The End Game Read Online Free PDF Page A

breathing. Which meant his precautions had worked.
    He just needed to be even more selective in who he approached this time.
    Days and weeks of mulling had yielded a handful of possibilities, but one of them stood out more and more with each deliberation. It even had, he thought, an elegant symmetry to it, which pleased his overly ordered mind.
    He would make the call today, he decided. He’d be even more vigilant, more careful, than he had been the first time around. He’d use a different prepaid cell phone; one he’d also purchased for cash and that couldn’t be traced back to him. He’d still use the agency-level voice changer for the call, the one he’d used on his first attempt. Most importantly, he’d be very, very clear in warning the man about what not to do.
    After that, it would be out of his hands.
    He’d just need Special Agent Sean Reilly to be as effective at his job as Padley had been at both of his.

WEDNESDAY

3
    Mamaroneck, New York
    A gray-white union of sea, land and sky was barely worrying the drapes when consciousness seeped back into me. I twisted around and checked the time: noon. I know this sounds very decadent, but I’d only got back from Jersey just before six.
    Nick and I had handed over to Deutsch and Lendowski shortly after five, a move that generated the usual sardonic, if unmerited, quip from Lendowski. I had plenty of time for Annie Deutsch. She was in her early thirties and usually wore that earnest demeanor shared by many ex-cops during their first couple of years with the Bureau, her face locked in an expression that looked like its wearer has been told they weren’t allowed to smile ever again. She was attractive and single, two facts on which most of the discussions regarding her had quickly zeroed in. Lendowski, on the other hand, I could do without. Six foot two and pure muscle, he possessed a personality one would describe as belligerent—if one were being kind. He also had that holier-than-thou attitude that always made me suspicious, like it was a fine line between which side of the law he’d ended up on.
    I’d given Nick a lift to Federal Plaza so he could retrieve his own car from the parking garage. Neither of us had much energy left for conversation. The city had looked coldly beautiful as dawn forced its way across Manhattan’s skyline. A few Christmas lights shone in pockets of synchronized color, and it was enough to remind anyone who had forgotten that New York was still the greatest city in the world.
    These overnights were actually a killer. As Nick climbed out of the Expedition, he reminded me to try and stay awake on the final leg. A couple of nights back, I’d very nearly fallen asleep at the wheel and had needed to pull over and grab an hour’s shut-eye before driving home. Then I’d woken with a jolt at two in the afternoon, convinced that my alarm had sounded only moments before. Throw the body clock out of whack and the mind can do strange things. I was now looking forward to doing away with the Nosferatu schedule and getting back to a more normal, mortal routine.
    Tess had driven my five-year-old son Alex to school and left me to finish off my fitful six hours. Miss Chaykin—we’re not married—is my partner in everything but law enforcement, although that last bit was debatable, given our various adventures these last few years. I’ve never slept easy alone, and the past few weeks of night shifts and disrupted schedules had only served to underline how addicted I was to having Tess’s warm body beside me.
    We joked that, as a couple, this could be the closest we’d ever get to the sleepless nights and constant demands of caring for a baby, given that we hadn’t had one together and were still debating whether having one now would be a good move. I was in two minds about that. It wasn’t something I’d ever experienced. I’d missed the first decade or so of Tess’s daughter Kim, who was now fifteen, given that Tess and I only met a few