Near Enemy by Adam Sternbergh Read Free Book Online Page B

was?
    I think you know, Spademan. Or at least you have an inkling.
    You think Lesser found a way to kill a person while they’re in the limn.
    Boonce leans back. Grins.
    Now, as we both know, that’s not possible.
    But you think that’s what it is.
    Well, if anyone could have done it, it’s Lesser. Like I said, he’s a special kid.
    But he’s just a hopper, Boonce. Why would Lesser want to kill anyone in the limn?
    I don’t know that he did it. I just think he figured it out. Then I think maybe he let his secret fall into the wrong hands.
    Shaban?
    Maybe. But think about it, Spademan. If Shaban found a way to use what Lesser knows? To pick people off through the limn? That’s huge. Especially given what the city’s facing right now.
    You mean the election. The one your boss Bellarmine is running in.
    Boonce stills his hands. Smiles.
    So you do read the papers.
    I skim.
    Boonce kneads his knuckles. Seems on the edge of genuine concern.
    Then you should understand, Spademan, that the limn’s just about the only thing that makes this city viable. People have already got plenty of reasons to leave. Limn’s the only reason they’ve got to stay.
    Not everyone.
    No. But most. The ones with money, anyway.
    So what do you want from me?
    I’d suggest you start with finding out who exactly Lesser was peeping on. And what that person’s current condition is. Because God help us all if that poor person is now dead.
    Which is interesting. Because it means Boonce doesn’t yet know about Langland. Which means there’s at least one thing in the world that I know that Boonce doesn’t already know. I don’t tell him that, of course. Instead, I ask the obvious question.
    Why me?
    Why you what?
    Why me for this job, Boonce? You seem to have plenty of resources at your disposal.
    They see us coming, Spademan, they scatter. And I need to know what Lesser knows, but he has no real reason to tell me. You, on the other hand—you’ve proved yourself persuasive. And I believe that you can find him. You found him once already.
    Fair enough. Now why do I want to help you, exactly?
    Boonce grins at me like a patient hunter sitting in a blind, waiting on his well-built trap to spring.
    Because there’s a few more things that I know about you, Spademan. I know you have a woman stashed in a cabin upstate and that there are a bunch of religious nuts currently combing the woods trying to find her. I know you think you can protect her, and I know you’re secretly worried you can’t. Which you should be. Because you can’t. But you know who can?
    You.
    Look, you can walk out of here right now, back to your life in Hoboken. But know this: I have the keys to the rooms in the city that no one can see into. That’s who I am. You work with me, I give your lady-friend safe passage back South or wherever she chooses. Hell, you can all live here, together, in the city, stressfree, if that’s what you really want. I can make that happen. If you find me Lesser. That’s what I’m offering.
    Trap sprung, he takes a pause. Jangles that watch again. Then adds the kicker. What salesmen call the sweetener.
    That’s my offer to you. To her. And to her little baby girl.

    I can’t promise anything, Boonce.
    I don’t want promises, Spademan. Just Lesser.
    And what will you do with him if I find him?
    Don’t worry about that. Though I’m assuming you weren’t headed to his apartment last night to deliver him flowers.
    He holds out a business card. Nothing on it but a number.
    When you find him, call me here. Direct line. Day or night. Consider this my Batphone.
    I pocket the card.
    I’ll keep in touch.
    Boonce rises, makes a big show of peeling off a fat tip for a meal we didn’t have to pay for, then escorts me back out to the grand concourse, where Puchs and Luckner are still standing guard. Then Boonce smiles the smile of a slippery salesman who just closed a difficult deal without a moment of doubt that he’d do it.
    Offers a handshake to seal