Читать книгу Top Hook - Gordon Kent, Gordon Kent - Страница 34

While Alan Craik was dealing with Soleck, and Emma Pasternak was talking to her investigator, Mike Dukas was having an outdoor meeting with Harry O’Neill at the Metro Center subway entrance. Without shaking hands, he said, “Sorry to interrupt your day, Harry.” He hadn’t explained anything on the telephone.

“Make it quick, m’man, I got a meeting with some rich Arabs.”

“This isn’t about Rose. Something else has come up. I want you to cover for Al Craik on a meeting with a contact.”

O’Neill smiled. “I only do that stuff for money now, Mike.”

Dukas dug out a crumpled dollar bill and held it out. “I need somebody to cover your best friend.”

“Mike, you’ve got an entire organization behind you!”

“And no budget, and, more to the point, no faith that I can keep it just between some stranger and me and not have it wander off to ONI or, God help us, the Agency.” He hunched his shoulders. “Why do you think we’re meeting out here like a couple of spooks, for Christ’s sake?” He sketched out what had happened to Alan in Trieste, then said that the woman wanted a second meeting in Naples. “Naples NCIS is strung out to begin with, and with his carrier in port, they’ll be running around like jumping beans. You know how to do it. You’re available.”

“Mike, I’m a CEO.”

“Nobody’s perfect. Come on, he saved your life!”

O’Neill looked at the dollar bill, still in Dukas’s hand. “The pay isn’t very good.”

“It isn’t pay; it’s an honorarium.”

O’Neill laughed. He curled Dukas’s fingers back around the bill. “My contribution to the NCIS coffee fund. What do you want me to do?”

Dukas laid it out—finding a route in Naples, arranging the meeting, looking for counter-surveillance and bad guys.

O’Neill glanced at his watch. “But make it clear I’m a contract employee, right? Fax me a contract in Nairobi; I want cover if it goes bad.” He held out his hand. “Only for Alan and Rose, man.” He strode away.