A Murder of Crows (41 page)

He smiled. “Who said anything about you being there?”

Her expression confirmed it, but she covered up fast. “Enough of your games. I want you out of here. Now.”

But Hicks didn’t move. Neither did his Ruger. “I know a few dozen people who could’ve made such a shot from that distance in that kind of wind, but none of them would’ve gone for a headshot. Not in those conditions. I only know one sniper with the guts and the skill to put a bullet through someone’s temple in swirling wind at over a hundred yards. The same person who could have figured out a way to jam our connection to OMNI and remove the black box from an SUV to keep us from tracking it. The same person who had the motive to do any of this in the first place. You.”

“Are you drunk again?” She readjusted her grip on the Glock. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about and neither do you. You should leave now while you still can.”

But Hicks still didn’t move. “You’re one of the best liars I’ve ever worked with, my love, but you could never lie to me. I could never lie to you, either, which is what caused this mess, didn’t it? Maybe that’s why we’ve always been able to trust each other. Until today.”

“We trusted each other until you killed Bajjah to prevent me from questioning him.” Her voice cracked. “You broke our arrangement, James, not me.”

“So you retaliated by killing Jabbar in a crowded area? You didn’t even give me a chance to fully debrief her before you blew her away.” He decided telling her about Jabbar’s overdose was pointless.

“Jabbar was the Mossad’s top target of opportunity for over a decade. I was able to read her lips through my scope. When I saw she’d confirmed she was Jabbar, I was ordered to fire. I waited as long as I could, but…”

“I was standing less than a foot from her. In those conditions, you could’ve killed me instead of her.”

“I
was
supposed to kill you, too!” Her hand began to shake as tears came to her eyes. She lowered her weapon and sank back against the wall. “Schneider wanted you both taken out, but I couldn’t do it. Not to you. Not when I had to.”

Hicks had rarely seen any honest emotion from Tali, if he’d ever seen any at all even in their lovemaking. She had been trained to mask her emotions by some of the best professional manipulators in the world. But there was something in her manner that rang true. After all, he was still alive. “How did you find me?”

“We aren’t exactly amateurs, James. Schneider knew you were up to something, so he had people at all of the airports in the area. When a plane we suspected the University had used in the past had returned from London and was preparing to take off again, Schneider ordered us to track you as well. We didn’t know where you were heading, but Schneider found out how much fuel your plane had taken on. He put people on alert at all the airports within range, including at Pearson. When we tracked you and Roger to the plane, we took off from the same airport in our own plane right after you.”

She wiped away a tear. “It was surreal, like a slow motion car chase in the sky. Our people in Toronto tracked your SUV once you landed. We followed you and I got into position.”

Hicks had always had a blind spot when it came to Tali, but he cursed himself for being so careless. And recently, he had been too busy worrying about Stephens to consider the aggression of the Mossad. He should have known Schneider would never take a back seat, not with Jabbar in the picture. He should have had Scott’s Varsity squad watching Schneider, but he hadn’t. Finch and Jabbar had been his priorities. And now Jabbar was dead.

But there wasn’t much he could do about the past. “You jammed OMNI. You gave Schneider your handheld, didn’t you?”

“He took it from me, damn you. The technicians he’d brought with him from Tel Aviv figured out a way to jam the signal locally from the SUV. They tried to access the broader network, but couldn’t seem to do it.”

Hicks’ hand began to shake as sweat broke on his brow. “You gave them OMNI, Tali. OMNI is the only advantage the University has. Without it, we don’t stand a chance against the other agencies.”

“Tel Aviv doesn’t have it yet,” she said. “They were only able to block the frequency locally using my handheld. They ghosted my phone and gave the original back to me.”

He knew the answer to the next question, but he still had to ask it. He needed to hear the answer from her. “But they intend on working on accessing OMNI as soon as they get back home, don’t they?”

Another set of tears streaked down her cheek. “They said they would. I don’t know how successful they’ll be.” She blinked and more tears came. “I’m sorry, James. But I didn’t have a choice. He ordered me to give him the phone. He…”

Hicks didn’t allow himself anger. Anger was almost as useless an emotion as regret and led to mistakes. He removed himself from the equation and focused on the matter at hand.

The Mossad had tried to kill a Faculty Member of the University. The only thing that mattered now was information. “Did Schneider order me dead or did it come from Tel Aviv?”

“Tel Aviv never would have authorized a hit on a senior foreign agent, especially an ally. Especially the Dean of the University. Killing you was Schneider’s decision. He said we could no longer trust you after the Bajjah incident. Since the Americans were already hunting you, he planned on using your death and Jabbar’s death to help him gain more influence with the other agencies. He said your death would demonstrate how the Mossad would respond to University treachery in the future.”

Hicks knew the answer to the next couple of questions, but he wanted to see how Tali answered it.

Her life depended on how she answered. “Where is Schneider now?”

“Flying back to Tel Aviv. He has already called for an emergency meeting with the director of the Mossad and the prime minister tomorrow morning. He’s going to brief them on today’s operation and the OMNI technology. He practically had to stake his entire reputation on getting all of them to clear their calendars.”

From what OMNI had intercepted, he knew she was telling the truth. Second question: “He sent a report in advance?”

“No. He was afraid you could intercept an email and he didn’t want you to know what he was up to.”

“But you’re telling me anyway.”

“Schneider and his team are already on his private jet back to Israel. What can you do to him now?”

“You’d be surprised.”

He kept the Ruger aimed at her as he stood. OMNI had already supported everything Tali had told him. He knew she was being truthful. He had already decided not to kill her, but there was no reason she needed to know that yet. “But you’ve got bigger worries than Schneider, Tali.”

