You Can Never Walk Away

Chapter 2-3

Morse was waiting for Kegan when he arrived at the building housing Acme Temp Services. There was nothing temporary about the services of the people who worked for Morse. Despite his defection, deep down Kegan had known that one day he would return. It was in his blood, as Morse had been quick to point out during their earlier conversation.

When they got to Morse’s office, Kegan froze in the doorway. Gage Dekker was seated in one of the chairs opposite the desk. All Gage said, when he saw Kegan, was, “You’re back.”

Kegan nodded sharply. “For the moment.”

“Gentlemen.” Morse took his seat at the desk. “Shall we get down to business? There’s an item I need the two of you to retrieve.”

Gage c****d his head. “It’ll take both of us?”

“Yes. Because of who has it.” Morse looked between them, as if gauging what they reaction would be when he told them.

Kegan had the distinct feeling he didn’t want to know, but asked anyway. “Who?”

“I presume both of you remember Asher Shaw.”

“Ash? Yeah. And?” Gage replied. Kegan wondered if Gage was as surprised as he seemed to be. After all, he was involved in Morse’s plot to get me back here.

“I know him,” Kegan said. “I worked a job with him. He’s deadly, and loves what he does. Gets a thrill out of it. Crazy as a loon in my opinion, and I told him so.” He shot a hard look at Morse. “I never did understand why you brought him into the Agency in the first place.”

“He’s very good at what he does—as long as he’s paired with someone who can keep him under control—like you or Gage. Unfortunately, the last man he worked with couldn’t. Ash took out the target they were after, rather than capturing him, which was their mission. Then he vanished, but before he did, he got his hands on a copy of a highly-classified, heavily encrypted, external hard drive listing the names of…” Morse again looked at Kegan and then Gage. “Of every operative who works or has worked for the Agency, with all the pertinent details about them.”

“Are you shitting me?” Kegan said angrily. “How the hell did he get hold of it?”

“He tortured then killed Patterson’s second-in-command, Niles Ward.”

Patterson was the head of the Agency—in charge of every handler within the organization, and all its operatives. To the best of Kegan’s knowledge, the man worked out of any one of three impenetrable buildings. They were located somewhere in New York City, New Orleans, and Denver. Patterson, himself, was an enigma. A man only his close staff had ever seen. As a result, only those staff members knew the exact location of the buildings—with the exception of three of his most trusted handlers. Morse was one of them.

“Where did this happen?” Kegan asked.

“In Denver,” Morse replied. He qualified the statement. “At least that’s where Ward’s body was found. In an old, abandoned tunnel under the streets of Denver.”

“Huh? You’re kidding,” Kegan said in disbelief. “If they’re abandoned, how did someone find his body?”

“Most of them are remnants of Denver’s history, when they connected brothels and restaurants with some of the major hotels, among other things. No one uses them now, except some of the homeless who find shelter there, or kids exploring. One of the kids ran across the body.”

“I bet he dropped his teeth when he saw it,” Gage commented with a grin.

Morse barely smiled. “It was a girl, and I guess she screamed loud enough to wake the dead, from what the cops said.”

“How do we know Ash got the external drive from him?” Kegan asked.

“Ash got in contact with Patterson to gloat.”

“f**k. What’s he planning on doing with it?”

“Not what you might think,” Morse replied angrily. “When Patterson asked what it would cost to get it back again, rather than Ash selling it to the highest bidder, Ash laughed. He said he had a better use for it. It seems he’s decided to go on a vendetta and take out some of you. The men he’s worked with who, as he told Patterson, and I quote, didn’t respect his skills.”

“Which is why you wanted me back,” Kegan said quietly.

“Yes. You’re undoubtedly on his hit list. So is Gage.”

Kegan stared into space, thinking, then asked, “So he tortured Ward to find out where the drive was. How did he manage to get into wherever it was kept?”

“Ward was stationed at the office in Denver. He had a copy of the list in his safe. We can only presume that the reason Ash tortured Ward was to get the location of the building, as well as the security codes to enter it, and the code for the safe. When our forensics pathologist examined the corpse, she found minute traces of latex on Ward’s thumb and index finger.”

