A Murder of Crows (31 page)

But if Hicks kept denying it, he risked leaving Schneider no option but to contact the Barnyard with his concerns. A prize like Jabbar was worth the risk of burning down the University to get.

Hicks decided to do what he did best. Split the difference and tell a half-truth. “If Bajjah had told me where to find Jabbar, you and I wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. I’d be dragging Jabbar’s ass onto a private jet to a black site somewhere off shore.”

“Perhaps,” Schneider allowed, “but Bajjah gave you something to lead you to him, didn’t he?”

“He gave us the names of nine people in his network,” Hicks allowed. “Five were within the United States and the other four were in the Middle East. That’s the information we are trying to vet. Some of those names appear to have loose ties to Jabbar, but there’s nothing solid yet.”

“Good. So you can give us those names immediately.”

“I could,” Hicks said, “but I won’t.”

From the feed from the handheld’s camera, he saw Tali pick up her face from her hands and look at Schneider. She looked worried. Her boss was getting annoyed.

Good.

“Why?” Schneider asked.

“Because I need to know what I get in return for giving them to you.”

“The University enjoys our continued silence about its involvement in the Bajjah matter. And I don’t give Stephens a full dossier on you, James.”

“Not good enough. I’ll agree to give you the names Bajjah gave me, and I’ll keep you apprised as to how our investigation moves along. But I’m going to need more from you than your silence, Manny. A lot more.”

“Fine. What do you want?”

The seed of a plan took root in Hicks’ mind. Maybe Schneider could be more than an inconvenient pain in the ass after all. Two birds. One stone. “Corroboration, my friend. Now, if you’ve got a few minutes, I’ll explain what I need you to do.”

A
FEW
hours later at The Jolly Roger Club, Hicks allowed himself to sink down far enough so the cool leather of Roger’s couch hit the back of his neck. The dull headache he had been fighting for days was threatening to turn into a full-blown migraine. Almost getting killed twice on his way back from Savannah hadn’t helped. His unexpected sparring session with Schneider had only made it worse, though it looked like the Israelis might prove to be more useful than he’d expected.

He tried to focus on the operation at hand. The reason why he had come to The Jolly Roger Club was to hear Roger’s plan to stop Stephens, but thoughts of Tali kept creeping back into his mind. He didn’t want to dwell on her betrayal. Hell, it wasn’t even a betrayal. She was an avowed agent working for a foreign government. Telling her superiors about Bajjah’s death had been part of her job. She didn’t owe him anything except to follow orders and he couldn’t order her to keep Bajjah’s death a secret. She wasn’t his wife or his girlfriend or even his paramour.

But they had saved each other’s lives so many times, Hicks had come to see her as more than a colleague, but less than a lover despite having slept together. The closest word he could use to describe her was a friend. Maybe he didn’t have a right to see her that way, but he did. His disappointment in her bothered him. Sometimes, humanity found a way to poke through the cracks of his line of work. Disappointment was among the most basic human of emotions.

He looked up when he heard the door to Roger’s sitting room open.

A young woman strode toward him with the elegant confidence of a fashion model on a runway, though she had neither the build nor the poise for it. She was too curvy for her small frame, but was strikingly pretty.

She had applied the right amount of eyeliner to draw focus on her eyes and her black curly hair flowed down in tendrils to her slender shoulders. Her black tank top showed an obviously enhanced bust line. Roger liked to keep his chamber on the chilly side, so it was clear to Hicks the girl wasn’t wearing a bra. Her black leather mini-skirt showed off the rest of her curves and toned legs. Hicks was amazed she could walk a straight line in such high heels, but Roger Cobb knew a lot of talented people.

From the doorway, Roger beamed with a showman’s pride. “Please allow me the great honor of presenting my dear friend and colleague, Cindy. Her stage name is spelled ‘Syndy’ with an ‘S,’ but we can dispense with show business monikers for the moment.” To the girl, he said, “Cindy, this is my client whose name isn’t important, remember? We’re all friends here, so we can speak freely amongst each other.”

“Nice to meet you,” Cindy said as she lowered herself into the couch across from Hicks with the grace of a debutant. He guessed she was either a stripper or sex worker, but moved with a more practiced fluidity than a common streetwalker. Her wry smile showed teeth too white to be natural. “I like you. You’re cute.”

Hicks looked at Roger. “This is what you’ve been working on? This is the plan you’ve been putting together? A honey trap? It’s the oldest trick in the book and our boy will never fall for it.”

Roger clapped his hands and hugged himself. “I’m so glad you said that because Cindy isn’t merely a pretty face, my friend. She’s oh, so much more.” To the girl, he said, “Show him our surprise, my sweet.”

Cindy flashed a stripper’s smile as she opened her legs, revealing she not only was not wearing underwear, but had also been born a male.

An extremely well-endowed male.

Hicks closed his eyes as his headache bloomed into a full-blown migraine. When he opened his eyes, he looked at Roger until Roger got the point.

Roger offered his hand to help Cindy stand. “Give us the room, my love. My friend and I have much to discuss.” He kissed her on the cheek and whispered something in her ear. She gave Hicks a little wave over her shoulder as she walked back to the outer room. If she had noticed Hicks’ disappointment, she didn’t show it.

