Library of the Dead

FBI."

Will grimly stood up and put his jacket back on. He fingered the rosebud in the lapel. "Joe and Mary, thank you for dinner and thank you for your hospitality. I've got to be going."

There wasn't much city-bound traffic this time of day. They had stopped first at a convenience store on Rosedale Avenue, where Nancy hopped out to buy provisions while Will fidgeted in her car. Two bags of groceries were on the backseat, but no, she had said emphatically, she would not buy him booze.

Now they were cruising on the Hutch and the Whitestone Bridge was coming up. He reminded her to call his daughter, then fell silent and watched the sun turn the Long Island Sound burnt orange.

Nancy's grandparents' house was on a quiet street of postage-stamp-sized homes in Forest Hills. Her grandfather was in a nursing home with Alzheimer's. Her grandmother was visiting a niece in Florida for a respite. Granddad's old Ford Taurus was in the one-car lock-up garage behind the house; in case they found a cure, Nancy joked darkly. They arrived at dusk and parked out front. The garage keys were under a brick, the car keys in the garage under a paint can. The rest was up to him.

He leaned over and kissed her and they held each other for a long while, like a couple at a drive-in.

"Maybe we should go inside," Will exhaled.

She playfully rapped his forehead with her knuckles. "I'm not sneaking into my grandma's house to have sex!"

"Bad idea?"

"Very bad. Besides, you'll get sleepy."

"That wouldn't be good."

"No it wouldn't. Call me every step of the way, okay?"

"Okay."

"Will you be safe?"

"I'll be safe."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"There's something I didn't tell you about work today," she said, kissing him one last time. "John Mueller was back in for a few hours. Sue's putting us together to work on the Brooklyn bank robberies. I talked to him for a while, and do you know what?"

"What?"

"I think he's an asshole."

He laughed, gave her a thumbs-up, and opened his door. "Then my work here is done."

Mark fretted. Why had he agreed to come in off his vacation?

He wasn't quick enough on his feet or strong enough to stand up for himself-he was always a lapdog for parents, teachers, bosses-always too eager to please, too scared to disappoint. He didn't want to leave the hotel and burst the delicious bubble he and Kerry were inhabiting.

She was in the bathroom, getting ready. They had a superior night planned: dinner at Rubochon's at the MGM Mansion, a little blackjack, then drinks back in the Venetian at the Tao Beach Club. He'd have to leave early and go straight to the airport, and he probably wouldn't feel too brilliant come dawn, but what was he going to do now? If he was a no-show he'd raise all sorts of alarms.

He was already dressed for the night and restless, so he logged onto the Net via the hotel's high-speed service. He shook his head: another e-mail from Elder. The man was sucking him dry, but a deal was a deal. Maybe he'd priced himself too low at $5 million. Maybe he'd just have to hit him up for another five in a few months. What was the guy going to do? Say no?

As Mark was working through Elder's new list, Malcolm Frazier's group was on Alpha Alert: shifts on cots and cold food. Moody sorts to begin with, they were in a despicable state over the prospect of a night away from wives and girlfriends. Frazier had even forced Rebecca Rosenberg to stay overnight, a first. She was beside herself over the whole situation, completely in tatters.

Frazier pointed at his monitor with irritation. "Look. He's on that encrypted portal again. Why the Christ can't you break that? I mean how long is it going to take you to break that? We don't even know who's on the other end."

Rosenberg shot daggers at him. She was following the identical traffic on her screen. "He's one of the best computer security scientists in the country!"

"Well, you're his boss, so break the goddamned code, will you? How's it going to look if we have to farm this out to the NSA? You're supposed to be the best, remember?"

She shrieked with frustration, making the men in the room jump. "Mark Shackleton is the best! I sign his time cards! Just shut up and let me work!"

Mark was almost done with his e-mail when the bathroom door opened a crack and he heard a muffled, "I'll be ready soon!" in her lilting twang.

"I wish I didn't have to go back to work tomorrow," he said over the sound of the TV.

"Me too."

He hit the mute button; she liked to talk from inside the bathroom. "Maybe we can rebook for next weekend."

"That would be great." The faucet ran for a second then stopped. "You know what would also be great?"

He logged off and slipped the computer back in its case. "What would also be great?"

"To go to L.A. next weekend, you and me. I mean, we both want to live there. Now that you've come into all this money, you can quit your stupid UFO job and be a movie writer full-time and I can quit my stupid escort job and my stupid vasectomy job and be an actress, maybe a real one. We can go house hunting next weekend. Whaddya say? I think it'd be fun."

Will Piper's face was plastered all over the plasma screen. Christ, Mark thought, second time in two days! He unmuted the set.

"Did you hear me? Wouldn't it be fun?"

"Hang on a second, Kerry, I'll be right with you!" He watched the news item in horror. It felt like a boa constrictor had wrapped itself around his chest and was squeezing the breath out of him. Yesterday he saw this guy boasting about new leads, and today he was a fugitive? And it was a coincidence he was being called in from vacation? Two hundred IQ points started rowing in the same direction. "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck-"

"What'd you say, honey?"

"Be right with you!" His hands were shaking like he had malaria as he reached back into his case for his laptop.

He never wanted to do this; a lot of Area 51 people were tempted-that's what the watchers were for, that's what his algorithms were for-but he wasn't like the others. He was an it-is-what-it-is kind of guy. Now he desperately needed to know. He entered his password and logged onto the pirated U.S. database stored on his hard drive. He had to work fast. If he stopped to think about what he was doing, he was going to balk.

He started entering names.

Kerry came out of the bathroom, dressed to the nines in a slinky red dress with her new watch gleaming on her wrist. "Mark! What's the matter?" His computer was snapped shut on his lap but he was bawling like an infant, big chest-sucking sobs and torrents of tears. She knelt down and threw her arms around him. "Are you okay, honey?"

He shook his head.

"What happened?"

He had to think fast. "I got an e-mail. My aunt died."

"Oh, sweetie, I'm so sorry!" He stood up, wobbly-no, more than wobbly, in a near faint. She rose with him and gave him a giant hug, which prevented him from falling back down. "Was it unexpected?"

He nodded and tried to wipe his face dry with his hand. She got him a tissue, rushed back to his side and daubed him dry like a mother tending a helpless child. "Look, I've got an idea," he said robotically. "Let's go to L.A. tonight. Right now. We'll drive. My car's overheating. We'll take yours. We'll buy a house tomorrow, okay? In the Hollywood Hills. A lot of writers and actors live there. Okay? Can you pack?"

She stared at him, worried and perplexed. "Are you sure you want to go right now, Mark? You've just had a shock. Maybe we should wait till the morning."

He stamped his foot and shouted in a juvenile fit. "No! I don't want to wait! I want to go now!"

She backed away a step. "Why the big rush, honey?" He was scaring her.

He almost started crying again but was able to stop himself. Sniffing hard through blocked nostrils, he packed up his laptop and turned his cell phone off. "'Cause life's too short, Kerry. It's too fucking short."