Hell's Corner

CHAPTER 55

As they ate Chapman kept shooting glances at Stone. If he noticed, Stone made no reaction. She downed several more mojitos and a glass of port after the meal was done.

“You have a car?” he asked after the bill was paid.

“Yes, but why don’t we walk for a bit? It’s a nice evening.”

“That’s a good idea.”

“Really?” she said smiling.

“Yes. You’ve had a lot to drink. A walk will help clear your head,” he added in a strange voice.

They strolled along, passing by restaurants teeming with hungry, boisterous patrons. Car horns honked and people walked past.

“Troubled?” Stone said.

She glanced at him sharply. “Just thinking about things. Why?”

“No reason. Just a lot to think about.”

“So Director Weaver never got back to you?”

“I have to assume he never will. That’s why I had Caleb research for me.”

“And after reviewing his research, what are your conclusions?”

“I don’t have any,” he admitted. “I just have more questions.” He paused. “Weaver did say one interesting thing before he cut me off.”

“What?” she said, perhaps a tad too quickly.

“He said things might not be as they seem. I think he meant that we were all looking at this the wrong way. That if we could find the right way to look at things we might make sense out of everything.”

“Do you believe that?” she said.

“I don’t disbelieve it. At least not yet.”

She stopped at a street vendor and bought a ball cap with “FBI” on it. When Stone looked at her, puzzled, she explained, “Got a nephew back in London who’s keen on them.”

“Does he know you work for MI6?”

“No, he thinks I’m in the computer business. I’d be much cooler to him if he knew the truth.”

As they continued to walk along she said, “Okay, let’s go back through what we know. Gunfire and bombing. Maybe unrelated. The Hay-Adams Hotel was a distraction and the gunfire actually came from a U.S. government building undergoing renovation. Padilla runs for his life and triggers the bomb that was probably in a basketball in the tree’s root ball. That leads us to the tree and from there to the tree farm.”

Stone picked it up from there. “The tree farm leads to John Kravitz, who had bomb-making elements under his trailer. He’s killed to prevent him from talking to us. Agent Gross and the other two are killed for reasons yet unknown, but Wilder might’ve been involved. The bomb had some unusual elements that tentatively have been identified as nanobots. Why they were in the bomb is unknown. Agent Garchik has been ‘relieved’ of his field duties pending further developments. We have several pieces of evidence that show either the Russian government or Russian drug cartels, or perhaps both, may be behind this.”

“And the Latinos were killed because they might have seen something or else they might have been part of the plot.”

“Yes. And the actual target of the bomb is still unknown. We have a number of possibilities but no definitive answer.”

Chapman stopped walking and looked at him. “Okay, there’s the list. We’ve checked it twice.”

“We left out one thing. Fuat Turkekul.”

“But his presence has been explained.”

“Has it?”

“Sir James explained it. And I know you trust him, despite what you said earlier.”

“No, I said I trusted you.”

Chapman’s cheeks reddened slightly. Stone gazed at her for a moment and then looked away. He checked his watch.

“You have another date?” she said with an attempt at a smile.

“No, I was just wondering how long it would take before you told me.”

“Told you what?”

“Whatever it is you’re keeping from me.”