Purpose Read online

  Everything Ryan said was true, but something nagged at him. It bothered him enough that he asked his Purpose if It was trying to warn him. But It said it didn’t have premonitions about events it didn’t put in motion.

  “Okay, you’re right.” He tried not to sound as defeated as he felt. “I’m overreacting.”

  He leaned closer and kissed Ryan’s cheek.

  “Just be safe.”

  Ryan rolled his eyes. “Says the man who’s walking into police headquarters armed to the teeth.”

  “Smartass kid.”

  “Grouchy old man.”

  Another kiss and he left. He still felt out of sorts, like he was missing something important. Nothing seemed wrong, and he was not clairvoyant, but something still twisted his inner balance. Maybe he needed to do more Tai Chi.

  Putting distance between themselves and Barrington made sense, but in the last few weeks he’d earned the trust and cooperation of Detective Griffin. That made it easier to deal with the feeding needs of his Purpose. If it took too long to find the right situation wherever they settled, he’d have to find a law enforcement officer he could trust or go back to killing the guilty.

  Either could attract the attention of the ever-hopeful Special Agent Barrington. Then again, last night probably earned Griffin a bit of notice. Helping a known killer could land him in trouble. Assuming Barrington could prove the killer existed, which he couldn’t.

  Definitely time to move on. Things were getting too complicated.

  The cab ride to the Violent Crimes Branch gave him time to think. He didn’t recall being this sentimental about moving to a new city since… since never. Gar had already taken over by the time he left Philadelphia. He’d also never worked with anyone to bring the guilty to justice. Killing people made it hard to work with the police.

  Griffin almost certainly wouldn’t be there, but a call from work would arouse much less suspicion for those tapping his phone. Sneaking in the second time was a lot simpler than the first. Quietly making his way to Griffin’s desk, he made sure everyone who looked his way “saw” someone they expected and ignored him. Tapping a few keys on his new box, he set it by the government-issued phone and called the detective.

  “Griffin.” He sounded confused, as he should be, getting a call from his desk phone. At least he didn’t seem injured.

  After Will touched one last key, the silver box hummed briefly. “Good morning, Detective. I’m glad you weren’t hurt last night.”

  The long pause told him Griffin knew his phones were tapped. “Why are you calling me from my desk?”

  “Don’t worry. I’ve made sure this line is clean. No one can hear what we say other than you and I.” Another pause. Should he keep going, or would Griffin respond? He heard a small sigh, bringing a smile to his face.

  “I suppose I should thank you for last night.”

  “No, you shouldn’t.” It was his fault, all of it. “I never should have involved you once I knew Barrington was the loose screw that he is.”

  “They’re claiming you blew up the car, but I told our crime scene techs to check the area for casings before the FBI’s people could clean it up.”

  Exactly the kind of good police work he’d expect from Detective Daniel Griffin. “What do your people think?”

  “The chief is pissed.” So was Griffin, by his tone. “She knew there was an operation underway, but she didn’t know they’d put me or dozens of civilians at risk like that. She and the district director had it out on scene.”

  Of course she’d been mad. This was her city, and this kind of event didn’t make her look good, especially if law enforcement caused the problem.

  “We need to meet.” The intake of breath on the other end caused him to rush into his next sentence. “I’m leaving DC, and I want to give you some information before I go. If we’re on the scrambler too long, they’ll figure it out.”

  Will checked the box, and it was almost out of prerecorded conversation. “Where?” Griffin sounded less than certain he wanted to come.

  “Same place as the first time. How about noon?” That was a couple of hours away, but it gave the detective time to get ready.

  “By the totem pole.”

  Nodding, though no one could see him, he said, “Good, see you then.” He hung up just as the loop was about to repeat, collected his things, and left.

  “YOU’RE leaving DC?” Griffin stopped walking, so Will turned around.

  He smiled at the officer. “Is that disappointment mixed with surprise I hear?”

  “Don’t flatter yourself.” After rolling his eyes, Griffin resumed walking. “I’m… it’s not what I expected to hear.”

  “If you remember, I told you when we were at Meridian Hill Park that Barrington would use you.” He hated pointing out the obvious. “You told me not to try to split you two.”

  “I remember.” The detective shook his head. “At the time, I knew you were probably right, but I never expected what he did last night.”

  The urge to say “I told you so” seemed so petty. “Staring at one’s mortality does put things in a new perspective. I’m sorry I put you in the middle of this.”

  He heard Griffin move closer and stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. “If I’d have listened to you and not called in Barrington, I wouldn’t have been in harm’s way.”

  “You’re a good cop and a good man.” He’d played upon those traits to get closer to Barrington. “Telling Barrington about me was what you were supposed to do. No one could have known how far he’d go or how many people’s lives he’d endanger.”

  “You saved my life.”

  “No, I almost got you killed.” Him and how many others? “I never should have involved you at all.”

  “Why did you contact me that first time?” Griffin stopped walking again, forcing Will to turn around. “If Barrington is to be believed, you’re responsible for hundreds of murders. Why stop, and why use me to do it?”

