Jasper said, 'You won't be.'

'What does that mean?'

A guy in a blue shell was waiting beside a nondescript government G-ride. 'Is this the dude?'

Jasper tossed him my wallet. 'Yeah.'

The new guy slipped my wallet into his pocket without looking at it, then went around and climbed in behind the wheel. His blue shell said MARSHAL. I said, 'Would you guys tell me what's going on?' I seemed to be saying it a lot, and no one seemed willing to answer.

Jasper pushed me against his ride, pulled my hands behind my back, and cuffed me. 'You're under arrest, asshole. If you know any good lawyers, you'd better get ready to call 'em.'

Wilson Brownell had been right. I had stepped into something deep, and now I was drowning.

CHAPTER 10

The rain came harder, raging at the G-ride as we made our way southeast across Seattle to the Federal Court Building. Jasper mumbled at the driver a couple of times and the driver mumbled back, but neither of them mumbled to me. The driver's name was Lemming.

First irate Russian thugs, now irate federal cops. Maybe Rod Serling was next.

The rain vanished as we slid beneath the building into the parking garage. We didn't bother with a parking spot; Lemming stopped the car at the elevator where a bald African-American agent was waiting with the elevator locked open. He was wearing a plastic security ID that said SCULLY, WILLIAM P. 'That him?'

'Yeah.'

He stepped into the elevator and unlocked the doors. 'Get his ass upstairs.'

I said, 'If you're Scully, where's Mulder?'

No one answered. Guess they didn't watch the X-Files.

They hustled me up to the sixth floor, then along a general issue federal hall as if I were a presidential candidate with an active death threat against him. We went through a door that said UNITED STATES MARSHALS, and into a department room with maybe half a dozen desks and four more agents gathered at one of the desks, talking. Scully took a bag of blue ice from a little fridge by the coffee machine, uncuffed me, then told me to put the blue ice on my eye. 'Put'm in the cold room.'

I said, 'I think I need medical attention. How about calling nine-one-one?'

'Keep the ice on it.'

They brought me to a small room with a table, four chairs, and no windows. Lemming put me in the far chair and said, 'Sit.'

'How about a lawyer?'

'Sit.'

I sat. Jasper sat at the table across from me, but Scully and Lemming stayed on their feet. Scully whispered something to Lemming, and Lemming left. Jasper said, 'First, I want you to know that we're holding you for questioning. We do not plan to file charges against you at this time, but we reserve the option to do so at a later time.'

'Questioning about what?'

'The murder of a federal officer.'

'Come again?'

Scully said, 'Why are you looking for Clark Hewitt?'

I looked at him. First Markov, now these guys. I looked from Scully to Jasper, then back to Scully. They were staring at me the way a circling hawk eyes a field mouse just before she folds her wings and slips down through the air to feed. I said, 'I'm sorry, I didn't catch that name.'

Scully said, 'Knock off the bullshit. We ask, you answer.'

I grinned at him. 'Is that the way it works, Scully?'

'Yeah. That's the way it works.' My eye was burning and flushed with blood. I put the blue ice on it.

Jasper said, 'Who are you working for?'

'I just went through this with Markov. I didn't like it then either.'

'Tough.'

Scully said, 'How do you know Markov?'

'I don't. Two goons scooped me off the street and brought me to see him.'

Scully glanced at Jasper, and Jasper said, 'Alexei Dobcek and Dmitri Sautin.'

Scully looked back at me. 'Why?'

'So they could ask the same questions you people are asking.'

'What'd you tell them?'

'The same thing I'm telling you.'

'It might go easier if you were more cooperative.'

'You might get more cooperation if you told me what was going on.' I'd had enough, and my voice was getting loud. My back was tight and my cheek and ear were throbbing, and the blue ice had lost its cold. I didn't know why any of this was happening, and the not knowing made me feel like a chump. I had flown up on my own nickel to find a runaway dad, only nothing appeared to be quite what I had thought it was, and that made me feel like a chump, too.

I put the ice packet on the table and stood. 'If you're going to charge me, then do it. If you're going to keep me, I want a lawyer.'

'Sit down.'

I looked at Scully. 'No, Scully, I don't think so.'

Jasper stood and leaned across the table at me. 'Get in the goddamned chair.' Yelling.

'You're going to have to put me in the chair, and it's not going to be as easy as you're thinking.' I didn't shout. I was proud of myself for not shouting.

Jasper started to move around the table, but Scully caught him. 'Reed.'

Jasper stood there, breathing hard. I was breathing hard, too, but I was tired of getting shoved around and kept in the dark. Something was going on and everybody seemed in on it but me. I was seeing bits and pieces of it, and I wasn't liking what I was seeing, but I knew there was still more to the picture. Maybe it was time to start sulking. Maybe I could phone Charles for a couple of pointers and sulk these guys into submission. Or maybe Jasper would try to put me in the chair and I could get in two or three good shots before half a dozen federal marshals boiled through the door and rode me down. Might be worth it.

Scully, William P., had stared at me for what seemed like an hour when the door opened and Lemming whispered something in his ear. Scully listened without saying anything, then nodded and the tension seemed somehow lessened. 'Hang on for a minute.'

He patted Jasper's shoulder and the two of them stepped out with Lemming, but now I was feeling better about things. I was probably thirty seconds away from being thrown into jail, but you always feel better when you tough off to a guy.

Three minutes later Scully and Jasper came back without Lemming. Jasper had a nine-by-twelve manila folder and Scully had two Styrofoam cups of coffee and a baggie filled with fresh ice. Scully tossed me the ice, then put one of the cups by me on the table. He sipped from the other. 'We came on too strong and that was a mistake.' He gestured at the envelope. 'The office down in LA faxed up some information on you. You seem like a square guy, Cole, so let's take a step back and start again.'

'I'm listening.' I put the ice where the Glock had bitten me.

Scully said, 'Andrei Markov is looking for Clark Hewitt to kill him. We're looking for Clark to protect him. That's the difference between us and Markov.'

I looked at him without responding. The tough detective refusing to cut them any slack. Or maybe I was just the sulky detective. 'Don't tell me: Clark Hewitt used to be involved with Markov, but he turned state's evidence, and now he's in witness protection.'

Jasper smiled, but there wasn't a lot of humor in it. 'What else do you know?'

'I don't know any of it, Jasper, but I'm a hell of a guesser. Markov wants Hewitt, and so do you. You aren't the cops or the Treasury or the FBI. You guys are U.S. Marshals, and the marshals oversee the federal witness protection program.' I moved the ice to my ear and leaned back. 'And since you guys don't seem to know Clark 's location, that means you've lost him.'

Reed Jasper frowned. 'We didn't lose him, goddamnit. He left. You don't have to stay in the program once you're in. You can leave any damn time you want.'

Scully said, 'Did Markov have any idea as to Clark 's location or current identity?'

'Nope. That's what he wanted from me.'