Inside Outt

bad news was, Ben had seen how fast the man was. And if he made a move, Ben would have the action/reaction disadvantage. And Ben would be shooting left-handed.
    One piece of good news, three bad. It would have been a lot easier to just shoot the guy and be done with it. Orders were a bitch.
    Larison said, “How long have you been in?”
    Ben glanced at him, trying to judge whether it was just a distraction. He decided the hell with it. If he didn’t talk to the guy, he was going to shoot him. He had to do something, or the tension was going to make him explode.
    “The unit?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Six years.”
    “You like it?”
    “Yeah, I like it.”
    “Why?”
    Ben shrugged. “I’m good at it.”
    “I can see that. You think that’s enough?”
    “It has been so far.”
    “Yeah, it was good enough so far for me, too.”
    “What happened, then? Hort said you were the best.”
    Larison smiled slightly. “Did he?”
    It was amazing. Even over Larison, even after everything that had happened, Hort just had that power. “Yeah. It’s part of what made him suspect you. He said no one else could have pulled this off—taking the tapes, faking your death, all of it.”
    Larison’s smile faded. For a moment, he looked almost wistful. “I don’t know about the best. But I was up there.”
    “Still are, from what I can see.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Not sure it’s a compliment, given what I’ve seen you do with it.”
    “You talking about Los Yoses?”
    “Yeah.”
    “What do you think they were going to do to me?”
    “Well, it’s not like you’ve given people a lot of choices.”
    Larison glanced left, then right, then behind. “People always have choices. They say they don’t to enable themselves to do what they wanted to do anyway.”
    “You sound like Hort.”
    “Hort said that?”
    “Something like that.”
    “Well, maybe he’s learning from his mistakes, too.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Nothing.”
    “How’d you do it, anyway? I saw them hit you with the tranq.”
    “Opioid antagonist.”
    “Nicely done.” He couldn’t deny it.
    Larison nodded. “You know who they were?”
    “Blackwater, supposedly.”
    “Contractors? For me? Who sent them?”
    “The Agency, from what I hear.”
    “Shit, I thought they’d at least care enough to send the best.”
    Ben laughed, and Larison joined him. It was bizarre, but there they were, driving along, possibly on the brink of gunplay, cracking up.
    “There were two more,” Ben said, when the laughter had faded. “After you left.”
    “Who?”
    “Ground Branch, supposedly. But I don’t think they were there for you. They were setting up for a hit—on an FBI agent who’s been investigating this thing, or on me, or on both of us. I didn’t have time to clarify all the details.”
    “Yeah, the Agency wouldn’t want anyone else to get the tapes. You dropped them?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Good for you.”
    They drove in silence for a minute. Ben said, “You miss it?”
    “The unit?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Why would I miss being lied to and used and manipulated? And set up and discarded, when they were through with me?”
    “So you miss it.”
    They both laughed again.
    Ben said, “Why’d you do it?”
    “Take the tapes?”
    “And everything else.”
    “Long story.”
    “Well, we’re just driving along. Shooting the shit.”
    Larison chuckled. “I saw what they were going to do to me. I did it to them first.”
    “Sound tactics.”
    “I wish there’d been another way. But they didn’t give me a choice.”
    “You said people always have choices.”
    Larison checked the surroundings again. Ben had been doing the same. Normal traffic, no apparent tails.
    “I guess I did. All right, maybe it was my fault. Maybe I was the one who foreclosed all the choices. Maybe I was stupid along the way to get in that position, to get in so deep I couldn’t find my way back, only out.”
    Ben wanted to ask more, but Larison seemed to be getting agitated, and generally speaking, Ben preferred not to agitate proven deadly people carrying HKs in the passenger seat next to him.
    “You want to know something?” Larison said. “I like you. You remind me of me. When I was young and stupid.”
    “I don’t know, man. You’re the one who’s got the whole U.S. government for an enemy now. How smart is that?”
    “You think Uncle Sam’s your friend, is that it? You think your loyalty is a two-way street?”
    Ben thought about Obsidian, about what Hort