  “Why you? Easy, you had the case.” If Griffin expected something else, he didn’t show it. “As for why now? I’m changing my methods. Bringing people to justice is easier.”

  “Bullshit,” Griffin spat. “Twisting some gangbanger’s neck is a helluva lot easier than contacting me and getting a confession. What really made you change?”

  “Someone I care about didn’t want me to kill the guilty.” Maybe he didn’t either, but it was Ryan who pushed him to change

  “You mean a girlfriend?” The smirk on Griffin’s face made him laugh.

  “Something like that.” He turned up the path and kept walking.

  “Spirits date?” Griffin moved up so they were side by side again.

  “It’s complicated, but we have people we care about.” A large rust-colored dog ran by, followed by a smaller one. The puppy yelped as she chased the older dog. “Vizslas are pretty animals.”

  “What?”

  Will noted the confused look on Griffin’s face.

  “Those dogs.” He pointed to the pair, playing just off the path. “They’re good-looking dogs.”

  “They’re what kinda dogs?”

  Will smiled. “Vizslas, but never mind.”

  He continued to watch the dogs chase each other, until someone called and they dashed back the way they had come.

  “You’re not really a spirit, are you?”

  When he turned, he found Griffin staring at him.

  A small smile, almost a smirk, curled Will’s lips. “That’s also complicated.”

  Griffin continued to walk next to him. “Care to enlighten me?”

  “Spirit is the best way to describe me.” For everyone’s good, he decided not to tell the detective the whole truth. “There’s nothing else you can compare me to. Well, there is one other like me, but other than the two of us….” Kicking a clod of dirt, he shrugged.

  “You’re the strangest spirit I’ve ever met.”

  Will started to laugh. “Good one.”

  “You looked like you nee
ded a laugh.” Standing on the wide red-stone path, Griffin nodded slowly. “So you’re really leaving?”

  “Yes.” As much good as they could have done together, it was still a mistake to involve Griffin any further. “I never should have come to you. Despite your good intentions, once you made it known what you were doing, Barrington tried to get to me through you. Given what he wants, he doesn’t seem to care if anyone else gets hurt. If they do, he blames me.”

  “There goes my Officer of the Year award.” This time the smile looked forced.

  “You are a good detective, Griffin, but you’re a better man. That’s what you should be proud of.”

  Staring at the exit to the cemetery, Griffin’s face showed his indecision. About what, Will didn’t know. He considered scanning the man’s thoughts but decided against it.

  “You once said you could read minds.” Griffin was still focused on somewhere in the distance.

  “I can, but I haven’t read yours, if that’s what you want to know.”

  “You should read my mind.” He finally turned, locking eyes with Will.

  The invitation, almost a demand, sent a jolt that tightened his chest. Now it was okay?

  Gently probing, he found Griffin was focusing on an image MPD intelligence had culled from various cameras sited around the city. There was also a meeting Griffin had been to. Although the image and details were fuzzy, Will was able to delve deeper and find the original.

  He withdrew with a jolt and stared at the detective for a moment, fear clenching his stomach into a knot.

  “I assume he means something to you.” Griffin looked genuinely sorry.

  “He does.” He needed to go. “Thank you, Daniel.”

  Will leapt forward without waiting to hear the response. Barrington had found a common thread linked to him, a face, and he had put a name to the face: Ryan Posner.

  29

  ALL circuits busy?

  Leaping across three lanes of traffic, he sprinted north on 17th Street SE until he reached Massachusetts Avenue. His second attempt to call Ryan met with the same answer. Someone was jamming the signal, or at least the signal to Ryan’s phone.

  Turning left, he ran between traffic and the parked cars. The next two lights were green, so he didn’t need to vault the intersection to avoid getting hit. He cut through Lincoln Park and nearly doubled over before he reached 11th Street.

  Searing pain flashed bright white when he closed his eyes. The urgent call left his head throbbing. Ryan’s Purpose wasn’t just calling him. This time, It was desperate and afraid.

  “Tell your mate to stop! I know Ryan’s in trouble.” He had no idea if his Purpose would hear or listen. “I can’t focus when it’s calling like that.”

  “I shall tell my mate.”

  “Can you tell It to warn Ryan?” The pain stopped, and he took off again. Even running as fast as he could, he was more than five minutes away.

  “Your mate is not developed enough to hear our words. We tried to warn him, but he didn’t understand the warning.”

  Damn!

  Crossing 6th Street NE, intending to cut across Stanton Park, he didn’t see the panel truck until it almost struck him. Before impact, he thrust his left hand onto the hood and flipped over the top. The truck’s movement sent him soaring over the row of bushes that ringed the edge of the park.

  Twice, he ran through intersections and had to dodge oncoming traffic. A block before Dupont Circle, he turned north, feeling an urgency in his Purpose. Whatever was happening, Ryan’s Purpose was agitated, and that was spilling over to his.

  “What’s happening?” Why did he ask? No matter the answer, he couldn’t run any faster.

  “We warned your mate, but in doing so, he stayed too long.”

  “What the hell does that mean?” If Ryan knew there was danger, he could sneak out.

