Death Echo

action was at the poker machines, where retirees old enough to know better and too bored to care fed the electronic monsters.
    â€œHow can they take the excitement?” Emma said under her breath.
    â€œClean living and constant prayer.”
    She smiled in spite of herself. “Good to know.”
    â€œTwo,” Mac said to the unsmiling hostess.
    The woman waved her hand toward ranks of empty tables. “Sit anywhere you want. Someone will be over to take your order.”
    Mac led Emma to a corner and chose a seat next to the wall. She selected a nearby chair and moved it slightly, keeping an eye on the entrance.
    â€œTalk,” she said to him.
    â€œAfter you.”
    â€œWhat do you want?”
    â€œWhy are you following me?” he countered.
    Emma sighed. She’d guessed he wouldn’t make it easy. That didn’t mean she liked being right.
    The server appeared and said, “Coffee.”
    It was a take-it-or-leave-it kind of offer.
    Emma looked at the server. She had the same dark, expressionless face and bad hair that the hostess did, plus all the welcome of a No Parking sign.
    â€œCoffee,” Emma said.
    The server started to leave.
    â€œCoffee and menus,” Mac said.
    The woman walked off without a word.
    â€œAre they always this friendly or is it a special effort?” Emma asked.
    â€œThey’re tribe. They won’t be fired.”
    Emma glanced at her watch. The time she could safely ignore Blackbird was ticking away. Since Mac kept pushing the ball into her court, she’d take it and ram it down his coy throat.
    â€œMy boss would like to hire you,” she said.
    â€œThe boss with more money than sense?”
    â€œHave you ever heard of St. Kilda Consulting?” she asked calmly.
    Mac frowned and searched through his memory. “Civilian. Private. International. Kidnap security.”
    â€œAmong other things.”
    â€œWhat do they want me to do?”
    Emma looked at Mac’s clear dark eyes and wondered why she kept thinking he was laughing at her.
    â€œYou’ll have to ask Joe Faroe,” she said.
    â€œWhat do you do for him?”
    â€œYou can ask him that, too.”
    â€œI’m asking you,” Mac said.
    â€œDo you know if or when Blackbird is leaving port?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œCan you find out?” she pressed.
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œWhy not?”
    Then she closed her eyes and took a better grip on her temper. She knew how to recruit someone.
    This wasn’t the way.
    â€œSorry,” she said. “Perhaps I should—” She stopped abruptly.
    The server showed up with coffee, splashed it into their cups, and dropped two menus on the far side of the table.
    Emma picked up the coffee, sipped, and grimaced. “Colder than the hostess. Pass the sugar, please.”
    Mac’s smile was the warmest thing in the casino.
    She enjoyed the vision, then smiled herself.
    â€œIf you’re interested in making some honest money,” she said, “I’ll put you in touch with Joe Faroe. Whatever St. Kilda wants from you will be legal in whatever country you do it in.” So far, anyway. “They don’t play politics, they’ve been honest with me, and they pay on time.”
    â€œDo they work for the good guys or just anyone who pays?”
    â€œFind me some good guys and I’ll let you know,” she said. Then she met Mac’s dark eyes. “They’re more trustworthy than the government.”
    â€œFaint praise.”
    â€œIn this world, that’s as good as it gets.”
    His expression changed. “I left that world.”
    She laughed, as much at herself as at him. “Sorry, babe. It’s the only world there is.”
    â€œIf you can’t tell me what you’re doing for St. Kilda, I’m not interested in talking to Joe Faroe.”
    Emma decided quickly. As long as her existing cover got the job done, she’d stay with it. “Missing yachts.”
    â€œPiracy?”
    â€œNot yet. Just yachts that are made in Asia and ‘fall off the ship’ before they get here.”
    â€œThey go through Vladivostok?”
    Though Emma’s expression didn’t change, Mac sensed that she had come to a point.
    â€œHow did you know?” she asked.
    He shrugged. “Anything that transits through the FSU is fair game for the local strongmen. Think of it as paying a toll.”
    â€œThe insurance company is tired