Read Online Line of Succession: A Thriller by William Tyree - Free Book Online Page B

with his puffy eyes, then with his mouth. “Visitors,” he said directly into it.
    He unlocked the door and turned to Carver. “Nico’s not dangerous. I’ll be down the hall. Just yell.”
    They entered the windowless room that was illuminated only by a skylight and closed the door behind them. Nico Gold sat at the plain plywood table in a short-sleeve orange jumpsuit. He was pale and lean with clear-framed eyeglasses, just as he’d appeared in his mug shot five years ago, but he had added tattoos to both forearms that said simply, “EVA.” He closed the book he was reading and placed it on the table before him.
    “ Carver and O’Keefe,” Carver said by way of introduction. He had gotten used to saying CIA after his name. Now he was a man without an agency. “Federal agents.”
    O’Keefe eyed the title of Nico’s book. “Conversational Cornish?”
    “ Cornish is a Celtic language,” Nico explained. His voice dripped with condescension.
    “ It’s also a dead language.”
    “ What else am I gonna do, pump iron?”
    Carver opened his briefcase and pulled out a folder marked CLASSIFIED. He threw it on the table in front of Nico. The prisoner opened it and began pouring over the scramble of letters and phonetic characters.
    Nico’s mouth twisted into a smirk. “Oh,” he said with cynical delight. “You’re coming to me with a problem?”
    “ Coded transmissions,” Carver explained. “Our geeks got past the encryption phase, but the code is something else.”
    Nico looked for only a moment more, then rose from the table and walked to the door. He put his mouth to the tiny opening near the top of the door and yelled “Guard!”
    O’Keefe was flabbergasted. ”What’re you doing? This meeting isn’t over.”
    Nico turned to her. “You’re not the first spooks to come in here looking for help. If you’re serious, put an offer in writing and submit it through my attorney.”
    Carver reached into his briefcase once more, whipped out a pre-written negotiated deal. He handed it to Nico. “Official enough for you? It’s signed by a federal judge.”
    Nico scanned the document, shrugged. “What else ya got?”
    “ Full disclosure,” Carver went on, “There’s no time for negotiations. We think we have a major terrorist threat on our hands.”
    Nico looked the agents over, sensing leverage. O’Keefe stood with her arms across her chest, biting her lip to the point of drawing blood. Nico smiled, clearly delighted. “Y’know, the Russians have a saying: Smart wolves don’t chase deer. They just wait by the river.”
    Carver had expected this, and he was ready with the carrot. ”Help us catch these guys and I’ll cut your sentence in half.”
    “ Uh-uh. Come back to the river when you’re thirsty.”
    Carver heard footsteps and saw the guard’s eyes fill the door window once again. He turned to Nico. “You want high stakes? Fine. You break the code before anyone gets hurt and I’ll get you a Presidential pardon. Anything less and we double your sentence.”
    The guard spoke through the opening in the door. “Everything okay here?” he said.
    Nico turned to the door and smiled. “Ask the concierge to send down my things. I’ll be checking out today.”
     
    Carver and O’Keefe took some air outside the prison’s main office as Nico was processed for release into their custody. Carver took a pack of mint-flavored gum from his pocket and offered her a piece. “Sugarless,” he said.
    “ Figures.” O’Keefe smiled and took a piece. She had long given up on coaxing the nutritionally pious Agent Carver to try so much as a donut. “Have you ever even had a cavity?”
    “ Nope.”
    She stepped closer to him. Close enough so he could smell her peppermint shampoo. Carver felt a chill on his neck. It always happened when O’Keefe invaded his personal space.
    “ So,” she said. “Losing any sleep over this?”
    It had been a long time since he had been with a woman. Even longer since he