by Matt Rogers
‘It’s a talent.’
‘Yes, it is. And if I sit around and do nothing, then it’s a talent that’s wasted. And it’s a talent that happens to be able to help almost anyone that’s stuck in a bad situation. That’s the best way I can break it down. When I sit down and try to concentrate on myself, and stay in one place for too long, I see people dying in my head, all across the country, all across the world. And I’m letting it happen by sitting still.’
‘You shouldn’t think that way.’
‘I shouldn’t have done a lot of things.’
‘Like rescue me?’
Slater looked at her. ‘No. That’s something I’ll never regret.’
‘Can you tell me where we’re going now?’
‘I can show you.’
He hit the brakes, and they screeched to a stop in a quiet Brooklyn residential neighbourhood, in front of a house with a neat manicured lawn and a white picket fence.
98
Slater put the car in park, and said, ‘Wait here.’
It was now mid-afternoon, and he made sure to sweep the street up and down with his gaze a couple of times before hobbling out of the driver’s seat. He touched down on the opposite kerb with his good foot, and used the fully automatic assault rifle on the centre console as a rudimentary walking stick.
Shien hissed, ‘Are you sure that’s a good idea?’
‘I don’t see any alternative,’ Slater said. ‘And I only need to make it to the front door.’
‘Let me help you.’
‘Wait here,’ he repeated. ‘There’s a conversation I need to have first.’
‘With who?’
‘Wait here.’
He hopped across the road, each step sending a bolt of agony through his right foot, even though it never touched the ground. He jammed the barrel of the HK416 against the asphalt and gripped the stock and made it to the other side of the street in a few massive leaps.
Bone-crushing agony came along with it.
What’s new? Slater thought.
He moved on autopilot. He thought on autopilot. There was little other choice. He’d been driving for nigh on eighteen hours straight, with a short pit stop in the Allagash Wilderness to take a bullet to his shoulder and get his foot mangled beyond all repair. Sleep deprived, drained of blood, with the broken bone and torn muscle in his foot grinding in place, he knew he belonged in the ICU.
But he had a job to do, and he was damned if he wasn’t going to see it through to the end.
He struggled up the short path to the front porch, head bowed, breathing hard.
He stopped a foot away from the stairs up to the landing, and regarded them with unashamed irritation.
There were only two steps, but he’d maxed out his energy reserves ten hours ago, and he was running on empty.
He sat down on the first step, slid the rifle out of sight underneath one of the deck chairs, and banged hard on the wood panelled floor of the porch.
Half a second later, the screen door burst open.
Frank Nazarian rushed out carrying a suitcase, with his wife and his daughter trailing along behind.
Slater said, ‘Going somewhere?’
99
Nazarian peered down at him, noting his sorry state. Then his eyes wandered to the rifle under the chair.
He said, ‘Slater, this is my wife Anastasia, and my daughter Abigail.’
They peered down at him too.
Slater said, ‘Pleasure to meet you both.’
He raised a hand to wave, before realising it was crusted in blood and dirt.
Then he sighed and slumped against the nearest post. He half-closed his eyes. He said, ‘Sorry everyone. It’s been a real long day.’
He tried to make out Anastasia and Abigail’s features, but he was seeing double. He managed to work out Anastasia had blonde hair, and Abigail had brown hair, and they were both regarding him like he was something that had come out of a swamp and dropped itself on their doorstep.
With abject disgust.
He couldn’t disagree with them.
He said, ‘How’s this for a first impression?’
He thought he saw Anastasia smile.
She said, ‘Thank you for what you did for my husband.’
‘He told you?’
‘I caught him with two unconscious men in his trunk. He had a lot of explaining to do.’
‘I take it that’s the first time that’s happened.’
‘Shame,’ Nazarian said. ‘I was thinking of making a hobby of it.’
‘Who the hell is he?’ Abigail whispered to her parents.
‘Put the bags in the car,’ Nazarian said. ‘I need to talk to him alone for a minute.’
‘Maybe a couple of minutes,’ Slater said.
‘Why?’
‘I have a proposal to make.’
100
Nazarian sat down on the step next to him, only a few inches away, but Slater needed him close, because now he could barely utter a word in anything above a whisper.
‘We need to take you to a hospital,’ the man said.
Slater shook his head slowly, eyes closed, a wry smile on his face. ‘That’s not a good idea right now.’
‘What did you do?’
‘A hell of a lot.’
‘Did the Whelans do this to you?’
Slater smacked his lips together, and squinted. ‘The Whelans…?’
‘I told you not to go after them.’
‘Oh,’ Slater said. ‘The Whelans.’
It seemed like months since he’d dealt with them. It hadn’t even happened twenty four hours ago.
‘You see,’ Nazarian hissed, low, under his breath, just in case Anastasia and Abigail could hear from their position, milling around the plain sedan in the driveway. ‘This is what I warned you about. You weren’t as tough as you thought you were, and now you show up on my doorstep like this at a time where my family are already scared half to death. Me included.’
‘Where are you three going?’
