Nobody’s Hero (Ben Koenig #2)

Chapter 53

Outside Carlyle’s cottage, a gull screamed. Something else howled. Sounded like a wolf but probably wasn’t. Some corduroy-wearing conservationists had proposed reintroducing wolves to Scotland but had been told to hightail it back to England, where that kind of bullshit was tolerated.

Inside, Draper said, ‘I think it’s time you told us exactly what the Acacia Avenue Protocol is. Let us get the information to the right people.’

Koenig said nothing. Carlyle said nothing. Margaret smiled and poured everyone more tea. The pot must have been bottomless.

‘A burden shared?’ Carlyle said.

‘We can help,’ Draper said. ‘I hate Koenig, but the asshole does have skills. I’m the CEO of a private intelligence company. We’re here on behalf of the Defense Intelligence Agency. You’re not on your own any more.’

‘Oh, but she is,’ Margaret said. ‘She’s been on her own since Mr Koenig shot her. She won’t tell you what the protocol is. She won’t even tell me, and I was part of it.’

‘We’ll park that for now,’ Draper said. ‘You say someone else knows about the protocol, that they’ve initiated it?’

‘I do,’ Carlyle confirmed.

‘Yet I was briefed about current threats before we left the US. The alert level hasn’t been elevated. The official line is that the DIA has no intelligence.’

‘On that we’re in complete agreement,’ Koenig said. ‘We should get T-shirts printed.’

Draper shot him a glance. Carlyle smiled politely.

Margaret said, ‘Well, this is awkward.’ She snapped a custard cream in half and popped a piece into her mouth. She chewed noisily, in that uninhibited way only people who didn’t care what others thought could pull off. Koenig wondered if she’d always been like that, or if her terminal illness made not giving a rat’s ass easier. She dabbed at her lips with a paper napkin, blew her nose on it, then said, ‘You have to give them something, Elizabeth. Enough for context. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. Tell them about the people who attended the think tank.’

‘Naming them is the same as naming their areas of expertise,’ Carlyle said.

‘No offence to Jennifer and Benjamin,’ Margaret said, ‘but I don’t think the world will end because they know you brought in an expert in Oriental studies.’

‘Fine,’ Carlyle sighed. ‘We’ll start with Stephen. He was one of the academics I invited. He’s a tenured history professor. His field of expertise is the Ottoman Empire.’

Koenig glanced at Draper, confused. He hadn’t expected that. The Ottoman Empire’s decline began in the sixteenth century, two full centuries before the United States even existed.

‘What about Stephen?’ he asked.

‘He’s missing,’ she replied. ‘They’re all missing.’