The Ultimatum: A Jeremy Fisk Novel Read Online Free PDF Page A

Chay turned to Fisk and asked, “Is it modesty or some sort of crazy amnesia that kept you from mentioning the attempted Cartel hit at your apartment building?”
    “It’s part of an ongoing investigation, so I can’t talk about it. Except to say that it certainly proves my point. Posting law enforcement agents’ private information on the Internet puts us at drastically increased risk of visits from assassins.”
    “I’m not sure these so-called assassins needed any help from me, informational, motivational, or otherwise. I do hope that the experience of having the informational grid turned on you gives you and your colleagues a taste of your own medicine. In the abstract, that is. You wield an enormous amount of power, and these checks and balances you rattle off are little impediment. Whatever you want to see, you see. Whoever you want to watch, you watch. You’ve been harassing me and everyone I know in pursuit of the Verlyn document cache, which is what we’re really talking about now, isn’t it? You’re not interested in whether or not I testify. The question you want answered is ‘Where are the documents?’ Right?”
    “I shouldn’t need to ask that. I should have faith that if you did know, you would have warned the agents who, along with their spouses and children, are in danger.”
    She scoffed. “That’s just a variation on the old saw that it’s the responsibility of the media to join the government in the war on terror. I’m sorry; it’s not. It’s the media’s responsibility to cover the government, not to cover the government’s ass.”
    Fisk remained in place when the sign on the far corner clicked to the man-walking icon and pedestrians shot across Broadway. Did she really believe this? “I feel like you are making the decision that some people’s lives are more sacred than others.”
    “And I feel like you do the same thing, day in and day out. Let me ask you a question. Did you murder Magnus Jenssen?”
    Fisk’s face showed nothing. “When did you switch gears from an investigative reporter to critic?”
    “I’m not sure I did.”
    “Fun to go thumbs-up or thumbs-down on food you don’t have to prepare or pay for.”
    Fisk started across while the walk signal counted down, leaving Chay at the curb, uncharacteristically without a rejoinder.

CHAPTER 4
    N ever seen you out of your uniform before, Harry,” said Wally from the driver’s seat of his hansom cab. “You’ve got a really nice ass, man!”
    Harun weighed a comeback as he jogged past, on Central Park’s lower loop. He and Wally had become friends over the years, since an afternoon even hotter than this one. From his post at the door of the luxury apartment building, 122 Central Park South, Harun had been looking out on the horses standing in a row on the park side of the street, tethered to carriages, awaiting fares despite the broiling sun.
    He felt especially sorry for Wally’s bony old horse, Buckmeister. After enduring an earful from Mrs. Billingham in apartment 19F for using one of the building’s pails, Harun brought Buckmeister some cold water.
    Harun thought now of a retort involving his ass and Wally’s lips. He kept it to himself, rather than risk obliterating whatever tip his friend still stood to collect from the prim, clearly unamused elderly couple in the back of his cab.
    Harun also needed to conserve his breath in order to make it up to the reservoir, let alone back to work. Each stride was heavy lifting, his lungs ached, and the air wasn’t just searing, it was foul. Although he couldn’t see the Central Park Zoo from here, he could sure smell the monkey cages.
    He and Durriyah had taken Rudy and the twins to the zoo to see the new snow-leopard cubs on his last day off. Not easy getting in from Ozone Park with the “new” (to them—really, thirdhand) double stroller on the crowded A train, plus Rudy’s stroller. And, surprise, now that Rudy was three, the price of his zoo admission ticket