‘Anywhere. We’re getting off the grid for a couple of weeks. Maybe a month. In fact we might stay on the road. Sell the house. I’ve got enough tucked away to take care of us, and Abigail’s built up a small fortune herself, despite her age. I’m sure you can understand why she got a phone call telling her not to come back to work.’
‘When did she get that?’
‘Yesterday. Before you showed up.’
‘She can call back. She can get her job back. Just like that.’
‘If you’re going to sit there and feed me bullshit, you can go. I don’t care how hurt you are. I’ll send you away.’
‘But why?’
‘Stop talking crap.’
‘The Whelans didn’t do this to me,’ Slater said with a small smile. ‘You should pay them a visit and see how they’re healing up.’
‘Do you really believe your own delusions?’
‘I beat the shit out of every Whelan I got my hands on, and then I stirred up enough trouble and planted a certain name in enough places to draw an old colleague out of his covert lair, and then I took that same man all the way up the East Coast in one of the Whelans’ vehicles, and then I saved a little girl from the same program that man put your daughter in.’
Nazarian didn’t respond.
Slater said, ‘You think I made all that up?’
‘I don’t know what to think.’
‘She’s in the car.’
‘Who’s in the car? Which car?’
‘That one,’ Slater said, and pointed to the Land Cruiser across the street, but the windows were tinted to the maximum, and Shien appeared as nothing but a dark silhouette behind a dark sheet of glass. ‘She means everything to me.’
‘Who is she?’
‘The girl I tried to tell you about when I first visited you.’
‘I said I didn’t want to hear your reasons because I believed in you. I didn’t want you to bring your baggage here.’
‘She’s not my baggage.
’
‘I can’t take her.’
Slater waved a hand up and down, gesturing to his body. ‘This is my life, Frank. This is all I am. I destroyed the Whelans and I destroyed the Lynx program and now I’m going to heal up and go searching for the next thing.’
‘You don’t have to.’
‘I do.’
‘Why?’
‘I just had that conversation.’
‘With who?’
‘Shien.’
‘That’s her name?’
‘That’s her name.’
‘What’s she like?’
‘She’s the sweetest little girl you’ll ever meet.’
‘So do your job and raise her.’
‘I’m not fit to raise anyone.’
‘You could try.’
‘I’d fail. And not just that. I’d get her killed.’
‘You don’t know that.’
‘I do.’
‘Tell me about her.’
‘I pulled her out of a sex trafficking ring in Macau. In the depths of one of the largest casinos in the province.’
‘Jesus. Did they…?’
‘No. They’d only just taken her. But they were about to start preparing her for the industry. I got involved just in time.’
‘Does she know what would have happened to her if you didn’t save her?’
‘I don’t think so. And I’d like to keep it that way.’
‘What happened after that?’
‘I gave her to Russell Williams.’
Nazarian said nothing. There was nothing that needed to be said.
Slater said, ‘I didn’t know.’
‘I can’t see how you could have.’
‘I trusted him.’
‘So did I. Back when we were friends.’
‘I thought he would do right by her.’
‘And he didn’t?’
‘He sent her to North Maine.’
‘What’s in North Maine?’
‘A lodge.’
‘You’re not telling me much.’
‘Best we leave it to implode on its own.’
Silence.
Slater said, ‘It’s where your daughter grew up.’
Nazarian’s gaze drifted to the step between his feet. He picked at the wood with a nail, fighting back emotions Slater had no concept of. He couldn’t even begin to decipher the intricacies of a situation like this. So he sat back and let the pain wash over him and waited for a response.
Nazarian said, ‘Did you see her again?’
‘I did.’
‘How’s she doing?’
‘She tried to kill me.’
‘Jesus Christ. I’m so sorry.’
‘And then she changed her mind. I think it all hit her. And I mean all of it. I don’t know what triggered it. Maybe the doubt was already there. But something tipped her over the edge. She saved my life. Directly afterwards.’
‘Where is she now?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Does she want to see me?’
‘No.’
Nazarian broke his nail on the wooden step. Blood dripped from his finger. He stared at it absent-mindedly. Not really there. Somewhere far away. Thinking.
Slater said, ‘It’s not what you think.’
Now the tears came. Nazarian said, ‘I tried so hard to raise her. But I didn’t know how. I didn’t think I did that bad of a job…’
‘You didn’t. She recognises that. She’s ashamed — as far as I could tell. She said you might not want her back the way she is.’
‘That’s not true.’
‘It’s how she feels. It might be for the best.’
‘How dare you fucking—’
‘Frank,’ Slater said, his voice cold. ‘I don’t say that lightly.’
A pause.
A long pause.
Nazarian said, ‘What’s she like?’
‘She’s something else. A childhood like the one she had will do that.’
‘Does she have decency in her heart?’
‘I think her emotions aren’t anything we could conceive. I think her mind is a mess that’ll take her years to dissect.’
‘Do you think she’ll be able to do it?’
‘I’ve never met a stronger woman.’
‘You’re not just saying that?’
‘She’ll be okay. That’s my gut instinct. And I always go with my gut.’
