Page 8 of Nash Falls

Nash was staring off into space, contemplating how badly he wanted to strangle Shock if he—

“Mr. Nash?” Morris jerked on his arm, bringing Nash back in focus.

“You cannot be serious,” said Nash.

“I am very serious, sir.”

“Look, did Shock put you up to this? Because I am tired and in no mood for this bullshit. So if Shock did orchestrate this, you can just fuck off, right now.”

“Who is Shock?”

Nash eyed him closely, but then dread started inching up his back as the man stared stoically back at him, with an expression as serious as Nash had ever seen.

He said, “But Rhett is rich. Why would he—”

“All will become clear if you agree to help us.”

Nash refocused on what Morris had originally said about him working for the Bureau. “You want me to be your… spy?”

“Perhapswhistlebloweris a better term,” suggested Morris.

“I thought whistleblowers came to the authorities, not the other way around.”

“Thenspyis fine. Ormoleorundercover agent. Same thing really.”

“For the record, I’ve agreed tonothing,” exclaimed Nash heatedly. After what seemed the longest and most demeaning day of his life,thiswas now happening to him? “And, dammit, you can’t just barge in here and drop a nuke on my life like that.”

Morris said smoothly, “Frankly, we don’t expect you to willy-nilly jump on board our mission bandwagon. And we can’t force you to cooperate, because this is a free country.”

“Exactly,” said Nash primly.

“But please keep in mind that this is an extremely high priorityfor the Bureau. We will bring these people down, with or without your help. Now, if you don’t agree to work with us, but then are somehow implicated in the wrongdoing?” Morris shrugged his shoulders and gave Nash a glum, resigned expression.

“Are you threatening me?” snapped Nash.

“I am beingrealisticwith you. When a criminal enterprise tumbles under a wave of indictments, lots of people lose out, some unfairly. But with your financial resources I’m sure you’ll be able to hire the best criminal defense attorneys, so you may get off with a lighter prison sentence.”

Nash blanched. “You just said you believed me to be hardworking and honest.”

“And I also said that in life everything is subject to change. And while right nowIbelieve you to be honest, the facts may differ from that. And facts are funny things. They can be massaged very carefully to point in a variety of directions.”

“So you’re going to force me to help you, is that it?” Nash said quietly even though he wanted to scream at the man.

“I prefer the termpersuade.”

“So this actuallyisn’ta free country then?” observed Nash.

“Your words, sir, not mine.”

“I take it freedom is now also subject to change?”

“Now who’s waxing philosophically?” observed Morris.

Nash sat back, desperately trying to process the situation. “Look, I need time to digest all this. It’s a lot.”

“You strike me as a good man, Mr. Nash. Good morals,principled.”

“I have never done anything dishonest in my life, at least of which I’m aware.”