The Last Assassin

recon the exterior.'
    'It's an impressive place,' she said. 'Very high-end, smooth operation. And the women are stunning. All of them.'
    'It occurs to me,' Dox said. 'Maybe I should reconnoiter this establishment myself. Couldn't hurt to have a second set of eyes, you know.'
    I looked at him.
    He shrugged and said, 'No need to get irritable about it. Nothing wrong with a man enjoying his work.'
    Delilah reached into her purse and took out Harry's bug detector. 'Here,' she said. 'Don't want to forget.'
    'You might want it tomorrow night…' I started to say.
    'No, it's served its purpose. And nicely. Worked in the vestibule and for the camera watching the basement emergency exit, quiet the rest of the time. I can see why it's sentimental.'
    I took it and shook my head. 'That's a story for another time.'
    She nodded and rubbed her eyes. 'I should get some sleep.'
    'You're right,' I said. 'We can finish planning tomorrow. Why don't you sleep in if you can, and call us whenever you get up.'
    'That sounds good,' she said, standing up.
    I stood, too. 'I'll walk you back to your hotel.'
    She shook her head. 'Better to stay apart for now.'
    Once again, I didn't know what was the real motivation there, personal or professional, but this wasn't the time or place to discuss it. 'Okay,' I said.
    Dox stood, too. He extended his hand, and Delilah shook it. 'It's great they invited you back for tomorrow, and no surprise, either,' he said. 'You did really well tonight, on unfamiliar terrain and without a lot of preparation, and that's a fact.'
    She gave him a nice smile. 'Thank you, Dox.'
    'Our glorious leader thinks so, too,' he added. 'Just, like I said before, he's not very expressive about these things.'
    Delilah's smile faded and she offered a tentative nod that said,
Let's not go there now, okay?
I was more direct, shooting him a
Stop that shit
look. But he plunged ahead.
    'Yeah,' he said, 'the first time I gave him a hug you should have seen him, he was so tense I thought he would pass out. The second time he tolerated it better. Shoot, by the fourth or fifth time, damned if he hadn't started to like it. Now if a few days go by and I forget to throw an arm around him, he actually starts to mope.'
    Delilah covered her mouth and looked down. She stood like that for a moment, very still, and then she started laughing. I looked at Dox, half incredulous, half enraged at the shit he was constantly pulling, but he didn't even notice because he was laughing, too.
    There was nothing I could do but stand there while their laughter fed on itself and grew. Dox was wiping his eyes and saying, 'I'm sorry, I'm sorry,' while Delilah just stood shaking with her arms crossed and her head down.
    After an unpleasantly long time, it subsided. Delilah breathed in and out deeply a few times, then said to me, 'I'll call you tomorrow?'
    I nodded and said, 'Yeah. Sure.'
    'Good night,' Dox said, and I could tell he was struggling to hold it in.
    She made it out without either of them losing it again, but I had a feeling she laughed all the way to the elevator.
    I looked at Dox.
    'I'm sorry, man, I'm sorry,' he said. 'There's just something about you that brings it out in me!'
    'I think that's known as blaming the victim.'
    'Go ahead, make fun of me for hitting on Tiara the tranny, it'll make you feel better.'
    'No, it would make
you
feel better. That's why I won't do it.'
    'Ah, you're a hard man, John Rain, a hard man,' he said, and this time I couldn't help it, I started laughing with him.

34

    T he next morning, I took a quick run past Whispers, just a local guy out for his morning jog in his shoes and tracksuit, a hat pulled low against the chill air.
    I followed one of the alleys to the back of the club. Given their business hours, I doubted anyone would be about this early, but if I were seen, a jogger looking for a place to take a leak wasn't about to raise anyone's hackles.
    In keeping with that possible cover story, I paused and started undoing the snaps on the pants of the nylon tracksuit while I scanned the perimeter for cameras. I saw none, just a windowless concrete façade with an emergency exit door on the left, plain steel with no handle or other hardware. A cement path ran the length of the building.
    I resnapped the pants and walked over to the door. As I had expected, the hinges were on the outside. A one-meter steel bar jammed in tight at a low angle, with the bottom in one of the expansion joints in the path, would seal it.
    I