‘I hope she finds me. I hope she finds us.’
‘She might. Some day. But it can’t be soon. She’s too volatile right now. Anyone would be, in her position.’
‘Maybe it’s best we’re hitting the road, then.’
‘You don’t have to. I was telling the truth about the Whelans. They won’t bother you anymore.’
‘What the hell did you do to them?’
‘What I do best.’
‘Was it enough?’
Slater recalled the punishment he’d dished out. ‘They won’t touch you. They’ll be too busy looking over their shoulders for the rest of their lives.’
‘Why did you do it?’
‘To get to Williams.’
‘I see.’
‘But I probably would have done it anyway. For you.’
‘You mean that?’
‘I only say things I mean.’
‘But, I mean, truly?’
‘Truly.’
‘You saved my life when you showed up at my door yesterday.’
‘I know.’
‘I’ll take the girl.’
‘Don’t do it for me,’ Slater said. ‘And don’t you dare put a half-hearted effort into it.’
‘I would never.’
‘I’ve done this once before, and I fucked it up about as bad as anyone can fuck anything up. I couldn’t stand to make the same mistake twice.’
‘Do I look like Russell Williams?’
‘No. You don’t.’
‘What happened to him, if I might ask?’
Slater recalled the glimpse of Ruby in the woods.
‘I don’t know,’ he said.
‘Is that the truth?’
‘If I had to guess, I’d say he’s dead.’
‘But you can’t be sure?’
‘I left him in the hands of your daughter.’
‘Right.’
‘This must be a lot to deal with.’
‘I’ve had a strange life for as long as I can remember. I’ll cope.’
‘If your daughter doesn’t end the program, I’ll make sure to.’
‘How?’
‘I know things.’
‘They’d better be relevant.’
‘They will be.’
‘And then what?’
‘And then nothing. I go back to being a ghost. The U.S. government wants my head. I’ll run into trouble until it kills me. Same old stuff.’
‘Sounds grim.’
‘It’s my life.’
‘Do you enjoy your life?’
‘Enjoy isn’t the right word.’
‘Do you find meaning in it?’
‘More than you could imagine.’
‘Then keep doing what you’re doing. Tell me more about the girl.’
‘Her name’s Shien. She doesn’t know her mother. Her father’s dead. She was put through a situation in Macau she should have never been a part of. She’s seen things she never should have seen. She deserves a normal life with a normal family.’
‘I wouldn’t class us as normal.’
Slater turned his gaze to Abigail, and then to Anastasia, and then to Frank.
‘You’re kind people,’ he said.
‘We try to be.’
‘You’re a tight-knit family.’
‘We try to be.’
‘You’d love her and care for her like a daughter.’
‘We’d try to.’
‘Then that’s probably the closest thing to normal she’s ever experienced.’
‘Is she okay with this?’
‘She knows it’s the only wa
y.’
‘Does she know who you are? Deep down inside?’
‘All the way through to the core. I told her. On the way here.’
‘Does she like it?’
‘She doesn’t like it. She accepts it.’
‘Will the government be looking for her?’
‘She was already off-the-record. Ruby will take care of the remnants of what’s left in North Maine. And like I said, if she doesn’t, I will.’
‘She might not want to talk to you again.’
‘She said she can’t see me again. If I do this.’
‘And you’re still okay with giving her away?’
‘This isn’t a fairytale. I can’t do it all. I couldn’t even come close. My life is such a trainwreck, it’s almost laughable. But you’re a good man. You have a good family. You had a daughter you didn’t get along with — but I’d say that’s the same in almost every household in the United States. I’d wager a bet most kids run away, too. Even if it’s only for an hour. We’ve all spat the dummy in our childhood. Neither you or I have any idea how manipulative Williams was. It’s possible he picked her up within minutes of her storming out. We’ll never know for sure. But you should never blame yourself for that. You befriended a manipulator, and you paid for it through no fault of your own. I know who you are. You raised a beautiful, successful daughter in Abigail, and you would have done the same with Ruby if she hadn’t been thrust into a world she knew nothing about against her own free will. Now you and Anastasia can do what you know how to do. You can raise an amazing kid. But not with Ruby. With Shien. You lost a girl to Lynx, and you gained one too. Think of it as poetic.’
‘What about school? What about…?’
‘Frank,’ Slater muttered. ‘I’d love to sit and chat about the administrative details, but I need a firm yes or no answer. Because right now my situation is dire. To put it mildly. I’ll have the whole government on my heels for a while at least, and I need to lay low and recuperate.’
‘Holy shit,’ Nazarian whispered. ‘Your foot.’
‘You just noticed?’
‘It’s a swollen pumpkin.’
‘It’s even worse on the inside, trust me.’
‘How are you going to fix that yourself?’
‘I’m not. I’m a man of improvisation.’
‘What does that mean?’
‘It means I’ll probably catch a doctor walking out of a hospital after his shift is over and offer him five grand to patch me back up with the best medical instruments and painkillers on offer. Off the record, of course.’
