Death is Forever

walked quickly.
    “Find anything?” she asked as he emerged from the darkness, pushing a perfectly shaped circle of light in front of him.
    “Nothing new.”
    When he walked forward, the light glanced off a small pile of rubble that had been pushed against the wall. Something shimmered darkly in the little mound.
    “What’s that?” she asked.
    Cole played the light over the mound again and said, “Diamond ore.”
    Erin made a startled sound and bent down to scoop up a handful of the rocks. In the yellow light of the electric lantern, the ore looked as common as mud. The few tiny crystals embedded in the ore were the color of camp coffee and nearly as opaque.
    “These don’t look anything like diamonds,” she protested.
    “You’re thinking of gem diamonds. Those are bort.”
    For a few more moments she studied the bits of ore and minute, ugly diamonds. “I don’t see any green crystals.”
    “If there were any, Abe would have been buried in diamond buyers. But they rarely came out here.”
    “Didn’t Abe ever leave the station?”
    “He never went beyond the store in Fitzroy Crossing. He had plenty of money for equipment and food and Fosters lager. That was as much as he needed from civilization.”
    “He really didn’t like people, did he?”
    “People hem you in and betray you,” Cole said. “There’s a freedom out here that’s addictive.”
    “You and Abe were a lot alike. Once burned, forever shy.”
    “You should know, honey. You’re backing away from the fire as fast as you can.” Cole flashed the light toward the entrance. “There’s nothing for us here. Let’s go.”
    Without a word she turned and walked toward the searing sunlight that crouched at the mouth of Dog One’s tunnel, waiting for prey.

30
Washington, D.C.
    “No,” Matthew Windsor said. “Street has worked too many sides of too many political fences. I don’t trust him.”
    “ASIO vouches for him,” Nan Faulkner said curtly, stubbing out her cigarillo. “So does MI-Six.”
    “MI-Six has vouched for a lot of traitors.”
    Faulkner swore, lit another cigarillo, and watched the man who sat opposite her broad teak desk.
    “I could make it an order,” she said, exhaling a stream of smoke.
    “You’ve got my resignation. Use it.”
    “I’d rather use you.” She drummed her fingers on the desk, then reached a decision. She opened the belly drawer, pulled out a battery-operated tape player, and set it on the desk. “Listen to this.”
    She punched a button and the tape began to play.
    Windsor looked sharply at Faulkner, then listened intently. The first voice was male and unfamiliar. The second voice was Cole Blackburn’s. The conversation made it clear that Cole had been employed to find the diamond mine regardless of whatever it cost—including Erin Windsor’s life.
    “I recognized Blackburn’s voice,” Windsor said when the tape stopped running. “I presume the other man was Chen Wing?”
    “A good guess.” She smiled thinly. “But then, you’re good at what you do. Yes, it was Wing.”
    Windsor waited.
    “You’re not stupid, Matt,” Faulkner said impatiently. “You know what this means.”
    “Tell me what you think it means.”
    “Cole Blackburn isn’t the loose cannon we thought he was. He’s in the pay of an ambitious Hong Kong clan run by a cunning, ruthless old bastard who happens to be Chen Wing’s uncle.” Faulkner waited, but no comment came from the big, impassive man who sat opposite her. She exhaled smoke and made a disgusted sound. “Your daughter’s life is on the line and you’ve got nothing to say?”
    “Erin’s life has been on the line since she was named Abelard Windsor’s heir.”
    “Shit.” Faulkner sucked in hard, making the cigarillo’s narrow tip glow. “We made a mistake not taking Blackburn out of the game, and you know it.”
    “No, I don’t know it. Nothing I just heard proves he signed up as Erin’s assassin.”
    Faulkner gave him a look of disgust. “Wing says nothing matters after the mine is found, and Blackburn doesn’t say squat about it.”
    “That doesn’t prove he—” Windsor began.
    “Jesus, Matt,” Faulkner cut in angrily. “I thought you’d be happy to hear we’re sending a bodyguard in for your daughter. Otherwise she’ll die as soon as the mine is found and the Chen clan will control half of the mine outright and you know it as well as I do.”
    “The Australian government—”
    “No!” Faulkner said, slashing across