Adrenaline by Jeff Abbott Read Free Book Online Page A

to say. Thousands upon thousands of people work for the Company; the traitors in its history are very, very few, and rightly unforgiven.
    “And yet there’s no crowd here tonight, what with my many friends.” I wiped down the already clean bar.
    August picked up his glass and set it down when he remembered it was empty.
    “Are you being brave in staying my friend, August, or are you just doing your job?” I’d intended not to push the subject but my patience was thinning.
    “I’m not here because anyone told me to be. Howell said you were cleared but you couldn’t go back to work, not yet.”
    “I’m a lure to draw out whoever took Lucy. The idea being that I wasn’t supposed to survive the explosion and she messed up that plan.”
    August said, “I know all that. Be bait, then. But don’t think you’re alone. You’re not.”
    “We stirred up a pot, August, the office in London. On this Money Czar guy, on a bunch of criminal networks.If you could help me… find out if there’s been any new evidence come to light on who was behind the bombing.”
    “Sam, I can’t. I don’t have that clearance.”
    “But you could access the files…”
    He held up a hand. “I cannot. End of discussion. Let them investigate. Be glad they’ve cleared your name.”
    “If they have.”
    He cleared his throat. “You have to consider the possibility Lucy set you up.”
    “For three years? No.”
    “Maybe she wasn’t dirty three years ago. Maybe she turned much more recently.”
    It’s very
Twilight Zone
to have a talk with your oldest friend from work that revolves around the theme
my wife is not a traitor
. “Because pregnant women are notable for wanting to put themselves at risk of arrest and imprisonment.”
    August turned the glass in his hands. “I’m just saying.”
    “Then why save me?” I couldn’t let the argument go.
    “Don’t be an idiot, Sam. You’re alive, the sole survivor, the Company focuses on you. Not her. You’re in their grip. It gave her a chance to run.”
    “I can’t think that.”
    “Because you’re being a good husband?”
    I stared into his watery blue eyes. “Because if she was dirty, she still lived with me for three years, and she knows that if she betrayed me and killed our friends and I’m alive to come after her, I will. So if she was dirty, she’d want me dead.” I kept my voice steady and calm.
    “So all this energy, and you’re still sitting here in Brooklyn?”
    “If I run, they grab me and I’m back in a jail cell.”
    “Unless you’re smart about how you run.”
    “August. I just got out of a Company prison. I’m not risking a return ticket. We are not having this conversation.”
    August put his money on the table and said, “Don’t worry about the change.”
    “Okay.” I watched him leave. It’s awkward to tip a friend and I didn’t want him to, but I slid the change into the tip jar. I got back to work, which involved making a pot of decaf for Ollie and serving a group of wannabe artists who came in five minutes later for a round of Pabst Blue Ribbon beers.
    Most people at Ollie’s Bar drank beer and wine. But at least six times a day I made vodka martinis; five times a day I poured whisky; and now and then I made a margarita on the rocks. There wasn’t a frozen margarita machine; it wasn’t that kind of bar. Usually a couple of early customers at the lunchtime opening wanted Bloody Marys, and I made them extra spicy and got bigger tips. I made drinks and kept quiet and gained back weight I’d lost and slept a lot. August came and drank during my evening shifts. A few questions to my fellow barkeeps told me that he didn’t come in on my days off. I felt myself getting stronger but I was only running very basic parkour, vaults onto railings and low walls, because I was too out of practice and I didn’t want to risk an injury. I pretended not to notice the surveillance Howell had put on me. Three rookies, two on foot, one in a van, were nearly