Divine Justice Read Online Free PDF Page A

to say. As my colleague here mentioned, there’s a split decision about that in the corridors that matter.”
    “So where does that leave me?”
    “Treading cautiously, Knox, treading very damn cautiously.” He tapped the box. “I was able to collect some things that I’ve placed in here. Including a few off-the-record items.”
    “You mean things that technically I’m not supposed to be privy to?” Knox was now missing his book and cozy town house even more.
    “We’ll just assume that’s the case.”
    “I’m not looking to take a slug in the back of my head over this.”
    “I would add that neither am I.”
    “That doesn’t give me a lot of comfort, sir, because if
you’re
watching your back, I’m probably already dead.”
    “I want you to read everything, leave here, go home and think. Then call me.”
    “With questions or answers?”
    “I would hope both.”
    “The guy’s probably long gone by now.”
Real pros exit as well as they kill
.
    Hayes lightly tapped the tabletop with his long, bony fingers. To Knox they looked like miniature Medusas in the dim light. “Perhaps.”
    “Look, I can spin my wheels and report back zip. You tell me the parameters, General. I’ve played this game too long to get the rookie runaround.”
    Hayes rose, as did his companion; the master and his puppet. “Read, think, call. Good night, Knox. And best of luck.”
    Knox glared after the pair until they disappeared down the hall, the aircraft carrier and its faithful destroyer chugging through the storm-tossed seas of American intelligence. He lifted the lid of the box, pulled out a fistful of documents and started to read.
    Best of luck said the cobra before it struck.
    These were precisely the sorts of days where Knox wished he’d followed his old man into the plumbing business.

CHAPTER 6
    S TONE’S BRIEF SLEEP was suddenly disturbed by what sounded very much like a fight. He blinked awake and looked around. The woman next to him was comforting her crying baby. Stone stared over several rows of seats at the cause of the ruckus.
    It looked to be three against one, all in their twenties, where the testosterone surge frequently overrode all safety valves. Two held one while the third pounded away. Some of the passengers were making halfhearted calls for the men to stop, but no one had climbed from their seats to really do anything. Stone looked around for the conductor but didn’t see anyone in uniform.
    The kid being held was the one Stone had seen before, the former high school quarterback who held an angry chit against the world. His handsome face was taking another right cross to his already swollen left cheek. Blood ran down his nose as he struggled to free himself. He kicked and spit and lunged, but couldn’t break loose as the third fellow laughed and landed a kick to the gut that doubled over Mr. Quarterback.
    Okay, that’s enough.
    Stone sprang up from his seat, and when the hitter swung back to let fly with another blow, he grabbed the fist and pulled hard, almost knocking the fellow off his feet. He jerked around and stared at Stone, his anger dissolving to amusement.
    The kid was at least five inches shorter than the six-two Stone, but nearly forty years younger and fifty pounds heavier.
    “You want some of it, old man?” the kid mocked, raising his fists. “You want some of this?” He danced and juked around, his belly jiggling, his meaty arms flapping and the bling on them jingling. It was all Stone could do to keep from laughing.
    “Just let him go and we call it square.”
    “He’s a card cheater!” yelled one of the other punks as he gripped the quarterback’s hair and ripped his head upward. “He cheated at poker.”
    “And I think you taught him a real tough lesson. So why don’t you let him go.”
    “Who the hell are you giving orders?” the beefy kid with the cocked fists said.
    “Let’s just call it a day, fellows. You made your point. He’s banged up pretty