“Meaning Ash used latex to take his fingerprints,” Gage said. “Then he used the imprints to create latex copies to adhere to his fingertips. I presume that the sensors at the building would not only read the prints but require heat and a pulse to determine that they belonged to a living human being. Been there, done that, a time or two.”

“Exactly,” Morse replied. “We also use iris scanners, but they can be spoofed with a contact lens, which apparently is what Ash did. Needless to say, he made it inside the building—and into Ward’s safe.”

“All this happened when?” Kegan asked.

“A week and a half ago, Wednesday,” Morse told him.

“You worked fast. Setting up the kill on Calvin James—”

“It was already in the planning stages,” Gage said. “We just pushed the schedule ahead and made a few minor changes.”

“Like doing it in public then framing me, the old me, to get my attention.”

“Yes. It was a crap shoot,” Morse said. “There was always the possibility you were either out of the country by then, or that you wouldn’t see the news about the killing.”

Kegan smiled dryly. “As I told you, I wouldn’t have, if I hadn’t gone into town the day after it happened and then decided to pick up the paper.” He leaned back, looking at Morse and Gage. “I presume you have some sort of plan for pulling Ash out of the woodwork, without his killing me and Gage in the process.”

“Nothing specific, since we didn’t know if you’d take the bait,” Morse replied.

“Sure you did, if I learned about the frame. You were very certain I’d return.” Kegan smiled sardonically. “You played me well and I know it, but then that’s one of your specialties, isn’t it?”

Morse merely nodded before saying, “Gage, if you don’t mind I need to have a few words in private with Kegan.”

“Not a problem. I’ll go chat up your cute receptionist.”

Kegan arched an eyebrow at that, as he knew very well, if not from firsthand experience, that Gage was gay. Tony had told him, soon after they met, that he and Gage had had a brief fling when they’d worked together on a job. That had colored Kegan’s opinion of Gage, and not positively, until he and Tony had moved on from being just to friends to lovers—and then to being in love. Once that had happened, Kegan had been willing to work with Gage again, although he’d still felt the occasional twinge of jealousy, despite knowing Gage meant nothing to Tony—and never had.

As soon as Gage left the room, Morse asked, “How are you holding up, emotionally, and I want an honest answer.”

Kegan sighed deeply. “I’ve come to terms with the fact Tony’s dead. It’s harder to accept I’m the one who’s responsible.”

“I told you, you’re not,” Morse replied emphatically.

“Yeah, I am. When I drugged the son of a b***h to get the information about the safe, I should have double-checked that what he’d told me about the security guards was the truth. I should have known better than to believe he was being honest with me about them, given what he was like.”

Rather than disagree, Morse nodded. “You should have. It was a bad mistake that cost me a good operative, and you the man you loved. But—” he held up one hand to stop Kegan from replying, “—nothing can change that. Beating yourself up gains you nothing, and could cause you to make mistakes because you doubt your abilities.”

“Meaning I’ll be useless to you.”

“No. Meaning you need to come to terms with what happened and move on.”

“Easy for you to say,” Kegan growled. “It didn’t happen to you.”

Morse almost smiled. “You might be surprised what I’ve done that I deeply regretted afterward. I’ve learned from that. You can’t change the past, Kegan. You can only learn from it.”

Kegan snorted. “Do you think platitudes will help me?”

“I believe, if you think about what I’ve said, you’ll realize I’m right. You’re smart and dedicated. You wouldn’t be working for the Agency if you weren’t. I wouldn’t have tricked you into returning—which I admit is what I did—if I didn’t believe you still have what it takes.”

“You’re betting a lot on a man who might be damaged beyond repair,” Kegan replied quietly.

“No. I’m betting that you have the strength it takes to continue with what you’re trained to do, and love.”

“Love is a rather strong word.”

“It is. Nonetheless, you do love your work. You wouldn’t have come back if you didn’t. And do not tell me otherwise. You could have ignored the newspaper story and remained in hiding. You know that.”

“Yeah, I do,” Kegan replied reluctantly. “All right, count me in for this. Afterward…” He looked directly at Morse. “I make no promises that I’ll remain with the Agency.”

“I can accept that.” Morse used the intercom to summon Gage to return.