Killing Rain

who might like to see that happen, yeah.”
    “What gives you that feeling?”
    “I’m not sure. I want to check something out, and then I’ll let you know.”
    “All right. Finish your quickie, and let’s meet at the airport. The old City of Life just doesn’t feel as welcoming now as it did this morning.”

    “Give me an hour.”
    “Sure, take as much time as you need. I don’t see any reason to hurry. It’s not like half the Hong Kong police force would be looking for someone of your description or anything like that.”
    “All right,” I said, “I see your point.” I told him where he could retrieve the bug-out kit I’d put in place. He said he would grab it and be on the way.
    I clicked off and looked at Delilah.
    “Gil’s dead,” I said. “Dox saw Hilger shoot him in the head, point-blank.”
    She nodded, her jaw set, then said, “What else?”
    I briefed her on the rest of what Dox had told me.
    “I’m going to meet him at the airport now,” I said. “You coming?”
    She shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t have my passport.”
    I didn’t say anything. I was still pissed that she had called Gil. I was trying to let it go.
    “Anyway,” she said, “I need to brief my people on what just happened here. There are going to be a lot of questions.”
    “You going to be able to weather it?”
    “I’m not sure. Al-Jib dead will certainly help. That is a major victory, major. If he’d gotten away, I don’t know what would have happened.”
    She was talking unusually fast. I noticed that her hands were trembling.
    “You okay?” I asked, looking at her.
    She nodded. I saw her eyes were filling up.
    “You never . . .” I started to say. I paused, then went on. “That was your first time, wasn’t it.”
    She nodded again and her tears spilled over. She started to shake.
    My anger dissipated. I put my arm around her and pulled herclose. “You did the right thing,” I said. “Just like they trained you. You’ll be okay.”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I should be happy, I should be exulting that he’s dead. I mean, I was exulting, right after. But now . . .”
    I kissed the top of her head. “Your mind knows what’s what. It’ll just take a little while for your gut to catch up. You’ll see.”
    She wiped her face and looked at me. “I was so afraid he was going to get away. I wanted you to shoot him. When he had that gun to my head, I thought I was going to die and all I cared about was that you shoot him first, so I would know.”
    I nodded. “When you’re certain you’re going to die, and you don’t, it stays with you for a long time after. Sometime I’ll have to tell you about what happened to me outside of Kwai Chung last year.”
    “You never did tell me that whole story.”
    “Well, are you going to give me the chance?”
    She laughed a little and touched my cheek. “Let’s meet somewhere. I don’t want it to end like this. I want . . . I want that to look forward to.”
    I shrugged. “I’ve got your number. And we’ve got the bulletin board.”
    She smiled. “We’ll always have the bulletin board.”
    I laughed. “Well, it’s not Paris, but we’ll figure something out.”
    Her hand slipped around to the back of my neck and caressed me there, absently, gently. It felt good.
    “Thank you for trusting me,” she said. “I wanted to say that to you in Phuket, but I didn’t. I wanted to tell you . . . how much it means to me.”
    How someone could smell so good after chasing a terrorist a quarter mile, almost dying in his grasp, and then killing him, was a mystery I knew I would always savor.

    “Sounds like trusting you in Phuket wasn’t the brightest move I’ve ever made,” I said.
    She looked at me, her eyes fierce. “Yes, it was. And as for calling Gil tonight . . .”
    I shook my head. “I understand why you did it.”
    “I had to. I told him it was Al-Jib, not you, that you were helping us. But he didn’t believe me about you. And when I saw him take a shot at you . . .”
    I realized I was touching her leg. I started to say, “I know, I heard you,” but she pulled me in and kissed me.
    I stopped talking. The kiss went from zero to sixty in about two nanoseconds. Where we were sitting, it was very dark.
    What the hell, it wasn’t like Dox had never kept me waiting.

    I TOOK THE Airport Express train from Kowloon station and called Dox when I arrived. He was already there. We met on the departures