World Without End by Chris Mooney Read Free Book Online

you listen to me, Steve. I'm going to do this. You can stay here if you want, but I'm going to do this. Understand?"
    "Dixon, look at the ground. You're throwing up blood."
    "This conversation is over."
    "No, it's not. You're going to listen " "End of discussion, Steve."
    "Goddammit, Dixon, you're not making any sense."
    "I said end of discussion!" Dixon stormed off to the bubbler.
    The pilot and one of the jump instructors, Chris Evans, looked up in their direction, both of them staring.
    Something's wrong.
    What are you hiding, Dix?
    Conway's pager vibrated against his belt. Had to be Pasha. Good.
    Maybe she had figured out what the fuck was going on.
    Conway left Dixon and walked behind the back of the Snack Shack and kicked open the bathroom door. Soft yellow blades of early morning sunlight poured in from the window on his left, reflecting off the scuffed gray-linoleum floor that was peeling in the corners and the chipped white walls decorated with graffiti, crudely drawn images of male and female genitalia, and names with phone numbers advertising blow jobs. He checked under the stall, found no one, and locked the door.
    His pager, the cell phone that was in reality hooked up to a satellite, his Palm Pilot all of it was strapped to his belt under his yellow jumpsuit. He yanked the zipper down, removed the phone and then dialed the number displayed on the pager's screen. While he waited for the encryption technology to engage, he looked outside the screen window above the urinals and watched Dixon pace with his head down.
    A beep as the encryption engaged, and then Pasha's voice burst on the line: "Back off. You're getting him worked up."
    Dixon's Citizen's diver's watch, a gift from Conway, not only contained a transmitter and a hidden microphone that listened in on all of Dixon's conversations, the micro sensors placed in the watchband measured his pulse, which could be read by the IWAC surveillance team.
    "Crank up his heartbeat any more and you'll launch him into a panic attack," Pasha said.
    "Ease up. Now."
    Conway kept his voice low and his eyes on the window.
    "He's hiding something."
    "Raymond went over this with you."
    "And we're about to go over it again. I know Dixon. The guy calls in sick when he wakes up with a headache. Now he's outside throwing up blood and wants to go skydiving? Come on. We're missing a piece of the picture."
    "Stephen, everyone at the school checks out. Name, pictures, everything. We ran Dixon's voice through the machines. He's not lying to you, he's not keeping anything from you."
    "Then what's this stuff about him getting the idea for skydiving "
    "From your friend John Riley. I pulled the tape. The whole conversation is there, only you were too drunk to remember."
    "I'm not buying it."
    Pasha sighed.
    "It's an easy read, Stephen. Dixon's father had dreams that his only offspring was going to be a big football star that's why he stuck Dixon with that ridiculous name, Major. Only genetics had a different agenda. Dixon grew into this frail, awkward-looking weakling who has no interest or talent for football or any other sport, but what he does have is a brain that operates on a different plane than everyone else's. So what does the father do? Washes his hands of his son.
    Classic family drama.
    "Now you step into his life, you develop a friendship, Dixon starts to confide in you. He can't measure up in his father's eyes, so what does he do? Tries to measure up in your eyes, the only guy who's taken an interest in him, the only person who accepts him for who he really is and doesn't judge him.
    "The problem is, Dixon can't compete. You're good-looking, you're in shape, you're social, and women find you interesting you're everything Dixon wants to be and can't. He's not going to back down because he doesn't want to look like a failure in your eyes. It's basic psychology, Stephen."
    "You're giving me too much credit."
    "Explain this: You come into Dixon's life and suddenly he's going to UT