When he first got wind of the rumors about the mass resignations on the horizon, he’d actually laughed. Not for one nanosecond did he take them seriously. And here he was, two weeks later, at the threshold of oblivion. In his mind, it was all because of his wife and her sudden reappearance. If it was even true and not some trumped-up trick.

Moss bent down and opened his bottom drawer and pulled out his little black book. He thumbed through the pages, smirking at what he was reading, thanks to Universal Privacy and the Pinkerton Agency. Right now, all he had to do was start making phone calls to every name in the book and watch what happened. Or better yet, he could call one of those reporters, anonymously, and spiel off the contents and sit back to watch the fireworks. But did he really want to open that can of worms?

Moss leaned back and closed his eyes after he replaced the book in the bottom drawer. Hell, he even had the goods on his best friend, Gabriel Knight, President of these here United States. He smirked as he wondered, and not for the first time, what Gabe would say if he knew that Moss had kept a record of his short stint as a cat burglar, stealing priceless paintings and jewelry, then fencing them. He conveniently ignored his own role in the heists as being inconsequential. How else were they to get the money to dive into the stock market? Working a nine-to-five job simply wasn’t in the cards for either one of them. They both wanted success ASAP, not years down the road. And it had worked because of his own cleverness.

All water under the bridge as they say, he thought. It was over, and he knew it. The way he saw it, he could go quietly, fade away into the night, or he could go out with a bang and take everyone out with him.

Moss looked over at the door and the bag that had sat there for years. His GO bag as he called it. It contained cash, some files, memory sticks, and four different cell phones, which were activated but had never been used except to charge them from time to time. Plus three different sets of documents attesting to the fact that he was someone other than Lincoln Moss. Each packet contained a new name, a driver’s license, a passport, two credit cards, and a voter registration card, along with a library card and several other pieces of ID that would help him blend in and start a new life anywhere in the world.

The way he looked at it, he was standing in front of a speed bump at the end of the road.

What to do?

Chapter 21

Chapter 21