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.Let it sputter between them.“Yeah,” Nina said.“Gordy bet Ace I’m a cop.”“Great,” Broker said.He turned and they fell in step, walking east toward the restaurant.“He’s a strange guy, Ace Shuster,” Nina said.“Not what you’d expect.”“I hadn’t thought about it,” Broker said.“Bullshit.You’ve thought about it in great detail.Just like I thought about it when you told me about your fling with Jolene Somer.”Snap and hiss in the close space between them.Like a live high-tension wire that got loose.“Yeah, what about your Ranger captain in Bosnia—Jeremy,” Broker shot back.“I necked with Jeremy once.You fucked that tramp Jolene.”“So this is what? Payback?”Nina smiled briefly.“Ace hasn’t even tried to touch me.” She paused for effect and bored a look into his eyes.“Yet.”They went into the restaurant.Nonsmoking booths on the left, counter front, tables and more booths to the right.They sat in an open booth to the right.A waitress in tight toreador pants and a deeply tanned face brought them water and a coffeepot.Broker ordered a late breakfast: ham, eggs, no toast, no potatoes, oatmeal on the side.Nina ordered an omelette.She raised an eyebrow.“Oatmeal and eggs? I thought you were strictly oatmeal.That’s all Kit will eat for breakfast since you brainwashed her.”Broker shrugged.“Maybe that Atkins guy has a point.I’m checking it out.”Nina grinned.“You had a birthday last week.The old waistline creeping up on you?”“I’m doing fine.”“I don’t think so.” In a completely disarming move she leaned across the table and laid the inside of her cool wrist along his forehead.“You’re running a fever and I’ll bet that hand is infected.”The day heaved when she did that.Broker almost wanted to stayed glued to her arm, but it moved away.She’s fucking that guy, I know she is and she’ll never admit it.Never should have told her about Jolene.Never.Their orders arrived and Nina was all business.Broker struggled to give her his full attention, but between his smoldering anger, the mild fever, and the painkillers, the edges on things got blunted.Nina looked faintly screened, distant.“Get in touch with Jane and Holly,” she said.She took a pen and a business card from her purse and wrote on the back.“Here are their cells”She slid the card across the table.Broker turned it over and saw the pine-tree logo of his resort: Broker’s Beach.Nina started to say, “They’re staying—”Broker cut her off.“I know.One of the local cops told me.They’re at an Air Force radar site east of town.Along with some rough trade in a Black Hawk.”“Aw shit.”Broker pressed on.“Remember the famous Shuster-McVeigh photo op? Well, it’s total bullshit.Pure coincidence.Shuster was at Waco looking for his nutzy sister, who was reported to be in the compound.She wasn’t.He found her in Seattle.”“You know this how?”“One of the locals told me this morning.”Nina stiffened slightly when the highway patrolman entered the café and started toward their table.He was snappy-looking in his uniform, duty belt, and Smoky Bear hat.He passed their table smartly and inclined his head in a deferential nod, just as polite as can be.“Broker.Major Pryce.” He continued on and sat down at the counter, his back to them.Nina sagged and stared at Broker.“I tried to tell you.You’re wrong for this kind of work.All you guys are.Once Jeff back home heard our kid was stranded in North Dakota he called the local sheriff.Asked him to keep an eye out for her.That raised a flag.It is definitely not SOP for abandoned children to have sheriffs in other states immediately start calling and asking personal favors.It suggests I’m connected.So, Wales, the local sheriff, did some checking around with the Minnesota AG’s office and got an earful about me and then about you.The Vietnam trip in ’95.The rumors about the gold.And you being a big Army celebrity after the Gulf.”Broker leaned forward.“You have a reputation.Some terms got thrown around.”Nina’s glower was frayed at the edges.She was exhausted.Playing barfly with Ace was eating up her reserves of control.Broker raised his eyebrows, questioning.“So the sheriff asked me what the Purple Platoon is.”“There is no Purple Platoon.”“Of course there isn’t.How can there be? It’s part of Delta and Delta doesn’t exist.”“Are you through?”Broker shrugged.“Just saying, you should have gone to these guys, they probably have some real undercover resources—this being their turf and all.”Nina shook her head and looked out the window.“If we don’t run out this grounder, there could be…” Her voice petered out, exhausted.It struck Broker that he had not taken the time to really study her face in minute detail since he’d hit town.He did so now and saw that she had acquired the streamline of sheer necessity; hollow, driven, almost like a haggard statue of a woman who had been pretty in real life.But now her human touches did not survive the translation into metal.Not his wife anymore.Not a mother.She’d turned into this fucking iron mask of…courage, duty, sacrifice…Broker had seen that look on people’s faces before.People who were getting ready to die for something.It made him furious.“So there it is,” Nina said.Jesus, Broker, get ahold of yourself.This was serious, he told himself.Not personal.He tried.“So what do you want me to do?”“Tell Holly something’s staging up with this George guy tonight.” She shivered, hugged herself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Let it sputter between them.