Titus and Rita gaped at Burden, half-afraid of what they were going to hear.
“The only reason I'm going to tell you what you're about to hear is because I've got to have your cooperation, and I don't think you're going to give it to me unless you know. But, hear me on this: There's a price for knowing what I'm getting ready to tell you. You've got to go to your graves with this. If you don't, it won't matter who you are or how righteous you think your claims are, it's not going to go well for you.”
“You ought to be able to give a threat more teeth than that, ”Titus said.
“I can, but that's not a threat. It's a matter of counsel, a cautionary word.”
“I'm not promising a damn thing, ”Titus said.
“I didn't think you would. You're in a hell of a situation, and at this point in the game you deserve as much of an explanation as I can give you. I'm just telling you, the knowledge doesn't come free. There's a price for it. You'll have to make some tough choices about how you use it.”
Burden's soft voice seemed to grow even softer as he spoke. He paused, considering what he was about to say next, and when he began again, Titus found himself leaning forward in his armchair, trying to hear him more clearly.
“There's a list, ”Burden said, “and Luquin's name is on it. It's a short list, and was drawn up by a select committee of ranking members from each of the branches of the U.S. intelligence community. This list is not shared with the intelligence agencies of any other nations, not even our closest allies. The individuals on this list are considered to be serious threats to the U.S.-specifically to the U.S., without regard to any other nation. The executive branch has issued a secret finding ordering a consent to silence, targeting these people for assassination.”
Titus felt Rita stiffen as she sat beside him on the arm of his chair.
“There's another list. A shorter one. These individuals have been sanctioned to carry out the consent to silence. My name is on that list.
“Listen to me carefully: You've been sucked into something here that you can't fathom. It's more complex than you're able to imagine.”
Titus was stunned. “How… how could these men be so much of a threat… you're talking… assassination?”
“Before bin Laden we didn't think it was possible, either, ”Burden said. “These men are known to us. So was bin Laden. These men have connections that cross political, ideological, criminal, and national boundaries. So did bin Laden. It's their ability to synthesize these connections, and to focus them on a target on a scale never seen before, that has earned these individuals a place on the list. If such a thing had been imaginable before bin Laden, his name would've been on the list, too. As it's turned out, he's the one who's made us see the necessity for even having such a list. And for seeking such a resolution.”
“Jesus Christ, ”Titus said. Suddenly everything tilted. His perspective shifted, trying to accommodate another dimension. “These men… on the list, they're… all over the world?”
“That's right. Every speck of intelligence about these men is funneled into the operations office of a… certain task force. And eventually it comes to me, or one of my colleagues. That's the end of it as far as anyone in intelligence is concerned. I'm not, strictly speaking, an intelligence officer. In fact, I'm not anything. Or, more accurately, I'm whatever I need to be to get the job done.”
“Why”-Rita was shaking her head in disbelief-“can't they just deal with these people in a straightforward way, through the legal system? Or the military? Or…”
“Consider this, ”Burden said. “Think of the scale of commitment that's been brought to bear on the pursuit of bin Laden and al-Qaeda, the manpower, military power, intelligence dedication, financial expenditure, legal wrangling, media attention, national preoccupation, time. Multiply that by ten… or more.”
“But these men haven't done what bin Laden did, ”Rita argued.
“Neither had bin Laden before he did it. But we did know that he was some kind of threat, on some level, possibly huge. Our problem was that we had a failure of imagination. And it cost us thousands of lives and billions of dollars, and we're not through yet. Believe me, these men have every bit as much potential to assault this country as bin Laden did. Some of them have even more. They wouldn't do it the way he did it. They know we're watching for that. But they'll come up with something different.
“You need to understand, there's no failure of imagination in their minds. Look at what Luquin has come up with. And what he's doing to you isn't even his objective. It's just something he's doing to get his hands around a huge sum of money on his way to something bigger. He's financing something, and we don't know what the hell it is. But we're worried about it.”
Burden looked down at the floor, his hands still clasped, forearms on his knees. His face, though impassive, nevertheless conveyed the strain he must have felt as time pressed in upon him.
“This is… hard to believe, ”Rita said.
Burden looked up. “Is it as hard to believe as Charlie Thrush's death? Or what that deputy told you just an hour ago?”
Titus said, “How do we know we can believe this?”
Then he saw something in Burden's face, an inkling, really, a slight intimation, of a hard passion stripped of the civility and of the world that had been ripped away from Titus three nights before. In the flick of an instant he glimpsed that unmentionable thing that a cultivated society allows to live at its core as long as it doesn't step into the full light, as long as it is silent and protects us from those unspeakable things that live even deeper in the darkness than it does.
