The King of Fear: Part Two: A Garrett Reilly Thriller Read Online Free PDF Page B

Celeste suspected was plain old fear. She knew Bingo was not the world’s most courageous human, and that coming here, to rejoin the Ascendant team, was stretching the heroic part of his personality almost to the breaking point. As the service elevator shot upward, she took Bingo by the hand and squeezed hard, as much to reassure herself as to put him at ease.
    “Is this a working office building?” Celeste asked Alexis. She hadn’t seen a soul in the place yet. But then again, it was almost eleven at night.
    “Half-occupied. The owners are in bankruptcy. If security stops you or asks what you are doing, just say you’re part of the tech start-up on seven. Our name is AltaTech Partners. That should give us cover for a while.”
    Celeste thought that sounded makeshift, at best, but makeshift seemed tobe part of Ascendant’s DNA, so she said nothing more. But it didn’t fill her with confidence. None of this filled her with confidence.
    She shut her eyes and pictured the Chinese countryside: the lush, tropical hills outside Guangzhou, the squalls that blew in off the South China Sea, the children splashing in the muddy Xi River. She didn’t hate China, as hard as her time there had been, and visions of its green forests still calmed her nerves. In moments she would be facing Garrett Reilly again, and she needed all the composure she could muster.
    The elevator stopped, Alexis checked the hallway, then hurried Bingo and Celeste to the last office before the stairs. She knocked twice, and the door opened.
    “Hey.” Mitty Rodriguez smiled briefly at Celeste. “Mitty. Nice to meet you.”
    “Yeah.” Celeste shook Mitty’s hand. “Sure.” Celeste had never actually met Mitty in person, but she’d heard a lot about her from the rest of the team.
    Mitty turned from Celeste and stared long and hard at Bingo. “Hey, Bingo. Long time. Really long time.”
    Bingo hung his head determinedly toward the floor. Celeste figured the two of them must have had some kind of relationship in the past, although if that was true then they would go down in the odd-couple hall of fame. From Mitty’s glare, Celeste guessed that Mitty held a grudge against Bingo, and he seemed terrified of her. Not that Celeste blamed him: from what she’d gathered, Mitty was a piece of work. Still, Celeste was glad to see her; she seemed eccentric and full of life. Celeste needed people who were full of life.
    Alexis showed them into the offices. They were large—five separate executive offices, a meeting area, a kitchen, and a conference room—and mostly barren, with the walls freshly painted white and Sheetrock showing in one section of the reception area. A few pieces of random furniture were strewn around the large central room—some chairs, couches, desks, and a few computers—and little else. A bank of windows looked out onto what Celeste assumed was the New Jersey Turnpike; the glittering towers of Manhattan lay far in the distance, thick blocks of yellow light in the night air. Celeste let out a short, mirthless laugh; she had traveled across the country, and instead of settling in Manhattan, and hopping from fabulous restaurants to exclusive nightclubs, she was stuck in Newark, New Jersey, in a half-empty office tower, surrounded by a cohort of semiautistic geeks.
    Story of her life.
    Her thoughts were interrupted by a marine, tall and handsome, but with a hint of wildness in his eyes. He was wearing green-and-brown fatigues, and his hair was buzz-cut short. He grinned broadly at Celeste and saluted her. “Private John Patmore, ma’am. We met briefly in DC last year. You might not remember me.”
    “Sure.” Celeste nodded. But she didn’t remember him. All military guys looked the same to her, and Patmore certainly fit the mold: he looked more like a G.I. Joe doll than a human being. But a slightly crazy G.I. Joe doll—one you wouldn’t let your kids play with. Not by themselves, at least. “Good to see you again.”
    “Hey,