…forceful. I…”

She smiled as she laid a finger on his lips. He had always seen her as more striking than beautiful—
dark-haired and light olive skin with high cheekbones and green eyes one might not expect an Israeli girl to have.

Those same green eyes looked at him now like he was the biggest asshole in the world. “We both know you didn’t do anything I didn’t want you to do.”

He knew she was right. Tali Saddon was one of the most effective Adjunct Faculty members in the University system. She was one of the best agents the Mossad had produced in the past decade. She was as deadly in hand-to-hand combat as she was with a sniper rifle. In University parlance, she was called a Snake Charmer, an agent who seduced targets for information. Hicks had never liked to know the details about how far Tali went to obtain the information she acquired. He had never ordered her to sleep with anyone, which eased his conscience a little whenever he remembered the kind of intelligence work she did and how she did it. The Israelis had made her into a weapon long before she’d come to work for the University. He used her skills the same way he used Roger’s flair for compunction.