Requiem for an Assassin

and her family every time he was on the East Coast. After all, with their parents gone and no other siblings, there wans’t much other family to stay in touch with, and her two sons, Hilger’s wonderful nephews, were the whole future of the clan. Yeah. If he knew it was all over, if he had time, it would be a comfort if Susan’s was the last voice he heard.
    He nodded. “Yeah. I’ll call his wife.”
    Nobody moved. The night’s humidity had grown heavier, a pall of wet heat that pressed down on them from above and all sides.
    “Demeere was a good man,” Hilger said. “As good and reliable as any I’ve had the privilege to work with. We’re going to miss him. And we’re going to honor his memory by finishing what we started, and what he cared about enough to be part of.”
    Pancho and Guthrie nodded. Hilger looked at them, satisfied they were going to be all right.
    My God, but Rain was going to pay. And that fucking Dox, too. Between the two of them, they’d cost Hilger dearly. He was so angry just now that he was tempted to let Pancho do as he’d asked, take the boat out to deeper water and dump Dox over to the sharks. He was angry enough to leave the two of them alone for a while first, knowing how Pancho was likely to use the time.
    But the operation had to come first, as always. Demeere had been the point man in Amsterdam, and with him gone, someone else would have to go there for the final steps. He didn’t like the idea of sending Pancho; the man was capable, but his forte was muscle, and he lacked Demeere’s finesse. For one second, Hilger wished he had sent Pancho to New York instead of Demeere. It was Pancho’s aura of dangerousness that had persuaded him not to—Rain would have made him too easily. Demeere, he had thought, would have a better chance at surprise. Well, that hadn’t worked out, but there was nothing to be gained from agonizing over it now.
    And Guthrie…he was definitely good, definitely reliable. But Hilger hadn’t known him as long as the others, and wasn’t sure he trusted him for something as critical as Amsterdam.
    In the end, he might have to go himself. Yeah, that would probably be the best way. Despite everything, the operation was still on track. Best to see it through personally.
    For the moment, that meant holding on to Dox for a little while longer.
    But only a little.

27
    T HE LONG FLIGHT TURNED out to be exactly what I needed. There was nothing I could do about anything until I was on the ground again, and knowing that, and accepting it, enabled me to unwind for the first time since receiving Hilger’s message in Paris. I fueled up on the first-class dinner, then slept like a dead man for nearly twelve hours after. I woke up feeling reasonably fresh, with less than five hours remaining to Singapore.
    I thought about what I would do after landing. I’d stay in the terminal, at least to begin with. If Kanezaki had gotten a fix on Hilger’s position, and depending on when Hilger wanted to do the call, I might have to fly immediately to Jakarta, or Kuala Lumpur, or wherever. I didn’t want to waste time clearing customs twice, or be forced to explain such a rapid back-and-forth to an immigration official, either.
    Okay, find an Internet connection in the terminal after we land, access the bulletin boards, see what Hilger…
    My thoughts stopped there, snagged on a problem I hadn’t anticipated. If Hilger had a way of knowing where I was accessing the board, and he saw the access in Singapore, or anywhere else in Southeast Asia, he’d know I was coming for him.
    Shit. Stupid to have missed something so obvious. There had been a lot going on, and I was tired, but still…
    Delilah. I didn’t see an alternative. I could give her the URL, and she could cut and paste Hilger’s message onto the bulletin board she used with me. Or read it over the phone, either way. And then I could dictate the response to her, and she could type it in. Hilger would think I’d gone back to Paris after New York. There were actually some advantages this way. If he thought I was in Paris, it would lull him, get him to lower his guard.
    But what if she told her organization? Maybe she wouldn’t, but I couldn’t count on her not to. On the other hand, if they wanted Hilger dead, as she had told me, I supposed there was at least a decent chance they’d stay out of my way. And if they interfered…well, I’d just have to take the risk. I might have turned to Kanezaki, but I