  “He felt my mate trying to tell him something. His way of hearing us took too long. Barrington’s men are too close for him to escape.”

  Son of a bitch!

  Streets rushed by as he pushed himself to reach his building. A half dozen blocks from home, he saw his first lookout. Barrington had men stationed on 19th Street looking for him, and not just with the naked eye. First there was a thermal sweep that his box easily countered. The laser “trip wire” set between two cars might have succeeded had he not seen it before he reached it and jumped well over the line. A mental command to the device made certain he didn’t set off any others, should he cross their path.

  Yellow police tape cordoned off his block. He ran through this line, setting off a frenzy of activity. Radios blared with warnings, followed by anxious acknowledgements. Good! Maybe if they knew he was coming, they’d forget what was inside.

  “It is not you they seek right now; it is your other. They wish to catch him to get you to do what they want.”

  He wanted to ask how It knew that, but he didn’t care right now. There’d be time to sort that out later.

  The lobby was empty, not even a guard. He could hear the chatter through the agents’ earpieces. They suspected he was already in the building but weren’t certain. Extreme caution, etc., etc. Wouldn’t help them today. Will was angry, and that made him dangerous, deadly even.

  An elevator sat open, inviting him to use it. A trap for sure. Besides, even if he was invisible, a bell went off a good fifteen seconds before the doors opened. Invisible to the agents, he didn’t want to give them any warning of his arrival.

  Ripping the door from its hinges, he surprised a pair of heavily armed but shocked-looking guards. Unable to see him, they aimlessly swept the area with their weapons. The one closest to him hit the stairwell’s cinder-block wall face-first.

  The second agent quickly pointed his weapon at the area where his partner went down. Will snatched the weapon from his hands and smacked the younger man in the face with the butt. Neither was seriously hurt, but both would feel their injuries for days to come.

  He used the sounds of breathing to locate the remaining agents in the stairwell. Every third floor held at least a pair of armed men, an armed man and woman on the seventh. The tenth and fourteenth floors were guarded by a half dozen officers crowded onto each landing.

  A grid of crossing red lights, invisible to the normal eye, covered the entrance to the second floor landing. Stupid fools. He hadn’t expected an ambush the last time. The tactics that “worked” on North Capitol weren’t going to work now that he was prepared.

  Slipping through the net, he found two anxious men pointing M5 assault rifles down the stairwell. In the upper left hand corner, he noted a small camera that hadn’t been there before. Scanning around him, he found cameras in every corner and one on each of the agents.

  Barrington’s people had been busy while he was gone.

  Walking past the first officer, Will grabbed the back of his vest and flung him into the other. Hopefully, the cameras would make it seem like he shoved the man from the front, but it didn’t matter, not much at least. The video wouldn’t reveal his presence. That gave him time to move to the next group.

  “Holy shit!” The male voice above was accompanied by the racking of a weapon. “What’s happening down there?”

  “Keep your position!” the other agent told her partner.

  Passing another worthless grid, he saw the shaking agent, kneeling on the landing, ready to fire. His partner stood off to the side, her gun aimed right at Will. Taking hold of the agent’s mind, Will forced him to spin around, pointing his weapon at his partner.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Akins?” She pointed her weapon at him in response.

  “He’s doing what I tell him.” Standing to her left, his voice seemed to come from her right. When she spun her weapon in the wrong direction, Will hit her with a right cross, knocking her unconscious. He tweaked his hold on the other agent and sent him to sleep.

  Frantic voices blared from the earpieces of the downed agents. They knew he was there but had no idea where. Grateful he never rem
oved his weapons from his coat, he withdrew his tonfa just before he reached the tenth floor.

  Two rows of agents, guns leveled down the stairs, greeted him as he turned the corner. How long before they just fired and hoped they hit something? He took the stairs three at a time and stepped between the agents in the first row. Barely enough room to stand, he lashed out with the hard wooden sticks.

  Several rounds were fired as he slapped at the guns, knocking them aside. One agent was struck in the leg by a stray bullet, but Will didn’t waste time on him. From above, he heard orders being shouted.

  “Why don’t you kill them?”

  “Shut up!” Forty years it didn’t speak to him, but It decided to criticize his methods now?

  He changed his appearance, made himself visible, and shouted, “Fall back!”

  The ruse would only last a moment. The cameras would quickly show all six agents were down, but it was all he’d need.

  “It’s coming!” His shout drowned out the warning from someone watching.

  “It’s a trick! He’s the target!” the male voice said.

  Too late. Will struck before the words registered. Packed into the narrow stairwell, the agents couldn’t move quickly enough to avoid his attack.

  “Target located!” Barrington’s voice blared through the earpieces. “He’s approaching the floor! Blow the door, now!”

  “Ryan, get out of there!” This close, Ryan surely would hear him.

  “Will! Where are you?” For a short moment, Will felt everything would be fine, but the groan from a downed agent squashed that hope.

  “Just get out!”

  “I can’t! They’re outside the door. There’s nowhere to go.”

  Ryan’s words screamed into Will’s mind as he reached the top floor. As he put his hand on the door leading out of the stairwell, Will’s sense of doom from the morning came full circle.