The Ascendant: A Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page A

the entire bar was in motion, some people running for the exits, others trying to get a better view. A few girls were shrieking as Mitty rumbled across the room to get a couple of licks in—she never missed a chance to throw a punch—but she was too late, because the hedgies were down for the count and Garrett was already out the door and onto the street, looking for an alley to sprint down and resigning himself to the fact that he was going to sleep alone tonight.
    Garrett ran for three blocks, due east, figuring the hedgies would never find him, then slowed for half a block and vomited into a trash can. He wiped his mouth clean, still tasting the hot dog he’d had for lunch but feeling better, and was cutting across Tompkins Square Park when out of the corner of his eye he saw someone following him, about a hundred yards away. He hurried across the park without looking back, then tucked around the corner of a building on Avenue B and Tenth. He waited, thirty seconds at most, then jumped out as the person who was following him turned the corner. He grinned. “Couldn’t stay away, could you?”
    It was the girl from the bar.

5
LOWER EAST SIDE, MANHATTAN, MARCH 24, 11:01 PM
    G arrett ordered two coffees, a plate of fries, and a bowl of avgolemono soup. “Two spoons for the soup,” he told the waitress at the Greek diner. “The lady will probably want to share.”
    The waitress shrugged and shuffled off to the kitchen, passing a series of travel-agency posters with pictures of whitewashed houses on stark Aegean islands. The lone other customer at the diner’s counter sipped his coffee and read a paperback.
    The girl from the bar shook her head. “Is that your dinner?”
    “Already barfed up lunch,” Garrett said. “So, yes.”
    “I’m beginning to worry about your long-term health prospects.”
    “Are we planning on knowing each other long-term?”
    The girl stared at him. “You always get into fights at bars?”
    “I’ve been in a few.”
    “You’re pretty good at it. Fighting, that is.”
    “I’ll take that as a compliment. Why’d you follow me?”
    “To see if you were okay.”
    “And if I wasn’t, you were going to help me how, exactly? Call 9-1-1?”
    “How’d you know where that guy worked? The guy in the bar?”
    Garrett shrugged. “You heard my explanation. The clues were there if you pay attention.”
    “But most people don’t pay attention?”
    “That’s right, most people don’t. But let’s talk about you, not me. For instance,I don’t think you wanted me to notice you. I think you were spying on me.”
    “Why would I do that?”
    The waitress brought two coffees. Garrett dumped sugar and cream in his. He stirred the coffee and thought about the question. He studied the girl from the bar, her face, her clothes, then went back to stirring his coffee. After about thirty seconds of thinking, he said, “Two possibilities. One, you’re desperate to fuck me. But even at my most arrogant I would say that’s remote. I don’t get that vibe off of you, which is a shame, because I could rock your world if you gave me the chance.”
    “And two?”
    “This morning my boss called the Treasury Department and told them I figured out the Chinese were dumping U.S. bonds in a big way. The Treasury Department told the CIA or the NSA or some such spook agency—no, wait, gotta be military, you seem military, the way you sit, your seriously out-of-style haircut—and they sent you here to figure out if I was an insane person or actually knew what I was talking about.”
    Captain Alexis Truffant tried not to let the surprise show on her face. Garrett had made her in less than five minutes. And with astonishing accuracy.
    Garrett smiled at her. “I’ll tell you what. How about we forget I ever mentioned possibility number two, we pretend number one is right, and you and I head back to my apartment, which is just around the corner?”
    Alexis sipped her coffee. “How did you know?”
    Garrett