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Nolan interrupted with a smile that seemed more rictus. He lifted his hand toward Caine-who had the fleeting impression that the redoubtable warrior and canny...
Caine reached up with his right hand, intercepted and held Nolan's faltering one in a firm, and he hoped soothing, grip. "We-I'm here," he said.
Nolan's eyes roved, then closed. He smiled faintly, nodded, tried to breathe, seemed unable to do more than gasp in a shallow breath. With which he said, "Tre...
The hand Caine was holding went limp. Nolan's body was still; there was no sign of respiration. The surrounding din of frenetic activity either stopped or Cai...
Caine choked back nausea, surprised by the rush of emotion that went through him: Why Nolan? Why now? Why not Downing, that bastard? Nolan-liked me. In a worl...
The circle around Caine and Nolan had grown still. Somewhere, beyond the ring of witnesses who would soon be mourners, clipped, urgent orders were being given...
Caine looked at the surrounding faces without seeing them. "He's gone."
He laid Nolan's hand down, and withdrew his own.
CIRCE
He withdrew his two fingers from the box, closed it, caught it up and dropped it in the open container of acid. A gout of steamy, acrid vapor shot straight up, ...
Using the two fingers that had been in the box-which were now mottled red, as if they had been scalded-he produced a final olive from his shirt pocket and pop...
His other hand had already uncoupled the binoculars from the tripod. Carefully, leaning away from the container, he dumped these two components-one after the ...
He turned and headed for the stairway that led down and out of the duplex.
MENTOR
The rough stairs that led down and away from the Temple of Poseidon were a writhing Brueghel tapestry of chaos, panic, and counterproductive activity. Emergency...
Downing looked at Nolan and couldn't move, could only think: How could this happen, here, now? Nolan, this was your triumph. This was what you had lived for a...
"Downing."
Richard looked up, hearing hostility in the tone. Caine was facing him across Nolan's body. But Riordan must have seen something in Richard's face, because hi...
"Yes?"
"This may not be a simple heart attack. But either way-orders?"
At first, Downing didn't understand. Then he realized that Riordan was already thinking again: Nolan's death needed investigating-and quickly. And then the re...
Whether he liked it or not.
Chapter Twenty-Six
MENTOR
The tilt-rotor banked steeply as it angled toward the city center vertipad. Downing turned his head, caught a glimpse of the Reflecting Pool as it swept behind ...
But like a monarch dying intestate, Nolan had left behind no definitive instructions as to how, and by whom, succession was to be effected. It was possible, e...
Downing started: he wasn't sure whether it was at the slightly off-center landing of the tilt-rotor, or at his own cynicism. Good grief, man, you've worked wi...
And having Caine go missing a day ago had not helped matters. No word from Opal either. Some covert bodyguard she's turned out to be.
But that was unfair and he knew it: there had never been enough time to do more than assign her and clean up after the ambush in Greece. And less than twenty-...
Downing grimaced as he unfolded from the narrow seat of the cramped commuter craft. As it turned out, advance planning would have been a waste of time, becaus...
Downing exited the aircraft into the bright sun and cool air of DC in April and experienced a surge of anxiety that he imagined was indeed akin to those felt ...
As I do now, Richard thought, glancing at the Capitol dome as he walked to the black sedan waiting discreetly beyond the edge of the tarmac.
* * *
The traffic was moderate but progress was fitful, sudden rushes of speed alternating with a bumper-to-bumper crawl. Unpredictable and unsettling-just like the...
Downing willed that thought to die, but another-just as troubling-rose to take its place: Trevor, arriving at Dulles, would be joining him at Tarasenko's offi...
But the eldest child, Elena, was the wild card. Her father's daughter in almost every way, Downing was certain of only one thing: she would be devastated, no ...
"Mr. Downing, we're here."
Downing sighed, looked up at the Capitol Building. An hour from now, he'd know the fate in store for IRIS-and himself. A part of him wanted to stay in the car...
Right: none of that, now. Downing forced himself to exit the vehicle briskly, waved the driver on, went up the steps two risers at a time. He kept up that pac...
"Has he been waiting long?"
"Not quite a minute."
"Thank you, Daniel."
"My pleasure. Go right in."
Downing did, willing himself through the doorway that would put him on his future path as well as bring him face to face with Arvid Tarasenko-
-who was staring at him as he entered. The senator was sporting a small smile, half-reclined behind his desk, hands folded over a midriff that had, in the las...
"Thank you, I-" Wait: 'us'? Richard looked, saw that the chair in the room's right-hand corner was occupied.
Caine. Smiling. Or, more accurately, with teeth bared. "Hello, Richard," he said.
"Hello, and-and I'm damned glad to see you. But why didn't you tell me where you were going? I had no idea-"
"I think that was the idea, Richard." Tarasenko smiled, a bit ruefully: "Unless I'm quite wrong, you were not supposed to have any idea where Mr. Riordan was ...