“This is just where I’d have chosen,” the man was saying, “for the showdown, the confrontation.”
“What?” Reeve was looking around upwards, looking for an assassin’s gunsight, a slow-moving car with tinted windows, looking for danger. But all there was was this tall well-dressed man, who looked like he’d be comfortable trying to sell you a spare vest to go with your suit.
“Who the fuck are you?” Reeve snarled.
“I knew you’d come back here. That’s why I flew direct, saved time. Don’t ask me how I knew, I just felt it.”
“What are you, a clairvoyant?”
“No, Mr. Reeve, I study personalities, that’s all.”
Reeve blinked. “Dulwater?”
The man made a small bow with his head. “I’ve been watching outside CWC for three hours.”
“You should’ve stopped for a coffee.”
“Ah, you were in the coffee shop?”
“What do you want?”
“Well, you seem to know who I am. I’m guessing you know what I want.”
“Indulge me.”
Dulwater took a step forwards. “I want to know what you did to my employer, Mr. Reeve.”
Reeve frowned, trying to look puzzled.
Alfred Dulwater just smiled. “Might I make a guess?” he said.
“Go ahead.”
Dulwater pouted thoughtfully. “I think it’s know as burundanga.”
Reeve tried not to look impressed.
“I’ve heard of it,” Dulwater continued, “but this is the first occasion I’ve known someone to use it.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Mr. Allerdyce caught up with me an hour ago, by telephone. He had a very strange story to tell. Did the two London operatives tell you my name?” Reeve said nothing, which seemed to be what Dulwater was expecting. “They told me they hadn’t, but I didn’t believe them.”
Though Reeve had been looking Dulwater in the eye, his peripheral vision had all been for the man’s clothes. Dulwater didn’t look armed, and he didn’t look particularly dangerous. He was tall, a head taller than Reeve, but while his face showed cunning and intelligence there wasn’t anything else there, nothing physical. Reeve reckoned he could take him out. He didn’t relax, but he felt a little better.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Dulwater said.
“What?”
“You’re thinking about violence. In particular, you’re thinking of violence which might be perpetrated by you upon me. I shouldn’t take that thought any further.” Dulwater smiled again. “I’ve seen the psychiatric report.”
Reeve remembered that Dulwater had been in his house. He knew what the man was talking about. He was talking about the warning. Any more fits of violence and Reeve might well be committed.
“I mean,” said Dulwater, “after the scene in the bar…”
“Your men started it. I’ve got witnesses.”
“Terrible mess those two are in-and you, Mr. Reeve, you don’t have a scratch on you. How’s the foot by the way? Kaprisky says he stomped on the intruder’s bare foot.”
Reeve stared levelly at Dulwater. “Nothing wrong with either foot,” he said.
“I’m glad to hear it.”
“So, what now?”
“Now? Now we go somewhere and have a talk. You see, we have a lot in common. We’re both after information on Kosigin. And more than that…”
“Yes?”
Dulwater smiled. “Neither of us much likes Jeffrey Allerdyce.”
They went to a bar. It might’ve been a bar Jim Reeve used to drink in, Gordon Reeve couldn’t remember. While Dulwater went to the men’s room, Reeve tried the Police Department again. This time he got through to Mike McCluskey, who sounded out of breath.
“Hey, Gordon,” McCluskey said as if they were old friends, “where are you?”
“Near San Diego,” Reeve told him.
“Yeah? Any reason for that?”
“I never do anything without a reason, McCluskey. I want us to talk.”
“Sure, no problem. Let me take down your-”
“Later tonight.” A waitress was advancing with the beers they’d ordered. Dulwater, rubbing his hands, was right behind her. “Say midnight.”
“Midnight? Well, that’s a funny-”
“ La Jolla, remember that place we went for a drink after you showed me where my brother was murdered?”
“Now, Gordon, you know there’s not one shred of evi-dence-”
“Outside there at midnight. If you’re not alone, I don’t show.”
Dulwater sat down as Reeve cut the call. “What was that?” he asked.
“A sideshow,” said Reeve, taking one of the glasses. He gulped an inch of liquid and licked his lips. “So why are we having this good-natured drink, Mr. Dulwater? How come you don’t have me trussed up in a crate on my way back to Washington?”
Dulwater lifted his own beer but did not drink. “I like my job, Gordon; I like it fine. But I have ambition just like anyone else.”
“You want to set up for yourself?”
Dulwater shook his head. “I want a promotion.”
“Well, if you take me back to Allerdyce, I’m sure you’d be well placed…”
“No, that’s not the way Allerdyce works. He’d only want more. Besides, what are you to him? You’re a one-night irritant, like a mild allergic reaction. You’re not the prize.”
“Kosigin?”
Dulwater nodded. “I get the feeling if I stick close to you, I’ll get Kosigin.”
“And then you hand Kosigin to Allerdyce?”
“But not all at once. He wouldn’t be grateful if I just handed that bastard over. One little piece at a time.”
Reeve shook his head. Everybody wanted something: Duhart wanted something on Allerdyce; Dulwater wanted something over Allerdyce; Allerdyce wanted Kosigin; Kosigin and Jay wanted Reeve.
And what did Gordon Reeve want? He thought of Nietzsche again: the will to power. Power was what most of these games were all about, the desire for power, the fear of loss of power. Reeve wasn’t a part of the game. He was on another board with different pieces. He wanted revenge.
“You know,” he said, “I’m not even sure I should be talking to someone who broke into my damned house.”
Dulwater shrugged. “I wasn’t the first. Alliance didn’t plant those bugs, Kosigin’s men did. Besides, what have you to lose by cooperating? You surely don’t think you can do anything to harm Kosigin on your own.”
“I’m not on my own.”
“You’ve got help?” Dulwater thought for the merest second. “Cantona?” Reeve’s face failed to disguise his surprise. “Cantona’s a deadbeat. You think you can put him up against Kosigin?”
“How do you know about Cantona?”
“You forget, Kosigin hired Alliance to compile a dossier on your brother. We’re very thorough, Gordon. We not only did a full background check, including family, we watched him for a couple of weeks. We watched him get to know Cantona.”
“Then you handed the lot over to Kosigin and he had my brother killed.”
“There’s no evidence-”
“Everybody keeps telling me that!”
Dulwater still hadn’t touched his drink. He ran his thumb around the rim of the frosted glass. “A good argument for letting me help you. The courts aren’t going to be any use. You’re never going to have enough evidence to go to court with. The best you can hope for is that someone else makes Kosigin’s life hell. Kosigin lives for power, Gordon. If someone else gains power over him it’s the worst torture he could ever imagine, and it will last the rest of his life.” He sat back, argument over.
Reeve sighed. “Maybe you’re right,” he lied. “Okay, what exactly do you propose?”
Dulwater stared at him, measuring his sincerity. Reeve concentrated on the beer. “Why did you come back here?” Dulwater asked.
“I wanted to speak to a few people. I intend speaking to one of them tonight. You can help.”
“How?”
“Two things: one, I need a video camera, a good one, plus a couple of recorders, more if you can get them. I want to make copies of a videotape.”