Assumed Identity (1993) by David Morrell Read Free Book Online

of the agency's Third World drug-lord informants who still make jokes about the American lives lost in the useless invasion of Panama.'
    'No. That's Buchanan's motivation. I don't want to hear that. I don't want my mind to be contaminated. Just tell me about Edward Potter. What's his motivation?'
    The pallid controller lowered his head, shook it, and sighed. 'I have to tell you, Buchanan-'
    'Potter.'
    '-sometimes you worry me. Sometimes I think you absorb yourself too much in your assumed identities.'
    'But you're not risking your ass if I forget who the hell I'm supposed to be. So don't fool with my life. From now on, talk to me with the assumption that I'm Edward Potter.'
    Again the controller sighed. 'Whatever you want, Edward. Your wife divorced you because you were too devoted to your job and not enough to her and your two sons. She remarried. Because of the numerous threats you've received from drug dealers, she asked for and was granted a court order that forbids you to come anywhere near her and your children without prior approval from her and without guarantees of safety. Her new husband earns two hundred thousand a year as an owner of several health spas. You, by comparison, earn a paltry forty thousand, or rather used to earn that amount, a salary that's especially humiliating in contrast with the millions earned by the scum you arrested and saw released on bail and eventually plea-bargained to a short-term sentence in a minimum-security prison. You're convinced that if you'd accepted the bribes you were offered, your wife would have been satisfied with a new house, et cetera, and wouldn't have left you. When everything you believed in collapsed, you got pissed. You decided that by God, if you couldn't beat the drug lords, you'd join them. You'd show your fucking wife that you could earn a hundred times as much as her faggot new husband. Your dick was bigger than his.'
    'Yes,' Buchanan-Potter said. 'My dick is bigger.'
    The controller stared. 'Amazing.'
    Buchanan-Potter's cheek muscles hardened. 'So how do I get even?'

    Chapter 6.
    'You used to be an agent for the Drug Enforcement Administration? In the restaurant in Cancun's Club International, the first Hispanic twin spoke softly yet with paradoxical force. Shocked, he and his brother jerked back in their chairs.
    'Take it easy,' Buchanan said. 'I'm on your side now.'
    'Certainly,' the second twin said derisively. 'By all means. Of course.'
    'And you truly expect us to believe this?' the first twin demanded. 'To accept that you're a defector and to trust you?'
    'It's not as if I haven't made a gesture of good faith,' Buchanan said. 'That folded sheet of paper beneath your hand. If you put pressure on the Bahamian bank officials you hire to launder money, you'll find that the supposedly loyal associates I mentioned on that list all have secret, offshore bank accounts. Now I realize that graft is a way of life down here. But I think you'll agree that the amounts your supposedly loyal associates put away for a rainy day are considerably higher than payoffs and kickbacks alone would explain.'
    The second twin squinted. 'Assuming for the moment that your information is correct.'
    'Oh, it is. That goes without saying. After all, I'm guaranteeing it with the best collateral imaginable.'
    'And what is that?' The first twin tapped his fingers on the table.
    'My life. If I'm lying about those bank accounts - and it won't be hard for you to discover if I am - you'll have me killed.'
    'But in the meantime, perhaps you'll be able to accomplish whatever you intend and drop out of sight before we can get our hands on you.' The second twin squinted more severely.
    'What could I possibly accomplish?' Buchanan gestured. 'Until you investigate the men on that list and decide if my information is valuable, you won't let me into your confidence. You won't do business with me.'
    'We might not do business with you, even if you're telling the truth.' The first twin kept tapping his