“Yeah,” Nina said.“Gordy bet Ace I’m a cop.”“Great,” Broker said.He turned and they fell in step, walking east toward the restaurant.“He’s a strange guy, Ace Shuster,” Nina said.“Not what you’d expect.”“I hadn’t thought about it,” Broker said.“Bullshit.You’ve thought about it in great detail.Just like I thought about it when you told me about your fling with Jolene Somer.”Snap and hiss in the close space between them.Like a live high-tension wire that got loose.“Yeah, what about your Ranger captain in Bosnia—Jeremy,” Broker shot back.“I necked with Jeremy once.You fucked that tramp Jolene.”“So this is what? Payback?”Nina smiled briefly.“Ace hasn’t even tried to touch me.” She paused for effect and bored a look into his eyes.“Yet.”They went into the restaurant.Nonsmoking booths on the left, counter front, tables and more booths to the right.They sat in an open booth to the right.A waitress in tight toreador pants and a deeply tanned face brought them water and a coffeepot.Broker ordered a late breakfast: ham, eggs, no toast, no potatoes, oatmeal on the side.Nina ordered an omelette.She raised an eyebrow.“Oatmeal and eggs? I thought you were strictly oatmeal.That’s all Kit will eat for breakfast since you brainwashed her.”Broker shrugged.“Maybe that Atkins guy has a point.I’m checking it out.”Nina grinned.“You had a birthday last week.The old waistline creeping up on you?”“I’m doing fine.”“I don’t think so.” In a completely disarming move she leaned across the table and laid the inside of her cool wrist along his forehead.“You’re running a fever and I’ll bet that hand is infected.”The day heaved when she did that.Broker almost wanted to stayed glued to her arm, but it moved away.She’s fucking that guy, I know she is and she’ll never admit it.Never should have told her about Jolene.Never.Their orders arrived and Nina was all business.Broker struggled to give her his full attention, but between his smoldering anger, the mild fever, and the painkillers, the edges on things got blunted.Nina looked faintly screened, distant.“Get in touch with Jane and Holly,” she said.She took a pen and a business card from her purse and wrote on the back.“Here are their cells”She slid the card across the table.Broker turned it over and saw the pine-tree logo of his resort: Broker’s Beach.Nina started to say, “They’re staying—”Broker cut her off.“I know.One of the local cops told me.They’re at an Air Force radar site east of town.Along with some rough trade in a Black Hawk.”“Aw shit.”Broker pressed on.“Remember the famous Shuster-McVeigh photo op? Well, it’s total bullshit.Pure coincidence.Shuster was at Waco looking for his nutzy sister, who was reported to be in the compound.She wasn’t.He found her in Seattle.”“You know this how?”“One of the locals told me this morning.”Nina stiffened slightly when the highway patrolman entered the café and started toward their table.He was snappy-looking in his uniform, duty belt, and Smoky Bear hat.He passed their table smartly and inclined his head in a deferential nod, just as polite as can be.“Broker.Major Pryce.” He continued on and sat down at the counter, his back to them.Nina sagged and stared at Broker.“I tried to tell you.You’re wrong for this kind of work.All you guys are.Once Jeff back home heard our kid was stranded in North Dakota he called the local sheriff.Asked him to keep an eye out for her.That raised a flag.It is definitely not SOP for abandoned children to have sheriffs in other states immediately start calling and asking personal favors.It suggests I’m connected.So, Wales, the local sheriff, did some checking around with the Minnesota AG’s office and got an earful about me and then about you.The Vietnam trip in ’95.The rumors about the gold.And you being a big Army celebrity after the Gulf.”Broker leaned forward.“You have a reputation.Some terms got thrown around.”Nina’s glower was frayed at the edges.She was exhausted.Playing barfly with Ace was eating up her reserves of control.Broker raised his eyebrows, questioning.“So the sheriff asked me what the Purple Platoon is.”“There is no Purple Platoon.”“Of course there isn’t.How can there be? It’s part of Delta and Delta doesn’t exist.”“Are you through?”Broker shrugged.“Just saying, you should have gone to these guys, they probably have some real undercover resources—this being their turf and all.”Nina shook her head and looked out the window.“If we don’t run out this grounder, there could be…” Her voice petered out, exhausted.It struck Broker that he had not taken the time to really study her face in minute detail since he’d hit town.He did so now and saw that she had acquired the streamline of sheer necessity; hollow, driven, almost like a haggard statue of a woman who had been pretty in real life.But now her human touches did not survive the translation into metal.Not his wife anymore.Not a mother.She’d turned into this fucking iron mask of…courage, duty, sacrifice…Broker had seen that look on people’s faces before.People who were getting ready to die for something.It made him furious.“So there it is,” Nina said.Jesus, Broker, get ahold of yourself.This was serious, he told himself.Not personal.He tried.“So what do you want me to do?”“Tell Holly something’s staging up with this George guy tonight.” She shivered, hugged herself [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]