The Last Assassin

shouldn't have tried to choke him.'
    'Yeah, no shit you shouldn't have tried to choke him. You should have just climbed up his body and levered him over by the head. A little guy did it to me once, and I'm lucky I'm here to tell you about it.'
    We laughed more. When it subsided, Dox said, 'Thank you, man. I won't forget it.'
    'Forget it? I'm worried you're going to keep reminding me of it.'
    'Oh, you can count on that.'
    'All right, come on, before they wake up again.'
    'Partner, if they show any signs of wakefulness whatsoever, I'm going to empty my HK into both of them, reload, and do it again.'
    'I know. So let's just finish up and get out of here. Can you carry those bags?'
    'Yeah, I'm just sore. I don't think anything's busted.'
    While Dox loaded the bags into the van, I retrieved the transmitter from under the Cadillac. Then I went back to the Chinese. They were all lying facedown. I turned them over on their backs and shot them each in the torso. I wanted it to look as though the sumos had ambushed them and then finished them off with the head shots I had started with,
    I went back to the sumos. I could see they were breathing. With some trepidation I placed the HK in each one's hand and fired a few shots into the water. I was probably being more thorough than necessary, but I wanted gunshot residue on their hands. They still had the tranquilizer darts stuck in their necks and belly. I pulled them out and pocketed them.
    Dox was already waiting in the van with the engine running. I got in and we left.
    While I drove, Dox checked the cargo bag. 'Damn, partner, I ain't gonna count it now, but there is a whole lot of cash here.'
    'Good,' I said, smiling. I wanted him to get a big payday out of this. He deserved it.
    We found a deserted stretch of coast, parked, and waded in. We started emptying the duffels into the water and in no time were standing amid a small sandbar made of hundreds of thousands of pills. We kicked them around under the surf to make sure the salt water had plenty of access to dissolve them. 'Going to be some mighty jumpy fish in here,' Dox observed when we were done.
    We drove back to the inn. I didn't want to stay, but if I left in the middle of the night it would have looked suspicious.
    I parked in the same spot I'd been in before and shut off the engine. We stowed the goggles and the tranquilizer rifle, but kept the HKs close at hand.
    'You think those boys will come back here?' Dox asked.
    I considered. 'They might stop by, just to pick up their stuff and begin their new lives as fugitives. But they've got no way of connecting anything to us. They couldn't have made out our faces in the dark, and anyway, they never saw me inside the inn.'
    We were quiet for a moment. Dox said, 'Engine's still warm, though. Ticking a little, you hear it?'
    I nodded. 'That's a good point. All right, let's give it a little while to cool down. Better to know if they come back and notice.'
    He patted the HK. 'And to be awake and armed.'
    We sat quietly in the dark for about an hour. I was tired, and I knew Dox was, too. After the adrenaline rush of combat, there's a powerful parasympathetic backlash, and the body craves rest so badly that you can fall into a kind of stupor. That's why Napoleon knew the best time to counterattack was immediately after the battle, when the other side was still drugged with victory.
    Gradually the engine's ticking slowed, then stopped. The little wisps of steam that had been coming off the hood disappeared.
    'All right, I better get in,' I said. 'The staff will be up soon, and I don't want to be seen. Sorry you've got to spend another night in the van.'
    He patted the cargo bag and grinned. 'I'd say it's worth it.' Yeah, so far it had been. But it wasn't over yet.

19

    D elilah sipped a cappuccino at Chez Prune on the Canal Saint-Martin, one of her favorite cafes in Paris. Ordinarily, a solitary hour here people-watching or with a book or just looking out on the water relaxed her body and emptied her mind, but today the effect was lacking.
    The few days she'd spent in Manhattan after seeing Midori had been much the same. She'd visited the Neue Galerie and the galleries in Chelsea and shopped in the boutiques in the meat-packing district and run for miles in Central Park, but none of it had been any good. She was glad to finally abandon it and just come home, and now here she was and this didn't feel right, either.
    The thing that was bothering her was the recognition that she