“It’s Sherry, not Tanya,” she said. “And what you’re saying is crazy! I can’t go back to the jungle!” Coming here had been a mistake. She wanted to walk out then. Run.

“You’ve been swallowed by this thing. Sleep won’t be easy in its stomach. Bile doesn’t sit well with the human condition. By all means, if you can stand it, sleep forever. But if it were me, I’d go.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Thursday

CASIUS STOOD in the blue phone booth and cracked his neck nonchalantly. “I realize you think my leaving was a mistake. Is that a threat?” Of course it was, and Casius knew it well. But the verbal sparring seemed to carry its own weight in this world of theirs. He ran his hand over bunched jaw muscles and eyed the busy street outside.

“Your not coming in is obviously a problem for them,” David’s voice said over the phone.

“Is it?”

“Of course it is. You can’t spit in their faces and just expect to walk away.”

“And why are they so eager for me to come in, David? Have you asked yourself that?”

The agent hesitated. “You have proprietary information obtained on a classified mission. You’re threatening to go after Jamal on your own, using that information. I see their point.”

“That’s right. Jamal. The man who killed my father in a nightclub. The man who has reportedly been a funding source for some of this decade’s most aggressive terrorist attacks. Who has a price of $250,000 on his head. Jamal. And now I discover that he’s tied to an operation in Venezuela and you expect me to ignore it? I’m going to find Jamal and then I’m going to kill him. Unless Friberg is Jamal, I’m not sure I see his problem.”

“You don’t even know if Jamal is down there. All you know is that there’s a man named Abdullah down there who may or may not have ties to Jamal. Either way, it’s the principle behind it,” David said. “I understand why you would want to go after Jamal, but the agency has asked you to cooperate. You’re breaking rank.”

“Open your eyes, David. I’ll tell you this because you’ve always been good to me. Things aren’t always what they seem. They could go badly for you in the coming weeks.”

“Meaning exactly what?”

“Meaning maybe your superiors don’t have your best interest in mind this time. Meaning maybe you should consider going away for a few weeks. Far away.” He let the statement stand.

“What are you saying?”

“I’ve said it.” Casius eased up on his tone. “Call it a hunch. Either way, don’t try to defend me. I have to leave now.”

“Does this mean you’re refusing to come in?”

“Good-bye, David.”

THE SUBURBAN home had been built in the fifties, a two-story farmhouse crowded by an expanding city. He’d purchased it five years ago and it had functioned as well as he’d expected.

Casius ran through the inventory quickly. He estimated the value of the contents alone at over half a million dollars. Most of it he would leave behind for the wolves. He could only afford to take what would fit in a large sports bag. The rest he would have to leave and risk losing to their searches. It didn’t matter. He had millions stashed in banks around the world, most of it taken from one of his very first hits—an obscenely wealthy militant.