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“t the site of entry could be easily covered up and then further disguised by the burlap container.
Caleb volunteered, “I’m with the Library of Congress.”
Anthony stared at him, openmouthed. “The b****y hell you are.”
He looked taken aback. “I beg your pardon?”
She turned to Herbert. “What the hell is going on here?”
“I spoke with McElroy last night. He gave me the FBI file on the incident in Pennsylvania. I’ve gone through it. With them.”
“With your friends? Who are going to help us?” she said slowly, as though not believing her own words. “A b****y librarian!”
Caleb said with dignity, “I’m actually a rare book specialist. In my field that’s like being James Bond.”
Anthony drew her pistol with enviable speed and placed it against Caleb’s forehead. “Well, in my field, little man, that means shit.”
She put her g*n away while Caleb looked like he might have a stroke.
“Do I have a choice?” asked Anthony.
“In what?” asked Herbert.
“In working with them?”
“If you want to continue to work with me, you’ll have to work with them.”
“You lot do things a bit peculiarly over here.”
“Yes, we do,” agreed Herbert. “So would you like me to fill you in on the FBI’s report? Unless McElroy has done the honors already?”
of the report and Herbert’s skepticism with its conclusions.
“So if Kravitz might not have done it, who did?” she asked.
“That’s what we have to find out. But I may be wrong and the FBI right.”
“And we’ll be doing this how, with the FBI’s knowledge and cooperation?”
“I would say with neither their cooperation nor knowledge,” Herbert replied.
Anthony pulled Caleb from his chair and plopped down in it. “All right. Do you have any whiskey here?”
“Why?”
“Well, if I’m going to break the law and my oath of service I’d like to do it in a bit more relaxed frame of mind, if you don’t mind.”
“You don’t have to do it at all, Agent Anthony,” said Herbert. “This is my plan and my responsibility. Your boss will understand fully once I talk to him. Then you can back out gracefully.”
“And then what, I get my arse shipped back to the good old UK?”
“Something like that.”
“I don’t think so. Unfinished business bothers the devil out of me.”
Herbert smiled. “I can understand that.”
She sat forward. “So where do we go from here?”
“With a plan, an ever-evolving one, but one that involves no one else getting hurt,” said Herbert firmly.
“I don’t think you or anyone else can guarantee that, Oliver,” said Mirabel.
“Then at least a plan that allows maximum protection for all of you.”
“Doesn’t sound all that much fun, really,” said Reuben.
Anthony eyed him with interest. “So you’re willing to die for the cause?”
He faced her with a defiant gaze. “I’m willing to die for my friends.”
“I like your way of thinking, Reuben,” said Anthony, giving him a wink.
Caleb had watched this exchange with growing frustration. He turned to Herbert. “So is there something we can do now?”
“Yes,” Herbert said. “I actually have something for each of you to do that will utilize your strengths.”
Caleb looked at Anthony. “I usually get the dangerous stuff.”
“Really?” she said, looking bemused.
“It’s my lot in life, I suppose. You should take a drive with me sometime. I think that will explain everything. I’m a real daredevil. Just ask Mirabel.”
“Oh yeah,” said Mirabel. “If you want to drive yourself nuts spend a couple days zooming around country roads with Mr. Speedy while he drones on and on about some dead writer no one but him has ever heard of.”
“Sounds delightful,” replied Anthony. “Sort of like gnawing off one’s arm for sport.”
“Caleb,” said Herbert. “I’d like you to research at the library all events to be held at Lafayette Park over the next month.”
Anthony’s lips twitched as she stared at a red-faced Caleb. “I’d go in with at least two machine guns for that one, mate.”
Herbert proceeded to give out the rest of the assignments to the others. Before they left, Mirabel gave him a hug.
“Good to be back where we belong.”
Anthony was the last to leave.
Herbert said, “I’ll meet you at the park in three hours.”
“Do you really trust these people?”
“With my life.”
“Who are they? I mean really.”
“The Camel Club.”
“The Camel Club? What the hell is that?”
“The most important thing in my life,” answered Herbert. “Only I forgot that for a little bit.”
“YOU LOOK PUZZLED, Agent Garchik.”
Herbert and Anthony walked up to the ATF agent as he was staring over the grounds of Lafayette Park.
Startled, he turned to them. “I was sorry to hear about Tom Birdman,” he said as they joined him. “He seemed like a real good guy.”
Herbert nodded, while Anthony simply stood there frowning. Her hair was unkempt and she looked like she’d slept in her clothes. And she had, for all of two hours. Herbert, on the other hand, had shaved, showered and pressed his pants and shirt.
“He also believed that his own side was watching him. Do you have the same feeling?”
Garchik looked nervously around. “How did you figure that?”
“I think of the highly unlikely, then push it to the practically impossible, and I often find I arrive at the truth, particularly in this town.” He studied the man. Garchik’s eyes were bloodshot and his clothes were as wrinkled as Anthony’s. “But that isn’t all that’s bothering you, is it?”
Anthony added, “You were bragging before that you could tell us what sort of bomb it was very quickly. We haven’t heard a peep from you since. Did your state-of-the-art facility fail you?”
- Writer
