The King of Fear: A Garrett Reilly Thriller by Drew Chapman Page B

and would again if the circumstances demanded it. He had to keep his distance.
    Garrett watched as Alexis called Kline’s office and told his secretary that she was having car trouble, and that she would be in the office in an hour or so. Then she brewed more coffee and poured Garrett a cup, offering him food as well—breakfast cereal and eggs—which he declined.
    “Where’s Mitty now?”
    “A few blocks away. She’s fine. She knows to wait.”
    Alexis sat across from him in a padded brown chair, sipping her coffee, hereyes seeming to note everything about him. Garrett realized his fingers were twitching, so he gripped the sofa armrest hard to make them stop. His head ached, and the blood in his veins felt thick, as if it were dry and clotted, as if his heart might explode at any moment from the exertion of pumping. He knew this was withdrawal, a hallucination, but it was powerful, and growing. He had his bag of meds in his back pocket, but he needed to stay off them, at least for the moment. He breathed deep to ease his rising panic.
    Alexis seemed to sense this. “Garrett, listen, I don’t want you to take this wrong, but are you still taking prescription medications?”
    Garrett blinked in surprise. “Fuck you for looking at my medical records.” Christ, he thought to himself, is there absolutely no part of my life that’s private? Am I an open book to the world?
    “You had a top-level security clearance. We have to be careful with everyone who has ever worked for us. You can understand that.”
    “No, I cannot understand that. My personal business is my own. Not yours. What the hell is wrong with you people? What is wrong with this country?”
    “I understand you’re upset, but—”
    “You don’t.” An ember of rage glowed in his chest. “You understand nothing about me. You never have.”
    They sat silently for half a minute. Garrett’s mind raced. He replayed the conversation they’d just had in his head. Had he been too defensive? Yes. Well, no, the DIA had dug into his medical records. That was wrong. And illegal. On the other hand, he was taking too many drugs—heven he recognized that. Maybe she was actually worried about him. No, no, and no. His thoughts were ping-ponging back and forth. He slammed shut his eyes and tried to focus on what he had told himself only moments earlier: He had to keep his distance from Alexis. He did not love her anymore. Keep. His. Distance.
    “Did you say something?” she asked, brow creased in concern.
    “What?” he asked. Had he said his thoughts out loud? He slapped his open palm against the sofa cushion, trying to jolt his mind to reality, to the present. He was a mess. His mind was a mess. “No. I was just—nothing.”
    She nodded slowly, as if to say, Okay, I believe you. Sort of. “Can you tell me a little more about this pool? And who you think is behind it?”
    “If I had to guess, I’d say a nation-state. Not an ally. But maybe not a full-on enemy either. They’re sending someone into this country. To destabilize things.That’s what they’ve been doing now for weeks. In Europe. Hacking, stealing, causing a bank run.”
    “If it’s cybercrime, why send someone into this country? Why not do it remotely?”
    “It’s not just cybercrime. It’s social engineering. Conning people. You need to be here in person to do that. To make the dominoes fall in the right order.”
    “I saw an intelligence report on the bank run in Malta. You’re saying that’s a part of this?”
    He nodded yes.
    “But Europe is not the United States.”
    “They’re connected. Corporations in London, banks in New York, data centers in Hong Kong. Nothing is truly separate anymore.”
    “And who is this person they’re sending?”
    “An assassin. A financial assassin.”
    Garrett watched Alexis’s reaction, how her lips tightened, how her eyes shot quickly high and to the left, looking out a window, avoiding his gaze. That was a tell. She didn’t believe him. She