Louis had the pleasure of watching the dart hit home. Armitage’s betrayal had left a mess, and everyone in the blast range had suffered damage. Ross wouldn’t have escaped unscathed. He offered Louis a thin smile.

‘I’d like to believe we learn by our mistakes,’ said Ross.

‘I’d like to believe that too,’ said Louis. ‘Obviously I don’t, but I’d like to.’

‘The Bureau has limited jurisdiction overseas,’ Ross continued, ‘so given the delicacy of what is being proposed, I’ve supplied some reading material, and alerted an interested party about your travel plans.’

He stood to leave. A copy of the New York Times lay on the bar between them. Ross tapped it, and threw down cash to cover the tab.

‘You ought to take a look at today’s paper,’ he said. ‘You might find it informative. Travel safely.’

Louis watched Ross go, but did not immediately reach for the Times. Instead, he sat and thought. In the years since he had come to know Parker, Louis’s life had changed in ways he could never have imagined. Many of these developments were positive, or at least not actively negative, but coming into contact with SAC Edgar Ross of the FBI was not among the latter. Louis did not doubt that a record of his activities existed somewhere in Federal Plaza, although he suspected that much of it was for Ross’s personal amusement only – or that was his hope. Whatever the truth of the matter, Ross’s knowledge of Louis was a threat, and hung like a sword over his head. Eventually, something might have to be done about it.

There was also the problem of Armitage and her legacy. If she had been in contact with the Vuksans, and was responsible for setting them on De Jaager, then a trail existed, one the Bureau would prefer to see erased. Ross had just handed Louis a broom and told him to get sweeping.

But if Armitage was the source of the Vuksans’ information, what else had she told them? Ross was assuming that Armitage had, in the course of her duties, come across material confirming De Jaager’s instigation of the killing of Andrej Buha, but what if this was not all she had discovered? According to Ross, Armitage had made contact with the Vuksans shortly after Louis and Angel left Amsterdam. The possibility existed that it was not only De Jaager she had fed to them but also Louis.

So Louis drank, and mused. When he finally left the St. Regis, he did so with a copy of the New York Times under his arm.

Chapter XXI