The Lucifer Code by Charles Brokaw Page A

MacKenna had slain. No one knows if MacKenna really killed that policeman or even if it was policemen that killed his wife. But, either way, MacKenna moved his girls to Boston.’
    ‘That’s where Lourds is from.’
    ‘Yes, sir. Cleena was twelve when her father moved her to Boston. Her younger sister, Brigid, was six. Evidently Cleena finished high school, started college and joined her father in the family business.’
    ‘Arms dealing?’
    ‘Exactly. The FBI has an open file regarding their business. Ryan MacKenna was good at what he did, a very careful man. Nobody ever got a whiff of evidence against them.’
    ‘Until that night with the Chinese gang.’
    ‘Yes, sir. It’s hard to clean up evidence when you’re dead. Cleena was nineteen when her father was killed. According to the FBI files I’ve seen, Cleena MacKenna spent seven months tracking down those gang members. She killed sixteen of them before they left the city. Not that we can prove it.’
    ‘Impressive. Evidently her father taught her all aspects of the family business.’
    ‘Yes, sir. After she’d finished dealing with her father’s killers, Cleena MacKenna dropped out of college and became a full-time mercenary and arms dealer. She’s hired out since then to do retrieval work—assets and people—as well as assassinations.’
    ‘Ambitious young woman, isn’t she?’
    Dawson nodded. ‘Yes, sir. And very good at what she does. The FBI and Boston Police Department have been on her trail for the last six years. Even Interpol has her marked as a person of interest in some cases they’re working on. None of those people has made a case yet.’
    ‘Obviously a very careful young woman as well,’ Webster said. ‘I’m sure the law enforcement authorities haven’t been the only threats she’s weathered.’
    ‘No, sir.’
    Webster poured more wine and reached for another roll. ‘What are you thinking, Jimmy?’
    ‘Whoever this group is that has Lourds, they hired Cleena MacKenna to trail him from Boston to Istanbul. She travelled under a forged passport, but we know who she is. We can find her.’
    ‘And hire her ourselves?’
    ‘Or at least pay her for any information she might have about the people who hired her to help kidnap Professor Lourds.’
    ‘I’d like to know more about these kidnappers,’ Webster said, ‘and how they came to be interested in Professor Lourds at the same time as we were looking for him.’
    Dawson didn’t point out that he still didn’t know why the vice-president wanted to bring Lourds in. ‘Yes, sir.’
    Webster sipped his wine. ‘Not to rain on your parade, Jimmy, but Cleena MacKenna might be reluctant to sell out her previous employers. People like that have a reputation to live up to.’
    Dawson only hesitated for a second. A lot of politicians didn’t like to risk getting their hands dirty. Vice-President Elliott Webster wasn’t one of them, but he didn’t like getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar.
    ‘If by chance there is some residual moral high ground still lurking inside her mind,’ Dawson said, ‘we can just remind her that we know who she is and where her young sister goes to college.’
    ‘Do you think you can contact this young woman?’
    ‘Yes, sir. We have assets that she’ll need to get out of the country. The cover identity she used to get into Istanbul is blown. The local law enforcement people, and part of the criminal element there, are going to be looking for her. Sooner or later, she’ll come to someone we have a relationship with. Then we’ll have her.’
    ‘That sounds like a good plan, Jimmy. There’s only one catch that I see.’
    ‘What’s that, sir?’
    ‘There is the distinct possibility that her employers won’t let her live. They don’t appear to be the trusting sort.’
    ‘Yes, sir.’ Dawson had already been thinking along those lines.
    ‘After we’re finished with her, Jimmy, I think we should probably limit our exposure as well.’
    ‘Of