Last to Die

Enough to know that having you two mucking around in this threatens everything I’ve worked for.”
    “The CIA’s not authorized to run operations on US soil,” pointed out Frost. “This is illegal.”
    “It’s also necessary.”
    “Why isn’t the FBI handling this?”
    “This was not their mess. It was ours. We are simply cleaning up what should have been finished years ago.”
    “In Rome,” Jane said, quietly.
    Carole didn’t answer, but her sudden stillness confirmed what Jane believed. Rome was where it started. Where the lives of Nicholas and Olivia and Erskine had intersected in some catastrophic event that was still casting ripples in the lives of their children.
    “How did you know?” Carole finally said.
    “Sixteen years ago, they were all there in Rome. Erskine, working as a foreign service officer. Olivia, working as a so-called sales rep.” Jane paused, made an educated guess. “And Nicholas, traveling as a consultant for Jarvis and McCrane. A company that exists only on paper.”
    She saw confirmation in Carole’s face. The woman stared out the window and sighed. “They were so cocky. So goddamn sure of themselves. We’d pulled it off before, so what could possibly go wrong?”
    We
. “You were there, too,” said Jane. “In Rome.”
    Carole paced away from the window, her boots clicking across the wood. “It was a straightforward operation. Only Olivia was new to the team. The rest of us had worked together before. We knew Rome well, especially Erskine. That was his home base, and he had all the local assets lined up. People in place. All we had to do was swoop in, snatch our target, and get him out of the country.”
    “You mean … a
kidnapping
?”
    “You sound so judgmental.”
    “About kidnapping? Yeah, I tend to be.”
    “You wouldn’t be, if you knew the subject in question.”
    “You mean your victim.”
    “A criminal who’s responsible, both directly and indirectly, for the deaths of hundreds of people. We’re talking Americans, Detective. Our fellow citizens, killed in multiple countries. Not just military personnel, but also innocents abroad. Tourists, businessmen, families. Some monsters simply need to be exterminated, for the good of society. Surely you both understand that, considering your jobs. It is, after all, what
you
do. Hunt down monsters.”
    “But we do it within the law,” said Frost.
    “The law has no teeth.”
    “The law tells us when we’re over the line.”
    Carole snorted. “Let me guess, Detective Frost. You were a Boy Scout.”
    Jane glanced at her partner. “Well,
that
was right on the money.”
    “We do what needs to be done,” said Carole. “Everyone knows that extreme measures are sometimes necessary, but no one wants to admit it. No one wants to own it.” She moved toward Jane, close enough to be intimidating. “If you want a safer world, you need someone to do your dirty work. That someone would be us. We were there to take a monster out of circulation.”
    “You’re talking about extraordinary rendition,” said Frost.
    “That makes it sound so clinical. But yes, that’s what it’s called. Sixteen years ago, our mission was to scoop him up, whisk him to a private airstrip, and fly him to a detention facility in a cooperative country.”
    “For interrogation? Torture?” said Jane.
    “It’s a lot less than what he did to his victims. This man wasn’t driven by politics or religious convictions. He was in it for the money, and he’d made a fortune at it. Wire him enough cash, and he’d arrange to bomb a nightclub in Bali. Or take down a jumbo jet from Heathrow. His fortune made him untouchable—at least, through normal channels. We knew he’d never face justice in Italy. So we had to deliver justice another way. We had one chance, and only one chance, to snatch him. If we fucked up, if Icarus slipped away, he’d go underground. With his resources, we’d never get another shot at him.”
    “Icarus?”
    “Only a code name. His real name isn’t important.”
    “I’m guessing it didn’t go well,” said Jane.
    Carole went back to the window and peered out through cracked panes. “Oh, we accomplished the mission. Waited outside his favorite restaurant, where he dined with his wife and children and two bodyguards. When they came out, we were ready for them. One team boxed in the bodyguards’ vehicle. The other team pursued the car with Icarus and his family.” She turned to look at them. “Have you ever