Page 55

“Good. Now, let’s go over this right here…”

For the next few minutes he traced a finger over a small topographical map of the hilltop town. Kyrkos’s place was set high on a cliff overlooking most of the city, all the way down to the bay.

“The floor plan I’ve been given shows a three-story stone villa,” said Holden, “only it’s built like a fortress, straight into—”

“Four.”

Everyone looked up at Marcus. He shrugged.

“It’s four stories,” he said simply. “And it’s an abbey, not a villa. Or at least, it used to be.”

Holden paused before going on. His eyes never left Marcus, though. He continued talking while staring the man down.

“As I was saying, the top floor opens into a garden area. Sparse trees, wide open spaces.”

Randall nodded, catching on. “Perfect for a long-distance shot.”

“Exactly.”

We followed his finger, over to another hill, another rise. On the map it didn’t look like much of anything.

“If we could set up here,” said Holden, “and wait it out…”

“Wait what out?” asked Marcus. “Wait for Kyrkos to just wander outside?”

Holden’s jaw went tight. “And why not?”

“Because you’d be waiting forever,” he said. “Kyrkos never goes outside. Hardly ever, anyway. And you don’t even know…”

Marcus’s words trailed off, strangely. Holden stared daggers at him for a moment, then slumped back in his seat.

“Don’t even know what?”

The Ranger sat sullen. Silent.

“You were going to say we don’t even know what Alexander Kyrkos looks like, weren’t you?” growled Holden. “Because no one does. Very few people, at any rate.”

Still Marcus said nothing. His eyes remained fixed, unmoving.

“Funny,” said Holden. “Because the only people who would know what Kyrkos looked like, would be…”

He left the sentence intentionally open-ended. As it died in the silence, his mouth curled into a smirk.

“You got something to say?” Marcus asked angrily. “Because if so, spit it out.”

“I know who you are now,” said Holden, coldly. His eyes flared as he added the words: “I know what you are.”

Across the table I caught Randall’s eye. There was no mistaking it, he looked as thoroughly confused as I was.

Holden lowered his voice as he turned to face his partner. “Know who this is?” he asked, and Randall shook his head. “This the man who who killed Galleti.”

Now Randall’s eyes did go wide. His expression was stunned silence. “For real?”

I was completely intrigued. Totally at a loss. It seemed like everyone knew what was going on… except me.

“You can trust me,” said Marcus abruptly. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Oh we’d be crazy to trust you,” said Holden. I noticed his eyes shifting onto me. “We all would.”