More tears ran down her cheeks. “I know what I’ve done and what I haven’t done.” She tossed her pistol onto the overstuffed chair facing the couch. “I’ve always been loyal to you and the Mossad and the University. I’m not ashamed of it and I don’t want to die, but I won’t beg you for my life, either.”

He slowly walked toward her. “You gave them OMNI,” he said. “You betrayed our entire system when you let Schneider’s men have your handheld. You betrayed me and every member of the University.”

“The technicians took my handheld and figured out how it worked,” she said. “It’s not the same thing as giving it to them and you know it.”

“It is to me. And to the hundreds of other people you put at risk.”

She flinched when he thumbed the hammer of the Ruger. Not to cock it, but to release it.

But she hadn’t seen it. Her eyes had been closed and she swallowed hard. “I’m pregnant.”

Hicks stopped. “I thought you said you weren’t going to beg for your life. That’s a pretty cheap lie to tell...”

“I’m not lying and I’m not begging, damn it. I’m telling you what I know is true. I’m pregnant and it’s yours.”

He was beginning to reconsider his decision not to kill her. Trying to manipulate him like this was low. “It was only a couple of days ago. There’s no way you could know so soon.”

“But I do know,” she told him, “and so do you. This time was different than all the other times we were together. Something happened this time. Something special. I know my body and I know something is different now. So shoot me if you want to, but make damned sure you know what you’re doing because it won’t only be me who dies today.”

He hadn’t expected her to act like this. She was a trained assassin. He had expected her to go for his gun or put up some kind of a fight. He hadn’t expected her to pull such a flimsy stunt to save her life.

A flimsy excuse strong enough to work. “The Mossad trained you real well, didn’t they?”

“This isn’t about my training. This is about what we created together. We have the chance to have something beyond all of the deception and the double-talk and the treachery and the lies. Something new and pure and closer to perfect than either of us deserve. If you don’t believe me, put the barrel against my temple and squeeze the trigger because I don’t want to live in a world where such things are impossible. And I wouldn’t want our baby to live in it, either.”

Hicks hadn’t intended on killing her. He had intended on turning her. He wanted to get her to finally cut ties with the Mossad and work exclusively for the University. She was too good to kill and too competent to allow to work for anyone else. And he knew he’d need her help to face the enemies he’d found on Jabbar’s computer.

He had hoped her gratitude for his sparing her life would have been enough to win her over.

But he hadn’t expected this. He hadn’t expected so much truth.

He hadn’t expected her to tell him she was carrying their child. He hadn’t expected life to come from so much death.

Hicks tucked the Ruger back into his shoulder holster.

She sagged and her voice trembled. “Okay. Okay.”

“I’m going to let you live, but it’s not because you’re telling me you’re pregnant. Maybe you are and maybe you’re not. I’ll find out for sure in time and deal with it then. But Jabbar gave me some information today.”

The spy in her returned as she wiped the remains of tears from her eyes. “Information? What kind of information?”

“The kind that changes things. The kind we’ve got to move on now. But, from now on, you don’t work for Schneider anymore. You don’t work for the Mossad. You’re no longer attached to anyone out of Tel Aviv. You don’t work for anyone but me and your loyalty is to the University. Are we clear?”

She threw her arms around his waist and laid her head against his chest. “Yes, of course, darling, but they won’t like it, James. The Mossad, Schneider will never…”

“It’s already been taken care of. And Schneider won’t have anything to say about this or anything else ever again.”

She eased away as she looked up into his eyes. “I know that look.” She stiffened as she pulled away from him. “My God, James. What have you done?”

He decided she wasn’t beautiful, but something close to it. She didn’t flinch when he caressed her cheek with the side of his hand. “You’ve got more important things to worry about. I’ll have another handheld delivered to you with in a couple of hours. In the meantime, I need to pack up and be ready to move as soon as possible. Take only what you need because you can’t stay here anymore. It’s not safe.”

She took his hands and slowly lowered them from her face. She wasn’t Agent Saddon of the Mossad any longer. She was Tali. “But why?”

He looked at her television. “You’ll see.”

O
N THE
cab ride back to Twenty-Third Street, Hicks’ handheld buzzed. He could tell it wasn’t a secure transmission by the pattern of the vibration. It was a Breaking News alert from one of the many civilian news apps he had installed on the device. He already knew what the alert would say. Scott had always been an artist with explosives.

He checked the alert anyway.

BREAKING NEWS

A private jet has exploded over the Atlantic Ocean shortly after takeoff from Floyd Bennett Air Field this evening. Details are still coming in, but we now know the jet was scheduled to arrive in London before going on to Tel Aviv for the second leg of its flight. NTSB officials say a joint rescue effort from the US Navy and the US Coast Guard is currently underway. There is currently no information on how many people were on board or if this was an act of terrorism. More details as they become available.

Hicks knew there wouldn’t be more details. There may be a quick mention of the incident in the next day’s paper, along with the unfortunate shooting at the CN Tower in Toronto. No suspects would be named and no motives would be given in either instance. With the exception of a few conspiracy bloggers, no one would attempt to link the shootings in London and the killing in Toronto or the private plane crash in the Atlantic.

The dead in all of those incidences would be forgotten by all but a select few people. People like Hicks.

In several months, the NTSB would quietly issue a final report that would include whatever the NSA and the Mossad agreed upon. There would be no mention of Schneider or the Mossad or of OMNI or of Jabbar. There would be inquires within the intelligence community, of course, but Hicks could manage the process from the shadows.

The Mossad wouldn’t miss the unpopular Schneider. They’d be too busy enjoying the new notch on their belt—the execution of Israel’s most wanted terrorist by a loyal Mossad agent. There was no reason to mar such a victory by emphasizing the death of a minor intelligence official. If anything, they’d turn him into a hero, not a reason for revenge.