Gun Metal Heart (39 page)

Daria might have been asleep until she asked, “How bad is it?”

John had been waiting until she asked for a debriefing. “Zebra-shit bad.” He deactivated the cruise control to conform to urban traffic. “I've been in contact with my senator. Singer Cavanaugh. I had to resign to come out here and do this stuff, but he thinks the worst is past and I could be back on the payroll by August. Anyway, he's—”

“You quit your job to come get me?”

John kept his eyes on the traffic and his speedometer. “The stuff you do. You understand. I couldn't let any of that splash on the senator.”

She studied him from behind her shades. “I do understand.” And she meant it. “Thank you, John. Yet again.”

“Sure.” He tried and failed to sound nonchalant. “Anyway, Singer's keeping track of the CIA for us. Owen Thorson's body was found, along with two thugs from the White Scorpions. And, um, I hear Owen was a little shorter than usual.”

Daria kept her head back against the cushy leather rest, chin tilted up. “That happens with age.”

“Ye-eah. Anyway, the agency had washed its hands of Owen. And that would be doubly so if he'd fallen in with
Skorpjo
. But here's the thing: a second ex-CIA spook, guy named Derrick Saito, was found dead near that hotel in Florence, where you were positively ID'd. I didn't know Saito from my time at the agency, but his rep wasn't good. And a third ex-agent, Jake Kenner, was found with a severed spine and a stolen motorcycle on a mountain pass in France. The agency has confirmed your involvement in the race. I knew Kenner a little. Nobody's missing him.”

Daria put her injured arm up on the window frame and made a flat plane of her straight palm, letting it ride wind eddies as the Renault cruised along. The small movements, pushed by the wind, felt good as they stretched her torn muscles. “So my peace accord with the CIA is null and void.”

“If I were to guess, I'd say ninety-five percent of the CIA wants to forget you ever existed. And five percent wants your head in a lunch box.”

“Five percent of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is a considerable foe.”

“Won't lie. It is. Mercer back there said the medical clinic in Prague is safe. After that…?”

Daria let her flat, horizontal hand glide up and down with the wind.

“Which brings me to this: Ray Calabrese is gonna beat me senseless if he doesn't get to see you.”

“Ray!” Daria turned abruptly, and a sunrise smile burst across her heart-shaped face. She had wondered why her former handler in the FBI Los Angeles field office hadn't contacted her, but of course he couldn't, given the circumstances. Ray was another one of those men who seemed forever in Daria's camp. And another who had suffered because of it. “How is he?”

“He's good. But I'm trying to keep him out of this thing, in case there are international repercussions. You understand?”

Daria bit her lip and thought about it. “Yes. Quite right. I'll contact Ray when I can do so without hurting his career. Thank you.”

John made another deft hustle around some slower cars. “Then there's this Illyrian League.” The night before he had told her about the continentwide right-wing movement Zoran Antic had helped launch. “They were counting on the drones to hammer home their anti-American screed. No one's found any drones in Belgrade. And from what I hear, they blame you for that.”

“So, to clarify: A portion of American intelligence wants me dead. And a portion of this anti-American movement wants me dead.”

John said, “Yeah.”

“The enemies I made earlier—the ones who drove me into hiding in Italy—they're not going away any time soon. And they're blackballing me among other Western intelligence agencies.”

“Yeah.”

They drove a bit. John thumped a nervous beat on the steering wheel.

“At least you've still got me.”

Daria said, “No,” and reached out to cup his hand on the gearshift.

“I'm … yes. You do.”

She removed her sunglasses, then reached out and removed his. She didn't let it register that the movement stressed her ribs and bad shoulder. She made eye contact with John.

“No. Your first instincts regarding your senator were right. I'm running in illegal and highly visible circles. You can't be part of his world and mine. And you can do a hell of a lot more there. It's where you're most needed.”

He drove for a time, watching for signs to the E60 to Bratislava, where they could jump on the E65 into the Czech Republic.

John obviously had told himself the exact same thing. He cleared his throat.

“So what have you got?”

Daria gave it some thought. “A bit of money squirreled away. An Italian assassin's stiletto. A pocketful of favors I'm owed. Fast friends—who need to stay mum, lest I call!”

John ground his teeth. “Yes, Ma'am.”

She slid the sunglasses back on, lowered the visor again, and checked her reflection. She ran her tongue over her lips and her fingertips through her hair.

Then she leaned back.

“And I've spanking new sunglasses.”

John didn't want to, but he laughed. “They are pretty fetching.”

“See?” Daria leaned back, eyes closed, and relaxed. “Things are looking up.”

 

Also by Dana Haynes

Crashers

Breaking Point

Ice Cold Kill

 

About the Author

DANA HAYNES, author of the acclaimed thrillers
Crashers
and
Breaking Point
, spent more than twenty years as a journalist and editor at several newspapers in Oregon. He is currently the communications director for the mayor of Portland, Oregon, where he lives.

 

Visit the author's Web site at
www.dana-haynes.com
.

 

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously.

 

GUN METAL HEART.
Copyright © 2014 by Dana Haynes. All rights reserved. For information, address St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010.

 

www.minotaurbooks.com

 

Cover design by James Iacobelli

 

Cover photo illustration © Rinaldi Angelo/Bernstein
+
Andriulli

 

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

 

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

 

Haynes, Dana.

    Gun metal heart / Dana Haynes.—First Edition.

       pages cm

    ISBN 978-1-250-00964-7 (hardcover)

    ISBN 978-1-4668-4872-6 (e-book)

  1.  Women—Fiction.   2.  Women engineers—Fiction.   3.  Inventions—Fiction.   4.  Spy stories.   I.  Title.

    PS3558.A84875G86 2014

 

eISBN 9781466848726

 

First Edition: August 2014