EPILOGUE
THREE DAYS LATER.
CIA HEADQUARTERS.
LANGLEY, VIRGINIA.
“Love what you’ve done with the place, Martin.”
CIA Director Martin Kaiser glanced up from his laptop as John Benson strolled into the office with a crooked grin on his face and a surprising spring to his step. “What happened to your cane?” Kaiser asked.
Benson parked his butt in a straight-backed chair facing Kaiser’s desk, crossed one leg over the other knee, carefully plucked a speck of lint from his tailored charcoal wool trousers. “What happened to that picture of you and Alice and your adopted twins?”
Kaiser flicked his gaze to the empty shelf along the side wall, then shrugged. “It invites more questions than I care to answer.” He closed his laptop screen, tented his fingers in Benson’s direction. “Speaking of questions, do you care to answer any of mine?”
Benson grinned. “Plausible deniability works best when you don’t ask too many questions. Come on, Martin. We’re going to be regular guests at the White House a year from now. We’re almost politicians now, old buddy.”
Kaiser chuckled. “I’ve been a regular guest at the White House for over a decade, John. CIA Director has a daily standing meeting with the President every morning.”
“Even Christmas morning?”
“Especially Christmas morning.” Kaiser’s phone beeped on the desk. He glanced at it, swiped the screen, then turned his attention back to Benson. “Speaking of which, you have plans for Christmas? It’s next week, in case you aren’t plugged into the regular cycles of day-night that we Earthlings like to follow.”
Benson laughed, then raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Are you inviting me over for Christmas?”
Kaiser grunted. “Thank Alice, not me. I see too much of you as it is.” He sighed. “Alice asked because Nancy’s coming over too. And that new addition to your merry band of Darkwater damsels. Kay, I believe her name is?”
Benson stiffened in his chair. He’d been busy with the Darkwater men cleaning up the mess at Darkwater HQ the past three days, hadn’t gotten a chance to catch up with Nancy. Benson did know that Nancy had taken Kay to a private hospital, then to her own home in the DC area. Benson didn’t want Kay out there on her own just yet. He still hadn’t decided how best to use Kay Steffen.
And so Nancy shouldn’t be getting too friendly with the former prosecutor. Shit. That would complicate things.
Because it was looking very likely that Kay Steffen would not survive the next mission.
“Kay Steffen was a U.S. Attorney.” Kaiser was studying Benson’s expression. The CIA Director might have spent the past decade behind a desk, but Kaiser hadn’t lost his edge, was always on his game—especially when it came to his old buddy John Benson. “But she’s been linked to Romeo Carmine the past seven years. What’s the play on this, John?”
Benson shrugged, said nothing.
Kaiser’s jaw tightened. Benson knew the wheels were turning behind Kaiser’s sharp gaze. But Benson also knew that Kaiser was going to keep his distance from Benson and Darkwater now that it was almost Election Year.
And keeping his distance meant not asking too many questions.
It also meant that Kaiser was uncomfortable with Nancy Sullivan brining Kay Steffen to his home for Christmas.
And that in turn meant Benson better fucking show up to make sure nobody said things that couldn’t be unsaid.
“All right, look, John, I don’t want to ask questions whose answers are going to piss me off, so I’ll shut the hell up and hope you can steer your Darkwater ship clear of any rocks for at least the coming year.” Kaiser drummed his fingertips on the tabletop. It was the only lingering sign that Kaiser had been a chain-smoker for decades. He’d quit cold-turkey less than a year ago—the day after he and Alice had brought Fay’s dead sister’s twins into their home and become adoptive parents. “But Alice is close to both Nancy and Fay, so I get more Darkwater news than I care to know.” He sighed, shook his head, then chuckled. “Jack and Jill? Really?”
“Hey, you named your kids Adam and Eve.” Benson grinned, then lost the smile when he saw Kaiser’s face darken. “How are the twins, by the way?” Benson asked hurriedly, trying to move the conversation along from Jack and Jill.
But it was too late.
Kaiser was already thinking ahead.
About what comes next after Jack and Jill came tumbling down the hill to their happily ever after.
“Kay. Kay Steffen. Kay-with-a-K Steffen.” Kaiser shook his head, rubbed his eyes, looked at Benson with a mix of resignation and worry. “You just can’t stop yourself, can you, John? That’s your play here. You’ve dragged Kay into this because you think her name is a sign from the universe that she’s next.” Kaiser ran his fingers through his graying hair, took off his glasses, glancing thoughtfully up at the ceiling for a moment before narrowing his gaze at Benson. “You’ve got that guy Keller on your team now, don’t you, John? Keller the Killer. He did well for us as a CIA cleaner. But he’s wired differently from the rest of your guys. There’s something very cold about him—and that means something coming from a snake like me.” Kaiser shook his head grimly. “Hope you know what you’re doing, John.” Then he snorted. “Wait, who am I kidding. You have no fucking idea what you’re doing.” Kaiser’s phone beeped again. He reached for it, swiping at the screen, sighing, then snatching it up.
“All right, that’s my cue to exit stage left.” Benson smiled, glad to be excused from having a conversation he didn’t want to have. He stood up to go. “See you at the house on Christmas, Martin. Should I bring something? I’ll bring something.”
Kaiser groaned. “Don’t bring anything. It’ll mess up Alice’s carefully curated menu. She’s very particular about Christmas dinner. She likes everything to be lined up perfectly, matched exactly right.”
“Lovely. So do I.” Benson strode to the door, pulled it open, glanced back over his shoulder at Kaiser. “That’s why I’m bringing Keller the Killer to Christmas dinner. Tell Alice to seat him next to Kay.”
Benson slipped out the door and pulled it closed before Kaiser’s protest made it out into the hallway. He strolled down the shadowy halls of CIA headquarters, picked up his Darkwater phone and personal weapon from the security desk, then stepped out into the cold December evening.
It was snowing, white flurries drifting down from the sky, softly dusting his charcoal jacket as Benson made his way to the visitor’s parking lot, got into his new Ford Crown Victoria—gray just like the one he’d lost in that explosion two months ago.
An explosion whose reverberations still echoed through the sphere of events, reminding Benson that things with Darkwater weren’t so simple anymore, each mission raising more questions than it answered.
Would putting Keller and Kay in the same room, across the Christmas table from each other, answer some of those questions?
We”ll find out soon enough, Benson thought. It”s almost Christmas.
But just to make sure, as he circled his Ford Crown Victoria around the rotunda and headed for the exit, the snow feathering his windshield like an angel grooming its wings above him, Benson checked the date on his phone.
Because the truth was, he did lose track of the silly numbering of days, that curious habit where humans pretended like time was sequential instead of circular.
Circular but not the same.
Just like his favorite game.
The game of man and woman.
The game of love.
∞
Thank you for reading.
KILLING KAYis next.
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