Roger took Cindy’s seat on the couch and sighed. “Ah, still warm.” His eyes flashed. “Impressive, isn’t she?”

“Roger, for fuck’s sake…”

“Now, now. Don’t get all Republican on me before you hear what I have to say.”

“I don’t have to hear anything. I saw. A lot. I asked you to come up with a way to stop the biggest intelligence combine in the world and you bring me a goddamned tranny?”

“The face that launched a thousand ships didn’t belong to a king, old boy, but to a woman,” Roger said. “And Cindy isn’t some goddamned tranny. She doesn’t get her kicks prancing around her apartment in women’s underwear, not that there’s anything wrong with that. Cindy happens to be a pre-operative transsexual who is also a skilled sex worker.”

“A tranny hooker.” Hicks’ migraine spiked. Two days wasted on a half-assed plan. He began to massage his temples. “Jesus. I need ice.”

“What you need is to listen to me for a change. Cindy may have been born a man, but thanks to modern science and convention, she is a woman. She’s had implants, hormone treatments, and has endured more pain and alienation than either of us have ever known in order to become what she was born to be.”

“Great. My heart goes out to her. I admire her, but she’s got no role in our plan.”

“Of course she does. You had no idea she’d been born a male until she opened her legs, did you? Don’t lie.”

Hicks conceded the point. “Yeah, but…”

“And if you—a trained operative who is unfortunately stone sober—couldn’t tell the difference, you can bet our target won’t, especially at the end of a long night of strong cocktails.”

“I was hoping you’d dig up something in his past we could use. Something we could blackmail him with. Not…this.”

Roger pressed on. “I didn’t bring Cindy here tonight on a whim, you know. I have spent the last two days delving into every aspect of our target’s life. OMNI even helped me pull together a full psychological profile on this guy. Believe me when I tell you Cindy is exactly the right type, the right size, and the right kind of girl he loves. And I will guarantee he won’t know about her little secret until it’s too late.” Roger smiled. “Well, it’s not such a little secret, but you know what I mean.”

Hicks felt any argument he had against Roger’s plan evaporate. Roger’s scheme was so unexpected, so low, so old school that it might work.

But he wasn’t convinced yet. “Has she at least been to the River?” Hicks asked. ‘The River’ was the University term for Assets who had received some field training.

“Not in the same way you and I have been trained,” Roger admitted, “but what difference does it make? We’re not asking her to parachute behind enemy lines or steal files or enroll an Asset. She’s an experienced escort who happens to be popular among those who prefer a more unique sexual experience.”

Maybe it was the migraine, but Hicks was beginning to doubt the whole idea again. “Shit, Roger, I was hoping you’d find something in his background we could use against him. This is...”

“Our Target is a boy scout, and I mean literally. He was in the Scouts until he was in is twenties. He pays his taxes and doesn’t cut corners at work. Even his enemies like him. The only weakness is for cheap girls at the end of a night of drinking, a failing common to us all. All we’re asking Cindy to do is pick up a drunk in a bar at the end of the night and convince him to take her back to his room. What you and I might call a challenge, she calls another Tuesday at the office. We point out the mark to her and the rest is in her hands.” Another smile. “Or preferably in his if we get the camera angle right.”

Hicks found massaging his temples was beginning to cut the pain. “Can we can trust her to keep her mouth shut afterwards?”

“I’ve known her for years and she owes me a couple of favors,” Roger said, “but I’m not taking any chances. She doesn’t know who the mark is or why we want her to entrap him. I told her he’s an influential man we need to help have a good time. Even after he tells her his name, it’ll mean nothing to her. All she cares about is watching anime and having enough money to buy nail polish. Girlfriend
loves
her nail polish. She hasn’t the slightest idea about politics and couldn’t care less. She’s exactly as ignorant as we need her to be.”

A couple of dozen things could still go wrong with Roger’s scheme, but he couldn’t come up with anything better. Like the Dean had always said, ‘complaint without resolution was whining and whining never got anyone anywhere.’

Roger obviously sensed Hicks’ resignation. He tapped him on the knee. “Trust me, damn it. Corruption and vice are my areas of expertise, remember? It’s like they said in the Bible, ‘a willing pre-op transsexual prostitute can be an invaluable asset to any extortion plot.’”

“You read one fucked up version of the Bible.”

“I’m paraphrasing, of course. So you approve?”

Normally, Hicks would’ve rejected the idea. But after a few days of being hunted, nearly kidnapped, killed by a semi and wiped out by a drone, he decided the scheme was crazy enough to work. “I don’t approve, but go ahead with it anyway.”

Hicks allowed himself to sink further back in the couch. He let the back of his neck rest on the cool leather cushion. His migraine was finally beginning to subside, if only a little. “I never expected everything in this business to run smooth, but I never expected it to be all so fucked up all the time.”

Roger got up from his chair and headed for the wet bar. “If you couldn’t take a joke, you shouldn’t have joined. Scotch?”

He wanted one. He needed one. But he needed a clear head more. “No thanks. I’m scheduled to get a briefing from Rahul on Shaban in a bit.”