The Most Dangerous Dame

Nelson gazed at me with a glazed expression for a long moment before recognition finally dawned in his eye. “I told you. I don’t know him… personally. I just know… of him.”

“And who is he?”

“Spook. Shadow. Liquidator.” Nelson licked his lips. “That’s what they… called him. A Liquidator. Secret Service is the… trigger. He’s the bullet.”

The air in the warehouse thickened with tension. Hands strayed toward concealed weapons as the trouble boys reassessed me with apprehensive glances and uneasy mutters. Flacco cut them off with a gesture. He leaned in closer to Nelson.

“Continue.”

Sweat slid down Nelson’s defeated face. “He’s top-ranked. Above… my pay grade. I’m just… an observer. They pay me to watch and… report.” His voice lowered to a mumble. “I’m just an observer. I provide intel, that’s all. Just an observer… ”

“You’re a mole.” Moe seized Nelson by the jaw. “Just a low-down, dirty little rat. How many of you vermin are there? How many, you sonovabitch?”

Nelson winced. “Hundreds. We were stationed… all around New Haven. Service can only manage to smuggle in a couple of agents at a time, who recruit volunteers from the inside.” His good eye swiveled my direction. The expression of dread intensified, as though my presence was more terrifying than his current predicament. “He was one of them. He was the key to everything. Most of us were recruited by an agent named Frankie Newman. We were stationed in all parts of the Haven, ready to seize control of its most vulnerable assets when the time came… ” Nelson’s eyelids drooped as he tilted on his precarious perch.

Moe snapped his fingers under Nelson’s nose. “What time? What the hell was supposed to happen?”

Nelson gave a dizzy shake of his head. “The end. The Liquidator was supposed to help Frankie access the Command Hub. Open up a way for the Service to enter the Haven in force. It was all set up. Only the Liquidator didn’t follow the directives. Word is he turned on Newman and took him out. Everything fell apart. Everybody’s spooked. No one is in charge anymore. The rest of the observers have gone to ground.” His head dropped. “It didn’t help. We’re being picked off, one by one.”

“Hold on.” Until then I had silently observed, but I took a step closer. “You saying all the moles are being rooted out? By who?”

“Don’t know.” Nelson flinched when he met my gaze. “Thought it was you.”

More mutters rippled through Moe’s crew. They weren’t as cool as when I first entered the warehouse. The whole lot of them looked at me as if I’d just grown horns and breathed fire while twirling a pitchfork. Even Electra eyed me as if she saw a new person, although her look was more appraising than nervous.

I stepped closer, allowing the reputation of my former self to quell Nelson even further. “Tell us about Natalie. Don’t skip any details, or what you’ve been through will be a cool dip in the pool compared to what I’ll do.”

Nelson’s lips quivered. “Look, all I know is she’s supposed to bring you in. What you did, how you defied the SS — it’s never been done before. The talk is already spreading. They’re desperate to contain the situation. You’re a dead man, you know that? You can’t just walk away from these guys.”

I gave him my best mirthless grin. “Let me be the judge of that. You just tell me what I wanna know. Natalie — where is she? Who’s she working with? How many of them are there?”

Nelson cringed and practically blubbered when I leaned over him. “It’s a standard five-man crew. Everyone recruited from the inside except the agent. A techie, a sniper, and some muscle. I don’t know where they are, I swear. I’m just an observer. Just an observer… ”

“Yeah, you keep saying that.” I squinted at him as I took a last drag of my gasper.

Moe gave me a calculating glance. “I heard some chatter about what went down at Beck’s mansion a while back. Heard the place blew up. Same night something weird went down in the Beehive. Command tried to cover it up, but people talk. Something about an attempted takeover. That’s what this gink is gabbing about?”

“Yeah. I kinda stumbled into that gonzo plan to shut the Haven down.”

“And you stopped it?”

“Yeah. I stopped it.”

Moe’s face was unreadable. “You’ve proved to be an enigma so far, but now everything I’ve heard about you is starting to come together. So you’re a deserter from the Secret Service. I don’t know if that makes you the most dangerous man I’ve ever met, or the biggest target I’ve ever seen.”

I shrugged. “Trying to figure it out myself.”

His eyes grew hard. “So then. Sophia’s murder — that wasn’t aimed at me at all. It was aimed at you.”

“Yeah. The killer’s name is Natalie, my old partner from the Service. Seems she used killing my lovers as a way of controlling me in the past. I never meant to get Sophia involved in this. I’m sorry, Flacco.”