Saving Faith by David Baldacci Read Free Book Online Page A

nailed it down.” When Newman still didn’t respond, she studied his profile for a minute, sizing up his nerve. She reached over and touched his arm.
    “I took a lot of risk to do what I’m doing,” she said. She felt him tense through his suit jacket where her fingers rested. She kept her fingers there, applied slightly more pressure. Her fingertips could now distinguish the material of his jacket from that of his shirt. As he turned slightly toward her, Faith was able to see the bulletproof vest he was wearing. The saliva in her mouth suddenly evaporated, along with her composure.
    Newman glanced at her. “I’ll give it to you straight. What exactly your deal will be, that’s not up to me. So far, you haven’t really given us anything. But play by the rules and everything will be okay. You’ll cut your deal, you’ll give us what we need and pretty soon you’ll have a new identity selling seashells on Fiji, while your partner and his playmates become long-term guests of the government. Don’t revel in it, don’t think too much about it, just try to survive it. Remember, we’re on your side here. We’re the only friends you have.”
    Faith sat back, finally drawing her gaze from the body armor. She decided it was time to drop her bombshell. She may as well try it out on Newman instead of Reynolds. In some ways, Reynolds and she had hit it off. Two women in a sea of men. In many subtle ways, the female agent had understood things a man never would have. In other ways, however, they had been like two alley cats circling around fish bones.
    “I want to bring in Buchanan. I know I can get him to do it. If we work together, your case will be much stronger.” She said all of this quickly, vastly relieved to have it finally out.
    Newman’s face betrayed his astonishment. “Faith, we’re pretty flexible, but we’re not cutting a deal with the guy who, according to you, masterminded this whole thing.”
    “You don’t understand all the facts. Why he did it. He’s not the bad person in all this. He’s a good guy.”
    “He broke the law. According to you, he corrupted government officials. That’s enough for me.”
    “When you understand why he did it, you won’t think that way.”
    “Don’t pin your hopes on that strategy, Faith. Don’t do that to yourself.”
    “What if I say it’s both or none?”
    “Then you’re making the biggest mistake of your life.”
    “So it’s either me or him?”
    “And it shouldn’t be that tough a choice.”
    “I’ll just have to talk to Reynolds, then.”
    “She’ll tell you the same thing I just did.”
    “Don’t be so sure. I can be pretty persuasive. And I also happen to be right.”
    “Faith, you have no idea what’s involved here. FBI agents don’t decide who to prosecute. The U.S. Attorney’s Office does. Even if Reynolds sided with you, and I doubt she will, I can tell you there’s no way in hell the lawyers will go along. If they try to take down all these powerful politicos and cut a sweetheart deal with the guy who got them into it in the first place, they’re gonna lose their asses, and then their jobs. This is Washington, these are eight-hundred-pound gorillas we’re dealing with here. There’ll be phones ringing off the hook, a media frenzy, behind-the-scenes deals going a mile a minute, and at the end of the day, we’ll all be toast. Trust me, I’ve been doing this for over twenty years. It’s Buchanan or nothing.”
    Faith sat back and stared at the sky. For a moment, amid the clouds, she envisioned Danny Buchanan slumped over in a dark, hopeless prison cell. She could never let it come to that. She would have to talk to Reynolds and the attorneys, make them see that Buchanan had to be given immunity too. That was the only way it could work. But Newman sounded so sure of himself. What he had just said made perfect sense. This was Washington. As suddenly as the strike of a match, her confidence completely deserted her. Had she, the