Death Echo

time to beat the truth out of you.”
    â€œGood job you brought a team,” Emma said. “Mac would mop the dock with you and you know it.”
    â€œThink of the splinters,” Mac said, shaking his head.
    â€œMmm, I am.”
    â€œBefore you do a grenade imitation,” Mac said to Harrow, “understand that we’re not going anywhere with you and you’re not going anywhere with us. And the dude in the dive suit isn’t going to plant any cute device on the dinghy, or we’re going to whistle up a seaplane to fly us out of here and leave you with your thumb up your ass and your balls swinging in the breeze. Are you hearing me?”
    Harrow glanced reflexively toward the Zodiac. He could just make out the black hood of the diver who had slipped into the water. With a muffled curse, Harrow pulled a hair-thin mic out from behind his ear.
    â€œAbort dive,” he said in a clipped voice.
    A disembodied voice replied, “Say again.”
    â€œAbort.”
    Emma watched as the diver came up out of the water and rolled back into the Zodiac with a casual display of strength and coordination.
    â€œI’ve got you outgunned,” Harrow said to Mac.
    Emma smiled. “We have Blackbird . You don’t.”

60
    DAY FIVE
NORTH OF DISCOVERY PASSAGE
4:01 P.M.
    L et’s cut the bullshit,” Harrow finally said. “We need to get a locator on Blackbird .”
    â€œNot going to happen,” Emma said.
    â€œJoe Faroe assured me that St. Kilda would cooperate,” Harrow said with an icy kind of neutrality. “He knows they can’t afford the kind of trouble I can cause.”
    Emma met his eyes calmly. “Is it as big as the trouble that would come down on you if the sovereign nation of Canada discovered the CIA was running a covert op in its territorial waters?”
    â€œWe’re not running an op,” Harrow said.
    â€œExactly,” she said crisply. “You were running an op of some sort, maybe along with the FBI, and then things jumped the border. So now you’re relying on a private proxy, St. Kilda Consulting, to get the job done.”
    â€œYou have no need to know,” Harrow said.
    â€œThink of it as a need to survive,” Mac said.
    â€œMac and I have our asses on the firing line,” Emma said. “If we get caught with whatever prize everybody is chasing, we might convince the Canadians we were good guys investigating an international smuggling operation. Might .”
    â€œBut the odds are that we’ll draw a long prison sentence,” Mac said. “That probably would depend on what goods we were caught with.”
    â€œSo tell me, Tim, what we’re going to go to jail for,” Emma said.
    â€œYou want me to believe you don’t know what you’ll be smuggling?” Harrow laughed without humor. “Not going to happen.”
    â€œMules don’t have to know what’s on their backs,” she shot back. “What difference does it make? They’re just dumb muscle.”
    Harrow stared at them.
    â€œRight,” Emma said. She turned to Mac. “About that seaplane.”
    â€œYou really don’t know what’s going on?” Harrow asked in disbelief.
    â€œNow you’ve got it,” Mac said.
    â€œBloody, buggering hell,” Harrow said in disgust, proving that he was an internationalist when it came to language. “This is a three-star cluster. What do you know?”
    â€œYou first,” Emma said.
    Harrow hesitated, then shrugged. “I was told that there was an old op, one that began years back, before the present administration.”
    â€œSweet,” Mac said under his breath. “Feasible deniability, all present and accounted for. Public theater in an off-Broadway opening, soon to be in D.C.”
    Harrow ignored him. “We didn’t want to use drugs to pay our secret allies, or arms, because there was a huge political downside if the press found out. And when the presidency changes hands, so do secrets. For our covert allies, any diamonds that aren’t Russian goods are automatically suspect on the market.”
    â€œHow could anyone know the difference?” Mac asked.
    â€œRussian diamonds have a very faint green tinge,” Emma said. “Not enough to be noticed by anyone but a real expert.”
    â€œOur allies didn’t want to be carrying bales of American moneyaround in satchels, either,” Harrow