“So you, what, dropped by Cattafi’s place last night with a knife, like you just did in my kitchen?”

“I was the only one who could get close. I was the one she trusted. She told me a month ago she and Denon were fuck buddies. We were having drinks, and she had too much, and I got her back to my place. I asked her if she was usually into women, and she let it slip that she was into Denon, big-time, but she wanted me, too. So we screwed, and I realized then she must be a decoy. She’d been sent in to destabilize us.”

“Who is us, Maureen? Who are you talking about?”

That hysterical laugh again. “Don’t you wish I’d tell you? The Pyramid is sacred. We only know the person above us and below us. We are safe. We are impenetrable. But I will say this. Feeling the knife go into her flesh was one of the best moments of my life.”

“Stand down,” Xander said, nodding at Daniels, and at Chalk, who both looked shocked, but listened. They lowered their weapons, and Heedles reacted like a mirror, and did the same.

In that fraction of a moment, inside the breath they had all just taken, he shot her.

Xander felt the familiar rush he always did when a gun went off in his hands, and watched the woman drop to the ground, screaming in pain.

He’d hit her in the right knee, and the second she began falling, Chalk hurtled forward and knocked the weapon from her hands. Where she’d gotten the gun, Xander didn’t know, but he was cursing himself for letting his guard down. He should have known it was someone with Denon, someone who’d want to stay close. They were damn lucky she hadn’t managed to murder them all. She’d tried to get out of the house silently by cutting the throats of the men she worked with day in and day out. Couldn’t risk the gun, there were too many people in the house who knew how to disarm her and wouldn’t hesitate to do so.

Chalk stood by him, weapon pointed at the crying woman. Daniels converged from the south, and while they covered him, he rolled her and slapped a pair of cuffs on her. It was over.

She was crying and yelling, making no sense. Daniels was on his phone, calling for help.

Xander heard applause. Some students had gathered behind him. They were taking pictures and one was filming with his iPhone. His first thought was one of fear and relief. Son of a bitch. They’d been right in the line of fire. They were lucky not to have been shot or worse. His second was more disturbing. They had it all documented. Great.

Chalk realized the issue, went to talk to them, and a bright light flooded from behind them with a snap. Xander heard footsteps approaching. He turned to see the reporter from CNN who’d called him earlier in the day, with a cameraman in tow, a smile crossing her face, the wail of sirens a distant howl to accompany her.

“Sergeant Whitfield, Rebecca Gorman, CNN. You’ve done it again—you’ve shot your second person today. How does that feel, sir?”

Chalk was back, a few cell phones bulging out of his pockets. Xander gave him a dark look, and moments later, the cameraman was lifted off his feet, arms twisted behind his back, the expensive camera clattering to the ground.

“You can’t do that! You’re interfering with our first amendment right to—”

One of the students, the one who’d been filming with his phone, joined in. “Yeah, you can’t steal our stuff, man.”

“I respect your right to report on this story, and I’d lay down my life to make sure you can, but we’re not going to do this right now,” Xander said.

Gorman was losing control. “I have it all, we have it all, on tape. It doesn’t matter. We can approach one of those kids over there. They have it all, too. We can be live in five minutes. Our viewers need to see what’s happening here. I can get an uplink to New York in a few minutes.”

Xander sighed. “Ma’am, when the FBI clears these videos for public consumption, then I’ll be happy to sit down with you and give a comment. Until then, you’re going to have to shut this down. We’re in the middle of a case. There’s a killer on the loose.”

Chalk stepped in, taking up much of the space between the woman and her cameraman. “Seriously, if you put our faces out there now, we lose our tactical advantage. We can’t have you broadcasting this footage, not until we find him. Do you understand?”

She nodded, wide-eyed, let the mike drop to her side. The student’s eyes grew big. “Are we safe, dude?”

Chalk shook his head. “No.”

The reporter turned white. “Why didn’t you say so?”

“I just did. Please get back in your van, and lock the doors. Metro will be here momentarily. Take this one with you.” He pulled the kid’s sleeve, and he happily cozied up to the pretty reporter. “Don’t worry, we’ll be in touch. You guys are witnesses, after all. The police will want to talk to you.”

“I need my equipment,” the cameraman said.

Chalk obliged, but not before removing the cassette that held their footage of the shooting and handing it to Daniels.

“Dude, totally uncool.”

Daniels had Heedles by the arm. She was sitting up, back against the stairs, blood leaking onto the sidewalk. She kept up a steady string of curses at them.

“Ma’am, I’m Agent Daniels, FBI,” he called to the reporter. “He’s not kidding. We will return your footage as soon as we’re cleared, but you want to get off the street right now.” The cameraman backed off, nursing his bruised hand.

“Xander, Chalk,” Daniels said. “I’ll stay here, deal with Metro. You should head back to the house.” The sirens were coming closer; Fletcher’s call had been answered. A patrol car whipped onto the street. Daniels turned his head toward it, then yelled, “Go. Now!”

Xander didn’t hesitate. The last thing he needed was to be detained like he had this morning. He took off at a jog, Thor and Chalk right with him. They had no more time; he knew Gorman was already on the phone to her producer. There was no help for it. Even without the footage they’d just shot, word would be out in moments. Too many people had seen him shoot Heedles. It was how things moved now. They had to act quickly, before they became bigger targets than they already were.

“She’s just the money,” Chalk said as they cut across to N Street. “We still need to find the brain.”

Xander nodded. “This is a seriously fucked-up day, man. Let’s get back to the house, go from there. But keep an eye out for anything Heedles might have discarded on the way.”

Chapter 48

WHEN THE DOOR opened and Sam saw Xander and Chalk come through, she felt overwhelming relief. She hurried to them. “Xander, are you okay?”

“I am. Daniels sent us back here. We cornered Maureen Heedles, and I shot her in the leg. Where’s Fletcher? I need to make sure he knows what’s happening.”

Fletcher came into the hall, clapped him on the shoulder. “I know. We saw the whole thing. Mouse tapped into the CCTV cameras. You did good.”

“I should have killed her,” he said grimly.

“Probably. But it’s good that you didn’t. She might be able to give us information. I should head down to the scene. I’ll make sure they understand what happened.”

“It’s all on video,” Chalk said. “A fucking reporter was there, plus a bunch of kids.” He dropped the phones and film cassette onto the hall table. “Lucky they weren’t killed.”

They went into the den. Mouse was on the floor, stretched out like a teenager on her stomach, typing faster than anyone Sam had ever seen.

“Mouse,” Xander said. “Heedles said there was a pyramid, or the group is called the Pyramid. We need to see if we can find what she’s referring to. Here’s her phone. We found it in the bushes at the end of the street. She didn’t have time to destroy it when she was on the run. Can you see who she’s been talking to?”

“I’m on it,” Mouse said. “While you two were off being heroes, I found a seek-and-destroy program on Heedles’s computer. She launched it when we asked her to look at the personnel files. She’s managed to destroy half the servers in Denon’s company. They’re totally wiped clean.”