“You want all of your questions answered? ”Burden asked. “Listen to me, I've spent eighteen years in this business, and I've had to make a hell of a lot of morally confusing decisions. But they've never given me all the answers. Ever. Only God gets all the answers.”
Burden simply looked at them, and Titus could feel him trying to understand how they were taking this. Then Burden said:
“I'm not going to say we're engaged in a war here. It's not that easy to define, and it oversimplifies what we're facing. But we do have enemies who threaten us, who have to be engaged in a defensive struggle. And that struggle shares in some of war's demons: People die, people make sacrifices, make hard decisions, do hard things. And if we survive, we have to live with what we saw and what we did, and what we allowed others to do on our behalf. It's the price we pay… even if we didn't have any choice in the matter at all.”
Titus glanced at Rita, and he could clearly see the strain in her face. This had blindsided her, caught her off guard even more than it had Titus.
“We can't send this struggle away to be dealt with elsewhere by other people, ”Burden went on. “When something like this comes to your doorstep, you have to deal with it on your doorstep. And you have to deal with the moral decisions that killing always involves. Life doesn't give us clarity of foresight. We work with what we've got. It's a human dilemma.”
Before Titus could speak, Rita stood from where she had been sitting beside him on the arm of his chair. He watched her as if he were seeing her anew, loving her profile, loving the way her thick, buttery hair was gathered hastily behind her neck, always so practical. She put both hands on her hips, wrists up, and looked at both men.
“All of this is just so ridiculously horrific, isn't it, ”she said. “I can't stop thinking of Louise, and of Carla's poor girls. Going to sleep at night will never be the same again for any of them.”
Titus didn't know what she was going to say, but he knew in his gut where she was going with it.
“Can you possibly imagine what those two… deaths must've been like, ”she said, looking at Titus now. “I have to say I've thought of it. In spite of my repulsion at the idea of it, I've been drawn to thinking of it. Can we possibly imagine the… odd… horror of their last moments?” Pause. “What are we to think of that?”
She put her hands together and pressed her forefingers to her lips as she thought a moment. Then she wiped back a few floating tendrils from her temples.
“We're not bad people, Titus. If we do this, then we do it, and we don't look back. I know that I've been dragging my feet, and that's made it hard for both of you. But if what he's telling us is the truth
… we don't have any choice in this. This really is bigger than us, larger than our own selfinterests, larger than our fears.”
She turned and focused on Burden. “We don't know what… we're doing here. We're caught in a terrible place. If Titus is willing to trust you on this, then I will, too. ”She paused. “But so help me God, if you turn out not to be who you say you are, as wild as this sounds, I'll see to it that you regret what you're doing to us.”
Rita and Burden stared at each other in silence. It was a moment that at once cleared the air and then suddenly filled it again with new tensions.
Titus stood up. “Let's just get the hell on with it, ”he said.
Burden looked up at him. “Titus, none of this ever happened. This is your own consent to silence.”
“Understood, ”Titus said. Rita swallowed and nodded.
Burden hesitated, then decided not to belabor it.
“Okay, then, ”he said, “that's settled. Now, first thing: It's time you two had a conversation in your bedroom for the benefit of the listening devices we left active in there. Titus, we need for Luquin to believe that he's achieved the effect he was wanting to achieve with you by keeping the pressure on you. This is especially true since you pissed him off last night.
“You need to tell Rita that after learning of Carla's death, you want to get this ordeal over with as quickly as possible. To prevent any more deaths, you're going to give Luquin all of the money he's asking for. Forget the delayed releases, you say. You're going to start putting through big chunks of his ransom demand to Cavatino as quickly as your attorney can arrange it with your banker and your broker. Tomorrow. Or the next day. As soon as possible.”
“But what if I can't deliver on that?”
“All you're saying is that you're going to speed up the original schedule he'd given you. ”Burden checked his watch. “That conversation needs to happen within the hour. One last thing, ”he said, looking at Titus. “In your meeting with Luquin last night, you gave him a pretty hard time. That took guts. But in any other circumstances, that would've gotten you killed. And that confrontational stance has a pretty stiff downside to it.
“It's my fault, ”he added quickly. “I should've covered this with you, but it got past me. The fact is, pissing him off wasn't what we wanted to do. The upshot of the meeting should've been that you were intimidated by your confrontation with him. He needed to have walked away from there thinking that he had you completely under his control. But in light of the effect you had on him, I think we ought to bring in some bodyguards to stay here with Rita. You may have to leave again. She may need company.”
Neither Titus nor Rita said anything for a moment. They were both having the same thought, but Rita came out with it first.
“But… isn't that… wouldn't that be the same thing as Titus removing the surveillance? When they see bodyguards coming in here… won't that give Luquin another excuse to kill someone else?”
She was looking at Burden, but it was Titus who spoke up.
“Do it, ”he said to Burden. “And do it fast.”