The Hit by David Baldacci Read Free Book Online Page A

proactive. Eliminating those already in power is a tricky thing. Sometimes necessary but to be avoided if possible since it’s technically illegal.”
    “Vance is tenacious as hell.”
    “Yes, she is,” agreed Blue Man.
    “She might get to the truth.”
    “That is not an option, Robie.”
    “Like you said, you don’t run the FBI.”
    “What will you talk about with her tonight?” asked Blue Man.
    “I don’t know. And if I cancel she might get suspicious.”
    “Do you think she suspects your involvement in any of this?”
    “She’s smart. And she sort of knows what I do for a living.”
    “That was a mistake, Robie, it really was, letting her know that.”
    “I really didn’t have a choice, did I?”
    “What if she starts asking questions?”
    “Then I’ll answer them. In my own way.”
    Blue Man seemed about to continue this line of questioning, but then said, “What’s your next step on Reel?”
    “Any way to trace her movements leading up to the shooting? I mean, do we know for certain if she was in the country and pulled the trigger? Her voice over the headset doesn’t prove she was actually the shooter.”
    “Reel went silent before the shot, so we didn’t pick up any sounds on her end, just on Jacobs’s. But her voice means she was involved somehow.”
    Robie said, “The sniper nest was set up overseas. Any clues there?”
    “Nothing. We confirmed that she was seen there, but two days before. Plenty of time to get back here and shoot Jacobs.”
    “What’s the latest on Ahmadi?”
    “Business as usual. We removed all traces of the sniper nest, of course.”
    “Planning another hit on him?” asked Robie.
    “Well, if he was aware of the first try and foiled it, turning it backon us, I would imagine he would be ultra-cautious now. We might not see his face again until he’s Syria’s new leader.”
    “I don’t like it that Reel had my email address.”
    “I don’t like it either,” agreed Blue Man.
    “We have a mole. A leave-behind.”
    “Possibly. Or she might have gotten that information beforehand.”
    “How would she know I’d be the one going after her?”
    “A calculated assumption?” suggested Blue Man.
    “She might be tailing me right now.”
    “Don’t get paranoid on me, Robie.”
    “You missed that window by a few years. My paranoia knows no bounds now.”
    “Where are you off to now?”
    “To get ready for my dinner.”
    Robie clicked off and accelerated. He checked his rearview for Vance, Reel, and assorted bogeymen.
    I’m not growing paranoid. I am paranoid. And who could blame me?
    He punched the gas harder.
    Sending a killer to catch a killer actually made sense.
    We talk a different language and we see the world through a separate prism that no one else could possibly understand.
    But it worked both ways. Reel would understand him as much as he would understand her.
    So Reel dead.
    Or me.
    It really was that simple.
    And also that complicated.

CHAPTER

9
    J ESSICA R EEL SAT ON HER bed in her hotel room. Her sweat-drenched exercise clothes lay on the floor. She was naked and looking down at her toes. The rain was hitting with increased velocity outside.
    Like bullets. But unlike bullets rain leaves you alive.
    She rubbed her hand over her flat belly. Her firm core had come from agonizing exercise and careful diet. It had nothing to do with appearance. The core was power central. And fat slowed you down. In her world that was poison. She was also proficient in every martial art worth anything in close-quarter combat.
    She had had to use her fitness and fighting skills to survive many times. She didn’t always kill with a gun from long range. Sometimes her targets were right in front of her, trying to murder her as fiercely as she them. And they were almost always men. That gave them a genetic advantage in size and strength.
    Still, up to this point, she had always been the winner. But that was only until the next time. In her field, you only lost once.