Edge

panicked at that and begged me not to.”
    “Because they were illegals.”
    “And because the attackers were our guys, Border Patrol.”
    “Ah.”
    “The family’d managed to lose them but they were getting close. I could see four or five of them following the trail. There’s sign cutting but there’s also sign pushing. Cutting is looking for sign. Pushing is catching the person who left the sign. That’s what the officers were doing—they were coming to get the family. I knew what’d happen if they found them. We could see them about a half mile from where we were hiding.”
    “‘We.’ That sort of tells me where this is going.”
    “I couldn’t leave them. They’d be killed for sure. So I led them away, covering up the signs as best I could. It was kind of a cat-and-mouse chase but weescaped. About three hours later I got them to San Antonio and a refuge at a church.”
    I was twenty-three then and most of my life had been in academia. That afternoon had been, hands down, the most exhilarating experience I’d ever had.
    “You said you got arrested. I’m not sure you really did anything wrong. You could have just said you didn’t know they were illegal, technically. You were just helping out some people get away from some attackers.”
    “I didn’t mention that we found one of the agents had driven ahead through an arroyo. The only way we could get out of there was with wheels. I was afraid the father would shoot the agent so I took the gun, snuck up behind the agent and stole his jeep and weapon.”
    “Okay. That’s arrestable,” Ryan said.
    “After I dropped the family off at the church I threw the gun in a lake and left the jeep in a grocery store lot. Caught a cab back to the orienteering course.”
    “How’d they catch you?”
    “Stub check.” I explained, “It’s a safety procedure in orienteering. Officials compare the starting stubs with the control cards at the finish. If somebody doesn’t make it to the end, they send out searchers to look for you. The Border Patrol agents had seen the checkpoint flags—they’re orange and white, hard to miss—and found out about the competition. They tracked me down at school the next day. Arrested me and the case went to an FBI agent who was in town from D.C., Agent Fredericks. The one I’m working with now.”
    “But if you’re a federal officer now you couldn’t’ve been convicted of a felony.”
    “Turned out that Freddy was in Texas to investigate cases of Border Patrol officers robbing and assaulting illegals. So, instead of a defendant I became a witness. Helped get four convictions.”
    “And the illegals?”
    I gave him a smile. “Somehow I forgot where I’d taken them.”
    “Good for you.”
    “I finished up a degree or two and started teaching. But I couldn’t quite get that weekend out of my head. A few years later I called Agent Fredericks and he put me in touch with some folks at Diplomatic Security in Washington—State Department—and I signed on and spent a few years with them, protecting our people at embassies and foreigners in the U.S. Eventually I didn’t want to travel so much. I’d heard about the outfit I work for now. Joined them and I’ve been there ever since.”
    Ryan finished assembling the material to send to Westerfield. It looked to be about two hundred sheets cluttered with numbers and charts that were incomprehensible to me.
    “Perfect,” I told him.
    “Ask you a question, Corte?”
    “Sure.”
    “How many of your principals you told that story to?”
    I answered honestly. “None.”
    He grinned. “How much of it’s true?”
    “The whole shebang,” I said.

MONDAY

    Remember that this is a game of defense as well as offense and be prepared to protect the areas which you occupy.
    — FROM THE INSTRUCTIONS TO THE BOARD GAME RISK

Chapter 40
    CLAIRE DUBOIS CALLED just before 9:00 a.m.
    What she had to tell me was illuminating.
    And discouraging.
    I took down the information and went into the kitchen, where the table, covered with a yellow gingham cloth, was littered with breakfast: bagels, cream cheese, jam. Both of my principals were drinking mugs of coffee. Joanne was sitting at a laptop, staring intently at the screen. She gave me a quick look of greeting but returned immediately to the computer.
    “Where’s Maree?” I asked.
    “Still asleep,” Ryan said.
    “I’ve just heard from Claire,” I told them grimly. “It’s not your other case.”
    The detective asked,