More than his hesitation, the flush of his cheeks told me that Stella hadn’t been aware she was. Now wasn’t the time for me to get high and mighty about it. In fact, there’d never be a time for me to question Decker’s means or motives. I trusted him, and he’d kept me alive. Not just me, countless other agents. I would never doubt his intentions were for the greater good of just that—the good. Like everyone I’d worked with on the Invincibles’ team, I believed their agenda was the same as mine: to rid the world of as much of the evil we could as long as we walked the face of it.
What we heard was similar to what Burns had told us about Nicholas Kerr, except Stella’s conversation with him made chills run up and down my spine.
“Tiffany Joy, at last we meet.”
There was silence as if he was waiting for a response.
“So much like your aunt. You’re weak like she was. Your only power is in your pen. Otherwise, you are mute.”
“You didn’t know her very well, and you don’t know me at all.”
“Ah, she does have a voice, but where is the reporter, eh? Are you too afraid I’ll kill you to ask me any questions?”
“You’re going to kill me whether I ask or not, just like you did Barb and Nancy.”
“Yes, well, that is probably true.”
“Does your wife know you killed her aunt like you did mine?”
“She knows I had no choice.”
Stella continued to prod him. It was evident in the change in the tone of his voice that Kerr was getting angry.
“Your aunt believed she could take on the world, that once she exposed the corruption she thought she’d found, that would be the end of it. What she—and you—and people like Veronica Guerin failed to recognize was that it is the very corruption they railed against that keeps the world spinning. Bribes, power plays, deals negotiated in back alleys, that is how it really works. You see world leaders on television, shaking hands as they sign agreements, flashbulbs going off around them—all of that is for show. The real deals were made months, even years, before the stage is set for the public to see. In that time, those who threaten to tear down the carefully mastered plans of men like me, are eliminated.”
“Eliminated? As in agents around the world being assassinated?” Stella asked.
“You are so sure they were the good and I am evil. Your naivete is so common, so typical. Without men like me, you would be nothing.”
“Because I’m a woman?”
“Because you’re a stupid woman.”
God, it was amazing she didn’t pull out her gun and shoot him right then. I would’ve.
“You say that men like you are the real deal makers. Is that how you justify lining your pockets with millions of dollars? You say that all you do is for the greater good, but when your day of reckoning comes, you know as well as I do that you were nothing but a thief. A common criminal. A murderer who only ever knew how to steal, never how to earn your way in the world.”
“So like her,” he mumbled. I assumed he was talking about Stella’s aunt. His next words confirmed it.
“What Barb found was merely the tip of the iceberg. As if anyone in the world truly cares what goes on at Interpol. It serves merely as a clearinghouse for those of us in the intelligence business to burn evidence before it lands in the hands of someone like your aunt. Or you.”
“Are you saying Operation Argead goes beyond Interpol?”
Kerr’s laughter at Stella’s question could only be described as maniacal. “I’m saying that without the voluntary contributions that come through Interpol and countless other organizations like it, the intelligence community, even entire governments, would crumble with lack of funding. No, little girl, our reach is global. Even the most powerful countries—the United States, Russia, China—all rely on Argead. Without us, they would be nothing.”
“Sounds like you’ve let a little power go to your head. You can’t really believe that you and your little group of intelligence has-beens truly affect world governments.”
“As I anticipated, this is all too much for your small mind to comprehend. I’ve grown weary of your tedium. Hand over the evidence now so I don’t have to dirty my hands with your blood in order to retrieve it.”
We heard the sound of guns being fired in the background and then Stella say, “You know what? Fuck it,” followed by a close-range shot.
Decker hit a button on his laptop. “The rest is the team coming in, along with the aftermath, none of which provides information we don’t already have.”
Cope stood. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I need a drink.” He looked over at Ali. “Sorry, baby.”
“It’s okay,” she said, smiling. “I’ll get it. How many glasses?”
When Decker and I both nodded and thanked her, she brought a bottle and three glasses from the kitchen and set them on the table.
“I don’t know whether to have a shot because I need one after listening to Kerr’s diatribe or to toast the fact that we might, truly, be getting to the end of this,” said Cope.
“Both,” I responded.
Ali poured two fingers in each glass, and we downed it without a word. She refilled them, and Decker stood.
“I vote for three because I have to insert a toast of my own.”
We raised our glasses to his.
“Here’s to the two of you. Without your bravery, tenacity, resourcefulness, selflessness—I could go on and on—Kerr and everyone who came before or after, would continue.” He looked directly at me. “Irish, you have given your all more than anyone in this room. I only hope that someday everyone in the world will know what a true hero and patriot you are.”
I couldn’t fight the tears his words moved me to. Even after enduring so much hatred, it wasn’t easy to accept his praise.
“Thank you,” I said when my emotion eased enough for me to speak.
“Buck and Stella are in the air now,” said Decker, looking at his phone. “Our esteemed visitors should be arriving within a couple of hours as well. If you need some time, you’d be wise to take it now.”
I wasn’t sure if Decker was speaking to Cope and Ali or to me. Either way, that was my cue to head out.
“We’ll meet at fourteen hundred hours,” he added when I stood and picked up my laptop. “At the main house.”
“Roger that.”
The way Flynn left the other day had been weighing heavily on my mind and not because of anything she did. It was all me. She’d given me an innocent kiss on the cheek, and I’d behaved like it was a snake bite.
I was getting damn tired of not having a way to get around the ranch on my own. “What’s somebody gotta do to have access to a vehicle?”
“Here,” said Cope, tossing me a set of keys.
“Where are you off to?” asked Decker.
“You still my fucking nursemaid?”
Decker laughed. “No, I wanted a ride, asshole. But in the mood you’re in, I’d rather walk.”
“I’m going to the dining hall. Either get in the truck now, or figure it out on your own.”
“That’s what I like to see,” he said, walking past me and squeezing my shoulder. “Irish takin’ charge.”